Just wondering about the effectiveness of a druid for both soloing and group play. I'm enjoying this however I don't want to sink too much time into a class that isn't going to be effective later in the game or not as useful in group - level 22 so far on FV
Druids rock. I think the only "problem" with druids is many druids "grow up" focused via the soloing aspect and thus miss developing some key group healing and group-oriented DPS tactics. Some choose to personally specialize (in playstyle) as a DPS or Healing Druid instead of someone who can flip the switch back and forth or be the appropriate blend of the two as needed. When you meet a someone who knows either aspect (or both) well, it's hard not to go "Oh, that's what a Druid can do..."
Most of our raid force prefer Druid skin > Aegoism line, stacks with cleric mark and symbol lines and gives more regen and total mitigation. In group settings a druid brings more utility and the ability to fill another role when players leave / cycle in and out of group over a cleric. Quite solo friendly and can use a melee dps merc and out aggro it with dots and snares and quad kite. Just avoid summoning mobs solo. Max level is very doable solo / molo / grouped.
druids sometimes got a reputaion as a go to noob class. Much less relevant now 20 years later and pretty much everyone now knows how to play EQ. Reputation from 1999 - 2004 ish became a meme like Huntards in WoW The very reason they were the go to newbie class is the versatility. Healer class, DPS class, urility, ports, tracking, snares, even pacify pulling. Yesterday, boxing my cleric main and wifes mage main, <exodus> saved us from wipes 6 times and teleport bind is gold for boxers / moving groups around.
Druids can also powerlevel alts like mad, 1-85 in 12 hours. Pull whole zones with AoE snare for 0 damage, stand next to alt, alt uses any AoE dps or boxes a bard etc, noob does a point or three of damage to mobs, dru self casts high level thorns and mobs all die, all credited damage goes to noob FTW
Druids are a very viable class end game. Talented druids will out heal less talented clerics. Druids are used the the main healers in caster groups on raids due to the aDPS for all caster types. (typically raids clerics are in tank groups, SHM in melee groups and druids in caster groups.) Druids are okay DPS, on par with SHM and ENC for DPS. They will out DPS a cleric in groups by a small margin and out solo a cleric by a significant margin. With the presence and performance of cleric mercs, druids are often a better compliment to a group as a group less than 6 can use a cleric merc and the druid can DPS and cover the patches.
No. No. No. Druids can out heal afk clerics. If a druid actually out heals a cleric who's at the keyboard ... that cleric should be forced to retire right then and there. Druids can heal groups fine, but it's not the same as a shaman or cleric. Druids are great DPS (mana hogs if going full bore) and if not completely outclassing shaman and enchanters (and blowing away clerics), they should be the ones retiring. Much like wizards, there are poor stretches after 65 to end game where the soloing druid has more difficulty because snares/roots don't land or all the mobs summon. But at least as a druid, you can pop a tank merc and still kill stuff. I started on a druid and still love em. Their atk/ac debuffs are still probably the most underrated aspect of the class when in groups (when mobs start mostly mitigating slows, those atk debuffs really shine). The dot changes are great. ADPS is great. You'd wish there was a little more variety in their healing, but it's still enough. Honestly, if you are at 22 and really worried about the end game ... you might want to switch to a necro or SK. Those classes are no brainers. Druids are great, but not easy mode like those classes.
Druids don't tank very well. Everything else, they are pretty great at. Healing, dps, adps, debuffing, utility, travel, soloing, buffing, powerleveling. etc. etc. As mentioned earlier, if you are a druid going all out on any level, you will run out of mana quite a bit faster than a cleric and infinitely faster than a shaman.
oh that kind of cleric do exist... have seen one run CIRCLES around all the corpses, instead of rezzing the other clerics... so I as a pally rezzed the other clerics and they popped AE rezzes for the rest of the ppl... So uhm... I believe that a decent druid can outheal a crappy cleric... ANY day
Thanks for that. I wasn't sure how to do it right. Now i can do that with my druid for my other account.
Respectfully disagree...druids are the choice of grandmothers everywhere. It's no coincidence they all flocked to playing the druid class and most newbies are advised to start a druid due to all the conveniences of their class. Druids are the definition of eq easy mode. SKs and Necromancers are several levels of difficulty higher to master as a class.
If shamans DPS wise in the guilds of these two posters aren't beating enchanters and are outclassed by druids, they need to retire or learn how to play with the tools at their disposal.
I primarily watch DPS on raids. A raid group is typically ENC, BRD, DRU, MAG, MAG, MAG. Meanwhile SHM are MH in melee groups. The amount of spell synergy in the caster raid groups puts us high on the parse compared to SHM. Also we tend to have at least 3 ENC so we benefit from alliance. I also think you might either be around weak ENC or we are having a communication difference. SHM, ENC and DRU all parse pretty similar. For me, similar is w/in 50-100k. There aren't many SHM putting down over 300k sDPS in groups or over 400k sDPS in raids. My typical group DPS at present is 180k not burning and my typical event sDPS on raids is 300k. Meanwhile, Rog, Nec, Zer, Mag, etc are doing 5-700k sDPS over 20 minutes. And before anyone says that's low, I am talking about event sDPS, not DPS.
