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Help fellow gamers to defeat Diablo and his brothers. Send your gaming strategies to the webmistress, and we'll post them here.
General Strategies
Amazon Strategies | Assassin Strategies Barbarian Strategies Druid Strategies Necromancer Strategies Paladin Strategies Sorceress Strategies
| Druid Strategies Heres all you need to know about the druid. First of all; never ever put any points into the werebear skill. Focus mainly all your points into werewolf instead. When you just start the druid game, Put 1 to werewolf, 1 point to lycropathry. Do this until your level 13. By this time, you'll have 6 in werewolf, and 6 in lycropathry. Then put one point into Feral rage. Only 1 point for feral rage really is a sucky attack. Then keep repeating the pattern of werewolf, lycropathry. Then pout 1 in rabies and max out werewolf and lycropathry and don't forget fury. So basically for the druid, all you have to put points in is vitality, and strenghth. For you don't need alot of mana and that the were wolf increases attack rating by the bunch. sighning off, Nature's guard. Back to Top | I have a level 34 elemental druid and I definently think elemental is the way to go. shapeshifting is too akward and hard to use. if your in the middle of a swarm of demons i dont think you would want to have to mess with maul and shockwave and fire claws and stuff. also you have to keep changing back into animal form every couple seconds. with summoning you have to keep bringing back creatures every time they die. i like elemental and i think its the best way to play a druid. tont even bother with firestorm or molten boulder up to any level higher than 1. just put a lot of skill points into fissure. that spell is so useful and it has a pretty god mana cost. its especaly useful for killing imps, flayer shemen, pit lords, and other stuff from long range without getting flamed. for weapons i found gemmed flails extremely useful. try to use weapons with a good atack speed, nothing less than fast, and only requires one hand to use so you can carry a shield for good defence. I use a superrior flail with one "ort" rune (1-50 lightning damage) and 2 flawless topazzes (1-30 lightning damage each). It does 3-110 lightning plus 1-24 normal damage and a fast attack speed and it only needs one hand so its very good. for shields look for something good thats socketed and put "el" runes (1 to light radius, 15 to defense) and amethysts (adds to defense). For armor, boots, gloves and belts, just look for something with good defense and resistances. if you can use something that has a chance to do any kind of nova when struck. Those are very useful when you need a quick break to get out of a swarm. when you grow levels, put most of your stat points into energy, and some strength. When fighting stay a good distance away from your enemy and use fissure on them. If you have a good amount of mana, you'll almost never run out from doing fissure. you should keep the first archer you hire the whole game, and make sure to get her a very good bow and set of armor. The rogue archers are very helpful, especialy around harogath, and if you keep your first one she will be very very strong by the time you make it to harogath. Mr. Long-yank, (Wade Gruber) Back to Top | a lot of people here have different thoughts on what to put skills on, and the best way i think is put skills on all things and get really good items which add +1 to all skills, and have lots of level 6 skills. My level 54 (non-hack) druid has 5 things (sword, shield, hat, amulet, armor) that give +1 to all skills, which means that all my skills are at least level six. then concentrate on one certain skill, such as werewolf, fury, hunger or armageddon. Its good to round off all your skills, because some enemys require different tactics, such as the ancients on nightmare, who were really hard as they do too much damage to go hand to hand werewolf/fury, so i started to use armageddon and run around like crazy, killing them slowly but surely. I personally think that werewolf is the best to go as because fury does heaps of damage, hunger lets you live a lot longer. with werewolf, get a polearm as they hit hard and fast. the weapon switching helps alot too as you can change from the skill augmenting weapons to damaging weapons easily. to all newbie druids, try everything and see which one works best for you Bob-level 54 druid Back to Top | As for Druid, I went for Fissure and Molten Bolder. I knocked down Andariel in 10 seconds at most. This is a huge killer. I am wondering what it'll do against End Boss of Act II (forgot his name sorry) .... I hope the Boulder will throw him back so I can cast a Fissure under him. Otherwise I'm dead. I think I'll replay using Summoning, but shapeshifting I don't know, since what happens to your armor and magical resistance when changing form? Also, Volcano looks pretty useless, since it is a higher level Skill, but it's less strong than Fissure. Can anyone give me one reason why I should use this? Final question regarding Armegeddon, Do I really need to upgrade all elemental Skills with at least one to reach it? According to your site it does, but it's a fire Skill, both sides have been seperated right? Back to Top | Druids ROCK! So much so it is was difficult for me to decide which skills I wanted to specialize in. Make this choice UP FRONT before you even begin to develop your character. People have said it here, and I�ll say it again: Specialize. The game makes it painfully obvious that you should do this because you can�t use shape shifting and elemental skills in conjunction. What bigger clue does one need? Summoning skills can co-exist with either skill set however, much to my delight. So, you don't have to specialize in ONE tree necessarily, the Druid makes a formidable character with summoning and one other of tree of your choice. You as a player should ask yourself, do I enjoy melee combat or do I enjoy mage characters. If you have the itch to jump in the battle, choose shape shifting. Beyond that choose either the Wolf or Bear exclusively. Either has pros and cons, both are awesome. As mentioned earlier here, the bear is rugged and powerful like a barbarian, the wolf is quick and agile like an assassin. The only elemental skill even worth considering as a shape shifter is Cyclone Armor. The rest are absolutely worthless to you, don�t be tempted! If you enjoy the prospect of a powerful mage with a small party to assist you, choose the Elemental skills, as I did. I initially picked the Druid because of the summoning skills. The Necromancer had always intrigued me, but I was frustrated with how weak he was. I got bored very quickly and my little Necro never got to see anything higher than level 12 skills. I decided to give the Druid a go to see if life was any better. In that light I focused primarily on my summoning skills. I was lucky to have found a pelt that added 3 to �Raven� up front and didn�t waste any points on this skill. Just like skeletons, Ravens outgrow their usefulness very quickly, I would say by the end of act two. If any one spends more than one point here I would need to ask why. Raven leads to Wolves and Grizzly that are far more deserving of your hard earned skill points. Some say save you�re your points for the grizzly, but I say don�t be so afraid to pump up anything in the wolf or bear skills, they all have passive bonuses to each other. For example, the first wolf, Spirit Wolf, is very weak by the time you can access Dire Wolf, but the skill points put here affect the attack and defense ratings of ALL wolves and bears. Dires add life, and grizzly adds damage. Very nice perk, points put in any of these skills will remain useful the entire game. For vines, I would say it depends on your character type which vine you should develop. Poison Creeper? NO! No no no. This thing is garbage. It does minimal damage and killed off pathetically fast. Carrion vine, the life stealer, is obviously good for a shape shifter. Likewise solar creeper, the mana steeling vine, is good for elemental druids. Although as an elemental druid, I still call on the carrion vine from time to time. As for the spirits, just pick one according to your play style and run with it. Oak Sage is defensive adding huge life bonuses to your entire party, and Wolverine is offensive adding big attack bonuses to everyone. The barbed spirit I�m not impressed with. You may think differently, but I�ve seen what thorns does on the Paladin, and this is no where close. Barbed spirit takes 10 skill points just to get up to 100% damage return. Nah, I�ll pass, thanks. The elemental skill tree offers I wide variety of skills to choose from. My only advice is to only invest ONE skill point until you have everything opened up. By then you�ll see which skills you tend to use and beef those up. Druids are so powerful, they can save their skill points for long stretches and still have no trouble progressing through the game. It was nothing to me to have 6 points or more in the hopper trying to decide what to use them on. The first 4 acts were a cakewalk with the druid, act V was a little tricky. The only skill that should be a definite is Cyclone Armor. This is a no brainer skill that enhances elemental defense. Much needed, believe me, especially in Act IV and V. I personally was pulled to the fire skills. They were much easier to use and seemed to be much more effective. That is until Hurricane! Twister and Tornado, not very great IMO, but Hurricane is very very cool (literally). When cast, it has the same effect as a Paladin�s holy freeze, everything inside the radius of effect is slowed. With Hurricane going, my Grizzly and Barbarian merc mow down hordes of enemies like nothing I�ve ever seen. It is truly a sight to behold! I cleared out the Cow level not even needing a single potion, it was a veritable slaughter, lol. Keep in mind that frozen shattered enemies will leave your vines feeling useless, but I seem to be dropping enough corpses to keep them busy. Armageddon does do more damage than hurricane, sure, but the random nature of the attack just doesn�t seem as useful to me, I get better results planting a volcano under someone. Because I use hurricane for a slowing spell rather than damage, I�ve only used one point so far. I may change my mind on that, especially if I find out the rate of speed is decreased further with more development. I�ve touched on my progress here and there, but I�ll recap. The first 4 acts I obliterated. I can�t say I died even once. Act V however gave me a few challenges. Those pesky imps riding on the backs of their carrier creatures are flat out annoying. More than once I was killed by those things, just for not paying attention to my life guage. All the other normal, champs, and uniques we�re no big deal at all. The Ancients everyone complains about? They went down in less than a minute, employing the same strategy as the cows. Hurricane was going constantly with my bear, my barbarian merc and myself going one on one with each of them. Goodnight. Baal was a nasty one though. I died way to often, and actually had to buy a new mouse, hehehe. He picked off my barbarian and bear so fast I couldn�t believe it. I eventually resorted to plunking as many volcanoes as I could under him before dying and then running into a waiting town portal to refill at town. Seemed pretty chicken, but it worked. As of now I�ve reached level 39 and am cruising steadily though Act 1 of nightmare. Sure Act 1 isn�t much, but considering I�ve employed wolves over the bear again, I think I�ll do fine. Yeah, I got a lot to say, but there is a lot to say about a druid. If you haven�t played him yet, by all means do it! There is something here for everyone. As long as you�ve decided what character type you want, and not get tempted by all the cool tricks in this bag, you can�t fail. I believe the druid is so good, I�m creating a shape shifter as my next character. Back to Top |
| This is a somewhat unorthadox yet highly effective fighting strategy with the druid. I've found the druid to be the most versatile and the most 'replay-friendly' char on Diablo. I've used the Druid many times and created both were-bear and were-wolf as highly effective chars. So I decided to create an Elemental/Summoner Druid. First off: Let me state that this is druid is an odd critter, and in a class all his own. You might scoff at the skills applied; but look at the results. I have five skill maxed and char is level 99. 1rst skill: Ravens You may think this very odd skill to max; yet with 5 ravens at level twenty, with 31 hits apiece, they have a culmunative damage of 3255-3565 damage. Very effective, 2nd skill: Arctic Blast Again an unorthadox skill. But notice, at level 20 it does 1460-1540 damage per second... nice. 3rd skill: Cyclone Armor This defensive elemental absorbing up to 268 damage of elemental damage: fire/ice/lightning. Very effective when going head to head with Diablo or Baal. Or lots of other critters for that matter. 4th skill: Grizzly Nothing out of the ordinary here, the Grizzly does more damage then 3 dire wolves maxed. Grizzly does a total (when maxed) of 945-1039; well worth getting. 5th skill: Heart O' Wolverine When at max, this skill gives a +153% damage and a +158% to attack. Futher fortifying your personal melee attacks and any attacks made by Grizzly. All other skills have only one point on them. This is without a doubt the best Druid I've made. An absolutely incredible char. Back to Top | Hello all you exceptionally keen Druids. I bet you want to know what I think are the best skills for a druid to use. If you ask me, concentrate on Elemental and Summoning. No other character can have these top class attributes but the druid. DONT bother wasting precious skill points on the werewolf or werebear. Yea they can be fun for a while but I think the whole point about Diablo is not knowing which weapon or armour you are going to get next-with the werebear and werewolf, that aspect is completely thrown out the window. I advise putting lots of points on whirlwind and that arctic blast-their good. I shall leave the rest to you, but take heed of what I have told you. Personally I have 2 druids; one just elemental and summoning, the other summoning and shape-shifting. My shape-shifting one is lv57, however my other one is, yep you've guessed it - Lv 99 from Death Lv 87 assasin, Lv 59 sorceress, Lv 76 Barbarien, Lv 39 Necro and Lv99 Druid watch out for me on multi-player ( Lv 97 Amazon) Back to Top | I have a hell level70 druid( shape-shifter) currently in act 3, this character is the easiest to play and if equiped right will not die that often mine didn't at all in normal or nightmare, i killed duriel in hell and did not use any rejuv. the key to this characters always get the best you can keep building his attack rating and damage, dexterity before strength vitality before energy (if any) at the early stages get a rouge as quickly as possible and build her up to be equal to druid this means you are in effect building two characters. for shape shifter concentrate on two skill trees the only elemental i have built up is cyclone armour lvl 10 enhanced( probaly lvl 2 true) summon tree all 1's to start except for summon spirit wolf 6 points then go to dire wolves for most of nightmare only put in 4 points max then save points between 24-30 choose fury over feral rage(the minimum amount you need to get through nightmare) fury/ heart of wolverene, summon grizzly is all i use in hell. equipment choose that from the start i chose maces and shield i built a 3 socket perfect skull shield this is one of the most valuble pieces of equipment attacker takes damage of 60, with baraners devil star, thats my working combination. i use axes i have the minotaur( tougher bosses) and the hellslayer(duriel and councel killer). jalals mane(socket with um rune), maras kaladescope, aldurs advance boots, imortal gloves and belt. raven frost ring, and a prismatic ring with 129 attack rating, griswolds armour with two um runes and a high level attack jewel, most important i have nearly 70% fast hit recovery either in charms or in combinations on weapons, that and crushing blow and a druid will plow though anything. Two bits of fighting stratergy find the right equipment for you and stick with it and the right attack formula, second druids not a pussy he can take alot more punishment than most characters once you set him up right, major bosses go in full charge and attack dont hold back, fast key your summon creatures for easy acess. thats it play hard Mabon lvl 70 druid Back to Top | In my opinion, the shape-shifting Druid shoud be the first choice. I start my Druid by putting 10 skill in Lycathropy, WereWolf, Dire Wolf, Spirit Wolf, Grizzly Bear, Fury, 5 in Heart of Wolverine, 1 in Carrion Vine ( include + skill, put 1 skill in all requirements). You should hire a Offense-Aura-Mercenary in Act 2( Blessed Aim increased your attack rating while in WereWolf form, you ask for more??), find a Great-Rare-Pike for him, I have one with 70-250 and my merc do around 300-700 dam!!!! ( I get it from Mephisto when |v|28). And find a Maul for you ( I have a Great Maul with 90-200 dam and do around 400-700 damage!!). I killed Baal when I reach him the second time. Slayer Guardian |v|50 Druid Back to Top | Were-wolf skill guide: The druid is perhaps the most powerful and versatile class in D2X. With many different combinations to choose from, one stands out which will turn you into a tank that can tear through act V hell in an 8 player game solo, the minionless werewolf. Skills: Dkills are, for the most part, the most important and vital choices that have to be made in developing a good character. there are only a few skills that you will be using as a werewolf but you need all the skill points you can get. I'm level 77 and still haven't got all the skills I would like to have mastered. Here goes, for you first few levels add one point into werewolf, and 3 into lycanthropy. Do not put any points into any minion skills other than one in oak sage (you will also get carion vine later). Once you get to level 6 you should be able to get oak. put only one point into this (you can max it out later). With you remaining skill points alternate between werewolf and lycanthropy until you reach level 12, at which point put one skill pt into feral rage and make this you primary attack. It doesn't matter if you don't have mana steal because you will have 20 sec to regenerate only 2 mana to keep your charge up (note - if this is primary attack and you have no mana a standard attack will result). Only put one skill pt here. Continue to alternate between lycanthropy and werewolf. When you reach lev 18 you can get rabies, the most worthless skill I have ever seen. Put one point as prerequisite. Continue to alternate points in lycanthropy and werewolf. Once you get to level 30 you can get fury. This skill owns. It does more damage than a barbarians whirlwind and hits five times for a mere four mana. Not to mention that you are getting massive attack rating bonuses from werewolf and fury. Put only 5 skill points in this at first to ensure five attacks per use. (I personally put about 7 or 8 before I returned to werewolf and lycanthropy). Now you should have the majority of your skill points used in both werewolf and lycanthropy, with one in feral rage, rabies, and oak sage. At this point you can do a few things, 1. continue to max werewolf, lycanthropy, and fury (in that order) 2. get carion vine (one point - for now) 3. max oak sage and lycanthropy for more life than you could believe (oak sage makes your mercs last about twice as long). I currently have 20 skill pts in lycanthropy, fury, werewolf, and oak sage, plus some prerequisites and about 6 or 7 in carion vine. No skills are in the elemental tree. With this setup you can attain over 4500 hit points, and do 2000+ min damage x 5 hits with an attack rating over 4000. And if you use an ogre maul (elite maul) - you get fast attack speed. A few side notes: 1. physically immunes can be dealt with by an mage from act 3. Try to get faster cast items for them. Also a weapon switch heavy in elemental damage is good. Look for 'shocking' 1- (up to) 480 lightning damage on a fast attack speed item, physical damage means nothing, only attack speed (use a wand if you have to). 2. don't worry about defense. I was using hawkmail (def 180) all the way through nightmare and I never had a problem with being hit because of the massive amount of life you will have. 3. Do not put more than 10-15 stat points into dexterity if any. All you need is a huge maul, which only has strength requirement (and 110% of your strength is added to the damage instead of most weapons being 100%). If you are having troubles hitting enemies, try getting a ring with +100 to +150 attack rating or get a runeword weapon, they always add lots to attack rating. with maxed werewolf and fury you get a total bonus of 335 + 183 = 518 % bonus to attack rating. and thats not counting any + skill items. 4. Also don't put ANY points into energy. your primary attack is going to be using only 4 mana per hit and will do upwards of 1000 damage x 5. You need less than 1 percent mana steal to indefinitely fury everything that comes your way, that's not even counting your natural mana regen, which is already quite high. (you may need up to 4 % depending on damage and attack rating in hell difficulty.) 5. Try to get as much life steal as you can. You are going to be on the front lines and taking serious damage. get life steal on both rings if you can, and you will be unstoppable. Redwood level 77 Druid Back to Top | Here is a quick strategy on how to build a strong druid. First skills....... Only put skills in the shapeshifting category. None into summoning or elemental. Max out Warewolf first then Lycanthropy. Get Feral Rage and Rabies just so you can reach Fury. Max out Fury when you get it. Once you have maxed them all out...... start working on Oak Sage. I wouldn't know if maxing it is worth it cuz my level 56 Druid only has one skill into that, I am still working on maxing all the shapeshifting skills so........ Stats: No energy do 2 str 1 Dex and 2 Vit. Though in the beginning you might want to put 1 str 1 dex and 3 vit. That is what I did and right now I have 1284 health. Once you reach level 8 or so change it to 2 str 1 dex and 2vit. That way you can wear some good armor. Seriously find a very fast weopon. A slow and strong maul is awful compared to a little broad sword that is fast. The speed is a big advantage and a big difference. I found this Unique (gold) quarter staff...... it is ver fast and does 64 to 159 damage. It has 25% crushing blow and a whole bunch of other things that just pile on like the magic damage 10-60. I am doing about 400 to 900 damage! I was surprised compared to my dimensional blade Unique which was only a fast attack speed and a much higher damage and I prefer the quarter staff over that any day. . Druids are really hard at first but they become very strong at the end making them very fast and very deadly. WEREBEAR SUX. It really does. TOO SLOW Back to Top | Wolf-Shifter Druid (lvl, 40) The Druid is the most versatile warrior in Diablo II, He can be strong as the Barbarian, He can be fast as the Assassin, He can summon minions like the Necromancer, and he can use projection to kill like the Sorceress. But you can�t be all of them, you only have to choose one main class. The Classes -Werebear - Strong as a barbarian, but can have a small party of minions. -Werewolf - Fast as the Assassin/Amazon, but can have a small party of minions. -Elemental - Projectile as the Sorceress, but can have a small party of minions. So if you chose Werebear or Elemental, look for somewhere else this guide is for the wolves. Werewolf skill doesn�t give you defense or damage bonuses like the Werebear, but it rather gives you walk/run and attack speed bonuses. Being a werewolf only focus on 2 skill trees the summoning and the shape shifting, don�t even put 1 point! on the elemental tree, since you�re gonna be a wolf you can�t use the forces of nature, u must focus on one class to achieve it�s optimum level. Skills Shape-Shifting. (NOTE: don�t put any points on the Werebear tree since you�re going to be a wolf.) Werewolf - gives you more attack speed, walk/run speed and stamina, you want to put points here, so u can carry a great maul and still can have a fast attack speed, and you can hit you�re enemies and out run them. (3-4 skill points) Lycanthropy � gives you a great life bonus and more time duration being a wolf so you can enjoy the animal in you and you don�t wanna become human when you are between Baal's minions do you? (MAX) Feral Rage - a cool charge-up skill, this will help you a lot in the beginning of the game, it�s a charge-up skill that lets you suck life and gives you more speed so you can run faster from you enemies. (4-5 skill points) Rabies � a skill that adds poison to your attacks and is contagious, only use when u face a physically immune monster. (1 skill points (prereq.)) Fire Claws � not with me, people use this skill to against the physically immune one, thus wasting few skill points. I�d rather socket my weapon with a perfect emerald or a perfect sapphire. (0 skill points) Hunger � it�s a good skill, if you�re a bear. It lets you suck a lot of mana and life, but u don�t need a lot of mana when you�re a wolf, just find a weapon with life and mana leech or socket it with skull or a tir rune, and you�ll be fine. (0 skill points) Fury � Ahh! My favorite skill adds a lot of damage and attack rating to your attacks and lets you hit 5 adjacent enemies at lvl. 5, just see you�re enemies go lay down to the ground. (MAX) Summoning Animals Raven � it can only do less (1 skill point, prereq.) Sprit wolf � it�s good to have a small minion, but no matter how many skills u put in it the later animals could still benefit, because of the passive bonuses it gives, (1-2 skill points) Dire Wolf � it�s good to have 3 of them, so they can scatter and get rid of the small and large quantity of monsters (flayers), but in later stages if one of them falls all of them falls. (3 skill points) Grizzly Bear- A very strong minion u want to have. (MAX) Vines Poison Creeper- look it has cool graphics, but very small amount of damage. (1 skill point) Carrion vine � The best vine in the game gives u life and get rids of the corpse so enemies will not resurrect, but try not putting a lot into it no use when there�s no corpse, just get it�s maximum life it shares with you. (3 skill points) Solar Creeper - similar like carrion vine only it gives you mana instead of life works best with an elemental druid, a werewolf don�t need lot�s of mana. (0 skill points) Spirits Oak sage - adds life to your party Heart of the Wolverine - adds damage and attack to your party Barbed Spirit � damage returns to your enemy, similar to thorns (paladin�s skill) and iron maiden (necromancer�s skill) Only choose one from above and MAX it out, I suggest chose between Oak sage and Heart of the Wolverine, dump Barbed Spirit since you only have a small party. not like the necromancer that has an army. Stat points Every level up u gain 5 stat points this is what I do to them Strength 2 Dexterity 1 Vitality 2 Energy 0 Or you can alternate Dex and Vit every level up, but don�t put points on Energy like I said you wont really need them Items Just always look out for the items with good attributes like mana leeching and life leeching, and resist elements. For armor just look out for something with high defense and resists elements For jewelry just look out for good pluses, like enhanced damage, attack rating and leeching. For shields, don�t use them wield a 2 handed weapon For helms look out for druid pelts preferably with good bonuses I use a pelt with +2 Werewolf, +3 Lycanthropy. For weapons look for a high damaging weapon with a descent attack speed, in my case I use crafted and socketed maul that has 11 attributes, it�s a safety crafted item, a maul, jewel (anykind), perfect emerald and an ort rune and transmute with horadric cube, it gives u a maul with enhanced damage, damage and magic damage reduced by 3-4, plus with poison damage, and I let larzuk socketed it and I socketed it with a 2 jewels that adds 10 maximum damage and adds 8-10 to fire and another with +42% enhanced damage and +110 attack rating and a perfect skull so it�s high damaging, life and mana sucking with poison attack. Tips -When Attacking use feral rage and when the charge is full switch to fury. -When fighting with the bosses (Diablo, Mephisto, Baal) u noticed there�s no other enemy than them, so no corpse, change carrion vine to poison creeper, yes it damage low, but carrion vine don�t even damage. -Always carry two weapons with different Attack speed and Damage, the one which is faster and damages less will be used against the mob of monster, the one which is slower and damages stronger will be used in a single and harder enemy. Change weapon clicking W key. -So that�s all hope this works for you, and remember, always improvise. Grendvolg (Lvl. 41 Werewolf) Back to Top | Hi all those great druids out their. All I have to say is that elemental and summoning skills suck. I my opinion Shape-Sifting ROCKS. focus all your skills into either werewolf or werebear. The Werebear is better at first but it is slowly replaced by the werewolf. In the later levels the bear is just so slow by the time u go to strike you've been hit 3 times. But If u do go with the werebear invest your skill points into Maul. I found this to be extreamly good. Which ever form u take get hunger, In my opinion it's the best. Palthanon lvl 30 Driud Back to Top | I am a level 38 druid and i am in nightmare. Though shape shifting and summoning skills are quite good, i recommend using elemental spells. I put fissure up to about level 10 and it was extremely useful throughout act 2 3 and the start of act four in normal. Then when i got to level 30 i got armaggedon and hurricane and they kicked some real ass. For items: Helm - tarnhelm (+1 to skill levels is extremely useful) Armor - Goldskin (30% resistances and high defense) Rings - 2 soj's Amulet - Eye of Elitch (+1 to skills) boots - Anything with fast run/walk speed Gloves - Frostburn (more mana) Shield - Sigons Guard(+1 to skills) and for a sword get culwins point (+1 to skills). For the druid you really should get high resistances and high defence. Gandalf levl 38 druid Back to Top | For those wanting to play a fighting Druid here's the first thing you should do. IGNORE THE WEREBEAR!! Yeah the increased damage and defense is nice... at first. but it's only good for so long. Instead, go solely with the werewolf. in the begining pick up some points in the Werewolf and Lycanthropy skills. Then when you get to level 4, buy a point in Crows and Carrion vine. These two skills are nearly worthless, but they lead to something greater later on. And they at least give you a few pets to play with. As you go on, continue to buy a point (only 1 point!) skills like Feral Rage, and Rabies. Also, keep picking up a point in the other summons as they come up, like Spirit Wolf, Dire Wolf and Oak Sage. Now they most important skills, Werewolf, Lycanthropy, and Heart of the Wolverine. try and keep you points in wolf and lycan. about even and toss a few into the Wolverine. this combination will cause you to hit faster, more accurately, and about as strong as a werebear could. and if you can find a good weapon it'll make things even easier. I perfer axes since they deal a decent amount of damage, but are especially quick (unlike swords or pole-arms). last but not least. STOP using new skill points at about level 20. SAVE THEM! Then when you reach level 30 Start using them to buy points in Fury, and Grizzly Bear. With all the points you should have saved you can buy a point of each for quite a while, which will make you that much more powerful. At thier maxed levels Fury will give you 5 very fast attacks all at a +423% damage, and the Grizzly can do around 950-1050 points of damage per hit. So getting these maxed out should now be your biggest priority. After that you can go back to buying points in Werewolf, Lycanthropy and Heart of the Wolverine (just in case you feel like squishing deamons that little bit extra). Sgian Gaothan (lvl 26 Druid) Back to Top | Hello! This is a simple easy guide to being the best druid. Druids are awesome and possess great powers. In my opinion the strongest are the Shape Shifting/Summoning Druids. Basic Guide: 1) Only train in elemental to get to the Cyclone armor and I would put as many spare points as you can in this. It absorbs the damage for fire, cold, & lightning this is very useful when fighting diable and baal so try to get a 6 ranks in before fighting diablo. 2)Split your skill points in training in Summoning and Shape Shifting. Its nice to put your first point in Poison Creeper. That helps out a lot when your young. 3) I wouldnt waste points on ravens they hardly hit for anything and are not useful as a distraction instead use points for other things. 4) You decide which shape shifting you want.. The Bear or Wolve. I chose the Werewolf because I like how it adds to your life. Then in combination with Feral Rage (which steals life) you basically cannot die. So put major points in Feral Rage and Werewolf and then the passive spell Lycanthropy, which you really need. I would focus on those three until you are 30 when you put skills in shape shifting. 5) Summoning. As noted earlier I find it best to switch off putting one point in summoning then in shape shifting and continue switching back and forth like so. I would start off putting points in Poison Creeper until you get Oak Sage. Now you can cast a Spirit(oak sage) and a vine(poison creeper). Spirits: I would not spend skill points in other spirits only because I prefer Oak Sage due to its life enhancer for you and your party, very useful in realm. Though I am looking into Spirit of Barbs which reflects the damage you took back to the monsters. Wolves/Bear: I would then start putting points into the Spirit wolf get about 5 then continue into Dire wolf and keep those up until you are 32. The more points you get in Dire wolf the more life your bear will get. Then after 32 you can start putting points in bear. Vines: after poison creeper put points into Carrion Vine, this will heal you though the most it gets to is 10 % now you decide whether you want to stick with this vine or go to the next one. Personally if you can max out Lycanthropy and Feral Rage you do not need Carrion anymore. So I would focus in Solar Creeper because it has more life and helps recover mana. 6)Now the only other thing you need to focus on is getting equipment which has resistance on it. I found you really need lots of Fire because of Diablo. He doesnt hit too often just mostly casts fire. So if your fire resist is high you can basically stand there with your spirit, wolves/bear, vine, and mercenary; and just keep attacking him and he will die pretty soon. The key I found with him and Baal is to get them cornered. Then with all your summons and mercenary and yourself attacking him they die pretty quick and I have yet to hit and run on them. Well I hope this guide is useful to you and you are very successful. So far my druid only died 1 time in normal and that was when i got blocked in by fire lords. So Far I am on Nightmare and still kicking butt. Shelly- level 40 druid Back to Top | Hi, i have a level 52 druid(victo) (completely legit), who is almost done with nightmare mode.(act 5 quest 5, the ancients are impossible on nightmare!!!) You should always spread your stat points about as evenly as you can, put a decent amount into mana!! Until you can get tornado, usually try to be in "animal" form for as long as you can because of the bonuses. I prefer werewolf. Tornado is a must, it sways from side to side killing enemies. My level 20 tornado does 283-293 damage costing only 10 mana. The mana amt. never changes. its very useful against the knights in hell, killing them usually with one hit, or other large groups of monsters. Find druid helms that give you great skill bonuses, i think that the best in the early levels are the ones that add to lycanthropy and either werebear, or werewolf....they are pretty easy to find. Molten boulder is the number 1 skill to use against andariel, for she takes 50 percent more fire damage. It is the number 1 offensive elemental skill until tornado in my opinion. Try to use mace class weapons a lot because druids are especially versatile with them, with added attack speed compared to others. Another good idea is to put atleast 5 skill points into grizzly bear because they are damn good, i have a level 7 one. I think it does about 80 to 150 damage, and has 326 life. the life never changes. Make sure that your druid stays in between the mage and the fighter, becuz if you ever run out of mana, fight w/ your weapon. well that is all of the advice i can give you, tornado is a must, i am going to try to max out hurricane, I think i will need it!! T.T.T or Victor lvl 52 druid Back to Top | All I have to say to make a good druid is don't listen to anyone who says that werebear is better then werewolf. When you first start out, put your points into werewolf and that lycnthropy thing. Put 1 point into raven so you will be able to get good summons later. When you get to level 6, put 1 point into feral rage. Use that as your main attack untill you get to level 30. Every so often put a point or 2 into werewolf and lycnthropy and summons. when you get to level 30, put every other point into grizzly bear and fury. fury is like zeal for paladins but in increases your damage too. maxed out with a bonesnap i do over 1000 damage per hit for 5 hits. grizzly bear is a good distraction and it can do some ok damage if its level is high enough. always have a spirit of barbs, carrion vine, and grizzly with you as you fight and you will live long and happy =) -Champion GoEatCat, level 49 Druid Back to Top | I have an elemental druid that I raised to level 45 in 4 days. I made some mistakes, but overrall my strategy was correct, and by level 35 I was destroying baal alone in 8 player games. The few things I did wrong were invest skill points into Summoning Wolves, Dire and regular. Since you can only have one summon type around at once, wait till the bear at level 30. Don't invest more than 1 point into any other summoning spell until after level 35 or 40. Some of the other summoning spells are extremely affective, but you need to save up as many skill points as possible beforehand so when you hit level 24 and 30 you can start pumping the real killers like crazy. Nuff said for now. Shapeshifting spells are useless if you are going to be an elemental druid. Forget the chain completely. Last but definitely not least, the Elemental skills. Believe it or not, as an Elemental druid, there are only three spells I use. All the rest are at level 1 (plus +whatever skill for any items you have). This may sound different from what most other druids do...but it's the best way. It gives you the skill points to invest into the spells you need quickly up to level 20. These Spells are: Cyclone Armor, Tornado, And Armaggeddon. Contrary to what everyone says, Hurricane is pretty horrible. Look at it this way: Hurricane takes 30 mana and lasts for 10 seconds. Armaggeddon takes 35 mana and lasts for 10 seconds. Now, Hurricane does 20-50 dmg at level 1, and gains 7 dmg each level. Armaggeddon does 25-75 dmg each level, and gains 20 Dmg per level. A level 20 Armaggeddon does 400-450 dmg !!! A level 20 Hurricane you ask? Only 200 dmg :( Now you've probably heard about the pause after you cast an armaggeddon in which you can't cast anymore. Not a problem. While an armaggeddon is raining down around you and killing most things near you, Cast Tornado's as fast as possible at the remaining enemies. After 5 or so Tornado's, switch back to Armaggeddon and cast another. Switch back to Tornado's and the cycle continues. I found this strategy extremely effective since you are casting really 2 Heavy dmg spells at enemies at once. Tornado will go through any enemies in it's path, and mine is only at level 13 and it does about 170 dmg, so it's very effective. Also they only take 10 mana and you can cast them as fast as you want. Once you're at level 40 or so and you're armaggeddon and tornado are at level 10, you can start putting some points into Oak Sage, which is very helpful increasing your life, and Solar Vine. You should still use them as soon as possible, but keep them only at level 1 until about level 40. Solar vine will give you plenty of mana regeneration, and Oak Sage will give you additional life, always helpful. One good thing about having an elemental druid is that you don't have to worry about strength or dexterity. Just get enough so that you can wear what you want, them pump all into energy or vitality, depending on what you need. The funny thing Is, I only have about 450 mana at level 35 And I NEVER I mean NEVER run out of mana. So once that happens you can start pumping vit like crazy... I find with an elemental druid it's best to have a 3 socketed shield with 3 P diamonds in it...that way your resistances are way high so that the elemental spells hitting you will do diddly squat, even if they do get past your cyclone armor. BrotherNature Level 45 Druid Back to Top | I have a level 38 druid who is really awesome.(mage and fighter) In the first three acts you should mostly be summoning and shapeshifting because the really good skills come when you are most likely in hell. Spread out your skills in summoning, shapeshifting and elemental skills!!!! Its worth it!! When you reach level 24, put lots of skills into tornado!! its very worth it. It, like the necrmancer's bone spear is very useful against large groups of monsters, but better because it sways from side to side while going forward, killing even more than the bonespear. This becomes very useful in Chaos Sanctuary against oblivion knights who travel in huge packs, and large packs of monsters in act 5. YOU SHOULD ALWAYS BALANCE ALL OF YOUR STATS, make your druid a fighter mage, when magic fails use weapons, and vice versa...druids recover mana very fast so you dont have much more than 200 mana, definately always have a mercenary( a cold sorcerer works best in my opinion, he freezes all targets making them easier to kill) when you are fighting baal, just charge him and stand right next to him, and hit him with tornado Back to Top | THE ONLY WAY TO USE A DRUID yes i know the best way to use a druid and it is as follows: first of all DO NOT TOUCH ELEMENTAL SKILLS! although the druid is a good mage character ALL his elemental skills are weak and hard to hit with. so become a shapeshifter and summoner character 1.stats: for your druid use this formulaefor getting your stats up till you are around level 40 then do what ever stats you feel you need str. 2 dex. 2 and alternate between 1 to vit and 1 to energy 2.werewolf if you decide to use a Werewolf and i STRONGLY suggest you do becuase it is the better of the 2 make sure you master the werewolf skill. get lycanthropy to level 15 becuase sometime that extra 30 seconds in werewolf form can save your life. also get feral rage to level 10 becuase it is the strongest werewolf spell also get fireclaws to level 5 becuase you will need the extra damage. also when you are a werewolf be sure to get items that increase your attack speed and get a weapon that has average damage something like 50 to 80 and make sure that its speed class is very fast attack speed becuase the werewolfs main strength is in speed WereWolf summoning when you are a werewolf dire wolves are your best friend now grizzly is a strong summon too but 3 dire wolves arent only strong at high levels but the provide 3 targets for the enemys. so if the wolves are being attacker YOU ARENT! 3. WereBear Wear Bear druids are for the all out attacker types becuase a were bear ups your defense, life, and strength by a HUGE amount however these hulking beasts are slow as hell and require LOTS of dexterity strength and patience. dont be suprised if your werebear is somewhat weak at the start of the game by the end of nightmare difficulty you will have a Big Strong Killing machine. ok obviously master the werebear skill and get lycanthropy to level 15. after that i suggest getting maul to level 10 beacuase it is a fast and easy way to kick Diablo ass. also shockwave is a good technique to take to level 5 becuase if you are ever cornered or surrounded this is a fast way to stun and weaken the oponents around you! if you wish to get fire claws i dont suggest getting it to higher than level 2 because most enemys in nightmare and hell difficulty are imune or strong against fire. werebear summoning ok so you have 1 strong Tanks walking around why not have 2? I suggest mastering the summon grizzly skill these boons are killers!!! when mine was level 9 he killed diablo on normal difficulty NO CONTEST! and i didnt interfere! the werebear needs 2 other summoning spells and that is Heart of Wolverine and ravens. This spirit ups your health by a ton! so this skill is a MUST have. get this skill to level 10 and your werebear will have such high life no 1 will be able to touch you! this skill is good to have at level 5 becuase these helpers will lead you to more kills!!!! /w *=zooyork= Back to Top | The Druid is a great addition to LOD. He seems to be the best character at soloing in a multiperson game, and can still kick ass in single player. Not only can he summon pets like the Necro, but he can also fight himself, something that Necros find very hard. Another great advantage is the massive amounts of life he can get: if you place your skill points properly and use the right equipment, you can get over 400 hit points by level 15 (I did.) Add to that a high level Werebear attack and a Grizzly or Dire Wolves, and you have a force to be reckoned with. Of the 2 main classes of Druid (shape-shifting and elemental) I find shapeshifting to be a lot more fun. If you want to go with elemental, that's fine, but it ends up being like a weaker Sorceress. Shape-shifters have to make another decision: Werewolf or Werebear. To figure that one out, try asking yourself who you like better, the Barbarian or the Assassin. If Barbarian, go with the Bear, if Assassin choose Wolf. The Wolf has an extra skill to get, but since the Bear gets a damage bonus just by shifting, then another bonus by using an attack skill, you can usually do way more damage with the Bear. Another thing that makes the Druid better than the Necro is that his summoning skills don't become obsolete. My necro only put one point into Skeleton as a pre-requisite and never touched it again since Skeletons are totally useless after the first 2 acts. With the Spirit Wolf, it's actually good to pump an early skill because it helps you out later on by improving your Dire Wolves and Grizzly. For weapons, if you're a Werebear you should probably consider using a two-handed weapon like a pike/lance or Great Sword/Executioner's Sword for 2 reasons: the defense bonus you get partially makes up for the loss of a shield (but you can't block attacks now); and the damage increase is a percent basis, not a fixed amount, so the more damage you do to start with, the more of a bonus you'll get. -Lethrin Back to Top | well, my tips are: PLAY AS A DRUID! Duriel, Mephisto, both the smiths, the council, the claw viper boss, Izual, all were easy as hell. If you have three dire wolfs and a hireling eating away at Duriel, you can take a swipe at him once in a while but mostly hack at him with fissure and arctic blast. I had a little trouble with Andariel, but i didn't have any real trouble before going into Diablos lair. The mages there killed my wolfs, my hirelings ande either killed me or just missed it. So i decided to kill monsters and save skillpoints until i got to lvl: 30. Then i got grizzly, hurricane and armageddon, and though it was still hard, i opened the five seals and started on Diablo. I bothered him with hurricane and a repeating crossbow while my hireling ( the one i hired in actII) and my grizzly pounded on him. He usually killed them and came after me. When i was damaged enough, i went through a town portal and ressurected my hireling, restocked myself, went down, summoned a grizzly etc etc. So the Druid is the easyest character iv'e played, at least when i consentrated on summoning and elemental (mosty elemental) and didn't bother much with Sparhawk: lvl 24 paladin Beorn: lv 31 druid. Back to Top | ok...first off i would like to say that this strategy is not one that makes use of the werebear/wolf forms...AT ALL! this strategy is based on using summoning spells and elements to make a kick butt druid. first...at your first level up put one into firestorm, and only ONE! its a good spell. but its not great by any means, secondly use your skill from akara to put into raven...DO NOT USE IT ON POISON CREEPER...the vines are useless. after that concentrate on saving your skill points until lvl 6 and then get the following...1 on spirit sage 1 on spirit wolves 1 on the molten bolder OR ice breath (both are good) after this increase either of your elemental spells. save the summonings until you can get DIRE WOLVES. coninue this and get the heart of the wolverine put that up to about lvl 5 then concentrate on the Grizzleys and get about 3-4 dire wolves...on the elemental side. save up for armegedon and hurricane...TIGHT SPELLS!!!!! dont put two many on twister...its really not worth it. but tornado and volcano are fair. for the attributes and what not i would say to put and equal amount of skill points into each...for this character needs them...try to get a fair amount of energy so you can continually use magical spells. Back to Top | There are two basic ways to fight as a Druid: 1.) the fighting Druid and 2.) the mage Druid. Go with the fighting and follow these tips: 1.) Choose from the beginning whether you want to fight as the Werewolf or Werebear. Werewolf adds to your attack speed, your attack rating, and your stamina, so you attack faster, hit more often, and can run farther. Werebear adds to your damage and your defense, so you hit harder and you can take more hits. Please don't waste points in skills you can't use while in one form which brings me to my next point. 2.) TOTALLY IGNORE THE ELEMENTAL TREE! You can't use it while in beast form so don't waste your time. 3.) Whether in Werewolf or bear Lycanthropy is your best friend. Extra time and life while in fighting mode can you ask for more? 4.) Put points into the summoning tree few and far between. Yes it is nice to have a couple strong minions running around but then your character is not as strong a warrior. 5.) Keep a strong mercinary with you at all times, preferably a rogue or a sorcerer who shoots death from afar. I kept my original rogue up until Act III, then I got a sorcerer. 6.) Whatever form you choose to fight in stick with an attack skill. If wolf form I suggest Feral Rage; the more you attack the faster you can move and the more life you get back. If bear form use Maul; it stuns your enemies while you start doing more and more damage. 7.) Most important: kill lots of stuff. Adam -- Level 27 Druid Back to Top |
| Well,I've noticed that most people said you gotta stick with a few skills,I think this is VERY TRUE!I'm not the expert (I actually suck big time),but as there isn't much advises for the players who use Druid,I would like to say a few words about this cool-n'-awesome character. 1.Yes,once again,just as the other guys said,DON'T SPREAD SKILLS!!If you wanna be a summon Druid,or an elemental Druid,or transformer-Druid,go and stick with yourstyle. If you wanna be more well-rounded,combine 2 styles I've mentioned,but not 3,ok? 2.If you are ele-Druid,you need more mana,if you are transformer-Druid,life is really imoprtant,and strength too. 3.In my opinion,summon skills are MUST for Druids,'cause you don't even need corpses to raise them like Necros (of course there is no summon creature can compare to Fire Golem!)And make sure you don't just put all the skill points into 1 summon animal,'cause wolf-dire wolf-bear,these 3 animals has passive bonus to each other, so u better put at least a few points on each of them, even you'd just use 1 kind. 4.Yes,I knew that someone will says tranforming(or shape shifting) is a must for the Druids,'cause it makes you look so unique and cool when you play online.I didn't say it's not.I personally think it's a must,especially for the early levels.But you'll find it's more n' more difficult,to play cool,or even to keep yourself alive, just by transforming skills itself.ONE BIG THING to mention is you CAN'T do elemental spells when you are in werewolf or werebear form,and this is an important thing to think about. 5.On Summoning Skills,Spirit Wolf,Dire Wolf,Grizzly are MUST,for the passive bonus I've mentioned,even you'll find Spirit Wolf is almost useless itself after you have Dire Wolf.Grizzly is so powerful,and it could stuns your enemies.Oak Sage is defensively useful, but if you want your enemies to learn their lessons, Spirit Of Barbs is the skill you want.The Carrion Vine saves a lot of health potions for you,and the others skills are pretty crappy. 6.Shape shifting Skills now.No matter what you do,put points into Lycanthropy.Werewolf=speed+accuracy, Werebear=denfense+power,you better mastered both of them.Maul is fine,Rabies is good when you face bunch of weak enemies,Fire Claws is Powerful and does fire damage to your foes,Shock Wave is cool but you need to put some points on it,and Fury RULES!Extremely powerful skill,and a MUST-MUST for Transformer-Druids. Feral Rage is totally crap,just put 1 point for prereq. Hunger will do the job,if you want massive life-mana stealing. 7.Finally,Elemental Skills.Molten Boulder works so well on your early levels,and it works great in narrow hall- ways.Fissure is so good to have,but I'm sure you'll like Volcano more 'cause of its visual effect and attack range.Armageddon is a very good and powerful skill,but I like Hurricane better.Arctic Blast is unexpectedly powerful,but it drains your mana real quick,twister is good at first,but the stunning time is so short and the damage is like nothing,so save skill points for tornado.I have no doubt about it,Hurricane is the best elemental skill you'll get for a Druid,cause it slows down all the enemies around you,and do real damage to them at the same time.It does an ideal job no matter you want to attack or defense yourself. 8.ONE LAST THING,if you wanna kill Diablo,Hurricane or Grizzly or Fury is the skills(yes,you gotta be lvl30 for them),Volcano or Dire Wolves or Maul will help you if you are under lvl30.If you wanna destroy the very evil Baal,try to max out the same skills I've just mentioned,and don't forget to get ready for town portals and rejuvenation potions in your hand! ENJOY TO BE A DRUID.C U ONLINE!^^ Max Cheng,AKA ShinmaiMaya,AKA JackOfAllTrade Back to Top | Druid is a very versatile character which is able to use elemental magics, summoning, and shape-shifting. Druid can be raised as either elemental & summoning or shape-shifting. Shape-Shifting Druid If you are interested in raising a shape-shifting druid, you should not invest any skill points into elemental or shape-shifting. However, you may develope Cyclone Armor of the elemental skill tree. Also, you may use grizzly as your decoy, but do not max it out. Most importantly, you need to develope Oak Sage which increases your hit points. It becomes a very important skill as you get to hell difficulty. Your point is to make your druid as a transformer. If you raise your druid as a ssd (shape-shifting druid), I suggest you use a nice maul. Mauls have high damages and if druids use them, it becomes "Fast Attack Rate." An unique or rare items such as Bonesnap (damg 93-123 with other magical attributes) would be good. Here is a recommended skill points spread. lvl 50 druid obtains 55 skill points and 255 stat points to allocate. Skill Points Spread +15-20 Lycanthropy +15-20 Werebear +10 skills of your choice (Cyclone Armor, Oak Sage and other mandatories) +10 to Maul and Hunger Stat Points Spread +95-100 to strength +75-80 to dexterity +70-75 to vitality +0 to energy I would be very frugal with my points in Energy. Using Maul and Werebear takes your mana and you will need some mana unless if you use the skill Hunger. Hunger takes mana cost of 2 and steals over 75 % of your opponent's health and mana. You will NOT have to (or it'll be IMPOSSIBLE to go back to town during a fight) go back to town to heal your character. However, there is a big trade-off in the skill Hunger. It modifies your damage into -75 %. Thus Hunger CANNOT be your standard attack skill. Put Hunger AND Maul as your hot key skills and alternate them as you fight through the enemies. (Use Hunger when you health gets low and change it into Maul again.) You will find yourself killing most of the ememies in one hit. By the time you get to lvl 50, you will be able to have health that is over 1200 !!! As you max out skills like Wearbear and Lycanthropy, and have a LOT of hit points, you may want to invest in Spirit of Barbs which does the effect of Thorn aura of paladin. If you have lots of hit points, you will not die quiet fast and your health can work as your armor while the Spirit of Barbs lets the enemies kill themselves by taking large amount of hits. Paul Back to Top | |
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