Help With Caster Druid (returning player)

[Xeorsos]

Hey, I'm a returning player. Haven't been part of DDO for a couple years, but I like some of the changes and I'm interested in messing around with a druid. It's been a while so I'm not entirely familiar with all the terms. Also, it seems enhancements are a bit different (what's up with the post 20 stuff?)

Anyways, I'd like to play a druid but I don't have any interest in melee. I really don't know where to start with any of this. I'd prefer to build to be a healer (if that's possible) who does back-up casting when necessary. I've got 32 point builds unlocked, as well as drow (and druid, obviously).

Can anyone offer me some advice on where to start? Should I abandon the idea of trying to be a healer druid? Is Augment Summoning a worthwhile feat? Also, what's the deal with all the SLAs that everyone keeps talking about?

I mostly played a bard my last go around DDO, so do the full caster thing is new.

Thanks in advance, y'all.

[Pilgrim1]

Hey, I'm a returning player. Haven't been part of DDO for a couple years, but I like some of the changes and I'm interested in messing around with a druid. It's been a while so I'm not entirely familiar with all the terms. Also, it seems enhancements are a bit different (what's up with the post 20 stuff?)

Anyways, I'd like to play a druid but I don't have any interest in melee. I really don't know where to start with any of this. I'd prefer to build to be a healer (if that's possible) who does back-up casting when necessary. I've got 32 point builds unlocked, as well as drow (and druid, obviously).

Can anyone offer me some advice on where to start? Should I abandon the idea of trying to be a healer druid? Is Augment Summoning a worthwhile feat? Also, what's the deal with all the SLAs that everyone keeps talking about?

I mostly played a bard my last go around DDO, so do the full caster thing is new.

Thanks in advance, y'all.

Druids are great healers, can be very solid DPS thanks to there SLA, and have some great Crowd control, making them one of the best suport casters in the game.
Go human.
18 wisdom with lvl-ups
18 con

maximize
empower
empower healing
quicken
evocation focus
greater evocation focus
Highten
toughness
---
epic feats:
epic evocation focus
epic toughness (with a +3 tome)
enlarge (fun optional for SLA)

----
use heavy relience on your SLA for damage, or gather large piles of mobs and earthquake with other AOE dmg spells stacked. in epics use blind a lot. Great healing from mass regrowth, heal, and rejuvenating cocoon.

I liked primal avatar and sharidi champion for epic destinies.

Max wis and evocation focus, go in water form for the debuff, and you can land your CC vs epic elite stormhorn mobs (with good gear).

PS. for good survivability shoot for heal amp, lots of hp, and physical damage mitigation (displacment clickies, blurry, incorpral, PRR).


A variation: You can also try to get the full mental toughness line by droping enlarge, epic evo focus, and moving toughness to your lvl 26 destiny ability (take epic toughness at 27).

[Rush007]

Pure caster i'd go at least 14 dex, 18 wisdom, 14 con and some points into intel for skills. 18 con seems a bit overboard and expensive. Reflex saves on a pure druid are horrid, reason for the dex. Takes gear and maybe a twist to get reasonable reflex saves but saving saves you from sitting on your back and hp.

Feats: 8 Heroic
Empower
Empower Healing
Maximize
Quicken
Spell focus - Evocation
Heighten
Spell Penetration
Greater Spell Penetration

Feats: 3 Epic
Epic Spell Penetration
2 feats of choice, toughness, more spell focus, shield masterys for defense, ruin, haste, maybe even lightning reflexes ? Your choice. Epic toughness is not takeable with 14 starting con.

Feats: 2 Epic Destiny
Spell power cold - caster druids go water elemental
Mass frog or another spell power maybe positive

Spell penetration is for demons, your not going to hit drow without past lives. Demons are resistant to elemental damage and you have word of balance and an sla word of balance which works wonders on them. Some intelligent spiders have spell resistance and poor fort saves so also helps with mass frog or finger of death. EE mass frog is still a question mark if transmutation focus item and capstone help this. Your debuffs help, mantle of icy soul and lightning shaken which can push it into almost 50DC. Maybe magister tier 5 clicky works for another 5. Regardless mass frog has uses against undead as they have poor fort.

Evocation certainly for the spell focus for feat. Magister tier 3 has a twist you can do for 15% chance to reduce reflex saves by 10. So when you create your zones of earthquake death when this goes off it helps keep them there and helps with damage from other spells like storm of vengeance which is conjuration, but a reflex save. Fire seeds, ice flowers, creeping doom. It will indirectly help those.

[SirValentine]

Spell Penetration
Greater Spell Penetration
...
Epic Spell Penetration
...
Spell penetration is for demons


Ouch. I really don't see the utility in such a huge investment in Spell Pen for a Druid. There's not that many demons, and there's other ways to deal with them.



also helps with mass frog


Note that, unless patch 19.2 fixed it, Spell Pen is completely broken for Mass Frog. I bug-reported it a while back, though I've since TRed. My Spell Pen with Mass Frog was like 15-20 points lower than my Spell Pen with spells. So even on mobs that my spells would reliably break Spell Resistance on, my Mass Frog got nothing but blue shields.

[Munkenmo]

Spell penetration is for demons, your not going to hit drow without past lives. Demons are resistant to elemental damage and you have word of balance and an sla word of balance which works wonders on them. Some intelligent spiders have spell resistance and poor fort saves so also helps with mass frog or finger of death. EE mass frog is still a question mark if transmutation focus item and capstone help this. Your debuffs help, mantle of icy soul and lightning shaken which can push it into almost 50DC. Maybe magister tier 5 clicky works for another 5. Regardless mass frog has uses against undead as they have poor fort.

Why on earth would you waste a feat let alone 3 feats on spell penetration as a druid?

I can't think of any useful druid spells (aside from finger of death) that have a spell pen check.

Earthquake and Ice storm, your main CC spells have no spell penetration checks. You'd be much much better off spending 3 feats on evocation focus'.

[Munkenmo]

I'm not sure how much effort you're willing to put in. I would highly recommend at least 4 TR's if you're serious about EE casting (3sorc + 1wiz) for maximum EVO dc's. I did 10 TR's on my druid, the 3 monk lives and 3 fighter lives I did are completely unnecessary for someone who's only focused on DC's, but I wanted a hybrid and I love the results:

Hybrid Druid 17druid/2monk/1wiz
Starting
Abilities Base Stats
(36 Point) (Level 1)



Strength 15
Intelligence 8


Dexterity 14
Wisdom 18 +all levels


Constitution 14
Charisma 8



Level 1 (Druid)
Feat: (Selected) Maximize Spell
Feat: (Human Bonus) Power Attack

Level 2 (Druid)

Level 3 (Monk)
Feat: (Selected) Past Life: Arcane Initiate (wiz past life)
Feat: (Monk Bonus) Two Weapon Fighting

Level 4 (Druid)

Level 5 (Druid)

Level 6 (Druid)
Feat: (Selected) Quicken Spell

Level 7 (Druid)

Level 8 (Druid)

Level 9 (Wizard)
Feat: (Selected) Empower Healing Spell
Feat: (Wizard Bonus) Spell Focus: Evocation

Level 10 (Druid)

Level 11 (Druid)

Level 12 (Druid)
Feat: (Selected) Improved Two Weapon Fighting

Level 13 (Druid)

Level 14 (Druid)

Level 15 (Druid)
Feat: (Selected) Improved Critical: Bludgeoning Weapons

Level 16 (Druid)

Level 17 (Druid)

Level 18 (Druid)
Feat: (Selected) Greater Two Weapon Fighting

Level 19 (Druid)

Level 20 (Monk)
Feat: (Monk Bonus) Stunning Fist

Gear :
gogs EE Shadowsight (11wis :D )
helm blue (3 insight wis)
armor Blue Dragon
neck Sages Locket
cloak Wolf Cloak
belt 10con/50 false life
boots halcyon
gloves EE Backstabbers Gloves
wrist GS Smoke II HP item & GS smoke SP (both are displace clickies)
ring stalker
ring Guardians Ring
trinket litany/conflux

[Rush007]

Why on earth would you waste a feat let alone 3 feats on spell penetration as a druid?

I can't think of any useful druid spells (aside from finger of death) that have a spell pen check.

Earthquake and Ice storm, your main CC spells have no spell penetration checks. You'd be much much better off spending 3 feats on evocation focus'.

Its for word of balance and really as a pure damage spell it shouldn't have a spell pen check. But it does. Its a steep investment but opens up the toolbox some on targets you will have troubles with as a pure caster, the elemental resistant yet evil.

Example Jarilith - immune to lightning, resistant to fire, resistant to ice, immune to poison, spell resistance. How are you going to kill this effectively as a druid caster? Earthquake, ice dot, ice storm and see a bunch of yellow numbers? Or you could double tap word of balance, max empowered is 40 mana, sla what 6 mana? This is just like having mental toughness feats in that you save mana, and you get the bonus of having the right tool for the job.

Sure its narrow but word of balance is a good enough spell and there are enough mobs with spell resistance to be aggravating.

[SirValentine]

Example Jarilith - immune to lightning, resistant to fire, resistant to ice, immune to poison, spell resistance. How are you going to kill this effectively as a druid caster? Earthquake, ice dot, ice storm and see a bunch of yellow numbers?


Yes. Yellow numbers are not automatically horrible. They can still add up to dead mobs just fine. And exactly how many such mobs are there?



Its a steep investment...
<snip>
Sure its narrow...


I just don't care enough about those few mobs to gimp myself everywhere else. 3 feats on Spell Pen is HUGE opportunity cost. To me, way TOO steep and way TOO narrow. I could see maybe 1 feat, and twisting in +6 for any quests where it's a big concern, though I'm not sure I'd personally do even that on a Druid.

[unbongwah]

Here's my 32-pt pure caster druid in a nutshell:

Race: human for extra feat, +1 WIS, & heal amp
Stats: max WIS, CON 16, rest split between INT (skill pts+Spellcraft) & DEX (+Reflex)
Skills: Concentration, Heal, and Spellcraft at a minimum; also consider UMD, Balance, and, if going Shiradi, Perform (sonic Spellpower) & Diplomacy (Tea w/Queen)
Feats: Max (1), Emp (1), Quicken (3), Heighten (6), Enlarge* (9), SF:Evo (12), Emp Heal (15), GSF:Evo (18), ESF:Evo (21), Great WIS x2 (24 & 27), ESP:Electricity (26), ESP:Positive or Elusive Target (28)

*Lvl 9 feat is up for grabs: I like Enlarge just to extend the range of my SLAs; but other options inc. one of the Dragonmarks, Augment Summons, or Insightful Reflexes (dump DEX to focus on INT instead)

I focused on DCs, since as a first-lifer with lousy gear to start, I figured I'd need all the help I could get. Some people prefer the Mental Toughness feats for the extra SPs & +3% crit chance; but IMHO that's too expensive on a pure build. Same thing w/Spell Pen; Word of Balance SLA is great, but I can't justify 3 feats for a single spell (well, two if you count FoD).

Enhancements: mostly into Season's Herald, ofc, but I also spent about 12 APs into NW for +1 WIS, +Pos Spellpower, and Bestial Nature (mostly for +3 Reflex); plus some into human (spellpower boost, +1 WIS, at least 1st rank of heal amp, +2 WIS action surge, IIRC). For a while I had human Gtr Heroism clickie + max heal amp; but eventually I decided that was too expensive AP-wise. I ran w/Reaving Roar instead of Bestial for a while, but by epics I don't find the procs do enough dmg to really be worth it, esp. since I try to hang in the back.

Gear (lazy edition): the Cannith gear is darn near perfect for a newbie druid, since the bracers, outfit, and cloak cover your 3 main elements (Wind bracers also provide Blurry at higher lvls) and the artifice ring provides SP; maybe a Calomel scimitar too for when Flame Blades doesn't work. Add in a Devotion item, plus the usual survivability gear (Resistance, HPs, etc.), and you're set. Among the Commendation gear (http://ddowiki.com/page/Commendation), I added the cleric necklace, villager belt, PDK gloves, and druid boots; would've preferred villager bracers to necklace for my +WIS item, but that would mean giving up my Wind bracers. Would like eRoEE (http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Epic_Ring_of_Elemental_Essence) so I could do some gear consolidation - e.g., I could drop the Cannith cloak for either Cloak of Night or Cloak of the Dragon - plus I want eRoderics (http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Epic_Roderic%27s_Wand) for Aug Summons; but I had (almost) forgotten how annoying epic farming was. :p

Still only lvl 21 with basic gear, but I've had a lot of fun.

[Munkenmo]

Its for word of balance and really as a pure damage spell it shouldn't have a spell pen check. But it does. Its a steep investment but opens up the toolbox some on targets you will have troubles with as a pure caster, the elemental resistant yet evil.

Example Jarilith - immune to lightning, resistant to fire, resistant to ice, immune to poison, spell resistance. How are you going to kill this effectively as a druid caster? Earthquake, ice dot, ice storm and see a bunch of yellow numbers? Or you could double tap word of balance, max empowered is 40 mana, sla what 6 mana? This is just like having mental toughness feats in that you save mana, and you get the bonus of having the right tool for the job.

Sure its narrow but word of balance is a good enough spell and there are enough mobs with spell resistance to be aggravating.

So you've spent 3 feats to use a single target spell? OUCH.

You would be far better off picking up mental toughness, Improved mental toughness & epic mental toughness.

490sp and 3% extra chance to crit on all spells vs spell pen for one spell (2 if you count finger of death)

Myself, I'll max my evo DC & rely on earthquake to keep all the mobs down, I'll pop an ice storm go in cast quench (-35 cold resist), then finally I'll start to melee them too.

[Vooduspyce]

Hey, I'm a returning player. Haven't been part of DDO for a couple years, but I like some of the changes and I'm interested in messing around with a druid. It's been a while so I'm not entirely familiar with all the terms. Also, it seems enhancements are a bit different (what's up with the post 20 stuff?)

Anyways, I'd like to play a druid but I don't have any interest in melee. I really don't know where to start with any of this. I'd prefer to build to be a healer (if that's possible) who does back-up casting when necessary. I've got 32 point builds unlocked, as well as drow (and druid, obviously).

Can anyone offer me some advice on where to start? Should I abandon the idea of trying to be a healer druid? Is Augment Summoning a worthwhile feat? Also, what's the deal with all the SLAs that everyone keeps talking about?

I mostly played a bard my last go around DDO, so do the full caster thing is new.

Thanks in advance, y'all.

I recently posted my caster/healer/quasi-tank build (https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/427398-Gingerspyce-s-caster-healer-quasi-tank-build). This build started out as pure caster/healer druid but morphed into a caster/healer/tankish build because I realized that druids were a lot more durable than traditional casters and I wanted to be even more durable in melee so that I could fight in my own cc. If you don't like the durability that the tankish features offer, simply substitute more caster-oriented feats like Mental Toughness and spell power in place of shield mastery feats, epic DR and Elusive Target. Also replace some of the gear like Ring of Shadows and Guardian's Ring for more traditional caster gear :)

[GlassJaw]

I see Heighten listed for more caster druid builds. What are the primary spells it's used for?

[unbongwah]

I see Heighten listed for more caster druid builds. What are the primary spells it's used for?
I use it primarily on my SLAs (Lightning Storm, Sunburst, Word of Balance) and Earthquake. If I'm in mana-dump mode, I'll just switch it on for everything. Fortunately, Ice Storm, Freezing Spray, & the two Creeping Colds don't have saves, so I tend to rely on them when I'm trying to conserve SPs.