Druid leveling/gear advice...

[Vidrata]

Spiders in NK. Boring at 20-24+, but good money from silks if you dont use them yourself in tailoring.

[SirAlvarex]

I've been having luck leveling from 17-19 by using charm on blue mobs. Charm usually sticks the full duration, and when it doesn't it is a quick run to zone. Just charm an animal, sick it against another rooted animal. Whichever one wins the battle will be your next charmed pet. If you choose wisely, the winning animal will be at 20% health. That is usually enough for a single nuke to send the animal fleeing.

With any luck, every two kills will only use 70 mana for a charm, 35 for a root, and 70 for a nuke on the weakened pet. And you'll be medding through most of that, so you'll only have issues when you get an unlucky charm.

It only works against light blues -> low con dark blues. Any other level will break charm way too fast. I've done it successfully with Kodiaks in WC at 18, and am doing it now at 19 with Gorge Hounds / Griffawns in NK and EK. We'll see how long this strategy actually works.

[Estu]

A little variation you can do on this is to charm blues and sic them on yellows. You kite the yellow with snare and dots/nukes while your pet beats on it, then let the pet get aggro at the very end so that the mob dies and your pet is almost dead and you finish it off. Then you get a yellow + blue worth of EXP. I've done this very reliably at level 14 in EK using lions against griffons and dark stalkers.

[parlay1]

My main is a 54 Druid...

at 19-26 I solo'd Aviak guards in Lake Rathe and then went to Rathe Mountains to root/rot Giant Skellys. At 29 I went to West Karana and camped ogres for the drops and good xp, then went to Ancient croc in Guk at about 32-34 also for the drops and xp.

Hope that helps.

[runlvlzero]

level 19 is pretty good level to go to overthere and kill the mobs up and down the beach that leads to the warsliks woods zone line. Its pretty safe, you will have to watch were you med/watch yourself med because you can get jumped though.

Most of what I did was just plain nuke stuff in OT like a wizard with snare till about 24 and the cactus's and cockatrices dropped loot good enough to grab most or all of my spells. Its about as fast as killing bards as mentioned above but no faction hits and a little worse money I think. Not very much roaming to find a kill and you can kill out in the open fairly safely.

[Stormhowl]

I know a few people said Root Rot sucks until 29, but seriously? You have it better than Shaman, and I've seen people suggest Root Rot is viable for them. Your efficiency, resists mods, and damage over time are way better from 5-24 compared to a Shaman; Stinging Swarm is > Tainted Breath + Sicken/Affliction. Shaman out do you from 24-29, but after that you blow them out of the water again.

-100 Magic Resist mod on your swarm spells is ungodly. Use it to your advantage.

I've soloed the last... probably 8 or 9 levels because there's just rarely any groups to be had sometimes. From levels 14-24, I was looking at one kill every 6 minutes because it literally took that much mana to down a low-con blue (Granted with Envenomed Breath, its 2 kills every 6 minutes so much better just from the upgraded DoT alone).

If I can do it, a Druid can do it better.

I recommend doing Oasis until 20. If you can be that patient. By level 18 or 19, you'll mostly be targeting Deepwater Crocodiles and the odd dark blue Deepwater Caimen (few and far between). Alternatively for better cash, you can hang out near Orc Highway. There's always tons of crocs (and if you're ballsy, ghouls and mummies or even Desert Madmen but they're wizards so stay out of their way), and for the most part, it's generally very safe sitting on the coast (mind the pumas, SGs, and Lockjaw).

After 20 you have a few choices. Hit up the Aviaks in SK (focusing on Evocets, Darters, and any DB Egrets. It's usually kind of camped though, and there's probably... 5 or 6 spawns near KFC that you can single pull (without a Lull, that is. Druids will have it easier using Harmony to split pulls).

Alternatively, you can camp the Hermit. He's level 20 and casts ranger spells of the same level range, but was always a great camp back in Classic. 6-minute spawn time, too. You just need to kind of work on trying to target him since the door doesn't open. >.>

You can also do 20-27 camping Crag Spiders in Eastern Karana. Not only do they drop a bit of cash and assorted spider parts / research components (you'll probably get about 100pp alone from all this stuff if you let none of it rot), but you'll get a TON of spider silk. By the time I was done there, I'd had 38 Stacks of Spider silk I was able to sell for 340pp to someone. Not a lot, but you'll be set for spells for a few levels.

Beyond that, wouldn't know where to go. LOIO or FM might work to get you to 29 though. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[mwatt]

The life of a wise young Druid (including one of the 19th level) utilizes multiple fighting tactics. You CAN just root and dot, but for some mobs, you will find that a combination of dotting and porcupining/melee is the most efficient way to go.

For me, which tactics to use during a fight depended upon multiple factors:
* Type of mob
* approximate mob level
* my starting mana
* my statring health

Eventually, root and dot will be the most reasonable method of fighting most mobs (though quad kiting deserves an honorable mention). The crossover point happens when mobs simply start hitting too hard. I'm thinking somewhere around level 30. However, even at level 45, my own druid keeps the low damge but long lasting "spiky coat" type spell up at all times and a little meleeing is not unheard of, especially at the end of a fight.

[Estu]

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

Eventually, root and dot will be the most reasonable method of fighting most mobs (though quad kiting deserves an honorable mention).

Really, root-dotting is more efficient than quad kiting? This is surprising. Do you have data to this effect?

[mwatt]

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

Really, root-dotting is more efficient than quad kiting? This is surprising. Do you have data to this effect?

I doubt that he has the mana pool to quad kite at level 19.

Beyond that, quad kiting is only more efficient than normal fighting when the conditions are just right - mainly, you need open spaces, a lot of available mobs that run at the same speed, have lowish HPs and don't cast much. There aren't many places that meet these criteria.

[Lianon]

Druids don't even get a multi target AE spell until after 19, correct?

How do you quad at 19 and have it be more mana efficient than single target combat?