I'm home!!!!

EQ related discussion about Druid life in general.
Doccus
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Feb 06, 2013 5:04 pm

Re: I'm home!!!!

Post by Doccus »

I played a bit last night in The Steppes, pulling mainly dark blue gnolls. I have a J1 tank merc, and have outfitted myself with better armor :)

What I found was that it takes *far longer* to kill things than I remembered. I ended up using most of my mana healing the merc, having about 15% left at the end of the fight. I'd start with ensnare, 2 DOTs, and then sit and wait for my merc's first needed heal. I'd then use Karana's something (75% heal / capped at 4K?), sit and med, waiting for the DOTs to fall off. Repeat until the thing died.

Does it really take 5 minutes to kill + 3 minutes to med up to full for each kill? Should I be hunting in another manner (i.e. charming a critter)?

Thanks in advance :)

D
tatankawd
Posts: 22
Joined: Sat Dec 15, 2012 9:02 pm

Re: I'm home!!!!

Post by tatankawd »

Unfortunately, my experience with mercs in the mid-70s (where I was when they came out) was much as you describe. I can only assume it's even a bit worse in the 60s. However, I did find a "work-around" but unfortunately, you have to be in the 70s to use it. First, your alternatives, and then the workaround.

OK, first alternative, reverse charm kiting. I don't think any class can solo XP any quicker anywhere, but you are limited in where you can do it. You're too low to reverse charm kite in Icefall Glacier, and that's where I learned it, so you will have to look around to see where you can do it. Basically snare and round up 5-7 charmable animals, and then charm one and set him on one of the others. They will attack him. Then invis (insta-AA invis is preferred) and charm a different one. rinse/repeat. Once they're all low, nuke/DoT whatever is left. Note for targeting, you can assign a key for "rotate through extended targets", there isn't a key defined by default. Using this, you can rotate through targets easily.

Another alternative is root/rotting. Or quadding. Or see if you can find a group.

OK, now for the "work-around" I mentioned when moloing with a tank. Many DPS theorycraft forums talk about WDPS or "weave" DPS. Essentially, it looks at all of the spells/abilities available at the moment, and calculates how much damage they will do in total divided by the amount of time it takes to cast them (and also the time to get the spell gems to refresh). I did this evaluation for all of my spells when I was in the low 80s, and guess what I found? Our best WDPS spells are the two lines of limited hit big DSs that we get! And the nice thing about those is, they give no agro to you, and they are unresistable. Their one negative, they can't crit either. But between these, regular DSs, Wrath of the Wild, and then the DS from Spirit of the Wood/Convergence of Spirits, you can get some pretty good DS action going. And also, since you're in heal mode, you never need to target anything other than your tank, the target of your heals :) The first spell we get like this comes at level 71.

One last thought I'll leave you with.... other than reverse charm kiting, where you should be going after the highest level mobs you're able to charm, all other methods of solo/molo should be aimed at mobs 10-12 levels below you. Less XP/mob, but that will be more than made up for by going through them much faster.

If you're on Tunare, feel free to contact me, and I'll help you out.

Tat
Tatanka Wolfdancer <Inisfree>, 87th Druid of Tunare
Anaceup Mysleeves, 85th Mage
Snookims Whinslow, 85th Enchanter
Mallorn
Posts: 65
Joined: Tue Oct 16, 2012 8:48 am

Re: I'm home!!!!

Post by Mallorn »

Lots of options, love playing a druid for this reason, though the complexity is tricky when returning. :) Check out my post here viewtopic.php?f=17&t=74. I was about your level and started to work in plane of fire. The first comment I wrote on these boards was "sheesh, these are easier than gnolls in steppes!"

That zone was listed in the guide as 65-75; I headed there at 68 and didn't leave until low 70's. Once you get fernspur as Tatanka was mentioning it makes pofire go twice as fast again, which rocks.

Stick with it, keep trying new things, you can't jump blindly into a tricky strategy or place and figure it out at first. A great example of this is reverse charming; I still havent' found the appeal, though Tatanka used it a lot, etc.

I do recall using a pet a lot in the steppes as well; charm one of the into mobs and use them as a tank until low on health, break charm and kill it and get another. I think there are piles of notes I put into a steppes thread as well.

Give us some feedback once you get your feet wet, happy hunting!
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