Druid velious prep

[rikustrength]

So, I was wondering what I should be doing as a near max level druid to prep for velious? Are there any items I should hold off on since better stuff will be here soon? Anything that might be more scarce after? How much should I expect to shell out for potg?

[Nuggie]

dont bother with a NoS. Work on your tradeskilling required to get shawl. dont want to be doing that during velious.

[Daldaen]

Are you a soloer, grouper, casual raider or hardcore raider?

That would determine what I'd suggest you want to try to get done before Velious. For all of them Id say level 60 is the main goal.

[rikustrength]

I'd say primarily solo and grouping. I haven't had an opportunity to raid, but if I did it would be casual. I'm already 59 and not worried about rushing 60, two months is plenty of time.

[dbouya]

dr00d suxxors in velious, reroll. specifically the only thing a druid can do in a velious raid is cast potg for roughly 3ac and 1mana per tick more than a cleric would give, and much more importantly cast the really powerful ice/fire resists.

druid can't nuke or heal during velious raiding scene at all. casually though tracking is really awesome in velious for casual stuff, so hooray to that.

[Daldaen]

dr00d suxxors in velious, reroll. specifically the only thing a druid can do in a velious raid is cast potg for roughly 3ac and 1mana per tick more than a cleric would give, and much more importantly cast the really powerful ice/fire resists.

druid can't nuke or heal during velious raiding scene at all. casually though tracking is really awesome in velious for casual stuff, so hooray to that.

PoTGlades is 6 mana, not 1. Clerics don't get any mana spell they can cast on themselves until Luclin.

Druids gain a Divine Light equivalent heal, useful for spot healing on raids, as well as a remedy equivalent heal, also good for spot healing.

Bear pet functions as a mana battery with reclaim energy clicky (to OP, getting a Reclaim energy clicky from Sol Ro, you can reclaim bear pet as a reserve pool of mana).

Also gained for Druids are some ATK/AC/Fire debuffs, extremely useful for long fights like raids. As well as an indoor castable stun to interrupt casters.

Druids get tracking improved, snare/root stacking, egress indoors and triggerable epic mobs all in Velious' first few months. They gain the most actual abilities come Velious. However the way the content is, it leans even more heavily on clerics, defensive warriors and slowers. Even still, Druids retain a decent amount of usefulness on raids, groups and soloability.

To address the OP's questions now:

Not much to hold off from. Druid gear in general is cheap. I wouldn't dump a huge sum on an Elder Spiritist BP or a Withered Leather BP right now, save up for quest gems used in Kael BP. One high end item I would suggest is the Hierophant's Cloak. It is still extremely good in Velious and not many items replace it for grouping players.

Getting level 60 is a good goal (sounds like you're set here). Finishing parts of your epic (ideally everything but VS/Faydedar) so that you can hopefully do the spawn able versions of them with either a mercenary force or a casual guild you happen to join.

If you're a tradeskiller, getting high tailoring and 150ish of everything else (except black smithing) would be useful if you want to do the Velious Shawl quest for a 1 FT item. Getting pottery to 120 so you can make instant Thurgadin Gate potions is useful, a bit less so for a Druid but I'll probably hold onto one myself.

If you solo casters a lot, saving a few Diamonds + Blue Diamonds for use in Velium jewelry may be wise. I wouldn't suggest buying Blue Diamonds now because their price will drop in Velious when they become a lot more common from PoG/Kael/PoH2.0. But if you happen upon them in your grouping or soloing, I'd say just hold onto them.

If you're a tunare follower, getting the rancorous ghast hearts from LFay to be used in the future Druid root neck may be wise.

I'd also think about grabbing a few Classic/Kunark clickies that may be a bit less farmed out come Velious, causing them to be a bit harder to obtain. ES Vambraces (though Kael Wrists will replace these), Luminescent Staff, Goblin Gazughi Ring, Pegasus Feather Cloak (no reagent lev is nice).

Elder Spiritists Greaves and Robe of the Spring are currently (and remain through Velious) the only clicky items Druids get which can be used as a heal (200/250 respectively). I am unsure what their price will do in Velious, I can't imagine it will fluctuate too much in either direction. But they are high value items to use as a goal if you have most of the other things on this list. A Manastone also retains value well for a Druid since you can bind in most Velious locations then port to any classic zone to Manastone + Clicky heal your way back to full mana much faster than you could simply med it back.

[dbouya]

I agree ES greaves are amazing.

Although I disagree that divine light works well as a spot heal on raids. Everyone tells you that, and you say that but I played the #1 raiding druid on my server in 2001 and it was mostly lies. PoTG and circles summer/winter though are absolute must have's! just doesn't take more than 1 druid per raid to do them. Since they're a group buff and last eons.


The improved track is great though for solo'ing groups or even finding/pulling those outdoor raid targets for sure. No need to prepare for it though, it's just a free bonus. Bear pet combined with tracking is really nice for pulling outdoors for solo/group/raid. It was really amazing on day1 before wiki's existed, now that they do exist though a tiny bit less useful.


I guess I'm just bitter about the fact that velious made most/all raid targets lure-nukable only.

[Uuruk]

PoTGlades is 6 mana, not 1. Clerics don't get any mana spell they can cast on themselves until Luclin.

Druids gain a Divine Light equivalent heal, useful for spot healing on raids, as well as a remedy equivalent heal, also good for spot healing.

Bear pet functions as a mana battery with reclaim energy clicky (to OP, getting a Reclaim energy clicky from Sol Ro, you can reclaim bear pet as a reserve pool of mana).

Also gained for Druids are some ATK/AC/Fire debuffs, extremely useful for long fights like raids. As well as an indoor castable stun to interrupt casters.

Druids get tracking improved, snare/root stacking, egress indoors and triggerable epic mobs all in Velious' first few months. They gain the most actual abilities come Velious. However the way the content is, it leans even more heavily on clerics, defensive warriors and slowers. Even still, Druids retain a decent amount of usefulness on raids, groups and soloability.

To address the OP's questions now:

Not much to hold off from. Druid gear in general is cheap. I wouldn't dump a huge sum on an Elder Spiritist BP or a Withered Leather BP right now, save up for quest gems used in Kael BP. One high end item I would suggest is the Hierophant's Cloak. It is still extremely good in Velious and not many items replace it for grouping players.

Getting level 60 is a good goal (sounds like you're set here). Finishing parts of your epic (ideally everything but VS/Faydedar) so that you can hopefully do the spawn able versions of them with either a mercenary force or a casual guild you happen to join.

If you're a tradeskiller, getting high tailoring and 150ish of everything else (except black smithing) would be useful if you want to do the Velious Shawl quest for a 1 FT item. Getting pottery to 120 so you can make instant Thurgadin Gate potions is useful, a bit less so for a Druid but I'll probably hold onto one myself.

If you solo casters a lot, saving a few Diamonds + Blue Diamonds for use in Velium jewelry may be wise. I wouldn't suggest buying Blue Diamonds now because their price will drop in Velious when they become a lot more common from PoG/Kael/PoH2.0. But if you happen upon them in your grouping or soloing, I'd say just hold onto them.

If you're a tunare follower, getting the rancorous ghast hearts from LFay to be used in the future Druid root neck may be wise.

I'd also think about grabbing a few Classic/Kunark clickies that may be a bit less farmed out come Velious, causing them to be a bit harder to obtain. ES Vambraces (though Kael Wrists will replace these), Luminescent Staff, Goblin Gazughi Ring, Pegasus Feather Cloak (no reagent lev is nice).

Elder Spiritists Greaves and Robe of the Spring are currently (and remain through Velious) the only clicky items Druids get which can be used as a heal (200/250 respectively). I am unsure what their price will do in Velious, I can't imagine it will fluctuate too much in either direction. But they are high value items to use as a goal if you have most of the other things on this list. A Manastone also retains value well for a Druid since you can bind in most Velious locations then port to any classic zone to Manastone + Clicky heal your way back to full mana much faster than you could simply med it back.

You forgot /targetgroupbuff!!!

[Daldaen]

You forgot /targetgroupbuff!!!

10 months into Velious.

[Uuruk]

10 months into Velious.

Honestly probably the best part about velious.

[dafier]

Should be implemented at release imo. :)