Celtic Heroes

I've never built a str druid but have always wondered what they would be like. My druid is full focus, only the 5 default points in everything else. All dps skills are at 50 and so is touch. I quite often get kills over similar lvl rogues and mages and as long as I don't get interrupted during touch I have no problems beating big tanks at pvp so I'm very happy with the toon. With only 2700 hp though I'm not the particularly robust lol.

What i was honing to figure out with thi post is if there is a certain point where adding 100 focus is worse than adding 100 vit. Imo vit is very important, even more with the AOE damage from Unox mindrender. I just feel like 1600-1700. Focus only means a heal of like +12 and like 20 more dmg on strike. While those points could also mean a lot more vit to survive longer, waste less idols and stuff.

Fyi, when i level i wear full dps gear (3 spider rings, one mordy ring, one lightning brace from this event and a howling wind brace from past even, top it of with a spider earth charm.)

When i heal i wear full healing gear (2 spider rings, 1 natures breath ring, 1 bark ring, howling wind brace and this event's renewal brace and a renewal spider charm)

I dont auto because i indeed feel it is interrupted too much by skills (i use a hrung lightning skull). My lightning casts really fast and hits about 2-4k on mobs my level or a bit higher.

This is a good discussion but it was not ment to be about builds and being a caster or not. I was ment to figure out till what point focus makes a really big difference.

Would you rather have 1.7k focus and 400 vit or 1.5k focus and 600 vit?

Kassoe I just looked at my stats and I carry 1.5k focus with 7.3k in health.

I like totem and offhand axe although i have no str besides bonus from axe

I like totem and offhand axe although i have no str besides bonus from axe

Don't let Spartacus see this. He will tell you why you're wrong to use an axe.

I like the axe for lixing and grim for when I'm providing support at raids.

Would you rather have 1.7k focus and 400 vit or 1.5k focus and 600 vit?

The answer is more about, how much are you dying?
Survivability is key, but points placed in Vit do not help you level faster.
You need health to survive the fight, but the faster you kill your enemy (DPS) the less damage they will be able to do to you.
DPS is vital to this game, kill slow and you find yourself healing all the time kill fast and you can heal between fights.

So what is vital to a druid is to keep DOT's up, cast lightning often, and give them as much energy as possible (focus).

Even though focus is less effective after 300 points, it still has a huge multiplying effect.

Every point in Focus will:

• Increase damage with vines on every tick
  Increase damage with swarm on every tick
  Increase damage with Lightning with every cast
  Increase damage with Storm with every cast
  Increase the protect you get from bark
  Increase the protection you get from Sanctuary
  Increase the amount of heal power for touch
  Increase the amount of heal power for breath
  Increase the pool of energy to cast all these spells....

Every point in focus helps your DPS, protection, and heals

Every point in Strength will:

• Increase damage only when you're not casting a skill
  Decreases all your skills effectiveness by reducing points from Focus.

Add a Fiery Axe to your offhand and decrease a possible 300 points from focus and reduce evasions

The biggest missing piece that OTM has not figured out is that between casting times, interruptions, evasions, and slow speeds our melee damage is kind of a waste of time. This is of course realizing that when in melee you do not regenerate energy as fast and your sigils do not kick in.

So to the OP, points in focus in the thousands is less effective after 300, but the multiplying bonus of even a diminished focus point is far more powerful and useful than thinking of putting points into Strength and Dexterity.

Now I say all of this with maximizing a druids effectiveness. Style of play is a whole different conversation and stand around watching others produce all the damage gets kind of boring and makes you want to hit something... so melee away!

Perl I like what you said about style of play. I think this is key. And all of my posts I had typed were about finding a build that was most enjoyable and effective in leveling. Of my 203 levels, I have group leveled maybe close to 10 of those levels.

I've tried everything from hand to hand, totem, trident, focus stick, energy stick, haste dagger, fire dmg shield, and various elemental dmg axes.

I've used biteys skill dmg calculator inputting every imaginable number possible out of curiosity, and let's face it, solo druid leveling at a high level can suck.

And as you mentioned, OTM has given druids a main hand that is a melee weapon. An interesting observation made by a lot if warriors on my server is crush dmg seems to be more effective than the other physical dmg types so I guess be thankful we at least got a crush dmg weapon.

You mentioned that I hadn't mentioned attack which is absolutely important when meleeing. High weapon ability helps with attack and I have attack and defense gear.

As far as focus goes, I don't think there would ever be a debate on the higher the focus the better. I spent a lot of time moving focus from 600 to 1400 in 100 point increments. For me, I haven't found a definite skill dmg increase between 1100 and 1400 focus. What has helped is a few points in winds and a high defense (I have 1.1k def from gear) to keep from casting interruptions.

Also when I lix, I'll use a combo or a heroic haste which allows for about 5 to 6 autos between strike casts or having to cast swarm. The nice thing is these skills don't interrupt autos. With these autos in between casts hitting for 500 to 700 it does make for extra dmg in between kills which leads to a faster kill.

Again, I enjoy some melee and I like the heat axe. I'm def not trying to encourage anyone to go this route. I'm just merely demonstrating what has worked for me

I can't say ive tried everything but ive asked around on forums and on my world about why playstyle and builds id be using and a majority have referred to using an axe offhand...i just think it shouldnt matter what someone prefers if it works it works...

Either focus is LINEAR relationship to dmg or it doesnt.


The diminishing term being flung around is somewhat misleading. Does focus skill dmg increase per point diminish as you put it in , or not? while it might be more productive overall to not put that last 100 focus, and get some vit, this doesnt constitute using the term diminishing, unless its some kind of exponentially decaying function (like the str plateau).

This thread was so fun to read. It's funny how people argue about something they've never tried before. Thanks for the laugh.