Ok, so since you don’t like it, no one else is allowed to play it. Noted.
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if you want to bash your face against the wall for “fun” go ahead, just don’t come crying to me when it hurts.
you do you,
if u can manage to have fun with this… more power to you.
I’m just doing my civic duty to inform him that under no circumstances should he expect this to work, and that’s its not his fault it doesn’t, and it “not working” or “not being fun” isn’t due to him playing it wrong…
The thing is, you have been very clear that your issue isn’t with the build’s power, but rather with the fact that the build is passive. That is PRECISELY you inserting your own tastes to dictate what others should be playing. This is you giving unsolicited advice under the guise of “doing your civic duty” (and no, what little information you gave on zoo druid isn’t relevant for someone trying to do the fight against Diablo in normal difficulty, when they are barely reaching level 30).
Remember, that player is on their first walkthroughs. They don’t need to be going for great builds, they need to try out some stuff to see what they do or do not like, learn a few tricks to help them in future playthroughs, and see for themself how much they are interested in investing themself in the game.
If they do end up deciding that they do not actually like the zoo druid gameplay and want to go for another build, then they’ll come back and ask for the information they need to do so.
you are correct, i havent commented on its power, thats because i cant, idk the power. in a manner other than looking at the numbers on a spreadsheet, i have only experienced them at twice that value where they were high enough to work. therefore i cant give an opinion on it.
however, based on the provided info. i think the limb im going to go out on on say its “not viable power wise either” is fairly sturdy
but hey if he wants to do it… go ahead, I’ve said my bit at this point.
he has the information he need. there is no point is trying to argue this anymore
I just managed to collect/transmute enough runes to get one Edge runebow from all my characters (3 of each class, minimum lvl 24 for each, normal, offline, single player).
I like the thorns approach - thx, I’ll try that!
I’m gonna get the druid to lvl 30 and get the grizzly tank too.
I also watched a vid on a summon necro using clay golem + iron maiden spam to defeat Diablo.
All of the bosses, all of the mobs, all of the special mini-unique mini-bosses are easy compared to Diablo. I basically need to re-spec, re-equip, re-think, and re-play specifically for him because self-found gaming without using specific tactics fails miserably.
I’m not against using cheeziness to defeat an op opponent. I beat Mephistopheles by hanging out on the other side of a blood moat and peppering him with ranged attacks.
Challenge is fine but I draw the line when I spend more time frustrated dying repeatedly than having fun, exploring new areas, advancing.
I use the act 5 merc for my budget Fury/summon hybrid too, with Lawbringer and Hustle weapons 
he actually does pretty well with this setup, he can also use flickering flame helmet but i prefer cure helmet for chaos sanc to reduce curse duration, it helps a lot when playing with summons. Later when u get enough points in summons and some + skill equipment they will be able to survive but for normal difficulty just max ravens, they will kill him np and u can just summon a wolf or 2 every time he kills them to take aggro while the ravens do the damage
Hero Editor?
How do you not play the actual/true character and yet feel the need to comment on how it plays?
Rather than basing you spreadsheet opinion/guess on it’s viability… I would suggest you actually play the character the way the game provides/allows.
I played my Summon Druid, as a Summon Druid, from creation to level 99 - and 99% of that was solo. ( I did use my Zealot/Smiter to farm the Druid torch, so, there is that… could have traded for one easily considering how cheap they are).
To date, the Summon Druid is still by far my most favorite character.
I have a lvl99 Zealot, a lvl99 Tesladin, a lvl98 Javazon, a lvl 95 FrostMaiden, a lvl 97 WindyDoo and two lvl96 Necro’s (1 Summon and 1 Poison) …
I do not have a FoH Pally, nor a Hammerdin - I have no Sorc builds, and will not make a MosacicSin…
Steamroll is not my thing.
Recap;
By far, the most entertaining and engaging build, IMO is the Summon Druid.
I am currently building a Spear Pally… he’ll never be considered OP, but, he’s providing a lot of entertainment so far…
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Ill be more than happy to testify to this part since we did a lot of testing and theory crafting in another topic here on forum while you were leveling. My favorite char is also the summon druid but these days i mostly play hybrid Fury/summoner with max wolves, bear, heart of the wolverine and Fury, rest is 1 point wonders.
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The Thorns will help, may not be easily seen in the “Normal level” Diablo fight (that is a really tough one, outside of Baal and DClone, the toughest of the game) but if you can avoid Baal while plinking some arrows and keeping your Ravens up (poison Creeper if you have him,) and the Bear… you’ll be on a good path moving forward.
You cannot compare Neco Summons to Druid Summons… Necro has more efficient tools and his Summons are more robust.
If I recall, you are offline… sucks, as, I would bring my Zoo to help you through what is likely your toughest fight of the game (DClone and Ubers excluded)
LOL!
We sure did!
Appreciate the help getting to clvl99 !!
Since then, I went back to the Act1 Cold Merc with Mist bow, and max’d HoW… it’s a BLAST!.
Np
Yeah my prefered engame merc for my hybrid Fury/Summoner too but for this version of the build i use faith for the fana aura which helps both me and the summons and lets me hit the max fury breakpoint with a reaper’s toll Besides this my merc will hit her max breakpoint of 2.5 att pr sec with a matriachal bow faith and a hustle armour which allows me to equip her with cure helmet without loosing attack speed. Since she doesnt really need life leech due to actively staying behind minions i found this to be the best setup for me and my minions. With 2.5 att pr sec she can really dish out some freeze arrows 
But for budget im playing with act 5 frenzy atm with Hustle/Lawbringer weapons, he is insanely tanky and can survive travincal almost every single run and he is an absolute beast in chaos sanc
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Sounds fun!.
I’m still pure Summoner… no Fury/otherwise…
I still roll the Faith, and the Act1 Merc is back to rolling the Mist…
Oak Sage was critical to get to lvl99, but, now that it has been achieved, I respec’d to max HoWolverine… I still have a healthy amount of points in Oak for when when needed tho.
1 cat, many skins :).
Yup should work fine, i however was forced to hand my merc the faith since im rocking the reaper’s doing pretty respectable 3-3.5 min full clear chaos sanc runs starting at entrance which is decent for a melee/summon build i think. Can probably do faster but im not in a hurry
Yeah my ladder druid still uses the act 5 cheap setup (Hustle, Lawbringer) havent really been able to afford the faith yet , but it actually does really well and i decided to make other improvements first
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His point is that he did try out a stronger version of the build.
The thing is, he is conflating his not liking the build (at least in the manner he played it) with the build not being viable.
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The build is definitely viable, sure there are faster builds and even some completely broken (Mosaic, Nova sorc, hammerdin etc.) but some people just dont like that playstyle. I have way more fun playing the summon druid and to be honest, isnt that why we play?? The build is very safe, fairly beginner friendly and can solo all the way through hell difficulty with basic gear and cheap runewords, You wont even need to cry for help at ancients or anywhere else for that matter nor will u need sunder charm, a simple Lawbringer act 5 merc will take care of the phys immunes and a tele staff bought at vendor will get u through places like maggot lair and arcane sanc np. Besides this the build is capable of farming travincal wearing nothing but rags although it takes a while untill u get better gear
why would you use an act 5 merc?
i would go act 2 with might and reapers toll
i think might would be better after you get tele
or act 3 with fire for enchant, thats what i use for my fury
another option could be act 1 for an early edge bow
act 5 seems like the worst option
Reaper’s toll is not easy to come by early ladder start and they require lvl 75 to use, besides act 2 merc requires a lot better gear to survive than the act 5 with lawbringer
Might is not as huge on summon druid since the only summons affected by might are 3 dire wolves and the bear. Ravens dont benefit from auras except the ones that affect enemies like conviction which also benefit ur spirit wolves
Act 3 enchant is decent but again its squishy and doesnt provide any safety for u or ur summons but the act 5 actually does a decent amount of dps with a Lawbringer+Hustle combo (i actually tested him and he cleared entire chaos sanc by himself with this combo and didnt even need pots before diablo, it did take a while though). On top of this he is always close enough to ur army in combat that they also benefit from the fana aura which actually benefit all ur wolves and not only the 3 dire+bear
Always have in mind, spirit wolves do cold damage and ravens dont benefit from auras but spirit wolves do benefit from attack speed from fana aura, making infy or faith merc ur best pick late game for dps (or self wield the faith with an atmas amu for amp damage proc + infy merc) , i do however use the reapers for my build to apply decrep since i am hybrid Fury/summon but i am self wielding this beauty
One last reason is the sanctuary aura from lawbringer really helps in places with lots of undead like chaos sanc and tomb runs, this really helps keep ur summons and merc from getting swarmed and die when they are still low level and having crappy gear
All this being said, act 1 freeze merc is one of my favorites late game, the safety of the freeze arrows is just amazing and really benefits ur summons survival too and with a faith bow she is top tier for my hybrid build which lets me hit max breakpoint with reaper’s using Fury, it feels a lot better than the might merc for my particular playstyle
You are right about one thing though, the act one freeze is the best starter option but on hell i like to use the act 5 untill i have my gear and can afford the faith, not because he is the best but simply because of the safety of sanctuary aura + decrep proc and because he simply refuses to die most of the time and the decrep lets me kill phys immunes with whatever crappy two-handed weapon i use for my fury atm untill i get my reapers
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I guest you dont run oak sage? or a lv1 oak sage? level it to lv5 or higher will make your life easier. i also got trouble with Diablo until i found that oak sage is number1 survival for me.
While oak sage is indeed a great pick for survival it still gets wiped by diablo on normal along with the rest of ur summons when u are low lvl, one or two fire novas from satan and ur entire army will go byebye unless u somehow have a decent amount of +skill gear which is highly unlikely for a fresh ladder start at this lvl. The ravens will however have no problems killing diablo as long as u stay alive and dodge those red lightnings and try not to get bone prisoned. Summoning a wolf or two each time they die can help keep aggro away from u much like the clay golem/iron maiden tactic used by necro’s but dont try to resummon everything, other than that just keep the ravens up and dodge. Normal Diablo is probably the hardest boss fight u will encounter in the campaign, once u reach nightmare its much easier since ur minions will be able to survive a lot better and keep u safe
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Appreciate the advice (everyones!)
I now have a way for any/all my characters to defeat Diablo/etc. tough bosses when the skills/equip./etc. fail → Edge Runeword and anything/everything that slows Diablo/etc. down . . . Huge difference.
I think the thorns, any reflect damage stuff, and especially slowing effects are key to winning against these mega monsters.
The real battle is going to be when I take my melee barbarians up against him. Ice + freeze + uninterruptible stuns I’m thinking. Otherwise plinking him with arrows/ranged I will quickly run out of arrows and not do the best damage/use his skills.
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