Updated Druid Guide?

[NenshouStar]

it's been awhile since i have started a thread.
and happy to see a bunch of new players running amok.
alot of naked druids lol. which did infact get me thinking..
i was doing a bit of looking around and whatnot, havent seen much to reassure
the choice of playing a new druid other then utility, ease of travel.. basically shooting the shit. enjoying the world of norrath.. sounds cool right? i know.

but with all of the recent true to live nerfs'
i'm wondering what exactly Druid life is like today.
both grouped and solo. who's gonna be the one to rewrite the book?
:p

[Snaggles]

I'm always a fan of a nicely written guide :).

Truth is what's the incentive to pick any class besides the necessity to pick something? There is good and bad to them all and anyone who says otherwise is smoking something special. :D

The way I see it there is a big graph from specialized to general. The more specialized the class, the better it works in a specific/ideal role. The more general the class, the more it can adapt to the situation or even fill shoes of others if the team is well synced.

Druid's seldom fall flat on their faces but are overshadowed by some healers and dps. They still solo or fill those group roles better than "battle clerics" and heal better than "necro clerics" though.

Ports, sow, harmony, track, regen, thorns, dots, dd's, aoe's...they are great as far as I'm concerned and only get better.

End game raiding in Velious they will be buff-bots and backup healers but keeping rogues/monks alive is pretty dang important.

[Vondra]

The reason to play a druid is to skip a lot of the inconveniences of the game others have to deal with regarding travel. Also to a lesser extent, grouping. If you want a character people want to group with though, expect that to die out by level 40 or so unless you're being invited by friends or a more desirable class to invite isn't around.

One of the best first characters for a player on the server though. You don't need expensive gear to do your thing and you'll be able to get some cash together selling ports. Early on it's extremely nice to be able to just check out different areas in your range easily through porting, to find a group.

Later when you probably start a new character, you'll have some reasonable cash going for twinking. If you leveled them high enough, you can sell Power leveling as well which is good money and easy. Of course, being able to login to your druid to port some groupmate closer to your dungeon or to conveniently buy/sell in EC is great too.

The biggest thing that hurts druids is the existence of the shaman class. Starting at mid level people are going to want a cleric in the group. When they want a 2nd priest class, it's the shaman. Shaman has basically the same heals as you, better buffs for the group, SLOW (which by itself, is better than the entire druid class, honestly), does more dps than a druid because of their pet and the fact that cannibalize lets them regen mana quickly, and you can't even be invited for SoW because shaman have that too. It's a really bad class to be competing with because they're probably the most powerful and complete overall class in EQ.

Meanwhile druids get...damage shield, an ability that is semi useful early on and just becomes less and less effective as you rise in level. They do get harmony, which is extremely effective being a risk free area lull ensuring nearly everything can be an effort free single pull if you want to bother. Unfortunately it only works outdoors. Ensnare which you get at 29 can see use throughout the game as well, slowing movement speed for something like 7 minutes. In an area where you've got some room (especially if you can SoW there), it's no problem to CC lots of melee mobs by just ensnaring them for your group and running in circles for a while while the group picks them off one at a time.

Summary: Great first class, plan on making an alt later.

[Waffen]

Summary: Great first class, plan on making an alt later.

pretty much hits the nail on the head. a shaman will 9 times out of 10 be picked in a group over a druid(30+ plus at least) but i've found if you try forming a group yourself, or you + a tank/dps friend, it's a lot easier to get the ball rolling. my main is a druid(lvl 46) and porting/having sow infinitely cast on you throughout your toons life is pretty awesome. you'll also pick up the ability to quad at lvl 34 when you get your aoe spell, lightning strike, and the experience is pretty damn good. good enough to let you solo all the way to 60 if you wanted to(although i get bored and often seek groups).

TL;DR great utility, not too hard to find groups, quad solo 34-60 -_-

[Zapatos]

The druid is a great to play if you want to explore the world of EQ for casual play. It's been said before, but you've got ports, spirit of wolf, snares, roots, tracking(!), dots, nukes and heals. At least for the outdoors, you can move freely as you want. Even if you manage to die, you won't have any issue retrieving your corpse.

It's also a really good first class to have if you plan on switching to another class. You'll be able to easily solo most camps you'd want to gear up a second character, or as already said, make plenty of platinum through doing ports. Those can go as low as 20p a person usally, up to 100p or or so if you're set up around the higher end dungons (Karnor's is a prime spot with people wanting to go to the emerald jungle). Or if you go to more difficult areas to travel to (or happen to have people that need to get to their guild raid FAST) you'll find people offering more crazy amounts in the hundreds of plat. (I've even gotten a cloak of shadows for a port!)\

Everything I've said just goes along with what was said above though.. "Great first class, plan on making an alt later"

[Roanoke]

My experience with a Druid as my first character here on P99 has been a bitter-sweet one. As others have stated before, Druids offer a huge range of utility for support in a group setting, and have no trouble soloing when you feel like it. However, in a group setting a shaman becomes a more viable option (don't be disillusioned about this though, shamans are just as much a buff-bot/support healer class as Druids, there are just more cases where they are better at it). On the other hand, Druids make for a better solo class, are not restricted to large races, and have wide access to the entire world

Something to consider as stated before; Druids can be a money making machine. Starting from scratch with a Druid was one of the better decisions I could have made. I generally play with a full group of IRL friends, so in that case I won't ever have a problem getting group exp (thanks bro's if you read this :P ) but the amount of plat I have made in comparison to my friends is astounding. My Druid was fully decked out with pre-planar gear by level 34. If you do it right, on high population days you can easily make 1-2kpp a day casually porting people. On top of that you end up networking with the server population and meet some great people (and some not so-great people, unfortunately).

In my experience of having class ADD, you need to play the class that you WANT to play. At the end of the day, you can be making tons of plat and be a good asset to your group but if you aren't enjoying it then you have made the wrong choice. Play a Druid because you want to play one, and for no other reason than that. That goes for any class, regardless of their perceived usefulness.

[LaZZer010]

Waffen touched on this subject but I feel it needs to be highlighted a bit. . .

Right smack-dab in your mid 30's just when your shaman counterpart becomes more viable for a group you are blessed by Tunare with the awe inspiring spell; Lightnin Strike (http://wiki.project1999.org/index.php/Lightning_Strike). This wonder of divine magic allows you to up your kite to a quartet.

It's a simple and yet hauntingly effective strategy:
-Find four mobs and (en)snare them all.
-Round them up nice and tight buy running around them in a circle.
-Open the sky and call lightning from the heavens to to fell your pursuers.

See, Lightning Strike on a single target is a terrible waste of mana but, hit four mobs (the maximum it will affect) with it at once and it's the fastest and most effective way to solo. So, don't let all this Shaman talk defer you from a wonderful class. If you like to be able to assist a group but still enjoy the freedom of soloing I implore you to join the Soldiers of Tunare.

Here's an old post from the Druid's Grove with locations to quad kite. While a bit dated, the information is more than apt for our server.
Quad Kiting: Locations (http://www.thedruidsgrove.org/archive/eq/t-3947.html)

[Kevlar]

Charm is way more efficient than quadding. Especially in zones where there are enough animals to charm + fear kite. East Karana, Oasis, Lake of Ill Omen, Everfrost peaks, Overthere, Emerald Jungle, Traks Teeth, Timorous deep.

You can pretty much clear out wisp Island with a charmed shark, and there are 3 spawns so you should never run out of pets. Griffenes can take out hill giants pretty fast if you snare/dot kite and keep em off your pet. Wish there were more hill giant spawns in North Karana. Kodiaks make good pets in west commons for killing dervs, though the wizards and thugs will put a hurt on them.

[aresprophet]

Charm is way more efficient than quadding. Especially in zones where there are enough animals to charm + fear kite. East Karana, Oasis, Lake of Ill Omen, Everfrost peaks, Overthere, Emerald Jungle, Traks Teeth, Timorous deep.

You can pretty much clear out wisp Island with a charmed shark, and there are 3 spawns so you should never run out of pets. Griffenes can take out hill giants pretty fast if you snare/dot kite and keep em off your pet. Wish there were more hill giant spawns in North Karana. Kodiaks make good pets in west commons for killing dervs, though the wizards and thugs will put a hurt on them.

Quadding is good, reliable exp with long periods of downtime in which you can watch TV, browse the intertubes, do chores, etc.

Charming is dangerous, unreliable, prone to streaks of bad luck, attention-intensive, and at its worst will still be faster exp than quadding.

You also have a lot more viable options for charming, as quadding is limited to areas with static identical spawns (SK gnolls, spectres, TD raptors) and charming can be done in any zone with animals. Quadding at 34 can be tricky without a great gear set, while charming takes very little mana (on a good run).