LouB
Well-known member
When I made my 2025 goal one of them was a Wind Druid. Well, it is November and I decided that I better get going with one.
Ten days before Hurricane Hugo (a category 4 storm) hit Charleston, SC my wife and I bought a beach cottage near Charleston. Even today when I read or think about Hurricanes, Hugo comes to mind and thus the only possible name for this guy was Hugo.
He will be a traditional Wind Druid with some wolves and a Grizzly for company. His Merc will be a Fire Rogue carrying a Wrath Bow. Currently, he has reached the City of the Damned Waypoint in Nightmare. He is at level 65 and is about to transition from an Elemental Fire Druid to a Wind Druid.
Somehow when I decided on a new build it usually morphs into alternate builds and that the case with Hugo. Reading the guide and some of the Pat threads I realized that Tornado may not be the easiest skill for me to use and I started down the what if path. That got me reading through the hybrid Pat threads I came across a Wind Wolf combining Hurricane, Tornado and Fury. These were pre-D2R builds and the Druid couldn’t cast while in Wolf form. However, two of the changes that D2R has made are to allow casting of Hurricane while a wolf and for Cyclone Armor to work while in Wolf form.
Given that I play D2R I decided that even if I couldn’t master Tornado, Hugo would stay a Wind Druid using Tornado for his physical damage and I would build a second Wind brother that uses Fury for his physical damage and Hurricane.
Since Hugo is named after a Hurricane, I looked around for another Hurricane name that I thought would fit a wolf and decided on King, a 1950 Hurricane that was also a Category 4 Hurricane and no, I don’t remember it.
King will be my fourth Fury Wolf. Jack used Liquid Evil’s Earth Shifter build with an Infinity Wielding Act 2 Merc. Lobo was a full wolf (20 point in werewolf, Lycanthopy and Fury), had some Dire wolves to accompany him and used a Cold Rogue wielding Wrath. The third was a combination of the two and had a Frenzy Merc wielding Lawbringer and Azurewrath.
Each used different weapons – Earth Shifter, IK Stone Crusher, Upped Ribcracker. King will use the eBOTD colossus blade and his Merc will be a Frenzy Barb wielding Lawbringer and Last Wish.
When planning the Earth Shifter build, I looked at using Hurricane, but decided it wouldn't really help the wolf because what he was attacking would be inside the Hurricane band. It will be interesting to see what I think after playing one.
Hugo
Normal
Looking through my Druid stash, I found two pelts with 3 sockets, one with +3 to Hurricane and the other with +3 to Tornado. This allowed me to start experimenting with Hurricane and Tornado while he is in his Fire configuration. Unfortunately, I can’t make Lore in them and decided to make Radiance, which will help with Mana.
I used the Fire to Wind leveling method, and as predicted Duriel and Diablo were not easy. The battle to kill Baal was long, but not really difficult. He kept teleporting around and spawned his clone twice. I did have two Fire Immune monsters in Normal Act 1! And Colenzo was also Fire Immune.
I went the Leaf route from level 19 to level 22 when I switched to a Hell plague sword and Magefist gloves. I still had +3 to Fire skills and I got a lot more damage when I decided to actually hit something. With AR and IAS both being low the idea of using the sword as a sword didn’t last that long and at level 25 I equipped a Spirit long sword and became a full-time caster.
I tried the Hurricane pelt from level 30 through 33. Upper Kurast to the City of Damned Waypoint. With other gear it was level 8 and I didn’t find it useful. Switched to the Tornado pelt prior to entering the Chaos Sanctuary and didn’t find the level 9 Tornado that hard to direct and it was a help in taking Diablo down.
While the +3 Hurricane and Tornado pelts gave me some experience with Hurricane and Tornado, with no synergies providing extra damage they didn’t do much damage and at level 43 I switched to Jalal’s Mane.
Nightmare (Act 1 through Act 4 City of the Damned Waypoint)
I’ve run into a number of Fis through the first 3+ acts and between the summons and spamming Volcano they weren’t a problem. Using the fire tree for leveling worked fine. I didn’t really spend any stat point for quite a while and finally had 100 saved up when it was time to equip the Spirit Monarch. However, for a twinked build I still found taking out the Act bosses and Izual to take a long time. Not difficult, just long. I thought about trying to get through Diablo without changing to the Wind tree but decided to make the change before the River of Flame.
Ten days before Hurricane Hugo (a category 4 storm) hit Charleston, SC my wife and I bought a beach cottage near Charleston. Even today when I read or think about Hurricanes, Hugo comes to mind and thus the only possible name for this guy was Hugo.
He will be a traditional Wind Druid with some wolves and a Grizzly for company. His Merc will be a Fire Rogue carrying a Wrath Bow. Currently, he has reached the City of the Damned Waypoint in Nightmare. He is at level 65 and is about to transition from an Elemental Fire Druid to a Wind Druid.
Somehow when I decided on a new build it usually morphs into alternate builds and that the case with Hugo. Reading the guide and some of the Pat threads I realized that Tornado may not be the easiest skill for me to use and I started down the what if path. That got me reading through the hybrid Pat threads I came across a Wind Wolf combining Hurricane, Tornado and Fury. These were pre-D2R builds and the Druid couldn’t cast while in Wolf form. However, two of the changes that D2R has made are to allow casting of Hurricane while a wolf and for Cyclone Armor to work while in Wolf form.
Given that I play D2R I decided that even if I couldn’t master Tornado, Hugo would stay a Wind Druid using Tornado for his physical damage and I would build a second Wind brother that uses Fury for his physical damage and Hurricane.
Since Hugo is named after a Hurricane, I looked around for another Hurricane name that I thought would fit a wolf and decided on King, a 1950 Hurricane that was also a Category 4 Hurricane and no, I don’t remember it.
King will be my fourth Fury Wolf. Jack used Liquid Evil’s Earth Shifter build with an Infinity Wielding Act 2 Merc. Lobo was a full wolf (20 point in werewolf, Lycanthopy and Fury), had some Dire wolves to accompany him and used a Cold Rogue wielding Wrath. The third was a combination of the two and had a Frenzy Merc wielding Lawbringer and Azurewrath.
Each used different weapons – Earth Shifter, IK Stone Crusher, Upped Ribcracker. King will use the eBOTD colossus blade and his Merc will be a Frenzy Barb wielding Lawbringer and Last Wish.
When planning the Earth Shifter build, I looked at using Hurricane, but decided it wouldn't really help the wolf because what he was attacking would be inside the Hurricane band. It will be interesting to see what I think after playing one.
Hugo
Normal
Looking through my Druid stash, I found two pelts with 3 sockets, one with +3 to Hurricane and the other with +3 to Tornado. This allowed me to start experimenting with Hurricane and Tornado while he is in his Fire configuration. Unfortunately, I can’t make Lore in them and decided to make Radiance, which will help with Mana.
I used the Fire to Wind leveling method, and as predicted Duriel and Diablo were not easy. The battle to kill Baal was long, but not really difficult. He kept teleporting around and spawned his clone twice. I did have two Fire Immune monsters in Normal Act 1! And Colenzo was also Fire Immune.
I went the Leaf route from level 19 to level 22 when I switched to a Hell plague sword and Magefist gloves. I still had +3 to Fire skills and I got a lot more damage when I decided to actually hit something. With AR and IAS both being low the idea of using the sword as a sword didn’t last that long and at level 25 I equipped a Spirit long sword and became a full-time caster.
I tried the Hurricane pelt from level 30 through 33. Upper Kurast to the City of Damned Waypoint. With other gear it was level 8 and I didn’t find it useful. Switched to the Tornado pelt prior to entering the Chaos Sanctuary and didn’t find the level 9 Tornado that hard to direct and it was a help in taking Diablo down.
While the +3 Hurricane and Tornado pelts gave me some experience with Hurricane and Tornado, with no synergies providing extra damage they didn’t do much damage and at level 43 I switched to Jalal’s Mane.
Nightmare (Act 1 through Act 4 City of the Damned Waypoint)
I’ve run into a number of Fis through the first 3+ acts and between the summons and spamming Volcano they weren’t a problem. Using the fire tree for leveling worked fine. I didn’t really spend any stat point for quite a while and finally had 100 saved up when it was time to equip the Spirit Monarch. However, for a twinked build I still found taking out the Act bosses and Izual to take a long time. Not difficult, just long. I thought about trying to get through Diablo without changing to the Wind tree but decided to make the change before the River of Flame.
