Advice for a Druid-noob

S

San

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Advice for a Druid-noob

I just started the first one of my HC "Sort-of-Septavirate" characters, which I decided to be a Huntermentalist Druid. I was looking at the various guides on the Druid-forums, and this caught my eye. A Druid with summons, fire spells and a bow.. mmm. Sounds like fun.

So, I made the character. Put on my early-twink items, and watched my damage rise to 100+ at level 3. :D (Sup. Breast Plate socketed with 3*Jewel of Envy (20 poison dmg over 2 secs), Wolfhead with +3 to Raven (I like em! 4 Ravens with 5-7 dmg isn't bad..), +2 to Poison Creeper, socketed with a Jewel of Envy and Jewel Of Ire (+5 to max dmg) and a 5-socketed Long Bow with one Jewel of Envy, one chipped sapphire and three chipped topazes.

Questing was a breeze, few normal monsters could take more then one shot until after the Underground Passage. (I always quest at /players 8.) I'm at the Outer Cloister WP right now.

So far I've invested in the following skills (one in each): Raven, Spirit Wolf, Oak Sage, Firestorm, Molten Boulder and Fissure. I now have 10 extra skill points, and now I'd like to know, would it be a good idea to go like this.

First, max Fissure, second, Grizzly, third, Heart of the Wolverine (to boost my bad AR and of course damage), fourth, first synergy for Fissure (Volcano, which is good for single targets I belive?) and then 10 points in Dire Wolf and 10 points in Firestorm. How does that sound?
 
Aww come on, any suggestions, tips, criticizing? Suggestions on what I should look for in equipment/charms/socketables?
 
Well ... I never played one like this ;)

The forum is under siege by a giant squid these days, that may be the reason for the lack of responses.

Tips I have only the general ones. Since you don't have a shield you should look for +resist items (charms, equip). IAS never hurts for your bow attacks. Stat points should most likely go into vit when your requirements for equip in str/dex are met. I stopped putting points in energy a few months ago, most builds work without these... but in your case I don't know how much you really need. Early levels usually are hard to play without energy, but there are potions.
 
Hmm. Yeah, I probably won't have max resists in hell, and I won't necessarily need them cos I'll have two types of ranged attacks, the bow and Fissure/Volcano, my merc and either Grizzly or Dire Wolves. I still haven't decided which to use.. it could be cool to have three monsters distracting the enemies, instead of just one.

I don't think I'll invest any points in energy. The mana cost on Fissure is 15, and doesn't seem to rise any where from that, and also Volcano stays at 25. Both are timered spells, Fissure 2 seconds and Volcano 4, so I'll have plenty of time to shoot the enemies to leech mana, if I manage to get some mana leech equipment.. Hmm.. should I choose to twink him with a Tal-Rasha's helm? :uhhuh:

I'm just a bit annoyed, cos I don't know what sort of a bow I'll have in the end, and the requirements differ so much on the elite bows..
 
There is a big casting delay for fissure, so you'll have no real mana troubles.

I'd suggest going with Oak, and scrapping HoW in favor of charms or angelic jewelry or an ITD bow. You'll want the life in hell difficulty.
 
There was an excellent Huntermentalist guide around here somewhere, but I can't seem to find it at the moment (it's not in the sticky).

Regarding the bears vs. wolves question: Max grizzly with 1 in spirit wolf and 1 in dire wolf and +5 skills from items would deal 1525-1635 damage and have between 1512-2062 life. Max dire wolves with 1 in spirit wolf and +5 skills would deal only 105-113 damage and have 735-975 life each. Grizzly would seem to be more viable.

For a bow your best choice is probably Witchwild String. It deals magic damage (giving you a way around immunes) and has a chance to cast amplify damage, which is great for your summons.

edit:
Just reailzed that this is HC and probably untwinked. Nevermind about the WWS. :p

BTW: I second the suggestion to go with Heart of the Oak, especially HC. If SC, I'd probably wolverine just because damage = king but if HC it seems risky.

edit2:
I would recommend pushing the elemental tree as much as possible. Druid spells are quite slowww to kill things (especially in Hell). Any extra point into a synergy would be helpful. Your grizzly should do fine with just 20 grizzly and a few + skills.
 
I would pump your fire synergies more, and definitely max volcano. It's an excellent single target killer, and nice in cramped areas. It's a bit of a pain to try and kill things near walls with though. Check the guides as I'm sure they'll be more detailed, but something like:

20 fissure
20 volcano
20 grizzly
10 oak sage
10 molten boulder
prereqs

would be a good place to start with skill development. Not in that exact order, but maybe pretty close to it. Have fun.

mv
 
don't you dare max grizzly :mad: even maxed and with lots of +sk33lz they dont do that much damage in hell. yes they can kill but investing more in fire will kill faster.
maybe try

20 HoW (sage is t3h sux for hunter) spirits are unreliable though. if you want to go a more summoner/spellcaster route skip this (maybe a 1 pnt sage) as the places you really need them, like bosses, they can't take the heat and you end up fighting solo anyway

20 dire wolves is awesome for nice tough wolves for lots of 'swarming' enemies. low dmg, fast buggas like flayers. as they block more. and against revivers as they eat t3h dead.

then just pick your fire skill of choice. fissure is good for pure fire. or volcano for a fire/phys hybrid. IMO fissure is better for a huntermentalist. and knockback from your bear doesn't mess with it as much as it does with volcano :mad:

get 1 pnt carrion vine. is a wonder for stopping revivers too and can be the difference between life n death.


gib ravens :thumbsup:
 
But I WANT to have maxed Grizzly, HoW and a big damaged bow. That way I won't have to worry about getting any physical damage out of my spells, so I won't have to invest in Molten Boulder. Just that my skillpoints will be a bit more restricted if I want Dire Wolves, cos then I'll have to max both Grizzly and Wolves to get to their max damage.. Or I could just ignore them, and rely on my bows physical damage to take out the FI's. Or just use Grizzly, but he's so slow!

And I'm going to twink this char with one single item, but I don't know what it will be, yet.. Tal Rasha's helm looks like a solid choice so far, but if I can't find a decent bow..
 
Well, I've got this druid, Menace to act 3. BTW, I just recently found a near-perfect WWS with my MF sorc, so I'll probably use that then.

Now, I just created an Assasin, to have something different play now and then. She'll mainly use Lightning Sentry, Blade Fury and Death Sentry. I've levelled her now to lvl 22, and just killed Radament. Any ideas on how I should invest my skill points? And NO, I will not invest in Fade. I think I got a bad trauma from taking a exp shrine, while I had Fade on with one of my old Sins...

I was thinking about maxing Venom, LS, DS and maybe Shadow Master, if I feel endangered, or maybe I'll pump Cloak of Shadows, to get a high -def, which should help hitting things. Equipment.. no idea. +Skills, and CB probably will be of main importance.
 
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