Druid life

[MaximusParthas]

My first on live servers of 3 druid lives.
Life 1. Wolf melee. Pure druid.
So far:

levels 1-11 high survivability and lots of fun. Traps can be frustrating. Summons are cool.

Levels 12-14 Surprising melee abilities but traps & AOE spells on elite become a liability. Summons/hires become a very useful asset. Can easily solo most quests on hard. Some on elite. beholders are best avoided.

Levels 15-17 Great DPS and reasonable crowd control.
Lack of comparable melee HP, lack of any evasion and low reflex due to necessary stat distributions is a big weakness. Then add a slower casting time in wolf form limiting self healing and your at a glass ceiling for above level or elite runs. High dependency on buffs become a useful but timely chore. Feats are few and always chosen at a loss.
Flame blade becomes a big disappointment. Most creatures/bosses at 17+ quests/raids are immune to fire.
Reaving roar rocks.

Levels 18-20 No evasion breaks the wolf melee build. Elite traps and AOE's are almost certain death. If unprepared, high level named monsters have the potential to wipe you out in one round. 500HP+ is not enough. With the evasive lack 700 HP @ lvl 18 would likely add 50% more survivability. With a high DPS output, agro management becomes a problem.
Although they are great assets and unique attacks, dependency on high sp mana powered feat like spells becomes a burden. No one is interested in donating pots when all your sp goes to using your own abilities. Once your mana and pots are gone you've lost most of your extraordinary melee contributions.
It is possible to get temp SP when striking crits, but nearly impossible to accurately time your attacks to exploit the boon.
Snowslide rocks.

20-25 TBD. I'll let you know when I get there. At the moment I'm holding 19 and seriously considering discarding the idea of a pure build in exchange for a multi/w evasion.