Celtic Heroes

Wards are LAME

First let me start by saying Spring of Life is the worst skill. Why OTM is afraid to fix this spell to at least match an idol is beyond me. For anyone to admit using this spell is admitting your noobness!

The second worst group of spells is all the Wards.

Now initiatively, the ward spells sound and seem like a good idea. Reducing your groups damage intake is a very positive concern for any support druid. As a druid wards seem to make sense and every Healing Druid wants to provide the most benefit possible to its group. But if that is the case then investing any points into wards is the worst thing you can possible do.

Here is the main issues...

1) Wards are under powered to consider wasting a single skill point. Damage resistance, as most everything in this game, are set up with a nonlinear result. What this means is as you add resistance each point of resistance added does less. You can test this easily by standing on lava without armor and casting Ward of Fire and then comparing it to being fully armored. As you add more or better resistant armor your ward spell will have less of a benefit. Because of the amount of resistance found on Frozen Armor or greater, any ward spell added delivers marginal benefit. I am not saying wards don't provide a benefit, but, druids have linear spells that are consistent, such as Touch, Breath, Bark, Embrace, Aura's, etc..., taking a single point away from any of those spells is foolish.

2) Wards spells are mostly ineffective. Most bosses and mobs use only one or two of the damage spells a single ward works to resist. What this means is greater than 60% of the time a particular ward spell will have no effect because that boss or mob does not use that kind of damage. To invest any skill points into a ward that only works less than 30% of the time is again foolish compared to putting points into our main healing spells. I also find it next to impossible to figure out what type of damage a lot of bosses use. Fire and Ice are often easy to identify, but the others are challenging or next to impossible to identify.

3) Wands are limited to a small area around the target it is casted on. When I have used wards in the past, Rangers in my group rarely where within range to receive the buff. Even at Aggy, his aoe fire burst had a larger radius than my ward of fire. If I casted Ward of Fire on tank, I often was out of range to get the buff myself. What this means is often you can only buff a fraction of your group members at a time based on how close they are together.

So my basic point here is that skill points put into any ward is a waste if you take a single point away from any of our main spells.

Here are my suggestions to make wards a more viable spell.

1) Make the wards linear in its result. Change it to either reduce by a percentage of damage or as a total amount. I am not asking for an energy shield type of spell where 100% of all damage is resisted, but graduated linear approach. Or just give it a total amount of damage it blocks such a Sanctuary.
2) On all damage dealt we need a symbol or color put in the text to identifying the type of damage it is. Nothing I hate more than bosses spamming the damage they are doing in text. I actual wish there was an option to turn it off!
3) The area of effect needs to be increased. There should not be an aoe effect from a boss that has a larger radius than my ability to cast a group spell. Aggy for example has a aoe where when I cast a ward on the tank I am outside the radius to get that buff. Again, ward spells as they currently exist are inefficient and not worth a point.

What level Druid are you? I would like to know this. Nothing but the Frozen Meteoric set affects the lava damage, which shows in your first point, I haven't even begun to finish your sentences and I already find major flaws. Believe me, I don't want to start any arguements, but what you have mentioned, up until the second paragraph (which is the maximum amount of paragraphs I read so far), have been pretty worthless. Do some more research before coming up with complaints, if so, make them logical. As far as I can tell, the warding skills do have a lot of effect on mobs. The damage intake is far less that what you would have if you didn't have wards to help you with. Try doing Aggragoth without any wards at all, you would suffer. All the warding skills have a plateau effect. At a certain point, since mobs don't have a specific amount of damage output, at a higher base damage, then what are the warding skills supposed to take damage from? Exactly what I am speaking of. Shield of Bark is another skill that has an armour plateau effect. Having too much armour doesn't benefit the target, much rather hurt the caster. The more useless points you have in a skill means you have less points in a more useful skill. Going back to the lava damage you spoke earlier, no matter the armour's negation of fire damage, it doesn't affect it. However in this update, authority has made it so that a set of Frozen Meteoric armour would negate the damage of lava damage fully, which is highly beneficial for a Druid with very low health.

If you haven't done your research yet, all the warding skills negate skill damage output. Bless is a special skill that negates both types of damage output, auto-attack, and skill. Correct me if I am wrong but it is what people have been saying so far.

Have you ever done Aggragoth? If not, then you don't know the cost of warding skills and especially Bless. If yes, then you should know of a reason why other Druids, apart from you of course, would use warding skills, and Bless. It is quite helpful for the tank to take in far less damage than they would normally without either warding skills or Bless. Trust me, from experience, there is a big difference between a tank taking one hundred more damage than the next tank who has the ability to negate such hundred damage. This would mean the life or death after that tenth hit. The second tank would be dealt with 1,000 damage, whereas the first tank would be dealt with 2,000 damage after the tenth hit. See the big difference? Well of course, in a real bossing situation, these numbers accumulate more the longer it takes for your damage-dealers to kill the enemy.

In another game, it has almost the same concepts as Celtic Heroes, yet different. I have a friend there that has a well known motto, and many people live by it as well. I am sure he didn't think of it first, but whomever did deserves credit. “The faster you kill, the more hit points you have.” Let us break this quote down a bit. Let's start off with hit points, also known as HP. It is what your life bar consists of and it decides how much health you have, at maximum, or at zero, which intones death. Damage all throughout also affects how much the tank would have to deal damage with. The faster the death of a target, then the more the tank would have left over of their health, which means it is better to have an all damage-dealing group with a tank and a couple of Druids outside than have a utility group.

Straying from such subject and going back to your complaint, in conclusion, warding skills, and especially Bless is important to a support Druid.

As side note includes what you mentioned in the frst paragraph. You mentioned that Spring of Life isn't worth the points and should be near to Resurrection Idols' utility. Well, I do admit that it would be good to have a close to relation with Resurrection Idols, but the fact is, OneThumbMobile needs to make money somehow. Apart from beginner quests that give out free Resurrection Idols, there aren't anymore for trials. I do admit that it isn't worth investing points into Spring of Life, but I bet you didn't even spend any point in Spring of Life before trying it out. It is quite useful! At initial cast, the target is left with low health, but overall, the target will recieve a certain amount of health back, and top it with your own health regenerating or direct healing capabilities, the target would have full health in no time. In my opinion, I do believe the energy cost, compared to the utility of such skill is fair. I mean, it is either you waste your own money that you could buy real-life survival items, or you could just invest a few points to compensate the loss of group members in a boss fight, think about it.

I will write more once I am finished with the full story of your complaint, but for now, think about what I have mentioned so far, and consider it before jumping to conclusions.

RoyalSeraphim of Taranis

Royal
I have been a druid over 18 months now.
I am level 165 and have taken Aggy with zero idols more than three dozen times. I lost count of how many times we have taken aggy with idols in full ffa fights.
I currently have two pieces to dragon armor and over a dozen aggy drops.
I have tested fire warding and before update and before 60 plus of our members had full frozen armor it had marginal benefit.

I never said that warding spells did not have a benefit!!!
I said they are not worth putting points into them.

I do not consider Bless to be one of the warding spells. It is not singular to one particular damage and it is not a group spell. I do feel bless with become a very important spell when a druid turns full support.

I am sorry you will not read this paragraph. It is past the limit you are able to absorb.

I may not have fancy charts and numbers, but what I do have is experience. I have tested warding spells and although they do work, they are at the bottom of the list of effective spells.

I'm sure both of u r better druid than me hee hee

Pearl, thx for your info and your effort on testing. Maybe OTM will listen to you and makes ward a better skill.

And Royal....I know you r experienced too and I've read your post and like to ask:

Bless is a special skill that negates both types of damage output, auto-attack, and skill. Correct me if I am wrong but it is what people have been saying so far.

you sure ?? auto-attack counts ?? Is that hear say or you tested it yourself ?

Pearl made a point that we players can't figure out what type of attack the mobs are using, so...do you have any idea on figuring out what attack a mob is using?

the fact is, OneThumbMobile needs to make money somehow

hee hee, i totally agree with this, thats why i dun agree ppl asking otm to let players making money in game easier. Maybe if I'm OTM, I'll consider making a new lux shop with the best items for platium buyers only for example an ancient heroic ammu with 50 armor and regen 30 hp and en per tick for 180 plat

Royal you may have found a noob druid.

Royal you may have found a noob druid.

Any point you r trying to make here ??
I'm willing to listen to your advice on druid as I'm really new to this class but if you dun have any points to make....umm...

Royal you may have found a noob druid.

Any point you r trying to make here ??
I'm willing to listen to your advice on druid as I'm really new to this class but if you dun have any points to make....umm...

My point- listen to royal, not perl or whatever lol

Both of you made some good points and probably have more experience than most druids; a few errors in your argument doesnt make you a noob. I would agree with royal that wards can be extremely helpful. Have you ever been healing a tank who forgot to recast stance and have to frantically spam heals? If the druid-tank situation is fine then wards arent necessary but could make a world of difference on a boss that would otherwise be just out of reach. Personally i havent done aggy yet, but my view of a measurement for effectiveness of a druid is, rather than dps, "hp per sec". This involves both hp added to the tank, and the hp saved. For instance your nature touch has a hps of (heal/timebetweencasts) probably around the 150 range. Theoretically if a boss attacks every 2 seconds and your ward lessens damage by 200 thats a hps of 100 which is very good. if only given enough skill points for 4-5 skills maxed i would probably leave a spot for a ward, especially if it is a coordinated group with many druids. Ward resistance increases linearly, as it should, but i think its crazy to think it should linearly decrease damage received. If you have a graphing calculator, plug in 1/x and thats approximately the curve that ur damage should, and does, follow. If it was linear your received damage would drop below 0 and you would...heal? Doesnt make too much sense. Here are my thoughts on wards: they are a shield of bark that work for only one resist rather than bark's 3 (pierce, crush, slash). Essentially it works the same was as armor but more specifically towards one damage type. Therefore, if even, you should invest in one that mobs commonly use, such as crush and fire.

Good points Black, and you are correct crush and fire are the two most common, but still to put points in a skill that only works some times? Doesn't make sense to me.

Let me more fully outline our predicament in the follow post.

My only desire is to make our class better, not berating other players.

I hope to challenge other druids to think about the value of your skill points. I have tried to outlined here certain skills, Wards and Spring of Life that I believe are not worth a single point.

I think Royal is just mad at me from my accusations that the druid beta team let us down. No other class has had as many changes since update release than the druid class. And we are still struggling with energy issues, but this post is not about personal issues or personal attacks.

Since we're mostly talking support druids, bossing and end game content, lets look at a level 150 druids options and realities. This level give you 150 skill points and 34 point ceiling to max any skill.

As a full support druid the follow are a must.
Nature Touch - 34
Nature Breath - 34

The next group are all good spells, but it is important to talk with other druids in you clan and work out who will champion each. If there is one word of wisdom I can pass on, it is far better to be the best at one skill then to be crappy at several. Keep in mind I am only talking about druids level 120 and above. The spell you choose will also be best to go with the +skill items you have from bracelets and rings.

You should max two of the follow (68 points)
Natures Embrace
Abundance
Shield of Bark
Bless
Sanctuary

You must communicate with your other druids in your clan and work out who does what. For example I have 50/35 Bark. This means any druid grouped with me is wasting points in bark and would serve the clan better by picking another skill and champion it.

Maximizing four skills is 136 points and now leaves you with 14 points. You may have bonuses on rings, etc., but you should use these to get you above 35 not add more skills.

With energy issues and based on how many Mages you have in your clan, you many need to look at one of the energy skills next.

For leveling I think Harvest is slightly better and if you use any dps.
For bossing I think Meditate is better
Because of our energy issues you may need to find more points to put in these to maintain enough energy to last a long fight. Druids without energy is a sure way to wipe on a boss.

The following skill are interesting and can serve a valuable asset, but to make them useful you will need to dump one of the skills above.

Grasping Roots
Howling Wind
Calm
Abundant Aura
Rescue

This leaves the following skills that have the least value of all our skills.
These are skill I have defined as lame.

Spring of Life
Ward of Fire
Ward of Ice
Ward of Magic
Ward of Giants
Ward of Soldiers
Ward of Assassins

To even suggest putting point in these skills is beyond me.
As I have suggested, to make these skills worthy of our limited point they will need to be changed.