Potentially returning druid

[Tenielle]

I left the game about 5 years ago... at the time the devs were rapidly moving away from balancing the druid between dps, utility and heals and more heavily reinforcing the role of druid as a healer. It got to the point I didn't feel I could solo any longer and utility (such as thorns) was negligable. Wizards, mages and necros had become vastly superior in their given roles and it got to the point they were doing at least twice as much dps as druids. Granted druids had never been dps dynamos but keeping up and contributing was never an issue. As of 5 years ago, it had gotten to the point if you didn't need another healer in the raid you just didn't bring a druid. I left the game when I realized the versatile class that had brought into the game was no longer versatile.

Has this changed?

Bonus points if anyone remembers the devs' 'stances' tease that never materialized.

[tatankawd]

Hey, I remember you, from the old TDG days In trying to reply, I realized I'd never registered when the forums went to the new domain, but now I'm back.

I returned for about 6 months last year, and then again in October this year. I'm a totally casual soloer (haven't raided since ToV LOL!), and have found the game much more enjoyable these days. This fall's return has been interesting in that, for the first time since 2000, I'm not using my druid as my main, concentrating on a mage and a necro. Too many years of seeing druids treated as the red-headed stepchildren of EQ finally convinced me to just give it up.

And, yes, I remember the "stances".

Tat

[Tenielle]

Name seems vaguely familiar. I'm surprised anyone remembers me though it's been so long.

I posted some guides, charts and theorycrafting back in the day - back when I was raiding 27.5 hours a week... I would kill to have half that free-time now. I've been getting my MMO fix from WoW now - not surprisingly with a druid main. I'm the guild leader of a two 3-hour-night 25-man raid group and tonight I will announce our disbandment back into 10's. We've done this once before with at the start of Cataclysm and it sucks to have to do it again... there's just no incentive to run 25's so recruiting has been incredibly difficult.

That's a lot of the reason I'm back here fishing for info - I don't know if I want to do 10's in WoW again. I'm sad to hear EQ druids still aren't getting respect. I can't play single-minded classes - at least in raids. I had a necro I enjoyed immensely when soloing but that was about it. My beastlord was also incredibly fun for grouping.

Maybe I'll try FTP for a bit and see if I'm really jonesing or just courting nostalgia.

[tatankawd]

[quote="Tenielle"]Name seems vaguely familiar. I'm surprised anyone remembers me though it's been so long.[/quote]

Well, for one my age, your name is very hard to forget. How's the Captain?

[Relient]

I can't speak to everything, as I don't raid, and mostly casually solo. We have a few good ways to get xp these days. Quint kiting is making a comeback as of late, as well as charming. There are a few really good guides on this, but it basically involves finding a place with animals we can charm, pull a pack of them (5-10) and charm one, while the others beat it town to 20% or less life, invis, charm a new one, etc until they are all almost dead, then nuke em down.

I don't know how our dps compares to other classes, but we can still get plenty of xp solo if you take the time to get a good spot and routine down.

[Mallorn]

I have never been a raider, but I have spent more time that I would like to admit browsing the web on the druid class in 2012. Some things I've found may be helpful. On my server, on open-raid guilds and their forums, there seem to be equal high level druid numbers as other classes, highest counts being warriors. Other guilds have high level raiding druids in them. I have seen on SOE forums where modern raiding druids support both as healers or as DPS, with a focus on debuffs it seems in DPS. At the high level raiding level you have to know your class, have a well developed character and you have to be able to commit the time to raid regularly. The rest comes down to your personal character, playing well with others comes to mind, heh.

I have also seen lots of cross-server advertisements for classes, and have seen high level druids on recruiting lists. If you are a top-end raid minded druid I would get your ducks in a row and then find the right guild, right time zone on the right server to match your style. I wasn't in your situation 5 years ago, where raids were rejecting me when they had a cleric, but if that happened today I would say to ditch that guild/group and find the right home for yourself.

I hope you find some encouragement. I have seen people questioning the druid class in other forums, and asked myself the same question when I came back. I think for me the painful truth is that I have a LOT of time invested in my character and want to stay relevant. I lurk on several other class forums and the sentiment is not just in druids. As for me, a solo or molo player for the most part, I still have great versatily, which is where the game is for me now. I have made a few friends with people I have met, and over time I hope that evolves into joining a guild that would be a good fit as well.

All that being said, I haven't seen much of a break-down on what druids got with Rain of Fear. The most experience I have with what has changed for us over the years is looking at how the spells progress, and AA's. If someone could post more details on what druids got in Rain of Fear it would be helpful. It seems devs are willing and actively seek feedback for updates, largely on the soe forums, but the discussion has to start somewhere. I would rather have the discussion here, where they can't delete it, heh.

[Tenielle]

Done much charm kiting as well as hundreds upon hundreds of AA's quad-kiting - but what is quint kiting? Does rain hit 5 targets now?

[Iilane]

Its funny, I was just mentioning to a friend today that many years ago I had sworn I wouldn't ever play another SOE game. I was one of those who had been badly burnt by SOE's handling of Gates of Discord. It shattered my guild and I lost a lot of good friends that year. Frankly, it still has a bad taste in my mouth.

Later in the day, while idly browsing around on steam I discovered EQ is now free to play. It piqued my curiosity, just a little. I hadn't touched EQ in 8 years. My old level 65 druid is parked by Tunare's feet in the Plane of Growth. I wonder if she is still faithfully waiting there. I have started downloading and installing the game once more, but I am still hesitant about returning. My thoughts right now is that I'm just going to pop in and look around. I understand most if not all of the old zones have been rebuilt from scratch so I am probably going to recognize any old landmarks. But just to satisfy my curiosity, how is the game these days? Are druids as a class in a good place?

[Mallorn]

Welcome back, I wasn't burned as bad but most players I run into these days have the same vibe; old school players, left for whatever reason and are trying it back out. Are druids as a class in a good place? I went from around lvl 52 to lvl 81 checking it out since around October, playing casually. I think there are still plenty of uses for us, though most of the grouping is at the higher levels, particularly above 90. I always enjoyed the solo game and we still have a fun one for sure.

Back when we used to play people chatted a lot about strategy, hunting grounds and the like. Tatanka and I comment some for the lower level content, there are high level druids but they seem to be chatting rarely on the SOE forums. I'm gearing up for the summer season and expect to lapse back to free-to-play myself shortly. Try it out and share your thoughts.

[Iila]

I'd highly suggest you guys put the druid serverwide chat in your autojoin. A good chunk of the 'high end' druids you see chatting on eqlive hang out in there. And we don't forget it exists like this place. We might not have great answers to low level questions, but we have a faster response!

AE kiting is a completely viable way to EXP now. in the 90-95 and 95-100 spell chunks, each has a fire and an ice targeted AE that hits 5 targets and are each on separate timers.

Back in PoP days, I remember one quad kite in PoFire taking a full bar of mana to drop the 4 mobs. Now days the strategy has changed quite a bit. I usually snare up 15-20+ mobs at once, then start blasting in to the pile. As long I get buffs before going out and don't use Nature's Fury, I can drop the first set in about 7 minutes and still have 70+ mana. If I'm feeling lazy and doing a Lesson burn, I can use NF with Improved Twincast and melt 20 in about 4 minutes then port back to the guild hall and afk to wait for those to come back up while preventing lesson from fading.

The overall power of druids is very solid these days at the upper end. All three priest classes can fill the healer roles needed in EQ now in both raid and group games. In the raid game, druids specialize in cast group healing but are still VERY good tank group healers when paired with a cleric. We do kinda suck at melee group healing, but that is the shaman's area. In groups, we can play DPS with the best of them OR be a healer. And it's quite easy to transition from DPS to healer when the situation calls for it.

When you're comparing fully supported raid burn DPS numbers, druids are simply not a DPS class. Sure, we can do enough to beat any other priest or utility class, but we are not a pure DPS class and pay for that at the highest end. Despite being primarily healers, we are not clerics in leather. We have a lot of depth and options in our class to reward players who are willing to learn them.

My old level 65 druid is parked by Tunare's feet in the Plane of Growth. I wonder if she is still faithfully waiting there. I have started downloading and installing the game once more, but I am still hesitant about returning. My thoughts right now is that I'm just going to pop in and look around. I understand most if not all of the old zones have been rebuilt from scratch so I am probably going to recognize any old landmarks. But just to satisfy my curiosity, how is the game these days? Are druids as a class in a good place?

Tunare might not be alive when you log in, but MOST of the zones you remember will be the same. Some of the classic zones got revamped when expansions connected back in to old content. But with the exception of Freeport, they follow the old zones pretty well.