U38 Preview 2: Druid

[silinteresting]

The issue I see is no caster capstone is going to be as remotely attractive as warlock capstones, because too many forumites will grumble and yell nerf before it even manages to touch Lamannia for play testing. It's a shame.

it does not have to be as good as warlock but it should be as good as other caster options that have
had a proper pass. lets take bard as the example the devs use as there base class, the capstone for
the spellsinger class is +4 Charisma +25 Universal Spell Power You gain the Heal and Wail of the Banshee
spells as level 6 Bard spells. now look at the proposed seasons herald capstone, . +2 Wisdom & Constitution.
Your Conjuration and Evocation spells gain +1 DC, +1 caster level, and +1 max caster level in both seasons.
as you can see the difference is quite large. at least get rid of the +2 constitution and up the wisdom to +4.
after all we are casters.

your friend sil

[Grace_ana]

I agree with those who say there should not be a penalty to casters that use an opposing element or season. As you are not getting the often large benefits that you would be getting in season/element, it’s already an effective penalty. There’s no need to pile on.

Edit: Also one of the many still begging for wand and scroll mastery to be returned to the caster tree. It’s absolutely vital.

[Vooduspyce]

Edit: Also one of the many still begging for wand and scroll mastery to be returned to the caster tree. It’s absolutely vital.

I love wand and scroll mastery in heroic reaper questing! If they don't bring it back to Season's Herald I hope they'll put it in a future universal tree.

[Silverleafeon]

The original discussion about Spellsinger Bards included the fact that caster Bards suffer a -3 penalty due to the fact that they cannot Heighten any spells above level six.

Raising Druid's caster Capstone to +4 wisdom would lead to Wizard's caster Capstone to +4 int, etc until Spellsinger capstone became +6 cha.

This is not to say that I would not like to see an improved Season's Herald capstone.

This is not to say that I agree with the "one spell school to rule them all" philosophy of DDO.

We need metamagics addressed along with spell school narrowness addressed.

Its likely that the twistable spell school bonuses in Draconic and Magistar should be placed inside a new improved true innate system for those two ED.
and a lot of other stuff...

[GramercyRiff]

Beast Awakened: You can now cast druidic magic while raging.

Ok thank you. I'll definitely give Bear a shot now. I didn't notice this in previous versions but maybe it was there.

[edrein]

Ok thank you. I'll definitely give Bear a shot now. I didn't notice this in previous versions but maybe it was there.

That seemingly replaced Spirit Renewal. I'm glad for it, but slightly disappointed in how little the tree changed. It definitely needed a bit more TLC than it got.

[elvesunited]

That seemingly replaced Spirit Renewal. I'm glad for it, but slightly disappointed in how little the tree changed. It definitely needed a bit more TLC than it got.

Cast druid spells while raged
Rage length increased to 30 seconds + Con * 6
Essence of Shrike now lists "wolf or bear form" in its description.
The cool sounding but utterly impractical Spirit Renewal thrown out.

DDO has gone a lot farther than I thought it would go. This fixes rage and makes rapid casting of innate animal spells more feasible. The only issues they didn't touch was that some Tier 5 enhancements are weaker than comparable Tier 1+3 enhancements. But at least now I can see a light at the end of the tunnel.

[Haphazarduk]

Cast druid spells while raged
Rage length increased to 30 seconds + Con * 6
Essence of Shrike now lists "wolf or bear form" in its description.
The cool sounding but utterly impractical Spirit Renewal thrown out.

DDO has gone a lot farther than I thought it would go. This fixes rage and makes rapid casting of innate animal spells more feasible. The only issues they didn't touch was that some Tier 5 enhancements are weaker than comparable Tier 1+3 enhancements. But at least now I can see a light at the end of the tunnel.

Yes, some good stuff in there, especially the rage casting. Wonder if it only works in animal form.... I hope not. It will make SH/elemental melee/spell hybrid builds interesting...

Hap

[Vish]

Man, I can't believe they're giving shining through to Druids

I may actually run a heroic Druid just to see this change...

[Vagabon_Ghost]

Druid update is now live on all servers and I see it as a pair of most fundamental mistakes.

1.) Two Trees for Animal-form combat? Are Druids 2/3s animal melee class? A part yes 66% of the classes trees dedicated to this feature is ponderous.

2.) This is a Class much like Cleric yet rather than Healing, Druids a Summoners by natural affinity. A Summoning centric Tree for Druid , in the vain of Radiant Servant among the Cleric trees is what should be considered. Once the Wizard/Sorcerer/Cleric spell Create Undead brought in multiple zombies , ghouls, or ghasts in a single spell. SLA along these lines with Druid centric animals / elementals seems feasible with so many older systems being reworked. Certainly Powerful yet an aspect the class is always and fundamentally about.

Celebrating class differences is a good thing, obsessing on one facet (Animal form melee) not so much................ Be Well All!

[ilhares]

Celebrating class differences is a good thing, obsessing on one facet (Animal form melee) not so much.

That's true. I rather wish they'd implement a randomness factor when it comes to the animal forms. I totally grok why they don't, but I think it'd be neat if RNGesus had a hand in the forms gained, or maybe a random superior form as a capstone result (determined when the character is created, to prevent cheating via tree respec).

[john0]

In the patch notes it mentions:

.
Bear and Dire Bear Form's Armor Class bonus is now typed Exceptional. Improved Mage Armor in the eldritch knight enhancement tree is now also considered typed Exceptional

Does the exceptional type for improved mage armor refer to the actual spell cast or the added % bonus

Here is the enhancement for reference


Improved Mage Armor: Spell Like Ability: Mage Armor. (Activation Cost: 8/6/4 Spell Points)

In addition, while you are under the effect of the Mage Armor spell, you gain a +3%/+6%/+10% increase to your total Armor Class.

[unbongwah]

Does the exceptional type for improved mage armor refer to the actual spell cast or the added % bonus

The +10% bonus AC. The base +4 AC from Mage Armor spell is an armor bonus, which effectively makes it useless since it doesn't stack with any actual armor.