Hiya folks, i'm looking to make a priest class to mess around with. Which one will have the easiest time moloing up to the higher levels when grouping is more available? Thanks!
Shaman or druid, clerics require up to date equipment. Between shaman and druid, I'd say shaman, due to the fact that they have less down time, so more kills over time. You can also use a mercenary tank in certain zones where monsters receive full slow.
I have never played a priest class solo but over the years I have known more druids out of the three to be able to solo well. They can pull, port, nuke, dot, heal and evac if needed. Shaman would come in second but I don't know if they have any pulling tools like a druid does? Clerics can do well if going up against undead (a battle cleric) but that would significantly limit the type of mobs they could gain reasonable xp against. Between the three clerics probably would hold up the best if they wanted to tank or at least they can take hits better. With some stacked damage shields and an invulnerable state I imagine they could do some quasi swarming but it would not be anything like an sk's ability.
The issue with druids is that their down time is so high. Shamans do have problems with pulling in tight corners but because neither class is going to be doing much by themselves in dungeons, it doesn't matter. Most open areas make it easy to pull single.
as a long time shaman, I'm partial to the shaman, (ive never played a druid) as far as pulling tools, root (spell), violent paralysis, and other aa root various means of rooting multiple mobs assuming they are not immune to runspeed changes. as long as you don't need to use it on every pull you can fd pull with inconspicuous totem. once in a while and sky fd ring if you want to go get it. you can use companion of necessity and or other tools along with some backyard engineering to sometimes split mobs if you think outside the box sometimes you can do some cool stuff. once you have your pet aa's (and some pet gear) dog dog is beefy enough to off tank for you if needed. again with appropriate aa's and current for your content gear, you can get in the face of trash mobs if needed. learning to root rot/dot effectively will be your bread and butter moloing/soloing for xp. while some find it boring it doesn't have to be. if your bored then your not trying to lock down enough mobs. (you also need to be aware of what items are proc'ing any direct damage from items or spells can break root) if your bored rooting pull up a cleric merc and go bash stuff, if you desire a little less hands on put away the cleric and pull up tank merc. your options are pretty much endless. I don't remember what expansion slow started getting mitigated on but now everything is partially resistant to slows. it still helps but its not been a show stopper for a long time. If I understand the current state of the priest classes correctly, druids are probably still a bit better dps wise. but I'm of the opinion that shaman just bring so much versatility to the table that I wouldn't consider anything else. (but I'm admittedly biased) while the shaman isn't the "the best" at anything it can still do a little bit of everything. although I wouldn't recommend at the moment getting in the face of any Ros named they are just mean.
It's been a long time since I've hit up the lower levels, but higher lvl shaman pets are $ for moloing. doggo can tank any non-named in game with either me or a merc healer (obviously, this takes a significant AA investment). as far as pulling in tight spaces, it's not overly difficult if the mobs aren't run speed immune. between pet, spirit of urgency, totem, FD brews, sky ring, VP and spiritual rebuke there are a ton of pulling tools on shamans. plus, who needs to split when you can root rot 3 or more at a time.
I've leveled up two shamans - so i am also parital to Shamans. Druids are in super high demand in the end game, so good choice. You can get a spot in any end game raid guild if you play either one - good. Shaman - slows, heals, various root options, and dog as pet > any other priest in my opionion. Max AA and EOK raid geared, not much can beat me down with merc healer and myself through most of ROS...if you play smart.
Moloing 1-105 on a Druid I would imagine isn't too bad. However trying to molo RoS trash with a Druid is a waste of time. Against regular Golems in OT my Mercenary was dying inbetween Curavida spams whenever his Final stand discipline dropped. They simply do not scale well at the top end. Mine I think has around 120k unbuffed HP which can be jumped to 150k between Druid buffs and Merc gear, 170k with Savage Growth. Even then in the 5 seconds between heals (3s Curavida, 2s global cooldown), OT trash can kill a merc tank that isn't disc'd even when fully ATK debuffed. Shamans or Clerics have much faster cast heals available and can keep alive a merc tank at these levels more reliably. But leveling up, on easier content the Druid probably will do it faster. That being said, a Druid kiting will get EXP faster than a Druid moloing. The only reason to molo on a Druid is against summoning mobs, mobs that are immune to Snare or for progression when you often are in dungeons that don't allow for kiting. But if you're trying to do level 1-105, I'd say use a merc up to around 65 and then dump him and solo 65-105. 65-90 charming will go fastest. 90-110 quadding will go fastest
As a die hard Druid I am biased.... But for anyone making the same decision as the OP, I would say you cant look past the utility of a Druid as well. You are planning on playing all the way through the levels.... Druid comes with ports, tracking, evac, and the ability to quad kite, charm kill... So much versatility.
My 2 cents would go shaman... Pupperdog tanks, use a rogue merc, shaman heals, dots, debuffs etc. This isnt gonna be end game content, but with AA’s and stuff where they need to be, EoK stuff is pretty trivial. Not to mention all progression up to RoS could be done this way, now not every piece of cheese but most. Can root/rot mobs off to the side and pupperdog with armor/weapons will do pretty good!
I don't want to put words in your mouth; are you implying here that capacity differentiates them from the other priests?
Well shaman get more benefit from their armor. Druids do not benefit from armor at all. If the shaman is well geared they tank and DPS much more easily than the other two priests. Clerics have even better armor, but they have crap abilities to DPS or hold agro. Since pretty much everything summons now, or has some crazy high DPS unresistable dot, kiting is not a consideration. This was the one thing that put druids above the rest in the solo game. One of the shaman mains in my guild tanks everything when hes solo/molo the other one uses his dog to tank, they really beefed up the shaman pets(if you have the AA.) They both use healer mercs, of course, because tank mercs are useless.
Dru is a good choice, lots of utilities, I don't know how to molo named as a dru, but dru is helpful and decent dps when grouping. That being said, I would suggest that you also give shmmy a try if time is not a concern, play them both for a while, see which one fits your play style more. I have both, shmmy is the one I actively played though.(I mainly use my dru for porting/forging/tracking) Shmmy is very cool, as some people mentioned, with decent gear, he can take hits, and even though he lost some power on dots now, he's still very powerful and efficient on root rotting, and once you max out healing and pet defensive aa, you can also bring your dog friend to challenge a named.
I haven't seen a druid tank current content, so as far as that goes yes there are capacity differences. the tradeoff is that druids have better dps. clerics with the right aug set would probably tank better, but they are only really feasible against undead I think? I dunno I don't play a cleric. but no, my response was to ofearl's qualification that "this isn't gonna be end game content"... there's no reason to exclude end-game content from that statement. only thing that really can't be done is some of the named. to ninelder's response.... actually a lot of stuff these days does not summon. almost nothing in OT, Skyfire, or Gorowyn summons. the range on many of the effects is short enough that you can kite and mostly stay out of range or root rot mobs out of range of the effects. IMO the biggest advantages of the shaman are that we're not limited to undead for our dps, and that (when outfitted properly) can go toe to toe with mobs rather than having to stay at range. rk6 lion + VP 2hander = win! =)
Id assume someone asking this question (OP) he/she isnt asking about end game. Hense my response. My druid/shaman box’s have mostly ros t2 gear. A tad of eok raid/ros taid stuff. Maxed aa’s etc and they both tank fine solo in eok and below. Gear excluded, a shaman has a better chance to molo/solo than the other two. Anyone can slow now but if you outfit them with gear that is appropriate for their class, then a shaman wins. My opinion, also playing a character correctly is greater than the hear then could use.
