Build information for the Wind Druid, including suggested skills, stat distribution and gear.

Wind Druid Pros

Wind Druid Cons

Like other casters, the Wind Druid doesn’t require a lot of gear to perform, and between its Beginner Build as a Fire Druid, it may be one of the easiest, fastest starters in the game. The only reason it’s not recommended over something like, say, the Blizzard Sorceress is because of Teleport - the Wind Druid will have to walk everywhere, and its damage output is lower, so it’ll be considerably slower at killing bosses than some of the other starter characters.

Still, the Wind Druid has a lot going for it, including a simple, effective, tanky build. You activate Hurricane to give yourself a long-lasting AoE spell that constantly damages and chills enemies around you, slowing them down when it doesn’t outright kill them, and you walk right up to enemies and spam Tornado, which does decent damage and can fly through mobs, tearing apart anything in a line. Hurricane deals cold damage, while Tornado deals physical damage, and between the two, very few enemies will be immune to your attacks, although things do bog down considerably when you have to rely on Hurricane to deal damage.

Get an Act 2 Nightmare mercenary with Holy Freeze or Might, give him an [Insight] polearm (Ral + Tir + Tal + Sol), and you don’t have to worry about Mana anymore, and you’ll have another target to distract enemies - this build should be capable of just walking through Nightmare difficulty, thanks to its damage output and the buffs to Max Life you’ll get from Oak Sage, and the ability to shrug off elemental damage Cyclone Armor gives you. Get them [Stealth] armor (Tal + Eth), a Spirit sword (Tal + Thul + Ort + Amn) and perhaps a Lore helmet (Ort + Sol) and you’re good to go. All of these runes can be easily farmed from Nightmare [Countess].

After that, you’ll find this class is quite competent at clearing many high aLv dungeons, including the [Mausoleum], [The Pit] and the [Ancient Tunnels] to name a few. The cold immune, flighty Oblivion Nights in the [Chaos Sanctuary] might make that somewhat of a slog, but it’s definitely doable. As for bosses, you probably want to leave those to the Sorceress - Andariel is simple enough, but a close-range caster trying to fight through the Undead Stygian Dolls and vampires in the Durance of Hate is a recipe for frustration.

Wind Druid - Skills¶

There are several skills in a line that the Wind Druid wants to focus on - Cyclone Armor, Twister, Tornado and Hurricane. While the damage of both Hurricane and Tornado aren’t as great as, say, Fireball, Blessed Hammer or Blizzard, they’re easy to aim; Hurricane is a long-lasting AoE with plenty of range and Tornado slices through enemies in a line. None of the frustration involved with Blizzard or Blessed Hammer, but it does make the Wind Druid a relatively slow bosser, but a great mobber. Hurricane will be cast once every minute or so, while Tornado will be spammed every time you get close to an enemy.

Cyclone Armor is also interesting, as it’s a synergy with both Tornado and Hurricane, giving the former damage and the latter duration. While this is fine by itself (it’s enough to get Twister attention, which is otherwise unused during gameplay), Cyclone Armor is also a decent spell in its own right, absorbing elemental damage which, along with Oak Sage, a high Vitality and resistances, can make a Wind Druid surprisingly tanky. It also gains bonuses to damage absorbed when you invest in your offensive skills - the Wind Druid really can have its cake and eat it, too.

Finally we’ve got Oak Sage, which gives the Druid and all nearby (nearby being incredibly generous here - its starting range is 20 yards, and can easily exceed 40+ yards as you dump point into it) a bonus to Max Life equal to 30% + 5% per sLv. Once over sLv20 this skill is giving well over +100% Max LIfe to all allies, which is a huge boon. A downside is that Oak Sage is a summon, not just a passive effect or timed buff - it’ll last indefinitely, as long as the minion summoned survives. At lower levels, Oak Sage is pretty squishy, and it’s a real bummer when the critter accounting for a significant portion of your Life dies on you - and fighting enemies like [Diablo] or [Baal] with high-damage AoE attacks, it will die on you. Still, it can be resummoned fairly easily and once you’ve maxed your elemental skills you can start dropping points into it, making it somewhat tanky.

Optionally you can also climb the Summoning Skills tree and get a point into Summon Grizzly. There’s not enough spare points to max it, or really invest into it at all, but with enough +Skills and a high level Oak Sage, it should be sturdy enough to draw some fire from you, and you’ll also have to purchase Summon Dire Wolf en route, which you can also use to help tank. Just don’t expect too much from them and they should buy you time to line up shots.

Wind Druid Suggested Skills

Wind Druid Level-by-Level Skills

Wind Druid - Stats¶

Like most characters, the Wind Druid needs enough Strength to wear his gear, the rest can go into Vitality. He’ll be tanking hits in close combat, but between Oak Sage, Cyclone Armor and minions, the Wind Druid really shouldn’t need to shoot for Max Block, especially since any points invested into Vitality are ultimately going to be amplified by Oak Sage. Since he wants a Spirit shield in his offhand, the Wind Druid’s going to need to reach 156 Strength - a hefty investment, but worthwhile considering the gear in question.

Wind Druid Level-by-Level Stats

Wind Druid - Gear¶

Much like your typical caster, the Wind Druid wants anything that boosts +Skills and +Cast Rate, with +Life/Mana, +Resistances and +Magic Find being secondary concerns. Due to their simple, potent synergies, offensive output is exceptional even without much in the way of gear, and likewise so is survivability with Oak Sage and Cyclone Armor. They want most of the same gear as a Sorceress, Necromancer or Hammerdin, but they don’t really need it as much to perform well… at least up until Hell difficulty.

Up until that point, however, cheaper runewords like aSpirit sword, Stealth armor and a Lore helmet will serve them just fine. To really start getting comfortable in Hell difficulty, they’ll need to supplement and replace that gear with Harlequin Crest, Skin of the Vipermagi and a Spirit shield. Their unique class item - pelts - allows them to substitute the Harlequin Crest with Jalal’s Mane, which isn’t as good, but it’s a fine hold-over until you get something better.

Getting gear with the Wind Druid isn’t the easiest thing to do, since they’re a poor bosser, but a poor Druid can probably handle Nightmare [Diablo], [Baal] and even Hell [Andariel]. Once they’ve sturdy enough, clearing out aLv85 areas like the Mausoleum, The Pit and the Ancient Tunnels is their true calling.

Wind Druid Helmets

Wind Druid Amulets

Wind Druid Weapons

Wind Druid Armor

Wind Druid Shields

Wind Druid Gloves

Wind Druid Rings

Wind Druid Belts

Wind Druid Boots