Why being a druid is awesome.

Rangor

Athelas said:

@Sena Yes, new skill, awesome... some time in 2016, maybe, perhaps. I'm not holding my breath, but I'm quietly praying that someone has taken the time to make it part of the Eleusian Renaissance... 

I'm already seeing people that used to come to me for elixirs and salves, harvesting and concocting for themselves, now I don't quite understand how that promotes character interaction while demoting independence. Which is supposed to be reasoning behind the trade skill migration.

So ... again ... if you know something I don't, or I lack understanding/knowledge. Stop the criticism and start informing me.

I would really like to enjoy this change as much as everyone else seems to be.

If you need combat pointers, you can easily get the information you need IG. Join the TEF, spar everyone in the eleusian rangers. Poke me, yae, rom, whomever about what druids can do and what they can't. Did you know druids/sylvans has the highest damage LoS attack in the game? Epic good for team fights if min/maxed. Did you know druids has the only instakill that only requires the target to be below 50% health? Makes druid one of the best burst damage classes in the game. Will it require min/maxing stats? Yes. Will it require artefacts? Maybe a few, but probably not as many as you'd think.

Druids can go for straight out damage into incin.
Druids can go for instakill from limb breaks into frozen pound.
Druids can go for loldamage from limb breaks into reflexed mauls+bees.
Druids have probably one of the most badass group "omg wtf just happened to me" abilities in the game. Stampede->bind->stampede->lol incin off my friends bbt/bites.

Aepas

Rangor speaks truth. Stampede is much better in group fights, it does damage, prones, and breaks a limb!

Bees are way too powerful, though was sad to see the shield change for them. I think their damage should be upped by about 25% since they don't go through shields. Maybe 50-75%

Incinerate is now insanely powerful since you can pre-ignite. Freezepound is usually a pretty viable tactic, especially since hydra can strip caloric now

Athelas, I'd do this. Start using more hydra freebalance, and ignore hydra flame/snap unless you are in melee group combat. Oh, did I mention how awesome flame/snap is in group combat? that's like a 1k damage combo right there against most opponents, sometimes more depending on their health. Throw in some bees... mmmm. You're doing around 1k-1.4 per attack. sexy.

If you're in a pickle, be a bitch and do nitengale/sing. wait.... fly/sip. when you get tentacled down, sing again. Repeat process. Also, afk ganking? oh it might be frowned upon, but wyvern hoist+maul+incinerate. Yeah, punish those AFK's for not being indoors or on guards.

oh, and if you're getting damaged. Get a mount, riding will help you a ton. I used to be a massive hydra riding around on a tiny bull. Whenever I was in danger, web/trample for everything broken. Gives you about 4 seconds of recovery time, and for some it makes them shield because it's a sudden and scary looking burst. Also, great in teams! I think Cahin and I was part of what got the trample/vivi nerf after we started running around using hydra bind/trample/vivisect together.

Karai

Athelas said:

You say, "YOU!"

3998h, 3998m, 18890e, 18890w cexkdb-

You say, "SHAL NOT!"

3998h, 3998m, 18890e, 18890w cexkdb-

You say, "PASS!"

3998h, 3998m, 18890e, 18890w cexkdb-

You tap the quarterstaff on the ground and light begins to pour forth from its tip.

EMOTE considers $Athelas for a moment before sidling past $Athelas_him.
n

Trey

@Athelas,  I think the main thing to take away from everything is that "I suck at druid combat" doesn't necessarily mean "Druid combat must suck".

Athelas

@trey as I said, I'll eat my words if someone demonstrates functioning 1v1 Druid combat. Even if that person happens to be me one day.

Unlike others, I have no problem with being proven wrong. I take the lessons and am happy for them.

@Rangor I've joined TEF and tried getting assistance IG. I'm not having a lot of luck though. I seem to lack basic understanding and very few people are willing to spend time on transferring that kind of knowledge. As I said before, I'm desperate enough to take instruction from anyone, either IG or out. I've re-read what's written here about four times and I'm still lacking understanding of things like bbt.

What the hell does BBT stand for anyway, and LoS? Line of sight perhaps? What is loldamage? Laugh out loud damage? That makes no sense.

Throw me a bone here. I'm more than willing to learn. But damn it I need basics, and I mean basics. I couldn't play when things like the combat path were created. So I basically need newbie training here.

Remember that scene in Kung-fu Panda where Po asks if there is a level zero? That's me! But perhaps with a level -1.

Austere

Athelas said:

@trey as I said, I'll eat my words if someone demonstrates functioning 1v1 Druid combat. Even if that person happens to be me one day.

Unlike others, I have no problem with being proven wrong. I take the lessons and am happy for them.

@Rangor I've joined TEF and tried getting assistance IG. I'm not having a lot of luck though. I seem to lack basic understanding and very few people are willing to spend time on transferring that kind of knowledge. As I said before, I'm desperate enough to take instruction from anyone, either IG or out. I've re-read what's written here about four times and I'm still lacking understanding of things like bbt.

What the hell does BBT stand for anyway, and LoS? Line of sight perhaps? What is loldamage? Laugh out loud damage? That makes no sense.

Throw me a bone here. I'm more than willing to learn. But damn it I need basics, and I mean basics. I couldn't play when things like the combat path were created. So I basically need newbie training here.

Remember that scene in Kung-fu Panda where Po asks if there is a level zero? That's me! But perhaps with a level -1.

BBT: Backbreaker Throw, Monk prone damage
LoS: Line of sight, eg: snipe
Loldamage: Crazy damage, eg: staffcast

Tesha

That's the thing though, combat in general isn't something you can just be given. You have to put the work in. You can't just complain until someone shows you exactly what to do, that's not how it works. Part of the wonder of Achaea's combat system is putting the pieces together. You have been given a plethora of information and hints about where to go with Druid combat. If you don't understand how the pieces would fit together, ask someone in-game (Rangor already pointed out who you can ask). People will be able to help you understand more, but if you're hoping for a step-by-step on how to fight as a Druid, you're going to be disappointed. Step up.

Kresslack

Karai said:

Athelas said:

You say, "YOU!"

3998h, 3998m, 18890e, 18890w cexkdb-

You say, "SHAL NOT!"

3998h, 3998m, 18890e, 18890w cexkdb-

You say, "PASS!"

3998h, 3998m, 18890e, 18890w cexkdb-

You tap the quarterstaff on the ground and light begins to pour forth from its tip.

EMOTE considers $Athelas for a moment before sidling past $Athelas_him.
n

So THAT'S how I use custom targeted emotes and pronouns. Have been wondering about that.

Addama

Plus, though the forum is obviously a good place to discuss class balance/tactics, a lot of it is going to be Latin to you unless you actually see it in the Arena.  So get in there, ask for help, get to work on an offensive strategy, test it, fix it, test it again, fix it again, etc.

Vesios

People normally call certain moves by their in-game vanilla shorthand, i.e. bbt (backbreaker), dsl (doubleslash), rsl (razeslash). 

@Athelas you keep asking for someone if someone has shown if it's possible, but she's in the House right now and you've probably spoken to her on more than one occasion. Her name is @Yae and she's continually demonstrated that the Druid class is competent in both 1v1 and group combat. But she can only give you hints. Like others have said, the burden is on you to figure out how anything fits together, because otherwise you'll just be following the motions and won't get anywhere in the long run. Combat is dynamic and that's the mindset you have to have. 

If I can learn something and find some way to make my class work - because I absolutely love it, quirks and all, and wouldn't change it for the world - then so can you. 

Yae

Hrm.

I'm not as competent as you think @Vesios, and it basically terrifies me whenever someone brings me up in that perspective, but I learned enough of the basics to at least figure out certain things. Enemies dislike hydra bind, for example. Prefarar is nice. Incinerate works if you let people tender the target for a few seconds. I don't believe the druid class is as poor in 1 v 1 as people think, or as some people think. They're incredible for assisting in groups, but in 1 v 1, you have to know what you're doing in order to get over that hill.

It's not just figuring out druid combat. To be a capable combatant in general, you have to know what other classes are doing to not die, why they're doing certain things, how they're going to try to kill you, and how to stop them. It's not about your own abilities as much as how you can work with your abilities to overcome someone that's not just standing their staring blankly at the air. No one's just going to die if you spam your maul attack for a few seconds, except those with puny health in the first place (newbies). 

Anyone can tell @Rom is going to be wonderful at it when he's allowed to join the class.

@Guhem and @Swadryt were also great when they were active and interested in the realm.

Mishgul

Yae is a pretty awesome person. I would pay to watch her fight on achaea.

Mishgul

don't you disagree with me miss

Vesios

You're still better than the rest of us! Even if some of us are trying to learn. 

Aepas

Athelas said:

@trey as I said, I'll eat my words if someone demonstrates functioning 1v1 Druid combat. Even if that person happens to be me one day.

Unlike others, I have no problem with being proven wrong. I take the lessons and am happy for them.

@Rangor I've joined TEF and tried getting assistance IG. I'm not having a lot of luck though. I seem to lack basic understanding and very few people are willing to spend time on transferring that kind of knowledge. As I said before, I'm desperate enough to take instruction from anyone, either IG or out. I've re-read what's written here about four times and I'm still lacking understanding of things like bbt.

What the hell does BBT stand for anyway, and LoS? Line of sight perhaps? What is loldamage? Laugh out loud damage? That makes no sense.

Throw me a bone here. I'm more than willing to learn. But damn it I need basics, and I mean basics. I couldn't play when things like the combat path were created. So I basically need newbie training here.

Remember that scene in Kung-fu Panda where Po asks if there is a level zero? That's me! But perhaps with a level -1.

Really not trying to float my own boat, but I was one of the "better" druid combatants at the time. Yes, there were better than me, but I was the only one active at the time.

The main problem I had with druid back in the day was, Hydra clamp does about 97 damage, give or take. Since I used that in tandem with swing, I never had enough damage on a person to get a full freezepound kill, especially against any kind of runelorist. @Xer can attest for the time I freezepounded him twice in a spar, but his algiz kept him alive and he destroyed my face.  I complained for over a year about freezepound, as did a few other people and it was finally changed.

I'll go ahead and give you the newbie tip to druid.
Prep legs
Hydra clamp leg 1/swing staff
Wield flail
hydra clamp leg 2/shatter leg2
after shatter
morph icewyrm
freeze X3
pound.
WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT!

Aepas

Sorry for double post, but here's the thing. I formulated that plan while I was walking around a field in Guam, checking random equipment as that was my job at the time. Is it 100% original? most likely not. But I had not seen anyone else use it. Here is the thing, combat in itself is an amazingly complex beast. You need to know the ins and outs of every skill you have, as well as other skills you can learn to be a combatant. You should always be thinking about it. As I said, I learned it while I was working, because I was STILL thinking about combat. You don't learn combat only in game, it should be a theorized and diverse plan that you think about and learn at any given time.

I gave you the tip, so hopefully you can have a decent tactic to use. However, I expect you to continue the trend and learn or create something of your own, and perhaps share it later on. Druid is amazing, simply put.

I know @Rom‌ got a very quick and effecient freezepound setup, which he used on me and then laughed and said "I thought you'd appreciate that freezepound is an instakill now."

Mind you this was months after I had been complaining about how it needed to be an instakill, then he goes and kills me with it. That bastard.

If I catch you complaining about druid combat again, I'll just come start murdering you with the lovely new 2h specialty. After awhile, I'm sure you'll learn how to fight back. Ic/Oc be damned.

Athelas

@aepas Here's the part that pisses me off: Everyone expects me to just know the terminology, but I see no f'n reference on what the hell 2h stands for!

So, four five six! Stop using the bloody abbreviations that only the in-crowd know. I'm willing to put in the time and the effort but if you want someone to learn you can't expect them to know what you know.
If they did, they wouldn't need to learn now would they?

Addama

Athelas said:

@aepas Here's the part that pisses me off: Everyone expects me to just know the terminology, but I see no f'n reference on what the hell 2h stands for!

So, four five six! Stop using the bloody abbreviations that only the in-crowd know. I'm willing to put in the time and the effort but if you want someone to learn you can't expect them to know what you know.
If they did, they wouldn't need to learn now would they?

Do you think people will still want to help you when you post shit like this?

E: I've only got a couple minutes to fix this:

I get that Achaean combat is confusing.  Yesterday I had to explain to a Housemate, in this order, what Piety does, what hindering does, what Evade does, and what RNG was.  I understand that these things are not in the common lexicon, especially if you're not a combatant.

But at least said Housemate wasn't afraid to ask "what do you mean by hindering?" or "what's RNG?" because those things are important to know.  And the whole conversation was civil, there was no mention of getting pissed, and I wasn't instructed to tone down my terminology.  If there was some confusion, they just asked another question and I answered it.  And I certainly wasn't being told that I was wasting their time by using terminology.

I think you need to step back a second and realize that, first of all, you have questions, and secondly, we're okay with answering them.  Don't get mad if you don't understand something - just ask.

Trey

Athelas said:

@aepas Here's the part that pisses me off: Everyone expects me to just know the terminology, but I see no f'n reference on what the hell 2h stands for!

So, four five six! Stop using the bloody abbreviations that only the in-crowd know. I'm willing to put in the time and the effort but if you want someone to learn you can't expect them to know what you know.
If they did, they wouldn't need to learn now would they?

Protip: Don't be a fucking ingrate when people are trying to help you out. If you don't understand what a term is, ask what a term is. 2h in this instance is two-handed weapon, one of the new knight specs.

Amarillys

Trey said:

Athelas said:

@aepas Here's the part that pisses me off: Everyone expects me to just know the terminology, but I see no f'n reference on what the hell 2h stands for!

So, four five six! Stop using the bloody abbreviations that only the in-crowd know. I'm willing to put in the time and the effort but if you want someone to learn you can't expect them to know what you know.
If they did, they wouldn't need to learn now would they?

Protip: Don't be a fucking ingrate when people are trying to help you out. If you don't understand what a term is, ask what a term is. 2h in this instance is two-handed weapon, one of the new knight specs.

I have like 20 posts asking for term definitions for conversations I'm not even apart of. That being said, two-hander is pretty easy to figure out, even for me and I'm an idiot. 

tl;dr asking for help doesn't entitle you to getting everything your way. Terminology is needed because that is how everyone ever will refer to stuff, not just the in crowd, so you might as well learn it now. If you don't know the answer, ask, google (that's how I learned what RNG means), or learn to infer. Getting pissy at the people trying to help you is like getting pissy your mother isn't changing your diapers the way you want her to.

[spoiler]
tl;dr is longer on purpose. Suffer!
[/spoiler]

Aepas

.... huuuhhh..

Well I didn't expect that.

Ellodin

If you don't fluently understand the terminology that people use, that means your base of knowledge on some broader level is insufficient. How can you hope to be a brilliant author if your linguistic inability causes you to struggle at understanding a single thought?

When it comes to personal improvement of some sort, you have to start with the fundamentals and build on them. That's why we learn arithmetic before delving further into mathematics. Regardless, you sure won't become a brilliant author even write anything worth reading if you give up before you're able to use the language, so to speak.

Athelas

Ellodin said:

If you don't fluently understand the terminology that people use, that means your base of knowledge on some broader level is insufficient. How can you hope to be a brilliant author if your linguistic inability causes you to struggle at understanding a single thought?

@Ellodin I refer you to a previous post by myself admitting exactly this.

Athelas said:

Remember that scene in Kung-fu Panda where Po asks if there is a level zero? That's me! But perhaps with a level -1.

@Trey & @Addama‌ & @Amarillys‌

Aepas said:

If I catch you complaining about druid combat again, I'll just come start murdering you with the lovely new 2h specialty. After awhile, I'm sure you'll learn how to fight back. Ic/Oc be damned.

How am I supposed to interpret that as someone trying to help me? If I was trying to help someone, I wouldn't be threatening them.

@Aepas
I'm really sorry if I miss-understood your post and it's intentions. Of all the people that have responded to this post, you have provided the most usable information, even if I perceived it in a back handed way. Thank you for that.

Ellodin

You didn't really admit it so much as become outraged and respond rudely about it with an insistence on the veracity of your conjecture, similar to the thread about people ruining your RP.  Though the complexity of the issue is dissimilar, your responses were analogous to complaining about an inability to solve partial differential equations, people trying to assist you based on possessing some fundamental knowledge, and then having outbursts about how the mathematicians are speaking gobbledegook when they mention integrals.  If you don't know what integrals are, you have no business trying to solve PDEs, you need to go back and build a fundamental base through actual experience and putting in the effort there.

If you ask people about PDEs, get outraged about the mention of integrals when they try to walk you through the basic (relative to the issue) steps, and then say "well, then teach me" where all they can infer about your level of knowledge is that you don't even know what an integral is, it's both exceedingly difficult and thoroughly unappealing.

Addama

Athelas said:

@Trey & @Addama‌ & @Amarillys‌

Aepas said:

If I catch you complaining about druid combat again, I'll just come start murdering you with the lovely new 2h specialty. After awhile, I'm sure you'll learn how to fight back. Ic/Oc be damned.

How am I supposed to interpret that as someone trying to help me? If I was trying to help someone, I wouldn't be threatening them.

It was a joke.

Athelas

@Ellodin Then at least have the decency to point me to a reference on pre-calculus that might fit my level of knowledge and experience, rather than threatening me and criticising the fact that my father never had the money to send my to collage.

Seriously @Ellodin, I don't know how many more times, or in how many different ways, I have to say this. I'm willing, I'm able. Just point me in the right direction please.

Athelas

Addama said:

Athelas said:

Aepas said:

It was a joke.

Nope, sorry, I've re-read that post about four times now. If it was intended as a joke so be it, but I honestly don't see that it was.

Ellodin

Nobody can tell what your level of knowledge and experience is beyond "lower than calculus," so you need to take the steps yourself.  Furthermore, you have demonstrated a propensity to take offense to things extremely easily combined with an expectation to be led by the hand, so there's not much anticipated joy in assisting you.

If you want direction on how to do something in the game, then begin the journey in the game.  You can learn combat theory out of it, but if what you're looking for is mechanical competence, then you need to do that yourself, even if it means playing with novices.  There are a fair number of people who understand more about music theory than I do, but I'm a better musician than most of them because of real practice.

I suppose forums may help you solve your problems, but only if you're able to glean the implications and draw the information from the things people are saying.  Separate the wheat from the chaff.  Other potential barriers from improvement may include shyness, embarrassment, procrastination, and arrogance.

Addama

Athelas said:

Addama said:

Athelas said:

Aepas said:

It was a joke.

Nope, sorry, I've re-read that post about four times now. If it was intended as a joke so be it, but I honestly don't see that it was.

It was a joke.  Just trust me on this.

Nobody dies to Two Handed.

Athelas

@Ellodin Then you might be glad to hear that I've actually taken the time to create a disposable character so that I can learn those basics. I've found that people are orders of magnitude more willing to actually help with a spar and explanations, if they think you are new to the game. So, the next time you see an innocent looking Eleusian citizen asking for a spar, you might just be helping Athelas get his grove on.

@Addama Thank you Addama, that does clear things up, you are right then, it is a joke and everything I've responded to that post is from the completely wrong perspective.

Sorry @Aepas I honestly didn't know.