Druid Soloing 44+

[Estu]

I've slowly been leveling my druid solo over the past few months (slowly because of not a lot of playtime being invested) and he is nearing level 44. For quite a while now he's been in Firiona Vie, quad-kiting first pirates, then drolvarg growlers, and now drolvarg snarlers with a high degree of success. I recommend this zone to any druid 34-43 looking to do some quad kiting: just leave the city of FV by the bridge, take a right, follow the cliff, and you'll get to a nice area with a lot of roaming monsters you can pull from and a nice monster-free area at the cliff you can kite safely in.

Now that the druid's nearly 44, though, quadding snarlers in FV is soon going to be no longer an option. They'll stay blue for a few more levels, but not much longer than that. So I'm looking for good options for the rest of this druid's career solo, 44-60 (or maybe more like 47-60).

I'm willing to consider quadding, charming, and root-dotting. I don't want to kill good guys (e.g. Butcherblock dwarves). Zones/camps where there is not a lot of competition for spawns is preferred. Where have you guys had success?

[Lindalind]

At 45 i checked out burning woods ,root rot worked ok,but there were still to many resists for me,so i'm going to try there next level and if still to many resists the level after that.

[Daldaen]

Kedge Keep.

It can take you through to 60. It will build many of your Druid skills of root CCing, keeping yourself alive, and managing a charmed pet. While getting uber exp

[Norok]

I hear a lot about KK charm kiting and I plan to do it when I get of level. I am sure I'll figure out the best specific strategies but what exactly is the fundamental?

1. Charming two dark blues, letting them get each other low, breaking charm, and then killing both?
2. Having a light blue semi-permenant pet that DS tanks?
3. Having a light blue semi-permenant pet and fear/dot kiting?

Thanks in advance.

[Daldaen]

In kedge you do not want to fear. Ever. Option 1 is the best bet. Your goal is to always use as little mana as possible to finish the fight so you can be as efficient as possible. Generally that will mean I will use just charm and root as my only spells. Roots are nice to finish a mob off with low HP or ES vambs work too.

Your strategy is largely dependent on your level. Myself being 59 I use some different strategies for clearing PHers of name mobs than say... A level 44 Druid could.

If you are starting off there in the mid 30s to low 40s, the entry room is still blue/light blue. The room is about 8 spawns I think and almost all will aggro simultaneously.

So you can either try using lull animal, charming one, then pulling one to the entrance. Or trying to snare one and swim to zone out. Once you do zone out invis v animals zone back in and snare another mob and get them both to the zoneline. Charm one sic it on the other and wait it out.

Once the entry room has been cleared the bubble tube down to the second level will be your next place to level up on. There are two piranhas in the very bottom pit which don't aggro if you just stay on the 2nd level where there are 3 swordfish, a piranha and a shark. The shark can be avoided and one swordfish if you go into the southern alcove room.

Ideally you'll want to charm the priahna because he is higher than the swordfish and kill those. Then sic on the shark and other swordfish and break and kill it and charm the shark. Once it's all dead if you still have a healthy pet you can sen it into the pit for those two piranhas or to the east room down the bubble tube for cauldronbubbles PHer. Anything deeper than that would be pretty challenging at those levels.

Ideally you will want to keep the mob your pet is fighting, always rooted. So that if your charm breaks you only have your pet on you and not your pet plus another mob.

There are quite a few rooms that you won't have it as simple as 1v1. You'll be forced to learn how to deal with three or four and sometimes five. Generally the best bet is to send your pet in and get everything rooted before your pet dies or charm breaks.

[Szeth]

Now having to outdamage your pet Dald, do you still think Kedge competes on an exp basis? That is saying you can kill in there with a charmed pet 4x(give or take ZEM) faster than outside without one.

[Tuffpuppy]

Can quad kite BB Dorfs still, there are 3 sets that are good exp till 46 or 47.

[Zapatos]

Ocean of tears specters to 49 and timorous deep spirocs to 53 are both solid quad spots.

[Messianic]

Dunno how easy it is for druids to pull bloodgills from the water, but that was the best quad spot 44-51/52. Period. Money isn't great, but exp is absolutely top notch

[Daldaen]

Now having to outdamage your pet Dald, do you still think Kedge competes on an exp basis? That is saying you can kill in there with a charmed pet 4x(give or take ZEM) faster than outside without one.

Don't have to. Once charm breaks, the damage your pet did is negated. So... Break when your pet or your pets target is low

[Handull]

Get ES Vambs and a Lumi Staff, both will help a ton. I've stopped using my lumi staff, but still use ES vambs even at 59.

Quad in FV til 46/47 if you are enjoying that. (there are other good options at this level, but i forget them)
If you get a lumi staff, go to TD and quad spirocs at 47, otherwise wait til 49 to go there. Spirocs can take you to 51 really fast and to 52 quickly if you only pull the dark blues. Unless you have crazy mana, you really need the 49 quad spell to kill the spirocs, but with a lumi staff you can use your mana and the staff to kill them, and the exp will be crazy good.
Then you can charm raptors to 55 and beyond.
After that you can charm in the perma pits to 60...
(This track is what I did, with some good exp in KC, Chardok, etc. peppered in after 56 as I camped loot as well, mostly solo)

Other good options include anything in KC. KC will be best once you have your 52 fire dot (breath of ro) and even better when you have 54 wolf and 56 root (you should really avoid certain mobs and camps until you hit 56 due to root breaking frequently). You can single pull anything to a number of safe spots and root/rot it. The mobs farther in and in the basement can easily take you to 60, though the learning curve is a bit rough. Also you'll have the rare chance at a tstaff or that caster ring, and can easily enough farm yourself a book of obulus. Though you will die a lot learning the basics, in the end its a fun zone and druids have free reign there.

KK can be anoying, and I think it also has a learning curve to it (which I haven't finished yet). What I find most anoying about KK is when you die, its a pain to get a rez out there. At least in KC there are clerics around often enough to do the job right then and there.

Oh yeah, Messianic mentioned bloodgils. They are really nice exp as well and super easy to root/rot. Just buff EB, levi, etc and tear it up. I guess you could quad them too if you wanted to pull em to land though.

Lastly, the arch magi camp in lguk is pretty nice exp well into 56/57. Its only two mobs every 28 (or so) minutes, but you get a shot at some loot, pretty solid exp, and you can do other stuff IRL between the long spawns. Not sure what level you could start this, but bring IVU pots and MR gear. Probably best to start it around 52 when you have the new DoT.

[sedrie.bellamie]

if you are still in that 44 -49 range there are a few other options.

the spectres in feerrott and the oasis can either be done quad kiting if you have lots of mana or root-dotting

the ogre guards in the ferrott might break your root but they move slow. They can drop up to two fine steel weapons at once

quad kitting around KC is not a bad choice, the ape looking mobs seem to have the least HP

a real off beat choice is the griffons/hill giants in east karana. In East Karana there are two griffons and two hill giants that are always roaming. I usually could take one griffon per giant at that level with the level 44 charm spell.

[Messianic]

Oh yeah, Messianic mentioned bloodgils. They are really nice exp as well and super easy to root/rot. Just buff EB, levi, etc and tear it up. I guess you could quad them too if you wanted to pull em to land though

No need to pull them to land ;) I quadded on top of the water constantly from 42-51 (specs in Oot as well). Pulling to land does make it much easier to loot, but not necessary to actually land your snares/aoes...

What's odd about bloodgills is they have 400-500 less hp than specs but their level range actually has a top end 1 level higher than specs. So that makes them easy caster food. I remember seeing some 49 mage running almost all of the columns out there because of how badly his fire pet tore them apart.