Druid Strategy

Author: oStRiDERo

Introduction

This guide is designed to give a basic outline on how to create a werewolf druid. Since the Diablo 2 1.08 patch has come out creating a character that can manage soloing hell difficulty is almost impossible. However I have managed to do exactly that. Currently my werewolf is level 61, which took me just less than 3 weeks of casual play (less than 2 hours a day) totally from scratch.

Starting Out

Before you create your werewolf druid, see if you can obtain the new Sigon’s gloves and boots (Any set items found before version 1.08 of standard Diablo 2 do not have the same bonuses now available with the new ones. To distinguish between the old and new version check the durability of the items.). Together these allow you to steal 10% life and give 30% increased attack speed when combined. The gloves & helm also have the same effect, but giving a bonus to attack rating (Based on Character Level).

Here is a simple Act-by-Act suggestion for items, stat points and skill point distribution.

Act 1 – The Sightless Eye

Weapons

• Magic/rare scythe (try gambling), 8-20 base damage.
• Socketed scepter (buy from Akara), 6-11 base damage, 150% damage to undead, look to socket with elemental damage gems.
• Magic/rare voulge (try gambling), 6-21 base damage.

Armor, Helm, Belt, Boots, Gloves

• Anything you can find. Look for +mana items as they help with feral rage, and +hps keep you alive.

Jewelry

• Life/mana steal. Triumphant items (+1 mana per kill) are useful as well.

Skill/Stat Point Distribution

Strategy

You should not have any problems with attack rating throughout acts 1-3, therefore you will want to increase your strength to around 50 before leaving act one.

At level 6 you will get oak sage. At level 1 this gives a nice +30% life bonus, this skill is definitely worth putting 20 points into, however there are more important skills to max before oak sage, such as Lycanthropy and werewolf form.

At level 12 you will get feral rage. This attack skill enhances your damage, attack rating, and gives some minor life steal and faster run/walk. You will definitely want to use it as your primary attack until you get Fury at level 30. Remember however one point is all that is required, as you will not use this attack skill after you get fury.

Act 2 – The Secret of the Vizjerei

Weapons

• magic/rare poleaxe (try gambling), 18-39 base damage.
• magic/rare scythe (try gambling), 8-20 base damage.

Armor, Helm, Belt, Boots, Gloves

• Anything you can find. Look for +mana items as they help with feral rage, and +hps keep you alive. Gamble for faster run/walk boots.

Jewelry

• Life/mana steal. Triumphant items (+1 mana per kill) are useful as well. Resistance stats to become important in Act Two.

Point Distribution

Strategy

Here again you will want to get your strength to 70 so you are able to wear greaves and gothic plate in act 3 and 4. At the same time you want to have high enough dexterity to have around 85-95% chance to hit the monsters your currently killing while generating a large number of health from your vitality.

At level 18 you will get rabies, this skill is so impossibly useless, put 1 point into and move on.

Act 3 – The Infernal Gate

Weapons

• magic/rare halberd (try gambling), 12-45 base damage.
• magic/rare poleaxe (try gambling), 18-39 base damage.
• magic/rare axe (try gambling), 9-30 base damage.

Armor, Helm, Belt, Boots, Gloves

• Anything you can find. Look for +mana items as they help with feral rage, and +hps keep you alive. Gamble for faster run/walk boots, SIAS gloves, and start on circlets if you can afford them.

Jewelry

• Life/mana steal. Triumphant items (+1 mana per kill) are useful as well. Resistance stats to become important in Act Two.

Point Distribution

Strategy

You will just be spending points into Lycanthropy and werewolf form, while increasing your dexterity and vitality.

Act 4 – The Harrowing

Weapons

• magic/rare war scythe (try gambling), 15-26 base damage.
• magic/rare halberd (try gambling), 12-45 base damage.

Armor, Helm, Belt, Boots, Gloves

• Anything you can find. Look for +mana items as they help with feral rage, and +hps keep you alive. Gamble for faster run/walk boots, SIAS gloves, and start on circlets if you can afford them.

Jewelry

• Life/mana steal. Triumphant items (+1 mana per kill) are useful as well. Resistance stats to become important in Act Two.

Point Distribution

Strategy

At level 30 you will get fury, this is the ultimate werewolf skill and is even more powerful than a barbarian’s whirlwind. At level 20 you will be doing a whopping +183% attack rating and +423% damage for the cost of four mana! Even better this skill has the same effect as the paladins skill zeal, adding more hits per level to a maximum of five hits at level four fury.

Act 5 – Lord of Destruction

Weapons

• magic/rare war scythe (try gambling), 15-26 base damage.
• magic/rare halberd (try gambling), 12-45 base damage.

Armor, Helm, Belt, Boots, Gloves

• Anything you can find. Look for +mana items as they help with feral rage, and +hps keep you alive. Gamble for faster run/walk boots, SIAS gloves, and start on circlets if you can afford them.

Jewelry

• Life/mana steal. Triumphant items (+1 mana per kill) are useful as well. Resistance stats to become important in Act Two.

Point Distribution

Strategy

As I have mentioned above, to get the most out of fury you would want to at least put it to level four before continuing to max out werewolf form.

Beyond Level 40

From here on, you are on your own. If you don’t know what to do with those skill points or stat points, try getting your strength to 170, your dexterity to 140 and all the rest of your stat points into vitality. As for your skill points, have a look at my character if you are unsure as to where to put them. Just max them out in this order: Lycanthropy, werewolf form, fury, oak sage and then feral rage.

Equipment of Choice

Here is a list of the ultimate or uber items for the werewolf class. Remember though, depending on your character the ‘best items’ for them is not always the same for every character.

Helm: A nice prismatic and +life, +mana, +druid skills, +2 to shape shifting (Druid), % magic find circlet or druid pelt would be the ultimate helm for a werewolf.

Armou: Armour class means nothing to a werewolf, because in hell difficulty you will have a 25% to dodge any attack even with a 1500+ defense. All you’re looking for is resistance and life or maybe magic find if your not having any problems. The perfect armour may be Tal Rasha’s Guardianship (40% Resist Fire/Lightning/ Cold, 88% Magic Find) socketed with 1 topaz to bring the magic find up to 112%.

Amulet: A nice rare +2 to druid skills, +3 to shape shifting (Druid) with % steal life/mana or prismatic would be superb. The ultimate amulet for a werewolf would probably be the Cat’s Eye Unique Amulet (20% increased attack speed & more).

Rings: A rare +life, +mana, % steal life/mana, prismatic or +2 to shape shifting (Druid). The ultimate ring would be either the Stone of Jordan Unique Ring (25% increased maximum mana, +1 to skills & more) or Bul-Kathos’ Wedding Band (+1 to skills, 4% life stolen & more). Cathan’s Seal is great for lower level characters (6% life stolen, Required Level 11).

Boots: Rare 50% less stamina drain, 40% increased run/walk speed, +2 shape shifting (Druid), +life & resists, enough said. A good easy to find substitute would be any of these: Sandra’s Taboo (40% faster run/walk & more), Vidala’s Fetlocks (+150 maximum stamina, 30% faster run/walk) or Sigons Boots (40% cold Resist, 20% faster Run/Walk).

Gloves: 20% increased attack speed, +2 shape shifting (Druid), +resists gloves, +Life Sigons Gloves (+10 to strength & 30% increased attack speed if combined with any other piece of the set), Bloodfist (+50 to life) or The Hands of Brock (3% life stolen, 3% mana stolen, +20 to mana) are a great substitute for lower level characters with mana problems.

Skill Reference

Here you will find all the stats for the various werewolf skills.

Werewolf Form: This ability allows an enlightened Druid to take on the form of a wolf, imparting to him quicker reflexes and heightened combat facilities.

Although Werewolf gives an increase to Attack Speed, this is an increase over the Bear form. Since the Druid swings faster in human-form than animal form, werewolf looks slower when you first use it.

Lycanthropy: Changing shape is quite a taxing ordeal for a Druid, and he can only assume animal forms for a limited time. This skill enhances his constitution while in animal form, thereby increasing the amount of time he can remain transformed.

Feral Rage: When in wolf form, the Druid using this ability enters a frenzied rage, viciously tearing into foes and becoming heartier with each consecutive attack.

The more hits you get in, the more life you will steal. For Skill Level 1, the first hit is 4%, but by three hits, it will now be +12%. The “red ball” will spin around your character indicating the power level of Feral Rage. The bigger the ball, the more Life you’ll be stealing.

Rabies: When a Druid utilizes this ability, he toxifies his own saliva and attacks his enemies with a vicious bite, spreading a contagious disease that wracks the flesh of his infected opponents.

Fury: The use of this skill drives the Druid into a bloodthirsty frenzy, attacking many foes with a raging fervour.

Oak Sage: The Druid uses this ability to call upon a helpful spirit of Nature to enhance his well being, as well as the health of his companions.

My Werewolf – oStRiDERo

Stat Points

• Strength: 140
• Dexterity: 125
• Vitality: 120
• Energy: 20 (Base)

Skill Point Distribution

• Shape Shifting
  • Werewolf: 20
  • Lycanthropy: 20
  • Feral Rage: 20
  • Rabies: 1
  • Feral Rage: 2
• Summoning
  • Oak Sage: 12 (Will max it next.)
• Elemental
  • Nothing. (Go play a Sorc if you want to effectively cast spells.)

My Items

With my current items, I steal 45 mana (12% Steal) and 56 life (15% Steal) per hit in hell difficulty. This easily covers the 4 mana required per fury (5 hits).

I have found greater damaging weapons, through these did not have anywhere near the attack speed of Boneslayer Blade, and they do not cost $48 to repair one point of durability. After all isn’t 1534 damage enough when you attack at 5 times a second?

Credits

Thank you to all my buddies who I used to play with on Battle.Net, unfortunately there are too many of you to mention by name.

Thank you to Diabloii.net and the Lurker Lounge for supplying me my daily news and strategy forums.

Thanks to Shadowborn, Dark_Shadow & Anagarika for giving vital information and support (pointing out all those errors).

And most of all, thank you to Blizzard Entertainment for making the amazing games that I spend so much time on wasting my life!

Just to make a point of it:

• There is no gaming company that gives so much support to it’s customers.
• There is no gaming company that gives free online strategy guides.
• There is no gaming company that meets the given deadline for releases.
• There is no gaming company that provides a huge free online gaming community.
• There is no gaming company that still releases patches 5 years after a games release to fix those mistakes they originally made.

Excerpt for Blizzard Entertainment.

Original D2Sector reference. This article describes the historical game version indicated; some advice and external resources may be outdated.