Untwinked Volcano/Grizzly Druid?

[:1]I've always wanted to play around with volcano. I like dual-damage builds (for pesky immunes), and volcano just looks so dang cool! Maxing volcano and all its synergies involves 5 wasted points, summons are fun, and oak is a must (usually play HC), so how about the following?

20 Volcano

20 Fissure

20 Molten Boulder

20 Grizzly

20 Oak

Prereqs

Ironically, I could see this build having trouble with physical immunes instead.

A hybrid approach would give more even damage at the expense of a strong summon:

20 Volcano

20 Fissure

20 Moten Boulder

20 Armageddon

5 Grizzly

10 Oak

This would all be untwinked, so no infinity and about +6 skills would be the norm.

If volcano is truly not a great solo killer, fissure is a (less spiffy) option:

20 Fissure

20 Firestorm

20 Volcano

20 Oak

20 Grizzly

Or I suppose I could just use Akara's quest to make him a Windy... |||Volcano/Grizzly will things, but not very fast. I made a Fire/Summoner. I relied on Fissure to kill big crowds and Volcano/Grizzly/Merc to kill fire immunes. Worked pretty well. I wouldn't bother picking up Armageddon, but one point in Twister is good to stunlock immunes so your Grizzly and Volcano and do their work.

Personally, I wouldn't go for 20 point Oak Sage. It tends to wander off and die a lot, especially against nasty boss packs (when you actually need it). I found HoW to be more useful. You don't need as much life as he is a caster and HoW helps your Merc/Grizzly do more damage.|||Thanks for the info. Volcano looks really cool, but I don't feel like slogging through with a subpar build. Planning for the following:

20 Fissure + 40 synergies

20 Grizzley

5 Oak Sage

6 Vines and pre-reqs

Fire looks to be rather weaker than wind, but it's always fun to try something new. |||I had a volcano druid and I did not find vines to be useful in any capacity. Potions are much more efficient, as you can save those valuable points for pumping up your skills - you will need the extra flexibility with your skill points because you will be untwinked.

Grizzly is a great pet. It can tank very well and with oak sage it becomes very difficult to defeat. It absorbs fire bolts from council members' hydras very well, saving you and your merc.

Also note that it is more difficult for a fire druid untwinked as they do not have the same access to Cyclone armor. When cyclone armor is available and synergized, it opens up more choices for equipment as you do not have to be as concerned with resistances. Then again, you will not have to rely on FCR gear at all because you will not have teleport and the fire skills are all on a timer.

As you said before, physical immunes WILL be a problem. If you can, have some kind of high damage elemental weapon on your mercenary to destroy the physical immunes. A holy freeze aura also helps, as it adds some cold damage. Rift is a cool runeword, as it shoots frozen orbs. It's somewhat expensive untwinked, though, costing a (often undervalued) Gul rune. Demon's Arch is another merc-equippable weapon that deals good elemental damage. It is not worth much if it isn't ethereal, and should be easily obtainable.|||Yeah stick with 1 point HoW if you are going to make a shaman. Physical damage is very important for this build due to all of the fire immunes in hell. Fissure works well vs non immunes though.