How to improve my druid?

Druid
1

Hi,

I do SSF this season and I have a fury druid, originally built to be able to kill DClone and now I got some good stuff, but need some insights from more experienced players how to further improve it.

Current gear:

  1. Weapon: Upped, non-eth Ribcracker (with a “29% edmg, 26% dmg to undead” jewel), 315-472 dmg.
  2. Armor: Duress in Dusk.
  3. Pelt: 2 Druid, 26 life, 10% FHR, fire res 23% (no Jalal yet).
  4. Crafted gloves: 2%life/3%mana leech, 9%cb, 11str, 20life.
  5. Boots: 10%FHR, lit res 35%, fire res 24%.
  6. Ring1: 104AR, fire res 26%.
  7. Ring2: 68AR, 8%life steal, cold res 30%.
  8. Belt: 24%FHR, tri res, 50 life
  9. Amu: 2 druid, all res 18
  10. Weapon2: Baranars for immunes with Rhyme, but I usually play with a friend, so phys immunes are not a big problem and when I play alone I can farm areas without Phys immune (Hell already done).

Charms: nothing too crazy, mostly res/life/AR, 11/17 anni, no torch yet.
Runes: 1 Vex, 1 Gul, 1 Ist, 1 Lem, 3 Fal and a few similar level runes at my friend.
Life: 1739 in ww form.
Resists: f/l/c: 75, p: 69.
Merc: act 2 blessed aim, Tal Rasha helm, non-eth Guardians Angel, Obedience in eth Tresher.
Str: base 203 (needed as I used Windhammer before I found the Ribc.)
Dex: base 117 (needed as I did not have enough AR)
Vita: base 165 (technically the “rest” after str/AR requirement)
Lvl: 83
Reset: 1 remained in Hell, no tokens yet.
Skills: 20 WW, 20 Lyc, 20 Fury, 20 Heart of W., 12 (so the remaining) Feral Rage.

New possible gear:

  1. Just got an eth, 5sox Decapitator. Already have a Vex and a Gul and so the first obvious question: would it be a good idea to make Death in it, or now that I have a Ribc. would it be just a waste of runes?
  2. I have a 5 sox, non-eth Thunder maul, but I think the Decap would out dps it, especially that I dont have runes above Vex.
  3. I tried Werebear at the beginning. I have a 3 werebear, 2 rabies 3sox pelt with Ground rw. Shall I go back to bear or remain wolf?
  4. I have a few other bases, like non eth, 4 sox Tresher and similar quality armor.
  5. I have a 8%mana/5% life steal amu with 17%cold res and 8% for the others, but no skill in it.
  6. Few other AR/leach rings, nothing too crazy again.
  7. The old Shaeled non-eth Windhammer (219% edmg, so quite low roll), but the Ribc. feels significantly better.

Once again, I do SSF usually alone or with a friend of mine, so we dont trade for these characters. The only allowed thing is to do a few Baal runs in public, but only for exp and not allowed to pick up stuff. :smile:
How should I improve this char? Should I reset for a better skill allocation? Should I make the Death in the Decap.? Should I stay or should I g…ops, that is something else…

Currently the damage is okay. Due to the life steal I very quickly can recover health, although sometimes I still die. I am not too experienced with melee, this is why I could use an extra pair of eyes on this.

Thanks in advance!

Update 14th April:
As no comment came in, I decided to make the Death rw in the Decap (358% edmg, so mid roll). Now the attack speed loss is very noticable, although my single target damage is still higher.
I think the next step is to try to get a Laying of Hands and maybe to make a Hustle rw in an armor. However, it means I will loose the Open Wounds / Prev. M. Heal from Duress, plus I will loose a good amount of cold resist. So, maybe at this point I will need to keep two different gear setup. One for mf-ing and one for DClone/Ubers. Or I will still need to use the secondary weapon options Malice rw for DClone.

2

I played fury druid this season and just some observations that I had;

Going from obedience act 2 merc → frenzy act V with double lawbringer was a massive boost to my merc’s surviability as well as my survability. I was using eth shaftstop and tal rasha’s helmet on act 2 merc and still the surviability boost was insane when I went to lawbringer act V, but not just for him but for me also.

The enemies that I struggled most with were skeletons because no life leech, and the ghosts because even with bone break to break their immunity, they were still beating me down. Lawbringer removed that problem with the constant knockbacks. Highly, highly recommended. (chaos sanc runs became a complete joke also)

I used hearth as a helmet for cannot be frozen, because I’ve never seen a raven frost in my life and it is very upsetting. I don’t see your cannot be frozen on here? Maybe I missed it!

Theres no reason to run rabies and bear IMO if you are a fury druid without metamorphesis.

Your weapon is pretty good. Ribcracker is wonderful. Personally I have been using a 4so eth feral axe for oath. I got so lucky to find an eth feral axe and then I cubed the sockets and got 4. I would still love to see ribcracker though as there are not many recommended weapons above it, but the main big boy is breath of the dying. so keep and eye out for an etherial giant thresher, great poleaxe, thunder maul or the best option: archon staff with 0 or 6 sockets. It has to be etherial though!

The next thing I’d honestly look at is improving your attack speed. I made a duress and it was absolutely the wrong choice for me this season because I lose too much attack speed compared to hustle and treachery, but I see your gloves don’t even have attack speed on them at all so you’re in a worse position than me! Fury druid thrives on life leech and without attack speed you suddenly start dying to things like trav council.

I run 20 in feral rage just for the life leech to be maxxed, with crafted gloes at 20% attack speed, and treachery for 45% attack speed, so I am constantly leeching massive amounts of life insanely fast. The fade proc from treachery is also just OP. I want to use duress but I don’t think I can without the amulet that gives attack speed. Atma’s scarab is what I use and its freaking amazing for the amp damage, especially prior to having bone break.

to clarify, dclone was super easy very early on for me. I was able to take him down with hustle as a weapon in a military axe, using temper as a helmet instead of hearth. attack speed, life leech, crushing blow on gloves, and attack rating are all you really need to take him down. Ampy damage sources certainly speed up the kill, but it is the most budget friendly druid build for dclone.

I have zero experience with ubers so keep that in mind.

3

Since I opened this thread, I had some changes.

I am already lvl 85 and did not respec, just continued maxing out Feral Rage.

I made the Death in my eth 5 sox Decapitator, got about 365% emg, so its the upper half even if not perfect and it hits hard.

I ran out of Ko runes, so I still was not able to make Hustle armor, but I will definitely do that when I can. Keep in mind, I do SSF this season, so I use what I found (actually do it with my friend, but none of us trade for these characters, so it is still almost exactly SSF).

I now also use Laying of Hands and put away the crafted gloves, so now I have some more IAS, Dmg and the plus Fire resist is also nice.

We found an average Ravens and also found Draculs, so DClone is easy-peasy. Killed him like 5 times already, even alone.

I also got a low roll Jalal, and while I dont have IAS amulet, the one I have has at least the +2 druid skills, all res, some life/mana, so its pretty good, even if not perfect.

My main concern was the use of Vex for Death, but I did not regret using it. Yes, it is slower than Ribby, but it 1-2 hits most mobs simply because the Death is in an eth Decap, but my Ribby is non-eth and also mid roll.

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4

I haven’t had the chance to try death yet! 10/10 wouldn’t go back?

5

For the “price” it offers excellent damage. The only drawback is the speed loss. So, probably Hustle is a must if you want to use it, but against a non-eth, mid dmg Ribby its a no brainer and I would not go back. And let’s not forget, eth Ribby needs a Zod and the Zod is not a Vex/Gul. :slight_smile:

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