Druid Char

[GenocideAlive]

Hey, I started a char in Diablo II the expansion.

He's a Druid.

Questions: suitable armor / weapons?

I've looked around for weapons and everybody else can buy super badass stuff and I'm kind of stuck scraping around for whatever I can find. Is there a particular weapon I should be going for?

Next, I want to know about builds. I'm going Werewolf/Lycan/Frenzy (8/4/6), is there a particular ratio I should be going for? In the end I hope to have that super-crazy spaz skill where he freaks out for uber damage.

I thought about getting that bite to combo in with my vine (it's L1), but that kind of looks gay. Esp since at later levels most creatures aren't going to be croaking from some stupid poison.

Is there a way to retrain after you've picked certain skills? I just don't want to be stuck with the gimpy bitch if I've picked stuff that isn't competitive. Let me know some queer shit I should be pulling.

To boot, I haven't used my "magicalize" imbue-thing from the startout smithy. What does she do and what should I bring to her?

[Aqo]

It's impossible to remove skills once you learned them, beyond starting a new character.

Items don't matter much early on, in the sense that everything can work out. Just use anything good you find.

Skills are all capped at 20 levels, so basically you need to choose one skill you like, max it out, and then max all of its synergies (which are other skills that give it bonuses. It tells you which ones are those on the skill's info).

As for "stupid poison", while the creeper itself will indeed become pretty useless, it will synergize your rabies to deal 4251-4585 damage over 11.6 seconds (that's 381 damage per second), and with merely +3 skills to it it will become 5841-6210 that has 471DPS. That's decent to say the least. One hit, one kill.

[Dayoh]

Go a caster druid, Focus in Wind or Fire.
Theres also some decent Wolf builds using that poison spell (although the syns are shit for it)

I've looked around for weapons and everybody else can buy super badass stuff and I'm kind of stuck scraping around for whatever I can find. Is there a particular weapon I should be going for?

Dont worry about "Godly" items till your a high lvl or get a MF char (for online).
Oh and btw, u can hit lvl 70 in like a day so dont fear :P (online)

If ur new to D2 id recommend a pally CC build, hammerdin / avenger etc

[Aqo]

No... don't go a pally, it's a helluva boring character to play. Stick to your druid :p

[GenocideAlive]

Fuck the caster druids, if I wanted to play a caster I'd pick a caster. I want that cool transformation stuff. And as for the poison wolf thing, yeah it's great it's cool and all that, but in duels someone could just quaff an antidote potion and my primary skill is screwed.

I am focusing on Frenzy right now, though Neo recommended that I max Lycan and don't worry too much about WW because of diminishing returns. But I sort of hate Lycan because it seems kind of useless. Just extra life? Gay.

L19

Skills:

8 WW
4 Lycan
8 Frenzy
1 Creeping Vine

Weaps: Crystal Sword (for bitches), Pally Mace-Thing (for UD)
Most Armor is L3 Frost Nova on-hit Stuff

[Aqo]

Frost Nova on hit items are very fun to have, way to go!
Make sure you get yourself some +speed% boots.

[GenocideAlive]

Do damage charms held in inventory stack?

[PrestonBurke]

Do damage charms held in inventory stack?
Yes, lets say you have a +1 Min damage, and then a +2 Min damage. It will stack as +3 Min Damage to your damage. Unless your talking about inventory space wise, no.

As for weapon wise, i would choose a heavy hitting weapon like a Maul or Bardiche. They have a slow attack speed, but when your in Wolf form that doesn't matter due to increased attack speed. Now if you find a "Very fast attack speed" maul, that would be some fast ownage right there.

I'm not too experienced with equipment, but i think the Rune Word "Fort" would be really nice for your Wolf. Just keep an eye out for 4 socket armor pieces. +300% enhanced damage, +200% enhanced defense, +20-30 all resistances, absorbs 7 damage and regenerates life. In my opinion, that would be good for a tanking wolf like you.

[Neo]

Poison Creeper can actually deal a great amount of damage and kill stuff on its own -- grows more powerful the more players there are in the game.

But generally Rabies and Creeper are useless.

-Neo

[PrestonBurke]

I kind of grew attached to my Poison creeper when i built my first Wolf Druid. I just found it funny how the tiny vine would fight a Fallen. You would see the Creeper sneak up on the Fallen and strike it once, then run away. The Fallen would turn around to hit it, but by then its gone and is sneaking up on the Fallen again.

[GenocideAlive]

Well, my L1 creeper vine is incredibly good. I would never swap it for anything. That little fucker has saved my ass so many times, when mobs start aggroing it while they should be going for me. There'll be an entire room full of semi-hard mobs that can kick a nice bit of ass, and instead of lunging for me, half go for the vine. Since the vine is hard to catch, I can usually plow through most of my half before they finally kill it and come for me.

But the maul advice is sound. I have a "Fast" maul that has +45% damage and 1-2 cold damage and it does quite nicely. I one-hit most mobs. My Frenzy speed doesn't permit too much running, either.

Unfortunately, though, I still don't know if there's a point in me having 3 charms in my inventory that add 3-6 cold dmg, 1-3 fire dmg, and 2-4 lit dmg. Someone said something about "minimum damage" charms, but I'm sort of wondering about conflicting elemental charms. Will 3-6 cold stack with 2-4 lit? These are the questions I have. Unfortunately, I still haven't found a Bonesnap and I doubt I'll find one before I finish the game. I also haven't found any warrior weapons or warrior-related uniques. RRgghhgh!

[Aqo]

All different elements come together, each on his own.

They don't stack, they just add up. Meaning, lets say your weapon does 9-12 damage, has 1-2 cold damage, and you have the following charms:
3-6 cold, 1-3 fire, and 2-4 lightning.

In this case, your minimum damage per hit against a regular mob would be 16, and the maximum damage would be 27.
However, if this mob happens to have 50% resistance to cold, then you'll have the minimum damage of 14 and the maximum damage of 23.

[Neo]

The cold damage charm also increases the freezing and/or chill length of any attacks you use.

-Neo

[GenocideAlive]

Well, I don't one-hit anymore. I mostly hit-hit-hit-hit before they die, unless they're annoying little fucks that you're supposed to be able to one-hit. I am also horridly vulnerable to cold, because without it my lifegain is non-existant.

I desperately need a new weapon, but the next level of maul takes 90 STR and I'm running about 3 lvls short. The problem is that I can't keep beefing my STR over and over while ignoring my DEX, since once I boost STR for a couple of levels I start having problems with whiffing 3-4 times before I hit anything.

I'm thinking about restarting and making a mage. They have it so easy...AoE effects hose mass monsters, and blast spells kill the duel-type monsters. Or maybe a barbie, so I can actually have some skills that I use, besides 15 in Frenzy, 13 in WW (passive), 5 in Lycan (passive) and 1 in creeper (passive). I swear, the majority of the game is just rightclicking mobs and quaffing potions. I had a thought once, but it passed.

[Antharon]

I think for your druid is now the best option scytche, or something very fast and as well charm +x cold damage or saphire socketet in weapon. Also don't forget to max heart of oak or heart of wolwerine