Hey All, So a few buddies and I are coming back to the game for Mischief and we haven't played in years. I read something about some dot revamps and looking for some general info... Druid is my favorite class, mained one on many servers for many years; but the Druid hate is real and painful. Since I started playing it's always been an issue and makes doing anything but solo and groups with friends miserable. Did the new dot revamp change this at all? Are Druids still chosen last for dodgeball =)? If they are, I'm just gonna play something else and make a Druid alt to around with. But I would absolutely love to hear that the dot revamp improved Druids and the community's outlook on Druids. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts! -Sel
I don't have an answer to this, but if they choose us last then we just gotta show them what they passed on! Druid powa ~A fellow Half-Elven druid of Surefall Glade
How legit is this really, though? I main a Cleric on P99 Green AND Blue and on that server, Clerics have a terrible time getting into groups. The reason being is that there is no reason to invite a second Cleric to a group. As a Cleric main I will have 15-20 DPS join and leave my group while my Cleric friends sit in the same zone LFG as they get passed by for literally any other class. Most groups already have a Cleric, and they don't have room for another one. They will gladly take a Shaman or Druid though because they can DPS and/or heal. Like 2 Druids is fine. 2 Shamans is fine. A Shaman and a Cleric is fine. A Druid and a Cleric is fine. A Druid and a Shaman is fine. A Cleric and a Cleric... is unheard of. From having leveled a lot of characters on P99 I highly recommend Shaman. They're great at solo'ing, and still so sought after for groups that I often times turn anonymous on to avoid them. Playing a Shaman in a group is a lot of work compared to playing Shaman solo... like trying to keep an entire group buffed/hasted/mobs slowed/control pet, mashing cannibalize, healing etc. compared to just DoT'ing/Slowing a target and letting your hasted pet solo it while you sit there chilling. Cleric in a group again, very slow-paced and not bad, but they really can't solo and even at high levels, you will find yourself unable to do a lot of stuff because most level 50 enchanters and necromancers don't want to duo. They want to solo camp mobs due to greed. Don't get me wrong, these same guys will beg you for a resurrection the second they die, but they will very seldom want to duo with you at max level when doing camps. So as a Cleric you will find yourself sitting AFK day in and day out, unable to solo any meaningful content at max level. I really don't recommend it. As a Shaman if you can't get a group? No big deal. Go solo something. Cleric doesn't really get that luxury. Not to mention having SoW at level 8 is a huge deal.
Clerics are the most important class when it comes to raiding, so you won't have any problem there. Yes you aren't going to stack clerics in a group, but I don't believe every group will have a cleric all the time so there will be room to get a group fairly easily.
In reality no class really has a problem getting a group on tlps unless you're an a hole and nobody likes you. I've leveled as a druid, mage, bard, shaman, paladin, and monk. Some days it'd take an hour or two to get a group (just sitting lfg not putting in any work) sometimes it'd take 5 min. It's more a function of how many people are playing than anything else imho. With this ruleset I'd expect there to be tons of people and groups for a long time. Probably even more groups than normal because people will exp in virtually every zone since they wont need to be centered around certain spawns.
Play the druid. You'll be more likely to stick it out to end game playing a druid than you will a class that you don't like as much. Any healer who isnt boxed is a good healer to have. Druids are just fine as group healers in all levels of this game, and their additional benefits (sow, chloro, thorns) make them better than clerics in many situations. The one caveat to that, is it is nice having a cleric or paladin when you're in a dungeon and someone dies, just to keep the group moving quicker. Also, druids soloing with charm, snare, heals, etc is fantastic in all the way through POP. In a SolB group and not the main healer? Grab that bat charm. Grouping in Chardok? Wolf charm. Versatile and fun. Don't worry about being loved less, worry more about what you enjoy doing most.
Yeah you have to remember on TLPs there is a big group xp bonus so players do not want to sit with an empty group slot.
They also gave druids superior heal at 44, that is the main boost they've had over the years and makes them a decent healer in classic, outside of charm pets in the hole.
Play whatever you want. Druids are one of the classes that seem to be plentiful early on but are extremely rare in the high end of the game (i.e. after 85), same thing goes for Wizards and Paladins for different reasons. But at the end of the day playing a class you don't love will just mean you end up quitting after being unhappy for however long you play.
So not gonna lie, a lot less flames than I expected, so thanks for that =) I just remember on Phinny (last tlp I played) literally being told no to groups cause they didn’t want a Druid. That happening again would be a hardcore turn-off. I’ve never been able to get a shaky past 25ish for whatever reason it just doesn’t click, and cleric has always been a no go for me cause it’s literally nothing but shooting a heal. Was just really hoping the dot revamp brought druids to a good place =) I can’t seem to find any good info for it.
Another question... Does the Allas spell database reflect the dot changes? cause looking at those numbers it looks like nothing changed at all. Is there a spell database somewhere the reflects the changes and new values?
This was the game update with the druid dot revamp https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq...e-notes-february-15-2017.238466/#post-3507344 Basically just increased the dmg of dots but made it so you can't stack dots of the same line. So you can't have drones of doom, stinging swarm, etc on at the same time. I haven't played a druid in awhile, so I can't comment with certainty on the overall impact. I seem to recall is just made things a bit simpler and wasn't a drastic impact to dps. I think pre-revamp if you were efficiently stacking all dots it was still better dps, but now you just need to throw up your one dot and can be free to do other stuff and have more spell gems available. Could be wrong about that though.
Thanks bro! Checking out the post now. I'm leaning towards a Mage main with a Druid alt this go around. Never played one before cause I like having heals, but don't think I wanna do a Necro again (my typical fallback when I get tired of Druid hate). I thought about Enchanter, but I wanna be able to get up to piss without worrying about being dead when I come back lol =)
If you have to afk while charm soloing, camp out Lol. If its truly just a 2 min break all your things will be there when you get back. If you catch RL agro and can't come back for several minutes you'll be glad you logged out : )
TLP's are not P99. For one thing, P99 doesn't have the LFG feature, which is a big way groups find reps or fill holes. Every cleric I know spends about 15 minutes tops in LFG. Healers and Tanks are the hardest spots to rep for groups, and most groups prefer Clerics to Druids or Shammys from the healer perspective. This is painfully true in Classic/Kunark. Hell, when I need to find a healer for a group, I /tell the clerics I see in LFG first, then go to Druids and Shammys. So yeah, Clerics are high draft picks on TLPs, especially in the early expansions.
