Normal Lvl29 Zoo Druid Chaos Sanctuary - Need Help

General Discussion
1

I think I need some help. I’m a level 29 normal single-player beginner - so advanced nightmare/runes/charms/etc. is not helpful for my situation.

I was easily mowing through every boss and mob with this guy - including Travincal, the super bosses in the Chaos Sanctuary, etc. . . until Diablo himself.

I discovered my 10% fire resist was immediate death with Diablo. So I added gear to max fire res to 75%. He lived maybe 5 seconds longer.

All my summoned animal buddies were trashed by Diablo’s fire attacks. I couldn’t re-summon them fast enough just for them to die.

My Desert Merc with his fancy Malice polearm lasted maybe 6 seconds - 1 second longer than my zoo friends.

Any recommendations for keeping these minions alive long enough so I can fill Diablo full of arrows? Or any helpful advice for my pet-friendly hippie?

2

Keep resummoning until they somehow kill Diablo I guess, or switch to fire build.

3

I don’t remember having those extreme issues with any of my zoo keepers.
If everything else fails, cast ravens when they expire since they cannot be killed and kite yourself. Drink pots. Don’t bother with your summons except maybe grizzly since he keeps D occupied a bit.

If you’re looking for specific help, you should post your skills and items you’re wearing. Otherwise people will be groping in the dark.

4

My first suggestion would be to fill your inventory with potions before starting the fight. Don’t hesitate to chug them down. You can simply town portal back to town, buy a bunch of new potions quickly, and return to the fight if you run out of them.

My second suggestion is to make sure to remember the animation when he is starting to use his two most dangerous skills : his fire torrent skill, and his lightning breath skill. You should always make sure to avoid the brunt of the damage of those.

My third point is to not hesitate to resummon your wolves as fast as they die. Try to summon them so that they surround him, rather than be almost all in the same direction. That should help their survivability so that they can bring down his HP.

Forget about the merc. You can resurrect him when you go back to town to get potions, but globally he isn’t going to survive long in boss fights.

If you get locked in a bone prison, you should be able to get out of it by going in and out of a town portal.

If you get just one extra level, you can unlock the bear, which is much more survivable than other minions and deals a lot of damage. Usually, the mass of wolves is more efficient, but when you are having trouble keeping your army out, the bear becomes super powerful.

Finally, don’t forget that Oak Sage and Heart of the Wolverine are pretty noticeable buffs, so it can be useful to keep one of them up.

1 Like
5

Mercenary and Summons take increased damage from enemy Monsters + Bosses. Grizzly is your best tank so getting to level 30 would be a prudent thing to do. Ravens are invulnerable and don’t expire until they expend their attacks. Just keep summoning them and kite Diablo while they do the hard work. Oak Sage can greatly enhance the life of you and your minions(Heart of Wolverine greatly enhances Damage/Attack Rating).

I recommend getting an Act 5 Mercenary and equipping it with Lawbringer(Amn Lem Ko) so you can get Sanctuary aura and Decrepify curse. You can find those runes in Nightmare Difficulty but its more for Hell Difficulty to deal with Physical Immunes that you’ll encounter there. You can also grab a A2 Thorns Mercenary but I would only do so if you had a Reaper’s Toll for it. Thorns would return all that extra damage your Merc + Summons take, hence is a strong aura for Summoner builds. Yet Thorns and Summoner builds rely heavily on reducing enemy Physical Resistance(hence why A5 Lawbringer is a strong choice).

Oh and one more thing. Flickering Flame(Nef Pul Vex) yields Resist Fire Aura. Resist Fire can make Summons immune to Fire Damage if their Resistance gets high enough.

1 Like
6

No doubt useful tips, but:

2 Likes
7

If you don’t want to level to 30 (where you get Grizzly, which is a MUCH better tank than the wolves) then the best way to deal with Diablo is just to keep summoning Ravens over his head. They will peck him to death eventually, although it is a long fight.

N.B. If you are on the Ladder, see if you can find an Amn rune (may take a lot of Countess runs but it can be done) and then build the “Edge” runeword (Tir-Tal-Amn) in the fastest bow that you can find, then either equip it yourself or (better still) put it in hands of an A1 Cold Arrow Rogue merc. This does wonders for Diablo as he will suicide against Thorns aura (which comes with the “Edge” runeword).

Normal Diablo is one of the most difficult boss fights in the game for almost every character class, however, so be prepared for a long, tough battle with many trips back to town for resurrections and potions.

1 Like
8

right …

QFT

And keep in mind that HotW increases damage of wolves and grizzly, but NOT ravens.

all former LoD L-only RWs are non-ladder as well in d2r, so that usefuly hint will also help in NL.

1 Like
9

Thank-you all much for the helpful input!

I think I’ll grind a bit to get to lvl 30 for the grizzly. I also somehow barely scraped enough runes together to get one Edge runeword on another character - I’ll try that as well.

Most of my inventory except 20 squares is charms with poison damage. I’ll fill those with health & mana potions.

I have a bunch of magic find equipment on so hopefully I get some decent set/uniques for the rest of my characters. I need to re-adjust for fire res & movement speed I think.

10

as a druid main, my best recommendation is to change builds.

druid unlike necro has nothing to do while his summons are out
there are no curses to cast, no corpse explosion.

summoners druid was a thing in “path of diablo” long before it was a thing here and the first thing everyone always does once they play with it for a month is never play it again.

my fav build is Fury druid with Etheral Death ( runeword) Decapitator, jalals, laying of hands, treachery, highlords, ravenfrost, gore riders, string or ears/ verdungos
max fury first, lvl 7 werewolf asap, also lycanthropy, oak sage, 1 point in the pre-req up to grizzly ( they will get enough from the item’s + skills, torch and anni) early on you will press w to swap to spirit sword and lidless way to cast them, and the rest in feral
although early on you will be mostly putting points in reaching lvl 7 werewolf and some points in lycanthorpy and getting the summon re-reqs and a few points in feral rage (always keep feral rage at an even level)

eventually you will swap jalals for metamophosis
and treachery will just be a prebuff while u use fortitude

merc will be act 3 fire for the godlike enchant
with plague weapon , flickering flame helm, fireball or enchant ormus, and the lidless you were using earlier for prebuff, until your 90+ and he has the strength for an eth spirit monarch

early on ribcracker then upped and then non eth reapers toll which u will keep as alt

although tornado hurricane is also fun

however, if u dont want to take my advice on that at least listen to the following

druid summons will get snapshotted,
so make sure you have a spirit a a +1 helm, a +2 amulet, and a +1 shield

once u reach 42 get jalals

you will definitely want hoto and enigma and spirit shield
arach, you know, the usual caster stuff.

this setup can also easily transition to elemental once u inevitably get bored of summon.
but i still recommend Fury

11

You can use Bear Shock Wave.

2 Likes
12

you planning on swapping from bear to human every time to teleport to force your summons to retarget?

13

You are going at this thread from a counterproductive angle. This is about playing casually, for someone that is going through his first playthroughs.

Useful information would be tips and tricks that he can apply short term without changing the feel of his build.

Telling him not to play his particular build is at best not constructive, and so is talking about endgame information when he explicitly said he didn’t want such information.

3 Likes
14

… this is where your wrong…
i am THE person who loves rare and crazy builds…
i played d2 for over twenty years on and off, i probably have 10,000 hours if not more.

and a good 500 of that was trying every stupid skill and making a build out of it…
back in lod i did berserk, lightning stike… fend. Armageddon, frost nova. vengeance, sacrifice, every element of holy shock/freeze/ fire… bear., impale. you name it i tried it

i tried builds all the stupid skills.

i am the most anti-competitive “F the meta i play how i want” causal player u can find.

i main wolf druid for F’s sake

so TRUST ME when i tell you.
THIS ISN’T A BUILD.

you cannot MAKE a build it out it because there is NO PLAYER CONTROL.

even in path of diablo they gave druid their own teleport skill and it still couldn’t make this work… like i said… people tried it… but it doesn’t work… there is nothing to DO.

there are no player interactions at all

you cannot control summons, you cannot support them.

i was 100% dead set against blizzard listening to the whiny people asking for it to even get a buff because i knew people would do exactly what they did in path of diablo… try it out… realize there is nothing to do, and sell everything.

there is no zoo build… there never was… there never WILL be

i saw this happen every season of path of diablo when it was added, i saw it happen ever season of d2:R after it was a thing here. IT DOESN’T WORK
stop it…

this has been going on for like 8 years now and you encouraging people to fail doesn’t help them enjoy the game

hes better off going IMPALE than zoo druid,

even all the dumbest sh*t i did in lod had something for you the PLAYER to do… and not just stand there like a moron doing no damage. and hoping your summons attack the correct target.
the ONLY other “build” i have tried that had THIS much of a failure… was “conversion” paladin. THAT’S how bad of playstyle this is.

and don’t act like i didn’t give help

i told him the items he should use. if he REALLY wants to go do this route, and how to best transition to another build with those same items once he realizes that he should have taken my original advise in the first place.

thats what u should do… set thier expectations as to what to expect… make them realize… they aren’t “doing it wrong” and that why “its not fun” its not their fault, they’re doing it right…it just doesn’t work. and then help them use use that time and those same items to transition to as build that was once they finally accept it so as to waste a little of their time as possible

wtf else do u want me to do?

i cannot in good conscience recommend this build that would be a disservice to the game and a disservice to him as a player.

im not going to sugar coat this to make it more palatable.
i have known about this “build” years before d2R even released.

the best u can do with it is telestomp pk people who dont have an AOE and cant target you because they cant click you

15

For the record, Druid summons were improved in patch 2.4 enough to make an actually end-game viable build out of them. Sure, it can be a little slow and boring at times, but otherwise your experiences with zookeepers from LoD and PoD are largely outdated and irrelevant.

16

It might be too late but nobody really gave you the correct advice, so i’ll drop this in case it helps anyone in the future.

what you needed to do was at lvl 25 go farm Countess for an Amn rune. 3 thul and a chipped topaz. You’re making an Edge runeword bow TirTalAmn.

then you’re going to buy an inventory of mana pots.

then you’re going to spam wolves on Diablo while he kills himself on your Edge thorns. You do this for every boss. Even Uber Diablo.

Not sure why nobody mentioned it, thorns is literally how Necro solos bosses until they get enough gear their minions dont die.

Anyways, im literally one of the best players ever so you should listen to me from now on.

1 Like
17

you can summon pets on top of the target you want them to attack. That usually works. Or with Enigma, telestomp the prefered target.
Have you played a zookeeper after April 29th, 2022 when patch 2.4 was released?

1 Like
18

Struggling to keep a straight face…

1 Like
19

I agree with making an Edge Bow.
Farm Countess to obtain an Amn it’s likely you will gather 3 Thul runes while praying for the Amn to drop and as many “chipped” topaz as you drop - Cubing 3 Thul rune’s and 1 chipped topaz nets an Amn.
While doing these Countess runs pick up every gem that drops, ideally you are looking for the Topaz family.
Shop Charsi for a 3os bow.
Make the Edge Runword in said bow and equip it.
Put you Mercenary’s gear/weapon in your stash (so you do not loose it), and grab an Act 1 Cold Merc.
Shop Charsie for an additional 3os bow.
Take all your Topaz’s and roll them up (if you have enough of them to do so, otherwise take all the gems you have gathered roll them up in the cube to make the strongest “gem’d” bow you can) - ideally you want to make the strongest lightening Bow you can.
My guess is by the time you have done this you will have hit level 30 and can employ Mr. Bear.
Go visit Baal.
If you have Poison Creeper, use him.
Cast your Ravens (hopefully they are a decent level) and Mr. Bear onto Baal (leave the wolves at home, they will just add a level of complexity you don’t want to deal with/focus on, and are not worth the effort - for this fight), while staying a safe distance away (giving you time to react/run/avoid his fire/lightening attacks)…
Keep moving and shooting arrows, keep recasting Ravens/Bear onto Baal… ideally Act1 Merc survives (she will last longer than Act2) to inflict all her Lightening…
It’s a tough fight… good luck if you have not already succeed (I see the post was made 3 days ago).

20

im well aware wolves are stronger than they were in lod

i specifically stated i was against the buff people were asking for and got in 2.4 because i have seen summoner druid in path of diablo

you should have also noticed i never once say a single thing about thier “damage” being there issue with the “build”

thier actually much stronger in path of diablo than they are in D2R
in fact thier over TWICE as strong in path of diablo… where i said this build is garbage mechanically

https://pathofdiablo.com/wiki/Summoning_Skills
i was never comparing it to LOD

your all trying to come up with a reason to ignore what i said…
my views are not outdated their based on path of diablo and D2:R
i was simply comparing the d2:R to other d2 skills i tried in LOD ( like fend etc) even BEFORE they were buffed

i am WELL AWARE how the build plays because i saw how even a significantly stronger version that the 2.4 change it played for over 4 years before d2R even released, damage was never the issue

my statement stands
i make no changes to it