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Wind Druid guide for PvP
Originally posted by sweetalmonds, Aug 6, 2008
Note: This guide was originally written for BNet. Please bear in mind it may recommend items not found or permitted in Single Player.
Wind Druid Guide
Intro
Hello dear readers this is a guide for Druids that specialize in the wind/cold elemental skill tree. Wind Druids have easy and difficult match-ups like other builds, but their damage can't be fully nulled and only one class has the overly large advantage on you which makes them very suitable for all kinds of dueling. Another few other things you should chose windy are that they are great vs paladin builds(plenty of these in pub) and windys are very good vs BM players since tornado pierce minons and you have the option to drop a frame in fcr for mass sorb vs townguard or FC. I wrote this for general reference to many frequent questions asked, and because there is only one windy guide for 1.10 here I think it's time for an updated version. My experience with wind druid happened in early ladder season s4 and remade another one near the end of last ladder as well so I have gained some knowledge to the build.
FCR/FBR/FHR tables
~FCR~(faster cast rate)
<99% No don't go lower
99% for 11 frames
163% for 10 frames
~FHR~(faster hit recovery)
<99% No again
99% for 6 frames
174 for 5 frames
~FBR~(faster block rate)
0% for 9 frames(non-block spirit)
27% for 6 frames
48% for 5 frames
You will have two gear set ups. One is 99fcr/99fhr/27fbr or 48fbr in duels verses attacks that can be blocked and attacks that can be reduced by % physical damage reduction. The other is an 163fcr/99fhr or 174fhr in duels verses pure casters. Recently enlightened to a 163fcr no block but high dr build as well for those who do not wish to have block.
Skill placement
~Elemental skill tree~
*Max Twister, Cyclone Armor, Tornado, Hurricane.
*1point in arctic blast
~Summon skill tree~
*1 point raven, spirit wolf, dire wolf, grizzly.
*Rest of remaining points in Oak Sage.
Stat pints
~Strength~
*Enough to wear all equipment.
~Dexterity~
*Enough for max block with storm shield or non for non-block. Equip all your gear for the MB set-up and put enough dex so on the character screen it says chance to block 75%.
~Vita~
*Left over points.
~Energy~
*None goes into energy. :yes:
Equipment
~Weapon~
*Spirit-35%fcr preferred it depends on how much fcr you can get on your amulet.
*Suicide branch-Used in 163FCR set-up.
*Wizard spike-Alternative to suicide branch.
*Call to arms-More life+mana.
*Hoto-3 skill 40 fcr res and dex useful.
~Helm~
*Circet(with at least +2 Druid skill, +20 fcr and 2os if magical)-Used in 163 set-up, good mods to have on this are life, fhr, resist, mana, more than 1os. I like 2druid instead of 3elemental for magical circets simply because you'll be using summons too.
*Rare Pelt(+2 druid skill, +3 nado)-Used in max block max damage set-up, good mods to have on this are 3nado, hurricane, cyclone armor as staff mods. And for suffix prefix to have are life, resist, fhr, more than 1os.
*Jalal's-Used in max block set-up with the option to use hoto for a more defensive build.
*CoA-2x ber'd a great source of dr for non-blockers.
~Amulet~
*Crafted amulet(+skill tree or druid skills, a certain fcr%)-Could be the ammy you never take off or just for the 163fcr set-up. Amount of fcr needed really depends on the rest of your gear so read on little further and I'll figure it out for you.
*Mara's-Well rounded ammy but hard to use this because no fcr on it.
*Rare amulet-Well you could use this for vs caster set-up too read on..
~Shield~
*Storm shield-Max block and dr best fit for 99/99.
*Spirit monarch-Cast and recover best choice to reach 10 frames cast.
~Armor~
*Enigma-Godly 1%mf per char level.
~Gloves~
*Trang gloves-One of two gloves with fcr, pick this for cold resist.
*Magefist-As above, pick this for mana regain.
~Boots~
*Shadow dancers(1skill, 25dex)-Dex for max block and fhr very nice but needs additional strength investment or is only limited to when you also have stormshield equipped for the +30 strength.
*Sandstorm treks-You know what these are same reason as above stats and fhr with some resist as well. A bit of difference is you can take advantage of the 10-15 strength to equip heaviest item.
*Good rare-Needs resist, fhr, dex mods on it, frw optional but helps. Early version rares are arguably best because they're basically treks with more str and dex plus large resistance.
~Belt~
*Arach-You need the fcr and skill, never tried a crafted so iso opinions on those.
*Thunder gods-Light sorb.
~Rings~
*Raven frost-Highest dex and cfb.
*Rare fcr ring-Need one or two for 163FCR set-up pending other gear. I like this to have dex, life, resist, mana in that order.
*Absorb ring of each element-Very optional sometimes bm.
Charms
*Hellfire torch-Good thing druid torches are cheaper, close to 20/20 as possible.
*Anni-High/High/5% cuts down price a little.
*9x Elemental grand charms with fhr or life pending fhr from current gear.
*10x Life resist or fhr and resist small charms pending fhr from current gear
Charm selection is based on your wealth too. Life/resist or life/skiller charms are more expensive than fhr/resist or fhr/skillers. So if you are restricted by your current wealth try to get more fhr from charms and more life and resist on socketing equipment.
Set-ups
All set-ups should have CTA and any spirit monarch on switch. Also these are just example set-ups created as suggestions and not "do or die". You can gear your druid however you like as long as it meets the necessary break points along with good damage, hp, resist etc.
~Pelt~
@@99/99Max Block@@
*Spirit sword needs 31+
*Storm shield
*Pelt
*Set pieces include(remains the same in both 99/99 and 163/99):Enigma, treks, arach, fcr glove, druid skill amulet with 18fcr, fcr ring, raven frost, 2x fhr skillers.
If you don't have an 18fcr amulet switch the raven frost on both set up for another fcr ring and 8-10fcr ammy.
@@163/99Non Block@@
*Spirirt sword --> Hoto
*Storm shield-->Spirit monarch
*Pelt-->Circet
*(optional)Raven frost-->Don't need fcr here feel free to switch it for something else useful
*Rest stay the same
Basically one spirit runeword in each, every other fhr equipment stays the same and only 3 pieces to switch around for lazy duelers. Weakness to this set up is lack of resist(depends on wealth) on max block set-up due to no resist on spirit sword and storm shield having bad fire resist. And as I said resist are based on how good your crafted ammy, you're pelt and small charms are.
@@163/174Non Block@@
*Use: Enigma, treks, arach, fcr glove, amulet 18fcr, 2x fcr ring, the 31fcr spirit sword and p spirit shield, circet(shael this), and the 2x fhr skiller from before too.
This will get you 164fcr/174fhr. So You'll need to use spirit sword, one more fcr ring and a shael in the circet to get up another frame in recovery. This takes a little more gear switching but I strongly recommend you be able to make this frame too for fast hitting casters like 200 fire sorc.
~Jalal's Mane~
@@99/99Max block@@
*Hoto
*Storm shield
*Jalal's with Shael rune
*Raven frost
*Set pieces include: Enigma, treks, arach, fcr glove, +skill amulet with 10fcr, 10fcr ring, 2x fhr skillers, and a 5fhr small charm.
@@163/174Non Block@@
*Hoto-->Suicide branch or wizzy with a 7fhr/resist jewel
*Stormshield-->Spirit monarch
*Jalal's-->Circet magical 2/20/2 open socket with 2x shael
*Replace 2x life/skiller with 2x more fhr/skillers(4x fhr skiller 1x fhr sc total now)
*Rest are the same
Using jalal's and hoto makes for more resist and stats to get max block easier than the pelt set-up but it also suffers from lower damage. I also like how this is very easy items to acquire, you don't need godly pelt or some off the wall crafted ammy.
~Non-block~
@@163/99(or 174)Damage@@
*Suicide branch
*Enigma
*Spirit monarch 35fcr
*2Dru/3Nado Pelt
*Trang gloves
*Arach
*Treks/rare
*18+ fcr amulet
*2x 10fcr rings
*1x 12fhr gc
@@163/99(or 174)%DR@@
*2Dru/3Nado Pelt-->2/20/2 magical circet or more extravagant rare 2/20/2 2x ber'd
*Arach-->15% dr dungos
(Alternatively)
*2Dru/3Nado Pelt-->2x ber'd CoA
Good and fast damage with a sacrifice. Offers some protection but this is for "don't get hit in the first place" kind. I can see in duels vs smiter or windy dr plays a more important part which is why this was added but there's still charge and hits after the initial nado. It is possible to reach a higher fhr break point by the use of shaels in gear and subbing out more life charm for fhr charms. Please note that someone told me about this and I have not yet played one so no new strategy section for this is included for now.
Misc info on items/charms
~Socketing~
*For storm shield ber is better than shael'd stormshield in my opinion but shael helps too and cheaper for ladder people.
*Anything that I didn't say what to socket in means you don't need anything in particular from that socket and it's open to your choice really. Some of the better options would be p ruby, life/resist jewel.
~Substituting and combination~
*The gear selection are just suggestions and can be easily changed for same effects. For example you feel like wearing a nice rare 10fhr/resist boots you found instead of treks just use two more 5fhr small charms to make up the difference.
*Any combination that can give you 99/99 max block and a 163/174 as long as you still maintain good life, resist, damage, etc will work. I will say again that the gear I suggested are suggestions, they're there to give you some example and don't have to be followed 100%.
D2PK equipment
*Well I saw another guide mentioned this so I will briefly go over it too. All the equipment should of course be perfect and treks are replaced with rares. Roll the best 2/20 resist stat ammy you can and the pelt that you can buy from vendor is actually the best one in my opinion too bad it's a ugly plain color, I haven't tried 08 valk instead of circ but valk looks ugly on you too. For charms 9x 50 or fhr mixed depend on gear, and one or two of the "wtf so much mana" charms are nice if you find yourself potting too much rest being life/resist scs.
General strats pvp
~WSG~
*Switch weapons very fast by hitting weapon switch button(default is 'w') you reset your fhr and get out of being stunned
~Teleport stomp or just stomp~
*Teleport on your opponent then start spamming tornadoes(downwards)
~Name lock~
*Right click your opponent with nado(or any skill really) and hold the mouse button down to get name lock
~Chain lock~
1*After preforming name lock, switch to teleport
2*As you're teleporting move mouse back at your feet
3*Once you land switch to nado then reclick below your druids feet which should be where your opponent is standing
4*Hold this if you get a NL again
5*He/she happens to get away, while maintaining the name lock with nado switch to tele
6*Repeat from step 2*
~Delay teleport~
1*Preform name lock first
2*Now let's say your target runs off but you keep holding down NL with nado and don't let go
3*Keep standing there casting nados that are going towards opponent even tho they're not near by
4*Switch back to tele once they go off your screen but not off your mini-map
5*You'll be on top of them again ready to go and hopefully they are not prepared for you
~Summoning and recast~
*Most important to wind druid are these things, it's what makes your build shine. After a few exchange of attack if your summons are depleted especially if it's your oak sage, back off a little to get them back up. Recast Hurricane, Cyclone armor if they expire and summons too according to your opponent. When your opponent is being very offensive during your recast period it's because they know the best time to get you is when you recast so get more defensive. To deal with this summon one thing then teleport for minion stack and then recast/summon another, it will keep you relatively safe. I will go over grizzly, wolves or no summons in specific windy vs ___ strategy. Oak, cyclone, and cane are no brainers always have it on/out I won't mention this again.
Can't think of anything else really so we'll move onto class specific strategies.
Class specific strats pvp
~Bow Amazon~(99/99MB)
*The ones that stand and spam are easy teleport in a circular pattern towards them to avoid most of the arrows then stomp and spam nados. For experienced bowzons it's hard to actually get on top of them, mass amount of frw they have allows bowas to get away from you before you can get a hit in. Keep applying pressure name lock tele stomp again and again to make sure she has to keep moving and not constantly shoot at you, also predict the zons movement to herd her into nados casted before. As long as you stay full offensive sooner or later she'll make mistake and stand for too long or run into a random nado and either get stunned from the damage or long dodge animation. Max block paired with summon stack gives you a very nice defensive edge. Summon of preference for me in this duel is the grizzly because it's a fast re-summon if he dies and also has higher damage attack to help you lock up the bowa, in addition to grizzly, ravens are also useful as another source to trigger dodge skills.
~Javelin Amazon~(99/99MB or if she using 6/40 javelins aka very little fury dmg you can go 163/174)
*Stay no closer than half a screen distance away since the CS damage is very high, with you being very close it draws them to run towards you to use CS as you spam and tele away playing defensive. Lightning fury ain't too hard to avoid, by simply running sideways it's easily dodged although max block already protects you well. Make a trap of nados that surround her the best you can, if she throwing a lot an unexpected stomp works. When you do decide to tele on her it has to be for good reason, she has to be in the active motion to or about to throw lightning fury, unprepared to CS you. As you trade blows if she dodge a lot she won't get any hits off on you, but it's still depends a lot on chance. You can sorb and nk FC all you want.
~Trap Assassin~(163/174 for pure)
*Well this would be the class than has the overly large advantage over you. Run around and stomp the bad ones that only lay and pray, lucky for you these are common in pubs. Against more experienced trapper you'd almost have to play pure defensive which is kinda boring but there's little chance for you if you rush in. Make her chase you some around the moor, waiting for her to be a little too aggressive and tele near you before having any traps up. When it happens don't pass it up immediately stomp before she mb/trap you. You're bout to get stun locked one time or another so make use of the weapon switch trick, to do this hit the weapon switch key repeatedly to reset fhr and run out of those traps then hold down tele till you're off her map. Practice NL'ing her before she NL you taking into account that the shadow sometimes can MB you too. Summon for this is oak and grizzly you don't have time to recast wolves or ravens for that matter.
~Ghost and Hybrid Assassin~(99/99MB)
*Traps plus mind blast plus ww block lock and you don't even have 174 fhr
Put on tgod for hybrids to at least making it more of a interesting duel. You'll have to resort to the defensive tactics described in trapper strategy sadly.
~BvC Barbarian~(99/99MB)
*An fun duel imo as I think that MB windy and well build BvC are more or less evenly matched. Playing semi defensive stay in one area filling it with nados making him run through a few if you're lucky. All the while lure him into making a bad long whirl so you can apply some major damage by spamming nado in front of ww's path then get out. Be weary of sync whirls he may seem farther away than he actually is, kinda like what the side view mirror on your car says Summons for this duel would be wolves if he has none or little life leech or just the oak if he has massive leech. Watch out for delay tele from him, and don't try to tank when you're getting tri-whirled you'll barely hit him with nados if he's doing it right.
~Wind Druid~(99/99MB)
*Mirror match that's like HvH both pretty boring just whoever gets to offensive risk higher chance of dying. I have little experience in this I'd rather duel windy with a hdin than DvD.
~Shapeshifter Druid~(99/99MB)
*For pure melee shifters you have good chance to stomp and out tank them so it's usually first thing I would do. If you failed horribly then don't try again and refer to the javelin zons strategy to play half screen and make them run through nados to get to you since they only have melee range. Said strategy of playing half screen to lure him towards you also applies to wolf druid with rabies, you never want to tele on those they can just bite and run away making you chase/die. Summons for this duel would be wolves for melee non rabies, and just oak if he is rabies. If you see a summon is infected with rabies hopefully you can react fast enough to recast(killing the previous) or un-summon before you teleport with it.
~Bone Necromancer~(163/174)
*I'm gonna go over summons now, use bear if he likes to use teeth and switch to wolves for dealing with spear and spirit. Have the correct summon helps although you may prefer just pure grizzly for a very offensive approach with the fast re-summon. Keeping up your summons is the main factor of deciding the outcome of this duel so learn when to back off a bit, recast/summon, then get back on him. To counter him or any ranged/caster type trying to 'walk' you tele a bit further ahead of direction he is going and attack. Get a name lock for delay tele if you know the necro will run off playing defensive, time it right with experience. Walking is actually a bit hard to do against windy since there are many different summons and spells constantly hit checks.
~Poison Necromancer~(163/174)
*Treks would be nice here, so are wolves. Be patient as he has to get on your screen from having shorter range compared to pnb nec. Chasing him through left over novas fields when he has the faster cast frame won't help and not needed to win this. I haven't dueled much of these so this will be brief.
~Smiter/VT Paladin~(99/99MB)
*Nado at him and tele back way directly behind the Nados is a nice way to handle inexperienced smiter. A single hit skill like smite/charge/foh is really outdone by five wolves so get them up and keep them up. Play the keep away game make him come to you through nados ofcourse. Feeling confident? stomp stomp stomp, you have big advantage and the max block set-up is extra insurance. Running/walking downwards and shoot up at him works too, but know how far to run out the range of smite and know when to stop running(and fight back) when he's ready to charge.
~Hammer Paladin~(163/174)
*Still single target skill but hammers stay around for awhile like nados and they can be stacked on top of each other to destroy summons quicker. Five wolves in this duel for sure and be smart enough to break off an attack when you're low on minion stack. You need to stomp him or cut off his path and make him charge into your minions, therefore he will actually swing at your minions and get stuck there for a short period of time. Watch out for sync, don't relax just because you assume he's not near by when he's not on your map. When casting nados don't stand still for too long, the wolves tend to wonder off away from you after a few seconds also he could get a nl and smite you out from minions when you're on him. A switch for 99/99MB is recommended if he chooses to use a grief for charge attack.
~Fire Sorceress~(163/174)
*Toughest sorc to duel imo is this kind of sorc always having very high damage and speed. Don't tele on her if she has name lock on you, it's better to tele away and get ride of her name lock especially for 200 cast types they will shoot you down. It comes down to who can get the first hit up close and dancing around blood moor preventing the other person getting a lock while working on one yourself. Both of you usually get stunned enough from a direct hit for the other person to finish the fight. In terms of ranged fighting she got advantage of out ranging and out spamming you but you have cyclone which will tank one hit from her so that some what evens out the playing field. Summon for this duel I prefer a grizzly, it can tank a couple of fireballs if you can get it in the path between you and her but don't really count on this happening consistently. I'm not going to go on for lightning and cold types because I feel like if you can beat this fire sorc the other two types are easier. Blizzard is slow hitting and really weak vs cyclone armor since most of the damage comes from -resist. Lightning is similar to fire except slower cast rate, orb? no chance >=D. Both blizz and light also need a lot of skill points for damage so if they went with energy shield they'll have less damage too. Wolves actually works better for blizzard sorc so use those.
Any build I didn't mention it's because they have no chance(foh pal?) vs you or they're not popular enough to have enough experience dueling with(hmm throw barb?).
*A couple of short recordings to give you an example of what's to expect playing a wind druid. Not the greatest but w/e there's no sound couldn't get it to work.
Choices for partner
In team vs team duels or just you and a friend vs pub there are a few classes that work better with you than others.
~Bone Necromancer~
*Amplify damage make your nados hurt very very much, and necro is also ranged so you're team can hang back and spam spells from afar.
~BvC Barb~
*Sin killer for you also lots of life for both of you.
~Assassin~
*Any good build will do, they stun opponents so you don't have to work to hard to chase people down.
~Other builds~(open to discussion I couldn't think of anymore)
Closing
My first guide ever so I'll be interested to hear different comments, suggestions and answering questions about this. This guide took me an hour to two hours a day for three days to write for anyone interested.
~Special thanks to~
Me? for some break points but mostly thanks to me myself and I.
Shout out to Æ’enris for the first one.
Thanks for reading.
Originally posted by sweetalmonds, Aug 6, 2008
Note: This guide was originally written for BNet. Please bear in mind it may recommend items not found or permitted in Single Player.
Wind Druid Guide
Intro
Hello dear readers this is a guide for Druids that specialize in the wind/cold elemental skill tree. Wind Druids have easy and difficult match-ups like other builds, but their damage can't be fully nulled and only one class has the overly large advantage on you which makes them very suitable for all kinds of dueling. Another few other things you should chose windy are that they are great vs paladin builds(plenty of these in pub) and windys are very good vs BM players since tornado pierce minons and you have the option to drop a frame in fcr for mass sorb vs townguard or FC. I wrote this for general reference to many frequent questions asked, and because there is only one windy guide for 1.10 here I think it's time for an updated version. My experience with wind druid happened in early ladder season s4 and remade another one near the end of last ladder as well so I have gained some knowledge to the build.
FCR/FBR/FHR tables
~FCR~(faster cast rate)
<99% No don't go lower
99% for 11 frames
163% for 10 frames
~FHR~(faster hit recovery)
<99% No again
99% for 6 frames
174 for 5 frames
~FBR~(faster block rate)
0% for 9 frames(non-block spirit)
27% for 6 frames
48% for 5 frames
You will have two gear set ups. One is 99fcr/99fhr/27fbr or 48fbr in duels verses attacks that can be blocked and attacks that can be reduced by % physical damage reduction. The other is an 163fcr/99fhr or 174fhr in duels verses pure casters. Recently enlightened to a 163fcr no block but high dr build as well for those who do not wish to have block.
Skill placement
~Elemental skill tree~
*Max Twister, Cyclone Armor, Tornado, Hurricane.
*1point in arctic blast
~Summon skill tree~
*1 point raven, spirit wolf, dire wolf, grizzly.
*Rest of remaining points in Oak Sage.
Stat pints
~Strength~
*Enough to wear all equipment.
~Dexterity~
*Enough for max block with storm shield or non for non-block. Equip all your gear for the MB set-up and put enough dex so on the character screen it says chance to block 75%.
~Vita~
*Left over points.
~Energy~
*None goes into energy. :yes:
Equipment
~Weapon~
*Spirit-35%fcr preferred it depends on how much fcr you can get on your amulet.
*Suicide branch-Used in 163FCR set-up.
*Wizard spike-Alternative to suicide branch.
*Call to arms-More life+mana.
*Hoto-3 skill 40 fcr res and dex useful.
~Helm~
*Circet(with at least +2 Druid skill, +20 fcr and 2os if magical)-Used in 163 set-up, good mods to have on this are life, fhr, resist, mana, more than 1os. I like 2druid instead of 3elemental for magical circets simply because you'll be using summons too.
*Rare Pelt(+2 druid skill, +3 nado)-Used in max block max damage set-up, good mods to have on this are 3nado, hurricane, cyclone armor as staff mods. And for suffix prefix to have are life, resist, fhr, more than 1os.
*Jalal's-Used in max block set-up with the option to use hoto for a more defensive build.
*CoA-2x ber'd a great source of dr for non-blockers.
~Amulet~
*Crafted amulet(+skill tree or druid skills, a certain fcr%)-Could be the ammy you never take off or just for the 163fcr set-up. Amount of fcr needed really depends on the rest of your gear so read on little further and I'll figure it out for you.
*Mara's-Well rounded ammy but hard to use this because no fcr on it.
*Rare amulet-Well you could use this for vs caster set-up too read on..
~Shield~
*Storm shield-Max block and dr best fit for 99/99.
*Spirit monarch-Cast and recover best choice to reach 10 frames cast.
~Armor~
*Enigma-Godly 1%mf per char level.
~Gloves~
*Trang gloves-One of two gloves with fcr, pick this for cold resist.
*Magefist-As above, pick this for mana regain.
~Boots~
*Shadow dancers(1skill, 25dex)-Dex for max block and fhr very nice but needs additional strength investment or is only limited to when you also have stormshield equipped for the +30 strength.
*Sandstorm treks-You know what these are same reason as above stats and fhr with some resist as well. A bit of difference is you can take advantage of the 10-15 strength to equip heaviest item.
*Good rare-Needs resist, fhr, dex mods on it, frw optional but helps. Early version rares are arguably best because they're basically treks with more str and dex plus large resistance.
~Belt~
*Arach-You need the fcr and skill, never tried a crafted so iso opinions on those.
*Thunder gods-Light sorb.
~Rings~
*Raven frost-Highest dex and cfb.
*Rare fcr ring-Need one or two for 163FCR set-up pending other gear. I like this to have dex, life, resist, mana in that order.
*Absorb ring of each element-Very optional sometimes bm.
Charms
*Hellfire torch-Good thing druid torches are cheaper, close to 20/20 as possible.
*Anni-High/High/5% cuts down price a little.
*9x Elemental grand charms with fhr or life pending fhr from current gear.
*10x Life resist or fhr and resist small charms pending fhr from current gear
Charm selection is based on your wealth too. Life/resist or life/skiller charms are more expensive than fhr/resist or fhr/skillers. So if you are restricted by your current wealth try to get more fhr from charms and more life and resist on socketing equipment.
Set-ups
All set-ups should have CTA and any spirit monarch on switch. Also these are just example set-ups created as suggestions and not "do or die". You can gear your druid however you like as long as it meets the necessary break points along with good damage, hp, resist etc.
~Pelt~
@@99/99Max Block@@
*Spirit sword needs 31+
*Storm shield
*Pelt
*Set pieces include(remains the same in both 99/99 and 163/99):Enigma, treks, arach, fcr glove, druid skill amulet with 18fcr, fcr ring, raven frost, 2x fhr skillers.
If you don't have an 18fcr amulet switch the raven frost on both set up for another fcr ring and 8-10fcr ammy.
@@163/99Non Block@@
*Spirirt sword --> Hoto
*Storm shield-->Spirit monarch
*Pelt-->Circet
*(optional)Raven frost-->Don't need fcr here feel free to switch it for something else useful
*Rest stay the same
Basically one spirit runeword in each, every other fhr equipment stays the same and only 3 pieces to switch around for lazy duelers. Weakness to this set up is lack of resist(depends on wealth) on max block set-up due to no resist on spirit sword and storm shield having bad fire resist. And as I said resist are based on how good your crafted ammy, you're pelt and small charms are.
@@163/174Non Block@@
*Use: Enigma, treks, arach, fcr glove, amulet 18fcr, 2x fcr ring, the 31fcr spirit sword and p spirit shield, circet(shael this), and the 2x fhr skiller from before too.
This will get you 164fcr/174fhr. So You'll need to use spirit sword, one more fcr ring and a shael in the circet to get up another frame in recovery. This takes a little more gear switching but I strongly recommend you be able to make this frame too for fast hitting casters like 200 fire sorc.
~Jalal's Mane~
@@99/99Max block@@
*Hoto
*Storm shield
*Jalal's with Shael rune
*Raven frost
*Set pieces include: Enigma, treks, arach, fcr glove, +skill amulet with 10fcr, 10fcr ring, 2x fhr skillers, and a 5fhr small charm.
@@163/174Non Block@@
*Hoto-->Suicide branch or wizzy with a 7fhr/resist jewel
*Stormshield-->Spirit monarch
*Jalal's-->Circet magical 2/20/2 open socket with 2x shael
*Replace 2x life/skiller with 2x more fhr/skillers(4x fhr skiller 1x fhr sc total now)
*Rest are the same
Using jalal's and hoto makes for more resist and stats to get max block easier than the pelt set-up but it also suffers from lower damage. I also like how this is very easy items to acquire, you don't need godly pelt or some off the wall crafted ammy.
~Non-block~
@@163/99(or 174)Damage@@
*Suicide branch
*Enigma
*Spirit monarch 35fcr
*2Dru/3Nado Pelt
*Trang gloves
*Arach
*Treks/rare
*18+ fcr amulet
*2x 10fcr rings
*1x 12fhr gc
@@163/99(or 174)%DR@@
*2Dru/3Nado Pelt-->2/20/2 magical circet or more extravagant rare 2/20/2 2x ber'd
*Arach-->15% dr dungos
(Alternatively)
*2Dru/3Nado Pelt-->2x ber'd CoA
Good and fast damage with a sacrifice. Offers some protection but this is for "don't get hit in the first place" kind. I can see in duels vs smiter or windy dr plays a more important part which is why this was added but there's still charge and hits after the initial nado. It is possible to reach a higher fhr break point by the use of shaels in gear and subbing out more life charm for fhr charms. Please note that someone told me about this and I have not yet played one so no new strategy section for this is included for now.
Misc info on items/charms
~Socketing~
*For storm shield ber is better than shael'd stormshield in my opinion but shael helps too and cheaper for ladder people.
*Anything that I didn't say what to socket in means you don't need anything in particular from that socket and it's open to your choice really. Some of the better options would be p ruby, life/resist jewel.
~Substituting and combination~
*The gear selection are just suggestions and can be easily changed for same effects. For example you feel like wearing a nice rare 10fhr/resist boots you found instead of treks just use two more 5fhr small charms to make up the difference.
*Any combination that can give you 99/99 max block and a 163/174 as long as you still maintain good life, resist, damage, etc will work. I will say again that the gear I suggested are suggestions, they're there to give you some example and don't have to be followed 100%.
D2PK equipment
*Well I saw another guide mentioned this so I will briefly go over it too. All the equipment should of course be perfect and treks are replaced with rares. Roll the best 2/20 resist stat ammy you can and the pelt that you can buy from vendor is actually the best one in my opinion too bad it's a ugly plain color, I haven't tried 08 valk instead of circ but valk looks ugly on you too. For charms 9x 50 or fhr mixed depend on gear, and one or two of the "wtf so much mana" charms are nice if you find yourself potting too much rest being life/resist scs.
General strats pvp
~WSG~
*Switch weapons very fast by hitting weapon switch button(default is 'w') you reset your fhr and get out of being stunned
~Teleport stomp or just stomp~
*Teleport on your opponent then start spamming tornadoes(downwards)
~Name lock~
*Right click your opponent with nado(or any skill really) and hold the mouse button down to get name lock
~Chain lock~
1*After preforming name lock, switch to teleport
2*As you're teleporting move mouse back at your feet
3*Once you land switch to nado then reclick below your druids feet which should be where your opponent is standing
4*Hold this if you get a NL again
5*He/she happens to get away, while maintaining the name lock with nado switch to tele
6*Repeat from step 2*
~Delay teleport~
1*Preform name lock first
2*Now let's say your target runs off but you keep holding down NL with nado and don't let go
3*Keep standing there casting nados that are going towards opponent even tho they're not near by
4*Switch back to tele once they go off your screen but not off your mini-map
5*You'll be on top of them again ready to go and hopefully they are not prepared for you
~Summoning and recast~
*Most important to wind druid are these things, it's what makes your build shine. After a few exchange of attack if your summons are depleted especially if it's your oak sage, back off a little to get them back up. Recast Hurricane, Cyclone armor if they expire and summons too according to your opponent. When your opponent is being very offensive during your recast period it's because they know the best time to get you is when you recast so get more defensive. To deal with this summon one thing then teleport for minion stack and then recast/summon another, it will keep you relatively safe. I will go over grizzly, wolves or no summons in specific windy vs ___ strategy. Oak, cyclone, and cane are no brainers always have it on/out I won't mention this again.
Can't think of anything else really so we'll move onto class specific strategies.
Class specific strats pvp
~Bow Amazon~(99/99MB)
*The ones that stand and spam are easy teleport in a circular pattern towards them to avoid most of the arrows then stomp and spam nados. For experienced bowzons it's hard to actually get on top of them, mass amount of frw they have allows bowas to get away from you before you can get a hit in. Keep applying pressure name lock tele stomp again and again to make sure she has to keep moving and not constantly shoot at you, also predict the zons movement to herd her into nados casted before. As long as you stay full offensive sooner or later she'll make mistake and stand for too long or run into a random nado and either get stunned from the damage or long dodge animation. Max block paired with summon stack gives you a very nice defensive edge. Summon of preference for me in this duel is the grizzly because it's a fast re-summon if he dies and also has higher damage attack to help you lock up the bowa, in addition to grizzly, ravens are also useful as another source to trigger dodge skills.
~Javelin Amazon~(99/99MB or if she using 6/40 javelins aka very little fury dmg you can go 163/174)
*Stay no closer than half a screen distance away since the CS damage is very high, with you being very close it draws them to run towards you to use CS as you spam and tele away playing defensive. Lightning fury ain't too hard to avoid, by simply running sideways it's easily dodged although max block already protects you well. Make a trap of nados that surround her the best you can, if she throwing a lot an unexpected stomp works. When you do decide to tele on her it has to be for good reason, she has to be in the active motion to or about to throw lightning fury, unprepared to CS you. As you trade blows if she dodge a lot she won't get any hits off on you, but it's still depends a lot on chance. You can sorb and nk FC all you want.
~Trap Assassin~(163/174 for pure)
*Well this would be the class than has the overly large advantage over you. Run around and stomp the bad ones that only lay and pray, lucky for you these are common in pubs. Against more experienced trapper you'd almost have to play pure defensive which is kinda boring but there's little chance for you if you rush in. Make her chase you some around the moor, waiting for her to be a little too aggressive and tele near you before having any traps up. When it happens don't pass it up immediately stomp before she mb/trap you. You're bout to get stun locked one time or another so make use of the weapon switch trick, to do this hit the weapon switch key repeatedly to reset fhr and run out of those traps then hold down tele till you're off her map. Practice NL'ing her before she NL you taking into account that the shadow sometimes can MB you too. Summon for this is oak and grizzly you don't have time to recast wolves or ravens for that matter.
~Ghost and Hybrid Assassin~(99/99MB)
*Traps plus mind blast plus ww block lock and you don't even have 174 fhr
Put on tgod for hybrids to at least making it more of a interesting duel. You'll have to resort to the defensive tactics described in trapper strategy sadly.~BvC Barbarian~(99/99MB)
*An fun duel imo as I think that MB windy and well build BvC are more or less evenly matched. Playing semi defensive stay in one area filling it with nados making him run through a few if you're lucky. All the while lure him into making a bad long whirl so you can apply some major damage by spamming nado in front of ww's path then get out. Be weary of sync whirls he may seem farther away than he actually is, kinda like what the side view mirror on your car says
Summons for this duel would be wolves if he has none or little life leech or just the oak if he has massive leech. Watch out for delay tele from him, and don't try to tank when you're getting tri-whirled you'll barely hit him with nados if he's doing it right.~Wind Druid~(99/99MB)
*Mirror match that's like HvH both pretty boring just whoever gets to offensive risk higher chance of dying. I have little experience in this I'd rather duel windy with a hdin than DvD.
~Shapeshifter Druid~(99/99MB)
*For pure melee shifters you have good chance to stomp and out tank them so it's usually first thing I would do. If you failed horribly then don't try again and refer to the javelin zons strategy to play half screen and make them run through nados to get to you since they only have melee range. Said strategy of playing half screen to lure him towards you also applies to wolf druid with rabies, you never want to tele on those they can just bite and run away making you chase/die. Summons for this duel would be wolves for melee non rabies, and just oak if he is rabies. If you see a summon is infected with rabies hopefully you can react fast enough to recast(killing the previous) or un-summon before you teleport with it.
~Bone Necromancer~(163/174)
*I'm gonna go over summons now, use bear if he likes to use teeth and switch to wolves for dealing with spear and spirit. Have the correct summon helps although you may prefer just pure grizzly for a very offensive approach with the fast re-summon. Keeping up your summons is the main factor of deciding the outcome of this duel so learn when to back off a bit, recast/summon, then get back on him. To counter him or any ranged/caster type trying to 'walk' you tele a bit further ahead of direction he is going and attack. Get a name lock for delay tele if you know the necro will run off playing defensive, time it right with experience. Walking is actually a bit hard to do against windy since there are many different summons and spells constantly hit checks.
~Poison Necromancer~(163/174)
*Treks would be nice here, so are wolves. Be patient as he has to get on your screen from having shorter range compared to pnb nec. Chasing him through left over novas fields when he has the faster cast frame won't help and not needed to win this. I haven't dueled much of these so this will be brief.
~Smiter/VT Paladin~(99/99MB)
*Nado at him and tele back way directly behind the Nados is a nice way to handle inexperienced smiter. A single hit skill like smite/charge/foh is really outdone by five wolves so get them up and keep them up. Play the keep away game make him come to you through nados ofcourse. Feeling confident? stomp stomp stomp, you have big advantage and the max block set-up is extra insurance. Running/walking downwards and shoot up at him works too, but know how far to run out the range of smite and know when to stop running(and fight back) when he's ready to charge.
~Hammer Paladin~(163/174)
*Still single target skill but hammers stay around for awhile like nados and they can be stacked on top of each other to destroy summons quicker. Five wolves in this duel for sure and be smart enough to break off an attack when you're low on minion stack. You need to stomp him or cut off his path and make him charge into your minions, therefore he will actually swing at your minions and get stuck there for a short period of time. Watch out for sync, don't relax just because you assume he's not near by when he's not on your map. When casting nados don't stand still for too long, the wolves tend to wonder off away from you after a few seconds also he could get a nl and smite you out from minions when you're on him. A switch for 99/99MB is recommended if he chooses to use a grief for charge attack.
~Fire Sorceress~(163/174)
*Toughest sorc to duel imo is this kind of sorc always having very high damage and speed. Don't tele on her if she has name lock on you, it's better to tele away and get ride of her name lock especially for 200 cast types they will shoot you down. It comes down to who can get the first hit up close and dancing around blood moor preventing the other person getting a lock while working on one yourself. Both of you usually get stunned enough from a direct hit for the other person to finish the fight. In terms of ranged fighting she got advantage of out ranging and out spamming you but you have cyclone which will tank one hit from her so that some what evens out the playing field. Summon for this duel I prefer a grizzly, it can tank a couple of fireballs if you can get it in the path between you and her but don't really count on this happening consistently. I'm not going to go on for lightning and cold types because I feel like if you can beat this fire sorc the other two types are easier. Blizzard is slow hitting and really weak vs cyclone armor since most of the damage comes from -resist. Lightning is similar to fire except slower cast rate, orb? no chance >=D. Both blizz and light also need a lot of skill points for damage so if they went with energy shield they'll have less damage too. Wolves actually works better for blizzard sorc so use those.
Any build I didn't mention it's because they have no chance(foh pal?) vs you or they're not popular enough to have enough experience dueling with(hmm throw barb?).
*A couple of short recordings to give you an example of what's to expect playing a wind druid. Not the greatest but w/e there's no sound couldn't get it to work.
[YOUTUBE]cG2MBW3pGyo[/YOUTUBE]
Choices for partner
In team vs team duels or just you and a friend vs pub there are a few classes that work better with you than others.
~Bone Necromancer~
*Amplify damage make your nados hurt very very much, and necro is also ranged so you're team can hang back and spam spells from afar.
~BvC Barb~
*Sin killer for you
also lots of life for both of you.~Assassin~
*Any good build will do, they stun opponents so you don't have to work to hard to chase people down.
~Other builds~(open to discussion I couldn't think of anymore)
Closing
My first guide ever so I'll be interested to hear different comments, suggestions and answering questions about this. This guide took me an hour to two hours a day for three days to write
for anyone interested.~Special thanks to~
Me? for some break points but mostly thanks to me myself and I.
Shout out to Æ’enris for the first one.
Thanks for reading.
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