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Surefall Druid 6 November 2002 Equipment A new druid is best advised to equip themselves with their newbie armor. In general, for all classes, these quests give armor with slightly lower armor class than is ideal even for the level, but with stat boosts that would be considered good (pre-quests) in the high 30s. Until you have the newbie armor, make do with the guild tunic and starter weapon, and and armor and weapons that drop from mobs you are fighting. Along the way, fill out gaps in the armor with patchwork armor that you make yourself; skilling up tailoring is easy enough using spiderling and spider silks, and patchwork to get to a reasonable skill level. You will want a belt, shoulder piece/mantle, cloak and neck/gorget. As you level, make or quest or hunt for items first for the patchwork slots, then at a minimum to upgrade the stats on the newbie items. Druids should aim to exceed 150 wisdom by 30, and reach 200 in their early 40s. If you don't have at least 150 wis, and preferably 160 or even 180 at 34, when you get the area effect Lightning Strike spell, quadding won't be practical for another few levels. Some items have focus effects, which can reduce mana cost, casting times, or increase the duration of a spell, or your casting range. Try to get focus effect II items if possible; for focus I, consider which spells you have that this will still affect - quite possibly none by the time you obtain the item. Some of the most cost effective upgrades to wisdom are player made jewellery, which cover slots left empty by the quest armor - rings, face, neck and ears. At very low levels, items that give mana and hit points may be more beneficial than those that give wisdom; this will again be true at high levels, as your wisdom is maxxed and the mana benefit from a wis item decreases over 200. Before newbie armor, a standard low level druid suit would consist of:
There are only a couple of common choices for each slot, and below 40, some slots have no reasonable option. Making studded or reinforced boots and sleeves is feasible if you want to follow the tailoring skill. Deciding on weapons is a bit more complex:
Druid weapons are either 1HB or scimitars; the epic and newbie quest weapons are both scimitars, but in general the better druid weapons are all 1HB. It therefore makes sense to build up skills in both weapon types while melee is still a common way of killing, up to about 20 - 25. Druids that pretend they can melee effectively after this level are living in a fantasy world; apart from maintaining melee skills, there is no reason to do this, meleeing is just wasting hunting time. The only casters that can claim to melee at all are shamans and clerics, thanks to their better armor. Other options for the primary and secondary slots are: Paw of Opolla 30+, Testament of Vanear (wis10 mana10 mana preservation I 16), Wee Harvester (2HB 10/45 str1 sta1 wis3, summon foodx50), Charred Guardian Shield. I won't go into higher level armor, except to say that for the 40s, acrylia studded has excellent stats, and some of the Velious and Luclin quest armor, and Elder Spiritists, starts to be come possible or usable from 45. In particular, the mana-free click items such as Elder Spiritist Vambraces, Tunare Warden Symbol and Luminescent Staff can make killing and mana efficiency easier; as can a horse. Once wisdom reaches 200, I would suggest first upgrading other stats to reach or exceed 100, then look to resistances, giving priority to magic and fire first. All resistances should be over 50 in normal gear, preferably by a comfortable margin, and over 100, even at the cost of other stats including wisdom, in a special raid suit. Twinking This will either fit into your play style and philosophy or not, but in the end, except on Firiona Vie or a completely new server, some degree of twinking of your own characters will take place. There are really two different approaches that can be taken: one is to equip your character, as far as possibly, with your ideal set up for mid forties play - that low, because much higher level equipment has level restrictions that can make it almost useless for this purpose. If you follow this approach, then aim to get wisdom to over 200, and all other main stats to 100 or more, with resistances over 50. The other approach is to provide a few small items that will boost a new character enough to get it started - for this purpose, it is better to give +mana and +hp items, and focus effect I items, which will give for a lot less money better hp and mana pool than the rather more expensive first approach. Good items for the type 2 twink include:
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Words and design by:
Paul Lynch
Last updated: April 1, 2003
© Copyright 2002 Paul Lynch, All Rights Reserved