Tornado Hurricane Druid Guide

Tornado* is your Primary Damage Skill. Tornados move in semi-random winding paths in the direction you cast them. While Tornados are a big source of Physical Damage, they can be very difficult to aim. Continuous casting of Tornado without moving the cursor always results in the same pattern, making it trial and error to hit your foes.

Hurricane* is your Secondary Damage Skill.  Hurricane is a passive Cold Damage per second Skill that centers on you as you move.  The Cold Damage adds a slowing effect to monsters, which provides some extra safety via Crowd Control. On the Hurricane Build Variant this is your Primary Damage Skill.

* Faster Cast Rate Skills (FCR)

Cyclone Armor* adds a shield which absorbs Lightning, Fire and Cold Damage while also being a damage Synergy for Tornado and Hurricane. With enough plus Skill gear and Synergies, Cyclone Armor can make the Wind Druid virtually immune to any Elemental Damage in the game (excluding Poison Damage). Recasting Cyclone Armor maximizes survivability. 

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

Summon Grizzly* with enough + to Skill gear becomes an excellent meat shield for your Druid. Continuously recasting Summon Grizzly in front of a monster(s) (including Bosses) serves as a great distraction as well. The Bear doesn't do much damage on this build, but that's not its purpose. With Life buffs from Call to Arms and Oak Sage it becomes nearly impossible to kill.

Summon Spirit Wolf* summons pet Spirit Wolves up to a limit of 5 that fight by your side, mainly tanking/blocking incoming damage and Chilling enemies that get too close.

Summon Dire Wolf* summons pet Dire Wolves up to a limit of 3 that fight by your side, mainly tanking/blocking incoming damage.

* Faster Cast Rate Skills (FCR)

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 Build 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.

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 most Physical Immunities.

An Act 5 Frenzy Mercenary using 1-2 Lawbringers is also a dominant approach on the Wind Druid.

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

• Before starting your Magic Find/Experience run, cast Summon Grizzly, Summon Spirit Wolf (5x), Summon Dire Wolf (3x), Oak Sage, and Cyclone Armor anywhere inside or outside of town. Recast your Summons whenever they die. Refresh Cyclone Armor when you notice that it is completely gone and when encountering dangerous Elemental Damage enemies (e.g. Black Souls).
• Periodically cast Hurricane in your Farming Spot to keep it active at all times.
• If you have Enigma or an item with Teleport Charges, Teleport directly on top of Elite Packs ("Telestomp") and continuously cast Tornado until all nearby minions and Elites are dead. If you don't have an item sources of Teleport, continuously cast Tornado as close as possible to the target monster(s) with the cursor positioned directly behind the target(s).
• Be aware of Mana Burn Elite Packs when you Telestomp. These enemies will immediately reduce your overall Mana pool if they hit you. Use your Tornado from a distance against them to avoid losing your Mana.

Immunities

• Bone Break allows you to kill any Immune to Physical monster. You still rely on your Mercenary with The Reaper's Toll to deal significant damage because they still have 95% Physical Resistance.
• The Reaper's Toll Decrepify proc is your only means of dealing with Unique monsters that are Immune to Physical AND Immune to Cold. Without it you have to skip them.

Late Game

• Before starting your Magic Find/Experience run, first buff yourself with Battle Command from Call to Arms. Next, cast Summon Grizzly, Summon Spirit Wolf (5x), Summon Dire Wolf (3x), and Oak Sage on whichever weapon loadout has the most + to Skills. Finally, recast Battle Command and then cast Battle Orders. Refresh these Call to Arms buffs whenever they expire (approx. every 2-3 minutes).
• Using Enigma, execute the Telestomp technique, landing directly on top of monsters to more accurately aim your Tornado and to reliably proc Decrepify with your Mercenary's The Reaper's Toll.

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 the 99% FCR or 163% FCR Breakpoint. Note: FCR only controls the animation speed of the Character, and not any internal Cooldowns spells have.

Faster Hit Recovery (FHR)

Faster Hit Recovery (FHR) increases survivability. Aim for at least the 42% FHR Breakpoint.

Faster Block Rate (FBR)

Faster Block Rate (FBR) increases survivability. Aim for the 52% FBR Breakpoint on Hardcore.

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 Tornado Hurricane Druid can become Hardcore viable with key changes to Gear and Stat Point allocation. 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: Equipping Stormshield is the surest way to keep a Hardcore Tornado Hurricane Druid alive, especially given the Druid's less than ideal Faster Hit Recovery and Faster Cast Rate Breakpoints. With 35% Damage Reduction and Increased Chance of Blocking there is no better choice. However, Crown of Ages, Harlequin Crest, and Verdungo's Hearty Cord can also be used to shore up your Damage Reduction.
• Maximum Life: Because Oak Sage scales so well with Life, it is highly recommended to use as many Life-granting Charms as possible on a Hardcore Wind Druid.
• Stacking Resistances: Stack your Fire/Lightning/Cold Resistances beyond their 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. Heart of the Oak, Boots, Jewelry, and Charms are ideal sources of Resistances on this build.
• 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 Stormshield.
• Allocate enough Stat Points into Dexterity to achieve maximum Chance to Block (75%) while having Stormshield equipped.
• Allocate all remaining Stat Points into Vitality.
  
  See the "Hardcore" Build Variant below for additional suggestions and visuals.

• 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 Summons travel with you.
• Summons in large quantities can become “stuck” in position after Teleporting. Move/walk 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.
• Teleport casting speed is affected by the Faster Cast Rate Breakpoint that you achieve with your gear.

• The speed of this Skill is based on Cast Rate.
• Fires a single Size 3 tornado missile which deals Physical Damage on impact, and periodically in a 2 yard radius around the missile.
• The tornado moves in a randomized route in the direction of the cursor, but if cast continuously, the missile follows the same route until the cursor's position changes.
• Tornados travel for 3 seconds and apply their periodic damage immediately, and then every 15 frames after.
  • Collision damage has Last Collide and Next Hit Delay of 25 frames. In most scenarios, a tornado will only apply collision damage once per cast.
  • Periodic damage from multiple tornados can be applied simultaneously.
• Can only be cast in human form.
• Collision damage can be blocked, but periodic damage cannot be.

• Synergies add +% Physical Damage = 9*(Cyclone Armor.blvl + Twister.blvl + Hurricane.blvl)

• The speed of this Skill is based on Cast Rate.
• Summons a 6 yard radius storm dealing Cold Damage and Cold Length, centered on the Druid, that follows their location until it expires.
  • Damage is applied every 0.8 seconds (20 frames).
  • Cold Length lasts 2 seconds, which is drastically reduced due to difficulty penalties unless the target has low or negative Cold Resistance.
• Has a 6 second delay between casts.
  • Recasting the Skill only resets the duration.
• Can only be cast in human form.

• Synergies add duration in seconds = 2*Cyclone Armor.blvl
• Synergies add +% Cold Damage = 9*(Twister.blvl + Tornado.blvl)

• The speed of this Skill is based on Cast Rate.
• Reduces incoming Fire, Lightning, and Cold Damage prior to any other sources.
• Damage reduced accumulates regardless of type. If the shield would reduce 100 total damage, and the first source was 50 Fire Damage, then incoming 50 Lightning Damage would deplete the shield.
• Any damage dealt in excess of the remaining total on the armor is then applied to the Character following normal damage calculations.
• Cold Damage still applies its Cold Length even if the total damage was reduced to zero by the armor.
• Can only be cast in human form. Remains active after Shape-shifting.
• Total Damage reduced = 28 + (12*slvl)
• Synergies add +% Fire/Lightning/Cold Damage reduced = 7*(Twister.blvl + Tornado.blvl + Hurricane.blvl)