HC Druid Summoner

[pakman]

Well, now that I've got HC up and running by changing the registry for the game, I have started HuggerOfTrees in HC the brother of the SC Tree_Hugger. I will be playing a full clear on /players8 the whole time.

For some reason I got a bad spawn on Blood Raven as she wouldn't target my minions, but would only shoot at me. I was barely able to swing cause I was either poisoned and chilled, poisoned, or chilled. I had to chug all the potions I had all rejuvs, blues, and reds. I came close to losing my very first HC char at level 8 several times. I am now at level 16 with 1 point in Oak, 1 in PC to keep monster regen down, 1 Raven, and 3 in Spirit Wolves.

I have a cold arrow merc and I gave her a 3os bow and stuffed it with some chippies. I also am using a short bow stuffed with three chippies. My killing sped right now is quite "fast" with the three wolves tanking and my merc and I plinking away from the back. I have mainly been pumping VIT and STR with a few points into DEX about 5 into energy. I am wondering how high I should pump my dex? I've been looking for armor and weapons with +AR so I can hit things, but I'm guessing that a pure summoner is going to have a rough time hitting things eventually. I have enabled the Realm only runewords, so I plan on keeping my rogue merc and giving her an Edge bow seeing as the runes are pretty cheap to come by as you can cube up to them in SP if you don't find them (I believe).

I plan on maxing Oak, Spirit Wolves, Dire Wolves, Grizzly. should I put a few points into bear and shockwave that seems to be the common thing to do? Would getting an A2 Might merc be better thatn keeping a rogue with Edge. I'm not sure I would be able get the runes for an Insight stick or if that would really even be a good choice.

What are some suggesstions? I won't be able to get the godly gear and I just installed ATMA so I can start muling stuff away like gems and such.

[Munkay]

Great character name :lol:

If you are going to be a pure summoner I wouldn't put anymore points into Dex. As you mentioned, later on it becomes extremely hard to hit anything, and even if you do hit, without an investment in other attack skills it isn't going to be worth risk. More life is my advice!

With a nice flow of +vit points and boosted oak sage you can get through normal mode with barely any risk involved. My casting druid (hurricane/tornado) continued to be untouchable through nightmare act 5 - but he did get the occaisional item transfer/twink from my hardcore Hell MF sorc.

I'm thinking a bit off the wall here, but it may be worth investing some points into werebear and lycanthropy later down the road. Although you can't cast while in wereform, if your minions remain alive for a long period of time it may be worth the base +50% life from werebear, and +20% from lycanthropy (maybe even just 2 skill points, to use during boss battles). Who knows!

I'd still say stick with an act 2 merc for killing, moreso because the aura's could help your summons immensely - might for example could be great. But act 2 Mercs can also be incredibly strong - especially if you find any ethereal pike's in act4-act5 normal.

Cheers,

Munk

PS. You're making me miss Diablo 2 being installed on my computer! *curses his failed HD*:)

[pakman]

So would it be a good idea to get a low end bow for myself and stick Edge in it so I can still get the thorns aura? What type of weapon should I be acarrying around since I'm not going to be in combat. That's mainly what I was going for. But then again, I can hire an A2 merc with that (I wish I could have more than one mercenary and make an army of them!) and give him a nice stick to poke people with. He'll have huge life from the Oak Sage and my summons will have large life but I'm not sure how they'll be able to hit things later on either. I'll probably put a lot of points into strength so I can carry some heavier armor with nice mods, or try to get some runewords that would be beneficial because I never have any luck with any of my characters in finding uniques and set items. Kinda like how I never roll above a 1 on a d6 in warhammer 40K to make an armor save. I just don't have that kind of luck, even with MF.

[Munkay]

I've never tried using an edge bow, but I believe it was Librarians suggestion and it sounds brilliant. Is it worth carrying it? I'd say as long as it helps kill the monsters more than you whacking stuff yourself, then definitely.

If you do go the route of non-combat (which I think is the best option), an ideal weapon would be the unique cudgel the Dark Clan Crusher. Since cudgels are pretty popular drops, you have a decent shot at finding one with at least one of your characters as they move through normal and nightmare. I think that is a good item to put on your wish list, since it is attainable for the SP char. Even fleshrender could be good if you go with werebear form for more life.

As far as saving strength for a good armor goes, it's not that bad of an idea. But I'd mull over armor types and str requirements, or more ideally wait to find an armor before you put too much in STR. A lot of STR is nice for its versitility in being able to wear just about anything, but I tend to pump the extra points in Vit (with higher level oak sage, each +5 Vit ~ 20 health, so just an extra 25 STR could translate to over an extra 100 life). The decision is definitely up to you, and worth thinking it over.

On my SP hardcore elemental druid I went with a minimum amount of STR and slowly put together a 4 socket perf ruby armor. The reason why? I wasn't very lucky finding something better. Plus the extra health was ridiculous when coupled with Oak sage. I picked up my resists by slowly building a 4 socket perf diamond shield, and raising as much money as possible. Then I gambled the money on boots and gloves (low leathers stay very cheap ~10k-15k up to level 40 ish). After a lot of gambling I was able to get some very nice double resist boots (+25%), and some resist gloves + some life. By level 45 ish I had almost 2k health and 55-75 resists in Nightmare.

It's worth looking at higher def vs. more life. It may work better to go with a higher def plate and invest the str, than it does for the health. But the uber health + good resists + smart playing makes you damn near invicible (I was tanking for my merc in act 5 normal with players 8 on).

The point about summons being able to hit monsters is an important one. I don't have experience here, so I won't pretend to know about it.

If you do like playing druids, later on you should consider playing a caster druid. They play a bit more like a summons Nec or summons Dru than the typical caster. Plus they aren't too item dependent to be strong all the way through nightmare mode.

Cheers,

Munk

[librarian]

Heiho.

I've never tried using an edge bow, but I believe it was Librarians suggestion ...

if so, I was ill at that time ^^
First I heavily dislike crossclass business, and second I'm not that great fan of thorny effects. One of Othin's Toxic Fairies has an Edge'd Rogue, though. Seems ok for support, if your patience doesn't wear out rapidly.

With enabled runewords a Spirit Sword is maybe easy to achieve, getting a plain 4sock sword with low requirements should be the worst part of it.

I always kept rule of thumb to reach about 80strength when playing notwink. Allows you to wear almost any normal and most of the light exceptional armors. Going for more defense is not necessary, when you have Minions to distract enemies. Defense is as near as useless against a great variety of attacks, and if you stay at the back of your zoo in a kind of Hunter style, it is completely useless.

[pakman]

With enabled runewords a Spirit Sword is maybe easy to achieve, getting a plain 4sock sword with low requirements should be the worst part of it.

I think I might be better off with the shield for the resists. I think I'm going to keep my rogue merc for now. But I would like the extra tank, especially if I'm using a grizzly for a situation, that extra body to take hits will do wonders. I am still yet undecided what kind of A2 merc to get, though.

EDIT: removed the gobs-of-stuff agianst demons because I was looking at a different runeword. whoops.

[librarian]

Heiho,

I think I might be better off with the shield for the resists. I won't be hitting things so I really don't need the +gobs-of-stuff against demons unless that somehow transfers over to my minions which I highly doubt, other wise people would be dual-wielding ethereal cruel collosus blades with 6os, one stuffed with a zod.

it doesn't transfer, right. But +2skills and FCR are nice attributes, and it may take some time to achieve even the easier to find uniques like Dark Clan Crusher, Islestrike or other weapons with druid skills (ok, you have whoppin' three free shots at Charsi to give her pieces of trees for imbueing).

A Spirit shield, well, has to be at least a Monarch, thus needs 156str, thus doesn't get a recommendation from me. It's way too easy to cramp three Diamonds in a shield for resistance, so I wouldn't spend double strength from my aforesaid intention just to get 2skills. With twinks, ok, there is enough decent stuff for boosting strength, but untwinked I think this is way too high if you don't go melee.

[pakman]

Heiho,
it doesn't transfer, right. But +2skills and FCR are nice attributes, and it may take some time to achieve even the easier to find uniques like Dark Clan Crusher, Islestrike or other weapons with druid skills (ok, you have whoppin' three free shots at Charsi to give her pieces of trees for imbueing).

A Spirit shield, well, has to be at least a Monarch, thus needs 156str, thus doesn't get a recommendation from me. It's way too easy to cramp three Diamonds in a shield for resistance, so I wouldn't spend double strength from my aforesaid intention just to get 2skills. With twinks, ok, there is enough decent stuff for boosting strength, but untwinked I think this is way too high if you don't go melee.

I did not know that it had to be that kind of shield, thus I will go with the sword. 156 STR is a waste of points that could have gone into VIT, especially notwink, agreed. My best bet would be to go with an 4os broadsword or longsword because eveything above that would require more than 80 STR, ofc ourse I can find a couple +STR items, but I would rather be wearing resist items. That being the case I'll end up crafting some safety items and maybe a caster ammy for FCR.

[Munkay]

Wait a minute.

Am I missing something? Spirit and Edge are both 1.10 rune words, only enabled on Battle.net Ladder. According to this page it does not work in SP (scroll down to middle of page). If what I am reading is correct, then all you will get are some random runes in a bunked item. Perhaps this is why I had not heard of an Edge runeword bow before this thread? Anyone care to shed some light on this?

Cheers,

Munk

[pakman]

Am I missing something? Spirit is a 1.10 rune word, only enabled on Battle.net Ladder. According to this page it does not work in SP (scroll down to middle of page). All you will get are some random runes in a bunked item.

This thread over at the Basin describes how I enabled the 1.10 realm only runewords in SP. Very simple, actually.

[Munkay]

This thread over at the Basin describes how I enabled the 1.10 realm only runewords in SP. Very simple, actually.

:D

Wow. I love the folks over at the AB. Thanks for clearing that up Pakman, and for the link!

Cheers,

Munk

[pakman]

UPDATE:

Well, I'm still slogging it away in A1 and I just entered the Jail at clvl 19. I now have 5 Spirit Wolves cause the extra tanks are nice and have put two points into Dire Wolves, although I have yet to summon them because I'll only do it when I'll be able to get three. I'm still using slvl 1 Oak Sage and PC, but PC will never rise above 1 point anyways. Statwise, I have around 45 STR and 65 VIT, and haven't added anything to DEX. I've added only about 7 points to energy so I can battle cast without having to chug as many blues. The only things my wolves have died to have been LEBs, the Smith didn't even pound one into the dirt, my dogs just ate hit legs right off. I've done a few Countess runs and got some low level runes that will come in handy later.

And I started using ATMA last night. WOW. I didn't know it let me take items from SC and transfer them into HC. That makes things so much easier. I've transferred in some unique low level and set items that will are useful at the moment. All my gems now reside in the ATMA stash and I plan on cubing them up with my necro who's in A3 at clvl32. I've stashed away a couple nice low level rare items that come in handy for levelling characters when I start them.

But, I fear I won't be playing much D2 this weekend:(. The first reason is that I'm going to be playing Warhammer 40K and the second is that I'm painting my bedroom. I guess we'll see what happens.

[pakman]

Little update here. I took out Andariel with no problem, I didn't even get poisoned, merc didn't die once, and I didn't even have to recast the puppies. So far it's been a steady progress. I cast the puppies to head off attacks from different directions from baddies like beetles that like to charge me. I also exchanged my A1 merc for a Blessed Aim merc to make sure the summons are hitting even though they do little damage. The wolves hardly die, partly because I keep recasting them, but they can take a beating with OS going. The only part that really slowed me down in A2 so far was the Arcane Sanctuary. I went thr wrong way the first and second times and got extremely frustrated as I always do in the AS because of the AI pathfinding. I'd have to say the worst part of that area as a summoner is the teleportation pads. The Maggot Lair was much of the same as the AS, but I again used the summons to scout ahead, etc. My next task is to take out Duriel. I just haven't decided if I want to go with the 5 Spirit Wolves or the Dires yet.

[Munkay]

Little update here. I took out Andariel with no problem, I didn't even get poisoned, merc didn't die once, and I didn't even have to recast the puppies. So far it's been a steady progress. I cast the puppies to head off attacks from different directions from baddies like beetles that like to charge me. I also exchanged my A1 merc for a Blessed Aim merc to make sure the summons are hitting even though they do little damage. The wolves hardly die, partly because I keep recasting them, but they can take a beating with OS going. The only part that really slowed me down in A2 so far was the Arcane Sanctuary. I went thr wrong way the first and second times and got extremely frustrated as I always do in the AS because of the AI pathfinding. I'd have to say the worst part of that area as a summoner is the teleportation pads. The Maggot Lair was much of the same as the AS, but I again used the summons to scout ahead, etc. My next task is to take out Duriel. I just haven't decided if I want to go with the 5 Spirit Wolves or the Dires yet.

Congrats on the steady progress:)

Your posts got me interested in reinstalling Diablo II on this laptop. When I reinstalled I checked out the mod/plugin PlugY. I have no idea how ATMA works, but PlugY allows you to share a stash with all your other characters - making muling and item switching a breeze. There are other options in PlugY which I disabled, but overall are nice additions: a list of character stats - total % life leech, total %faster attack etc; a diagnostic mode - when enabled you can redistribute stat points as well as skill points on the fly, in real time in game.

The reason for bringing all of that up, is I have a nightmare level druid currently. I'm going to backup the character save file and enable the point/skill redistrobution and fiddle around a bit with making a summoner druid. Perhaps I can give you some insight on what an untwinked character in Nightmare can expect:)

I'll check back a bit later, hopefully with some useful advice!

Cheers,

Munk

[Zingydex]

My next task is to take out Duriel. I just haven't decided if I want to go with the 5 Spirit Wolves or the Dires yet.

Dire Wolves, definitely. Spirit Wolves will evaporate in nothing flat against the higher-end enemies in the game, no matter how much you invest in toughening them up. And the damage they do in return is pitiful. Dire Wolves also remove corpses, thereby shutting down shaman-type monsters (which are far too numerous and powerful since the advent of 1.1x).

[pakman]

Dire Wolves, definitely. Spirit Wolves will evaporate in nothing flat against the higher-end enemies in the game, no matter how much you invest in toughening them up. And the damage they do in return is pitiful. Dire Wolves also remove corpses, thereby shutting down shaman-type monsters (which are far too numerous and powerful since the advent of 1.1x).

Not much to say today except that Duriel has been crumped soundly and safely. I ran around the other tombs first and met up with my old buddy Kaa the Soulless for grins and giggles. Been finding tons of rares and gambling away money so I can get some nice equipment for my mercenary. I dropped a point into carrion vine, and I don't think I've touched a red since, and my belt is now full of blues. Duriel himself was a little bit of a challenge. I stuck with the Dires fo killing him, and after he trounced my poison creeper about 10 times, I gave up using it against him. The first couple minutes he spent hitting my mercenary, and I had to go back to town to keep him from dying, I gambled a nice stick for him to use while doing this. After about the third TP, Duriel decided to switch targets and go after my wolves. I just kept summoning them as he killed them, and I'd have to say he made dogfood of about 40 of them. All the while he was doing this, Emilio (my mercenary) was happily and slowly poking away at him. All of this was on /players8 like normal. I'll see how A3 treats me tonight.

[pakman]

Well, I took Hugger Of Trees to A3 last night. Nothing too exciting. Flayers, gloams, cadavers, and spiders fall before the might of my minions. I found a nice big, rare sledgehammer that does a decent amount of damage, so I kept it and muled it off to ATMA. I also found a nice bone shield with increased blocking, chances to block, and some resists (it's purple!). I use that now with a rare twin axe just for style points. I *almost* threw away an amulet I found until I looked at the magic it caused...+1 to Druid Summoning Skills. Clvl 30 came and went, and my oh my, the grizzly is a great tank, but not great against swarms of flayers. They just run right past sometimes and head for me. I'll stick with the wolves. The bear has over 3k life with my lvl10 Oak Sage and is well synergized atm with slvl 10 spirit wolves and dire wolves. So far so good. Been muling off every gem and rune I find and have come up with a perfect gem in each category except for a skull. Gonna start cubing up runes seeing as I found a bunch of Tal and Tir last night, so maybe I can get a runeword going here pretty soon. That's all for now.

[pakman]

Well, the Durace was filled to the brim with dolls which I happinly ran away from and headed of charges with my pets. Emilio happily took all the death explosions for me without missing a step. Dolls and vampire lord things that suck life and drop meteors. Luckily no stair traps this time around, though. When I got down to the third level my grizzly decided to wake up all the monsters he could: a doll pack, a vampire lord thingy boss back, and the council member. With some artful dodging and maneuvering, I was able to have the bear and merc pick off monsters one by one. After sitting there and shaking for about 5 minutes, becuase I always hate that part of the Durance, it was time to work my way towards Mephy. All baddies on the way were thouroughly dispatched. I got to Meph and started wailing on him....or at least the bear and merc did. However, Mephisto decided to concentrate on the bear while Emilio happily poked him to death. Once in a while, Meph would decide to take a swing at the PC and destroy it, no biggy. I got up and got a drink, came back, and he was dead. He didn't drop anything of mention, though.

I also started A4, and I it was relatively steady. I worked my way to Izzy with no problems. I let Emilio and Bear take him out while I went and did something else for about 10 minutes...That's how safe I felt.

However, there will be no D2 this weekend. I have some friends coming up from Indianapolis and we're going to be playing Warhammer 40K all weekend. Look for the next update (if anyone ever reads this) on Monday.

[Heather]

Soloing normal Diablo with a summoner of any type is crazy scary.

I'm working on a hardcore "deathpoll" character on USWest Hardcore Ladder whose progress I'm chronicling on the AB forums when they come back up. His name is Brother_Francis and he's a peaceful preaching man. No weapon no shield and very very low end armor items. Currently he's up to act 4 nightmare, and still using dire wolves exclusively for thematic reasons (an anecdote of St. Francis of Assisi involves him taming a wolf that was threatening a village).

I've been beating most act bosses by spamming wolves to distract while my rogue merc does the damage. That didn't work so well for the big D. My summons and merc got toasted every time D as much as sneezed. Normal Diablo has been the longest and hardest battle he has faced so far.

My ravens actually helped quite a bit, since they can't be killed, so they did a bit of whittling down on his health. Mainly it was an exercise in reviving my merc a lot and staying quick on my feet and quick to recast cyclone armor (my only form of elemental defense at the time due to Francis' equipment restrictions). Used up about a tome's worth of TP scrolls. I spammed wolves when I was able, but mainly it was just patience and trying to get D to concentrate on something other than my rogue so she could get in a few shots before dying to a firestorm or LBoD. (She had near maxed fire and lightning resist thanks to a nice rare circlet, but still died very quickly.)

Are you using a poison creeper much? They are surprisingly helpful, even as a one point wonder. Monsters like to chase it and it spends enough time underground that it tends to survive quite well. The creeper also did a good job helping take D's health down since it survived better than the other summons. Keep combat casting it near him.

With regard to things other than just Diablo...

You might consider switching between wolves and bear situationally -- the bear is nice for tanking mean things, but the wolves are nice for distracing big mobs.

My rogue used an Edge bow until act 3 NM when I found a WWS with another character (merc does not have equipment restrictions -- she's Francis' guardian angel and so need not be poorly dressed). It was really nice, the speed in particular helped. I really like using a rogue merc with a summoner to give a ranged attack. (Actually I'm a big fan of rogue mercs for everything except caster characters). The Edge works very nicely, although the thorns doesn't do as much as you might hope -- thorns works best with bone walls or decoys, rather than moving targets. But if you have no other pressing equipment needs, by all means it doesn't hurt. If Francis didn't have moral objections to bearing arms I'd probably let him hold an edge bow now that my rogue isn't using one anymore.

Anyway, good luck with big D, I hope for a favorable progress report!

Heather

[pakman]

I know well the adventures of Brother Francis becuase I have been following his progress on the AB:)I didn't get to the Dog this weekend, but I did manage to make it safely through the RoF. HeyFatSo didn't present as much of a problem as I thought he would, and it was really easy to find him, too. He was taking a lunch break just east of the entrance to RoF and I used the Bear to take him out quickly while I popped an exp shrine and cleared the area. The Forge gave me an Amn and I found an Ort later, so now all I have to do is find myself a 4 socket broadsword so I can make that Spirit RW (I have enabled realm words as seen in my posts in the HC room on the Basin). I mainly used the bear in the RoF for his tanking ability along with the PC and ravens. I have been using a BA merc to make sure that everyone is always hitting. I am also thinking about sticking a Malice stick on the merc for the Dog when I decide to start clearing the CS. I will most likely be using the Bear, but might switch to the wolves if I start to get mobbed. We'll see what happens. HuggerOfTrees WILL make it through:)