A Natural Summoner is a Diablo 2 Druid build that relies on the Elemental and Summoning skill trees. It utilizes spells like Molten Boulder and Fissure while keeping enemies distance with Dire Wolves, Ravens and the Grizzly. Also, Summoners often use ranged weapons such as throwing weapons, bows, crossbows to damage enemies from afar rather than spells (this kind of playstyle is known to as a Hunter Druid).

Pros:

• This build offers some flexibility regarding the skills you can level up.

• It’s a powerful build for fighting versus monsters (PvE).

Cons:

• The Druid himself lacks melee strength and sustainability. Thus, he may die quickly if the enemy breaks his protective barrier of Summoned minions.

• You have to keep investing skill points in your summons to keep them relevant for dealing damage as the game progresses. This doesn’t allow you to spend many skill points to a non-physical source of damage, making the Hell mode quite difficult to play.

• The builds that use Solar Creeper/Carrion VIne don’t cooperate well with Summonmancers as the vines devour all the corpses in the battlefield.

Natural Summoner Skills

The primary skills that the Natural Summoners max out are the following:

• Summon Grizzly: 20 points

• Summon Spirit Wolf: 20 points

• Summon Dire Wolf: 20 points

Oak Sage/Heart of Wolverine: It’s recommended to have one of your spirits active. The option depends on your preference. Oak Sage provides more sustainability, while Heart of Wolverine increases your party’s Damage and Attack Rating. Some players prefer to max out one of these spirits. Another version of the build is to invest only a few points in spirits and spend the remaining points on other skills.

At this point, you have about 40 points remaining. Some of the best choices are the following:

1. The Natural Summoner relies on the summoned minions, so maxing Heart of the Wolverine and using a Bow is a viable option. You can equip items with the crushing blow effect for killing healthy enemies quicker. However, this way you won’t be able to kill physical immune enemies.

2. Another version that focuses only on the physical damage is the Werebear/ Shockwave serves as one point wonder that allows you to disable enemies so your summons can finish them off. The Werebear form lets you use Maul to increase your damage.

3. Rabies improves a lot the Natural Summoner build. It’s a non-Physical source of damage. The Rabies skill deals massive poison damage. Further, the Crushing Blow effect in combination with Fury and Feral Rage can be quite helpful.

4. Firestorm and Fissure is a viable route as well. Their fire damage isn’t very high, but they provide a way to deal with physical immune enemies or assist your summons with a decent amount of damage.

Natural Summoner Stats

Strength: You should have enough points to equip your best items.

Dexterity: Invest enough points to equip your weapons or your shield.

Vitality: Spend all the points left in this attribute.

Energy: It’s recommended to place little to no points into your mana pool. Although early on in the game you won’t have enough mana points to summon all your minions at once, this will balance out at higher levels.