A buffer druid with spear. What concept could I use?

[Slack83er]

Hail!

Doing nightshift is sooo boring...gotta find out something to do...here I am, thinking of one of the most interesting classes out there. But I know little to none of druids... maybe I'd like being a shaman of sort... the only thing I know, is I want a spear in his hand...or something like it... staff... halberd... something with a long reach. Then I don't know which animal to shift into... this is because I don't know sinergies nor I have any concept in mind 'cept the shaman.

Will you help me?

 

 

[prototype00]

Druids are good buffers? Really? I mean I had thought they were okay, but not gold standard like priests.

 

Druids to me are DPS, when casting spells, they are ranged DPS, when Spiritshaping, straight melee DPS.

[Boeroer]

Druids have some ok party buffs, but nothing spectacular like priests do. Form of the Delemgan is one of the best. Garden of Life is a very good healing over time spell once there are dead enemies on the ground. Nature's Vigor is also not bad. But I wouldn't say a druid can be a superb buffer.

 

The principle of the Batsh!t Crazy build - pairing high defenses with front line spellcasting (doesn't need to have the exact same stat distribution) - works perfectly fine with a spear and shield. If you use Relentless Storm + Nature's Terror + Returning Storm - and later Avenging Storm - there are few other build that can tank so well while dishing out lots of damage and CC at the same time. It's basically a paladin with Sacred Immolation (just that it's shock damage) plus hefty CC while you can hit with your weapon at the same time. Secret secret: you can cast Nature's Terror more than once to generate a lot of those static fields around you which hit all the time - making it superstrong in combination with Combusting Wounds.

But this druid doesn't shift.

 

But note that when you shift your weapon diappears. You will always have two claws/tusks/stag horn/whatever that are considered unarmed and have inherent DR penetration and a high base damage that scales with level. So, no spear then. The above approach with Nature's Terror/Storm spells of course also works when shifted.

[Slack83er]

Uhm... These posts make me realize that I knew nothing about Druid. Sometimes I tend to compare Poe to other rpgs... and assume that roles can just be the same...

a Druid that doesn't shift might be ok, but you can't take out the ability now, can you? So you will remain with a useless talent...

[Dr <3]

And what is the problem? That you have an icon you don't push all the time? I do that all day with the wacher abilities...

[Boeroer]

Yes - you will have a button for spiritshift all the time that you won't use. But the combinataion of those spells with good tankyness and equipment make up for that.

But Spiritshift is also very potent. You just can't use any equipment while shifted.

[Slack83er]

Mm don't know... it's just not the idea I had of the Druid... some kind of protector, warden... this is the reason I wrote buffing... I thought of a blessing from the nature, a sort of paladin of the wild.... is this not possible?

[prototype00]

You could be like, an actual Paladin? They're great at buffing, and not too shabby with spears either.

[K Galen B]

Pillars of Eternity druids are great protectors, wardens, etc. They just prefer to defend via killing the life out of the offending parties...

 

 

 

Of ~8 ish spells in most levels, druids only have 1, sometimes 2 buff/healing spells per level. Contrast this with damaging spells - about half of druids' spells are focused on direct damage or damage over time, with or without other effects.

Edited October 4, 2016 by K Galen B

[Slack83er]

You could be like, an actual Paladin? They're great at buffing, and not too shabby with spears either.

Thought of it... but never really came to something good. Maybe nature godlike pally?

[AndreaColombo]

Why not Priest for a buffer? They've got the best buffs in town.

[DreamWayfarer]

Druids can be great protectors. They are not great buffers, but when they have healing on par with priests and CC on par with Wizards that doesn't matter that much: weakening a foe is not so different from strenghtening an ally.

 

And your build will work best with hide armor anyway, since you only need to tank as long as your spells are charging, so you will still look like a druid. Spears are nice weapons too, even tough hatchets nay be better. BTW, have you considered swords? There is an early nice looking black sword that makes you sturdier, and if you choose the Knights of The Crucible faction at Act 2 one of your rewards is a shining sword that buffs the accuracy of allies targeting the same foe, fitting the idea of a leader, guardian and blesser.

[omgFIREBALLS]

 

You could be like, an actual Paladin? They're great at buffing, and not too shabby with spears either.

Thought of it... but never really came to something good. Maybe nature godlike pally?

A Darcozzi Paladini paladin could perhaps fly (NPI) as a follower of Hylea.

[Boeroer]

Druids can be great protectors. They are not great buffers, but when they have healing on par with priests and CC on par with Wizards that doesn't matter that much: weakening a foe is not so different from strenghtening an ally.

 

And your build will work best with hide armor anyway, since you only need to tank as long as your spells are charging, so you will still look like a druid. Spears are nice weapons too, even tough hatchets nay be better. BTW, have you considered swords? There is an early nice looking black sword that makes you sturdier, and if you choose the Knights of The Crucible faction at Act 2 one of your rewards is a shining sword that buffs the accuracy of allies targeting the same foe, fitting the idea of a leader, guardian and blesser.

You can do that with a spear, too: Cladhaliath can be created with the marking enchanment. That would be buffing + spear. And it's green, too.

[Slack83er]

Yeah.. all good inputs.. they surely work game-wise...but are ordinary....banal... 

I like something that stands out... That's why I wanted a different approach, but not knowing the druid class, it's my fault.

I'd close this thread and I'd open a new one, focused on a nature godlike paladin.

[DreamWayfarer]

Yeah.. all good inputs.. they surely work game-wise...but are ordinary....banal...

I like something that stands out... That's why I wanted a different approach, but not knowing the druid class, it's my fault.

I'd close this thread and I'd open a new one, focused on a nature godlike paladin.

Ordinary? What is ordinary about them?

[Slack83er]

Ordinary...I mean... normal... the classic druid... nothing exceptional that makes that druid different.... something that makes you say.. "this is really an original approach to druid"

[Slack83er]

Nono wait... this is bit too much! How can the speed make me avoid friendly fire? 

The other thing I don't understand is my role... just dps?

[Slack83er]

Ok, now things are clearer. Not exactly what I had in mind with my Druid, but, as I said before, i'ts my fault. I expected the druid to be a buffer/debuffer, not a dps... other rpgs contamination Does the druid have CC?

[Slack83er]

Hey, I just tried to come of up with a "less ordinary" Druid

 

Yes, the Druids attacks often do also have some powerful CC effects, however, he also has a few dedicated CC spells.

You're right, I really AM difficult to please  

I've opened the "natural paladin" thread if you want to comment... because I have difficulty finding a "non-blaster" role for the druid. My fault, I didn't know the class well.

[rheingold]

Druids have awesome crowd control and dps. The only class who is arguably stronger overall is Wizard. Also pretty varied, can tank ok, not awesome but bring serious cc and dps. The shape shifter forms look cool as well. Personally I'm really happy about the pillars Druid. They have always been my favourite but most other RPGs gimped them. They also used come across as fairly bunny huggish, which irritated me. The Celtic Druids burnt people alive in wicker baskets, so it's really nice to be able to play an awesome force of nature as opposed to some new age hippie no offense to all hippies just like the options.

The stag form and nature godlike is very nice, kinda a Cerunnos/Horned God type figure straight out of Celtic mythology.

[Slack83er]

I find your description of the druid intriguing... how do you play it? cc? dps? shift?

[rheingold]

It's really more a roleplay thing, I've always been fascinated by Northern European myths, so Cerunnos/The horned God plays a fairly large part in Celtic mythology. I tend not to specialize either so he does everything except tank. I like pikes or staffs for the look but as I tend to have a melee heavy party I find the Druid works better with a ranged weapon like a scepter, otherwise he tends to get in the way, even with a pike. But a melee Druid has one huge advantage over ranged, he doesn't waste time positioning before casting his storm spells.

So staff or pike are good if you want to go melee.

He works mainly as a caster and shifts sometimes when he is engaged in melee or if he can quickly burst an opponent down, normally that would be another caster or rogue. Nice thing about Druid is a lot of their dps spells are their crowd control spells. So it's really not necessary to create a particular role, they end up doing dps and cc naturally If you want to do huge dps while shape shifting then you probably need to specialize i.e. Concentrate on certain stats and talents. Might, dex, Int, dual wield, weapon focus peasant etc. But I find that just going along choosing what ever suits me does fine.

It's really not necessary to min/max either in stats or talents/talents.

[Slack83er]

I like what you say about northern myth. So... what race did you pick? what stats? Is he the mouth of the party? Does he unlock things? 

[rheingold]

Nature godlike - male human or elf body. WTW  Mystic background. Might 16 Int 17 Resolve/Perception 15 rest 10. Yes he is the leader if I go with resolve which I normally do, though perception is better from a power gamer pov. He doesn't unlock things - that's not really part of his background. So concentrate on lore and survival though I never max them - I normally put in a few points 3-4 in all skills including mechanics - again it's a waste from a power point of view but I like it.