Near end of Summoner Build (Straying from the path?)

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Keaka26

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Near end of Summoner Build (Straying from the path?)

Well, my pure summoner druid is coming to an end and this is what it looks like:

Upgraded Shaftstop
Upgraded Witchwild String (Shael, Shael)
Ravenlore
Silkweaves (ATM)
Trangs Belt
Not sure on the gloves yet
Craft ammy, +life, +2 summoning and some other
Stormshield
Demons Arch/Demon Limb (for enchanting summons in PVP or PI monsters)
Carrion Wind
Dwarf Star (Maybe a good manald heal)
2x Summoning GCs
Few life SCs

Skills (Minus +skills)
10 Raven
10 Spirit Wolf
19 How
19 Dire Wolf
19 Grizzly
1 Oak Sage

Im in the low 70s for my level, and I havent started hell difficulty yet. So I'll have a few more points to spend. Heres the part about straying from being a true summoner. I was thinking about spending the next 7 points on getting Hurricane and its prereqs. and dropping maybe a total of 3 on cyclone armor. This would give me a level 6 cyclone armor, but also give me an extra amount of time (synergy) on hurricane. The reason I want hurricane is to help out my summons a bit by slowing down enemies (cold). I dont care about the damage, just the cold aura surrounding me. After the 7 points, I will finish maxing HoW, Dire Wolf, and Grizzly. This will bring me to a total of 10 extra points, meaning I will finish just before level 80, if I get the +skill quests from Hell.

Does this plan sound like a good idea? How do you all feel about my end game gear? Is it sufficient for Hell?

Thanks in advance!
Keaka

PS: Grizzly has to be the BEST TANK EVER. Wow.
 
Altogether, good setup currently (though I'll add a few suggestions later), and a perfectly acceptable skill layout. A few things to consider:

* The chill duration on Hurricane is tiny. Less than half a second in NM, and I think it's reduced again in Hell. Having a Cold damage charm and alternating your attacks over multiple monsters would probably be more effective at slowing things down for your Summons. Arctic Blast moreso than that (though I'm not too happy with the skill in 1.10).

* The gear is fine, but there are a couple of weird choices in it. For instance:
- Why Ravenlore if you don't use any Elemental spells? Do you not have a Jalal's Mane available?
- There's no real benefit for a ranged character to having an upgraded Shaftstop, since all that you possibly get is more defense. Anyhow, you'll likely be able to have your Summons tank physical attacks for you, so Elemental damage is what you should be worrying about most. Why not Resistance armor?
- It seems as though you have fairly decent item resources, so look into getting Dracul's Grasp as gloves; I hear good things about the Life Tap. I personally use Lava Gouts for the AR boost, but with HoW, you likely wouldn't need that as much. One fun idea is to craft some Hit Power gloves, for the Knockback, and hope to get other nice mods.

Eh, that's all I've got. :p Good luck.

PS. Yes. He's great. Though the Valkyrie makes a good argument for being a better "tank", in terms of life.
 
Why ravenlore? Because ravenlore has +7 to raven. Thats an extra 35% res all to my other summons, + my skill charms and ammy. Thats a level 21 raven, which is nearly guaranteed blinding on most monsters, and a minor irritation to some players lol ... It also gives resist all and minus resists to fire to enemies. My demons arch and demon limb both deal fire damage, so they will be more effective on PI monsters. And as I was saying, the +3 elemental skills will allow me to use cyclone armor, even if you say I should skip on the hurricane.

As for the shaftstop, Im keeping it around for whenever I am switched to non ladder. Itll be worth much more there. Also, in duels, those melee chars with tons of damage really put the hurt on, so I need the damage reduction.

So the hurricane chill doesnt stay on as long as they are in the radius? I was under the impression it was similar to the holy freeze aura...
 
Summon Resistance is based on the number of points invested in the actually Summon skill (ie, slvl 6 Grizzly = +25% Resists, slvl 11 Grizzly = +50% Resists); it has nothing to do with Ravens. As was mentioned in another thread on this topic, the listing in the Arreat Summit is a run-on sentence; just add a period before the "Spirit Wolves" part, and things will make much more sense.

Jalal's Mane also gives Resist All, +% AR, FHR, +2 Skills, et cetera. In my opinion, +2 Overall, for someone who's predominantly a Summoner, makes more sense than +3 to a tree that you barely use. Still, your decision.

If you're only worried about having the Shaftstop for dueling and trading later, I would stick it in your stash (to be taken out as necessary) and use a better armor during PvM. Perhaps that's just me.

Hurricane is only similar to the Holy Freeze Aura in that it pulses Cold Damage within a radius, hitting (I think) every .8 seconds. But the Chill duration is much, much lower. What will happen is that monsters within the radius will turn blue and shortly thereafter return to their normal color; this will cycle every .8 seconds. It may give them pause momentarily, but will not provide any sort of consistent speed reduction (in my experience). Also, the radius is only around 5 yards, which is significantly too close to any enemies for my liking.
 
What armor would you recommend over the shaftstop then? I have a black hades socketed with ral, ort and tal. For +30% to 3 different resists.

As for the ravens, well, damn that sucks. Stupid Arreat Summit lol...Either way, I already have the Ravenlore so I may as well use it. My other druid uses Jalals so I'll use it just to change things up. I think I will put the 3 points I need into maxing HoW, Grizzy, and Dire Wolves, then I'll put one into arctic blast, and the rest of my skill points into cyclone armor. I mean, I dont have anything else to put skill points into in the summoning tree, as I dont care much for the creepers, and I dont have enough points to make them effective anyway.

So I guess Cyclone armor is it then.
 
Apologies for the delayed response; the forum ate my last post.

A few armor options that I would rather wear:
Skin of the Vipermagi (+skills, Resists, Magic Damage reduction)
Lionheart (+% ED, stat bonuses, Resists, +Life)
Heh...Chains of Honor. But that's a bit rare.

Still, you're right, it's not a bad armor; good life bonus, and I suppose a bit error-resistant (in case you accidentally walk up to a Fanatic Hell Lord or something). Just doesn't feel like it fits on a non-melee build.

Yeah, Ravenlore is fine, I just wanted to check why you were wearing it instead of Jalal's.
 
Hes another thought. I now have +2 summoning from my ammy, and +3 summoning from GCs. How about 1 point is Spirit of Barbs? That would bring it up to 6 points, for just one.

I was dueling for fun earlier, and I would do some decent damage via my Demon Arch spear, and the guy would just leech the crap outta my summons. If I had switched to Spirit of Barbs, that melee leeching wouldnt have been so damn beneficial right? Is this logic sound? Good idea?

Also, I was thinking of the Smoke Runeword for the +50 to res all, which isnt bad at all. Plus its very cheap to make! Nef + Lum. The FHR doesnt hurt either.

Smoke
NefLum
Clvl Required: 37
Level 6 Weaken, 18 charges
Faster Hit Recovery (20)
-1 to Light Radius
+75% Enhanced Defense
+50% to all Resistances
+280 Defense vs. Missiles
+10 to Energy
 
Right, Smoke is good, too. I forgot to put that one down, for some reason.

I can't really help much with SoB, as I haven't experimented much in that direction. I wonder where Canis went; used to be our go-to guy for SoB information.
 
Well, with a level 1+5 skill SoB (sunuva...) I believe it would be 350% damage returned, which isnt bad for investing ONE skill point, rite?
 
LOL, thats what I meant, I looked at arreat summit and I was thinking 150, but somehow put down 350 :lol:

Either way, still not bad?
 
BTW, did I mention I still have 70 stat points remaining? LOL, Im not sure what to do with them...I rarely get hit in PvM, so vitality hasnt been an issue. Once I get around to upgrading the bow and shaftstop, I will beef up my stats to wear both without any +stat items, then Im not sure what to do with the rest. Thinking of splitting them between Dex and Vitality? The reason for dex is that it boosts missile weapon damage, which obviously I use.

Comments ? :lol:
 
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