Neirai the Forgiven
Christian Guilds List Manager
Hey, for all you who are considering starting a druid and are thinking about where to plug you talents, allow me to shine some light on some blended talent paths that open up some interesting combos 
First, I will open with my own class, the 'Carebear Druid'... the Carebear is a combination of 70% restoration and 30% feral.
1) How To Make A Carebear:
You want to plug 36 points into Restoration, being sure to pick up the Nature's Swiftness and Innervate talents. Also plug 5 points into Furor, and 2 into Improved Enrage.
Plug the remaining 15 points into 5 Ferocity, 5 Sharpened Claws, and 5 Primal Fury.
2) The Role of the Carebear:
The Carebear is an excellent healer, and can easily fit that description. However, I find the Carebear fills an important role in hard battles: that of emergency support.
The Carebear is amazingly prolific when in bear form.. with the proper use of Enrage + Frenzied Regeneration, a Carebear can stay alive for a LONG time. I tend to stay in bear form for most of a difficult battle, fighting until the priest runs out of mana.
At this point, the Carebear's role becomes clear: shifting into caster form, I quickly Innervate the priest, Nature's Swiftness+Healing Touch whoever seems to be dying the fastest, then slap on Barkskin+Tranquility to keep the entire party alive for about 10 seconds.... by which time the priest is enjoying a fully charged mana bar.
Using this tactic, myself, Daeder, Perin, & Deedlyt managed to 4-man a 55 Elite (former) Aspect of Nature. (thats a big nasty nasty nasty big dragon).
3) Pitfalls of the Carebear:
Carebears fight like crap... it is true. Although they are very good at defeating their enemies, they usually take one or two hours to do so. This often leads their players to believe that the Carebear in useless.. a mistake that any swiftly reversed almost-wipe can prove wrong.
Carebears have insanely high resistant to physical damage due to their high levels of armor, but they lack hitpoints, causing them to often die by contact with a mage. A note to newbie Carebears: You can NOT tank a dragon. The dragon will kill you in about 3 breaths. Stick to tanking the 4 giant stone golems.
4) Soloing with a Carebear:
Soloing with a Carebear is easy, but takes a really long time. The Carebear is amazingly resistant to damage and therefore can often solo Elites equal or even higher levels to the Carebear!! Again however, make killing mages a priority. And run from dragons.
>>> The Powerhouse Druid
The PhD is a combination of about 80% Feral and 20% Balance. It focuses on Tanking.
1. How to make a PhD:
A note on stats. as a PhD you want to focus on Sta, then Str, then Spi, and lastly Agility. AVOID INT LIKE A PLAGUE!!! Intellect will increase the casting cost of your bear form shift (always 25% of your mana), and the lack of mana will make up for you dropping Spirit from your top concern to your third.
Talents:
In Balance, plug 5 Talents into Nature's Grasp+Improved Nature's Grasp, 2 points into Nature's Reach, and 3 into Swiftshifting. Pop a last talent point into Omen of Clarity.
In Feral Combat, pop all 34 points into all the bear-related talents. GRRRRR
In Restoration, plug the remaining 6 points into Furor and Improved Enrage.
2) The Role of the PhD:
The PhD is a warrior... that is all. Except it is a warrior with Omen of Clarity... what does this mean?
With a quick cast of Omen of Clarity, your melee attacks have a chance of making your next attack spell cost nothing ...
so now you can pull with Starfire for free. So much for avoiding Int like a plague being a bad thing...
The talent points in all of the places that they are should allow the PhD to run a very low-mana operation that focuses on VERY swift rage generation. the very swift rage generation will make staying alive very easy, especially coupled with Frenzied Regeneration.
3) Pitfalls of the PhD:
The PhD cannot heal other players very well at all... he can regenerate using his rage, but healing others is using his precious few drops of mana. Although he is limiting his mana on purpose, it does come back to bite him when it comes to healing.
As a PhD make it quite clear that you are a fighter, not a healer (at all).
Also, a PhD is best created as a respec at lvl 40... trying to bring up a PhD without Dire Bear Form is an exercise in frustration.
4) Soloing with a PhD:
Soloing with a PhD is the same as grouping.
First, I will open with my own class, the 'Carebear Druid'... the Carebear is a combination of 70% restoration and 30% feral.
1) How To Make A Carebear:
You want to plug 36 points into Restoration, being sure to pick up the Nature's Swiftness and Innervate talents. Also plug 5 points into Furor, and 2 into Improved Enrage.
Plug the remaining 15 points into 5 Ferocity, 5 Sharpened Claws, and 5 Primal Fury.
2) The Role of the Carebear:
The Carebear is an excellent healer, and can easily fit that description. However, I find the Carebear fills an important role in hard battles: that of emergency support.
The Carebear is amazingly prolific when in bear form.. with the proper use of Enrage + Frenzied Regeneration, a Carebear can stay alive for a LONG time. I tend to stay in bear form for most of a difficult battle, fighting until the priest runs out of mana.
At this point, the Carebear's role becomes clear: shifting into caster form, I quickly Innervate the priest, Nature's Swiftness+Healing Touch whoever seems to be dying the fastest, then slap on Barkskin+Tranquility to keep the entire party alive for about 10 seconds.... by which time the priest is enjoying a fully charged mana bar.
Using this tactic, myself, Daeder, Perin, & Deedlyt managed to 4-man a 55 Elite (former) Aspect of Nature. (thats a big nasty nasty nasty big dragon).
3) Pitfalls of the Carebear:
Carebears fight like crap... it is true. Although they are very good at defeating their enemies, they usually take one or two hours to do so. This often leads their players to believe that the Carebear in useless.. a mistake that any swiftly reversed almost-wipe can prove wrong.
Carebears have insanely high resistant to physical damage due to their high levels of armor, but they lack hitpoints, causing them to often die by contact with a mage. A note to newbie Carebears: You can NOT tank a dragon. The dragon will kill you in about 3 breaths. Stick to tanking the 4 giant stone golems.
4) Soloing with a Carebear:
Soloing with a Carebear is easy, but takes a really long time. The Carebear is amazingly resistant to damage and therefore can often solo Elites equal or even higher levels to the Carebear!! Again however, make killing mages a priority. And run from dragons.
>>> The Powerhouse Druid
The PhD is a combination of about 80% Feral and 20% Balance. It focuses on Tanking.
1. How to make a PhD:
A note on stats. as a PhD you want to focus on Sta, then Str, then Spi, and lastly Agility. AVOID INT LIKE A PLAGUE!!! Intellect will increase the casting cost of your bear form shift (always 25% of your mana), and the lack of mana will make up for you dropping Spirit from your top concern to your third.
Talents:
In Balance, plug 5 Talents into Nature's Grasp+Improved Nature's Grasp, 2 points into Nature's Reach, and 3 into Swiftshifting. Pop a last talent point into Omen of Clarity.
In Feral Combat, pop all 34 points into all the bear-related talents. GRRRRR
In Restoration, plug the remaining 6 points into Furor and Improved Enrage.
2) The Role of the PhD:
The PhD is a warrior... that is all. Except it is a warrior with Omen of Clarity... what does this mean?
With a quick cast of Omen of Clarity, your melee attacks have a chance of making your next attack spell cost nothing
... so now you can pull with Starfire for free. So much for avoiding Int like a plague being a bad thing...
The talent points in all of the places that they are should allow the PhD to run a very low-mana operation that focuses on VERY swift rage generation. the very swift rage generation will make staying alive very easy, especially coupled with Frenzied Regeneration.
3) Pitfalls of the PhD:
The PhD cannot heal other players very well at all... he can regenerate using his rage, but healing others is using his precious few drops of mana. Although he is limiting his mana on purpose, it does come back to bite him when it comes to healing.
As a PhD make it quite clear that you are a fighter, not a healer (at all).
Also, a PhD is best created as a respec at lvl 40... trying to bring up a PhD without Dire Bear Form is an exercise in frustration.
4) Soloing with a PhD:
Soloing with a PhD is the same as grouping.
