Fawngate's Druid

[Silverleafeon]

This looks very interesting.
A Dev explained the extra effect:

Elemental Spiral When held in the Main Hand: Cycles through Fire, Cold, Earth, Air giving the following buffs for 12 seconds each:
+50 Exceptional Spell Power
+20% Exceptional Spell Lore
+5 Caster Levels

[Pilgrim1]

So, say in your normal spam sequence you cast 2 of thoes 4 elements. That means it only has a 50% uptime. The +5 caster levels are basicly useless since its max caster levels that restrain spell damage for the most part. A wierd multi-mix might be able to use that aspect however. I think the 50 exceptional spell power stacks so thats solid. And the 20% crit chance is great. What is robe.. insight? I think the golden orb of death is exceptional. And then there is the base spell power which is very solid.

Overall I like the evocation/radiance one better because of the add-on blind effect and evocation bonuses. I could posibly see spiral being a good contender for a sentint weapon option.

For shields the tierless aid and wall of wood are the only ones that have enhancments that are worth anything to a druid. You might as well do some canith crafted version instead of the others. The tower shield is a intresting posibility, especialy if you take that shield deflection feet which lets you reduce elemental dmg by 40% when blocking with a tower shield (other than that i dont see much use). The buckler gives you no MRR bonus so you might as well use a LGS caster off hand instead of that one, get blind/slow/frozen/oze/whatever on your spells seams better than that.

Droping wisdom by 3 to get 5 set slavers is deffently worth it. Its worth it to drop wisdom by 9!

PS. You can craft a shield with ressist elmental dmg, insightful ressist elmental dmg, and absorb elemental dmg for a nice swap in. Also trinket to. I should do that some time.

[Silverleafeon]

PS. You can craft a shield with ressist elmental dmg, insightful ressist elmental dmg, and absorb elemental dmg for a nice swap in. Also trinket to. I should do that some time.

An incredibly interesting idea.

The trinket can have +38% absorption on two different elements which is nice.

[Silverleafeon]

Droping wisdom by 3 to get 5 set slavers is deffently worth it. Its worth it to drop wisdom by 9!

I think you are right, Slave Lords crafting 5 piece set bonus is too good to ignore.

So back to the drawing board....

I have in the past started and failed to finish a SL Tank set, along with starting a SL Warlock set.

So, Fawn is sort of going to be starting from scratch (or close enough).

This is going to take awhile, so she is seriously considering revising her build specifically for Slave Lords.

Of course, House of Death / TCoS is still high on the list for a +19 / +20 wisdom.


But she might create a Slave Lords swepper build.
Something that she can pop into a single Slave Lords dungeon, pull 5 hires, move forward with low stress, and go afk when desired.

This might lean towards her earlier Summons builds, but its more for farming Slave Lords than her final build.

Difficulty level will depend upon Pet survivability, but I anticipate LH should be very achievable with some care and tactics.

This will not be a final build, just something druidic fun for the upcoming SL runs...


I learned the hard way, always pick Legendary Broken Shackles as the chain reward,
at least until your gear is most of the way finished.

[Silverleafeon]

Fred's Feat swapping:

Dragonborn Fire -> Dragonborn Electric (to try out max call lightning)

Leg Scion Fire -> Leg Scion Elysium

Extend Spell -> Augment Summoning

Burst of Glacial Wrath -> Improved Augment Summoning

[Wanted to keep my SLAs high powered with Master of the Wild and Intensify.]

Switching Epic Destinies to Primal Avatar and Magistar depending upon location.

[Silverleafeon]

Raids are a funny thing for Druids..

Back in the day, Raid Leader really did not know how to classify Druid and hence were puzzled.

Druids really shine when placing Storms in Choke Points while Healing Melee fighting within the Choke Points.
Raids, however, tend to lack Choice Points, and have less Cannon Fodder Monster than a typical Quest.

Raids also tend to have requirements such as "prepare these monsters then kill those monsters in this order..."
Storm type casting tends to be very indiscriminate.

On the other hand, Raids do require healers.
Pure Druid Casters make excellent Healers when properly played.

More than one Druid has turned towards Tanking while Raiding, and its not that difficult to gear up for tanking duty.
It is costly SP wise for a Druid to Tank, but very doable.
Even as a Healing Role, it is important not to die.


When Fawn was in TCoS new Raid, at one point she was being chased by ten glowing skulls who each
cast electric dots doing 15 damage apiece. Certainly enough to keep even the best Druid busy.
Things went poorly once Fawn was tripped...

Now with a bit of extra energy resistance (such as found upon her LG HP items), each of those 15 damage hits
would have dropped to 0 each.

I think you can see how Druids who can wear Medium Armor and Shield with access to Fire/Cold Shield can
easily drift into the Tanking Realms...particularly when Raids sometimes lack True Tanks.


Perhaps with this Sweeper Build its time to temporarily lift those Immortal Hearts and do some Cannith Crafting?

Still debating feat swapping Enlarge -> Heavy Armor.

Perhaps I will plan to swap in LG items in a Tanking set up at times...that gives me reason
to plan for MaX DCs and an alternate Survival Build.

[Silverleafeon]

After a fair amount of thought, I went ahead and finished Fawn's Cannith Crafted Goggles:

+15 Wisdom / +6 Spell Pen / +7 Insightful Wisdom / Master's Gift

Figuring that the Goggles are best in slot due to the Insightful Wisdom,
the thought of having a backup on Wisdom & Spell Pen even at slightly lower numbers seems nice.

Gives us room to rearrange gear at times without Fawn falling flat on her face.

[Silverleafeon]

So temporarily: Goggles (Wis), Cloak (Ravenloft Con 19), & Belt (Ravenloft Belt Trio) are filled.

Leaving a five-piece LG Opp/Mat HP set on these items:

Helmet
Necklace
Wrist
Boots
Gloves

Eventually, SL Crafting will move the Constitution to somewhere like Ring & Tinket? Thinking that Constitution 17 and Quality Constitution should be on the same Slave Lord item to make it generic. Not sure about the other two slots, perhaps Resistance & ?

[Silverleafeon]

Good news for Druid Fans:

Greetings!

Our first year as Standing Stone Games is behind us, and we want to thank our fans for being part of a wonderful year. We feel truly fortunate to have wonderful players, and we are excited for the upcoming year. I wanted to take some time to talk about our plans for the upcoming months. The reason we are here is because YOU are here, and we look forward to hearing from you.

Update 38 will arrive this Spring, and will return adventurers to Eberron. The magic that has long protected Stormreach is failing, and a strange plague is sweeping through the city. You'll join forces with the healers of House Jorasco to find a cure and save your adopted home. This new adventure pack will be level 14 on Heroic difficulty, and level 31 on Legendary difficulty. Part of this work will allow us to tweak House Jorasco as well, to help players get around the space.

We will also be doing a bit of work on the Anniversary Event, including some new event rewards, as we celebrate DDO's 12th year! We will have a special gift for players as well, but do not want to spoil the surprise.

One of the things we have long heard from you about is the desire to have a third Artificer Enhancement tree, and we're pleased to be able to say that the Renegade Mastermaker will be coming in the near future. This tree will focus on improving your Repair spells, Curative Admixtures, personal Defense, and building things to buff both yourself and your allies. We also intend to add a third Favored Soul tree, update the Cleric Warpriest, and do extensive work on the Druid class. For Druid, we will be working on the core of the class, its animal forms, and both of its existing enhancement trees in addition to a brand new enhancement tree.

Another thing we have long wanted to do is update our Treasure of Crystal Cove event, and we intend to start doing that work in the coming months by updating the reward list. Speaking of events, we have plans for Night Revels to update the public space to work similar to the Challenge system its dungeons use, and add a new dungeon for our favorite Halloween event. October is historically one of our biggest months, and we think you'll love what we have in store.

Next, we are pleased to announce our next classic adventure! An eccentric wizard has hidden three famous Sentient weapons inside of a volcano, and challenged all comers to try to retrieve them. Can you make it through fiendish obstacles and deadly traps? Have you guessed the pack yet? It's White Plume Mountain, a classic 1979 dungeon that was also recently brought to 5th Edition in the Tales from the Yawning Portal book. We'll be giving this intense test of skill the DDO treatment later this summer in an adventure pack that will also feature several other stand-alone dungeons themed around wizards and their arcane environments.

We are happy with the feedback we received about Sentient Weapons with the release of Mists of Ravenloft, and plan to continue to support that system in 2018. In addition to the Sentient Weapons available in White Plume Mountain, we intend to add a Kobold-themed Sentient Jewel for our 12^th Anniversary, and create a Dragon-themed jewel for an as-yet unannounced release date.

We have another big announcement to make later this year, but we're not ready to hint about that news yet, sorry. Stay tuned soon for an announcement about an adventure that has been on many of our players' wish lists for years. We can't wait to tell you about it!

On behalf of everyone on the Dungeons & Dragons Online team, we thank you for your support. We've been humbled by the response to the Mists of Ravenloft, and we look forward to continuing our amazing tabletop-to-screen journey with you in 2018 and beyond!

Sev~

[Silverleafeon]

{Just a side note, last I checked you cannot mix LG Opp HP bonuses with Dom or Eth.}
{In other words a Opp + Mat Hp set must be purely those augments throughout.}



We can put two difference elemental Absorptions on a Trinket, but I am torn on which two to choose:

Do I go opposite elements or side by side?

Fire is nice to have.
Do Ice creatures often reside in the same room as Fire creature?
Hmmm...logic would say no?!?

The Ravenloft Belts are:
Cold & Lightning
Fire & Acid
Hmm...perhaps craft one of those two?

Or should I be tempted with Cannith Crafted Shield as a 3rd element?
A Lightning Absorp CC Heavy Shield would fit in well with RtSO raid.

Is Acid rarer than the rest?

Hmm...technically, one could:
CC Trinket ~ two elements
Shield ~ one element {when crafting shield and armor be sure to start with min level 22+ as the min level affects AC}
Armor ~ one element {also don't forget to check for nonmetal materials}

Although Fawn does have enough Runes to purchase Armor from Legendary Tempest Spine such as:





Ended up with
Armor ~ Acid Absorp, Healing Amp, Parrying
Shield ~ Electrical Absorp, ?
Trinket ~ Fire & Cold Absorp, Eff Meta Max



Anyway, time for Scroll Support Shopping:

House K:
Teleport Scrolls if you don't have any

Marketplace:
Find Traps ~ craft a search item and find secret doors
Invisibility ~ for sneaking around
Obscuring Mist ~ concealment for party
Grease ~ since you have already cast FoM on party
Gust of Wind ~ cloud clearing & slow effect
Scare ~ optional debuff
Feather Fall ~ if needed
Jump ~ if needed

Marketplace
Full Set of Potions (as these can be used on anyone)

House J
Heal ~
Resurrection ~

Looking for Nightshield Scrolls, but might have to be satisfied with Shield Wands instead from House K

Portable Hole
Teleport ~ to return
Greater Teleport ~ taxi raid to a few raids
Globe of Invulnerablity ~ fun and protects against a fair amount of spells, also get rid of foe's DW
Mass Bulls ~ for pets
Mass Bears ~ for pets
Shadow Walk ~ alternative Invis
True Seeing ~ because its hard to slot
Cyclonic Blast ~ clears clouds and makes like you are actually doing something against bosses that are immune to element & light
Magic Circle Against Evil ~ protection against Chaos Beholders & Clerics casting Command
Greater Heroism ~ protection against Fear and saving throw bonus
Waves of Exhaustion ~ optional debuff
Stinking Cloud ~ extra cloud
Sleet Storm ~ optional free sp cloud
Ice Storm ~ optional free sp cloud
Slow ~ optional debuff



Note that scrolls have a 6 second cooldown, so anticipate only casting one during a battle.

[Silverleafeon]

Well my Sweeper Build is not working out very well.

Time Effort with Swepper Build + 5 Hires on LH Slavers 1 = Normal Build + 5 Players Time Effort doing R1 Slavers 1


So, back to Fred for another round of feat swapping.

Scion -> Air
Improved Augment Summoning -> Burst of Glacial Wrath
Augment Summoning -> PL Wizard active feat

Slot Nightmother's Sceptre with sentience and 7 wisdom Augments
Twist 2 wisdom, +2 draconic Evocation, +3 magistar Evocation, Evocation Augmentation.

Suddenly Fawn is sitting on a 84 Earthquake DC before the +3 wis & +3 DC from the Reaper tree...


That gives one pause as it is quite enough to handle most of what DDO has to offer.



Also of interest is that the now 6 piece LG Opp/Mat set combined with 4 elemental CC absorption items placed Fawn in the position of merely running thru LH Slaver 1 traps with little fear.

The defensive advantages of this set are stronger than I remembered.

But if Fawn's heart is set on a 6 piece set, that only leaves:
Belt ~ spellpower
???
6 piece LG
2 rings
Trinket
Armor ~ ??
Main hand ~ Nightmother
Off hand ~ LG Salt

The puzzle becomes trying to fit as much spellpower/lore as possible?

[Silverleafeon]

Having decided Fawn and I will let go of obtaining the 5 piece SL set (although a player without a LG set might should consider thus), we will backtrack and say that the versitility of Slave Lords crafting is still worth considering.

According to DDO Wiki the drop rate on LN is pretty bad, but I am sure there will be Pick Up Groups for her to lead/join that would love to have a Healing/CC Druid tagging along.

Honestly, I tend to find an increase in players joining a group when Fawn arrives.
Correctly played, Druid are strong team players.

LOL, Fawn might be a Bard if Druids did not exist...in fact she healed a bunch of heroic shrouds as a bard (some solo) long ago...

[Silverleafeon]

Reset Fawn's Wolf's enhancements, then retrained avoiding anything that even remotely smacked of decisions or extra actions.
Just went after the simple bonuses including the unattractive Thick Fur.
That removed Bluff and Feeding, so we will see if our wolf will pause less during attacks.

[Silverleafeon]

Witnessed significant improvements to wolf attack speed, seemed to attack without pause.
So removing "distractions" was possibly a very good thing.

If Fawn is determined to keep the 6 piece LG set, then Constitution is going to need moving off of the cloak slot.

I might check and see if I can move Insightful Wisdom off of Goggles unto Trinket/Rings/Armor?
That might make room for +20 Wisdom Necklace & Ravenloft Spellpower Belt Trio?

Back to DDO Wiki...

Hmm...I can put Insightful Wisdom on a Trinket.

Then I could put Constitution & Quality Constitution on a Slave Lords Ring.

[Silverleafeon]

https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...Greensteel-Set

A detailed discussion about setting up an HP Legendary Greensteel set and how to avoid the bug involved wherein.



;;;;


The ideal set was a 5 piece LG Greensteel + 5 piece Slave Lords = taking up 10 total pieces.

That ideal is rapidly losing ground, however if one had such it will probably be fine to keep thus thru this year.
As mentioned earlier a 5 piece Slave Lords caster set is really strong, and will likely be viable thru 2019.

Having fun running R1 Ravenloft atm, thinking I might lead groups more to ensure the party goes to the quest I want.
Obviously, R3 or R4 would probably work as well.


;;;;;

Really having trouble letting go of my LG Salt Sickle on my off hand.
Its just really good to have a few seconds of super slow on foes.

Deciding to sit back and just plain heal versus red named bosses; not worrying about doing damage.

[Silverleafeon]

So...


LH with 5 hires Slave Lords part 1
&
LE solo Slave Lords part of part 1
&
R1 with 5 Khyberian Players Slave Lords part 1, 2, & 3

felt about equal in effort to play.


I would imagine that Druids can Healz and Quakez helped.


Being leader, we took 3 minute breaks between dungeons which really helped.

Overall, helping 5 other players get Reaper XP and Mats seems the best approach.
Sad that Scaling seems to exist with gold seal perm hires.

Anyone, the Sweeper Build was fun to try but definitely going old school.

[Silverleafeon]

Even though Fawn does not need a 5 piece Slaver's Set, we are thinking it might be fun to make one anyway as a long term goal.

The set certainly will have fairly good life, possibly into 2019 or 2020 before becoming outdated.

Given that she want to avoid Legendary Greensteel slots when possible:

Both Rings & Tinket would be avoiding.


So she started crafting two rings, being careful of choices working slowly:


Ring 1:
Prefix : Empty {maybe Wis +17} or left empty temporarily
Suffix : Empty {single type spell lore or spell power}
Extra : Spell Focus Mastery (+6)
Bonus : Quality Wis (+4)


Ring 2:
Prefix : Empty {likely Con +17?}
Suffix : Empty {single type spell lore or spell power}
Extra : Spell Penatration (+7)
Bonus : Quality Con (+4)


Attributes for Druids in order of importance could be:
Wis ~ casting Stat
Con ~ hit points
Cha ~ high enough to umd Resurrection (unless Reincarnation is speeded up)
Int ~ improves Spellcraft
Dexterity ~ improves poor reflex saves
Strength ~ high enough to not become encumbered.


Note Int improved Spellcraft by the Int Modifier, which means that investments:
Increase in Int/2 = Increase in +1 Spellcraft
So, given a choice of bonuses to Int or bonuses to Spellcraft, the latter is more efficient.



So If I made a 3rd Slave Lords Item (possibly wrist/boot slot):

Prefix : Empty {[possibly Int +17?}
Suffix : Empty {single type spell lore or spell power}
Extra : Skill Spellcraft +22
Bonus : Quality Skill Spellcraft +5 (or throw on a Quality PRR that is leftover from Tank crafting) (or possibly go with Quality Int to make the item able to be used for Wizardly for later, even though ((Int +4)/2) < +5



At the moment, pending the Druid update which might arrive in 2018, Druids like Fire, Electric, Cold, (also Light & Positive).
The only Acid Spell is Storm of Vengeance, but it is a pretty good spell.

The Ravenloft Belts provide very good lore, but if you get Spiral your Equipment Bonus is covered so lore for your nonbelt element could be better.

The belt choices are Fire/Acid ; Ice/Cold ; Positive/Negative.
These provide Lore and the highly sought after stacking Enhancement Spellpower bonuses.
(An offbeat buff to help Casters try to catch up with melee).

What complicated the issue is that an ideal dual weapon set is:

Legendary Greensteel Salt (150 Cold Enhancement Spell Power+7 insightful Int, +37 Exceptional Cold Spell Power)
& Legendary Greensteel Freezing (150 Electric Spell Power, +37 Quality Cold Spell Power, +37 Exceptional Electric Spell Power)

If one is wielding that, there is a redundancy with the belt, and also a need to furnish the normal Equipment Spell Power bonuses.



As mentioned earlier by Pilgrim1 The Legendary Symbol of the Slave Lords is a strong ready made Trinket item. Which means, Fawn might want to be careful crafting three ring/trinket items in case she prefers the ready made Trinket.

If she does go that route, it would become the four item for a five piece set, and she only need to find a final item.

The Legendary Slave Master's Staff would provide much except Cold Lore, which could be provide by the Cold/Electric Belt. It too is a ready made item that would just need the set bonus. Unfortionately, that would mean letting go of the LG dual weapons pair.

[Silverleafeon]

Just finished second successful raid of TCoS from Ravenloft, this time wearing the HP LG 5 piece set (no fire).

Being chased by quite a few skulls which were simply annoying instead of deadly.
So the additional HP along with the elemental resists did make a survival difference.

Fawn even managed to wander thru the Mist in the middle, realize her mistake and retreat.

Many more runs for the +20 wis necklace, thanks for the good leaders on Khyber.

Also, Mass Frog did wonders in the Baba Hut raid.
Fawn has a sense of humor this week, carrying around a Frog Cosmetic Pet while she has a lot of fun casting Mass Frog wither she goes...


We probably need to post out a full build sometime,..

[Silverleafeon]

Working on a Deep Gnome high skills Build:

20 Wis
20 Int
12 Con
Dump rest

Massive skill points including Search & Intimidate.

Party looking towards the https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...kin-Games-2018
so a small race is required.




The plus races for Druid Casters would be:

Aasimar
Pro = starting Wis of 20, +2 Wis available in core racial tree, emergency heal that is effective even at level cap.
Con = none

Aasimar Scourge
Pro = starting Wis of 20, +2 Wis available in core racial tree, emergency heal that is effective even at level cap.
Con = Iconic starts with 1 level of ranger

Deep Gnome
Pro = starting Wis of 20, +2 Int, +2 Wis available in core racial tree, small size (hence smaller hit box).
Con = Iconic starts with 1 level of wizard

Dragonborn
Pro = deep investments in racial tree include dragonbreath SLA, +3 Evocation, +caster levels in one element
Con = requires spending a fair amount in the racial tree (although Druids only have a single caster tree to spend into)

Human
Pro = extra feat, extra skill point, +1 Wis available in core racial tree
Con = none

Sun Elf Morninglord
Pro = Mass Deathward and other SLAs available high in racial tree
Con = Iconic starts with 1 level of Cleric


Pretty much any other race does fine with a well built Druid Caster.

Feat priority (imhowcbw)
Max > Empower > Enlarge > Quicken > Heighten
{Make sure and pick up Spell Focus (Evocations) to allow epic magistar twists by level 21ish}
{Extend is nice for Body of Sun but its a luxury feat}
{Either Completionist or Past Life Wizard as available}

Ability priority
Wis > Con/Int > dump the rest

Skill priority
Concentration > Spellcraft > Heal > 1 rank tumble > 10 ranks jump > 10 ranks balance > Swim (fly speed) > Perform (for epic destiny Shirdai procures only) > possible Intimidate > possible Search (with Find Trap scrolls and search item to locate hidden doors)

[Silverleafeon]

Having tried out quite a few different races for Druid Casters, personal ranking of races:



Best Races for Caster Druids


1) Aasimar Scourge ~ great for final build = gaining +1 Con, +4 Wis, ideal emergency Racial Lay On Hands, healing amp (disadvantage = requires +1 heart to remove Ranger level 1)

2) Aasimar ~ great for final build / ideal for heroic druid life = gaining +4 Wis, ideal emergency Racial Lay on Hands, healing amp

3) Dragonborn ~ good for final build / ideal for heroic druid life = gaining many Evocation Bonuses, Dragonbreath SLA (disadvantage = requires heavy investment into racial tree)

4) Deep Gnome ~ good for epic past life / fair for final build = gaining +4 Wis (disadvantage = requires +1 heart to remove Wizard level 1)

5) Human ~ versatile for any life = gaining +1 Wis, +1 Feat, +1 Skill choices