Buffing the summon druid

Druid
21

It’ m interesting build!

From a summoner’s perspective though I wouldn’t use it for a few reasons.

I considered the cleansing aura , only problem being the ennemy will simply re-cast the curse immediately so it doesn’t help all that much. It could be helpful if the main source of dmg came from a melee char build fighting alongside my summons though. If I built my char like that then plague would be good.

Another thing is if I want to fully benefit from plague I would need to build around it so to speak. Things like lower resist for example would benefit from non physical types of dmg but physical is the main source of dmg a summon druid deals.

That leads me to my other point . The rabies and poison creeper investment instead of ravens make this a rabies druid rather than a summoner. Don’t get me wrong rabies druid is a perfectly fine build but it’s not a sumonner druid.

I also use bramble for the thorns aura but I’m very realistic about the amount of dmg it deals. I got it hoping blizzard would actually fix the aura eventually. The main reason most people get bramble however is for the increased poison damage which again goes back to it being optimal for a rabies druid or a poison necro.

Heart of wolverine realy depends on playstyle but I prefer survivability since my summons are already boosted by synergies and 3 other different sources : might aura - concentration aura from Pride runeword on merc- amp damage.

All this to say your build actually seems pretty
fun it’ just not a sumoner which is what I like to play as

1 Like
22

I find this post relevant & I like the ideas, but I do disagree with most of it.

Their are couple of comments I agree/disagree with…

“Passive : SPIRIT WOLVES AWAKENING”

“Allies can phase through them. This Allows more allies to engage enemies simultaneously and prevents the spirit wolves from getting in the way of their allies.”
I do agree with this one, they are spirit wolves “ghostly”.
10 ghosts can stand on one spot & hit one spirit wolf, but spirit wolves can do the same against 1 or 10 ghosts. That is unfair & not balanced.

“Spirit wolves deal physical damage and convert it to cold. This allows auras and other modifiers to benefit”
Here I agree & disagree.
They should do either Physical Damage or Magical Damage. Ghosts in the forgotten tower do physical damage, so I would suggest it to stay physical only, but magical damage is acceptible from my perspective.

1 Like
23

Ty for the feedback ! The spirit wolf damage is tricky because dealing cold dmg lets them deal with physical imunes if you do t have a sunder. Although they do it very slowly.

On the other hand every dmg boosting aura or spirit is wasted on them which is a real shame.

1 Like
24

I understand what you are trying to say, but it does not make sense to me.
Spirit wolves has teleport ability & they are not “ghostly” & they do cold damage for being a living animal. It does not make sense to me.

Spirit wolves according to me.

They should be…

  1. Ghostly
  2. Being able to walk through walls, doors & other objects.
  3. Being able to attack minions on the other side of the wall, door or what ever object stands in their way.
  4. Either only do physical damage or magical damage. In this case, I would vote for “magical damage”.

I do however like the idea of being immune to curses, but only regarding the spirit wolves.

I will gonna read your suggestion again, you do have some interesting ideas.

Nicely done.

1 Like
25

When it comes to “DIRE WOLVES UNLEASHED”

I disagree with these.
“Cannot be slowed or frozen”
“Two additionnal Dire wolves can be summoned”
Reason I disagree, is because, I didnt have any problems on Season 4 with my Druid summoning on Hell level with slowed or frozen. It took time, to kill the minions, but it worked.

I also disagree with “Maxed resistances”, but agree to “No immunities”.
I never had any issue with resistance on Hell level. I just summon the Dire Wolf, if it died in battle.

I agree with this one “Chance of open wounds”.
“Chance of open wounds”, not even on strike, but after each hit.
They must have some short of an attack which makes these Dire Wolves uniq & “Chance of open wounds” is perfect for the Dire Wolves.
Ghosts can be immune to “Chance of open wounds”.

Just an idea of the behavior “Chance of open wounds” on Dire Wolves.
Summon 3 Dire Wolves.
Summon 1 Dire Wolf, should give 5% - Chance of open wounds
Summon 2 Dire Wolves, should give 10% - Chance of open wounds
Summon 3 Dire Wolves, should give 20% - Chance of open wounds

I almost agree on this one, except for 5 Dire Wolves, so I will change it to 3 Dire wolves.
“While all 3 Dire wolves are alive their attack speed as well as that of the other summons is increased”.
I would say, “Movement speed”.
When all 3 Dire wolves are summon, their Dire Wolves movement speed should be increased to xx%
If one dies, movement speed should reset back to normal untill the last one has been summon.

1 Like
26

I dont know much about the werebear, I dont see many players play with the Druid “Werebear” & I never tried it either. I can not apply much when it comes to “Werebear”.

“PASSIVE : KODIAK GUARDIANSHIP ( applies to both grizzly and werbear) :”

I agree with “Crushing Blow”.
“XX% chance of crushing blow (Including to Grizzly Bear)”
I always though that Werebear & Grizzly Bear did blow the brains out of the minions when in confrontation. Wolves open wounds & Bears blows the brain out of the minions.
So I agree that both, the Werebear & Grizzly bear gets a chance of Crushing Blow xx%.

When it comes to “Cannot be stunned or frozen” for the Grizzly Bear.
I disagree.
Same answer as before…“I didnt have any problems on Season 4 with my Druid summoning on Hell level with slowed or frozen. It took time, to kill the minions, but it worked.”

When it comes to “Cannot be stunned or frozen” for the Werebear.
I do agree. This will make the Werebear a little uniq it self. Unstoppable Werebear on action.

I disagree with these.
“Attacks cannot be interrupted”
“15% Chance the ennemy stuns himself when striking you”
“15% chance twice the damage recieved given back to striking ennemy”
They are not bad ideas, but disagree.

1 Like
27

For what its worth, you can look at rabies as just the synergy needed to buff poison creeper. I highly recommend teating it out for yourself, its a very strong summon… similar to a self casting “fissure” or you can manually aim it if you want and re-summon it on mobs. I have two versions I’m currently testing:

20 Rabies, 20 Psn Creeper, 20 Raven, 20 Grizzly, 20 Dire wolf, 6-7 spirit wolf.

Other one is maxing heart of the wolverine instead of Raven. Maxing out wolverine you get about 100% more enhanced damage over one point base. Still need more levels though and time to test which i like better. I should add thaf the poison from creeper doesnt interfere with other poison sources, its a unique effect, so if you wanted to play bow you could stack poison damage scs under your summon gcs and still use poison as a different damage source.

Poison creeper is nice because it creates an area on the ground that acts almost like fissure but for some reason it does busted damage.

2 Likes
28

I can only speak for the Grizzly Bear, I dont know much about the WereBear.

I find the Automatic Trigger relevant for the Grizzly Bear.

Autotrigger for the Grizzly Bear.
When the Grizzly Bear gets surrounded by minions for more then “XX” seconds, it should release a loud roar (AutoTrigger) & stun the minions for a “XX” seconds.

29

Well, I got my Zealot to 99 and moved back to playing my Summon Druid.
I used up a token to respec him.
Sidetrack;
I had tried adding points to rabies to boost poison creeper, and it was ok… admittedly, neither were maxed, and, I just couldn’t bring myself to go that route… I do have a lvl91 fire druid that I’m bored with, so, maybe I’ll token him into a poison-zoo deal.
So, I pulled all my points out of the shape shift tree, and maxed the Zoo, Heart of Wolverine and the rest went to poison creeper.
Still running Act1 merc with Mist(conc) and Faith on me(fanata)…
I tried a Wrath(decrep) on my merc and is was not as good as Mist… she just would not target what the Zoo was focused on (and I do like that about her, she zaps outliers and sneaky monsters coming in from behind)… I then messed up and made a Wrath for myself in a Shadow bow… and, ya, I cannot use it, requires wayyyy too much dexterity. So that was a waste.
With Wolverine maxed the Zoo is noticeably better, and, the Poison Creeper is still very useful.
I no longer can shift for Baal, but, the Zoo is reliably taking him down… albeit rather slowly… interestingly, the Zoo is surviving better than previously as well… maybe the boost in attack rating is allowing them to hit more (putting Ball in recovery… briefly??), thus taking less damage.
Not sure.
Have not had DClone spawn yet with these changes… that might get a little interesting.

Oh, he is now lvl95… I have a really nice crafted ring for him if I can get to lvl96 :).

1 Like
30

Well, I completely frigged him up…
He was wearing a WireFleece Enigma, which requires 111 strength.
Foundd a Dusk Shroud Enigma on a mule, and swapped that over and Token’d him to pull points out of strength to put in Life… but failed to notice I was wearing a Mara’s and Arachnid while doing so…
Now, if I want to run Razortail, Nosfer or Highlords, I cannot equip my Enigma, or my Faith bow.
I only have 1 token left (and Meph simply refuses to give me ess’s)… wish me luck I do not screw it up again…

ETA;
Success.
I can now wear Atma’s, Highlords, Mara’s, +3Summon Ammy - WispProjector, RavenFrost, B-Katho’s, SoJ, Arach, Nosfer, RazorTail, TGod’s in any order… and yet have gained an extra 100 to life… for the cost of 71 to defense, but, I think I run fastrer… so… ???
I can also now cast the Zoo/HoW at lvl47, Poison Creeper at lvl32 and OakSage at lvl28…
And, I now have 75% all res.

31

I tried to follow your lead on Cannot be Frozen… it’s a real hit, when it most counts on my guy. I do not pretend my Druid is a significant damage dealer, but, he is a noticeable contributor. When he’s frozen, and slowed to a crawl, he’s not dishing out near enough Deadly Strike or Amp Damage depending on the Amulet I am running for the zone.

If the developers are not going to “develop”/buff the Summon(s) Druid character any further (and they have done great so far, so, thanks), I would suggest a new item be added… a +5 skills Ammy… that provides DeadyStrike (per char level ,similar to Highlords… guilty wish) and/or crushing (possibly per char level - again) that applies to the Zoo!
(which goes back to some of your suggestions, but, maybe an Amulut makes it easy on the programming side).
I would actually put my nostalgia hat on and play a Ladder if it were a ladder only introduction.
Still may join this ladder to make a Cure… undecided… Summon Druid really needs a curse duration/mitigation tool… maybe incorporate into Heart of the Oak…

Even casting the Zoo/HoW at level 47, and providing lvl12 Concentration along with lvl15 Fantacism… and tossing a lvl32 poison Creeper in… and having 2 decent ranged attackers… he’s just really slow… and I think will live a short life vs DClone… and, no way he’s doing Ubers… pretty much need a Wolf or Bear Hybrid… and that seems a shame.

1 Like
32

I agree with .ost of what you said.

You could buff the summons twice over and he still wouldn’t be OP lol.
His summons need utility buffs ( like immunity to curses for example or improved AI , or them being able to phase through each other so they dont get in each other’s way, more dmg ect )

I also think introducing new summon druid specific items would encourage people to play more and try him.

Ps : for the cannot be frozen if my procs depended on my attacks i would definitely put a cham in my jallal’s. Since my amp proc is triggered by the ennemy hitting me I dont need it

1 Like
33

Ya, I do like those.

Have ran DClone 3 times (all successfully) with pure summoner since I last posted.
1st go was rough, did not have Atma’s on, used HoW… and was loosing the Zoo rapidly, caused me to swap to Hoto/Spirt and cast cast cast. Was slow, and made moments where bailing out seemed a good idea… at one point the Zoo got obliterated, and my merc and I were running for our lives as I got the Zoo back up and running. Merc made it almost to the end, she got eliminated seconds before the Zoo ended DClone.

The next 2 times I made sure to have Atma’s on (and swapped out Bow-IAS gear for my casting-+slikks-fcr gear… 'cept Atma’s as noted), and Oak Sage… still a very slow process, but the Zoo was way more stable, and it made for a way safer event.

1 Like
34

Nice! I payed that build before. A bow and atma’s ammy to proc amp dmg

Ieven tried a faith bow to helpmy summons more.

Even crazier I used a Delirium helmet.
Crowd control was incredibly fun ahah

35

I agree that summons need buffs, for instance doing Ubers and Dclone, they should have open wounds, max resistances, cannot be frozen, when baal uses decrepify AND his chill spell it is ridiculously slow if any damage at all is dealt.

I just walked Normal and Nightmare myself on my Summon Druid and honestly they were a pain.

My main is a Summon Necromancer which i’ve played since LoD so I know how summons should work.

Honestly if I were to buff Druid Summons in addition to what you stated, they need a larger aggro radius, currently I can’t even count how many times wolves and bears are standing 5 feet away from enemies doing nothing but standing still or walking around like they have nothing to attack.

Secondly, their movement speed needs a buff, I would say 25% run speed minimum and probably 30% maximum, it’s annoying to have to constantly recast them because they slow walk to a target (especially Grizzly) or they are just standing still while half the pack is attacking enemies.

Meanwhile Summon Skeletons will run and attack things that are so far away you can’t even see them on your screen and they run very fast and are highly aggressive.

The other thing that irritates me is when you teleport (goes for all summoning classes) all of the summons are stuck in one spot, that shouldn’t happen, they should immediately spread out as soon as you teleport.

Also, Carrion Vine and Spirit need huge buffs, they die constantly and it’s a pain in the butt to constantly recast them, their health is far too low and they should receive some type of health and defense synergy from Grizzly.

Carrion Vine should also heal all party members and summons including mercenary, it’s not like Carrion Vine is overpowered honestly it’s slow as hell to start consuming bodies sometimes you have to stand around bodies for 20 seconds before it starts consuming and for that amount of time to wait it should heal every ally.

36

These comments I agree with…
—> “wolves and bear are standing 5 feet away from enemies doing nothing but standing still or walking around like they have nothing to attack.”

&

—> “Their movement speed needs a buff.”

I did manage to kill Diablo Clone before, it took a little time.

I also manage to kill the Uber Izual, Uber Duriel & Lilith.
Uber Izual wasnt the biggest problem.
Uber Duriel was a problem due to cold impact. Without my merc, I wouldnt be able to kill Duriel.
Lilith can be taken down, but is much harder then Uber Duriel.
Sometimes/manytimes I had to refill belt with full potions.
Much better to clear the Lilith dungeon with the Druid Summon & confront Lilith with Paladin Smite.

I next goal is Uber Tristam & wonder if someone has manage to kill Uber Tristam with a Druid Summon.

Do share your idea´s & builds for Druid Summon.

37

I think the main situation is that while a necromancer has things to do (CE, Amp and such), Druids main thing is either Shockwave, getting into the thick and heavy with melee, or using a Faith bow, as well as the summon damage, while nice, is nowhere near the absurdity of Revived creatures, the 16 skellies with 8k health and 2k damage, where the skellies alone are doing 32k total with amp, faith, might and pride vs the roughly 30k with the same setup with Direwolves and the Bear against Lilith. I think they just need either a fat damage bump, or something more interesting happening, like your Crushing Blow idea for the bear and Open Wounds for the wolves, and probably more importantly, they should give us at least a unique item that grants a solid amount of charges in Amplify damage or a runeword that gives access to it.

As for the Spirit wolves, I think they should change their damage type to either Magical and do a higher damage boost, or just go physical and say screw it and just try to add in a function that can lower PR/Immunity, like Decrepify or Amp.

ooo, it would’ve been nice if they allowed all three spirits out as well instead of just one, as well as the vines.

38

It will be also nice if ravens have unlimited hits, and all summons come with u in new game like with necro iron golem, for not resumon all of them in new game.

39

absolutely + really feelsgood, also i would add evasion for them like 50 %

absolutely + too, and feels like the buff from eating corp of enemy need more time

and Grizzly bear CB are the good idea too, but something like 35 % at lvl one and 2 % per each lvl feels good

Pray the DEVs do something with this pets, especially they IA must be IMPROVED for 100 %