Any news on druids prior to pwipe?

[Kir]

I know Kam had spoken about fixing them but havent seen anything recent on this, hoping something new for the class instead of being refresh sluts

[Kadaj]

Seriously, what is it with you guys and druids!

Reed has 15 posts mentioning druids, you have 10.

Let's go people, make druids great again! 

Search--->  druid --->user: kir, reed23

[reed23]

Haha its a no-brainer, easy change to bring a class back to life.  We are men of the people.

[Alecto]

It's ok, Samasaki has brought druids back on his own this wipe (and every previous wipe) with a simple rally cry:

"I'm a druid.  I cast spells."

[Rinad]

From Jorquin's other post :  lightning storm will probably get a minor damage boost.

[Kronos]

It really is sad what has happened to druids. They used to be one of the more fun and dynamic classes to play. When healing cloud went from 2x to 1 time, their slot in groups was all but eliminated by top tier clans. They are useless now. On top of that primal fury was nerfed/is broken, lightening storm blows and entangle was nerfed.

Something should be done and I hope it is. When cloud went from 2x to 1x the talk was about them being overpowered in respect to healing...but a legend Shaman can heal the entire group for 200+ hps per round, that is significantly higher than cloud ever was. This doesn't make sense to me.

Please bring these chars back so that those of us who love to play druids are not used for lev 1-15 and then tossed aside.

-Jon

[Oligo]

lightening storm blows and entangle was nerfed.

Triggered an old memory of like 15-20 yrs ago, when lightning storm druids won those 15v15+ pks.

[Kadaj]

Stoneskin is still quite reliable on 95% of the fights in the game. Mass Refresh is still great, along with winds. I think Primal Fury was a bit overtuned to begin with, I agree it should still be a good group buff but not something you can just trigger to cast and use it every time it runs out. There has to be some thought process behind using it. Lightning storm got hit pretty hard, the damage should definitely be upped but have a high chance to frag. Call lightning should be able to be cast indoors and flame shroud/elemental fists frag reduced. Heal cloud should still only hit one person a round, there's no way around it. It is just far too strong when it hits multiple people, I think that's the biggest complaint is people think it should hit more often than it should which causes them to just be a botted character. Cloud blinks out? Might as well cloud again because I don't need to make any decisions when I play this game, I just make sure this stuff is up 100% of the time and we win.   Druids are still very useful and I wouldn't mind playing one, I think you guys just got used to how strong and overtuned they were and now assume that was the norm. You have to remember that was during the Hoss era where a lot of the decisions weren't really thought out.

[reed23]

Kadaj,

Your post is the glass half full on druids.  Thanks.  Questions for you:

8 man groups - why would you rather have a druid in the group vs a healer/shaman?  Druids can't heal.  Their best defensive spell (stoneskin) is ignored by most top mobs in the game.  And they can't do damage.  So what exactly do they do?

Shamans heal, do damage, and have spirits.  Clerics heal, do damage, and have corpses.  Druids don't heal, don't do damage, and have water weirds.

Please open my eyes as to why a druid would ever be considered other than to cast refresh levels 1 - 20!

[Kadaj]

Hello Reed,

The main purpose of druids is support. The ability to evacuate the entire group out of a dangerous situation with winds. The ability to speed the zoning process up with winds.  They are there to help with some heals (single healing clouds) as well as do ok damage with direct frags and area. They also support the group with resists, primal fury, waggs, veil of ice. Again, I think you are missing the point. People played druids before healing cloud was out, when it was implemented and turned into basically an anti-death group buff when you had two druids in the group, what was the point of bringing a cleric? What I'm trying to get at is they are a support class that helps in different ways than just 'you suck at helping us kill this mob' They aren't for the min/maxing crowd but they are far from useless. Just like you said, why bother bringing them when you can just replace them with a shaman or cleric? Perhaps shamans need a little nerf, along with corpses to make druids look more appealing.

[reed23]

Good points.  I agree with you on all you said.  The problem is druids/clerics/shamans were on a similar level years ago.  Then clerics/shamans got a lot of love.  Druids are still where they were years ago.

If druids are going to be the utility/support class that you mentioned, I think those areas need to get a buff.  In my 16 posts about druids, I've said for some time to make veil of ice one of the prime-time area blockers.  It currently lasts for 2 rounds and is an 8th slot.  Like who in the hell dreamed that one up??? lol.  Winds is helpful yes.  Their frags are all horrible other than granite hands, so like a lot of people have been saying, remove outside restrictions on their spells.  Primal fury needs to get a buff to return it to useful.

So yeah, if they are going to be this support class, their support spells need to get some love!

[Kadaj]

NERF EVERYTHING TO THE GROUND!! In all honesty, I have no intention of playing this game again. I'm having quite a bit of fun on Project1999. I do want everyone to have fun on this game and have their classes they love to be strong and useful. I think nerfing the pets of both shamans and clerics as well as buffing some druid frags and maybe making ice storm channeled as well as you said, veil of ice a group wide buff that actually lasts a good amount of time and has a % chance to block area would be nice.  The staff is always busy trying to make things better so just give it some time, I have faith they will make it right.

[Jorake]

Cloud was way to powerful when it hit twice per round. I have no idea what the person saying shamans can heal the whole group for 200 a round. Where do i pop that spell?

Graham solo healed with his legend druid quite a bit. Mostly mid to highish tier zones like storms, tot, irda trio even. They are still good.
I do agree they need a buff in spell damage. Legend druids can cast call lightning inside with storm cloud rank thing.

Over all they are a good class still!

[Bryton]

I realize Druids were nerfed to shit because I dominated with them for so long, but let us put the past behind us.

Druid area- 
lightning storm got a buff. The damage buff was super weak (40 dam), and doesn't even have a spec. Also with it being 8th slot it will never be memed over stoneskin and healing cloud.
Legend entangle-  was nerfed to be completely worthless and doesn't work in most zone rooms.
Ice storm- lame damage like 10-15 dam.
Swarm- super lame for pk and zoning.
Cultivate- this one really bugs me because it's complete shit.
Healing cloud- this needs some type of spec to make Druids worth a shit.
Primal fury- lame before and after legend.
Tornado- is the the best Druid area damage by far. It's just sad that it's the same slot as call lightning.

Druid single target damage
Cone, firestorm, and flameshroud- do similiar damage as THORN SPRAY....... They also frag the shit out of eq which is annoying.
Call of lightning- is fine
Granite Hand- is great, wish it would be more consistent but I  like the chance for high damage so it's fine where  it's at.

Other Druid spells-

Stoneskin- I agree with above comments of it beingg lame for mobs to ignore stoneskin. Also chance to land petrify should be taken away. It attempts to petrify way to often even with  save mod ranks.
Temp Path- is so worthless, always fails. Always gives wrong directions.
Conjure elemental- such a lame charmie and I hate how it's been nerfed over the years. None of them have skills or spells worthwhile anymore.
Paralysis- it's fine but just inconsistent on the number of rounds it lasts.
Summon fairy- I know this spell is cool but I hate how it doesn't follow you when you flee.

Druid equipment
Druid eq is complete shit, most if not all of it goes to shamans or clerics. .

Druid spell slots-
7th and 8th I hate that these two slots are so packed with spells. Maybe the problem is more the Druid +slot eq going to clerics and shamans.


 They can't solo because they do no damage until they get call lightning or granite hand, you honestly cast thorn spray until level 27. You can't get into any group doing a high level zone because theres always a shaman or cleric that are more useful.

Now that I think about it I did solo kill a 6 man group of core this wipe. bapt it, leave Druids alone they must be to powerful.......... or core is just bapting retarded.....

[Gnua]

Cloud was way to powerful when it hit twice per round. I have no idea what the person saying shamans can heal the whole group for 200 a round. Where do i pop that spell?

Think Reed was talking about Healing Wave when all group members are boosted.