Someone please tell me how to use dryad towers..

[Ravensong]

No matter what i do, masses of bee's, lots of harpies, useing tree's as walls. Nothing seems to last very long..
I must not be doing this right..

[Tako]

Dryad is a.. Hybrid class. She needs to be played as a Build as well as a Combat hero. What you do is you have a base class for setting up blockades and use her towers behind them for DPS. I most use Nimbus and Bees myself.
Then from there you want to be going from lane to lane staying corrupt for as long as possible.

[Ravensong]

i barely use the nimbus as he seems to attack one target at a time and wanders off alot to other lanes.. but ill try that.. i also dont use corrupt form much cus it drains very quickly.. but ill do my best..

[Tako]

I think Nimbus actually has a small AoE when he attacks, I'm unsure.

But yeah Corruption is a bit of a pain to keep up you'll need to get the Skill sphere that makes it cost 4 Mana per Second instead of 6.

[Fuzen]

Hornets are actually awesome. Sorry. They are awesome for the first three enemies that wander near them, after that, they just do some weird things with their bugged pathfinding. If it was not for this bug, it would be a very reliable defense. Note that two hornets from the same nest can't target the same enemy, however, hornets from different nests do stack. That can make it a powerful defense both against weak and strong enemies.

Nimbus is very strong against minibosses. I like to use 'em for the Eye of Cthulu and just AFK for a few seconds and see it defeated. However, I don't know if it's a bug or not, but there is NO scaling for the nimbus' critical damages as you upgrade it. So quickly, critical damages become way less powerful that normal hits.

Harpies… To be honest, I just don't know about these. Their damages are respectable but don't pierce or only 1-2 enemies when corrupted depending of the spheres you use.

And then there are the slimes. I… I just don't know. I can't manage to find them even a remote usefulness. When I compared the different dryad defenses, they had the lowest killcounts, damage-count… Everything about this defense seems just underwhelming.

Finally, all the dryad defenses gain a LOT of benefit from EV's buff beam. (Way more than from monk's boost aura.) Also, since most of the dryad's defense are single-target oriented, you may want to use Purge Evil.

Now, for the gameplay itself… You would want to have 2-4 dryads :
— One with defense power and defense critical for hornets and harpies [Hornet critical, more hornets per nest, etc.] (Not that at the moment, crit rate can't go over 30%, but it could be changed in the future.)
— One with defense power (main) and defense health for nimbus [Brain of confusion]
— (Optionnal because of the previous one - there is not much difference) One with defense health (main) for tree. [All three tree spheres.]
— One DPS dryad to stay in corrupted form as long as possible during waves. [Corruption intune, starfall stacks, helm of storm, etc.]

I may be wrong on one or more points but that's what I concluded from my not-that-extensive testing.

[Captain Alejo]

Hornet spam is legit.

http://imgur.com/a/dSdja
http://imgur.com/6cW0onz

You do not have to play her like a hybrid. That is not required. If you want to max out corruption style builds, you will need to spec heavily for that, but even without it she can build close to solo on most maps.

Right now the bug with hornets getting stuck on terrain is limiting her power on certain maps (Bling King), but I expect some bug fixes will level that out.

Harpies are disgustingly powerful in terms of single target damage. They let you afk through boss waves in lane when placed correctly. They also are very effective anti air turrets but ONLY IF you can aim that directly at the air units. If they have to choose between air and ground they will let things slip through since they take awhile to acquire targets.

Nimbus + arcane wall builds are also very effective. Literally nothing but those two towers and you can sleep walk through many maps.

In general the Dryad has problems dealing with high density waves. When you are thinking about pairing support towers with her you need to compensate for her lack of aoe wave clear. SA with purge evil is obviously an easy go to, but proton beams or pdt's can also help in that regard.

I have yet to try a slime focused build sicne I need a few more specific slime passive rolls to try what I want to, but they are hurt heavily by air waves and would still need support. I do toss a single slime pit in my lanes for additional wave clear when things get hairy.

[Qelris]

Originally posted by Fuzen:

And then there are the slimes. I… I just don't know. I can't manage to find them even a remote usefulness. When I compared the different dryad defenses, they had the lowest killcounts, damage-count… Everything about this defense seems just underwhelming.

I don't know about end game, but slime does most of my tower damage atm, nimbus being second, then harpies>hornet. I'm only in NM2 though(late nm2?), because I don't really play this game.

[A Old Man]

Originally posted by Captain Alejo:

Hornet spam is legit.

http://imgur.com/a/dSdja
http://imgur.com/6cW0onz

You do not have to play her like a hybrid. That is not required. If you want to max out corruption style builds, you will need to spec heavily for that, but even without it she can build close to solo on most maps.

Right now the bug with hornets getting stuck on terrain is limiting her power on certain maps (Bling King), but I expect some bug fixes will level that out.

Harpies are disgustingly powerful in terms of single target damage. They let you afk through boss waves in lane when placed correctly. They also are very effective anti air turrets but ONLY IF you can aim that directly at the air units. If they have to choose between air and ground they will let things slip through since they take awhile to acquire targets.

Nimbus + arcane wall builds are also very effective. Literally nothing but those two towers and you can sleep walk through many maps.

In general the Dryad has problems dealing with high density waves. When you are thinking about pairing support towers with her you need to compensate for her lack of aoe wave clear. SA with purge evil is obviously an easy go to, but proton beams or pdt's can also help in that regard.

I have yet to try a slime focused build sicne I need a few more specific slime passive rolls to try what I want to, but they are hurt heavily by air waves and would still need support. I do toss a single slime pit in my lanes for additional wave clear when things get hairy.

Ahh! Don't be decieved by this person!!! This setup will fall flat in nm4, they are too unpredictable in targeting (hornet+ overpriced nimbus)

Sadly dryad's towers in general are lackluster besides maybe harpy.. but at a cost of setup du +30...

She is overshadowed by other paid builders such as mystic, pyromancer, ev2.

Buildwide for offensive, it is stacking DC and DP, and using hornet/harpy as offensive towers. Nimbus and slimes are doodoo

[Fuzen]

Originally posted by Qelris:

I don't know about end game, but slime does most of my tower damage atm, nimbus being second, then harpies>hornet. I'm only in NM2 though(late nm2?), because I don't really play this game.

The very problem with slimes is that they explode and you really don't want a tower to become (near)useless once the first few mobs of a wave got dealt with. They're basically a high DU-cost, inferior version of hornets – although they can damage in an AoE.

Originally posted by Captain Alejo:

In general the Dryad has problems dealing with high density waves. When you are thinking about pairing support towers with her you need to compensate for her lack of aoe wave clear. SA with purge evil is obviously an easy go to, but proton beams or pdt's can also help in that regard.

Totally agree with Purge Evil. Not as much with Proton Beams and PDT. As soon as you use PDT, it becomes the main tower, not the support one, since its damage are so overwhelming. Beams are kind of in the same spot if you compare it to dryad defenses : most of the time, they are the one dealing the most damage.

Here's something. I did a little Demon's Lair with SA, Proton Beams and hornets - harpies for anti-air because why not.

I used this setup :

https://gyazo.com/95a018a5276a04506a0bdfdbf1fd614f

Do note that the hornets were boosted both by boost aura and buff beam. The proton beams weren't. Both my dryad builder and my EV2 are iPwr 700-720 with defense power/crit defense as stats.

Now, here are the damage and killcounts on third wave, took the screenshots for hornets a few seconds after the beams ones. Also, proton beams were tier 3, hornets tier 2 though, noticed this later, so add 20% damage or whatever if you want) :

Proton Beams : https://gyazo.com/80f2c8cabe3c36d7dc4279c72c6d05e6
Hornets : https://gyazo.com/df01c82cef6b850cab4e79d06944d0e7

Other example :
Proton Beams : https://gyazo.com/e4420a4efb022b70eaa4c2341f949645
Hornets : https://gyazo.com/986f4e4c119e8c059f554dd76b19ea88

Without a doubt, proton beams are the most potent one. And it's without even factoring the utility aspect so rather than a “support tower” the beams here are the main towers. Moreover, beams deals damages on each and every enemy going through the lane.

And that's the problem – it defeats the whole point of all this. You could use any other defense with this setup and it would work the same, more or less. We would be here at a point where the question is not “How to build with dryad?” but “how to use dryad with a setup that basically works with anything?”

Another fun fact with harpies. Did you know you need 2 or 3 unbuffed harpies to equate one unbuffed PDT? Yeah. Without even factoring in the AoE side of things.

Harpies vs PDT on dummies : https://gyazo.com/3d3bd4a54a670c6ee4a074a4ba43a575

In the end, I'd say that as long as dryad doesn't have game-changer passives the same way as AL or Huntress has, it's kind of pointless to use her as a builder since all of her towers are basically only damage dealers without much sort of gimmicks.

Edit : Nimbus is awesome to AFK 50m HP bosses though.

[Springtyme]

Right now, with Dryads towers not scaling with crit when upgraded, only power, slimes are the only reliable defense for Dryad. And you cant use Dryad's trees as walls if the lane is too wide, only the skinniest of lanes can effectively use Dryad's trees as a wall. I would reccomend maxing out your Tree range, getting the range sphere, put down some blockades from any other hero, a serenity, frosty, and spam slimes. Slimes scale well with normal Power, so its the only real useful Dryad DPS tower at the moment. The old old meta, when it was only the original 4 heroes, was frosty traps which used a wall, frostys, serenites, and spamming elemental chaos or explosion traps from huntress. Withe the frosty passive, mobs who are being shot by the frosty take up to 50% extra damage from defenses, and when they continously walk through traps, this because very effective.

[Springtyme]

Originally posted by Fuzen:

Originally posted by Qelris:

I don't know about end game, but slime does most of my tower damage atm, nimbus being second, then harpies>hornet. I'm only in NM2 though(late nm2?), because I don't really play this game.

The very problem with slimes is that they explode and you really don't want a tower to become (near)useless once the first few mobs of a wave got dealt with. They're basically a high DU-cost, inferior version of hornets – although they can damage in an AoE.

Originally posted by Captain Alejo:

In general the Dryad has problems dealing with high density waves. When you are thinking about pairing support towers with her you need to compensate for her lack of aoe wave clear. SA with purge evil is obviously an easy go to, but proton beams or pdt's can also help in that regard.

Totally agree with Purge Evil. Not as much with Proton Beams and PDT. As soon as you use PDT, it becomes the main tower, not the support one, since its damage are so overwhelming. Beams are kind of in the same spot if you compare it to dryad defenses : most of the time, they are the one dealing the most damage.

Here's something. I did a little Demon's Lair with SA, Proton Beams and hornets - harpies for anti-air because why not.

I used this setup :

https://gyazo.com/95a018a5276a04506a0bdfdbf1fd614f

Do note that the hornets were boosted both by boost aura and buff beam. The proton beams weren't. Both my dryad builder and my EV2 are iPwr 700-720 with defense power/crit defense as stats.

Now, here are the damage and killcounts on third wave, took the screenshots for hornets a few seconds after the beams ones. Also, proton beams were tier 3, hornets tier 2 though, noticed this later, so add 20% damage or whatever if you want) :

Proton Beams : https://gyazo.com/80f2c8cabe3c36d7dc4279c72c6d05e6
Hornets : https://gyazo.com/df01c82cef6b850cab4e79d06944d0e7

Other example :
Proton Beams : https://gyazo.com/e4420a4efb022b70eaa4c2341f949645
Hornets : https://gyazo.com/986f4e4c119e8c059f554dd76b19ea88

Without a doubt, proton beams are the most potent one. And it's without even factoring the utility aspect so rather than a “support tower” the beams here are the main towers. Moreover, beams deals damages on each and every enemy going through the lane.

And that's the problem – it defeats the whole point of all this. You could use any other defense with this setup and it would work the same, more or less. We would be here at a point where the question is not “How to build with dryad?” but “how to use dryad with a setup that basically works with anything?”

Another fun fact with harpies. Did you know you need 2 or 3 unbuffed harpies to equate one unbuffed PDT? Yeah. Without even factoring in the AoE side of things.

Harpies vs PDT on dummies : https://gyazo.com/3d3bd4a54a670c6ee4a074a4ba43a575

In the end, I'd say that as long as dryad doesn't have game-changer passives the same way as AL or Huntress has, it's kind of pointless to use her as a builder since all of her towers are basically only damage dealers without much sort of gimmicks.

Edit : Nimbus is awesome to AFK 50m HP bosses though.

Heres the thing, hornets are useless in the current state because of their bugged path finding and the fact that they are mostly based on hero crit and the Dryad's defenses don't currently scale when upgraded with crit damage, and the hornets scale TERRIBLY with defense power. Therefore, after wave 1, hornets become practically useless. Also, slimes with serenity with frostys and a wall per lane just demolishes enemies. The amount of CC gives the slimes time to regenerate, and the serenity makes the AOE just so large that you can clear a horde practically instantly.

[Captain Alejo]

Originally posted by A Old Man:

Ahh! Don't be decieved by this person!!! This setup will fall flat in nm4, they are too unpredictable in targeting (hornet+ overpriced nimbus)

I only exclusively play nm4. These setups cleared multiple runs. Would appreciate it if you didn't make blind judgements on how people are playing.

[Fuzen]

Originally posted by SE | Blitz:

Heres the thing, hornets are useless in the current state because of their bugged path finding and the fact that they are mostly based on hero crit and the Dryad's defenses don't currently scale when upgraded with crit damage, and the hornets scale TERRIBLY with defense power. Therefore, after wave 1, hornets become practically useless. Also, slimes with serenity with frostys and a wall per lane just demolishes enemies. The amount of CC gives the slimes time to regenerate, and the serenity makes the AOE just so large that you can clear a horde practically instantly.

Okay so I quickly re-purposed my DHP Dryad to a DP focused character in order to try out the slime thing and I have to admit, it kind of works. (Frostbite towers + SA + (BA) + Slime pits.) But I have to disagree about the part where they destroy lanes. They are effective, certainly, but very far from this. However, having 'em oil the enemies when the Dryad is corrupted leads to a painful slowness coupled with SA's as you said.

As for the hornets, there is no real point in saying that they scale well or not with DP: it's a DC defense. But well in that regard, their critical damages should scale when you upgrade it – which is not the case.

Anyway from what I saw on the first few enemies of Dawn of the Blood Moon ('cause here, even regular mobs have much HP) when they weren't yet doing their thing with the pathfinding, it literaly destroys everything.

But as long as this bug is fixed, it's not the kind of defense anyone should be using – it's just not reliable. I was doing Altar of the Athame (or whatever it's named) and everything worked perfectly during the first three waves (mobs were cleared near instantly) but suddenly on wave 4, I lost because the hornets from one lane stopped working.