Is the Past Life: Druid worth getting early?

[ostill82]

Hey, just looking for guidance on whether or not the +6 ability scores for summoned creatures, charmed minions, and hirelings are worth it? I do like hirelings and summoned creatures as I primarily play solo. I read that this makes it harder to charm things, but I've never been big on charm so it's not really a factor for me.

 

[rabidfox]

If you use a lot of hires/summons/pets then yeah, it's solid to have. Just like the EDs that pump them up can be fun. I can tell the difference for when Frogo caps on trapping with having no druid lives on an alt vs 3x on my main.

 

[Hobgoblin]

as you do more lives you become more powerful and won't need hires as much. so to me I wouldn't spend three lives on druid early on probably mid.

I would more go to my suggestions to you in the other thread. I would either go the damage route if you are using the inquisitive build, and go three ranger 3 monk first, or go more universal spec and go with barbarian for 30 hip points and paladin for healing amp

 

[Shear-buckler]

No, its one of the worst ones.

 

[Hobgoblin]

let people play how they want to play. he gave his reasoning for why and I gave my reasoning for what is better but that doesn't mean his reasoning was wrong

 

[Shear-buckler]

let people play how they want to play. he gave his reasoning for why and I gave my reasoning for what is better but that doesn't mean his reasoning was wrong

Huh?

 

[Hobgoblin]

you just told him it was bad but gave no reasoning.

while i agree its not the best, dont try to force your preconceptions on him

 

[Rogue]

If you mainly solo, then maybe. It can help when you do like wizzy PLs and you are level 1, then your hires carry even harder. They mainly 1 shot everything in the level 1-2 quest range. Every PL makes early game easier. Thing with charms creatures, I believe the stats stay after the charms wears off. Not a big deal, unless you are doing higher skulls and the monsters will have some higher stats. Most just hold and kill instead of charming anyway.

Now, if they make a summoner archetype...

 

[FuzzyDuck81]

Since you use hires sure, it's a solid bet & the class is pretty fun & forgiving to play so if you're still new it'll help there too. It'll also help if/when you play artificer/wizard (pale master)/dark hunter in particular thanks to how they get scaling summons as part of the class features.

 

[Shear-buckler]

you just told him it was bad but gave no reasoning.

while i agree its not the best, dont try to force your preconceptions on him

Im not forcing anything om the OP. He asked a question and I answered it. He can do whatever he wants with the answer I provided. I will gladly provide more detail if he asks, but the bottom line is that the druid past lives are trash and not worth getting early.

If anything it seems that you are detailing his thread with your personal issue with me. Either way, reported.

 

[Hobgoblin]

its derailing

just saying.

lets see do i go the petty route and report you for wasting cordos time with unneeded reporting

or do i be the bigger man and squelch you and move on?

 

[rabidfox]

If you want to see what it does to your hires then you can try this gear set for the set bonus: https://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Diabolist's_Ring & https://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Diabolist's_Robe The heroic version of that set is the equivalent of 2x Druid past lives (the legendary version is the equivalent of 6x Druid past lives hahah a bit overshooting the mark). Those items aren't in high demand so if you post a LFM for an epic chrono and ask people to pass the 2 of them, good odds you could get them pretty fast.

 

[Aelastiar]

Fwiw I don't have druid PLs but every time I reincarnate I wish I had druid PLs.

Play druid, have fun.

 

[LeoLionxxx]

Hey, just looking for guidance on whether or not the +6 ability scores for summoned creatures, charmed minions, and hirelings are worth it? I do like hirelings and summoned creatures as I primarily play solo. I read that this makes it harder to charm things, but I've never been big on charm so it's not really a factor for me.

Since you like using critters, I'd day it's worthwhile - even just for the sake of seeing HP numbers go up.

It's also nice for running the Hound of Xoriat raid where you charm monsters to beat down the boss (for fixed duration, no so save).

If you're after Heroic completonist, the alternative is the Blightcaster PL, which gives +5 Acid and Poison Spell power; do with that information what you will.

 

[Discount Gandalf]

I feel that these lives aren't nearly as useful if you are grouping/raiding a lot where opportunities to use hires are low to non-existent, but buffing your pseudo-permanent pets and magical summons is always useful and you did say you solo a lot. You'll definitely notice a difference in the lower levels between having these and not. The trick, just like when it comes to your own power, is combining multiple sources of boosts. So every little bit, while it may seem unexciting on its own, becomes a great package when all bundled together.

If you don't plan on also using the summoning feats, gear, and enhancement trees that give benefits to summons/pets/hires (Warlock and Harper), it may not be worth it to grab these right away because they won't do much just on their own, especially the higher in level and difficulty you go. I'd say if you will use summons/hires every life then I'd rank these up there with the other generally useful lives like barbarian and paladin, though I would probably still want to get both of these ones fully stacked before druid lives, at least beyond the first for class completionist. That's just me though. YMMV.

 

[ostill82]

If you want to see what it does to your hires then you can try this gear set for the set bonus: https://ddowiki.com/page/Itemiabolist's_Ring & https://ddowiki.com/page/Itemiabolist's_Robe The heroic version of that set is the equivalent of 2x Druid past lives (the legendary version is the equivalent of 6x Druid past lives hahah a bit overshooting the mark). Those items aren't in high demand so if you post a LFM for an epic chrono and ask people to pass the 2 of them, good odds you could get them pretty fast.

Oh those are cool! Thanks for letting me know about them.

as you do more lives you become more powerful and won't need hires as much. so to me I wouldn't spend three lives on druid early on probably mid.

I would more go to my suggestions to you in the other thread. I would either go the damage route if you are using the inquisitive build, and go three ranger 3 monk first, or go more universal spec and go with barbarian for 30 hip points and paladin for healing amp

Yeah, you definitely convinced me to do Ranger & Monk before Inquisitive. I'm now wondering if I should do the Iconic versions. Any advice on whether to do the Iconic versions or not before a Inquisitive build?

I am admittedly very new and know that I should not worry about this yet, but my playtime is limited. I do have time to read, research, and plan though, which I find immensely satisfying. My friends think I'm crazy for it too, lol. I have this huge past life priority plan I'm typing up and the Druid Past Life Feats haven't been discussed in awhile according to many Google searches, so needed some fresh knowledge on the Druid.

Thank you everyone for all of the replies! Very informative.

 

[vryxnr]

the decision between iconic vs normal 1-20 for class will often be determined by what levels you prefer to run. Iconic has the benefit of giving you an iconic past life feat as well as the class past life feat at the same time, however, iconic is 15-30, while normal class is 1-20.

I personally prefer iconic, both for the double dip of 2 past lives at once, and because I enjoy 15-30 more and I can do it faster than 1-20... but others enjoy and can do 1-20 faster. So the answer (imo) is: it depends.

 

[unbongwah]

I read that this makes it harder to charm things, but I've never been big on charm so it's not really a factor for me.

What happens is when you Charm a mob, any passive summoning buffs you have get transferred to them. WIS increases means higher Will saves means a higher chance of resisting your Charm on subsequent saves.

I am admittedly very new and know that I should not worry about this yet, but my playtime is limited. I do have time to read, research, and plan though, which I find immensely satisfying. My friends think I'm crazy for it too, lol.

I would say rather than worrying about how to optimize your past-life-farming order, figure out what you like playing in DDO and plan around that. If you don't enjoy the journey, riding the long tail of power creep can feel like an obligation that "must" be fulfilled rather than a fun pasttime.

 

[ostill82]

I would say rather than worrying about how to optimize your past-life-farming order, figure out what you like playing in DDO and plan around that.

I agree 100% and I'm looking forward to playing everything. I'm planning on doing several lives I just enjoy first. I'm actually a first life Wizard PM Trapper, which is a lot of fun and I'm planning on doing Tiefling Scoundrel next. I tried Bard out and fell in love with it, so I'm going to stick with Bard for awhile, farming gear for future classes. I'm just trying to decide on what class to play after that so I can look up what kind of gear to be on the look out for. Both Druid and Blightcaster sound fun and so I was wanting some opinions on the Druid past life. After that, I'm interested in Inquisitive builds for farming racials, but I'd want to do do other class lives that benefit the Inquisitive build first if it's going to be a build I stick with for so long.

 

[Shear-buckler]

Please be informed that summons and hierlings are very bad in the grand scheme of things even for solo players.

Look up some gameplay vid of solo leveling with focus on hierlings and summons and compare it to better builds and see if thats really how you want to spend your limited time.