Not a Guide: Druid Background - Conclusion:
TLDR: I do not recommend anyone start as the Druid background. Druidcraft has few options for damage until you can hill the hardest PvE monsters and the Mace Fighting options, which also have Spell Channeling, are very limited and subpar when compared to just being a pure melee build. I have shown that you can hit rank 50 by starting with this background, but it is slower than several other options. If you wanted to try making a Druid build at endgame, I would suggest you pick a different background, grind ranks, and then try making a Druid build after rank 50. END TLDR
When I picked this background I did so with the opinion that it was the worst background currently available. At the time, several new players were complaining about starting with it and struggling to maintain the "feel of being a Druid," while still trying to rank up. My goal was to stay as true to the "Druid feel" as I could while still progressing to rank 50. Getting to rank 50 was achieved, but there is basically no Druid left.
I'm going to break this Conclusion into three parts, "Why you should avoid," "Suggestions to make it work," and, "Endgame Druid Possibilities."
Why Druid you should avoid the Druid background:
I guess to start, in my mind a Druid is a tanky melee/casting hybrid. The combo of Mace Fighting and Druidcraft (and spell channeling in general) do achieve this feel, but the reality of Fractured is that the game does not truly support a capable melee that can also cast spells. The reason for this is that many weapon skills scale partially based on weapon damage. For example Crushing Assault, a Druid starter skill, is, Weapon Damage plus 8x STR. This means that the optimal weapon for this skill is the weapon with the highest base damage. In Fractured that means a 2h weapon with a slow attack speed.
(The one exception to the above statement would be a Knife Fighting build that stacks on hit effects (poison, Strike Wounds, ect) and then casts spells. If and when Martial Arts becomes a thing, Unarmed might also achieve the same status. All other melee/casting hybrids, that I can think of, are not really utilizing melee weapon skills. They do exist, but they do not fit "the feel of a Druid.")
Melee Skills:
If we take a look at 2H weapons with the Slow speed, to take advantage of melee skills, and also Spell Channeling, because we want that Druid feel, we find exactly zero options. Quarterstaff and the Shortbow are the only 2h weapons that even have spell channeling. Both are medium speed, the Shortbow doesn't feel very Druid to me, and Quarterstaff is the highest damage option of any of the rest melee options. To give you an idea of the melee damage difference between the Quarterstaff and a "true" 2h melee weapon..
At 22 STR:
Quarterstaff damage: 143
Warhammer damage: 238
That means, even staying in the same weapon school, each and every Mace Fighting ability that you use, the Warhammer is flat out 95 more damage. That's 60% less base damage on every single Mace Skill. If you followed the guide, you'll notice that I was choosing to use Shouts for damage over Mace Fighting abilities. The reason for this is that Shouts scale purely off of STR and, with similar cooldowns, they were actually more DPS than using Mace Fighting.
This information applies to 2/5 of the Druid starter skills and 5/6 Mace skills (two of which are passives and cannot be used at the same time).
Druidcraft (and casting):
On the magic front, Druid starts with Verdant Regrowth, Sprouting Pulse, and Crushing Roots.
Verdant Regrowth is a solid spell for a couple of reasons. First, it clears bleed stacks and provides immunity during it's effect. Second, its "heal" is not actually a heal. It's a bonus to your heath regeneration. This means that talents that give a bonus to healing will not work on this ability, but it also means that debuffs that block healing, won't effect this skill. On any Spell Channeling character I play, I get this early.
Sprouting Pulse does crushing and applies a root (snare) effect. Crushing Roots does crushing damage, has stacks, but only to a target that is rooted. This means that Crushing Roots is totally unusable on anything that is not currently rooted or that cannot be rooted at all (Ogre come to mind right away). In practice you hit a monster or monsters with Sprouting Pulse and then spam Crushing Roots. If Sprouting Pulse only hits one monster you only get one use of Sprouting Pulse. If several monsters get hit by Sprouting pulse, you usually only have time to hit two different monsters with Crushing Roots before the root ability wears off.
As individual spells, I don't actually have a problem with them and I think the synergy of Crushing Roots is kinda cool. The problem I have is that as a new Druid these are the only two spells that you have, One has a 12 second cooldown, and the other is only castable immediately after the first. Other casters can pop one spell, run around, pop another, and repeat. Druids slam two spells as fast as humanly possible and stand there for 12 seconds. It's not fun to play. (Additionally, when half your skills are melee, the root doesn't actually do anything because you want to be right next to the monsters anyway.)
Looking at the other Druidcraft spells:
- Barbed Skin is great for a melee that doesn't use evasion. It's attainable early on Arboreus.
- Cobweb and Entangling Web are non damaging snares. Both are attainable early on Syndesia.
- Bramble Wall is a non damaging root/wall that would offer synergy with Crushing Roots. Attainable only from high CR Ogre Druids.
- Entangling Roots is a damaging roots spell with a fairly large AOE. Attainable only from high CR Treants and Arboreal Dragons
- Insect Swarm is a non damaging area effect that confuses and gives poison stacks. Attainable only from high CR Ogre Archdruids.
- Arboreal Dragon Breath is a channeled damaging spell that also gives poison stacks. Attainable only from high CR Arboreal Dragons.
Of the 7 additional Druidcraft spells, 4 do no damage (one does apply poison stacks), one is a good, early, passive option, and two are only attainable from the toughest monsters.
Like I said at the start, you can start with the Druid background and make it work, but it's going to be slower than other options and much slower if you don't branch out into other ability schools.
Suggestions to make starting with the Druid background easier:
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Don't start it. That's my number one advice. Start with a different background and try to switch over to "Druid" once you have many more skills to pick from.
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Starting as a Druid, and focusing melee: Start with DEX instead of STR. Immediately focus on getting Strike Wounds and switch to a dagger after. Use poisons. From there, go for any other Strike skill from Knife Fighting. Bleeding strike has many low level options and would synergize with Bloodlust if you wanted to do that. If not, many of the other strike abilities are good. Daggers, with poisons and Strike Wounds will do a lot of work for you. You can supplement those with whatever spells you want.
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Starting as a Druid, and focusing casting: INT/WIS/CON to start. Get any magic that is not Druidcraft and be a mage.
Endgame Druid Possibilities:
If you wanted to use melee weapon skills or rely on melee damage, I think the only option is daggers. Poisons and Strike Wounds are on hit effects that do solid damage, if a little slow in ramping up. Scimitar and a Shield are an option, but they are defensive options.
I think the more realistic option is as a pure caster that has WIS and INT. In this build, your roots will help you keep distance and the two strongest Druidcraft spells offer Poison synergy. Your INT will let you more effectively use Venomancy skills, specifically Infectious Burst, to ramp your poison damage even higher. From here, the world is your oyster. You can fill in your other slots with supports, heals, or other damage types. If you wanted to avoid INT, you do have other damage options, but you're mostly going to be limited to Energy damage.
Concluding the Conclusion:
While I don't recommend starting as a Druid background, this, Not a Guide, proves you can start with basically any background and make it to rank 50. I tried to lay out the weaknesses of this background and the "feeling of playing a Druid" as it is presented in Fractured, but you all have to make your own choices.
As said in an earlier post, I will be doing another Postscript for this Not a Guide where I explore the Endgame Druid I described just before this. Maybe not immediately, but in the next couple of days for sure.
If you have any questions about this specific build, I'll watch and can try to answer them. You can also post them in the thread for this Not a Guide, over in the share-your-builds channel of the Discord.
For other questions about the game, #player-help on the Discord is a good place for general questions.
