Complimentary druid build for necro druid combo

Hello all. I am very new to Diablo 2 and have started my first ladder character which is a druid of course. I have experimented with all three skill trees and can't seem to find the right mix considering the fact that I always play with my buddy who is a skellymancer i believe is the right class. (skellys decrepify and corpse explosion are his main thing) I was wondering if anybody out there by experience knows a good complimetary druid build that will maximise our effieciancy while still allowing us to play sepperately in hell mode. I am currently a level 80. I am mostly interestd in finding out where you would focus skills but info about suggested items are also helpful.|||Quote:








Hello all. I am very new to Diablo 2 and have started my first ladder character which is a druid of course. I have experimented with all three skill trees and can't seem to find the right mix considering the fact that I always play with my buddy who is a skellymancer i believe is the right class. (skellys decrepify and corpse explosion are his main thing) I was wondering if anybody out there by experience knows a good complimetary druid build that will maximise our effieciancy while still allowing us to play sepperately in hell mode. I am currently a level 80. I am mostly interestd in finding out where you would focus skills but info about suggested items are also helpful.




I'd say a hunter would work out quite well. Basically, you use summons and a ranged weapon to support your summons. Max summons (using either dire wolves or grizzly) and HoW. Skeletons synergize very nicely with HoW and decrepify with your summons (ideally he should be using amp damage, though). I assume that your friend uses a might merc, so you should probably use a holy freeze.

PIs are a problem, but luckily, they aren't that many and can be dealt with by using appropriate weapons on you/your merc. (reaper's toll, harmony runeword, hellrack, gimmershred, lacerator etc. If you're playing with a necro you might want to go for elemental damage instead of curses, obviously) I'm currently using this build in hell act 3, and having a rather easy time unless I met cold enchanted (600 hp with -60 cold resist :P) or gloams. Bosses have proven to be relatively easy assuming I manage to keep my druid out of harms way (baal was a pain with his hoarfrost). Against AoE bosses like diablo the trick is to summon your bear so that the boss is facing away from you.

Items for this build need to maintain a good balance between mods that improve your ranged damage (cb, dmg, dex, ar, etc) and +summoning skills.

A nice thing is that you can have a weapon switch for your summons (say spirit and spirit shield) to give you +skills. The summons will be the slvl you had when you casted them, allowing you to focus your ranged weapon more on damage.|||Hunter would be mostly about watching the necro and his minions kick butt.. druids own minions cant keep up

A fury druid is powerful if you can get a decent weapon or a wind druid with necro's amp|||Quote:








Hunter would be mostly about watching the necro and his minions kick butt.. druids own minions cant keep up

A fury druid is powerful if you can get a decent weapon or a wind druid with necro's amp




Maybe, but a maxed HoW would add a lot of damage to the skellies. I am unsure how much, but I assume that the damage %+ would be added with the bonus from summon skeleton (which is 7% per level). HoW at slvl 30 gives a total of +223%. 223/7=~32.

Assuming +10 skills for the necro, 20 in SM and 20+32 in SS, you have skeletons dealing 1,2 k damage per hit, according to http://d2items.com/skills/index.html?class=nec&lang=eng

Not to mention increased AR.

You would also benefit from the amp damage that the necro has, which allows your summons and you to deal effectively >=2x physical damage damage. If you really feel like pimping things up, add a faith to the hunter and a pride to one of your mercs for a potential +531% damage.

I'm a bit unsure as to how many auras can be applied at the same time, though.|||Fury Druid with max HoW. Your job is to get to the things the skellies can't (oblivion knights in the back row, etc.) and to simply rape anything cursed.