Why do people want a +6 Tornado-helm?

Lately I’ve been working on my

Tornado-Druid and I’ve been really wondering why people want a +6

Tornado-

Helm?
Not that I don’t understand how you could come to use it if you “stumble into it” and haven’t got anything better yet, or are missing other pieces needed to reach your breakpoints either way, or get it on ssf-challenge or something… But I just don’t get why people refer to it as this gg-item or “Holy Grail“ for

Tornado-druid.

Am I missing something? Because to me there seem to be options that are both better AND cheaper, making the whole thing mostly redundant and irrelevant unless you’re not trading or something.


My thinking is that either way you’ll want

Magefist (possibly Trang-Oul’s), 2x 10 FCR-rings, Spirit Shield,

Arachnid Mesh and Enigma, and go for the 163 FCR breakpoint. The variables seem to be on Weapon,

Helm and Amulet that can either be:
#1 Heart of the Oak, 3-20

Circlet and a 3-10 amulet ( https://maxroll.gg/d2/d2planner/78dq20wx )
or
#2

Suicide Branch, +6

Tornado

Helm, 2-20 amulet ( https://maxroll.gg/d2/d2planner/yddr10w4 ).

Both options give exactly 70 FCR (required to reach the breakpoint) and +3 to all skills / all druid skills, however:

• With option #2 you most likely will have 3 levels less on your
  Hurricane and therefore less total damage (getting +6 to both is theoretically possible, but not very likely).

• With option #2 you’ll most likely have worse defensive stats. That’ll depend a bit off course, but Hoto has it’s massive 30-40 all res, and you’ll also be getting +3
  Cyclone Armor with that option. Option #2 does have some ways to compete (1x extra open socket in the weapon, +40 life from weapon, up to 1 more suffix from
  Helm, up to 1 more staff mod on the
  Helm, up to 2 more affixes on amulet), but the items are already hyper-specific. Most likely you’ll have to take whatever you get on those stats even if it’s worthless. Against what Hoto provides I’d say it’s most likely a loss.

• Even if all the stars align, and you get both comparable damage AND comparable defensive stats it’s still waaaay more expensive and you don’t seem to be getting anything back from the cost. Neither option is truly cheap, but especially the +6 to both
  Tornado and
  Hurricane
  Helm would be insane in value.

If you open the door for less than perfect gear that also seem to favor option #1. That option can go for a 2-10 amulet, where the other option doesn’t really have alternatives for amulet. If you look at rare helms then a 2-20

Circlet can roll a lot of interesting stats not available on a +5

Tornado pellet, so that also seem to favor option #1.

So with that, I really don’t see how the +6 helmet achieved it’s mythic status. Am I missing something here? Because to me it really doesn’t seem like anything to chase after or Dream of…

I'm also building a Windy Druid right now, so this is quite interesting. Personally, I'd say this +6

Helm isn't worth it. It's just super hard to find and as you say, there are better/cheaper options. I'm going with either

Shako or

Nightwing's Veil most likely. Maxroll and others always recommend stuff like this +6

Helm, or rare helms that are both insanely expensive and rare. Although I'm not poor, these items tend to still be out of my price range. Thankfully we have excellent unique/set/rune word options.

Not really sure but looks like others have looked into this on a website that shall not be named.
https://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=46118651&f=87

The +5 rare pelts can roll with 2 sockets and some other gg mods, and the +6 have a 50/50 chance to get 2os with Lazurk. Which is beneficial for putting pvp jewels in. However, the sacrifices you need to make with other gear to reach that 163FCR breakpoint also always made me wonder if I was missing something.

I still have a level 86 endgame Wind druid, could always use some improvement, still relying on Spirit sword and shield and found extra magefists lately to give them one, also some trangoul gloves but will give them to a possible poisonmancer.

My guess would be that it's for PvP mainly. And PvP is a very différent world.

Besides, only +5/+6 nado is not enough to be GG, also needs +

Hurricane I think

Simply put, because ele druids scale too well with +skill all while having way too expensive and still crap FCR BPs.

If you go for the 163 BP instead of 99, you typically end up sacrificing a total of 5 skill points (+6 helmet to +3/20

Diadem and skill rings to FCR rings). Other pieces you can keep at the top-end +skill, with or without FCR. Dropping 5 full skill points across all of your ele skills gives you significantly lower

Hurricane dmg, a slight drop in

Cyclone Armor survivability and even for

Tornado, which is the one thing (offensively) that'd gain from the boost in FCR, you still go down in both per-hit dmg (massive drop) and DPS (slight drop) as the 1 extra frame doesn't make up for 5 skill points.
At the same time, you're also increasing your mana consumption for what is ultimately worse performance.

The only real gain is an extra frame on

Teleport speed which may well make it worth it but that's subjective and a lot of folks (if not most) prefer DPS + per-hit dmg over travel speed, making a +6 helmet the preferred choice. This is especially true for a class/build that doesn't exactly shine in terms of dmg/dps by comparison, meaning you spend more time fighting vs. traveling, making the dps gain relatively more important.

Quick maxroll reference (FCR vs. skill):

I personally use a Delirium built in a +3

Tornado +3

Hurricane pelt It gives you +5.
That's way cheaper and still ok if you don't want the 163% FCR breakpoint but only 99%.

163/99 builds are primarily for PVP; otherwise, generally for PVM you are going 99/99 and maximizing DPS in a +5/+6

Helm style.

There are godly rare pelts; I found one of the top ones on Hardcore East LOD, where you can roll a 2/10/3/3 = 2 Druid // 10% FHR // +3 Cane // +3 Nado on top of Life & Res Mods. And if you were so blessed by 2 sockets, I would take this all day over a +6 Nado.

But there are legit magic +6 pelts that can roll with life/mana mods as well and if you were to flip 2 sockets at

Larzuk you could stack

Jah's,

Ber's, or 7/15's, or multiple other options in there.