No love for Druids?

[SimpleEnigma]

I browsed this forum all the way back to October and only saw one topic related to Druid... and it was a simple question on what weapon buffs work for shapeshifting.

 

What gives? What I do see is that they are strong overall and also like to have high PER and INT which makes for a good convo MC. Are they boring to play? Is there only one build that's good? I haven't made it far enough in the game yet to get the druid companion so I haven't really seen how they play. It seems the 3 pure casters in general don't get much build love.

 

 

[delfador]

Here's a good one on Druid builds:

[Class Build] Like a thunder: A Solo Druid Guide

 

It's for solo PotD but would work fine for a full party or lower difficulty.

 

I think the consensus is that all of the casters (Wizard, Druid, Priest, Cipher) are very strong.

 

Druids have two main builds, AFAIK. You can either spend feats on making your shapeshift better, or you can spend them on defense/harder hitting spells/extra spells. Either approach works.

[Torm51]

I just think its because they get every spell when they level like Priests.  So really the only thing to talk about is what shift you want which a lot of people don't like doing anyway, attributes and what talents you want.  The more martial classes have to choose what abilities they want and do not get all of them to choose from.  So there is more of a debate.

 

But lets talk druid Dammit! I am actually impressed with the 2.03 changes.  They are bests (no pun intended hah) when shifted.  I like the buff.

Edited January 6, 2016 by Torm51

[SimpleEnigma]

I read the 2.03 patch notes threee times looking for druid changes, saw none, and now am wondering if my sarcasm dectector is broken or if I'm missing something obvious.

[evilcat]

Druids makes good "starter class", player can easly bear early game, spells just keep coming, druid is not tight on talents, so can always get the what you want.

You can build up spiritform but in the end spells are better, and staff is also good, and spiritform pass quickly so it is not really worth it.

[PrimeJunta]

I quite like spiritshift actually. When you stack the talents, it does a serious amount of damage and is relatively survivable. I use it when a back-row druid gets mobbed, or towards the end of an encounter -- start by firing off a couple of group debuffs and finish up spiritshifted. I haven't really missed longer durations.

 

Although I wouldn't object if the duration limit was dropped, but casting was disabled while 'shifted.

[Boeroer]

Yes, if you build your druid around spiritshift it gets really powerful and is a lot of fun to play - also stylewise. Wearing a stag helmet and then turn into stag form is just awesome.

It's just too short. I would love if the devs would turn it into a true modal that prevents casting. Maybe with a little cooldown to prevent shapeshift spamming.

[Harpagornis]

As Boeroer said: Shapeshifting is quite strong now. Together with the new immunities of your blights and the good old CC power the druid really excels even when playing solo!

[Raven Darkholme]

I read the 2.03 patch notes threee times looking for druid changes, saw none, and now am wondering if my sarcasm dectector is broken or if I'm missing something obvious.

There were no specific druid changes I think, but since 2.0 there are now immunities in game, which hugely buffed summoned blights.

 

@Everyone

Have blights the same short duration as other summons or are they INT based?

[rheingold]

Yup, finally my favourite class is in a pretty strong place. Not so much from pillars (they were always good), but I remember the bad old days where having a druid felt rather sad. They were awful in d&d for a long long time. Trainsmash at level 15 anyone?

The perception change does benefit druids, more accuracy for them is good. But I like going might/dex/int. The one major weakness they have, is many of their spells cast pretty slow. It makes a substantial difference giving them a bonus to action speed.

I also really like giving the casters movement speed items like boots of speed. Reckon they benefit more than front liners, particularly druids who are sometimes sitting in the back line. Getting them in position to cast returning storm quickly is great. And the ability for a squishy caster to outrun the opposition is nice.

[Wolken3156]

There isn't really much to talk on Druids since they're a strong all-around class and they're relatively simple to use in comparison to even the other casters. They're the king of CC with Returning Storm, Tanglefoot and the likes. Also their damage output is very impressive both in melee with spiritform or in ranged with their myriad of spells. However, their damage isn't as high as a Wizard overall, but a lot of their damage spells have secondary effects attached to them, which lends to their role as a master controller.

 

Druids are also a solid support class as well. Blights are excellent tanks with their only drawbacks being their horrendous movement speed and the inability to choose which type of Blight appears. Moonwell is one of the best healing spells in the game, and having someone who can cast instead of having to make hundreds of scrolls can be quite convenient. Finally we have Nature's Bounty, which comes awfully late, but is one of the strongest "buffs" all-around.

Edited January 6, 2016 by Wolken3156

[Mocker22]

I agree with other posters about spirirtshift. It shouldn't be the only weapon in your arsenal but I love the option for those fights that blowing your spell load is a bit extreme. Cast 1-2 nice spells and then tear into stuff. I remember from my last full playthrough with Hiravas that he became a BEAST. I focus on shock dmg to have nice synergy with the storm spells and stormcaller users. He really tore things to shreds.

[Harpagornis]

@Everyone

Have blights the same short duration as other summons or are they INT based?

 

 

 

Blights have infinite duration as long as you stay in battle. I used this sometimes to clear whole maps with only one Blight. As long it is immune to the damage type its like an immortal god rolling through enemy hordes. Fun note: Blights will get tired if they keep on fighting. Dont ask me why!