Druid Improvements in 19.2

[VorpalKnight]

Most of the good stuff is for melee druids, which makes me worry they are just prepping to remove TWF feats from working on animal form by update 20, but on Lamannia Known Issues (Last Updated 9-12-2013), Druid TWF feat proccing off hand attack working while in Animal Form is not in it, if it is going to be removed, then at least add it on patch notes so some of use don't do something stupid and have to get hearts later on. And yes TWF on druid it still works on Lamannia so if it is considered an issue you would think it would be there.


On to the improvements:

Seasons Herald:

*Wand Heighten & Wand Scroll Mastery got merged into Wand and Scroll mastery which add tier 3 adds 75% to heal from scrolls and wands and +3 to wand dc.

*Time and Tide now merged into 1 feat that adds +1 to caster and max caster level(Should have been like this from the start, glad to see you guys correcting bad decisions)

*New feat added at tier 5: Strength and Solstice: +1 DC to evocation and transmutation spells.



Natures Warrior:

*Extra Wild empathy is now NOT connected to flight. Also grants 5 positive spell power per tier for a total of 15 at tier 3.

*Fight now also grants 1 ac per rank. [lol]

*instinctive fighting core ability now also grants 1 damage per core, and 10 positive spellpower. [This is nice, but w/o TWF feats working, animal form will still be garbage and wont make up for it.]

*Essence of the Turtle Dyke now grants an additional 5 spell power, on rank 2 it still says 5 spell power but tier 2 is actually 10 to positive spell power.

*Beast Form Mastery: On wolf form: 2d6 Sneak like always, 2 base melee damage, and 10 prr. On Bear: +2 damage, 15% attack speed(Should just increase the speed for bear form by 15% and add an extra 20 prr instead of 10 and some ac) , 10 prr. You also gain: +1Dex,Con,Str +2 Bluff and Intimidate. 2.5 casting speed to 1.5 is removed, it is now:

*New tier 5 in nature warriors added: Natural Adept: Cast spells 1.5 slower while in animal form instead of 2.5. costs 1 ap.

PSA: Alpha strike still sucks..reduce the damage and make it a 3 second cleave already like you guys will probably end up doing anyways, or if insisting on 12 seconds at tier 3 make it that essence of the Turtle adds a 5% to refresh it when you get hit, and essence of the dyke when you crit, this cannot occur more than once every 3 seconds.

[Tilomere]

I hit 21 and ran EE von3 the other day. I was tied for the most kills with a mage, had 0 deaths, and did a bunch of healing as a wolf.

The TWF mechanics allow druids to deal competitive damage. This came at the expense of everyone else dying a bunch though, since we had no cc we could land or were willing to use (group said no sleet storm), and my healing spell power with grave wrappings is too low.

I think I'll be better at healing others if I go back to my heroic elite devotion socketed adamantine knuckles, or lvl to 25 for the ee ones.

One thing that surprised me was that when you combine the PA knockdown for two seconds on a 20 with the sap and knockdown from brawlers gloves with a ton of double strike, attack speed, wolf attack speed, and 100% offhand TWF, mobs just go down and stay down. So I was fine in EE at 21.

At first I thought wolf form would be worthless because it didn't have access to healing spell power. I came to realize that like any other caster, you can power druids with enhancements from any other caster, so you can still make wolf work just fine. It sounds like they are retouching wolf up though so you won't even need to.

[Charononus]

*Beast Form Mastery: On wolf form: 2d6 Sneak like always, 2 base melee damage, and 10 prr. On Bear: +2 damage, 15% attack speed(Should just increase the speed for bear form by 15% and add an extra 20 prr instead of 10 and some ac) , 10 prr. You also gain: +1Dex,Con,Str +2 Bluff and Intimidate. 2.5 casting speed to 1.5 is removed, it is now:

*New tier 5 in nature warriors added: Natural Adept: Cast spells 1.5 slower while in animal form instead of 2.5. costs 1 ap.

Lol this is the way they try to fix bear form?

It means that bears aren't viable:

till 20
unless you're pure

But guess what, if you want a melee dps style druid you are severely gimping yourself by staying pure which means that bear forms still aren't viable.

[arminius]

Thank you for the info; the Seasons' Herald changes will be much appreciated. "Scattered" is a good word to describe the enhancements now, so any consolidation helps.

[nayozz]

so... how do you get 100% offhand proc right now on lammania ?
gtwf = 80%
monk tier1 = 10%

where is the last missing 10% ?

[Zachski]

Okay, forgive me for my opinion, but why would anyone build their character around a game mechanic that is almost obviously not working as intended?

Considering the nature of Natural Fighting feats and the animal forms, it seems like if the developers wanted to buff Druid's melee capabilities, they wouldn't intentionally make TWF work with druid form, they'd instead buff the power of Natural Fighting. (Which they should probably do anyways because a Nature's Warrior should be able to compete physically without all of this splashing nonsense)

It just seems like asking for problems when the almost-obviously-not-working-as-intended game mechanic is fixed and you're forced to reinc your character to salvage it.

With that said, I can't exactly stop you guys from doing so, and if Natural Fighting ends up getting phased out in favor of TWF, good for you guys. If it was me, I'd wait for something official on the subject before gambling my money on a strange game mechanic, however.

I don't understand some powergamers.

[Charononus]

Okay, forgive me for my opinion, but why would anyone build their character around a game mechanic that is almost obviously not working as intended?

Considering the nature of Natural Fighting feats and the animal forms, it seems like if the developers wanted to buff Druid's melee capabilities, they wouldn't intentionally make TWF work with druid form, they'd instead buff the power of Natural Fighting. (Which they should probably do anyways because a Nature's Warrior should be able to compete physically without all of this splashing nonsense)

It just seems like asking for problems when the almost-obviously-not-working-as-intended game mechanic is fixed and you're forced to reinc your character to salvage it.

With that said, I can't exactly stop you guys from doing so, and if Natural Fighting ends up getting phased out in favor of TWF, good for you guys. If it was me, I'd wait for something official on the subject before gambling my money on a strange game mechanic, however.

I don't understand some powergamers.

If you were responding to me, I haven't, I built mine around unarmed die step increases from monk, which makes the druid far more powerful than pure and is wai.

[Rhaphael]

so... how do you get 100% offhand proc right now on lammania ?
gtwf = 80%
monk tier1 = 10%

where is the last missing 10% ?

3 levels of Ranger

[Tuffgar]

Okay, forgive me for my opinion, but why would anyone build their character around a game mechanic that is almost obviously not working as intended?

Considering the nature of Natural Fighting feats and the animal forms, it seems like if the developers wanted to buff Druid's melee capabilities, they wouldn't intentionally make TWF work with druid form, they'd instead buff the power of Natural Fighting. (Which they should probably do anyways because a Nature's Warrior should be able to compete physically without all of this splashing nonsense)

It just seems like asking for problems when the almost-obviously-not-working-as-intended game mechanic is fixed and you're forced to reinc your character to salvage it.

With that said, I can't exactly stop you guys from doing so, and if Natural Fighting ends up getting phased out in favor of TWF, good for you guys. If it was me, I'd wait for something official on the subject before gambling my money on a strange game mechanic, however.

I don't understand some powergamers.

I have to agree, but sadly, with turbine's track record of allowing bugs to go on for years(wall climbing in Maze of Madness is a fine example) it's difficult to really blame players for continuing to use something like this, especially when we as players can't hardly even get an official stance on the matter.

Smoke em while you've got em. But don't complain when it's gone. That seems to be the only real stance to take with DDO.