Mulliga's FAQ/Guide to
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---DIABLO II LORD OF DESTRUCTION VERSION 1.10---
Guide Version 0.9
Submitted December 2003
by Andrew Kwan
[email protected]
This document copyright 2003
This document can be copied without my permission for personal use. Public
exhibition (displaying the document on a website, for example) should be free
of charge to anyone who visits the website. It cannot be copied to a CD for
commercial distribution, however. Basically, don't try to make money off of
it.
=======================
===TABLE OF CONTENTS===
=======================
1.0 - Introduction/General Questions
2.0 - Skills
3.0 - Stats
4.0 - Items
5.0 - Act by Act Strategy
6.0 - Realm Information
7.0 - History and Acknowledgements
========================================
===1.0 INTRODUCTION/GENERAL QUESTIONS===
========================================
Q. What is a Windy Druid?
A. A Windy Druid is a Druid who specializes in the right side of the
Elemental tree and uses Wind skills to deal damage to enemies. The build was
given a boost in 1.10 - the synergies really make specializing in wind skills
a decent option.
Q. Is this build really viable?
A. I won't lie to you - a Windy Druid will never MF even remotely as well as
a Sorceress, kill enemies even remotely as fast as an Amazon, or deal even
remotely as much physical damage as a Barbarian. Can a Windy Druid make it to
Act V Hell and kill things without having to rely on other party members?
Absolutely. With the additional monster physical resistance in Hell, it will
be a chore, but it's certainly doable.
Q. Where did the term "Windy Druid" come from?
A. Who knows? Somebody had to come up with it. :)
Q. Why are you writing this guide and who is it for?
A. I wrote this guide because Druids as a whole are underrepresented, and
Wind Druids especially (not to disparage the other Druid guides here at
GameFAQS, but some of them don't even mention Tornado as a skill!). If you've
never played a Windy Druid, you're in the right place. If you're looking to
read some strategy from a fellow Druid, you're okay reading this. If you've
already taken your Hardcore Level 95+ Wind Druid through countless solo Hell
Baal runs without a scratch, you know more about it than I do. :P
================
===2.0 SKILLS===
================
Skill placement for the typical Windy Druid is fairly straightforward. None
of the Windy Druid's skills suffer from diminishing returns, so the
difference between a level 10 Tornado and a level 15 Tornado is about as big
as the difference between a level 5 Tornado and a level 10 Tornado.
-----------------------------------------------
Arctic Blast - 1 point - Available at level 6
-----------------------------------------------
This is basically a Cold-based Inferno, and it does substantially less damage
than the Sorceress spell; however, it chills everything it touches, making it
a nice skill for slowing down a large group of monsters or to keep a Unique
chilled. Unfortunately, it doesn't give any bonuses to any useful skills, it
cannot be used in conjunction with Tornado (as Hurricane can), and it doesn't
deal quite enough damage (even with maxed synergies) to justify dropping more
than one point in it.
It will be fairly useful until you get Hurricane - it's also the only way
(before you get to character level 30) you can deal with physical immunes
aside from any elemental damage on your weapon or your mercenary. The best
way to use Arctic Blast is not to target a single enemy, but to right click
on the ground behind any enemies, and then maneuver it around with your mouse
like a frosty flamethrower. Chill every enemy, and then go to work in melee
with your minion/party members.
-------------------------------------------------
Cyclone Armor - 20 points - Available at level 12
-------------------------------------------------
This skill is similar to the Necromancer's Bone Armor, except it blocks
elemental (fire/cold/lightning) damage and not physical damage. This is the
first skill you'll drop more than one point into - it gives bonuses to both
of your main attack skills, Tornado and Hurricane, so it's important to
eventually max it.
On its own, Cyclone Armor absorbs a decent amount of elemental damage. When
it gains percentage bonuses from the other wind skills, however, it becomes
so strong you'll rarely need to refresh it. Note that it does not protect you
from poison, magic, or physical damage, so it has no effect on many of the
missiles fired at you from monsters (like those deadly Bone Spirits fired
from Oblivion Mages). If you have "Cannot be Frozen" and decent
resists/absorbs, the average PK Sorceress can't do anything to you if you can
keep Cyclone Armor up. Of course, you can't really do anything to them...:P
-------------------------------------------
Twister - 20 points - Available at level 18
-------------------------------------------
This is always where the disappointment sets in. Twister is, on balance, a
horrible skill that does nowhere near enough damage to actually kill
anything. It releases three small funnel clouds that are hard to aim and that
move too fast through enemies to stack their damage. To compound that, the
stun length is laughable - .7 seconds is about enough to make the average
monster flinch before it runs up to bean you.
Most Wind Druids will want to eventually max this for the bonus to Tornado.
If you simply can't bear the thought of maxing this skill, drop the points
into "Grizzly Bear" and make a combo Windy Druid/Summoner. Note that your
Bear will have to take up the slack that the +180% damage bonus to Tornado
would have held.
-------------------------------------------
Tornado - 20 points - Available at level 24
-------------------------------------------
By the time you get this skill, you'll have already started to despair. "How
can this crappy build take on anything?" you'll ask, especially as the
cookie-cutter builds around you tear up enemies and solo like nobody's
business. Thankfully, with this skill, you can finally join them.
Tornado throws out a single, large whirlwind for a relatively cheap 10 mana.
It blows through enemies but disappears (just like Blessed Hammer) when it
touches a wall. It deals physical damage, and it moves more slowly than the
whirlwinds unleashed by the Twister skill. It is, like Twister, hard to aim
and slightly random in its movements. The key to maximizing its potential is
to spam the damn things until your right mouse button breaks. Enemies,
ideally, should have to move through a sea of deadly Tornados and your Merc
before landing a blow on you. With every synergy maxed, you can deal a
sizeable amount of damage, which you'll need since monster physical
resistance becomes more prevalent and stronger as the game wears on.
---------------------------------------------
Hurricane - 20 points - Available at level 30
---------------------------------------------
This is the skill most people have used from other Druid builds. With all the
bonuses it gets from the rest of the Wind tree, it will deal respectable
damage and last longer than most modern pop groups.
This is your second attack skill, especially important as the physical damage
provided by your Tornados starts to become less effective. Hurricane deals
moderate cold damage in a small area (roughly 1/3 screen radius) around your
character for a limited duration. It is a fairly essential skill to have, so
go ahead and max this sucker ASAP.
-------------------------------------------
Oak Sage - 20 points - Available at level 6
-------------------------------------------
Traditional Windy Druids often pick this Spirit to accompany them. It does
more good than any other Spirit for a caster type Druid, and it's useful in
the early going when you can't actually kill anything effectively. It's also
a terrific help to party members.
It should be recasted whenever you put a skill point in it, as the Spirits
tend to last a long time. Keep a habit of looking at your Spirit's health,
especially in mobs or boss battles. If your Spirit goes down, _you_ go down.
That being said, Spirits are fairly durable, and you can often use the Oak
Sage as a distraction while you pummel monsters with Tornado.
------------------------
OTHER SKILLS TO CONSIDER
------------------------
You're probably never going to touch the Shape-shifting tree (why would you?
This is a Windy Druid, after all!). Here are some other options.
Grizzly Bear - A very good summon that can dish out a heck of a lot of
damage. Unfortunately, the damage is all physical, so it suffers from the
same penalties and limitations as your Tornados. Not to mention your Tornados
will be weaker if you decide to max a Spirit AND this skill. I recommend the
Grizzly Bear as a decent alternative to the Oak Sage.
Heart of Wolverine - If you're going to go with the Grizzly, you might want
to use this to boost its attack instead of using Oak Sage. You'll also want
to get some decent gear/adjust your stats so that you can attack with your
minion and merc when necessary.
Raven - If you go Bear, keep a few Ravens out at all times. 1 point is
obviously all that's needed due to +skills. They only occasionally blind
enemies, but you'll need all the help you can get.
Poison Creeper/Carrion Vine/Solar Creeper - Fairly decent companions - again,
rely on +skills to bring these up. The Poison Creeper does crappy poison
damage, but it does keep monsters from regenerating in Hell; the Carrion Vine
and Solar Creeper replenish a fair amount of life and mana at higher levels.
Spirit Wolves/Dire Wolves - I'm not a big fan of wolves for the Windy Druid.
They'll keep the monsters off of you, sure, but they just don't do enough
damage by themselves to be worthwhile, especially for this build. If you put
points in Grizzly Bear to increase their damage, they might be okay, but why
don't you just use Grizzly Bear?
Armageddon/Rest of the Fire Tree - You probably want to distribute your skill
points radically differently if you plan on incorporating the fire tree.
You'd still probably max Tornado and Hurricane, but you'd also spend points
on Firestorm, Molten Boulder, Fissure, Volcano, and Armageddon to build them
up to decent levels, while neglecting any summons whatsoever. If you plan on
going dual elemental, you're going to _need_ as much "fast cast" as humanly
possible. This way is certainly viable, but it's a far more complicated
character to build and play.
-------------------------------------
Basic strategy of a "pure" Wind Druid
-------------------------------------
Get Hurricane up and running, spam Tornados, get your Merc in position, and
pray that you can kill your enemies before they reach you. Higher level
monsters will definitely take time to kill, but not an eternity. If you're
playing a Windy Druid, you like a challenge anyway, right?
Physical immunes and high physical resist (>75%) monsters will have to be
dealt with by using Hurricane and staying dangerously near them so that the
cold damage can kill them (perhaps even using Arctic Blast for a small bit of
extra damage). You can also hope any elemental damage on your merc will help.
If you face a physical immune and cold resistant, or a cold immune/stone
skin, or any similar combination, run away. You could use a very high
elemental/poison damage weapon/charms on your switch/merc (Breath of the
Dying, anyone :)? ), but the damage would have to be phenomenal to really be
effective. An alternate solution is to use Amplify Damage to cut the target's
physical resistance, or even Lower Resist to cut their Cold resistance.
-------------------------------------------
Basic strategy of a combo Wind/Summon Druid
-------------------------------------------
In most fights, you'll simply have your Hurricane, Heart of Wolverine, and
Grizzly Bear out. Get a decent high damage weapon (preferably with high
elemental/poison damage) and get right in there and slash away. On occasion,
you will use spammed Tornados (on weapon switch) to deal with large packs of
monsters. Cold/physical combos are less of a problem here, but still a
nuisance.
----------------------------------------------------------
Basic strategy of a combo Fire/Wind Druid (pure Elemental)
----------------------------------------------------------
You'll have Hurricane and Armageddon at your disposal, so you can use them as
the situation permits (i.e., don't use Hurricane against a Cold Enchanted
monster, etc.). You'll have to cast a Volcano/Fissure, and then spam Tornados
as the fire spells run their course. This is a difficult road to take, but it
_can_ be done. You will have the least problems with resistive monsters -
only a magic resistant/stone skin sort of boss would give you any trouble
(pack something with Lower Resist charges for just such an eventuality).
===============
===3.0 STATS===
===============
Stats placement is extremely dependent on what kind of Druid you would like
to be and how many items you can find/twink to help your character. If you
get a ton of "+mana" and "+ % mana" items, for example, (or you already have
a good number) you can sometimes get away with leaving Energy base. I'm not
that lucky/rich, so here's my suggestions.
--------
STRENGTH
--------
AFFECTS: Melee Damage, Weapon/Armor Requirements
You'll probably want to be able to don the nice high-level Druid-only pelts
that everyone else just leaves on the ground. If you're going the
melee/Grizzly route, you'll need enough Strength so you can handle the high-
damage weapons other combat Druids typically carry, and to just plain dish
out more damage.
Keep in mind that if you elect not to engage in melee, this stat is only
needed for requirements, and that +Strength and -Requirements mods are easy
to obtain via a number of socketable gems/runes. A safe number to get this
around is ~100 base (eventually). Nearly all useful weapons/shields can be
acquired (with the help of some modest +Strength and -Requirements) with this
much Strength.
---------
DEXTERITY
---------
AFFECTS: Attack Rating (and subsequently Chance to Hit %), Ranged Damage,
Armor Class, and Blocking
If you're going to use a weapon, you'll want to raise this to a decent level.
If you're just going to use a shield for the mods, I recommend not putting
any points in Dexterity at all. If you want to actually block things, put
enough points in Dexterity to block on a consistent (60-75%) basis (assuming
you have a 60-75% block shield, that is). With the former, if you get
attacked, you probably won't block, and thus you won't get block-locked and
you'll be able to run. With the latter, you can block more often, and thus
won't get damaged as severely when you do get block-locked.
Anything more or less is a bad idea, as it won't provide enough protection,
but it will stop your movement if you try to run. If you decide to pump
Dexterity, you might as well find a high elemental damage bow (fire or
lightning) for weapon switch to deal with dual cold/physical resist combo
monsters from a distance.
--------
VITALITY
--------
AFFECTS: Maximum life (and hence any health regeneration items you might
acquire), Chance for Double Healing on Life Potions
The Druid only gets +2 life for every point spent in Vitality, but if you
play Hardcore (as I do), you'll come to appreciate that last extra few
hundred Life that dropping a lot of points in Vitality will net you. If you
use Oak Sage, every point you put invest into Vitality will pay off even
more. To quote an old Diablo II truism - "You can have too much mana, but you
can never have too much life."
------
ENERGY
------
AFFECTS: Maximum mana (and hence mana regeneration rate), Chance for Double
Healing on Mana Potions
For most of us mortals without godly +mana items, not putting any points in
Energy makes for a frustrating experience. Even with a bunch of "+mana after
each kill" mods, you'll need at _least_ 100+ mana to start the Tornados up.
My advice is this - put as many points in Energy as you think you will need
to never run out of the stuff in mid-battle. Pick up every mana potion you
see and use them as you get low. If you run out of mana potions, you know you
don't have enough mana. If your inventory starts to get full of them, you
have too much mana (not much that can be done about that).
A safe value for this is about ~40. A more realistic value is ~60-80 base
Energy.
===============
===4.0 ITEMS===
===============
You're not going to get every single possible useful item choice here; just
look at the Arreat Summit (
http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp) to find huge
listings of items. There are numerous super high level items and runewords in
1.10 (BotD, Enigma, etc.), so go take a look and see what's possible. With
that said, here are "the usual suspects."
WEAPON: Wizardspike, Spellsteel, Razorswitch, Skull Collector, Culwen's
Point, Suicide Branch, Spectral Shard, Silence (rune word), Breath of the
Dying (rune word), Heart of the Oak (rune word). "Heart of the Oak" is
supercool because it just _sounds_ like a Druid weapon :).
ARMOR: Naj's Light Plate (look for the full set, too), Skin of the Vipermagi,
Que-Hegan's Wisdom, Skullder's Ire, Silks of the Victor. The best caster
armor in 1.10 is, IMHO, the ultra-sweet rune words "Chains of Honor" and
"Enigma." A good rare Elite Mage Plate (Archon Plate) will also suffice,
especially when socketed with an Um rune.
SHIELD: Lidless Wall, Sigon's Guard, Wall of the Eyeless. A good Rare
Exceptional/Elite shield with +Resist All and Deflecting mods can do the job.
An elite Tower Shield with either the "Sanctuary" or "Rhyme" rune word will
also kick butt.
HELMET: Harlequin Crest, Tarnhelm, Sazabi's Mental Sheath, Peasant Crown,
Lore (rune word), Delirium (rune word). Better than all of these IMHO is a
Rare Exceptional/Elite Druid-only pelt with lots and lots of +skills and
other useful mods (if you can find it...). Not only will you be outfitted
with great gear, but you'll look cool, too. ;)
AMULET: Mara's Kaleidoscope is an obvious and fairly good choice, but it's
also damn hard to find. Telling of Beads and Highlord's Wrath can also be
good. I recommend finding a high-level Rare amulet with bonuses to Druid
skills and whatever else you think you may need.
RING: If you want +skills, Stone of Jordan is pretty much ubiquitous, though
I've never actually seen one drop in a game (I'm an unlucky person :) ). Bul-
Kathos' Wedding Band is good for +skills, too. I recommend getting a nice
Rare ring with boosts to Casting Rate (i.e. Magus), Life, Mana, Resists, etc.
BOOTS: Silkweave, Sandstorm Trek, Waterwalk, Infernostride, War Traveler,
etc. Basically, look for either a good Unique pair of boots or a high-level
Rare. The most important mod by far is Faster Run/Walk, since you can't get
it on any other item type save for Circlets.
GLOVES: None of the Unique gloves qualify as "must-haves" for the Windy
Druid. Frostburns ("Frosties") should be good in the early going, but after
you get enough mana you'll want/need a high-level Rare pair of gloves.
BELT: String of Ears and Thundergod's Vigor are very popular in the Realms.
Gloom's Trap is a good choice, too. Nightsmoke is easy to find/gamble and
will serve you well in the early going. Any good rare Exceptional/Elite belt
is worth having.
ULTIMATE WINDY DRUID SET: Aldur's Watchtower is probably the coolest, most
rare group of items for a Windy Druid to have. +4 to all Elemental Skills,
more than +45 to all attributes (!!!), +100 to all elemental resistances, and
that's just the beginning...
Practically everyone and their uncle knows how to put together a decent set
of caster items. You'll definitely need a few specific mods, though.
FASTER CAST
This is a must for getting your frames per cast down to a good level.
"Tweaker" Sorcs already know about the importance of this mod; you'll be
spamming spells all the time (Tornado has no timer), so get as many fast cast
items as humanly possible.
+SKILLS
This mod is essential as you get into Nightmare and Hell. Look for +skills
bonuses to all the Druid elemental skills, as well as the usual +skill items
(even the semi-ubiquitous SoJ). Keep in mind skill bonuses granted by items
don't provide synergy bonuses to your other skills - they only raise the
"base" level of the skill in question.
CANNOT BE FROZEN
Rather obvious. There are many monsters with cold damage (not to mention
Frozen Orb flinging PKs), so if you get chilled, you're in big trouble. The
Cham rune provides this mod, but it's extremely high-level, so don't count on
finding it anytime soon. Other than that, keep a Unique/Set Item with this
mod in the old stash if you have to deal with lots of Cold. Or you can use
Thawing Potions.
FASTER HIT RECOVERY/FASTER BLOCKING
Again, this is a practically a must for every character. We never like to
admit it, but do to server lag/desync/whatever, enemies _will_ hit you, and
the sooner you can recover, the better. If you're using a shield, you might
as well have faster blocking.
RESIST LIGHTNING
The deadliest enemies for every class early on are lightning enchanted
monsters. Diablo's pink lightning still hurts a lot (that and my stupid play
was what killed my very first Hardcore Windy Druid :P ), even with Cyclone
Armor. LEBs, while not the pain they used to be, are still more threatening
than most other monsters.
+MANA, +%MANA, AND +MANA AFTER EACH KILL
Easily the biggest problem for the Windy Druid is having enough mana to cast
Tornados at a useful clip. I suggest at least 200 base mana, with the bonuses
from any items you get stacking on top of that. That should give you enough
mana and mana regeneration to survive a few fights one after the other.
+LIFE
Again, you can never have too much life.
AMPLIFY DAMAGE
If you can get a "5% Chance to Cast Amplify Damage" mod on your Merc's weapon
when facing a physical resist boss, you can considerably shorten the time
needed to defeat them (this is if you're soloing and can't/won't use the help
of an allied Necro).
=============================
===5.0 ACT BY ACT STRATEGY===
=============================
This strategy is for Normal difficulty and assumes you are playing a "pure"
Windy Druid.
-----
Act I
-----
The early levels are fairly simple, as they are for all character builds.
Clear the Den of Evil with whatever sturdy weapon you can find, and do the
same for the Cold Plains. When you face off against Blood Raven, you'll
probably only have your single point in Arctic Blast to help you (if that).
Stay with it and hack her to death. I HIGHLY recommend using throwing potions
on the tough bosses until you get Tornado - they're fast, they hit pretty
hard, and they fly over obstructions.
Even with your meager offensive capabilities at the start of the game, you
should be okay finishing up to the Cain quest by yourself (though Treehead
Woodfist will probably wipe the floor with you in a straight fight unless
you've found some good equipment). Make sure your Merc is as strong as
humanly possible, and use your Arctic Blast to chill anything you come across
before you tackle it in melee (without +skills, it will not be strong enough
to kill monsters by itself). If you manage to find a Druid pelt that boosts
Arctic Blast, use it! Put points into Oak Sage.
The Countess and Malus quests shouldn't be too difficult to complete, but
you'll definitely get in some tough fights with Champion Goatmen and the
like. The Wraiths can also be deceptively dangerous in large packs. The Smith
that guards the Malus can be quite deadly. Keep all of these foes chilled and
you'll have a good chance at beating them. By this time you should have
Cyclone Armor and should be dropping points into it.
As you start getting down in the depths of Act I, you'll have to trust to a
strong merc and your weapon to survive. Killing Andy is a major problem,
especially if you refuse to party with anyone. You'll have to tank and chug
potions like crazy while you and your merc chip away at Andy's life meter.
Keep her chilled and keep your Oak Sage up and running. Keep antidote and
healing potions ready in your inventory and use them. Eventually, she will
fall.
------
Act II
------
This is where it starts to get difficult. You'll need to again rely on the
help from your single point in Arctic Blast, Oak Sage, Cyclone Armor, and
Merc (this is a good time to switch to an Act II Merc with a high-damage
spear-type weapon), but enemies in Act II are, in general, much deadlier. The
Sewers under Lut Gholein will be an early test of your patience - masses of
Burning Dead Archers will really put a dent in your confidence. Radament
himself isn't too bad, but he will take a beating. If you get poisoned by
Radament or any other of the Greater Mummy type monsters and the poison
starts eating at your health extremely fast, either down an Antidote potion
or TP to town and heal at Fara ASAP - that type of poison doesn't go away
very fast.
The Halls of the Dead is just one long chain of skeletons to destroy - keep a
close eye on your Merc and Spirit and be careful to chill everything. The
Maggot Lair is probably where you'll put your first point into Twister...and
will promptly swear out loud at the horrendous damage it produces. You should
probably stick to Arctic Blast for the Maggot Lair, as well. The Viper Temple
isn't too difficult, and it's not a very long level. Twister may actually
come in handy here to stop the Charging vipers.
The Harem turns up the heat. The Blunderbores and Invaders there will
probably not even be dented by your Twisters, so stick to Arctic Blast. The
Arcane Sanctuary is a tedious haul, but shouldn't be too dangerous. Your
Cyclone Armor will nullify the Summoner's attacks, as if he weren't easy
enough. :P
The Canyon of the Magi is a decent place to earn experience. Your Arctic
Blast + Twister spam combo along with your Merc should keep you pretty safe,
but you won't be killing anything fast. You'll slug your way through Tal
Rasha's tomb like you have with the other "Tomb" tilesets. Finally, confront
Duriel.
Duriel is a pain to destroy, and he is quite dangerous. Equip your Merc with
the best stuff possible (preferably with some cold damage on his weapon) and
face Duriel. Make sure you are LOADED with full Rejuvs in your belt and
healing potions in your inventory, and keep Duriel frosty with Arctic Blast
if your Merc isn't doing so. Spam Twisters, have your Merc slash in close,
and keep fairly close to Duriel so you don't get Charged by him. If your Merc
dies, go back to town and resurrect him ASAP - nothing you can do by yourself
will hurt Duriel, save for the throwing potions mentioned above. It will take
a lot of hitting, but Duriel will die.
-------
Act III
-------
The endless swamps are every Diablo II player's worst nightmare - a maze of
jungle with no specific pattern from game to game. Play smart and don't rush
too far into the fray - keep your Merc with you and watch out for swarms of
Fetish. The Shaman infernos, even with Cyclone Armor, can hurt, so stay
mobile.
The Gidbinn quest is the first quest that you will have to do some work for
to complete. You should be used to spamming the Twisters and twirling around
Arctic Blast by now, so I won't tell you again. You'll be searching for
Kalim's junk all through the Act, so pick that stuff up along the way.
About halfway through this Act (maybe later, depending on how you play),
you'll finally get to put a point in Tornado. It's obviously a huge
difference in damage, so you'll finally be able to kill things well. Kurast
itself should be a breeze with Tornado. Lam Esen's Tome is picked up in the
usual place. The Council will prove no match for your Tornados and Merc.
As you dip into the Durance, you may encounter your first immune to Physical
monster (I certainly did :P). Since you won't have Hurricane, just do what I
do: run! After a few levels, you should finally go head-to-head with
Mephisto.
For any other character, Meph is a joke. But to the Windy Druid, he's still
fairly threatening. Concentrate on staying alive and staying in close with
Meph. His melee attacks will hurt you, but you'll be able to respond in kind.
Spam Tornados and hit him with everything you've got. He should go down
without too much hassle.
------
Act IV
------
Wide-open spaces are good for your Tornados, so you will probably have a lot
of fun ripping through monsters on the various Act IV tilesets. Nothing in
the beginning stages of Act IV is really threatening - just level up and move
onto the Izual quest.
Izual takes a beating and keep on ticking, though he doesn't have much in the
way of attack power. He does have twice the life of Mephisto, and a Frost
Nova attack that's more annoying than deadly. Just pound him till you're sick
of it, and then pound him some more. An allied Sorc with Static Field will be
your best friend here.
The River of Flame is much easier. The Soulstone quest is only complicated by
Hephasto the Armorer. He will probably kill your Merc in short order, so
you'll have to spam Tornados and keep mobile. He'll fall eventually. A good
tip is to use poison of some sort against him.
Finally, you'll take on the Chaos Sanctuary. The Oblivion Mages will give you
the most trouble, so make sure you have enough health to absorb a few hits
from Bone Spirits. Work open the seals and deal with the monsters within, and
finally, face Diablo.
Diablo himself has been weakened, but you're a weak character build, so stay
alert. The infamous "pink lightning," aided by mild lag, ended my first Windy
Druid's career - don't let it end yours! KEEP MOVING and fire Tornados at
Diablo as much as possible. Your Merc will probably bite it in seconds, so
you'll be by yourself most likely. Be patient and chip away at Diablo's life.
If you run out of potions, run from the battle (to avoid having your TP bone
prisoned) and restock immediately. With any luck, you should be able to kill
him.
-----
Act V
-----
Coming soon!
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===6.0 Realm Information===
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Coming soon!
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===7.0 History and Acknowledgements===
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0.9 - December 2003 - First submittal. All major character stuff up,
walkthrough complete through Diablo. No multiplayer tips yet.
