Druid time!

[Ilindith]

Well almost...200k to cap. Looking for a bit of help and information for this life.

Haven't played Beta so I have almost no knowledge at all about the druid class. Not sure how they work exactly. Builds would be great. As usual will try to be as self-sufficient as possible.

How do the stats work? Been a while since my last PnP Druid. Do they change while in form?

From what little I have gathered I'm thinking of doing 18 Druid/2 Monk mix for evasion. Would Stunning Fist work while in form? Thinking it could be great with the Wisdom.

Pretty much any information would help me at this point, trying to gather as much as possible before TRing. Don't want to end up with something crappy and have my last life be a pain in the ass.

Thanks in advance!

[Juggle]

Well almost...200k to cap. Looking for a bit of help and information for this life.

Haven't played Beta so I have almost no knowledge at all about the druid class. Not sure how they work exactly. Builds would be great. As usual will try to be as self-sufficient as possible.

How do the stats work? Been a while since my last PnP Druid. Do they change while in form?

From what little I have gathered I'm thinking of doing 18 Druid/2 Monk mix for evasion. Would Stunning Fist work while in form? Thinking it could be great with the Wisdom.

Pretty much any information would help me at this point, trying to gather as much as possible before TRing. Don't want to end up with something crappy and have my last life be a pain in the ass.

Thanks in advance!

Well, even given that you sort of insulted me on my capping of a druid...I did play beta and level capped a couple Druids as well as on Sarlona after the release.

Wisdom effects spell points and most DC spell modifiers.

The way I have experienced the class, it was meant to be played in multiple (at least two) forms. Giving true meaning to the "shapeshifting" class. To just give you some background information, there are certain spells and spell-abilities that can only be performed in certain stances (i.e. Takedown, and Snowslide can only be used in Wolf/Winter Wolf forms whereas spells like Tremor can only be used in Bear form)

At level 2 you can become a wolf, 8 you get the second tier (wolf at lvl.2, winter wolf at 8) and then you can pick a Water Elemental or Fire Elemental stance at level 13.

So given the differences in stances, it's sort of like you have very different options.

Wolf/Winter Wolf Melee - focuses on sneak attack bonuses to damage
Bear/Dire Bear Melee - focuses on high incite, and mawling damage.
Elemental Forms - focsues more on spells (though you can still definitely melee, the forms themselves give bonuses to spell caster level accordingly)

Stunning Fists should work while in form (not 100% sure though), and I originally planned my Druid to go the 18/2 mix for evasion.

What I ended up doing was a mix of spellcasting and combat, using high wisdom and the level 2 spell Flameblade to conjure +5 Flaming Burst, Incineration (by level 20) scimitars that use wisdom modifier for to-hit and damage. This way I was able to have the highest DC's possible on my spells (because remember, Wis modifier for spells including spell-abilities such as Takedown, and Snowslide) for better crowd control and adding AOE's to boot. Self sufficiency wasn't a problem, you get Heal and Vigor Regeneration Spells to keep alive.

Hope this helps. (Was a very fun class for me).

[Ilindith]

Well, even given that you sort of insulted me on my capping of a druid...I did play beta and level capped a couple Druids as well as on Sarlona after the release.

Wisdom effects spell points and most DC spell modifiers.

The way I have experienced the class, it was meant to be played in multiple (at least two) forms. Giving true meaning to the "shapeshifting" class. To just give you some background information, there are certain spells and spell-abilities that can only be performed in certain stances (i.e. Takedown, and Snowslide can only be used in Wolf/Winter Wolf forms whereas spells like Tremor can only be used in Bear form)

At level 2 you can become a wolf, 8 you get the second tier (wolf at lvl.2, winter wolf at 8) and then you can pick a Water Elemental or Fire Elemental stance at level 13.

So given the differences in stances, it's sort of like you have very different options.

Wolf/Winter Wolf Melee - focuses on sneak attack bonuses to damage
Bear/Dire Bear Melee - focuses on high incite, and mawling damage.
Elemental Forms - focsues more on spells (though you can still definitely melee, the forms themselves give bonuses to spell caster level accordingly)

Stunning Fists should work while in form (not 100% sure though), and I originally planned my Druid to go the 18/2 mix for evasion.

What I ended up doing was a mix of spellcasting and combat, using high wisdom and the level 2 spell Flameblade to conjure +5 Flaming Burst, Incineration (by level 20) scimitars that use wisdom modifier for to-hit and damage. This way I was able to have the highest DC's possible on my spells (because remember, Wis modifier for spells including spell-abilities such as Takedown, and Snowslide) for better crowd control and adding AOE's to boot. Self sufficiency wasn't a problem, you get Heal and Vigor Regeneration Spells to keep alive.

Hope this helps. (Was a very fun class for me).

Take it as an insult if you want, it wasn't. All I was saying is that it was simply nothing special at all to me. Especially considering there are people on other servers that capped Legend character Druids 2 or 3 days before you capped your first life one. To me it's nothing more than someone making a new character and getting it to level 20...nothing amazing about that, first of a class or not.

And thank you for the information.

[Culver.Civello]

This will probably interest you, if you haven't seen it yet....

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?p=4556059#post4556059

[Ilindith]

This will probably interest you, if you haven't seen it yet....

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?p=4556059#post4556059

I have seen it yes. This is what I came up with after a lot of searching around for information.

str 18 + all level ups
dex 8
con 18
int 8
wis 14
cha 6


1Fighter - Shield Mastery
1 - Stunning Blow
2Monk - Power Attack
3Monk - Toughness
3 - Past Life : Disciple of the Fist
6 - Exotic Weapon : Khopesh (so I can reuse my Lightning II greensteel)
9 - Quicken (Not sure about it yet, might use Empower Healing for self-heals instead)
12 - Improved Critical : Bludgeoning
15 - Improved Shield Mastery
18 - Natural Fighting

Pretty much trying to go full melee with self-buffing and healing, not sure if it'll turn out good or not.

[Culver.Civello]

I have seen it yes. This is what I came up with after a lot of searching around for information.

str 18 + all level ups
dex 8
con 18
int 8
wis 14
cha 6


1Fighter - Shield Mastery
1 - Stunning Blow
2Monk - Power Attack
3Monk - Toughness
3 - Past Life : Disciple of the Fist
6 - Exotic Weapon : Khopesh (so I can reuse my Lightning II greensteel)
9 - Quicken (Not sure about it yet, might use Empower Healing for self-heals instead)
12 - Improved Critical : Bludgeoning
15 - Improved Shield Mastery
18 - Natural Fighting

Pretty much trying to go full melee with self-buffing and healing, not sure if it'll turn out good or not.

Hmmm... Max Str? I suppose that would work well, but I think you'll be missing out. I'm guessing with this DPS type build, You'll be wanting to go wolf. And one of the Wolf's primary abilities is Takedown... which can be exceedingly useful. Plus you have Stunning Blow on top of that. Seems to me like you'd be better off raising your Wisdom a little more to make those two more useful. Kopesh is nice, though not as useful in an animal form. You might be better off just making a LitII Scimi and free up your Feat for say another Natural Fighting feat... as they stack.. for increased chance at doublestrike. If you're set on that though, I'd suggest using that while you level up and work on getting Ings.. then use your free feat exchange to switch it later on if you can manage to make a Scimi version. As for the Quicken Feat, I'd say that would be a good option. You are going for a mellee style, so you'll be in the front line. Getting off those heals for yourself may just be a bit more important than making your heals more potent. I'd say everything else looks pretty good. What race you plan on doing? If Helf, then I'd suggest cutting your con down to 16 instead. You'll have plenty of HP... and put that into Dex for Rogue Dilli. If not, then that should be fine as is... :P Though... you could also use those couple extra points in Wis... Druids actually get quite a bit of HP... probably the best out of any caster.

[Ilindith]

Hmmm... Max Str? I suppose that would work well, but I think you'll be missing out. I'm guessing with this DPS type build, You'll be wanting to go wolf. And one of the Wolf's primary abilities is Takedown... which can be exceedingly useful. Plus you have Stunning Blow on top of that. Seems to me like you'd be better off raising your Wisdom a little more to make those two more useful. Kopesh is nice, though not as useful in an animal form. You might be better off just making a LitII Scimi and free up your Feat for say another Natural Fighting feat... as they stack.. for increased chance at doublestrike. If you're set on that though, I'd suggest using that while you level up and work on getting Ings.. then use your free feat exchange to switch it later on if you can manage to make a Scimi version. As for the Quicken Feat, I'd say that would be a good option. You are going for a mellee style, so you'll be in the front line. Getting off those heals for yourself may just be a bit more important than making your heals more potent. I'd say everything else looks pretty good. What race you plan on doing? If Helf, then I'd suggest cutting your con down to 16 instead. You'll have plenty of HP... and put that into Dex for Rogue Dilli. If not, then that should be fine as is... :P Though... you could also use those couple extra points in Wis... Druids actually get quite a bit of HP... probably the best out of any caster.

Stunning Blow is STR based, not WIS. Going S&B so I cannot use Stunning Fist. I thought of going WIS, but limiting myself to using Flame Blade wasn't very appealing to me.

I have nowhere near enough ingredients to make another Lightning II weapon so might as well use the one I have. Taking feat to remove the penalty and I CANNOT take Natural Fighting at that level, as it requires minimum 9 levels of Druid to pick up. Also this life is just to get the past life and Completionist again so I won't really bother crafting GS stuff for it.

I am Warforged.

And eh, if it ends up being a bad build I can always use the free Lesser Reincarnation they gave to everyone!

[Culver.Civello]

Stunning Blow is STR based, not WIS. Going S&B so I cannot use Stunning Fist. I thought of going WIS, but limiting myself to using Flame Blade wasn't very appealing to me.

Ah. I misread. My bad. :p


I have nowhere near enough ingredients to make another Lightning II weapon so might as well use the one I have. Taking feat to remove the penalty and I CANNOT take Natural Fighting at that level, as it requires minimum 9 levels of Druid to pick up. Also this life is just to get the past life and Completionist again so I won't really bother crafting GS stuff for it.

Ah, well it is just a suggestion, even if you are switching the feats around a little and switching out Kopesh later... once you manage to get the ings... but totally up to you. :P


I am Warforged.

And eh, if it ends up being a bad build I can always use the free Lesser Reincarnation they gave to everyone!

It probably isn't one of the better builds, but still... not too bad. You'd probably manage to make it to 20 at least. And that will at least give you your completionist again. ^-^

[Ilindith]

Will try a few things when I get to level 6...just one quest to go. Might end up getting a +3 Lesser Heart and just go caster build after all. Took a better look at the spells and it could be interesting...

[Juggle]

Will try a few things when I get to level 6...just one quest to go. Might end up getting a +3 Lesser Heart and just go caster build after all. Took a better look at the spells and it could be interesting...

Yeah you very well may like the caster build better. I know you don't want to limit yourself to flame blade, but it's really not that bad for killing off mobs at lower levels, and once you progress you'll end up using your spells more. Quake + Storm of Vengeance + Snowslide ftw! Snowslide is just such a cool winter wolf ability, it's basically the wolf's leap of faith on a 15 second cool-down and anything you slide through freezes for an allotted time based on (ofc) wis modifier. I really think you will like more of a caster-shapeshifter better. Perhaps swapping between Winter Wolf and Water Elemental forms. The spells are just very cool. Using Creeping Doom for dot poison damage on mobs makes them easily killable to any following AOE spell (i.e Ice Storm) and even more manageable should you choose to run in and finish them off with a set of flameblades. Have fun!

[Ilindith]

Well ****...forgot we can't swap in Druid levels with a Lesser Reincarnate for now...just wasted 1.4k points on a Lesser Heart and stuck with something I really don't like much...

On the only character I play...

[Kages]

Sexy right?

[Ilindith]

Sexy right?

I know right, I'm so hawt.

[Kages]

You know, I remember a day when I could keep track of your progress by looking at your signature tag. Sigh... the good ol'days.

[khatarsis]

6 - Exotic Weapon : Khopesh (so I can reuse my Lightning II greensteel)



I guess you're already past this part now, but when in wolf form, you don't need to worry about proficiency. At least I could use a DA without penalty. Tried the same in elemental form, and the penalty applied. Not sure if this is WAI though.

[Ilindith]

You know, I remember a day when I could keep track of your progress by looking at your signature tag. Sigh... the good ol'days.

Removed it when it kept giving me errors when trying to generate one. Even MyDDO can't keep up, stopped working at my first level of Druid.