So I rolled my druid last night and started out all alone in the green lands around Connla. Figured I needed to grind a bit solo, so I went with Nature. And damn, I really quite like it.

However when people started pm'ing me for groups they would obviously be surprised about the Nature part. So my question is, how will a Nature druid fare on the road to RvR? Will I be shunned if I stick to Nature? Or are there enough people that realize that not everyone has to be a buffbot with heals?

My intend is to lvl reasonably quick, grouping will be preferred. But at 50 I might actually like Nature. So will I get kicked in both pve and/or RvR if I choose the Nature route?

The specs Im currently thinking about will be:
lvl 20 - 14 nurt 14 nat
lvl 50 - 36 nat 26 nurt 30 reg

What do you think your Part of the EXP-Group is?

In a 8man EXP-Group there are mostely searched:
1-2 Heal/Buff, 1 Endu/Heal, 1-2 Tanks, 2-4 * DMG, 1-2 Leech-Slot
You are nothing of that. So you only get the Leech slot.

In a small EXP Grp you can do an OK Job with 1-2 Melees. But Bard would do it same/better.

So if you want to have a group-job, just skill all 3 skills with little less heal (lvl30 - 15 Renew, 18 Nurture, 18 Nature).
Its still ok with heal and buff, cause thats the job a group wants you. (Use specheals, they are more mana-efficient at that lvl of healing, cause the baseheals vary much)

If you want to solo / smallgrp you can even skill heal less, cause that wont be your job.

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But don't think you can do a good fg job in rvr.
Your buffs are not needed, noone in a fg wants a lvl25 str/con or lvl19dex/ buff with lvl50.

small groups / solo will be quite ok.

40Heal 36Nature is viable if you have a fixed grp.
Ppl will have to charge up d/q which should be easy to get in hibernia. then one buff druid can buff everything else.
Its actually the best setup to run 1nature 1buff druid, since the instant ae root and the green pet are very strong tools.

For lvling I would suggest to just take the ordinary road as buff/heal druid and then get at some point a respec at 50.

Thanks for both answers. It is kinda as I 'figured' then. Nature seems (very) good as second druid in a group that has another buff druid. But until I can rely on group(s) that will grab me as nature it would be wise to go nurt instead!

So the plan will be, respec out of nature at 20, level up and gather gear. Then once I'm set and have people that value the nature druid I can respec.

Sometimes I wonder if people can have too much of f a fixed view of what play-styles, classes and groups there should be in operation.

Whilst it suits many to have this and that; it can also make the game and the group (xp or RvR) predictable. Not always a good thing in RvR maybe and for me personally less enjoyable in either arena.

Nice to adapt to fit groups, but people are individuals and so need to think of the class and style that suits them.

I for one welcome a bit of diversity. Without experimentation then nothing changes/improves. Without different play-styles then all we are doing is having the same action/reaction just with different names on the toons.

Belisar wrote:Sometimes I wonder if people can have too much of f a fixed view of what play-styles, classes and groups there should be in operation.

People do for sure! What works becomes meta/fotm and suddenly nothing but that works.. Let's just show them different!

Puz wrote:

Belisar wrote:Sometimes I wonder if people can have too much of f a fixed view of what play-styles, classes and groups there should be in operation.

People do for sure! What works becomes meta/fotm and suddenly nothing but that works.. Let's just show them different!

You can play whatever you want, but you asked if you will be viable an im a fg.
And in a normal rvr fg there is only 1 setup, you will be useable (3 druid setup: 2h/b and you). But even here you aren't melee druid but rupter / healer. In a pve fg you will never be viable.

Even in the group pweed mentioned (that you will never find LFG, because everyone has to have d/q charges), some would prefer other classes. (2nd bard, menta)

When people pm you, which you don't know, they need you as Healer and Buffer.

But, as i mentioned, with friends / small grp you can even be better than "normal" druids.

Aye, sadly the view you are posting is what I've encountered so far. I still don't agree with the premise that a group (even a pug) would only work with 2 buffing druids, but alas until I get geared I need them buffs anyway.

So I will respec at 20 for nurt + reg. And at 40 nurt 30 reg I'll ponder some more about the oldschool 40/30/20 vs higher reg.

Thanks for the responses!

Hey Puz,

As people said earlier in this post, you either need a fix grp to play that kind of spec with 32+ in nature.

I play a nature druid with the spec u mentionned : 36nat-30buff-26heal and I love it so much.

Its really decent in solo and lot of fun to play. I often duo or trio with friends and its still relevant. Even tho sometimes the dps is really awfull against fully buffed temp'ed tanks but well thats nature druid XD

For pve i love it so much, Ive been farming all day long for days just dot /face alt-tab facebook in coru or bog, really chill for this.

Cheerz

The game tailors towards maxing group play.
This quite often is not the same as one would wish as an individual .

I don't quite get this.

Nature druid is the only source of AOE root in Hib.

This is perfect against the mid melee Trains.

Shouldn't they be very desirable ?

Nemi wrote:I don't quite get this.

Nature druid is the only source of AOE root in Hib.

This is perfect against the mid melee Trains.

Shouldn't they be very desirable ?

Because 2 druids are required to hand out the spec buffs to the group and I believe that root gives snare immunity so your tanks aren't going to thank you when they try and peel. I'm not sure on Uthgard but I seem to remember the immunity is 1 min.

That's not to say that you should never root as sometimes the peelers not around to help. Det does affect root duration though so you're probably better off kiting to your peeler.

Run one nature druid, and one 42 buff druid for example

blue str con compared to yellow str con: you just loose like 50 hits.

in a hib hybrid setup like we run (2 bard 2 druid 2 caster 2 tanks) it fits perfect. brings a lot of utility into our setup.

its just bad if u want to smallmen or if they lf a buff druid

Nature is, and always will be a niche spec. You don't deal a lot of damage and you need to rely on your pet and kiting a lot for RVR. If you want a special class to do duels with for the giggles, it sure is fun to play nature druid, but as efficiency goes it's not very viable.

I still don't quite agree that it is a niche spec. You should run as many capable pets as possible to interrupt and annoy enemies more. And then we haven't even started on the roots. Any decent set up group should really run a buff and a nature druid (can even be 40nu/30re/20na for the stun pet)!

However, unless you have people that will invite you as a nature druid the chances to get it going seem rather slim. Which is why I went buffs for the forseeable future.