My Druid on Stromm just Dinged 30 and I wanted to check before selecting my specilization... I will proably do about an even amount of Raiding, Charming, Root/Rot and Quadding. Has the upper levels of PoP changed what the best specilization should be with Evo, Con, or Alt? any info and thoughts would be great! Thanks.

Alteration. I was Evocation till 65, but recently changed it because I'm usually healing. Seems Alteration covers more of our spells as well.

What do you do while you're raiding? Cast a lot of nukes or heals?

Quadding, of course, calls for evoc. So does AoEing.

Charming is a mixed bag, and it really doesn't matter what you pick. You can choose one pet and try to keep it healed (but who does that?). Turn out I cast Immo of Ro and SF most often while charming, so evoc works well there.

Root dotting is also mixed. Our swarm line is conjuration, but Immo (and BoR) are both evoc.

It really depends on how you play. If you think you want a primary healing role, and want to cast a lot of heals, go alteration. The storm wizards among us go evoc. *shrugs*

Don't forget that the charm spells themselves are alteration...
I do usually keep a single pet while charming. The only exception is when there are a lot of charmable animals that are easy to get, but that's usually not the case.

Charming and healing pets definately favor an alt druid. You can throw in a nuke or two, but never forget that your pet is your primary means of dmg by a loooong shot.

I was going to say something about healing pets, but it would probably lead to a nerf, and is better left unsaid.....

Bah, just go Alteration and get it over with. I plan out lasting Scirocco as the last old school Evo Druid left in the game. ;)

Since I would quit before becoming a full time healer, you have a long wait...:)

Seriously, though, as an Evoc druid I actually gain mana back while charming loroks in PoS, so spec. has little effect there. I cast 2 to 3 evoc spells for every alteration spell while charming.

For tradeskill farming, nothing beats AoEing. Run around gathering up a bunch of green mobs, then hit Catastrophe...BOOM! (I have a screen shot of 30 to 40 dead owlbears in a stack, somewhere....)

Quad-kiting or swarm-kiting call for evoc. I don't do either one all that much anymore, but I did extensively when leveling up.

In XP groups, I often cast Immo of Ro for the debuff benefits as well as damage, and usually throw in a nuke or two as well. On raids, I'm still mostly nuking. Even when I am a dedicated healer on a ST on rare occasion, or am RGCing the MT at a Seru fight, for example, I usually get in plenty of nukes and immolations as well.

I just refuse to wear the ball-and-chain that so many druids willingly take on. I'm a Karana druid, and my mental image is of a druid amidst a thunderstorm calling multiple lightning strikes down to fry his opponents, or causing them to be swallowed up by rents in the earth. I'll leave the bandaging of wounds to the followers of Tunare....;)


(Bottom line is this: spec really isn't all that significant unless you do a lot of a particular type of expensive spells. As an evoc druid, I do just fine as a healer. And as the alt druids will tell you, they do just fine when nuking is called for.)

In groups or on raids, I like to use one spell and one spell only as often as I can for as long as I can. Winters Frost. I avoid having to debuff or DoT or Snare. That builds agro and slows my ability to cast more nukes. Agro build up is bad for a DPS Druid. :(

Thankfully, my guild is full of Druids. /points at Aarax. And, one of them is usually willing to debuff FR, CR AC and Attack so I don't have to. So, depending on the mob, I get to selll out and see how close to max DPS I can possibly get.

That's max fun for me. Can't do that with alteration as a Spec.

Healing is for Clerics.
Snaring is for Rangers
Debuffing is for Shamans.
I'm here to nuke.

Evocation.....if ya wanted to heal you should have made a cleric!


Tils

i couldnt imagine ever nuking my mana to OOM from FM, it would take forever ..

(using wildfire or moonfire, SCM3, special evoc, and mana pres 3)

its nice that im able to continuously nuke during a fight in a group though .. i generally start nuking a second after the mob is engaged and dont stop till its dead ..


i have no reason to change my specialization =)

If you're going to quad at all then you'll probably find you'll do it a lot so evoc is going to help you a lot more until the high 50s. Once up there if you find you're starting to do more charming than quadding/nuking then it's not a big deal to switch.

I took a lightly twinked wizard to 50 something in a couple days with quadding, although she was perma-KEIed... Anyway, LoIO sarnak fort to 32 then Marus Seru or whatever, Iceclad gaurdians then Iceclad Wolves then Timorous Deep spirocs then Jagged Pine bandits should get you up to 51 in no time. Probably Cobalt Scar wyverns or Maiden's Eye toilers to 52 where you can start using Call of Karana in Maiden's Eye then Plane of Nightmare and you should hit 63 in a few days if you afford to keep yourself manabuffed.

*edit* Oh... is the spec changing quest working? I read it was broken at one point, at least for high level chars, thought it was fixed but not sure.

OK, first, hi all! Been gone for 5 months, but the call of EQ has sucked me back in. Good to see you all again!

As to which to spec in, Evoc or Alt., I will recommend Evocation, and here's why:

At level 30, you are not healing extensively, nor are you probably charming that much, whereas you probably are nuking a lot. The alteration spec doesn't help that much until you're 55 (Chloroblast is our first good heal). But in these days of SCM AAs and MP focus items, your spec is less important than it used to be.

It's true that we have far more spells that are alteration than evocation, but many of those spells are not cast very often (STR buff, etc), or cast when we need to watch mana closely (ports), or use very much mana (roots, snares). Unless you are a dedicated long-term healer, go evocation.

Tat

I've ran OOM nuking once int he last 5 monthes on raids. I literally can't nuke my mana away faster then I can regen the mana back (that was with Ornate gloves, now I have elemental gloves so it's even cheaper to cast). Mana isn't an issue on raids for me, aggro is though :)

90% of the time I'm healing though, it's my niche which works out because that's what my guild needs most of the time, a good, attentive spot/assist healer.

I used to nuke a lot back when I hit level 30. I made my choise in spec by letting whatever I cast the most of make the decision for me. By the time alteration was set in stone, I only had like 5 points in evocation. Over the course of your life as a druid, you cast FAR more alteration spells than evocation spells by a long shot. Especialy when you count in 300 mana teleports.

If your goal is to maxamize mana savings overall go with alteration. If your goal is to maxamize mana savings during short term bursts of nuking, go with evocation.

Not going oom? You're not nuking enough! MC4, FT9 and 4000+ mana and I still go oom on really long fights. Fight Emp and not go oom. Do 60K and not go oom. :)

I was evoc until my low 50's, been alt ever since.

As a raiding druid I find that I can run OOM, but its usually when @#%$ hits the old fan and I'm having to heal. You can't safely burn all your mana away without getting aggro.

I can count on my hand the number of fights where its come down to the last few medding nukes to win. I can't even begin to count how many fights have been saved by the dr00ds getting those last few heals in on the MT and winning.

Basically, you will never really NEED evoc to win, but Alt can make or break a raid alot. Hell, I'm a alt druid and I LOVE to quad. I've gotten over 200 of my aap from quading.

<blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>Not going oom? You're not nuking enough! MC4, FT9 and 4000+ mana and I still go oom on really long fights. Fight Emp and not go oom. Do 60K and not go oom. [/quote]

I have Mana Pres4, SCM3, MC2, FT15, 5300 mana unbuffed. In VT, I used to go OOM on the really long boss fights because they have a retarded amount of hps, but honestly, in PoP, I can't use all my mana before the mob is dead (keep in mind, I'm on a leezurd, with full raid buffs ticking away on me). I also have Elemental gloves which give 30% to savings on Summer's Flame instead of the 10% normal savings from Mana Pres.

<blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>I can count on my hand the number of fights where its come down to the last few medding nukes to win. I can't even begin to count how many fights have been saved by the dr00ds getting those last few heals in on the MT and winning.[/quote]

Monday night, we were fighting General Reparm in PoFire and yah it went something like this, after alot of clerics died and I was healing the MA as fast and furious as I could. :p

You tell the raid, 'oom - MA down'
Soandso tells the raid, 'Reparm down - WIN'

So, yah.

For charming, what it comes down to for me is this: nuking is optional. If I have mana to spare, great, I'll nuke away. Sure, it would be nice to have evocation specialization during these times; it might increase my damage output slightly. But if I have an unlucky series of charm breaks or something else goes wrong and I find myself low on mana, then I still need to keep up charm while healing and possibly rooting. All 3 use alteration. (Yes I have clicky savage roots, but sometimes I need to use earthen roots too just for the quick cast time.) In situations like this it's possible for alteration specialization to save me.

As far as pet healing...are you talking about running out of chase range and breaking charm to make the pet regen? I've found it's usually not worth the hassle, particularly in places with a relatively high mob density (nadox especially).

<blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr> I also have Elemental gloves which give 30% to savings on Summer's Flame instead of the 10% normal savings from Mana Pres. [/quote]

Give me your gloves, you, you ,you Alteration Druid, you! :)

I used to be evoc specialized then I changed to alteration when I joined my current guild. I found out I was more often out of mana healing than nuking, all the more as if I nuke too much I end up being summoned anyway :p

It depends a lot on how you play, I was mostly a nuker until a few months ago so evocation was the best choice until then. Whatever you choose, it is easy to switch, even if it takes a while to cap your new specialization afterwards (took me three weeks of constant raiding, I didn't want to spend hours casting light healing though).

<em> puts on his thread highjacking mask </em>

I'm becoming more and more annoyed that Druids feel a need to become healers because of preasure placed on them by their guilds. It's self evident that we are not as valued for our ability to deal damage as much for our ability to heal. How many Druids have you heard here or on other posts lately saying -- <strong> well, my guild expects DPS out of me more and more so I changed my spec to evocation from Alteration? </strong> Zero.

We don't even have balance within our class anymore. Either lower how much my heal does or increase my DPS. I can't stand the thought of seing so many Druids being pushed over to the Cleric role.

Well said by Tils - <blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr> Evocation.....if ya wanted to heal you should have made a cleric! [[/quote]

<blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>Give me your gloves, you, you ,you Alteration Druid, you! [/quote]

I'll trade em to you for a set with equivalent stats and 30% mana savings to Nature's Infusion ;)

I became alt specced because I usually root-dot. I put one point into each at 30, and alt came out way ahead, even though I rarely group or raid or heal. No one in my guild, just FYI, ever pushed me to spec alt.

For the record, I chose the druid class back in August 2000 largely because of the ability to heal (I was disappointed with my initial paladin's healing abilities, heh) combined with teleporting for tradeskills. I specialized in alteration long before I joined a guild, back when most druids did specialize in evocation.

I disagree strongly with "if ya wanted to heal you should have made a cleric!" I could just as easily say, if you wanted to do damage you should have made a wizard. I think both statements are equally silly. The point of the druid class is to be able to handle several different roles.

If you don't want pressure from guilds to focus on healing, then healing abilities of those that are not as good at healing should be bumped up; probably shamans and paladins. Then you'd be more free to settle into whichever role you want. If you take away druid healing ability, then raids become even more cleric centric than they already are, which is a bad thing.

Just a quick correction.

The effect on the Elemental Gloves is a 25% savings on Summers Flame, not 30.

<a href="http://lucy.fnord.net/spell.html?id=3653&source=Live" target="top">Summers Vengeance</a>

The Ornate effect is 20% savings.

<strong>5300 mana unbuffed</strong>

Magelo doesn't use the proper formula for mana calcs, it's overestimating yours by about 250.

<strong>I also have Elemental gloves which give 30% to savings on Summer's Flame</strong>

Summer's Vengeance is 25%, average is 13%. With SCM3 and specced in alteration your saving about 24% average on Summer's Flame so they cost about 270 for you instead of 355. Of course, full raid buffs and mount you're gaining about 100 mana/tick and it takes around a tick to cast with spell haste so you should be able to chain Summer's Flame for about <strong>3.1</strong> minutes (which as we all know isn't even remotly possible because of agro.) With the plane of time cape, full crit AA and no resists thats about 330 DPS.

If you were specced in evoc instead then nukes would cost 234 and you could sustain that for about <strong>4</strong> minutes. It would then take 5.3 minutes to get your mana back,assuming you're not moving and the bard is nice enough to keep singing.

Another way to look at it; without spec you could sustain (i.e. nuke just enough that aren't losing mana) 121dps. With evoc spec 139 dps.

Amusingly, Wind of Mana or Preservation of Solusek or Conservation of Xegony with Ancient Starfire of Ro is actually minutely better than Summer's Vengeance and Summer's Flame... For those paying attention who know that both Wind of Mana and Ancient Starfire are from Luclin and they're better than the best of what druids get in PoP while PoP let all other classes easily surpass their Luclin abilities are thinking the line druids have been thinking since Kunark... <strong>"Yep, screwed again."</strong>

Yeah, I'm bored. :)

<blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>I'm becoming more and more annoyed that Druids feel a need to become healers because of preasure placed on them by their guilds. It's self evident that we are not as valued for our ability to deal damage as much for our ability to heal. How many Druids have you heard here or on other posts lately saying -- well, my guild expects DPS out of me more and more so I changed my spec to evocation from Alteration? Zero.

We don't even have balance within our class anymore. Either lower how much my heal does or increase my DPS. I can't stand the thought of seing so many Druids being pushed over to the Cleric role.[/quote]

Actually, thats one of the things I like most about being a druid. I'm not one dimensional. I'm a debuffer, healer, nuker, dot'r, what ever is called for at the time. If the clerics get ramped, I can call upon my druid army (we have a @#%$ load of druids) to spam. If we need more dps we can move to burn, don't die with mana mode. Usually, I'm doing a bit of both healing and nuking/dotting on raids.

One of my biggest pet peeves is the NEED this game has for so many of just one class. Seen many a night chat filled with 50-60+ people, but only 4-5 clerics. Tonnes of mobs up, but everyone is sitting on their thumbs. Seen raid nights called early cause too many clerics decided to camp. If we druids can take up some of the lighter healing loads so the raids can continue, then I'm all for us healing.

During original Everquest I was alteration specialist. I remember at level 50 I could barely kill an ice giant with all my mana using direct damage spells only.
When Kunark came out I switched to evocation to level faster to 60. Alteration was pretty pointless back then, our heals were too bad to keep a tank alive without a slower or cleric. For spot heals you don't need alteration spec.
Then Velious came out. I was still evocation. Most raid targets were very resistant to our nukes, and with new heals coming out, I switched back to alteration.
During Luclin I switched back to evocation to get faster AA, small exp groups were popular again, and evocation was again the best choice. With SCM3 and crits, improved damage items and mana preservation items our nukes were very good again. Resists were lowered so we can acually do nice dmg to alot of boss mobs.

Today I am still evocation specialist and there is no way I would ever change it back.

When I join random groups I am never added as main healer, the group always wants a cleric (symbol/virtue/res), if the cleric is linkdead or leaves the group I can take over his role until a new cleric is found, and I keep the group alive without using much mana.

--Zorx

Thanks Nothar and L1ndara, I stand corrected :) I did just win them, just thought I remembered it being 30%.

Very nicely analyzed L1ndara, and I was also not aware that Magelo miscalculates mana. I put in for the gloves for the stat upgrades to be honest, as I usually find myself using Winter's Frost because of the neat 26% more potential damage due to my ring/earring.

So, how does Magelo miscalculate exactly anyways? Anyone know by chance?

<blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>When I join random groups I am never added as main healer, the group always wants a cleric (symbol/virtue/res), if the cleric is linkdead or leaves the group I can take over his role until a new cleric is found, and I keep the group alive without using much mana.[/quote]

I can understand that. I guess the big difference for me is that I only join guild groups for the most part in the elemental planes, and they always bring me for healing purposes. You can't really do a group there without a slower anyways, so it's assumed that one will be there. As far as rez goes, I've only lost 1 person in an exp group in over a month, so it's not much really. In pickup groups, that's different. People are untrusting. All my guildies know my ability and trust me to do my job to the best of my ability instead of fretting over whether or not I'm a dr00d or a druid :D

The problem very often is that we have no choice but to be healers, because of lack of clerics in guilds. But thanks god sometimes there are enough and we can nuke :p

Evoc Druid here.

I will typically only play healer in 2 circumstances:

1) Encounter_01 or XP_Group_01 won't be possible without it
2) Um....(scratches head)

Ok, so maybe only one circumstance. Unfortunately, due to lack of clerics that happens a fair amount.

My personal approach has been to aim for Evoc AAs first to improve my perception as a nuker vs. my perception as a healer. I typically warn guildmates/groups that my AA & spec is geared more to nuking and that usually helps me avoid unnecessary healing annoyances. ;)

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<strong>"unnecessary healing annoyances"</strong>


Heh...you mean like actually casting a heal spell?

(I like this phrase for some reason...:)

You got what you wanted, much bigger heals, now you're resentful because people want you to use them?

Humanz R funny.

<strong>You got what you wanted, much bigger heals, now you're resentful because people want you to use them?</strong>

Now, Panamah, you're making the mistake of lumping all druids together. You know better. Half of all druids did NOT want much bigger heals, for the simple reason that we don't consider ourselves to be primary healers. I, for example, wanted much bigger nukes. And I daresay that even the healing druids among us were surprised when SOE tossed TR and KR into the mix at the end of last summer.

So be careful when you use the term "you," because it doesn't apply to me or many other druids.

<blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>Now, Panamah, you're making the mistake of lumping all druids together.[/quote]

I know, I know. You were one of the wily ones the clerics weren't able to dupe.

But I wonder how many of the druids complaining today are ones that were asking for the heals last ... when was it ... September?

I remember the arguments:

Druids aren't wanted in raiding guilds.
Druids aren't wanted in groups.

And manaburn and complete heal was what someone asked for and I believe the overwhelming majority of druids who posted here wanted the better heals.

Be careful what you wish for!

Personally, I'm glad you all got the heals. I think they were needed. I know that that open raid on Terris wouldn't have happened if we hadn't had a bunch of druids show up, because we were way short on clerics.

Usually when I'm doing a raid I'm really torn to pieces over druids. If I have enough clerics, I'd rather have their DPS. And I often don't feel like I want to spare them to go off and root snare/kite adds because they're such good healers and nukers.

But still, specialize in what you want. No one else needs to know! They can't right click on you and find out.

Oh yeah, my druid is an evocation druid. She originally specialized in alteration, but sometime during Luclin she changed her mind. Not that it matters, mostly she's just sitting in a dusty bit-bucket not getting used.

We've been having this debate in our group of guild druids as well. Personally I'm evoc specialized and probably going to switch to alteration. With the recent nerfs if druids can get a group they should be grouping. Its better for xp. In a group we do it all, buff, debuff, nuke, heal, etc. I dont think you can go wrong in a group situation being either.

Now if you raid alot I would say that you are probably healing or can heal more then you nuke. If you are assist healing, healing your group, etc. you can seriously lay out alot of mana fast.

My main argument for alteration to be a druids specialization....mana costs. Our nukes are in the 300s for mana cost. Our new heals however are in the 500 and 600 category for mana. SCM helps offset these but they will offset it MORE on the higher end of teh mana scale if you are alteration specialized. Or at least they should..i haven't tested it fully yet. If you are specialized in alt you will gain more mana savings then from evocation due to the cost of the spells. Offset this with you getting MORE mana savings on our ICHs (which mana pres and other effects WONT help offset) and alteration is the clear winner from what I see. Anybody want to debate it? Take yer best shot.

<blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr> But I wonder how many of the druids complaining today are ones that were asking for the heals last ... when was it ... September?[/quote]Heh, don't mistake playstyle for complaining (I don't think you are, actually). Was I glad to get TR? You bet. Suddenly I was marginally valuable again in both groups and raids. Would I have preferred better DPS instead? Absolutely. But after suffering through obsolesence in the Luclin Era I would have embraced ANYTHING to improve the Druid class.

<blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>I remember the arguments:
Druids aren't wanted in raiding guilds.
Druids aren't wanted in groups. [/quote]
TR/KR has certainly helped this, especially in raiding situations. I would much rather be a DPS class (competing for 3-4 group spots instead of competing for a lone healer role) but it's better to have <em>some</em> desirability than none at all.

Quite honestly, at the time we got TR, Evoc Druids were more powerful relative to other classes. PoP gave a reasonable boost to Alt Druids with NI and better healing AAs but Evoc Druids didn't quite scale with other nukers IMO. This was likely by design, but oh well.

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<strong>Now, Panamah, you're making the mistake of lumping all druids together. You know better. Half of all druids did NOT want much bigger heals, for the simple reason that we don't consider ourselves to be primary healers. I, for example, wanted much bigger nukes. And I daresay that even the healing druids among us were surprised when SOE tossed TR and KR into the mix at the end of last summer.</strong>

Once Moonfire got upgraded druids were slinging the 2nd biggest and the 2nd most efficient cold nuke, when ancient spells came out druids got the most efficient fire nuke in the game, better than the much sought after Garrison's. Druids were very close to wizards, it was impossible for druid nukes to get significantly better without surpassing wizards, who, at the time, were the top damage dealers and weren't going to get further improved.

Meanshile druid healing was 880 for 400, a PATHETIC @#%$ JOKE put on druids in Kunark where even Paladins got more efficient healing. It would take a druid almost an entire manabar to heal a raid buffed warrior to full, then a 10-15 minute med to recover. A pathetic @#%$ joke. Saying half of all druids did not want much bigger heals is untrue. The vast majority of druids wanted improved healing, it was the primary role in groups for druids in Kunark, Velious and Luclin despite it being obvious, even by early Velious, that 880 in 5.5 second cast wasn't sufficient. It couldn't even keep up with the damage output of an unslowed golem in velks on a warlord. Chain casting NT and watching the tank's HPs steadily going down instead of up was just wrong even before considering the 400 mana that was being burnt each 8 seconds meant a minute and a half of med time IF you were lucky enough to have an enchanter in the group for C2.

The sad thing is that TR was such a feeble joke. KR helps but druids are dependant on SOE realizing that they're going to have to KEEP giving druids new heals. If SOE lets druids go a couple raid expansions without a heal upgrade like they did from Kunark to PoP, times are going to be rough again when weilding a 10 second 600 mana KR on 14k+ hp tanks while clerics, who are gaurenteed upgraded heals, are going to be using things superior to CH, a spell that will be inevitable for the next raid expansion.

<strong>Saying half of all druids did not want much bigger heals is untrue. The vast majority of druids wanted improved healing, it was the primary role in groups for druids in Kunark, Velious and Luclin despite it being obvious, even by early Velious, that 880 in 5.5 second cast wasn't sufficient.</strong>

Most druids were willing to accept something modest in healing, like the paladin's group heal. So more than half of druids not wanting bigger heals on the order of KR is perfectly true.

As for it being the primary role for druids, you are presuming that the way you played a druid was the way that all of us played a druid. Not so at all.

Expect me to vigorously fight any effort towards giving druids better healing than we have now. I feared that it would impact our nuking standing last year, and my fears have proven out. I do not forget the healing druids who turned their backs on our getting better nukes (and a few who even tried to undercut that effort by saying that druids getting weaker DDs than mages was perfectly acceptable).

The penduluum has swung too far. It is time for it to swing back in the direct of the nuking druid.

The problem isn't with our abilities in each area, it's with the needs of a raid. Healing is in more demand than damage output because fewer classes can do it effectively. If healing could be distributed across more classes then druids wouldn't be "forced" into that role so much.

I think both our healing and damage dealing abilities are right about where they should be for a non-specialist class.

<strong>Most druids were willing to accept something modest in healing, like the paladin's group heal. So more than half of druids not wanting bigger heals on the order of KR is perfectly true.</strong>

I disagree. Hell, NT was the biggest direct heal in the game other than CH and as I pointed out it wasn't even sufficient as a heal for XP groups in VELIOUS. The writing was on the wall.

<strong>As for it being the primary role for druids, you are presuming that the way you played a druid was the way that all of us played a druid. Not so at all.</strong>

LOL, it is a matter of fact that the primary role of druids for XP groups has been as a healer and most druids thought of themselves that way. I can't recall a single thread complaining how rogues, monks, wizards, necros or mages were getting picked over druids, but no matter how bad your memory you can surely recall the numerous threads of druids complaining about sitting at the zoneline while all the clerics were getting groups. Your typical sub-60 XP group thought of clerics as healers, shamans as slowers and druids as what you take if there wasn't a cleric around and you had a slower already. Druids were almost never picked up for damage, they were always slotted as a healer or backup healer with evac and porting occasionally as a handy plus.

<strong>Expect me to vigorously fight any effort towards giving druids better healing than we have now.

The penduluum has swung too far. It is time for it to swing back in the direct of the nuking druid.</strong>

Clerics are still the choke point of guild raiding, druid healing is still not good enough that druids are taken seriously enough to fill in for a cleric in the later half of the game. While I loved putting out the top damage in the guild in Luclin as much as I detested having to try to compensate for lack of clerics with Nature's Touch, it's pretty clear that the game would benefit from more healing power in hands other then clerics. The druid and shaman classes are the obvious choices for getting more healing.

I have always been of the opinion that the way that I play personally should determine what I specialized in. When I got to the level where I had to decide I put 1 point in everything and let my style dictate.

I ended up being Alteration all on my own. I didn't do anything differently with my playstyle, but I figured that I should specialize in what I used the most and that the best way to figure it out would be to just let it take care of itself. I won't say that this is the right way to go about it, but I think it worked for me.

Problem with that approach is that it each cast is equally weighted, regardless of mana cost or time each spell is being cast.

You'd get alteration by casting 3 snares for every nuke, but you'd save more mana if you were specialized in evoc.

<blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>if ya wanted to heal you should have made a cleric![/quote]

If you wanted to nuke, you should have made a wizard!

:P

I'm convinced that they gave us heals to compensate the problem that high level guilds get with lack of clerics, and not because WE wanted to be more useful.

Just think of how many people would have quit if druids were not there to make up for the lack of clerics...

<blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr> I ended up being Alteration all on my own.[/quote]
I did the same thing years ago. It was very close, like less than five points of separation, but mine came up Evocation.

<blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr> If you wanted to nuke, you should have made a wizard! [/quote]
That was a little too easy.

I'm an evocation druid and heres why.

1) I hate being a healer in an exp group I never group without clerics unless I have no choice.

2) On mobs that are trivial encounters I like to nuke so things go faster and its fun to be summoned at 10% for overnuking.

3) I love to solo

4) I do a lot of mini raids for lower end mobs to get recruits geared and when we're doing Klandicar with only 6 people he better be dropping fast so I'lll be nuking and healing.

5) The argument that specialization will save an entire raid mob that hitting for 3k is very very very unlikely, if all the clerics are dead I'm nuking Repram since the tank is dead in 2 or 3 rounds anyways if I'm the only healer.

It's personal choice and honestly I do not believe that it makes a big difference. If you like healing more than nuking get alteration if you like nuking more than healing get evocation. You can always switch, I know this post is 3 days old but I'm sick and can't sleep so back off =P.