If you enjoy that then cudos to you! I hope you enjoy the piss out of it.

Your role in a group very much depends on whether there is a cleric or not. Forget your dot. That is a solo spell NOT a group spell because the mobs should be dying too fast for it to be effective. If there is a Cleric in the group then I would focus on your level 9 nuke ignite. It's a good mana efficient direct damage spell that should do 37 damage for 30 mana. Don't over nuke on one mob though. One or two per fight is plenty so that you pace your mana bar.

Besides ignite you should snare mobs that run "if" they are running too far from camp. Sometimes DPS is so good they dont get far. If that's the case then dont waste mana on snares. Keep DS on the tank at ALL times. You can also skin buff and str buff the tank to help the cleric conserve mana for heals. Better you buff and sit and med then the cleric. And sow all who ask for it and definitely keep sow on puller/tank. When you start running low on mana then just melee when mob is in camp and med when puller is out pulling. Once mana gets good again then resume buffing and nuking.

If there is no cleric then use all your mana on heals and DS/sow tank. That's all you can do and don't be shy to call for a med break when you need to. Most groups that don't have a cleric try to get two druids or a druid and shaman in group. Hopefully this is the case so that one main heals till 00m and then meds while the other heals till 00m.

You can definitely solo to 60. I did it on Blue. I soloed freeport/EC/Nro from 1-14. Then I soloed oasis crocs and orcs till 20 using tank and spank with DS on and chain nuking. I went to LoiO and root/rotted mobs there to go from 20-30. I then root/rotted giants at the FM giant fort till 34. Once 34 I began quad kiting the giants till 39. I then moved to Dreadlands and quad kited yetis till 42 or 43 when they were greening out too much. Then I quad kited any non-spider mob outside KC till 52 or so. Then I root/rotted mostly in BW with some hornet quads till 55. Then I hit the permafrost polar bear pits and charm killed polar bears from 55-60 and did it in less then two weeks!

Of course most of the zones don't become available until kunark gets released.

Permafrost Bear pits are gonna be a shitshow due to the massive number of Druids on Green so I wouldn't count on that sadly

I agree. It will likely be badly contested by scores of druids. Just like epics will be hard to get on Green/Teal because of the masses all trying to get them in a short window of time.

But I will go the extra mile for one of the two bear camps when that time comes. I will show up at 2 am and wait till a druid leaves to get some sleep if there isn't a camp already open. Once I have a camp then I will hold it for 10+ hours once I get it. I work nights and get three day weekends so I will take full advantage whenever possible of being wide awake when most have gone off to bed and server population is at the lowest.

But if you cant seem to get a bear pit camp then remember that Burning Woods has blue mobs all the way to 60. Scoriae hornets, wurms, some sarnak avengers and some skeletons con blue even at lvl 60. You can track the blues down and root/rot your way to 60 solo if need be. Just avoid gullerback (cant be rooted) and avoid sarnak zealots since they are shaman casters and can root you.

Snare is one of the best spells in the game and druids get it at level 1.

Druid healing is okay but it sort of depends on how well your group is at mitigating needless damage. Bards can help alleviate it with hymn of restoration. But as a druid you have a lot of options and so general game knowledge of how things interact with each other sort of lets you know how you can be most effective; as others have said, that makes a bit more difficult to just tell you what you should be doing, unlike a more straightforward role like a cleric.

People have dropped some good knowledge in this thread so far. One can see how many options there are for druids to contribute in groups. I actually think the hard part is figuring out what NOT to cast.

• Mobs die quickly? Don’t DOT. If you have extra mana, nuke.
• There are no adds nearby? You don’t have to snare.
• Lots of melees buffed by a shaman or enc? Skip damage spells if the melees will do the same damage for free.
• The group has a healer with a better heal than yours? Skip your inefficient heal spell except for emergencies or if the cleric is oom; focus your mana on other things like damage shield, buffs, or even nukes.
• Damage and healing are both covered, and a melee is pulling? My favorite. Take over pulls. Chain-pull. Time your pulls so that the next mob comes into camp just as the previous mob dies. Pull it in with snare, position it right on top of the previous mob (or its corpse), and root it there. The melees just hit their Target Nearest NPC button and Autoattack. Then you run off to pull again. Don’t waste man on your inefficient damage or healing spells. Try to make the melees never stop attacking. Continue until the healer is oom or you are.

Soloing to 60 is super doable as a druid but god help you if you choose to do that. I used to quad raptors in timorous deep and holy shit did that ever get lonely in the mid-late 50's, even though the xp was constant and dependable.

In groups i have often found myself being primary healer, currently lvl 19 druid.
I noticed that Druid heals are the same as Cleric heals between lvl 19 to 24 with Healing and also from lvl 29 to 34 with Greater Healing.
So up until 34, for these levels, I am expecting to do a good bit more primary healing.

Druid heals are never the same as Cleric heals because Clerics are 10% better casting the same spell as a class bonus. What Druids and Shamans are is competitive until the upper levels, which is good enough.

Danth