Druid Guide

Welcome to the *Druid Guide*! This player curated guide aims to help you make the best Druid you can **statistically**. Contributions to the guide are welcome. If you disagree with a large portion of the guide, you are instead encouraged to create your own guide. Make sure to tag it with the appropriate class guide category, so that users can find it.

### Character Creation

For the start of the guide, we're beginning at character creation. If your character is already created, or you're more interesting in role-playing rather than optimizing, you can skip ahead to the Group Role section of the guide for advice on what your role in a group is.

Let's look at the races available to the Druid and what their starting racial statistics look like. Attributes with this  icon before them are important for the class.

The statistic bonuses of a race are only a small part of determining the best race for your character. Now, we need to look at the *Racial Passives* and *Racial Actives* for each race.

#####  Racial Passives

 **Archai**

Though Druids are, from a lore-stand point, very elementally aligned, their abilities (as of 1/2021) tend toward Nature, rather than directly to an element that an Archai is allowed to attune to. Still, Archai are a decent pick for the Druid thanks to the occasional synergy with **Elemental Attunement** and **Living Reservoir**.

 **Dark Myr**

From an optimization stand point, Dark Myr are perhaps the worst fit for the Druid. Their passives are more exploration based, and Druids get little benefit from them.

  **Elf**

Elves are an exceptional pick for Druids, especially Ashen elves. **Lucent Ancestry** and the Ashen elf's **Sagacious** compliment the druid perfectly as their spells are primarily Nature based, and Wisdom is a core attribute for them.

  **Halfling**

Halflings are a subpar pick with mostly situational benefits for the Druid. As Druids cannot wield piercing weapons, **Dagger Specialization** is completely wasted on them. The charm and mesmerization resistance from **Wild Mind** is a useful boost in cases where it can apply, as these are hard-CC abilities that would remove the Druid completely from the fight.

 **Human**

Humans are an O.K pick for Druids, gaining benefit mostly from their **A People Inspired**. It is unknown if Druids can equip shields currently (1/21), so **Shield Specialization** might be an irrelevant trait. Similarly, without knowing the range of skills (*not* spells) modified by Charisma, the usefulness of **Thronefastian Charm** to the Druid remains to be seen.

  **Ogre**

Subpar, at best. The critical damage boost is interesting, but probably not itself a good enough reason to pass up the benefits offered by Elves. Battle Hardened's Stun resistance/immunity is situationally useful, and can keep the Druid casting if they find themselves taking hits.

##### Summary

Exceptional:  Elf. The boost to Nature spells will come into play frequently, as a majority of a Druid's spells are Nature based. While the effects of Spell Rating aren't currently known, doubling down on the advantage given by one of the Druid's primary status is unlikely to be a bad choice.

Decent:  Archai,  Halfling,  Ogre. If you want a hardy Druid who can take a bit more punishment than their peers, Ogres are the best pick. Of this tier, Archai are probably the best for a combat and DPS forward Druid. Though not as synergistic, Halflings (potentially) waste only one passive, making them a decent choice.
Poor:  Dark Myr,  Human. Though neither are a particularly strong pick, Human is preferable to Dark Myr as they have at least some benefit from Passives.

### Group Role

 **Healer.** The role of the healer is a critical one. The healer's job, first and foremost, is to ensure that none of their teammates die. Within an ideal group set-up, the Healer can focus the majority of their healing on a single teammate: the party's Tank.

   Among the Healers, Druids are the masters of in-direct healing. This can be seen in three primary forms: Druids can boost a player's natural health regeneration (File:DRU Imbue ashen regeneration icon.png Imbue Trait: Ashen Regeneration), they can boost the effectiveness of healing received by a target (File:DRU Hirode shelter icon.png Hirode's Shelter), and they are capable of casting area of effect (AoE) heals (File:DRU Verdanfire tree icon.png Verdanfire Tree). Druids also have a unique passive ability called (File:DRU Reverberation icon.png Reverberation), which causes healing effects cast by any other member of the group to jump to another group member, so long as the druid themselves had a healing effect active on the initial target.

 **Support.** A class in the support role has access to many beneficial abilities designed to help their teammates survive and fight beyond their normal means.

   Druids have access to a line of spells called "Imbue Trait", which provide a variety of beneficial effects such as: boosting movement speed (File:DRU Imbue white wolf icon.png Speed of the White Wolf), or boosting the armor class, stamina statistic and stun resistance of their ally (File:DRU Imbue great bear resilience icon.png Imbue Trait: Grizzly's Resilience).

 **Utility.**  Utility is a broad category. It can perhaps best be thought of as a sum of all abilities that do not fall under the other categories (Tanking, Healing, Damage Dealing, Crowd Controlling, Supporting)

   Druids have access to a variety of utility spells, such as invisibility (File:DRU Nature shroud icon.png Nature Shroud), damage shields (File:DRU Verdanfire briars icon.png Verdanfire Briars), and creating bridges of vines to help cross gaps in the environment (File:DRU Vinewoven bridge icon.png Vinewoven Bridge)