..

These moves actually sound really damn cool to fight with, but I can't ever see Druid combat changing past Sap and such. Not that I'm unwilling to try out a change, of course.

I also agree with Tajalli- the fact that there's just me and Celina doing most of the Druid fighting is kinda sad.

edit: eh that was mean.

at any rate...concerning Druid combatants...as for the Blacktalon, there's only 1 because Pentu left, and certain guild leaders go out of their way to make things difficult for no reason at all.

Xavius: stop talking down to me k? I don't like getting nasty, but I will.

I know you said just four, but I wanted to add one more that just occurred to me!

FellHarvest: FORESTCAST BLOODLEAF SUMMON (1p), FORESTCAST BLOODLEAF HARVEST, FORESTCAST BLOODLEAF GROWTH, FORESTCAST BLOODLEAF BLOSSOM (3p). The first command allows a Druid to summon a broadly leaved plant in a forest location, that appears in both ground and tree elevations. The harvest command will order it to soak up the blood of a target, adding 25% of their current bleed amount to a stored variable and reducing it by 25% for the target. The amount of blood currently stored can be accessed via the growth command (which neither requires nor consumes balance). When ready, the Druid can order the plant to bear fruit and eating it, increase his next cudgel attack by that amount. If the amount stored grows beyond a certain point (I don't know, 3000?) the plant explodes and dies.

MAYBE if this is too hard to use, being so room-dependent, it could be an extension of a druid cudgel rather than growing in a location, but I'm not sure if that's then too easy.

Certain guild leaders for no reason (please explain, by the by)? That has nothing to do with druid combat being a sad and pathetic state. And yes, Pentu left - talk to her about why she waited so long to do so. She didn't stay BT for so long because of the skills, to be sure.

I Elryn. He's always got great druid ideas. Great to brainstorm with.

Ok, how about...

Sap, 1p: A sticky covering of sap keeps blood from spilling out. Afflicted person does not bleed, clot, or regenerate bleeding damage while sapped. Accumulated bleeding damage is increased by 10% on failed bleed ticks because of bruising. Cured with cleanse.

Awaken/Treants/whatever, 4p/1p on Ethereal: animates a sapling to create a mobile, non-meldable forest environment.

Bladegrass: While active in demesne, unallied people suffer 80 bleed damage on movement.

Pollen replaced with an affliction that causes all cures (vials, purgs, salves, herbs) to use and require all cure balances. Active skill like treebane, 1p to cast demesne wide. Undelayed herb cure.

(Pollen kinda has to go away. It'd be a huge nerf to runic druids and would let us finally get around to upgrading runes for mages and druids both.)

Actually, Xavius, blackout is pretty powerful for that.

What blackout where?

That is an -awesome- change to sap, Xavius. Marry me! <3

Dreamweavers have insane blackout.

Hmm. I'd look awfully silly if she tosses you because of a blackout mote.

Reishi is your friend!

The suggested pollen might be a bit strong though, and what's the explanation behind it?

Mostly that asthma needs to die and we're adding another demesne effect.

The name doesn't need to stay. It's just a way to delay curing for 2-6 seconds.

Hmm. Actually, yeah, you're right. It'd either need a higher power cost or another idea.

Also note that I didn't say I couldn't survive a jump, I said I couldn't defend against one. If I got jumped, running was the only option I had, which is not fun.

As a Celestine, I set up Wrath as soon as I invest my powers. I set up my defs. If someone jumps me, the only thing I have to do to fight back is target them and set angel, if that's even what I want to start killing them with.

Eldanien is right about Celestine combat, the number of options to off someone is really good. Druids have -one- option. Thornrend doesn't count, because the only people you can get it on are people who are AFK. Doing the same pattern over and over again gets boring quickly. And yes, it's pretty obviously a problem if there are only three people who can fight that pick that archetype.

edit: And I like Avaer's suggestions.

I can still usually get out of it (was just fine against Alianna's hit and runs today), but it is a bit annoying.

Also, reishi doesn't quite cure the puncture before the mote can hit.

Powercost is pretty much a nonissue on demesne effects, since you're generally not casting them while fighting.

I was trying to blackout you for sap, amongst other things. The only problems were choke, Pentu/Sham possibly finding us, and, well, TREES. I HATE WIND IN TREES.

Refining the bloodleaf idea:

TWIRL CUDGEL AT /ME: Reduces current bleed amount by 25%, stores that amount for 1 minute. (Something about little leaves soaking up blood from their wounds). Balance length when used on self is twice as long.
UNLEASH CUDGEL AT : Same as point cudgel, but also deals additional bleeding damage equal to whatever is stored in the cudgel.

As for a pollen replacement... hmm. Is there an allergy affliction? Making the person sneeze whenever they move into forest, and whenever someone enters/leaves the location (disturbing the flowers), again penalizing movement and giving the Druid more of an edge. I don't know what sneeze does, a brief stun might be too much, maybe minor damage and inability to focus for a second or two? Edit: Keeping pollen as a regular demesne effect and making allergies not on any sort of delayed cure.

Edit edit: I'm confused about the blackout issue... I think I missed something. On the new idea for sap, hiding it? Surely it wouldn't be too hard to miss with clot giving a 'cannot' message and some kind of 'your wounds pulsate as the sticky sap contains the bloodflow' message as well.

I wouldn't keep that as a demesne effect. That'd be insane! Here, let me freeze your curing for 2-6 seconds every 10 seconds even while I'm a pile of horribly afflicted goo.

That's a pretty cool idea for pollen, actually. Allergies!

I'd really like to be able to fit a druid retuning into four neatly contained envoy slots, and this'd still leave us without cure hindering. I suppose it wouldn't be a huge deal to swap out pollen the next month, since it's mostly the aeonsap that makes the paralysis-impatience-asthma(-scarab) string bad. What can we do about delaying cures?

#if (@isWind AND @inTrees AND @onEthereal) {noWind;yesSylph;doCling}