Winter Wolf hybrid build, Herald or Warrior?

[DeafeningWhisper]

I'm leveling the following 34 point build Druid:

Human druid 20

Str 14
Dex 10
Int 8
Con 16
Wis 18 (all lvl ups here)
Cha 8

Feats:
1 Toughness
1 Empower
3 Max
6 Empower Heal
9 Natural Fighting
12 Shield Mastery
15 IC: Bludgeon
18 Improved Shield Mastery
21 Natural Fighting
24 Natural Fighting

I think the stats are fine but I wonder if I should drop wis by 2 and add more dex/int/cha.

And more importantly while Nature Warrior looks like a given for a melee animal form druid I'm thinking Herald's extra spell power might bring more to the table for healing and cold slas and spells.

Any opinions on the build or tips?

[Dhakonus]

I'm curently playing the same build lvl14 at the moment.I've seen crits for 500 so far.But instead of taking maximize and empower,i was thinking of quicken (for non-interrupts in heals) and heighten for better dc's.I'm still not sure however what's the best of those 2 options.I guess it's up to what spells you want to use most.

[Diyon]

I wouldn't bother with heighten but I agree with Dhak that you should take quicken though.

Otherwise Pretty similar to my build (I took 16 in STR, CON, WIS and took precision and quicken instead of empower and empower heal, but these are minor things and comes down to preference).

I'd go with nature's warrior personally, (although herald isn't a bad choice), as it tends to work out better AP wise. Druid Celerity when active is utterly beastly. I've broken 100%+ doublestrike when its active. I'm not even sure what that actually does when you get past that point, but you have at least 2 hits per single attack at a high attack speed.

That said, again, herald isn't bad as you get the 2d6 light damage and extra heal amp too, although that overrides magic fang goodness.

Grab seeker on a shield (I prefer my FireMartial/AirMartial/FireMystical alchemical shield) and the hunter enhancements, and you can be rocking crazy crit damages. Add on exceptional seeker for even more. That's +21 seeker there, +27 with dreadnaughts critical stuff. x3 multiplier and large +W on attack spells mean you spike for fairly large numbers.

[DeafeningWhisper]

Removing Empower for Quicken sounds good, I have been playing around for a while with APs and Nature Warrior does come out on top.

I'll keep the stats as is for now and see if it gets the job done, if not I'll lesser, thanks for the input.

[wax_on_wax_off]

Definitely NW. Level 7 gives Reaving Roar and that'll take you through to epic levels where the 1.5x casting penalty outdoes anything else offered.

Make sure you have enough room for max Concentration, UMD, Intimidate and Balance and pick up a holy bursted ToD ring before you TR.

For feats I went Rogue Dilettante (as helf) instead of empower and PL:Arcane Initiate instead of Empower Healing. Feats are really tight on a druid but not much to be done at the moment.

[Pilgrim1]

Feats: I would try to fit in 1 spell focus evocation just so you can take the magistrate and draconic boost to evocation. As long as your investing in wisdom you will want a good evocation DC for earthquake and your many sub-optimal single target spells.

I would also try to fit in quicken because as a front line fighter failing a healing spell can be death. Also it makes your CC effects UN-interaptable.

Reaving Roar is great till 20 but after that it gets weaker. I switched over late teens to seasons herald mostly for the extra abilities it gives: spring resurgence (with healing amp its still useful in epic elite), crown of summer (healing amp rocks!!), and that ability that makes things shaken - basically it increases the DC of your earthquake by 2.

Capstone - I went for the hyrophant but from your feet list you seam a bit more melee focused than I was, however unlike Wax i find the casting delay time only ever comes up if I'm buffing or I'm spamming heal spells at other targets. The increased cooldown does not effect your boss dps, nor does it affect your CC, and it doesn't effect your mass regenerate.

I would also consider splashing 2 (or 3) monk in there, drop the shield mastery feats, pick up PA, stunning fist, quicken and spell focus evocation.

Other good feats are empower healing for renewal, heal, and regenerate. Also extend for body of the sun (this is amazing while leveling - especially with reaving roar), animal growth, and fire shield.

Edit: didn't see that you have empower heal already. If you want to lean on more melee i would drop empower and empower heal first, if your thinking about more dc casting i would drop the natural fighting first. Druid is probably the only toon where UMD just doesnt seem worth it.

PS. druid Heals can be amazing if you get a lot of heal amp - look into it.

[Diyon]

Feats: I would try to fit in 1 spell focus evocation just so you can take the magistrate and draconic boost to evocation. As long as your investing in wisdom you will want a good evocation DC for earthquake and your many sub-optimal single target spells.

I would also try to fit in quicken because as a front line fighter failing a healing spell can be death. Also it makes your CC effects UN-interaptable.

Reaving Roar is great till 20 but after that it gets weaker. I switched over late teens to seasons herald mostly for the extra abilities it gives: spring resurgence (with healing amp its still useful in epic elite), crown of summer (healing amp rocks!!), and that ability that makes things shaken - basically it increases the DC of your earthquake by 2.

Capstone - I went for the hyrophant but from your feet list you seam a bit more melee focused than I was, however unlike Wax i find the casting delay time only ever comes up if I'm buffing or I'm spamming heal spells at other targets. The increased cooldown does not effect your boss dps, nor does it affect your CC, and it doesn't effect your mass regenerate.

I would also consider splashing 2 (or 3) monk in there, drop the shield mastery feats, pick up PA, stunning fist, quicken and spell focus evocation.

Other good feats are empower healing for renewal, heal, and regenerate. Also extend for body of the sun (this is amazing while leveling - especially with reaving roar), animal growth, and fire shield.

Edit: didn't see that you have empower heal already. If you want to lean on more melee i would drop empower and empower heal first, if your thinking about more dc casting i would drop the natural fighting first. Druid is probably the only toon where UMD just doesnt seem worth it.

PS. druid Heals can be amazing if you get a lot of heal amp - look into it.

Seems like he's wanting to be melee focused, and I can say from experience that your earthquake DC will be useful even without a focus feat. If you were to more caster focus, oh yeah, definitely take it.

Remember the capstone adds SA damage too.