My Druid Wish List

[HatsuharuZ]

Here is a list of things that I think would make the Druid class better. Don't get me wrong, it's a viable class, but it needs a few tweaks to make it Awesome.


1) Druids need more spells. Specifically, they would be much better with more mass buffs, such as Mass Protection from Elements, and Mass Deathward, along with Mass Cure Light/Moderate Wounds. This will make them much more prized in raids, since the vigor/regeneration spells are not very good for dealing with sudden spikes of damage to multiple party members. Also, they need some more acid, negative energy, and sonic spells. Druids have spellpower enhancements for these energy types, but no spells to go with them.

2) Wolf Form needs some defensive attributes. When I look at wolf and bear forms, I can't help but think that bear form was created to take aggro while pets and/or party members attack without taking too much damage, while wolf form was created to do the opposite. This is nice in theory, but in my experience with wolf form it's a bit squishy. It could be improved with some dodge bonuses and/or some increased reflex saves, to make it more competitive with bear form.

3) Abilities that use Bluff should be changed to use Diplomacy instead. Bluff is not a druid class skill, so Baiting Bite isn't going to be very effective, or at least not as effective as Maul, it's bear form rival.

4) More non-metal medium armor is needed in the lootgen tables. I see alot of nice leather armor in loot tables, but.... that doesn't give me the PRR or AC that medium armor would give. It's a bit difficult to find non-metal named medium armor. Also, anyone who makes a warforged druid is pretty much screwed, since they can only use the Composite Plating armor feat, which I believe is the warforged equivalent of cloth armor. Ouch. I think they need some new armor feats.

5) Druids need some spell penetration enhancements. The druid spell list has 3 spells that are affected by spell resistance: Howl of Terror (which happens to be a wolf form spell! See point #2), Faerie Fire and Finger of Death. However, a spell that can't affect the target is pretty much the same as not having the spell. (Note: While the druid's charm spells are technically affected by spell restistance, I have yet to see a beast, magical beast for vermin that has spell resistance.)

6) Some of the enhancement costs should be readjusted, prefferably in a downward direction. It seems like every enhancement line goes on a 1/2/3/4 AP progression. Lots of good stuff, but everything is so expensive, so it's hard to specialize. Also, an extra 15 spellpower on each spellpower enhancement line would be nice. Why should players pay more AP for less of an effect?

7) Elemental form caster level penalties are very restrictive. I can understand why fire elemental form has a -3 caster level penalty to cold spells, but does it have to do the same with air and earth spells? Well, not that we have many of them.

8) Some druid spells do not enhancement lines that apply to them. Specifically, the physical damage spells and Word of Balance. These spells aren't affected by any caster level penalties or increased caster level due to forms or enhancements, which is a significant advantage for druid who wants to focus on casting. Furthermore, most of these spells are rather weak, and they need a boost more than the other elemental spells do.

9) How about a Dryad form? Just for the lulz, I'd like to a big, hulking half-orc druid turn into a slender, scantily-clad tree spirit.

[donfilibuster]

Here is a list of things that I think would make the Druid class better. Don't get me wrong, it's a viable class, but it needs a few tweaks to make it Awesome.

1) Spells of the elements that are boosted, i agree with that.
Mass buffs/cures not so much as it overlaps with the clerics, whereas vigors complement them nicely.

2) So are rogues if they dun work on the squishy, you gotta build for it, but dodge sounds right.

3) But it's assumed that building for bolf benefits from wluff, even if it's cross-class, bluff is quite powerful.
Wolf dun compete with bear like that, bears take other skills like intimi, etc.

4) yes yes, is puzzling that hide armor was removed, darkleaf, etc. just when the druid was added.
Maybe they will return when mithril and the other missing things. There's not even studded leather anymore.
Surely it won't take much tweaking, a +1 here and there, to give them skirmish tiers.
And darkleaf needs no change anyways, it's just a breastplate made of wood.

5) Well the basic spell pen enhancements would be appropiate, i tought they were in the list.
Nothing beyond that tho, that's what everyone gets, same deal as with sorcerers taking FoD.

6) Supposedly they are working on reworking the whole thing, probably won't be ready this year.

8) Depends on the spell, word of balance maybe, since there's no alignment line like cleric/fvs get.
The animal spells not so much since they are like SLAs in that they cost less and thus can cast often.
Or at least that was the logic used on things that only get half spell power on them.

Apart of that i think there's some item boosters for animal spells, but not sure where i saw that :/
If they indeed exist may be a bit too rare, gotta see that on random loot.

9) Or just alternative animals, since the druid is supposed to take any of them. Leopard is popular for the pounce.
And let's not forget the size wild shapes (fine, diminutive, large, huge, gargantuan, colossal).
And the plant/vermin/magical beast wild shapes, all of these require epic feats.
e.g. Treant form would be interesting, slow and massive.
Think i won't mention dragon... oh did i said that aloud?

[hermespan]

These are my opinions, I'm sure that they are wrong, and others will bash them.

1) Given a druid's melee dps, I kind of disagree here. You can't give them everything clerics have unless you reduce their melee dps capacity. That's counter to the spirit of the class.

2) Nah. Pick DPS or tanking. No one can (or should be able to) do both. Druids have considerable melee capability for the buffing and animal form spellcasting capability they have. Balance... See my point 4 for how to put your pet to work for you. Wolf form tanking is basically being a dps tank. Kill stuff so fast you reduce incoming dps.

Wolf form Melee druids should not take intimidate. They are a DPS/Spellcasting class variant. You don't want to attract attention in that capacity. If you use maxed threat reduction on your pet you don't need intim to keep aggro off your pet when soloing.

You'd be surprised how much more survivable your wolf form druid becomes when you don't intimidate. Leave that to the bears

3) But it's assumed that building for bolf benefits from wluff, even if it's cross-class, bluff is quite powerful.
Wolf dun compete with bear like that, bears take other skills like intimi, etc.

4) You can take enhancements on your pet for bluff. When he bluffs successfully you get the benefit. He's quite good at it, especially with a charisma ship buff He spams it. Free up a toolbar slot on your druid and put it on the pet.

Bluff (Cha)

Cooldown: 15 Seconds

When used successfully on a hostile monster, the monster briefly becomes vulnerable to Sneak Attack damage regardless of whom it's attacking...

This _does_ work. I use it and can see the increased damage on bluffed monsters that I attack, and I'm not doing any bluffing from my druid. I'm 100% positive that anyone that complains about their pet being squishy is simply using him wrong. Use the threat reduction enhancements and max bluff on him. At level 10+ his best role is to bluff so you (and everyone else who is sneak attack capable) can get sneak attacks. He does do appreciable (though not considerable) damage. I think of him as an extension of my druid's damage and a way to get sneak attacks without using part of my druid's round for bluffing.

He should attack, he just shouldn't bring attention to himself because, well, he's squishy and doesn't do enough damage or have the survivability to justify drawing aggro. To me that's where the pet fits in perfectly (after _much_ experimentation).

Things have to get really ugly for my pet to die since I've configured him for this role and his usefulness far exceeds the cost of keeping him alive.

4) I completely agree with the OPs points about darkleaf. That's the woodland equivalent of metal. There should be darkleaf mail, banded mail and breastplates. Maybe the durability is lower.

5) definitely agree that there should be spell pen enhancements available for offensive spellcasting focused druids

6) yea, some enhancement costs are a little over the top

7) I sort of agree, though rather than removing penalties, there should be 4 elemental forms. (earth elemental with earthgrab form spell, and air elemental with knockdown form spell)

8) There are a few things that just don't make sense in the enhancements.

9) totally agree. There needs to be more forms for end game/epic levels. Hopefully druid isn't done yet

[HatsuharuZ]

2) Nah. Pick DPS or tanking. No one can (or should be able to) do both. Druids have considerable melee capability for the buffing and animal form spellcasting capability they have. Balance... See my point 4 for how to put your pet to work for you. Wolf form tanking is basically being a dps tank. Kill stuff so fast you reduce incoming dps.

Wolf form Melee druids should not take intimidate. They are a DPS/Spellcasting class variant. You don't want to attract attention in that capacity. If you use maxed threat reduction on your pet you don't need intim to keep aggro off your pet when soloing.

You'd be surprised how much more survivable your wolf form druid becomes when you don't intimidate. Leave that to the bears

I don't want my wolf druid to be able to tank. I just want him to have something that bear druids don't have. Thus, I suggested dodge bonuses and improved reflex saves. They fit in with the rogue-ish abilities of wolf form, and most importantly, they are something that bear druids DON'T have.

[HatsuharuZ]

1) I have a problem with Spike Growth. It's nice that they buffed it, but it has a long casting time and only lasts 12 seconds. 12 seconds. Unlike firewall, my druid won't have any time to run anything through it. It's probably the weakest of the persistent AoEs.

2) Enveloping Swarm does exactly 3 untyped damage per tic, with 4 tics per enemy. So if I had 100 physical spellpower, it would do 6 damage per tic, for a total 24 damage on each enemy. It's a very interesting retributive effect, but it doesn't scale at all, nor does it have any other secondary effects, such as a -1 to attack rolls, poison, or blindness. Good if you have shiradi champion, but is it really worth it? I would love to hear from other druid players on this.

3) Nature's Warden is very expensive. Now, if it procced bane damage on EVERY hit of multi-tick spells, I could understand the cost. But right now it seems to me that it only activates on the intital tic of damage. On Faerie Fire, I see it hit the enemy I'm hard-targeting, but not any other enemy within the AoE. With Creeping Cold, I see it only proc on the first tic. I wonder if this is working as intended....

4) Hide of the Crocodile is very powerful. However, it's just another short-term buff in a class that is filled with short-term buffs. Perhaps it could modified to be a defensive stance that gives PRR and acid absorbsion? That would require it to be nerfed a bit, though.

5) I really love Spring Resurgence! <3

[dennison_brillo]

1 Spells that need added since they are already in the game and you get them in pnp: Virtue, mass cure's, and Word of Recall.
2 spells that need to be added: all the wall spells, Greater Magic Fang, Antiplant Shell, Repel Vermin, Spike Stones, Antilife Shell, and Spellstaff.
3 add more armor.
4 wild shapes based on race.
5 more importantly add more wood weapons and maybe add slings to the game.
6 maybe even add some druid groves to the game.
well I could go on forever in the end I still like the class and hope they keep adding to it.

[AzB]

And this is not a big deal, but it makes me laugh every time I get a chest with scimitars in it, especially in end rewards:

But why are so many random loot scimitars aligned? I mean, the scimitar is a great weapon and can be used by anyone, so there should be some aligned scims... but it is the premier hack and slash weapon for melee druids. Who are true neutral. Why are 80%+ of the random loot scims completely unusable by druids?

This is with the loot by class clickie on, of course.

[Lyria]

Some things I'd like to see...

1) Better +spellpower enhancements, definitely. The minimal increase for the points (especially after the first two) seems really restrictive. 4 points for +15 spellpower? Oof. Maybe make it more like the other classes, and do +30/40/50/60/70/80/90 for 1pt per level. Still lower than the 'pure casters', but not having to spend more points to get less.

2) Some improvements to our pet wolf. Considering it doesn't have the mitigation that the artificer pet has (higher AC, DR, higher str/trip, etc), and it lost a good chunk of its offense with the nerf, perhaps giving it some secondary effects on its attacks? Give it a bleed/wounding line, for instance (2pts for 1d3 bleed damage per 2 sec for 6 sec, then 1d4, 1d6, 1d8?). Also, considering that the artificer pet's 'danger avoidance' line gives +AC as well as +reflex save, I'd like to see the wolf pet's Instincts line function similarly. Right now it just gives +2 save vs traps and some spot/listen, which is nearly useless imo. It has evasion, but nothing to boost its reflex save.

3) A way to simply turn on the Season's Herald PrC without having to use a 20m cooldown ability. Unless I'm a doofus, I can't figure out how to just make it turn on after death without burning one of these. No PrC should be shackled to a 20m cooldown in order to be activated. If there's a way to activate the cycle without burning one of these cooldowns, I'd love to know!

4) I'd like to see the Winter's Heart enhancement go from being centered on the druid to being centered on the target of the cold spell. If you're standing in the back casting, having this go off is useless. It's only worthwhile if you're standing in the melee and casting from there.

5) Moar non-metal armors, definitely! Put hide/darkwood back in, please.

[Dragonlover333]

The main thing I think druids should get is bluff as a class skill. Changing the skill used in Baiting Bite to diplomacy just doesn't make as much sense, considering the nature of the attack, and since the Shifting Rake seems to only activate on a successful bluff, not an attempted one (though the wording currently appears to indicate otherwise), the enhancement is currently useless at higher levels unless you multiclass. You could say that bluff just doesn't seem to be the sort of thing druids would specialize in, but don't we need to lie sometimes to convince enemies to leave our groves alone?

[brucelee82]

I would like an increase to spell power with the enhancement
The spell Shilleleigh (sp?) should get better with caster level. Maybe at caster level 20 adding +1 crit multiplier on a roll of 19/20?
Buff the pets a little (evasion or higher reflex saves)

[Diyon]

I would like an increase to spell power with the enhancement
The spell Shilleleigh (sp?) should get better with caster level. Maybe at caster level 20 adding +1 crit multiplier on a roll of 19/20?
Buff the pets a little (evasion or higher reflex saves)

The wolf companion can already get improved evasion.

[Mrphish]

i'd much rather see them rework/fix some of the enhancements before adding any new spells. reduceing the ap cost of the spell power/crit/crit mod, adding a uncareing master enhancement, and a wand and scroll mastery line also fixing alot of the enhancements that are just so lack luster that they arn't worth taking. also giving the druids either a enhancement line to take, maybe a spell/sla, or make it a feat requirement that up's the base damage of the animal form by a bit(much in the way monks die step is increased with class levels)