The Ultimate (softcore) as... druid?

[Phyriel]

How would you go about trying full potd solo as druid? What tools would you use to secure enough survivalibity. Druids got enough damage with their aoe so I guess damage wouldn't be an issue, the issue is obviously having some sort of "buy time" mechanic relatively early on to be able to progress through the game without stealth-skipping most of it bouncing between easy fetch quests to get exp. 

 

Wizard got a luxury of veil chillfog and combusting wounds early on to deal with early game threats. Later they get confusion to buy time to get self buffs running and then even more crazy cc (gaze od andragan) that leads to some crazy damage from their massive late game aoe. The only thing wizard have to care about is not being chain controlled by annoying opponents but he got tools to drop hard cc on them first and wreck them before they even get a dice roll against him. 

 

Priest got all world of immunity effects so you don't care about enemy cc. Just have to pick easy fights early on because priest damage tools suck in early game. 

 

Seems druid got nothing in comparison. A lot of soft cc, slows, hobbles, some average aoe dots that won't seal the deal based that druid is extra squishy compared to wizard or priest and he'd need extra burst to atleast clean up some trash mobs in a hurry, suffers with accuracy due to no early game +accuracy spell so landing crucial spells in even more rng. I dunno feels like druid is the only class that would be impossible to beat solo potd run due to lack of reliable tools for majority of the game (sure you can use scroll here and there or a figurine but you need you own class tools to seal the deal). But im no expert so what you guys think?

Edited June 21, 2017 by Phyriel

[Boeroer]

Druids CC spells will also do damage, which is great. Some of the druid's hard CC spells are like they are made for a solo game (Relentless Storm, Overwhelming Wave, Calling the World's Maw and so on). They also have summons which can be very handy (blights have immunities and if you happen to summon the right one it may be that it will become the ultimate tank for that special fight - think of phantoms + shades gainst a rain blight). In level 1 they have Sunbeam which is very strong in my opinion. And Blizzard in lvl 2 is also nice as CC+damage. Of course there's no hard CC like prone or stun, but blind is very good as well.

 

Druids also have pretty amazing healing spells - some of those also strengthen your defenses (e.g. Moonwell).

 

You can become quite the sturdy guy with Veteran's Recovery + healing spells + healing bonuses (survival, items). If you choose the boar form you will also have an additional regeneration effect (while you are shiftet) that stacks with all other healing effects. So, even in that offensive form it will be hard to kill you quickly.

 

And if you don't want to boost your Spiritshifting but concentrate on defenses instead you can achieve pretty nice defensive values with a shield and all the defensive talents while dealing damage with your spells.

 

Immunities can be achieved with scrolls if you must (dragons' fear auras and so on).

[Phyriel]

Hmm I'm tempted to try potd solo druid atm tbh. I never used druids in my party sessions so its extra challenge cause I don't know power curve and reliable power of druid spells so it will be pretty hard to judge when I'm strong enough already for given fight sadly... and thats like half of solo runs challenge... to know when you can do a heavy lifting already. I'm kind of scared to do any fighting early as solo druid because no +deflection massive buffs like wizards will make even simple kobolt groups a challenge. I guess some fights vs beasts early on will be easier due to charm but thats all I can think of atm. 

[Boeroer]

As long as you're not doing Trial of Iron there's nothing wrong with save & reload.

 

I did this non-shifting druid build once (Batsh!t Crazy) and although I didn't do a full solo run with him I did some bounties solo (PotD) just to see how he fares. He was one of the easiest ones because some of the mid to high level druid spells are very powerful. Once Relentless Storm is up it's all a cakewalk.

 

But a strong spiritshift build is a lot of fun, too. Speedy melee hits with over 100 damage are very satisfying.

[Phyriel]

Haha no im not doing trial of iron anytime... I find it a bit silly that in order to finish The Ultimate people generally play parallel softcore run where they test the waters and then they just go for fights that they know for certain are 100% doable and not very rng reliant. Turns a dice game into something weird if you ask me. 

[Phyriel]

I started this druid, probably will have to respec him for some fights but atm I stated him into max per dex and int i left str and con at 10 and resolve is minimum. Race is wood elf but I'm thinking it isn't a best choice, accuracy to debuff distant opponents is nice but its just 4 so I think I might reroll the race before I'm getting too far. 

 

So far I have pretty nice results, I've been able to clear most of early game animal packs due to charm beast and 2nd level paralyze beasts spells. I'm using cat form shapeshift to kill trolls atm. Already I can see that having low resolve is rip for casting in melee due to concentration issues but I find it hard to move stats around... feels like u need all of them on druid;P

 

About race I'm thinking about moon godlike... I wanted to avoid this race really desperately as I've been playing it every time but their racial is just too good... also I think this extra endurance healing might be overkill for druid that already got a lot of self heals in his kit. Maybe pale elf? a bit situational i guess. Obviously wild orlan is no brainer but i hate those hobbits... 

Edited June 22, 2017 by Phyriel

[Boeroer]

I would try Boreal Dwarf. The +ACC against the most common monster groups at the beginning helps a ton.

 

Moon Godlike is also very nice. I never tried (or I can't remember) if Wildstrike also works with Battle Forged (burn retaliation) but I guess not.

 

If you play a shifter I would recommend Sanguine Plate + Shod in Faith (and other spell holding gear) as well. Go in, catch a crit (triggering the spell holdings) and then shift. Frenzy + Consecrated Ground while mauling enemies is pretty nice.

Edited June 22, 2017 by Boeroer

[Phyriel]

I mean whats exactly the difference between shifter and non-shifter? Is it only that while shifted u're forced to use your form fist weapons or is it also something else? 

 

I guess the difference lie in stating? druid that plan to use shield + 1h and stack defenses would have higher resolve to be able to cast in melee more without interruption right? 

Edited June 22, 2017 by Phyriel

[Boeroer]

Shifter: you focus on your Spiritshift form and optimize it. You would take things like Wildstrike, Greater Wildstrike, Two Weapon Style, Weapon Focus Peasant, Savage Attack, Apprentice's Sneak Attack, maybe even Outlander's Frenzy and so on.

 

Non-Shifter: you focus on your spellcasting and never use Spiritshift. That way you have room for a lot of different (e.g. defensive) talents.

 

Stats would be done accordingly, yes.

[Blades of Vanatar]

I started this druid, probably will have to respec him for some fights but atm I stated him into max per dex and int i left str and con at 10 and resolve is minimum. Race is wood elf but I'm thinking it isn't a best choice, accuracy to debuff distant opponents is nice but its just 4 so I think I might reroll the race before I'm getting too far.

 

So far I have pretty nice results, I've been able to clear most of early game animal packs due to charm beast and 2nd level paralyze beasts spells. I'm using cat form shapeshift to kill trolls atm. Already I can see that having low resolve is rip for casting in melee due to concentration issues but I find it hard to move stats around... feels like u need all of them on druid;P

 

About race I'm thinking about moon godlike... I wanted to avoid this race really desperately as I've been playing it every time but their racial is just too good... also I think this extra endurance healing might be overkill for druid that already got a lot of self heals in his kit. Maybe pale elf? a bit situational i guess. Obviously wild orlan is no brainer but i hate those hobbits...

Go with 16 in dex, per, int and raise resolve.

[Elric Galad]

Godlikes basically trade stronger racial ability (especially for Moon and Fire ones) against possibility to wear a helmet.

 

SHIFTED DRUID looses all their item abilities when SHIFTED but not their racial ones. That's why I would say Moon and Fire Godlikes are probably an optimal choice for druids.

Edited June 23, 2017 by Elric Galad

[Boeroer]

All but Wildstrike Belt's additional lash. This one's actually an active ability which gets started once you shift. If your INT is very high it can be that your Wildstrike Belt's lash expires before your Spiritshift does (the lash duration doesn't seem to care about INT). A bit stupid that. Nevertheless, the belt adds a lot of damage because of it's weird lash mechanics. Peddroelm once explained how ot works but I forgot. But it's definetely worth it if you want to use Spiritshift a lot. 

[Phyriel]

Atm i'm stuck at great hall before maerwald and can't progress any further, I cleared most of act 1 content solo, only left readric (although I was able to finish quest if I chose to kill Kolsc but I wanna kill Readric to have later a follow up quest) and those fungus in a cave (those 4 guys keep knocking me over). I'm lvl 5 but those 4 phantoms are just impossible you are forced to fight there now because once statue open doors for you whole room aggroes on you instantly and you can't skip them. I tried to find a place where I'd be hit my 2 normal shadows and be able to nuke phantoms with spells (i even found ring with combusting wounds) but the way those ghosts are placed make it that no matter where I wanna fight them its always atleast 1 phathom that hits me in melee and chain stun me. Any ideas? 

 

I did that with mage on lower level but mage got way more deflection with veil and mirror images and he gets to cast his (bigger aoe) blind + dot and combusting wounds and stuff just dies. 

Edited June 23, 2017 by Phyriel

[Phyriel]

Holy **** I managed to win that. I think i got creative:

 

-I sneaked up to doors and when statue script triggered and doors opened I stood in them.

Problem was that 4 phantoms were much closer than shadows that I wanted to use to block the doorway so only they would hit me... so I waited till shadows teleport ability icon would show up and I used Winter Wind spell that has a 2m push effect to push phantoms back a bit so there is a room right before me that shadows can teleport into. Otherwise phantoms get to close and shadows teleport behind me leaving phantoms free to auto attack me and stun me to death. After I had shadows blocking the rest I just used Combusting Wounds Insect Swarm and some random spells to nuke phantoms. 

Edited June 23, 2017 by Phyriel

[Boeroer]

Why didn't you summon blights until a rain blight appeared - it would be immune to shadows, shades and phantoms (I think...?).

[Phyriel]

Yea about that, minor blights stay up only for 20 seconds. Maybe its the greater blights you spoke of that stay up until killed?

[Boeroer]

Ouh - maybe that got nerfed. Actually... I never use them.

[Phyriel]

Yea I remember I wanted to try them in fungal cave when those 4 kept knocking me around and killing me and at some point I summoned a right blight that wasn't getting damaged by them and provided some cover but i started casting some spells happy that I finally found a way to get thru those little ****s and all of a sudden it disappeared and I got surrounded and wrecked. Maybe higher level ones last longer atleast... would be kewl. 

 

Atleast all animal encounters are easy with Hold Beasts, just killed giant spider after Maerwald without breaking a sweat. Poison immunity is also insane for those. So far I gotta say I was wrong about druid, it got tons of useful stuff and deffo got enough damage to get things done. I'm a bit worried I might get one shotted in some harder fights (end game) before I get to cast a spell but oh well... will see i guess. 

 

What crossed my mind is that since druid can't really go for same strategy as wizard (stack deflection and defensive buffs) and nuke stuff in a hurry depending on not getting hit at all. Druid is bound to get hit way more but got tons of selfhealing built in so I'm thinking about getting a lot of spell holding items that will proc all those "on getting hit" effects.

[Torm51]

As long as you're not doing Trial of Iron there's nothing wrong with save & reload.

 

I did this non-shifting druid build once (Batsh!t Crazy) and although I didn't do a full solo run with him I did some bounties solo (PotD) just to see how he fares. He was one of the easiest ones because some of the mid to high level druid spells are very powerful. Once Relentless Storm is up it's all a cakewalk.

 

But a strong spiritshift build is a lot of fun, too. Speedy melee hits with over 100 damage are very satisfying.

Booooooooooooooooo, ToI for life! Just messing   Once a druid gets returning storm and its more high level companion you will start wrecking (other then spores) stuff easily.  Until then Boeroer's advice is on point (as usual).

Edited June 23, 2017 by Torm51

[Phyriel]

Jokes on me but so far those 4 spores are hardest act 1 enemy besides Great Hall phantoms that I already killed with next level creativity. 

 

Thats why I love this game... I bet many of us, me included ofc, look at "push 2.0 meter" and consider it complete bull**** because what?! no dmg, no debuff, nothing. But then you realize it can help you control enemies so the least dangerous one approach you first and thus block doorway so you can reign down all the hurt on dangerous... now backline hehe  

 

Like getting to utilize such a **** effect overall to such a spectacular result early game made me so fricking happy today lol:P

Edited June 23, 2017 by Phyriel

[anameforobsidian]

You can also just drop a summon, lead them away, close the door and go hide in a corner for shades.

[rheingold]

Druids are great. Not to knock anyone's builds but I find a generalist Druid build ridiculously powerful.

By that I mean taking a few shifter talents and a few defensive ones, as opposed to taking all of one particular group. Tends to be really flexible that way.

[Boeroer]

For solo that might be better than putting everything into spiritshift.

[Phyriel]

Ye i think so too because as solo you're free to go shapeshift as a cleanup mechanic but you need to cast a fair bit of spells before doing that. Benefit of having pure offensive setup is obvious but its much more reliant on things going your way which for me just leads to fair amount of save/reload each time. With more defensive approach you can afford some mistakes. Overall so far I'm play a pure offensive stats druid because I find it fun and thus far possible to find solutions for everything, aka I know i can't survive many knockdowns, stuns etc so I have to find workarounds which is very engaging. 

 

I was going to ask: do you know if knockdown stun reduction from a mail chest that can be bought in copperlane stack with potions that reduce effect of hostile actions? 

[Boeroer]

Last time I checked it didn't but got suppressed.