New Druid Advice from the experts

[Goregasmic]

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

But did you start at max health before you went all the way down to 30 health? Because if you didn't, your HP gear didn't help you at all.

All HP gear does is increase your maximum HP. It doesn't prevent damage, it doesn't help you recover faster, it just changes how much HP you have when fully healed.

If you don't heal up to that maximum before every fight, you're not benefiting from that gear.

It is true in abstract but it has its uses in practice. This game has the god damn habit of putting yellows in an otherwise blue con camp so it lets you face tank those.

Lets you take on pulls you can't split. Or shrug off lull fails.

Gives you some time when you need to run to zone because you aggroed that red con.

Also lets you clear entire dungeon sections and then take a bigger rest afk, that's just QOL but its nice.

Pair it with AC like bcbrown said and your survival odds go through the roof early on.

It makes everything less risky basically. You don't always need it but it is very nice to have. And not having to run to zone or gate as often increases efficiency.

[bcbrown]

I assumed that by adding the qualifiers "long term" and "mid-40s" the audience would have enough intelligence to understand what I was saying. I guess I forgot who was in the conversation, and I apologize if I confused you. I am explicitly saying that this is the right list of priorities for the long term when you hit the mid 40s and start wondering what upgrades should be next. I am implicitly saying that it is the wrong list of short-term priorities when you're level 5. I am (partially) agreeing with Loramin's critique here.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

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

I assumed that by adding the qualifiers "long term" and "mid-40s" the audience would have enough intelligence to understand what I was saying. I guess I forgot who was in the conversation, and I apologize if I confused you. I am explicitly saying that this is the right list of priorities for the long term when you hit the mid 40s and start wondering what upgrades should be next.

I understood what you were saying. You and kjs86z2 are wrong in the post you are referring to, and you are still wrong in this post. You simply look like an asshole now too by acting condescending.

Remember OP's parameters:
1. New Druid, last report was level 9 I think
2. 5k Budget
3. Mostly soloing

Not sure why you are focusing on a level 40+ list that would require a good amount of plat and/or some non-solo coordinated kills. Tuna Gloves and Kael Arena groups don't really fit a mostly solo player. Unless you are in an active guild, it could take a while to randomly find people who are killing those giants and willing to give you the heads for Tuna Gloves.

By the time you hit 50, you'd probably have these items first if you did well on plat farming:
1. Spells
2. Basic HP/MP gear
3. ES Gloves and Arms
4. Lumi Staff
5. Goblin Ring/Ring of Stealthy Travel

Putting these items on the lowest priority (or not mentioned at all) for a Druid even in their 50's is kinda silly when talking about a character starting out at level 1 with 5k who is mostly soloing.

Lowest priority items for OP are Tuna Gloves, Thurg BP, and Epic MQ, because each of those items will take longer to get (even in your 50s) than all of the ones I mentioned above for someone like OP. If you are rich or in a raid guild, then it will be easier to get those items.

[Snaggles]

Depending what level you have that extra few hundred hps means a lot. At level 9 it’s a massive safety net. At 60 it might be a couple hits. It’s an extra AE until blood aggro.

The Gob ring is more handy due to the level it works at. I used mine a lot in the 30’s and 40’s. Once a Stealthy ring works I think that could serve as a permanent replacement with a bit of space on a snared pet. Not having to re-target is another nice quality of life improvement. It’s good enough to keep equipped and having a click 2 sec invis can be a life saver.

I leveled my Druid to 60 with black chitin legs and a BCP. I’m bad at charming but did just fine.

[bcbrown]

For anyone without a clicky source of charm break, make a macro. First line hide. Second line /target *your name*. Hit that macro, if hide fails, it targets you and you're ready to cast invis. If hide suceeds the /target will fail. Note: not sure if this works if you have a see invis item, it probably won't.

Doesn't work for OP since he chose human, but for anyone who chooses Halfling or Wood Elf and doesn't have a clicky invis, it'll save a step. Obvious downside is that you'll want to cast IvA with a 3 second downtime but the hide skill check is instant so on success the target will have 3 seconds too much health.

[Snaggles]

DSM’s comment on HP gearing is valid but might I feel could use another perspective. With HP’s, a bit of AC and a fungi tunic (and a fungi staff+jboots in the early levels) you can survive far more. You can even tank a bit when your pet won’t last the fight without risking death.

Later a mild level of tanking or being able to survive a pet break is extra important. My good buddy Woodchips (the CG video person) has more unbuffed HP’s than my ranger and also wears a fungi almost always. Any mana you don’t need to spend on healing you save for other stuff.

Mana regen and fragility are two issues for the Druid. They certainly don’t lack utility. If you can dampen those issues the class can soar. It’s not going to break the balance of the game or anything but you can escape the meme with some gear and a lot of skill.

Are these important for the OP? Not really. The basics will get you to 60 without issue.

[Faywind]

Thanks for all the input guys. I enjoy a good debate as long as it's civil. I definitely see the merits of having the GGR, I am level 20 now and have been charming since level 15 and I can see how valuable having that piece would be. However, I would not be keen on doing it naked since that piece is so expensive, I wouldn't have any leftover funds. Time to save up! Glad I don't have to save for jbooots or levi cloak [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Snaggles]

People can use whatever they want at 49 when the Stealthy Travels ring clicks. It’s up to them to determine if they are effectively the same.

The OP didn’t ask that and is in the teens with a budget. Cheap HP rings, leather/cloth from vendors, cheap Wisdom slots (like a charred guardian shield) and some kind of melee’able weapon like a Smoldering Brand are fine. Goblin Gaz ring asap (clicks at level 5). Likely ES arms, boots, eventually. Lumi Staff and at some point the epic. This is all perfectly rational if in a raiding guild getting the epic early isn’t difficult.

[Goregasmic]

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

Like the other posters, you have no evidence to suggest the 2 second difference in charm break is significant. If I can predict when to break charm 2 seconds early, you can too.

When multiple posters say the same thing, and none of them have evidence, it may just be a common misconception. Goblin Ring is clickable earlier than Ring of Stealthy Travel, and Goblin Ring was around on both servers a lot longer. Chardok 2.0 is one of the last patches. It's not uncommon for myths like this to form.

.......... The fact is 2sec is the gap between 2 rounds basically so in bear pits that's anywhere between 0 and 520 damage and its all RNG so you can't really plan ahead for that. With gobby ring it lets you see an extra round before taking a decision and that extra round will most likely have you change nuke level if you can wait it out. And if it turns out it's a miss you can afford to wait an extra round with gobby ring since it is instant. You can literally wait until your target/pet cannot take an extra round before pulling the trigger, that's what I mean by never losing mobs and finishing 6.5k hp mobs with a level 34 nuke.

Bear pits aren't too bad, from a chanter's perspective a torched and hasted krup knight can either miss entire rounds or pound 1200dmg in so that level of control can be highly desirable.

When you hit 60 you can go for stealthy ring because exp doesn't matter but for leveling I don't see how paying an extra 4k for 2sec delay and 35hp/mana makes any sort of sense, the stats are too low to shift the balance so the delay isn't worth it.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

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

.......... The fact is 2sec is the gap between 2 rounds basically so in bear pits that's anywhere between 0 and 520 damage and its all RNG so you can't really plan ahead for that. With gobby ring it lets you see an extra round before taking a decision and that extra round will most likely have you change nuke level if you can wait it out. And if it turns out it's a miss you can afford to wait an extra round with gobby ring since it is instant. You can literally wait until your target/pet cannot take an extra round before pulling the trigger, that's what I mean by never losing mobs and finishing 6.5k hp mobs with a level 34 nuke.

Bear pits aren't too bad, from a chanter's perspective a torched and hasted krup knight can either miss entire rounds or pound 1200dmg in so that level of control can be highly desirable.

When you hit 60 you can go for stealthy ring because exp doesn't matter but for leveling I don't see how paying an extra 4k for 2sec delay and 35hp/mana makes any sort of sense, the stats are too low to shift the balance so the delay isn't worth it.

I completely understand what you are trying to say. You and other posters have explained it well multiple times.

You are not thinking about the problem from all of the angles, only the angle where you believe you are getting an edge of some kind.

Let me try to break down the angles you are not looking at:

1. You can also always get 100% mob XP without Goblin Ring. Please stop saying Goblin Ring does anything to help with securing a kill. You can break earlier and nuke twice, as a simple example. I understand you are talking about saving mana by waiting longer to break charm (potentially saving nuke mana), but saving mana is not the same as securing the kill.

2. The later you wait to break charm, the higher the probability of losing the mob and getting 0% XP. It's possible you end up losing more mobs with instant invis than without it, because it is tempting you towards a riskier playstyle of waiting until the last possible second. You need to determine if the increased risk of losing the mob by waiting longer to break charm is worth the potential mana saving, as each mob lost will counter multiple mobs where you may have saved some nuke mana.

3. Mobs typically do one combat round every 2 seconds. You can parse their hit rate and average damage roll. It's not difficult to do a prediction for the next round. When you've played the game long enough, you can often do this without parsing if you've fought the mob or similar mobs enough times to intuit their DPS. If you are ultra paranoid about a miss, you can always duck the 2 second invis and start it again if a miss occurs. You'll extend the charmed pet by 1 combat round that way, as both the combat round and cast time are two seconds.

4. The benefits of Ring of Stealthy Travel over Goblin Ring are as follows:
A. You get regular invis for free (more mana saving).
B. You don't need to switch targets, as Ring of Stealthy Travel is self cast. This saves a bit of time and reduces targeting errors.
C. You only need to mem invis when invising others, saving spellbook time.
D. Free clickie invis allows you to save mana and time in scenarios where you can lull some mobs and invis around the rest. You don't always need to lull every mob.

5. Druids get mana free damage options. If the mob does end up with an extra 50 HP after your first nuke, you can use Lumi Staff or ES Arms to finish it off for free. Goblin Ring is not the only way you can save mana on finishing the mob. This method can be less risky too, as it allows you to break when the mob has a bit more HP.