Bassen's Wind-Druid guide for Single Player

[bassen]

Bassen's Wind-Druid guide for Single Player


So you wanna make a PVM Wind-Druid?...Of course you want, who wouldn't?
Why choose a Wind-Druid?
¤ The Wind-Druid has the ability to deal both physical and cold damage using only 1 skill tree.
¤ The skills you use for dealing damage synergises each other. This let you place skill points into other places which improves your survival.
¤ You don't need übergear to make a strong one. Good since this is a SP-guide.
¤ It's a druid, ain't that enough?

Sections:
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I - Breakpoints
II - Stats
III - Skills
IV - Skill placement:
V - Equipment
VI - Equipment summary table
VII - FCR
VIII - Mercenary
IX - Strategy (early game)
X - Patriarch Kelsharr the Wind-Druid [RWM/RRM SC 1.12a SP]
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I - Breakpoints
FCR - Frames
By adding Faster Cast Rate to your druid you can reach some certain breakpoints. Those are listed above.

0 - 18
4 - 17
10 - 16
19 - 15
30 - 14
46 - 13
68 - 12
99 - 11 - I suggest you try to reach at least this breakpoint.
163 - 10

Since this build ain't meant melee I've skipped FHR and FBR.

II - Stats:
I suggest you put STR enough for gear, Dex for either max block or non-block and rest in VIT. No stats in ENE.
STR: 136 (you get 20 from Jalals so you can wear Spirit-Monarch
Dex: Either max block or non-block (max block can be good for PVP)
VIT: Rest of all points
ENE: No points here

III - Skills:
The Wind-Druid only uses 1 skill tree for damage. To improve his survival he also use the summon skill tree. This is how I suggest you should place your skills.

Elemental Tree

Artic Blast - 1 skill point
- required for Cyclone Armor, Twister, Tornado and Hurricane. This skill is not a synergy to your main attack skills so 1 skill only here.

Cyclone Armor - 20 points
- Summon a surrounding shield which protects against elemental attacks (not poison). This is very useful in Hell against burning souls and gloams. This is a syngergy to your main attack skills. Max this.

Twister - 20 skill points
- pretty much useless in combat. Only useful in the cause of a syngergy of your main attack skills and therefore necessary. Max this.

Tornado - 20 skill points
- This is your primary attack. Tornado deals physical damage. Max this.

Hurricane - 20 skill points
- Surrounding yourself in hurricane which deals cold damage to enemies. This will be your passive attack. Try to have it active as often you can. It slows down melee enemies that attacking you. Max this.

Summon Tree

Raven - 1 skill point
- required for Summon Spirit Wolf, Summon Dire Wolf and Summon Grizzly. 1 skill point only.

Poison Creeper - 1 skill point
- required for Carrion Vine, Solar Creeper

Oak Sage - 1 skill point
- Summons a spirit which have an aura. The aura raises you and your partys life, Grizzly Bear included.

Summon Spirit Wolf - 1 skill point
- required for Summon Dire Wolf and Summon Grizzly

Carrion Vine - 1 skill point
- required for Solar Creeper, restores life from corpses

Summon Dire Wolf - 1 skill point
- required for Summon Grizzly

Solar Creeper - 1 skill point
- restores mana from corpses

Summon Grizzly - 1 skill point
- Here's your meatwall. However putting skill points here won't raise his life so 1 skill point only.

IV - Skill placement:
Skill placement:

(2) - Raven
(3) - Poison Creeper
(4-5) - none
(6) - Artic Blast | Oak Sage | Spirit Wolf
(7-11) - none
(12-17) - Cyclone Armor | Carrion Vine
(18) - Cyclone Armor | Twister | Dire Wolf
(19-23) - Cyclone Armor
(24) - Tornado | Cyclone Armor | Solar Creeper
(25-26) - Tornado
(27-29) - Tornado
(30) Tornado | Summon Grizly | Hurricane
Max Tornado
Max Cyclone Armor
Max Hurricane
Max Twister


By questing you'll also recieve:
+ 3 Skill points – Akara N/NM/H
+ 3 Skill points – Radament N/NM/H
+ 6 Skill points – Tyrael N/NM/H

Use those to lower the level from were you are done with the base build. The table above has no calculation of the extra skill points earned from quests. By using them you lower your level down to character level 78 when done. The next 19 points I advice you to place in Oak Sage for improved survival.

V - Equipment:
Helm:
As headgear you can choose from several helms. However the Jalal's Mane and the Ravenlore are the best in my opinion. Jalal's Mane has high resistances, +2 druid skills, 20 strenght but no FCR. Ravenlore has 3 to elemental skills and resistances but lacks in strenght. Another choice is to make the runeword Lore or Delirium in a helm with +3 to Tornado and/or Hurricane but this will lack in resists and you will have to use more point's into strenght to be able to use Spirit 35" monarch. Also the 40 life extra you gain from using Jalal's will be boosted with the Oak Sage which means you'll get 78 life by only having 1 point in Oak Sage. Socket the Jalal's Mane with a Um rune or a perfect Scintillating to get even higher resistances.
Best choice - Jalal's Mane

Armor:
There are two better armors you could choose between here. Either a Fortitude which has very high defense, 25% FCR and resistances or Skin of the Vipermagi. The Skin of the Vipermagi has resistances, 30% FCR. 1 to all skills but lacks in defense. The Skin of the Vipermagi is much easier to find since Fortitude requires descent a high rune, Lo. Enigma is also an option but it lacks in resistances and FCR. Since this is a PVM guide Enigma is not that much important as in a PVP build. Enigma is also normally not used among Single Players since it requires very high runes, Ber and Jah. If you socket the Skin of the Vipermagi with a Um rune or a perfect Scintillating Jewel you can reach 50% to all resistances (requires a perfect roll on the Skin of the Vipermagi).
Best choice - Skin of the Vipermagi

Weapon:
Here we want a weapon adding skills, resistances and FCR. There's a few alternatives here. You can go for either the Heart of the Oak (KoVexPulThul) which has 40% FCR, resistances, 3 to all skills or you can use a 35" Spirit Crystal Sword which has 2 to all skills, 35% FCR. Other options are Wizardspike with high resists and 50 FCR or Spectral Shard with low resist all and 50 FCR. Both these require DEX but the Suicide Branch which also has 50 FCR does only require STR.
Best choice: Heart of the Oak

Shield:
As a shield we want skills and FCR. There are two shield I can think of. Lidless Wall or 35" Spirit Monarch. The Lidless Wall has 1 to all skills, 20% FCR and low strenght requirement. The 35" Spirit Monarch has 2 to all skills, 35% FCR, good resists and high strenght requirement.
Best choice: 35" Spirit Monarch

Boots:
You can aim for several things here. Either FRW and/or resists. For both there's a dual resist boots with high resists, Natalyas Soul which has FRW and resists in Cold and Lightning. If you gave mana trouble silkweave is a good choice with increase maximum mana by 10% and FRW. You can also use a pair of rare boots with FRW, stats and resists. Since Cyclone Armor won't protect you against posion damage you'll probably need some poison resist here. Sandstorm Trek is a good choice with 40-70% poison resist, 10-15 strenght, 10-15 vitality and 20% FRW.
Best choice: Sandstorm Trek

Gloves:
Here you want a pair of gloves with FCR and maybe resist. You can choose from either Trang-Oul's Claws or Magefist. Trang-Oul's Claws have 20% FCR and good cold resist. Magefist has 20% FCR and regenerate mana 25%.
Best choice: Trang-Oul's Claws

Belt:
Still we want FCR as usual since we play a magician. An adding skill is also good. Arachnid Mesh is a belt which has 1 to all skills, 20% FCR. There's no other belt IMO.
Best choice: Arachnids Mesh

Ring1:
Either a The Stone of Jordan (1 to all skills, 25% maximum mana) or a rare ring with 10% FRC and good resists - depends on how much FCR you have from other equipment. You can also use a Bul-Kathos' Wedding Band for the added life. The Oak Sage will do a geat work here. If you don't wanna be frozen or cold you can use a ravenfrost but remember that coldness does not slow down you FCR. Also playing 1.07 you can trying to get your hands on a 20+ Mana per kill ring with 10 FCR which can be very useful.
Best choice: The Stone of Jordan

Ring2:
Either a The Stone of Jordan (1 to all skills, 25% maximum mana) or a rare ring with 10% FRC and good resists - depends on how much FCR you have from other equipment. You can also use a Bul-Kathos' Wedding Band for the added life. The Oak Sage will do a geat work here. If you don't wanna be frozen or cold you can use a ravenfrost but remember that coldness does not slow down you FCR. Also playing 1.07 you can trying to get your hands on a 20+ Mana per kill ring with 10 FCR which can be very useful.
Best choice: The Stone of Jordan

Amulet: Here we have a few choices. Either a Gaean Amulet or crafted amult with +2 to druid skills (or 2 to elemental skills), 20% FCR, high resists or Mara's Kaleidoscope.
Best choice: Crafted amulet with +2 to druid skills, 20% FCR, high resists (these are tho very rare and very hard to get). Mara's Kaleidoscope and Gaean Amulet works just fine.

8x Natural Grand Charms of (good 2nd mods or plain)


VI - Equipment summary table
This table below is calculated from worst rolls which means this is at least what you get by choosing all the best choices:

Equipment:			FCR	All/Druid skills	Elemental skills	Resistances	STR/DEX
Jalal's Mane			0	2			0			30/30/30/30	20/0	
Skin of the Vipermagi		30	1			0			25/25/25/25	0/0
Heart of the Oak		40	3			0			30/30/30/30	0/10
Spirit 35"			35	2			0			0/35/35/35	0/0
Sandstorm Trek			0	0			0			0/0/0/40	10/0
Trang-Oul's Claws		20	0			0			0/30/0/0	0/0
Arachnid Mesh			20	1			0			0/0/0/0		0/0
The Stone of Jordan		0	1			0			0/0/0/0		0/0
The Stone of Jordan		0	1			0			0/0/0/0		0/0
Rare Amulet			20	2			0			0/0/0/0		0/0
8x Natural Grand Charm		0	0			8			0/0/0/0		0/0
Total:				165	13			8			85/150/120/160	30/10

This table below is calculated from perfect rolls and if you have socket Jalal's Mane and Skin of the Vipermagi.

Equipment:			FCR	All/Druid skills	Elemental skills	Resistances	STR/DEX
Jalal's Mane			0	2			0			45/45/45/45	20/0	
Skin of the Vipermagi		30	1			0			50/50/50/50	0/0
Heart of the Oak		40	3			0			40/40/40/40	0/10
Spirit 35"			35	2			0			0/35/35/35	0/0
Sandstorm Trek			0	0			0			0/0/0/70	15/0
Trang-Oul's Claws		20	0			0			0/30/0/0	0/0
Arachnid Mesh			20	1			0			0/0/0/0		0/0
The Stone of Jordan		0	1			0			0/0/0/0		0/0
The Stone of Jordan		0	1			0			0/0/0/0		0/0
Rare Amulet			20	2			0			0/0/0/0		0/0
8x Natural Grand Charm		0	0			8			0/0/0/0		0/0
Total:				165	13			8			135/200/170/240	35/10

VII - FCR
With my suggested equipment you'll reach the 163 FCR - 10 Frame breakpoint.

Helm - NO FCR
Armor - 30% FCR
Weapon - 40% FCR
Shield - 35% FCR
Boots - NO FCR
Gloves - 20% FCR
Belt - 20% FCR
Ring 1 - NO FCR
Ring 2 NO FCR
Amulet - 20 FCR

You should at least aim for the 99 FCR - 11 Frame breakpoint. You can reach this by only use Heart of the Oak (40), 35" Spirit (35), Trang-Oul's Claws (20) and Arachnid Mesh (20). This way you can make this build more PVP viable. Note: This guide is still not a PVP guide.

VIII - Mercenary:
As weapon we have two choices. If you want a lot of mana and never be afraid of having no mana, go for a mec using Insight. If you follow the skill placement you shouldn't need Insight and you can use The Reapers Toll instead which makes your tornado deal a lot more. The Reapers Toll also allow you do do some damage to some PI's in hell when decrepeify kicks in.
Best choice: The Reapers Toll

As helm you can use a bunch of diffrent helms: Crown of Thieves, Stealskull, Vampires Gaze, Andariels Visage or Delirium.
Best choice: Vampires Gaze

As armor you can use either Shaftstop/Duress/Dureiels Shell/Treachery-elite armor/Fortitude/Chains of Honor.
Best choice: Fortitude/Chains of Honor


IX - Strategy (early game)

Terms of use:
This guide is meant for leveling your characters from level 1-28; Act 1-3; normal difficulty; player setting 8. It's mainly written for 1.12a SC FAM but can be used as well in 1.13+ versions. One demand I had when writing it was really low requirements, especially dexterity.

Using this guide you should be able to reach lever 28 with only
23 strength and 19 dexterity if you choose my suggested gear and 40 strength if you go for Dimoak's Hew instead or even 34 strength if it socketed with a Hel Rune.

Weapons
Weapon is the most important thing when it comes to damage. Without it, no damage. Even spellcasters need weapons early because the spell damage doesn't reach up to higher player settings. It is possible tho having a 1.07 bugged Mana Per Kill ring.

Character level 1-15
When it comes to leveling within this Character, Jewels of Envy are your best friend. Putting them into a low requirement weapon such as Long Bow or Crystal Sword with many open sockets can inflict some really heavy damamge on your foes.

- 5os Long Bow with 5x Jewel of Envy (require item level 41+ to get 5os)

Spoiler

Gemmed Long Bow
Two-Hand Damage: 3 to 10
Required Dexterity: 19
Required Strength: 22
Bow Class - Normal Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 58
Fingerprint: 0xf3f1308c
+100 poison damage over 2 seconds
Socketed (5: 5 used)

- 6os Crystal Sword with 6x Jewel of Envy (require item level 41+ to get 6os)

Spoiler

Gemmed Crystal Sword
One-Hand Damage: 5 to 15
Durability: 0 of 20
Required Strength: 43
Sword Class - Normal Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 81
Fingerprint: 0xce4602e7
+120 poison damage over 2 seconds
Socketed (6: 6 used)

Best choice: Long Bow with 5x Jewel of Envy. The Crystal Cword has some higher requirements which makes some characters unable to use it from level 1. Also the Long Bow gives an ranged attack with no repair costs. A defenite choice if you ask me. The only bad thing is the Crystal Sowrd has one more open socket but comparing good and bad, Long Bow wins in the end. A tip is to get two of these bows, one for you and one for your rogue mercenary. With this easy setup, you'll reach level 15 in no time.

Character level 15-24
Leveling in this Character can be very easy. Having a 1.07/1.09 Raven Claw (unique Long Bow) will make your character walk on clouds. You can also use other weapons such as Dimoak's Hew but in my opinion this is the ultimate twinking weapon from level 15. Try to get two bows even here so both you and your rogue mercenary can use them. If you have one 5os Long Bow with 5x Jewel of Envy (from last Character) combined with Raven Claw you'll get dual poison/fire damage from you and your merc.


- Raven Claw

Spoiler

Raven Claw
Long Bow
Two-Hand Damage: 4 to 16
Required Dexterity: 19
Required Strength: 22
Required Level: 15
Bow Class - Normal Attack Speed
Item Version: Expansion
Item Level: 78
Fingerprint: 0x5982ec25
+3 to Strength
+3 to Dexterity
+66% Enhanced Damage
50% Bonus to Attack Rating
Fires Explosive Arrows

-Dimoak's Hew

Spoiler

Dimoak's Hew
Bardiche
Two-Hand Damage: 2 to 54
Durability: 41 of 50
Required Strength: 40
Required Level: 8
Polearm Class - Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0x63cc427
+15 to Dexterity
+100% Enhanced Damage
-8 Defense
20% Increased Attack Speed

Best choice: Raven Claw (Unique Long Bow). Shoots skill level 30 Explosive Arrows dealing a huge amount of damage compared to your character level. There's no better twinking gear for this level and you can use it all up to level 28/late A3

Other gear
Apart from weapon there's other gear which benefit your damage. We can aim at damage/increased attack speed because monsters ain't that hard hitting compared to future acts/difficulties areas.

Character level 6

Death's Hand (Death's Hand combined with Death's Guard adds 30% IAS, 15 to all resistances, 8% LL)
Death's Guard (Death's Guard combined with Death's Hand adds 30% IAS, 15 to all resistances, 8% LL)

Character level 12

Cathan's Visage (2 set items of Cathan's set add 15-20 fire damage to your attack)
Cathan's Sigil (2 set items of Cathan's set add 15-20 fire damage to your attack)

Character level 13

Cow King's Hooves (add 25-35 fire damage to your attack)

Act and Level
Using my suggested gear and weapons you should be
Level ~18 by end of A1
Level ~26 by end of A2
Level ~28 by end of A3

I won't tell you so much more but these advices:
¤ Make sure you always have Cyclone Armor and Hurricane active.
¤ Spam Tornado as much as possible and combine this damage with Hurricane
¤ Make sure you have at least one meatwall.


---------------------------------------------------------------

X - Patriarch Kelsharr the Wind-Druid [RWM/RRM SC 1.12a SP]

So I have finally finnished my Wind-Druid using this guide. The playing time has been very easy. The few times I've actually died was because I did not pay attention to the game (like cube gems or talking on the cellphone while being in battle). Playing a Wind Druid has been very fun and the power he possess is great.

Normal: Not so much to say here more than I ran Normal Baal until I was able to wear my Spirit 35" Monarch. Found a few good things but most rubbish.
Nightmare: Ran through it pretty quickly. At A5 I ran NM Baal until I was level 76.
Hell: Very simple, much easier than I expected it to be.

Playing style: I have followed my guide pretty much so you who have read it it's nothing new when I mention that I have used Cyclone Armor and Hurricane 24/7 from when I was able to use them. However I have used Artic Blast against PI's when nothing else more than the PI's have been there.

And another thing that I have added myself is the addition to Shapeshifting skills. If you wanna become a Wind Druid Bear it's a great health boost when running around as a bear using Shock Wave and having such much health is good when tankin PI's ghost.

In Chaos Sanctuary - Summon Grizzly next to the OK's and then obliterate them.

Stats:
Name: Kelsharr
Type1: Druid
Type2: Wind
Level: 82

Stenght: 136 (186/156)
Dexterity: 180 (193/193)
Vitality: 164 (164/186)
Energy: 20 (40/40) (base)
Life with no Oak Sage: (514/558)
Life with Oak Sage: (951/1047)

Equipment:
Jalal's Mane (Jewel of Fervor)
Heart of the Oak
Stormshield (Perfect Diamond) / "Spirit" Monarch
Skin of the Vipermagi (Scintillating Jewel 14%)
Arachnid Mesh
The Stone of Jordan
The Stone of Jordan
Trang-Oul's Claws
Natalyas Soul

7x Natural Grand Charm of X or plain
8x X or plain Small Charm of Inertia

Elemental Tree (Stormshield/"Spirit" Monarch):
1 Artic Blast
20 (39/41) Cyclone Armor 2579 / 2704
20 (39/41) Twister 1025-1092 / 1105-1177
20 (39/41) Tornado 4896-5158 / 5254-5529
20 (39/41) Hurricane 2235-2350 / 2382-2497

Shapeshifting Tree:
1 Werewolf
1 Lycantrophy
1 Werebear
1 Maul
1 Shock Wave

Summoning Tree:
1 Raven
1 Summon Spirit Wolf
1 Summon Dire Wolf
1 (10/12) Summon GRizzly
3 (12/14) Oak Sage

Mercenary:
Type: Desert Prayer Merc (A2)
Weapon: Eth Thresher "17 Insight
Helm: "Delirium" Tiara
Armor: "Fortitude" Superior Archon Plate
Damage: 799-4500

[crawlingdeadman]

earthshaker is a terrible windy weapon. comparing it to spirit sword you get one more elemental skil...that's it. with spirit sword you get 2 skills to your summon tree, 55 fhr (this with spirit shield takes care of any fhr problems you may have), possibility of over 100 more mana, and more fcr so you can put on skill ring.

[DayDream]

I can't tell if this guide is made for the poor or what..
Has the use of 35fcr spirit and arach oO

No enigma? >> not mf gear?

This Guide can be clsoed and put into guide section ^^

There have been better guides that aren't in guide section =P You'll have to improve this thread by mentioning some bps, other items, its purpose. "Pvm" can be spread out into different kinds.

[crawlingdeadman]

damn edit button thought of other things:

what are the fcr break points one should try for? why do you need a 35% spirit shield? would shako be better than jalal since you dont really need fhr in pvm? what kinda switch should i use? are there some other armor options? what about boots, gloves, and belt, do i have to use those you recomend?

overall your 'guide' leaves much to be desired.

[Verashiden]

Question, wouldn't maxing Oak Sage then dumping points into Dire Wolf be better overall? Oak adds life to both you and the Grizzly while being directly additive to the life bonus from Dire Wolf. It seems better overall to just max Oak from that point of view then since you'll be enhancing the life both you and the Grizz at the same time.

[saellison]

This guide seems like you were going for a nice low budget setup. If thats the case you will be trying to achieve are at least 99fcr/99fhr. A cheap and effective set-up for killing power could be something like this:
Jalals Mane
+3 Elemental Amulet
Spirit sword
Skin of the Vipermagi
Spirit Shield
Bloodfists
String of Ears or any belt that gives you stats you lack
For Boots: rares with some FHR/resists should be fine. If the boots have +stats/FRW then they are godly. Sandstorm treks woudl work wonderfully as well. Silkweaves if you really need mana.
For Rings: Nice Rare rings with some resists/stats. If you need FCR from the rings to reach 99FCR get some 10FCR rare rings (this will be needed unless you roll 35FCR on both your spirits). A raven would probably be helpful since you will be running everywhere.

This set-up gives 99FCR/174 FHR.

Verashiden has a good point.

[BAMFSpecialOps]

Doesn't really look like you payed any attention to anything I mentioned in your other topic. As others have mentioned this isn't a guide at all more like a gear set up that has worked for you.

[bassen]

actually I havent tested it yet...but I did mention the tips you gave or did i forgot them. This guide or whatever you cal lit is just a base of what you can do, seems like we have different opinions on a guide :P my seems to be wrong hehe. (i try to make something a player can change but I give a base on how they can do and manage the game without any bigger problems, i dont log for a uber build)

this build occured to me in a dream tbh and when I woke i wrote it. this, as many others have their weakness. I choose jalals over harlequins crest for a few reasons, jalals provide mana, strenght and resist and skills, tho the mana is not as high as harle.

I though through the spirit sword/earthshakerthing and 3+ ele skill is not worth fhr/fcr/mana/2 skills.

I'm a bit tired now, but I hope I answered a few of the comments ^^

[superjayson]

this guide needs alot of work bro.

[MedctnStn]

IMO, i would work on maxing cyclone armor first and foremost, then tornado, hurricane, twister in that order