my name is Zack, aka kakashi, im well known with druids so i decided to make a guide rather then explain it to everyone that pms me


OPENING:

ALL THE INFORMATION HERE IS OFF THE TOP OF MY HEAD unless otherwise stated in the section

Druids are very versitile. with various builds and the fact that they have massive life, cyclone armor for elemental damage, physical damage and summons they can take down vertually any foe.

A Druids breakpoints are these:
for Faster hit recover.. 3/7/13/19/29/42/63/99/174 (the only fhr bp i use is 99 (i will explain why 174 is useless)
for faster cast rate.. 4/10/19/30/46/68/99/163 (163 is your typical druid vs all build and 99 has few applications)

I will be color coding the guide and breaking it down into sections like this:

Gear and Inventory
Gear combinations
General Dueling Knowledge
Dueling strategy
THE END RESULT


i will start with a druids gear/build, these are the items that i would use. while i dont expect everyone to afford them they do have cheaper versions of the gear and i will list those versions
keep in mind this is not a welfare druid and will run you from 10kfg up to 90kfg (this druid build will use east 08 items)
skill and stat point distribution:
skill wise you want to put
one point into: raven, spirit wolves, dire wolves, grizzly, arctic blast (if your lvl 95 then psn creaper(this will stop there life replenish if they have any(and if you reach 99 get volcano)))
you will want to max: tornado, hurricain, cyclone armor (in this order(if your not lvl 94 then you must decide weither to be lifer or damage) if damage max twister and rest into oak, if lifer then do the opposite
stat distribution: if your going max block then enough dex to be mb (i dont recomend this at all, let your wolves do your blocking) and rest into vita
BUT if your going vita... then all into vita, your items should make it so you dont need any strength, but if you need strength add where nessassary


GEAR

Helms
Both pelts and circlets have there pro's and con's the pelt will allow more damage and depending on your pelt, will give you much needed bonus skills
the circlet however will generally leave you at 5900 nado dmg but allow you to have 85 max lite and fire resist, also giving you much faster walk/run and giving you the
option of getting life replenish!

1) Pelt 2druid/10fhr/3nado/ 2os (life is a bonus but not required(with this pelt i shael shael it for 50fhr(comes into play later on)))
-the pelt is used when you need damage and not dr or extra resist-

2) circlet: 2druid/20fcr/30fwr/ 2os (life and resist/str/dex is a bonus)
-a circlet with fwr will be used vs chars that can easilly fhr lock you(hybrid sins) and is usually socketed with LoLo runes for 85 lite res (gm)-

3) Crown of Ages 15dr base with max resist and 2os is a absolute must (socketed with berber or if you have 2x LoLo for lite resist)
-this is used vs chars that u need dr against but also need a 163/99 build-

Armor
1) enigma
-There is really only one armor for a windy druid and thats enigma, altho there are hybrids that offer fhr and resist. i feel that the 8dr from the enigma is more valuable then 20fhr somewhere else
the reason for this is because even with a bered ss, you will need the ber in another part of your build, wiether its in the pelt or armor, also with the 163fcr build, 39dr is the most you can get and (it requires berber coa and a nigma made with jah ith ber-)
make sure the armor you chose is in the "light class", so there isnt any frw penalties

Sheilds
There are 2 sheilds a druid will use

1) Spirit Sheild 35%fcr is needed (this is the main sheild of a druid, with fhr and fcr along with 2 skills, spirit sheild is a must!(you will need 2 of these, one for bo and one for main))
-Hybrid spirit sheilds are better because it gives max resist and 50 life which is far better then 35 resist of everything except fire-

2) stormsheild socketed with a ber or jah depending on your build.
-Stormsheild is mainly used in dvd or when your opponant is slower but packs a powerful physical punch, the ber will enable you to hit 50dr (with nigma) and have proper bps
but with jah in your ss and ber in your pelt you gain more life but dedicate that sheild to be used with your pelt which doesnt work vs some characters which is why i recomend a ber-

Weapons
The druid uses many weapons for various opponants

1) suicide branch Socketing this with a 20lifer/15res jewel is your best option.
-used with 163fcr when you dont need resist and prefer the +1 skill
altho you can use a 7fhr jewel with other mods for the simple fact you may need more fhr to acheive the bp(you wont with my builds tho)-

2) Spirit Sword 35%fcr is a must.
-This weapon will be used when you need 50dr (99/99 bps) and is mainly seen in dvd duels-

3) Heart of the Oak resist doesnt matter
-This will be used with a different 50dr/99/99bp build and the circlet build

4) Wizard's Spike socketed with a -15 requirments/15+ resistance jewel
-This is the best weapon vs any elemental damage because of its massive resistance mod, this is used with 163fcr when vs sorcs and other opponants that are hard to catch-

5) Call To Arms i shouldnt have to explain this but i will
-this is used to buff your character before your duel (using the items you intend to duel with(gm)) this will increase its skills (battle command) and its life/mana of you and your summons (battle orders)-

Gloves
There will be two different gloves you will need

1) Magefists
-trangs gloves work fine as well but its either mana regeneration or cold resist(cold resist is not needed imo because of cyclone armor which orb cannot peirce and blizz takes atleast one shot(you can recast))-

2) Blood Fists
-these gloves come with high fhr and good life and are used in a 99/99/50dr build-

Boots
-there are many boots out there but these are what i beleive to be the best-

1) Waterwalks 65 life is not needed but preffered
-these boots will be used when you dont need 20fhr on your boots for your build and is generally used with your coa-

2) Aldurs boots
-these boots are the best with a circlet build imo, thats because of the nice life mod, the massive frw, and the fire resist which is a bonus.

Belt

1) Arachnids mesh
-a must belt for any other build then a circlet build (assuming its 163/99 bp)

2) Crafted belt 10fcr/24fhr/life is a must, but strength/resist/life replenish make the belt worth having/using
-this would be used with a circlet only-

Rings
personally i use crafted lifer str mana rings with life str resist rings in stash

1) Crafted rings
10fcr/60life/20+str/mana(or resist) if you can get rep life on these then use only 1 (rep life on hoto(+20) and on belt will leave you with close to 40)
-the crafted rings are known for there high life and str along with haveing 10fcr making them the best rings for a druid, there are other builds that allow the use of sorb rings (1 ring is gm on a druid) and a ravenfrost
(for nonfreezing abilities) but i just use crafted rings

2) Absorbing Rings these rings include:
Dwarft star (i dont use but i have)
Wisp projector (i dont use but i have)
Raven frost (i dont use but i have) -this is good in dvd because hurricain slows you down if you try to run out of a failed stomp-
(there isnt truely any need for resist rings but ill throw them in here)

Amulets
there is only one ammy you need for a druid

1) Crafted Amulet 2druid/19%fcr will make all the druids builds work but 18%fcr will work with some/most
-please remember that the more life you have the better and plays into the build later on-

INVENTORY

Torch (20/20)
-this plays a big roll in your resistance stacking and your capability to use coa with no added strength-

Annihilus (20/20/x)
-see the notes above-

Summoning grand charm
-you want atleast 1x45 lifer, but i have 2x incase i need that little bit of extra life

Elemental grand charms
-9x 45 lifer gcs, you can use lower life but you will want 45 lifers (they are worth it over 40's+)-

Shimmering small charm of Vita
10x 20lifer/5resist all small charms
while you can use a combination of 20/11 res or lower lifers (17/5s)



BUILD COMBINATIONS AND THERE USES

In this part i will explain vertually every build that is usefull on a windy druid
the builds will be broken down into breakpoints and dr, understand that there are more combinations but these are the main ones that majority of the druids use

163/99 builds

1) Pelt build Use: when damage is needed more then DR
this build can also be a resist build vs elemental damage by changing out the branch with a 15/-15'ed wizzy(for 90 more resist)
items:
pelt(50fhr)
crafted ammy and crafted rings
arachnids
spirit sheild
branch(20/15)
waterwalks
magefists(or trangs)
enigma

2) COA build Use: when you need DR and the speed of 163fcr
this build can also be a resist build vs elemental damage by changing out the branch with a 15/-15'ed wizzy(for 90 more resist)
along with coa added 30 resist its prefered to use this while dueling sorcs because they generally cant take as many hits
items:
coa(berber)
crafted ammy and crafted rings
arachnids
spirit sheild
branch(20/15)
08 boots(with 20fhr(or treks))
magefists(or trangs)
enigma

3) Circlet build Use: this is one of the main builds that i use, when fwr and rep life is much needed.
items:
circlet(2/20)(with the fcr belt this will allow you to use a hoto to compensate for loss of damage that the pelt gives and the belt(if it has life) will be better then using a different ring
crafted ammy and crafted rings
fcr belt(10fcr/24fhr(with the fcr belt this will allow you to have more life(max of 60+ on the belt)
spirit sheild
aldurs or a crafted 30frw/10fhr/14+rep life/20life/resist lite and fire
magefists(or trangs)
enigma

99/99/50DR builds
while there are many mixtures you can use there are 3 main ones that are used, they have few benifits from eachother but for creativity ill list them all
-the build will be named by its weapon since thats a main factor in the build-

1) Spirit Sword Build use: this is the main druid vs druid build that is seen
pelt(50fhr)
crafted ammys and rings
arachnids
waterwalks(or 08 boots with 20fhr(or treks)) the reason you would use 20fhr boots is so you can jah your stormsheild and ber your pelt which would add more life if you had 08 boots that granted life)
stormsheild(ber or jah depending on your boots)
magefist
spirit sword
enigma

2) hoto build
pelt(50fhr)
crafted ammys and rings
arachnids
bloodfists
08 boots with 20fhr and life (or treks but not recomended for this build)
stormsheild(this time this cannot had the choice of jah or ber because the 50fhr is a must on the pelt)
enigma
Hoto

3) Branch build (i only recomend this build if you have a pelt with only 40fhr(no 10fhr base) and if its a magic pelt with higher then 40 life)
pelt(50fhr) (this can have 40fhr but you will need shadow dancers and a 5/5 sc in your inventory)
crafted rings and ammy
arachnids
stormsheild (this time this cannot had the choice of jah or ber because the 50fhr is a must on the pelt)
enigma
shadow dancers(or 08 boots with fhr if you decide to place a 5/5 sc in your inventory)
bloodfists
suicide branch (20/15)

this concludes the various gear and there builds that can be used.

This post was edited by kakashi_1337 on Oct 5 2012 11:48pm

General Dueling Knowledge
in this part i will explain many hidden things about dueling thats not very well known, some do not pertain to druids but its usefull knowledge nonetheless

How Faster Hit Recovery works:
you may think you know how fhr works and that more fhr=better but the trueth is that it is sometimes not needed (99fhr bp that is) and you can settle for a lower fhr bp and it wont effect the duel
fhr works like this:
when damage is done to your Druid, depending on how much is done, the druid will need to recover from the hit (where fhr comes into play) but you dont have to recover from every hit. there are damage:life fhr brackets and i will explain them

IF the damage done to your druid is + 1/4 your druids life value then you will have a 100% chance to need fhr
IF the damage done to your druid is + 1/8 your druids life value then you will have a 75% chance to need fhr
IF the damage done to your druid is + 1/16 your druids life value then you will have a 37.5% chance to need fhr
whats this mean?
well if the damage of an attack is less then 1/16 of your druids life value (there max life) then you will have a 37.5% chance to need fhr (this is where fhr comes into play(recovering from a hit)) this means that you have a 62.5% chance to be unphased by
an attack and continue casting or moving or doing whaterver


General asked Questions

What is the PvP Penalty?
-The PvP Penalty is 17% or roughly 1/6, any damage when used against an opposing player is reduced to this percent of its original value. This includes Magic Damage, Elemental Damage, and Physical Damage

What is the PDR Limit?
-The maximum amount of PDR % is 50%, there is no cap for static PDR.

What are the Absorb/Resistance Caps?
-The maximum amount of % Absorb is 40%, there is no cap for static Absorb.
-Resistances are capped naturally at +75% and -100%, equipment (and the Paladin resistance auras) which adds +maximum resist can boost the upper bound to +95%, nothing can change the lower bound.

Does ITD work in PvP?
-No, never has never will. The 'Eth' Rune bug in 1.09 has since been corrected, previously an 'Eth' Rune socketed within a weapon granted the mod "-25% Target Defense", which the game mistakenly applied as setting the Target's defense to -25%, meaning they would constantly have a negative Defense Rating allowing you to hit at the 95% chance. That has since been corrected and now 'Eth' Runes remove 25% of the Target's defense per hit. This is an item_armor_defense debuff, not a skill_armor_defense debuff, therefore it behaves differently from Conviction or Cloak of Shadows.

What are breakpoints?
-The game runs constantly at 25 Frames Per Second, every action you do is calculated by frames, for example, a sorceress reaches a Faster Cast Rate breakpoint when she has 37% of FCR equipment, this allows her to cast at 10 Frames Per Cast. Meaning she can cast a non-timered spell twice in 1 second (20 frames of the 25), and 5 times in 2 seconds. When she has 200% of FCR equipment, she can cast at 7 Frames Per Cast. Meaning she can cast a non-timered spell 3 times in 1 second (21 frames of the 25) and 7 times in 2 seconds. The same applies for hit-recovery, block-rate, attack-speed etc.

Do Life and Mana Leech work in PvP?
-It does, but at an extremely reduced rate, even if you create an item that grants 100% Life Leech in Single Player, when you hit an opposing player, you'll notice that you leech less then 10% of your damage, meaning the penalty factor is not static, and increases as your leech increases. It's generally not worth it to have lots of leech.

In what order is damage calculated?
1. PvP penalty
2. Energy Shield/Bone Armor/Cyclone armor
3. Magic/Physical Damage reduced by #
4. Resistances and/or Physical Damage reduced by %
5. Absorb by %
6. Absorb by #

How does slow work in PvP?
-Although slow is usually considered Bad Mannered in any duel, it does in fact work in PvP. However, slow in 1.10 is different then slow in 1.09. In 1.10, slow by 25% would slow your target's current speed (attack/recovery/run/etc) by 25%. In 1.09, slow by 25% would slow your target's base speed (attack/recovery/run/etc) by 25% resulting in a much larger and more noticable difference
NOTE: -this information was obtained via Arreat Summit and is not my own- (gotta give credit where its due)

STRATEGY
YOU CAN COME UP WITH YOUR OWN STRATS

End result:
with the gear ive listed your druid will have anywhere from 7500life to 8500 life
doing
163/99 39dr 5900 damage
163/99 with 6600 damage
99/99 with 50dr and 6600 damage
with 75 resist all and 85 resist capabilities

with the circlet build you will have mass frw, 85 fire and lite resist, 35-40 rep life, 5900 dmg, 9k+life, 163/99

this concludes my druid guide, hope it helped alot. all information and credit goes to me (except the small part that goes to arreat sumit)
if you have any information that i have mist or would like to add to this guide then pm me, ill add your information and give you credit on it
donations welcome for my hard work and knowledge that im publicizing


Kakashi_1337

special thanks to the people that appreciate my guide















This post was edited by kakashi_1337 on Oct 5 2012 11:56pm

You're a random tradespawn from aenima's terrible "clan" who don't actually duel...



You tell people to "l8z" against warcry barbs, this should go in habbakuk22's list immediately.
Useful guide for other people who use terms they don't understand the meaning of and can't play their characters.

This post was edited by Airwaves on Oct 5 2012 11:49pm

first off... who the fuck uses a wc barb? i dont know any
secondly... im more known for druids, regaurdless if its good or bad, then you are with...?
and lastly... im taking down my strat section so ppl like you can only hit me on grammar

enjoy

This post was edited by kakashi_1337 on Oct 6 2012 12:01am

I liked all the builds but the circ build (no offense). I just strongly disagree with using crafted fcr belt on a windy when you can use arach. I know you get life boost like crazy but I don't feel it is superior over pelt build in pubs at all. Generally I would go with the cookie cutter pelt build for pubs. But nice guide.

The belt is more for hitting 40life rep, stacked resist, and 24fhr allowing the use of alders for mass fwr decent life and fire resist, it goes with a fwr circlet that is lo/shaeled for the lite res buff, allong with a spirit of Phoenix for 85lite and fire, also needing hoto for rep life, resist, some added dex, and skills to put the dmg where it needs to be. In a pub game, this is my main build when I don't need dr
The stats are as follows
Life: 9300+
mana: 1k+
life rep 40
Max all resist and 85 fire/lite
115 frw
5900 dmg
163/99

Vs a pelt build that give no rep life, 85fire 80 lite 45frw 6600 dmg and 8800+ life
The little dmg you get (700) after pvp reductions and dr, your looking at around 55 dmg to there life

i cba reading but i'll mention the fact that transforming into a bear and shockwaving the non-mb es sosar/negry/something against you actually is a viable tactic for stunning them :-D

horrendous guide, even worse druid.. i NvD'd this guy with a plain gc 23% dr necro.. not good

being rich =/= being good + knowledgeable about pvp

This post was edited by murpph on Oct 6 2012 06:56pm

lmk for ft5?
calling the guide bad jsut because you may or may not have beat me just makes you ignorant

now you'll never make it in habbakuk22's profile