Theorycraft build melee elemental fire/physical druid.

Hi all.

I am thinking for next ladder season to run melee druid full elemental. 1 points in the 5 summons for the zoo up to the bear and everything else in the 5 elemental fire skills (this brings the build to lvl 94).

The idea is to be a capable physical fighter while Armageddon and Volcano r3kt mobs. There is not plan for shapeshifting but maybe some points in Werebear will be considered. I've considered fire claw Werebear but if i do that then Armageddon will hit much less and Volcano would become sorta out of reach (not enough points).

So i'm ok with no shapeshifting. Full elemental caster with melee capabilities. 20 points for 5 skills in elemental.

For melee i'm thinking of Insight. Polearms and staves have best frames for druid unshifted, and it grants Critical Strike and 250% AR which i will need for playing melee. I'm thinking of the Thresher for base because it requires dex, and good base dex would give good base AR. Alternatively, Hexfire with Ignore target's defense could be incredible, but 154 str for Spirit Monarch is very high imo. Maybe Rhyme for cannot be frozen? or Raven Frost?

Demon Limb in secondary for Enchant self cast. Obeidiance is also to consider, but i think AR will be lackluster.

One thing is certain, at lvl 75 i will go for Ravenlore, and a colossal physical Stone probably, because this will boost elemental spells more evenly. Bone Break also i think would be a better choice than fire sunder because the penalty is lesser. This means i would like some item granting physical dmg res. Unsure.

What do you think? What do you propose? Give me your best ideas.

Thanks.

I think your best bet is Fireclaw Werewolf+ Armageddon if you want somewhat capable melee+elemental.

1 in the summons, 1 in the Fireclaw prerequistes, 1 in Fissure, 20 in Armageddon, Fire Claws, Firestorm and Molten Boulder and the rest goes into Volcano.
In the switch you can use Fleshrender and Spirit for +5 Shapeshifting, this gives you sufficient points in Werewolf to reach 7fps with Obedience when using a merc with Mania if you can get a druid torch. Obedience is the best choice because of the -25% fire res and the 40% crushing blow compensate for your low physical damge.
Without shapeshifting you attack damage and speed will be very poor.

Lakkxa wrote: 14 hours ago

Without shapeshifting you attack damage and speed will be very poor.

Even with Critical Strike? I kinda agree that without a skill it doesn't look like it'll be very high. Alternatively i could go for oskills like Vengeance or others but Insight would be good for the aura.

Also the idea with 5 elemental skills is first for arma and Volcano to be max dmg but also use Fissure for even more dmg. They all have a cast cooldown and are to be prioritized over melee attacks, so if every skills are on CD i have nothing else to do at melee.

So melee comes last, and by that i mean it has to be viable at bare minimum, but it's not the focus here. Enemies fire immuned will still die off Volcano, Molten Boulder and Armageddon via the physical dmg, and physical immuned are dealt with via Bone Break.

Druid with Thresher starts at 15 frames per attack at 0ias. I think it's feasable to hit the 68 fcr breakpoint (12 frames) with at least 26% ias for 12 frames per attack as well, at least as a minimum standpoint.

A5 merc with Mania that is certain, maybe even two. I really like Eth Cryptic Sword for this case.

Level 1 Ravens and wolves do nothing but tickle the monsters under the elbow and then they die. Even with +10 skills they are as scary as my grandma throwing sand.

For the Dudu summons to do and to tank noticeable damage, you need 30/35+ levels and gear with damage auras.

I would use a bear as a tank and be done with summons.

Using the standard melee attack is a waste of time and damage not being done, since you could cast Fissure and Volcano instead doing much more damage.

But then maybe you want a challenge and intentionally create a weak but innovative (and fun?) build. But as a league starter, you will struggle hard, probably already in Nightmare.

I am playing a druid right now in ladder. Started out as a Fury summoner... damage was great if limited to physical pretty much across the board, even with a physical sunder Stone skin stopped my druid's progress dead in his tracks.

Was using a 397% ed ethereal Death Decapitator, 1018 max damage. Survival was good, overall damage was good but I found Stone skin too limiting when farming heralds and the single target nature of Fury makes large packs take a long time. Had 20 into Fury and everything else into summons, 20 sage, bear, Spirit and dire was ~15 at level 91.

I respecced a couple days ago and while I still have 20 (33 total) into Fury and run as a wolf, I now also just have one point into Oak Sage. The rest is 20 Armageddon, Firestorm and molten, and 15 into Fissure for a 40 second arma duration.

At level 37 it does 7-8k per Fireball, Fury is still more than capable but I have switched to Stormlash for a weapon and Medusa's Aegis for a shield. Metamorph helmet so I tend to start out as a bear, get one hit, then switch to wolf for the double buff from the hat for 3 minutes. Keep Earthshifter on swap for +7 elemental.

So far its working great. I can see this absolutely wrecking if I can get the merc an Infinity or myself some -fire resist runewords like Phoenix or HOJ. But considering the cheap setup its highly efficient, and running as a hellhound with Armageddon is about as stylish as it gets for a druid. Switched from a physical to fire sunder with the respec. So far nothing I havent been able to kill unlike the prior Stone skin heralds.

Dwarf Star, +2 Arkaines, maras, leech + ar ring, ik Belt, goreriders, dracs, metamorph Helm, Stormlash and medusa's Aegis with earthshifter on the swap. Pretty cheap, maybe 2 Ist total for the current setup. Currently have 2x ele gcs.

mikelessar wrote: 12 hours ago

Level 1 Ravens and wolves do nothing but tickle the monsters under the elbow and then they die. Even with +10 skills they are as scary as my grandma throwing sand.

For the Dudu summons to do and to tank noticeable damage, you need 30/35+ levels and gear with damage auras.

I would use a bear as a tank and be done with summons.

Using the standard melee attack is a waste of time and damage not being done, since you could cast Fissure and Volcano instead doing much more damage.

But then maybe you want a challenge and intentionally create a weak but innovative (and fun?) build. But as a league starter, you will struggle hard, probably already in Nightmare.

Yes level 1 is garbage but the +skills do the heavy lifting. Druid summons Spirit Wolf + Dire Wolf + Summon Grizzly do synergize on soft points which is very rare. So just anni + torch + amulet +2 druid skills make those lvl 7 each. Speaking of experience, these summons start to survive reliably in Hell content when they hit about level 9 spell level, considering they are assisted by an A5 merc with fana aura, and are easy to resummon at any time.

So yes, at first it will be terrible, but if i build the elemental druid mainly as a caster, if i manage to get somewhat about +5 to all skills with anni + torch + amulet i can easily get those to level 10+ and have them just make a pack of meatshields while i play.

Also regarding ladder start, speaking against from experience fire druid tends not to fall as flat as fire sorc when reaching hell because fire skills are not strickly fire, it's not as restrictive. I made the terrible mistake of starting shapeshifter 2 or 3 seasons ago and it was terribly bad entering hell.

Besides the point, but i think the main issue with melee in d2, as an example, is that a normal base weapon will hit 2 to 7 ( Short Sword), a nightmare base weapon will hit 8 to 22 ( Gladius) and an elite base will hit 31-59 ( Falcata). When you get to nightmare some unique normal weapon can kinda do the job, but when you hit Hell all the weapons prior to hell are just severely outclassed. You just get shreded.

It's not the same with casters. Especially if i can enter nightmare with Insight and some summons. Self-carry Insight has proven to a good strategy in large groups (i did it with Berserk barb) as you play you die much less than an A2 merc.

I could do that but caster.

Druid is bad ladder starter. As a second character when you farmed some gear for him already he is good only because gear is cheap. Dirt-cheap torches, Jalal mane, etc...
My best setup is full zoo (ravens, wolves, bear) cast with as much of +skills gear then shapeshift and run with reapers toll. 1 point in Fury with + skills is ok-ish for Decrepify to proc. Ravens kill almost everything.
For Baal - use something with CB, your zoo will finish him.
In terms of killing speed -not fast In term of mobility-awful.
If it will be your 3-4th character with lots of rune words in stash , already farmed sunders, and nice unique gear - then go for a druid.