Posistives: Very versatile(Not a problem with immunes), can run almost any part of the game effectively in hell, great at surviving due to the large amount of health/cyclone armor/meat shield(oak bear)

Negatives: Slower at killing bosses than most casters, fairly crap damage, hammerdins are more effective at just about everything when it comes to pvm.

Gear

Helm: 2Druid skill/20fcr/resist/Life rare circlet(strength also nice but not that important, most druid setups will have more than enough strength to hold monarch). These are stupidly rare so generally try to use Jala's or shako if you're poor. There are a number of good options to socket these helms with: shale, um, ber, jah. whichever you decide is really just personal preference. Jah is probably the best all round for druids due to the small percent increasing there health by such a large margin. But being poor i would go with shale if it means getting another fhr breakpoint. Other helms that can be very good are rare pelts with just everything going for them. +tornado, Cyclone,2 druid skills, resists, life etc you'll know if you happen to be luck enough to find one. don't sell to Charis: /. Delirium with a good base pelt +tornado, cyclone, and even + to gris bear would be great since you would then not need to waste points into raven/wolfs.

Amulet: 2Druid/20/resist/str/mana Regen crafted amulet. Very simular to circlet, and again very expensive(the odds of those stats rolling up on a crafty amulet is pitiful). Maras is the next best choice.

Weapon: Heart of the oak, this shouldn't need any explanation.. Spirit for the poor.

Sheild: Spirit Mon. 156 strength is quite easy to obtain without any base stat points into strength if you aren't too poor. If you are then 1.13 has gave us the option to later restat.

Switch: Spirit monarch/Cta, Yes Bo lvl does matter. It will impact significantly on your health.

Armor: Enigma is not only the best choice but pretty much the only choice if you want to have a usable wind druid. Teleport is essential for target lock and transport. The stregnth is also essential for the build. I'd go with Archon plate base.

Gloves: Magefists no need for anything else.

Boots: Sandstorm Treks. I can't see any other boots that match the potential. Perhaps some rare boots with strength/life/fhr/resists, but i don't see too many that beat Treks.

Belt: Arachid Mesh.

Rings: I prefer Soj over Bul from the large help in mana it gives since your merc will not be using insight, 2nd ring 10fcr, Stregth, Resists, other mods. A decent Fcr ring can be expensive.

Charms: The charms are obvious, torch and anni i don't know any build that would not want these 2 charms. 9x ele lifers/fhr GC. Small charms= fhr, life, filling in fire resist you may be lacking since spirit misses fire resists.

With the ideal items you can reach 163 fcr, being the highest break point for druids. at 10 frames per cast. The sad thing is paladins can reach the same frame with 75 fcr.. Fhr breakpoints for druid depends on what weapon he gets hit by. Fhr is imporant since you don't have any block. Recovering from a hit fast is important to teleport away faster and start casting again. You can do some research for the druid fhr break points, it's not too hard to find, and decide what your goal will be. But i would not value fhr over life after you reach the 2nd highest break point theres really no point in trying to get the last one as it requires 377 fhr..



Helm: Could use a few different helms, Gaze, RockStopper, CoA, i personally use Andariel's Visage for ias, str, ll. There is no single best merc helm.

Armor: Shaft with Gaze and you get 50dr which is pretty cool, ethbuged stone and my choice Fort. I think generally fort has most overall defence due to forts chilling armor.

Weapon: This one is very important, Reaper's Toll for the Decrepify curse on strike. Decrepify will lower your enemies Physical resist, thus letting your tornados kill. This may not be as effective as infinity is for a light sorc but it is still important. I wouldn't have any other weapon for your merc other than this.

Skills/Stats

Stats
Strength: Nono
Vitality: All, this is perhaps your only noticeable advantage over a hammerdin. Abuse it where ever you can.
Dex: You're not a paladin or a storm sheild sorc. You're wearing spirit monarch. You want MOAR LIFE! not block. No points into here
Energy: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Skills
Max Tornado and all it's synergies, max life oak.
For pvm i would go for bear. but Dire wolfs are semi valid too. I think bear deals and takes more damage overall though. + you only need one cast compared to three with dire wolf which just gets annoying and is time consuming.

P.S i think you will find that this Setup is good for pvp too. Changing your helm and amulet will be the main adjusting for pvp to suit the type of character you are vsing.

why not a StormShield ?

Quote :

why not a StormShield ?

StormShield would be implying max block, which means more dex and less life, less fcr, less damage. Druids honestly need all the fcr they can get or else they just teleport too slow. And as for damage it's also bad enough as it is unless pvp. Your bear, oak, and merc should do enough blocking for you. and if they don't you rely on your massive life and fhr which works fine. Block is needed when it comes to teleporting into large groups of monsters and you find yourself dying. With this build the only thing that i can think would be better to have ss for is against undead soul killers. They're probably your worst enemy. With the ideal items you shouldn't have a problem dying unless it's from undead soulkillers or poision damage from tomb vipers. Unless you're botting baal runs it could be handy to have ss since a windybot tends to handle undead soul killers badly, but even still i think you would find spirit will be fine and a sh1t load faster. Imo life druids+ spirit are just over all better at pvm. Unless you're making a windy to counter a melee char in pvp or something, that's the only time i'd consider going a block druid.

i assumed that would an Oak Sage to boost life, SS would be the ideal PvM shield for a dru. fcr doesnt really matter much in PvM as long as its decent enough to tele around. The dmg reduction, res and block from SS would be invaluable compared to spirit bonuses. as for PvP, Ber SS is a must in inven against barbs and charge smiters.

Yes no doubt SS for pvp is a must to have in stash. I'm not arguing that..
But i would not say SS is not the ideal PvM shield for a druid. I don't think druid has an ideal pvm shield since no matter what items wndys seem to have they still aren't as quick and efficient as a hammerdin. Fcr does matter for this build. As you would see in my build goals i aim to make the most efficient(fastest including killing speed and teleporting speed) druid runner possible. Yet still being Effective(surviving and killing). Druids Do not lack lightning or cold resists while holding spirit shield with fairly decent items. They do however lack fire resist which can be made up with fire resist sc. Storm shield doesn't help fire resist. Druids do not need the extra strength ss provides, they have plenty with the right items. Damage reduce in pvm is not needed so much for druids the same reason why max block is not needed as much and the same reason why you socket with jah over ber for this build. You really don't need the damage reduction you shouldn't be needing it unless pvp. Massive life makes up for getting a few hits from melee monsters that are rare enough as it is from your meat shield. You really won't have a problem dying with the items i have listed, honestly no need for ss unless you are botting and your bot is doing stupid things like attacking 6 undead soul killers, i boted to 97 and i think this is the only problem i had where i thought ss could of been better but even still the situation was rare enough for me to not care. Druids need all the plus skills they can get e.g.Tornado damage, Hurricane, Cyclone armor-pretty much immune to light, cold, fire when it comes to dealing with monsters, oak-more life, bear- better meat shield, and oh i don't know if you have made a wind druid before but if you have you will realise since the merc does not hold insight that having the plus skills into teleport is very helpful to save yourself chuging so many mana pots, Even with all the plus skills i have in my guide i still find myself running out of mana. Don't make this even worse by giving up + skills likes they're worth nothing. The fhr from spirit is close to just as good as the damage reduction from storm shield for this build in my opinion. Also + extra mana spirit provies helps when dealing with teleport mana drain. After using both shields for pvm i would easily pick spirit over storm shield for this build. But maybe spirit doesn't suit your style and you like the stand there and try to purposely get hit by melee which will be a mission if you have a decent merc and meat shield.

You would be surprised at how handy SS is in PvM, once you give it an extended test run. I was spirit all the way for casters too, untill i started Sorc with SS, it works wonders. Socket with a diamond, and PVM is so easy even with low hp as long as u got max block. In case u get jumped by a pack of monsters, and they take out that oak sage, (which happens trust me) your druid is toast pretty fast if he's holding a spirit.

I never had a problem with spirit. apart from the one i mentioned with undead soul killers. Spirit was faster and i didn't die. I had good items. If you're poor sure consider ss. But i wouldn't be surprised, because i already know how ss works i've tested both manually and botting. Try getting a druid to level 97 trust me it's a slow and boring when you're doing the runs yourself. And if you get jumped by a pack on monsters you're still not going to die you really aren't, fhr, mass life even without spirit. even with a crap connection you can jsut teleport out seriously. My druid never ever died while teleporting. Botting or manually. Only time it died was the times in chickened was the times mentioned above and they were rare occasions . But like i said if it's not your style to use spirit. Go for ss... but i know what i prefer. Just my opinion you don't have to follow it.