Celtic Heroes

The topic's name is Class Balance, but it started out focused on Druids, so talking about every class is acceptable by the title, but not the content.

OTM may pay more attention if the title is proffesional and relates directly to the topic, and players will (hopefully) not stray too far since the op and the title are related and set the stage for everything else.

Didn't bother reading the whole thread so not sure if this was stated already. Obviously druids need a buff in leveling speed.

Storm touch should have reduced recast, cast time, and/or energy cost. It should also deal MASSIVE AoE magic damage to all enemies in a 5 meter radius around the druid. So rather then send a storm toward enemies, the storm erupts from the druid himself/herself.

Right now, mages and rogues are the fastest levelers (albeit mages can be extremely expensive due to low armor, depends on your lux/offhand/lix setup/partner). Not only do they have amazing damage output potential (gear matters of course) but their AoE skills can multiply. Namely riposte and firestorm (or ice blast). A mage can x3 their firestorm damage by hitting 3 clustered enemies. A 150 str/dex hybrid rogue can gather up 4-5 auto attack based enemies, cast riposte, and see two damage ticks on each enemy for 2-3k damage.

Druids need a multiplier, and storm touch becoming AoE does just that. It doesn't affect druid's primary role as healer, nor does it change their position as worst damage dealer (generally speaking) at boss fights. Given the plethora of AoEs and debuffs at most higher level boss fights, even the 160/210 obelisks for this event, druids probably won't want to stand so close to the boss to cast storm touch either way.

Also there is only one other AoE skill that is centered on the player, and that is sweeping blow, which has weak scalings. So if sweeping blow is analagous to defensive spikes or cloak of fire, then the (new idea for) storm touch should analogous to riposte.

Group leveling where you gather, tank, then aoe them is rarely used. However it was my favorite way to level as if you have the right group it can be very fast (I was my own group). Finding a person to level with can be hard, finding the right level type and skilled 2-4 other players just is unlikely given how people play.

The problem is most people want builds that maximize single target damage for bosses and solo leveling. Many mages hate firestorm and iceblast because it's asking to get aggro from a mass of mobs. Don't get me wrong, making storm touch aoe would make me happy but you may get some complaints.

One other aspect many have asked for is for dot to stack. You wouldn't have to let every dot on every class stack, for example rend, but letting Druids stack vines and swarm would allow them to not be so terrible at dps in group encounters.

I don't think every class needs to be able to solo level at the same speed but Druids are the most painful and with all the restos, idols, lix, new buff items, etc, they are becoming less and less useful as support. Many people would rather just spend some money and solo level rather than 'be held back' by a Druid.