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Druid Strategies
The Druid is, in my opinion, the coolest class in the game. (Of course, I play a Druid, so I'm a little biased, but that's beside the point.) This is because Druids can do it all. In a group, for example, a high-level Druid can buff party members, provide backup heals, evac the group, cast DD spells, snare, and even melee a little. Druids have a wide variety of spells, and it's important to be familiar with all of them. For a very detailed and well-written spell guide, click here. Also, there is an awesome site devoted completely to Druids - EQ Druids.
Spell Ranks General strategies This is a pretty easy rank. Use it to get used to your spells and what a Druid does. Basically, the best way to kill something here is to get its attention with a DD and then whack it until it's dead. Grouping doesn't really matter here. One thing to do is practice your skills. Whack everything you see to improve your weapon skills rating. Buff and heal people walking by to improve your spells rating. Your main spells here are Snare, Burst of Flame, Minor Heal, and Skin Like Wood. The last one is the first in a long line of Skin Like - buffs. It adds about 15 hp and 4 ac. At lower levels, that's a lot. It can save your life, so you should always have it activated. Big changes for the Druid here. You get your first of many travel spells, Gate. This spell returns you to your home point, and is therefore very useful when you have to return home to buy/sell something and don't want to walk the whole way. You also pick up a powerful new AoE DD, Invoke Lightning, and a conjuration- based DD, Whirling Wind. This spell does 25 points of damage, which is enormous at levels 5-7, and also helps prepare for level 14, when your conjuration skills will be needed for DOTs. More importantly, you pick up Harmony and Grasping Roots, both of which give you great new ways to kill things. This is a hard rank to pass, because you seem to require more experience relative to your level to level up. Also, you will find yourself low on mana after every battle, and it takes a while or you recharge, until you get Meditate at level 8. This is like a godsend, and everything gets easier right there. At this rank, you can group or go solo, it doesn't matter. Another big level for Druids. We get a bunch of cool new buufs, a powerful DD, and a new heal. The DD and heal are just upgrades to spells you already have: Burst of Fire and Minor Healing. They are both a little more mana-efficient, and are about three times as potent as the previous versions, making healing and killing both go faster. We have plenty of buffs, and they're all pretty good. Firefist is a melee buff that makes you miss less and do more damage to boot. Shield of Thistles is a 6-pt DS, so every time a mob hits you, it takes 6 points of damage. This may not seem like a lot, but let's say a mob hits you 15 times during a fight. That's 90 points of damage right there, which is a little less than half of a mob's HP at level 10. Strength of Earth adds to your strength, adding a little punch to your attacks and allowing you to carry more before you become encumbered. Treeform is an awesome self-only spell that transforms you... into a big tree. Not only is it cool, it has a lot of practical uses. First of all, you gain HP quicker while transformed, almost as fast as you gain mana while meditating. Second, you can still cast and melee while in Treeform. At this rank, I would suggest grouping, simply because it's more fun and you will need the grouping experience for later on in life. The most important attribute for a Druid is Wisdom, plain and simple. This is what determines how much mana you have. I suggest you pump all of your bonus points into Wisdom - all of the other attributes are just secondary and unnecessary. Keep this in mind as you choose your race. The four choices are Half Elf, Halfling, Human, and Wood Elf. Human and Half Elves are worthless as Druids. They simply don't have enough Wisdom to be any good. Halflings and Wood Elves offer the same amount of Wisdom, so choosing between them pretty much boils down to starting locations. Wood Elves start at Kelethin in the Greater Faydark, one of the most crowded zones in the game. Halflings begin in the city of Rivervale, adjacent to Misty Thicket. As much as I love my home city of Kelethin, I would have to recommmend Halflings. Misty Thicket is one of the best newbie zones in the game, if not the best. Harmony is a level 5 Druid spell, and it's easily one of the most powerful weapons in our arsenal. Its functioning can be shown with the following example: if there are two Orcs standing close to each other, but you only want to pull one, Harmony one and pull the other with a DD spell. If you didn't use Harmony, the other Orc would react to the attack on its comrade and come running at you. So basically, the harmonied mob has its aggro radius reduced to about 1 yard. This means that if the Orcs are too close together, when you try to pull one, they will both run at you. This spell allows you to take on camps without having the whole group of mobs running at you, so it's obviously a powerful tool. It should be noted that at farther distances from the target, you will not see the effect on the mob. This doesn't mean that it was not successful, however. There is a very well-written and detailed guide to this spell here. As a Druid, you have a wide variety spells, and it pays to know them all. Know how and when to use every one of them. If you do, then you will become about twice as deadly, by yourself and with a group. This spell isn't that important at this point in your EQ career. However, you will be using it alot later for kiting, so you may as well get used to it now. Basically, it roots your target in one place for about 20 seconds and does a little damage as well. Once it's stuck, step back a little and nuke it until you're down to about 1 bubble of mana, then step in and melee. This strategy is mana-expensive, but it allows you to get the mob down to about 50% before it even has a chance to hit you. Grouping is fun and adventurous, but sometimes you'll just want to hunt by yourself. There are a few things you should keep in mind while soloing:
Many people will tell you that this is one of the best spells in the game. I do not disagree. You get it at level 1, and you should start using it right away. Basically, it slows the enemy to half of its normal speed. This has a bunch of uses.
As previously mentioned, Druids can do it all. And that is precisely what you should do. Let the situation dictate what you do in a group. If there are any holes in the group (no healer, no buffer, no nuker, etc.) you should fill that role. Have that be your main role, and do your various Druid tasks when you aren't called upon to do your primary job. If you're attacking a camp, use Harmony to pull the mobs one at a time. If one of your comrades is injured, heal them. Buff your tanks before entering battle. Fire off a DD every once in a while. And when you have nothing better to do, melee the mob. Basically, you should never be idle unless you are out of mana and need to meditate. Druids need to be constantly aware of the situation, and have to know what to do when. However, you are supporting the group, not leading it. You shouldn't expect do the most damage to the mob every time or deliver the killing blow. What you are doing is enhancing the group's efficiency, and that is what Druids are best at. Some of the best Druid sites on the web: EverQuest is a Trademark of Sony Corporation. Used without permission. Site design and coding copyright John Lenehan, aka Asfolath. All data, unless noted otherwise, is copyright Asfolath. |
