Druid Armor

[Ehnoex]

I just dinged level 6 last night. I am a Wood Elf Druid. I have about 60 plat. I am looking to get an armor set. What is a good armor set for this price? I currently have raw hide and some patchwork.

Please let me know.

[nothsa]

Druids dont really have a low level set, its more about bits and peices. I say maybe try for a 1 hander you can still level off melee for about 8 more levels. Wraithbone or sharkbone hammers are good

[CreamyCowboy]

If you want armor, you can probably scrape up some split paw hide stuff for cheap.

[Cecily]

Just stack wisdom however you can and you can't go wrong. Get leather for now.

[Jimjam]

Wisdom is nearly useless at low levels.

Just save the plat for spells imho.

[Kimm Bare|y]

NAH MY DOOD all u NEED be a 1HBLUNT --- yall no need WISDOM to CHARM FOOL

[maskedmelon]

Wisdom is nearly useless at low levels.

Just save the plat for spells imho.

This ^ though the suggested sharkbone or wraithbone hammers could yield some returns.

[Ele]

Just wear the cloth, patchwork, and leather that drops off the stuff you kill.

[Jimjam]

Yea, I would consider getting a decent weapon if running a surplus of plat.

If you are looking for better armour for improved survival... you might want to make sure your defence skill is capped for your level. it will make a huge improvement compared to simply adding a few worn AC.

As I previously mentioned, plat is for spells primarily.

[Cecily]

I don't think it's a bad idea to go for nice wisdom items right off the bat. RMBs, Nightshade Wreath, etc. They get better as you level. I try not to gear myself in increments, rather just going for the best or close to the best stuff. In a druid's case, that means stacking as much WIS as possible.

[August]

Unless you're the type of person that meds AFK to get full mana and then comes back and blows your whole mana bar +WIS is a completely useless stat. So is +INT for a caster.

Regeneration of mana is not percentage based it's based on your skill level in meditation and whether or not you're sitting or standing during a tick.

If you are not at full mana, you are regenerating mana every tick by some amount.

This means that your higher mana pool from +WIS, or +MANA items does absolutely jack squat for you unless you're constantly hitting full mana or you find yourself in the situation I stated at the very beginning.

The best investments you can make for any toon is to get high HP, a weapon with good damage / delay if you're going to melee, and... that's it. You can't twink a caster. There's no way to make them deal more damage (like + STR for melee), there's no way for you to regen your primary resource (like a fungi) and there's no way for you to cast faster (like a haste item) and there's no way for you to fundamentally change the amounts you hit for (like upgrading to a new weapon).

Casters get the total shaft in classic timeline for twinking (I for one think focus effects really helped the caster's plight) , so buy yourself a nice wep, some 55hp/5ac rings, and go to town.

[Cecily]

Unless you're the type of person that meds AFK to get full mana and then comes back and blows your whole mana bar +WIS is a completely useless stat. So is +INT for a caster.

That is precisely how druids level with quads. Higher mana bar lets you sustain charming longer too.

[kaev]

Unless you're the type of person that meds AFK to get full mana and then comes back and blows your whole mana bar +WIS is a completely useless stat. So is +INT for a caster.

Regeneration of mana is not percentage based it's based on your skill level in meditation and whether or not you're sitting or standing during a tick.

If you are not at full mana, you are regenerating mana every tick by some amount.

This means that your higher mana pool from +WIS, or +MANA items does absolutely jack squat for you unless you're constantly hitting full mana or you find yourself in the situation I stated at the very beginning.

The best investments you can make for any toon is to get high HP, a weapon with good damage / delay if you're going to melee, and... that's it. You can't twink a caster. There's no way to make them deal more damage (like + STR for melee), there's no way for you to regen your primary resource (like a fungi) and there's no way for you to cast faster (like a haste item) and there's no way for you to fundamentally change the amounts you hit for (like upgrading to a new weapon).

Casters get the total shaft in classic timeline for twinking (I for one think focus effects really helped the caster's plight) , so buy yourself a nice wep, some 55hp/5ac rings, and go to town.

This is only corect if you play 100% safe 100% of the time, I would be pretty bored doing this but if you like it go for it. Otherwise...

As Cecily mentioned, a deep manapool is how druids make quadding work.

Other than quadding, if you're doing anything interesting (group or solo) adds will be a risk. When your shallow manapool runs dry before the adds are dealt with you (and your group) are shit-outa-luck.

Real casters, wis or int, are not the same as hybrids. For a hybrid, mana regen is key to sustaining agro and/or pull pace, depth of manapool rarely matters much. For a real caster everything about mana is important, depth of manapool can be critical to success when breaking a camp, surviving a train, or just living life in the fast lane.

[August]

Yes, yes, both of you. A deep mana pool is good for situations where length of engagement is important. However a deep mana pool does not affect throughput until you hit full mana.

That being said if it takes 1000 mana to quad a set of raptors (totally made up numbers) it does not really matter if you have 1500 or 1700 mana. If you have 2000 mana however you could quad 2 sets before medding.

+Mana/+Wis/+Int do not affect your throughput in anyway, though. Mana pool is only important when you say 'I need X mana to do Y task so I better med to full'.

As this guy is level 6, i don't think this applies to him, at all.

[Ravager]

A level 6 druid should save the plat for spells. You're gonna wish you had when you ding 14. After 14 the plat gets better, worry about gear then. That's also the time you can quest a Testament of Venear (http://wiki.project1999.com/Testament_of_Vanear), which is an amazing offhand for most of your druid life.

[Man0warr]

It doesn't apply to him, but you definitely can't quad kite when it becomes available with no +WIS gear - you won't have enough mana to even do 1 quad much less two since the druid quad spells are very mana ineffecient.

The real reason INT and WIS suck at low levels is they don't give much mana per point until much much later.

Better to go for +Mana items like Moonstone Rings and Embroidered Sleeves.

Although at extremely low levels (1-16) it's probably best to just get a good cheap weapon and some 55hp rings because you'll still be doing a lot of meleeing until then.

[Waedawen]

look for raw +hit points and +mana. look for wisdom level 25+.

get mad hp. especially if you're a soloer.

[fadetree]

^^ This is wisdom. +mana beats the hell out of +wis for quite while, at least till mid 20's. +HP...well, a dead druid casts no spells. You'll be meleeing a lot early on too.

[Tasslehofp99]

You won't be questing them at lvl 6, but once you're like 19 you should deffinetly look into the Testament of Vanear and paw of opolla quests. Those two items will give you like +19 wisdom alone and should cost you nothing.

Edit: Also, if you're strapped for plat: In a few levels you can hunt the nybright bandits in Lfay for their bronze weapons. Decent way for lowbies to earn coin for starting gear, spells, and other stuff.

[indiscriminate_hater]

Yes, yes, both of you. A deep mana pool is good for situations where length of engagement is important. However a deep mana pool does not affect throughput until you hit full mana.

That being said if it takes 1000 mana to quad a set of raptors (totally made up numbers) it does not really matter if you have 1500 or 1700 mana. If you have 2000 mana however you could quad 2 sets before medding.

+Mana/+Wis/+Int do not affect your throughput in anyway, though. Mana pool is only important when you say 'I need X mana to do Y task so I better med to full'.

As this guy is level 6, i don't think this applies to him, at all.

this doesn't account for resists and other unforeseen events

[August]

this doesn't account for resists and other unforeseen events

"I need X mana to do Y Task" - where you determine X by factoring in resists or unforeseen events to stay safe. If it takes you 1400 mana to snare x 4 + nuke x 4 to kill 4 mobs then X does not equal 1400 - it equals 1400 + however much you need to compensate for having to cast 6 times instead of 4 due to resists or an additional aggro.

I guess you can find argument with anything, but fact of the matter is wisdom/mana is way overvalued by most people. Survivability at low levels (AC, HP) is way more important. Mana will come naturally through gear and I'd say the first 500pp should be spent on 2 55hp/5ac rings instead of a RMB for that +5 wisdom.

[Spud]

As JimJam said you will probably want to save your Plat for spells which are expensive early on. Later on you can worry about getting WIS which becomes more important as you level.

Pre-Planar gear suggestions (from the P1999 Druid wiki):

Ears - Jasper Gold Earring
Fingers - Platinum Jasper Ring
Neck - Chrysoberyl Talisman
Head - Savant's Cap, Batfang Headband, Runed Circlet, Nightshade Wreath
Face - Platinum Ruby Veil, Polished Mithril Mask
Chest - Foreman's Tunic, Mithril-Runed Tunic
Arms - Platinum Armband
Back - Mammoth Hide Cloak, Molten Cloak, Kunzar Cloak
Waist - Purity Belt, Reed Belt
Shoulders - Prayer Cloth of Tunare, Braided Ivy Cords, Lizardscale Mantle, Prayer Shawl
Wrists - Runed Mithril Bracer, Chipped Bone Bracelet, Supple Scale Armband
Legs - Gatorscale Leggings
Hands - Split Paw Hide Gloves
Feet - Golden Efreeti Boots, Acolyte's Anklet, Wolf Fur Slippers
Primary - Paw of Opolla, Tainted Battleworn Morning Star
Secondary - Paw of Opolla, Testament of Vanear
Range - Small Wisdom Deity


Q: How do I know how much Mana Wisdom gives me?
A: As a druid you gain .21 more Mana per Wisdom(MpW for short) for every level you have when at or below 200 wisdom. This means that when you are level 10 you get 2.1 MpW and it continues on in a similar pattern for Wisdom totals of 200 or less: 4.2 MpW @ lvl 20, 6.3 MpW @ lvl 30, 8.4 MpW @ lvl 40, 10.5 MpW @ lvl 50, 12.6 MpW @ lvl 60. The exact formula for wisdom of 200 or less is (WIS+10)*level/5. The formula for calculating above Mana at more than 200 wisdom is ( [ 11250 * level ] + [ 33 * WIS * level ] ) / 425.

Q: What is better for my level, + Mana or + Wisdom?
A: Basically, using the above math as a basis, below lvl 25 +Mana will give you stronger returns and have the benefit of being less expensive generally. Once you start leveling into your mid to late 20's the scaling factor of Wisdom will give you much stronger returns. This of course continues until lvl 60, but anything with +Mana in an empty/non-magic equipped slot is definitely a gain.

[GreldorEQ]

Being a new player, it took me a couple of months to go from 1-21 playing a druid. I did not find that more hp really gave me an edge when soloing, but my mana pool certainly did. Whether i had nice cleric buffs or not, my mellee was low, requiring me to rely on spells to finish the job.

This was particularly the case from 10-20. Now, even if i have resolution or hb, i have trouble tanking anything over a blue con.

As others have said, focus on the gear you may hold onto for a long time, like wis rings, earrings, bear hide jerkin, split paw gloves, testament, wis diety. These are items you will likely have for some time while leveling. Dont get me wrong, however you get more mana makes little difference at this point, just dont spend a lot unless its the best you will be able to get til your 50s.

Grelwin, 21 halfling druid

[Xer0]

Being a new player, it took me a couple of months to go from 1-21 playing a druid. I did not find that more hp really gave me an edge when soloing, but my mana pool certainly did. Whether i had nice cleric buffs or not, my mellee was low, requiring me to rely on spells to finish the job.

This was particularly the case from 10-20. Now, even if i have resolution or hb, i have trouble tanking anything over a blue con.

As others have said, focus on the gear you may hold onto for a long time, like wis rings, earrings, bear hide jerkin, split paw gloves, testament, wis diety. These are items you will likely have for some time while leveling. Dont get me wrong, however you get more mana makes little difference at this point, just dont spend a lot unless its the best you will be able to get til your 50s.

Grelwin, 21 halfling druid
Seriously, anyone who thinks a deep mana pool isn't helpful to newb casters is way over thinking it. Yes, other things might be more beneficial than raw wis at a certain level and in specific proportions, you want to balance your stats so you're utilizing everything thats useful. NamelyWisdom, stamina, mana, hp and maybe charisma if you charm. Sure, there's no way to make your spells more powerful in the way a warrior rogue or monk can by adding strength, but in your attention to the finest detail you've overlooked the simplest of all points

That point? Spells are powerful in and of themselves and the amount of spells you can cast is limited by the amount of mana you have. As a lowbie druid with 0 +wis gear you'll be lucky to get five or six spell casts off before needing a a med break; enough to kill a dark blue-even con mob if you play your cards correctly, assuming no resists, you can have a mob down in less than a minute or two. Now if anything goes wrong (root breaks early, dot resists etc.,)you might find you have trouble maintaining mana to finish your cycle and kill your mob, much less deal with any adds that happen upon you.

The only time you'll ever rely on melee is prior to level 8 ie before you get meditate. After that nothing you can do by auto attacking will outdo a recently learned nuke, damage shield, dot or heal
This is why more mana is always a sort of safety net for druids. All of the very powerful tools at your disposal rely on the very same resource

The more nukes and heals you can toss the better you will fare in every situation.

[webrunner5]

Wisdom is nearly useless at low levels.

Just save the plat for spells imho.

Correct. At low level you want Mana items, not Wiz. That does not change till like in the 40's. Then you want Wiz items. After about level 12 a Weapon is a waste of time. Just keep up a low level DD and finish off the mob with it. Raise your 1hand Slashing skill. That is what the Epic is if you are EVER lucky enough to ever get one on here. :eek:

[August]

Seriously, anyone who thinks a deep mana pool isn't helpful to newb casters is way over thinking it. Yes, other things might be more beneficial than raw wis at a certain level and in specific proportions, you want to balance your stats so you're utilizing everything thats useful. NamelyWisdom, stamina, mana, hp and maybe charisma if you charm. Sure, there's no way to make your spells more powerful in the way a warrior rogue or monk can by adding strength, but in your attention to the finest detail you've overlooked the simplest of all points

That point? Spells are powerful in and of themselves and the amount of spells you can cast is limited by the amount of mana you have. As a lowbie druid with 0 +wis gear you'll be lucky to get five or six spell casts off before needing a a med break; enough to kill a dark blue-even con mob if you play your cards correctly, assuming no resists, you can have a mob down in less than a minute or two. Now if anything goes wrong (root breaks early, dot resists etc.,)you might find you have trouble maintaining mana to finish your cycle and kill your mob, much less deal with any adds that happen upon you.

The only time you'll ever rely on melee is prior to level 8 ie before you get meditate. After that nothing you can do by auto attacking will outdo a recently learned nuke, damage shield, dot or heal
This is why more mana is always a sort of safety net for druids. All of the very powerful tools at your disposal rely on the very same resource

The more nukes and heals you can toss the better you will fare in every situation.

More mana only means you can cast more spells if you are hitting FM medding while AFK. It affects only your ability to continue playing from FM->OOM in a single session.

A good way to think about it is imagine you have 1 character with infinite mana and one character with 1000 mana. Start them both off at 0 mana, and let's say that in order to engage a mob you want to have 400 mana.

Both of you med for the same amount of time, and, to be safe, you med to 600 mana.

Then you both go and kill a mob and end up at 200 mana. Now you can't kill another mob because you need at least 400, so you again, med for the same amount of time, get to 600, kill a mob, and you're both down to 200.

in this scenario your 'maximum mana' doesn't mean anything. The only time it would mean something is if you needed 1200 mana to do something and your character with 1k mana can never have that much.

Now, back to my point about medding to full mana - if you afk your character and let it sit for 30 minutes one character will come back to 1k mana, and the ohter will come back to way more. However in the actual game you won't have infinite mana, it might be the difference of 200 mana, so in that timespan between 1000 and 1200 mana the character with more mana is gaining more throughput. This can be negated by the 1000 mana character by immediately killing things once at FM.

Most people think more mana is good because they equate regen to the percentage based ways of WoW and other MMOs. Regen (throughput) is determined by your meditation skill and any clarity buffs you have only. More wisdom will help you in tradeskills, and it will help you for encounters that require a set amount of mana (such as quadding). If you are the type of player that AFK meds and comes back to full mana then more wisdom is absolutely right for you.

[maskedmelon]

I don't think it's a bad idea to go for nice wisdom items right off the bat. RMBs, Nightshade Wreath, etc. They get better as you level. I try not to gear myself in increments, rather just going for the best or close to the best stuff. In a druid's case, that means stacking as much WIS as possible.

This is actually a fair point because while mana items are vastly superior to wisdom items at level 1, their effectiveness depreciates each level whereas that of the wisdom items appreciates each level until around level 30 when they cross paths and wisdom items become superior. This is all of course considering each relative to the other without a thought to other beneficial stats ^^