pro tip: ort + chipped gem to repair charges on the naj staff instead of gold. also you could run pride on merc for the concentrate aura, then go with holy freeze merc so when you tele on monsters they are then slower. bone break gc for the physical immune maybe? idk if that works with pets
Infinity is much better than pride. Not only your summons do more damage because lower defense increases their to hit chance, but also the merc itself hits way way harder, especially against bosses where the 40% CB is just so good. Put it on a Mancatcher for the faster attack speed and the merc just obliterates everything.
I’ve used this build in Hardcore ladder starts before, with the following tweaks: Bear form, 1 point shockwave (stuns) Max oak sage before reg wolves or earlier if you group Focus on Raven damage - this is your damage spell (a +3 Raven helm with Lore is great; RavenLore helm is BiS for damage) Bear as right click is great spell for confusing enemies and body blocking Act 5 merc with lawbringer as soon as you can to deal with phys immunes (add hustle on other side for fanaticism on your other summons) If you play with a group they love the safety, stuns from shockwave and life buff from oak sage. You can also solo the game (albeit a bit more slowly) with just a spirit sword and lore as your only +skills. One mechanics thing to note: the summons tab for Druid is the only tab in the game where synergies stack up from +skills items in addition to hard points. Look for ways to add points to any of the main summons and it will benefit your other summons and ravens.
Pro tip 1: You can cast a raven on a target you want to be dead and the rest of your summons will attack that tartget. Pro tip 2: Bear is slow but you can cast it whenever you want wherever you want. That way it attacks the appropriate target. Pro tip 3: You can invest into bear form and shock wave skill (only 1 point)- that way you are much tankier AND you gain the ability of decapacitate groups of enemies for seconds (which is the most op stun skill in the game) - whit these three activities you have something to do on the battlefield and not just standing and whatching your minions slowly chewing the enemies. - More fun gameplay.
That's what happens when random dude makes video about 20 years old game ;] 100% end game geared maxed character struggling in "/players 1" Chaos Sanctuary :D
You can improve efficiency by casting Raven on casters to pick them off and the rest of your ravens will fly to the target along with nearby summons. You could also min-max by prioritizing + summon skills and HP. You can run -100 to all resistances and be fine with this build.
The biggest problem is that people try and play the summon Druid like a Necromancer, and he just can’t measure up. The telestomping, build is boring because there is nothing for you to do other than teleport. CE is probably unsustainable long term. The Druid advantage over the Necro, is that he’s not a squishy caster. He’s a tank, and you can have a ton of health, even with low point investment. Build him as a hybrid, it’s a lot more fun, and it’s different enough from a necro to make it worth playing.
@@komarrek1 Standard build since the original D2 is Ravens/Bear/Dire Wolf from summons and Fissure and Volcano from fire. In the original D2 its greatest weakness is that fire immunity is common. People usually switch it up by picking different nukes. Mercenary is Kurast lightning and ultimately Crescent Moon from a barb merc. Depending on the level of your fire spells (stuff like Leaf helps here) you can instead grab merchant weapons with Amplify Damage on a rogue/desert merc or Lawbringer. Bosses are immune to Dim Vision from Ravens so your summons can benefit greatly from these.
Thank you for making this video! I made one and i didnt know what to do lol never made one before but i started one on the switch im lvl 83 but i have a lvl 93 zon on there. I fricken love the switch
@spookzer16 dude it's so fun lol I like desktop too but since I was a kid I was like what if D2 was on Gameboy that would be incredible and here we are
If you're not teleporting for whatever reason, just one point in werebear and lycan with jalal mane will allow you to have even more insane hp. Put in maul and you even have some limited crowd control.
I would go heartof walverie to boost the summons dmg (which they highly needs). they already all have enough life with BO also, ravenlore, your ravens are your best source of dmg
I love how you start off with the good gear but then have The godly gear and even more budget options. But I love how you showcase what can be found for a normal player first.
Definitely, If you pick oak sage, and walk around as wolf or bear, you have a ton of health, even though you are barely getting hit. You could also use shock wave, which stuns everything excepts act bosses and super uniques. It’s one of the safest builds in the game.
Since when can Druid summon Bear + Dire Wolves + Wolves at the same time?! From what I remember, he could only summon only one type of animal at a time.
Enjoy your videos, and I've been watching this several time over the course of the year. I have a few comments on the summon druid. I have a pure "zooid" with all the skill points only on the summons tree. I'm at level 96 pushing to get this guy up to 99 and I'm only using players 8 to maximize experience. I don't have an enigma, torches or an Ani, so this is slow going, but it could go a lot faster if the AI for the summons were fixed. The bear, and the wolves have some peculiarities that make this character difficult to play, at times. The bear has a habit of not moving when he gets summoned. If he runs into a wall, he will stand there with his nose in the wall. Also, when you're running, he's walking, and I don't mean walking at a very fast pace, he's literally moving at a Sunday walking to church pace. And if you summon him on top of a target, he has a bad habit of running back to you, and then past you so he's several yards behind you, the bad thing being he's now dragging what he's supposed to be attacking back to you. The wolves will stop fighting and will actually come back to you, stand in front of you, and look at you. And you have a much smaller army, nine summons (not counting the ravens because they can't block). There's a good chance that one of the mobs will get past them and attack you, so you can't just stand around , you constantly have to rearrange the line of battle to keep the targets on the other side of the scrimmage line. Everything is honkey-dorey at players 1, but at players 8, you have to use different strategies to win. Especially if you're still farming to get end game gear (which this character is still lacking). The thing that's making this character viable at players 8 is that I'm using multiple types of damage. Main damage is physical, with the the spirit wolves providing cold damage. I have an act 3 merc with enchant that's giving the summons a tremendous amount of fire damage. And when necessary, poison creeper. I have my doubts on fighting the Ubers, but that's a story for another time.
Question. I have the same Bonehew with Barb and 2 socket - Jah Ohm .. Ignore target's defense... and speed. is it good move ?? Second question.. is good to put 4x Ber to Armour ? (if i dont have right runes yet) .. it gives 24% reduces phys dmg..?? is it good? Thanks :)) i dont know about this math
Lawbringer and last wish don’t work as well together because life tap and decrepify overwrite each other. Pick one and pair it with Grief, and it’s a great option Bonus points if you can hire Wulf, Wulfgar, or Wulfstan.
@@WandererFromYs Yeah, but i don't have an ohm rune for bramble lol. i can get an edge easily and i have a metalgrid somewhere in my stash.(SSF play) Figured this would be a fairly decent alternative, since edge is really cheap to replace if the golem dies.
every time i see u play druid i see u use shako and hoto, you know druids have better options then these right? on your windy video u didnt even go over the fcr bp it essential doubles ur dmg :D
Zookeeper makes so much fun, stuffed mine even full with mf. I think it's my favorite build in diablo 2. I prefer summon druid over summon necro cause summon necro relies on corpse explosion to make any damage which I don't like because this makes him more of hybrid than a pure summoner.
I don't think Spirit Wolves are all that good. Their damage is cold, so they don't gain the benefits of +ED% auras, and their synergy is defense, which is of questionable usefulness. And they don't really do enough damage on their own to make them useful against phys immunes. Personally, I would just max Dire Wolves and Bear, go for max HotW, and then go hybrid as either a Fury WW or Maul WB. With enough +skills you'll still summon the Spirit Wolves, just because you can. I had a build similar to this way back on the original D2 ladder (using the bear summon, since you had to choose which summon to have out), and it was pretty effective and fun.
That's not how battle orders works. For one, BO only increases life and mana. So stronger, yes, but if you mean +1 to skills that's Battle Command. The level of the summons is set when you cast the spell. Shouts like BO and BC can only be cast after the units are summoned if you want them to be affected.
pro tip: ort + chipped gem to repair charges on the naj staff instead of gold. also you could run pride on merc for the concentrate aura, then go with holy freeze merc so when you tele on monsters they are then slower. bone break gc for the physical immune maybe? idk if that works with pets
Suuuuch a great TIP! I use it on a ton of builds that use Fortitude and it works perfectly fine.
I prefer Pride with Might merc wearing Bramble
@@DmDrae for highest damage yes
ort harder to get than 3 armors to vendor lol
Infinity is much better than pride. Not only your summons do more damage because lower defense increases their to hit chance, but also the merc itself hits way way harder, especially against bosses where the 40% CB is just so good. Put it on a Mancatcher for the faster attack speed and the merc just obliterates everything.
I’ve used this build in Hardcore ladder starts before, with the following tweaks:
Bear form, 1 point shockwave (stuns)
Max oak sage before reg wolves or earlier if you group
Focus on Raven damage - this is your damage spell (a +3 Raven helm with Lore is great; RavenLore helm is BiS for damage)
Bear as right click is great spell for confusing enemies and body blocking
Act 5 merc with lawbringer as soon as you can to deal with phys immunes (add hustle on other side for fanaticism on your other summons)
If you play with a group they love the safety, stuns from shockwave and life buff from oak sage. You can also solo the game (albeit a bit more slowly) with just a spirit sword and lore as your only +skills.
One mechanics thing to note: the summons tab for Druid is the only tab in the game where synergies stack up from +skills items in addition to hard points. Look for ways to add points to any of the main summons and it will benefit your other summons and ravens.
Pro tip 1: You can cast a raven on a target you want to be dead and the rest of your summons will attack that tartget.
Pro tip 2: Bear is slow but you can cast it whenever you want wherever you want. That way it attacks the appropriate target.
Pro tip 3: You can invest into bear form and shock wave skill (only 1 point)- that way you are much tankier AND you gain the ability of decapacitate groups of enemies for seconds (which is the most op stun skill in the game)
- whit these three activities you have something to do on the battlefield and not just standing and whatching your minions slowly chewing the enemies. - More fun gameplay.
I use a "silence" bow and stand back from the melee and it does well
That's what happens when random dude makes video about 20 years old game ;]
100% end game geared maxed character struggling in "/players 1" Chaos Sanctuary :D
@@albin8638 I'm 52 years old and have NO idea what you are saying in that last sentence.🤣
@@MrGoblue1131 removed shortcuts & rephrased ;)
You can improve efficiency by casting Raven on casters to pick them off and the rest of your ravens will fly to the target along with nearby summons. You could also min-max by prioritizing + summon skills and HP. You can run -100 to all resistances and be fine with this build.
Those doggys looks very brave 😅
Always love the build guides
The biggest problem is that people try and play the summon Druid like a Necromancer, and he just can’t measure up.
The telestomping, build is boring because there is nothing for you to do other than teleport. CE is probably unsustainable long term.
The Druid advantage over the Necro, is that he’s not a squishy caster. He’s a tank, and you can have a ton of health, even with low point investment. Build him as a hybrid, it’s a lot more fun, and it’s different enough from a necro to make it worth playing.
note Phil is playing a cruise control for cool build
Could you tell me more about that hybrid build?
@@komarrek1 Standard build since the original D2 is Ravens/Bear/Dire Wolf from summons and Fissure and Volcano from fire. In the original D2 its greatest weakness is that fire immunity is common. People usually switch it up by picking different nukes. Mercenary is Kurast lightning and ultimately Crescent Moon from a barb merc. Depending on the level of your fire spells (stuff like Leaf helps here) you can instead grab merchant weapons with Amplify Damage on a rogue/desert merc or Lawbringer. Bosses are immune to Dim Vision from Ravens so your summons can benefit greatly from these.
Thank you for making this video! I made one and i didnt know what to do lol never made one before but i started one on the switch im lvl 83 but i have a lvl 93 zon on there. I fricken love the switch
A fellow Switch enjoyer!
@spookzer16 dude it's so fun lol
I like desktop too but since I was a kid I was like what if D2 was on Gameboy that would be incredible and here we are
@@andrewdominick1000 Dude I grew up with the Xbox 360 era, and it is so cool to have so many of my childhood games portable!
Opinions needed: Spirit of Barbs: Hot garbage, or useful when you have around 12 (you + summons + merc) being affected by it?
It seems to be slightly better than heart of wolverine.
If you're not teleporting for whatever reason, just one point in werebear and lycan with jalal mane will allow you to have even more insane hp. Put in maul and you even have some limited crowd control.
I wanted to see a max dmg build with beast / heart of Wolverine. Maybe even a pride merc with might aura
best option for summon druid
I would go heartof walverie to boost the summons dmg (which they highly needs). they already all have enough life with BO
also, ravenlore, your ravens are your best source of dmg
I love how you start off with the good gear but then have The godly gear and even more budget options. But I love how you showcase what can be found for a normal player first.
Would this be a good ladder start druid to farm trav and eldritch or should I just go fire and do stoney tombs?
Good HC choice?
Definitely, If you pick oak sage, and walk around as wolf or bear, you have a ton of health, even though you are barely getting hit. You could also use shock wave, which stuns everything excepts act bosses and super uniques. It’s one of the safest builds in the game.
where can i listen to these D2 remixes? they sound great
I wonder about adding bramble for the thorns to your merc? There's so many cool possibilities you can do with this!
You finally found ethereal reapers!
He's using hero editor bud
One of the goodest zoo build guides I’ve seen, thanks! 😉👍
😂. Put those crafted ammys to use
+2 druid level 45 amulet?? Niiiice.
Thank . I often wodered at what player level this build could do Hell at. The first players 8 is a cinch but not even close in Hell.
Ty for you're content. Great idea for using cyclone armor for lacking res.
A ss/summon hybrid would be fun. Would be a pre buff god >_
A much better variant in a melee werewolf (20 werewolf, 20 fury) and then the rest into summoning. You hit like a truck and have an army.
So which skill i should skip to save point for fury and werwolf?
Since when can Druid summon Bear + Dire Wolves + Wolves at the same time?! From what I remember, he could only summon only one type of animal at a time.
They changed it a few months ago
If u are not going to use beast why not go with a cold act 1 faith merc?
Enjoy your videos, and I've been watching this several time over the course of the year. I have a few comments on the summon druid. I have a pure "zooid" with all the skill points only on the summons tree. I'm at level 96 pushing to get this guy up to 99 and I'm only using players 8 to maximize experience. I don't have an enigma, torches or an Ani, so this is slow going, but it could go a lot faster if the AI for the summons were fixed. The bear, and the wolves have some peculiarities that make this character difficult to play, at times. The bear has a habit of not moving when he gets summoned. If he runs into a wall, he will stand there with his nose in the wall. Also, when you're running, he's walking, and I don't mean walking at a very fast pace, he's literally moving at a Sunday walking to church pace. And if you summon him on top of a target, he has a bad habit of running back to you, and then past you so he's several yards behind you, the bad thing being he's now dragging what he's supposed to be attacking back to you. The wolves will stop fighting and will actually come back to you, stand in front of you, and look at you. And you have a much smaller army, nine summons (not counting the ravens because they can't block). There's a good chance that one of the mobs will get past them and attack you, so you can't just stand around , you constantly have to rearrange the line of battle to keep the targets on the other side of the scrimmage line. Everything is honkey-dorey at players 1, but at players 8, you have to use different strategies to win. Especially if you're still farming to get end game gear (which this character is still lacking). The thing that's making this character viable at players 8 is that I'm using multiple types of damage. Main damage is physical, with the the spirit wolves providing cold damage. I have an act 3 merc with enchant that's giving the summons a tremendous amount of fire damage. And when necessary, poison creeper. I have my doubts on fighting the Ubers, but that's a story for another time.
Question. I have the same Bonehew with Barb and 2 socket - Jah Ohm .. Ignore target's defense... and speed. is it good move ??
Second question.. is good to put 4x Ber to Armour ? (if i dont have right runes yet) .. it gives 24% reduces phys dmg..?? is it good?
Thanks :)) i dont know about this math
Any idea of the spirit wolves cold/chill length or a source that might have that info ? I cheeked amazonbasion and its outdated.
Bro if my dog Haven cold dmg and of i Haven dmg o ny gera. Work or nów? Can you test. I like frozen wolfs
Magic find is really high. Nice. I did see Llama put points in Werewolf and Fury, probably at the cost of lower MF
I’m from Lansing, let’s go LIONS!!! One more game then we are Super Bowl bound
Get Swifted
@@GoldbondPowder the chiefs bout to lose to the ravens
😂😂😂😂
Oh wait, you're serious
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Flint here
What about an act 5 frenzy merc? Lawbringer and last wish. Fortitude and whatever helm.
Lawbringer and last wish don’t work as well together because life tap and decrepify overwrite each other. Pick one and pair it with Grief, and it’s a great option
Bonus points if you can hire Wulf, Wulfgar, or Wulfstan.
you cna use the ral repair recipie for charges (hence why people on traderie say 3x ral or pgem for trades)UNLESS the item is eth
Anyone tried using a Metalgrid + Edge iron golem with this build? You'd lose a bit of raw damage, but maybe the thorns helps out more?
Thorns is great on this build, but Bramble on the merc is a much better source.
@@WandererFromYs Yeah, but i don't have an ohm rune for bramble lol. i can get an edge easily and i have a metalgrid somewhere in my stash.(SSF play) Figured this would be a fairly decent alternative, since edge is really cheap to replace if the golem dies.
Cant iron golem a bow
@@matty4376 ahh that sucks. Thought you could. There goes that idea then ^_^ ty
@@Selet101 you could use a bramble for the thorns but that’s a bit pricey
every time i see u play druid i see u use shako and hoto, you know druids have better options then these right? on your windy video u didnt even go over the fcr bp it essential doubles ur dmg :D
did they bluff summon druid in d2r?
Beast seems much much better than Hoto imo, Also Why not bramble on the Merc?
Love it!
Zookeeper makes so much fun, stuffed mine even full with mf. I think it's my favorite build in diablo 2. I prefer summon druid over summon necro cause summon necro relies on corpse explosion to make any damage which I don't like because this makes him more of hybrid than a pure summoner.
Choosing oak on him is as smart as choosing the defiance a2 merc for necro summoner.
I got a +2 summoning skills +3 grizzly 2 open soc druid helm. Also got a 2/20 druid summoning ammy.
honestly doesn't look bad.
This video is cool! not the best but definitely gooder
This build is gooder then i thought
i fight summon grizzly bear 1on1 but i can't win.
And I'm still waiting for a dragon, dream or dragon/dream sorc build.
Thumbs up for gooder. Go Lion's!
I don't think Spirit Wolves are all that good. Their damage is cold, so they don't gain the benefits of +ED% auras, and their synergy is defense, which is of questionable usefulness. And they don't really do enough damage on their own to make them useful against phys immunes. Personally, I would just max Dire Wolves and Bear, go for max HotW, and then go hybrid as either a Fury WW or Maul WB. With enough +skills you'll still summon the Spirit Wolves, just because you can. I had a build similar to this way back on the original D2 ladder (using the bear summon, since you had to choose which summon to have out), and it was pretty effective and fun.
1 Ort Rune + 1 Chipped Gem + 1 Weapon = 1 Repaired/Recharged Armor
If you cast BO then summon them, then recast BO they will be stronger.
That's not how battle orders works. For one, BO only increases life and mana. So stronger, yes, but if you mean +1 to skills that's Battle Command.
The level of the summons is set when you cast the spell. Shouts like BO and BC can only be cast after the units are summoned if you want them to be affected.
I prefer to go with thorns and go really lazy as everybody in my pack kills and I just stay alive :)
GO LIONS
I liked this video but I wish I could like it gooder.
Druid isn't the best, but it's the most unique.
cyclone armor is honestly not that great xD I knew you'd still use it tho haha
Wotan mit mir. 🐺
Summoner necro is just better. More summons, has curses and CE that explodes the whole screen.
Which makes him a hybrid char instead of a pure summoner.
this was the shittiest build on diablo II, I'm glad they balanced it
too much work to operate this char. It's just not efficient. Cute but slow.
nop nop nop.. whats the point.. necor do it much better.. this is if ur bordddddddddddd
Remove corpse explosion from your necro and your summoner doesn't do any damage lol