tell me it gets better

[Baeinn]

I'm working on my wind druid. I've got the pre-req 1 point in everything I need and have been building CA and just started building tornado. And I have to say...I'm not impressed what-so-ever. It takes me a long time to kill anything, I just downed mephisto *that took forever* and moving on through act 4 is NOT fun.

When I get hurricane and my grizz does it get better? Does the sun break through the clouds? Or am I stuck with wild flying tornadoes and a mana sucking wall that needs baby-sitting.

The kill speed of my toon at the moment is just very frustrating, I'm just wondering if it starts to get better once I break into the 30's and upward.

[BAMFSpecialOps]

Tornado is your main dmg spell, the fact its still low level, and overall you don't have that great of gear yet will make a windy kill slowly. Once you level up start maxing out skills and get a few extra +skills laying around, it will be a lot easier.

[Samohtnnam]

Windy characters, in my experience, are only fun solo through nightmare (or normal after level 40). As you, and BAMF, pointed out in normal difficulty monsters take a awhile to go down because you haven't synergized Hurricane yet and lack +skill items. By nightmare you should be level 45-50 and have Hurricane almost maxed. By 70-75 you will be ready for hell and have a synergy maxed for Hurricane. In hell you will need +skill and resistance gear. Cold and Physical immune monsters will be a challenge. Unless you have leet gear, hell PvM play will be frustrating. Stay in nightmare to mf for some +skill gear and the sun will shine through the clouds. You may even be able to PvP with some experience. I find rushing a Windy through normal and nightmare, mfing in nightmare for some +skill gear, and then taking hell slowly to be the most fun.

Windy druids are the second best for PvM play in my opinion for solo play without rushing. A good Fury Werewolf can be more enjoyable for solo PvM with low gear. A Fury Werewolf can also do Uber Tristam with just Draculs gloves or a Life Tap wand.

[Fallen_62]

My windy took a little bit to kill too, but once you get hurricane and Grizz, things go a lot better. At level 74 my windy kicks butt ;) Ganna start hell with him here really soon, and I can't wait to see how he does :D

[Baeinn]

Hey guys, thanks for the replies. After taking a few days off I decided to not give up on the druid and go in after diablo. Well it took me a good 45 minutes to down him *died only 3 times...but kept having to run back to town for pots* and it made me feel pretty good.

I'm level 28 and heading into act V and I've got a good feeling with hurricane so close. Tornado is still a little awkward to fire off, but I find myself getting slightly better with it *i'm still not impressed unless its a large-esque pack of mobs..bout 4 or more*

Thanks for the support and I'll keep you updated on the trek up to the worldstone and the confrontation with baal. :thumbup:

[CarloC]

substitute *s for (s. ;)

[Elyxthaxzus]

Ya dont give up on your windy :) there a very fun class, but like many caster classes they dont start to shine until they get their 30pt talents and up. stick with it, once you start to climb above 30 youll start to see a noticeable improvement in killing speed.

also, take some time to farm teh lower lvl bosses. Even without excessive mf gear, you can often get drops that will help you out, even if its only a boost to your health, or defense/block, etc. mana is a big issue at lower levels...its usually the combination of hurricane and tornado that really make a difference. I actually used hurricane and my merc as my primary killing devices thru first half of nightmare.

[Raisthlin]

Hey, long time reader but actually my first post here.

Just wanted to add my 2 cents.

I currently have a lvl 60 pure windy druid in hardcore USEast and i must say that its a very fun character to play. I usually play in 4 to 8 players game and i havent have any problem so far. I was soloing nightmare baal by lvl 45...dunno if i could have done it earlier because i didnt try...hey this is hardcore afterall...i dont want him to die by overconfidence.

Anyway. YES wind druid ARE very weak in the beginning. But from lvl 35 or so their progression is very nice. Your wind druid will really start to shine once you get a lot of skills points in Cyclone armor, twister, tornados and hurricane. They rly synergize together very well.

Have fun!

[Baeinn]

Well I just hit lvl 36, and wow.

Yup this class is definately a late bloomer. I'm absolutely destroying everything in my path and my bear is a godsend. The only really nice piece of equipment I have, is a pair of frostburns, which help A LOT.

Thanks to everyone for all the support and info!

You now have another windy faithful among your ranks, though again, tornado is still taking some getting used to, hahaha :thumbup:

[Elyxthaxzus]

NP baeinn, good to hear ur enjoying it :D

Nightmare is your playing ground, spend as much time as you need runnign nightmare meph for drops...much of the stuff he can drop you will be using well into your 80's and beyond...just watch out for those sickening stygian dolls...quick hint: avoid using hurricane in their until you know what mobs spawned that game...its far too easy for the dolls to sneak up on you from behind and pop due to your awesomeness in hurricane...and take u life down to a thread in a second :P

In relation to getting better gear, grab a 2 soc helm and 4-6 soc body armor, and fill with as many topaz as possible. flawless can be as good as perfect, their easier to find and build up, and there's only a minor drop in MF %...kill everything up to meph, switch over to body gear, keep a row of poison antidotes in ur belt, and dig in. you'll start to get a nice hefty amount of loot in short order

or you can make the wealth runeword, either way topaz are easier, and it will really be quick gear grabs...spend a few nights, about an hour each night MF-ing, and you'll be suprised. also dont forget that nightmare countess still drops runes after you complete the quest the first time, just lower chance for the juicy ones. Still, i spent a week between that and meph and had a good stack of gear for my windy and a few other alts by the time that was done....not to mention the runes for 2 sprits (swords, i dont do spirit shield)

[Raisthlin]

Congrats on making your way to master the air element. haha youve just had your first taste of what a windy can do but dont fool yourself things are going to go higher and better as you max synergies (dont spend ore then 1 pts in artic blast tho...just one asd prereq and your +skills will give you some bonus...spend those points in Oak or whatever else you like bear?)

Yeah your bear is a godsend. It can tank pretty much anything in nightmare with 8 players in when im soloing bosses. Otherwise just re-summon him. Not to mention that with oak your bear will have a very huge lifepool.

Find yourself a Jalal's helm and a +elemental skills weapon and youll have tons of fun.

[schnelltot]

I've been thinking about building a pure maxed Hurricane/Tornado Druid, but I've had doubts. I did some calculations based off of the skill levels listed at the Arreat Summit. Even with maxed synergies, at slvl 20 Tornado will just do about ~2000 damage and Hurricane will be a little over 1000 cold damage. Of course +skill bonuses will increase it, but that's still a lousy prospect. Such a build can dominate easily in Nightmare but will be stopped dead in its tracks in Hell, with all the crazy high resist/high life monsters, not to mention the frequent immunes.

[Raisthlin]

Im not in hell yet but i know it is doable. First of all, others did it before. Secondly the key about windy, imho, is keeping the enemies busy with your merc and bear while slowing them down and damaging them overtime with hurricane while your tornadoes does the real thing. With some FCR your can really spam those tornadoes all over the place and hit multiple enemies multiple times.

It might not be "the MOST" effective build for hell. But with cyclone armor, and the facts mentionned above it is certainly a fun and viable one. Dont let it down.

Oh one more thing. Maxing all synergies (exeptc artic blast) and wearing some +skills (jalal's, HotO,earthshaker, ammy or anything else) will pump up hurricane dmg to 1600-1700 and tornadoes to 3200-3500 more or less. (lvl 26)

[schnelltot]

For a wind Druid build, what would be a better summon investment, Dire Wolves or the Grizzly? With 80 or so skill points going to fully synergize the wind skills, that leaves room for one fully spent summon. If the summon is used mostly for occupying the enemies and your main damage is coming from Tornado and Hurricane, wouldn't Dire Wolves be a better monster herder than a single Grizzly?

[Raisthlin]

i dont know about wolfes because...well i never really used them. The reason for that is very simple: the bear can tank anything. With only one point in bear and some +skills (5-8 at the moment depending on ammy) my bear is VERY reliable. Your +skills is gonna help with is synergies. I sometimes have to re-summon him when fighting meph, diablo and baal in nightmare with 6-8 players but who cares...it take 1 seconds and your good for a WHILE. When doing monsters instead of bosses the bear is even more reliable since he will agro pretty much everything and will rarely die unless VERY surrounded and under heavy fire. So, imho, i say spend one point in bear and enjoy the greatness.

This is only my opinion...that been said most windy use a bear and rarely wolfes. The reason is the huge life pool and resist of the bear. which rly help in nightmare and hell.

Currently lvl 66 and the bear is really a marvelous friend to have around in hardcore where staying alive is the only thing that matters.