Been selling some crap lately and have some cash to spend, but I cannot choose b/w these two items. Which is more useful in y'alls oppinions? Personaly I like to be able to run at bard speed, but clickie root would be nice & would open up a spell gem.

As of right now, there isnt much for me to buy for upgrades, im content with the gear I have. The only upgrade I want come from LDoN in the form of Foci augment and Im currently working on getting the points to buy Guk Boots, legs, and a ring from there to stick SH IV,ER IV and BA IV on. There's no FT gear I can buy anymore that would be useful, got my second bracer last night so at FT XIV now. Magelo is in the sig.

I vote pants. Speedy horses look pretty but aren't any more useful than the slow ones, considering you can port within a zone or two of most anything nowadays.

I never thought I'd find them useful, but now I can't imagine living without them. Zero mana, no-spell-slot, fizzle-free root is very useful both soloing and in groups. Plus you can cast it during the spell refresh time, so the effective cast time in a sequence of spells is 0.5 seconds. The stats are a bit dated but not terrible.

I also bought the high speed drogmor, but only use it rarely (for its speed, that is), and even then, I could certainly live without it.

I'd go with the pants as well. I can only think of one situation where a bard-speed mount would be beneficial: Quadding the basements in HoH. But looking at your manapool with FT14 and KEI.... you'd have more than enough mana to complete a quad without med kiting.

Put on your pants!

You have no idea how much diffrence those ornate pants will make. I have a mount and useful it is but not nearly as much as the pants. If I could have only 1 ornate item they would be it.

pants fer sure...

I figured one day I might get a supa-fast horsie, but it would only be a toy...my 7k nag gives me the same standing med as that 100k one (which I do use for outdoor raids where we don't have to move much)

(7k? 8k? whatever Buttercup cost...he's the cheap gelding and I wuv him)

pants.

i have stonehide and am considering trading them in for ornate. the freed up spell gem is almost invaluable.

K, guess I'll get the pants. You think I could Quad HoH basement w/ my mana pool? How long would it take? Ive only attempt two up in the GY as a test to see if I could actually quad and it didnt go so well...

Having timed a quad vs just root rotting, the time it takes to quad is about the same as root rotting 4. Obviously, having a mith marr sword and stuff, makes it a little easier to do the rot, but it really doesn't matter if you have KEI etc.

What freed up spell gem? I use the ornate for the slower, long lasting root, but I still have the fast root memmed. Like ensnare, egress and NI, it is ALWAYS memmed..:)

Depending on how fast your guild is moving through PoP and where you stand on the totem pole for loot, pants might be a waste of money if you are going to upgrade them in a couple weeks. Just a thought...

Fast root? Which one are you talking about? I cannot use anything BUT savage roots anymore due to the adjust and the long duration.

Fast root? Which one are you talking about?
Earthen Roots (61): 150 mana, -30 resist, 1.8 second cast, 1 minute max duration.

Savage Roots (63): 75 mana, -30 resist, 2.5 second cast, 4.5 minute max duration.

Earthen Roots is the "fast" root, although I would disagree that it's necessary for most to keep in a lineup. I'm always casting a spell it seems, and with no recast time, the Ornate pants have an effective 0.5 second cast time when cast in sequence.

The obvious copout answer is "it depends on your needs", but really I don't understand the demand for the Ornate Pants especially when you've stated you're doing LDoN which offers several pants with far better stats. (plus the always desirable type three slot allowing you to add a Spell Haste aug or such)

I suppose if you root/rot for XP a fair bit it might be worth considering, but with a good mana pool and FT there's really no reason to be. Quadding in HoH or eventually kiting in PoFire will be better XP, a fast horse will help with both.

I wore my pants for such a long time (traded AoN for them back before drop-rate increase) and loved them, then got seaweed, then elemental. But I think I'd still take ornate over the seaweed. I still keep ornate bagged for when I do PoWater root/doting. They're well worth it.

i never use earthen roots, scirroco, and i mean never. so it's a freed up spell gem.

/cackle

Earthen roots is the devil. Well, I got ornate pants for 85k the other day, now I still have enough left for bard horse. Gonna wait and see what GoD brings in the way of droppable stuff, otherwise its hello twink gear or bard lizzard.

I don't understand the demand for the Ornate Pants especially when you've stated you're doing LDoN which offers several pants with far better stats.
Effects >>> Stat bonuses. No stat on any leg armor in the entire game can make up for the useful effect on the Ornate. And there are no click-effect LDoN augs you can buy for your armor, only procs and focus effects, and those can be placed on almost any piece.

focus effects, and those can be placed on almost any piece.

MOst being the opperative word, Burning Affliction IV is one of *THE* hardest Foci to find. There are almost no items with it on them that are easy to get, LDoN Fixes that if you have time to do enough adventures for it.

Burning Affliction IV is one of *THE* hardest Foci to find.
My point is that that augment can be placed in any of a dozen pieces of gear, so the two aren't mutually exclusive.

Effects >>> Stat bonuses. No stat on any leg armor in the entire game can make up for the useful effect on the Ornate. And there are no click-effect LDoN augs you can buy for your armor, only procs and focus effects, and those can be placed on almost any piece.


If it were a better effect I would be inclined to agree, but clicky root is VERY rarely useful in groups, useless on raids, and to someone quadding in HoH or kiting in PoFire for XP far from spectacular. (the extra spell gem isn't desperately needed in those circumstances, and the only time you'll be rooting is to rot the last couple percent off the last mob of a quad, woo) I suppose if you root dot a fair bit it's a nice clicky, and it's not too bad for those who still charm for XP, but most of the druids I know either LDoN, quad HoH or kite Fire for XP.

It's not a horrid piece of gear, but for the most part a baggable piece rather than something worth wearing full time. 150k+ for a limited clicky effect that's marginally useful when soloing seems excessive. For that kind of plat you'll easily snag yourself a bit of FT if you're not capped, a pair of eplanes leggings with superior stats you'll be more likely to wear full time, a bard speed horse that will make a difference when quadding/kiting Fire for XP, or a variety of other upgrades. Clickys are fun no question, but maxing FT and getting your key focus items then raising mana pool/hp/resists are certainly far more important.

In terms of crowd control I use my ornate pants all the time when grouping in Ldons without a chanter/bard type. Hitting ensnare on the adds to get em to come after me then hittin em with my pants helps keep my groups alive. It is a very effective form of crowd control and allows the group to concentrate on one mob at a time and lowers the amount of mana I have to use if I am the primary healer. I agree with earlier posters that it is probably the best piece of ornate gear I have along with the mana pres boots.

Maybe i'm just not doing enough hard LDoN without a chanter or bard, but I just don't see it being necessary. Normal LDoN adventures are so trivial to a group of 65s you could have three or four slowed mobs on the MT and not be in any serious danger of running LOM healing, I spend the vast majority of my time nuking on normal diff.

On hard difficulty we usually have a chanter, so I can't speak to the effectiveness of rootparking on those, but I keep root up thru those anyways and never really find myself desperate to free up another spell gem by decreasing my mana pool and HP.

I guess what it comes down to is, would you prefer to have a piece of gear with better stats that you use all the time possibly coupled with a useful focus effect, or a situational clicky that gets used under unusual circumstances. Again this all changes if you root and rot for XP and can't manage to free up a spell gem for root. (I really wonder why this seems to be so difficult for people, I keep Snare/Root/Gate up pretty much constantly with plenty of room for whatever else I need)

On hard difficulty we usually have a chanter, so I can't speak to the effectiveness of rootparking on those, but I keep root up thru those anyways and never really find myself desperate to free up another spell gem by decreasing my mana pool and HP.

1) Karana's Renewal
2) Nature's Infusion
3) Summer's Flame
4) Snare
5) Succor
6) Stun
7) Legacy of Bracken [edit - oops!]
8) Debuff (Hand of Ro)

Where's the room for root? I can't usually give up Succor because exodus is a one shot deal per adventure so I want to save it for moments where it's really needed. Stun is essential. Hand of Ro is essential to get decent damage on hard. Two heals are essential. Snare is essential.

During the course of a typical hard, I might cast root 100 times depending on group makeup. The pants not only free up a spell slot, but they save me a full bar of mana, have an effective cast time of 0.5 seconds when combined with other spells, and are fizzle-free, which is better than the actual spell.

By comparison, a few extra HP or mana is highly situational. I can't even remember the last situation where an extra +50 hp or mana saved me; I'm sure it happens once every few months but it's certainly worth giving up in favor of the click root.

1) Karana's Renewal
2) Nature's Infusion
3) Summer's Flame
4) Snare
5) Succor
6) Stun
7) Snare
8) Debuff (Hand of Ro)

Where's the room for root?


I'd start by dropping the second Snare. :)

The essentials are as you stated, two heals, snare, root, succor, and one nuke of choice. That leaves two general purpose slots, often occupied by stun, Hand of Ro or a buff I need at that particular moment. Sure having a bonus slot for buff swapping is convenient, but is it better than a significant mana/hp boost or better yet a focus effect like Spell Haste 4 or Extended Range 4? Probably not. Also remeber that this is a single situation created in an attempt to make the clicky effect seem desirable, when raiding or kiting (PoF or quadding HoH) you'll be better served with the mana/hp every time.

1) Summer's Flame
2) Nature's Infusion
3) Ensnare
4) Swarming death that I never cast, Legacy of Bracken or some random spell in LDoN
5) Karana's Renewal
6) Savage Roots
7) Succor
8) Hand of Ro, or some other random spell

Swarming Death is almost never used, but I keep it there incase I feel like using it. Root I don't really use that often, except when lining up mobs in normal LDoN (I just head out and bring them back and leave them snared/rooted along the way for the group). Though, I could drop Succor since I haven't gotten Quick Evac yet, and my shield is clicky Succor, I just keep it up for habit I guess =-p Stun I have almost no use for them, but then again I'm always with an enchanter, so she can stun, or mez the mobs to prevent casting or whatever use for stun.