A bit different Elemental druid skill usage

Diablo II: Resurrected Druid
1

Hi,

My main character in D2:R will be the elemental druid, but as it can be a bit time consuming to try out different skill setups I thought I am going to ask players who have good experience about this approach. (I know the standard wind druid build, I am not interested in that part.)

My plan is to use Hurricane + Molten Boulder, so alone I could cover 3 attack types (+ merc also adds to physical).

BUT!

Instead of maxing the main skills, I wonder if it is better to spend hard points on synergies (as elemental does not benefit from soft skills) and only put 10-14 points on the main skills (based on the +elemental skills I get from gear). It would mean I’d have around 16-20 points extra to spend on synergies or other support skills (Oak, Bear, etc…).

The main reasons I would do this:

  • There is no mob with 3 immunities, so I dont have to “just skip” any of them and I dont have to farm areas where immunities are no problem for the build.
  • I just dont like the typical Wind Druid. :smiley:
  • I am not a hardcore player and if I have to spend extra 5-10 seconds to kill certain mobs I am fine with it.

The main issues I think this approach has:

  • I am not sure if maxing synergies are actually better for higher dps or even with low synergy bonus the maxed out main skills are still better.
  • Molten still has 2 sec cast delay that - as far as I know - cannot be lowered with FCR.
  • This build relies very much on +ele skills instead of +all skills, so I have to make sure I put aside gear that boost other elemental setups to make sure that Hell diff is playable without too much headache if I need to change approach.

For this build I think the +6-8 ele skills are easily doable when reaching Act2/3 on Hell without sacrificing life/mana/FCR/FHR. Also, I think resistances will be okay, and of course I do not count on finding Anni/T/HRs very early, so it is still a somewhat budget build.

If anyone has done it before: what do you think about this approach to max synergies instead of main skills?

Thanks!

Update1:

I managed to find a d2 planner and after editing a lvl80 druid (without + skills) I found - if the numbers are correct - that the maxed main skills are giving higher dps, and the mana cost of Boulder is only higher by 3.

I also tried a version where I have 12 pts on Cyclon Armor, but the damage of the skills are lower by ~100 than my original plan and ~220 by the maxed out skill setup, although this gives 605 dmg absorb.

Unfortunately, the planner does not update the skill tree by the items I added, so I cant compare the numbers that are modified by +skills.

Update2:

Actually, the planner does support items, you just have to drag-and-drop them onto the inventory screen. So, testing the different build with +8 skills it still looks stronger to max main skills. I even tried +14 skills, but I got the same results.

1 Like
2

I find the idea with Molten Boulder and Hurricane exciting, but have never tried it myself.
I’m curious if it works or how long it works. There are quite a few Fire Immune.

But just because the fire in the remaster looks so incredibly good, I would like to test that as a Druid player.

3

… good question.

With a 110 skill points available, it should not rather be a problem to invest 20 points each in Hurricane and Molten Boulder - then spend appropriate points into synergies depend on how many skill points you want to designate for supporting skills.

Personally I wouldn’t put a lot of points into something (synergies) that is not used during a play. 10 points into those skills might be too low. Let say 15 main and 5 synergies, but the difference is not as much visible. However if you would like to check this out, do a two speed runs on max fissure till level 50 and go to Akara to reset skills - play with it.

I have read a post the other day about this question - most of players were recommending maxing skill out first. I am still testing this option myself with my druid, so I share if know something more. The only reason you want to lower the main skill is just to use it for a crowd control: Hurricane - slow, Molten Boulder - knockback, so I would first plan whether these skills are the main damage dealers or something else.

4

As I wrote in the “Update” I tested the different skill allocations and it looks like by the numbers - as long as that planner website displays correct numbers of course - that maxing the main skill has higher dps. For Hurricane the mana cost is always 30, for Molten the difference is only 3 mana.

So, rather than maxing synergies, I will try an interesting build:

  1. Max Hurricane, Max Molten (40 pts total)
  2. Many pts on their 1-1 synergies. (70-80 pts total)
  3. Spirit of Barbs + Grizzly or Wolves + Solar Creeper (just to see if Barbs can have significant reflect damage and also if the summons die too easily or can be used for additional damage + tanking).

Of course, this build is based on how effectively the elemental skills can be used, so if on Hell everything can be killed easily, I might lower the pts on elemental tree and use them on the summoning tree to fine tune the reflect dmg/survivability of summons. I read that SoB is pretty useless after patch 1.10, so I might choose something different at the end.

And also, I am not calculating with 110 pts. I used a lvl80 base, because that is where the game starts to be interesting.