Guide:Windmaster Druid v1.10, by Strijdje
Contents
The Windmaster[edit]
After beating the game with my wind druid, I thought that other people really should try this build, it’s fun to play. You don’t see them as often as, for example a fishymancer, vegasorc, or strafeazon (no offense guys) and they are great pit-runners. But there is 1 major difference with this build than the builds I just mentioned, the windmaster druid is very gear dependent in my opinion. You will need a lot of +skills to be effective in hell, I’ll explain this in the equipment section.
The windmaster druid is unique because it has a way to inflict quite severe damage in the physical and elemental form. But beware, the elementalist doesn't show its potential until you get the right equipment. Also, the elementalist emphasizes spreading less damage over multiple enemies.
Stat allocation[edit]
- Strength
This really depends on the kind of equipment you will choose to use, but you’ll want to use the best shield in the game for your druid, stormshield, so I suggest you to have enough strength to equip a stormshield, you can always socket it with a –15% req jewel with a nice 2nd mod or a Hel rune if you want to concentrate more on vitality. Lidless Wall looks very attractive with the +1 skill and mana but you will need max block, which is very difficult to achieve with it’s base blocking % being so low.
- Dexterity
Blocking is the key to survival for a windmaster druid, I will explain this a little down further in the guide. Dex should be around 180 ~ 200. This way you will have 70% + at level 80+.
- Vitality
You wil use an Oak Sage, but vitality is still very important, 160+ should be enough
- Energy
Very gear depended, if you’re planning on using some items which increase your mana, which is highly recommend, 60~ is enough. I have 60 energy, use a SoJ, Frostburns and Harlequin’s Crest, this gives me over 700 mana, which is enough. And remember, you can buy mana potions in 1.10, so why not make use of that
Skill allocation[edit]
- Cyclone Armor – 20
- Twister – 20
- Tornado – 20
- Hurricane – 20
- Oak Sage – 20
- Prerequisites – 2
This comes down of a total of 102 skillpoints, you will get 12 bonus skills from the quest rewards, so this build will be finished at lvl 90. Oak Sage should be maxed last, so you will reach your end goal approximately at lvl 80, where your Oak Sage is around lvl 10 (with +skills from your gear)
Skill progress table[edit]
To give you an idea how to put your skills:
- 1 - Raven
- 2-5 (+skill from den quest) - save these
- 6 - 1 in Artic Blast rest Oak Sage
- 7-11 - 1 in Oak Sage (5 will be enough for normal) save the rest
- 12–17 - Cyclone Armor
- 18–23 (+ skill from Radament) - max Cyclone Armor and rest in Twister
- 24 – 29 (+skills from Izual) - Twister and Tornado
- 30 – 65 - max Tornado and Hurricane ASAP, I suggest first Tornado for the PI damage...
- 65+ - max rest of your skills, max Twister (synergy) and Oak Sage
Item section[edit]
Headgear[edit]
Ravenlore should be the best pick for this, but I recommend Harlequin’s Crest as the +mana, + life, and damage reduction will help you more than the +1 skill, and it has the potential of getting 74% mf, which is great for pit runs.
Weapon[edit]
For the rich people there is only one option here, Heart of the Oak flail, +3 skills, 40% faster cast rate, resistance all 30-40%, +15% max mana and +10 dex (higher blocking) trully awesome...
The second best choice is wizardspike, 50% faster cast, huge bonus to all resistances and extra mana, it’s only drawback is that it has no +skills.
Shield[edit]
Only one option here, Stormshield, cause you wont use a Shaftstop you will need the 35% PDR from the Stormshield, and it has huge bonuses to strength, defense, resistance and blocking. As a windmaster druid you will be in the line of fire most of the time since the monsters will need to be in your Hurricane range if you want to do any damage. This means that you will need max block, high life and max resistances. Therefore your best choice is a shield which gives you the best defense and blockrate possible and that is the Stormshield. Second best choice and for building up progress I suggest the Lidless Wall, however, if you will use this one as your end-game shield, prepare to be beaten up alot.
Armor[edit]
Sounds strange but a Chains of Honor mage plate/wire fleece is the best armor in my opinion, it looks like a melee characters armor, but you will be looking for +skills and + resistance on your armor, maybe some magic find but thats it. Chains provide a whopping +65 to resist all making it easy to achieve max resistance and don’t forget the +2 skills it adds. On top of that it has 25% MF, 8% PDR and life replenish.
Second best armor would be Skin of the Vipermagi, faster cast, + mana, + resistances and + 1 skills. All in all a great armor if you can’t get your hands on the runes to make Chains of Honor.
Gloves:[edit]
Frostburns +40% mana makes it posible to invest less in energy, and more in vitality and dexterity
Rings[edit]
A Stone of Jordan and a Ravenfrost is all you need, if you dont have a Stone of Jordan, you can use a Bul Katho’s Wedding Band, but be prepared to invest a little more points into energy then.
Belt[edit]
Number one pick here is the Arachnid Mesh, giving +1 skills, +5% max mana and faster cast (you will want to cast those tornados quick, real quick), on top of this it slows your enemies. If u cant afford this, a Thundergods Vigor or Verdungo’s Hearty Cord should be your pick. Thundergod has a nice bonus to strength and vitality which allows you to invest more points to dexterity and vitality, and +10% max resistance to lightning, which comes in handy with gloams. Verdungo’s belt has a bonus of 40 to vit and a 10-15% dmr, use this if you’re not using Stormshield or the Chains of Honor armor, because PDR is capped at 50% in 1.10 and more wont have any effect.
Boots[edit]
These don’t matter really, just use some boots that run fast, you can use Immortal king’s, Natalya’s boots, Aldur’s boots or War Travellers for more MF. Waterwalks are also a nice pick because of the +max mana, but you will most likely already have enough if you follow these instructions
Charms[edit]
Look for elemental charms with +life, mana or resistance. Small charms with life, mana, or a combination of these two, deserve a place in your inventory too
Which mercenary should I pick?[edit]
You have the choice between two heroes, the trusty defiance mercenary and the beloved holy freeze mercenary. You will already have max block, so more defense makes you harder to hit, but is this really needed? On the other hand, your Hurricane deals cold damage, thus slowing your enemies... why not make your enemies even slower? In this way they will take more damage from your Hurricane and u will be attacked less.
The choice of your mercenary is really 100% a personal choice. I chose a Holy Freeze mercanery and it works nice, he does a heck of a lot damage and tanks almost everything.
Hints and tips[edit]
- Due to all your +skills cast your ravens, i have 5 ravens which hit 14 times, blinding enemies is really usefull.
- Recast your cyclone armor when u get the chance, gloams attack hard and even with a lvl 31 cyclone armor it only takes them 4-5 hits to destroy it.
