Bassen's Wind-Druid guide for Single Player

[Pailon]

To score points? I was just pointing it out. I just was saying that the rws were ladder only. I can be an *** at times but wow... Didn't realize that I was being quite an *** up there... Sorry... I guess... I was trying to make it constructive criticism.... Just never referenced it or said that they were ladder rws.

[Shanksie1337]

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

The RWM was mentioned, maybe not explained, but certainly mentioned.

[Pailon]

Oh... I didn't see that... O.o Now I feel really stupid lol. Oh well. Time to continue my various rune runs and Hopefully get some more uniques...

[crawlingdeadman]

Crawling: Wait, Ladder RWs are available on SP unmodded? When did this happen?

nah, just the uniques.

[HuD]

Nice guide, thanks Bassen.

Just a few comments..

As for the resists vs CA discussion. I aint even finished NM yet, CA is max'd, so's my LR, and I STILL have dicey moments with gloams. I shudder to think what it would be like without any resistance at all. Can't seem to fry em fast enough to avoid taking a fair amount of dmg, what with them scooting around (am I the only 1 who finds it annoying trying to aim nado's? :P).

Quick q: Merc gear is covered but nowhere in the topic have I seen advice on which merc to use with this build..I know several could work but what would be your best suited choice? I'm using A2 holy freeze atm coz it keeps everyone a bit safer.

I also find that my spirit dies constantly; so much so that I'm wondering why I spent points in it. I know the hp buff is awesome but I never have it because he's always dead 0_o

Do I just suck?

Thanks again for the guide <3

[nebux]

my sp wind druid use a holy freeze merc with shael reaper, ral andy and duriel shell. i have tryed an act 5 merc with lawbringer eth elite sword but i didn't liked him very much.

[danc133]

Nice guide, thanks Bassen.

Just a few comments..

As for the resists vs CA discussion. I aint even finished NM yet, CA is max'd, so's my LR, and I STILL have dicey moments with gloams. I shudder to think what it would be like without any resistance at all. Can't seem to fry em fast enough to avoid taking a fair amount of dmg, what with them scooting around (am I the only 1 who finds it annoying trying to aim nado's? :P).

Quick q: Merc gear is covered but nowhere in the topic have I seen advice on which merc to use with this build..I know several could work but what would be your best suited choice? I'm using A2 holy freeze atm coz it keeps everyone a bit safer.

I also find that my spirit dies constantly; so much so that I'm wondering why I spent points in it. I know the hp buff is awesome but I never have it because he's always dead 0_o

Do I just suck?

Thanks again for the guide <3

I know this is an old post but wanted to chime in on the thread. I think the OP did a good job on this guide, took the criticism well, and made revisions to improve it. I agree that a lot of the equipment choices are good for windy's but I have a couple different options that worked well for me. I also play SP with the RWM.

For one thing I did was early on I had a point each in werewolf, lycanthropy, and feral rage. I did this for 2 reasons. The first was it makes early leveling a lot easier, and second I knew I wanted to use delirium in a pelt with a + 3 tornado. Using a spirit shield with it's low block and a druid's naturally slow block speed I knew I was going to get hit. The 2 mods of mind blast and terror when struck work good defensively for an up close and personal caster like a windy. The charges of attract can really slow down the minions of a tough boss pack in a pinch so you can focus on the boss. They are expensive to repair but can be worth it. If you get turned into a fetish you can shift to wolf and then shift back to human and rock on. Playing early on as a wolf with a raven, PC, Swolf, and an oak make the early stages easier before you go to caster mode. You can socket any quick weapon with the best gems you can at your level and rip thru act I and II. Later in the game if you need a quick getaway you can shift and hit feral and go into overdrive for your retreat. I have a huge atma stash so I often put together a few set pieces early on to breeze thru.
The cleglaw's set is nice for the ML, CB, DS, and scaling damage. Early on cathans mask and ring adds some ll and a fair bit of fire damage. If you throw in the armor you start off with some pretty good resists from these 2 sets. Everyone knows about the angelic ring and ammy for the AR but it also adds 95 to life and 20% dmg to mana and some replenish life which is huge at level 12. Sigons boots and belt give even more resists, life, some FRW and more leech, not to mention the lowest level 16 slot belt you are liable to find. {and we all are heavy drinkers at low levels} With that gear you can get your pre-requisites taken care of, have a couple in CA for added safety, and easily level to 30 with just feral rage. With the CB from the clegs set and all the resists from the various pieces you can tank diablo with feral no problem. I did have 3 in dires before I took him on so I had a bird, 3 wolves, oak, and a Pcreeper for distraction. They didn't last long but just long enough for the cb to do it's thing.

Once you get into your late 30's and begin switching to caster mode a prayer merc with an insight stick and some leech and you can breeze. If you are mainly running hurricane and letting your bear and merc kill you can dump the insight which is what I like to do. I give my merc an eth hone sudan with 2 amn's and a shael around level 40 and then a vamp gaze and he kills and survives. I switch him out for a might merc in NM and keep going till I can give him duress armor. I have never had the need for a reapers on him. Later on I socketed a scarlet jewel of envy to give him some more physical damage and a shot of poison. I keep a demon limb on switch so he stays enchanted and if I remember I enchant the bear too. With his gear he can slowly kill just about anything.

I have a decent setup for my gear:

Delirium with +3 tornado
vipermage UM'd
HoTo
spirit
2x SoJ
crafted caster ammy 10 fcr and +1 druid (many tries)
caster belt with some resists
magefist
aldurs boots
demon limb on switch

Skills:

elemental
maxed CA, twist, torn, Hurr. 1 in Ablast

SS
1 each in wolf, lyc, feral.

Summons
3 dire wolves 1 in everything else except SoB.

To quote a friend TWWFM YMMV (this worked well for me your mileage may vary).

First round is on me!

D!

[mysticc]

There are LOT of mistakes in this guide, even after all the criticisms and corrections.

Merc - Andy's /w IAS Jewel and Repear's Toll /w Shael -> 45ias breakpoint = more attacks per second, more dps, and more procs for decrepify. Also, a Fortitude is the best armor hands down for this merc. 45ias + Fortitude is the most dps you can get on an act 2 merc. Vamp Gaze is a much inferior choice when you can shoot for 4.1 attacks per second. What does Chains of Honor give you? It's rubbish.

Armor - Enigma. +2 skills, Teleport and the strength bonus are enough to use it all on its own... nevermind the 45% frw, life, damage reduction and magic find. The way a wind druid does damage is by teleporting into a mob, name-locking tornadoes on the central enemy, and causing the most hurricane damage possible to surrounding enemies. This is how you get the most dps. Without enigma, the wind druid is not worth making.

Gloves - Frostburns. Since you only need 99% fcr, why use trang's or magefist? You will have the cold resist necessary already with good items, and trangs/magefist is only necessary if you're using maras.

Amulet - A rare or crafted +2 Druid, 4+% fcr and 15-20@res amulet is all you need to reach 99fcr breakpoint. You don't need a 20% fcr amulet unless you are pvping against other casters. Even then, I think you only need 18% fcr on the amulet.

Helmet - Rare Pelt - 5nado, 10%fhr, 30+ life and 2 sockets is the best. Even a magic 5nado with 30+ life is fine if you can get 2 sockets. Also, please don't use delirium...

This is what I'm using this ladder season:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/443421/D2/ma...he.mammoth.jpg

Jalal's is acceptable if you do not have this pelt, but I would use my pelt over it if I had it. I would still use Shako for mfing.

With my suggested changes, you still reach 99% fcr and 99% fhr if you have a single elemental 12fhr grand charm in your inventory.

The rest I would keep the same - arach, hoto, sojs, sandstorm, etc.

Just my 2 cents.

[zaphodbrx]

I think you missed the part where he said it's for single player. About 4 pages in he explains why he did not include enigma.
This is a great guide actually and helped me make my wind druid.

[bassen]

Hi there,

It's very nice to see some ppl still reading this guide, feel a bit touched tbh . I'm afraid I don't have much time to update it, nor remembering any game mechanics or facts so lets say its for pre 1.13x and with the Runeword mod installed.

pre 1.13x means that high end runewords were very very rare, finding a Ber rune was huge - hence no Enigma
RWM (now called FAM) means that some runewords also were possible to make in SP.

The reason this is for Single Player only is that I only used to play SP.

Kind regards and good luck with those Druids of yours


But I guess that after 1.13x those cheesy RW's could be part of it and someday in future I might update it. But I've read a little and I think I should be even more clear its for the old version 1.11x-1.12x when runewords were rare.

Kind regards,
Bassen