Tank and Helaer duo Druid vs Shaman

H

Hemloche

Dalayan Beginner
Hi there, excited to give this game a try. I planning on a SK and a healer either druid or shaman, so I'm looking for some advice on which would be the better choice. Since things aren't quite the same as EQ, I was hoping some more knowledgeable people could share their opinions/ thoughts. Here is a list of perceived + for either. If I'm wrong please correct me.

Shaman

+ Haste
+ Slow
+ Overall better buffs

Druid

+Damage Shield
+ Ports
+ Higher dps

So overall which would be the better choice in a duo with SK? Thanks for any advice.
 
I don't play either class so I don't know them well enough to say which is better at what. I've always felt like sham DPS is pretty solid though, higher than druid at least.

What I do know is that on SoD the strength of a character is determined largely by the amount of time/effort you put in to it. My recommendation would be to play the two classes you enjoy the most and will put the most time in to.
 
I've never mained a druid, but I also think shaman dps might be higher. Druid heals are better though, by quite a bit imo.
 
I leveled a SHD with a druid, the druid is a handy utility character to have if it's going to be an alt and it still has good buffs. If you want to raid later on with both your healer and a tank I'd recommend shm/clr.
 
Druid is a great utility/duo character but if you ever plan to raid or do hard 6 man content on your healer box I would advise against making one. With that out the way I'd probably go druid out of the 2 above choices. Ports and track are pretty huge QoL improvements. Druid raw healing power also outshines shamans. DS is pretty huge when duoing, especially when playing a tank. Druids also provide (arguably) better buffs to SKs, in the form of stamina regen and PotG. Slow is relatively bad here at higher levels, nowhere near as strong as EQlive. Shamans do have better DPS than druids though, and are pretty amazing in 6man and raid situations. Personally I'd go with none of the above and make a cleric because clerics are fucking ridiculous in this game in terms of healing, they can also do solid dps between summoned hammer and Martyr spell line.

None of the above matters if you play a class you dont like though
 
Slow in 2.5 actually got a huge buff... or it's bugged? Either way, Compared to pre 2.5, you can notice slow mitigation a lot more, at least on the few mobs I've parsed. Still probably isn't worth slowing in most settings though compared to live.

Like choosing any duo, it really depends on what you want to do later.
Do you like questing and powerlevelling alts? If so, pick DRUID.
Do you like raiding and want to see all the big mobs? If so, pick CLERIC. (This is kind of an important decision if you want to raid as an ideal higher tier raid force nearly always has 3 clerics and 0-1 druids).
Do you like doing dps and tank healing indefinitely? If so, pick a SHAMAN.
 
Pecannius said:
(This is kind of an important decision if you want to raid as an ideal higher tier raid force nearly always has 3 clerics and 0-1 druids)
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Best make up for healing in a high end raid is three clerics and two shamans (zero druids obviously). We only had the make up for a bit, however it was truly game changing.

Shaman's cycle tank heal forever and the clerics only have to worry about group healing. Seems to really shine with a great warrior main tank as well.
 
Kedrin said:
Best make up for healing in a high end raid is three clerics and two shamans (zero druids obviously)
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eh, i'd bet 3 druids w/ vim would put out more heals than 3 clrs heck, even 1 druid w/ vim with the right raid positioning would put out more
 
Kedrin said:
Is this a joke?
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I feel dirty defending druids but...

Vim - 750 mana 14500 hp healed on up to 18 targets =261,000 base hp healed per cast assuming everyone is clumped
relic clr gheal - 790 mana 2700 hp healed on up to 6 targets = 16,200 base hp healed per cast

With clr healing bonuses etc the gap isn't that wide but realistically both are going to fully heal whoever gets hit by them. So yeah, completely serious about vim being better than 3 clr in some very specific situations, and 3 vim coordinated right could essentially heal through almost anything
 
in some very specific situations
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Any fight where there is mobility involved at all aka 98% of encounters... vim range is far too low heal consistently.
But for like Guardian of Yclist or thaz earth mini, 1 druid could theoretically heal the entire raid.
 
Please correct me if I'm mistaken, but I think @Haenir is overlooking the trademark mechanic behind Cascading Vim in the first place -- that the 14,500 base heal is split among all recipients. A maxed out heal value for Vim on a T10+ DRU might be something like, for instance, 26,000 hit points. If this is split among 18 people, everybody gets ~1,400 HP from the heal. Granted, it's rare for a Vim to reach the entire raid, and high crit heal rates at high tiers would greatly increase the healing output overall. Still, it's a far cry from the Cleric's raid heal, Runic: Sphere of Eternity, which comes with the steep 1900 mana cost because its 3,400 base heal has triple the AE radius of Vim and always heals a high, fixed amount of HP.
 
Grinkles said:
Please correct me if I'm mistaken, but I think @Haenir is overlooking the trademark mechanic behind Cascading Vim in the first place -- that the 14,500 base heal is split among all recipients. A maxed out heal value for Vim on a T10+ DRU might be something like, for instance, 26,000 hit points. If this is split among 18 people, everybody gets ~1,400 HP from the heal. Granted, it's rare for a Vim to reach the entire raid, and high crit heal rates at high tiers would greatly increase the healing output overall. Still, it's a far cry from the Cleric's raid heal, Runic: Sphere of Eternity, which comes with the steep 1900 mana cost because its 3,400 base heal has triple the AE radius of Vim and always heals a high, fixed amount of HP.
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this is basically what i was going to post. Also, clerics get much more value from mana-free healing (Gloves/Blood/Ashpyre), Wrist proc healing, and get even more value from weapon proc healing (Higher chance to hit = higher chance to proc, combine that with higher baseline healing in general). Druids are just kind of bad on raid and 6 man content. I've always thought about making a big post with some possible changes/ideas that would make druids more desirable in the raid/6man scene. Giving them a better GHoT than paladins would be a solid boost on its own
 
druids get a broken good AE later in the game that completely sways the balance of shaman vs druid as a farm box. If you care about your alt as a secondary main and expect to do your guilds best raids/6mans and not be a burden then cleric is the only real option. Shaman are not a bad mained character choice, however they are not the best at farming or raid healing so it's an awkward alt choice if you plan on just using it as a tool to farm.
 
What Lleoc said.

And as for Haenir's thoughts about Vim's, they are actually spot on, when duo'ing; it is a spamable CH on the tank (and druid).

Only problem is all the aggro, but with a SK, shouldnt be that much of a problem.
 
I played a Druid Paladin Duo for the greater portion of my time on SoD. I found Druid Paladin relaxing and good for farming lower level exp mobs. Pulling groups of 3 with my paladin and using the Druid 3 Target Nuke for dps I forget the name. The paladin would spend his time casting aoe blind and healing himself while the druid did the majority of the DPS. Whe fighting single targets I could Load hots up on the paladin and put a few dots on the mob for added DPS.
 
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