I've seen some very specific write ups for some classes (shaman and cleric especially) that detail a lot of the changes coming about with the new expansion including types of AAs and/or what they hope to improve about said class.

Anyone know anything about what Underfoot has in store for us druids?

When I returned from a 2 year hiatus and left again after SoD beta, I always wanted an underfoot expansion. I wanted multilayered dungeons, castles, and keeps to creep out. I wanted narrow twisting passageways with the potential of death around every corner, as well as getting lost in them. But, given the state of the game when I returned, I have my doubts.

I've seen some very specific write ups for some classes (shaman and cleric especially) that detail a lot of the changes coming about with the new expansion including types of AAs and/or what they hope to improve about said class.

Anyone know anything about what Underfoot has in store for us druids?

Not really, but if you take what is going to be given to Clerics, multiply it by three quarters you probably are not going to be too far off for Druids.


Eri

I guess there wasn't any druids in the beta for Underfoot? I am also curious what I have to look forward too.

On a side note, does the druid class even have an active class rep? One that still plays? As for beta, I haven't heard anything about the druid class in Underfoot, or in general.

There is a nuke that heals your targets target. About tier 5 Sod group difficulty going in Underfoot with more massive hit point mudflation, abundance of heavy mob density, see invis everywhere, roamers. Bring 2 healers, non mercenary variety, some sort of crowd control. Gates of Discord says Hi.

*grumble*

druids seem to be the only class not discussing this new expansion (or anything useful for that matter) - I know more detailed info about what Underfoot has in store for Shaman, Mages, Wizzys, SKs, Pallys, Beastlords, Necros..... than I do for my own class - and it's not for lack of searching.

Kind of sad to me that essentially all you hear on these forums is whining and complaining about how terrible our class has become and how we aren't wanted in groups and we suck with dps and our healing can't compare to clerics... etc, etc..

I'm a newb compared to a lot of you, I'm sure. Been playing a little less than 3 years myself so I don't have all the nostalgia of the good old days... but maybe I'm playing a different game than all of you? I start my own groups - never had a problem getting people to join. I am friends w/ a chanter, so my dps is really nice due to mana-reiterate/twincast auras. But even without that, I am able to heal high end content and do my fair share of dps. Am I the BEST at healing and the BEST at dps? No... I'm a jack of all trades.

I love my druid. I have tried some other classes and I just really enjoy the diversity I have with my druid and don't think I'll ever switch mains.

But coming here, well, it's really disappointing. I visit other class boards and see fairy consistant posting about information, questions, ideas, etc. Recently (for a while now)... druid information is pretty dead and no one seems to care enough to post much relevant information.

It is what it is... I'm sure everyone will all continue crying about everything druids don't have... but I've been checking up on this site for 2+ years now and have yet to find very much useful information for current game play.

:curse: Sorry for my rant!

This site used to be THE go to site for druid information. I think that most of the Grove vets just don't play anymore, so that information has dried up. I did see we are getting an AE debuff of some sort, and that each class gets a specific weapon also, though not of the EPIC kind lol. Add in a new Shawl Quest of some sort, and I feel Underfoot should be a good expansion.

There was that new group wolf thing, never played with it though. The shawl quest might be fun, think it had 7-8 steps for the new one after the old one. There was quite a debate with the 8th step on that quest, as it would be one of the final mobs in the expansion cycle.

quote"Sorry for my rant!"

That is fair. The evocation versus alteration versus conjuration debates were pretty fun. the debates with necros and druids over who the best soloer was. The debates with other druids on the merits of training your defense skill as opposed to leveling right away, I still laugh about my guildies getting smeared by a mob while I am standing over their corpse taking the hits just fine. The debates with wizards about how close wildfire was to their nukes.

Druids were funny like that, there was no one end all be all way to play a druid, we all had our little tricks of the trade, style and flair we had to the class. You could be considered a good druid on so many different levels to go with that gameplay, never so much as nuking nor healing. You could get a cookie for well timed evacs, being a good puller, keeping mobs snared down, continually buffing thorns/regens, crowd control. Changes to the gameplay design had alot to do with those issues, like many druids, some liked it, some didn't.

Radiant Cure
Third Spire of Nature
Third Spire of Nature
Third Spire of Nature
Sundew Blessing
Sundew Blessing Rk. II DRU/85
Sundew Blessing Rk. III DRU/85
Remote Manaflux DRU/83
Remote Manaflux Rk. II DRU/83
Remote Manaflux Rk. III DRU/83
Blast of Hypergrowth DRU/84
Blast of Hypergrowth Rk. II DRU/84
Blast of Hypergrowth Rk. III DRU/84
Surge of Ironvines DRU/85
Surge of Ironvines Rk. II DRU/85
Surge of Ironvines Rk. III DRU/85

Thanks, Aik :D

Looks like we got 2 Damage Shield type things, another Snare (?) and something...

Definitions on Allah totally different from those on Lucy... so not sure what each does...

Looks like upgrade Frondspur, Heal/blast/DS, Snare and either another DS or an attack debuff

hmm... the blast/heal sounds nice :)

There's more to post but I can't seem to get a list of it. I'm trying to try to understand the druid boards on soe forums.... :eek: talk about a job!

From Noken's post on Soe forums (http://forums.station.sony.com/eq/posts/list.m?topic_id=158486)

ystical Attuning, 5 ranks
Fury of Magic, 3 ranks
Healing Adept, 3 ranks
Healing Gift, 3 ranks
nemonic Retention, 2 ranks (2 new spell gems!)

Group Spirit of the Black Wolf
Recast 10 mins, is modified by Hastened Lycan Soul to 8 mins
Duration 2 mins, extended to 3
Range 200
mana pres 3 to 8%
detrimental only
increase fire resist by 80
increase mana by 40 / tick
spell crit chance +4%
Group Spirit of the White Wolf
Exactly the same values, but for beneficial spells / heal crit / cold resist.
Both group spirit share their reuse timer with each other, but are independent of the self wolf timer. They also have no illusion, since there's duration problems if they did.


From Ormus' (druid class leader) post on soe forums
(http://forums.station.sony.com/eq/posts/list.m?topic_id=158486)


I am going to wait to post them, sorry, as they are still in a state of change. *This is in reply to posting spells/aa list*


Edited to add posts from Noken & Ormus ~ Not a lot to go by, but some things are better than nothing!

Sundew Blessing
Cast time 1.0 sec
Recast 12.0 sec
rk1: 1402 mana, 3936 DD
rk2: 1494 mana, 4471 DD
rk3: 1553 mana, 4829 DD
It triggers an effect called "healing twincast" which has 3 tick duration, accepts 2 casts, and does exactly what a twincast nuke would do, but to heals. Works on group heal too.
Unlike any previous nuke it's cast on a PC or pet (but not yourself) and it will apply to that targets target.

The DD on it is focusable and can crit. You cast the "nuke" on the tank, and it nukes the tanks target, and then you get in the song window the heal twincast buff. It works for 2 landed casts, so if you duck out of a heal, or get interupted, it does not count that cast


Ok, so that's from the eq station forum...

So, I'm confused a bit. It's a blast/heal. You have tank targeted - blast - it dmgs the mob. Then you choose any 2 spells to heal the tank with? Or, as it says it's the same as 'twincast' - you click 1 heal spell and it twincasts it? I thought it was a 1 cast blast/heal. I don't understand what the point of this is other than it may twincast 1 heal... at the cost of a large amount of mana...hopefully i'm understanding it wrong.

Anyone have a better understanding of how it works?

Ok, so that's from the eq station forum...

So, I'm confused a bit. It's a blast/heal. You have tank targeted - blast - it dmgs the mob. Then you choose any 2 spells to heal the tank with? Or, as it says it's the same as 'twincast' - you click 1 heal spell and it twincasts it? I thought it was a 1 cast blast/heal. I don't understand what the point of this is other than it may twincast 1 heal... at the cost of a large amount of mana...hopefully i'm understanding it wrong.

Anyone have a better understanding of how it works?

From what I understand it allows you to do both a nuke and a heal without having to switch target. And because of the twincast heal it increases the heal on the tank.
Whether or not it is worth it I can not say. Players who actually used it are in a better position to do so (and that is assuming it does survive the final days of beta in its current form.)


Eri

Basically every class recieved:

1) A spell that targets the NPC that does something beneficial to its Target (HoTT). So if Druid's have a DD/Heal it will land the DD on the NPC and heal the person it's beating on. Considering the amount of agro DD's and Heals innately have...That should be interesting for a Druid's life total.

2) A AoE spell that you target on the ground (Green ring marks where the spell will land) independent of a NPC. Read many interesting stories about this new mechanic, should be interesting if they can pull it off.

Can't remember what the other new spell mechanic was introduced or if it was only the 2 spell mechanic's introduced but 3 new spell lines created.

Currently everyone has said that the spells were sub-par (their are exceptions) but the *NEW* AA lines are AWSOME! I would imagine that the Druid AA's are no exception. I would even go as far to say the spell's are probally going to suck for Druid's and you may have 1 spell worth factioning for (DD/Heal spell sounds very interesting to me).

And don't worry about sounding like a whiner. If you have only been playing the class for 3 years, you definitely missed the Druid's hey-day so you really probally not as jaded as a person like me. I switched mains about 3 years ago(Well, when ever OoW was released, 4-5 years mabye?) and just recently (last 2 weeks) started burning lesson on my Druid again.

I've been playing my druid since '99. I'm disappointed so far with how the devs have been handling the druid class in UF for spells and AAs. I don't think they really understand the class, or care. Considering UF is supposed to be "Hard Mode" EQ, we haven't been given the tools to compensate for the increased difficulty.

I've been playing my druid since '99. I'm disappointed so far with how the devs have been handling the druid class in UF for spells and AAs. I don't think they really understand the class, or care. Considering UF is supposed to be "Hard Mode" EQ, we haven't been given the tools to compensate for the increased difficulty.

The hit points of trash mobs have doubled in this expansion, and there is no change that I can detect in druid ability to deal damage in a solo setting. That makes this the first expansion I can remember where druids are completely not viable outside of a group - and a group healing role, actually, given weak class dps.

If you count level 85 toons druids have slipped from 4th place (late 2007) to 8th place. If you count new level 85 toons since June druids are close to last. If you count high level toons on the new Mayong server druids are in 15th place - barely ahead of paladins, neck and neck with berserkers. Druids are 2% of toons on Mayong and maybe 10% of all priests (clc, dru, sha.) Give it a year and I expect total druid numbers on live to be comparable to those on Mayong.

The hit points of trash mobs have doubled in this expansion, and there is no change that I can detect in druid ability to deal damage in a solo setting. That makes this the first expansion I can remember where druids are completely not viable outside of a group - and a group healing role, actually, given weak class dps.

If you count level 85 toons druids have slipped from 4th place (late 2007) to 8th place. If you count new level 85 toons since June druids are close to last. If you count high level toons on the new Mayong server druids are in 15th place - barely ahead of paladins, neck and neck with berserkers. Druids are 2% of toons on Mayong and maybe 10% of all priests (clc, dru, sha.) Give it a year and I expect total druid numbers on live to be comparable to those on Mayong.

Guess which three classes do not (in the current game) have a strong and/or clear group role and do not solo well with mercenaries?

Next expansion supposedly does away with the mercenaries as a viable group member, so that will cut the bottom out from under two more strongly solo oriented classes.

I guess Druid numbers do not show up in the developers' spreadsheets and what is not in those does not exist. It does proof though my statement that a class can not survive in a game when its only reason to exist is the lack of players of another class.
In Mayong players are confronted with the choice to level up a main healer and naturally chose, if they have to go through the effort, to pick a Cleric. For backup healer the logical choice is Shaman over Druid. In fact, on the other servers the same choice applies but there you have a backlog of partially leveled Druids muddying up the numers (so the choice becomes leveling that level 70 Druid versus a new Cleric, and even then the majority of players seem to prefer a Cleric).

An interesting thing to notice is that if not main healing Druids compete with the group spot of an enchanter. Both classes provide low to moderate dps, and give the group additional security (though I might add that an enchanter does that job a lot better in the current game of hard hitting monsters).


Eri

Guess which three classes do not (in the current game) have a strong and/or clear group role and do not solo well with mercenaries?
Eri

Shhhh.....

I don't want anyone to know I blow 2-3 (Avg.)heals on my Merc to heal him with max Healing Adept/Gift for my level (71). Lets not mention I've been playing in PoFire where my best debuff doesn't even land....

abye i'll do better in Dragonscale Hills (Or GoD) with a tank merc and charming....

Or I guess I could charm kite in Icefall and hope I don't lag out on my horrible connection....

But I'm playing my druid again :tongue:

The expansion is total fail for Druids.

The good news is you can save the group / raid with your 800 forms of AA levitation. 600 of which work in all but two zones this expansion.

Enjoy.

The extended target window alone is reason to get UF. I am quite content with our spells though, we got 2 solid ones, 1 usable for powerleveling and one extremely situational / useless.

Of new AAs, as it has been said early we got more levitates than we need, however we did score with group white/black wolf form (mana regen, critical heal/blast +%, and mana preservation). The recast is different than single forms which is money.

Wall of wind is extremely situational due to it currently going through floors, ceilings and walls. (I have never had wind come THROUGH a wall before personally... mabye a hurricane winds knock down a wall, but not go through it)

Spirits of Nature, our new swarm ability is either a horrible joke, or just an excuse for why Extended Swarm was a legit AA for us.

ore tiers of Healing Adept/Gift (first time since OoW we get both!) helps out alot with the huge increase in DPS from these mobs. More tiers of other standard AAs, mana regen, critical blast rate/dmg, etc. are nice too!

Overall I've enjoyed the difficulty of UF, but I do dislike how our class is increasingly becoming less desired in groups and raids vs. the other classes in our archetype (shaman and cleric)

Who was it that said druids are better at turning people into wolves (who don't want to be) than any other class?

Edit... Nvm. It was Fyrr.

I just started playing my druid again. I want to cry. Is it me or are 12 spell slots not enough? I am thinking that we should get stronger heals, not more. And stronger nukes, not more with different flavors. Heals need to be big AND fast. The druid got put away about a year and 1/2 ago and now i remember why. The UF expansion only makes these problems worse.

Is it me or are 12 spell slots not enough? I am thinking that we should get stronger heals, not more. And stronger nukes, not more with different flavors. Heals need to be big AND fast.

No, 12 spell slots aren't enough, sadly - but you can make do with them. Sundew Blessing is a must-have for this expansion. It costs a lot of mana, but is a life-saver. Soloing in this expansion is laughable, but I don't have a problem with that. I have a tight group of people I hang out with a lot, so I'm always welcome in their group as well as guildies - I don't have the "unwanted in group" thing a lot of you discuss, but I'm sure it's irritating.

This is a tough expansion all the way around -- "casual grouping" is not likely to happen here. If you aren't level 85, you are likely not going to be spending much time in UF zones. If you are not well geared, you'll be farming Brells Rest for a while getting a full set of armor. I don't see this expansion as being any tougher for druids than it is for any other class. Ok, scratch that, Wizards won't have trouble in this expansion (do they have trouble in any expansion?)

I am happy with UF as a whole and content with the heal spells, though I do *definitely* think we are in need of a stronger direct damage spell or DoT as well as a way to restore some of our own mana.

Wizards had some whining in Velious with the cold resist mobs, magic resist mobs, ice comet and soloist icy spear were some of their highest dd spells all cold resist. Our starfires, scoriae, and wildfires were good sources of damage in groups. But then, I enjoy that sort of thing, some areas some classes are better to use than others.

Like an advantage to an area, especially if they had done it right with the melee resistant types, warriors and rangers would be kings with their all weapon type attacks particularly on piercing and blunt resistant mobs. Devs kinda blew that with the lack of quality weapons to use.