Hey. New to p99. druid advice please

[Arameus]

Hey all. Just started here a week or so ago and its taken me a couple of rerolls to find my groove. I finally settled on druid and loving it. My name is Ways on blue if you wanna say hi. Stoked to be here and playing eq again.

So far I've ran into a couple of nice folks and have gotten some bits of jewelry. I've managed about 75pp in savings from generous buyers of silk and bones. I just hit lvl 10 today and I'm wondering what I should be doing with my money. Spells seem expensive so there is that, but is there any basic druid gear I should be shooting for? I played melee from kunark to pop so I had no idea how spensive spells were. Appreciate your thoughts.

[curtischoy]

As you mentioned spells are expensive so def save for those and make sure you have enough cash at 14 to buy all of the spells that you want.

http://wiki.project1999.com/Wraith_Bone_Hammer

is a good 1hb. You should be meleeing still for several levels. My druid is 20 and I still melee with this hammer. It's cheap and has some stats.

At 14 you can solo the sisters camp in lfay (given that it is open, it is a very popular camp) the 4 sisters there are great exp and frequently drop bronze weapons that you can sell to nearby merchants for great cash.

[Arameus]

That's definitely a step up from my cracked staff, hah. I'll see if I can get a lift to WC this evening to shop the tunnel. Meleeing better would help a bit to not strip me of mana so quickly soloing.

[Kalmiri]

At lvl 10 I would buy a full set of leather and a weapon like the hammer listed above and /beg/borrow my way to WK. With harmony you will have an easy time getting in a bandit group and those sashes pay a bronze weapon each on turn in plus nice xp.
That's like a lvl 14 spell paid for with each sash. Getting bound in Qeynos isn't always easy but stay patient!

[Monty405]

Always remember the earning power of higher levels.

It is always better to gain experience at the cost of 'farming' as your potential for income generation is much greater at a higher level. It is rough starting out for sure, key spells should remain your #1 priority, obviously.

[Crabbles]

As you mentioned spells are expensive so def save for those and make sure you have enough cash at 14 to buy all of the spells that you want.

http://wiki.project1999.com/Wraith_Bone_Hammer

is a good 1hb. You should be meleeing still for several levels. My druid is 20 and I still melee with this hammer. It's cheap and has some stats.


Nice, I've been looking for something like this for my cleric. Taking note!

[Voland]

Save money for spells. When you get to 29 and start porting, you will have plenty of plat for armor and anything you need.

[Supaskillz]

Just worry about spells for a while.

Items for druid are low impact until you get to quad kiting level then you need to make sure your mana pool is sufficiently large, but even then basic wisdom gear should have you covered.

That said I know part of the allure of the game is looking around the corner to the next new toy. Check out equipment here: http://wiki.project1999.com/Category:Druid_Equipment.

If you want to look way down the line, most fun druid toys imo are all the clickies(note some of these will be very difficult to obtain unless you are a real hardcore player):

Luminescent staff
ES arms
Manastone
Robe of the spring
ES legs
Goblin ghazugi ring (for instant break charms)
Prolly some more I am forgetting.

[loramin]

Always remember the earning power of higher levels.

It is always better to gain experience at the cost of 'farming' as your potential for income generation is much greater at a higher level. It is rough starting out for sure, key spells should remain your #1 priority, obviously.

This.

Gear is (comparably) meaningless to a caster. Just get a halfway decent cheap weapon (ideally a magic one if you want to be able to hunt will o' wisps), buy your spells, and if you have any plat leftover save it for the next round of spells. For every other slot wear stuff you loot, like "Crappy Leather Shoulderpads", until your 30's if not 40's.


... except for one exception ...


Goblin ghazugi ring (for instant break charms)
This ring (http://wiki.project1999.com/Goblin_Gazughi_Ring) sells for like 5k, but you can camp it yourself once you're in your mid-20's (or even lower if you have friends to help). It's a very rare drop off a very rare mob, but as long as you're patient you'll get one eventually.

The ring make a big difference when charm soloing. Normally you have to use Camouflage to break charm, and it takes time to cast. This means you have to cast it in advance, which results in breaking charm while mobs still have some HP. The ring let's you instead break charm just before the mobs are about to die, making it much easier to finish them off and saving you mana on just about every fight.



TLDR: Buy spells and nothing else (except a cheap weapon) until higher levels (ideally your 40's) ... but do try and get a Goblin Ghazughi Ring when you can, probably sometime in your 20's, because it's huge for soloing.

[Swish]

Save money for spells. When you get to 29 and start porting, you will have plenty of plat for armor and anything you need.

This ^^

Then at 29 head to Overthere (Skyfire ramp) and port people to WC for plat :)

[webrunner5]

Just group to 14, then you get SoW and Charm Animal. Go to EK and charm a Wolf and kill mobs in there. Spiders are good until 20, then you have have your self Port Spells. Opens up a lot more possibilities. :p

[Crabbles]

Just group to 14, then you get SoW and Charm Animal. Go to EK and charm a Wolf and kill mobs in there. Spiders are good until 20, then you have have your self Port Spells. Opens up a lot more possibilities. :p

I'm sold, I'm making a druid! How long does Charm Animal last? I like the idea of having a wolf pet, though I doubt it lasts long, right?

[Arameus]

Thanks for all the great advice. About to hit level 11. Picked up a Wraith Bone Warhammer on the cheap and have talked to a couple of friendly folks that read this thread.

Community is great so far, really having a great time and trying to encourage some old friends to hop aboard.

See you out there.

[loramin]

I'm sold, I'm making a druid! How long does Charm Animal last? I like the idea of having a wolf pet, though I doubt it lasts long, right?

Usually it lasts long enough for you to find one other mob and then have the two fight ... which is all you need, because what you want to do is make the charmed pet fight another mob, and then when both are low (<20%) break charm. Two reasons for doing that: 1) you want to kill your former pet for XP, 2) if you don't break charm your pet will take half the XP when you kill the other mob.

I say "usually" because the mob can sometimes resist it early, which is annoying as you then have to re-charm your pet while both it and the other mob are trying to eat you. But that's pretty rare, and the rest of the time charm fighting will be very effective: you can essentially kill two mobs for just the mana it takes to charm one and then maybe a nuke each to finish them off at the end.

[Crabbles]

Usually it lasts long enough for you to find one other mob and then have the two fight ... which is all you need, because what you want to do is make the charmed pet fight another mob, and then when both are low (<20%) break charm. Two reasons for doing that: 1) you want to kill your former pet for XP, 2) if you don't break charm your pet will take half the XP when you kill the other mob.

I say "usually" because the mob can sometimes resist it early, which is annoying as you then have to re-charm your pet while both it and the other mob are trying to eat you. But that's pretty rare, and the rest of the time charm fighting will be very effective: you can essentially kill two mobs for just the mana it takes to charm one and then maybe a nuke each to finish them off at the end.

Awesome! This is just the description I was needing, thank you for the details!

[webrunner5]

Yeah, just have an inviz spell up and cast that on you. That drops the Charmed pet. :D Not sure if Hide works?

[bulbousaur]

Hide will work, but is unreliable.

[loramin]

Yeah, just have an inviz spell up and cast that on you. That drops the Charmed pet. :D Not sure if Hide works?

Hide works, but it works inconsistently. Sometimes you'll have two mobs at low health, try to break charm with hide, and it fails, so you have to cast Camouflage instead. By the time Camo finishes one of the mobs is usually dead. You can adjust your timing to account for that, but then you wind up breaking charm earlier, the same as if you didn't use hide (which means the mobs will have more HP when it breaks).

So basically your options are:


Hide - fast but inconsistent
Camouflage - slow but consistent
Goblin Ghazughi Ring - fast and consistent


... which is why the ring is so popular.

[gildor]

I prefer invis vs animals, its twice the mana of camo but casts 2 seconds faster. Also find a chanter, and charm duo to your hearts content. I grouped last night with a chanter in EK, I was 20 with 11% in when we started. We didn't stop pulls for 1.5 hours and im almost 23.

Add a mana regen and mez on adds and no care if pet gets kills..and your off to the races.

[webrunner5]

Yeah Charm on a Druid is not as widely used as it can and should be. I think it is faster than Quad Kiting and safer for sure, and to me not as stressful as Quading.

But I must admit I spent a lot of time grouping on mine. Until the low 50's they work out as pretty good healers and not even bad in the low 50's if you have Clarity 2.

So KC works, not Hands room, but Seb, nah, that is Cleric, Shaman territory. But you can be a spot healer, give DS, and Nuke. They get some pretty good DD spells. :) And Pack SoW and Pack Regen helps also.

[curtischoy]

Sometimes you'll have two mobs at low health, try to break charm with hide, and it fails, so you have to cast Camouflage instead. By the time Camo finishes one of the mobs is usually dead. You can adjust your timing to account for that, but then you wind up breaking charm earlier, the same as if you didn't use hide (which means the mobs will have more HP when it breaks).

This is very easy to avoid without a 5-6k item. Simply keep the non-charmed mob rooted and when both are low hp back off your pet and once he is out of melee range tell him to guard. Then you can take your time to back off and camo without the risk of either mob dieing.

When charming you should always have the non-charmed mob rooted anyways. This makes charm breaks much much easier to deal with. Shit, as a druid you could even snare your pet before you charm; making charm breaks a joke.