TABLE OF CONTENTS
Tornado/Hurricane Druid Build Introduction
Wind Druids are amongst the most powerful characters in the game. Their primary attacking skills are Tornado And Hurricane. They have fast casting speeds, and are great builds for both PvM and PvP. As they can deal physical damage via Tornado and cold via Hurricane, they can solo the entire game as very few monsters are immune to both. Their survivability is amongst the best, as Cyclone Armor makes you practically immune to elemental damage, and the summons provide a great amount of extra survivability as well, so they are a great fit for hardcore. The single target damage is limited, don’t expect Windy druids to solo 8player parties. Mob and Boss kill speed is fast in single player, you can solo a Baal or Chaos run in 4 minutes in top-tier gear. For quick movement, i suggest using an enigma for it’s Teleportation ability. Unfortunately the build has difficulties dealing with Uber Diablo and Uber Tristram. For Magic Find purposes, it can be a great choice!
Parties can benefit from Oak Sage’s Immense life boost, but heart of wolverine can also be used to increase damage output. Wolves, Ravens and a Grizzly can be useful as “meat shield”, monsters will have a variety of targets and most damage won’t be dealt to you. Using a Carrion Wine can help with life recovery, but if you prefer mana recovery, a Solar Creeper can be a good choice.
Pros and Cons
|
Pros
|
Cons
|
Suggestions
Playing solo: Windy druids will do just fine in solo games. You will be able to farm any areas, and they can effectively be utilized for Magic Find.
Playing in a party: In parties, members can take advantage of your fast teleportation, your Oak Sage and your summons to distract bigger mobs. Having a Merc with Infinity runeword will help both your and your party’s damage.
Survivability, Hardcore: The build’s survivability is amongst the best, so it’s a great choice if you want to play hardcore. Make sure to have 75 all resists, always have Cyclone Armor on, try to avoid physical attacks. Physical damage reduction is needed, wearing a Stormshield and Crown of Ages or a Verdungo Belt are good options. Also make sure to have 75% chance to block, and try getting a Call to Arms to further boost your life. Use a Raven Frost ring if you want to avoid being frozen. Make sure to walk instead of running, and use teleport for movement if you can afford an Enigma.
Damage output: Both single target and area damage output is average, but you can quickly solo the game in decent gear.
Where to farm: The build is fit to farm any area. It is also ideal for Boss runs such as Mephisto, Countess or Andariel, but can do solo Baal and Chaos runs in about 4 minutes as well.
Magic Find: Wind druids are a good choice of option for Magic Find. They can quickly get to bosses, and have high MF % without significantly compromising their damage output. Make sure to have 7% Magic Find SCs and a Gheed’s Fortune in your inventory.
Budget: Budget gear options are available, but if you endgame gear will be expensive. It’s an okay ladder starter, just don’t expect extraordinary performance.
Mana/Life: Carrion Wine and Solar Creeper can solve your life or mana issues. You will barely need to rely on potions. In hardcore, having a belt stacked with Full Rejuvs is a must!
Movement/Mobility: The character moves super fast with Teleport. It doesn’t have fast run speed, however it won’t be necessary, since most of the navigation is done via Teleport. Make sure to have high Faster Casting Rate!
Ubers: You will be able to deal with Uber Diablo if your gear is decent, but Uber Tristram will cause trouble.
Skill panel: You can spam any skills by holding down the shift button and clicking simultaneously. For the left skill panel, i suggest using Tornado (F1) and Hurricane (F2). For the right skill panel, i suggest using Teleport (F3), Cyclone Armor (F4), Oak Sage (F5), Carrion Wine (F6), Battle Orders (F7) and Battle Command (F8). Use town portals manually.
Mercenary: Use Nightmare Act 2 Defensive Merc for it’s Holy Freeze Aura. If possible, equip him with an Infinity Runeword.
Leveling
During leveling, our aim is to maximize damage output for quick progression, have decent survivability so you won’t die frequently, and have decent movement speed.
Skills: Put a skill point on each of your summoning skills as you progress with the exception of Spirit of Barbs. Always have an Oak Sage and other available summons casted. Put points on Cyclone Armor and always have it on to reduce any elemental damage taken. Use Arctic Blast, then Twister, Tornado and Hurricane as your primary attacking skills. Max out Tornado, Hurricane and their synergies as you progress.
Stats: Have enough strength and dexterity to be able to wear useful gear. Put all the remaining stat points on Vitality.
Useful Gear: Lore Helm (Ort-Sol), Rain Armor (Ort-Mal-Ith), Stealth Armor (Tal-Eth), Smoke Armor (Nef+Lum) Spirit Sword, Spirit Shield, Ancient’s Pledge Shield (Ral-Ort-Tal), Rhyme Shield (Shael-Eth), Trang Oul’s Belt, 10% Faster cast rate Rings and Amulet, Magefist or Trang Oul’s gloves, Peasant Crown helm, Moser’s Blessed Circle shield, Skin of the Vipermagi Armor, Lidless wall shield, Frostburn gloves, Nightsmoke Belt, Spectral Shard weapon, Suicide Branch weapon, Wizardspike weapon, Boots with % Movement Speed.
Important breakpoints
How it works: Each second in the game consists of 24 frames or “ticks”. Your breakpoints decide how many frames it will take until you can attack/cast a skill/recover from a hit/ block a new hit.
| FCR | FHR | FBR |
| 0% 18 Frames | 0% 14 Frames | 0% 11 Frames |
| 4% 17 Frames | 3% 13 Frames | 6% 10 Frames |
| 10% 16 Frames | 7% 12 Frames | 13% 9 Frames |
| 19% 15 Frames | 13% 11 Frames | 20% 8 Frames |
| 30% 14 Frames | 19% 10 Frames | 32% 7 Frames |
| 46% 13 Frames | 29% 9 Frames | 52% 6 Frames |
| 68% 12 Frames | 42% 8 Frames | 86% 5 Frames |
| 99% 11 Frames | 63% 7 Frames | 174% 4 Frames |
| 163% 10 Frames | 99% 6 Frames | 600% 3 Frames |
| 0% 18 Frames | 174% 5 Frames | |
| 4% 17 Frames | 456% 4 Frames |
- Aim for 68% FCR at least for fast teleportation. Ideally, you should reach the 99% or 163% breakpoint in endgame gear.
- Aim for at least 29% FHR
- A Stormshield can provide you 35% FBR. If you socket it with a Shael rune, you can reach the 52% FBR breakpoint.
Build versatility and modifications
As you can deal both Cold and Physical damage from Hurricane and Tornado, and synergies are necessary for both, there is little room for modifications in attacking skills. You can use Solar Creeper instead of Carrion Vine if you prioritize mana recovery, and you can use Heart of Wolverine in parties if you want to help physical damage output.
Survivability and Hardcore tips
Survivability can be boosted by using normal/hell act2 merc with defiance aura, and a variety of items to help you survive difficult situations.
Useful skills: Always have your Oak Sage casted so you can benefit from the life increase. Always have Cyclone Armor casted to absorbs most of the elemental damage taken. Make sure to use walk instead of run, so you have better chances of avoiding being hit by monsters, and generally use teleport for movement.
Useful items: Call to arms is the obvious secondary weapon of choice due to it’s Battle Orders and Battle Command skills, which can increase your life tremendously. Stormshield for shield can be used for increased block rate and physical damage reduction, alongside a Verdungo belt. If you want to further improve your survivability, a Phoenix weapon can be used to gain redemption aura and heal constantly. Harlequin Crest Shako can be utilized aswell. If you want to make yourself almost immune to elemental damage, use Guardian Angel armor to increase your maximum resistances, and for elemental damage absorption, The rising sun amulet (fire absorption), Dwarf star ring (Fire absorption), Hellmouth gloves (fire absorption), Wisp projector ring (lightning absorption), Thungergod’s Vigor belt (lightning absorption) or Raven Frost ring (cold absorption) can be used.
Defensive requirements:
To have high survivability, i suggest the following:
- Have 75 allresist on Hell. Items that can help are Annihilus, Hellfire Torch,Shako with Um rune, Stormshield with Um rune, Chains of Honor Armor, Mara’s Kaleidoscope, 5 Allres Small Charms, 15 Allres Grand Charms
- Dexterity is useful for having higher Chance to Block
- If your Character is Hardcore, having 50% Physical damage reduction is a must, and wear elemental damage absorption items. Wearing Guardian Angel Armor for 90% allresist is suggested, and upgrade as many unique items as possible for higher defense. Reaching the 29 or 42% FHR breakpoints are also suggested. Have your belt stacked with Full Rejuvenation potions.
Skills
|
Necessary / Useful skill tree points |
Summoning Skills
|
Elemental Skills
|
|
Attacking Skills |
Tornado (20 point) This is our primary attacking skill. | Hurricane (20 point)
This is our secondary attacking skill to freeze our targets. |
|
Synergy Skills |
Twister (20 point)
Oak Sage (20 point) Always have an Oak Sage casted to increase your life. |
Cyclone Armor (20 point)
Always have it casted to reduce elemental damage taken. |
|
Other Active Skills |
Teleport
This is our main skill for movement |
|
|
Call to Arms Skills |
Battle command (CTA) – Always use it if you have a CTA. Make sure to cast it twice. | Battle orders (CTA) – Always use it if you have a CTA. It provides immense Life and Mana boosts. |
Stats
Strength ► Just enough to be able to wear your items. With Hellfire Torch, Annihilus, Enigma and stats on other items you might not even have to put stat points on it.
Dexterity ► Just enough to wear your gear. Consider putting extra points on it if you aim for better survivability and Block Chance.
Vitality ► Spend all your remaining points on it.
Energy ► Don’t spend any points on it.
You can re-stat your character by the quest reward of Akara’s Act1 Den of Evil Quest, or by using Token of Absolution
Item setups
Ladder starter setup
◆ Cost-effective build to start out at a new ladder season ◆
Helm: Lore / Peasant Crown / Magic Pelt with + Elemental skills or +Tornado skills
Amu: Any amulet with +2 druid skills or + All skills
Weapon: Spirit / Wizardspike
Switch Weapon: none
Shield: Spirit
Switch Shield: none
Body Armor: Stealth / Vipermagi / Rain
Belt: Nightsmoke / Crafted Caster Belt
Rings: Any ring with 10% FCR and other useful stats like allresist, life, magic find, etc.
Gloves: Magefist / Trang Oul’s gloves / Frostburn
Boots: 30% FRW boots with additional resist/resists
Charms: Any charm with +skill, life, mana, resist or FHR will help
Mercenary Type: Nightmare Difficulty Act 2 Defensive (Holy Freeze Aura)
Helm: Tal Rasha’s helm / Any helm socketed with 3 Perfect Amethyst
Body Armor: Treachery (Eth bugged armor base preferred)
Weapon: Insight in an elite two-handed ethereal Polearm
Advanced setup
◆ Decent dps and clear speed ◆
Helm: Harlequin Crest Shako (Socket it with Um rune)
Amu: Mara’s Kaleidoscope
Weapon: Spirit Sword / Heart of the Oak Flail
Switch Weapon: Call to Arms
Shield: Spirit
Switch Shield: Spirit
Body Armor: Enigma Dusk Shroud or Archon plate
Belt: Arachnid Mesh
Rings: 2*Stone of Jordan / Bul Katho’s rings / Rare rings (10% faster cast rate, possibly with life and resists) / Raven Frost
Gloves: Magefist (Upgrade it if you have enough strength)
Boots: Sandstorm Trek / War Traveler / Waterwalk (Upgrade them if you have enough Strength) / Rare 30% frw +multiple resists or FHR boots
Charms: Annihilus, Hellfire torch, Magic Grand Charms (+1 to Elemental skills), Magic Small Charms (with +all resistances, or +life)
Mercenary Type: Nightmare Difficulty Act 2 Defensive (Holy Freeze Aura)
Helm: Andariel’s Visage / Guillaume’s Face / Tal Rasha’s Horadric Crest / Vampire Gaze
Body Armor: Treachery (Eth bugged armor base preferred)
Weapon: Ethereal Infinity in an elite two-handed ethereal Polearm (preferably Cryptic Axe) / Eth The Reaper’s Toll
Top tier damage setup
◆ Very fast clearspeed and teleportation ◆
◆ The build is super expensive ◆
Helm: Rare Pelt or Magic Pelt with +5 or +6 to tornado, preferably with 2 sockets and other useful +skills or +stats
Amu: Crafted Caster’s Amulet (+2 to druid skills, 20% FCR, + all resistances, life)
Weapon: Suicide Branch
Switch Weapon: Call to Arms with 6 to Battle Orders and 6 to Battle Command
Shield: Spirit Runeword with 35% Faster Cast Rate
Switch Shield: Spirit
Body Armor: Enigma Archon Plate
Belt: Arachnid Mesh
Rings: 2*10% FCR rare rings with other useful stats like resists, life and mana
Gloves: Upgraded Magefist
Boots: Ethereal Sandstorm Trek / Rare 30% frw +multiple resists or FHR boots
Charms: Annihilus, Hellfire torch, 9*Magic Grand Charms (+1 to Elemental skills and +life), Magic Small Charms (with +all resistances, +mana or +life)
Mercenary Type: Normal Difficulty, From Act 2, Combat or Defensive (Prayer / Defiance Aura)
Helm: Andariel’s Visage / Guillaume’s Face / Tal Rasha’s Horadric Crest / Vampire Gaze (Ethereal bases, socketed with Um rune are preferred)
Body Armor: Ethereal Fortitude Runeword in an eth bugged body armor
Weapon: Ethereal Infinity in an elite two-handed Polearm (preferably Cryptic Axe)
Magic find setup
◆ Optimal for Boss Farming ◆
◆ Over 1000% MF potential ◆
Helm: Harlequin Crest Shako (Socket it with Ist rune)
Amu: Magic amulet with 40-50% Magic Find
Weapon: Suicide Branch
Switch Weapon: 6*Ist socketed Crystal Sword
Shield: Spirit
Switch Shield: 4*Ist socketed Monarch
Body Armor: Enigma Archon Plate
Belt: Upgraded Goldwrap
Rings: 2*Nagelring / Magic rings with 30%+ MF
Gloves: Upgraded Chance Guard’s
Boots: Upgraded War Traveler
Charms: Annihilus, Hellfire torch, Gheed’s Fortune, Small Charms with 7% Magic find (and also @all resistances if possible)
Mercenary Type: Normal Difficulty, From Act 2, Combat or Defensive (Prayer / Defiance Aura)
Helm: Andariel’s Visage / Guillaume’s Face / Tal Rasha’s Horadric Crest / Vampire Gaze (Ethereal bases, socketed with Um rune are preferred)
Body Armor: Ethereal Fortitude Runeword in an eth bugged body armor
Weapon: Ethereal Infinity in an elite two-handed Polearm (preferably Cryptic Axe)
