Summon Druid hybrid, Werewolf or Werebear?

I have a Summoner Druid that I am working on. I like to fight alongside the summons for extra damage. I am currently using Werebear and Shock Wave for crowd control. I'm wondering if using Werewolf and Fury: Skill might be better, or if it is even viable. Either way, I'm probably not going to be shapeshifted all the time, as I'll be using Teleport to reposition summons. Main hand is Beast ( Berserker Axe for actual damage output) so it gives me some Werebear, for what that's worth.

I know this build won't be the greatest but looking to optimize as best I can!

Hey, great build choice! Summoner Druid is very special and he is far from being OP, but it is the most chilled hero.

I experimented a lot with my 95 Druid, and right now, I am where I was at the beginning: He is a pure Summoner, directing Ravens, stunning enemies and giving a slap here and there (1 point into Maul: Skill). Accompanied by a fire rogue merc wielding Mist. The rogue's Inner Sight interacts wonderfully with my not so high Maul attack rating. For my melee attacks, I focus on Mages and Summoners, clearing the way for my minions to go rampage.

Thing is, Duid Summoner is made for playing solo or up to P3. If you want some real shape shifted damage, there's too many points lost in the summoner tree, and you have to swap some gear, losing Teleport, +skills and FCR. Enigma is too good for not wearing it, but Fortitude is BiS for a melee build. Hard decisions to make!

As far as the skills go, how are the options?

-Grizzly: Not debatable for a Summoner, it is your strongest tank and does good damage. It's damage synergy to the rest of your minions.
-Dire Wolves: Not debatable, same as Grizzly. Life synergy.
-HotW: Not debatable.

-Spirit Wolves: Their damage is nothing you would write home about, but they spend another damage source and a huge AR boost to your main minions, and you want those to have a high CtC. But in the end, they are debatable, depending on your merc and other choices.
-Ravens. These are debatable. Some say they aren't worth it, others say otherwise. I find them very effective in a solo game. Of course, they rapidly lose impact in higher player games, but so the rest of your pack does... Ravens do not profit from damage increasing auras, but they hit hard when monsters are under the Decrepify curse.

Bottom line is we have 20-40 points to spare.

I tried a variant with maxed Maul: Skill and no ravens. But the resulting damage isn't that much higher than having it on level 1, it's a few hundred more, not worth it losing the Ravens. Another 20 points into Werebear would be needed to bring this to remarkable level. On top of that, Beast Berserker Axe is a mediocre base to build a melee killer upon.

I guess a Fury-Variant is superior in terms of damage but no Shock Wave, then. You should definetely go for a two handed weapon: Breath of the Dying, Death, Last Wish.

Maybe a self-wield The Reaper's Toll build could work. I wanted to test this some day, but had no time for it yet and I am quite happy how it is actually.

DasNarf wrote: 1 year ago

Hey, great build choice! Summoner Druid is very special and he is far from being OP, but it is the most chilled hero.

I experimented a lot with my 95 Druid, and right now, I am where I was at the beginning: He is a pure Summoner, directing Ravens, stunning enemies and giving a slap here and there (1 point into Maul: Skill). Accompanied by a fire rogue merc wielding Mist. The rogue's Inner Sight interacts wonderfully with my not so high Maul attack rating. For my melee attacks, I focus on Mages and Summoners, clearing the way for my minions to go rampage.

Thing is, Duid Summoner is made for playing solo or up to P3. If you want some real shape shifted damage, there's too many points lost in the summoner tree, and you have to swap some gear, losing Teleport, +skills and FCR. Enigma is too good for not wearing it, but Fortitude is BiS for a melee build. Hard decision to make!

As far as the skills go, how are the options?

-Grizzly: Not debatable for a Summoner, it is your strongest tank and does good damage. It's damage synergy to the rest of your minions.
-Dire Wolves: Not debatable, same as Grizzly. Life synergy.
-HotW: Not debatable.

-Spirit Wolves: Their damage is nothing you would write home about, but they spend another damage source and a huge AR boost to your main minions, and you want those to have a high CtC. But in the end, they are debatable, depending on your merc and other choices.
-Ravens. These are debatable. Some say they aren't worth it, others say otherwise. I find them very effective in a solo game. Of course, they rapidly lose impact in higher player games, but so the rest of your pack does... Ravens do not profit from damage increasing auras, but they hit hard when monsters are under the Decrepify curse.

Bottom line is we have 20-40 points to spare.

I tried a variant with maxed Maul: Skill and no ravens. But the resulting damage isn't that much higher than having it on level 1, it's a few hundred more, not worth it losing the Ravens. Another 20 points into Werebear would be needed to bring this to remarkable level. On top of that, Beast Berserker Axe is a mediocre base to build a melee killer upon.

I guess a Fury-Variant is superior in terms of damage but no Shock Wave, then. You should definetely go for a two handed weapon: Breath of the Dying, Death, Last Wish.

Maybe a self-wield The Reaper's Toll build could work. I wanted to test this some day, but had no time for it yet and I am quite happy how it is actually.

Interesting! I do prefer having the Ravens, I think they are very nice (I mostly play P1, but sometimes with others). The weapon choice is interesting, I was set on using Beast to help the minions, and just have it in a Berserker Axe so I can dish out some damage too, but I can see how those 2-handers could also help, but I assume it would Weaken my army, sans Fanaticism. I have been wanting to make a Last Wish for something so maybe I will do that. I have a Death, but it's a 1h-zerk Axe. Still a lot of pondering to do!

From my view, your summons need every level you can squeeze out of your build, because they are not made to be killing machines of their own, putting many other builds to their disadvantage.

The more emphasis you are placing on the melee gear, the more useless the minions become, and at some point it begs the question if it is a Summoner anymore.

Here is a video of my druid doing solo CS:

DasNarf wrote: 1 year ago

From my view, your summons need every level you can squeeze out of your build, because they are not made to be killing machines of their own, putting many other builds to their disadvantage.

The more emphasis you are placing on the melee gear, the more useless the minions become, and at some point it begs the question if it is a Summoner anymore.

Here is a video of my druid doing solo CS:

Ah so this looks like similar to what I'd be doing, although now you have me thinking. Last Wish for the Might aura would allow me to potentially switch to an A1 merc and have her use Faith for Fanaticism. I like the idea of Concentration too, but I think the damage boost for minions is not very much from what I've read. My original plan was just having an A2 merc wield Pride but I think Reaper's Toll is probably more effective in that regard. This should be fun either way I love that this game makes me think a lot haha