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Vanin is my 8th patriarch ( 10th if I count respecs ), and my third druid. My original idea was from the commandomancer that I had made, as well as some fire druid guides. The main motivation was that fire skills are on a cooldown anyway, so why not attack stuff rather than do nothing, in addition it would help in taking out the fire immunes. Also, I really like the idea of being a battle commander, who fights along with his minions on the battlefield.
It turned out not as effective as my meleemancer ( more about that later ). The CtC effects were more of a style thing than actually effective and I had a lot of trouble in many places. Still it was a blast playing this guy.
Stats
Character name : Vanin
Character type : Druid
Character level : 81
Character exp : 804329015
Strength : 127
Energy : 20
Dexterity : 157
Vitality : 191
Life : 912 / 567
Mana : 421 / 180
Resists: 66-56-75-43
Defense: 1450
Blocking: 75%
Damage (with HoW and might ): 260-2350
AR ( HoW and enchant ): 10700
Skills
20(24) Fissure
20(24) Volcano
8(12) Molten boulder
20 Summon Dire Wolf
20 Summon Grizzly
1 in prereqs
In normal I played entirely with firestorm and molten boulder and eventually got annoyed with them as they were not cutting it in Act 4, so respeced to fissure and Dire wolves. Can't remember much of nightmare, it was quite easy.
In Hell, I was greeted immediately by fire immune fallen, but volcano and summons made short work of them. I didn't have my melee gear at that point and I remember being very annoyed standing around waiting for volcano to cool down. So I borrowed the Oath from my necro and it became my endgame weapon, I was planning to make Oath in a Berzerker axe but didn't manage to trade for the runes. I played most of Act 2 with bows that I was trying out ( Wildwitch string and Widowmaker ), but eventually gave it up, lack of blocking , low damage and need to micromanage made it inferior to melee attacking.
Act 3 I roasted everything pretty much as most things here are lightning immune just like Act 1 is all fire immune. It was here that I really started practising fissure sniping, ie fissure, move away, fissure, move away, letting the monsters run over the vents and take fire damage. In Durance 3 I was greeted by- Conviction Breem! Yep, everything melted instantly so I had to fissure snipe him to death using bear as distraction.
Act 4 I was stalled somewhat by a particularly nasty venom lord boss with FI/PI cursed extra strong and gloams firing from behind. I restarted and this time everything went fine and got Ko rune at hellforge ( Shael in nightmare ). Fire immunes in CS were a drag and the infector of souls spawned FI/PI plus extra strong. Typical.
Act 5 was a real challenge for me, more than any of my characters. Right out of the bat I got fire immune archers and quill rats in the foothills. Restart.
Frozen river was really tough and my merc died so often I eventually let him stay dead and didn't summon HoW either, beat it with just grizzly and fissure sniping. Slow missiles and ravens helped here.
Halls of vaught spawned tomb vipers which melted my minions instantly so again it was bear and fissures. Nihil was in the last passage I searched, chock-full of PI succubi, tomb vipers and skeleton archers. Don't think I ever appreciated slow missiles till this. On top of that N spawned with FI. I lured out his minions and killed them but he constantly spawned more and there were more witches inside with him and it was a veritable deathtrap. I somehow wore him down with volcanoes dodging corpse explosions. Each CE brought me down to about 20 hp so it was like boom! full rejuv. Boom! full rejuv. I think poison creeper would have really helped me here.
Frozen tundra. Archers and PI berserkers. More slow missiles, more fissure sniping, and I mostly ran through this level. Merc stayed dead.
I wanted to do the ancients straight up, I really did. had everything prepared with HoW, grizzly, merc and even iron golem. Everything died instantly under writhing flames of amplify damage and it was back to fissure sniping. After 5 min the two non-FIs died and I used my bear and volcano to kill Talic.
Gloams and frenzytaurs in the WSK. Good thing gloams move so much they get roasted by the fissures. Lister was surprisingly doable, but only because I lured them out two at a time. Finally killed Baal and attained my title!
Gear used
A lot of this was for the cool CtC effects even if they weren't very useful. Firestorms, twisters, and Bone spirit were somewhat effective though.
WeaponsCode:Jalal's Mane Totemic Mask Defense: 274 Durability: 20 of 20 (Druid Only) Required Strength: 65 Required Level: 42 Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion Item Level: 87 Fingerprint: 0xff953a82 +20 to Strength +20 to Energy +177% Enhanced Defense All Resistances +30 +2 to Druid Skill Levels 30% Faster Hit Recovery 20% Bonus to Attack Rating +5 to Mana After Each Kill +2 to Shape-Shifting Skills (Druid Only) Rain Archon Plate 'OrtMalIth' Defense: 462 Durability: 60 of 60 Required Strength: 103 Required Level: 63 Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion Item Level: 85 Fingerprint: 0x4da54534 +141 to Mana Magic Damage Reduced by 7 Lightning Resist +30% +2 to Druid Skill Levels 15% Damage Taken Goes to Mana 5% Chance to cast Level 15 Twister on striking 5% Chance to cast Level 15 Cyclone Armor when struck Socketed (3: 3 used) Hellmouth War Gauntlets Defense: 153 Durability: 39 of 39 Required Strength: 110 Required Level: 47 Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion Item Level: 75 Fingerprint: 0x5feb7269 +185% Enhanced Defense Adds 15-72 fire damage +15 Maximum Durability +15 Fire Absorb 4% Chance to cast Level 12 Firestorm on striking 2% Chance to cast Level 4 Meteor on striking Raven Frost Ring Required Level: 45 Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion Item Level: 88 Fingerprint: 0x827a4636 +18 to Dexterity +40 to Mana +220 to Attack Rating Adds 15-45 cold damage over 4 seconds 20% Cold Absorb Cannot Be Frozen Angelic Wings Amulet Required Level: 12 Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion Item Level: 84 Fingerprint: 0x25d97132 +3 to Light Radius 20% Damage Taken Goes to Mana ***Partial Set Item Bonuses*** +75 to Life +1 to All Skill Levels ***Partial Set Item Bonuses*** Angelic Halo Ring Required Level: 12 Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion Item Level: 87 Fingerprint: 0xf679badb +20 to Life Replenish Life +6 ***Partial Set Item Bonuses*** +972 to Attack Rating (Based on Character Level) 50% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items ***Partial Set Item Bonuses*** Sigon's Wrap Plated Belt Defense: 171 Durability: 24 of 24 Required Strength: 60 Required Level: 6 Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion Item Level: 43 Fingerprint: 0x4cb45377 +20 to Life Fire Resist +20% ***Partial Set Item Bonuses*** +162 to Defense (Based on Character Level) ***Partial Set Item Bonuses*** Sigon's Sabot Greaves Defense: 12 Durability: 24 of 24 Required Strength: 70 Required Level: 6 Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion Item Level: 62 Fingerprint: 0xb36c6c60 Cold Resist +40% 20% Faster Run/Walk ***Partial Set Item Bonuses*** +50 to Attack Rating 50% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items ***Partial Set Item Bonuses***
Weapon switch: Demon limb for enchant.Code:Oath Scourge 'ShaelPulMalLum' One-Hand Damage: 12 to 374 Required Dexterity: 67 Required Strength: 115 Required Level: 57 Mace Class - Fastest Attack Speed Indestructible Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion Item Level: 81 Fingerprint: 0xffbebfc6 +10 to Energy +212% Enhanced Damage 50% Increased Attack Speed Prevent Monster Heal 75% Damage to Demons 150% Damage to Undead +100 to Attack Rating against Demons +14 Magic Absorb Indestructible 30% Chance to cast Level 20 Bone Spirit on striking Level 17 Iron Golem (12/14 Charges) Level 16 Heart of Wolverine (9/20 Charges) Ethereal (Cannot be Repaired), Socketed (4: 4 used) Sanctuary Hyperion 'KoKoMal' Defense: 320 Chance to Block: 64% Durability: 82 of 82 Required Strength: 127 Required Level: 49 Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion Item Level: 79 Fingerprint: 0x4e99d132 +20 to Dexterity +152% Enhanced Defense +20% Increased Chance of Blocking +250 Defense vs. Missile Magic Damage Reduced by 7 All Resistances +57 20% Faster Hit Recovery 20% Faster Block Rate Level 12 Slow Missiles (60/60 Charges) Socketed (3: 3 used)
Merc: Act 2 nightmare offensive ( ie might )
Deaths: None in act 3,4,5 Hell. May have died before but I don't recall.Code:1: Guillaume's Face Winged Helm Defense: 217 Durability: 31 of 40 Required Strength: 115 Required Level: 34 Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion Item Level: 75 Fingerprint: 0xe3d95341 +15 to Strength +120% Enhanced Defense 30% Faster Hit Recovery 35% Chance of Crushing Blow 15% Deadly Strike 2: Godly Balrog Skin of Razors Defense: 1408 Durability: 22 of 30 Required Strength: 165 Required Level: 57 Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion Item Level: 88 Fingerprint: 0x99ff0698 +172% Enhanced Defense Attacker Takes Damage of 9 3: The Reaper's Toll Thresher Two-Hand Damage: 37 to 442 Durability: 39 of 65 Required Dexterity: 89 Required Strength: 114 Required Level: 75 Polearm Class - Fast Attack Speed Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion Item Level: 99 Fingerprint: 0xacbc4209 +214% Enhanced Damage Adds 4-44 cold damage over 1 seconds 11% Life stolen per hit Requirements -25% Ignore Target Defense 33% Deadly Strike 33% Chance to cast Level 1 Decrepify on striking
Thoughts
He isn't really bad, and in places with weak non FI non PI enemies ( eg flayer jungles ) he really owns. Wolves really rock with HoW and might and he does decent damage too. His own damage is very useful in killing stuff like Horadrim ancients which summons sometimes don't focus down and don't move much so fissure is ineffective against them.
That said he is definitely not as good as the meleemancer. Fire druids just have it hard I guess. If I had gone for caster stuff I might have had +6 all skills more which could have helped, but it would be a lot more boring to stand around waiting for skill cooldowns and no fun ctc firestorms and meteors. Pure fire would have been even worse as volcano and boulder don't do enough physical damage.
I will do a wind druid next!
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