Updated Druid Guide?

[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.