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2.7 Summon Druid Guide

tmGrunty · 2022-04-22T10:37:48-07:00

This an updated guide for Summon / Zoo Druid in Diablo 2 Resurrected 2.7 for Ladder Season 7. Introduction Patch 2.4 for Diablo 2 Resurrected brought some hu…

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tmGrunty

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basicnecromancy `462`

2 months ago (pre-Resurrected)

oOKIWIOo wrote: 2 months ago
Hi,

I am still newcomer Summoner Druid Very informative and well written guide from which I profited also. Thank you for the effort you have put in it! When I started playing D2R "from scratch" in June after a break of ca. 20 years I first have read some guides on Maxroll. I started playing with my two boys and needed a char which was able to complete hell on selffound gear. Because my elder son wanted to play a Summoner Nec I decided to start a Summoner Druid. The youngest played a Paladin Zealer so that all of us could profit especially from his
Fanaticism aura. It played out very well and after some farming and trading our chars have overall really usable gear.

Now, my Druid is far from perfect equipment (I suggest in sum it is worth 5-6 JAHs - e.g. I only use bare skillers because I have enough life and all small charms with MF and RES are selffound. The rest of the gear is a Jalal´s (with a
Topaz), a perf. Maras, BK Ring (because selffound ), SOJ, Arachnid, Enigma, War Traveller (selffound),
Chance Guards (selffound), HOTO + CTA, two Spirits, an anni (18/20/9) and a Torch (15/20).

But I noticed that most improvements I made in the near past really had very little effect. E.g. my merc was for a long time equipped with a Reapers Toll (not
Eth., not socketed),
Eth. Smoke and a
Crown of Thieves. Overall, he survived very well and had a decent proc rate - even in eight player games with solo trav runs.

Not long ago I found an Andriel`s and yesterday I made a Fortitude in an
Eth.
Wire Fleece. Then I also socketed the RT with a
Shael and Andriel`s with a 24 fires res + 9 strength jewel (this was the best I have found so far - sadly not one with IAS so I still miss one frame). I did a lot of Clone killing for the last two weeks (I suggest 80-100 kills) but even after these improvements my Merc sometimes still needs one or two reju potions during the fight (he has 20 LL and all res max). Maybe less often than before but in my opinion the difference is very subtle considering with what I have equipped him now in comparison what he had before.

I have a Beast
Axe in my stash but currently I only use my HOTO with 36 res + CTA (4/4/4) because I want my res maxed out and also a good MF rate (with CTA my summons are currently on lvl 47). Do you think loosing the res and the +3 skills is worth the change with my current gear (at least when playing without my zealer son ) or would you too stay with the HOTO on my setup?

Whatever you do, mercs always need rejuvs every now and then, says my experience.

If you mostly play with your boys (nice to see this really

), one provides far more effective

Fanaticism aura than your Beast. If you play solo and don't find it tiresom, you can summon your zoo with HotO on hand, then switch to Beast.

* I trade both ladder and non-ladder, please check before asking.
* All my trades are for runes, keys (especially KoT and KoH) and essences!

oOKIWIOo `133`

2 months ago (pre-Resurrected)

Seems to be the case...

This week I found a nice

Eth. base for Duress. I am pondering now if I should try it out toghether with a G-Face..

After a 20 year break from D2 I started playing D2R in 2024 with my sons (9 and 10 years old)
Time Zone: UTC/GMT +1/+2 (Germany)
Online workdays: casually from 07:00-09:00 pm
Online weekends: casually midday to evening
Non-Ladder | Softcore | Expansion

Necrarch `2080`Moderator

2 months ago (pre-Resurrected)

With a Fortitude on I think you're in a better spot for most situations. G-Face though would probably be better for places like

Uber Tristram for the Crushing Blow.

Main: Necromancer / Second: Assassin / Third: Amazon / Check my stash, my crafts and my many cheap

Annihilus

oOKIWIOo `133`

2 months ago (pre-Resurrected)

Necrarch wrote: 2 months ago
With a Fortitude on I think you're in a better spot for most situations. G-Face though would probably be better for places like
Uber Tristram for the Crushing Blow.

I have not yet done any Uber Bosses - only

Diablo Clone. Are they comparable or what should I expect when doing

Uber Tristram?
Do you think G-Face and Duress help with the Clone, too?

Necrarch `2080`Moderator

2 months ago (pre-Resurrected)

There are dedicated guides for

Uber Tristram, as it is super specific and some classes really work well there (typically Pally) while it is a tough challenge for some others (e.g. sorc)

Main: Necromancer / Second: Assassin / Third: Amazon / Check my stash, my crafts and my many cheap

Annihilus

Necrarch `2080`Moderator

2 months ago (pre-Resurrected)

Check that one : forums/i-think-i-m-ready-for-my-first-u ... 11646.html

Main: Necromancer / Second: Assassin / Third: Amazon / Check my stash, my crafts and my many cheap

Annihilus

Schnorki `3822`Moderator

2 months ago (pre-Resurrected)

oOKIWIOo wrote: 2 months ago

Necrarch wrote: 2 months ago
With a Fortitude on I think you're in a better spot for most situations. G-Face though would probably be better for places like
Uber Tristram for the Crushing Blow.
I have not yet done any Uber Bosses - only
Diablo Clone. Are they comparable or what should I expect when doing
Uber Tristram?
Do you think G-Face and Duress help with the Clone, too?

Ubers tend to be (a lot) more of a challenge than dclone. For one because some of them simply hit way harder (shoutout to

Lilith ^^) and for another because unlike dclone, they're not alone.

Adds can always add up in terms of dmg you take but for a summoner they get especially annoying because they distract your summons, luring them off of the actual uber you're trying to kill.

That said, for ubers, dclone and really anything with unusually high life pools, crushing blow is exceptional. As such, stacking it on your merc via Duress, gface, ... is not a bad idea at all, even more so considering that as a summon druid, he will really be your only source of crushing. Plus you can typically afford to drop his survivability in favor of crushing blow more than most other builds could as he is protected by the distraction that is your zoo, meaning he still (typically) won't die as fast as other people's "non-survival-geared" mercs would.

Duress especially is a great merc armor choice when running ubers on a summon druid. Not only for the above-mentioned crushing blow but also (if not even more so) because of the solid chance of open wounds. Unlike dclone, ubers aren't impressed in the slightest by prevent monster heal so you hitting them once with PMH as you would for DC does absolutely nothing and they keep regenerating through your zoo. The simplest and most reliable way to counter that is a decent chance of open wounds to maximize uptime of that. And much like CB, your merc will again be pretty much the only real source of it.

oOKIWIOo `133`

2 months ago (pre-Resurrected)

Thx for your replies. Since I have a G-Face as well as a nice base and the runes for Duress I will test it, when the time comes.

Is it better to do the Uber Quest alone or in a team? One of my boys plays a Zealer/Smiter Pally (Grief or Last Wish, Highlord´s, DL + Res,

Raven Frost, Fortitude,

String of Ears,

Eth. Exile Shild with 40+ Res and and

Crown of Ages with 2 BERs and

Gore Rider) - who is of course the Char of choice for that task - and the other plays a Wind druid with weak summons as meat shield

Schnorki `3822`Moderator

2 months ago (pre-Resurrected)

oOKIWIOo wrote: 2 months ago
Thx for your replies. Since I have a G-Face as well as a nice base and the runes for Duress I will test it, when the time comes

Is it better to do the Uber Quest alone or in a team? One of my boys plays a Zealer/Smiter Pally - who is of course the Char of choice for this task - and the other plays a Wind druid with weak summons as meat shield

Theoretically, you wanna run it alone as they're significantly weaker/squishier on P1.

That said, the real answer to that would depend on "who would you be adding?". Summon druids - despite being perfectly capable - are realistically probably still one of the most annoying successful builds to run ubers on, simply because of how long it takes. If you add another "unsuitable" build or two though, it wouldn't be getting any better. Probably even worse for that matter.

And yet, if you add 6 trash build leechers but at least 1 smiter or Mosaic sin or any other single true tailor-made boss wrecker, you're suddenly making it infinitely easier than going solo.

So yeah, in your case specifically, if your boy is a smiter, that'll make it worlds easier despite a higher player count.
A Wind druid on the other hand...certainly not

Basically, looking at your group of 3, going from easiest to worst combination would probably be:

1) Smiter solo
2) Smiter + you
3) Smiter + Wind drood
4) All 3 of you
5) You solo
6) You + Wind drood
7) Wind drood solo masochism

3 and 4 might flip, depending on how (un-)geared your smiter buddy might still be ^^

oOKIWIOo `133`

2 months ago (pre-Resurrected)

Thx, I added the gear above. I think we try it with all of us in a team although my youngest will surely have to do the hard work

Bass `86`

2 months ago (pre-Resurrected)

How about 2 LW on

Frenzy merc from act 5 , get 34 lvl might ? It's stuck on merc how on char ?

PSN ID- BassPV77
Time zone - UTC+3:00
DUKE NUKEM MUST DIE !

Necrarch `2080`Moderator

2 months ago (pre-Resurrected)

It's just terrifyingly expensive

Main: Necromancer / Second: Assassin / Third: Amazon / Check my stash, my crafts and my many cheap

Annihilus

DasNarf `120`

2 months ago (pre-Resurrected)

Dual Last Wish Barb works. Strong for boss killing coz of CB and good kill speed as long as you can keep his

Frenzy up. I still prefer Act 1 Mist or Act 2 Reapers. Cheaper and more effective in most cases. I found it annoying to wait for

Frenzy to build up all the time.

My personal tier list for mercs:

Act 1 Merc Mist/Harmony/Delirium: Supreme for solo play. Best crowd control and mass killing, shreds most immunes. Shines in narrow spaces like dungeons or

River of Flame/

Arcane Sanctuary due to 100%

Pierce. Kills Diablo in 3 seconds, but takes ages for

Baal. Gets weak on higher player counts, but still very good support build. Can swap Mist and Harmony for flexibility. Plays itself, not much player interaction needed.

Act 2 Reapers: Wrecks bosses and immunes. Supreme for solo

Baal killing and okayish for higher player counts. Sucks in narrow spaces and versus mobile mobs/enemy masses. High interaction needed (Enigma!).

Act 5 LW: Same as Act 2 but weaker on higher player count. Sucks versus immunes. Medium interaction as soon as

Frenzy kicks in. Best tanking ability, but do you need it? Too expensive.

Act 3 whatever gear: He sucks. Forget it.

ElSolDolLol

For low items I also accept: Perfect Amys,

Ral,

Hel, Tokens, Keys. Please don't offer runes lower than

Pul (with the named exceptions).

NO PM OFFERS PLEASE! BE FAIR AND WRITE INTO THE THREAD