Combat:Druid

Class Summary

Druids are a versatile class, able to harness the strengths and abilities of animals through metamorphosis, control the forest's defenses and powers, and create elixirs and salves for allies to use. They are typically close range melee fighters with many defensive and regenerative abilities that make them extremely hardy and allow them to excel in team combat and support tactics.

Skills

Metamorphosis - Meld your spirit with that of a wide variety of animals.

Groves - Claim a forest location for yourself, and invest your power in it to achieve mastery of the forest.

Concoctions - Gathering herbs and other ingredients to make the elixirs and potions that all Achaeans rely on.

Recommended Learning Order

Metamorphosis is more important in your day to day life as a druid because it is how you will hunt, navigate, and fight. Jaguar is the most important form to have to hunt as its variety of abilities will greatly increase the speed at which you kill denizens.

Groves comes second, as your grove will be your home. It is where you commune with nature and harness the powers of the forest, making it the focal point of all the powerful abilities you may harness. It is also where you will grow your quarterstaff and when in need, charge it to evoke powerful spells.

Concoctions must be learned last. *A word of caution!* Concoctions will not be used properly until you have the skill "HARVESTING" in Groves. Harvesting allows you to pick the plants, and your level of Concoctions determines what plants you can pick. (Note: This may seem strange at first, but it was designed this way to avoid the abuse of a lucrative skill without decent investment into a class.)

Stats

Druids are a class that have a far reaching set of skills as each morph holds its very own special set of abilities. This allows the druid to be played in many ways. You can play as a slow heavy hitter with a large pool of health, or take speed as your main trait without sacrificing much damage potential. Your grove lightning is a very powerful ranged tool that gives afflictions such as blackout and epilepsy from afar, something no other line of sight attack can do.

A balanced druid will play with equal parts of constitution and strength to ensure the most damage output to survivability. Strength will affect many of your attacks from Maul, Bite, claw, shred, hydra snap, hydra bite, and others. Anything that would be a directly physical attack. Playing like this will allow you decent survivability in team fights, but balance will not win you your solo matches alone.

A defensive druid will take plenty of constitution over strength or intelligence. Druids are inherently a slower melee class, meaning you'll have to take quite a beating before you can engage a proper offensive setup and attempt to slay your opponent.

Intelligence druids are by far the rarest of their kind, but are not to be trifled with. A high intelligence druid can shoot a lightning bolt that deals damage comparable to that of a fabled Lupine bow. Though Druids have many more physical attacks, abilities such as Hydra flames will be increased by intelligence. Keep in mind that intelligence also increases your mana pool which will assist in your survivability.

Traits

The following traits are often considered desirable for Druids:

Quick witted, Nimble, or neither? All three of these abilities are good options. The first thing to keep in mind is that taking either of these traits will cause you to take more damage, approximately ten percent more. For some classes these traits are a must, but remember, you're a druid. You can outlast and survive most all damage if you play it smart, keeping your damage as low as possible is always a possibility.

Nimble +Faster mauls +More flexibility with hydra +Combining nimble with the reflex skill is amazingly powerful +Ideal for incinerate -receive more damage -not ideal in freezepound setup -does not improve hydra third head speed

Quick witted +Improves your freeze ability +improved lightning casts +improves all quarterstaff abilities +Ideal for freezepound -receive more damage -not ideal for incinerate -Does not improve hydra third head speed

You'll always want to take the harvesting trait, who doesn't want more herbs?

Taking a point in one of your main stats is always a must. It's up to you, however. Strength, Intelligence, or Constitution.

The rest are up to you! You do not need many direct traits as a druid, so feel free to experiment with whatever traits you believe will improve your game play experience.

Druid Equipment

Druids require very little in terms of equipment. Most of what they have is gained from the forests. Your grove will provide you with your staff, as well as food, shelter, and even your clothes if you wish.

The only true piece of equipment you will need is a good set of Chain mail, unique to only the forestal classes. Get with your local forger and find a set of armor that suits your needs best!

Basic Combat Strategy

There are two main ways to kill as a druid through the strengths of your metamorphosis and harnessing the elements.

First is incinerate, a powerful flame conjured from the breast of the mighty Wyvern. It is an instant kill as soon as the target is below half health, instantly incinerating the target to a pile of white ash. This strategy is not difficult, but the application may be harder once you fight a person with excellent health and armor. You'll want to use your bees and fangs to whittle down their health until you know that they are struggling to survive and instantly blast them with your white hot flames. Be warned though, using your flames puts you at a severe disadvantage! Make sure you're going to kill them or while you recover, they're sure to kill you.

The second ability is the all mighty freeze pound. Utilizing a variety of morphs, you'll want to freeze your opponent solid before turning into the powerful gorilla and pounding their frozen flesh to sparkling dust. This is a much more difficult kill to pull off, but you'll have more of a chance to hinder, trap, and play against your opponents weaknesses then you will with incinerate. It is very difficult to master and a test of true skill for your druid might. Remember freezing is cured by a salve, so you have to keep your foes using other types of salves. Here's a tip. Break some limbs first, then freeze and smash.

Artefacts for Druid Combat

Druids gain substantial benefit from any of the knuckle artefacts, as they significantly increase the damage of the maul ability found within various morphs. Druids also possess a number of vital abilities that rely heavily on equilibrium, rendering the purchase of a Diadem as a solid choice.