Single Pass Untwinked P8 SC Melee Druid & Paladin, I have some questions...

[duck]

Hi all. I'm looking to play a concurrent melee Druid & Paladin. That means I will take turns to play each char separately and switch at appropriate pit stops to ensure an almost single-pass playthrough for each character.

For example, I will play Druid till Outer Cloister waypoint, then switch to Paladin and also play till Outer Cloister. I'll alternate back and forth throughout the playthrough and hopefully beat Hell Baal at P8.

The purpose is that I want to allow both characters to share stash and loots. I think it is a pity if I find a pretty good unique weapon to use, but it doesn't fit the current character. However, I also derive no joy from playing twinked characters. Playing 2 melee characters (and specifically Druid & Paladin) means I have double chances of good loot, and pretty much any good weapon (2H, mace, crossbow, sword etc) that could possibly dropped could be put to good use by either character.

My experience with SP D2 is quite limited compared to my BNET, but I generally follow the 2 untwinked mf guides available (jiansonz and hc gunther) pretty well. With all these said, here are my questions:

Paladin
My choice of Paladin is an Avenger.

1. What kind of weapons should I be looking at?

2. I'm very bad at incrementally upgrading weapons, especially from NM onward. Any tips on how I should do so if I haven't lucked my self a juicy weapon yet? (For example, when and what kind of weapon should I gamble?)

Druid
My choice of Druid is likely Fury.

1. My main concern is dealing with PI. A Lawbringer (feels obtainable) merc may help, but are there any other approaches?

2. Alternatively, I could try FC/Maul or something. However, FC doesn't rely on weapon damage, so I'm not sure how I'd feel about this.

3. I'm not familiar with melee Druids in general. What kind of weapons am I looking for (from a single pass untwinked perspective). Also similarly, how should I go about upgrading my weapon as I play through.


Thanks all. Would appreciate any other tips/feedback as well!

 

[Maltatai]

If you are set on using fury as main attack you could squeeze in rabies and still have points left for lycanthropy and werewolf, and maybe hunger to keep the mana up. In addition to adding a second damage type rabies can work while you keep slashing with fury, as opposed to fire claws for example. Cancelling out enemy regeneration will be a good help in hell in any situation.

 

[Arjan]

I am playing a Fury Werewolf, just leveled him to 87 a few minutes ago. I play solo without merc at Hell (doing mephisto runs mostly).

PI is not an issue if you max out fireclaws and put about 8-10 points in a synergie spell. I do around 1500 pure fire damage with a fast weapon.
For PI and FI I had a LE weapon on switch (again fast as possible weapon) and just fury him down. It takes a fair bit longer but it's doable. I run with 4 pieces of the IK set so the PI/FI is now sorted too.

I have a weapon at switch for many steal now. That's my main weakness and I don't seem to find the right rings to solve it so far.

 

[Apila]

1. My main concern is dealing with PI. A Lawbringer (feels obtainable) merc may help, but are there any other approaches?

This is a good solution, though not only for the reason you provide. Sanctuary Aura also ignores the Physical resistance of Undead enemies. Luckily, a large majority of PI enemies are Undead, so carrying the RW enables you to pierce many PI's. For the rest, heavy elemental damage items can do the trick.

Also, you could implement Rabies into your build. It's a pretty useful skill, and a melee Druid isn't that starved for skill points anyway. I would avoid FC altogether.

3. I'm not familiar with melee Druids in general. What kind of weapons am I looking for (from a single pass untwinked perspective). Also similarly, how should I go about upgrading my weapon as I play through.

This is a pretty broad question. Your weapon should be 2-handed though. Ideally Polearm, Axe or Hammer. Runewords are a great choice; if you're using RWM, the usual suspects Insight/Obedience will be a very good option, though they do lack attack speed. Bases can be quite tough to find. There's plenty of good Uniques; Ribcracker deserves a special mention. Don't forget that you can upgrade Unique and Rare items via Horadric Cube.