By JARY
As the amazon moved swiftly through the dark brush, her trusty bow at her side, she could see the light radiating from the tall trees all around. This was her forest; she knew it like the back of her hand. She steadily, yet cautiously, approached a small opening in the forest with a gentle stream that meandered through the brush and disappeared underneath some fallen trees. As she kneeled down to fill up her canteen, her inner sight informed her that some one was watching. A crackling sound came from the treetops behind her; she casually took a sip from her canteen, then like a panther, spun around in one fluid motion with her bow and fired an arrow that pierced into the tree behind her! Nothing, she gazed in suspicion� there was no one there. Curious, her inner sights never failed her before. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a giant grizzly phased in behind her in all of its strength and fury. As she stared in abyssal horror before the giant grizzly�s paw came smashing down on her, the last thing she saw was the cold, complacent glare of the druid standing off to her side. It looks like the hunter has become the hunted.
Welcome to the exciting world of the Shockwave Summoner druid <applause>. This guide will take you through the proper skill placements, stat placements, equipment and general strategies needed to help you make the most optimal build you can make. However, just a forewarning, this build isn�t for casual gamers�it will take a certain level of dedication and commitment to be successful. This is no different than if, for example, you were determined to make a successful fire druid, you have to go all or nothing. However, when you�ve finished the build and are staring down at your final product, I can honestly say that in 6 years of playing Diablo 2, this is the most fun I�ve ever had with any build hands down. There�s also the satisfaction of being able to kill players, with something that they say can�t kill! I haven�t been complimented with any other build� even close to as much as I have with my Shock-Summoner�most players will be shocked (literally haha� yeah that was lame) with its effectiveness once you get the hang of it, so it does work.
It�s time to put Summoners back on the map in PvP = )
FCR Table
Frames/ Human/ Werebear
18 0
17 4
16 10 0
15 19 7
14 30 15
13 46 26
12 68 40
11 99 63
10 163 99
9 163
Skill Placement
Once of the benefits of this build, at least for pvm and leveling, is that the skill placement is fairly simple. To start out, you�re really just going down the summon tree with the exception that you�ll max spirit wolves last. I preferred maxing oak first while I was still leveling up, mainly for the survivability factor and since I was still waiting on my higher level gear. However, I definitely recommend maxing both for versatility, because you�ll definitely need both depending on the situation. For instance, I generally use Oak Sage the majority of the time during PvM, and PvP to tell the truth. But there are some situations, such as against stronger minions/bosses that�ll have higher defense (thus requiring more attack rating/damage) or in PvP against higher defense characters where you�ll want to switch to HoW. Shockwave, on the other hand, is the key to making this build work. Not only is the point in bear up to shockwave important for the ~12 second stun giving amazing control for PvM, but in PvP it will give you a tremendous boost in life and survivability for tanking deadly characters that would otherwise have finished you off, such as blizzard sorcs, hammers, etc. Below shows the general skill layout:
1 Raven
1 Poison Creeper (just to have ^^)
10+ Spirit Wolf
20 Dire Wolf
20 Grizzly
20 Oak
20 HoW
1 Lycanthropy
1 Shockwave
This should give you several points left to play with up to lvl 90. Do whatever you want with them =). You could decide to try to finish off spirit wolf, or you could try to sink more points into lycanthropy for some more tankability. Other good options are throwing a point into carrion vine for some quick life in PvM� or to re-heal in PvP muahahah.
Stat Placement
Strength
As minimal as possible. You�re target strength that you�ll need to hit is 156, which is the requirement for your stormshield or spirit monarch. Personally, if you can get by leveling up till 70-75 putting almost nothing into strength till you get anni/torch, do it. You may have to scrap by using peasant crown and vipermage, etc, which is what I ended up doing.
Dexterity
This really comes down to personal preference. However, my recommended target range is somewhere between 160-190 dexterity. Why? It�s based on the fact that you�ll need �some� block (at least 50%) when dueling zons, but you won�t necessarily need �max� block since the majority of your preferred duels will be against casters-like characters where block won�t be needed. Therefore, I say� 50-60% block is the perfect range to help you survive in PvM and still enough to block arrows & paladin charges when it comes to dueling.
Vitality
Once you�ve reached your target strength and dexterity, the rest of your points will go here.
Energy
Warning: don�t touch ><
Equipment
Helm:
Jalals Mane- overall the best choice for this build. Amazing fhr, resists, skills, and a much needed boost in strength in energy. �Shael� it and you already have your main werebear/human fhr breakpoint taken care of.
Rare Druid Pelt- If you can find one with +1-2 druid skills, +3 grizzly for precasting you are the man and I envy you.
Crown of Ages- Not quite Jalals, but it does offer 2 sockets for versatility. Definitely get some style points.
Peasant Crown- Since you may not be able to acquire your Jalals till later on, you might be using this cute lil� helm until you get to lvl 70+. No loss, this helm has great low level attributes to carry you through normal-nightmare.
Armor:
Enigma- In most builds I�d offer other alternatives, but I�m going to have to put my foot down and say NO, there are no alternatives to this, especially in PvP. Anything else is just conditional. If you choose to not use enigma you can�t use this build and that is that.
Bramble (lvl 20-21 thorns)- This is a conditional item to use against tg ww-barbs/smiters in certain situations. This is important since it�s your only real hope in beating a ww-barb. However, I choose to ignore most and only pull this charm out against the obnoxious ones
.Weapons:
HOTO- best overall weapon for most situations. Offers +3 skills, great fcr, mana, life, and resists. What else do you need? ><
�Doom� axe- lvl 12 holy freeze, enough said. Also gives +2 skills. You lose out a lot on resists and fcr, so this usually goes hand in hand with spirit monarch as opposed to SS.
Suicide Branch- +1 skills, 50% fcr. This little twig is helpful in one situation�with 1 fcr ring or ammy you can reach the 99% fcr breakpoint against zons and keep stormshield and ravenfrost on.
CTA- use for prebuffing on the switch.
Widowmaker- useful in some duel situations on the switch, such as hammerdins to draw them in.
Shields:
Stormshield- I guess I could say this is your primary shield. It offers the only legitmate damage reduction and block for this build, which is useful in both PvM and PvP.
Spirit Monarch- used most for precasting and prebuffing, but with the extra fcr and good resists its also the ideal shield if you�re ONLY dueling against casters because of the extra teleporting, transforming, and shockwave speed it will give you.
Belts:
Arachnid- +1 skills, 20% fcr. No better option here
Gloves:
Magefists- 20% fcr, mana regeneration. All you�ll need for this build.
Trang Gloves- 20% fcr with added cold resists, not too shabby.
Boots:
Aldurs- +50 life, 40-50% fire resists, 40% frw. Probably one of your best options.
Sandstorm Treks- provide extra fhr in case you care to reach the next breakpoint. Added strength is helpful too.
Rare boots- anything with frw, fhr, and resistance is always good.
Ammy:
Summon Ammy- preverably with either life or 10% fcr.
Maras Kaleidoscope- pricy for a lil� ammy, but always a good option.
Rings:
Stone of Jordan/s- best option. +1 skills. I found that the mana is needed much more than the life, personally
BK- +1 skills. Another great option, if you�re into clicking mana pots all the time : /
10% fcr ring- one with any mods would be good. Useful in some situations if you need to hit any fcr breakpoints.
Stash:
-D Torch, annihilus- the less you can sacrifice on stats/resists, the better.
-9xSummon GC�s- definitely a must in this build. Preferably ones with life or dexterity �mods
-Life sc�s- pack in as much life in as you can, maybe some with resists too.
My stash layout ^^:
http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t...henk2-pwnt.jpg
http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t...ofightsome.jpg
Dueling Strategies
A summoner dueling, you must be crayyyzy? Yup, you have to be a risk taker sometimes and this definitely takes some bravery and getting used to. At first you may find it difficult getting wins, but as your build keeps getting better and better and you keep getting more and more experienced, you�ll start thinking one step ahead of every player and getting plenty of wins� and once you get to that level its very fun. I�d say that winning with this build is about 90% strategy and 10% chance (getting hits in when you need, etc)�its all about staying moving and catching the other player off guard. Just playing smart and not� jumping into a hammerdin, for example, is half the battle but here are a few tips and tricks that I found have really helped my odds in duels.
Bowazons
odds: 8/10
useful gear: stormshield, hoto/suicide branch, 2x5%fhr, 11 ps resist sc�s (if needed)
strategy: (use oak)
This is definitely your easiest win as far as my experience goes, have fun with this fight ^^. Never approach directly, unless you�ve really closed in the distance between you and him/her. Most will spam guided or multishot from afar, so approaching head on will only get your oak killed and bear weakened considerably by the time you make your drop, and you want your summons to be at full strength preferably so they�re not weakened by recasting. Patience is the key here, teleport around them and wait for the right moment to drop on them. Otherwise, attack at a staggered angle to minimize the amount of damage taken. Sometimes I�ll make as much as 2-3 passes back and forth before I decide to go for it. When you decide to go for it though make sure you try to land ON them, almost like a desynching hammerdin�this way your bear will be superimposed on top of you and take a lot of the hits. They�ll keep on trying to run away and shoot and you just keep teleporting ontop of them, frustrating the crap outta them. FINALLY when they get frustrated and stop to fight, then you switch to bearform and lock them up as they sit immobile and die ^^. It�s not always a good idea to shape into bearform+shockwave immediately, since many good bowazons are too quick on their feet for that. You�ll just end up missing them with shockwave and losing your bear & oak, and when u try to switch back to teleport away u get stuck in arrow fire and die, its really sad =). Just play it smart and wait for the right moment and you�ll rarely lose except against the few elite of all elite ones.
Sorceresses
odds: 6/10
useful gear: HOTO, spririt monarch, any sorb (I don�t play with sorb�more of a honors thing, but it does help =)
strategy: (use oak)
I say 6/10, but really it�s so relative. For example, against most fairly good fire, lightning sorcs I�ll win a good 8/10. Stack enough resists, keep moving, use your environment such as bushes and walls�then when they come outta teleport just be waiting for them with shockwave and they�ll die in one bite. If they use mana shield it may be a lil� tougher to kill them immediately, but as soon as you have �em stunned they�re finished, especially with 99% fcr it�s very very hard for them to escape. However, on the flip side, I�ll probably win a good 1/10 against any godly blizzard/orb sorc. It�s just too much. You can stack your cold resist a good 40 high, but you�ll still drop like a fly = ). Also, if they�re using frost bolts and/or orb, as soon as your bear takes cold damage its REALLY hard for him to land a hit �cause the cold really does a number on his speed (if only at a certain lvl he gained �cold immune� haha, plz patch 1.11?) = ) All in all, these are usually some of my favorite duels that�ll go on for a while at times, so make sure you pack plenty of mana pots ^^.
Bone Necros
odds: 3/10
useful gear: HOTO, spirit monarch
strategy: (use oak)
The strategy against bone necros is going to be much the same as sorcs. However, they have on clear advantage�high level bone armor ><� the jerks. Anyways, you�ll basically want to keep teleporting and moving at all times. If you stop too often to shockwave you�re gonna get bombarded by like 20 spirits or prisoned, so wait till its in your advantage. Sometimes a good strategy is to sort of �frog hop� them with teleport. Lets say they stop to start firing teeth in your direction� you�ll then quickly teleport on them for split second (you�ll get used to the feel and timing when u practice this more) and teleport away just so your bear can get a quick bite in to crack his armor and hopefully take some life (I found that a lvl 49 grizzly, from experimenting with duelers, WILL take some life off with the armor most of the time). However, this isn�t how you win, this is just to taunt him and pester him so you can get him to follow you into a trap
. When you find a hut or corner of a wall nearby, you�ll want to teleport with your back against the wall and shape immediately into shockwave and wait for him to come by. If he gets too close he�ll get caught in your web, and a good 2 hits will kill him. But if you see he�s coming around at a distance switch back immediately and continue the pursuit. From my experience, this is a really long duel many times so pack plenty of mana pots. Your worst enemy sometimes will be your impatience, so just keep moving and let him get impatient for not easily being able to kill you and make the mistake of getting in your shockweb ^^. Also, most boners will have a clay golem at your side. When you make passes at him, your grizzly will usually take some �slow� damage, so it�s a good idea to recast him occasionally throughout the match, fyi.Hammerdins
odds: 4/10
useful gear: �Doom axe�, spirit monarch (widowmaker)
strategy: (use HoW)
�40% chance of winning you�re a friggin� loony Jary!� lol, I kid you not, this is pretty much the shock of the century for about 99% of every hammerdin that loses to me. I�m not lying, I�m not making this up� hammerdins of all the characters I duel are generally the least �graceful� when they lose to a bear lol. And it�s SO funny watching them cry about �that�s cheap! Friggin� nub, rm your char��
. This tactic has prolly taken me the longest to master but I guarantee you it works. For starts, you�ll want to use a �Doom� axe for the lvl 12 holyfreeze effect, this will slow down the pally�s movements conciderably giving you more time to lock them down; however, I�ve won plenty of times just using the standard hoto/ss setup too, so it can be done. The strategy you�re gonna� use is much like a bowazon hit and run tactic. As soon as you both say go, they�re most likely going to come at you and try to desynch on top of you or next to you. Instead of just sitting dead still with shockwave for him to drop in (don�t do that lol), teleport around and get him to follow you. Suddenly when he doesn�t expect it, transform into bear and shockwave, so when he drops in he�ll start getting frozen +stunned. BEFORE the initial hammers orbing come into range to hit you, run back 3 yards, instantly recast bear (and/or HoW if it dies, make sure its on a good hotkey) and start shockwaving. If you keep this hit and run +recast process, he won�t be able to desynch on top of you. After he gets hit a good 2-3 times he�ll die. I�ve even one-hit killed several crappy 80�s pallys before, it doesn�t take much. In some situations, if they decide not to come after you, its ok to have widowmaker on the switch to get a few free shots on them, but I never really needed to do that I found.Smiters/Zealers
odds: 1-2 hits�4/10, 3+hits 0/10
useful equipment: Hoto/Stormshield, maybe �Doom�, but you�ll need the 50%+ block
strategy: (use HoW)
Like I stated above, your odds in this battle a pretty relative to the toughness of the zealer or smiter. I�ve had duels against zealers or smiters where they�ll go down in one hit and others that can tank a good 3 or so. Your best chance here is to keep teleporting, get them to chase after you, then tele-hop them while they�re charging. When they�re moving their block goes down to 25% so that�s the best time to get in a free hit or two. However, once they catch up you�ll have no choice but to go into bearform and start shockwaving. If they go for your bear right away, be ready to immediately recast it, and if they go for you, try to circle around your bear so while he�s focuses on running at you he takes a bite or two and drops ^^. I�ve seen plenty of times where that�s happened and they�re pretty shocked. If they�re anything close to godly, have a good 4.5k life and deal amazing damage you have no chance. Just invite and hope he�s on your side = )
Barbs
odds: in a fair fight? Below 0 lol, but still fun
useful equipment: Hoto or �Doom�/Stormshield, Enigma, Bramble
strategy: (use Oak & HoW, depending on situation)
There�s two different tactics to this duel. One is the legitimate way that doesn�t work, and one is cheaper than all hell but works� take your pick? Lol.
1) using Hoto/ss, you�ll want to keep teleporting to get them to run after you, or tele if they�re bvc. Anyways, keep HoW out and as soon as you see them coming out of WW, telestomp them with your bear quickly and get away before you get hit. Don�t let them WW you or your bear, because generally they�ll be using eBotdz and leech off you, and that�s a nono. In the end� you�ll die, but its fun to try to see if you can get half of their 6k life down for kudos ^^.
2) This next strategy is much more effective but is more on the cheap side. If you�re dueling a barb who�s decided to be particularly hostile, just run back to your stash and throw on your lvl 21 Thorns Bramble. Cast your oak sage, for the extra life damage ><. Walk to the edge of town, cast your bear near him, watch him ww right through it and either die or lose 90% of his health lol. However, if you want to turn it into more of a duel, I suppose you could leave down and keep recasting bear ontop of yourself. This is a little more risky but at least in this way its more legit and not just bm.|||Wind Druids
Odds: 2/10 (~5/10 without pets)
Useful Equipment: Hoto/SS, ravenfrost (against hurricane)
You'll deffinitely need stormshield for damage reduction against those nasty nados. This is generally a tough match since most windies will keep a few pets around them, which makes it difficult for your grizzly to target him even when you DO get him trapped with shockwave. The one advantage you have in this build is their limited range with tornado, so as long as you stay moving you can lure him into chasing you until the opportune moment you can catch him in your shockwave ahead of time. Again, using your environment: walls, cottages, etc is your best bet here.
This covers the general dueling strategies for most of the characters you'll come across in duel games. If you have any questions, suggestions, or want to know more about other strategies, methods just let me know. This game is over 7 years old, and I seriously recommend this build for anyone who is serious about building a solid character that just plain owns in PvM and holds its own very very well in PvP, and is also looking for something fresh and original and fun.
Thanks Ya'll, see you online
My Summoners been taken apart, but here's a few sexy old screenies of him in action :laugh:
http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t...-rescuing2.jpg
http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t...otreally-1.jpg
http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t.../SkillTree.jpg
http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t...yism/Andy3.jpg
http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t...4minions-5.jpg
http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t...a-rescuing.jpg|||very nice dude|||Finally, a PvP summoner build. I was planning on making one on my own (thinking about using sort of the same gear and stats), but now you've convinced me.
Just 1 question, however. First - why did you max dire wolves. Aside from some types of people like auradins and guys like that, can't you just easily recast the grizzly?
Great guide, time for me to start thinking of character names.|||ty you guys
To answer your question, maxing dire wolf is extrememly important because your bears survivability, in many cases, is your survivability. For instance, in some situations if I'm dueling a fireball sorc, my Bear with oak can tank many fireballs before he dies--therefore, I'd almost prefer him/her to target my grizzly since it can tank much more than me hehe. There's also the concideration that if you're dueling a bowazon, for example, once you make your drop on them and they're spraying arrows at you, you can't shockwave and recast at the same time. You'll need your grizzly to be able to tank quite a few arrows so that you'll be able to hold your ground with shockwave or else it'll be a short duel ><|||Quote:
1 Raven
1 Poison Creeper (just to have ^^)
10+ Spirit Wolf
20 Dire Wolf
20 Grizzly
20 Oak
20 HoW
1 Lycanthropy
1 Shockwave
Uhm, werebear is missing lol. Just thought I'd point that out. Nice guide though, very good.
Might I also suggest Doom for dueling bowzons, if she can't run she can't get away from your bear hehe.|||Is Max Dire needed? BvCs tend to use SoE as their belt and the leech seems like a killer for this build.|||The leeching was covered in the Barb section, which is why barbs are the only characters that you'll tend to just avoid if you can
. Or ask them to party, most of them will more than love their 14k life with lvl 48+ oak. lolHowever, I mentioned that Bramble with high level thorns will drop pesky ww-barbs almost immediately, but make sure its at least lvl 20-21 thorns.
Leech from bowazons is usually negligible since their life is so low they'll die in 1-2 hits either way. :smiley:
Sorry, didn't mention Werebear lol. It was sort of implied, I guess, since you need to one point it anyways to get to shockwave :smiley: sry|||And an Edge Bow on Switch
|||good call rashi, Edge bow would be great too. I tend to forget those since I'm nonladder, but that's an excellent idea paired with bramble.If you're just town-casting against a troublesome barb to teach him a lesson :laugh: that'd be perfect. If you want to leave town though you may want a shield to cast ontop of yourself. WW-barbs vs Thorns is the perfect example of why maxing dire's important 'cause the more life your bear has the better, your turning his life into your weapon. If one bear has 2k life and another one has 10k life, clearly the one with the most life will give the most returns as he ww's back and forth through it, whereas the one with 2k life may not have enough life to finish the barb off before it dies.
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