A few questions...

[Khellendrae]

My preferred playstyle is group healer, especially the use of HoT's.  I looked over the class descriptions and decided that the Druid Warden fits that bill pretty well.  I've only been playing the character for about a day, and I'm around level 13 or 14 now, but have a few questions about my experiences and AA's.

First, it seems like I'm getting a large toolkit of healing spells (I think I have 3 now), with zero reason to use any of them.  I've yet to need a group for anything and rarely use the healing spells at all.  So basically I feel like I'm playing a mage class with unused utility.  I'm having fun with it at the moment, and I imagine the sub-20 levels are pretty easy by design, but so far I'm not seeing the healing-based group class that I was hoping for.

So my questions are:

1.  Does the gameplay change much, post-20, in a way that encourages grouping, or should I just solo-grind my way to max level?

2.  What does the end-game look like?  If you aren't interested in hard-core raiding, is there a more dungeon/group alternative?

3.  Druid shapechanging seems rather tacked on to me so far, but is it a major part of playing a Warden, or just a possible playstyle?  For example, I found I can cast all of my spells while in tiger/tree/wolf form.  Should I now stay in one of those forms to gain the passive benefits, or are they supposed to be melee alternatives only?  The tree form seems obvious enough, but tiger and wolf don't state if the bonuses apply to speels or not.

4.  Is there any rhyme or reason to how I should be assigning AA points?  Most of the options have nothing to do with healing, and seem to be more geared at DPS, which seems odd for a healing class.  Perhaps I'm missing the point of the AA system (no pun intended)?

5.  I see some AA "talents" that do things like increase my Intellect or Strength.  Is there any purpose to these, if all my spell power is derived from Wisdom?

6.  Lastly, am I just playing the wrong class?  Is there another class better suited to healing, especially with HoT effects?

[Torri]

Khellendrae wrote:

My preferred playstyle is group healer, especially the use of HoT's.  I looked over the class descriptions and decided that the Druid Warden fits that bill pretty well.  I've only been playing the character for about a day, and I'm around level 13 or 14 now, but have a few questions about my experiences and AA's.

First, it seems like I'm getting a large toolkit of healing spells (I think I have 3 now), with zero reason to use any of them.  I've yet to need a group for anything and rarely use the healing spells at all.  So basically I feel like I'm playing a mage class with unused utility.  I'm having fun with it at the moment, and I imagine the sub-20 levels are pretty easy by design, but so far I'm not seeing the healing-based group class that I was hoping for.

So my questions are:

1.  Does the gameplay change much, post-20, in a way that encourages grouping, or should I just solo-grind my way to max level?

There is group content starting in the low 20's. The problem is this game is almost seven years old, and true new people are the exception rather than the norm, so there are not a ton of people in the lower level ranges on some servers. Watch level chats for lower level groups looking for more, or ask if there are any low level groups. "Level xx Warden looking for a group that may actually need me to use a heal spell" may get you a laugh if nothing else

2.  What does the end-game look like?  If you aren't interested in hard-core raiding, is there a more dungeon/group alternative?

There are a ton of six person instances. Again this will depend on what server you are on. A lot of the instances from DoV design-wise are really top flight, but six months after release they are still trying to craft a logical itemization progression, which hampers the enjoyment and desire of some people to run them

3.  Druid shapechanging seems rather tacked on to me so far, but is it a major part of playing a Warden, or just a possible playstyle?  For example, I found I can cast all of my spells while in tiger/tree/wolf form.  Should I now stay in one of those forms to gain the passive benefits, or are they supposed to be melee alternatives only?  The tree form seems obvious enough, but tiger and wolf don't state if the bonuses apply to speels or not.

Shapechanging is just a small bonus to a specific sphere. When raiding I use Treant form since for the easy-mode content the group I raid with is tackling I have plenty of crit chance. The Tiger Bite ability says 10%, but it doesn't parse out to that often when I use it

4.  Is there any rhyme or reason to how I should be assigning AA points?  Most of the options have nothing to do with healing, and seem to be more geared at DPS, which seems odd for a healing class.  Perhaps I'm missing the point of the AA system (no pun intended)?

Tied in with the age of the game, Sony has sort of taken the stance that people will solo-quest to level 90. To take some of the sting out of that, it's better to take some DPS abilities. Also, Wardens, along with Inquisitors and Mystics have been designed to be "Battle-priests". To this end, they are given AA choices which turn their damage spells into melee combat arts. The general feeling for leveling is to take advantage of these conversions. There are AA that will increase your healing power, notably the third ability down the line that starts with mezz and charm, but to be honest you don't need heal boosts while leveling up. Older lower level content up to level 60 was designed before AA was introduced, so players today are so much more powerful with AA against that content that monster healing really isn't that necessary.

5.  I see some AA "talents" that do things like increase my Intellect or Strength.  Is there any purpose to these, if all my spell power is derived from Wisdom?

The only two stats we derive benefit from are wisdom for damage and power pool, and stamina for health. Aside from the shapechang ability needed to unlock the rest of the first adventure tree I don't recall any other AA choices that raise basic stats. I know I just put one point into it to open the tree and moved on.

6.  Lastly, am I just playing the wrong class?  Is there another class better suited to healing, especially with HoT effects?

I personally think Warden is the best class to heal a group, as long as the group is geared enough for what they are doing not to get one-rounded by an attack. We have the greatest heal potential with our HoTs, but if your group is overly-squishy it does us no good when the robes in the group are piles of goo on the ground, where a Shaman with wards may have kept them alive. But if they can survive the initial hit we get them back to full better than anyone.

[Ardnahoy]

Get the Charm ability, melee AA, and solo your way to 90. Grab some mastercrafted gear every 10 levels, and try to keep your three single-heals at expert/master. Also, try to keep your group buffs expert/master. I barely upgraded my damage spells past adept as I levelled up. Spent my AA on anything that helped avoid/mitigate/block melee damage, or increase hitpoints.

With charm, levelling is so easy. I took my baby warden from 40's to 70's in a weekend. No potions or double-xp, just plain running around killing heroic creatures. I'm waiting for the next double-exp weekend to grind him to 90. Now I'm just level locking for AA and tearing up Mistmore Castle solo - beating up rooms of mobs by myself that used to wipe whole groups before. I was even able to solo an Epicx2 (green) without mentoring. I'm wearing stuff from broker, no fabled or PVP gear, so I can imagine how powerful he'll be when he starts wearing raid gear.

As a primary player of illusionist/coercer (and Enchanter in EQ1), it is almost unfair that wardens can mez, charm, AND melee, AND heal. I couldn't believe that I was able to take a warden SOLO through every T7 group zone - at level 67. We're talking zones that used to require a full group of level 70's. I was soloing orange named ^^^ heroics with relative ease. These are dungeon named heroics 3-4 levels above me, not trash mobs. To be able to heal yourself though damage meant for a tank, while you and your charmed pet kill away, it's just too much fun.

[Torri]

Khellendrae wrote:

3.  Druid shapechanging seems rather tacked on to me so far, but is it a major part of playing a Warden, or just a possible playstyle?  For example, I found I can cast all of my spells while in tiger/tree/wolf form.  Should I now stay in one of those forms to gain the passive benefits, or are they supposed to be melee alternatives only?  The tree form seems obvious enough, but tiger and wolf don't state if the bonuses apply to speels or not.

Since I see I didn't answer this fully, The Tree form is indeed pretty self explanatory, a straight increase to the base heal of heal spells. The extra crit chance you get from Wolf form applies to everything you do. Melee, damage spells, heals. The damage proc from Tiger form applies only to melee damage. I believe it applies to AA converted Combat Arts, but I'd have to go over logs to be 100% certain

[RogueSpideyChick]

wolf gives crit period. it USED to be spell crit, but now it's just crit (which's why it says at critical HITS on the description. they just never updated that part).

tree says specifially base healing by 2%, so that's what ya get.

tiger is the melee dmg proc that wardens generally use.

the shapeshifts were originally designed as something for all druids, tree when u needed the heal boost, then wolf for furies for spell crit & tiger for wardens for melee. since stats were combined, unless it specially says it only gives 1 side a benefit, it's for everything.

personally ive used tree form for a pretty much the last yr because i forget about it a lot with never having to rebuff. if u need crit, use the wolf, if ur a warden & want a lil boost (i havent used it in a long time tbh because im a fury, so i cant tell u how much dmg ull get out of it as a warden). 

[Arielle Nightshade]

You asked:

1.  Does the gameplay change much, post-20, in a way that encourages grouping, or should I just solo-grind my way to max level?

Depends on the population of your server, the time of day you play and how much time per session you have to play in it.  I wouldn't halt my forward leveling progression waiting for groups, but that might not mean you have to solo your way to 90.

2.  What does the end-game look like?  If you aren't interested in hard-core raiding, is there a more dungeon/group alternative?

There is so much stuff to do in the game overall, that if you did it you wouldn't be to 90 any time soon.  It's possible to level to 90 in a few days, but that doesn't mean you saw the game.  There are all levels of dungeons, lots of solo quest lines, x2 and x4 Raids (in this game x2 is 12 people, x4 is 24), special events, crafting factions and items. There is so much to do that end game will not be boring if you try even a tenth of them on your way up.

3.  Druid shapechanging seems rather tacked on to me so far, but is it a major part of playing a Warden, or just a possible playstyle?  For example, I found I can cast all of my spells while in tiger/tree/wolf form.  Should I now stay in one of those forms to gain the passive benefits, or are they supposed to be melee alternatives only?  The tree form seems obvious enough, but tiger and wolf don't state if the bonuses apply to speels or not.

It was tacked on.  But it was always meant as a flavor, not an integral part of the druid classes.  If you are coming from WoW, the druid forms there actually prevent you from doing the other forms' roles.   Here they give a buff to each role, but are not game breaking (see Arica's post for a better explanation).

4.  Is there any rhyme or reason to how I should be assigning AA points?  Most of the options have nothing to do with healing, and seem to be more geared at DPS, which seems odd for a healing class.  Perhaps I'm missing the point of the AA system (no pun intended)?

Again, if you are coming from WoW or Rift, you are used to thinking that if you don't have the right spec you can forget being viable.   As with all games that offer this kind of character spec'ing, eventually there is a min/max spec for nosebleed top end raiding, but while you are leveling up just read what you can do and put points in where it seems you'd like to try to improve or what looks fun.   If you guessed wrong, you won't be crippled - and you get 5 free respecs from the AA counselor to play around with.   

I disagree with none of the options having anything to do with healing.  You don't have to go very far into the Druid line, for example, to see heal improvements, and the Warden and Shadows lines are similar. 

5.  I see some AA "talents" that do things like increase my Intellect or Strength.  Is there any purpose to these, if all my spell power is derived from Wisdom?

I'm not sure what you are seeing that gives you INT and STR any more, that's been changed - unless you are looking at copies of old specs back when the AA lines did give those bonuses.  You may still find bits of gear that offer STR or INT as well as WIS, but only the WIS and STA on those will help you.   The Druid tab of your achievements is where you could buff stats, but now the old STR line buffs melee (and healing), and the old INT line buffs nukes.   Take time to read what each thing does is my best advice for where to put points. 

6.  Lastly, am I just playing the wrong class?  Is there another class better suited to healing, especially with HoT effects?

If you want to heal with HoTs like a WoW druid or a Rift Chloromage, you are basically playing the wrong game altogether, not the wrong class.  Wardens are nowhere near as OP as a WoW Druid (wouldn't that be nice...).    If healing with HoTs is your preferred method of healing, either druid is how to do that.  What would help you choose between Warden or Fury would be how you want to damage, and how you want to buff.

[StaticLex]

Khellendrae wrote:

My preferred playstyle is group healer, especially the use of HoT's.  I looked over the class descriptions and decided that the Druid Warden fits that bill pretty well.  I've only been playing the character for about a day, and I'm around level 13 or 14 now, but have a few questions about my experiences and AA's

First, it seems like I'm getting a large toolkit of healing spells (I think I have 3 now), with zero reason to use any of them.  I've yet to need a group for anything and rarely use the healing spells at all.  So basically I feel like I'm playing a mage class with unused utility.  I'm having fun with it at the moment, and I imagine the sub-20 levels are pretty easy by design, but so far I'm not seeing the healing-based group class that I was hoping for.

So my questions are:

1.  Does the gameplay change much, post-20, in a way that encourages grouping, or should I just solo-grind my way to max level?

Finding groups before level 80 is almost impossible.  Everyone has their toon at 90 already so that's where the action is.

2.  What does the end-game look like?  If you aren't interested in hard-core raiding, is there a more dungeon/group alternative?

Raiding doesn't have to always be "hardcore".  Some guilds farm x2 zones or x4 easymodes.

3.  Druid shapechanging seems rather tacked on to me so far, but is it a major part of playing a Warden, or just a possible playstyle?  For example, I found I can cast all of my spells while in tiger/tree/wolf form.  Should I now stay in one of those forms to gain the passive benefits, or are they supposed to be melee alternatives only?  The tree form seems obvious enough, but tiger and wolf don't state if the bonuses apply to speels or not.

Those shapechange things are just a small buff with a graphic is all, treat them as such.

4.  Is there any rhyme or reason to how I should be assigning AA points?  Most of the options have nothing to do with healing, and seem to be more geared at DPS, which seems odd for a healing class.  Perhaps I'm missing the point of the AA system (no pun intended)?

DPS stuff is mixed in with the healing stuff, which I agree is stupid.  But basically I'd handle it like this.. pick up an AA mirror (player crafted item that allows you to store 2 diffferent AA point configurations) and assign your points to mostly DPS stuff for one configuration and mostly heal stuff for the other.  Then depending on what you are doing in the game load the more appropriate configuration.

5.  I see some AA "talents" that do things like increase my Intellect or Strength.  Is there any purpose to these, if all my spell power is derived from Wisdom?

Don't pick the garbage that increase stats even if they do increase wisdom.

6.  Lastly, am I just playing the wrong class?  Is there another class better suited to healing, especially with HoT effects?

Warden and fury are the only real heal over time healers so no, there isn't a better choice.