I thought I'd share my experience and post some things that I learned as a druid (granted I was a Dragon druid most of the time, but for most part it's the same).

1. Buffs are your friend.

As a druid you can cast many different types of buffs. The main ones being the Gift line. These take up an augmentation slot and last for 2 hours. For tier 1, I recommend the Gift of Speed simply because most of the others are not noticeable until higher tiers of the spell. Then there's the enhance/raise line of buffs. Anyone can cast the raise line, but only the 'priest' classes can cast the enhance line. They don't stack and since enhance is better, don't bother with the raise line. These appear in your buff box and last 30 minutes. The enhance/raise buffs fall into 3 categories: str/dex/health, power/focus, and armor. You can cast 1 from each group for a total of 3 buffs. I liked using a combo of health, power, and armor but play around and find which 3 fit your play style the best. Lastly, there is the surge line of buffs. As the name implies this is a high addition, short time buff. These last 3 minutes, a recharge of 5 minutes and appear in your buff box. You can only have 1 surge spell active at a time, and casting a new one on yourself will overwrite the old one.

2. Spells and Techs: Use em!

A druid's main killing power lies in his (or her ) spells. Your main repeatable is the lightning bolt. It's usable at L1 and the Improved version is usable at L10. The L1 version can take you to L10, so don't bother teching it. You get a new repeatable every 10 levels (LB2 is gained at L20, ILB2 at L30, etc).

However, to effectively fight at your level I strongly recommend getting a Nature Damaged teched. At higher levels, an additional damage tech such as Gale, Pierce or Romp. This keeps your damage output high and allows you to kill mobs of a higher level. Lastly, get a hold of every spell you can use for your level and keep up to date on techs. There's many techs out there, find what works best with your style of play, but make sure you use them.

A druid's spell line consists of roots, stuns, and high damage spells with a few heals and an armor increase thrown in for good measure. For roots, there's root, ensnaring roots, and patch of bramble. For stun there's shocking blast and thunder and for damage use Stone Fist and Thunder Cloud. Earthen Crust is the armor increase spell and is well worth the money. It lasts 30 minutess and stacks with the armor increasing 'skin of cedar/elm/oak' line. For healing, Druids gain skill towards the Revitalize and Improved Revitalize spells. They also have a Heal over Time (HoT) spell called regrowth that is quite nice.

3. Armor and weapons

Druids are limited to clubs, staves, hide/leather armor and shields. As hide armor isn't very effective, you'll definately need to increase that though your buffs/abilities. Like above, techs are extremely useful. My current set is teched out in Nature and Power to increase my overall damage with my spells. However, even though druids aren't really a melee type class, they do get melee abilities. Don't count them off as bad abilities. Used at the right time, they can be extremely helpful. Sometimes with the right amount of luck, I was able to hit the mob 5-7 times with a spell/melee combo before the mob would return any kind of damage.

4. Multiclassing

A druid alone is a very effective killing machine. He's a combo of a warrior/cleric/mage all rolled into one school. However, by gaining additional levels in either cleric or spiritist, his power is downright awesome. I was able to kill mobs effectively 3-4 levels above me by multiclassing (sometimes 5 if I played it right). That said, it was a much easier task of fighting things closer to my level due to how quickly I could kill them. Also, by staying in the 'priest' class of school, all your spells are usable by everyone else in that school.

Editor's Note: This guide was developed during beta and no longer applies to dragons at all.

» Advertisement «