Mana pool needed for windy?

[MrBill]

OK all you Druids...

I haven't started a Wind Druid since 1.09 so I'd like to solicit the group's opinion on something:

How large a mana pool (in points) is needed for a Wind Druid to continuously spam Tornado (and keep Hurricane up all the time, plus occasional recasts of Oak Sage, Grizzly etc.), and not run the risk of having to slurp blue potions?

The reason I ask is, just through laziness up to now my currently Level 36 Ladder Hardcore Wind Druid is using an Act II Prayer (Normal Mode 'Combat') merc with Insight, but I know that Runeword is a crutch and I'd like to give him something a little more effective, e.g. a polearm with some Crushing Blow, etc. -- maybe Crescent Moon when I find an Um rune (whatever century that is...) I'm worried, however, about running out of mana to do my primary attack with.

My Druid's mana pool is about 175 or so, that's just with 1 or 2 hard points invested, level bonuses and a few extra points from (mostly rare, e.g. yellow) items. He's using Dark Clan Crusher right now for the +2 Druid skills (again from laziness, I have the runes and the 4 o/s sword to make a Spirit with, that will buy him some mana, but will it be enough?) Other than that I don't have a lot of elite gear, as the MF'ing this ladder season hasn't been very productive.

BTW: Grizzly is going to be max before the build is done. Was thinking of switching to a Nightmare A2 Offensive (Might) merc but the thing is, this is already a physical damage build, that means issues in Hell with PI's, so was thinking also of Nightmare A2 Defensive (Holy Freeze) + a polearm or spear with either CTC Amp or maybe just high Lightening / Fire damage to deal with things like Ghosts in the Hell Arcane Sanctuary.

Ideas, anyone?

Cheers

Mr. Bill

[nebux]

put a point in solar creeper. that thing leeches back lots of mana for you. anyway wind druid spells aren't costly mana wise. mine has about 500 600 mana without points spent in energy

[Knarlfist]

Might be tough going in the beginning, altho then again in Norm and NM your Hurricane is more useful at mowing mobs and you aren't spamming Tornado as hard yet.

At end-game in full gear, my Windy has no points spent in energy, and I replaced my merc's Insight with Reaper's Toll. Absolutely no mana problems.... just the base regen level from the natural mana pool at higher lvls (you gain a couple mana every time you lvl up even without spending on energy) is more than enough.










edit: as for your merc, I would recommend Insight until your Windy's gear is where you want it to be. The runes are cheap, and you can upgrade him to a nasty Elite Cryptic Axe or Thresher and re-make him a new Insight once you find the proper 4os Polearm. Once you get some standard gear (Vipermagi,Jalals,Spirit sword,Spirit shield,Trangs or Magefist gloves,maybe some fcr rings and ammy, etc) then you can change the merc's stuff up. I really like Might Merc with Hone Sundan filled with Amns, some nice leech or dr helm (Vamp Gaze, Rockstopper, Crown of Thieves, etc), and a nice armor (so many options here.. Glad Bane,Duriels,Shaftstop,Duress,Stone,Fort,Treachery ,etc).

The reason I say Might is because you need/want him to be self-sufficient. The above setup grants him massive Crushing Blow, Massive Life Leech, and dmg reduction. Hone + Rockstopper + Treachery alone is pretty easy to assemble, and provides some nice survivability. If you wanna go the other route (pure defensive) you could try Kelpie Snare + Blackhorn's + Treachery on a Holy Freeze merc. Hope this gives you some idears :)

[Jary]

Early on just 'Stealth' and maybe a 2soc helm or shield with Tir runes. +1 mana/kill rings are easy to come by too.

I dunno, later Aldurs Set gives some pretty radical stats and mana and regen. Get a cheap torch for pgems and you're set, its really only a big deal early on.

I massively mana pot early on. My molten boulder druid is 21 atm, I have my #1 set with healing pots, then 2,3, & 4 all mana potions lol. That's why the game has them drop all the time :thumbsup: This game is nothing... back in Jr High playing original Diablo I practically inhaled pots, it was absolutely ridiculous especially once you start getting further into the catacombs its like every batch of monsters you use a full belt then go to town, er maybe I just sucked rofl >.<

[MrBill]

Thanks everyone for the replies.

I had to give my wind Druid's merc's Insight to my daughter's hybrid Trapper / Kicker Assassin's druid (I have had a h*ll of a time finding Sol runes this ladder, and I'm too lazy to cube Amns) as she was complaining "Daddy I keep running out of mana"... so I had to see if my Druid could get by with his merc just using an ethereal Tannr Gorerod pike (laugh if you must, hey, it was lying around, and my Druid's in Nightmare A1 so he will need a bit of fire damage to deal with Andy).

So far I have had to slurp a few potions but that's only after some fairly heavy spamming of Tornadoes... we'll see how it goes from this point on. I may upgrade the pike and socket it with a Shael, unless I find something better for good old Emilio on the way.

Cheers

Mr. Bill