Best expansion character

[Cartimandua]

Using half a tree is nothing new. If fact many builds only really focus on particular skills at the bottom of a tree and simply invest in half a tree to get the pre-requisites.

Well, yes. What I was getting at was that as a shifting druid you only have about 15 skills to choose from. Whichever skills you focus on have to come from that group, whereas with other classes you have close to a field of 30, so there are simply more permutations to try.

I should say at this point that I favour builds, of whatever class, that involve the use of plenty of different skills. That's just a personal preference and I realise there are those who prefer narrowly focused, more specialised builds. All equally valid.

The problem tree is summoning???

OK. I think was a rather ill-judged comment of mine. I think the real problem tree is shifting B) .

Funny . . . The Elemental Tree is the one that everybody wants to see fixes for . . . Not to mention that the Elemental tree is truely a one side or the other affair with the sole exception being one horrible skill that demands all others in the tree for it's pre-requisite.

Agree about Armageddon's prerequisites. Otherwise I actually quite like the elemental tree as it is. I know it doesn't have the damage potential of even mid-level Sorceress skills, but then we don't need a second Sorceress. Now I grant that the elemental Druid does get assistance from the summoning tree, in the ways you mention. What I am suggesting is that there could a bit more interaction between the trees. Or ... perhaps mutual support between skills on the elemental tree, in the same way that Spirit Wolf, Dire Wolf and Grizzly boost each other. Would that be a plan?

The non-melee Druids have one thing that other casters lack: Castable tanks, any time, anywhere.

I would have said that the Necromancer, traps-based Assassin and (maybe this is stretching the point) mageazon-style Amazon have this capability. But I agree that said tanks are very helpful to elementalists, far more so than to shifters in my view.

On top of that, Solar Creeper is fantastic for covering mana expenses, Oak Sage ups the survivability and you want to compare one Druid Tree with Two Necromancer trees, then complain that the Druid lacks something?

I agree that Solar Creeper and Oak Sage are good skills, but I'm not comparing one Druid tree with two Necro trees: I am suggesting that the Necro has skills in different trees that are mutually supportive, and that that isn't true to the same extent of the Druid.

I mean, just look to the Sorceress travelling close to a Conviction Paladin for a clear example of a really bad game feature and take that into consideration when you imagine a Sorceress benefiting from the same minion aura as your Druid . . .

I'm not really thinking of anything as powerful as Conviction and I agree that one should avoid giving a further unneeded leg-up to the Sorc. Maybe something that does a moderate of damage to monsters around it, a la Holy Fire/Shock? The element used could be that of the druid's currently selected skill, or chosen randomly. Or one could envisage something completely different. I'm imagining, however, that it would take the place of Spirit of Barbs in the tree. Ravens, meanwhile, could be reimplemented as elemental dive-bombers :o .

Of course, this is just idle speculation to pass the time :) . We can be sure that the content of 1.10 is not going to change at this stage.