1.11 PvM Earth Shifter Druid Guide (v1.0)

[schnelltot]

I have a Shael and a Hel rune. Which would be better to socket the Earth Shifter? Shael will make the attack faster, but I'm kinda leaning toward the Hel--with minus 20% requirements on the 253-strength-demanded maul, that frees 50 stat points that can go straight into vitality. But without the Shael the attack speed will be slower; the question is, how much? Enough to be annoying?

[lumpor]

Nah, 1 frame more for 100-200 life isn't such a good idea.

[Paercival]

I've started this build, working towards level 69 now.
My current plan, based on the equipment I have available to me, is

shaeled earth shifter (obviously. Otherwise I wouldn't be posting in this thread!)
Jalals
crafted amulet (+1 skills, resists, mana. best I have right now).
Ravenfrost
rare 8% ll, 104 ar, 5 str, couple minor mods ring
and 4 peice IK (belt, gloves, boots, armor)
I've got a decent torch, but no anni

Gives me +8 in the SS tree, and +13 in elemental.
my str willl be about 270 when I equip the torch, so I went slightly over, but not bad.
Life is starting to bump up.

I'm using 1 pt oak sage right now.

I guess I really have no choice but to put a few points into wolf to get to lvl 15 right?
So seven points in wolf
20 in geddon
20 in fury
20 in volcano.

Puts me up around 80 points spent. After that firestorm I assume?

What should be my priority on item aquisition? Will the 25% IAS on the IK gloves help me in any way ? (ie if I take them off with a 15 point wolf, am I going to lose a frame? or, alternatively, with the 25% IAS on the gloves, do I need to get to lvl 15 wolf?)

One of the reasons I'm using 4 part IK is my resists blow so badly, and with 4 parts, I get the lightning and fire from the belt, and poison fire and cold on the armor. The boots and belt seem like great options regardless (though I'm scared of undead souls in hell without thundergods and dwarf star or other big MDR). The gloves gives me big life leech, str, IAS, and AR, and the armor gives me 130 points of resistance.

Anyrate, suggestions would be appreciated

[Liquid_Evil]

I don't know how this post escaped me for so long, but here's a belated reply for you, Paercival.

I guess I really have no choice but to put a few points into wolf to get to lvl 15 right?
So seven points in wolf

If you have 7 hard points in wolf, you should get there relatively easy. Shape skillers, Jalals, torch, misc should have you there before long. Just look at end game gear to see if you'll be able to save a few hard points in wolf.

Puts me up around 80 points spent. After that firestorm I assume?

Yes. That's where I'd be throwing mine.

What should be my priority on item aquisition? Will the 25% IAS on the IK gloves help me in any way ? (ie if I take them off with a 15 point wolf, am I going to lose a frame? or, alternatively, with the 25% IAS on the gloves, do I need to get to lvl 15 wolf?)

They should help, but I wouldn't build around them. Play with the Dragoon's speed calculator to see what you come up with. End game, I'd recommend Dracul's. They just make that much difference in my opinion.

One of the reasons I'm using 4 part IK is my resists blow so badly, and with 4 parts, I get the lightning and fire from the belt, and poison fire and cold on the armor. The boots and belt seem like great options regardless (though I'm scared of undead souls in hell without thundergods and dwarf star or other big MDR). The gloves gives me big life leech, str, IAS, and AR, and the armor gives me 130 points of resistance.

Anyrate, suggestions would be appreciated

"Smoke" or "Gloom" are cheap armor classics that will help your resists (if you can't just grab the more $ "Chains of Honor"). I'd concentrate on getting them higher so you can swap out the gloves for Drac's and ditch some of the inferior IK pieces for something better. Excellent resists and a constant, consistent source of leech in Hell are keystone to this build surviving and progressing forward at a decent pace. Have those taken care of and you'll go far.

Anyway, sorry this reply has taken so long and good luck with your druid.

[lumpor]

If you use high lords or LoH, you don't need a level 15 werewolf either right?

Anyway, how would reapers toll be as a merc weapon option? Crowd control and damage all in one merc weapon

[dryzalizer]

I think the IAS from Highlord's or LoH won't help your attack speed reach the breakpoint, only a lvl 15 Werewolf will. I might be wrong on that though.

Reapers on your merc was the direction I went, it worked great. Fire and Physical were enough to kill everything on my way to Patriarch.

[Liquid_Evil]

You can actually reach breakpoints through OIAS if you have a low lvl werewolf skill. Just play with dragoon's calculator. I built a lvl 15 werewolf into my Earth Shifter druid because I didn't want to use IAS gear (and it was pretty easy to boost the skill lvl to 15 with the standard gear choices).

Reaper's Toll is an excellent option for a merc weapon. It's a perfect blend of offense (Decrep helps you net more effective damage) and defense (slows down targets so they hit you less). Only problem is that since two curses can't be active on enemies at the same time, your Life Tap from Drac's will be overridden constantly. More of a minor annoyance though since Life Tap isn't needed 100% of the time (or even 50% of the time in most cases).

[lumpor]

I really don't think you should diss metalgrid that quickly. It's great for this build. If it weren't for the fact that you've already maxed your resists with jalals and CoH, I would definitely use it. It solver resist problems AND ar problems. Angelics gives a little bit more ar, but doesn't have any resists. Maras gives +skills, but doesn't give any ar. Metalgrid is the best of both worlds. With all the ar% from fury and ww, the +400 ar will become thousands of ar. It's too bad jalalas gives resist, cause now you get too much resists if wearing coh, jalals, metalgrid, torch, anni etc.

I'm also wondering, does the earth shifter need mana leech? I just can't fit it into the build anywhere. I'd much rather wear bk than a rare ring, and I don't know if wilhelms pride is worth it if you don't use guillames. I understand that a single 1% mana leech would solve everything, but there's no equipment spot available. Is mana leech that important. If so, from where do you get yours?

I'm building my earth shifter right now by the way. Almost level 20

[Liquid_Evil]

I really don't think you should diss metalgrid that quickly. It's great for this build.

Use what you like. I'd rather just throw on a couple of Steel charms to boost the hard AR than commit to an amulet with basically just one useful mod. (Resists are usually pretty decent with other selections and defense is next to pointless on a wereform). Still, nothing about this build is especially cookie, so use what works for you.

I'm also wondering, does the earth shifter need mana leech?

It needs it like any other werewolf needs it. In short, you can get away with it, but I always try and fit in a little bit of it somewhere (usually in the form of a dual leech ring). Which is what I did. Wilhelm's Pride is definitely an option, especially if you are using a BK ring for the skill (so Arachnid's wouldn't be missed as bad).

I'm building my earth shifter right now by the way. Almost level 20

Nice. Good luck with him.

[Jary]

Man... think it was like over a year ago when I made mine, but I believe that I used lower IK set so I didn't even need lvl 15 WW necessarily, like 8 or something. Its good option for strength and if you dont wanna invest points into WW.

One thing I loved about this build is it doesn't require a lot of skill items. I think I only had like 2-3 Shapers and a torch at the time and it still worked awesome 'cause the fissure damage is based on ctc synergies.

I totally agree with Liquid in the fact that, you can totally just load up with AR/Lifer charms and damage/lifers or whatever else needed, 'cause one great advantage is since it isn't as +skill demanding you have an entire inv to fill all the holes in your build.

I wouldn't use Metalgrid, or highlords, etc. in this build mainly for one reason. . . when I built mine I do remember having AR problems at first. Although I put 0 points into dexterity and rocked Anghellics + raven my attack rating was still in the 12-14k area. Metalgrid gives.... descent AR, but its still pretty small in comparison with Anghellics. Try it out I guess, but I really woulda been hurting at the time without anghellics >.<

EDIT: as far as mana leech... mana pots worked well for me lol :P