2.7 Summon Druid Guide

tmGrunty wrote: 1 year ago

Patch 2.7 doesn't come with any changes to Summon Druid so there will not be any changes to my guide.

The one thing possibly worth noting is that you could now skip the oft used

Shock Wave in favor of

Twister without sabotaging your group.
Given, the

Stun isn't even close to comparable but you can stay out of bear form for it.

Pre-patch, using it would've blocked all NHD-affected damage from the rest of your group. Now, no longer a problem.

I still prefer the

Shock Wave.
It's more reliable and you get the extra HP from the Bear form.
Also

Twister stun duration is so short because unlike

Shock Wave it doesn't increase per level.

You usually only need the

Stun in emergency situations or for stationary fights (e.g.

Baal waves).
And in those cases the additional HP from the

Werebear is great too.

Agreed. If you actually need a

Stun,

Shock Wave is far superior.

Personally, tbh, I'm specced for

Shock Wave but never use it. I don't even shift into bear form as shockwave just isn't necessary and I prefer to just keep telestomping instead.

Either way,

Twister is at least an option now.

Zookeeper for life.

Updated for ladder season 5.

There have been no content additions or changes to anything that affect Summon Druid.
Therefore nothing has changed about my guide.

However I finally reached level 99 on my own char and I managed to get some better boots and better charms which is reflected in my "Valak" layout.

Just looked - your

Boots are absolutely crazy !

Necrarch wrote: 7 months ago

Just looked - your

Boots are absolutely crazy !

Thank you.
They were quite expensive but pretty much exactly what I wanted.

I would make 2 changes to your build. The less impact full would be to go for

Poison Creeper in order to get aoe poison damage (who stop monster regen). It would help but would not change much.

However your should use Bramble for your mervenary, it would drasticly improve your damage espacially with

Decrepify. You would maybe loose a bit survivability for your merc but he should be ok around the zoo

There is no need to stop monster regeneration whatsoever unless you do Ubers and DiaClone for which I have a different Merc setup anyway to stop it.
The

Poison Creeper is a good skill to get through normal difficulty if you want to level with it.
After that it falls off hard.

Bramble doesn't do much. The

Thorns aura does way less damage than what you'd lose on damage from the Fortitude on the Merc.
I have tried one on a

Maul Druid's merc and the damage is just pitiful.

Updated for season 6.

Re-added Bramble as an armor option for Merc for the

Thorns aura for specifically high player counts (I stil think Fortitude is better).

Also updated my own gear with a shiny new pelt

Small update:

I actually started this season with a Druid using my guide and recommended items while leveling.
It worked very well but as stated it is not the fastest char out there.
I used items from the "leveling" section while leveling, transitioned over to the "budget" section and am now working towards the "

Raven" setup.

I do have to say that while the Act 5 Merc with Lawbringer works to break physical immunes it is so much less reliable than Act 2 Merc with

The Reaper's Toll.
Not only does the Lawbringer proc less, the Act 5 Merc also often immediately overwrites it again with his

Taunt and the

Sanctuary Aura is very annoying.