My preferred playstyle is group healer, especially the use of HoT's. I looked over the class descriptions and decided that the Druid Warden fits that bill pretty well. I've only been playing the character for about a day, and I'm around level 13 or 14 now, but have a few questions about my experiences and AA's. First, it seems like I'm getting a large toolkit of healing spells (I think I have 3 now), with zero reason to use any of them. I've yet to need a group for anything and rarely use the healing spells at all. So basically I feel like I'm playing a mage class with unused utility. I'm having fun with it at the moment, and I imagine the sub-20 levels are pretty easy by design, but so far I'm not seeing the healing-based group class that I was hoping for. So my questions are: 1. Does the gameplay change much, post-20, in a way that encourages grouping, or should I just solo-grind my way to max level? 2. What does the end-game look like? If you aren't interested in hard-core raiding, is there a more dungeon/group alternative? 3. Druid shapechanging seems rather tacked on to me so far, but is it a major part of playing a Warden, or just a possible playstyle? For example, I found I can cast all of my spells while in tiger/tree/wolf form. Should I now stay in one of those forms to gain the passive benefits, or are they supposed to be melee alternatives only? The tree form seems obvious enough, but tiger and wolf don't state if the bonuses apply to speels or not. 4. Is there any rhyme or reason to how I should be assigning AA points? Most of the options have nothing to do with healing, and seem to be more geared at DPS, which seems odd for a healing class. Perhaps I'm missing the point of the AA system (no pun intended)? 5. I see some AA "talents" that do things like increase my Intellect or Strength. Is there any purpose to these, if all my spell power is derived from Wisdom? 6. Lastly, am I just playing the wrong class? Is there another class better suited to healing, especially with HoT effects?
Get the Charm ability, melee AA, and solo your way to 90. Grab some mastercrafted gear every 10 levels, and try to keep your three single-heals at expert/master. Also, try to keep your group buffs expert/master. I barely upgraded my damage spells past adept as I levelled up. Spent my AA on anything that helped avoid/mitigate/block melee damage, or increase hitpoints. With charm, levelling is so easy. I took my baby warden from 40's to 70's in a weekend. No potions or double-xp, just plain running around killing heroic creatures. I'm waiting for the next double-exp weekend to grind him to 90. Now I'm just level locking for AA and tearing up Mistmore Castle solo - beating up rooms of mobs by myself that used to wipe whole groups before. I was even able to solo an Epicx2 (green) without mentoring. I'm wearing stuff from broker, no fabled or PVP gear, so I can imagine how powerful he'll be when he starts wearing raid gear. As a primary player of illusionist/coercer (and Enchanter in EQ1), it is almost unfair that wardens can mez, charm, AND melee, AND heal. I couldn't believe that I was able to take a warden SOLO through every T7 group zone - at level 67. We're talking zones that used to require a full group of level 70's. I was soloing orange named ^^^ heroics with relative ease. These are dungeon named heroics 3-4 levels above me, not trash mobs. To be able to heal yourself though damage meant for a tank, while you and your charmed pet kill away, it's just too much fun.
Khellendrae wrote: Since I see I didn't answer this fully, The Tree form is indeed pretty self explanatory, a straight increase to the base heal of heal spells. The extra crit chance you get from Wolf form applies to everything you do. Melee, damage spells, heals. The damage proc from Tiger form applies only to melee damage. I believe it applies to AA converted Combat Arts, but I'd have to go over logs to be 100% certain
wolf gives crit period. it USED to be spell crit, but now it's just crit (which's why it says at critical HITS on the description. they just never updated that part). tree says specifially base healing by 2%, so that's what ya get. tiger is the melee dmg proc that wardens generally use. the shapeshifts were originally designed as something for all druids, tree when u needed the heal boost, then wolf for furies for spell crit & tiger for wardens for melee. since stats were combined, unless it specially says it only gives 1 side a benefit, it's for everything. personally ive used tree form for a pretty much the last yr because i forget about it a lot with never having to rebuff. if u need crit, use the wolf, if ur a warden & want a lil boost (i havent used it in a long time tbh because im a fury, so i cant tell u how much dmg ull get out of it as a warden).
You asked: 1. Does the gameplay change much, post-20, in a way that encourages grouping, or should I just solo-grind my way to max level? Depends on the population of your server, the time of day you play and how much time per session you have to play in it. I wouldn't halt my forward leveling progression waiting for groups, but that might not mean you have to solo your way to 90. 2. What does the end-game look like? If you aren't interested in hard-core raiding, is there a more dungeon/group alternative? There is so much stuff to do in the game overall, that if you did it you wouldn't be to 90 any time soon. It's possible to level to 90 in a few days, but that doesn't mean you saw the game. There are all levels of dungeons, lots of solo quest lines, x2 and x4 Raids (in this game x2 is 12 people, x4 is 24), special events, crafting factions and items. There is so much to do that end game will not be boring if you try even a tenth of them on your way up. 3. Druid shapechanging seems rather tacked on to me so far, but is it a major part of playing a Warden, or just a possible playstyle? For example, I found I can cast all of my spells while in tiger/tree/wolf form. Should I now stay in one of those forms to gain the passive benefits, or are they supposed to be melee alternatives only? The tree form seems obvious enough, but tiger and wolf don't state if the bonuses apply to speels or not. It was tacked on. But it was always meant as a flavor, not an integral part of the druid classes. If you are coming from WoW, the druid forms there actually prevent you from doing the other forms' roles. Here they give a buff to each role, but are not game breaking (see Arica's post for a better explanation). 4. Is there any rhyme or reason to how I should be assigning AA points? Most of the options have nothing to do with healing, and seem to be more geared at DPS, which seems odd for a healing class. Perhaps I'm missing the point of the AA system (no pun intended)? Again, if you are coming from WoW or Rift, you are used to thinking that if you don't have the right spec you can forget being viable. As with all games that offer this kind of character spec'ing, eventually there is a min/max spec for nosebleed top end raiding, but while you are leveling up just read what you can do and put points in where it seems you'd like to try to improve or what looks fun. If you guessed wrong, you won't be crippled - and you get 5 free respecs from the AA counselor to play around with. I disagree with none of the options having anything to do with healing. You don't have to go very far into the Druid line, for example, to see heal improvements, and the Warden and Shadows lines are similar. 5. I see some AA "talents" that do things like increase my Intellect or Strength. Is there any purpose to these, if all my spell power is derived from Wisdom? I'm not sure what you are seeing that gives you INT and STR any more, that's been changed - unless you are looking at copies of old specs back when the AA lines did give those bonuses. You may still find bits of gear that offer STR or INT as well as WIS, but only the WIS and STA on those will help you. The Druid tab of your achievements is where you could buff stats, but now the old STR line buffs melee (and healing), and the old INT line buffs nukes. Take time to read what each thing does is my best advice for where to put points. 6. Lastly, am I just playing the wrong class? Is there another class better suited to healing, especially with HoT effects? If you want to heal with HoTs like a WoW druid or a Rift Chloromage, you are basically playing the wrong game altogether, not the wrong class. Wardens are nowhere near as OP as a WoW Druid (wouldn't that be nice...). If healing with HoTs is your preferred method of healing, either druid is how to do that. What would help you choose between Warden or Fury would be how you want to damage, and how you want to buff.
