Wind Druid First HC character

As the title states -



My first HC character is a Wind Druid. I started him fresh - no gear, gold and planning on playing mostly solo.

Got him to lvl 18 and in act 2 (just got the cube). Right now I am pumping Cyclone armor and Oak Sage. Pretty durable although I kill pretty slow. Just switched from a freeze arrow merc from Act 1 to a defensive polearm merc from Act 2 which does most of the killing for me right now.

How much anger and frustration do I have ahead of me playing this build? I love a challenge and did not want to go a cheesy over-powered character.

Any tips from someone who has played this build and got him pretty far before?|||You will be killing pretty slow until you get tornado. When you get tornado, things will get easier. You might want to get an 'insight' polearm (sol rune being the most rare part) for your merc, to boost your mana regeneration and ability to spam tornados, but after that you'll get along just fine.

Windy druids are a safe build; hurricane slows down nearby monsters, tornado hits several enemies at once, oak sage boosts your life, and a grizzly to take hits for you in the long run.

It won't be very overpowered until you manage to get really good items, but on the other hand it isn't one of the largest challenges you can take on either. I believe I got my HC windy to lvl77-80 something, and if you play carefully you'll also avoid those near-death experiences. Good luck |||How many points are necessary to be placed into Grizzly to be effective?

Bear in mind (didn't mean for that pun)I will not have crazy items for quite some time. I have been out of the D2 realm for awhile.|||One point is enough. Eventually, you'll probably have a few +skills boosting it too.

But keep in mind that the grizzly is just a tank for taking damage instead of taking the hits yourself - you will still be the one doing the killing.

Since the grizzly by itself has quite a bit of hitpoints, and since you will have a high level Oak Sage boosting its hitpoints even further, you will not have to recast it very often if at all. But then, that ofc depends on your killing speed. |||Thanks for the tips. Sorry to pick your brain further but I'd rather ask someone who has done a Wind druid high in HC than read some guide.

Right now my Oak is lvl 10, cyclone is 6 and I just put a point into the Tornado (maybe twister, its the first wind attack you get).

Should i pump up oak or cyclone to max before increasing other skills or start to upgrade my damage spells?

Thanks|||Twister is the first "wind" skill, a few small tornados twirling around. I'd suggest you balance between twister and oak until you reach lvl24 and can put points into tornado. Keep in mind that twister also gives synergy bonus to cyclone armor, which is useful.

When you reach lvl24, you should put points into tornado and a few every now and then into oak sage. At lvl30, a point into hurricane can't be wrong.

I usually get my oak sage and tornado maxed at about the same time, and when both those are maxed I go for tornado synergies. I usually wait with grizzly a bit, because at normal/nightmare the merc alone is just fine. |||My opinion is that you should still keep with oak sage and maybe put some point's into damage skills but I have not made a druid in a long time and my old mind is getting rusty iirc All the winds are synergies so if that's the case you would be well to put into it now as long as your play style is slow and cautious. If you the kind of person to go running pellmell into a group then I would continue with the defense till lvl 30. If you can play slow and draw people out and not worry to much about getting killed then by all means pump into damage.

This is my opinion and i cannot be held responsible if you take my advice and it get's you killed |||I was blazing around act 1 but now that these poison baddies are getting stronger in Act 2 I have become a lot more careful.

I'm a sucker for maxing life/survivability to give up some damage. I'll start add in some twister since it synergizes so well.

I just wish you re-allocate points . Kinda regretting putting 6-7 points in energy. All the guides I have read say to put ZERO because of the armor you get end-game. My only problem with that is I plan to do this mostly solo without trading so I probably will not get some of the best equip.

I've dumped about 10 points in strength to wear some armor, 6-7 in energy and the rest into vitality.|||If you start over fresh, you will need to put some points into strength. All guides telling you to stay at zero strength also assume you have annihilus+torch+enigma at your disposal, which is slightly harder at HC.

You will most likely want around 50 or so in strength, but you can factor in stats from rings+amu+charms in that, too.

<10 points in energy won't ruin anything for you. Sure they could be better spent, but no disaster. Just make sure to get an 'insight' polearm for your merc, and mana will not be an issue later on. |||Thanks for all the tips, much appreciated.