Druid or Ranger alt for Velious?

[Fianna]

I wanted to put this in one of the class forums, but since it fits neither into the melee nor the priest sections. Ill post it here.

Basically, I am an established player on this server, with several high level chars. (Ench, Paladin, Rogue, Monk and baby Shaman coming up). With Velious though, there are a lot of new interesting things to do. Tradeskill materials to farm, forage, huge zones that take a long time to get through, groundspawns to hunt and ring/shawl quests to do ect. Basically I have been considering starting a Druid or a Ranger for all the Velious farming and stuff.

But which is superior for Velious? The Druid has the ports obviously, which is a big big plus. However, the Ranger has superior tracking and on top of that it is melee based. I can imagine having to kill a lot of trash mobs trying to get a drop and repeatedly running out of mana on the druid, whereas the Ranger would be able to just keep killing.

So what do you recommend for some serious Velious exploration.
Ranger or Druid?
Also which epic is easier?

[Harbogast]

rangers continue to suck in velious. But for druids they get several ups which I have been looking forward to. POTG spell for extra mana regen. Increased tracking skill. Root stacking with snare which is awesome if you have dru epic. Mold BPs which gives u a 9sec clicky of regrowth of the grove, a 600mana spell and the best you've got. It sucked to be a druid in kunark, but in velious its gonna be better. If course you won't see any of these benefits with your level zero newly started druid.

[Gustoo]

Druids can do a lot of fun things all alone in velious. Rangers can fear kite mammoths and cougars.

[Pipip]

My ranger is parked until he gets his panic animal spell, and then I'll go back to playing him heavily. In the meantime, the Druid has been lots of fun.

Rangers are more fun to twink if that means anything. With a bunch of established characters, it might be nice to start one.

[Erazmus]

Ranger! They get ranger gate.

[Fianna]

Looks like most people think the Druid is more viable. It suits me well because they are easier to twink and having leveled a Paladin to 60 I am not sure I could deal with leveling another char with hybrid penalty.

I do think Ranger track is cool though. Maybe I will make one at a later point.

[fadetree]

rangers continue to suck in velious.

Lame players continue to not know how to play rangers in Velious.

But yeah, if you think they sucked before, you probably still will in Velious. They get some minor upgrades, and Weaponshield is a valuable raid tool. Panic Animal makes them easier to solo to 60, and the hybrid penalty removal makes grouping easier.

[Bboboo]

Rangers are fun.

Druids make money.

[paradox010]

Lame players continue to not know how to play rangers in Velious.
As a practical matter, they do less DPS than warriors, monks, and rogues, and provide no meaningful utility in the group or raid context. They're not, like, bad, but they're never going to be optimal until the introduction of AA levels turns archery into a serious DPS option.

[Swish]

I think I'll make one.

[Trojanman]

I could be wrong, but I thought druids will soon get a skill improvement to tracking soon.

I think its currently capped at 50, but will eventually be 100 or so?

[Tahlvin]

The new cap will be 125 when the patch hits.

[yikes]

As a practical matter, they do less DPS than warriors, monks, and rogues, and provide no meaningful utility in the group or raid context. They're not, like, bad, but they're never going to be optimal until the introduction of AA levels turns archery into a serious DPS option.

Only rogues out dps my ranger

[Man0warr]

Monks you play with are bad then.

[Itap]

Weaponshield becomes useful on raids generally speaking

[rollin5k]

If your goal is convenience for travel definately druid.

[fadetree]

no meaningful utility in the group or raid context.

Well, you're just wrong.

Group utility they provide lots of: CC, track, Snap aggro, and harmony.
Raid utility, they have Weaponshield, which can be used for initial slows and MT swaps.

In Kael in particular, Rangers can be great pullers with harmony.

[Troxx]

Pardon my ignorance but isn't ranger harmony outdoor only? I thought Kael was indoor (ie no sow, selos, or ranger harmony).

[webrunner5]

Kael IS a Indoor zone. :eek:

And to the OP, it depends if you want to be a Caster be a Druid, Want to Melee be a Ranger. Really not the same type of classes even though they share a Lot of the same spells.

[webrunner5]

The new cap will be 125 when the patch hits.

And that was what it was before the Nerf. :( Still not much to write home to mother about compared to a Ranger. :p

[fadetree]

I remember rangers pulling in Kael with harmony. Maybe I dreamed it.

Well, I found this :
A properly geared ranger (sky haste, epic) does slightly less dps than a comparably geared monk (good worn haste, epic), and contrary to popular belief, isn't going to run your healer out of mana, especially if you have slows. A ranger is also a better puller than a monk in certain outdoor areas such as Mistmoore, Karnor's Castle, and Kael Drakkel, with a ranger and iksar monk having roughly the same XP penalty
From http://www.project1999.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-164254.html

I wonder if Kael was at some point flagged as an outdoor zone on live.

[milsorgen]

Druid. But I will say I've been really enjoying the ride with a ranger, modestly geared thanks to wisps in NK and the generosity of p99 players.