Fire Immunes and the Flamin' Druid

[Tangerinedream]

Gonna have to make my druid, whose name will be FlaminGay, LOL. I want to make this build work and since there are a few pieces that can do this I am wondering if there is enough - Fire resists from gear as well as the runeword infinity to remove FI. I want this guy to be able to do hell and such and the only thing that will pose a threat is the FI.

Helm: Ravenlore- -10-20% fire resist, + ele skills, +ravens (not important but it is cool), as well as resists
weapon: Hoto- Obvious
shield: Phoenix - -28% fire resist, the rest of the stats are not so important, well the redemption aura is awesome blossom.
ammy: Mara's or druid ammy.
Armor: Nigma- everyone has one and if this guy is going to be usable in hell for rushing or just overall playing then you need one.
gloves: magefist- fcr and + fire skills
belt: Spider
Boots: waterwalks

Merc

weapon: Infinity 12 conviction is -80% resists.

So with Infinity and the other gear that is over 100% minus resists by an ok margin. Would this be able to deal with immunes?

I have looked at guides but really do not see much for pvm fire druids.

Tang

[Verashiden]

No, Infinity works at 1/5 effectiveness when breaking immunes, meaning it won't break anything in hell. Your best bet is to get a GG Merc and Grizz for FI solutions.

[Tangerinedream]

Ok sorry but not sure of all the lingo yet. What is "GG," is it "good godly" like when people are making trades and that is the game title? If so what is the godly merc?

So basically I would have a terribly rough time in Hell.

Tang

[Skullbash]

Get a good merc and try to have good molten boulder/volcano/grizzly physical damage, infinity will actually break some immunes, but for the majority it will not.

Also, ditch that phoenix and get a spirit monarch or stormshield, spirit will increase fcr, molten boulder, and volcano's physical damage and help with resists, and stormshield is great for block/damage reduction.

The - resist on phoenix and ravenlore won't go towards breaking fire immunes, and the -res you have should be enough to hurt highly resistant monsters.

Expect hell chaos to be a nightmare.

[lumpor]

Infinity will increase your damage by alot, and it also has high damage and crushing blow. I still think you shouuld get it if playing SC. Phoenix too. That redemption aura will be great for staying alive, and of course the -fire res will help. Although now that you've gotten some +fire skill damage, it would be quite effective to get +skill damage. Too bad you can't wield escuchas, so you'll have to rely on fire facets. After some more +skills, I would put the rest of my gear toward breakpoints and survivability.

[Tangerinedream]

Ok then I am wondering is there any reason to really use infinity? Or should I get something other that does more physical damage. The primary reason for it was to allow me to be able to take out FI. That doesn't seem like it is possible, therefore is it really worth it? I play non-ladder and even though it wont be terribly hard to get it would take a few days to get some runes that would be equivalent to its worth. Here is the gear set up again.

Helm - Ravenlore: +3 to ele skills, +7 to ravens, resists, and - res fire.
Is this helm worth it or would a shako with +2 to all skills be over all better. If it is shako then I have a couple already and it saves me time with having to look. If not Im sure I can find some person that would want a shako for a ravenlore and just trade it and imo it would be worth it sense I have a couple extra shakos and wouldn't mind just parting with it even if it is the worse trade on my part. If the - res doesn't go towards breaking FIs is it still worth it when I could find another helm that might be better over all?

Ammy - Druid ammy, or maras or something that works.

Weapon - Hoto: +3 skills, resists, fcr... the shebang.

Armor - Enigma: nuff said

Shield - Phoenix: Redemption aura, - res

Although I really am not sure if the - res is worth it, I think it is but I need some more in put. Reason I am thinking this is because if it isn't going towards breaking immunes is this still worth it for those that are not immune? Will it increase the damage towards those by significant amounts? The aura I thought was awesome for a moment and then just realized I could pop out a carrion vine and be just fine. I drop one skill point into that and let my + skills do the rest. So this may not be worth it but I am not sure. This would be another Ladder luxury that in the end may be just more than it is worth for this character.

Gloves - Magefist: obvious reason +fire skills, fcr

Rings - Sojs, or other rings for various situations

Belt - Arachnid sash

Boots - Waterwalks: awesome caster boots

Well this is my gear set up. I realize that it will be a tough road in hell but this character just seems so cool that it is hard to pass up. Although FIs will be trouble I keep hearing that volcano does well with dealing with them, that teamed up with molten boulder and I might do ok during those FI moments.

Should there be any sockets I should focus on for my helm? There really isn't much room for sockets since most of the rest of my gear is runewords anyways lol.

Any other overall tips or ideas towards making this not only hell viable but hell doable. What I mean by that is that hell wont be the worst experience ever.

Tang

[PlasmaTorture]

No, Infinity works at 1/5 effectiveness when breaking immunes, meaning it won't break anything in hell. Your best bet is to get a GG Merc and Grizz for FI solutions.

Infinity is -85%. 1/5th of that is 17%. According to this (http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=658719), most fire immunes range from 110-130 resistance. So alone with just Infinity you can break quite a few immunes.

If you combine that with a level 3 Lower Resist wand on your switch, that's an additional -41% (8.2% against immunity). Brings you to a total of -25.2%, which is enough to cover "most" fire immunes.

It's tedious and probably is a better idea to just not bother, but it's technically possible to use Infinity to break quite a bit of immunities.

[Verashiden]

Okay, so the ones you break (looking at the bestiary, quite a few have 110 Fire Resist) have 93 resist, meaning your damage is still negligible. Though I suppose something is better than nothing, so I'll change my stance:

Infinity is not worth it on a Fire Druid if used to break immunities.

[Skullbash]

Don't count on infinity to break many immunes, but its still the best weapon a pure fire druid's merc can have, as it will significantly boost your damage to non immunes.

[PlasmaTorture]

Additionally, once you break that immunity via Conviction (or LR), the Phoenix and Ravenlore would reduce it by 48% more, leaving them with only 45% resistance. If that's still too much you could use a Phoenix weapon (dunno why you would, but you COULD) and/or a bunch of fire facets to reduce that resistance even further.

But you're probably right that it's not worth it for the express purpose of breaking immunities, but it's still a fantastic weapon.

[Tangerinedream]

Ok then all this being said what do you think is the better gear set up for a fire druid. I mean it isn't like there is no way to handle FI since Volcano/boulder do some physical damage. But what would you guys suggest, other than just not doing this character because I do want to do this build and some how make it work.

[Verashiden]

Griz + Merc with Reaper's Toll >.>

[Tangerinedream]

What is Griz? I am looking through item lists and dont know what this refers to.

And in all honesty what do you guys think of the plausibility of this build?

Tang

[lumpor]

Okay, so the ones you break (looking at the bestiary, quite a few have 110 Fire Resist) have 93 resist, meaning your damage is still negligible. Though I suppose something is better than nothing, so I'll change my stance:

Infinity is not worth it on a Fire Druid if used to break immunities.

Against broken immunities, items like hand of justice, ravenlore, phoenix and facets use their effect, and the brokoen immune will have reasonable resistance. Considering your experience, I thought you knew basics like that (no offence) :P

Infinity would be my weapon of choice for my merc. Even against unbreakables, infinity still has 40% cb and not-too-bad damage.

[Verashiden]

You're missing the point, Lumpor. While Infinity can be used, I'd rather have my merc specced to deal insane physical damage to take care of immunes. I'm of the style of not pimping out insane numbers of -res gear as I'd rather have survivabilty over kill speed. Infinity has nothing against Reapers Toll in terms of DPS. Guilliams for a helm balances out the CB issue. Also, it'll synergize Cano for bosses, much more effective than lowering their fire resists for things like Fissure, no?

The build is plausible, as are most builds for PvM.

[Tangerinedream]

Would say then that for the unbreakable immunes the physical damage from volcano/molten boulder is enough to handle them?

Tang

[Verashiden]

If your merc has Reapers? Yes. If not? Still yes, though it'd be much slower.

[Tangerinedream]

damn this is a difficult build to try and work. Should I even bother with this build in your opinions? Like if i get this to work and hell viable would I just be the happiest person for having done so or sad for having did all the work and went through all the toil lol.

Tang

[Verashiden]

Depends on what you deem as "fun". Personally, I like using uncommon builds (Huntermentalist <3) and have no problem with some fights taking minuets to complete. A build like this would be fun in my book. Of course, others want a powerful build that can clear everything in a few hits. If that's how you like to play then the build won't be fun for you.

[Tangerinedream]

I dont mind things taking a few mintues. Im just worried about FI and how to deal with them. I keep thinking of Chaos sanctuary and my merc as the option then I see IM go above his head and im a sad camper not knowing how to deal with this angry FI skele.

Tang

[additov]

No, Infinity works at 1/5 effectiveness when breaking immunes, meaning it won't break anything in hell. Your best bet is to get a GG Merc and Grizz for FI solutions.

I am going to call this out and say BS. I have a level 90 infinity sorc who was not able to deal with lightning immunes until I invested into an infinity. Now, she destroys everything in her path.. including the lightning immune gloams in Act 5 Hell.

The only thing Infinity can't break is a monster that would be left with 100% immunity even after the conviction. There is only a few things my infinity can't break.. Example is a Lightning enchanted Council Member in Trav or Durance.. I honestly can't think of anything else.

Even my sorc doing 27k Light damage would take quite a while to kill Meph, but with infinity.. he now dies in 4-5 shots (After static). Nith is a 1 hit kill.
If he spawns Light immune, infinity still breaks it but leaves him with about 60% Light reisst still.

Also the -55% enemy light resist from infinity doesn't apply to the caster if your merc is wearing it, it only applies for the person wearing it

[PlasmaTorture]

I am going to call this out and say BS. I have a level 90 infinity sorc who was not able to deal with lightning immunes until I invested into an infinity. Now, she destroys everything in her path.. including the lightning immune gloams in Act 5 Hell.

The only thing Infinity can't break is a monster that would be left with 100% immunity even after the conviction. There is only a few things my infinity can't break.. Example is a Lightning enchanted Council Member in Trav or Durance.. I honestly can't think of anything else.

Even my sorc doing 27k Light damage would take quite a while to kill Meph, but with infinity.. he now dies in 4-5 shots (After static). Nith is a 1 hit kill.
If he spawns Light immune, infinity still breaks it but leaves him with about 60% Light reisst still.

Also the -55% enemy light resist from infinity doesn't apply to the caster if your merc is wearing it, it only applies for the person wearing it

Fire immunes typically have more resistance than lightning immunes, though, so there will be more FI that are unbreakable by Infinity than LI.

[Skullbash]

Honestly, a pure fire druid isn't a very good pvm character, outside of bosses and a few areas. Like Verashiden said, using a good grizzly (btw, griz=grizzly:p) in conjunction with a good attack and/or fire spells would probably be much easier.

Here is a build that uses Fissure and Volcano with Summons and a Bow (Fire Huntermentalist):
http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=526489

Here is a pure Fire Skills Druid (Although its for pvp, which is what I think a Fire Druid is more for anyway.):
http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=649983

And just for controversy's sake, I give you the most hated guide on the net, Flames' PvP Shaman (Fire Skills+Grizzly):http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=610846&highlight=Shaman

Out of those I would probably go with the first one if you're really worried about Fire Immunes.

[lumpor]

I don't understand why that guide is so hated. I just read it, and he had good manners and seemed to know what he was writing

[frums]

for merc, i'd go aswell for a reapers toll, helps volcano a -lot-
and the slow is great aswell
getting a maxed grizzly and might on your merc will really help aswell
you should only use infinity mercs on lightning based chars imo, doesnt come near its effectiveness for fire & cold
hope this helps
cheers