First Drood Ever

[Medieval Bob]

Making a drood. I was told that elemental droods suck, so I'll be making a morph/summon drood. Reccomendations? Stats? Gear? Skills? Wolf or Bear? I'm completely clueless. Thanks in advance for any advice.

[Senesia]

Elemental Druids are viable, but not as easy as shifted druids.

As werewolf, assuming you'll use fury, you will have the feel of playing Zealot paladins. Except you have more life, and possible more damage. (You'd use two hand weapon for PvM druid)

Bears are quite fun to play in my opinion. Even though bears are good at crowd control, they aren't too great for killing packs. Which means, you will have to do a lot of clicking.

Anyway =P

Werewolf...
There is a so-called "titan" druid, meaning all str, base dex/vita/energy.

Heart of Wolfy (20 with +skills)
Max Lycanthrope
Max Fury
Werewolf (You probably don't have to max this)
Grizzly/Feral rage/dire wolf (doesn't really matter, put points as you see fit. Put feral rage only if you feel you don't have enough life leech)

The non-titan druid..heh, will have enough str/dex for equipment, rest in Vita. (no energy again =P)

HoW/OakSage (Depends if you want more Dmg/Ar or Life)
Max Lycanthrope
Max Fury
Werewolf..etc.

Gear...
I'd suggest using 2 handed weapon.
For example, IK maul with ias jewel or shael.
Stormspire (On the expensive side, and more dex needed)
Cruel Tmaul of quickness,
Cruel elite polearms of quickness. (Not easy to come by though)
Cruel Feral Axe of Quickness.

It is alright to use a plain Cruel, but you will be hitting slower. (I don't see a huge problem with that for PvM, which is what you're gonna do with him right? not PvP =P)

For Merc, you can get Might merc for titan druid,
Fire arrow Rogue, Might/Def/HF/Barb for other melee druids.

Feel free to ask other questions, if any.

P.S. Of course you can take the Bear route, but I think...if it is your first druid ever, a Wolf might be better. Just a thought, though.

[Senesia]

Glitch, double posted :(

[badboy]

On gear, I would use:

Weapon : Ith Beserker Axe
Shield : Stormshield
Gloves : Immortal Kings Gloves, Increased attack speed duel leech
Boots : War Travellers ( damage )
Rings : Duel Leech, BCon Ring, Raven Frost
Amulet : Cats Eye, Highlords, Deul leech plus to skills
Helmet : .08 Gaze
Armor : BValor
Belt : BString

With that you should be ghey.

[Senesia]

Ith Bersker axe is slow for shifted druid unless it is 65%+ ias.
Storm shield is used only if you die a lot. For PvM, (softcore) most druids go with 2 hander.

Also, using SS would mean getting dex to 237 at higher level, and being block locked due to slow block rate in large groups isn't a beautiful thing.

IK gloves are good, I would use IK or Venom, if not a pair of crafted gloves. The OIAS from gloves won't matter if you are using fast weapon like CTMOQ, shaeled IK etc.

War Travelers or Gore Riders are nice. I tend to use Gore Riders for DS, CB etc. Those deal more damage in the long run. Especially with IK maul...Crushing Blow really helps in PvM.

For rings, you might want a Raven frost for some AR/Dex and Cannot be frozen. Mana leech isn't essential, so, a crafted blood ring might be a better choice. (Unless you don't have mana leech at all. But my druid doesn't have a problem with mana whatsoever.)

Atma's and Highlord's are both nice amulets, while I'd use Atma's...helps a lot when the Amp Damage kicks in.

Jalal or Gaze. While Gaze gives DR and duel leech, Jalal's skill, stats, ar bonus would be very nice to a titan druid.

Use a Strings for belt.

For armor...it is really up to you. Valor/Shaft/anything as you see fit.

The reason why I suggested IK Maul is because it is fast for druid when shaeled, Extra %dmg to undead/demon are going to help in PvM, huge CB bonus as well.

For fun, you can try a full dex druid =P
Enough str for gears, base vita, rest in Dex.
Then use a shaeled Buriza ^_^
Hit those monsters with the back of your crossbow~

[badboy]

Using legit gear is for the smart people, but for homos like us we should use things just because they are bugged, even though characters do even better with legit gear.
-edit

ya i did not type this

[Senesia]

No, 65% Ias Ith Zerker is as fast as a Shael IK maul.
65% Ith Zerker is only a 5fpa Fury?
And same for Shaeled IK. 5fpa Fury.
95% Ith Zerker will make it 4fpa.

And I'm not too sure about the initial frame rate.

For PvM, you need to take the Extra %Dmg to Demon/Undead into accounts, just looking at the listed damage isn't all that accurate. And also, IK Maul is an Ogre Maul, so it has 110 Str bonus instead of the usual 100 Str.

That Str bonus would benefit a Titan build especially.

Playing with Shield or without is a playing style, for SC I don't really want to use a shield as a druid.

EDIT:
Well, a 35% Ias Ith Zerker is crap for Druid.
11/7 fury.
65% Ith Zerker is alright...9/5 fury. (95% is 7/4)

While a IK maul, ias jeweled or shaeled will give 9/5 fury as well.

For people who are new to druid...
9/5 etc means 9/5/5/5/5 frames per attack/swing, while 9 is the initial frames, and 5 are the following-ups. (5 swings per fury.)

So no, Ith zerker is no way "5 times faster".
The best it can get is 1 fpa faster at fury.

(And that's not legitimate.)

[badboy]

I'm a big hooser berry!!!
-edit
wtf i didnt type this

[Senesia]

Well someone is a nerd. And it isn't me.

That's off-topic.
That would be considered as a spam.
That's not entirely true. :p

[badboy]

So, I prove someone wrong and you change what I typed. Figures, you can't lose and lose in peace.

[Senesia]

I didn't change anything, for I'm the mod for PvP forum, and has no power at all in D2 General Chat.

Well someone is a nerd and it isn't me
That's what you've said.

I don't care if you think you're a hooser berry, because that's totally off-topic. I've answered the question and given some information on druid.

So, I prove someone wrong and you change what I typed. Figures, you can't lose and lose in peace.

Please, what are you talking about? You haven't proved anything. So yeah, YOU can't lose and lose in peace.

[Valmar]

Please, if you guys wanna fight take it to the flame forum. Or use Pm's and BadBoy, if you have a problem with people changing what you type the take it to an admin not this forum. Question has been answered and good night.