TSS offers a very large amount of changes which enchance the game, a few of them not TSS directly related which effect druids are as follows:

1: Changes to faction with Wolf Form. Wolf Form will now keep you at the same faction level yuo are at normally. This means when you go to Wolf Form, every mob in the game won't be attemptig to kill you - unless they would anyway.
2: Changes to charm. Charmed mobs now do nearly 15% more damage then previously. Charmed mobs no longer take group experience
3: *Lots* of zones which are *very* animal heavy.
4: LDoN and Omens spells are now researchable
5: New spell resist system. Resists are no longer hard capped like the old system, this will enable players to start resisting AEs which they nearly never resisted before. - Curently on Hold, not going live with launch
6: New skill cap and resist cap increases when you level 71-75.
7: New Out of Combat Mana / HP / Endurance Regen
8: New Con System. Mobs which require a raid force will now tell you so.
9: You now have the ability to see the Lore on items, and what the result of a quest will be upon accepting it.
10: Druids and Wizards now port to actual Rings and Spires within TSS. Druids can port to Blightfire Moor, The Steppes, and Direwind Cliffs (near Ashengate). Wizards can port to Blightfiremore, Sunderrock Springs, and Icefall Glaicer (just outside the new Giant city). Both Teleporting classes get TLs to these locations.
11: The Nearest PoK book in TSS is from near the nexus stone in PoK, to a Book located near the Stone Hive in Blightfire Moor. For those wondering, the Book is appox 4 Zones from Frostcrypt, and 4 Zones from Ashengate.

Directions on how to get to Icefall Glacier:

Teleport to The Steppes, Invis and Run north, just past a Halfwall with Giant Icons on it, ther is a ramp. Following this ramp up will lead you to Icefall Glacier and beyond. Using Succor will take you to The Mesa zone in.

Directions on how to get to Ashengate:

Teleport into Direwind. Head east past the waterfall to the orc encampment. Follow the Ramp just past the Orc Encampment up to the series of criss-cross bridges. Continue up this crossing all bridges until you arrive at a Wall with two Guardians of the Gate. Past this location is a ramp almost direction across from the bridge - following it high enough leads you to Ashengate. Succor in Direwind takes you to Sunderrock.

Notable new spells:

Second Life - self only DI style spell which functions like the clerical Touch of the Divine AA.

Winter's Flame - A nuke which hits for Fire, then Autocasts a second Cold Nuke directly afterward.

Skin to Vines - changes a target to Bodytype: Plant. While this debuff is in effect, fire damage verus this mob is increased (similar to our epic effect) as well as a increase to Slashing Damage.

The new zones are simply wonderful. I am tremondously impressed at the level of detail in the expansion.

-Fenier

I hope this means we can start charming animals again and have it mean something with solo or groups.

Almost forgot, 4 new Class armor sets where planned.

One for low levels
One for Mid Levels
One for High Levels (Single Group - ToBish)
One for High Levels (Raid)

Excellent write up, Fenier. You get a sticky! I hope you dont mind I altered the thread title.

For a overview of changes to the spell system for druids, check out: http://eq.forums.thedruidsgrove.org/showthread.php?t=14376

Both Auras are now in the same context menu.
Circle of Nettles is now known as Legacy of Nettles (Finally, asked for this one personally =p )

Corruption Resist is NOT factored into Prismatic or Choromatic Checks.

All TSS Teleports have thier own context menu, they are not listed under Antonica.

CoS Upgrade was reported that - when maxed at level 3 - as a 3k Instant Heal with 1500 HoT effect.

Excellent write up, Fenier. You get a sticky! I hope you dont mind I altered the thread title.
Spiffy, no I don't mind.

I just want to say, I think its awesome they are increasing the value of porting indirectly by making Druids the class of choice to get to Ashengate quickly, and Wizards the Class of choice to get to Frostcrypt Quickly.

Between the two classes, you are within nearly a single zone line of nearly any place in TSS.

All portal locations I have visted are non-kos. There are KoS mobs nearby, but they do not path within the portal that I saw, and thus should not aggro.

Wizard Spells are losing the requirement for TL fragments.

The Zepher line is currently not being extended to our old portal locations, they may do this at some time in the future.

Our Omens of War Class Tunics which currently provide an extra 25% spell haste for the next 2 / 4 nukes / heals are not going to be adjusted to 75. Per lucy, the click spell haste will start to degrade at 71.

The Drakkin will get a racial ability which is upgraded with questing.

The Ability is a Breath weapon, which is a DD / DoT and negative resist adjustment, usuable once every 5 minutes from my understanding. It is a very short range frontal cone attack.

For Druids, this results in The Blue Drakkins functioning against MR, and the Green ones functioning againt Poison.

At level 50 the breath weapon was doing 360 dd plus dot and debuff

There was a Mentor button on the Leader AA window that seemed to allow you to delegate who got the Leader AA XP while retaining the benefits of the true leaders abilities

There are tinkered upgrades to the Roboboars

The Spell Resist system revamp is NOT going live with TSS launch. They want to do some more work on it before pushing it to live.

Just making sure, did they say the changes to Reptile WOULD NOT be happening? I wasn't sure about that.

Just making sure, did they say the changes to Reptile WOULD NOT be happening? I wasn't sure about that.

They attempted something on beta. They did not like how it worked out, and it was removed. They will be trying something at a later date.

I thought so. I was seeing a lot on the beta boards, but I figured I'd ask.

The Ability is a Breath weapon, which is a DD / DoT and negative resist adjustment, usuable once every 5 minutes from my understanding. It is a very short range frontal cone attack.


Interesting. Wonder what the DD and DoT damage are fully maxed. Also, since you say its a frontal cone attack, can I assume its an AE?

Yes, its AE. Highest Damage I heard so far was 800~

Wow. And thats just the DD portion? That is a really potent effect if used correctly by a large group.

Short range, 75? I think maybe smaller.

But if these are only with drakkins how many drakkins do you think will be created with this, at this point in the game I don't think alot of people are going to want to change over. The people with bot armies may make one and others just to play around on but I really don't think alot of people are going to make one as their new main.

Nice write up Fenier :) Thank you so much!

I hope this means we can start charming animals again and have it mean something with solo or groups.

Druids spells and AA's in regards to trash mobs and fun factor I want the following...
- Animal slow to go with our animal haste.
- Provide a quick cast anti summon spell to keep the mobs your killing from beating you down in 3,2,1..once charm breaks.
- Dire Charm upgrade for level 70 -75.
- Lower the regular charm to a 4.5sec cast time.

…all adds up to a fun factor.

From Fenier's write up on charmed pets that do 15% more damage now. I have been doing some charm kiting in icefall with the leopards and have noticed that the charmed cat loses about 75% of hps while the uncharmed mob is rougly 80% health. If you then break charm and charm the other cat, the one with 20ish% will beat down the one at full health and not even come close to dying. Anyone else have experience with this? maybe its they way they wanted it, but perhaps its a bug.

Chumba
73 Druid The Rathe
Precision Strike

The animal you charm loses power when its charmed. It will deal appox 50% of the damage it used to do prior to charming. Prior to TSS launch this was about 35%~.

So your 1500 cat, or Griffon, for example, starts hitting around 600. The animal it is fighting is still hitting for the full 1500.

I believe in the upper levels, and I could very well be wrong on this part, charming a mob also to a limited degree effects its other combat aspects, so you can't just charm a cat and goto town, you would need to buff it and keep it healed.

------

In reply to the animal only Slow or Mez

This was brought up during beta by a few druids. Prathun's views at the time where, no mez - since it crosses class lines, and the fact that Shaman's Feralize + Druid Animal Mez negates the need for a chanter or bard. Similar logic is why no class can change bodytype to Undead (Necromancer Slow, etc) or Summoned (Mage Mez, etc).

He would be more apt to do Slow, considering Shaman can already slow, so it negates the impact of their Feralize spell. Shaman would still retain the edge here.

but in your original post, pets are supposed to deal 15% more damage right? or did i read this wrong? just trying to get a straight and accurate answer to this.

Charmed pets where dealing 35%~ Damage or so.

During Beta Rasherre made charmed pets deal 50%~ or so.

This is a 15%~ increase in the amount of damage a charmed pet does.

Ok thanks Fenier for clearing it up.

Chumba