How are Druids these days?

[PhroX]

Planning on starting a new playthrough of Deadfire soon, and I'm leaning towards playing as a Druid. Despite being my favourite class in the first game, I've not really done much with them in this one barring a mainly AI controlled Tekehu who came along on one of my runs. So I thought I'd see if anyone here has any advice on builds or spell/item interactions which stand out for the class.

 

I probably want to build a more caster-centric character, so that rules out Shifter, but I'm not committed to or against any of the other subclasses - Fury is the one I'm least interested in as I'd kinda like to keep the option to heal open, but if there's some particularly interesting stuff you can do with one, I'd consider it. For the same reason, I'm leaning towards going single class, but I'd certainly be open to ideas for multi-class options that fit a spellslinger druid.

 

Oh, and I'm (only?) playing on hard difficulty - never managed to make the leap up to PotD in either game - so things don't have to be perfectly optimised, just reasonably effective and, most importantly, interesting to play.

[DozingDragon]

Druids are great! You can pick up Lord Daryn’s Voluge pretty early in the game, which can provide a boost to the PL of your storm-keyword spells. The Spine of Thicket Green is also another choice to boost the PL of some of your other spells.

 

If you are looking for some possible multiclass ideas, I recently tested out an Arcane Archer/Ancient. There’s a minor accuracy penalty that can be mitigated by using certain weapons and/or Marked Prey, but it increases your casting options, provides reliable ranged weapon damage, and an animal companion to assist your summons. The only caveat at the moment is there is a bug affecting the scaling of many of the summoned creatures (they are weaker than they should be at higher levels), but hopefully that should be fixed soon. If you went that route, I would recommend using the Essence Interrupter from Port Maje with the Soul Diplomacy upgrade, as you should crit reliably enough to generate new temporary allies when you kill an enemy.

Edited February 1, 2019 by DozingDragon

[Marigoldran]

Go Lifegiver, single class.  Moonwells and the free potions for everyone spell are the two best healing spells in the game. 

 

Their PL 9 spells also do SIGNIFICANT damage.  

Edited February 1, 2019 by Marigoldran

[Verde]

Go Lifegiver, single class. Moonwells and the free potions for everyone spell are the two best healing spells in the game.

 

Their PL 9 spells also do SIGNIFICANT damage.

Greater Maelstrom is my fav nuke.

[Boeroer]

They are awesome. Damage, Debuffs, Healing all in one package.

 

I also prefer single class.

[Icetrinity]

I have been running an Ascetic (Druid/Monk) and it has been incredibly good. I use a mod to get Watershaper Druid subclass, but if you didn’t want to do that then Lifegiver would be my next option (and is arguably stronger anyway), combined with Helwalker for Monk. With the right gear and stats it can cap out on MIG and INT, and fills a very strong jack of all trades role in my party. By level 7 it has great healing potential with The Moon’s Light and Nature’s Balm, and then with a few more levels really opens up some damage and hard CC options (35 INT Embrace of the Earth Talon and Relentless Storm is borderline broken). This really comes into its own when supported by a Cipher giving brilliant.

[Ophiuchus]

I've been having a lot of fun with Furyshaper/Lifegiver for a shaman-type character: strong HoTs and DoTs plus impressive speed and Rot Skulls for trash. It's nothing game breaking but suits the theme well.

[brasilgringo]

I like the concept of druids, and don't disagree with all the statements above.  

 

My only caveats are that, to me, the DOTs for plant/beast "feel" a bit weak even with high Might and Int vs. the direct-damage wiz or priest spells (Storm of Holy Fire, Pillar of Holy Fire, Ninagauth's stuff) ... and Druids feel like they lack 1-2 key self buffs that Wiz/Priest get (e.g., speed buff, pen buff, acc buff).  Also Druids have on average long-ish cast times.  To me these make them harder to think about soloing, but they are definitely great in parties.  Also you do get a lot of "free PL" if you go ancient or even Lifegiver with Spine of Thicket Green.   And yes, Greater Maelstrom and the other storm spells are badass and do a ton of damage / utility (stun).

[Verde]

Also, Tekehu is just insane as a single class Druid due to his Foe only spells.

[Boeroer]

Beast spells from Druid such as Plague of Insects are great because they do raw damage (some of them) and most are foe-only. The direct damage isn't that high, but the damage over time is great if you take into consideration that you only spend 1 spell use for it. For example Plague of Insects does 90 raw damage for in spell use as base. With a crit you are already at 120 dmg. With 20 INT and a crit you are at 180. And that's per enemy in a huge AoE. ALso sickens and removes Concentration(!). I think it's fabulous. 

 

Of course those spells work better in parties that are more "slow but steady". 

[Icetrinity]

@brasilgringo

I can definitely appreciate the point you make, but like Boeroer said, they can get some great damage over time through RAW (and other) dots. Also, in the build I suggested above the Monk multiclass covers speed boost, accuracy boost and penetration boost with Monk abilities. I definitely don’t feel it’s solo worthy (never tried though), but wanted to point out it covers those ‘weaknesses’.

Edited February 2, 2019 by Icetrinity

[Lud1crous]

I'm still working on my storm shooter that I posted a while ago. It's a monk/Fury druid who does lightening spells and I have to say. CC it stuns a lot and the damage with the hand mortars are pretty good.

[Boeroer]

If you'd use Flagellant's Path it would be better than pretty good.

[PhroX]

Thanks for the info guys. Think I'll keep it simple and just go for a single class Lifegiver for this run, but the multiclass suggestions do sound fun and I'll add them to the list of things I want to play on a future playthrough. Of course, said list is already too long....

 

Now just to decide on my party....

Edited February 3, 2019 by PhroX

[SweetMagooMagoodle]

I am enjoying my shifter/monk (Nalpazca) run.  You lose almost nothing with a shifter versus plain druid.  I mean why would anyone cast a spell when shifted unless it is an emergency, and even then you are probably in the midst of melee and surrounded, so why stop and cast a spell and suffer interrupts.  The only thing you really lose is taste of the hunt, since you can't cast that while shifted (so i didn't even take it).  But otherwise, you could play a shifter like a regular druid  with more forms to play with and easier and quicker self healing by shifting. ... I am the biggest damage dealer in melee in my party (ahead of swashbuckler Eder and Paladin Pallagina) and second damage dealer by spells (after aloth but ahead of cipher serafen and priest aloth).   Of course my monk abilities hep a lot for survivability and damage dealing, but I think if I had gone single class shifter my play style and impact wouldn't be much different -- cast some  buffs and healing spells, cast some storm spells,  shift multiple times to kill weakened enemies and win. (Playing on veteran upscale all by the way). 

 

If you dont want to shift at all, then it doesn't make any sense to go shifter, but if you want to shift at least some, you lose nothing except for the very, very rare moments you would ever cast a spell while shifted.

Edited February 3, 2019 by SweetMagooMagoodle

[Verde]

Well, the Bog Druids are quite surly. It's either "kill this high ranking official" or else. Luckily they aren't sharp enough to avoid the surprise attack...from a fellow Universalist, no less.

 

But I digress...what's so good about Pollen Patch, Boerer? I rem seeing you mention it a few times.

 

Anyone else play a Lifegiver? I don't find myself shifting at bc 1) Spine of Thicket Green 2) nasty -5PL after shifting.

Edited February 3, 2019 by Verde

[Boeroer]

Pollen Patch creates an AoE (lowish) healing source with every step you make. They all stack. That itself is very good. Run around a bit and usually everybody is back at full health soon. Like an inverse Arterial Strike or so. It's also nice that it revives a party member immediately without you having to do take any further action. It's a good spell to cast right at the start of the encounter. And if you have the Spine of Thicket Green you can enchant it with Empowering Lifeblood which does +2 PL to Rejuvenation and +2 to Plant. Pollen Patch is both so it gets +4 PL. As Nature Godlike SC Livegiver with Prestige you'll have a Pollen Patch with +8 Power Level (no need to shift basically).  

 

Edit: removed brainfart with shifting...

Edited February 3, 2019 by Boeroer

[Verde]

Hmm prob shoulda went with Nature Godlike but I like Moon Godlike better for RP purposes.