How good is the druid class if solo?

[Asenath]

I always loved the forgotten realms series and always choose a druid so how good is the druid in soloplay and would anyone recomend this class for a first timer to ddo?

[Dosbilliam, Boring but Practical]

Personally, I'd say it depends on how familiar with the ruleset you are. I'd suggest starting something simpler if you're not that used to 3.5E, since Druids would be somewhat complex since they can be built in a few different ways. :P

[Asenath]

Originally posted by Dosbilliam, 200% Ultra-Bitter:

Personally, I'd say it depends on how familiar with the ruleset you are. I'd suggest starting something simpler if you're not that used to 3.5E, since Druids would be somewhat complex since they can be built in a few different ways. :P

I did try simpler as the fighter that has the solo ability: very good and did not like it doo is much different then the original lore-friendly single player D&D/forgotten realms games sadly.

[Taebrythn]

i like druid honestly and it can be easy to solo. it just depends on what difficulty you do. if you're soloing reaper it might be tough as a first lifer.

[Dosbilliam, Boring but Practical]

Originally posted by Taebrythn:

i like druid honestly and it can be easy to solo. it just depends on what difficulty you do. if you're soloing reaper it might be tough as a first lifer.

Considering what work or money would go into just being able to ACCESS that difficulty on a first life character, I'd imagine there'd have to be quite a lot of investment the OP didn't seem to be interested in making.

[Shinobi Kitten]

its decent. i find its healing can be a litttttle lacking, especially in the lower levels, so you would be smart to bring potions along and possibly a hireling. i tend to keep at least 1 hireling contract and a stack of healing potions in my inventory anyway, though, just in case. in re gards to hires, get one with divine vitality so it can fill 2 purposes (spell points and heals). wolves do fast single target damage but i personally have never had much fun on wolf. bear and ice spec'd water elemental were my 2 favorite ways to play druid. bear is a bit more tanky, but also does pretty decent damage with all the bear cleaves it gets from the bear tree. water ele i haven't played since the recent pass but i found water ele more enjoyable to fire ele because creeping cold is an AWESOME spell lol

[Soap]

I would definitely recommend Druid for you; simply because it's a class you already are drawn to.

The main caution I would give a new player interested in a caster class, (outside of standard DDO stuff like starting with 14 con, which is in the link I'm providing below) is spell point management. That's really only a concern if you want your druid to only or mainly use spells for offense. Outside of that, the only class I would try to steer a new player away from is wizard, for the same reason.

Diffculty really matters a lot. For example, there can be fewer rest shrines on Elite and they can only be used once each; on normal you can re-use shrines after 15 min. Over time, you'll learn how to manage your spell points, and the locations of rest shrines, so you can keep from running out in-between.

The nice thing about druid if you aren't focusing so much on casting, is that most of your strengths will end up being in enhancment trees which can be reset easily by spending platinum. So you would have some room to try out the different wolf and bear forms, and see what you like or just use what works best for you at a given level range.

It's also entirely possible to play a druid as mostly melee in early to mid levels, and later transition into a caster. The big consideration there is making sure you still take the feats you need for a caster build, which is a sacrifice because in this case you wouldn't use metamagics as much in earlier levels. It's much harder and more costly to change feats than it is enhancements.

I think if you read this link over you should be fine: https://ddowiki.com/page/Starting_a_Druid

Good Luck

[Asenath]

Originally posted by Shinobi Kitten:

its decent. i find its healing can be a litttttle lacking, especially in the lower levels, so you would be smart to bring potions along and possibly a hireling. i tend to keep at least 1 hireling contract and a stack of healing potions in my inventory anyway, though, just in case. in re gards to hires, get one with divine vitality so it can fill 2 purposes (spell points and heals). wolves do fast single target damage but i personally have never had much fun on wolf. bear and ice spec'd water elemental were my 2 favorite ways to play druid. bear is a bit more tanky, but also does pretty decent damage with all the bear cleaves it gets from the bear tree. water ele i haven't played since the recent pass but i found water ele more enjoyable to fire ele because creeping cold is an AWESOME spell lol

unfortunatly ddo is lacking more then class mechanics to be honest I miss the Alignment and the Alignment relics that are in most of the forgotten realms games nwn,nwn2,bg,bga,iwd,iwd2 and so onand neverwinter is worst in my opinion has no playable druid class nor any Alignment or Alignment items is the reason why I quit neverwinter mmo and refuse to return.

[Doug]

Druid is.. complex. Not as bad as monk, but almost. The class is plenty strong for soloing, but building a good druid is another thing entirely. First you have to decide whether you will primarily be a caster or a melee (or ranged.. one memorable life, I ran an Elf AA Druid). Then you have to figure out how to build it. Lots of Druid spells and enhancements have form prerequisites so that the two powers you really want most might be incompatible. Then there's Druid Oath and limits on armor. Then there's what happens with weapons when in animal forms. There's a lot to know. (Iirc, they simplified seasons so they only change on request, but if not, that's also an issue.)

Also, since forms become available as you level, it's not uncommon to have to respec somewhat. For example, elemental forms (fire or water) don't become available till L13, so if your ultimate build depends on one of them, you have to do something else while you level.

In the main I wouldn't recommend running a Druid as your first DDO toon. That being said, if that's where your heart is, you can make it work. I'd start with a build from the official forums that approximates what you'd like to do and customize from there. Less room for egregious error.

Here are a couple of resources:
https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/470423-Build-Repository
https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/117232-Request-a-Build-Get-a-Build

[Exothermically Eclectic]

Obligatory plug for Gingerspyce's tutorials here, he's done a bunch on a lot of things but for Druid in particular there's a forum thread with a newbie-friendly caster build at https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/427398-Gingerspyce-s-caster-healer-quasi-tank-build
There's a few other druid-related things buried in the discussion, too.

The thread op also has a link to his youtube channel, which I'd highly recommend even if you aren't doing a caster druid build for the guides to crafting, raids, past lives and various other things of interest to new players.