Building a Druid?

[Liquid0xygen]

I would like to play a Druid, I prefer classes that can do multiple things at the same time, but I'm having truble building it properly.

As far as I know Druids can either be DPS as caster or wolf, healers and tanks as bear. Which role would be best for soloing dungeons but also be good in group play later in the game? I don't mind filling either role, they all seem fun (but would prefer something thats not too complicated).
How would I build that role? From what I've gatherd the main stats for a Druid are STR, CON and WIS. How much of each stat is good? Should I put some points into DEX? Which abilitys are useful? Any must have feats?

I'd be really grateful if someone could help me with a Druid build, I'm still fairly new to the game and I'm having a hard time understanding some of the classes (I normaly read the DDOWiki, but it hasen't been updated with Druid yet).
To make things easyer, I currently own the 32 point build and Half-Orc race (out of the premium ones).

[PNellesen]

[Edit: oops, missed that you don't have Half-Elf. This build might work well for Half-Orc or Human, without the martial weapons abilities. Haven't considered splashing into a druid yet, but a level of fighter might work too if you want to do a little melee with some real weapons ]

I've been leveling up a Half-Elf, Max WIS with Fighter Dilettante caster druid, and so far he solos quite well. Starting stats (32pt) were:

STR - 14
DEX - 10
CON - 14
INT - 10
WIS - 18
CHA - 8

Feats: Haven't completely planned it out, but Toughness, Empower (swap to Maximize at higher levels), Spell Pen, SF: Evo, Heighten, Augment Summoning, then not sure what else. Basically going with the standard offensive caster feats for now.

Skill points - Max Concentration, rest in Balance.

Enhancements - plan to emphasize fire/cold spell boost early on, then have to see how it goes at higher levels. And of course, all toughness enhancements and CON/WIS ability boosts.

[Nephilia]

[Edit: oops, missed that you don't have Half-Elf. This build might work well for Half-Orc or Human, without the martial weapons abilities. Haven't considered splashing into a druid yet, but a level of fighter might work too if you want to do a little melee with some real weapons ]


Feats: Haven't completely planned it out, but Toughness, Empower (swap to Maximize at higher levels), Spell Pen, SF: Evo, Heighten, Augment Summoning, then not sure what else.
CON/WIS ability boosts.

It would be not better to have both empower and maximize?

[Liquid0xygen]

[Edit: oops, missed that you don't have Half-Elf. This build might work well for Half-Orc or Human, without the martial weapons abilities. Haven't considered splashing into a druid yet, but a level of fighter might work too if you want to do a little melee with some real weapons ]

I've been leveling up a Half-Elf, Max WIS with Fighter Dilettante caster druid, and so far he solos quite well. Starting stats (32pt) were:

STR - 14
DEX - 10
CON - 14
INT - 10
WIS - 18
CHA - 8

Feats: Haven't completely planned it out, but Toughness, Empower (swap to Maximize at higher levels), Spell Pen, SF: Evo, Heighten, Augment Summoning, then not sure what else. Basically going with the standard offensive caster feats for now.

Skill points - Max Concentration, rest in Balance.

Enhancements - plan to emphasize fire/cold spell boost early on, then have to see how it goes at higher levels. And of course, all toughness enhancements and CON/WIS ability boosts.

Sounds good, thanks! Gave me some idea on how to build caster Druids.
Would be great to get some info on healer and animal DPS builds aswell

[PNellesen]

It would be not better to have both empower and maximize?

Before the changes to Spell Power I'd have said definitely. Now I'm not so sure - I wonder if there's a better feat to take in place of Empower, depending on what you want to accomplish? Given Druids smaller SP pool, I don't know if having both Emp and Max going at once would give the most bang for the SP buck?

[dterror]

Healer build would be very similar to just a pure caster build, and a pure caster build can do fairly well in melee with the flameblade spell.
STR - 10
Dex - 14
Con - 14
Int - 10
Wis - 18
Cha - 8
Feats: Augment summoning, mental toughness, toughness, heighten, possibly extend at level 6 and swap out later once durations on buffs reach a decent duration, Shield Mastery, Imp. Mental Toughness.

Skills: Max concentration, rest in balance and spot or listen (so you can see hidden creatures before they're in your face)

Enhancements: Max out the electric line. Call Lightning is very strong, inflicting 10d5 + 50 (50-100 base) at level 10, compared to a lightning bolt that only does 10d6 (10-60) at level 10 for a wizard. No metas running, I hit for around 150-220 per cast at level 10 for only 12 mana per cast.

As for melee on a pure caster, the flame blade spell is based off wisdom for attack and damage. Anything resistant or immune to fire you just blast a time or two with call lightning.

[Spoonwelder]

So far my plan for Horc melee/casting druid (32pt build) - focus is on outright damage:

Str 16
Dex 8
Con 14
Int 8
Wis 18
Cha 8

Feats -
Aug Summon - swap to SF:Evo later
empower healing for low levels swap to maximize later
toughness
Power Attack
Empower
IC Crit Slash
Open feat slot for now(depends on caster vs. dps strengths)

At level 7 I am running around with an AC of 34 (+3 with barkskin) and HP over ~160 both ship buffed

I use wolf form most of the time but in skelly quests I will go bear form for the bludgeon component to the attack. To me wolf forms trips are very nice for CC and taking out casters fast as they are the most dangerous thing on elite (other than traps)

So far only through Level 7 but have been soloing elite quests up til now with no real issues. I only just started using a hireling cleric but he mostly just kept my pets alive (helpful but not much of a difference). My new favorite spell is Entangle. Even up to elite tangelroot(ie. last quest is L9 orcs and ogres ) Entangle was working very well as crowd control not bad for a L1 spell with no heighten.

Worst spell IMO - Spike growth - should be good for some slowing and damage but it takes 5 seconds to cast and only lasts 11 seconds.

I am setup right now with gear for Meleeing or healing(if I ever group in a party). Later I will have a setup more for for damage casting and meleeing my healing will be so/so but with scrolls/wands I expect to be able to handle most healing duties in a decent group excluding raids.

Still trying to figure out the best gear for spell power but not too worried as I am leveling past most stuff I get/buy/craft.

Main problem for me is lack of decent armor and/or weapons other than what I craft. No weapons or armor for a druid in the challenge gear. End chain stuff has been limited (ie. sharn syndicate gives no scimi's or sickles) as the lists don't appear to have been modified much to acknowledge druids (not a big issue just pointing it out).


So far so good.

[MerlinSylver]

My druid build is very similar to PNellesen's, and so far I've been able solo almost everything on elite up to 4th level quests, and am currently 6th level with her. Between your companion, your summoned animal, and your hireling(s) ( all of which count as 'your pack' for spells and enhancements), the druid is very nearly it's own party.

[Leclaire1]

I resonate with spoonwelder on the Horc melee/caster build. Usually in ddo one can't do both melee and damage casting well, but with the Horc Druid this is entirely possible. Think about the synergy between druid strength enhancements and horc enhancements- makes for some solid melee stuff at low levels in particular. You can also then use Shillelagh and Horc great weapon enhancements to do some awesome damage. Yet this all translates into good damage-casting at higher levels. You'll notice the devs have been including an insane amount of Thaumaturgy Quarterstaves in loot lately. Most of these enhance both divine (healing or negative) and elemental damage, meaning they are most clearly meant for Druids. Yet with the above combos they can be awesome melee weapons while also enhancing the damage-casting which the Seasons Herald PRE enhances all the more. Hence with the Horc Druid one can Kick butt with damage spells, heal as needed, and melee decently with a quarterstaff with barksin and stoneskin for defense when SP is low, all with no need to worry about the shapeshifting stuff. Has worked well for me so far.

[Kat188]

So far my plan for Horc melee/casting druid (32pt build) - focus is on outright damage:

Str 16
Dex 8
Con 14
Int 8
Wis 18
Cha 8

Feats -
Aug Summon - swap to SF:Evo later
empower healing for low levels swap to maximize later
toughness
Power Attack
Empower
IC Crit Slash
Open feat slot for now(depends on caster vs. dps strengths)

At level 7 I am running around with an AC of 34 (+3 with barkskin) and HP over ~160 both ship buffed

I use wolf form most of the time but in skelly quests I will go bear form for the bludgeon component to the attack. To me wolf forms trips are very nice for CC and taking out casters fast as they are the most dangerous thing on elite (other than traps)

So far only through Level 7 but have been soloing elite quests up til now with no real issues. I only just started using a hireling cleric but he mostly just kept my pets alive (helpful but not much of a difference). My new favorite spell is Entangle. Even up to elite tangelroot(ie. last quest is L9 orcs and ogres ) Entangle was working very well as crowd control not bad for a L1 spell with no heighten.

Worst spell IMO - Spike growth - should be good for some slowing and damage but it takes 5 seconds to cast and only lasts 11 seconds.

I am setup right now with gear for Meleeing or healing(if I ever group in a party). Later I will have a setup more for for damage casting and meleeing my healing will be so/so but with scrolls/wands I expect to be able to handle most healing duties in a decent group excluding raids.

Still trying to figure out the best gear for spell power but not too worried as I am leveling past most stuff I get/buy/craft.

Main problem for me is lack of decent armor and/or weapons other than what I craft. No weapons or armor for a druid in the challenge gear. End chain stuff has been limited (ie. sharn syndicate gives no scimi's or sickles) as the lists don't appear to have been modified much to acknowledge druids (not a big issue just pointing it out).


So far so good.

I really like this build. As far as doing damage goes, I usually take a bastard sword proficiency later on, but wind up swapping that out later. I usually take that in place of empowered healing, and then take empowered healing instead of toughness. Imo, toughness is good for lower level toons, but anybody who has the lvl 7 veteran build shouldn't really have to worry about taking it. By the time they actually start doing any dungeons, they've already got enough healing spells to heal just as much, if not more, damage than they are taking.

[Rip-V-Winkle]

I really like this build. As far as doing damage goes, I usually take a bastard sword proficiency later on, but wind up swapping that out later. I usually take that in place of empowered healing, and then take empowered healing instead of toughness. Imo, toughness is good for lower level toons, but anybody who has the lvl 7 veteran build shouldn't really have to worry about taking it. By the time they actually start doing any dungeons, they've already got enough healing spells to heal just as much, if not more, damage than they are taking.

1 time of toughness is good on any build.
Healer class or not.
Wasting a feat on a weapon is just plain a waste.

[Coyopa]

1 time of toughness is good on any build.
Healer class or not.
Wasting a feat on a weapon is just plain a waste.

This. Always take toughness at least once. At level 20 it gives you something like 22 hitpoints just for the feat. For anyone who is not a fighter, barbarian, or paladin, this will work out to be something between 5% and 10% of their total hitpoints at that level. When you throw in two Racial Toughness feats, you're getting 42 hitpoints at level 20 at the cost of one feat and three action points. That works out to be around 10% of your total hitpoints at that level, at least.

For my L25 Rogue, 42 hitpoints is 8.54% of his total hitpoints. If we assume that Toughness gives one more hp per level at L21 to L25, then that feat and 3 AP are providing 47 hp, which raises the percentage to 9.55% (all percentages rounded to nearest hundredth). So, small amounts of hitpoints don't look important, but they are very important in reality.

On a druid, the toughness feat actually opens them up to *two* toughness enhancement lines: Racial Toughness and Druid Toughness. So, for 6 AP and one feat, you get a minimum of 62 hp at L20. My L23 druid has 506 hp. So, that would be 12.25% of her total hp. If toughness feat adds the extra 3 hp for levels 21, 22, and 23, then that brings it to 12.85%, instead.

[Lonnbeimnech]

Druids have class toughness enhancements, so not taking it it missing 27hp by level 25 plus another 40 from not taking the class ones and 20-40 more from not having the racial ones.

The spells regenerate and mass regenerate are not effected by maximize or empower, but are effected by empower heal. The various vigor spells are effected by all 3. If you want a healer focused druid, take empower heal probably in place of empower.

[WargamerIV]

1 time of toughness is good on any build.

Unless you have Barbarian as a PL, then the Barbarian PL feat that includes toughness is better.

[Lonnbeimnech]

Unless you have Barbarian as a PL, then the Barbarian PL feat that includes toughness is better.

Until level 18 where it is even, and at level 19+ toughness is better.

[wax_on_wax_off]

I did half-elf, rogue dilettante, pure, 14 str/dex/con/10 int/18 wis and its working really well with sneak attacks granted from using freedom of movement, blindness immunity and sleet storm.

Planned this build to try to play this life as a Druid and to refrain from trying to play it as another class (which is a trap).

I'll try various setups from tanking, melee DPS, healer and caster and see if I can find a combination that works for me.

[Rubix]

Until level 18 where it is even, and at level 19+ toughness is better.

Why is that? Genuinely, no sarcasm.

[Jingwei]

Why is that? Genuinely, no sarcasm.

The barb past life feat gives you 20 HP right away. Toughness gives 3 HP +1 per level. So, at lvl 18, you get 20 bonus HP for toughness. Assuming you aren't using the rage that the acitve past life feat gets you, that's the point where toughness catches up. Then you have 10 more levels to get HP from, assuming you aren't TRing right away.

[Rubix]

The barb past life feat gives you 20 HP right away. Toughness gives 3 HP +1 per level. So, at lvl 18, you get 20 bonus HP for toughness. Assuming you aren't using the rage that the acitve past life feat gets you, that's the point where toughness catches up. Then you have 10 more levels to get HP from, assuming you aren't TRing right away.

Ah, forgot about the +1 per level. Thanks.

[unbongwah]

For a typical STR-based (2H) melee DPS druid, it's a lot like a battlecleric; you focus on melee feats with a few metamagics to help out (e.g., Quik+Emp Heal for survivability, maybe Max and/or Emp if you use some DPS spells).

For a pure caster druid, you can see my build outline here. I really like the Storm of Vengeance SLA, so I wouldn't go below druid 18 on a caster build; but that opens up a few MCing options if you're willing to sacrifice the SH capstone.

Wolf DPS builds are tricky. At a minimum, you want druid 9 to get winter wolf form + Natural Fighting feats. At one extreme, you have builds like druid 9 / monk 9 / <splash> 2 which focus on boosting your doublestrike, +[W] modifiers, and possibly +1 crits from Master / GM Earth stance; you also get Imp Evasion, which obviously is a plus. The drawback to this approach is missing out on higher-lvl druid spells, which is part of what I like about being a druid. At the other extreme, you have pure druids who go for the NW capstone (and probably a lot of SH too for better caster DPS); the drawback to this approach is you're severely feat-starved and you miss out on the DPS boosts you can get from other classes.

1 time of toughness is good on any build.

There are so many sources of extra HPs these days that I wouldn't bother with Toughness anymore, outside of, say, tank builds which are also going for eToughness. U19 changes basically turned Toughness from "must-have" to "completely expendable," IMHO.

Before the changes to Spell Power I'd have said definitely. Now I'm not so sure - I wonder if there's a better feat to take in place of Empower, depending on what you want to accomplish? Given Druids smaller SP pool, I don't know if having both Emp and Max going at once would give the most bang for the SP buck?

I take both on my caster druid; with 6 SLAs in Season's Herald tree now, it's worth it just to boost those.