Mokune
Well-known member
Way back before the ED pass I enjoyed a few lives playing a cold based druid in Shiradi ED and using strategic placement of non-damaging spells like sleet storm, fog cloud, entangle with Max and Emp on which seemed to affect the damage output of the many Shiradi procs and save lots of spell points. Along with all the other damaging spells and effects like Stay Frosty and Mantle of the Icy Soul, it fit my playstyle perfectly and was great fun.
Fast Forward to now and several PLs later. I am working on Archetypes and stray Iconics which leave me some less than ideal builds but that is neither here nor there.
At the moment I am on my second Blightcaster Druid life as an Aasimar Scourge and Hive Master caster focused with Primal Avatar (Mantle for Evergreen and Metas, DI for Energy Burst and Ruin Elemental Rider with a dip into US. I don't like the combat and general animation of the druid animal forms even though they are solid.
This 1st Blightcaster life was the first time I attempted and successfully soloed most content on R4 up to lvl 28. At 29 I did IoD on R1 to cap in mainly Feywild Autumn and some Sharn Gear. It felt strong and fun to play with a moderate amount of challenge. Druid gets so many spells naturally so I did not have to make any "hard choices" in spell selection and was able to slot a bunch of additional AoE, Acid Rain, Acid Fog, Cloud Kill, Sleet Storm, Ice Storm etc etc. Even though I cast them meta'd, they just don't seem to have the same utility they would have had in the past with old Shiradi and the damage output seems negligible compared to other DPS spells and a waste of spell points to cast. Sleet Storm does still provide some benefit from the blindness and slowing especially with Ice Storm which I don't use for the damage aspect, just the CC from the slow.
Is anyone out there playing a Blightcaster and finding any utility for these cloud AoE spells besides maybe Acid Rain, Ice Storm? In heroics I found they are not needed and in Epics they are not as effective unless the fight is a little longer and non-raid.
I did see some helplessness induced from Cloud Kill but the stat damage is weak and takes so long compared to Contagion or GCS followed by Dragon Breath, Acid Well, Tsunami and w/e other goodies druid has to offer.
Fast Forward to now and several PLs later. I am working on Archetypes and stray Iconics which leave me some less than ideal builds but that is neither here nor there.
At the moment I am on my second Blightcaster Druid life as an Aasimar Scourge and Hive Master caster focused with Primal Avatar (Mantle for Evergreen and Metas, DI for Energy Burst and Ruin Elemental Rider with a dip into US. I don't like the combat and general animation of the druid animal forms even though they are solid.
This 1st Blightcaster life was the first time I attempted and successfully soloed most content on R4 up to lvl 28. At 29 I did IoD on R1 to cap in mainly Feywild Autumn and some Sharn Gear. It felt strong and fun to play with a moderate amount of challenge. Druid gets so many spells naturally so I did not have to make any "hard choices" in spell selection and was able to slot a bunch of additional AoE, Acid Rain, Acid Fog, Cloud Kill, Sleet Storm, Ice Storm etc etc. Even though I cast them meta'd, they just don't seem to have the same utility they would have had in the past with old Shiradi and the damage output seems negligible compared to other DPS spells and a waste of spell points to cast. Sleet Storm does still provide some benefit from the blindness and slowing especially with Ice Storm which I don't use for the damage aspect, just the CC from the slow.
Is anyone out there playing a Blightcaster and finding any utility for these cloud AoE spells besides maybe Acid Rain, Ice Storm? In heroics I found they are not needed and in Epics they are not as effective unless the fight is a little longer and non-raid.
I did see some helplessness induced from Cloud Kill but the stat damage is weak and takes so long compared to Contagion or GCS followed by Dragon Breath, Acid Well, Tsunami and w/e other goodies druid has to offer.