Gingerspyce's caster/healer/quasi-tank build

[Vooduspyce]

I am not currently playing this build or monitoring this build post. This post was last updated with Update 51. If you have questions I welcome you to stop by my Twitch livestream M-F 9am-3pm ET at Twitch channel vooduspyce.

The reason I stopped playing this build is because both my main toons are done acquiring past lives and they were both hybrid caster tanks. I didn't want 2 functionally similar tanks at cap, so my current plans are to play Gingerspyce as a dc caster dps druid.

This build functions as a low difficulty raid tank and mid-skull reaper questing tank. The limits of this build can be pushed with reaper points and past lives, however I do not recommend it for very high skull reaper questing or high difficulty raid tanking.

I originally posted this build in 2013 because at the time druids were still rather new to DDO and there wasn't really anyone playing a druid caster like this build, which plays as a highly defensive frontline caster. At the time, most folks were still trying to play them as traditional ranged casters like their sorc nukers and wizard DC casters, which is not where caster druids shine, so they had gotten poor reviews early on. After seeing the druid perform as a tanky caster, I had a few folks ask me about my build. After typing it all up in chat-sized bits several times I figured I'd just post it in the forums and send people the link when they asked. I hadn't spent any time on the forums up to that point and this may have even been my first forum post. I had no idea that years later it would surpass a quarter million views and remain on the front page for most of the time.

I think this build has remained perennial for a few reasons. One is because it's a good choice for new players who want to play a caster druid. Druid is a great choice for new players because it is a versatile and self sufficient class. The added defenses of this build help to compensate for a new player's lack of gear, past lives and DDO skills so can help keep them alive in situations where they might otherwise be a soul stone.

Another reason is because this build has never relied on a flavor of the month. It's an as-is, out of the box, working as intended kind of a build that works well in group play and can solo as well. It's not flashy but it gets the job done.

A final reason is because DDO caster druids aren't that popular, so there aren't a lot of builds posted. But there are others out there who, like me, love caster druids and I've had a lot of fun interacting with folks here in the thread and on my Youtube channel, which all began with a quest video designed to demonstrate how the build played. After playing DDO for over a decade, caster druids remain my favorite.

This is a very newbie-friendly and first-life friendly build and also good for people who just want to knock out a druid past life as a caster and/or healer. I’ve included a bit of how-to and additional information here for players who are newer to druid, even if you're not interested in making this exact build. I have serveral video series listed at the bottom of this post designed for various levels of experience and racial variations that are dedicated to supporting the build.


Update 48.4 balance changes

Update 48.4 boosted many druid spells. You can find details at Update 48.4 Release Notes.


RACE

I am currently playing as a Shifter but have also played as Deep Gnome with the 1 wizard level, so 19 druid/1 wizard because the Deep Gnome racial tree and the default wizard level offer a lot for a caster druid. I also played as a Dragonborn for a while, which is a strong choice for caster druid. Tiefling is also a solid choice, but after playing through it some of the racial enhancement lines like Obscuring Darkness and Hellish Rebuke lines weren't as useful as I was hoping. Feats and enhancements for Shifter, Dragonborn, Deep Gnome, Human and Tiefling are below. I have played this build with all races while working through my racial past lives. My favorite races were Shifter, Dragonborn, Deep Gnome, Human, Tiefling and Half-Elf (Monk Dilettante). For new players I recommend human. Most races work fine, especially if just going for the past life, but for permanent or more long term builds I would not recommend Warforged or Half-Orc for this build. Also note that Aasimar Ascendant Bond is not compatible with druid wild shape.


FEATS

Deep Gnome and Human feats are identical except for wild shapes are granted 1 level later on Deep Gnome due to the offsetting wizard level. The Dragonborn pure druid has 1 less feat.

Deep Gnome (19 druid, 1 wizard)

Human (20 druid)

1st: Empower Spell 1st: (wizard bonus): Maximize 3rd (druid): Wild Shape: Wolf 3rd: Quicken Spell 6th (druid): Wild Shape: Bear 6th: Shield Mastery 9th (druid): Wild Shape: Winter Wolf 9th: Spell Focus Evocation 12th (druid): Wild Shape: Dire Bear 12th: Improved Shield Mastery 15th (druid): Wild Shape: Fire Elemental 15th: Empower Healing 18th (druid): Wild Shape: Water Elemental 18th: Heighten Spell 21st: Greater Shield Mastery 24th: Burst of Glacial Wrath 26th: (Destiny Feat): Guardian Angel 27th: Embolden Spell 28th: (Destiny): Elusive Target 29th: (Destiny): Deific Warding 30th: Epic Damage Reduction 30th: (Legendary): Scion of the Plane of Earth [why Earth?]

1st: Empower Spell 1st: (Human bonus): Maximize Spell 2nd (druid): Wild Shape: Wolf 3rd: Quicken Spell 5th (druid): Wild Shape: Bear 6th:Shield Mastery 8th (druid): Wild Shape: Winter Wolf 9th: Spell Focus Evocation 11th (druid): Wild Shape: Dire Bear 12th: Improved Shield Mastery 13th (druid): Wild Shape: Fire Elemental 15th: Empower Healing 17th (druid): Wild Shape: Water Elemental 18th: Heighten Spell 21st: Greater Shield Mastery 24th: Burst of Glacial Wrath 26th: (Destiny): Guardian Angel 27th: Embolden Spell 28th: (Destiny): Elusive Target 29th: (Destiny): Deific Warding 30th: Epic Damage Reduction 30th: (Legendary): Scion of the Plane of Earth

Deep Gnome and Human variants have 1 extra feat compared to Shifter, Dragonborn and Tiefling.

Shifter, Dragonborn and Tiefling (20 druid)
1st: Maximize
1st (Dragonborn only): White Draconic Ancestry (any color is fine however note that cold, electric and acid are all associated with Elder of Winter, which I use as my primary "season stance" starting at level 17)
1st: (Shifter only): Wildhunt Shifter
2nd (druid): Wild Shape: Wolf
3rd: Quicken Spell
5th (druid): Wild Shape: Bear
6th: Empower Spell
8th (druid): Wild Shape: Winter Wolf
9th: Shield Mastery
11th (druid): Wild Shape: Dire Bear
12th: Improved Shield Mastery
13th (druid): Wild Shape: Fire Elemental
15th: Empower Healing
17th (druid): Wild Shape: Water Elemental
18th: Spell Focus: Evocation
21st: Heighten Spell
24th: Greater Shield Mastery
26th: (Destiny): Guardian Angel
27th: Embolden Spell
28th: (Destiny): Elusive Target
29th: (Destiny): Deific Warding
30th: Epic Damage Reduction
30th: (Legendary): Scion of the Plane of Earth


What about Master of the Wilds? Check out this thread where there is some great discussion of the feat and this video that I made where I discuss the experimenting I did with the feat. Ultimately I don't feel it is worth taking, especially on this build and most caster druids for that matter.

As a Shifter, raged, self buffed, ship buffed, with Shield and Nightshield clickies and sentinel mantle this feat set, along with gear and past lives (all listed below) gives the following resting stats outside of reaper mode, which do not include action boosts, pots, metas, debuffs, etc. but does include reaper cores Dire Thaumaturge 2-6 and Grim Barricade 2-6, which are always on. Reaper stats are with 123 reaper points.

HP: 2816 (Reaper 3888)
SP: 4159
AC: 247
PRR: 364 (Reaper 385)
MRR: 228
Earthquake DC: 88 (Reaper 94)
Intimidate: 121
Cold spell power: 650 (Reaper 692)
Heal Amp: 208
Saves: 93, 72, 91 (Reaper 95, 86, 93)


REAPER
If you are planning on primarily doing reaper questing, don't bother with options to boost the wolf like Augment Summoning feat or Shared Spirit enhancement unless you are exclusively doing low skull content. Beyond 3 skulls the wolf is not much help beyond lever pulling and occasionally for running distraction. I also recommend taking Quicken Spell at level 3, which can be put off until as late as level 9 for non-reaper play. Stoneskin can be really helpful in heroic reaper questing as well, but using level 7 wands from The Twelve instead of memorizing the spell can extend your spell pool. I also found Charm Animal and Dominate Animal to be very useful throughout heroic reaper questing. Both work not only on animals but also on vermin like spiders and scorpions, as well as magical beasts. Entangle is another spell that I historically overlooked but is nice crowd control for lowbie quests. Word of Balance hits well against reapers. I've also been using Finger of Death during the last few heroic levels as a quick way to get rid of champions. I have also been using a heroic Green Steel triple positive scimitar with exceptional constitution and 2 tiers of healing amplification because of how essential healing amplification is in reaper mode. Winter's Heart, which was reworked in Update 38, is a great temp hp buff to use when encountering a reaper or large group of mobs or as an emergency self heal in reaper mode. Also note that Earthquake works on reapers, but is deceptive because reapers just stay still, there is no special visual effect when a reaper is caught in Earthquake.

For reaper enhancements, focus on Grim Barricade tree first for added survivability, which is critical in reaper mode.

I have been happy with how this build is performing with a group in reaper questing, but I would not recommend anyone try to solo reapers beyond a few skulls with it. Even with an abundance of past lives, solid gear and now with 122 reaper points, I find myself soloing typically up to 3-4 skulls and sometimes those are problematic to solo. In a group I was mostly doing 2-4 skulls for my first few reaper lives but after having built up reaper points I am mostly doing 6-8 skulls in group play now.

The Dragonborn Project video series captures my first 3 reaper racial lives and the first life was played as my regular druid build but lives 2-3 were other builds for fun. The Reaper Life series was done during life 11 and follows a static group doing a 1-20 life of reaper 5-9 skull quests. The Life 15 series captures life 15. The Aasimar Project captures lives 19-21 and the first life of the series is using my druid build. In my 33rd and final racial life, Reaper Life 2 features a static group doing all 7-10 skull quests in a 1-20 life. In Northwynd 2: The Druid True Second Life Series I show that a second lifer of the build can perform well solo in 1-3 skull content.

If you are newer to reaper questing, check out my Survival Guide to Reaper Mode: 20 Tips for Reapering! and my Reaper Survival Guide part 2 - 20 More Tips! videos.


TOMES

All my stat tomes are +8


ALIGNMENT

True neutral. Druids must be some form of neutral and there isn't much advantage of one form of neutrality over another. If you are splashing monk in a druid build then you must be lawful neutral. Druid cannot be multiclassed with Paladin, because paladin must be lawful good.


ABILITY SCORES

Starting Dragonborn: STR 10, DEX 6, CON 18, INT 12, WIS 18, CHA 10. Increase wisdom when leveling.
Starting Deep Gnome: 6,8,18,12,20,8
Starting Tiefling: 8,8,18,12,18,10
Starting Human: 8,8,18,10,18,10
For a 34pt build: 8,8,18,10,18,8
For a 32pt build: 8,8,18,8,18,8
For a 28pt build: 8,8,18,10,16,8. Here I am recommending a higher starting con over wisdom for new toon/player survivability. If you prefer, you can start with 16 con and 18 wisdom.


SKILLS

Max Spellcraft, Intimidate, Concentration, Balance. UMD at least high enough for no fail resurrection scrolls, remaining points in Heal. UMD is also used for Teleport and Greater Teleport Scrolls and wands of Protection from Evil, Shield, etc.


ENHANCEMENTS

This image is for Shifter with my current enhancements, which include 14 bonus racial action points from racial past lives and +2 racial AP tome.



Racial (Shifter): all cores (1 wis and 1 con to keep stats even), Extend Shifting 3/3, Hardy Shifting 2/3, Natural Armor 3/3, Empowered by Nature 1/3. Can also take Shifted Defenses if you are not already dodge capped.

Racial (Dragonborn): Core 1, Resilience 4/4, Hard Scales 3/3, Harder Scales 3/3, White Dragon Breath, Power in Breath 3/3, Draconic Heritage: White 3/3, Memory of Flight, True Power 3/3 (without bonus racial action points you can eliminate whatever you prefer, but prioritize getting True Power if your Earthquake DC needs)

Racial (Deep Gnome): Core abilities to capstone, Underdark Experience 3/3, Hardy Nature 3/3, Spellcraft 3/3, Nimble Reaction 3/3.

Racial (Human): Human Versatility: Spell Power Boost, Heroism, Greater Heroism, Focused: Concentration+Intimidate 3/3, Don't Count Me Out 3/3, Human Adaptability: Wisdom, Human Greater Adaptability: Constitution, Human Versatility: Save or Defense Boost, Improved Recovery line to top.

Druid: see image above

Wizard (if keeping 1 wiz from Deep Gnome): Eldritch Knight. Eldritch Strike, Improved Mage Armor 3/3

Falconry: I have been spending 13 points in Falconry to get +5% stacking hp from tier 3 Conditioning. Other Falconry enhancements I take include Rugged 3/3, Out in Nature 3/3, Wanderlust 1/3 and up to tier 3 innate constitution and Well Rounded.

Feydark Illusionist (7 pts): Study of the Arcane 3/3, Feydark Explorer 1/3, You've Got My Back. This is for permanent shield. If you don't have the extra action points then just use shield wands.


HEROIC PAST LIVES

Sorc is the best past life for caster druids for bonus to evocation spells and extra sp. Most druid spells or at least the ones you care about most are evocation. Sorc is the only heroic past life that is important to caster druid unless you are going completionist, but there are plenty of benefits to be gained from others if you like grinding out past lives, including MRR from warlock, healing amplification from paladin, spell points from favored soul, conjuration dc from cleric that affects Fire Seeds, Creeping Doom and the lightning from Storm of Vengeance, transmutation dc from Alchemist that affects Entangle, Quench, Spike Growth and Ice Flowers, hit points from barbarian, etc.

Don’t waste time getting druid past lives unless you are a big fan of the wolf companion. I have 3 past lives of Druid (each giving summons and wolf +2 to all stats for a total of +6) and even with Augment Summoning (making it +10 to all stats) the wolf is not viable for higher difficulty and endgame content. Although I will say it is a blast leveling a wolf with +10 to all stats… it can get intelligence runes lol. But it makes me very sad that I can’t have my wolf out for EE/LE content or raids. Wolf is fine to have out for EN and EH questing. Check out my Solo EE Maze of Madness video to see how the wolf performs in EE content. It is of little use to have the wolf out in reaper quests beyond about 3 skulls, even during heroic levels. Druid past lives also affect summons and charms, so can be helpful when using Charm Animal and Dominate Animal in heroic reaper questing. My current PL's are 3 sorc, 3 druid, 3 fvs, 3 cleric, 3 barb, 3 wlk, 3 arti, 3 pal, 3 ranger, 3 alch, 2 wiz plus 1x the rest for completionist.


EPIC PAST LIVES

4 stances: Fast Healing, Ancient Knowledge, Block Energy and Skill Mastery. Focus on getting 3 each of these EPL's first, which will grant Epic Completionist and open your 5th twist of fate! After you get these, focus on additional martial, divine and primal epl's for bonuses to AC, PRR and hit points. Ginger has all 48 epic past lives.


ICONIC PAST LIVES

Stance: Shadar-kai because the auto-incorporeality at low health is great for the tanky playstyle. PDK and Deep Gnome Iconic Past lives are great for added PRR and MRR and Shadar-Kai passive bonus provides some added dodge. My current IPL's are 3 Deep Gnome, 3 PDK, 3 Shadar-kai 3 Morninglord and 2 Tiefling Scoundrel. Bladeforged IPL's (+5% fort each) are not important for endgame because a druid in elemental form gets a +100% racial bonus to fortification, which puts you over 250% fort at level cap, however the extra fortification can be nice for low level reaper questing.


RACIAL PAST LIVES

I recommend prioritizing 2 each of Human and Aasimar past lives, which each gives +1 wisdom and then 2 each of Dwarf and Warforged, which each give +1 constitution. But I also recommend going for the 3rd past life of each to get the bonus racial action points. The 2nd life of Dragonborn and Half-elf each gives +1 charisma, which helps the Intimidate and Use Magic Device skills and the first Dragonborn life also gives +1 Spellcraft. The first Half-orc past life gives +1 Intimidate and the first Gnome life gives +1 Use Magic Device. Ginger has all 38 racial past and am currently working on my final Shifter life for Racial Completionist.


EPIC DESTINIES




After update 51 I am primarily focused in Unyielding Sentinel for tankyness. My support destinies are Primal Avatar and Draconic Incarnation. I am still learning the new epic destinies so my support destinies may change and would love to hear what others are doing... feedback welcome!



GEAR (end game) - updated October 2021

Goggles: Legendary Collective Sight with con +13, insightful con +6 (mythic +1) Augment: 1st of 3 piece Wild Fortitude set
Head: Legendary Crown of Snow (mythic +1) Augment: Greater Heroism
Neck: Legendary Pendant of the Azure Sea (mythic +3) Augment: Festive Wisdom +2
Belt: Legendary Direbear Belt Augment: Charisma +12
Gloves: Crystalline Gauntlets Augment: Globe of True Imperial Blood and Good Luck +2
Trinket: Heart of Suulomades Augment: Draconic Soul Gem, Master's Gift, Greater Evocation
Cloak: Legendary Cloak of Winter Augment: Insightful Charisma +5
Ring1: Legendary Celestial Topaz Ring with wis +13, Augment: 2nd of 3 piece Wild Fortitude set
Ring2: Legendary Shattered Onyx with insightful wis +6, Augment: Dexterity +12
Bracers: Legendary Cold Iron Bracers (mythic +3) Augment: Essence of the Epic Litany of the Dead
Boots: Legendary Green Steel t1 unconscious range +128, t2 +151sp, insightful charisma skills +11, t3 +75sp, quality charisma skills +6
Armor: Legendary Bronze Dragonscale Plate (mythic +4, reaper +3 spell power) Augment: Armor Agility +2
Shield: Legendary Crystalline Ward (mythic +4) Augment: 3rd of 3 piece Wild Fortitude set
Weapon: Fusible Sceptre of Glaciation (mythic +2) Augment: Intimidate +19, Sentience: Otto's 4-piece: con, cha, prr, mrr, Grandfathers 3-piece: con, hamp, PRR, Celerity/Vigilance +2 wisdom, Purity/Touch of Grace +20 Healing Amplification (all filigrees are rare version)
Quiver: Quiver of Alacrity

Artifact filigrees: Nystul's/Electrocution(rare) +10 MRR, Blood Feast/Frozen Wanderer(rare) +10 PRR, Frozen Wanderer(rare) +1 wisdom

This set uses a 4-piece Eminence of Winter set and 3-piece Legendary Hruit's Influence set. Both sets do not require raid loot. Substitute Legendary Sunstone Gauntlets for Crystalline Gauntlets to complete the Legendary Hruit's set if raiding is not an option for you.

You can also substitute raid item Heart of Suulomades with direct replacement of stats with Legendary Five Rings trinket crafted with sheltering 45, resistance +14 and quality con +4. LGS boots can be replaced with any boots that you want, though intimidate will drop. You can also replace Lightning Coil with Legendary Wild Frost.


GEAR (end game non-raid suggestions for those who don't like to raid)

Goggles: Legendary Collective Sight, Legendary Dusk Lenses
Head: Legendary Crown of Snow, Legendary Pansophic Circlet, Legendary Drow Sage's Cowl, Legendary Compliance, Legendary Unbreakable Stormreach Guardian's Helm, Legendary Hardened Hide, Epic Halcyonia
Neck: Legendary Pendant of the Azure Sea, Legendary Amber Pendant, Doctor Leroux's Curious Implant, Legendary Pendant of the Azure Sky, Legendary String of Ears, Legendary Chains, Epic Pendant of Quiet Movements, Legendary Ward-Inscribed Pendant
Belt: Legendary Direbear Belt, Legendary Thrummingspark Cord, Legendary Bronze Dragonscale Belt, Legendary Chains
Gloves: Legendary Sunstone Gauntlets, The Prince's Gauntlet, Gloryborne Gloves, Silver Sigil Gloves, Legendary Blurfingered Gloves, Gilded Gloves of Sanctity, Legendary Hands of House Jorasco, Legendary Gauntlets of Innate Arcanum
Trinket: Legendary Five Rings, Legendary Symbol of the Slave Lords, Legendary Bottle of Shadows, Legendary Bronze Figurine, Legendary Empowered Dragonscale, Legendary Planar Compass, Magestar
Cloak: Legendary Cloak of Winter, Legendary Cloak of Autumn, Legendary Silverthread Cloak, Legendary Scarlet Scale Cloak, Legendary Mantle of Fury, Legendary Earthen Mantle, Mysterious Cloak
Rings: Legendary Celestial Topaz Ring, Legendary Shattered Onyx, Legendary Ring of Winter's Chill, Legendary Spinneret, EE Ring of Shadows, Legendary Five Rings, Legendary Chieftain
Bracers: Legendary Cold Iron Bracers, Band of Diani ir'Wynarn, Legendary Ironclad Armbands, Legendary Shackles, Legendary Lore-Fueled Packbanner, Legendary Mystic Wrappings, Epic Armbands of the Silenced Ones, Epic Ethereal Bracers, Mysterious Bracers
Boots: Legendary Deepsnow Boots, Legendary Thorn Boots, Legendary Sunken Slippers, Legendary Shackles
Armor: Legendary Bronze Dragonscale Plate, Legendary Scales of the Exile, Legendary Snowscale, Legendary Scales of Avarice
Shield: Legendary Crystalline Ward, Legendary Giant's' Platter, Legendary Breaker of Bodies, Epic Shield of Tireless Aid, Epic Demonic Slab
Weapon: Legendary Wild Frost, Legendary Wild Flame, The Legendary Queen's Sceptre, The Legendary Prince's Sceptre, Morninglord's Sceptre, Nightmother's Sceptre

Randomly generated loot and Cannith Crafting provide lots of great options to use in place of raid loot.


GEAR (leveling)

Heroic Feywild loot is an excellent gearing choice at level 5 that you can wear up until Ravenloft gear at level 10 and some pieces even beyond. House C challenge items Cloak of Flames and Bracers of Wind* are nice for druid because they cover spell power and crit chance for 2 of a druid’s primary elements (fire and electric) plus they have lots of other goodies like blur, fire absorption, dodge, Heightened Awareness and Haste guard. Get heroic versions (starting with level 3 version of the bracers for the permanent Blur effect and upgrade them as you level) and can use epic versions of each if you like. Silverthread Cloak (level 10) and Earthen Mantle (level 15) are other cloak options. Runic Trinket is a nice trinket option for any lowbie caster. Medium armor is the heaviest option until level 10 so use random or crafted (with Invulnerability) hide armor for early heroic levels. I recommend Snowscale at level 5. At level 10 I recommend heavy armor Scales of Avarice* or you can go with Scales of Malice if you want to stick with medium armor. Scales of the Exile* starting at level 14 or Bronze Dragonscale Plate at level 15. Giant's Platter* is my preferred shield because of the dual set bonuses when combining with Scales of the Exile and Wild Frost or Wild Flame but you can go with the heroic Hruit's Influence set if you prefer. Crystalline Ward, Legendary Crystalline Ward, Wall of Wood, Epic Wall of Wood, Shield of Tireless Aid and Epic Shield of Tireless Aid are also nice shield options . Torc is awesome if you’re a TR; even your caster/healer druid can and should be in the middle of combat, taking lots of hits and generating lots of spell points! Vibrant Purple Ioun Stone (upgraded) is also very nice for any caster to have big sp at level 5. Shamanic fetish is a decent teen level trinket but you're probably better off crafting a trinket since there are a great variety of options to craft onto a trinket so this is a good gap-filler slot. Weapons to consider are Wild Frost*, Wild Flame, Skiver and Vulkoor's Edge or can use Cannith crafted or just use random gen. Prior to level 14 you can use a random gen vorpal weapon or caster stick, whatever works for your gear set. For cold spell power use a Cannith crafted item or random gen for low levels. Can use Barovian Scepter or Macabre Sceptre at level 10 and Pansophic Circlet* starting at level 13 or Dusk Lenses can also be a nice source of general potency at level 15. For an epic leveling weapon, the simplest option is Epic Sceptre of Glaciation from Keep on the Borderlands ingot turn-in, which can be made sentient. Other epic leveling weapon options include Epic Scepter of Glaciation, Icy Forum Post, Icerazor, Thunderforged or Legendary Green Steel. Thunderforged and LGS cannot be made sentient.

*Highly recommended gear.

For more suggestions about first-life heroic leveling gear, see my my video series Northwynd: The Druid True First Life Series, where I play a "true first life" version of the build on another server, without gear, guild buffs or plat. You can read more about the series and find a journal of the experience with loads of tips and advice for new players later on in my build thread here. You can also check out the sequel to the series Northwynd 2: The Druid True Second Life Series, that I made 2 years later, with updated information as well as a companion journal here.

The gearset I use while heroic leveling is below.



Other notable gear and supplies





ARMOR

Druids must wear non-metal armor. I recommend Snowscale at level 5, Scales of Avarice at level 10 and Scales of the Exile for level 14+. Bronze Dragonscale Plate is a nice level 15 option if you want to use the Hruit's Influence set. There aren't any heavy armor options for druid before level 10.

Epic Dragonplate options prior to end game include Vault of Night Epic Red Dragonplate at L20, Cormyrian Green Dragonplate at L23 and Flawless Blue Dragonplate at L25, however it's probably easiest to continue using Scales of the Exile or Bronze Dragonscale Plate until endgame. I recommend Heavy Armor for any non-evasion caster druid build, as the bonus to PRR is very nice and is an auto granted feat with tier 3 Nature's Protector tree. Legendary Bronze Dragonscale Plate and Legendary Scales of the Exile are easy farms for end game but you can also use Legendary Scales of Avarice or Shadow Dragonplate (with Shadow Guardian upgrade), which can be crafted with unbound ingredients.

If you choose not to use heavy armor and opt for medium then Legendary Snowscale, Scalemail of the Celestial Sage, Legendary Scales of Malice and Legendary Coat of the Traveler are nice endgame medium armor options.


SHIELDS

I'm including a special section for shields because druids can only use non-metal shields and there aren't many named shields that are non-metal. Here are some that don't suck:

Buckler: Hexbreaker, Legendary Hexbreaker, Kobold Admiral's Tiller, Alchemical shields (crystal version)
Small: Warsword Shield, Legendary Warsword Shield, Celestial Oak, Alchemical shields (crystal version)
Large: Ferrocrystal Shield, Legendary Ferrocrystal Shield, Wharfrat's Plank, The Best Defense, Carved Bone Shield, Death's Door, Shield of Tireless Aid, Epic Shield of Tireless Aid, Wall of Wood, Epic Wall of Wood, Dethek Runestone, Alchemical shields (crystal version), Breaker of Bodies, Legendary Breaker of Bodies, The Legendary Best Defense, Giant's Platter, Legendary Giant's Platter, Crystalline Ward, Legendary Crystalline Ward
Tower: Madstone Shield, Madstone Aegis, Stone Wall, Epic Stone Wall, Demonic Slab, Epic Demonic Slab, Guardian Mantle, Alchemical shields (crystal version)

A few more are listed on DDOwiki here.


WOLF GEAR

Endgame collar: Thunderforged Wraps slotted with Meteoric Star Ruby, Ruby of Good, Con +8
Endgame armor: Flawless Shadow Dragonplate with Shadow Guardian 30/60 DR slotted with Resistance +8 and PRR +16

Epic leveling collars: Grave Wrappings (L20), Epic Thrall of the Fire Temple (L22), Ivy Wraps (L22-24) or Antipode (L23), Epic Scraps of Enlightenment (L28), Legendary Hound of the Night (L29)
Epic leveling armors: Epic Stinkpelt's Hide (L20), Epic Duelist's Leathers (L20), Epic Red Dragonplate (L20), Hide of the Goristro (L22), Cormyrian Red Dragonplate (L23), Epic Leaves of the Forest (L22-24), Flawless White Dragonplate Armor (L25), Legendary Hardened Hide Armor (L28), Legendary Scales of Avarice (L28), Legendary Scales of Avarice (L28), Scalemail of the Celestial Avenger (L29), Legendary Coat of the Traveler (L29)

Heroic leveling collars: Thrall of the Fire Temple (L7), Hound of the Night (L10), Vampiric Stonedust Wraps (L12), Scraps of Enlightenment (L13), Ivy Wraps (L15-17), Thaarak Wraps (L18)
Heroic leveling armors: crafted hide armor with Invulnerability for low levels, Scales of Avarice (L10), Scales of Malice (L10), Coat of the Traveler (L10), White Dragonplate Armor (L14), Leaves of the Forest (L15-17) and Hardened Hide Armor (L17).

You can convert any handwraps to a collar at a Device Workstation (located in House C and Eveningstar). I demonstrate how to do this in the introduction of this video.


WOLF ENHANCEMENTS

Flanking II is a pre-requisite for Opportunistic Bite, Striding II is a pre-requisite for Lupine Onslaught, Cunning IV and Instincts IV are pre-requisites for Evasion II. For more information about wolf survivability, see this post. If you are not doing reaper questing, you can take Augment Summoning early on and swap it out during mid to teen levels for something more useful. Don't bother using the wolf in reaper questing. Also see How to get 75+ strength on your wolf so you can get the strength lever in LE Tempest's Spine. Here are the enhancements I use:



SPELLS



This is what my endgame spells look like, however while leveling, there are some spells that should be used that are not shown, such as lower level healing spells and Creeping Cold. Finger of Death is nice for upper heroic reaper questing. These spells can be swapped out once they outlive their usefulness, like when you get better healing spells and Greater Creeping Cold.

An 8th and 9th level spell is lost when keeping the 1 wizard level with Deep Gnome. Omit Fires of Purity or Ice Flowers for your 8th level spell. Omit Anger of the Noonday Sun for your 9th level spell.

An overview of some druid spells:

Druids get 7 offensive spells as spell-like abilities, which is a major sp saver. They have a SLA for each element (fire, cold, electric and acid) as well as a SLA that does light damage and another that does damage based on alignment (Word of Balance) and Salt Ray does force damage. Using Renewal from Unyielding Sentinel as maintenance healing is another sp saver, as well as Energy Burst for low cost AOE dps. While I am not currently using them, Rejuvenation Cocoon and Consecration+Sacred Ground are optional twists that can be used for more low cost healing and AOE dps. My regular single target spell attack routine is the SLA's of Call Lightning -> Creeping Cold -> Produce Flame -> Word of Balance -> Salt Ray. Alternatively you may prefer to cast Salt Ray first to take advantage of extra damage while mobs are stunned.

Produce Flame A nice little fire bolt, though not efficient to apply metamagics to but for 6 sp, an unmeta'd Produce Flame does decent damage when you want to spam a ranged attack. Produce Flame is also an SLA so max and empower the SLA version for free! Regular spell has cooldown time of 1 second so blast away! Great to include the SLA as part of your regular attack pattern. Also great for charging up Empyrean Magic. There is no save against Produce Flame. The speed of the bolt was sped up significantly in Update 38!

Entangle (transmutation) a nice lowbie crowd control spell. Kinda like a druid version of web. I use until level 15 when I get Earthquake and some players continue to use it with Earthquake.

Creeping Cold and Greater Creeping Cold are great damage-over-time spells! They are a lot faster than most other DOTS with only a 3 second cool down you can rapid fire them on multiple mobs. While leveling, keep your cold spell power maxed and cast on a mob then keep moving, knowing it will be dead in about 8 seconds in non-reaper content. Druid DOTS don’t triple stack as traditional DDO DOTS, but both Creeping Cold and GCC stack with each other. Use water elemental form (take at L17), with Mantle of the Icy Soul (a 9th level buff that slows and debuffs mobs that are hit by your cold spells). There is no save against Creeping Cold and Greater Creeping Cold.

Call Lightning (evocation) at low to upper teen levels you can one-shot mobs in non-reaper content. You get Call Lightning as a 6sp spell-like ability (all SLAs Maximize and Empower for free). The regular spell has a 2 second cool down time so can rapid fire and can one-shot many heroic mobs faster than other casters can instakill them in non-reaper content! Faster casting than wiz/sorc Lightning Bolt and strikes from the sky so never misses due to a mob moving out of the way. Keep your electric spell power maxed, easy with Bracers of Wind.

Salt Ray (evocation) added as an SLA in update 38! Doesn't do much damage but it does force damage, so it's nice to have a non-elemental damage option. Stuns most mobs, including constructs, elementals and undead but does not stun reapers. A great addition to your spell attack rotation.

Enveloping Swarm Reworked in Update 28 and is now an acid DOT! A great addition when you want to unload on a boss with 4 DOTS (Creeping Cold, Greater Creeping Cold, Enveloping Swarm and Creeping Doom). There is no save against Enveloping Swarm!

Body of the Sun (evocation) This spell is a lot of fun L13-19ish and quite powerful, as it basically turns you into a walking firewall! Doesn’t maximize or empower and does about as much dps as a firewall for less SP and moves with you. To add gravy on top of that, it’s a buff so can be extended! Make sure to take fire elemental form first at L13 and take water elemental at L17. As with firewall, BotS loses effectiveness at higher levels. For sick dps cast firewall and BotS!

Wall of Fire and Ice Storm (evocation) a druid can do nearly as much dps as a cold or fire sorc! In water elemental form, Ice Storm will have an added debuff and slowing effect on mobs when using Mantle of the Icy Soul buff. There is no save against Ice Storm. In this video I discuss the merits of Wall of Fire vs. Ice Storm for new players or players new to casters.

Freezing Spray cast on mobs so they take 25% more damage from cold spells- great for named and bosses!

Sleet Storm not a uniquely druid spell but deserves a special mention. This is an excellent crowd control spell but is exceptionally annoying to your party if they don't have Freedom of Movement. Druids are the only class that has both Sleet Storm and FOM on their spell list so just give your party FOM and learn to love Sleet Storm! There is no save against Sleet Storm and it can be a valuable part of your crown control even in EE, legendary and reaper questing.

Finger of Death (necromancy) For my build it doesn’t make sense to spend resources to try to make FOD effective. Stick with Call Lightning at low to upper teen levels and Creeping Cold and GCC at higher levels. In reaper questing I have found it helpful to use FOD for the last few heroic levels as a quick way to get rid of champions. A spell focus mastery item can help the dc of all your spells. To boost your effective DC, once you hit level 17 you can hit your target with a cheap SLA of Creeping Cold while in water elemental form to inflict a -4 fortitude save penalty from Mantle of the Icy Soul.

Fires of Purity druids get a weapon buff! Great for party members if no arti is present. Don’t cast on yourself unless fighting mobs that are vulnerable to fire because it overrides Crown of Summer weapon buff (from enhancement line). Must be in fire ele form to cast, so cast on party first, then switch to water ele and buff self.

Mass Regenerate best mass healing spell in the game!! Use it and love it!! Heals stat damage and neg levels too! Endgame ticks for multiple hundred points of healing. Fast casting so already ticks twice by the time a Mass Heal would finish casting. If your entire party needs a bigger burst than that, throw Mass Regenerate and Mass Greater Vigor back to back.

Snowslide sprint attack spell that freezes your enemies. Use in winter wolf form when you need to get somewhere fast! Does a burst of movement 2x as far as a favored soul’s wings plus 8 seconds of super fast movement. Great for leaping over long distances. Also lets you pass through mobs so great for getting out of crowds when trapped.

Storm of Vengeance (conjuration) 9th level AOE spell that does electric and acid damage. Long cooldown of 1 minute, but you get an SLA version too at L18 so helps to make cooldown less of an issue. Excellent to chew down large groups of mobs. There is no save against the acid damage, which is the primary damage of SoV.

Creeping Doom (conjuration) A very nice spell that I overlooked for a long time. Functions as an AOE acid DOT. Slow to reach its target but splashes on to nearby mobs and can be a great add to an AOE attack routine (Ice Storm, SOV, etc.) Update 38 changed the damage type from poison to acid.

Fire Trap (abjuration) and Fire Seeds Trap (conjuration) If you feel like you need extra bang beyond the regular AOE attack routine (Ice Storm, SOV, etc.) then these are nice to drop at your feet for added AOE dps when fighting large groups of mobs.

Gust of Wind great for blowing out persistent enemy AOE spells like Ice Storm, Wall of Fire, Otto's Sphere of Dancing, etc. Be careful using because Gust of Wind can also blow out your own AOE's.

Charm Animal and Dominate Animal (enchantment) I ignored these for years, but now in reaper mode, charms are very helpful to not only neutralize mobs but to have them take aggro and damage instead of you and your party. Works not only on animals but vermin like spiders and scorpions and magical beasts like worgs, griffons and owlbears. Works well even in high skull end game content on spiders and scorpions, which have very low saves. Bonuses that affect your wolf and summons like Augment Summoning and druid past lives will also boost charmed mobs.

Word of Balance alignment based dps spell that can tick up to 2 times depending on how many steps away your target is from true neutral. A lawful evil target would tick twice, for example, and a neutral good target would tick once. Animals and constructs do not take damage from WOB. Can get as a tier 5 SLA at level 12 and should be a part of your regular SLA attack routine. Works well against reapers!

Mantle of the Icy Soul and Anger of the Noonday Sun buffs usable in elemental form, which as of Update 38 make a druid's fire and cold spells much more powerful. Targets that are immune, resistant, or healed by fire/cold are inflicted with a debuff that causes subsequent fire/cold spells to do full damage. With the new tier 5 Elemental Mastery enhancement, Anger of the Noonday Sun and Mantle of the Icy Soul are automatically cast on the druid when changing into fire and water elemental forms.

Sunburst not unique to druid but a very valuable part of a druid's crowd control. I love to double-shot groups of mobs with the regular and SLA versions of Sunburst to blind them. Sunburst also works as an instakill against mob that have vulnerabilities to light and blinding effects like shadows, vampires and evil eyes.

Earthquake (evocation) provides excellent crowd control and works on reapers (reapers caught in Earthquake are still and take no action, there is no special visual effect so can be deceiving). Great for kiting or intimidating large groups into and coupling with Ice Storm. For very large or tough groups of mobs, throw Earthquake, Ice Storm and Sleet Storm (give your party FOM or they hate you) and watch your enemies trip, stumble, fall, or slow to a crawl (Mantle/Ice Storm/Sleet Storm have slowing effects) as you and your party obliterate them. Throw Storm of Vengeance on top of that to provide more AOE dps. Use Sunburst SLA to blind them too! Sunburst is also evocation, so the blinding effect hits a lot on druids with good evocation DCs. Turn off Maximize and Empower for Earthquake. The extra damage isn’t worth the extra sp cost, it’s the knock down ability that you care about most. Due to recent reductions in the duration of crowd control spells in reaper mode, Earthquake has been reduced to basically useless in high skull play because it's slow to appear and then is gone after just a couple ticks. I prefer to use Tsunami in epic high skull reaper, which has a longer lasting knockdown effect.

Earthquake DC's: An Earthquake DC of 50+ is good enough to be effective in epic elite questing, though you'll want to get closer to 60 for better performance. Legendary elite content needs a DC in the mid 60's to 70's to be effective. During the Northwynd 2 series, I was able to get a second lifer with modest gear up to a DC in the mid 70's. You can read more about legendary Earthquake DC's here. With a DC of 97, Earthquake is effective enough for most content except in Sharn where it is only moderately effective in reaper Sharn quests. If my Earthquake isn't hitting well, I like to focus on using Tsunami, which does a great job of knocking mobs down.

The way I like to play this build is to run ahead, grabbing aggro of a bunch of mobs at once, laying down Earthquake, Ice Storm, Sleet Storm, SoV and a double-shot of Sunburst then hack away from inside my own personal hurricane, using single target SLA's to finish off mobs that are slower to go down in the AOE's. Mass Regenerate works well to keep you and party healed, or Renewal for low-cost self healing. If it gets too intense just turtle-up with your shield for a few seconds while your AOE spells and party chew them up.


LIMITATIONS

This build was not designed to solo, but can solo most content if desired, though it does so at a modest pace. Specific limitations include quests with beholders and mobs that inhibit spell casting such as EE Terminal Delirium and EE Ghosts of Perdition. Quests with incessant stunning such as EE Fleshmakers and EE Ghost of Chance can also be problematic. These kinds of quests are best done as part of a group, as the build is primarily designed for and performs well in a group environment.


ELEMENTAL FORMS

A caster druid should typically run in elemental form at all times because of the nice bonuses they provide. In addition to buffing your cold or fire spells (and debuffing the opposite element spells), elemental forms provide +100% racial bonus to fortification and natural poison immunity (+10 resist to magical poison), immunity to sleep, paralysis and stun. Druid elemental forms are different than sorcerer elemental forms. If you don't like the look of being in elemental form, there is an auto granted feat called Veil the Elements to remove the visual effect.

I recommend taking fire elemental form first at L13 and have a blast being like a walking firewall while using Body of the Sun, a very fun spell!

At level 17 you can take water elemental form, which is my default form from that point forward. Keep Mantle of the Icy Soul on you at all times. Sadly this is lost when switching forms, but it’s easy to stay in water ele form for more effective cold spells! Mantle makes targets of your cold spells take a 25% penalty to movement speed, a 10% penalty to attack speed, and a -4 penalty to fortitude and reflex saves, which is huge for making your Earthquake more effective.

Don't stress about being in the "wrong" elemental form. You can still cast fire spells in water elemental form and cold spells in fire elemental form. Your Greater Creeping Cold is still very strong while you are in fire elemental form, for example. Being in the opposite form will result in a small reduction in caster level for fire/cold spells but it's not worth constantly switching back and forth. It is generally ok stay in one form or another, but switching forms situationally can be valuable if desired.


ANIMAL FORMS

Wolf and bear form are designed for melee druids. A caster druid should generally avoid using animal forms, as it significantly increases the cooldown times of spells (but not SLA's). A caster druid's casting power doesn't start to ramp up until late in level 3 when you get Call Lightning as an SLA, so prior to this point it can be fun to run around in wolf form and melee if you prefer.


HEALING

Druids can be very strong healers. Traditional healers may find an awkward adjustment when healing on a druid. Other healers wait for the damage to occur and then heal their party. Druids are a little different with their heal-over-time spells (vigor and regeneration). In a sense, you are healing in front of the damage instead of after the damage. You don’t wait for your party to be half down like you might with Mass Heal. Instead, you wait for a smaller amount of damage, then throw Mass Regenerate, which will tick for 400+ on a non-crit with this build (on self with 90 healing amp). At first I was upset that druids didn’t get mass cure spells like cleric and favored soul (they have in pen and paper D&D), but I have come to love healing on a druid so much more than cleric or favored soul, as the HOT spells are amazing for filling in the gaps that are between a traditional healer’s spells. Druids do however get all the single target healing spells Cure Light Wounds through Heal, as well as all single and mass target HOT spells. Unmaximized and unempowered vigor can be very efficient low-cost healing during heroic levels, just have to be proactive and stay ahead of the damage. Use cure spells and Heal for bigger burst of healing as needed. Spring’s Resurgence is also huge at lower levels, as it gives an immediate burst of healing as soon as a player falls below 50% health. It’s cheap to cast and can be a lifesaver in traps or against hard hitting mobs. Get used to regularly casting this on yourself and party members. Useful in epic levels as well. Renewal from Sentinel destiny covers a lot of low cost maintenance healing, allowing you to save mana for offensive casting.


TANKING

This build provides good self-healing tanking ability for low-end raiding and for mid skull questing. Use DOTS to generate hate on bosses. Use intimidate to pull back mobs and bosses if they are pulled away from you. I have used this build to successfully tank all bosses on EE, although I would not advise you tank high-end EE bosses with a first life version of the build. Can tank heroic elite at-level demon queen, Reaver's Fate, VOD and all TOD bosses for bravery bonuses. Tanking is a skill to develop and if you enjoy this build and are interested in tanking high-end content with it then I would encourage you to work toward getting defensive past lives like divine and martial epic past lives for extra PRR and AC, PDK iconic past lives for extra PRR, as well as tier 2 dwarf and warforged past lives for extra con and 36 point build from being a multilifer.

Temple of the Deathwyrm: can tank dragon and kuldjarghs simultaneously on EE. If someone pulls the dragon too far away from you, quickly change to winter wolf form and use Snow Slide to burst through the kuldjarghs and chase the dragon down and pull back. During final beatdown, stay in winter wolf form so that you can quickly move around with Snow Slide as needed to keep the dragon centered. I have a video that shows all of this in action.

I am able to stay toe-to-toe with the dragons in Fire on Thunder Peak as high as R3 even when then have the Artifact Overdraw +400% damage buff. They are hitting me so hard though, that I suspect without all the hp and prr past lives, it would be considerably more difficult and would recommend anyone using this build that doesn't have all those past lives to just kite the dragons for the final phase of the raid. I have videos of tanking R3 Fire on Thunder Peak and R1 Riding the Storm Out.

Reaper raids: Have tanked Legendary HOX on R1 and Legendary Tempests Spine on R1. I would not recommend trying to tank end game raid bosses beyond R1, even with past lives and gear. I have not tried to tank Killing Time and Project Nemesis beyond hard and have not tried Too Hot to Handle beyond normal. I have not successfully tanked Legendary VOD, MA and LOB beyond hard.

If you're new to tanking, I was a guest on DDOCast episodes where we talk about building a raid caliber tank and strategies for tanking specific raid bosses that you might find helpful: DDOCast 403 Raid Caliber Tanks and DDOCast 422 Tanking in Raids. You can also check out Introduction to Tanking by Unsinful.


Have fun building your caster/healer druid, I hope you enjoy this build. I monitor and update this post regularly and I am happy to respond to questions here.

Demonstration of build solo EE Don't Drink the Water




I have 7 video series that are designed to support the build: a "True First Life" series and it's "True Second Life" sequel, a Beginner's series, a TR series, a Deep Gnome, Dragonborn and Tiefling series. More information about these series later in this thread here.


Some of my other videos and series:
How to Choose your Warlock for Beginners
The Basics of Reincarnating in DDO
How to Prioritize Past Lives
Beginner's Guide to Epic Destinies and Twists of Fate
How to Increase your Hit Points

Over 1000 quest videos, raid guides, crafting tutorials and much more for newbies and experienced players alike at my YouTube channel Voodu Spyce and you can find me live streaming nearly every day on my Twitch channel vooduspyce.

[Sokól]

Nice build but I would like to see your starting attributes and enhancements!

Well you are not the only 1 having trouble fitting ice lore on a druid...

[AzB]

Very nice write up! It's great to see someone that has learned how to play a caster druid as many people don't understand them and just shoot them down as not being as powerful as a sorc or wiz. You've got all the strengths and weaknesses nailed!

On FoD, I have found it to be worth getting the wiz and FvS pls for the spell pen to make it semi reliable. It's a very effective spell and works better at taking out casters than DoTs in many situations as it doesn't give them time to cast anything. If only lightning didn't take such a hit from both elemental forms (where are our other two elemental forms? I love lightning and pretty much stop using it after level 16) it would be a great alternative. Not everyone will be willing to run the pls for this though. I enjoy TR'ing so it was not a problem for me.

I agree on the wolf pet. I also have the 3 druid pls, and with augment summoning the pet is great for leveling. By 20th level, mine has 1000hp, improved evasion with a 40+ reflex, and a decent AC. He is very survivable in spite of standing in traps, etc. Since my pure druid caster has no evasion, I let the pet open trapped doors and such. He is unkillable. I just wish he could open chests! And he is a great diversion for a caster druid soloing as he takes the aggro and leaves you free to cast. It's also fun to cast EQ and SoV and watch the pet running around finishing the bad guys off while you just watch. But yes, EE is just way too frenetic to keep tabs on the pet, and he will simply die very quickly. Then again, that's true of many players. And yes, he typically has higher stats in every category than me, except for wisdom. Yep, my pet is smarter, faster, tougher, better looking, and stronger than I am.

[AzB]

Nice build but I would like to see your starting attributes and enhancements!

Well you are not the only 1 having trouble fitting ice lore on a druid...

Enhancements are easy, everything in Season's Herald. As mentioned, you can take some Nature's Warrior early on where melee is more useful and change them out later. I typically keep some of the first three tiers of Nature's Warrior just so I can jump into wolf form and do some melee if I'm out of sp or it's a melee only situation. It's not great, but it's better than standing there doing nothing.

There needs to be an updated animal form for epic levels. I mean, you get winter wolf at ~7th level and it really doesn't receive any upgrades for epic levels. None of the enhancements or spells for wolf form are really epic level abilities.

I would like to see earth and air ele forms as well epic versions of wolf and bear for melee druids.

[Munkenmo]

FEATS (by level)

1st Toughness. Human bonus feat: Augment summoning (for fun, will swap later)
I'd consider dropping toughness for mental toughness, hp enhancments don't require toughness anymore, so it's effectively 30hp vs 145sp and +1% spell crit chance.

15th: Spell Focus: Evocation (or wiz PL). Dump Augment Summoning for Shield Mastery
Since this is your only DC boosting feat, I'd definately take Spell focus : Evo, If you don't you won't be able to pick up evo DC's from Magister / Draconic ED's.


Creeping Cold and Greater Creeping Cold are the best damage-over-time spells in the game, imo, because they are a lot faster than caster and divine DOTS. With only a 3 second cool down time you can rapid fire them. While leveling, keep your cold spell power maxed (easy with Frozen Tunic) and cast on a mob then run off, knowing it will be dead in about 8 seconds. Druid DOTS don’t triple stack as traditional DDO DOTS, but both Creeping Cold and GCC stack with each other. Sadly they do not stack with other druid DOTS (don’t know if this is working as intended). Use water elemental form (take at L17), with Mantle of the Icy Soul (a 9th level buff that slows mobs that are hit by your cold spells).
I agree that these spells are great damage dealers. However these are backloaded spells, meaning as they near the end of their duration they do more damage than when they've first been cast. You're wasting a lot of sp, and doing a lot less damage recasting these as soon as you can. Also these spells will remove arcane casters Niacs creeping cold stacks, In a party with 2 arcanes or more, sadly your party is better off with you not casting this.

Firewall and Ice Storm- a druid can do nearly as much dps as a cold or fire sorc! In water elemental for, Ice Storm will also slow your enemies if using Mantle of the Icy Soul buff.
Ice storm slows down enemies movement speed anyway

Freezing Spray- cast on mobs so they take 25% more damage from cold spells- great for named and raid bosses!

Earthquake (evocation) provides some of the best ee crowd control in the game. It is a L8 spell, so you get at L15, just in time for Gianthold elites. Great for kiting or intimidating large groups into and coupling with Ice Storm. For very large or tough groups of mobs, throw Earthquake, Ice Storm and Sleet Storm (give your party FOM or they hate you) and watch your enemies trip, stumble, fall, or slow to a crawl (from Mantle and Beguile) as you and your party obliterate them. Throw Storm of Vengeance (a SLA now!) on top of that to provide more AOE dps. Use Sunburst SLA to blind them too! Sunburst is also evocation, so the blinding effect hits a lot on druids with good evocation DCs. Turn off Maximize and Empower for Earthquake. The extra damage isn’t worth the extra sp cost, it’s the knock down ability that you care about most.
You can even use it on Eladrin in running with the devils

Nice writeup Voo, just a couple of comments in red.

I'd also build a 17/2/1 split, but that's just me I guess.

[ZeebaNeighba]

Out of curiosity, why don't you also twist the +2 evocation DC from draconic? Does it not stack, or do you just think that +3 dc is worth a twist and +2 is not?

[silinteresting]

very nice build and very nicely wrote to.
book marked for future reference thankyou.

your friend sil

[Vooduspyce]

Out of curiosity, why don't you also twist the +2 evocation DC from draconic? Does it not stack, or do you just think that +3 dc is worth a twist and +2 is not?

The additional +2 is just not needed. Earthquake hits just fine with high 40's DC. With a 55 DC I'm finding that I can even bring down the Shadar-Kai assassins on ee, though not 100% of the time :-)

[Vooduspyce]

Nice writeup Voo, just a couple of comments in red.

I'd also build a 17/2/1 split, but that's just me I guess.

I meant rapid-firing GCC on different mobs, not the same mob. Good to mention that casting Creeping Cold and GCC on the same mob before the duration is expired, overwrites, not extends like traditional DOTS, so your biggest damage is lost if recasting on same mob too soon.

The conflict with druid DOTS erasing Niac's Biting Cold DOT was fixed maybe a couple months ago

[Rush007]

The additional +2 is just not needed. Earthquake hits just fine with high 40's DC. With a 55 DC I'm finding that I can even bring down the Shadar-Kai assassins on ee, though not 100% of the time :-)

This exactly, where is the all or nothing guy ?

[reddoormedia]

Op are you talking about a pure druid, no splash?

[ZeebaNeighba]

Op are you talking about a pure druid, no splash?

Yes the op is pure (I know his toon in game)

[mjrisley]

what split did you use.. I was thinking of adding 2 lvls of either Wiz or FVS to mine to open up there respective enhancement trees. Could use you alls thoughts on it.

[Ajthegreat7]

Hey voo if its possible mind posting screenshot of your bars kind of tricky when you have 20 bars and so many clickies and spells to put on them..

[Vooduspyce]

Hey voo if its possible mind posting screenshot of your bars kind of tricky when you have 20 bars and so many clickies and spells to put on them..

screencast

[twigzz]

Nice write up spyce. I still laugh(and cry cause that song gets stuck in my head) at your LFM's to this day lol.


And you're a fellow Michigander!

[Vooduspyce]

All parts were done legit...
131 minutes and about 35 pots. Swapped Epic DR for Ruin so that I would have better dps for the portals.

[UrbanPyro]

Thank you for the link. ::bump::

[Panzermeyer]

I LOVE my druid. Looking at different and interesting builds.

My current build is a Shiradi Caster. Typically running as fire ellie for body of the sun. Though I am finding that I am tending to run in Water on EE for the Mantle of the Icy soul and reflex debuff with Ice Storm.

This build look really cool.

Out of curiosity, even with Heavy Armor Proficiency don't you still have to deal with Arcane Spell Failure?

I take it you just added that, due to the shadow armor? Which I take it is not considered metal and thus works for Druids.

[Munkenmo]

Out of curiosity, even with Heavy Armor Proficiency don't you still have to deal with Arcane Spell Failure?

He does have arcane spell failure when using arcane scrolls, wands and spells. There is a reason its not called divine spell failure though.