Summon Druid Endgame Guide

That's what I was using before.
Only downside now is that I lose 1 FHR breakpoint, 20 fire res and a little bit of life (need more strength now).
Oh and I don't like the look of that pelt. But guess I can't be picky here.

Still worth it for the extra damage.
Delirium would actually let me get the life back but make the resist a little worse.

Of course you can be picky there! Looks are one of the most important stats!

Well unfortunately there is no supply for +3 Grizzly +3 Dire Wolves Druid pelts.

So you got no options to chose from

Yeah...been trying to find you one but I just keep stumbling across stupid combinations on the +3s (

Armageddon + Spirit Wolves and such nonsense).

And this is why I don't trust Maxroll..
HotO vs. Beast, with everything else being the same:
Though I guess if

Fanaticism really did magically almost 15x

Raven damage, that whole HotO vs. Beast discussion would finally be off the table for good.

The underlying claim that auras and such do affect ravens is an interesting one though..anyone recall if Maxroll always claimed that? Or did they introduce that with the PTR version? I know ravens never used to be affected by anything but I can't say I specifically double-checked that was still true on PTR. Though it would surprise me if they changed that.

Maxroll always had

Raven including auras which is just wrong.
My guess is that they use a very generic code that just applies those auras to all types of summons / minions and doesn't differentiate.

Shame..

Patch has been out for some days now.
So how does everyone feel about their Summon Druid now?

I got myself up to level 95 but my gear hasn't changed much and it has mostly been slight upgrades on the charms and a better jewel in my Pelt.
Still looking for that +3 Grizzly +3 Dire Wolves Delirium base or a rare/magic with those automods and +2/3 Summmon skills. No success on that so far though ...

Will probably update my guide on reddit next week. Basically just waiting for Maxroll to make the new patch their default on the skill trees.

On a side note and the off chance one of you has that:
I'm looking for a 43 life Summon Skill charm with "Monster" skin to swap for my "Eye" skin.

No 43, sorry.
Though my druid did finally move up from that dreaded "7th out of 7" spot. Honestly didn't think he ever would. For the first time, he's actually fun to play and not just aggravatingly stupid as all of their specs were (to me) before 2.4.

Fares far better on live than he did with that 'mweh' PTR gear, allowing him to now tie my Bowzon for 6th.
Then again, ranking above that point becomes a bit tough, seeing how the other 5 classes are tailored towards very specific purposes for me that they are just flat out better at than anything else. Zon and Druid..not so much. Across all of their builds, sure, they both have things they're good at and in the case of a Javazon even things they're great at but .. still just not as good as others.

After some more playtesting with actual full BiS gear options, I did move over to the Beast side as well though. Travel-gaps aren't as much of an issue as they were on PTR (really not at all on live), making the theoretical advantage of HotO on that front non-existent. Dropping for Faith does return those issues though so Beast it is.

Now if I can just get a couple more clone walks (or one while I'm actually still on...) to get him his own anni and stop borrowing from other chars, he'd be fully geared, too. Beyond that, the only thing possibly left is minor roll improvements for maybe like ~3-5% more mana and life along with minimally improved defense, none of which would make any noticeable difference whatsoever.

I do have to admit, I'm positively surprised by how accidentally well Blizz managed to balance that one. Went from dumb AF to actually fun and from being just horrifically bad to being a very, very solid jack of all trades, all while still leaving him a master of none, successfully avoiding overbuffed OP territory.
Mind you, that's from a full BiS point of view. I don't bother doing any comparative testing in mid gear/lower evels.

Hell yes glad to see you finally on the Beast side
I don't want to run Faith for the same reasons. Losing the resist and FCR (and also FHR) on Spirit shield does not feel good.
You can still use the Hoto for pre-buffing if you are into that (I'm too lazy).

Good luck on getting your own Anni. I got into a random spawn yesterday.

Well, I've got a few by now. Just none for the druid yet.

True, switching for pre-buffing would be a possibility. But port out, BC, port back, switch, summon, switch back and then port out again before you get going? Ugh...way too much of a hassle. I flat out refuse to ever switch gear on any of my chars (other than the 2nd weapon set, naturally). If they can't keep it equipped, it isn't worth it. Plus the extra time needed for all of that switching typically more than overrides any benefit it may offer.

Side note:
You should fix your avatar and Dream bigger..you're missing the +3 HoW on your wanted helmets. :p

Schnorki wrote: 2 years ago

I do have to admit, I'm positively surprised by how accidentally well Blizz managed to balance that one. Went from dumb AF to actually fun and from being just horrifically bad to being a very, very solid jack of all trades, all while still leaving him a master of none, successfully avoiding overbuffed OP territory.
Mind you, that's from a full BiS point of view. I don't bother doing any comparative testing in mid gear/lower evels.

Have you tried ubers with it? Does it take forever or is it comparable to summon necro?

worstd2playerever wrote: 2 years ago

Schnorki wrote: 2 years ago

I do have to admit, I'm positively surprised by how accidentally well Blizz managed to balance that one. Went from dumb AF to actually fun and from being just horrifically bad to being a very, very solid jack of all trades, all while still leaving him a master of none, successfully avoiding overbuffed OP territory.
Mind you, that's from a full BiS point of view. I don't bother doing any comparative testing in mid gear/lower evels.

Have you tried ubers with it? Does it take forever or is it comparable to summon necro?

You could do ubers with it even on the PTR.
Works equally better on live/with perfected gear.

However, you won't ever come close to summon necro speed. That's a solid bar though because a summon necro if played right is pretty damn fast.

The raw flat damage output is actually not much lower I would say (maybe even higher). However, a summon necro goes in with a ton of revives that bring their own crushing blow. The only source of crushing a druid has is his merc (or himself if you attack, too). That's nowhere near enough to compete in uber kill speed.

That having been said, druid ubers are significantly more forgiving than a summon necro is because unlike a necro, you can just sit there and keep re-summoning if your pets die from taking too long.

I'm debating whether to convert my

Tornado/

Hurricane druid to fire or to summon, guess I'm gonna burn some more tokens trying them out.

Schnorki wrote: 2 years ago

Well, I've got a few by now. Just none for the druid yet.

True, switching for pre-buffing would be a possibility. But port out, BC, port back, switch, summon, switch back and then port out again before you get going? Ugh...way too much of a hassle. I flat out refuse to ever switch gear on any of my chars (other than the 2nd weapon set, naturally). If they can't keep it equipped, it isn't worth it. Plus the extra time needed for all of that switching typically more than overrides any benefit it may offer.

Side note:
You should fix your avatar and Dream bigger..you're missing the +3 HoW on your wanted helmets. :p

I'm the same when it comes to item switching.

My avatar stays because Jalal's is one of my favourite uniques and I honestly don't know what else to switch it to anyway.

And yes HoW is possible in addition on the pelt and I'd gladly take it but that makes finding one even more unrealistic.
It's been almost 2 months of looking and so far the best ones I've seen have been two rares with +2 Druid, +3 Dire Wolves and +2 Grizzly on both of them.
One is the the pelt I'm currently wearing, the other is slightly better (more life, better res) and currently sold on jsp (c/o is

Ber+).
Nothing else has come even close to them.

tmGrunty wrote: 2 years ago

Schnorki wrote: 2 years ago

Well, I've got a few by now. Just none for the druid yet.

True, switching for pre-buffing would be a possibility. But port out, BC, port back, switch, summon, switch back and then port out again before you get going? Ugh...way too much of a hassle. I flat out refuse to ever switch gear on any of my chars (other than the 2nd weapon set, naturally). If they can't keep it equipped, it isn't worth it. Plus the extra time needed for all of that switching typically more than overrides any benefit it may offer.

Side note:
You should fix your avatar and Dream bigger..you're missing the +3 HoW on your wanted helmets. :p

I'm the same when it comes to item switching.

My avatar stays because Jalal's is one of my favourite uniques and I honestly don't know what else to switch it to anyway.

And yes HoW is possible in addition on the pelt and I'd gladly take it but that makes finding one even more unrealistic.
It's been almost 2 months of looking and so far the best ones I've seen have been two rares with +2 Druid, +3 Dire Wolves and +2 Grizzly on both of them.
One is the the pelt I'm currently wearing, the other is slightly better (more life, better res) and currently sold on jsp (c/o is

Ber+).
Nothing else has come even close to them.

By avatar I meant signature. Words are hard mmkay!

Well, if I ever find a pelt like that, I'll be offering it up here to give you a shot. After all, I wouldn't use it myself (need something else for stat purposes).

So I tried Ubers for the first time today.
I used a "clone" of my char in Single Player to test it.

Only changes I made were swapping out the Fortitude on the mercenary for a Duress (needed the open wounds and crushing blow) and the switching the

Andariel's Visage for a

Guillaume's Face (

Andariel IAS was not needed and I though more CB can't hurt).

It was super smooth. Merc stayed alive the whole time and I only needed to recast the HoW and some Wolves.

So yeah I'm very happy right now.

Aye. My summoner merc is keeping Duress for pretty much that reason. On normal mobs, you don't even notice the missing fort. On things that do have a significant life pool, you do notice the otherwise missing CB/OW.

No Gulli though. On anything, ever.

Schnorki wrote: 2 years ago

...
Now if I can just get a couple more clone walks (or one while I'm actually still on...) to get him his own anni and stop borrowing from other chars, he'd be fully geared, too.
...

Problem solved, Druid done. Thanks Asia!

Does

Enchant work with

Summon Spirit Wolf? Does the fire damage apply? I've heard auras like Might and

Concentration don't increase those summons' damage. Is this true?