New Druid Advice from the experts

[Faywind]

Title says it. Looking for advice on starting a new Druid, have a few questions. I've searched around the forums and have most of my answers.

I will be playing very casually, almost exclusively solo due to unreliable consistent play in a session (lots of afking).

I'm pretty dead set on Human at this point for various reasons so I don't need help there. I've got most of my gear purchased already too for when I start.

I will be doing as much charm killing as I can, not super interested in quadding or root rott/nuke playstyle as I have a wizard for that already.

So my question is, where to put my starting stats? 25wis 5sta? Does it really matter?

When I eventually get to 30, what school should I specialize in?

Finally, should I focus on mainly +WIS gear? Maybe throw in some +hp and +mana?

Thanks in advance.

[kjs86z2]

HP and AC are very important when charming

whats your budget for this char?

make sure you do CT gators as early as you can, and stay there til alley is greened out

https://wiki.project1999.com/Cazic_Thule_Alligator_Pit#Level_32

there are some level ranges where its kinda slim pickins for premium charm spots

overall expect this to be a less-capable-but-safer version of enchanter solo

[bcbrown]

I just rolled a new druid with the same intent of charming as much as possible. Wisdom/mana isn't going to be as important as hp/ac, at least until the upper 30s. I went with guard captain's mallet, sarnak battle shield, bronze statue of bathezid, barbed dragonscale boots, 5/55 rings, 25/35 earrings. I think I went 25 wis/5 sta, (also went human), but I'm not exactly sure.

I did Blackburrow into WK bandits till 17, then EK charming to 26. Did two levels in Mistmoore and now I'm heading to CT. It's worth it to get an EB item for the CT gator pit, and it's worth it to deal with the hassle of learning underwater charming. You'll use those skills when you head to Kedge Keep.

Some advice on charm tactics:

Although you should attempt to break charm so you get full xp on both mobs, sometimes that's hard, like when you get an add right after recovering from a charm break. Don't be afraid to let the pet take 50% occasionally.

You can bring a mob to the guard by the bridge, let him knock it down to low hp, then charm, pull away, break and kill. Also good with griffenes/griffons and the guards in NK.

If your dps (and ac) is good enough, you can also keep a long-lived high green or low blue charm pet while face tanking. I'm using a Silvery Belt of Contention for haste. Keep DS up and use Stinging Swarm to help ensure you outdamage your pet. I started doing this when I was closer to leveling out of EK animals, around 20-22, and then used that against the crag spiders till 26.

At lower levels, snare doesn't always last long enough, but as you get higher, make sure to always keep both your pet and the target snared and the target rooted. That will give you more breathing room on charm breaks.

Use treeform whenever you can. It's a super efficient way to regen health. Treeform + recasting sow is 70 mana, and Healing is 100 health for 60 mana. So whenever you're low on both health and mana and will need to med for more than 20 ticks, swap over to treeform.

Charming in EK (or oasis) shouldn't be too hard to get the hang of, but charming in CT can be trickier to get the hang of. I'm happy to come along ingame and give some advice and support when you're trying to learn the zone.

[WarpathEQ]

General rule of thumb is if you're playing casual you should allocate stats in line with the wiki class page recommendation. If you're min maxing for full BIS gear then max stamina is almost always the answer for starting stats.

and sure enough after typing the above I went to the druid page and found it covered the question spot on:
"Wisdom is the best attribute for Druids and recommended for new players. With end-game gear it is possible to cap Wisdom at 255 with any race. At that point starting points invested into Wisdom are useless outside of corpse runs. This is why 25 Stamina is a better choice for minmax end-game play. The last 5 points are inconsequential."

Pretty similar answer applies to specializations. If you're playing casually then you can let you're specializations handle themselves, you'll naturally max specialize in the thing you cast the most. If you're on the path to be a min/max BIS raider than the wiki also covers this, but spoiler alert its alteration which covers your ports and buffs. It looks like in your case you're already going to be heading down the alteration path as your charms also fit in that category.

[Faywind]

Very much appreciate the responses. Budget is 5k.

Appreciate the tips guys! Very excited to start this new character. I tend to level more on the slow side. I prefer not to rush.

Looking forward to seeing you all in game!

[loramin]

Very much appreciate the responses. Budget is 5k.

Appreciate the tips guys! Very excited to start this new character. I tend to level more on the slow side. I prefer not to rush.

Looking forward to seeing you all in game!

You might find https://wiki.project1999.com/Equipping_a_Druid helpful, but for that budget I'd just save up a k or 2 more and drop it all on the Goblin Ghazughi ring. It won't help for the first 20 or so levels, but after that you can charm for great XP ... and the XP is even greater with the ring.

[kjs86z2]

id much rather have a bigger hp pool and more az than gobby ring

not hard to break w/ invis

[loramin]

id much rather have a bigger hp pool and more az than gobby ring

not hard to break w/ invis

I completely disagree.

More maxes won't help you kill anything faster: they just give the illusion of safety. In contrast, the ring lets you break charm instantly. That means when the mob is at much lower health (vs. invis) ... and that does help you kill (noticably) faster.

[PatChapp]

The key to breaking without an instant click is to root the other mob and back your pet out of the fight. You can back it out at very low % reliably this way.
If you start reverse charming,like works well in the bear pits the ring becomes more useful..
One of the best parts for druids is that in places like gator alley it works as a free invis clicky. Very handy for that

[loramin]

Root takes time and mana, and also Druid root can accidentally kill the mob before charm breaks. Ring is instant, mana-free, and will never kill anything.

There is a reason everyone does that same miserable camp for hours on end, or else pays thousands of plat (pre-60, when plat is much harder to obtain): it's because the ring is really good.

[bcbrown]

The goblin ring is clearly really good and if you choose to start with that and nothing else, you'll have a great time charming on the druid. But I'd have to agree with Toxigen and PatChapp that I'd rather have the gear. I took a druid to 60 charming as much as possible, and I've never had a goblin ring. Maybe I don't know what I'm missing, but it never seemed that hard to cast invis and have them break at the 10-15% range. 5% is obviously better, but 15% is still pretty good. ~300 hp and ~150 ac is going to turn charm breaks that would kill you into charm breaks where you have to gate, and charm breaks where you have to gate into charm breaks you can ride out. Regeneration gives you efficient healing, but you need a sufficient safety margin to rely on it.

Here's an example gear list that's pretty close to what I'm actually using right now as a charming druid (28, at CT gator pit):

Gatorscale Leggings 400
barbed dragonscale boots 1200
Tree Weave/Shroud of Nature 300
Crystal Chitin Armplates 600
Crystal Chitin Gauntlets 400
2x Chipped Bone Bracelet 2x100
Prayer Cloth of Tunare (easy to get in crushbone)
Swiftclaw Sash or Reed Belt 500
Dire Wolf-Hide Cloak 600
Nathsar Vambraces 200
Neck: quest the tunare root clicky
jasper gold earrings 2x30
Platinum Ruby Veil/Bone Mask of the Jarsath 300
Othmir Fur Cap 50
Guard Captain`s Mallet 600
Sarnak Battle Shield 500
bronze statue of bathezid 500
5/55 rings 2x250

That's about 7k, but with a couple of subsitutions it's easy to bring below 5k:

Small Wisdom Deity 50 -450
Dwarven Work Boots 100 -1100
Onyx Drakescale Cloak 75 -525

I think either option is a valid choice, but I'm leveling my third druid now and I prefer the gear to the ring.

[maddysinko]

For stats, 25 WIS and 5 STA works well for charm killing. You’ll get good mana and healing without sacrificing too much health.
At 30, go with Conjuration or Alteration, both are great for your playstyle.
Focus on +WIS gear, but add some +HP and +Mana for extra survivability and longer sessions.

[Faywind]

I'm glad that not getting that ring isn't going to really bite me in the ass, I was second guessing myself on buying gear. Also I still didn't have enough for it so the choice was pretty much made for me.

I went Human Druid of Tunare. Love the Surefall glade starting area. Did 25 wis and 5 sta as well. He is currently level 9 in Blackburrow, having a blast. Harmony is such a useful thing to have so early on in the game.

Notable items I got for myself (have 1k left to spend) include some things I just wanted because it looks really cool:

Brown chitin protector, black chiitn legs, golden efreeti boots, CC arms, CC circlet, CC gauntlets, 5/55 ac hp rings, crystalline belt, rygorr cloak, runed mithril bracers, and of course a glowing stone band for running around at night.

I still need shoulders, face, earrings and neck. I have 1k left for those but not in a rush.

Oh, forgot the best part! Rygorr shield as secondary, cool looking shield and my favorite item i got him was the Oakleaf Scimitar. He looks really cool, might be mistaken for a cleric as he looks like wearing full plate.

Anyways, really appreciate all the advice on this topic.

Cheers!

[Goregasmic]

General rule of thumb is if you're playing casual you should allocate stats in line with the wiki class page recommendation. If you're min maxing for full BIS gear then max stamina is almost always the answer for starting stats.

and sure enough after typing the above I went to the druid page and found it covered the question spot on:
"Wisdom is the best attribute for Druids and recommended for new players. With end-game gear it is possible to cap Wisdom at 255 with any race. At that point starting points invested into Wisdom are useless outside of corpse runs. This is why 25 Stamina is a better choice for minmax end-game play. The last 5 points are inconsequential."

Pretty similar answer applies to specializations. If you're playing casually then you can let you're specializations handle themselves, you'll naturally max specialize in the thing you cast the most. If you're on the path to be a min/max BIS raider than the wiki also covers this, but spoiler alert its alteration which covers your ports and buffs. It looks like in your case you're already going to be heading down the alteration path as your charms also fit in that category.

Unless melee I personally prefere going all out main stat. Not sure for druids but pure casters going all sta gives you like 55hp. You're much better off getting 25int/wis (or cha for ench) then swapping main stat gear for +hp/resists in my opinion. Plenty of gear with ~50hp but not much with +25 main stat. It is a bit against the grain but makes more sense to me.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

The goblin ring is clearly really good and if you choose to start with that and nothing else, you'll have a great time charming on the druid. But I'd have to agree with Toxigen and PatChapp that I'd rather have the gear. I took a druid to 60 charming as much as possible, and I've never had a goblin ring. Maybe I don't know what I'm missing, but it never seemed that hard to cast invis and have them break at the 10-15% range. 5% is obviously better, but 15% is still pretty good. ~300 hp and ~150 ac is going to turn charm breaks that would kill you into charm breaks where you have to gate, and charm breaks where you have to gate into charm breaks you can ride out. Regeneration gives you efficient healing, but you need a sufficient safety margin to rely on it.

Here's an example gear list that's pretty close to what I'm actually using right now as a charming druid (28, at CT gator pit):

Gatorscale Leggings 400
barbed dragonscale boots 1200
Tree Weave/Shroud of Nature 300
Crystal Chitin Armplates 600
Crystal Chitin Gauntlets 400
2x Chipped Bone Bracelet 2x100
Prayer Cloth of Tunare (easy to get in crushbone)
Swiftclaw Sash or Reed Belt 500
Dire Wolf-Hide Cloak 600
Nathsar Vambraces 200
Neck: quest the tunare root clicky
jasper gold earrings 2x30
Platinum Ruby Veil/Bone Mask of the Jarsath 300
Othmir Fur Cap 50
Guard Captain`s Mallet 600
Sarnak Battle Shield 500
bronze statue of bathezid 500
5/55 rings 2x250

That's about 7k, but with a couple of subsitutions it's easy to bring below 5k:

Small Wisdom Deity 50 -450
Dwarven Work Boots 100 -1100
Onyx Drakescale Cloak 75 -525

I think either option is a valid choice, but I'm leveling my third druid now and I prefer the gear to the ring.

Main benefit to goblin ring is the spell slot and mana it saves, so it depends on your class as to how much you end up enjoying it. I love goblin ring on my Enchanter, as I always have too many spells and not enough spell slots. It's a pain to swap spells mid battle. I don't care too much about the instant cast. Will probably swap it with a Ring of Stealthy Travel evenrually so I don't need to mem invis, and I can still break charms pretty quick.

Haven't played a Druid beyond using guild bots for ports, so I can't say for certain how painful spell slots are for Druids.

I will say that I wouldn't want goblin ring and nothing else to start as a caster. At minimum you want the easy +HP items like 6/65 Rings for leveling. Some Wis/Int/Mana gear is nice in the beginning too due to fizzles eating a lot of mana. That was a problem on my Enchanter when I was wearing the Kobold Jester Crown, which lowers INT.

That being said I wouldn't overspend on stat gear either. Clickies usually have more value than individual stat pieces, and you quickly can get to the point where you are spending thousands of plat for a generally irrelevant small boost.

[Goregasmic]

The gobby ring is a VERY NICE QOL item but not mandatory. You could do without but having to swap invis in is annoying and your timing will be off sometimes so you'll lose mob or have to cast an extra nuke. Nothing critical.

At level 10, 1 wisdom gives you like 2 mana and at 20 like 3 mana. So early on a 6wis piece gives you like 12mana. For the first like, 40 levels you're probably better off with a platinum tiara and a platinum dragon totem than an othmir fur cap and a sarnak battle shield since the return on sta/wis is nearly insignificant at first. I can understand not wishing to swap all your gear at 40 though and just go straight wis right off the bat.

IIRC wis casters don't really have nice cheap hand slots so SCHW + that GCM is a good choice for a while. I did something similar on my cleric and enjoyed it. If you have more budget something like a skyfury scimitar will last you a long time.

[bcbrown]

At level 10, 1 wisdom gives you like 2 mana and at 20 like 3 mana. So early on a 6wis piece gives you like 12mana. For the first like, 40 levels you're probably better off with a platinum tiara and a platinum dragon totem than an othmir fur cap and a sarnak battle shield since the return on sta/wis is nearly insignificant at first. I can understand not wishing to swap all your gear at 40 though and just go straight wis right off the bat.

IIRC wis casters don't really have nice cheap hand slots so SCHW + that GCM is a good choice for a while. I did something similar on my cleric and enjoyed it. If you have more budget something like a skyfury scimitar will last you a long time.

Good point about the minimal gains from stats at early levels. One important benefit from something like the shield, though, is the hefty AC bump. If you're charming you're getting hit a lot, and the survivability with good AC is noticeable. For the hand slot OP went with Crystal Chitin, which is my favorite starting item for almost any class that can use it. The AC is fantastic, the raw mana speaks to your point about minimal value of stat gains, and the extra strength is a nice cherry on top.

[spoil]

I almost exclusively charmed on my druid to I think level 51. And you can't overestimate the value of a GGR, it makes you a lot more efficient. But you can live without it. Make sure to have pet commands on a socials button so you can /pet back off as you're channeling invis if either mob is too close to death. Should have that set up anyways, but especially without a GGR for instant break. Also Lumi staff is very useful even if you're not quadding for the free ~200 damage nuke. I also like the convenience of a gobby earring and not needing a target in range, but don't forget the star of eyes is a free GCD clicky.

[kjs86z2]

Root takes time and mana, and also Druid root can accidentally kill the mob before charm breaks. Ring is instant, mana-free, and will never kill anything.

There is a reason everyone does that same miserable camp for hours on end, or else pays thousands of plat (pre-60, when plat is much harder to obtain): it's because the ring is really good.

i leveled / played both enc and druid 1-60 and at 60 extensively and never once clicked a gobby ring

QoL? absolutely

It never would have saved me in tight spots though and he is on a budget. I'd much rather have clicky wrist for free DoT than gobby.

[bcbrown]

I still need shoulders, face, earrings and neck. I have 1k left for those but not in a rush.

The Tunare root clicky neck is definitely worth questing. The cast time is long enough to make it not super convenient, but it's still situationally exceptional. Even at 60 I still occasionally useful. I keep my longest-timed root up, and on root breaks in cramped spaces I'll root my former pet, then override with the root clicky so it'll break sooner before re-charming.

For shoulders, the Prayer Cloth of Tunare is super easy to get with a couple levels in Crushbone. If you're not interested in leveling there I've got one gathering dust in the bank I'd be happy to give you (on green).

For earrings, jasper gold earrings are 30pp and are kinda whatever; they'll take you to 50 no prob. An Earring of Woven Bark is a good longterm goal. For face I like Platinum Ruby Veil but there's several other good options.

[Goregasmic]

The Tunare root clicky neck is definitely worth questing. The cast time is long enough to make it not super convenient, but it's still situationally exceptional. Even at 60 I still occasionally useful. I keep my longest-timed root up, and on root breaks in cramped spaces I'll root my former pet, then override with the root clicky so it'll break sooner before re-charming.

I knew the mechanic but never thought about breaking a long root with a shorter root to save time, I feel dumb now. I usually used dispell to reposition but that means you can't debuff until final position.

[loramin]

Main benefit to goblin ring is the spell slot and mana it saves

Wow, I haven't seen a "DSM says something completely wrong, with total confidence" hot take in a while ;)

The main benefit of the ring has nothing to do with the spell slot or saving invis mana! Maybe Enchanters care about the slots, but a leveling Druid needs only 4-5 spells to charm fight. As for the mana ...

When a charmed pet is fighting a non-charmed mob, you want to break charm when both are as close to 1% as possible. This lets you finish them off with a small nuke, root, or even melee, instead of a more expensive nuke.

But when you cast invis to break root, you have a three-second delay between wanting to break charm and getting to. Break too early, and both mobs will require more mana to kill. Wait too long, and you'll lose either 50% or 100% of the XP (depending on which mob dies first). Oh, and spells can also fizzle or be interrupted (especially in popular underwater charm spots like the CZ Alligator pit, Kedge, or Siren's Grotto). Even if you are cautious and break super early, you can still fail to break in time.

The ring's power is not about saving invis mana, it's about saving mana on the (far more expensive) nukes you have to cast at the end of the fight (ideally to the point where you don't even have to cast one). But even more importantly, it's about ensuring you always get 100% XP from both mobs you fight: never losing 50/100% XP from kills is a big deal.

[spoil]

It's a super item, too bad it's relatively expensive for most players because nobody wants to do the camp.

[kjs86z2]

Its QoL and nothing more, especially on a budget.

I'd rather have a velious bracer any day.

[spoil]

ES bracer is like 500 plat?