Dark Age Of Camelot: Druid TL Report 1.66

TL report taken from VN Boards

Please note that Mackey made another refinement of the TL report template. Now he wants us to highlight and discuss the issues, but not offer up solutions in the report. We will be discussing solutions and suggestions on the Team Lead boards where there is more room to get into a full discussion on each topic.

Druid Report 1.66 - Nov 20, 2003

Overview

I asked druids about what they feel the top three RvR and top three PvE issues are that they face on a daily basis. This report focuses on the top items from that feedback.

Concerns

1) The number one concern from druids in RvR is healing efficiency. ToA has done a lot toward helping this with the new bonuses for healing and casting speed. There is still a concern that healing will continue to be in-efficient compared to the damage being done with Caster and Melee classes increased damage from ToA bonuses also. The biggest problem is that single target heals are so much less effective in use than the Spread Heals. Due to damage that comes in AoE form either from casters or multiple melee, Spread Heal is often seen as the only viable heal for RvR.

2) The number 2 concern for RvR and PvE druids is the inability to quickly tell if a group member is diseased, poisoned or under some form of crowd control. It was previously mentioned in report feedback that adding the ability to tell via the mini group window might be possible. Due to it still coming out as the number two concern, I want to keep it highlighted here on the report.

3) The next issue deals with the Nurture line. Active Druid's feel their job has partly been replaced by inactive "bots". Once out in battle, a bot's buffs don't drop when the druid in the group dies. This causes people to prefer being buffed by a bot even when their own grouped druid can do it just as well. This causes active druids to wonder why they have spent so many points in a line they get little benefit from.

4) Identity. Druid's on the field in RvR suffer from being easily identified and targeted for fast killing. Some druids have given up their shield in order to be a little less conspicuous. Once a druid is identified, they don't have long to live. "/assist trains" have made it difficult for a druid to survive long in any engagement.

Specline Issues

1) Regrowth - The primary Regrowth line issues are addressed above. Other issues in this line are resses being over-written by a lesser res and both people loosing power for the res and interrupts that cause druids to be unable to fulfill their primary healing role. Gaining Mastery of Concentration as an RA helps druids but is very costly to obtain. The increased speed of damage that occurs in RvR makes healing even more difficult.

2) Nurture - The 20 buff limit is still a problem. High Nurture druids are faced with being un-able to even cast 20 buffs.

3) Nature/Pet - DoT spells are subject to an extra resist penalty. This especially hurts Druids who spec multiple lines. The Nurture line overall is seen as lacking for druids with no real reason to spec beyond 36 for the final AoE root. The DoT damage increase is minimal (24 points more for the top DoT), the spec 29 AoE root lasts for 47 seconds, and the Damage Shield does not work well with our only method of crowd control.

New Issues

The new underwater pets in ToA are very cool looking, however they suffer a couple of problems. For one, the Octopus model is just huge trying to move around with it following is pretty awful. The shark also gets to be a hindrance in size, but the biggest issue with it is the way it swims in large circles when fighting. It seems to pulling aggro mobs that would not normally aggro due to range when using a different pet.

The second issue with the pets is that there are now no pets that can be used inside and out of the water without re-summoning to get the appropriate land/water pet. This can cause issues especially when traveling and searching for mobs (like quests) that may require you to be both in and out of the water. Would it be possible to allow at least the crocodile to work on land and in the water? Druids who need to be able to move freely could then summon till they got a crocodile.

Other Issues

1) (Reminder item) Damage shield is a liability when using root for CC. It should not break root.

6) Insta Group and Single heals need icons that are different from other heals. They have been changed several times now and always changed to mimic another heal.

Item Problems

1) Empathy, while being a necessary druid stat is showing up far too frequently in large amounts on druid specific items. Three items with the commonly used 22 or 30 Empathy can cap a druid easily. With 16 item slots to work with for adding stats, Druids would like to see a little less empathy on things.

Documentation Issues
(None at this time)