Over the last few weeks I’ve seen various people intimate that druid casters are a bit sucky. To save me creating one and finding the hard way, could some explain to me why they are so bad?
They don’t out-right suck it’s just that Druid class-combination lacks resistance reduction
But one can make a good druid caster. But it would extremely gear dependent
druid is a bit weird as caster,
- it doesnt have OA or DA buffs
- it doesnt have cast, aspeed , total speed buffs
- it doesnt have %dmg buffs besides stormcaller pactexclusive and it works in weird way
- storm totem still so weak
- wind devil is only viable with reckles tempestdevotion, otherwise he has no brain and you have to use pet attack… and SADLY his Resist Reduction is mostly unreliable and plain useless
this list goes on, imo shaman caster needs some rework and buffs
what druid offers ?
- wendigo totem, mog pact for regen, more hp, and weird ass exclusive skill…
not sure shaman is in good spot as caster, if you dont go vitality bleed conjurer type.
In comparison to another casters, yes, they do suck
The main problem with my druid is not DPS but lack of armor.
Is there a better skill than Wind Devil to proc devotions with long cooldowns? Near end of elite with my druid and seeing 4, 5 or even more whirlpools (plus multiple elemental storms) on the screen at once is pretty cool. Obviously will have to see on Ultimate but I’m pretty sure he will be OK.
I’m playing TSS druid on HC and I have something to tell you.
- You confuse Druid and Shaman. It’s a big mistake
- Stormcaller’s Pact is worse than Star Pact, you right.
- Wind Devil is PERFECT for Whirpool. I tested it and i really like it. And sadly that you dont understand it. And how it’s reduction works
So it’s not Druid-caster. It’s just you who dont know how to play it better.
My devotion-skills build looks like This One
Yes, it’s gear dependent. BUT. Eastern Set is enought to farm on Ultimate. And even for finishing it. So try it.
Really good gear you need if you want to go Crucible. But for ultimate… you just need normal gear. Few legs, few epics… and all will be fine.
I have a TSS druid that has cleared everything on Ultimate without much trouble (though I did get very lucky with a full Trozan set, my first full leg. set :D). Getting to 75 to wear it was a little more difficult but I had Eastern Set drops on another character.
Star Pact + TSS line + OFF + Wind Devil line proccing whirlpools has been working great.
I’m not sure why everyone says the class is weak. Sure, it lacks armor, but it is a caster after all… and after the 1.0.0.8 changes I actually have pretty good DA. I suppose the main thing would be that it’s a bit more fragile and gear dependent than some other casters.
in red
As other said, Druid caster is more than capable of finishing Ultimate without even “good” gear and with that gear you can beat almost all content in the main game
The main problem with my druid is not DPS but lack of armor
that’s common for almost all casters except if you focus on defensive constellations like Obelisk of Menhir with some heavy gear pieces and scaled hide on shoulders/pants
well i accidently wrote, druid… it has to be shaman actually.
well what i wrote still remains same, change druid -> shaman…
its funny that every1 here making assumptions that i dont know about TSS, i have 1 spellbreaker guide which uses mainly TSS and killed ALL nemesis with zero legendary gear and again able to clear all rogue likes like incredible speedskyrocket speed actually
playing lvl 67 druid TSS, planning to make sorc with warpfire TSS, and also planning to change my druid with spark of ultos %40 cold to light convertion TSS wth stormcallerspact etc…
we actually have discord channel with some good guys here, theorycrafting 5-10 build per night… w/e i always fuck their mind with my 10-15 grimcalc and item combo ideas :undecided:
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about winddevil, whirlpool tsunami reckless tempest and goes on any ‘on attack’ proc shines with this guy, but again he has his own mind and i hate he jerks around and mostly do nothing… i use this with pet attack… tho i love this thing concept a lot and still enjoy using it… BUT it doesnt change the fact that, it can have better AI and more duration on his RR…
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storm totem quantity thing is just a myth all i can say… with %1400 lightning dmg 16/16 totem dmg was PITA… considering pts spend there… so no, i hate this thing… maybe in some world you have 3.5k oa +150 crit dmg it might be usefull… in that conditions you can kill sharzull with your pencil anyway… last night just killed sharzul around 8sec with my TSS eastern set spellbreaker, gl setting your storm totem that time
and again, shaman has no oa , da, speed, and % X dmg buffs to support caster… sure he has heal, regen and totems he suits his shamanistic concept but again he falls behind other caster options… and pls dont say light defender set thing, set itself is broken there is nothing to do with shaman…
ps: shaman has oak skin for armor if you lack armor… and if you want armor like most casters do, obelisk of menhir + tree of life combo is there.
actually this is meta or gonna be meta for all casters sooner or later i guess…
well i accidently wrote, druid… it has to be shaman actually
Yeah it’s better that way
can’t agree more on that, shaman supports melee much more than casters …
and Wind devil is indeed a bit unreliable (it’s a kind of tornado though, it can’t be intelligent enough to follow a target 
)
And to answer to the OP, druid doesn’t “suck”, it’s just that there are better caster builds out there
I think the scripting controlling the wind devils movement actually tells it to “tag” as many different targets as possible. I’ve played a TSS druid to 85 and those devils never stay on the same target, unless there is only one.
I think that the druid is more of a multiplayer build than a solo one, where you can have tanks on the front line, unless you want to try to turn him into a tank and/or a summoner, which basically kill the point of that build in my opinion.
The critical objective in my opinion with druids is to well manage your freeze/slow effects with your cooldowns. Since most cold/lightnings builds cannot really reach the damage level of physical/fire/chaos builds, you have to buy time somehow until your attacks make their full effects.
This is a single player with multiplayer features so Druid is obviously meant to be played as single player.
The question is how
yeah druid sucks big time , time to delete them along with battle mages:rolleyes:
seriously my druid has not died yet its solid though I agree its not well optimized compared with others… but who knows our beloved theorycrafters can make magic out of them…:rolleyes:
I have a melee Druid that i am willing to post, but no casters.
The casting abilities a Druid has are PRM, CT, AAR and TSS
Now you need to focus these skills to deal aether damage since druid lacks RR.
AAR-
Aether Damage, seems perfect to me. Spawn a Wendigo Totem and stand next to it while channeling the laser
CT-
Spawn Wendigo Totem and stand next to it while casting
PRM-
Aether Spellbreakerand Aether Sorcerer seem to be better options due to the requirement of kiting, unless you want to facetank with a build designed to be played ranged (no harm in doing it i just don’t like the idea despite my builds being built with good defenses)
TSS-
Aether TSS? I guess you can try it
Lightning TSS - Sorcerer
Cold TSS- Spellbreaker/Warlock
Anyways, while AAR and CT can be done nicely with Druid using Totem i still think Sorcerer is a much better option due to Blast Shield and Flashbang CC and DA shred and Cast Speed.
And for CT you can go Battlemage and make use of Overguard and Shield to be tanky as fuck it’s so good you won’t miss Devastation
And if anyone argues Druid adds HP to the mix well then Battlemage has HP and valuable DA
Druid has OA buff through Inner Focus
it has cast speed through Mental Alacrity
it has Star Pact, Overload & Stormcaller’s Pact (also Arcane Will)
Can easily get over 100% Crit Damage
And as for last point Quick Jacks Elementalist is one of the strongest casters in the game, so to say shaman casters are in a bad spot unless you go vitality is hogwash.
EDIT Should have read farther down to see you were bashing shaman
There isn’t much to Theorycraft with on Druid. Shaman’s a great skill line, as is Arcanist, but both of them depend on support from another skill line to truly shine. They don’t offer good support to eachother.
I hate to chose from 4 exclusive skills as Druid. Would be nice if Starpact worked together with Stormcall.
And i hate that Shaman has nothing to help him with OA/DA exept second skill in Savagery. Its a pain to use it as ranged caster with melee weapon.
well the pet has a buff it casts that gives OA to you (I’d never use it but it is an option) It’s not hard to get OA & DA tho so I don’t really see the issue.