Summon Druid Guide

Raven* summons ravens to attack targeted mobs, Blinding and dealing Physical Damage to them. (Maximum of 5)

Summon Grizzly* summons a grizzly bear to fight by your side, serving as a front-line tank and dealing Physical Damage to targeted mobs. This pet has a chance to Knockback enemies.

Summon Dire Wolf* summons wolves that become stronger upon eating corpses. They deal Physical Damage to targeted mobs. (Maximum of 3)

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

* Faster Cast Rate Skills (FCR)

Heart of Wolverine* provides an additional +7% Physical Damage and Attack Rating per Skill Point for your Wolves (Summon Dire Wolf and Summon Spirit Wolf), Summon Grizzly, Mercenary, and other Party members. Re-summon this whenever it dies.

Oak Sage* provides an additional +5% Maximum Life per Skill Point, providing a massive Life pool for your Summon Druid, Mercenary, Summons, and other Party members. Oak Sage typically needs to be re-summoned often, as it dies very frequently.

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

Shock Wave* makes a cone-shaped projectile in front of you that Stuns monsters caught in its Area of Effect (AoE). By moving the cursor closer to your Character, the spread of this effect becomes wider. It also deals a small amount of Physical Damage.

Lycanthropy* is a Passive Skill which provides you with +5% Maximum Life per Skill Point investment for Werebear form. Werebear form duration is also increased by 20 seconds per Skill Point.

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

* 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 Notes: Any Items with specialized or niche uses have a superscript that refers here.
1) Treachery is used for pre-buffing prior to taking down the Ubers. Treachery pre-buffs Fade for All Resistances, Curse Length Reduction, and Damage Reduction.
2) Wizardspike is used for the Faster Cast Rate it provides on Weapon-Swap if Barbarian-granted Battle Orders is available. Stormshield on the Off-Hand Swap can provide Chance to Block and Damage Reduction. With Wizardspike and Spirit Monarch you can achieve the 163% Faster Cast Rate Breakpoint on your Weapon-Swap.
3) Only use Naj's Puzzler, a Teleport Charge Staff, or a Teleport Charge Amulet for Teleport Charges before acquiring Enigma.

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 Build Variant.

Act 1

Act 2

Act 3

Act 4

Act 5

Ubers

This build is capable of farming Uber Tristram and the Mini Ubers before (See the "Ubers" Build Variant):

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.

Act 2 Desert Mercenary

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.

Mercenary Gear Options

Your Mercenary needs maximum Resistances, Life Leech, a high damage Weapon, and high Defense and/or Damage Reduction to stay alive reliably. Cannot Be Frozen is also a great stat for maintaining Mercenary DPS and leech. Ethereal gear is preferred since it doesn't lose durability. Mercenary Types and Gear Options at each Gear Level perform equally well in different situations; choose based on Farming Spots and/or personal preference.

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

• At the beginning of each Magic Find/Experience run, summon all of your pets: 1 Summon Grizzly, 3 Summon Dire Wolf, 5 Summon Spirit Wolf, 5 Ravens, and finally Heart of Wolverine or alternatively Oak Sage if you need Life for your Party. Re-cast your Summons if they die.
• Optional: Summon a Carrion Vine for semi-reliable Life Sustain.
• Upon encountering Elite Monsters, Bosses, or Uber Bosses, Teleport directly on top of them ("Telestomp" them) to stack your Summons on top of one another. This results in maximum DPS output. Use a Teleport Charge Staff on Weapon-Swap or a Teleport Charge Amulet if you do not have Enigma.
• You can cast Summon Grizzly directly in front of or on top of dangerous mobs to distract them.
• In-between Teleport casts, you can transform into a Werebear and cast Shock Wave to Stun dangerous mobs as well. Werebear form also provides additional tankiness.
• Alternatively, you can also permanently or semi-permanently remain in Werebear form for a more safe, easy-going playstyle (you cannot cast Teleport while Shape-Shifted). This results in significantly reduced damage output, however.

Immunities

• Use a Mercenary with The Reaper's Toll or Lawbringers for Decrepify to deal with Physical Immunes and to increase the Physical Damage of your Summons.
• Bone Break sets all Immune to Physical monsters to 95% Physical Resistance, allowing any sources of -x% to Enemy Physical Resistance (including Decrepify) to take full effect.
• Skip Physical Immune monsters that are still Physical Immune, or extremely hard to kill (highly Physical Resistant), even after applying Decrepify from your Mercenary's The Reaper's Toll or Lawbringers.

Late-Game

• At the beginning of each Magic Find/Experience run, buff your Summon Druid by swapping to Call to Arms. First cast Battle Command, then cast all of your Summons. Next cast Battle Command again followed by Battle Orders. Finally swap back to your main setup.
• Repeatedly cast Teleport from Enigma to travel to your Farming Spot or between Elite Packs. With Enigma Teleport you can also freely 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. While the 46% and 68% FCR Breakpoints are acceptable, aim for the 99% and 163% FCR Breakpoints if possible for fast Enigma Teleport speed. Note: FCR only controls the animation speed of the Character, and not any internal Cooldowns spells have.

Faster Hit Recovery (FHR)

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

Faster Block Rate (FBR)

Faster Block Rate is not required for survivability on this build, but certain breakpoints can be utilized on the Hardcore Build Variant.

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.

The Summon Druid can become Hardcore viable with key changes to Gear, Stat Point allocation, and Skills. Review the changes below before building this character in Hardcore, as some of these changes differ significantly from the Standard Build.

Gear Changes

• Damage Reduction: Equip Stormshield instead of Spirit. The % Damage Reduction and Increased Chance of Blocking granted by Stormshield both drastically improve a Hardcore Summon Druid's survivability. A setup using Stormshield and Enigma achieves 43% Damage Reduction (approaching the 50% Damage Reduction cap).
• Stacking Resistances: Stack your Fire/Lightning/Cold Resistances beyond the default maximum values of 75 each (175 total in Hell). Stacking 85 additional Resistances in Hell completely negates the Conviction Aura of any Elite Boss or the Oblivion Knight's Lower Resist Curse. Beware of encountering both at the same time! Consider the primary damage type(s) of the monsters in the area you want to farm. Jalal's Mane and Crown of Ages are great Helmet options for stacking Resistances on this build. Boots, Jewelry, and Charms are also ideal sources of Resistances.
• Lightning Absorb: Equip Thundergod's Vigor when farming or Teleporting through an area where Burning Souls are able to spawn such as Worldstone Keep/Throne of Destruction.

Stat Point Changes

• Allocate enough Stat Points into Strength to wear all of your gear.
• Allocate enough Stat Points into Dexterity to achieve maximum Chance to Block (75%) while having Stormshield equipped.
• Put all remaining Stat Points into Vitality.

Skill Point Changes

• Max out and primarily use Oak Sage instead of Heart of Wolverine on a Hardcore Summon Druid for as much Life as possible.
  
  See the "Hardcore" Build Variant below for additional suggestions and visuals.