Fire Claws Druid Guide

Fire Claw* is your main Damage Skill. The Druid slaps his enemies one by one with his claws and deals massive Fire Damage. Must be in Werebear or Werewolf form.

Fissure* is your Secondary Damage Skill. It opens volcanic vents beneath a section of ground that deal Fire Damage to monsters as they move through the affected area. Stationary monsters only take periodic damage. Use it against groups of enemies before transforming into a Werebear or Werewolf.

* Increased Attack Speed Skills (IAS)

Werebear* transforms the Druid into a powerful bear which is required to use Fire Claw. It also provides a buff to your Physical Damage and Defense.

d2planner-skill]Werewolf[/d2planner-skill]* transforms the Druid into a swift wolf which is required to use Fire Claw. It also provides Attack Speed and Attack Rating.

Lycanthropy* increases the duration of your Werebear or Werewolf-form and provides a massive boost to your Life pool.

Shock Wave* provides a cone-shaped Stun effect. Move your cursor close to your Character model to create the widest cone possible.

Summon Grizzly* summons a bear to fight by your side. He is a great distraction for your enemies!

Oak Sage* summons a spirit that provides an Aura that buffs your team’s Life total. It flies around your Character and frequently dies. Keep re-summoning it!

Raven* summons untargetable ravens that pick out your enemies eyes, applying a blinding effect to them. They despawn after attacking a set amount of times(Scales with Skill Levels).

Teleport* relocates you to an available space centered at your cursor, crossing over any gaps or walls. It can be used to travel long distances quickly.

* Faster Cast Rate Skills (FCR)
* Skills that do NOT utilize either FCR or IAS

While every Stat in the Desirable Stats column is useful for this build, we highlighted the Priority Stats in Teal so you can easily identify the Most Important Stats on them.

Hover over any Item to see a pop-out with the full Item description.

Gear/Base Notes: Any Items with specialized or niche uses have a superscript that refers here.
1) Phase Blade is the Weapon with the best Weapon Speed Modifier (WSM) which is crucial for Shape Shifting Druid's!
2) Use a Kite Shield to have the lowest Chance to Block. We want to avoid the block animations as much as possible!
3) The Caster Crafted Amulet should have at least 13% Faster Cast Rate to hit the Breakpoint at 63% FCR.
4) Angelic Wings and Angelic Halo are always used in combination with each other.

The areas below are efficient farming locations that make use of the build’s strengths. Other farming spots might not be as effective due to immunities or bad layouts.

Anything that has a ✔ in the "Starter" column can be farmed with the Starter Variant.

Act 1

Act 2

Act 3

Act 5

Ubers

Your Mercenary serves an incredibly important role to the overall success of your build. They can be a front line tank, provide a pivotal Aura, and/or deal Physical Damage to kill enemies with Immunity to your Skill set.

Infinity, Might

Use a Desert Mercenary with Might Aura to deal with enemies that are immune to your main damage source.
Equip him with Infinity to reduce enemy Resistances and Defense with Conviction Aura, drastically boosting damage.

Gear Progression

The Mercenary is hard to keep alive until you have the minimum gear recommended in this guide. Remember you can drag Healing Potions onto the portrait, or shift + 1/2/3/4 to directly feed them a Healing Potion from your Belt. The Mercenary also gains bonus Resistances from Thawing Potions and Antidote Potions.

If your Mercenary dies in battle, you can revive them from any of the Mercenary NPCs in each Act. This does come with an increasing cost, capping at 50,000 Gold. Keep that in mind and decide if the Mercenary is currently worth the cost.

General

• Summon Oak Sage and use [d2planner-skiil]Summon Grizzly[/d2planner-skill] before you leave town. Keep Oak Sage up at all times - It is one of your lifelines!
• Ravens are a nice increase in Crowd Control by blinding enemies on attack but they need to be recast very frequently.

Werebear-Version:

• Pre-Enigma: Transform into the Werewolf-form to travel to your farming spot. Hit some monsters with Feral Rage to increase your movement speed. When you reach your first desired target, transform back to human form.
• Cast Fissure into high density areas. Then transform into Werebear-form and jump into battle.
• Use Shock Wave to Stun enemies with high damage and slap them down with Fire Claws.
• Use Summon Grizzly as a meat shield in strategic locations. He can soak up a decent amount of damage, allowing you to safely close the gap to your enemies.

Werewolf-Version:

• Transform into the Werewolf-form to travel to your farming spot. Hit monsters with Feral Rage to increase your movement speed. Keep this buff up at all times!
• When approaching high density, switch to human-form and cast fissure to apply Area of Effect damage. Return to Werewolf-form and smack your enemies down with Fire Claws.

Immunities

• The Fire Claw Druid is very limited in his ways of dealing with Immunities because he almost exclusively deals Fire Damage. Avoid areas with monsters Immune to Fire until you have access to Infinity.
• In some cases, you can switch to human-form to use Molten Boulder and Volcano. They deal Physical Damage but are rather weak due to our focus on Shape Shifting Skills.

Late-Game

• Use Teleport from Enigma to travel to your farming spot and jump between Elite Groups. This requires you to switch in and out of your shape-shifting forms because you can't use Teleport while transformed.
• Keep your Mercenary on a short leash to make use of his Conviction Aura.
• Cast Battle Command twice and [/d2planner-skill]Battle Orders[/d2planner-skill] in your Weapon Swap before engaging in combat. Refresh these buffs as soon as they run out.

Ubers

Pre-Buffing

• Equip Treachery[/d2planner-skill] and go to the River of Flame Waypoint. To the east you find a pillar with a small fire  that counts as attacking you if you stand inside it. Place yourself inside to proc [d2planner-skill]Fade[/d2planner-skill] before anything else. If you hear your Character taking damage, you know it’s working.
• Cast [d2planner-skill]Battle Command[/d2planner-skill] twice and [/d2planner-skill]Battle Orders[/d2planner-skill] on your Weapon Swap before engaging in combat. Refresh these buffs as soon as they run out.
• Summon [d2planner-skill]Heart of Wolverine[/d2planner-skill] and [d2planner-skill]Summon Grizzly[/d2planner-skill] on the Weapon-Swap with higher +x to Skill Levels. Cast [d2planner-skill]Battle Command[/d2planner-skill] and [/d2planner-skill]Battle Orders[/d2planner-skill] again to buff your summons.

Fights

• Enter the red Portals and use [d2planner-skill]Teleport[/d2planner-skill] to find the Mini Ubers (Lilith, Duriel, Izual). Transform into [d2planner-skill]Werebear[/d2planner-skill]-form and clear out the area before you engage them in battle. Your Life recovery from [d2planner-skill]Life Tap[/d2planner-skill] is not sufficient to tank a lot of enemies because the Fire Claw Druid doesn't deal great amounts of Physical Damage due to the Weapon choice.
• Fight the Ubers one by one! Swap your Belt to [d2planner-item]Thundergod's Vigor against Uber Mephisto and use Shock Wave once in a while to Stun monsters spawned by the Ubers. This is especially important against Baal because of the Mana Burning monsters.

Breakpoints in Diablo 2 are the minimum values required to reduce the frames of an action. Below are the important breakpoints considered for this build. For more information on the mechanics involved, check out our in-depth Resource: Breakpoints.

Faster Cast Rate (FCR)

Faster Cast Rate (FCR) speeds up your casting animation for spells. Aim for at least the 68% FCR Breakpoint. Note: FCR only controls the animation speed of the Character, and not any internal or global Cooldowns spells have.

Human-Form

Increased Attack Speed (IAS)

Increased Attack Speed (IAS) speeds up your attack animations. Weapon bases have different IAS breakpoints. Values for recommended weapon options provided below. Consult the d2planner for other bases.

[d2planner-item]Phase Blade[/d2planner-item]

Faster Hit Recovery (FHR)

Faster Hit Recovery (FHR) increases survivability. Aim for the 86% FHR Breakpoint.

werebear-Form

werewolf-Form

For all Hardcore gameplay, your primary focus is increasing your Resistances, Damage Reduction, Chance to Block and Maximum Life. This can mean sacrificing overall power level for a more secure playstyle.

This build is Hardcore viable. If you are unaccustomed to this playstyle, we recommend trying this build on Softcore to gain experience on how to successfully pilot it.