PvM Elemental Zeal Druid - need some advice!

[Pyrotechnician]

Aldur's is truly just a terrible mauling weapon as the damage is just plain bad. For some reason when I click your link all I get is a blank layout so I can't really see what your getting at there. If you do plan on using Maul for your main attack then you should consider using the IK maul and additional set pieces as its cheap, easy to find and extremely effective, but it may be quite a bit more strength then you currently have invested.

Since your on ladder and once again playing on the cold skills, you could try using a rift runeword, it has a 20% chance to cast level 16 tornado on striking which when synergized wouldn't be too bad of an option, but would recommend using it with werewolf/fury since you'll want to see the tornados fly pretty often. Either that or if you happen to have/find a windhammer ogre maul, that weapon releases twisters quite frequently and since you went the cold route it would be synergized at least and provides a free source of stun.

[Snerra]

Thank you again for the replies!

Aldur's is truly just a terrible mauling weapon as the damage is just plain bad. For some reason when I click your link all I get is a blank layout so I can't really see what your getting at there. If you do plan on using Maul for your main attack then you should consider using the IK maul and additional set pieces as its cheap, easy to find and extremely effective, but it may be quite a bit more strength then you currently have invested.

Yeah, the aldur's really is terrible, haha, but it's all I got right now... IK maul would be a cheap and excellent option, but it feels like a waste not to use the stormshield I got - and besides, having to shapeshift back to human form to cast hurricane can potentially leave me vulnerable, so I'd rather have a shield in that case. Well, something to consider.

Still, I think it's a good idea to get a weapon with some +elemental damage, like scoobydoo mentioned. I ran into a physical immune zombie on hell and I couldn't really kill it - my hurricane did little dmg to it. And since I'm a werebear (shockwave is incredible, and works well together with hurricane), I need a fast weapon. I've been looking into these options:

Azurewrath PB - sadly level 85 req, but a ton of elemental dmg and +1skills, 7 fpa. Number one choice, though.
Crescent Moon PB - gives static field, but only 7% ctc... And quite low dmg. 7 fpa.
Stormlash - too expensive, I think, and a little slower at 10 fpa.
Barana's Star - quite slow, at 11 fpa.
Lightsabre PB - Wouldn't last through hell, I think, but it's an upgrade.

[Pyrotechnician]

A shield is nice, but the problem with it is that the block rate while shifted is terribly slow, so you would actually be putting yourself at a disadvantage in most cases. In either situation though if physical immunes are your problem I would highly recommend a lawbringer, at the cost of amn+lem+ko, it provides santuary, decrep, and elemental damage. Its not much for physical damage so I would probably keep it on switch, but useful nonetheless.

[Scoobydoo]

A Reaper's Toll on a HF or Might merc would also be extremely useful.

[minuses]

The best way to build this kind of druid is keeping geddon up while you zeal. I think ravenlore would be a big help for this build since the fire is nice for weakening the monsters. For the passion weapon I am not sure and I am too lazy to check out the ias calculator so you can use titan seal calculator to find out what weapon would be best for your build. I would go HoW for this build instead of oak. Consider getting more ar for this build. I would recommend you to get several 36 ar scs for some back up ar so you can hit more often. Good luck testing out your elemental melee druid.

[Snerra]

The White Bear has brought the cold winter winds to bear on the minions of Hell. The druid is now patriarch, at level 86, having defeated first the Ancients and since Baal alone.

The build and gear is more or less 'complete': http://www.diablofans.com/page/tools...0l4l0l2l0lal00

Major credit goes to SSoG for his Mighty Kodiak guide. It's very enjoyable and well written and has a lot of good information.

The build is not as strong as I would've thought, unfortunately. At least in hell. There are so, so many cold immunes, and although you can kill them, it takes a while. Big packs of archers are a pain to deal with, if you can't get some good shockwaves. Still, it's great fun and has a unique playstyle.

Advantages

• Like the wind druid you do cold and physical damage, but you also get a larger life pool, more defense, the ability to use melee modifiers such as crushing blow - and you get to maul things with your mighty bear claws.
• With the right weapon, fast attack speed (6 fpa)
• Shockwave and a rather durable grizzly summon
• Tornadoes still do good damage, and are useful in some situations, i.e. while waiting for the hurricane cating delay to wear off.
• Can kill any enemy in hell, although it might take a while.

Disadvantages

• Not so high damage output, and very low physical damage - which makes life leech a little weak at times, despite your fast attacks.
• Rather gear dependant. Not many options for weapons.
• CI+PI enemies are a problem until you get Azurewrath or similar, which has +250-500 magic dmg.
• You have to shift to human form to refresh hurricane every 50 seconds.

*** Note: this is not a guide, it's just my character and my current equipment.***

Stats
Strength: 156 for stormshield
Dexterity: 140 (phase blade requires 136)
Vitality: Rest (I'm at 204 at lvl 86)
Energy: none

Life: 681 (with a few scs) in human form, 1585 in bear form

D2_WhiteBear.jpg
Sanctuary Aura and Cyclone Armor. That gets style points in my book.

Equipment
Weapon - Azurewrath socketed with a shael (6 fpa)
Shield - Stormshield
Helm - Jalal's Mane
Armor - Duress in Ornate Plate (looks awesome!)
Gloves - Blood Gloves (bad ones, but 6% CB, 16 life, 15 lightning res)
Boots - Gore Rider
Amulet - Highlord's Wrath
Rings - Carrion Wind and Raven Frost

Other thoughts & things to test
There are still some things in the build I'm not sure of; both in terms of skill build and gear.

• I don't know if the points in dire wolf are worth it - the grizzly is a surprisingly good tank, but at this point, it might be more efficient to boost your wereform and tank yourself.
• Stormlash is a very interesting weapon. Static field, synergised tornadoes, 33% crushing blow, lightning damage. Fast too. What a perfect, marvelous weapon. Sadly, it's expensive. Grief is another fantastic weapon that's also too expensive for me.
• Crushing blow. I only have 36% chance with my current gear. Guillaume's might be an option, but Jalal's Mane has a lot of juicy mods for this build... Obviously need to get 10% CB on my gloves, either from Blood gloves or Steelrend.
• I have no fire res. Heh. It's -25 in hell and only 30 poison res. The other two are at 75. Guess I have to socket Jalal's and Stormshield to make up for that.
• Mercenary: Don't know about this one! I switched to a blessed aim merc. Might didn't do much for my low physical damage. I now have almost 7k AR with HoW and blessed aim, which seems to work well. But if I get a Demon Limb on switch for enchant, maybe I could get another merc instead: holy freeze or even a fire arrow rogue...