Guardian seymour the Summoning Druid

[little birdy]

Here we have it! If we're being honest, this is a rather unremarkable character, but seymour is my first Guardian in D2R (and perhaps ever... I can't remember that far back!) so he is getting his own thread

For most of the journey, seymour played as a pure Summoning Druid. I was on /p8 all the way through Normal and NM and it was a breeze with only self-found gear. In fact, in Normal, I basically limited myself to Ravens. They're great! Even in Hell. When fully synergized, they peck pretty hard

In Act III of Hell, I did a re-spec to add in Shock Wave. Just one point into Werebear, Lycanthropy, Shock Wave, and prereqs. Stunning everything really helped out my squad of summons and improved my play speed in Hell.

I can't recall any tense moments or near-death experiences. I am not the most cautious player, though I do try to be a bit more careful with HC characters. I was feeling a bit stressful going into the World Stone Keep... but we fully cleared that place no problem! Take that, Burning Souls!

Baal didn't hook me up with anything good...


...but there were some interesting and useful drops along the way:
- Lidless Wall, a great mid-game shield that I'm always happy to find, and then a Monarch base for 'Spirit' Shield somewhere in Hell
- IK Ogre Maul
- Ethereal Edge unique Silver-Edged Axe
- 5os Thresher
- 4os Shadow Bow
- ethereal Superior Colossus Blade w/ 14% ED (no sockets)

As I started from scratch in HC and have only two high level HC characters (so far), I didn't have anything to work with in my stash. I'm collecting all the good runeword bases I can, especially bows because I have a preference for Rogue mercs (though I will begrudgingly use a Desert Dude if absolutely necessary...)

Final stats, skills, and gear:
Level: 83
Strength: 156 (158)
Dexterity: 20 (31)
Vitality: 274 (318)
Energy: 20 (32)
[35 unspent points which I guess I should have put into Vitality!]
Life w/ gear: 834 (2425 with Oak Sage in Werebear form)
Mana w/ gear: 471
Fire/Cold/Lightning/Poison res: -24/63/47/50
[Fire res was lower than I would like, but I guess it wasn't a major problem!]

Skills
1 pt to each of Lycanthropy, Werebear, Shock Wave, and prereqs (all at slvl 6 w/ gear)
Summoning
Max pts to Raven, Grizzly, Dire Wolf, Spirit Wolf
1 pt to each of Oak Sage and HoW
7 pts unspent... they will eventually go into either Oak Sage or HoW

Gear
'Spirit' Broad Sword
'Spirit' Monarch
'Stealth' Light Plate
'Lore' Spirit Mask w/ +2 Dire Wolf, +1 Grizzly
Rare Heavy Gloves w/ cold res, +21% MF
Nightsmoke unique Belt (upped to Mesh Belt for extra slots)
Rare Heavy Boots w/ faster run/walk and a bit of poison res
Rare rings w/ +10% FCR, lightning res, cold res, life, +mana after kill
Prismatic Amulet w/ +18% all res
Any useful charms I found along the way w/ resistances, life, mana, FHR, FRW, etc.

Last but certainly not least, my trusty mercenary friend:
Elexa, level 82 Rogue (Freezing Arrow)
'Insight' Matriarchal Bow w/ +1 Bow skills and slvl 15 Meditation
'Peace' Light Plate
The Face of Horror unique Mask

She was rocking a much weaker 'Insight' bow until the 4os Mat Bow dropped in the Frozen Tundra. That was a very nice upgrade!

Thanks for reading

Now I need to get back to work on Round 1 of RFL, as well as my level 80 HC Blade Fury Assassin that has quested as far as Arcane Sanctuary in Hell.

 

[Bizurker]

Grats on the Guardian. From someone that has never ventured into hardcore, I'd consider a self found anything to be an achievement.