Good place for druids to use elemental nukes?

[Jarayador]

Originally Posted by shams [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Hmm ok, is there anything a bit lower level where I could try hunting? I' 13 atm but I'd like to go on a leveling spree and just thought it'd be cool to try and match it up a bit with the elemental line of spells druids get.

As a druid, you have to be careful not to over-rely on your elemental nukes. They (and the cleric undead-only nukes) are some of the most powerful nukes at their level of any class, but getting them every other circle in alternation with your standard nukes means they're only useful for a few levels, and a lot of summoned mobs don't match up with those windows. The elemental nukes are a very situational line soloing, although at their levels they might make you more attractive to groups. That said, if you're that early in your treehugging career, they're still useful.

At 13, outside the minotaur caves in Steamfont would be my first choice. The elementals might be a light-blue at that point, but between them, harpies, and the occasional minotaur slaver from the cave entrance, you should still get decent XP, the loot's pretty good (you'll do a little dance every time you find a peridot), and you don't have to worry much about adds. Could also go next door to LFay and camp Nybright sisters until 14--the elemental nuke won't work, but you'll make bank on all the bronze weapons. Just remember to keep camo or treeform up while you're medding and running to the merchants, or the brownies might get you.

14 is when you really start going with elemental hunting. You get a new elemental nuke that, except for the summoned-only limitation, is the most powerful nuke of any class at that level except cleric undead nukes. SoW's benefits are obvious, Bind means you can go farther afield without having to worry about long corpse runs, and your first real DoT means you can rootrot non-elementals if you can't find summoned. Levitate also means you can kite in Lavastorm without having to worry about accidentally running through a lava pit, which is great because fire elementals, lava crawlers, and fire imps are all vulnerable to Expulse Summoned and can drop decent loot. You can safely bind at the Najena zone, Nektulos zone, or just inside Sol Ro, and you'll only have to worry about mobs catching you during respawn if somebody trained them there; Lavastorm's usually pretty empty, so that doesn't happen often. Just remember that your normal nuke, Ignite, is fire-based and damn near worthless in LS. You might be tempted to use your new ice-based AoE rain, but I've personally had terrible results with it. Also, keep an eye on your surroundings at all times--EVERYTHING in LS is KoS and most if not all are social. LS can't really get you to 19, but it'll get you pretty close. Add some elementals from Najena and you could probably get 19, but Najena solo is probably more trouble than it's worth at that level.

Your next elemental nuke comes at 24, but there's not much in the way of summoned mobs at 24-29. You could maybe try blazing elementals in SolA, but there's only a few of them and you'd have to compete with mages working on their epic.

Expel Summoned comes at 34, and you can move to Burning Woods for hornets like others have suggested. However, at that point you'll probably be root-rotting, charming, or quadkiting as you please anyway. With a good group, the Hole might be another good option.

Banish Summoned at 44 is your last until 55. Again, the Hole is pretty much the only spot to use them.

tl;dr version: you'll get a lot of use out of the elemental nukes under level 20, and then ignore them for quite a while.