[firehunter] - Topic

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Apr 22 2020 06:49pm

so, what we are having here is basically summoner/fire druid hybrid, completely viable for pvm on both soft and hardcore
through the years i was experimenting with many different setups for one of my most favorite chars - druid
and particularly with my most loved skills like wolves, grizzly, stun and all the rest from the fire tree
we all know that classic cookie nado druid is the most popular, balanced in every aspect, effective pvm farmer
whereas firecaster druid is less optimal due to serious problems with fire immunes in hell even with infinity and 1k fg gear
this situation upsets me a little bit and i have set a goal to find the solution how to adapt fire tree to pvm
what i did is essentially just a combination of the most powerful parts of different sub-optimal druid builds

now i glad to share my ideas with ya
few lines under you will see top 3 the most powerful and spectacular builds in my opinion

and what we have here in the end

main setup - skillmaster

helm: 2dru / 3grizzly / 3how / 3fissure / 2s
shako / jalal / spirit keeper / lore
weapon: heart of the oak
boots: aldurs / travelers
amulet: kaleidoscope
armor: enigma
gloves: mages
shield: spirit
rings: 2x bk
belt: arach
swap: cta + spirit

anti-souls setup:

amulet: 2dru / 10fcr
shield: spirit 29fcr
belt: thundergod

setup 2 - beastmaster

helm: 2dru / 20fcr / 2s circlet
boots: aldurs / travelers
amulet: 2dru / 10fcr
shield: spirit 29fcr
armor: enigma
weapon: beast
gloves: mages
rings: 2x bk
belt: arach

anti-souls setup:

amulet: crafted 2dru / 14+fcr
helm: 2dru / 20fcr / 2s circlet
shield: spirit 35fcr
belt: thundergod
ring: 10fcr

setup 3 - firemaster

shield: phoenix / 4x facet'ed monarch (plain or magic with life)
amulet: crafted 2dru / 19fcr
weapon: heart of the oak
boots: aldurs / travelers
helm: ravenlore
armor: enigma
gloves: mages
rings: 2x bk
belt: arach

99fcr anti-souls setup:

belt: thundergod
rings: 2x 10fcr

68fcr anti-souls setup:

amulet: 2dru / 10fcr
belt: thundergod

68fcr pyromaniac setup:

amulet: crafted 2dru / 18fcr
weapon: 6x facets
ring: 10fcr

skills distribution

no doubt, the best possible way to get decent summon/fire hybrid
is to invest 40 skills into summon tree and the rest into fire

here is the most optimal build

20 grizzly
20 red oak (how)
20 fissure
20 fire storm
20 volcano

at high lvls you can have a couple spare points
so you can add life or mana worm
or put all in spirit wolf for better ar of the bear

unfortunately there is no point in cyclone armor for this build
because it will be very weak without full nado-like synergies
(thanks blizz for your perfect sense of game balance)

mercenary

of course we will be using nm offensive merc here for the might aura

as always, 2 the most powerful merc's weapon options here are
eth reapers and infinity (g)thresher

reapers gives us great crowd control, broken immunities, extra dmg for bear, bla bla bla...
infinity gives our minions great chance to hit, boosts our fire dmg, bla bla bla...

my personal preference here is classic ereapers ber / gulli cham / etreachery setup
although infi / andy setup might be reasonable for firemaster setup

jewelry

since phys dmg performs better than fire in hell
i will assume that summon tree boosting is more practical

hence my inventory suggestion will be summon skillers
they are boosting our grizzly and merc very well

although (again) ele skillers might be helpful for firemaster setup

small charms no doubt should be res ones
especially i do recommend to get few 11light after 75 res in hell for stack against conva

and regarding the sockets choice my the only answer will be fire facets

or at least something like topaz / ort / ruby for helm if you dont wanna mess with facets

strategy

now, after the week of intense playing with this build, i got a good clue what its capabilities with full equipment
i have been playing in high ppl pubs on hardcore, and what i can say you is that you have enough dmg even for 4-6ppl solo farm

you can even kill p8 eldritch/pindle and trash in throne
potential of build has exceeded all my expectations

here some important tips for you:

never ever stomp a big groups of monsters - stomping is strongly not recommended
stomp em only 1 by 1 when you made sure that you will not get many hits
use "tele-step" method: click tele near the mobs, then step back a little and cast fissures
use oak before entering portals and waypoints
check on which side you have more all skills before casting how and bear
use firestorm on bosses: it lands 3 lines of fire which do triple listed dmg to fat targets

here is the bonus for ya

the birth of a beast

thanks for reading, now you can take the cookie

hope you enjoyed the content :thumbsup:

kronny