Attn: Diablo II afficionados.

[CHIEF4EVER]

I need a bit of help from one of you Diablo II experts. I have always loved the game but put it away for a looooooooong time. I am playing the Druid (my favorite) but instead of going the usual 'put all skill points into Lycanthropy related skills' I started a "Wind Druid". I have Tornado but he can't use it for some reason. It just shows red in both the left and right hand icons (regardless of which one I assign the hotkey to) whether he is in camp or not. Is this a bug or is it maybe something ridiculously and stupidly simple that I am overlooking? Any help/advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[HC_Chief]

Check The Arreat Summit for info on this. I have never seen that behavior.

[Fezzic]

dumb question, but are you seeing this when you're in bear form?

[CHIEF4EVER]

Originally Posted by Fezzic

dumb question, but are you seeing this when you're in bear form?

Yes.

[Mr. Laz]

you can't use some powers when transformed

iirc hurricane and tornado are ones you can't

i think you can still summon things though

been a while ... but i think you can use fire bombard(or whatever)

btw- you better max your synergies if you expect to survive in Hell with wind druid.

you'll need some serious +level equipment

i believe there is a 1 handed club that gives you +5 to all druid skills.

+2 to all helmet shaped like a hawk ... blue in color i think.

something that speeds up your casting comes in handy too iirc ... cause you have to cast those wiggling tornadoes a mile a minute to survive.


love that game!!!

haven't played it in a couple years.

[CHIEF4EVER]

Originally Posted by Laz

you can't use some powers when transformed

iirc hurricane and tornado are ones you can't

i think you can still summon things though

been a while ... but i think you can use fire bombard(or whatever)

btw- you better max your synergies if you expect to survive in Hell with wind druid.

you'll need some serious +level equipment

i believe there is a 1 handed club that gives you +5 to all druid skills.

+2 to all helmet shaped like a hawk ... blue in color i think.

something that speeds up your casting comes in handy too iirc ... cause you have to cast those wiggling tornadoes a mile a minute to survive.


love that game!!!

haven't played it in a couple years.

Therein lies the problem. I haven't played it in awhile and just assumed that if he could summon as a bear that he could do everything as a bear. I knew it was something stupidly simple. I may be making a mistake but I have been putting points into Dire Wolf, Lycanthropy, and Werebear just to survive until I get Hurricane. I planned to put all remaining points in Hurricane once available. Maybe just keep Tornado and beef it up?

[Mr. Laz]

Originally Posted by CHIEF4EVER

Therein lies the problem. I haven't played it in awhile and just assumed that if he could summon as a bear that he could do everything as a bear. I knew it was something stupidly simple. I may be making a mistake but I have been putting points into Dire Wolf, Lycanthropy, and Werebear just to survive until I get Hurricane. I planned to put all remaining points in Hurricane once available. Maybe just keep Tornado and beef it up?

i played it non-stop for several years straight and the balance for a wind druid has to be perfect or it's worthless come Hell.

you can't afford to really waste any points.

put 1 point in the necessary skills to get you your bear ... only 1 point in bear ... it will get raised higher by your equipment.

the rest you need to max out hurricane,tornado and twister (all are synergies and make each skill stronger)

20+20+20 plus another 4 or 5 in reqs to get to hurricane etc.

another 10 points to get your bear

that's like 85 points and you will be in hell level already with 85 points.

oh yea ... i think i also put points in wind armor or something like that

i don't remember if it was a synergy or not ... but it helped my survival a ton because it give pretty good defense at higher levels.



you prolly need to start the character over .... get to and max hurricane first ... it will kill stuff in the low and medium levels. Then you have to have tornado max for hell level ... because it's the only thing strong enough to kill stuff in hell.

btw - you'll need to practice hitting stuff with the tornadoes in low levels since they zigzag around.

[CHIEF4EVER]

Originally Posted by Laz

i played it non-stop for several years straight and the balance for a wind druid has to be perfect or it's worthless come Hell.

you can't afford to really waste any points.

put 1 point in the necessary skills to get you your bear ... only 1 point in bear ... it will get raised higher by your equipment.

the rest you need to max out hurricane,tornado and twister (all are synergies and make each skill stronger)

20+20+20 plus another 4 or 5 in reqs to get to hurricane etc.

another 10 points to get your bear

that's like 85 points and you will be in hell level already with 85 points.

oh yea ... i think i also put points in wind armor or something like that

i don't remember if it was a synergy or not ... but it helped my survival a ton because it give pretty good defense at higher levels.



you prolly need to start the character over .... get to and max hurricane first ... it will kill stuff in the low and medium levels. Then you have to have tornado max for hell level ... because it's the only thing strong enough to kill stuff in hell.

btw - you'll need to practice hitting stuff with the tornadoes in low levels since they zigzag around.

Good advice. I knew going in that it wasn't going to be as easy as playing a straight shapechanger type Druid. I will likely have to start over 2 or 3 times before I get the right combination i'm afraid. What did you do against Diablo? I don't think you can freeze him for very long if at all (IIRC) so Hurricane would likely be worthless against him, no? I can see the Wind Armor because of the bonuses against environmental attacks like Diablo's fire but what do you attack him with? Do you just go toe to toe and beat him down or do you use Tornado whilst running in circles like a crazed mofo?

[Mr. Laz]

Originally Posted by CHIEF4EVER

Good advice. I knew going in that it wasn't going to be as easy as playing a straight shapechanger type Druid. I will likely have to start over 2 or 3 times before I get the right combination i'm afraid. What did you do against Diablo? I don't think you can freeze him for very long if at all (IIRC) so Hurricane would likely be worthless against him, no? I can see the Wind Armor because of the bonuses against environmental attacks like Diablo's fire but what do you attack him with? Do you just go toe to toe and beat him down or do you use Tornado whilst running in circles like a crazed mofo?

the tornado is magic damage ... which hurts pretty much everything.

the main thing about fighting diablo is you need protection against his fire attack

there is a amulet ... i forget the name(sun something) that gives you fire absorption

which means getting hit by fire will actually heal you some

a decent fire resistance and that fire aborb amulet allows you to go toe-to-toe with diablo and kick his butt. You really want to fight Diablo up up close ... so that his super fire breath goes over your head ... you wanna be right underneath his armpit ... hehe if a dragon had an armpit.

the real problem is killing diablo's minions at the seals before diablo. They really suck ... it's like 4 waves of different guys. The best way to do that is get into a group(online playing) and do a diablo run.

[CHIEF4EVER]

Well Laz, I redid the character and this time it is working MUCH better. I got some info from this site:

http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=238126

I read through much of the site and it has a goldmine of good info. Only thing that gets me is - How do you get the magic items they keep referring to? Do you have to use a cheat code or something? If so I sure as heck won't be getting the item unless I gamble for it or run into it by dumb luck. Cheat codes are teh suck.

[Mr. Laz]

Originally Posted by CHIEF4EVER

How do you get the magic items they keep referring to? Do you have to use a cheat code or something? If so I sure as heck won't be getting the item unless I gamble for it or run into it by dumb luck. Cheat codes are teh suck.

people trade for stuff all the time ... it's a real meat market.



the way most people(non-cheaters) find good magic stuff is by doing MF runs.

Magic-Finding runs...

there are items which increase your characters MF level when you wear them.

when you kill monsters ... the game calculates your character level and your MF level .... that effects how good the items are that "drop" when the monster dies.

IIRC ... killing Mephisto was a good magic run and having a 100-150% MF level was good.


no real need to MF until your at least Nightmare level ... preferably Hell level if you have the Expansion pack.


you can also trade Runes you find for gear ... the higher level the run ... the more they are worth.

going my memory ... "Hel" rune level and above is where the runes are actually worth anything.


Diablo drops good stuff too ... But it's a hard fight to actually get to him unless you a high level character.

sorceress is the best MF character because of their ability to "teleport"

they don't have to fight all the way to the big kill(like mephisto) they can just hop all the way there, kill the big guy ... leave.


at one point, i could do a mephisto MF run in 2 minutes.


i would start a game ... bounce to Meph ... kill her ... get the drop ... close game in just over 2 minutes.

i could do 70-80 MF runs in one sitting


if you that many MF runs and get that many drops ... you have something really good drop every 30-40 runs or so.



some guys actually develop "bots" to automatically do MF runs day and night all by automatic programs.


it's crazy