Well I've decided that I'm still going to try to beat diablo solo. Right now, I just finished taking out the Countess. I have a few notes though.
1) I'm slightly changing my intended skills. I'm going to put one point into raven, spirit wolf, dire wolf and bear respectively (and instead of 7 in solar creeper, ending with 5 and 18 into oak sage instead of 20). The reason? I realized that there really isn't anything the hide behind during a boss fight and such. This made fighting Baal and Duriel in Normal kind of difficult. and if you add in the oak sage bonus the bear will receive, he'll have anywhere between 1.6k-2k life, base (which is a hefty amount if you ask me) and according to the skill planner http://d2items.com/skills.php with +druid skills that will increase, because the synergy that dire wolf gives is in the skill itself.
2) Stats - for now I've stopped putting points into strength and Energy because I don't need them for now. I also realized something kind of tricky about druid itemization: There aren't very many good caster 1h weapons for Druids, in fact they're one the only caster-type character that doesn't have their own 1h, so I *MAY* use these stats to equip a good weapon if it drops.
3) gear - okay I finally completed that 3-socket shield with 3 perfect diamonds. So in nightmare at least, my resistances are high enough to not really pose a threat. If you're a little new to this game or don't know much about the magic find stat, here's where I'm going to enlighten you. Magic find (MF) is one of the most important stats especially when you're looking for a good set of gear, you might not notice the difference at first, but after a while you will. Basically, you should run around with as Much MF on as you can without dying so you can build a good set of gear for hell difficulty (MF causes set, rare, magic and unique items to drop more often, it DOES NOT effect runes (at least from what I could find in my research))
Most important druid stats
+%chance to find better magic items (until you have a good enough set of gear. If you think it's good enough for hell difficulty )
+resist (enough to survive hits)
then from here on it's a trade-off:
+skills (makes you more effective in combat.)
Less important but still nice
+faster cast rate (improves damage capability on Tornado, though it'll suck your mana dry faster)
+replenish life (increases survivability slightly and cuts down on potion use)
+mana regen (the creeper helps out alot on normal monsters but on boss fights where corpses are limited this is another nice stat that reduces potion useage)
+Mana (improves regen slightly and basically lets you cast more at once.)
+life (well dying isn't fun, but hopefully between your bear, merc, creeper, and oak sage, you shouldn't be taking too many hits or be able to survive them with at least +2 vit every level)
Right now I have 2 sets, an MF set and a "toughness" set.
4) Current skills and advancement: Okay right now I'm going for that one point into my grizzly. My skill pattern now (before level 24 it was just trying to keep all the skills I was planning on putting more than 1 point into equal) is something like tornado and hurricane equal. Oak sage equal to that minus 2, solar creeper at 5 and twister and cylcone armor at 1/2 of tornado and hurricane each (I think I barely just hit that point because I used every point the moment I got it starting out.) Before starting hell difficulty, I want to have a completely maxed Hurricane and Tornado and 16 points into oak sage (I'll use those 2 points from the Act 4 quest to finish this off to 18).
On a side note when the next patch is released, you'll get a free respec every time you do the den of evil quest (you only get one of those on hell if you're already further than that)
Hope this helps some wind Druid out there....
