I took a long break from EQ2. In that time I have been playing several other games. Mainly WoW, in which I was a Druid Tank/Healer. Now I have come back to EQ2 and I'm looking to start over since there have been so many changes. Obviously things are much different here than they are on WoW. I know I won't be able to fill more than one role as a healer (maybe a fighter Tank/DPS if they get the bugs worked out), but healing is what I enjoyed doing the most. As a druid, I am very fimiliar with HoT's and ranged DPS options. Now my concern is that I've been reading that Wardens are melee healers. I like the root and nuke abilities that my Warden has but am I limiting my abilities by not choosing the melee spells with my AA points? I like the fact that I won't have mana issues later in the game and probably won't have much time for any hard core raiding. So being "another" leather healer isn't really a concern for me as long as I can find a few groups to run instances with on the weekends. Am I going to have soloing issues later in the game if I continue to root and nuke? The other options are to restart as a Fury or another class and try to get used the different heals. However from what I understand mana will always be an issue on any long fights. Or I can try to get used to melee healing, which feels really weird to me for a preist to be that close in combat. The only reason I chose a Warden over the other classes is that I figured the HoT healing would make the transition back to EQ2 easier. Any suggestions? Also I have just aquired a Paladin merc. If I keep my Warden, is a Pally a good merc choice? Or should I try and sneak into Freeport for a Zerker? My only concern with a Guardian is the low amount of DPS they reportedly do and as I would like to molo some instances I thought I would want some extra DPS from my Tank/merc.
I raid with a melee warden, and I love it. I'm not a big fan of root and nuke, though, which might make me biased. Wardens have the option of doing either melee or nuke... furies really don't... so its nice to have that option open. I don't know how well furies solo, having only played one to level 25, but the warden is a great solo class. I've been "using" the paladin merc. I say "using" as I don't really need him often, if ever.
ivoryseeker wrote: First: Welcome back! Second: Wardens are fun to play ... if you like to get up close and personal with the mobs. If you prefer a stand-off combat method, BETRAYING to Fury might be up your ally. Or rolling a new one, I didn't read your EQ2U signature before I clicked Quote. I believe I've met someone who has one of each and plays them both as the mood strikes. To answer your actual question in the second paragraph above--YES you are very much limiting your options by not making the AA pics for your Combat Art conversions. I'd say to give it a try, but if you don't like it then betray/reroll as a Fury. There's nothing wrong with the idea of trying another healing class, if you re-roll, but be advised that Inquisitors and Mystics are also melee-combat healers. And that Templars are broken. And that Defilers are ... well heck, I can't remember the last time I saw a defiler. (That was a joke, but I know they're not nearly as popular as Inquisitors or Druids of either stripe.) On the mercenary question: If you stick with Warden, you may not need or want a tank mercenary. The paladin merc was pretty lame, in the few hours that I tried it out. I switched to a melee DPS merc (Kyren Darkcloud) and tank the stuff myself. Like I said above, Wardens are fun to play. Edit to add: At level 18, the pally merc might be useful. I remember that it can be a bit harder to tank mobs at lower levels as a warden. It gets easier, especially after you get epic buff that refreshes Power for each crit heal. I can't remember the last time I was lower than 100% mana on a regular fight, or below 75% even against a mana-drain mob.
Natsume wrote: Were you asking about the 'sneak into other city and get merc' part? If so ... yes, you can. If not, please elaborate on your question.
Natsume wrote: If your refering to switching classes, I meant re-rolling another class. I'm only level 18, which only took an hour or two of real game play and most of that time was spent crafting and switching between alts to move some inventory items around.
You can certainly root and nuke with your Warden - put points into the far right hand colum of the druid tree to support nuking. Furies put AA points there, Wardens generally put points in the far left hand column, which supports melee. Max out single target and group target roots in the Warden tree. Upgrade your nukes to Master - which is really easy to do. And I'll tell you why: Although you have the option to root/nuke if you want to as a Warden, that's not how the class is best optimized. If a Warden Master-level nuke is discovered in an exquisite chest, it's either immediately transmuted or the person puts it up on the broker for basically 'free'. Most Wardens are melee. If you like everything else about a Warden except you don't want to melee - more power to you. Just know that if you want to do end-game content (which you say you don't think you want to do...) a non-melee Warden would be suspect for not knowing what you are doing (even though this isn't entirely accurate). Neither choice affects how you heal - you don't make any AA choices where you have to pick healing over nuking (or healing over melee even). If you are in heal stance no matter how you decide to dps, you will still heal as well. A melee Warden adds procs to healing FROM melee-ing that a nuking Warden doesn't have. I haven't seen much difference in my healing spec'd one way or the other, but there is a significant difference in my damage spec'd as melee. I have spec'd nuking while raiding under the very specific circumstances of: We didn't have a Fury for the mage group (furies buff mages better than we do) so I knew I'd be assigned to that group; and that mage group was going to have to be maximum range. If I was melee I couldn't both melee, stay at maximum range and still protect/heal my assigned group. So I spec'd nuking so I could do a little bit of damage while healing the group. The biggest contribution I was making, however, was keeping those doing 250K+ DPS alive. That's a kind of weird/rare circumstance - but I mention it cause there are situations where a nuking Warden would be used in end-game content. This is a pretty rare/weird circumstance though. If you are going to solo or casually group when you do, spec any way you want to and have fun doing it. Nuking is viable, and you will kill things, just not in the same way you would if you melee'd. There is a misunderstanding about Wardens being 'pure' HoT healers. They aren't. Every heal a Warden has is a direct heal with a heal over time component on the 'back end' of the heal. Fury heals the same way, only they have more and bigger direct heals with shorter HoT durations. Both kinds of healing are perfectly viable, just depends on your preference for healing. I have both Druids, and like Warden much better because I've played it for a long time and the timing of said heals is second nature. Wardens have the same issue with power as Furies do until they get their Fabled or Mythical weapon and/or their Epic Repercussions buff (after 80). So just being a Warden isn't going to keep you from having power issues. At end game if you are grouping you are more likely than not going to be playing with a power feeding class (like chanters and bards). If you are soloing as a Fury there isn't any solo content in the game I can think of that you will run out of power and not be able to complete. So don't worry about that part. A Paladin merc is fine, but you can slice and dice through content with an SK merc. I have a hard time holding aggro off an SK merc with my own raid-geared SK. For now they are OP, but we love them for that Buy an invis totem and either sneak past the guards at the Darklight Wood gate in Neriak, or ask in 1-9 chat if someone would please come kill those guards so you can get the merc. Many people just like killing the guards and would do it for the fun of it if you asked. If you want to specifically root and nuke and be 'made' for it as a Druid, betray or reroll to Fury. If you want to be a druid like your WoW druid....I am very sorry ..lol. Welcome back to the game, and good luck, whatever your decision!
