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Regenleif's Guide to Druiding (2020 Update)

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Regenleif's Guide to Druiding

To begin, I believe it would be good for you to know who I am, and a little about me.

I have been playing Celtic Heroes since October 2011 and am a Druid on the server Taranis.

I love Druids, and the particular sort of person it takes to level and play a Druid: anyone can make a character in the class, however very few have the determination and perseverance to fully level and experience the journey, through the endless pain, frustration, and strife. Clans throughout Celtic Heroes lack Druid mains (people who identify themselves as their Druid character), leaving an abundance of drops to those dedicated enough to reach their level requirements. As a Druid, great fortunes and opportunities await! You will be heralded, seen as a force of love and generosity by all, but only if you can surmount the challenges that lie ahead -- and there will be many.

I have long mentored promising Druids in the arts, teaching them to use their power to accomplish amazing feats, and aiding them with the struggles from which many have faltered. I created this guide long ago, and periodically revise it as updates are released in the live game.

This guide assumes you know nothing about technical terms and Druids, and will be most helpful to those just starting out. Over the years it has changed greatly, as has the game, so expect a number of interjections throughout.

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To Place Things in Perspective:

Currently, mobs (enemies) go up to level 220. It is possible to level up past 220, however the experience gained from mobs and repeatable quests decreases as you level higher than them. 220 is considered the "soft cap", 230 is considered the "hard cap". There is no content in the game that requires you to be higher than 220.

Items from shops are expensive, and monsters do not drop much gold. You will have to either save or "merch" (buy low, sell higher).

Currently, at level 220+, I have around 500 Focus (2000 with gear), 600 Vitality (900 with gear), and 2200 Nature Magic (6500 with gear) . You'll understand what that means later; it shows that bonuses from gear are essential! As you approach the endgame, the impact of your character's stats (the ones you assign once you level) lessens, however at the start a great build is crucial.

Terminology

First, an overview of stats, skills, abilities, and other terminology:

An "Auto Attack" is the standard, physical attack with whatever you are holding: when you select a mob and press that sword button on the bottom right, you engage in auto attack. Settings regarding this are in options -> gameplay. For physical classes (rogue, warrior, ranger), the auto attack is an essential part of their playstyle. For casters (mage, druid), not so much.

"DPS" (Damage Per Second) is a term roughly meaning "damage". If you have high DPS, you do a lot of damage within a period of time. DPS classes do lots of damage! A DPS build focuses on dealing damage. Druids have terrible DPS.

A "mob" is any game-controlled enemy. To level up you need experience, to get experience you either do quests or kill mobs (although often, doing quests makes you kill mobs anyways).

A "boss" is a mob that is intentionally hard to kill. In Celtic Heroes, they are usually denoted by 5-6 stars above their head. Bosses usually drop gear, quest items, or other goodies.

A "raid boss" is a big and powerful boss meant to be a group encounter for clans and servers to kill. These would be huge dragons, wizards, and trolls that require 20-40 players to kill.

A "tick" is a unit of time equivalent to 5 seconds. It is used in many item and skill descriptions ("Regenerates 5 health per tick" "deals 500 damage per tick"). If your Nature's Embrace skill heals 200 health per tick, it heals 200 health every 5 seconds.

"Aggro" is short for "Aggravation". Each mob internally has a list of players it has aggro towards, and will attack the player with the highest aggro. You increase your aggro by casting skills on the mob, auto attacking it, or casting skills on other players with aggro. You decrease it by dying, logging out/in the game, or using aggro-decreasing skills.

A "Main" is a main character. If someone is a Druid Main, their primary character is a Druid.
An "Alt" is an alternate character. If you choose to try out a mage but primarily stick to your Druid, you are a Druid Main with a Mage Alt.

Stats are character attributes increased by assigning "stat points". When you level up, you can spend 5 points in the four primary stats:
Strength: Increases your physical hit damage
Dexterity: Increases your attack (below) and defense (also below)
Focus: Increases your maximum energy by 6.25 per point
Vitality: Increases your maximum health by 6.25 per point

To realign your stats, use a "Book of Rebirth" (purchasable with Platinum, Bounty Tokens, or some quests)
*Side Note: The "Bounty Board" in Farcrag Castle (next to the fountain) offers daily quests suited to your level, with XP, gold, and bounty token rewards. A section later on will cover bounties.*

Secondary Stats result from your gear and primary stats, you cannot increase them directly:
Attack: affects the likelihood of landing an auto attack
Defense: affects the likelihood of dodging an auto attack
Damage: the maximum damage of your auto attack
Armor: the summation of armor from your gear/effects, influences the damage you receive from physical attacks/skills

There are six resistance types:
- Elemental: Fire, Ice, Magic
- Physical: Pierce, Slash, Crush
The damage function uses the following variables: your raw damage, your damage's type, the opponent's resistance to your damage type, the level difference between you and the mob (if the mob is a higher level than you), and a random value between .5-.6 and 1 to use as the fluctuation (so not every attack does the same damage).

So, if you cast your lightning strike on a monster with 300 magic resistance, here is how damage is calculated:
Raw Damage (ex: your lightning strike does a max of 1000 damage) = 1000 magic damage
* Fluctuation (ex: the flux is .8 for that hit) = 800
* Mob's Magic Resistance Factor (ex: 300 * some formula, say the result decreases your hit by 200 damage) = 600
* Level Difference (ex: you are at/above the mob level, so no change) = 600
== Resulting Damage: 600

You can find a skill's max damage on the skills page by pressing the skill -- for example, a popup for Lightning Strike may show 2500 damage. That is the raw damage.

Armor is defined as "Physical Resistances"; if you equip a chestpiece with 50 armor, all it means is it adds 50 pierce/slash/crush resistance; same with casting Shield of Bark. The armor stat showed is the lowest of those resistances, so if you have 40 pierce, 50 slash, and 60 crush resistance, your stats will show 40 armor.

You can see all your individual resistances in the Abilities page.

Now for attack and defense:
probability of landing an auto attack = ( your attack ) / ( your attack + their defense )
That is pretty much all there is to it... It is believed skill evasions follow the same formula, but that has not yet been confirmed.

Skills are spells. Simple. You cast them, they have cool particle effects, and they are the vast majority of our actions.

Almost every skill costs energy, which is drained from your energy pool. Most skills are affected by a stat and an ability. For Druids, all our standard skills (skills not linked to gear) are boosted by Focus: this provides us the awesome advantage of only requiring two stats in our builds: Focus, and Vitality.

Skills are widely divided into two categories, DPS and Support. DPS skills, well, inflict damage or other harm. There are three types of DPS skills:
Instant: you cast it, it deals damage to the target, that's it
Damage over Time "DoT": you cast it, it lingers for a bit doing damage, then expires. All DoT skills are tick-based.
Area of Effect "AoE": you cast it, it does damage to all enemies within a radius of the target. The individual effects of these AoE skills can be either instant or DoT.

Us Druids have four DPS skills in total: two instant, one DoT, and one AoE/DoT.

Support skills, like DPS skills, have several types:
Heal: You cast it on a player, it restores some of their health. There are DoT/AoE heals as well.
Buff: You cast it, it increases an attribute (armor, evasions, etc)
Debuff: The opposite of a Buff, you cast it on an enemy, it decreases an attribute (attack, defense, etc)

Druids have LOTS of Buffs, but only a few heals and debuffs.

Abilities are numerical levels that increase power in a field. Each player level increases the max ability level by 10, and abilities are trained by using skills/weapons that use that ability. Abilities are generally within a few categories:

Class-Based: Druids have the unique ability Nature Magic, which increases both our likelihood of "landing" (successfully hitting) a DPS skill (you will find that mobs can "evade" skills, negating damage) and our spellpower with Nature Magic based skills (pretty much all of them). As expected, you train Nature Magic by casting Nature Magic based skills. Other classes have a similar class-specific ability ("Melee Combat" for Warrior, "Cunning" for Rogue, etc)

Evasions: Just as mobs can evade your skills, you can evade theirs. Evasions will be covered later on; you train them by being hit with that skill type

Pets/Mounts: Every pet/mount has a skill, which draws from the pet's level and ability (each type - wolf pet, wolf mount, dog, rabbit, etc - has a different ability). You train this ability by casting their skill.

Weapons: Every weapon type (axe, sword, totem, staff) has it's own ability, affecting your auto attack damage, skill damage (with skills that use your weapon damage, which is none for Druids), and attack (each ability point = +1 attack)

Now for builds:

A "build" is the distribution of stats and skills that you use. Generally, the types of builds you will see are:
"DPS Build" (for damage)
"Leveling Build" (for leveling)
"Support Build" (for healing/support)
"Hybrid Build" (for both damage and support)
"Bossing Build" (for bossing, usually aligns with support or hybrid)

There are thousands of builds, and the best build for you will always depend on your individual gear, items, playstyle preference, and access to consumables (elixirs, potions, etc). For low-level Druids I find Hybrid builds work best.

For all your builds, two primary stats should be used: Focus and Vitality. They are referred to as "Foc" and "Vit".

Many ask, "But isn't Strength good for your auto hits, and Dexterity good for dodging auto hits? Why don't we use those?" Yes, they can help, but are not nearly as beneficial as Focus/Vitality: the benefit from placing points in Focus and Vitality is far greater than from Strength and Dexterity, especially in the lower levels.
*Side Note: I experimented loading up a Druid char with about 1m gold's worth of auto-attack damage gear, and it was actually faster than focus-based until level 105, but you probably won't have access to that gear) Some builds do make use of Dexterity for dodging hits, but for now, focus and vit only!*


As a general rule, 5 Nature Magic Ability ~ 1 Focus. So, a bracelet adding 50 focus is roughly equivalent to a bracelet adding 250 Nature Magic. The equations are non-linear, but this is a decent approximation.

Note that Energy != Focus! With 100,000 energy and 10 Focus, you would have an immense energy pool but almost no spellpower! Gear adding 200 energy will NOT affect your spellpower. Do not worry about your energy pool, and prioritize focus/health items over energy: energy will take care of itself, you need to focus on Focus.

Remember, 1 Focus adds 6.25 energy, 1 Vitality adds 6.25 health.

A key concept I emphasize to all Druids (and one frequently misunderstood) is Health Subsidization:

Let's say you have 3125 health (=500 vitality), 500 focus, and are comfortable leveling/bossing.
You obtain a ring that adds 625 health.
Now, you can consider the health from the ring as vit, subsidize your vit, and increase your focus. I'll show you:

0. 625 health from the ring is equivalent to 100 vit (each point in vit adds 6.25 health remember).
1. Knowing this, rebirth to 400 vitality and 600 focus.
2. Equip the ring
3. You maintain your level of 3125 health, however now have 600 focus

Knowing this, which of the following bracelets would you choose?
[ Adds 50 Focus and 400 Health ] -- [ Adds 50 Focus and 400 Energy ] -- [ Adds 50 Vitality and 400 Health ] -- [ Adds 50 Vitality and 400 Energy ] -- [ Adds 50 Dexterity and 400 Energy ]

First Bracelet: through Health Subsidization, you can subsidize your Vit with the Health of the first bracelet -- good choice !
Second Bracelet: you can't increase your spellpower with Energy boosts, so this bracelet is OK but not preferable -- bad choice!
Third Bracelet: the Vitality and Health can be used to boost your Focus! -- good choice!
Fourth Bracelet: again, energy boosts are useless; they only increase your energy pool, while Focus increases your spellpower AND your energy pool -- bad choice!
Fifth Bracelet: umm ... no

If you now understand Health Subsidization, excellent!! You are well on your way to Druid greatness.

Below is a stat distribution system I recommend to all my apprentices in their early levels: alternate adding Focus and Vitality each level. I really, really enjoy this build, so much so I made a second Druid, stuck with it to level 220, and had no issues with health or spellpower being unbalanced.

For example:

V - Vitality
F - Focus

level 1: 10V 10F (base stats)
level 2: 15V 10F (added +5 to Vit)
level 3: 15V 15F (added +5 to Foc)
level 4: 20V 15F (added +5 to Vit)
level 5: 20V 20F (added +5 to Foc)
level 6: 25V 20F (added +5 to Vit)
level 7: 25V 25F (added +5 to Foc)
level 8: 30V 25F (added +5 to Vit)
level 9: 30V 30F (added +5 to Foc)
level 10: 35V 30F (added +5 to Vit)
(and so on)

If you are reading this and realizing your Focus/Vitality distribution differs from these, do not worry! As you level work to equalize it again.

If you are reading this and have placed points in Strength/Dexterity, don't freak out -- when you can easily afford a rebirth book, correct it. Until then don't worry about it. When you reach around level 45 and access Stonevale Farm, a short and simple quest will reward you with a Rebirth and Alteration book -- you can change your stats then.

Now for skills (the most important part!):

The biggest temptation for a new player is to instantly align all available Skill Points, however this causes huge trouble later on. At levels 15, 30, 60, 90, 120, 150, 180, and 210 your maximum skill level will increase by five. This means that if you have three skills at 5/5 when you reach level 15, all of the sudden those skills have 5/10 points! The best thing to do at lower levels is not to spend all your skill points in three skills, but two, so when you hit the next increase you can immediately align your spare points and greatly boost your spellpower. However, which skills should you use?

From levels 1-30, the only skills you should have points in are Lightning Strike and Shield of Bark. Skills at level 1 cannot be interrupted by mobs, so cast Nature's Touch to keep yourself alive and use Shield of Bark when tackling tough mobs. At level 15, when the max assignable points bumps up to 10, max Lightning Strike first and then max Shield of Bark as your level. When you reach level 30 you will be able to max out Strike and Bark again with 5 points remaining, now you can place these in Nature's Touch and begin building Nature's Touch up with every level. From now on the skill cap will increase every 30 levels instead of every 15, so you will be able to max those three skills comfortably and start bringing in a fourth skill with the excess skills points (beyond those needed for the next skill level cap increase): invest the extras in Strangling Vines (if you have energy regeneration gear or gold to buy some) or Meditate (otherwise)

Note that the maximum skill level is 50. Say I have 45 skill points in Nature's Touch, and I equip a +10 Nature's Touch ring, the skill will be capped at level 50, despite there being more than 50 skill points aligned therein.

Also note that it is important not to reach beyond your level for level 50 skills: yes, they are the highest skill level, yes, it feels good to have a maxed skill, but.... the energy costs are usually far above your energy regeneration, and by devoting all your gear to one skill you weaken all your other skills. Lead not into temptation! Keep your skills at the skill cap for your level. It is far more effective to have 4 skills at your current max than 2 stretched up to 50.

For your Weaponry, stay away from that high-damage two-handed hammer and stick with your Staff. Every class has abilities limited to certain weapon types, so using non-Druid weapons will not help you! Druids get two unique weapon types: Staffs and Totems. While there are a variety of "No-Class" weapons that you can equip, using them will not increase your weapon ability so you will be forever stuck at 5 attack and very limited damage. By using a Totem or Staff, you can increase their respective abilities and gain increased attack and damage. So ditch the hammer, and use that crappy staff you got from the storyline: it will pay off.

When you around level 30, you should get the Totem and the Totem ability. Venture into Shalemont and find the NPC with "Totem Trainer" above their heads. While leveling in Shalemont, try and pick every Mushroom you can see (you trade in Fettlecaps and Milkstalks to the Herbalist for nice health/energy potions and loads of xp) and complete the other NPC quests as soon as you can: they will unlock a shop where you can buy your first Totem! You have been saving your money, right? Now is when you splurge on a cool new weapon. Unless you find someone selling a Totem (highly unlikely), open the shop and look for the Totems. Buy the least expensive one. You will use this totem until level ~75. At last! No more wandering the lands hoping your walking stick does not break! You will never touch a staff again.

For Armor, most players use gear they think is beneficial (due to having more armor) but actually degrades them (due to weight). Weight is an attribute placed on almost every piece of armor that lowers your maximum energy (it does NOT lower your movement speed! I learned this through running across Lirs naked over and over again...). More weight means less energy, which is quite important at lower levels. Use your quest armor (Woodland and Meadowsun), however try to get Woven Silverleaf (not the regular Silverleaf from Farcrag, Woven Silverleaf has a nice energy boost). Woven Silverleaf is dropped from any of the three bosses in Dustwhither Catacombs (in the three extreme rooms), however I recommend asking level 80+ Druids if they still have their Woven Silverleaf armor, as acquiring a set yourself is a difficult task. Do not pay for armor! Shame on those pretentious level 80 Druids who wish to charge you! They must not have read my guide... It is imperative that you save up as much gold as you can during your low levels.

For Jewelry, it will be a fair while (level 80+) until you start wearing gear that adds skill points and is all-around actually useful. In the meantime, there will be various minor gear choices available from quests and drops, and you can follow the general outline below to decide what to wear.
"Skill Direct Boost" signifies gear that adds directly to a skill. So... A ring may add +200 healing to Nature's Touch.

Necklaces: Energy + Health Regeneration > Energy Regeneration > Health Regeneration > Focus = Vitality = Health > Energy > Armor > Damage
Bracelets: Energy Regeneration > Skill Direct Boosts > Focus = Vitality = Health > Health Regeneration > Energy > Armor > Damage
Rings: Skill Points + Skill Direct Boosts > Skill Points/Skill Direct Boosts > Focus = Vitality = Health > Energy Regeneraton > Health Regeneration > Armor > Damage

Of course, it's up to you to decide how much you should follow that guideline -- a necklace adding 500 focus is probably better than a necklace adding 5 energy regeneration! You may notice that Energy Regeneration usually has top spots -- Druids have severe energy issues, which you will find out soon enough... Energy regeneration gear is critical.

Note that elemental damage from gear ONLY affects your auto attack, NOT your skills:
Say your lightning strike deals a maximum of 100 damage.
You equip a bracelet that gives "+5 Magic Damage"
Your lightning strike will continue dealing a maximum of 100 damage.

Also note that direct skill boosts do not show up on your skills page. If your lightning strike has a maximum of 100 damage, and you equip a +20 lightning strike damage brace, the skills page will show a max of 100 damage but in reality your max will be 120 damage.

When in a group, XP is split and then bonused: you will notice that when you kill a mob with a group it says "Experience Bonus: __%, Gold Bonus: __%". Say the bonus says "20%", this is what's happening:
1. Total XP From the Mob: 1,000 xp
2. Two players are in the group, so each player receives 500 xp
3. Bonus of 20%, so each player receives an extra 500 * 20% = 100 xp
4. Total XP received per player is 500 + 100 = 600 xp

Leveling will be tedious, however as long as you stick to it the frustration will be well worth it. Try to find other people (0-10 levels higher than you) to level with: Druids have the lowest DPS of all the classes, so a partner will speed up the kill speed (and therefore xp gain) significantly. In exchange, your heals are of great benefit to them. Later in this guide will be a section describing the different places to level.

I will now go into Abilities a bit more:

Unlike other classes, who use their class-specific ability and their weapon abilities (or mages, who have both fire and ice abilities) Druids have only one main ability to work on: Nature Magic. Nature Magic increases your chance of landing a skill, and increases the effects of all your spells (except Bandage Wounds, Meditate, and Recuperate: those use your First Aid Ability). While it is great to have a maxed Nature Magic Ability, do not stress to level it! Your usual leveling and bossing will be more than enough to keep it maintained at its maximum.

*Side Note: For those looking to level their Nature Magic (if you level fast the ability will underpace you), I recommend equipping Abundance, Calm, Bark, and Embrace. Do this in the tavern if you can - you get an energy regeneration boost when you are inside. Cast Abundance, Calm, Bark... and when one of those three skills is ready, cast it. Use Embrace to fill in the gaps. This will ensure a constant, rapid stream of casts, effectively leveling up your Nature Magic*

Once you play for a day or so, you will notice that sometimes your skills get evaded (shrugged off, deflected, etc). Well guess what! You can evade them to! There are five "Evasion" abilities which you can level up by being hit with skills. The quests to receive these abilities are available from several large statues placed in odd locations:
1. Lirs, Northeast of Highshore Village, on the hill overlooking the sea
2. Crookback Hollow, next to the Redstone Cavern Leystone
3. Shalemont Ravine, south of the Greygorge Leystone, up on the hill
4. Stonevale, southwest of the Stonevale Farm Leystone, follow the path downstream (where the master fisherman is)
5. Lirs, just west of the Tavern, by the waterfall

I will go into each evasion ability in detail:

Reflex: Reflex deflects movement-affecting skills. It is useful if you like soloing Druid mobs, fighting bosses, and against any mob casting those skill types. Until you are lvl 65+, you will probably never have the chance to upgrade this skill (the first monsters to use such skills are the Stonevale Druids). However, after that, more mobs will use it. It is a good ability to have in your reserves, however you should not put in extra effort to keep it maxed.

Warding: My favorite of the 5 evasions. Warding deflects elemental instant damage spells (Lightning Strike, Fireball, Ice Shards...). It is the easiest to train, and has saved my life many times! Warding is a must have, and you can easily train it by rounding up the mages on the Shalemont ramp (the long ramped hill just north of Greygorge leystone).

Vigour: Vigour shrugs off DoT spells. To be honest, mine is not as high a level as I would like it to be, but it is hard to train (Stonevale Druids are one of the only good Vigour-training mobs). It is not the most pressing ability to train, as DoT spells generally aren't too deadly and common.

Fortitude: Fortitude deflects physical instant damage skills. I didn't train this easily until I was level 190+, as most leveling mobs don't cast physical attack skills. It's useful, but not worth dedicating time to, as Shield of Bark is an amazing skill.

Willpower: Willpower aids in the deflection of Debuffs. Such skills include Howling Wind, Lure of Ice/Fire/Magic/etc, Smoke Bomb, and others that make you weaker but do not deal direct damage. The best way to train this is to politely ask a mage to cast lures on you in the arena, or make your own mage for this purpose. The skill is not used often by mobs in the "wild".

Besides evasions, there are three other abilities that you should gain immediately:
Critical Strike / Critical Skills: allows you to land "Critical" skills and auto attacks for twice the damage/heal. This only affects Instant Damage and DOT skills; a higher ability level increases the probability of landing a critical auto/skill attack, but not a heal. These two abilities are absolutely essential, you get the quests for Critical Strike and Critical Skill at the Farcrag Bailey.
Treasure Hunting: allows you to get twice the gold from kills; a higher ability level increases the probability of getting "Lucky Gold". You get the quest from the stage in the Farcrag Courtyard.
Scholarly: allows you to get twice the XP from kills; a higher ability level increases the probability of getting "Lucky XP". You get this quest from a Druid (of course!) in Guilds Alley in Farcrag.

Upon entering Farcrag Castle, seek out these ability-givers! You will likely be unable to complete most of the quests immediately -- Treasure Hunting and Scholarly require you to kill rare gold/xp mobs (that spawn at low probability from various regular mob spawns), but Critical Strike and Critical Skills can be completed immediately. When a gold or xp mob spawns, it will show on your minimap with the "bag and dagger" icon, so just progress as normal and eventually you will come across the mobs you need.

That's all for the current abilities. Remember to ditch the staff for a totem ASAP!


Skills

Ok. First off, note that Druids have the MOST skills of all the classes. Choosing which exact skills to max is very difficult, so I divided them up into three categories: DPS, Support, and Useless.

DPS:
Lightning Strike - MUST HAVE for any build with damage. Short cooldown time, great damage, and low energy cost
Strangling Vines - Excellent skill: huge amounts of DOT at higher levels, but weak at low levels
Storm Touch - The only other instant damage skill, this spell requires you to be in auto-range of your enemy. It does more damage than Strike, however costs much more energy and has a longer cooldown. I do not recommend it unless you have a steady supply of energy consumables.
Stinging Swarm - a second DoT spell that deals very low poison damage (around 1/3 that of Vines), has the biggest energy cost of all DPS skills, and only lasts 3 ticks. It does excellent damage on endgame bosses, but is not good for leveling unless you have the energy consumables to back up its energy cost.
Howling Winds - this skill reduces your opponent's hit chance, however at lower levels this has a negligible effect on monsters: only useful for levels 120+ if you want to trade winds for bark.

I should mention here that two DPS builds are common: winds-based and bark-based. If you use winds, mobs don't hit you (therefore you don't need bark); if you use bark, mobs hit you for less (therefore you don't need winds); I personally prefer bark, as winds must be cast on every mob you attack and can be evaded. However once you are level 130+ and have a good grasp druiding, feel free to try Winds. There are several other guides on the Druid forum that cover winds-based builds.

Support:
Shield of Bark - Increases your armor (all three physical resistances) for 2 minutes. Excellent skill, I couldn't live without this in my builds.
Abundance - Increases your maximum health for 2 minutes. This used to be an essential skill for builds, but it has not scaled well with improvements to other classes' gear. It is mainly used at the endgame for high-risk bosses, however is highly useful if you are a support druid in a mid-level clan (levels 30-180).
Nature's Embrace - Healing DoT, lasts 45 seconds. Pretty good skill, heals around 250-350 health/tick at the endgame. I personally have never liked it much but some Druids swear by it.
Nature's Breath - Healing AoE, does around 1/3-1/2 of Nature's Touch. Generally a must-have for support Druids at endgame bosses, but I wouldn't use it to level unless you have a dedicated elixing group you are part of.
Nature's Touch - Your standard heal. Love it, breathe it, live it, hang a poster of it on your wall... This is YOUR skill!
Bless - Increases all your evasions. I like this skill, and usually use it when when in a Support build. Since evasions are very chance-based, this skill doesn't get much fame.. but it definitely makes a noticeable difference at bosses.
Calm - Decreases all aggro towards you/the target. Great skill, so great that you don't need to level it past level 1 for it to be effective in most scenarios. I always keep it on hand.
Elemental Wards - there are three wards, one per element (Fire, Ice, Magic); they raise the target's resistance to that element (with a small AOE). Since using one of these skills locks you into a very specific set of uses, elemental wards are not often used by Druid mains. However, they are essential for two endgame bosses (Bloodthorn and Dhiothu) and useful for several other endgame bosses (Gelebron and some legacy bosses).
Meditate - restores energy when not in combat. Great skill, I used it a LOT when I was a young Druid and could not afford regeneration gear. It is worth placing a few points into if you are struggling with energy.
Spring of Life - this skill used to be the punchline of every Druid joke, as it had a 2k energy cost and resurrected people with 1 health and 1 energy, so most players preferred to use a resurrection idol. However in recent years the skill has been revamped a lot, and is now considered essential for most endgame bosses. Go figure.

Useless:
Physical Wards - one ward per each physical element, just use bark instead. Ward of Soldiers (slash resistance) does have use at the Dhiothu endgame raid boss.
Rescue - this one sounds cool, it brings a player close to you and casts a *tiny* healing DoT for 3 ticks. However it's only use case at the Dhiothu endgame raid boss.
Energy Harvest - Non-Druids will tell you this skill is great. *sigh*. Energy Harvest was brought in as a "Cure for Druid Energy Issues!". However, not only does it cost quite a bit of energy to cast (?!?), but it can be evaded and the net energy gain is beyond disappointing.
Sanctuary - an AoE shield that blocks ~1000 damage. Each player receives the shielding individually. I personally don't like this skill, as the shielded damage is far too low and only lasts 30 seconds (with a 1 minute cooldown). This makes it rarely used, although you could keep it at level 1 and use it to mild benefit while leveling.

Each class has two "quest skills". For Druids that is Storm Touch and Nature's Breath. Storm Touch is acquired from a quest in Farcrag Castle at level 50+ (see the Druid area in Guild Alley); Nature's Breath is acquired from a quest in the Tavern at level 60+ (an NPC on the second floor).

*Side Note: There is a trap I call the "Godly Heal Trap". At lower levels, you naturally want the highest heal possible, so you focus everything into Nature's Touch boosting gear -- this is NOT what you should do! While your heal may be huge, all your other skills will suffer greatly! As I said before, you are best off keeping your skills at your current skill level cap.*

Just as Health Subsidization can be used with stats, Skill Subsidization can be used with skills:
Say you have 30/30 points in Nature's Touch, but only 22/30 points in Strangling Vines
- You obtain a +3 Nature's Touch ring!
- You can drop your Nature's Touch to level 27 and use the +3 ring to make it 30/30
- Then, place the extra points in Strangling Vines
You now have 30/30 Nature's Touch and 25/30 Strangling Vines!

This method will save you LOTS of skill points... And keep you well-rounded. Beware the Godly Heal Trap!

Soon into your Druiding adventures you will come across the Bane of Druiding: Energy Issues. These issues come from three core systemic problems:
1. Druid skills cost exorbitant amounts of energy, far more than any other class (even Mages)
2. Druids have no useful energy regeneration skills (Mages, despite having lower skill costs, have two energy regeneration skills)
3. One Thumb Mobile and Virtual Realms (the game developers) have yet to fix this, since, well, 2012... It has been almost completely ignored.

I wish you the best with this... energy issues coupled with terrible DPS is a frustration that will ruin MANY of your Druid brothers. A high proportion of Druids either quit the game or switch to other classes solely because of energy issues. Push through it, embrace the challenge, and emerge a stronger person. It will change you, as it has changed many before you. You will come to immediately distinguish Druid alts, Druid mains who were carried by friends, and the few Druid mains who, on their own, persevered.

There are several ways to help alleviate energy issues, however mildly:
- Free Energy Potions/Elixirs/Consumables (gained from quests, daily quests, and daily rewards)
- Energy Sigils (purchased with gold from other players or the the platinum shop)
- Meditate (you can drop points into meditate instead of Strangling Vines)
- Energy Regeneration Gear (only goes so far...)
- Cooking and Fishing (discussed below)

Cooking (done in the back of the Tavern) allows you to cook foods that restore energy. However, cooking is meant to be a gold sink for the game so cooking food is rather expensive. I recommend trying it out, but don't stress to keep going if the costs are significant.

Fishing (starts at the Eastern Docks) came out at the same time as cooking, and can be actually used to earn a decent gold income. Fishing spawns have about a 2% chance of being "Shimmering Waters", which when fished from pull a fish that sells to the fishermen NPCs for between 500g to 2k (depending on where you fished it from). It is pretty common to see lower levels using fishing to gain gold, and I highly recommend it to fund your adventures. While there are some costs associated with it (mainly funding "fishing concentration" potions, similar to energy potions), fishing is much more sustainable than cooking and nets a positive gold return.

That brings us to training.

The most efficient way to level is through questing: there are a series of story quests and repeatable quests that will carry you through to level 140, with varied mob-killing in between. Take advantage of this! After 140 you are pretty much on your own to level until 220, with minor xp quests along the way. Of course, through this all are the bounty quests, which give a great amount of xp and gold. Do your bounties every day!

*Side Note: If you see an NPC with a grey "!" above their head, it means you are close (with 5 levels) to the level requirement of their quest.*

Here is my advice for leveling from 1-230:

Start the quests at the level indicated, and kill mobs at/just above your level if you need to level a bit

Level Area Place
1-30 - Everywhere the Main Storyline Quest takes you (follow the directional arrow), kill mobs your level as you go along, the xp makes a huge difference
21-25 Dustwhither Death's Caress (Do the repeatable Dry Bones quest! Great XP and the Chalk reward is a consumable that gives 20 health/energy)
26-30 Shalemont MacCroin Camp (Kill mobs east of the leystone)
30-50 Shalemont Shalemont Storyline (Story Quest, kill mobs your level as you go along. Don't complete parts of the quest until you the level of the mobs you are attacking)
31-36 Shalemont MacCroin Camp (Use Fettlecap/Milkstalk mushrooms for the repeatable quests)
37-40 Shalemont Issian's Ramp (Kill the mages, they are easier than the warriors -- stay out of their melee range though)
40-47 Shalemont Southeast Camp (Go to Rufflecramp and kill him over and over again, he has a fast respawn time and solid XP)
48-53 Shalemont Forward Base (North of Shalemont River leystone, kill the Ribbonswords, Duelists, etc -- EASY kills and lots of XP)
54-58 Shalemont Luther's Castle (Kill the Honour Guards, Vanguards, etc. on the castle stairs and platform)
50-60 Stonevale Stonevale Farm Quests (there are a number of quests here: do all except the Duskshadow armor ones)
[At level 60, see Piranus (west of SV Farm, down the river) and do his quests to enter the Otherworld]
59-63 Stonevale North of Stonevale Farm (Kill the Imps and bears!)
60-143 Otherworld Otherworld Passage leystone, find Arbiter Kester and start his questline; at several points you are given the option to repeat a quest, keep repeating at the following points until the xp sours:
~85 [Repeatable Quest: you gather necklaces in the Sewers, farm the necklaces over and over again (until you have 10+ of each) and turn them in at once]
~95 [Repeatable Quest: you gather a kelpie horn, farm these over and over again (until you have 30+) and turn them in at once]
~105 [Repeatable Quest: you kill a big scorpian, do the quest repeatedly]
~130 [Repeatable Quest: you kill a big sentinal, do the quest repeatedly -- OTM lowered the xp on this quest, so only do it if it is worth it! This will be your last repeatable quest.]
64-80 Fingal's Cave Pirates (The various rooms in the southeast. Pirates drop lots of gold! And there are a lot of them!)
80-100 Otherworld Everywhere (Kill the eyes corresponding to your level range: Red, Green, Blue, Purple)
100-120 Otherworld Ghost Alley (Do you kill Ghosts, or Kelpies/Trees? I recommend Ghosts: while they are more difficult, they have less magic resistance and there are lots of Gold/XP ghosts)
120-130 Otherworld Blackstone Cabal (Do you kill Blackstones, or Golems? Blackstones are easier for Druids to kill, Golems hit hard...)
130-175 Carrowmore What happens here is beautiful: there are a series of rooms, from 130 to 180, filled with mobs of a 5-10 level range; when you level beyond one room, move on to the next. Start with the Boggan rooms, move to Firbolgs at 160
175-180 Carrowmore (Snorri Pit) See that small pit at the bottom of Carrowmore that precedes the big pit? Level in there with a group (or use winds if you level solo, the 4* Firbolg mobs don't use skills).
180-190 Corrupted Gardens The Serrated Vines are easy to kill, I recommend aligning with the Lich Faction as the Reavers are pretty easy for Druids to kill. There is also a repeatable quest where you pick up blossoms, however it is questionable whether the XP gain is worth it over leveling on mobs.
190+ Gelebron's Tower Similar to Carrowmore, the floors of Gelebron's Tower have a nice progression of mob levels. Level in your level area, ideally with a group. At this point you should try out Bark-based and Winds-based builds to see your preference.

There are also mobs in Fingal's Cave and Dunskrieg Sewers/Murky Vaults, however they have high resistances, high damage, and high health, so are not worth leveling on. Pirates make up for it by not using skills, having good leveling rooms, and dropping high amounts of gold.

More on Quests

It is probably self-explanatory, but I have found that holding back from doing some quests until a certain level has many benefits:

*Side Note: Many quests require you to kill mobs: when the mob is up, on your map will be a crossed swords icon at the mob's location. If you are required to kill a mob in Lirs (for example), but the crossed swords don't show, it means it is not respawned yet or you have to kill placeholder mobs to get it to spawn.*

DON'T Quests: These are quests that I highly recommend you do not pursue. They take a LONG time to complete, and the reward is just not worth it:
Blair's Bows (tiny reward, lots of effort)
Farmer Moffatt's Chickens (lol have fun... darned chickens!)
Caryn the Cook (The reward is 75? gold for you to run around collecting ingredients... not worth it)
Guthrie the Herbalist (same as Caryn)
Rowena the Druid (same as Guthrie)
Galway the Sage (the reward (Helm of the Wanderer, adds 30 defense) is not necessary for Druids)
Darkshadow, Duskshadow, Spiritshadow Armor Quests (in Shalemont, Stonevale, and Otherworld, these armor quests require you to gather rare drops from mobs and the armor is trash)

DO Quests: Do these quests at the specified lvl
Storyline: START IMMEDIATELY, and when you cant solo a mob, level up until you can.
Finding the Leystones (Western Road): Do right after the storyline. You will already have most of the leystones, which will help.
Corp Gudgeon's Quest (Southern Road): Do after the Western Road Leystone quest, his is another Leystone quest.
Doctor Cormac (Shalemont Camp): Do when you enter Shalemont, upgrade your Storyline Ring!
The Darkness Released: Start at lvl 25 in Dustwhither (second leystone), finish ASAP -- free alt book!
Defector Quest: Start when you enter Shalemont. Don't worry about completing it, it's hard to get every one of those bosses... The bosses drop good gold though so it's nice knowing when they are up.
Earlene the Herbalist (Shalemont Camp): Fettlecap Question, do as much as possible until lvl 40. Nice xp, gold, and potions.
Farmer Forbes (Stonevale Farm): Start at lvl 50-55, try to solo everything, but you may need help with Wildsnouts.
The Evil in Stonevale (Stonevale Farm): Start at lvl 50, finish ASAP -- free rebirth Book!
The Chaos in Stonevale (Stonevale Farm): Very easy quest -- free alt and rebirth book!
Saving Faerieland (Otherworld): Lvl 60. Start ASAP, do as you adventure in Otherworld. It requires you to kill a number of bosses (these bosses can drop +3 skill rings!).
The Test (Otherworld): Lvl 60. Start ASAP (it's at the second Otherworld leystone, from the guy with the headdress). It requires you to kill every Frozen Armor boss (which go up to level 135), take your time to finish, this quest allows you to enter Gelebron's Tower.

All others I am indifferent to, these are just the ones to look out for.

Bounties

In Farcrag Castle, next to the fountain, is the "Bounty Board" -- each day, you get two free quests and four more "bounty pledge" quests. Each quest is suited to your level, and is usually something around "pick up X of this item" or "kill X of this mob" or "get X of this item from this mob". These quests give out great XP, lots of gold, and a bounty token. The bounty tokens can be used to purchase items from the Bounty Shop such as pets, mounts, elixirs, fashion, and Rebirth/Alt books. You can get Bounty Pledges either from other players, from the Plat Store, or by picking up "Hunters Remains" scattered through the areas (mainly Lirs Reach). There is no difference between bounties from bounty pledges and the two free bounties, so I recommend not bothering with doing all six daily.

While I recommend doing all of your bounties, it's ok to forfeit ones that require you to kill more than 5 mobs if you find it's not worth the effort. Any "Elite Bounty" you should do regardless of the task as they give mega XP/Gold.

I also recommend only using your bounty tokens for pets and mounts, which provide the best value for your effort. HOWEVER, there currently are no good Pets/Mounts for Druids. So save up your Bounty Tokens! I personally have over 300 bounty tokens saved up awaiting the arrival of a good Druid pet or mount. It does not hurt to save them!

Bossing

Bossing is VERY different than soloing mobs, and Druids are often vital for a successful kill. Here are some terms and tricks:

The Tank: a "Tank" is a character with lots of health and armor, who draws the boss' aggro. Often, the Tank will be a Warrior, as they have high Armor, high Health, and aggro-drawing skills.
The Tank is your top priority. If the tank dies, everyone dies. cast Nature's Touch constantly on them, and use your other skills during Nature's Touch's cooldown. Keep meditate running, even at level 1, for energy regeneration.

A typical boss fight goes:

1. Natures Touch (on Tank)
2. Bark (on Tank)
3. Natures Touch (on Tank)
4. Meditate (on You)
5. Natures Touch (on Tank)
6. Wait
7. Natures Touch (on Tank)
...

Remember to use only 1 skill in between Touches, as Nature's Touch is the priority.

Adds: Adds ("Additional mobs") are mobs other than the Boss that are attacking the group. If you are being attacked by an add, say "Add on me" and usually a DPS or the tank will kill it. If no one kills it, and you die, then you know that your group doesn't know how to boss, and you should refer them to this guide!

The Group: Every bossing group has 3 vital parts: A Tank, a Druid, and a/multiple DPS (someone with high damage, usually a Rogue, Ranger, or Mage). Again, your only job is to KEEP THE TANK ALIVE! During a boss fight, the tank's health ALWAYS comes before your own. Save Nature's Touch for the tanks, except for when healing a DPS is safe. If you have low HP, simply carry on and continue healing the tank until it is safe to heal yourself -- always place yourself last. From experience you will learn where to stand at bosses to stay safe from adds and area-attack skills, and how to use Calm and Nature's Embrace effectively.

Large bosses may require multiple groups, these are often split into:
Tank Group: Tank + Druids
Kill Group: The group intended to get lock (Generally the leaders of clans to manage drops, or if multiple clans agree to a joint kill, this group may be split 4/4 [there is max of 8 players in a group])
DPS Groups: All other DPS
*Some bosses may also have dedicated Adds groups*

Buffs: Buffs are the initial preparations that happen right before the fight begins. For Druids, that means casting all their buff skills on the tank. To improve efficiency, here is the order of which I cast buffs (when in support build):

1. Abundance
2. Nature's Touch
3. Bark
4. Embrace

Abundance comes first, as it has the longest effect time (3 mins). Then Nature's Touch, to bring the Tank's health to maximum (abundance does not heal, so there will be a health gap when cast on the tank. Also, so Nature's Touch is cooled down by the time you finish buffs), then Bark (2 mins), then Embrace (1 min). If you use Bless, use it first (4 mins duration).

Nature's Breath (the AoE heal) has a high energy cost, so it should only be used to supplement your Nature's Touch if necessary, or to heal the DPS if they are in your group. Bossing is primarily a game of energy management -- if you are low on energy, the tank has high health, and your buffs won't be ending soon, you can stand back and take a small break for Meditate and Sigils to kick in. Aim to keep at least 20% of your energy reserved for emergencies, and carry some small energy potions/food just in case.

During the buff period, your tank should cast Protective Stance (a skill that greatly boosts their armor) on themselves.

Leveling

When you know how to kill mobs, soloing can be easy and provide good XP (relatively...). Note that you should never attempt a solo mob kill unless your health and energy bars are both above 50% capacity.

Your character has two modes, "In Combat" and "Idle". "In Combat" is a stance your character assumes for 5 seconds following interactions with mobs or other players in combat. While you are in Combat, Sigils, Mediate, and Recuperate will not work! However when you return to "Idle" they will start regenerating again.

Here is some advice for killing mobs ("DPS" is the character you are leveling with):
1. Keep Nature's Embrace on throughout the fight (if you use it, you might find it helpful at level 1). When it is close to expiring, cast it again. Do not worry about recasting it halfway through its duration, it's better to conserve the energy.
2. Strangling Vines is helpful. Once it lands the DOT damage is unavoidable, and you can focus on healing instead of damaging. If you use vines, keep it active on the mob.
3. Lightning Strike is your main attack. Cast it on its ready.
4. When your HP is at 1/2 of its max, start casting Nature's Touch. If Touch is interrupted, cast it again and again until it heals. For your DPS, cast at around 2/3-4/5 hp, look at what percent of their health is regenerated by your heal to get an optimal understanding. Things can go wrong unexpectedly, so it's better to keep your DPS' health close to max. You will get a feel for how much your heal affects your DPS' health bar, so you can keep them healthy without "wasting" portions of your heal.
5. NEVER rely on Lightning Strike during a close to death situation when there is a probability that the mob will still be alive. One of the worse feelings is dying *just* before a mob is dead! Either kill the mob comfortably, or back away and regenerate.
6. Solo mobs between 0-6 levels higher than yours. Duo up to 10 lvls higher than your DPS. Your damage drops ~10% for each level a mob is higher than you, so you will find a sweet spot between kill rate and XP.
7. Watch out for adds! Avoid their paths as much as possible. When you are a higher level, invest in a handheld mount adding 40-50% camo: it's well worth it!
8. When group leveling, don't run when an add attacks you. Instead, say "Add on me" and continue. If your DPS ignores you, say "Kill the ____ that is attacking me", and heal yourself instead.
9. Meditate, even at level 1, makes a difference. The skill, while inactive while In Combat, is not removed, so it pops back into effect when you leave combat. Just cast it every 5 minutes, it takes care of itself!


More on Gear

Armor:

First, get your Meadowsun gear. It comes with the story quest and works great.

There are three lines of armor you can obtain: Main Quest, Auxiliary Quest, and Storebought

Storebought, as you can imagine, is purchased from shops. I recommend saving your gold instead, as you won't go far before the next armor line comes along. Ancient Silk armor is an exception: it looks beautiful and has the longest lifespan of storebought armor -- if you chance upon plenty of gold, or see it listed for cheap in the Auction House, buy it!

Main Quest and Auxiliary Quest are rewards from quests -- both armors are great, albeit different, however Main Quest armors include a weapon, and when worn as a set give a nice health/energy bonus.

The levels and armor lines are roughly as follows:
Level Range Type
20 Storebought/Boss Drop (Silverleaf, purchased in Farcrag, Woven Silverleaf drops from bosses in Dustwhither Catacombs at the East/West/North extreme rooms)
10-35 Auxiliary Quest (Darkshadow, Lirs) -- don't bother, this armor is trash: minimal armor, some focus, a skill that deals a tiny bit of damage to enemies that auto attack you for a short time
~40 Storebought (Ancient Silk, Stonevale)
40-60 Auxiliary Quest (Duskshadow, Stonevale) -- upgraded Darkshadow, and only slightly less trash
60 Storebought (Quartz, Otherworld)
55-80 Main Quest (Warden, Stonevale)
80 Storebought (Topaz, Otherworld)
85-105 Main Quest (Meteoric, Stonevale)
100 Storebought (Opal, Otherworld)
100-120 Auxiliary Quest (Spiritshadow, Otherworld) -- also upgraded Duskshadow, still trash
120 Storebought (Emerald, Otherworld)
110-135 Main Quest (Frozen Meteoric, Otherworld)
120-135 Auxiliary Quest (Onyx/Obsidian, Otherworld) -- decent armor, adds nature magic ability, looks great. Unfortunately the drops (from Blackstone mobs) are rare and you get better armor from Carrowmore
140 Storebought (Beastbone, Carrowmore)
140-160 Auxiliary Quest (Wyrmbone/Ancient Wyrmbone, Carrowmore) -- great armor, you will get most of the quest items by leveling on Boggans. Each piece adds a direct damage boost to a skill (Nature's Touch, Lightning Strike, etc)
160 Storebought (Ancient Beastbone, Carrowmore)
150-180 Main Quest (Dragonlord, Carrowmore)
180 Storebought (Spellwrought, Gelebron's Tower)
180 Storebought (Reaver Armor, Corrupted Gardens)
180 - 200 Auxiliary Quest (Alchemical/Occult) -- very similar to Wyrmbone, I strongly recommend getting at least the chestpiece (Nature's Touch/Lightning Strike) and boots (Nature's Touch) of this armor
185-210 Main Quest (Exhalted Dragonlord, Gelebron's Tower)
200 Storebought (Thaumaturgic, Gelebron's Tower)

When you can (level 50-80), start the Warden Armor quest. Start with getting gloves, then boots, then helm, then leggings, and lastly the robe/weapon (it may take a while to get dragon discs). Discs will likely be cheap/free, especially if you appeal to high level mains. You can also usually find discs for cheap in the Auction House. Having a full Main Quest armor set provides a nice health/energy bonus!

Once you are level 80, start the Meteoric Armor quests. This gear is great and looks amazing. However, buying the rems and tabs may be very expensive. Camping (waiting for the spawning) of the bosses which drop the items you are looking for is a great way to get the drops. If you make friends with high levels, they will often be happy to help you out! Each meteoric boss has a 4* and two 6* variants, with the lesser 6* variant dropping one item and the full 6* variant dropping 3 items. The non-6* variants drop gems, which have no purpose other than to be sold to shops for some nice gold.

Frozen Meteoric Armor begins at level 105, in the Otherworld. This gear will permanently replace your Meteoric Armor, so make sure you are ready to lose your Meteoric Armor bonus before turning in your first Frozen Meteoric Armor quest. Some players prefer to get everything they need for their Frozen meteoric armor before turning in their first piece, so they keep the Meteoric set bonus -- it doesn't really make a difference.

Focus on getting your drops for the Main Armor quests, they all build upon each other: you need Warden to receive Meteoric, Meteoric to receive Frozen Meteoric, and so on.

Personally, the only shop armor I bought was Diamond (now called Opal, at the time Frozen Meteoric armor had not come out yet so it made sense to purchase it). Now though, I would recommend saving all your money for luxury offhands.

As a note, Bitey (a Druid, of course) maintains a wonderful website with tons of tutorials showing boss locations, quest requirements, fishing/cooking guides, and tons more: Bitey's Wonderful Website. Take a look there if you need reference material for those particulars.

For Warden, Meteoric, and some Frozen Meteoric, you should be able to get pieces donated to you by clanmates or high level friends. By the time you reach Dragonlord (150+), I recommend joining a clan that actively kills the Dragonlord and Exhalted Dragonlord armor bosses. Don't pay a single gold coin for those drops! They are super expensive on the market!


Onto weaponry:

As said before, stick to your staff and get a totem once you enter Shalemont. Do not fall for other weapons!! I recommend the most basic totem in Shalemont (Wolf Totem, it costs 2.1k gold); your mainhand should not even be considered a DPS source, just a small supplementary measure. Use your simple totem until you get your Warden Totem (quest) at level ~85. Use the Warden Totem until you upgrade it to a Meteoric Totem at level 105, and then Frozen Meteoric Totem at level 135. Use the Frozen Totem until you get a different mainhand from raid bosses (Aggragoth, Hrungnir, or Mordris) or Dragonlord. At level 215 you can get the Exhalted Dragonlord Totem, and at 220 mainhands from the Gelebron and Dhiothu raid bosses.

There are several useful mainhands for Druids:
- Aggragoth Books: mainhand books that add focus (or vit) and an ability. Only use the focus/natmagic one! Comes in three tiers: dark (110 level req), shadow (130 level req), void (150 level req); drops from Aggragoth, a "raid boss" in the Otherworld
- Mordris Books: next-gen Aggy books pretty much, adds Focus, Vit (or dex), and an ability. Both the Focus/Vit/NatMagic one and the Focus/Dex/NatMagic ones are great! For many years I used my void mordris book as my primary weapon. Also comes in three tiers, 180/185/190 level reqs.
- Hrungnir Skulls: mainhand skulls, adds 12-15 skill points and reduces the cooldown of a skill by 20-30%. For Druids, they come in Nature's Touch, Nature's Breath, Lightning, and SoL (...) variants. Many like them, especially the lighting strike ones, although I personally prefer the Mord books.
- Dragonlord/Exalted Dragonlord Totems: upgrades from your Frozen Totem (at levels 175 and 210), adds 200-250 focus and a fair bit of auto damage. Some Druids actually switch to auto-based builds with their DL/EDL totems, you can find their guides in the Druid Lexicon.
- Gelebron Totems: raid boss drops from Gelebron, provides 200-300 focus, direct skill boosts to either Lightning Strike, Nature's Touch, Nature's Breath, or Storm Touch, and adds a 2k-heal instant healing skill (woohoo!)
- Dhiothu Totems/Books: raid boss drops from Dhiothu, I actually have yet to see one but you can ogle for days at the community-run Celtic Heroes Item Database

For offhands, there are only a few good ones, and most come from the Luxury Shops. Quick note, ONLY BUY THE TOP TIER!!! Don't waste your gold on anything but the best, lux is quite expensive and lower tiers have minimal resale value.
- Golden Focus of Energization (level 35 req, Shalemont? or Farcrag): ~15 focus regeneration, really helpful for low level Druids if you have gold to blow, although a good necklace is a better buy
- Master's Grimoire (60 req, Otherworld): regens energy, adds 100 focus. I LOVED this offhand back when Otherworld was the high-level area, however now it is not worth buying, as the next-gen is at level 100
- Focus of the Seer (100 req, Carrowmore): regens energy, adds 200 focus. Get this if you can afford it!! It will carry you will until level 150/200. If you are 130+ when you can afford it, don't bother, and get the 150 req one when you reach level 150
- Focus of the Scryer (150 req, Carrowmore): regens energy, adds 250 focus. Get this unless your clan can guarantee you a Dragonlord Offhand when you reach 180
- Dragonlord Offhand (180 req): adds 300 focus. Of course you should get this, it is a prerequisite to the EDL offhand and is better than the lux offhand
- Eldritch Grimoire (180 req, Gelebron's Tower): adds 350 focus, not worth getting; wait until 200 if you plan to buy another lux offhand (even if you are using the 100 or 150 offhand)
- Runic Grimoire (200 req, Gelebron's Tower): adds 400 focus, worth getting if you don't think you'll get your EDL offhand for a while and your clan can't guarantee your EDL offhand
- Exhalted Dragonlord Offhand (215 req): adds 450 focus, definitely get this!
- Corrupted Gardens Offhand (215 req): requires the Exhalted Dragonlord Offhand, you keep the EDL offhand and get another that either adds to Nature's Touch, Storm Touch, or Rescue; a weekly quest upgrades it, and at tier 8 ("T8") has a skill that does an AOE Instant and DOT heal. This currently is the best offhand in the game.

For Jewelry, 90%+ of useful jewelry will come from mobs, bosses, raid bosses, legacy (old event bosses), etc... not from the shop! There is a legacy item shop in Dunskeig Sewers which offers random luxury items from past events: some of these are good for casters, most not... Generally you can get old event lux from the Auction House or other players. There are only two luxury necklaces I recommend:
- Snowspirit Amulet (150 req): adds 200 focus and a 600 shield skill
- Perceptor Amulet (190 req): adds 150? Focus/Vit and a shield skill
Both are solid necklaces that will last you until you get a great endgame necklace (from Bloodthorn, Dhiothu, or a Legacy -- old seasonal event -- boss).

Don't bother with amulets from the static luxury shops, except for the top-tier master-crafted amulets (level 35 req, offered in Shalemont? Or Farcrag) when you are a lower level, for the energy regeneration. Event gear all the way!

A note about legacy bosses: After a seasonal event, the bosses from the event spawn will once every ~2 weeks. Over the years this has accumulated to around 230 bosses! There will be many opportunities for you to acquire legacy gear, check the auction house and ask high level players for help.


Money...

I cannot stress this enough, save your gold!! You gain gold from killing most mobs, selling drops to vendors, selling drops to players, and completing quests; However, many players will entice you with dicing, better weapons and cool fashion.. politely decline their offers: you will need all the money you can get! Many new players become engrossed in fashion and fancy items, so be the smart one and avoid all that. Money will come later on, high levels (with nothing to spend gold on) are most definitely able to buy all the fancy toys they want. But you, as a fledgling Druid, are far better off abstaining from such desires!

While saving money, value the importance of honesty. Never resort to scamming or dicing: scamming is something carried with you past the point of you leaving the game, and dicing is a surefire way to get scammed. Your reputation is important, and will affect your ability to form friendships and join clans.

I should not even have to say to never beg: Do not disgrace the Druid Order by such childish acts!

Save every gold piece! It will be worth it in the end!

With that said, there are several worthy uses of your treasured treasure:
- the luxury offhands I wrote of earlier
- the master-crafted top tier energy-regeneration amulets (from Shalemont or Farcrag, it has a level 35 requirement)
- that wolf totem in Shalemont
- an 80%+ event mount (NOT the mount from tokens, this one fills the weapon slots), this should cost you no more than 200k

If you do all your bounties and save all your gold, affording this will be no problem at all.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

And such this guide is concluded.

If you have read this far, and truthfully read, I commend you, and shall be praying to Taranis, our patron god, for your behalf.

If you have questions, I advise making a thread on the Druid forums or asking high level Druids on your server. Several times in this guide I have mentioned making high level Druid friends -- on every server there are endgame Druids willing to take on promising apprentices, donate their old gear, or offer advice. Many understand the struggle, many too were helped by the elders in their youth, and are happy to pass on the aid to others. Do not be afraid to ask!

Feel free to say "Hello!" to me if you see me on Taranis, or send me mail :-)

You have my greatest wishes, fellow Druid, may you leave your mark upon the land.

Good Luck, and Happy Healing.
Regenleif
Last edited by Regenleif on Wed Mar 17, 2021 5:59 pm, edited 18 times in total.
World Taranis

- Regenleif -
Rachmaninoff
Aedin Flameborn

Former Leader in theILLUMINATI, Aeon, and Taranis United

I am a Guide! If you need any tips/help/advice, Click Here to send me a message!

Re: Regenleif's Guide For Being an Awesome Druid (MUST READ)

#2
Hey Regen, Where are the popcorns for yr long post!
I have experimented with various builds, but since the update it has come down to this: Focus = Power. Every 5 skill points I have in Focus, my Touch increases by 3 points, and my Embrace increases by 1-2. Therefore, I have 120 VIT, and 215 FOC. I can get to most bosses without any help or buffs, and with buffs I can get to everywhere but the bosses deep in Otherworld (Chained king, Swamplord, etc). My current stats are:
5 STR
5 DEX
215 FOC
120 VIT
For us druids, STR and DEX are absolutly useless.
In my opinion, you could have a little less VIT and a little more FOC, as I reccomend you have as much FOC as possible, but it is good idea to have at least 100 VIT (you want to be able to survive a couple boss hits) Every time from now on that I level, I will increase focus.
I concur on the dex. With 5 dex, my longest record is 8 times interrupted in a row. With 60 dex, its about 5 to 6 times. 60 dex occassionaly will help in evading interruptions but nah the 55 stats is much better placed on Focus or Vit.
Natures Touch: 20/20 (24/20 with rings)
Meditate: 15/20
Embrace: 16/20
Lightning: 17/20
Vines: 1/20 (4/20 with ring)
With this set up, I can solo all wisps, some druids, most unicorns. All while having a superb heal and energy regeneration. If I took off my points in Meditate, I would have placed them in Abundance and in Bark.
I find it interesting you are able to kill the sv mobs with yr skill set up. U rely purely on lighting to kill mobs. Vines at lv 4.. seems a bit weak but the interesting bit is you can survive with just lv 1 bark. Pretty risky relying just on Touch and Embrace to work and not being interrupted. But hey its working for u :lol:
When your HP is at 1/2 of its max, start casting Nature's Touch. If Touch is interupted, cast it again and again until it works.
I generaly find that if Touch gets interrupted 3 to 5 times already, just cast either lighting, vines or embrace. Touch should then work without being interrupted. (Not 100% tho)
Solo mobs between 1-6 levels higher than yours. Duo up to 10 lvls higher than your tank.
Cant comment about mobs outside of OW but the OW mobs gives the same exp. 1 lv higher than you will give (almost) the same exp as a mob who is 6 times higher. (Same stars ) So, it is generally better to kill 1 to 2 levels higher as it is easier.
The Group: Every Group has 3 vital parts: A Tank (Someone with high VIT, usually a Warrior, who takes the damage), a Druid, and a DPS (Someone with high damage, usually a Rouge or Ranger). Your Job? KEEP THE TANK ALIVE. During a boss fight, the tank's health ALWAYS comes before your own. Save Nature's Touch for the tanks, and use Embrace for other heals. If you have low HP, simply cast embrace on yourself and continue healing the tank. If your DPS has low hp, cast embrace on them. When your embrace on the Tank expires, cast it on them again.


Sometimes, if there are too many adds on you or the boss has targeted you and you know yr about to die. It may be better to log off and relog in if you are not prepared to use idols. It beats jogging b to the scene unless the leystone is really nearby. Ofc, u need to know yr team well enough that they wont invite someone when yr logged off.
***Armor***

Firstly, get your Meadowsun gear. It is decent, and comes with the story quest.
Second, try to get Woven Silverleaf. Not the storebought silverleaf. Woven is lighter (weight-wise), gives better armor, and also gives additional energy (about 75 total).
When you are lvl 50, get the Warden Armor quest. Being a druid, it is very easy to get into the Stonevale bossing groups. Start with getting gloves, then boots, then helm, then leggings, and lastly the robe (may take a while to get dragon discs)
Once you are level 80, start saving for Diamond Gear. This gear is EXTREMLY good, and wearing it increases your FOC and VIT. However, it is very expensive (100k for the Robe)


This is more or less correct tho I like to point this out - Meadowsun < Woven < Ancient < Warden < Crystal < Meteor < Diamond < Meteor upgrade < Dragon

As you can see, Meteor upgrade and dragon gear will be better than Diamond gear. Of course, not many druids may be able to get the necessary parts to upgrade their gear but this is something we should all aim for end game. We always want the best stuff right?
MorphMarfa has retired from Celtic Heroes and most probably wont be resurfacing. He had a enjoyable time during his druid adventures in Taranis.

Lv 182+ Druid : Taranis

Re: Regenleif's Guide For Being an Awesome Druid (MUST READ)

#5
Wow, long post. :) I have some things to add. (Im lvl 90)

1: Meditate is only useful if you don't have sigils. If you have sigils you don't need it anymore.
2: Abundance - i don't use it. At least at my lvl, boosting Shield of Bark to 22/25 is more useful to me as it gives me 200 armor (which is more then diamond warrior armor (: ).
3: Boss fights. I havnt timed the skills in Update 3 yes, as they have different expiring times now. In Update 2 I had a nice boss fight formula where I used Abundance, Bark, Touch, Embrace, vines and lightning. In general, casting "touch - embrace - touch - embrace" is a waste of energy, as embrace has a enough duration for you to cast "embrace - touch - bark - touch - abundance - touch - ward of magic - ward of fire - touch". The new system where the skill blinks before expiring doesn't make a constant cast useful at all. After embrace starts blinking, you can slip in another heal before it expires.

@Confuzz: I got my vitality at 100 and can solo in OW...
i just made a druid and i was wondering whether having 25 str would be good for a druid.
No
Selene (Mage) 134 | Xellaya (Druid) 110
Clan: Uskoci
World: Arawn
Image

Re: Regenleif's Guide For Being an Awesome Druid (MUST READ)

#9
i just made a druid and i was wondering whether having 25 str would be good for a druid.
No
Well, I have 40 str purely for the reason if I run out of energy ;)

Branwen :!: ;)
Nah, no stats into str. Waste of points. If you run out of energy, its very risky depending on yr weapon + 25 / 40 str for the finishing move.
would it be good for a druid to have a mighty shield of crowns?
Shield of crowns gives + 15 Hp regen. Not worth it considering you have embrace? :D I prefer bodkin spirits over shield spirits anytime. Also note shield takes about 170 energy odd away due to its weight.
MorphMarfa has retired from Celtic Heroes and most probably wont be resurfacing. He had a enjoyable time during his druid adventures in Taranis.

Lv 182+ Druid : Taranis

Re: Regenleif's Guide For Being an Awesome Druid (MUST READ)

#10
1: Meditate is only useful if you don't have sigils. If you have sigils you don't need it anymore.
Just like to say that I have NOTHING from the plat store (Sigils, Idols, Restoration Pots, etc)
3: Boss fights. I havnt timed the skills in Update 3 yes, as they have different expiring times now. In Update 2 I had a nice boss fight formula where I used Abundance, Bark, Touch, Embrace, vines and lightning. In general, casting "touch - embrace - touch - embrace" is a waste of energy, as embrace has a enough duration for you to cast "embrace - touch - bark - touch - abundance - touch - ward of magic - ward of fire - touch". The new system where the skill blinks before expiring doesn't make a constant cast useful at all. After embrace starts blinking, you can slip in another heal before it expires.
When I posted that peice, I didnt mean to say use the second embrace on your tank, but to use it on your wounded ally.
Heads up... If you're gonna solo in ow you better bump that vitality up bud...
I dont solo in OW (Takes WAY too long). Instead I find a rouge/ranger/DPS_Warrior and heal them while they fight.


Hope all this helps
World Taranis

- Regenleif -
Rachmaninoff
Aedin Flameborn

Former Leader in theILLUMINATI, Aeon, and Taranis United

I am a Guide! If you need any tips/help/advice, Click Here to send me a message!

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