Hey everyone, if you are interested in the current state of Summon Druid in Patch 2.4, here is a build showcase video.
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That’s amazing to watch. Although it is very strange to have a raven does nearly as much damage as a grizzly (or twice or 5 times over a wolf), and you have 5 of them.
Can you do a showcase with +8 skills, no Enigma or any of the high rune words? That’s something that a self-found character can reliably achieve end game.
Thank you.
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Actually I similarly rolled over CS without ravens, but using HoW as spirit and Harmony for Valk.
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Thank you for the feedback. I most certainly can, although I have my plate a bit full atm since I’m testing other classes as well. However, a No Enigma version would require utilizing a Naj’s Puzzler or any other teleport charged staff for wep switch just because of the minion AI. They can get spread pretty easily as you can see in the video, therefore repositioning them via teleport is very important. This can be done easily without Enigma, but the teleport charges will cost some gold. BTW Ravens hit pretty good 
TBF, you don’t need all of the HR runewords. Reaper’s Toll on merc for removing physical immunities (by applying Decrepify) is pretty important though.
Pretty interesting.
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I figured that 2 tanks are just good with wolves as merc sometimes wander off. Valk on the other hand can be recasted when/where needed. Vigor was just a bonus, but really nice one for summons. Didn’t use tele much - after Monarch and only 4os bow supplied, had less than 1k hp and res like -30, plus were doing full clear of CS. For PI if not cold immune - just swapped wolves 
. Also found out Wolves were altogether faster than Bear.
We know geared Druid is good, But what happens when you dont have this gear and try to farm? I did test on PTR a druid with med gear (30 lvl wolves), spirit, viper,jalal etc, and i was barely killing anything on Act4+.
The point of balance should be done when a chara is fully geared with exp gear but on med gear. Esp when see Pala and Sorc dominating with even med gear…
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nice video summon druid looks better than it used to!
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I definitely agree. Here is the wowhead article detailly addressing the exact issue you raised.
Thanks! Hopefully they will get even better!
Oh, we tried that with “budget” gear – and it took me an hour to chew through Chaos Sanctuary on Hell. Not even an exaggeration. It’s a very safe build and my druid never died, but it slowed to a literal crawl.
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Wolves x 2 - Maxed
Bear Maxed
HoW maxed
All 28 after + skills
14 sp left
Eq
Mara + 2
Jalal + 2
soj + BK +2
Arach +1
Gore - irrelevant
LoH - irrelevant
GC from PTR + 1
Armor Light plate - Peace
Hydra bow Harmony
Swap nothing
No Tele
Stats - with EQ
ST 181
Dex 182
Vit - 162
En - 45
RES: F: 14, L:-36, C-6, P: -36
HP: 658
Mana: 320
Merc:
Reaper
Forti
Crown of Thieves
CS (walk from River of Flame) clear - 14 minutes (10:38 till 10:52)
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What’s that? Why you reply this?
You said geared druid is good, but also that with lvl 30 wolves were barely able to kill anything in Act 4+. This is example of poorly geared (see stats - only +skills matter really) druid clearing CS and half of RoF without much effort.
I said geared druid, he can reach 50 wolf skill.
30 wolf skill isnt geared, but med geared, Do you really think you will start with enigma and Jahs? Spirit, magic neck +3 summ, Viper, jalal can be found on med game.
Balance supposed to be done on med geared charas and not on high end super exp gear, Anyone can do everything when geared with geared which is super exp,
How on earth i will farm these runes and items when with 30 lvl wolf i barely kill something or when it takes 1 hour to clear a place.
Read this, is posted above Summoner Druid in PTR Patch 2.4 Diablo II: Resurrected - Problems, Limitations, and Solutions - Wowhead News
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Hence my reply - with skills at 28 after plus gear, without Eni or tele, with only Forti on merc which I anyway forgot about I cleared half of RoF and full CS in 14min (not super fast but effortlessly and with worst stats possible)- I posted gear and stats specifically so you can see it is not high end gear.
Your merc was killing everything.
28 after? so u mean 48 lvl wolf?
If you mean 28 lvl wolves were clearing COS in 14m , i just dont believe you, or as u said, with this merc he was killing everything.
I did this with 30 lvl wolves and it took me more to clear council on Travi.
Look how many posts are for this matter, look all yourtubers for D2 saying the same thing, Look analysts on WoWhead etc, (Rhykker was hosting one on 2.4 announcement) saying this as well.
I dont know, i saw with my eyes that it cant compete with others, clear as that!
If they believe you for example and not all these players who asking more changes, then no harm feelings, this game isnt for me anymore, i just hope for my refund and will move to PD2 which there what we ask exists and is so well balanced.
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I mean lvl 28 wolves and while merc was killing, so were 3 wolves and not slow, with Might + HoW.
I really dont have reason to lie to you, it is not like I am on some crusade against Dudu and I actually like summoners.
Between merc and Valk to tank, wolves were free to deal damage. With Vigor they were also moving between targets pretty fast. If interested in the build I generally try it myself rather than rely on others. With wolves issue is that they are fragile and 1 tank is not enough to keep them alive, especially if it tends to wander off. Logically another tank should help with that. Choices are basically Valk/IG - IG needs item, so can’t be freely recasted - hence I opted for Valk.
I didn’t say it can compete with others - especially with the likes of HDin/Sorc, just that it can do it and with somewhat bad gear, at somewhat reasonable time.
Why, instead of saying you dont believe me, dont try it yourself? I am pretty sure you will be able to replicate result. (one thing of note - there weren’t any swarm mobs in RoF, like maggots and the like - I freely admit those would most likely extended time needed)
The latest nerf to raven is insignificant btw. The build is still fine and does very similar to the video performance.
Hello everyone glad to read so many interesting coments on the balance changes.
Overall I believe Blizzard is implementing very positive changes. I also believe they would rather pace themselves and start small rather then go too quickly and have to backtrack with radical modifications. I believe this is the wise approach.
That being said (and I really hope Blizzard devs read this) I really hope they allow the druid to summon 1 spirit with all 8 wolves along with the bear , ravens and a vine simultaneously.
One of Blizzard’s goals with diablo 2 resurrected is to encourage people to play in teams instead of always doing solo games. As it stands the summonner is very slow in solo games and struggles in hell to begin with, especially when compared to other more viable builds. When more than one player joins his game the increased difficulty makes it so that summons can’t really keep up even with outstanding gear.
Beyond making the build stronger by allowing all the summons at the same time, it would also truly make for an enjoyable experience as a summoner. Just imagine :
Nature’s army at your fingertips. Her soldiers yours to command as they tear through the hellish hordes. Bear, wolves ,vines ,ravens and spirit each one part of a demon crushing unit.
In response to the Prime evil’s crimes, Nature’s wrath unleashed at last!
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From my observation, many summon druid players want these suggestions implemented. I have seen similar suggestions on various forums/platforms and I also advocate implementing these changes for the summon druid.
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Personally, I think they are going in a great direction with summon Druid in 2.4, The Raven changes are fantastic and super fun.
I do wish we could summon one set of wolves and also the bear at the same time.
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