Druids suck - convince me I'm wrong!

Necrarch wrote: 6 hours ago

Was about to suggest another proc based build to make it somehow fun, but based on Destruction (with Fury perhaps) instead of

Stormlash.

Some guides exist - but you'll make a better build yourself.

Or try something that does not exist with a Rift polearm ?!

As much as I like your thinking, this won't wort. :/
Rift does not have any ed. So instead of hitting with a wet towel, you'll be hitting with a large wet towel.

And Destruction, well... it is visually appealing. But not good.

Schnorki wrote: 6 hours ago

Eremes wrote: 13 hours ago

Elemental Fury Autocast Hybrid build (around

Stormlash).
Weapon:

Shael'ed/Jeweled

Stormlash
Offhand:

Stormshield or Phoenix, tho I prefer upped

Stormchaser for additional

Tornado procs.
Armor: Fortitude/Enigma for swap
Headgear: +3

Twister/

Tornado/

Hurricane,

Jalal's Mane also fits good here if no better options.
Gloves:

Laying of Hands

Boots:

Gore Rider/

War Traveler, up to your purposes

Belt: Nosferatu for IAS BP, or Verdungo's
Rings:

Carrion Wind for

Twister procs,

Raven Frost (optional if you're rich and can afford

Cham'ed headgear, if yes - Bul'Katos then)
Amulet:

Highlord's Wrath.
Some Elemental skillers are needed for this build. Also, -physical res

Renewed Bone Break, as well as pre-RoTW

Crack of the Heavens do wonderful things to your DPS.

Max out Fury, 10 Lycantrophy, 10

Werewolf.
The rest goes to Elemental skills for synergy:
20

Twister
20

Cyclone Armor
20

Hurricane
Remaining points go to

Tornado.

Hurricane sports strong CC aura
In terms of fun this build shines. Also can clear areas/both ubers really good (with some gear swap/pre-buffing). Reaper's Toll on your merc buff that damage even further.

Much as proc-builds tend to usually be pretty bad at best, that is the only idea so far I haven't already pursued (multiple times in most cases) so...gonna have to look into that one/expand on the idea.

Let us know what you think afterwards. I'm doubtful but haven't tried it either. If you like it, I'd give it a shot.
I considered a

Hurricane wolf in the past but discarded the idea because there are too many skills/synergies not maxed out.

Behold the staying power of Diablo 2! Twenty years later still generating pages of debate on build trade-offs to make Blizzard's bastard stepchild character class a bit better.

vued wrote: 4 hours ago

Schnorki wrote: 6 hours ago

Eremes wrote: 13 hours ago

Elemental Fury Autocast Hybrid build (around

Stormlash).
Weapon:

Shael'ed/Jeweled

Stormlash
Offhand:

Stormshield or Phoenix, tho I prefer upped

Stormchaser for additional

Tornado procs.
Armor: Fortitude/Enigma for swap
Headgear: +3

Twister/

Tornado/

Hurricane,

Jalal's Mane also fits good here if no better options.
Gloves:

Laying of Hands

Boots:

Gore Rider/

War Traveler, up to your purposes

Belt: Nosferatu for IAS BP, or Verdungo's
Rings:

Carrion Wind for

Twister procs,

Raven Frost (optional if you're rich and can afford

Cham'ed headgear, if yes - Bul'Katos then)
Amulet:

Highlord's Wrath.
Some Elemental skillers are needed for this build. Also, -physical res

Renewed Bone Break, as well as pre-RoTW

Crack of the Heavens do wonderful things to your DPS.

Max out Fury, 10 Lycantrophy, 10

Werewolf.
The rest goes to Elemental skills for synergy:
20

Twister
20

Cyclone Armor
20

Hurricane
Remaining points go to

Tornado.

Hurricane sports strong CC aura
In terms of fun this build shines. Also can clear areas/both ubers really good (with some gear swap/pre-buffing). Reaper's Toll on your merc buff that damage even further.

Much as proc-builds tend to usually be pretty bad at best, that is the only idea so far I haven't already pursued (multiple times in most cases) so...gonna have to look into that one/expand on the idea.

Let us know what you think afterwards. I'm doubtful but haven't tried it either. If you like it, I'd give it a shot.
I considered a

Hurricane wolf in the past but discarded the idea because there are too many skills/synergies not maxed out.

Figured while I'm at it, I'll just go ahead and try both, the

Stormlash and the Destruction version.

Added carrion winds and whatnot to the

Stormlash for some twisters on top of the

Tornado. And added Phoenix to the Destruction version to go full ape on the fire procs beyond just torch. In hindsight, could've added

Hellmouth to that as well, kinda forgot those even existed, but at 4% they wouldn't make too much of a difference I guess.

As far as proc builds go, they're actually both surprisingly performant (and roughly comparable to one another), allowing for P8 TZ96 clears without major issues. Though they're still nowhere near what "real" builds do, obviously. I will say the Destruction version is significantly more visually appealing than the

Stormlash one and at times almost reminiscent of a Mosaic sin (in visuals only, obv. not in performance).

At the end of the day though, both are still just Fury builds and once the "screen full of fire!" novelty wears off they quickly suffer the same fate of utter boredom as any other Fury build (subjective, naturally).

Ok, how to put this...?
My Wind druid is at lvl 98.20 and yeah, I see, why other classes are preferred. But still, I think it was the class with which I had most fun when LoD came out. And boy, THAT was clunky and ... To get to

Armageddon you had to have a point in every skill of the whole Wind tree... What a waste!

But this build depends extremely on gear. Since I have an Enigma it's a total different play style. Therefore I switch sometimes to somewhat non-Enigma and there's the problem: No real fast movement... No

Charge, no

Teleport, no

Leap etc.

And yeah, aiming is like lottery XD

I know you want me to convince you that you are wrong but I agree this is the class I have the least amount of play time with. I like the concept of druids super cool fits in Sanctuary world. The viable builds just seem to underperform by a wide margin compared to the other classes. There are just better options generally Fury wolf is a worse smiter and the elemental builds just don't compare to sorc builds and summoning you can do necro or warlock now(still OPAF) and get summons who actually attack good. How hard would it be to do an AI rework on druid summons these days? I wish you could

Teleport around and cast elemental spells as a wolf or bear one can Dream. That would probably be OP but I mean have you played the warlock come on Blizzard just buff the druid up rework the skills like

Arctic Blast come on now you can do better than that.