Leveling druids post nerfs

[Rimson]

My main (Only level 26) has been a Druid since I learned about this server last summer. I have extremely limited time to play and decided druid because it was a class that had SoW and could solo which is extremely important for me in my time schedule. Every once in a while I can have enough time for a good group but most of the time I have about an hour to play. I stopped playing around November or so to wait for Kunark so I could enjoy the zones I (mostly) played in during my live EQ times.

I come back to Kunark and realize my DS has been nerfed, my DOTs are no longer stackable (I can only use 2 of my 3 DOT lines), and the damage of my DOTs to be nerfed as well. Trying to solo only leads to me burning almost a whole mana bar on one mob while pre nerf I could easily take 2-3 before a big med break.

Is Druid soloing pre level 34 (quadding) pretty much dead? I would hate to have to reroll as I have many no drop items (Pegasus Feather Cloak, Testament of Vanear, Tainted Battleworn Morning Star, etc). I know I can group but again I don't feel right joining a group only to leave an hour later with my limited play time.

Just at a loss at how I should continue or if I should just give up and reroll a shaman or something. Have any druids have success soloing pre 34? Please don't flame, I realize that the nerfs were classic but I just don't know how to play my class anymore.

[Alawen Everywhere]

Just use your Creeping Crud spell. It's by far your most mana-efficient damage. Don't bother to root if it's breaking too often. Stick your snare, then the dot, then run off and med kite. I'm trying to remember what I killed at level 26. It might have been spiders in EK or mammoths in Everfrost or maybe gnolls in SK.

I think there's a mistake in the resists on the magic line dots--they should resist about .01% or so. Hopefully it'll be fixed soon. Good luck!

[Messianic]

Get used to using Druid charm. CHA is no longer critical for it to work.

EF Mammoths are definitely great for your level. Crag spiders are good until 27/28 i think...

[Rimson]

Ok thanks for the advice guys. Is there a guide to charming anywhere? Never played a class in live with any type of charm.

[Jigga]

So none of the druid mr dots stack now? Anything stack with WD? I thought on live all that stuff stacked or did it get changed eventually?

[Gnar]

Guide:

1. Buy spell
2. Mem spell
3. Cast spell
4. Do not duck during casting of spell

[Daldaen]

Learn2charm.

EF Mammoths 20-25~
Overthere rhinos/cocks/lions 25-30~
Kedge Keep 30-50
Timorous Raptors 50-55

[Messianic]

Ok thanks for the advice guys. Is there a guide to charming anywhere? Never played a class in live with any type of charm.

Search the forums a bit - I know Alawen and others have discussed how good it is and how they used it. But essentially, keep your distance and be ready to snare either mob if charm breaks. Remember that you need to personally do at least 1 damage to a mob to get 100% exp (a level 1 nuke works). If your pet does all dmg, he steals a vast majority of the exp.

[moklianne]

Charm kiting was the best xp for a Druid without a doubt, until they nerfed it in PoP.

Snare mob
use tunare's (animal -MR)
charm mob
attack same mob type with pet
when pet hits 15% invis to break charm
snare healthy mob
use tunare's
charm healthy mob
attack nearly dead mob

This was of course the way to do it after they nerfed the dps of charmed pets. I believe that happened around the same time of the xp nerf in PoP though.
Straight up charming and pet hasting may be enough to kill a mob right now.

[Ardenya]

I've been charming frogs in PoS but never in classic so I cant advise you where to go to but this is how it works.

Find an animal and snare it. Always keep your charmed mob snared as you dont want to have a beefed, angry monster running towards at full speed you when charm breaks. Always re-snare at charm break! Pull him to a safe area where you set up your camp. Charm it and put it on guard. Next, buff it with STR and a DS. This will give it an edge against the mob it will be killing.

Now you can go ahead and pull another mob. Get it back to your camp, root it and sic the charmed mob on it. Throw a DoT, gain some distance to have time to react in case charm breaks. As someone has said, you'll need to make damage to get full exp.

I'd advise you to keep the non-charmed mob rooted so you'll have to deal only with your ex-pet should charm break but thats not necessary if you find it to be a mana drain.

As your pet kills the mob its been fighting your next move depends on how many HP it's got left. As you had it buffed up before pulling the other, it should have enough HP to be able to take on another without dying. In that case pull the next mob, have you your pet kill it.

Should your pet have only little HP left, break charm using either invis or hide and take it out. At best, it'll have about 5% left and will be an easy kill but still grant full exp. Whatever happens, you dont want your pet to die to the other mob as you'd lose out on easy exp.

So to sum it up:
1. Get a mob, snare, charm, buff; resnare on charm break!
2. Get another for your pet to fight, root, DoT
3. Break charm, finish off your ex-pet
4. Profit!

It takes some training to be able to pull it off smoothly but its definitly more fun than your usual root/rot. You can play around with pet buffs to see which works best, giving your pet the necessary edge. You'll might even throw a small heal now and then to make sure it survives the fight.

[Nedala]

Buff your charmed pet with your awesome animal-haste buff too!

[Daldaen]

What I do is ensnare -> glamour of tunare (once i get the damn spell) -> charm -> savage spirit.

Pull new mob, snare (ES gloves), terrorize animal, sic pet, drones of doom (ES Vambraces), med.

Most mana efficient way to kill leaving minimal time where i have to sit out and actually med.

[Stumpes]

Quadding specs in oasis and the raptors in td is amazing exp.

[xshayla701]

use tunare's (animal -MR)

What is the full name of this spell and the level? Did not know druids had this..

[Rimson]

Thanks for all the help everyone.

[Mardur]

What is the full name of this spell and the level? Did not know druids had this..

http://lucy.allakhazam.com/spell.html?id=1555&source=Live

[Zapatos]

Try finding a spot with other animals if you can. Just snare+panic animal and sick your pet on em, re-applying fear as you need to. As with charming, always be on guard to have an angry and buffed former pet coming to kill you. And remember to do some damage yourself too!

[parlay1]

Quadding specs in oasis and the raptors in td is amazing exp.

At lvl 41 with 203 wis I still can't do this with specs in Feerot, not sure if thier resists are higher but they still resist quite a bit even after yesterdays "fix".

[Rimson]

I'm trying to charm in everfrost with the mammoths but the charm breaks too soon for me to even do anything. Am I missing something?

Edit: Nvm seems like I have to do it a few times to get it to stick.

Edit again: Charm doesn't seem to last more than one mob. I can usually kill the mob my charmed mob is killing, but it will break shortly after.

Edit 3x: the Charm breaks constantly. I dont see how this is possible.

Edit: Charm Animals: 8.2 minutes @L24 to 20.5 minutes @L65.

Why is this breaking so early for me? I've never had it last more than 3 minutes.

[Rimson]

All this advice must be for high level druids because Charm Animals for me only lasts 2-3 minutes max. There is no way I can level like this. Charm Animal barely lasts a few seconds most of the time.

[shuklak]

at 24, as a shaman, i was trying to solo these mammos in ef tonight too. unfortunately i died and was bound in dagnors cauldron and probably in a death loop lulz...

anyways, i think these mammos have really high resists because even with malaise my roots get a lot of resists and my poison dot is almost a guaranteed 1-3 resists.

[Gaflack]

Does anyone know when Dot Stacking nerf will be removed. Does it happen by Velious or after that. As a root dotting Druid it is just unplayable until they reverse it. If it happens post Velious time to put the Druid to bed.

Gaf

[Messianic]

All this advice must be for high level druids because Charm Animals for me only lasts 2-3 minutes max. There is no way I can level like this. Charm Animal barely lasts a few seconds most of the time.

That's tough, man. Maybe try some mobs that are well below you in terms of level (barely blue, etc)...I found after the resist changes were applied that I needed to be a bit higher than the mobs I was fighting to get my spells to stick consistently.

However, there are more things you can try for now. I say go to Lake of Ill Omen and root-rot barely blue mobs. See how that goes.

Be persistent, I'm sure there are druids out there doing stuff that works :)

[Valius]

Lving a druid at least pre 24 is awful right now, I don't know how much damage creeping crud will tick for but stinging swarm at 13dmg needs to be stuck about 5-6 times depending on the mob early 20's. You could kill it faster meleeing, of course it will kill you doubling for 40's.

I haven't seen charm last over 20 seconds yet.

[Ongbak]

I've been charming frogs in PoS but never in classic so I cant advise you where to go to but this is how it works.

Find an animal and snare it. Always keep your charmed mob snared as you dont want to have a beefed, angry monster running towards at full speed you when charm breaks. Always re-snare at charm break! Pull him to a safe area where you set up your camp. Charm it and put it on guard. Next, buff it with STR and a DS. This will give it an edge against the mob it will be killing.

Now you can go ahead and pull another mob. Get it back to your camp, root it and sic the charmed mob on it. Throw a DoT, gain some distance to have time to react in case charm breaks. As someone has said, you'll need to make damage to get full exp.

I'd advise you to keep the non-charmed mob rooted so you'll have to deal only with your ex-pet should charm break but thats not necessary if you find it to be a mana drain.

As your pet kills the mob its been fighting your next move depends on how many HP it's got left. As you had it buffed up before pulling the other, it should have enough HP to be able to take on another without dying. In that case pull the next mob, have you your pet kill it.

Should your pet have only little HP left, break charm using either invis or hide and take it out. At best, it'll have about 5% left and will be an easy kill but still grant full exp. Whatever happens, you dont want your pet to die to the other mob as you'd lose out on easy exp.

So to sum it up:
1. Get a mob, snare, charm, buff; resnare on charm break!
2. Get another for your pet to fight, root, DoT
3. Break charm, finish off your ex-pet
4. Profit!

It takes some training to be able to pull it off smoothly but its definitly more fun than your usual root/rot. You can play around with pet buffs to see which works best, giving your pet the necessary edge. You'll might even throw a small heal now and then to make sure it survives the fight.

Great advice, but the problem that I had was that sometimes root/charm broke so fast that I waste all my full mana for blue 2 kills. My baby druid is lvl 16, maybe it was because lack of MR debuff? Or just random charm/root effects.

[Ardenya]

Well, I have little to no experience charming pre-PoP so I dont know whether charm works correctly here or not. Usually, charm duration is really unpredictable and random; it may last for the whole duration - but most often will not.

Back on live at 62, using Glamour and Call of Tunare, I remember it being kinda stable at times but I also remember break strikes where I had to reapply charm 3 4 times over a single fight. Glamour itself is 53 spell, thus not for new druids anyway. Root on the other hand is optional, simply to add a little more control over the mobs when charm breaks. Its a technique lended from charming Chanters but considering your mobs are snared and you're SoWed, root is not really needed as you'll be able to outrun them and recharm under most circumstances.

[Valius]

The problem charming at these levels is your mana pool, if it break 4-5 times you probably don't have any mana left to do anything other then run away.

[excalis]

Is this nerf something that stays in place througout Kunark? I recall being able to stack the magic line of spells when I was paying in the Luclin era.

[parlay1]

resist rates are still too high, I have been documenting it in the bug forum. I am sure that is adding to your charm not sticking frustration.

[Kika Maslyaka]

on DoTs:

with accuracy to aprox Kunark/velious time period, the ONLY magical Druid dot that doesn't stack with the rest, is the very 1st you get. All others of them do stack.
And of course your fire dots does stack with any magic dot, but they do not stack with themselves - you still have crap load of dots you can stack on your target by level 50 or so. (more than necros in fact)

I never did charm XPing myself as druid back on live, but Snare+Root+Dot+Dot+Dot + SIT and med - works perfectly. From 30 to 40 there are some amazing dwarves you can kill in Buthtcherblock =)

[Valius]

Currently on the server you can't stack dots like that, only one magic and one fire IE: flame lick + stinging swarm and not flame lick + stinging swarm + creeping crud.

[Gaflack]

on DoTs:

with accuracy to aprox Kunark/velious time period, the ONLY magical Druid dot that doesn't stack with the rest, is the very 1st you get. All others of them do stack.
And of course your fire dots does stack with any magic dot, but they do not stack with themselves - you still have crap load of dots you can stack on your target by level 50 or so. (more than necros in fact)

I never did charm XPing myself as druid back on live, but Snare+Root+Dot+Dot+Dot + SIT and med - works perfectly. From 30 to 40 there are some amazing dwarves you can kill in Buthtcherblock =)

My magic based dots do not stack (51 Druid). I get 1 magic base dot and 1 fire based dot (which gets resisted allot). So root / dotting does not work.

If this nerf (classic or not) gets reversed by Velious then I may stick with the Druid. If it stays this way then it is time to play the overpowered Mage or Enchanter. I would prefer to play the Druid but no dot stacking is a killer.

Gaf

[Valius]

So can someone find some data "proof" showing it didn't work this way during Kunark? Because that's the only way were going to get it reversed.

[Alawen Everywhere]

Winged Death is supposed to stack with any of the other magic dots, and the epic dot is supposed to stack as well, so you could have Winged Death + Drones of Doom (ES vambraces) + epic dot + you could waste mana trying to stick fire dot.

[Polixenes]

http://everquest.allakhazam.com/history/patches.html

Patches from July 2002 - December 2002
Stand Out Occurrences:
- DoT spells cast by different players on an NPC now stack (Sept. 4)

I am fairly sure, but not 100% certain, that this patch change also allowed a single druid's dot spells to stack with each other (other than the fire-based forms which lower AC).

September 2002 post-dates Luclin I believe.

[Chrushev]

Yup luclin was dec 2001 :(

I do remember that patch but I don't think the same patch allowed Druid dots to stack, I think that wascacseparate patch.

As a Druid myself, I agree, it is very hard to solo. I haven't tried charm killing since the last patch that adressed resistances, but prior to that it was impossible.

[Alawen Everywhere]

I'm having some trouble even at 53. Multiple ensnare resists, constant root breaks, even some dot resists, lots of charm breaks. I don't know how to come up with the proof the devs always want of how it's supposed to work.

[Knightmare]

I'm having some trouble even at 53. Multiple ensnare resists, constant root breaks, even some dot resists, lots of charm breaks. I don't know how to come up with the proof the devs always want of how it's supposed to work.

For the 'how it's supposed to work', it can difficult since we don't have access to old coding in every case. But one suggestion would be to take multiple screen shots of it all. Just log in and set a day for fact finding, buff yourself totally and hotkey your SS key and post your results. You may not be able to prove how it 'was' but you can sure prove how it is, and how it's beyond just your imagination and others ranting. Perhaps scan Youtube for old videos. Others can add to your facts and build a body of evidence.

I know this is not 'how it's supposed to be' but unless we post shots and info of just how fubar'd it is, and can show it's way out of control, it comes across as rants without the slightest substantial proof. One such example might be my post on Necromancer threat, it may not be proof, but I can show it isn't just in my head, it's a start anyway, and someone on our end has to make a first move.

The burden of proof sometimes rests on us, the Devs already have their hands full chasing KSers, 2Boxers, code issues, petitions and other such things ;)

Edit: Link to the post. Not to spam it, but for example.
http://www.project1999.org/forums/showthread.php?t=31686

[Gaflack]

Druid play is pretty much toast and from what I have been reading the dot stacking does not change until after Velious = never on this server.

Maybe this is why I played a Cleric and Enchanter back in the day as it was just a pain to play the Druid until they made it so you could stack your own dots on a mob.

So I either start back on one of the other toons (non-Druid) or give up on the server. Classic was fun but they did have lots of play issues that took years to resolve for some classes.

Gaf

[moklianne]

Winged Death is supposed to stack with any of the other magic dots, and the epic dot is supposed to stack as well, so you could have Winged Death + Drones of Doom (ES vambraces) + epic dot + you could waste mana trying to stick fire dot.

This is how I remember it, however I started playing sometime after Luclin was released...

[Chrushev]

I remember going after druid epic like there was no tomorrow BECAUSE the DOT on it stacked with other dots...

[Kaedain]

i think the fact is people are sick of druids and its the "servers" idea of cramping the most over played class in EQ.. time to reroll and try something different apparently

[baalzy]

I always remember hating druids in live because they competed with me for camps and were always farming dungeons while also getting groups whenever they wanted.

Especially halfling druids, but I just hate halflings in general.

[Messianic]

i think the fact is people are sick of druids and its the "servers" idea of cramping the most over played class in EQ.. time to reroll and try something different apparently

Yes, i'm sure Rogean + the devs have decided to use population control on druids. That's exactly what they're doing.

/tinfoil