Diablo II: Lord of Destruction/Druid

Druid Strategies
"Commanding the forces of nature, he summons wild beasts and raging storms to his side."

A master of summoning, the druid can also cause massive spell damage and shape-shift into a powerful melee fighter. How massive and how powerful are questions left to each druid player, who must decide which of the druid's three skill disciplines to learn deeply. While at first somewhat daunting in their complexity, his skills, once mastered, make for an ideal single-player character.

Druid Initial Attributes
Strength: 15 Dexterity: 20 Vitality: 25 Energy: 20

Druid Attributes
The three disciplines that a druid can master each require a particular attribute distribution. If a druid player takes the elemental route, emphasizing spells that cause fire and ice damage, he will require a larger mana supply than one who focuses on shape-shifting or summoning. An elemental druid will need to sink more stat points into energy than one who uses summoned creatures, or a transformed body, to fight for him.

A shape-shifter will most often be found in were form, which, especially for werebear users, amplifies the druid's life supply. Still, shape-shifters will most often be found in melee combat, biting and clawing at enemies, and this takes its toll on vitality. A shape-shifter would be wise to put a stat point or two into vitality as often as he levels up. Melee fighters should also attend to their strength statistic as well.

Summoners create minions to do the dirty work for them and can either shape-shift to join in the fray or hang back and support the minions with elemental spells. Depending on a summoner's preferences, either energy or vitality should be augmented at each level, as described above.

Druid Initial Equipment

 * Weapon: Club
 * Armor: Buckler

Creating a Master Druid
Each of the druid's three skill disciplines tempts every player, yet to succeed in the higher skill levels (nightmare and hell), a druid must focus on one of the three, while using a second discipline to supplement his proficiency. Druids can be fashioned into characters that resemble quite a few of the other character classes--an elemental druid, for example, may elect to stand aside from large battles and cast devastating spells like a sorceress, while a shape-shifting druid will often be found ripping enemies apart like a barbarian.

Any combination of primary and secondary discipline from among the three choices--elemental, shape-shifting, and summoning--may be used successfully. You could play through the game nine times, just using the druid class, to try them all. A few moments of thought before applying skill points will lead you to the combination you are likely to prefer most.

A player who prefers to play a calmer sort of game, for example, can play a summoner who moonlights as an elemental spell caster. This player would create a wolf or grizzly, or would play with a group containing barbarians, paladins, or assassins, and would back the melee fighters up by releasing fire and ice spells onto the opponent. A version that uses Shapeshifting instead of Elemental skills will use the Wearbear and Shockwave to stun the monsters while his minions finish them off.

A player who prefers to hack and slash, on the other hand, can choose to become proficient at shape-shifting, transforming himself into a werewolf or werebear, and learning a few summoning skills to boost the party's attack rating, or suck mana and life out of the fresh corpses. Keep in mind that your equipped weapon stats are still in effect in both werewolf and werebear form. For example, a slow attack weapon reaps the rewards from the faster attack speed of the werewolf. If you want to do damage fast and hit more, then choose the Wearwolf and use Fury, and you will be able to hit five times and have a huge attack rating bonus. If you prefer to have more life and make each hit stun the monster, you should choose the Wearbear and use Maul and Shockwave. Most shape-shifters use summoning skills to help them out.

Elemental druids are not prefered, but they are more than competant. The two main types are Windy and Fire. Windy druids use Hurricane and Tornado to do damage fast while using cyclone armor to make sure they stay alive. Fire druids will use fissure to do mass damage and use cyclone armor to stay alive. ALl Elemental druids use some summoning aid.

Joining a regular group of other players will affect the druid's decisions, as a group without melee fighters will likely benefit most from a summoner or shape-shifter, while a group without spellcasting power will be grateful for the help of an elemental druid. A player who takes on Diablo alone is free to play with any style, as the druid is a well-balanced character for solo play.

Fighting Wisely
A druid, especially one who specializes in elemental spells, must be careful to manage his mana supply. Each elemental spell (to varying degrees) can affect numerous enemies with one casting. A volcano, for example, not only damages creatures at the point of eruption, but rains down fire damage on enemies in a wide radius around it. A molten boulder likewise attacks as many enemies as it encounters as it rolls away from the druid to its intended target point.

A summoned raven, wolf, or bear, on the other hand, never causes damage to more than one creature at a time. These creatures, while certainly a boon to a druid who needs to distract some enemies while he casts spells or assists in the attack, cannot quickly dispatch a group of tough monsters. A shape-shifted druid mow down batches of the game's most difficult foes if he has fast atack speed and is using fury.

However, as tempting as it is, it is NOT RECOMMENDED to invest in all three skill trees extensively. This is because your druid will not be able to focus on one point and he will be doing pathetic damage elementally, with his melee, and with his minions.

Spells like volcano and armageddon, for example, make for good initial attacks; a shape-shift or hurricane helps to mop up the sidekicks; and finally, a shape-shifted melee skill like feral rage, maul, or fury works well against the enchanted boss. Summoned minions will of course do their own things during these fights.

The important point to note is that area-effect spells should be saved for large groups, while single-opponent attacks ought to be used against small groups or single enemies. This is especially true for fights against the game's most mighty creatures, many of which are resistant to magic attacks, although their minions are often less so.

Shape-Shifters will want to attack the enemy when they are in small groups, unless the druid is facing very weak monsters.