Druid Armor

[August]

Originally Posted by indiscriminate_hater [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

this doesn't account for resists and other unforeseen events

"I need X mana to do Y Task" - where you determine X by factoring in resists or unforeseen events to stay safe. If it takes you 1400 mana to snare x 4 + nuke x 4 to kill 4 mobs then X does not equal 1400 - it equals 1400 + however much you need to compensate for having to cast 6 times instead of 4 due to resists or an additional aggro.

I guess you can find argument with anything, but fact of the matter is wisdom/mana is way overvalued by most people. Survivability at low levels (AC, HP) is way more important. Mana will come naturally through gear and I'd say the first 500pp should be spent on 2 55hp/5ac rings instead of a RMB for that +5 wisdom.

[Spud]

As JimJam said you will probably want to save your Plat for spells which are expensive early on. Later on you can worry about getting WIS which becomes more important as you level.

Pre-Planar gear suggestions (from the P1999 Druid wiki):

Ears - Jasper Gold Earring
Fingers - Platinum Jasper Ring
Neck - Chrysoberyl Talisman
Head - Savant's Cap, Batfang Headband, Runed Circlet, Nightshade Wreath
Face - Platinum Ruby Veil, Polished Mithril Mask
Chest - Foreman's Tunic, Mithril-Runed Tunic
Arms - Platinum Armband
Back - Mammoth Hide Cloak, Molten Cloak, Kunzar Cloak
Waist - Purity Belt, Reed Belt
Shoulders - Prayer Cloth of Tunare, Braided Ivy Cords, Lizardscale Mantle, Prayer Shawl
Wrists - Runed Mithril Bracer, Chipped Bone Bracelet, Supple Scale Armband
Legs - Gatorscale Leggings
Hands - Split Paw Hide Gloves
Feet - Golden Efreeti Boots, Acolyte's Anklet, Wolf Fur Slippers
Primary - Paw of Opolla, Tainted Battleworn Morning Star
Secondary - Paw of Opolla, Testament of Vanear
Range - Small Wisdom Deity


Q: How do I know how much Mana Wisdom gives me?
A: As a druid you gain .21 more Mana per Wisdom(MpW for short) for every level you have when at or below 200 wisdom. This means that when you are level 10 you get 2.1 MpW and it continues on in a similar pattern for Wisdom totals of 200 or less: 4.2 MpW @ lvl 20, 6.3 MpW @ lvl 30, 8.4 MpW @ lvl 40, 10.5 MpW @ lvl 50, 12.6 MpW @ lvl 60. The exact formula for wisdom of 200 or less is (WIS+10)*level/5. The formula for calculating above Mana at more than 200 wisdom is ( [ 11250 * level ] + [ 33 * WIS * level ] ) / 425.

Q: What is better for my level, + Mana or + Wisdom?
A: Basically, using the above math as a basis, below lvl 25 +Mana will give you stronger returns and have the benefit of being less expensive generally. Once you start leveling into your mid to late 20's the scaling factor of Wisdom will give you much stronger returns. This of course continues until lvl 60, but anything with +Mana in an empty/non-magic equipped slot is definitely a gain.

[GreldorEQ]

Being a new player, it took me a couple of months to go from 1-21 playing a druid. I did not find that more hp really gave me an edge when soloing, but my mana pool certainly did. Whether i had nice cleric buffs or not, my mellee was low, requiring me to rely on spells to finish the job.

This was particularly the case from 10-20. Now, even if i have resolution or hb, i have trouble tanking anything over a blue con.

As others have said, focus on the gear you may hold onto for a long time, like wis rings, earrings, bear hide jerkin, split paw gloves, testament, wis diety. These are items you will likely have for some time while leveling. Dont get me wrong, however you get more mana makes little difference at this point, just dont spend a lot unless its the best you will be able to get til your 50s.

Grelwin, 21 halfling druid

[Xer0]

Originally Posted by GreldorEQ [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Being a new player, it took me a couple of months to go from 1-21 playing a druid. I did not find that more hp really gave me an edge when soloing, but my mana pool certainly did. Whether i had nice cleric buffs or not, my mellee was low, requiring me to rely on spells to finish the job.

This was particularly the case from 10-20. Now, even if i have resolution or hb, i have trouble tanking anything over a blue con.

As others have said, focus on the gear you may hold onto for a long time, like wis rings, earrings, bear hide jerkin, split paw gloves, testament, wis diety. These are items you will likely have for some time while leveling. Dont get me wrong, however you get more mana makes little difference at this point, just dont spend a lot unless its the best you will be able to get til your 50s.

Grelwin, 21 halfling druid

Seriously, anyone who thinks a deep mana pool isn't helpful to newb casters is way over thinking it. Yes, other things might be more beneficial than raw wis at a certain level and in specific proportions, you want to balance your stats so you're utilizing everything thats useful. NamelyWisdom, stamina, mana, hp and maybe charisma if you charm. Sure, there's no way to make your spells more powerful in the way a warrior rogue or monk can by adding strength, but in your attention to the finest detail you've overlooked the simplest of all points

That point? Spells are powerful in and of themselves and the amount of spells you can cast is limited by the amount of mana you have. As a lowbie druid with 0 +wis gear you'll be lucky to get five or six spell casts off before needing a a med break; enough to kill a dark blue-even con mob if you play your cards correctly, assuming no resists, you can have a mob down in less than a minute or two. Now if anything goes wrong (root breaks early, dot resists etc.,)you might find you have trouble maintaining mana to finish your cycle and kill your mob, much less deal with any adds that happen upon you.

The only time you'll ever rely on melee is prior to level 8 ie before you get meditate. After that nothing you can do by auto attacking will outdo a recently learned nuke, damage shield, dot or heal
This is why more mana is always a sort of safety net for druids. All of the very powerful tools at your disposal rely on the very same resource

The more nukes and heals you can toss the better you will fare in every situation.

[webrunner5]

Originally Posted by Jimjam [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Wisdom is nearly useless at low levels.

Just save the plat for spells imho.

Correct. At low level you want Mana items, not Wiz. That does not change till like in the 40's. Then you want Wiz items. After about level 12 a Weapon is a waste of time. Just keep up a low level DD and finish off the mob with it. Raise your 1hand Slashing skill. That is what the Epic is if you are EVER lucky enough to ever get one on here. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[August]

Originally Posted by Xer0 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Seriously, anyone who thinks a deep mana pool isn't helpful to newb casters is way over thinking it. Yes, other things might be more beneficial than raw wis at a certain level and in specific proportions, you want to balance your stats so you're utilizing everything thats useful. NamelyWisdom, stamina, mana, hp and maybe charisma if you charm. Sure, there's no way to make your spells more powerful in the way a warrior rogue or monk can by adding strength, but in your attention to the finest detail you've overlooked the simplest of all points

That point? Spells are powerful in and of themselves and the amount of spells you can cast is limited by the amount of mana you have. As a lowbie druid with 0 +wis gear you'll be lucky to get five or six spell casts off before needing a a med break; enough to kill a dark blue-even con mob if you play your cards correctly, assuming no resists, you can have a mob down in less than a minute or two. Now if anything goes wrong (root breaks early, dot resists etc.,)you might find you have trouble maintaining mana to finish your cycle and kill your mob, much less deal with any adds that happen upon you.

The only time you'll ever rely on melee is prior to level 8 ie before you get meditate. After that nothing you can do by auto attacking will outdo a recently learned nuke, damage shield, dot or heal
This is why more mana is always a sort of safety net for druids. All of the very powerful tools at your disposal rely on the very same resource

The more nukes and heals you can toss the better you will fare in every situation.

More mana only means you can cast more spells if you are hitting FM medding while AFK. It affects only your ability to continue playing from FM->OOM in a single session.

A good way to think about it is imagine you have 1 character with infinite mana and one character with 1000 mana. Start them both off at 0 mana, and let's say that in order to engage a mob you want to have 400 mana.

Both of you med for the same amount of time, and, to be safe, you med to 600 mana.

Then you both go and kill a mob and end up at 200 mana. Now you can't kill another mob because you need at least 400, so you again, med for the same amount of time, get to 600, kill a mob, and you're both down to 200.

in this scenario your 'maximum mana' doesn't mean anything. The only time it would mean something is if you needed 1200 mana to do something and your character with 1k mana can never have that much.

Now, back to my point about medding to full mana - if you afk your character and let it sit for 30 minutes one character will come back to 1k mana, and the ohter will come back to way more. However in the actual game you won't have infinite mana, it might be the difference of 200 mana, so in that timespan between 1000 and 1200 mana the character with more mana is gaining more throughput. This can be negated by the 1000 mana character by immediately killing things once at FM.

Most people think more mana is good because they equate regen to the percentage based ways of WoW and other MMOs. Regen (throughput) is determined by your meditation skill and any clarity buffs you have only. More wisdom will help you in tradeskills, and it will help you for encounters that require a set amount of mana (such as quadding). If you are the type of player that AFK meds and comes back to full mana then more wisdom is absolutely right for you.

[maskedmelon]

Originally Posted by Cecily [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I don't think it's a bad idea to go for nice wisdom items right off the bat. RMBs, Nightshade Wreath, etc. They get better as you level. I try not to gear myself in increments, rather just going for the best or close to the best stuff. In a druid's case, that means stacking as much WIS as possible.

This is actually a fair point because while mana items are vastly superior to wisdom items at level 1, their effectiveness depreciates each level whereas that of the wisdom items appreciates each level until around level 30 when they cross paths and wisdom items become superior. This is all of course considering each relative to the other without a thought to other beneficial stats ^^