Druid: Fissure vs Volcano?

[David]

Confused about the damage for Fissure vs Volcano. I notice that
Fissure will do more damage / level, with it having twice the damage
vs. the volcano at lvl 20. However, the Volcano is split for damage
and fire damage.

So, does the Volcano do physical damage and is effective vs. fire
resist monsters in NM? Also, if I wish to stress fire skills for NM,
should I max out the Fissure or the Volcano first?

Thanks

[Hannes Brunner]

Post by David
Confused about the damage for Fissure vs Volcano. I notice that
Fissure will do more damage / level, with it having twice the damage
vs. the volcano at lvl 20. However, the Volcano is split for damage
and fire damage.
So, does the Volcano do physical damage and is effective vs. fire
resist monsters in NM? Also, if I wish to stress fire skills for NM,
should I max out the Fissure or the Volcano first?

In theory, the direct damage of Volcano might be partly physical. In
practice, nobody cares because the damage is so low that it won't even
offset the healing rate of critters.

---
Hannes

[Ian Oversby]

Post by David
Confused about the damage for Fissure vs Volcano. I notice that
Fissure will do more damage / level, with it having twice the damage
vs. the volcano at lvl 20. However, the Volcano is split for damage
and fire damage.
So, does the Volcano do physical damage and is effective vs. fire
resist monsters in NM? Also, if I wish to stress fire skills for NM,
should I max out the Fissure or the Volcano first?
Thanks

Yes, the volcano does do physical damage but you will have to
be amazingly patient. Synergised, it does reasonable damage
to single critters (the listed damage is per ball and it shoots
quite a number of balls) but the horrendous timer means you'll
be limited to killing a maximum of about 1 critter every 4 seconds.

I primarily used fissure for the area effect with my fire druid,
only resorting to volcano for fire immunes / bosses, but if
I recall correctly, I gave up in act 5 NM due to boredom.

Ian