Found on>>Runes of Magic Official Forum
Original post by : remilafo
Written by Xerise Part 2 of Xerise's Druid Guide!!
Xerise's Encyclopedia Guide to Druid Subclasses
Section 1: Introduction
Hello Druids thank you for taking a moment of your time to read my stat, gearing and skills druid encyclopedia. I used to have a a guide for every druid subclass but i realized after some time that those guides only worked for the game content that was released at that time and as the game progressed the guides became more and more outdated.
This guide will attempt to address informing you how to stat and gear your druid in a more universal way that should survive as the game progresses and hopefully give you a sense on how to make best use of your druid skills. This guide ofcourse assumes that there won't be any major changes to the druid class itself and/or ROM combat game engine.
Section 2: Assumptions and Requirements
This guide assumes that you have reached lvl 50 on your druid side and for you to progress your going to need to start examining and playing around with Modifying your gear to make yourself be able to survive in some of the harder zones like Savage lands, Aotulia Volcano, Thunderhoof hills and Janost forest.
Im going to try to keep this guide as Free-to-Play friendly as possible but i will be very honest with you to be at the leading edge of game content generally requires at least some financial investment into this game.
Im also assuming that you have at least read my two previous guides, Strategic healing and Early Druidhood.
http://forum.us.runesofmagic.com/showthread.php?t=45132
http://forum.us.runesofmagic.com/showthread.php?t=47338
Section 3: Getting a jump start on powering up!
Our first task will be to get your chracter to lvl 55 because thats when all the good gear starts. Between lvl 50 and 54 it can be a long haul because you need more experience for just those four levels than you did for your level 1-50. For the moment your quest gear will suffice but you may have already found a guild and perhaps your guild is nice enough to lend you some "Twink" gear which can make this leveling process very easy.
However assuming you have no twink gear, by the time you are lvl 50 and have done all the needed quests you should have about 2 million gold to your name. Use this gold to invest in buying a Holy earth or Holy Water pet for your druid. Buy about 1m worth of Golden eggs and power level this pet to about level 15. This will be an early and cheap but significant boost to your character.
You can find a pet guide on the rom forums, pets are not the focus of this guide.
Taking advantage of your housemaids: I hope you got yourself at least one housemaid while you were leveling up early on, because these are free buffs to your chracter. I personally have two housemaids for crafting and 1 for protection curriculum (gives more HP). If you have not done this do it now and start building these relationship with your maids.
Again you should be able to find a guide on housemaids if your have any additional question because housemaids are not the focus of this guide.
Section 4a: Your Training Day! Levels 50-54
Well you made it! level 50 not bad. Time to start learning how to play your druid in a group environment and figuring out more specifically how your going to gear it when you really hit end-game.
For the moment just keep going on whatever gearing trend you have established for yourself, your about to find out if it really works. Many people skip these levels but i cannot stress enough how important it is to learn how to play your druid in stressful situations because later on your ability to adapt and your reaction time will be the determining factor if your going to make it as a elite druid or not. With chapter three release too many people are skipping content and really sucking at playing druid later on because they fail to develop their adaptability and dexterity.
Mystic Alter: Difficulty Easy
Requirements: 5K Hp as a Druid and Standard Quest gear + your pet.
What i hope you learn to deal with in here in how to make a good pull, deal with monsters that fear you, deal with Mana draining monsters and learn to fight both magical and physical damage dealing bosses. Furthuremore the bosses in this Instance are not kite-able.
Skill tips: Binding Silence
Cyclops Lair: Difficulty Normal
Requirements: 8K+ HP + Pet and a weapon that has been upgraded a bit, maybe even 1 or 2 pieces of stated gear.
What i hope you learn here is to deal with a boss that actually needs teamwork to kill, monsters that charge and knock you down and bosses that stun you. Give this place a try it's an excellent instance where alot of gold and experience can be obtained.
Skill tips: Lots of Regens, Recover + blossoming life, Mother natures protection
Kalins Shrine: Difficulty Hard
Requirements 10K+ HP + pet, 1-3 Pieces of stated gear and a upgraded weapon.
What i hope you learn here is how to handle percentage based attacks, really sudden powerful attacks and again tactical teamwork. As a druid this place will also be your first real challenge as a healer.
Skill tips: Antidote, mother natures wrath, Mother natures fountain, mother natures protection, rock formation
Treasure Trove: Difficulty Nightmare
Requirements 13K+ HP, + Pet, Upgraded weapon and 2-4 Stated pieces of Gear.
Here you will learn about hidden monsters (assasins), how to handle patrolling monsters and how to manage removing buffs and debuffs. As a druid you will learn about timing and healing on the move and how to deal with laggy situations.
Skill tips: Remove Curse, Rock protection, Briar entwinment, Earth Pulse, Sandstorm
Section 4b: Your essentials
I hope you have noticed by now that your bread and butter healing skills are Recover and Monther natures fountain and I hope that you have learned to control Mother natures fountain properly (please see My strategic healing guide).
I hope your mixing in Restore life to restore natures power while the Recover regen is ticking. Don't forget you can also cast Binding silence and Curing seed to additionally restore natures power!.. DO IT!
Although Mother natures wrath seems really expensive it's actually a great spell to mix into your rotation if your a D/M or D/R, try experimenting with your DPS and mixing it in.
I hope these four instances have allowed you to explore your various skills in multiple situations, druids are a very dynamic class and have a wide array of option availible to their play style. I haven't even touched elite skills yet.
Section 5: Lvl 55+ Gear (generally speaking)
Alright so you made it, level 55 thats hot! This is where you will really discover if your a casual player or a hard-core player because this is where your level doesn't matter so much but rather your skill with your class and ofcourse the gear you have. In particular your gear will start costing you alot of money (rom Gold) i hope your ready for this.
Generally as a druid you will always seek healing gear regardless of your sub-class. The main thing you should be looking for are pieces of gear that provide you with "Healing Point Bonus". At level 55 the most notable set is the Holy Source set from the instances Zuridon Stronghold and Hall of the Demon Lord. At level 60 for example you may be seeking the Tribute set from Rhaska Temple. This holy source or Tribute set mixes great with the Mother tree set from the instance origin. Mixing the Holy source / Tribute set with the Mother tree set is an AMAZING start and will last you a long time.
You will want:
Tribute / Holy source Head piece
Tribute / Holy Source Shoulders
Tribute / Holy Source Boots
Mother Tree Chest Piece
Mother Tree Belt
Every Druid should at least try to get these five pieces first before venturing onto other pieces of gear and/or
experimenting with other combination.
There are other various pieces of gear that can be obtained from Various Black Codex seller all across the game and an easy way to get the currency for these guys (ancient mementos) are from Timed events that take place in thunderhoof hills and Janost Forest. Please find other events or memento guides written by others as this is not the focus of this Guide.
Section 6: Druid Sub-classes and General equipment guidelines with a particular note on the Vahtos set
Druid is the most dynamic class in this game and your sub-class greatly varies how you play. So please do not label or stereotype the Druid/X class. Allow me to Define the Druid as I see them, I have at least played every druid sub-class up to and past lvl 55 and brought them all into ZS/DL instances at least. Keep in mind my suggestions are just that suggestions not a rule, please feel free to play your druid as you please.
The Pure Healing Druids:
Druid/Scout: This Druid is the best class in the game for Single target healing, with four regenerate spells it is
unmatched for Patch healing and spot healing. Gearing with the Druid/scout is easy because all you need to focus on is maximizing your healing ability (Healing point bonus, Magical Damage and Wisdom) and survivability (HP, Stamina, Physical Defence).
Druid/Warrior: This druid is the best group healing druid, with two-instant cast group heal spells this druid can match a priest in it's group healing ability with even finer stability and control. You can gear the Druid/warrior similar to the Druid/scout but somewhere you will need to get gear that increases your Physical accuracy or stats that improve your dexterity since Rage (warrior energy) only gets generated when you hit a enemy, if you are always missing you won't have any rage. Also the Druid/warrior has to be in melee range of enemies this increases your danger factor so as a D/W you should go a bit heavier on Survivability than the Druid/Scout.
The Hybrid Druids:
Druid/Mage: This druid is a perfect mix of Magical Damage and healing at the same time. A great addition to any party when just a bit of DPS and/or heals are needed, A real thing of beauty in the hands of the master. Seek out the main five pieces of healing gear i said earlier but after that you can mix up mage or more healing pieces if you want. Stating the D/M is tricky business try to achieve a stating ratio of something like 3:2:1 Mage:healing:surviving.
Druid/Warden: This druid is a mix of Physical Damage and Healing at the same time. A great tank support class where you can get up into the enemies face with your tank and keep both of you up with ease. Another very tricky class to equip, seek out the main five pieces of healing gear i suggested after that you can mix physical DPS gear with Healing gear as you wish. In terms of stating never use any stats that have Strength on them (the druid simply does not benefit from Strength) try to get a statting ratio like 3:2:1 Physical DPS:Healing:Surviving.
The Damage Druid:
Druid/Rogue: This Druid specializes in the dark arts and although it retains all of it natural healing abilities it has the choice to greatly increases its damage output at the cost of reducing its healing powers. A truly competitive magical DPS class. As i mentioned before all druids will seek out healing gear which also applies to D/R however the D/R should Stat like a Mage building up intelligence and magical attack. If you need more info please seek out a good mage and ask them how they are statting up.
Using a Vahtos set: The Vahtos set is a very old set from Chapter 1 but it is still around and used widely because it's fifth piece set bonus is a 15% increases to magical Power. So the majority of Magical damage dealers use this set. However for healing it's a bit more unclear if a druid should use this. Later in this guide i explain the healing formula and show you why and where you should use this set but for the moment.
Druid/Scout, Druid/Mage and Druid/Rogue should always be using the Vahtos set. WHile Druid/Warrior should be using healing accessories and Druid/Warden can almost use any accessories it wants.
Section 7: What you need to survive in endgame play
This section im going to go briefly over what i think is the minimum requirements in terms of HP and Healing power for you to get into an instance and do well. When i state these numbers this can be in a buffed state. I don't care so much about your unbuffed state because the truth is when your running an instance with your guild it is adviseable for you to make use of every helping tool you have.
For damage dealing druids please compare your Patk or Matk and Pdmg or Mdmg numbers to typical DPS classes and you should have at least 85% of their numbers to be effective in that instance.
For you hybrid druids your requirements are always a bit harder because your statting and gearing for both but in effect try to have at least 85% of the typical DPS requirements numbers and at least 85% of the healing numbers i am about to describe.
Note: the number im going to describe below is assuming your NOT the only healer in the party. In a 6-person raid it's always a good idea to pair up with a priest. In a 12-person raid i have seen as much as 4 active healers.
Instances: Default instance difficulty is Normal; my rated difficulty is how hard i think that place is for a druid.
HOTO (heart of the ocean): Difficulty Nightmare
Hp: 12K Hp or higher.
Healing power: Recover needs to be doing at least 7K burst heal and 1K regen.
Lesson: Explosive worms
Origin: Difficulty Fairly easy
Hp: 16K HP or Higher.
Healing power: Recover needs to burst for at least 9.5K and regen for about 1.5K
Lesson: Getting lost and finding your way, Origin is BIG!
HOS (hall of survivors): Difficulty Very hard
HP: 20K HP or higher
Healing Power: recover must burst for at least 10K and regen more than 1.5K
Lesson: Crowd Control
LODD (Lair of the Demon Dragon): Difficulty Medium
HP: 17K HP or Higher
Healing Power: Recover burst 9K and regen 1.4K
Lesson: Sometimes Healers might need to tank
COTWD (Cave of the Water Dragon): Difficulty Hard
HP: 20K HP or Higher
Healing Power: Recover burst 15K and regen 2.5K
Lesson: Vary your attacks and anticipate monsters that explode.
ZS (Zuridon Stronghold): Difficulty Medium
HP: 21K Hp or higher
Healing Power: Recover must burst for at least 12K and regen more than 2K
Lesson: Don't Leeroy or things go BOOM!
DL (Hall of the Demon Lord): Difficulty Hard (and buggy)
HP: 24K Hp or higher
Healing Power: Recover must burst for at least 15K and Regen about 3k.
Lesson: Sometimes losing is winning!
DoD (Dungeon of Dalanis): Difficulty Easy
HP: 22K Hp or Higher
Healing Power: Recover must burst for abourt 18K and Regen for about 3.5K
Lesson: None
WA (Warnoken Arena): Difficulty Medium
Hp: 30K Hp or Higher
Healing Power: Recover must burst for about 20K and regen for about 4K
Lesson: Grouping and Scattering at the right time
RT (Rhashaka Temple): Difficulty Hard
HP: 42K Hp or Higher (really im not kidding)
Healing Power: Recover must burst for about 23K and regen for about 4.5K
Lesson: Mastering Kite-healing
Section 8: The ideal six!
In this section i will give you my recommendations for what 6-stats to seek out to try and put on each piece of gear you have. These recommendations will be generic I won't be naming specific stats.
Tempting stats that should be avoided, Anything with +MP (ex. Wing of improsonment +57Stam/+365 MP) and anything with +Mdef (ex. Armor VII +41stam/+120Mdef)
Druid/Scout: Pure healing druid
#1 Wisdom/Stamina (ex. Frost of imprisonment +57Wis/+57Stam)
#2 Wisdom/HP (ex. Secret of imprisonment +57Wis/+365Hp)
#3 Wisdom/Pdef (ex. Spirit of Competition +66Wis/+444Pdef)
#4 Stamina/HP (ex. Guard VII)
#5 Stamina/Pdef (ex. Pioneer VII)
#6 Another Wisdom/Stamina of lower level (ex. Frost of Fear +54wis/+54Stam)
Druid/Warrior: Pure healing Druid
You can follow the same statting guidelines as the Druid/scout but you should have some pieces of gear that contain these following stats as they will help your accuracy.
#1 Dex/Stam
#2 Dex/HP
#3 Dex/Pdef
#4 Wis/Dex
Druid/Rogue: Pure magical Damage Druid
Well you will be statting totally like a mage so your ideal six stats might look something like this.
#1 Int/Matk
#2 Int/Stam
#3 Int/HP
#4 Wis/Matk
#5 Wis/int
#6 Int/Pdef
Druid/Mage: Hybrid Heals and Magical Damage
You will be stating like a mix between the D/S and the D/R, so your ideal six might look like this.
#1 Int/matk
#2 Int/Stam
#3 Int/Hp
#4 Wis/Stam
#5 Wis/Matk
#6 Wis/HP
Druid/Warden: Hybrid Heals and Physical Damage
this is definetly the most complicated Druid to stat up because it needs a bit of everything except int and Str. Your ideal stats might go something like this.
#1 Wis/Stam
#2 Wis/Pdef
#3 Wis/HP
#4 Wis/Patk
#5 Wis/Dex (I haven't seen any of these past Hoto)
#6 Stam/HP
#7 Stam/Pdef
#8 Stam/patk (Highly desired stat, be prepared to argue against everybody for this stat)
#9 Dex/Patk (another Highly Desired Stat, Ugh!)
#10 Dex/Stam
#11 Dex/Pdef
#12 Dex/Hp
#13 Patk/Pdef
Section 9: A Healing formula
In this section i will present a healing formula which i hope will give you an understanding of how healing gets
calculated in this game and if your on the bleeding edge of the game as i am how you can stay ahead of the crowd with this knowledge.
Assumption #1: Please note the section of the title says "A healing formula" The formula i am about to present to you is a formula which i use to predict my heals +/- 10% compared to what i actually get. So what does this mean? Well it means my healing formula is wrong and it is not "The ROM Healing formula" but my formula is good enough in my opinion, this is just a game, im not launching a satelite into orbit so perfect accuracy is not important.
Assumption #2: This derived formula is currently active for Chapter 3 of this game. The healing formula was different in chapter 2 and it may be different in chapter 4 but for now this formula works.
Variables:
Hp = The HP you heal on your target
HM = Healing Multiplier (this variable alone is a complicated subject, more on this alter)
Mdmg = Your total Magical Damage, see your character screen, 95-100% of your Mdmg will come from your Weapon
Wis = Your Total Wisdom taken directly from the character screen.
HPB = Healing Point Bonus, a stat you get from pieces of gear and gear set bonuses
HV = Healing value taken directly from the tool-tip on your character skills menu
# ticks = the amount of times a healing spell hits your target, burst heals are always 1 tick , while regens can range from anywhere to 4 - 20 ticks.
So here we go!
HP = {HM * (Mdmg/2 + 3Wis/10 + HV + HPB)} / # ticks
Understanding this formula: If your decently comfortable with mathematics you should instantly see that Wisdom is the smallest contributor to your heals, while HV & HPB are the biggest contributors while Mdmg is somewhere in the middle. Therefore if your looking to maximize your heals always try to boost HV or HPB first before bettering your wisdom or Magical Damage.
However just because HPB and HV are the best things to raise it doesn't nessisarily mean they are the most availible things to get. At early end-game you probably have not maxed your healing skills because the Talent point cost scales exponentially and they get very expensive, still try to max these skills first; Currently in the game the only place you can get HPB is from healing gear and sets. Your Mdmg comes from your weapon and theoretically there is no limit on how good your weapon can get but the limiting factor is your bank roll and how much money you can shove into your weapon. Typically there is a sweet spot for weapons and this is called Tier 8 (please find another guide on tiering, not the focus of this guide). Wisdom being the weakest factor is also one of the most availible thing to aquire and it is usually wisdom that seperates Best from healer from second best healer, because eventually all healers will have the same HPB, HV and a tier 8 Weapon, so the only thing thats left is wisdom. Ofcourse one could argue that wisdom does you no good if your dead. So balancing wisdom are survivability is an interesting game.
Section 9b: The Healing Multiplier
The healing multiplier is a compound variable that includes any skill or buff that boosts your healing by a percent. Interestingly some of these percentage boosts multiply with each other and some other dont. Unfortunately i don't have a list of which ones do and which ones don't (this unknown factor may contribute to my +/- 10% error). I will give a few examples to show what i mean.
Healing Multiplier Variables:
CT = Casting Time, the default casting time of your spell (typically a 1, 2 or 3)
PDHB = Priest or Druid innate healing boost (Faith or pure healing, they max at 35% on either class, makes this
variable 1.35 at level 50)
ES# = Elite skills that may contribute to the healing multiplier (ex. Divine incarnation (1.15), Summers banquet 1.05, Grace of the forest 1.03 * 1.03 etc.)
FB# = Food buffs that can contribute to your healing bonus (ex. Fresh fish soup 1.05 or Garlic bread 1.05)
Other boosts = like the vahtos set 1.15, like the dragon set 1.06 etc.. Like the eye of wisdom set 1.10
So the formula
HM = CT */+ PDHB */+ [ES1 + ES2 + ES3 + ....] +/* [FB1 + FB2 + FB3 + ...] */+ Others
Yeah i know it's dirty and unclear but honestly it's the best i got... Let me give you an example of the multiplier my Restore life spell gets under full buffage.
HM = 2 (CT) * 1.35 (Pure healing) * 1.05 (Fish soup) * 1.05 (Garlic bread) + 1.15 (Vahtos) = 3.423
So as you can see the HM goes a long way to boosting your healing spells. I hope this section was helpful.
Section 10: Pro Druid tricks!
Spiritual Guidance: This spell converts enemies (that can be stuned or rooted) to your side for 15 seconds and it has proven to be SUPER useful in many particular circumstances. Let me share my experience with you here. This spell IMO has been over-powered in some places.
- this spell is usually used to kill of single enemies in a large patrol of monster or stand still group. Places where this works really well is in HOS, ZS and RT. Try it!
- Take your guidance to the next level! Sometimes bosses summon enemies to help them and these monster sometimes have really devastating attacks or spells, MAKE them YOURS!. Places where this works so well is HOS 5th, ZS 1st and 3rd, DL 2nd, RT 1st and 6th ... Seriously think about it!
- Boosting Party DPS .. I strongly suggest you include Withering seed or weakening seed into your casting rotation as these reduce defence by 10%, this may not sound like much but it really helps out your Tank and DPS classes.
- Squeezing Natures power: I also suggest you include Binding silence into your casting rotation, not only does this help your Natures power generation but it also prevents boss super attacks and sometimes even breaks bosses so they cease doing special attack entirely.
- Boosting Tank Aggro: Always cast Body vitalization at the beginning of each fight this will help your tank get additional aggro at the start. Trust me it makes a difference if your running with a powerful DPS class that is chasing the tail-end of your Tanks Aggro.
Section 11: Elite Macros that Speed things up
Bypass Targetting of Healing arrows and similar spells. Really useful and speeds up your reaction time.
/script CastSpellByName("Healing Arrows")
/wait 0.025
/script CastSpellByName("Healing Arrows")
/script SpellTargetUnit()
note* you can change the spell name to any spell that uses that type of targetting. I also use it for Cleanse and my mage friends use it for thunderstorm.
Self-targeting Mother natures Fountain.
/script TargetUnit("player")
/cast Mother Earth's Fountain
note* i also use this type of macro for Mother earth protection. To save my butt in Siege.
Swaps equipmen to save yourself dura loss on death
/run SwapEquipmentItem()
Swap to Madrush siege title and cast's it, switch to escape artist title and pop's a Spellweaver potion RESULT: run really really fast... I call this macro ESCAPE
/run SetTitleRequest(530459)
/wait 1
/cast Mad Rush
/run SetTitleRequest(530427)
/wait 1
/use Spellweaver Potion
Anyways that's all the goodies that i really loved.. There are other macro's i use also but they are generic and can be reaserched elsewhere.
Section 12: Conclusions
Thank you for taking the time to read this guide. It doesn't contain everything ofcourse and will eventually become outdated im sure but this guide should provide you enough information to become an excellent druid. I also must bid you all farewell as i have more or less moved on to another MMO. I will come back and investigate the Chapter four content when it comes out but for the moment I am not playing this game. Xerise has been maxxed out on her gear for several months and there is nothing left for me to get for the current content (March 22 2011).
In case your wondering... I left the game with 15013 Wisdom... 84K Hp, 68K Pdef under my normal instance running buffs (Fully buffed i had something like 109K hp but rarely ran with that) and managed to be the solo-healer for all the game content RT diamond and KT (hardest at the time).. I truely and full-heartly welcome my successor.
Hello Druids thank you for taking a moment of your time to read my stat, gearing and skills druid encyclopedia. I used to have a a guide for every druid subclass but i realized after some time that those guides only worked for the game content that was released at that time and as the game progressed the guides became more and more outdated.
This guide will attempt to address informing you how to stat and gear your druid in a more universal way that should survive as the game progresses and hopefully give you a sense on how to make best use of your druid skills. This guide ofcourse assumes that there won't be any major changes to the druid class itself and/or ROM combat game engine.
Section 2: Assumptions and Requirements
This guide assumes that you have reached lvl 50 on your druid side and for you to progress your going to need to start examining and playing around with Modifying your gear to make yourself be able to survive in some of the harder zones like Savage lands, Aotulia Volcano, Thunderhoof hills and Janost forest.
Im going to try to keep this guide as Free-to-Play friendly as possible but i will be very honest with you to be at the leading edge of game content generally requires at least some financial investment into this game.
Im also assuming that you have at least read my two previous guides, Strategic healing and Early Druidhood.
http://forum.us.runesofmagic.com/showthread.php?t=45132
http://forum.us.runesofmagic.com/showthread.php?t=47338
Section 3: Getting a jump start on powering up!
Our first task will be to get your chracter to lvl 55 because thats when all the good gear starts. Between lvl 50 and 54 it can be a long haul because you need more experience for just those four levels than you did for your level 1-50. For the moment your quest gear will suffice but you may have already found a guild and perhaps your guild is nice enough to lend you some "Twink" gear which can make this leveling process very easy.
However assuming you have no twink gear, by the time you are lvl 50 and have done all the needed quests you should have about 2 million gold to your name. Use this gold to invest in buying a Holy earth or Holy Water pet for your druid. Buy about 1m worth of Golden eggs and power level this pet to about level 15. This will be an early and cheap but significant boost to your character.
You can find a pet guide on the rom forums, pets are not the focus of this guide.
Taking advantage of your housemaids: I hope you got yourself at least one housemaid while you were leveling up early on, because these are free buffs to your chracter. I personally have two housemaids for crafting and 1 for protection curriculum (gives more HP). If you have not done this do it now and start building these relationship with your maids.
Again you should be able to find a guide on housemaids if your have any additional question because housemaids are not the focus of this guide.
Section 4a: Your Training Day! Levels 50-54
Well you made it! level 50 not bad. Time to start learning how to play your druid in a group environment and figuring out more specifically how your going to gear it when you really hit end-game.
For the moment just keep going on whatever gearing trend you have established for yourself, your about to find out if it really works. Many people skip these levels but i cannot stress enough how important it is to learn how to play your druid in stressful situations because later on your ability to adapt and your reaction time will be the determining factor if your going to make it as a elite druid or not. With chapter three release too many people are skipping content and really sucking at playing druid later on because they fail to develop their adaptability and dexterity.
Mystic Alter: Difficulty Easy
Requirements: 5K Hp as a Druid and Standard Quest gear + your pet.
What i hope you learn to deal with in here in how to make a good pull, deal with monsters that fear you, deal with Mana draining monsters and learn to fight both magical and physical damage dealing bosses. Furthuremore the bosses in this Instance are not kite-able.
Skill tips: Binding Silence
Cyclops Lair: Difficulty Normal
Requirements: 8K+ HP + Pet and a weapon that has been upgraded a bit, maybe even 1 or 2 pieces of stated gear.
What i hope you learn here is to deal with a boss that actually needs teamwork to kill, monsters that charge and knock you down and bosses that stun you. Give this place a try it's an excellent instance where alot of gold and experience can be obtained.
Skill tips: Lots of Regens, Recover + blossoming life, Mother natures protection
Kalins Shrine: Difficulty Hard
Requirements 10K+ HP + pet, 1-3 Pieces of stated gear and a upgraded weapon.
What i hope you learn here is how to handle percentage based attacks, really sudden powerful attacks and again tactical teamwork. As a druid this place will also be your first real challenge as a healer.
Skill tips: Antidote, mother natures wrath, Mother natures fountain, mother natures protection, rock formation
Treasure Trove: Difficulty Nightmare
Requirements 13K+ HP, + Pet, Upgraded weapon and 2-4 Stated pieces of Gear.
Here you will learn about hidden monsters (assasins), how to handle patrolling monsters and how to manage removing buffs and debuffs. As a druid you will learn about timing and healing on the move and how to deal with laggy situations.
Skill tips: Remove Curse, Rock protection, Briar entwinment, Earth Pulse, Sandstorm
Section 4b: Your essentials
I hope you have noticed by now that your bread and butter healing skills are Recover and Monther natures fountain and I hope that you have learned to control Mother natures fountain properly (please see My strategic healing guide).
I hope your mixing in Restore life to restore natures power while the Recover regen is ticking. Don't forget you can also cast Binding silence and Curing seed to additionally restore natures power!.. DO IT!
Although Mother natures wrath seems really expensive it's actually a great spell to mix into your rotation if your a D/M or D/R, try experimenting with your DPS and mixing it in.
I hope these four instances have allowed you to explore your various skills in multiple situations, druids are a very dynamic class and have a wide array of option availible to their play style. I haven't even touched elite skills yet.
Section 5: Lvl 55+ Gear (generally speaking)
Alright so you made it, level 55 thats hot! This is where you will really discover if your a casual player or a hard-core player because this is where your level doesn't matter so much but rather your skill with your class and ofcourse the gear you have. In particular your gear will start costing you alot of money (rom Gold) i hope your ready for this.
Generally as a druid you will always seek healing gear regardless of your sub-class. The main thing you should be looking for are pieces of gear that provide you with "Healing Point Bonus". At level 55 the most notable set is the Holy Source set from the instances Zuridon Stronghold and Hall of the Demon Lord. At level 60 for example you may be seeking the Tribute set from Rhaska Temple. This holy source or Tribute set mixes great with the Mother tree set from the instance origin. Mixing the Holy source / Tribute set with the Mother tree set is an AMAZING start and will last you a long time.
You will want:
Tribute / Holy source Head piece
Tribute / Holy Source Shoulders
Tribute / Holy Source Boots
Mother Tree Chest Piece
Mother Tree Belt
Every Druid should at least try to get these five pieces first before venturing onto other pieces of gear and/or
experimenting with other combination.
There are other various pieces of gear that can be obtained from Various Black Codex seller all across the game and an easy way to get the currency for these guys (ancient mementos) are from Timed events that take place in thunderhoof hills and Janost Forest. Please find other events or memento guides written by others as this is not the focus of this Guide.
Section 6: Druid Sub-classes and General equipment guidelines with a particular note on the Vahtos set
Druid is the most dynamic class in this game and your sub-class greatly varies how you play. So please do not label or stereotype the Druid/X class. Allow me to Define the Druid as I see them, I have at least played every druid sub-class up to and past lvl 55 and brought them all into ZS/DL instances at least. Keep in mind my suggestions are just that suggestions not a rule, please feel free to play your druid as you please.
The Pure Healing Druids:
Druid/Scout: This Druid is the best class in the game for Single target healing, with four regenerate spells it is
unmatched for Patch healing and spot healing. Gearing with the Druid/scout is easy because all you need to focus on is maximizing your healing ability (Healing point bonus, Magical Damage and Wisdom) and survivability (HP, Stamina, Physical Defence).
Druid/Warrior: This druid is the best group healing druid, with two-instant cast group heal spells this druid can match a priest in it's group healing ability with even finer stability and control. You can gear the Druid/warrior similar to the Druid/scout but somewhere you will need to get gear that increases your Physical accuracy or stats that improve your dexterity since Rage (warrior energy) only gets generated when you hit a enemy, if you are always missing you won't have any rage. Also the Druid/warrior has to be in melee range of enemies this increases your danger factor so as a D/W you should go a bit heavier on Survivability than the Druid/Scout.
The Hybrid Druids:
Druid/Mage: This druid is a perfect mix of Magical Damage and healing at the same time. A great addition to any party when just a bit of DPS and/or heals are needed, A real thing of beauty in the hands of the master. Seek out the main five pieces of healing gear i said earlier but after that you can mix up mage or more healing pieces if you want. Stating the D/M is tricky business try to achieve a stating ratio of something like 3:2:1 Mage:healing:surviving.
Druid/Warden: This druid is a mix of Physical Damage and Healing at the same time. A great tank support class where you can get up into the enemies face with your tank and keep both of you up with ease. Another very tricky class to equip, seek out the main five pieces of healing gear i suggested after that you can mix physical DPS gear with Healing gear as you wish. In terms of stating never use any stats that have Strength on them (the druid simply does not benefit from Strength) try to get a statting ratio like 3:2:1 Physical DPS:Healing:Surviving.
The Damage Druid:
Druid/Rogue: This Druid specializes in the dark arts and although it retains all of it natural healing abilities it has the choice to greatly increases its damage output at the cost of reducing its healing powers. A truly competitive magical DPS class. As i mentioned before all druids will seek out healing gear which also applies to D/R however the D/R should Stat like a Mage building up intelligence and magical attack. If you need more info please seek out a good mage and ask them how they are statting up.
Using a Vahtos set: The Vahtos set is a very old set from Chapter 1 but it is still around and used widely because it's fifth piece set bonus is a 15% increases to magical Power. So the majority of Magical damage dealers use this set. However for healing it's a bit more unclear if a druid should use this. Later in this guide i explain the healing formula and show you why and where you should use this set but for the moment.
Druid/Scout, Druid/Mage and Druid/Rogue should always be using the Vahtos set. WHile Druid/Warrior should be using healing accessories and Druid/Warden can almost use any accessories it wants.
Section 7: What you need to survive in endgame play
This section im going to go briefly over what i think is the minimum requirements in terms of HP and Healing power for you to get into an instance and do well. When i state these numbers this can be in a buffed state. I don't care so much about your unbuffed state because the truth is when your running an instance with your guild it is adviseable for you to make use of every helping tool you have.
For damage dealing druids please compare your Patk or Matk and Pdmg or Mdmg numbers to typical DPS classes and you should have at least 85% of their numbers to be effective in that instance.
For you hybrid druids your requirements are always a bit harder because your statting and gearing for both but in effect try to have at least 85% of the typical DPS requirements numbers and at least 85% of the healing numbers i am about to describe.
Note: the number im going to describe below is assuming your NOT the only healer in the party. In a 6-person raid it's always a good idea to pair up with a priest. In a 12-person raid i have seen as much as 4 active healers.
Instances: Default instance difficulty is Normal; my rated difficulty is how hard i think that place is for a druid.
HOTO (heart of the ocean): Difficulty Nightmare
Hp: 12K Hp or higher.
Healing power: Recover needs to be doing at least 7K burst heal and 1K regen.
Lesson: Explosive worms
Origin: Difficulty Fairly easy
Hp: 16K HP or Higher.
Healing power: Recover needs to burst for at least 9.5K and regen for about 1.5K
Lesson: Getting lost and finding your way, Origin is BIG!
HOS (hall of survivors): Difficulty Very hard
HP: 20K HP or higher
Healing Power: recover must burst for at least 10K and regen more than 1.5K
Lesson: Crowd Control
LODD (Lair of the Demon Dragon): Difficulty Medium
HP: 17K HP or Higher
Healing Power: Recover burst 9K and regen 1.4K
Lesson: Sometimes Healers might need to tank
COTWD (Cave of the Water Dragon): Difficulty Hard
HP: 20K HP or Higher
Healing Power: Recover burst 15K and regen 2.5K
Lesson: Vary your attacks and anticipate monsters that explode.
ZS (Zuridon Stronghold): Difficulty Medium
HP: 21K Hp or higher
Healing Power: Recover must burst for at least 12K and regen more than 2K
Lesson: Don't Leeroy or things go BOOM!
DL (Hall of the Demon Lord): Difficulty Hard (and buggy)
HP: 24K Hp or higher
Healing Power: Recover must burst for at least 15K and Regen about 3k.
Lesson: Sometimes losing is winning!
DoD (Dungeon of Dalanis): Difficulty Easy
HP: 22K Hp or Higher
Healing Power: Recover must burst for abourt 18K and Regen for about 3.5K
Lesson: None
WA (Warnoken Arena): Difficulty Medium
Hp: 30K Hp or Higher
Healing Power: Recover must burst for about 20K and regen for about 4K
Lesson: Grouping and Scattering at the right time
RT (Rhashaka Temple): Difficulty Hard
HP: 42K Hp or Higher (really im not kidding)
Healing Power: Recover must burst for about 23K and regen for about 4.5K
Lesson: Mastering Kite-healing
Section 8: The ideal six!
In this section i will give you my recommendations for what 6-stats to seek out to try and put on each piece of gear you have. These recommendations will be generic I won't be naming specific stats.
Tempting stats that should be avoided, Anything with +MP (ex. Wing of improsonment +57Stam/+365 MP) and anything with +Mdef (ex. Armor VII +41stam/+120Mdef)
Druid/Scout: Pure healing druid
#1 Wisdom/Stamina (ex. Frost of imprisonment +57Wis/+57Stam)
#2 Wisdom/HP (ex. Secret of imprisonment +57Wis/+365Hp)
#3 Wisdom/Pdef (ex. Spirit of Competition +66Wis/+444Pdef)
#4 Stamina/HP (ex. Guard VII)
#5 Stamina/Pdef (ex. Pioneer VII)
#6 Another Wisdom/Stamina of lower level (ex. Frost of Fear +54wis/+54Stam)
Druid/Warrior: Pure healing Druid
You can follow the same statting guidelines as the Druid/scout but you should have some pieces of gear that contain these following stats as they will help your accuracy.
#1 Dex/Stam
#2 Dex/HP
#3 Dex/Pdef
#4 Wis/Dex
Druid/Rogue: Pure magical Damage Druid
Well you will be statting totally like a mage so your ideal six stats might look something like this.
#1 Int/Matk
#2 Int/Stam
#3 Int/HP
#4 Wis/Matk
#5 Wis/int
#6 Int/Pdef
Druid/Mage: Hybrid Heals and Magical Damage
You will be stating like a mix between the D/S and the D/R, so your ideal six might look like this.
#1 Int/matk
#2 Int/Stam
#3 Int/Hp
#4 Wis/Stam
#5 Wis/Matk
#6 Wis/HP
Druid/Warden: Hybrid Heals and Physical Damage
this is definetly the most complicated Druid to stat up because it needs a bit of everything except int and Str. Your ideal stats might go something like this.
#1 Wis/Stam
#2 Wis/Pdef
#3 Wis/HP
#4 Wis/Patk
#5 Wis/Dex (I haven't seen any of these past Hoto)
#6 Stam/HP
#7 Stam/Pdef
#8 Stam/patk (Highly desired stat, be prepared to argue against everybody for this stat)
#9 Dex/Patk (another Highly Desired Stat, Ugh!)
#10 Dex/Stam
#11 Dex/Pdef
#12 Dex/Hp
#13 Patk/Pdef
Section 9: A Healing formula
In this section i will present a healing formula which i hope will give you an understanding of how healing gets
calculated in this game and if your on the bleeding edge of the game as i am how you can stay ahead of the crowd with this knowledge.
Assumption #1: Please note the section of the title says "A healing formula" The formula i am about to present to you is a formula which i use to predict my heals +/- 10% compared to what i actually get. So what does this mean? Well it means my healing formula is wrong and it is not "The ROM Healing formula" but my formula is good enough in my opinion, this is just a game, im not launching a satelite into orbit so perfect accuracy is not important.
Assumption #2: This derived formula is currently active for Chapter 3 of this game. The healing formula was different in chapter 2 and it may be different in chapter 4 but for now this formula works.
Variables:
Hp = The HP you heal on your target
HM = Healing Multiplier (this variable alone is a complicated subject, more on this alter)
Mdmg = Your total Magical Damage, see your character screen, 95-100% of your Mdmg will come from your Weapon
Wis = Your Total Wisdom taken directly from the character screen.
HPB = Healing Point Bonus, a stat you get from pieces of gear and gear set bonuses
HV = Healing value taken directly from the tool-tip on your character skills menu
# ticks = the amount of times a healing spell hits your target, burst heals are always 1 tick , while regens can range from anywhere to 4 - 20 ticks.
So here we go!
HP = {HM * (Mdmg/2 + 3Wis/10 + HV + HPB)} / # ticks
Understanding this formula: If your decently comfortable with mathematics you should instantly see that Wisdom is the smallest contributor to your heals, while HV & HPB are the biggest contributors while Mdmg is somewhere in the middle. Therefore if your looking to maximize your heals always try to boost HV or HPB first before bettering your wisdom or Magical Damage.
However just because HPB and HV are the best things to raise it doesn't nessisarily mean they are the most availible things to get. At early end-game you probably have not maxed your healing skills because the Talent point cost scales exponentially and they get very expensive, still try to max these skills first; Currently in the game the only place you can get HPB is from healing gear and sets. Your Mdmg comes from your weapon and theoretically there is no limit on how good your weapon can get but the limiting factor is your bank roll and how much money you can shove into your weapon. Typically there is a sweet spot for weapons and this is called Tier 8 (please find another guide on tiering, not the focus of this guide). Wisdom being the weakest factor is also one of the most availible thing to aquire and it is usually wisdom that seperates Best from healer from second best healer, because eventually all healers will have the same HPB, HV and a tier 8 Weapon, so the only thing thats left is wisdom. Ofcourse one could argue that wisdom does you no good if your dead. So balancing wisdom are survivability is an interesting game.
Section 9b: The Healing Multiplier
The healing multiplier is a compound variable that includes any skill or buff that boosts your healing by a percent. Interestingly some of these percentage boosts multiply with each other and some other dont. Unfortunately i don't have a list of which ones do and which ones don't (this unknown factor may contribute to my +/- 10% error). I will give a few examples to show what i mean.
Healing Multiplier Variables:
CT = Casting Time, the default casting time of your spell (typically a 1, 2 or 3)
PDHB = Priest or Druid innate healing boost (Faith or pure healing, they max at 35% on either class, makes this
variable 1.35 at level 50)
ES# = Elite skills that may contribute to the healing multiplier (ex. Divine incarnation (1.15), Summers banquet 1.05, Grace of the forest 1.03 * 1.03 etc.)
FB# = Food buffs that can contribute to your healing bonus (ex. Fresh fish soup 1.05 or Garlic bread 1.05)
Other boosts = like the vahtos set 1.15, like the dragon set 1.06 etc.. Like the eye of wisdom set 1.10
So the formula
HM = CT */+ PDHB */+ [ES1 + ES2 + ES3 + ....] +/* [FB1 + FB2 + FB3 + ...] */+ Others
Yeah i know it's dirty and unclear but honestly it's the best i got... Let me give you an example of the multiplier my Restore life spell gets under full buffage.
HM = 2 (CT) * 1.35 (Pure healing) * 1.05 (Fish soup) * 1.05 (Garlic bread) + 1.15 (Vahtos) = 3.423
So as you can see the HM goes a long way to boosting your healing spells. I hope this section was helpful.
Section 10: Pro Druid tricks!
Spiritual Guidance: This spell converts enemies (that can be stuned or rooted) to your side for 15 seconds and it has proven to be SUPER useful in many particular circumstances. Let me share my experience with you here. This spell IMO has been over-powered in some places.
- this spell is usually used to kill of single enemies in a large patrol of monster or stand still group. Places where this works really well is in HOS, ZS and RT. Try it!
- Take your guidance to the next level! Sometimes bosses summon enemies to help them and these monster sometimes have really devastating attacks or spells, MAKE them YOURS!. Places where this works so well is HOS 5th, ZS 1st and 3rd, DL 2nd, RT 1st and 6th ... Seriously think about it!
- Boosting Party DPS .. I strongly suggest you include Withering seed or weakening seed into your casting rotation as these reduce defence by 10%, this may not sound like much but it really helps out your Tank and DPS classes.
- Squeezing Natures power: I also suggest you include Binding silence into your casting rotation, not only does this help your Natures power generation but it also prevents boss super attacks and sometimes even breaks bosses so they cease doing special attack entirely.
- Boosting Tank Aggro: Always cast Body vitalization at the beginning of each fight this will help your tank get additional aggro at the start. Trust me it makes a difference if your running with a powerful DPS class that is chasing the tail-end of your Tanks Aggro.
Section 11: Elite Macros that Speed things up
Bypass Targetting of Healing arrows and similar spells. Really useful and speeds up your reaction time.
/script CastSpellByName("Healing Arrows")
/wait 0.025
/script CastSpellByName("Healing Arrows")
/script SpellTargetUnit()
note* you can change the spell name to any spell that uses that type of targetting. I also use it for Cleanse and my mage friends use it for thunderstorm.
Self-targeting Mother natures Fountain.
/script TargetUnit("player")
/cast Mother Earth's Fountain
note* i also use this type of macro for Mother earth protection. To save my butt in Siege.
Swaps equipmen to save yourself dura loss on death
/run SwapEquipmentItem()
Swap to Madrush siege title and cast's it, switch to escape artist title and pop's a Spellweaver potion RESULT: run really really fast... I call this macro ESCAPE
/run SetTitleRequest(530459)
/wait 1
/cast Mad Rush
/run SetTitleRequest(530427)
/wait 1
/use Spellweaver Potion
Anyways that's all the goodies that i really loved.. There are other macro's i use also but they are generic and can be reaserched elsewhere.
Section 12: Conclusions
Thank you for taking the time to read this guide. It doesn't contain everything ofcourse and will eventually become outdated im sure but this guide should provide you enough information to become an excellent druid. I also must bid you all farewell as i have more or less moved on to another MMO. I will come back and investigate the Chapter four content when it comes out but for the moment I am not playing this game. Xerise has been maxxed out on her gear for several months and there is nothing left for me to get for the current content (March 22 2011).
In case your wondering... I left the game with 15013 Wisdom... 84K Hp, 68K Pdef under my normal instance running buffs (Fully buffed i had something like 109K hp but rarely ran with that) and managed to be the solo-healer for all the game content RT diamond and KT (hardest at the time).. I truely and full-heartly welcome my successor.
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