What makes for a good power-leveling druid?

[shams]

Hey all. Just curious for those of you that have bought PLing services from a druid, what made is a good experience - fast, easy, fun, etc. I like porting people around for plat sometimes and the thought occurred to me that I never tried offering PL's. So, what kind of service makes you feel like your cash was well spent?

[Daldaen]

Speed purely for me.

I try to limit my dickishness when PLing, but when I am PLing rarely do the people paying me talk much. Some talk but some say nothing for the duration of 2-3 hours.

If you're pleasant and good at PLing people will come back.

If you're bad at PLing or an insufferable douche, people probably won't come back.

Protip for Druid PLing. If you're buffing your PLee and having them tank, you're doing it wrong. I see way too many Druids do this and because of it they are PLing at probably 30% the speed they could be if they stopped wasting all that mana healing the low level.

[shams]

Thanks for the input. I've never PLed before, so how would you do it, Daldaen?

Edit: I mean I thought that basically you had to buff/heal to PL, aside from a DS, chloro, and killing off mobs if things go south?

[Thulack]

Speed purely for me.

I try to limit my dickishness when PLing, but when I am PLing rarely do the people paying me talk much. Some talk but some say nothing for the duration of 2-3 hours.

If you're pleasant and good at PLing people will come back.

If you're bad at PLing or an insufferable douche, people probably won't come back.

Protip for Druid PLing. If you're buffing your PLee and having them tank, you're doing it wrong. I see way too many Druids do this and because of it they are PLing at probably 30% the speed they could be if they stopped wasting all that mana healing the low level.

knew as soon as i saw title that Dald would be first to post :D:D

[Daldaen]

Work is so slow... Someone wouldn't know cause he is dodging work though!

If you're PLing you want to tag every mob with a snare. Buff/Regen/DS yourself. You do more DMG from your DS (shield of blades vs. shield of thorns, and it stacks with our Bladecoat self DS line... 38 vs. 24), you regen more (Natureskin+Regrowth is 19, SLN+Chloro is 12), you take less damage (level 60 vs. level low). Which leads to you needing to heal less, which means you can pull more before medding, which means you let them level faster.

I wouldn't suggest PLing until 49 at the lowest. 54 helps with Regrowth, 57 with Natureskin, 58 with Shield of Blades and 60 with Mask.

Also worth noting in order of importance... DS Potions, Manastone, Robe of the Spring/Elder Spiritist's Greaves, Goblin Gazughi Ring/Shrunken Goblin Skull Earring.

DS potions add 31 DS at level 60, and stack with your DS spells (69 total). Mobs die to DS twice as fast meaning you take less DMG etc etc
Manastone converts HP to mana meaning even when running around, with Regen from Natureskin/Regrowth you are pulling in 20 mana every 3 ticks or about 6-7 mana a tick just by clicking it each time you're near full health. It does wonders to help maintain mana and since you're PLing you will always be in classic zones
Clicky heals are mana free 220-250 HP heals, saves mana and combines with Manastone it's faster than meditating.
Goblin ring for higher level PLing charm breaks, goblin skull earring for junk buff cause lots of low level casters cast cancel magic.

[shams]

Great information, thank you! Seeing as I'm lvl 45, you think I really shouldn't bother with it? I guess I could be useful for lower levels say 1-25 or so, but beyond that things would slow down I guess.

[Estu]

Great information, thank you! Seeing as I'm lvl 45, you think I really shouldn't bother with it? I guess I could be useful for lower levels say 1-25 or so, but beyond that things would slow down I guess.

You may not be as efficient as a higher level druid, but you can still PL low level people and get 1-2k an hour for it. I've PLed a bit on my 45 druid and I wasn't even smart enough to figure out to tank myself rather than healing the PLee, and I made like 1.5k/hr.

[Loke]

Honestly, full service druid PL has always seemed like kind of a waste to me. With certain classes like monks who FD PL, you really have to be active 100% of the time to maximize your efficiency, but with a druid passive PL is almost as effective and way easier for the PLer. Druid's strength in PLing comes from their buffs that provide a high utility especially at lower levels (e.g. DS > Haste, until a certain point). The marginal utility they provide beyond buffs simply doesn't justify the attention required imo.

Basically when I have druid PL'd friends in the past, I've always just loaded them up with buffs and then afk'd for 10-15 minutes until I have to refresh them. Snares are nice, but not really required. Patch heals are nice, but a good player should be able to pace their killing to not need them with regen.

I've never bought PL, but if I did I'd much rather pay a reduced price to have a mostly AFK druid hanging out and rebuffing me, than an increased price for a few extra snares or heals.

So yea, there are a lot of ways to PL with a druid. Some are more involved than others, but none of them are really any better than the other. The whole goal is to minimize the effort of leveling while maximizing the speed, finding what works best for you at the person you're PLing is the correct way to do it.

[Daldaen]

Great information, thank you! Seeing as I'm lvl 45, you think I really shouldn't bother with it? I guess I could be useful for lower levels say 1-25 or so, but beyond that things would slow down I guess.

You could, but I wouldn't suggest it. Your DS at 39vs49 is a huge jump. Adding in extra regen from SLN, and you being higher level you'll take less damage and have more hp/AC/mana.

You *can* just like a level 20 cleric can PL a level 1. You just won't be very effective.

Generally PLing is bought by players who have more money than patience. So there aren't too many who would pay 1-2k an hour to get like... Level 10-12. Whereas they could pay a higher level Druid 3-5k an hour and get 10-20.

PLing beyond level 25~ really requires you be in your mid 50s to have any decent exp rate. There are only a few Druids on this server that PL 30-50 anyways, and all that I know of are level 60 Druids.

[shams]

Hmm ok, good points all around. How do people go about fixing the price for PL services? Is it a time thing or do you go by levels/exp gained?

[Daldaen]

@Loke... Yes and No.

On this server, if you do the AFK method, just be prepared to be chatting with Eunomia, Sirken or Derubael. Cause whenever someone sees that, IMMEDIATELY, you must be a boxing-RMTing-puppy killing-scum. I guarantee you'll be petitioned if you are AFK buffing. People have an irrational fear of boxing, even when you aren't. Heaven forbid you are helping out a friend level while you're AFK around the house cleaning up.

You may not see the benefit of it perhaps. And it is likely more fun for the PLee. But that's really a method for PLing a friend, not a client.

If you're PLing for money, people will want to undercut your rate if you're just buffing them, which is understandable, cause you're not doing much. But if I'm setting aside time to PL for cash, I'm going to charge by level so that I am incentivized to PL quickly and I'm going to be actively pulling higher level mobs and more of them, leading to 10x faster leveling than just getting buffed.

I can make money better AFKing in Droga or at AC than I could doing the buff method, just based on what some people have offered me.

Tl;dr I would never do AFK PLing for cash. I'd only do it for my Brother or a guildmate. Even then, I don't want to deal with the rogue who feels slighted when the person I'm buffing won't let them leach off his EXP and then they petition me and I have to deal with that.

@shams

I do by level for two reasons.

1. I have incentive to work faster. Whereas Hourly you don't really. You get your 3k an hour whether you PL them from 20-22 or 20-24 with Hourly. Where as by level I can get 3-6k depending on how hard I'm pulling.
2. The person buying knows what they are buying. There is no mystery as to how many levels 10k will get them. The only question is how long and I do my best to give you an estimate there.

[sox7d]

stay out of crushbone, unrest, MM, and CoM

[shams]

Cool, I like your thinking as to the per level bit. Nobody would feel slighted that way unless you're just really slow.

[Daldaen]

stay out of crushbone, unrest, MM, and CoM

And yea. This.

I powerlevel in Unrest rarely, but only off the basement or bar/hand/knight rooms. Cause normal groups either aren't in those areas often or can't split them.

[Dragonsblood1987]

pull tons of mobs, have them cycle through and damage each mob, then DS yourself and watch as the nooblet dings multiple times

[Clark]

knew as soon as i saw title that Dald would be first to post :D:D