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* raven-suggested point:1 |mana|# of | | | lvl|cost|ravens|hits|damage| 1 | 6 | 1 | 12 |2-4 | 2 | 6 | 2 | 13 |3-5 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 14 |4-6 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 15 |5-7 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 16 |6-8 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 17 |7-9 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 18 |8-10 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 19 |9-11 | 9 | 6 | 5 | 20 |10-12 | 10 | 6 | 5 | 21 |11-13 | 11 | 6 | 5 | 22 |12-14 | 12 | 6 | 5 | 23 |13-15 | 13 | 6 | 5 | 24 |14-16 | 14 | 6 | 5 | 25 |15-17 | 15 | 6 | 5 | 26 |16-18 | 16 | 6 | 5 | 27 |17-19 | 17 | 6 | 5 | 28 |18-20 | 18 | 6 | 5 | 29 |19-21 | 19 | 6 | 5 | 30 |20-22 | 20 | 6 | 5 | 31 |21-23 | summon spirit wolf- suggested points:20 (max) |base|passive |passive| |mana|# of | |life|attack rating|defense| lvl|cost|wolves|damage|(hp)|bonus |bonus | 1 | 15 | 1 |2-5 |35 | 50% | 50% | 2 | 15 | 2 |3-6 |35 | 65% | 65% | 3 | 15 | 3 |4-8 |35 | 80% | 80% | 4 | 15 | 4 |5-9 |35 | 95% | 95% | 5 | 15 | 5 |6-10 |35 | 110% | 110% | 6 | 15 | 5 |8-11 |35 | 125% | 125% | 7 | 15 | 5 |9-12 |35 | 140% | 140% | 8 | 15 | 5 |10-13 |35 | 155% | 155% | 9 | 15 | 5 |12-16 |35 | 170% | 170% | 10 | 15 | 5 |14-18 |35 | 185% | 185% | 11 | 15 | 5 |17-20 |35 | 200% | 200% | 12 | 15 | 5 |19-23 |35 | 215% | 215% | 13 | 15 | 5 |21-25 |35 | 230% | 230% | 14 | 15 | 5 |24-27 |35 | 245% | 245% | 15 | 15 | 5 |26-29 |35 | 260% | 260% | 16 | 15 | 5 |28-32 |35 | 275% | 275% | 17 | 15 | 5 |33-36 |35 | 290% | 290% | 18 | 15 | 5 |37-41 |35 | 305% | 305% | 19 | 15 | 5 |42-46 |35 | 320% | 320% | 20 | 15 | 5 |47-50 |35 | 335% | 335% | Summon dire wolf-suggested points:20 (max) |passive| |mana|# of |life|life | lvl|cost|wolves|(hp)|bonus | 1 | 20 | 1 |85 |50% | 2 | 20 | 2 |99 |75% | 3 | 20 | 3 |114 |100% | 4 | 20 | 3 |128 |125% | 5 | 20 | 3 |142 |150% | 6 | 20 | 3 |156 |175% | 7 | 20 | 3 |171 |200% | 8 | 20 | 3 |185 |225% | 9 | 20 | 3 |199 |250% | 10 | 20 | 3 |213 |275% | 11 | 20 | 3 |228 |300% | 12 | 20 | 3 |242 |325% | 13 | 20 | 3 |256 |350% | 14 | 20 | 3 |270 |375% | 15 | 20 | 3 |285 |400% | 16 | 20 | 3 |299 |425% | 17 | 20 | 3 |313 |450% | 18 | 20 | 3 |327 |475% | 19 | 20 | 3 |342 |500% | 20 | 20 | 3 |356 |525% | summon grizzly-suggested points:20 (max) |base|passive| |mana| |life|attack | lvl|cost|damage |(hp)|bonus | 1 |40 |37-75 |142 |25% | 2 |40 |54-94 |142 |35% | 3 |40 |72-116 |142 |45% | 4 |40 |93-139 |142 |55% | 5 |40 |115-165 |142 |65% | 6 |40 |140-192 |142 |75% | 7 |40 |166-222 |142 |85% | 8 |40 |195-253 |142 |95% | 9 |40 |235-297 |142 |105% | 10 |40 |279-344 |142 |115% | 11 |40 |326-393 |142 |125% | 12 |40 |376-446 |142 |135% | 13 |40 |428-502 |142 |145% | 14 |40 |484-561 |142 |155% | 15 |39 |543-622 |142 |165% | 16 |40 |605-687 |142 |175% | 17 |41 |684-769 |142 |185% | 18 |42 |767-855 |142 |195% | 19 |43 |854-945 |142 |205% | 20 |44 |945-1039|142 |215% | 4cII. Here are some tables for the spirits oak sage-suggested points:1 |mana|life|life | lvl|cost|(hp)|bonus| 1 |15 | 30 |30% | 2 |16 | 39 |35% | 3 |17 | 48 |40% | 4 |18 | 57 |45% | 5 |19 | 66 |50% | 6 |20 | 75 |55% | 7 |21 | 84 |60% | 8 |22 | 93 |65% | 9 |23 | 102|70% | 10 |24 | 111|75% | 11 |25 | 120|80% | 12 |26 | 129|85% | 13 |27 | 138|90% | 14 |28 | 147|95% | 15 |29 | 156|100% | 16 |30 | 165|105% | 17 |31 | 174|110% | 18 |32 | 183|115% | 19 |33 | 192|120% | 20 |34 | 201|125% | heart of wolverine-suggested points:1 |attack| |mana| |life|damage|rating| lvl|cost|radius|(hp)|bonus |bonus | 1 |20 |20 yd |68 | 20% | 25% | 2 |21 |20 yd |81 | 27% | 32% | 3 |22 |20 yd |95 | 34% | 39% | 4 |23 |20 yd |108 | 41% | 46% | 5 |24 |20 yd |122 | 48% | 53% | 6 |25 |20 yd |136 | 55% | 60% | 7 |26 |20 yd |149 | 62% | 67% | 8 |27 |20 yd |163 | 69% | 74% | 9 |28 |20 yd |179 | 76% | 81% | 10 |29 |20 yd |190 | 83% | 88% | 11 |30 |20 yd |204 | 90% | 95% | 12 |31 |20 yd |217 | 97% | 102% | 13 |32 |20 yd |231 | 104% | 109% | 14 |33 |20 yd |244 | 111% | 116% | 15 |34 |20 yd |258 | 118% | 123% | 16 |35 |20 yd |272 | 125% | 130% | 17 |36 |20 yd |285 | 132% | 137% | 18 |37 |20 yd |299 | 139% | 144% | 19 |38 |20 yd |312 | 146% | 151% | 20 |39 |20 yd |326 | 153% | 168% | spirit of barbs-suggested points:20 (max) |mana|life|damage | lvl|cost|(hp)|returned| 1 | 25 |106 | 50% | 2 | 26 |127 | 60% | 3 | 27 |148 | 70% | 4 | 28 |169 | 80% | 5 | 29 |190 | 90% | 6 | 30 |212 | 100% | 7 | 31 |233 | 110% | 8 | 32 |254 | 120% | 9 | 33 |275 | 130% | 10 | 34 |296 | 140% | 11 | 35 |318 | 150% | 12 | 36 |339 | 160% | 13 | 37 |360 | 170% | 14 | 38 |381 | 180% | 15 | 39 |402 | 190% | 16 | 40 |424 | 200% | 17 | 41 |445 | 210% | 18 | 42 |466 | 220% | 19 | 43 |487 | 230% | 20 | 44 |508 | 240% | 4cIII. Here are some tables of the vines poison creeper-suggested points:20 (max) |poison | |mana|life|damage | lvl|cost|(hp)|(4 sec.)| 1 | 8 | 15 | 4-6 | 2 | 8 | 18 | 7-8 | 3 | 8 | 21 | 10-11 | 4 | 8 | 24 | 12-14 | 5 | 8 | 27 | 15-17 | 6 | 8 | 30 | 18-19 | 7 | 8 | 33 | 21-22 | 8 | 8 | 36 | 23-25 | 9 | 8 | 39 | 28-30 | 10 | 8 | 42 | 33-34 | 11 | 8 | 45 | 37-39 | 12 | 8 | 48 | 42-44 | 13 | 8 | 51 | 47-48 | 14 | 8 | 54 | 51-53 | 15 | 8 | 57 | 56-58 | 16 | 8 | 60 | 61-62 | 17 | 8 | 63 | 57-68 | 18 | 8 | 66 | 73-74 | 19 | 8 | 69 | 78-80 | 20 | 8 | 72 | 84-86 | 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. Me! Ive always wanted to say that. Blizzard for an awsome game.