Druid leveling/gear advice...

[Rasah]

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?

In a perfect world, no. However, if you root/rot a mob in your 50's, Breath of Ro and ES Vambraces do a nice job with efficiency. If it takes you 4 minutes or more to find 4 dark blue mobs, round them up and kill them with lightning blast, you are better off root/rotting. It is much easier to track a single blue and dot him down than run all over the map with mobs in tow looking for 3 more to kill.

Once you get Fist of Karana, there is no comparison. Quadding can't be touched.

[Rasah]

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

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.

Next time you feel like meleeing a mob at the end of a fight, I want you to parse your damage. Find out how long you are standing up, and how much damage you do until the mob falls. Divide that time (in seconds) by 6, multiply by 20, and that is how much mana you would regenerate. Check your list of available spells that use that much mana and how much damage it does.

My suspicion is that you will wish that you sat down and regenerated enough mana to finish it off with a nuke than try to beat the mob to death with all of the misses and low damage hits.

[wrxBRAH]

With the snare/root and dot stacking nerf (fix?), you cant solo efficiently unless you're twinked to the gills.

Most you can hope for is to kill blues that arent fire resistant (Avocets are extremely resistant, not sure about rest of Aviaks). The people talking about quad kiting are on crack. Its simply not possible with normal leveling statless gear.

I would think Everfrost blues would likely be the best bet to kill followed by spire gnolls in SK. Also word of advice, leave Synger Foxfyre alone. She cons blue but does ridiculous dot/nuke damage. I found this out on multiple occasions [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[mwatt]

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

Next time you feel like meleeing a mob at the end of a fight, I want you to parse your damage. Find out how long you are standing up, and how much damage you do until the mob falls. Divide that time (in seconds) by 6, multiply by 20, and that is how much mana you would regenerate. Check your list of available spells that use that much mana and how much damage it does.

My suspicion is that you will wish that you sat down and regenerated enough mana to finish it off with a nuke than try to beat the mob to death with all of the misses and low damage hits.

I understand what you are saying. I have myself concluded that simply casting another spell and medding might be more efficient. However, I sometimes do this if the mob is not quite running yet and I am flush with HP but low on mana (and I am still thorned). Plus, once in a while I just want to swing the bat a little.

[mwatt]

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

With the snare/root and dot stacking nerf (fix?), you cant solo efficiently unless you're twinked to the gills.

Most you can hope for is to kill blues that arent fire resistant (Avocets are extremely resistant, not sure about rest of Aviaks). The people talking about quad kiting are on crack. Its simply not possible with normal leveling statless gear.

I would think Everfrost blues would likely be the best bet to kill followed by spire gnolls in SK. Also word of advice, leave Synger Foxfyre alone. She cons blue but does ridiculous dot/nuke damage. I found this out on multiple occasions [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

In lowever levels at SK, elephants tend to be the easiest kills. I think there are still some blue ones at 19. The appropriately leveled centaurs aren't bad either. Aviaks are ok, but can hit harder than the aforementioned mobs, IMO. Also, there tend to be a lot more adds with the Aviaks if you are not careful. I myself prefer SK over Everfrost, mostly because its a pain to get to Everfrost.

[Messianic]

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

The people talking about quad kiting are on crack. Its simply not possible with normal leveling statless gear.

As a wizard, I was able to quad effectively from 29-53 with only 155 int (after 53, I had to do raptors which required a more sizeable mana pool).

The AoE I used from 34-51 was Circle of Force - 216 damage/175 mana/~1.234 damage-mana ratio.

The AoE a druid uses at 34 is Lightning Strike - 184 damage/149 mana/~1.235 damage-mana ratio.

From ~34-42, I quadded guards in NK - the two near the SK zoneline, and the two in the gypsy tower. Those guards have roughly 1150 hp (roughly the same as stoneleer cockatrices, thorny succulants, sarnak berzerkers, and Kunark Rhinos in OT, but I was quadding those guards pre-kunark).

To deal 1150 hp of damage to all those guards, you'd require 7 casts of Lightning strike, possibly one more to finish them off or small nukes to finish each of them + 140-175 mana to ensnare them all, granting the possibility of an ensnare resist.

So, at 7 casts + 4 ensnares is 1183 mana. Say you do get resists, and need 8 casts and 5 ensnares: 1367 mana.

You don't have that much? I'd think you would with minimal gear - i.e. any of the following:

Testament of Vanear, golden jaded bracelets, moonstone rings (I found 6 on a vendor the other day for 48 pp a piece), Ivy braids, CBBs, jasper gold earrings, savant cap, BI medallion (50pp for one in EC forum channel right now I believe), platinum ruby veil, Platinum Dragon Totem, Glowing Bone Collar, etc

[mwatt]

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

As a wizard, I was able to quad effectively from 29-53 with only 155 int (after 53, I had to do raptors which required a more sizeable mana pool).

The AoE I used from 34-51 was Circle of Force - 216 damage/175 mana/~1.234 damage-mana ratio.

The AoE a druid uses at 34 is Lightning Strike - 184 damage/149 mana/~1.235 damage-mana ratio.

From ~34-42, I quadded guards in NK - the two near the SK zoneline, and the two in the gypsy tower. Those guards have roughly 1150 hp (roughly the same as stoneleer cockatrices, thorny succulants, sarnak berzerkers, and Kunark Rhinos in OT, but I was quadding those guards pre-kunark).

To deal 1150 hp of damage to all those guards, you'd require 7 casts of Lightning strike, possibly one more to finish them off or small nukes to finish each of them + 140-175 mana to ensnare them all, granting the possibility of an ensnare resist.

So, at 7 casts + 4 ensnares is 1183 mana. Say you do get resists, and need 8 casts and 5 ensnares: 1367 mana.

You don't have that much? I'd think you would with minimal gear - i.e. any of the following:

Testament of Vanear, golden jaded bracelets, moonstone rings (I found 6 on a vendor the other day for 48 pp a piece), Ivy braids, CBBs, jasper gold earrings, savant cap, BI medallion (50pp for one in EC forum channel right now I believe), platinum ruby veil, Platinum Dragon Totem, Glowing Bone Collar, etc

Excellent information this. However, there is quite a difference between Wizard spells and Druid spells (Wizard spell mana costs are more efficient), not to mention level 19 vs 29.

[Estu]

It seems to me that the main issue keeping a druid in the low levels from quad kiting (apart from mana issues) would be the low duration on Snare; it only lasts two minutes max (possibly less at those low levels, not sure when it maxes out), so it's not long enough to get four mobs snared, grouped together, and nuked dead. I would think you'd have to wait until level 29 when you get your upgraded snare. Foregoing snares altogether would obviously be an option, but would make it trickier to aggro, trickier to kite without drawing extra unwanted aggro, and it would make the whole process take longer as you'd spend a lot of time getting distance enough from the mobs to nuke again.

[Auvdar]

Charming > Quadding or Root+rotting. At least at 50+. Not sure how well it works at lower lvls, but I can't see it being bad. Just remember to get blues that are the farthest from your lvl as you can to charm.

[shdwdrake8]

I'm leveling a druid and he is currently 29. I've been monitoring this thread for a while and there is some good info. I hate to share my biggest trade secret so far but since I have learned something from this thread I figure I'd contribute. Once I got "Ring of Commons" I would bind myself near what ever place I was exping in, port to commons, run to tunnel, find a chanter (almost always one there, esp during peak hours) beg for a clarity (promising free ports in the future), gate to exp.... profit!

I also want to comment on charm. I say this with hesitancy as well because I'm afraid it will be "fixed" but charm has worked great since the first level I got it. I'd group in Oasis and charm Caimans. I'd get a full duration charm 80% of the time. Once I was using my "clarity hax" I would charm 1 mob, root rot another, sick them on each other, and break charm with hide (halflings are hax, reroll if you aren't one) and get twice the exp for like 1.2x the mana. I did this in NK with griffawns vs beetles, I did this in EK with gorge hounds vs gore hounds, and I am currently doing this in Everfrost with mamas vs mamas and icy orcs. The exp is nuts. Root rotting is nice but charming is the only way to get the most bang for your buck. Having clarity will ensure that you won't run out of mana if you have to do some emergency double roots or re-charms. I look forward to trying to quad at 34, I'll check back here once I get there... but I'm still only 29 (almost 30!).

Anyone want to comment very specifically how they got their druid through 30? Assuming mamas/icys don't turn LB, I'll probably just stay there. I like gnolls at WK spires but nothing to charm there.