Notice from author: This guide is made for Vanilla EQ and it's first expansion, The ruins of Kunark. It does not show the actual places that you can go in P1999 with the addition of the Scars of Velious expansion. I will slowly update the guide to include those, however, all the other hints and tactics and also the places of Kunark and Vanilla EQ still work, so feel free to read it anyway :)
Abstract of the guide: Hello druid, my name is Gaviilan and I have been playing in Project 1999 for a long time. I also played as a druid until Planes of Power era in live. I always kept druid as my main character, despite the many challenges druids have to face. The purpose of this guide is to offer some help and tips to druids, in order to maximize the potential of the class. Also I want to show druids "solo" level tactics, like quadding and charm kite. Lastly, it's also the purpose of the guide to point out the strenghts of the druid either in a standard group and when raiding.
Introduction: Ok, so you made it. You kept levelling your druid. You fought against all those who told you a druid is useless in the high end and you should leave it at lvl 39 forever to rot as a porting machine. You ignored all those people that insisted you should level a monk/rogue instead. You sweat to explain people that a druid is indeed useful in groups. You experienced victory when a possible wipe, followed for a 2h CR in Sebilis disco, turned out in a safe and pleasant walk from Emerald Jungle with an evacuate. You emerged victorious while solo kiting. You embraced the joy of outdpsing people in certain raids with charming tactics. Yes, you are a real druid. This guide is for you.
To begin with, I must warn you, the path of the druid is not easy. We can't heal as well as a cleric, or even a shaman, until Velious expansion hits. We don't have the myriad of buffs that a shaman has, but our natureskin buff it's probably the best all in one buff in game. We can't deal as much damage as a wizard, but we're similar(if not better) than a magician class. Our last nuke, wildfire, is similar to the magician high end one, plus we have DoTs and some useful clickies.
But by far, the real handicap of a druid is the lack of a slow/debuff spell. This can often turn you down in groups for shamans. We have to deal with this problem with our own strenghts, and remember that we have ports.
Many people won't understand our true potential in groups and you'll often be turned down for another class; its our duty to make those close-minded people change their mind about us. To make this happen, be sure that you always have the appropiate spell set in any group given situation. Use your nukes, heals, damage shields and buffs efficiently. Remember that you can do almost every role in game with a druid - so take advantage of it.
However - let's not fool ourselves. A druid will never fit in a min/maxing group (at least if there's no animals to charm around, and even with that). Think of the druid class as the number one soloers outdoors, and a very entertaining and challenging class to play in general. In certain zones (like Chardok, Kedge Keep or even SolB) a druid can perform very well, using charm tactics.
- Spirit of Oak (+9/tick) (downside is that it turns you into a tree, thus unable to move) (also it overwrites SoW).
- Mask of the Hunter (+3/tick) (Now it stays after zoning, so be sure to have this spell always on).
- Form of the Howler (+2/tick) (Second highest druid runspeed spell in-game without handicaps).
- Protection of the Glades (+6/tick). (Velious) (Arguably the best buff in game).
Druids can melee to some extent. Surprised? We're priests after all!. We will never be as good as a shaman or a cleric, but it's doable. And it will be a very good method to gain experience all the way to level 24.
After level 24 tank n'spank tactic is not so useful. MoBs have too many hitpoints and hit too hard for us to effectively hunt them down.
Not much to explain here, just buff up skin, strenght, Firefist, coat and don't forget to damage shield yourself. Use Harmony to split the camp you wish to hunt in and pull the MoBs with either Snare or better yet, Flame Lick. Melee them to death, with the aid of the damage shield. Rinse and repeat.
If you finding troubles downing MoBs you can use your Treeform spell when melee'ing. It will increase your regeneration a bit.
My advise is to save all your coin and buy a weapon first of all, before any other equipment. Tainted Battleworn Morning Star or Springwood Club are both cheap and good weapons (as a curiosity, springwood club was the very first item I bought here in P1999 :))
Probably the most known druid tactic to solo.
While this tactic can serve you well when killing strong MoBs, it's often turned down for our other ways of gaining experience, because they are much faster. However, when killing nameds or place holders of a certain camp, this tactic is a must to use.
Now we're talking !! Who doesn't like to kill four mobs at the same time, while obtaining full experience for each one? Well, a druid can do it and very well, at that. In order to do a quad kite safely, you need to be level 36 or higher and have at least 175 Wisdom or you will run out of mana before finishing the mobs. Quad-kiting before level 36 is fairly difficult, but it can be done. But for the purposes of this guide, I will focus on the level 36+ quad kite.
Here are some places you can quadkite in (this is not an extensive list).
First of all be sure that you are at least buffed with your bramblecoat/skin like line of spells. Be sure you have SoW or better yet, wolf form. For further safety, you can also regen yourself, but not needed.
If you find yourself lacking one more nuke to finish the quad kite, you can use the SESSWRT (Gav's tm) tactic. SESSWR stands for sit-every-six-seconds-while-running-tactic. It involves sitting every 6 seconds, as the name states. Everything in Everquest runs on a 6-seconds tick, mana regeneration too. In other words, if you manage to run and sit down for 1 second every 6 seconds, you will get the full meditate tick (just like if you would be sitting non-stop). If you manage to use this tactic efficiently, you can finish every quad, no matter your equipment. You can also greatly minimize your downtime between quads. Be careful when using this tactic, because being hit by 4 angry MoBs while sitting involves at least 4 critical strikes on your back, and it's not funny !!
Quad kite has always been my favourite method to level. If you have a Luminescent Staff you can basically powerlevel yourself from level 46 to 53 on Aviaks in Timorous Deep, and then move on to Raptors in the same zone.
Always keep your Lightning Strike spell memmed along with your Lightning Blast, it will be usefull to finish off mobs. Also it's nice to keep a low level nuke to finish runners/low HP mobs.
Always use Ensnare. Snare will 80% of times run out before finishing a quadkite.
At level 45 and onwards (mostly all the way to 60) you can quadkite roamers near Karnor's Castle. Problem is that there are a lot of adds around, and it's not easy to finish a quad without having to root other MoBs in way. There's a good way to avoid this: quad kite on the top of Karnors. Procces
Thanks Mascha for this contribution
Charm kite is a very effective way to level up your druid. For most druids, charm kite is the fastest way of leveling, since it needs very little gear, and you can repeat it almost forever without downtime. Charm kite basically involves killing an animal after another, by making them fight each other to death, and then finishing both with a nuke.
To begin with, I will talk a bit about the charisma issue. It have been stated by the developers of the game that druid charm it's the same as necromancer charm, and the latter doesn't use charisma, so it's very probable that druid charm doesn't use charisma after all. If I would need to give you a tip I would say that in most situations you will probably do better simply keeping your +WIS/MANA equipment on, in order to have a larger mana pool. However, even with the above statement, I would advise you to stay above 75 charisma when charming (A charm buff always come handy, and you dont have to swap gear).
Anyway, if you want to test it by yourself,here are some items that will help you boosting your charisma.
Here are some places you can charm kite in (this is not an extensive list).
First of all be sure that you are at least buffed with your bramblecoat/skin like line of spells. Be sure you have SoW or better yet, wolf form. For further safety, you can also regen yourself, but not needed.
As a druid, you're one of the few classes (if not the only one) that can solo in Plane of Fear. Entering is tricky (if not nearly imposible without a raid force), but can be done. However it's much better if you wait until the plane is cleared, or, at least, the entrance is cleared. Entering alone is very difficult. Keep Gate memorized all times. If you're not level 60 (or at the very least 59) don't bother trying this, because it will be too difficult. Also it's good to have a good array of clickies and good equipment. This is probably the hardest thing a druid can do. Is your body ready?
Be sure that you full buff yourself before entering, it's better if you have clarity II from a friendly enchanter. Once prepared, invis yourself. Enter the portal and inmediately turn WEST (Left) hug the zone wall and continue south until you see a hill that you can climb. On the top of the hill is a small plateau in which you can set your camp. If the plane is full poped it will probably be difficult to enter without getting aggro though. If you get aggro - try to root every MoB and then quickly find a Gorilla to charm and finish them one by one. Then proceed to the camp site.
Once in the camp site - med to full mana. Go down the hill and turn left (North). A bit ahead there should be a single Shiverback (Gorilla). Use Ensnare on it, Use Glamour of Tunare on it, then use Call of Karana on it. After you make this friendly gorilla your pet, use Savage Spirit on it. You could also hit him with Regrowth if you want.
Now start moving through the south wall and pulling/killing everything you can (try to avoid toads, they cast nasty spells). If your pet dies, just go near the FF House (P1999 map) and get another one, there should be plenty of them . My advise is to do this very slowly and ensuring you're full buffed before each pull. Be sure to root any incoming MoBs and use your Spirit of Oak spell to regain mana if you need.
If you have a lot of time and you are very lucky you can (maybe) get to the gorgons and start killing them for your planar pieces (I have never been so far).
When entering, it's probably better to bring a group of friends before to clean entrance - some MoBs to the south wall. Also, having a friend cleric nearby is always useful. Mostly this is for druids that have done everything and want a higher challengue. Also don't forget every MoB here summons, so let your pet do the work. It's very difficult, you will die a lot, you have been warned.
But when you do it - the feeling is awesome.
Who doesn't like to get into a dungeon and kill powerful enemies for their loot? As a druid, you can do this. However, druids will never be as good as shamans, enchanters or necromancers soloing in high level dungeons. To be honest, probably other classes (aside from the listed above) can even do this better than you in most situations. But hey, cheer up! nobody said the path of the druid would be easy.
The first problem a druid has to face when dungeon crawling is that well . most dungeons in game are indoors, this means we can't use many of our spells and specially, we can't use Harmony to split MoBs or move through a dungeon like an enchanter would do. The second problem druids have is the lack of a slow or even a debuff spell, this makes dungeon crawling extremely difficult as a druid and limited to a few dungeons, mostly those that have animals on them.
But the real problem comes when soloing summoning MoBs. We don't have a slow spell, as stated above, so when a MoB summons you, no matter how fast you can react, it will beat you hard. Most epic MoBs summon, so unless you have a fresh source of pets to get them down, it's difficult for druids to kill summoning MoBs. For your information, MoBs start to summon in Everquest at level 51, and they will not summon you if they're not under 98% HP.
Even with our handicaps, druids can still perform well at some dungeons:
The 4 dungeons listed above are basically the dungeons in which a druid can perform well. I won't list the low level ones like droga/Guk and such, since they are not that hard and probably any class can get to the decent cash spots.
Sebilis and Howling Stones are a no-go for druids right now. Most MoBs can summon in those dungeons and also they don't have animals on them. Maybe if you have epic and when root + snare stacks, but not right now.
Although druids can't get to the real cash camps in Everquest (such as Hierophant in Sebilis or Howling Stones), we can perform pretty well in this matter. First of all, you can make good money just from doing ports or buffing people. Also we are great powerlevelers, so take advantage of that aswell.
Aside from ports, buffing and powerlevelling, druids can also perform very well on certain zones, as follows.
As druids, we are one of the few classes that can take advantage of the cycles in EverQuest (along with rangers and bards). Cycling involves killing certain MoBs in order. Each time you kill a MoB there's a chance for a named to pop in the next place in cycle. If not, a PlaceHolder will pop. Be sure to wolf form, Levitate and invis yourself before starting to look for MoBs. Places to do cycle:
You can quad kite or Root/DoT any of the above MoBs. All of them drop nice cash/gems/fine steel weapons.
Levelling !! Gaining levels !! That's what's EQ is all about. In this section of the guide, I will share with you what I did for levelling Gaviilan to level 60. I spent quite a lot of time to level to the top, and If I can give you an advise here is to enjoy the journey, not the destination. Make friends, experience new places in EverQuest, test yourself, die and don't hurry. Level 60 will be waiting for you when you really reach it. I mostly did Root/DoT and quadkite to level up, along with a lot of grouping. Never been a fan of charm kiting, so you won't see much of it while levelling. However right now I use it everyday on dungeons. This is what I did:
Having the right spells memorized in a given time can save your life and it will certainly make you a better druid. There's nothing established here, each played likes to order his spell gems in a particular order. In this part of the guide, I will share with you my usual spell setup, but it doesn't mean you need to have the same, just use the setup you're more comfortable with.
If you dont have lighting blast yet, you can memorize lighting strike in the third position and leave the 4 for a DoT or a low level nuke, in order to finish off low hitpoint MoBs.
If you have your Goblin Gazughi Ring, you can save the 5th slot for buffs or any other thing you may need.
This spell setup asumes that you're level 60. If you have your Elder Spiritist's Gauntlets you can save the 7th slot for a fire based DoT.
Spell setup in groups depends heavily on the duty you're doing in that group, so use this setup just as a guideline of a typical group, and adapt it to the groups you have. If you're not fighting "hard MoBs" and even in that situations, DoTs can be replaced with another spell and only nuke. The only situation I really use DoTs are when MoBs have a high fire/cold resistance, because our magic line of DoTs it's hardly resisted.
Some people use Snare rather than Ensnare in groups/soloing. It costs a little less mana but last only 3 minutes (anyway, you don't need snare to hold more than 1 minute in groups). However, from "my" experience here and in live, ensnare is less resisted than snare, and so I use it always. Please note there is no proper evidence on this and is based on my personal feelings. If you have your Elder Spiritist's Gauntlets on, you can also save this spell gem for anything else
If you're one of the few fortunate owners of a Nature Walkers Scimitar you can do some additional tricks, however it's use is limited until 3 months passes into Velious, since right now Root + Snare doesn't stack.
First of all, it could be good if you level your 1 Hand Slashing Skill to 175. I know this can be difficult, because normally you obtain your epic at level 60 or near, and you need blue con and higuer MoBs to train the skill. Try to get some help of your guildmates/friends and melee MoBs in groups. I found that on the easy efreeti camp you can level it easy and with little disturbance to the group. Try to get a Speed of the Shissar too and an Enlightenment buff, it will help you get those skill point. As druids we have the one of the higuest melee skill cap of caster classes (only shamans are above us), so use it to your advantage, you never know when a pair of slashes might come handy!
However, the real use of the epic comes with the Wrath of Nature effect the item has. The effect does the following:
Grips your target in the wrath of nature, causing 55 damage every 6 seconds for up to 6 secs (1 ticks @L1 to 3.0 mins @L60).
So, at level 60 your epic has a click effect that does 55 * 30 = 1650 damage plus a snare component. Not bad! However, it's of little use right now, because (as said above) snare and root don't stack yet, so the only use of this click right now is to finish fleeing MoBs and to snare in raids / groups, while also doing some damage.
Also the snare component on the sword is really unlike to be resisted, because it has a modificator of -100 MR, so use it to land your snare on those magic resistant MoBs (Thanks Daldaen for this contribution)
Charming is the best way to maximize damage output of a druid in raids. If you can charm properly and with some reliability, your guildmates will for sure thank you. Some times, specially when the raid is small, having a hasted pet that hits for 120 can be a real help. Let's get into it.
Check the preparing for charm section, point 4.1.4.1 in the guide.
There are 5 Mobs you can charm on raids so far in P1999:
Before charming in raids, it's a good idea to buff up to the teeth, because you will need those extra hitpoints when the pet breaks. At the very least you should have Natureskin, Spirit of Wolf, Regrowth and Bladecoat. It's advisable to get a symbol line spell for a cleric too.
If you want to add a few additional swings to your pet and the posibility of some added DPS, you can try handing him some 1h weapon. Beware when it breaks tho, because it will hit really hard.
If you have a bored enchanter in your group/raid, it's also a good idea to have Bedlam on.
First of all, tell your raid leader that you are going to charm. After that proceed as following.
Upon pet breaks you will have to recharm it. However it can be difficult some times, mostly because we don't have a mezz spell avaliable. You can basically have two situations here:
Charming in raids is by far the best way for a druid to DPS in the game. It's roughly one of the few situations were druids are really useful and no match with any other class, with the possible exception of necromancers.
The ability to have a pet, heal, nuke and DoT at the same time is only ours. Enjoy and use it at will.
These are the new spells that druids get in the Velious expansion.
(Thanks Daldaen for your heavy contribution to this section of the guide)
See the Travel Guide for Egress/Succor evacuation locations.
Making this guide required much more effort than I thought in the start. My initial intention was to point out the strenghts and positive points of the druid class in the overall, but it ended as the guide you have in your hands right now.
I made this guide for all those druids that are struggling to find a reason to play the class. Druids will never fit in a max/min situation or group, but played correctly, they can be a great addition to any given situation in the game. They are a very fun and interesting class to play, and very underplayed at higuer levels. Our solo capacities and somewhat tank ability brought a smile to my face in a lot of situations.
I hope you have the same fun reading the guide as I had making it. And above all, I hope this guide can be useful for new druids and older ones alike.
If you have any questions or comments, you can find me in game as Gaviilan or Bokeron. You can also send me a private message in P1999 boards, my forum handle is Rafaone. You can access my Magelo here --> Magelo Blue:Gaviilan
'Stay strong, druid!!'
Disclaimer: The opinions in this guide are entirely personal. Feel free to distribute the guide, as long as you keep it with the same format and text given here. Also make a link to this page and send me a PM in P1999 forums so I can keep track of it.