Druid or Shaman

[Twixp]

I'm coming back to the game..again. Previously, I had dual boxed a warrior/shaman, but I became annoyed of switching between the two characters. I really just prefer to play 1 character. However, I don't have SoD yet, and I don't want to spend $40 on the expansion until I'm sure I'll be sticking around for a while. So, between Druid and Shaman, which is a better soloer? Correct me if I'm wrong, but both are valuable group members, so I shouldn't worry about that, right? I was leaning towards druids because people have always bragged about their soloability. I'm just looking for some advice, and could someone lay out the general solo strategies for these 2 classes please?

Thanks in advance.

[Yesak]

No SoD so no merc to help you out.

Druid soloing involves kiting as their best DPS comes from nuking. You snare, you run around in circles (as far as i understand it) and nuke. A druid can explain better.

Shaman soloing involves staying in one spot, rooting and DoTing mob to death. At lower levels you can tank mobs in teh face by slowing them and beating them down with DoTs and whatever beat stick you have + puma or whatever proc spell you have at that level.

Druid DPS is better generally, and as soon as you get the thing snared, you're good. Problems are when you get into tight spaces, but shaman will have problems in tight spaces too, just not as many. Until you get VP3, mobs will like to break root and try to beat the shit out of you. Eventually mobs DPS will outpace what you can tank in teh face and you will be forced to root/rott.

Both classes are money as far as groups go. Shouldnt have too much issue finding a group in either. These are my opinions, I'm tired and heading to bed so take them with a grain of salt

[Kumudil]

Druid:
In the earlier levels druid should be able to quad-kite effective. Thats snaring 4 mobs, pack them together by kiting them and than use the 4-target AE-DD to damage all 4 of them.
In that manner you would get the max. damage out of your mana.

Later on to grind xp most druids are going to reverse-charm-kiting. That's charm one mob, let him beat down by multible adds. At the right moment break charm (usually with invis), kill the ex-pet charm a new one out of the adds. So you use mainly your adds as dps and just control the scene instead of burning your mana to kill the mob.

Schaman:
In earlyer levels you may want to fight face-to face. Later on its root-rotting. Thats sticking your viktim with root at one place and load as much dots on him as you feel like.


About tight quaters: Druid have snare, single chromatic root, Cone chromatic root (the latter 2 with small knockback). I would say that they have less problems in thight Quaters, but their dots are not as effecive as the schamans, so root-rotting is not their first choice for xp.

My guess would be: pure self-sufficient soloing druid would be much faster in gaining levels and xp and will mostly stay outdoors to do so to have enought room for the kites.

Both classes soloing would search mobs which don't summon to be sucessful. Later on all Named who may drop upgrades are going to summon (SoF+).
But the new defiant stuff will allow you to gear yourself from bazaar(visible armor) and pok-vendor(non visible slots) upto lvl 85.

[Veril]

Druids are faster to level. Quad kiting, which you can do for a long long time up to at least 65 is very good XP per unit time. With OOC mana regen they can recover mana so quickly that burning mana is a very worthwhile strategy.
Snare is godly, the DPS of a snared mob - who never gets to hit you is 0. The DPS of a slowed mob is very much greater than zero.
There are enough animal mobs in EQ that druids can use their tash/charm lines to own stuff hardcore.
Druid DPS is through the roof right now on raids, with all the twincast stuff going on, they are often in the top 10 or even top 3 on parses.

Shaman are better in groups IMO, we have so much that supports melees that we are a natural grouping, especially with a Cleric Merc to do the majority of the healing. For a Shaman soloing post level 60-65 its Root+Rotting all the way.