Runes of Magic US / AU

Take a look in the Druid and Rogue forums. Just sayin'...

Since mods can't be bothered to come up with a decent answer I will give you what knowledge i have from playing the class.

PVP: I am going to tell you right now, don't bother. You will get destroyed in PVP. D/R's elites are made almost not worth getting soly because their damage boosting elite (Shadow Contract) doesn't give the same as Knowledge of the Earth (at 63% earth damage increase i think? While shadow contract is 40-45% dark damage increase.) On top of that Shadow contract cuts healing down by nearly half.

PVE: Well i will give you skills based on a level 50 character with all their elites, that way you have a decent idea of where to start. This is the rotation i use from logging on to first combat;

1. Pop up Savage Blessing, Concentration Prayer, Shadow Contract and Magic Turmoil. Then i spam Recovery to get myself up to 10 Natures Power points.
2. If its an elite or a boss, Speed Catalysis. If its a regular mob, i save it for later
3. After the mob is targeted i start with Poisonous Widow Embrace to start the fight
4. Get a Weakening seed on the target then start with your DOT's, Mother Natures Wrath, Briar Entwinement and Corrosive Poison.
5. Rockslide and Earth Pulse come next.
6. Switch between Earth Arrow and Poisonous Widow Embrace
7. Repeat.

Best way to look at it is this IMO; Keep up on your DOT's, make sure Weakening seed is on at ALL times (at level 45 it stops requiring natures power with the Curtain of Darkness elite) Rockslide and Earth Pulse are just extra little damage here and there but your main damage dealing skills will be Earth Arrow and PWE.

I would put points in PWE and Earth Arrow up till about level 35, get the Shadow Contract elite and dump ALL your TP into it to get it to 35 ASAP. Check the damage of EA and PWE and see how they compare. As your PWE level exceeds your EA level, you should be doing more damage as LONG as you have Natures power. Once that is expended, your damage drops by about a third i'd say.

If you happen to be playing on Artimes, that is the server i play on. I am rarely in game but i would happily log on to help you get yourself on the road to Druid/Rogue fun times.

EDIT: Not to discourage you or anything, Druids are not meant to be DPS unless you stat that way. I stated healer (Because i started as a D/W and added R later) so my damage isn't that great. If you stat for damage your outcome could be different, but until the Shadow Contract elite gets fixed, don't expect to top DPS charts or healing. You will have to find what works for you which may turn into abandoning D/R for awhile in leau of a class that is more "Party Acceptable."

If statted for dps, d/r is a decent dps druid, but probably comes second to d/m, just a guess. d/r damage mainly comes from the dots, and the fact it can keep seed(s) up all the time + Speed Catalysis for party, so it is really a support class, neither good at healing nor dpsing.

If you're leveling up, Earth Arrow and the dots and earth knowledge. If you're having problems with mana, use PWE. You can ignore Shadow Contract as it reduces your heals by a lot and you probably need it while leveling.

@Angelisrafel, I don't think a fix for Shadow Contract would make the class great, just.. maybe a little better.

Quoted from "tsundae;504960"

@Angelisrafel, I don't think a fix for Shadow Contract would make the class great, just.. maybe a little better.

Well maybe not Great in comparison to other classes if all it got was a boost to the Shadow Contract, but it would make D/R worth picking as a class since the Rogue aspect would significantly boost your damage.

Even with Shadow Contract giving as low of a boost as it is giving, PWE comes close to my EA's damage and its like 10 levels behind.

Well I can tell you a lot about Druids and yes there are endgame Druids but no d/r's on Reni as that class is almost useless in PVE content. The 2 best druids for endgame healing are the d/s and the d/w since both have very useful elites. I myself am a d/s/m. I play d/s for GCH or Tosh HM, in siege war i usually play m/s or m/d. The druids are very wanted in any end game instance run as they have very useful skills to help the party survive. They only thing that the druids truly lack is a Soul Bond like the priests get (jealous). The druid instant GH is a life saver many times as you can time ur GH just after a big boss aoe, and the single target heals you can output onto the tank and others is second to none. As a d/s you get an elite that will put a massive regen on you when you use recover on someone esle( the regen usually hit me for 17k a tick for 3 ticks) this keeps me alive a lot meaning you dont have to focus on ur own hp as much another great elite is healing arrows which put about a 10k regen on the party (this number will vary depending on gear and level) d/s also get group exorcism which is great for removing harmfull effects much like the priest cleanse but on a group of people as well as already having purify and antidote. The d/w get a few useful elites as well but their 2 primary ones that help the most are a true GH and call of the wild which puts a buff much like the priest amplified attack but also adds physical damage. All in all the druids are very useful in the endgame instances most of the time my guild doesnt want to run Tosh HM unless there is a druid in the party since it makes the run a little harder not impossible just more work for the dps and the priests. If you need any other info on the druids let me know with a PM and i will help where i can.



Server: Reni
Guild: Noteworthy
Toon: Mearkin D/M/S 70/70/52

Well, hopefully you've looked at elites because you definitely don't pick d/r for healing content. Every other druid is better for that.

I have the only near endgame d/r on my server, and it makes a great support druid that can do minor dps while healing. d/r will not have the same capacity to be able to solo heal most parties or raids, though YMMV. The thing is, most parties would much rather take a healing-spec druid/priest or dps in that spot, support can wait outside.

It's been a long time since I tested PWE+SC vs EA - which was right after the NP change - PWE at same level still loses. Having to cut my heals in half to near-match the damage from EA, and boost a little on the dot, no thanks. PWE is not even spammable to use during burn.

Quoted from "Kalvan;504180"

Take a look in the Druid and Rogue forums. Just sayin'...

Gonna have to agree with Kalvan on this one.

There's plenty of info in the druids section, take a look there as most of the info is very much still relevant skill-wise.