Summon Druid FAQ v1.41
Table of contents:
1. Revision history
2. Legal stuff
3. Why a summon Druid?
4. Druid skills
4a. Elemental
4b. Shape shifting
4c. Summoning
4cI. Table-fighting minions
4cII. Table-spirits
4cIII. Table-vines
5. Level by level skill chart
6. Stat points
7. Strategy
7a. Your hireling
7b. Basic strategy
7c. Facing many monsters
7d. Facing unique monsters
8. Suggested equipment
8a. Weapons
8b. Shield
8c. Armor
8d. Rings and amulet
9. Alternative methods
10. Contact me
11. Credits
1. 4/1/04- Today I began writing the guide. Dont worry, this character build
is no joke.
4/9/04- Today I completed and submitted this guide to gamefaqs.
4/24/04- Today I added a small section concerning your hireling under the
strategy section. I also added a seection for fighting immunes in the strategy
section.
4/30/04- Today I added the alternative methods section.
5/2/04- Today I corrected a error in the alternative methods section.
5/18/04- Finished expirementing with an alternative method.
7/11/04- Sorry I havent updated for a while, my computer messed up and I
eventually had to replace the hard drive, and that drive still has the original
faq in it. Today I added another method.
8/20/04- Today I added another alternative method.
10/10/04- Today I updated the skills and skill chart, the stat section, and
added a few new alternative methods.
10/23/04- Today I updated the equipment section, added an alternative
method, and updated my contact information.
10/25/04- Updated the legal stuff section.
2. Basicaly dont use this guide without my permission. If you want to use
this guide please email me. Also, when using this faq please give credit
anywhere aplicable. Besides that, Im not to picky.
Right now I have only given permission to three sites to host this faq, if
you see this faq on any other sites please tell me about it. The three sites
are www.gamefaqs.com, db.dlh.net, and www.neoseeker.com
3. Why make a summon druid? Well I first made a summon druid after a challenge
from my freind, little did I know that it would become one of the best
character builds I have. The summoning tree is often the most overlooked skill
tree of the druid. Although many builds use it, they usually only use it
sparingly, however this tree can be used as the main tree.
The summon druid combines summoning, auras, and even elemental damage in a
lethal combonation, yet it is fairly simple to build. And although some of the
strategy may seem tricky at first, you can catch on fast, and once you do, it
is really effective. By now i bet your anxious to find out what makes the
summon druid tick, so, on with the show!
4. As all characters the druid skills are divided into thre catagories, or
trees.
4a. The elemental tree
One of the most popular of the druid trees. But there are many faqs and
strategies for elemental druids, and thats not what we are here for.
Put no points into ANY of these skills.
4b. The shape shifting tree
Home to the the werewolf and werebear, their skills, and lycanotheropy. This
tree actually doesnt have to be completely excluded whenm making a summon
druid, but since i have not finished expirimenting with different
combonations, I wont go into any detail here. Feel free to expiriment
yourself, but I suggest creating a normal summon druid follwing this guide
first, it will make your testing easier. Trust me, it helps.
4c. The summoning tree
Now we can really get down to buisness, if you dont feel like reading about
this tree then your in the wrong guide. 'nuf said.
These are your fighting minions.
What needs to be said? You summon, they fight.
Raven-prerequisites:none-required level 1
This skill is used to summon a raven. This may be useful for the first three
quests or so, but its still not practical. The damage gets to weak to do much
harm to any enemies very early in the game. Also it isnt targetable by enemies
so it cant be used to distract them
Put one point into this as a prerequisite.
Summon spirit wolf-prerequisites:Raven-required level 6
This skill allows you to summon your first minion (besides the useless raven)
Each skill point you put into this will increase the wolves stats, and allow you
to summon one more wolf, with a limit of 5. These are only useful early on, but
they also add a passive bonus to both the defense and attack rating of dire
wolves and grizzleys, making this a very important skill to max. They can also
teleport offensively, which is kind of nifty, although not to useful.
The minute you qualify for this skill, immediatly start pouring points into it.
Summon dire wolf-prerequisites:oak sage, summon spirit wolf-required level 18
This is an upgraded version of the spirit wolf. They have more health, and do
more damage. Once this is a decent level you can make the switch from spirit
wolves to dire wolves. Another neat thing about these wolves is that they can
eat corpses of slain enemies. This does two things. First it increases the attack
of the wolves for a while, and prevents the monsters from being ressurected.
These wolves can be beefed up by the spirit wolves (You should have plenty of
points in that by the time your ready for this.) Oh yeah, you can only have three
of these at a time
Once you qualify for this, and if you havent maxed out spirit wolf, then switch
between putting one point into spirit wolf, then one into dire wolf each level.
Once your spirit wolf is maxed out you should probably begin the transition to
dire wolves.
Summon grizzly-prerequisites:summon dire wolf-required level 30
This is the big one. This thing is so powerful you can only have one at a time
(gasp!) By the time you can do this, your spirit wolf will be maxed, and you
dire wolf should be fairly high. So this grizzly should act like its on some
serious steroids. Unlike the Dire and Spirit wolves the Grizzly doesnt have a
special ability, but dont let that deter you from using this.
Once you get to level 30, and qualify to use this, switch putting points into
Dire wolf, and then this. But thats not all. Once your dire wolf is maxed,
switch putting points into this, and then into spirit of barbs.
These are the spirits.
The spirits are similair to the paladins auras. They add a bonus to you, your
minions, and the other mombers of y our party. The only drawback is that they
can be attacked and eventually, destroyed. When using a spirit, hotkey it so
you can quickly resummon it when its destroyed.
*note* After more and more use with my summon druid I have come to the
conclusion that Heart of Wolverine is more effective then Spirit of Barbs.
While the summon druid can still succeed while using Spirit of Barbs, I suggest
using Heart of Wolverine instead. I apologize for any confusion or
inconveniance.
Oak sage-prerequisites: none-required level 6
This skill allows you to summon one of the three available spirits. These spirits
are similair to the paladin's auras, as they add a bonus to you, your minions,
and party members, as long as they are within the area of effect of course.
There is one big drawback however, these spirits have a set amount of life, can
be attacked and eventually, destroyed. If you plan to use the spirits then you
should hotkey the spell so you can resummon it quickly when its destroyed.
While there is a spirit that you will max out later on, only put one point into
this as a prerequisite.
Heart of wolverine-prerequisites:oak sage-required level 18
This allows you two summon the second of the three spirits. This spirit
increases the attack rating and damage of you, your minions, and your party
members. This is the spirit your minions will benifit from most, getting a
158% bonus to damage at level 20! Max this skill unless you have a reason for
using Spirit of Barbs. (see below)
Spirit of barbs-prerequistes:heart of wolverine-required level 30
This skill summons the final spirit. This spirit is much like the paladin's
thorns aura, returnin melee damage to the attacker, except much weaker. This
spirit can be quite useful at times, but only helping your minions against
melee attackers is a big downfall. If you have any reason you'd rather have this
then Heart of Wolverine (melee/summon duels?) then rest assured that it can be
effective. If not, max Heart of Wolverine instead.
These are the vines.
The vines are... things...that crawl around in the ground. Their effects
range from eating corpses to increase mana/health to poisoning enemies.
They arent exposed to to much damage since they are in the gruond most of
the time, but sometimes they can crawl right into a group of monsters, taking
heavy damage.
Poison creeper-prerequisites:none-required level 1
This allows you to summon a vine that will move through the ground then pop up
to inflict some mild poison damage to your enemies. It is very very helpful at
low levels, but late ron in the game the damage gets weak. This skill is still
important however. This is because iif you happen to come across a physical
immune, this will be the only way to inflict damage. (more info in strategy
section)
After putting your one point into raven, put all extra points into this until
you can start using spirit wolf. Then once you have maxed everything else I tell
you to, start putting points into this again.
Carrion vine-prerequisites:poison creeper-required level 12
This particular vine eats corpses. For each corpse it eats it regenerates a
bit of your health. The health restored increases a little bit each level.
This skill can seem quite tempting, but trust me, with the reduced damage as a
result of spirit of barbs, and with your minions taking most of the attacks,
you wont lose enough health to need this skill.
Put no points into this skill.
Solar creeper-prerequisites:carrion vine-required level 24
This vine is the same as carrion vine, except it regenerates mana instead of
health. The only mana you will be using is in the summoning, and becasue your
minions will be so strong, they wont be dying often. You dont need this at all.
Put no points into this skill.
4cI. Here are some tables of your fighting minions *note: the life of the spirit
wolves and grizzly in these tables are only the base life and do not include the
passive bonus added by the summon dire wolf skill. Also the attack damage of the
wolves do not include the passsive bonus added by the summon grizzly skill*
I will not bother with carrion vine and solar creeper as you shouldnt be putting
any points into either of those skills.
5. Here is a level by level chart of what you should be putting your skill
points into. Unless expirimenting with summoning along with shapeshifting then
follow this chart closely.
This chart has yet to be perfected. This is the best guess of how I built my
druid summoner. As long as you max out grizzly, spirit wolf, dire wolf,
spirit of barbs, and get as many points as possible into poison creeper, your
druid should turn out okay.
lvl| skill |level after adding point|points saved|
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
2 | raven | 1 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
3 | save | N/A | 1 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
4 | save | N/A | 2 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
5 | save | N/A | 3 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
6 |spirit wolf | 1 | 3 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
7 |spirit wolf | 2 | 3 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
8 |spirit wolf | 3 | 3 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
9 |spirit wolf | 4 | 3 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
10 |spirit wolf | 5 | 3 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
11 |spirit wolf | 6 | 3 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
12 |spirit wolf | 7 | 3 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
13 |spirit wolf | 8 | 3 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
14 |spirit wolf | 9 | 3 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
15 |spirit wolf | 10 | 3 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
16 |spirit wolf | 11 | 3 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
17 |spirit wolf | 12 | 3 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
18 |spirit wolf and| 13 | 2 |
| dire wolf | 1 | |
---|---------------|------------------------|------------|
19 |spirit wolf and| 14 | 1 |
| dire wolf | 2 | |
---|---------------|------------------------|------------|
20 |spirit wolf and| 15 | 0 |
|dire wolf | 3 | |
---|---------------|------------------------|------------|
21 |spirit wolf | 16 | 0 |*note* now would be a
___|_______________|________________________|____________|good time to use any
24 |dire wolf | 4 | 0 |extra points you got
___|_______________|________________________|____________|from quests like the
25 |spirit wolf | 17 | 0 |den of evil by each
___|_______________|________________________|____________|level putting the point
26 |dire wolf | 5 | 0 |you got from leveling
___|_______________|________________________|____________|into one wolf and the
27 |spirit wolf | 18 | 0 |skill earned from the
___|_______________|________________________|____________|quest into the other.
28 |dire wolf | 6 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
29 |spirit wolf | 19 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
30 |spirit wolf | 20 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
31 |grizzly | 1 | 0 |*note* you may now
___|_______________|________________________|____________|also use any extra
32 |dire wolf | 7 | 0 |points you have,
___|_______________|________________________|____________|except now with
33 |grizzly | 2 | 0 |dire wolf and grizzly
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
34 |dire wolf | 8 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
35 |grizzly | 3 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
36 |dire wolf | 9 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
37 |grizzly | 4 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
38 |dire wolf | 10 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
39 |grizzly | 5 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
40 |dire wolf | 11 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
41 |grizzly | 6 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
42 |dire wolf | 12 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
43 |grizzly | 7 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
44 |dire wolf | 13 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
45 |grizzly | 8 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
46 |dire wolf | 14 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
47 |grizzly | 9 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
48 |dire wolf | 15 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
49 |grizzly | 10 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
50 |dire wolf | 16 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
51 |grizzly | 11 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
52 |dire wolf | 17 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
53 |grizzly | 12 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
54 |dire wolf | 18 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
55 |grizzly | 13 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
56 |dire wolf | 19 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
57 |grizzly | 14 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
58 |dire wolf | 20 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
59 |grizzly | 15 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
60 |oak sage | 1 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
61 |grizzly | 16 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
62 |heartofwolverine| 1 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
63 |grizzly | 17 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
64 |heartofwolverine| 2 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
65 |grizzly | 18 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
66 |heartofwolverine| 3 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
67 |grizzly | 19 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
68 |heartofwolverine| 4 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
69 |grizzly | 20 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
70 |heartofwolverine| 5 | 0 |*note* after maxing
___|_______________|________________________|____________|out grizzly, put all
71 |heartofwolverine| 6 | 0 |extra skill points
___|_______________|________________________|____________|into poison creeper
72 |heartofwolverine| 7 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
73 |heartofwolverine| 8 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
74 |heartofwolverine| 9 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
75 |heartofwolverine| 10 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
76 |heartofwolverine| 11 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
77 |poison creeper | 1 (excluding extra) | 0 |*note* from this point
___|_______________|________________________|____________|of the chart on the
78 |heartofwolverine| 12 | 0 |poison creeper skill
___|_______________|________________________|____________|point excludes any
79 |poison creeper | 2 | 0 |extra you put in.
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
80 |heartofwolverine| 13 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
81 |poison creeper | 3 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|*note* if you max out
82 |heartofwolverine| 14 | 0 |poison creeper with
___|_______________|________________________|____________|extra skill points,
83 |poison creeper | 4 | 0 |put all points into
___|_______________|________________________|____________|spirit of barbs.
84 |heartofwolverine| 15 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
85 |poison creeper | 5 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
86 |heartofwolverine| 16 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
87 |poison creeper | 6 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
88 |heartofwolverine| 17 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
89 |poison creeper | 7 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
90 |heartofwolverine| 18 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
91 |poison creeper | 8 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
92 |heartofwolverine| 19 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
93 |poison creeper | 9 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
94 |heartofwolverine| 20 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
95 |poison creeper | 10 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
96 |poison creeper | 11 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
97 |poison creeper | 12 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
98 |poison creeper | 13 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
99 |poison creeper | 14 | 0 |
___|_______________|________________________|____________|
6. Stat points.
Here I will explain whcih stats you should specialize in, and at least how
many points you should have in each stat.
Strength: As a summoner you will need to go melee upon occasion to support your
minions. Therefore you will need to build the strength up a bit. You will
alos need decent armor. I suggest at the very least 150 strength.
Dexterity: Dexterity isnt exactly the most important skill when making a
summoning druid. Put in a little bit so you can hit your targets. Besides
thats theres nothing youll need this for. Put in just enough to be able to use
your equipment and hit your opponents
Vitality: Because you will be going melee you will need some points into this.
Although your minions should be taking most of the hits, youll want enough HP
so you can take a hit or two when needed. Get this to at least 200.
Energy: Even though you will be using mana for your summoning. You shouldnt
pump up this stat very much. Your minions shouldnt be dying very often so your
mana will have time to recharge before you need to summoning. I suggest raising
this skill to 40 at most, or put none if you have mana raising items.
Now for the first couple levels you should pump up your energy, that way by the
time you start summoning your spirit wolves you will have enough mana to do so.
After bringing your energy up you should put about 3 points into strength and 2
points into vitality each level, with one or two points into dexterity. You
will probably have to focus on fighting yourself until your minions get stronger
so strength at this point is crucial.
7. Strategy
Here I will explain how to face various situations with your druid.
NOTE: ALWAYS try to stay away form the area of heaviest fighting. Let you
minions do the work there. Also always get your minions to take the hits, dont
attack a set of monsters your minions arent already engaged in.
7a. Your hireling
A good hireling is an important ally to any character. You should buy an
act 3 cold or act 2 holy freeze mercenary. There are two reasons for choosing
these. One they add elemental damage to your arsenal. Two, thew will slow down
your enemies making them easy pray for your summons.
7b. Basic strategy
This is what you should be doing most of the time. It includes just walking
around and facing a monster every so often.
Most often you should be letting your summons do the work. Use the grizz in
this situation, that way you can focus on a monster, kill it, and move on to
the next one quickly. Also use your skill equipment (more on that later)
7c. Facing many monsters at once.
This is for when your facing many monsters at once, as in a carver camp.
Again, let your summons do most of the work. You may want to use Dire wolves
instead of grizzly, to prevent the monsters from surrounding you and your
minions. Use your skill gear unless the fighting gets too intense for your
wolves, in that case go melee and help out your summons.
7d. Facing unique monsters.
This is self-explanitory, use this when facing a unique monster.
You will definentaly need to go melee here. There are two choices of summons
here. If you can handle the monsters minions, then summon a grizzly. Use the
grizzly to attack the unique while you handle the minions. If the unique's
minions turn out to be to tough for you, use dire wolves. Get two wolves to
attack the unique, or if your having a lot of trouble, one. Get the others to
help you with the minions. After you have taken care of the minions, switch to
your skill gear, lay back, and watch the show.
7e. Fighting immunes.
Its a fact, eventually you will be facing monsters with immunities. Your
damage is based on physical, so elemental immunes dont matter, but as for
those pesky physical immunes...
Here is what you do, switch to a grizzly. They wont be able to do any damage
but they have knockback, which keeps them from getting destroyed. While your
grizzly is being a tank, unleash your mercenary on it. To supplement that you
should also attack with any elemental damage you may have included in your
weapons.
This is one section were expirementing with shapeshifting skills such as
fire claws and rabies are useful.
8. Suggested equipment.
Here I will outline what criteria your items will need to meet. This section
is very important, meet as many of these requirments as you possibly can.
8a. Weapon
You will make good use of the two weapons your allowed to have with this
character. In the first slot you should have a weapon that adds to druid skills.
Damage doesnt matter here, just increase your skills as much as possible. In the
second slot, you should have the highest damaging weapon you can find. Most
likely two-handed. Trust me you wont need a shield because your minions will be
taking all the hits.
Try to have a lot of elemental damage in both your weapons. Your focus will
be mainly on physical damage, with a little poison. SO if you come across an
immune, the elemental damage will come in very handy.
8b. Shield
You will only need a shield for one slot, the slot with items that increase
your skills. Because you wont be attacking with that weapon, defense doesnt
matter with the shield. Find a shield that increases your skills. Also a shield
that increases your resistances will be handy. Since youll be stayiing out of
the range of physical damage, most of the damage youll be taking will be from
spells that do elemental damage.
8ab. If you cant afford a good sword/shield combo then a good, cheap
alternative is to use a +4 ariocs needle or the staff that adds 4 to all
skills. (forget the name)
8c. Armor
Again, use armor that increases your skills. As many extra skill points that
you can. Defense isnt that important, again your minions will be taking the
hits. Increases in your resistances are very important, but not as crucial as
skill points.
8d. Rings and Amulet.
There are several things you want to get out of your rings and amulets. One,
increases in skill points are useful. It is easiest to get this is amulets. Two
you will need resistance increases. Dont bother with faster cast rates, those
useles to a summon druid. Stat increases are nice, but not crucial.
9. Alternative methods
Here is were I explain other methods for building a summoning druid. These
include methods I am still expirementing with and methods suggested by those
who have e-mailed me with ideas.
1. One suggestion I have recieved is to use an nightmare act 2 combat mercenary
instead of an act 3 iron wolf. The act 2 combat mercenary has a thorns aura,
allowing spirit of barbs to be replaced by oak sage, or even better, heart of
wolverine. One problem with this is that you will need to have a very high
elemental damaging weapon for your mercenary to use. Also you wont be able to
slow down as many monsters with your cold as you will be able to with an iron
wolf. I will expiriment with this further and add the final evaluation when
finished.
EXPIREMENTAION FINISHED! This method is EXTREMELY effective, I recomend that
everybody who can afford good merc equipment employ this immediatly. Sorry it
has taken me so long to update and put in my evaluation for this, Ive been
putting it off because Ive been having to much fun with this method!
2. This one I found while expirementing with the shapeshifting tree along with
a summoning druid. This makes use of the werebears shockwave skill. Put one
point into werebear (and prerequisites of course) And some into shockwave.
SUmmon your minions then shift into a werebear. You can now stun your enemys
making them easy targets for your minions.
3. After doing some research on Runewords I came up with this method. Get an
act 2 mercenary with the might aura, then equip him with a doom runeword spear
or polearm class weapon. This will give him the holy freeze aura. Then equip
him with bramble runeword armor. This will give him the thorns aura. This way
your minions will have 4 auras at any one time. Might, holy freeze, thorns, and
the one from your spirit. Because your mercenary will have might to increase
th damage of your minions you can switch from using heart of wolverine to using
oak sage to increase the life of your minions, or keep using heart of wolverine
to get even mroe damage.
4. Doing more research I have found that Amplify Damage removes physical
immunity from monsters. Having this skill would provide a very easy way to deal
with physical immunes. There are two ways two accomplish this.
a.) Get a weapon with Amplify Damage charges.
b.) Get a weapon with an extremely fast attack speed, then get an item
or two with chances to cast amplify damage upon striking.
5. Cyclone armor is one of the most useful skills for any druid, and although
you shouldnt waste any hard points in it, it will still be useful to have. To
get Cyclone Armor find a druid helm that adds to the skill.
6. Since I first wrote this faq, I have gotten much richer, and therefore have
been able to expiriment with better and better items. If you can afford a Call
to Arms (cta), then by all means replace your druids melee weapon with it. The
benifits of having warcries are huge! This mehthod will greatly increase your
summon druid's effectiveness.
Keep the suggestions coming!
10. Contact me
If you have any questions or comments please feel free to email me at
andrew.dysert@gmail.com or if you have aim you can messege me at thedcliveson.
And of course I play diablo. My account name is iwantahug13, I play on
us east/soft core/non-ladder.
11. Credits
Thanks to:
The Brady Games strategy guide for the information I put into the tables.
