Re-Noob'd; will I regret being Druid?

[Krait]

As a copy of titanium makes its way to my mailbox I've been doing some reading about the classes. I played a Ranger and a Rogue back in 1999 but never made it to the level cap on either.

Here are a few things I'd like to be able to do, in the order I care about them:

1 - I'd like to be able to solo when I feel like it.

2 - I like to be able to get around quickly and explore the world.

3 - While I don't expect to be hardcore in endgame I don't want to lock myself out of endgame content if I happened to fall in with a great group of players.

4 - I have a strange nostalgic desire to fall off the tree platforms and not be able to find my corpse in the dark like I did when I first started playing, that and get run over by trains in the Orc area near there.


With all that in mind I'm leaning towards a Wood Elf Druid. Considerations included Shaman, Wizard, and Bard.

Anything I'll regret about being a Druid? Any other options I should consider?

Thanks,
-Krait

[soup]

Druids are pretty gimped right now IMO. If you're going to play a druid, the desire to port around needs to be VERY important to you. Druids are basically a very nerfed shaman that can port and quad kite.

My first character I leveled here was a druid actually. While I did have a lot of fun with that character and don't regret it, I am very very glad I am not playing a druid now.

[Nocte]

As a copy of titanium makes its way to my mailbox I've been doing some reading about the classes. I played a Ranger and a Rogue back in 1999 but never made it to the level cap on either.

Here are a few things I'd like to be able to do, in the order I care about them:

1 - I'd like to be able to solo when I feel like it.

2 - I like to be able to get around quickly and explore the world.

3 - While I don't expect to be hardcore in endgame I don't want to lock myself out of endgame content if I happened to fall in with a great group of players.

4 - I have a strange nostalgic desire to fall off the tree platforms and not be able to find my corpse in the dark like I did when I first started playing, that and get run over by trains in the Orc area near there.



1. Fine
2. Fine
3. Not gonna happen on a druid.
4. meh

Roll wizard.

[bakkily]

druids are a nerfed shaman? c'mon, we just have a few of the same things as a druid, but do a hell of alot better, group wise, they just own us a lil in the solo area, thats it

[Stormhowl]

1 - I'd like to be able to solo when I feel like it.

2 - I like to be able to get around quickly and explore the world.

If these two are the things you most care about, then you cannot go wrong with a Druid. They're powerful soloers with Kiting, Root Rot, and Quad Kiting all being options, and between SoW, Invis, and Teleports you'll get around quickly and safely.

Anything I'll regret about being a Druid? Any other options I should consider?

Being asked to heal in a party. Trying to heal in the 14-18, 24-28, and the later level ranges prior to getting Superior Healing, when your heals are nearly 10 levels behind a clerics sucks, and you won't be able to keep up with the damage output at those levels to keep the group up during a big fight. And you will be asked to heal, I don't think there's anyway to avoid it... outside of soloing, which is what I've been doing. :/

People also say Druids aren't very group friendly at higher levels but I'd know nothing about that. /shrug

Outside of that, I can't think of a reason to regret being a druid.

[Krait]

Thanks for all the replies.

Wizard aye? Don't they have similar end game issues or is that similar wizard thread full of it?

-Krait

[Ennoia]

druids are a nerfed shaman? c'mon, we just have a few of the same things as a druid, but do a hell of alot better, group wise, they just own us a lil in the solo area, thats it

Once you start only fighting mobs that summon Shaman blows Druid out of the water thanks to slows and their pet.

[Kika Maslyaka]

until druids get their dot stacking in late Velious era - they are indeed VERY gimp... :(

[Lonald]

At least winged death stacks with drones.....but that will take awhile lol.

[Krait]

until druids get their dot stacking in late Velious era - they are indeed VERY gimp... :(

Well now I'm a little worried.

If I go Shaman how much worse is it getting around without portals? And how awful is playing a hated race?

[citizen1080]

Wizards are OP in kunark iirc...def more rare than druids.

[citizen1080]

Once you hit 30~ you get invis as a shaman...pretty much solves any evil race issues.

Personally tho..id say go sham or wizzy.

But honestly play what you wanna play...other wise your not gonna enjoy it. You will still get groups as a druid and the porting is a huge time saver and good way to make some scratch if its your first toon here and cant afford spells/gear etc. However this applies to wizard as well.

[Deadmantis]

I played a wood elf druid as my first char back in 1999 and I never had any regrets. I only got to lvl 65 before I stopped playing on the live servers but I had lots of fun till then. You do get some decent heal spells at higher levels but yes you will struggle as a group healer for a time as Stormhowl mentioned.

Just get used to the fact that you will never be as good a healer as a cleric, as good a buffer as a shaman, as good at direct damage as a wiz, and so on. You will be quite useful in many groups and raids but you won't be in demand like those other classes. You will find that you can solo, or better yet duo with some other classes quite well when the groups and raids aren't calling on you.

You get ports, sow, camo, dots, heals, regen, damage shields, water breathing, levitation, tracking, charm animal, snare, root, str buffs, resist buffs, and skin protection buffs plus other stuff I can't think of right now.

Just go with what you think will be the most fun for what you want to do in the game.

Good luck!

[Stormhowl]

until druids get their dot stacking in late Velious era - they are indeed VERY gimp... :(

Oh please, it's not that bad. Except for levels 24-28 and above level 56 when the Shaman gets Bane of Nife, the Druid has more efficient, stronger, and less resistable (-100 resist mod on Stinging Swarm line), than any of the Shaman's spells, and I see plenty of us soloing and Root Rotting when necessary.

Druids got it easy in the DoT department, and they don't have those pesky Poison / Disease counters to jack up their aggro either. :P

[Rhambuk]

Being a shaman is pretty good. You're a solo beast at 60 with slow canni and torpor you're a pretty good tank, get a JBB and a barb spiritist hammer if you go barb or a blight or howling harpoon/shield there are great melee weaps and its definitely an option.

getting around isn't bad at 9 you get sow later cheetah and scale of wolf at 51 or 52 and you're cruising. I was evil up to 52 and never had any real issues, if anything it was better because I didn't have to worry about faction and was able to solo guards in inner cities like wfp though a lot of people do ogre guards.

groups and raids always want a shammy where a druid can have problems from time to time.

[vossiewulf]

If you want a good solo class go necro. Necro in outdoor zone = solo yellow mobs np, and quickly. Self healing and reasonably decent self clarity are bonuses also.

[bakkily]

seems you want to play a caster, i hardly and rarely play arcane magic classes, or cloth wearing ones

ive messed around with a necro and mage, thats it

mage, can solo pretty well, mainly depends on pets at the lower lvls for dmg, i got a mage from 1-20 being geared with 1k in plat, was a dark elf, and lvld him to 20 in about a week and a half solo, but i stuck around the ec area for c, sow and chloro

the enchanter, my younger brother always played this class, anyways, they deal with alot of managing the agro with mezzing stuff, as far as dmg they have some nukes, this class i know very little about, but can make a shit ton of cash later in the game with jewlry

necro, id say one of the near best soloers, gets nice dots, nice utility of self healing, healing others slowly, and fd at a higher lvl, but gets away with lvling fast solo wise, if you know the right spots

wizard, nukes, at the lower lvls, may be a bit slow to lvl up, but ive noticed with higher lvl ones, they get crazy aoe nukes, aoe root, and can solo quite well, i know very little about the class

druids, they dont get sow till 14, good healer, can port around starting at a lower lvl, can id say solo at lvl 19 much easier then a shaman

shamans, my favorite class, theres been some nerfing for spells, ive lvld two shamans to the 50 range, first was a barb, back then i lvld this guy quite fast, certain spells behaved diffrently then it should've in classic, like fury for isntance, so i could solo really easily, lvl 19 dots did much more dps then

but now after some spell nerfs, the lvl 19 dots dont do that great of dmg, when i made my iksar shaman, lvling was slow since the changes made me have to be group dependable, but its nice we get sow at lvl 9, and as long as you stick to the places where people like to group, youll lvl quite fast, 19 dots can do ok dps, but i wasnt able to solo that well till 24 with canni and regen, and at lvl 29 could actually solo, but i did the mm snout quest, and lvld 14-34 doing those trade ins from only 6 hours of farming those things, so i got the lvls quickily

but having a pet is worth it, and the shamans absolutly a fun lvl, i played barb and iksar, the iksar is nice for having extra ac, but i still get hit pretty hard having not that much health, if i had to choose, id go back to my barbarian, i miss bash, and a few other things, or if you want a tougher shaman, go ogre, but i hate the ogre/troll races, yuk, but play what you want to, if you decide the shaman and based on race i can tell you some places to lvl at to quickily lvl your toon, theres not so many lvl 40's lately

[Krait]

Game finally arrived and rolled three characters:

Wood Elf Druid
Dark Elf Wizard
Troll Shaman

Now to try to figure out which one I want to spend most of my time on. I'm assuming you never get a good idea on a toon until it's too late but is lvl 20 on a each enough to figure out my favorite of the three?

[nagarpoe]

Krait, i think you should take this more of a fun re-adventure. I know tons of people focus on which class/combo is best but just have fun with this game.

with that said, i think you should choose troll shaman, :P.