Then perhaps it's time ecology gets a bard/druid distinction?

After spending an hour fruitlessly duelling Ruiku, I can tell you that the issue (without a doubt) is the Sap dependency. We just need to stop being so one-dimensional. Our tertiaries need to give us VIABLE instakills and not crap like DeathProphesy.

Wow, Ruiku couldn't kill you for an entire hour! It would seem that knight offense needs a buff too, then.

No. Since their offense actually isn't dependent on power or a single skill.

Actually, maybe not so much on the power since he didn't have enough to Lunge.

Gotta agree with Akui on that one!

Everytime I would lunge to a nice affliction I would get mesne owned or entangled, it's very viable for druids to shut down almost anyone, save a mage or another druid who can break their mesne, but I thought the 'trademark' for druids was escapability and hinderance, not OP mesning and raping.

Offense is hard to build for a warrior if a druid entangle spams, and runs constantly. Naturally that would result in a no-kill situation. With all the buffs available now, it's easier than ever for a druid (or anyone) to tank and heal a warrior effectively. Unwillingness to stand and fight is a separate issue from druid offense.

I'm just being glib, and pointing out that,

If archetype A and archetype B fight eachother, and neither can win for an hour, and the statement is made that "the length and inconclusiveness of this fight indicates that archetype A needs changes to its skills", then it stands to reason that the same can be said of archetype B.

Whether or not either A or B is locked in to using one strategy doesn't logically follow that such is the reason for the length, or inconclusive nature of the fight. It does follow that neither had the power or ability to kill the other, and so either the fight was rather balanced, or the fight was equally imbalanced from both parties.

Now, A|B had been able to, say, circumvent a limited strategy of B|A, and as a direct result of said circumvention, soundly and routinely defeat B|A, then it would seem more a natural link that B|A's lack of versitility is directly linked to the issue of viability.

Oh man we're still going at this. Okay, here is my solution. If my name were Shuyin, we might even call it a Shoe-Win.

1) Remove the mutual exclusiveness of sap and thornlash.

2) Add to the current Thorns effect (which only works in trees) that it will passively entangle one limb in vines. Keep in mind that there is no way for a druid to stop curing thornlashes really other than sapping and even then it's not a stop since thornlashes do not prevent sap curing what so ever. It will just slow them down if they are writhing for the half second.

3) Create a New Skill with a random name. I don't know maybe call it FU Brumetower. It is a brumetower opposite. Costs no power, just mana and eq. Lasts ten minutes. Castable in a single room only. Limit 1 per druid. Recasting will replace the old one. It prevents climbing down in the room. Preventing treebane/wind is optional.

Okay rage.

No.

-An effect that passively gives thornlash wouldn't be so bad if the cure weren't writhe or an eq loss.

-I'm kind of iffy on removing the exclusivity of sap/thornlash, but I see no reason not to either, if it doesn't work out, just put it back.

-Reverse brumetower would be kind of hilarious and is probably bananas, though.

Watch out. The druid is going to flee you to death.

That strikes me as a bad philosophy to design a class around, considering how kill-happy the combat base is.

PS: Unless he's just collecting, I can't imagine why Ruiku would need or want a Brooch, and you were fighting in the mountains, soooo...lash + swoop ftw?

Reverse brumetower yes please. =O

And I know I'm not that most amazing druid out there to judging people, but from what I've seen, Nienla you're kind of pretty bad at sap.

Eh. I muck up a few when my timers are off, but other than that, I've hit some pretty precise saps to no avail.