Summon Druid Guide

Summon Grizzly* summons a grizzly bear to fight by your side as a front-line tank with Physical Damage.

Raven* summons ravens to attack targeted mobs and blind them with Physical Damage. (Maximum of 5)

Summon Dire Wolf* summons wolves that become stronger upon eating corpses. (Maximum of 3)

Summon Spirit Wolf* summons wolves that deal Cold Damage. (Maximum of 5)

* Faster Cast Rate Skills (FCR)

Cyclone Armor* adds a shield which absorbs Lightning, Fire and Cold Damage. Recasting Cyclone Armor maximizes survivability. 

Heart of Wolverine* provides an additional +7% Damage and Attack Rating per Skill Point. This can provide a large Physical Damage increase for yourself, Mercenary, Summons, and other Partied Characters. Resummon this whenever it dies.

Oak Sage* provides an additional +5% Maximum Life per Skill Point. This can provide a massive Life pool for yourself, Mercenary, Summons, and other Partied Characters. Resummon this whenever it dies.

Shockwave* makes a cone-shaped projectile that provides a Stun effect. It also deals a small amount of Physical Damage.

Carrion Vine* summons a Vine pet that eats corpses and provides Life.

Lycanthropy* is a passive skill which provides you with +5% Maximum Life, and 20 additional second duration for Werebear form per Skill Point investment.

Werebear* allows you to cast Shock Wave as it is restricted to this form. Additionally, it provides you with a huge buff for your Defense and Life.

Shock Wave* uses a cone-shaped Stun effect for up to 10 seconds. By moving the cursor closer to the Character, the spread of this effect becomes wider.

* 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.

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 4

Act 5

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.

Reaper’s Toll, Might

Use a Desert Mercenary with Might Aura to significantly boost your Physical Damage.
Equip him with The Reaper’s Toll for a 33% Chance to cast Decrepify on striking, slowing down and increasing Physical Damage dealt to enemies. Decrepify can even break some Physical Immunities.

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.

• At the beginning of each run summon all of your pets: 1 Summon Grizzly, 3 Summon Dire Wolf, 5 Summon Spirit Wolf, 5 Ravens, and finally the Heart of wolverine or Oak Sage if you need Life for your Party.
• Optional: Summon a Carrion Vine to eat corpses and add some Life Regen.
• Cast Cyclone Armor for added survivability and make sure it stays up throughout your combat.
• Teleport on top of your enemies for maximum DPS output and Elite Hunting!
• Use Teleport or summon a Summon Grizzly in the face of danger!
• Be sure to keep your summons up, recasting them when they die.
• You can turn into a werebear after teleporting near a dangerous pack and use Shockwave to Stun them all.

Immunities

• Use a Mercenary with The Reaper's Toll for Decrepify to deal with Physical Immunes and dish out more Physical Damage.

Late-Game

• At the beginning of each run, buff yourself by swapping to Call to Arms and cast Battle Command then all your Pets. Cast Battle Command again followed by Battle Orders and finally Cyclone Armor. Swap back to your main setup
• With Teleport you can selectively reposition your minions when you Teleport to a new location.

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 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.

Faster Hit Recovery (FHR)

Faster Hit Recovery increases survivability. Aim for the 63% FHR Breakpoint.

Faster Block Rate (FBR)

Faster Block Rate is not required for survivability in this build, but early breakpoints can be utilized.

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.

Stat Point Changes

• The only thing that changes for Attributes point investment is Dexterity. Invest enough points into Dexterity until you have reached the maximum 75% Chance to Block. This value will change based on equipment stats, Character Level, and the Chance to Block on your shield.

Skill Point Changes

• Instead of putting Skill Points into Heart of wolverine put them into Oak Sage for more Life.

Item Changes

• Equip a Stormshield for Damage Reduction
• Shimmering Small Charm of Vita for more Life
• Sandstorm Trek for Faster Hit Recovery
• Jalal's Mane grants Resistances and Faster Hit Recovery

• Teleport instantly moves you to a selected square on the visible screen in which you can stand. The game tries to to place you within a small radius around your cursor even if it would be impeded normally.
• Teleport is not obstructed by walls or other impediments but can fail if your cursor is not completely passed those impediments when cast. Your Mercenary and Minions are teleported with you, Traps do not.
• Certain Minions in large quantities can become “stuck” in position after teleporting. Move away from that position to give them the chance to spread out.
• You can “extend” the visible screen by opening UI-windows like the Inventory or the Character screen. Continuously cast Teleport and drag your mouse to the edge of your screen.
• The Mana cost of Teleport decreases with additional Skill Levels down to 1 Mana per cast.
• You can use “ESC” to open the menu in single player to pause the game after a Teleport to determine if you are safe.