Ranged Dryad Guide 
Version 1.2
Copyright 2009 John "The Ogre" Kwitkowski.

Contents:



I.	Introduction 
II.	Disclaimer
III.	Play style & Focus
IV.	The Build
        -Skills
        -Combat Arts
	-Items
	-Basic Strategy & Tips
V.      Other useful Combat Arts
VI.	Boss Strategy
VII     Shrunken Heads
VIII.   Version/History
VIIII.	Thanks



I.	Introduction
        ____________

This guide is for those interested in the Dryad, a ranged dryad specifically 
with Nature Magic as a secondary damage output. It is written for the Xbox 
360 version of the game and parts of the guide or it as a whole may or may 
not apply to the Play Station 3 and PC versions. The guide is solely my 
opinions based on my personal experience with Dryads in game only, any 
opinions or discoveries of the class from any outside sources at all have 
been added to the guide and have been modified by me in such a way as I deemed 
fit, with credit given where it is due. The Dryad is without a doubt the most
entertaining class in Sacred 2 for me; hopefully I can shed some light on her 
abilities and use. I will not be explaining game mechanics and assume readers 
will know the difference between Combat Arts and Skills etc.

* The Guide is based off of my Dryads, levels 64,75,80 and most importantly, my 
105 Dryad that has been through Niob.

II.	Disclaimer
        __________

This character guide is my own work, and has been created by me for use on
www.GameFaqs.com. However, as long as it is unaltered and left in plain text 
form with credit given to myself, anyone may use it for their site. For 
questions, comments, additions contact by email: [email protected] ,
credit will be given for any additions or comments by you if they are 
integrated into the guide in any way, shape, or form.

III.	Play style & Focus
        __________________

The idea behind this build is to have a character that specializes in bows, 
blowguns, or even throwing stars and can drop normal and elite enemies 
quickly and easily without taking too much damage yourself. Speed and power 
is what we are looking for people, somewhat of a balance between the two. We 
will also be using the Nature Weaver Aspect to single handedly provide our 
defense and take out our bosses. You will not have to 'kite' anything you can 
stand in the midst of your enemies if you want, pelting them with projectiles 
without worry of death. You will be using four different combat arts to take 
down bosses however, so management and memorization of your hotkeys is 
important. Just remember, you can take down bosses as easily as big groups of 
goblins so item/exp runs are both well covered with this Dryad. There are also 
several other combat arts and skill choices I haven't used in my build much, 
I will try explain the usefulness of all of these as well.

IV.	The Build
        _________

This is a solid build based on my level 105 Dryad in Niob, listing attributes, 
skills, and character arts used. Details on each will be listed below.

Attribute Distribution: All points into dexterity, the extra damage, defense 
and attack is all needed. If desired you can split between vitality once you
begin to receive 2 attributes per level up.

  Skills                           Hard Points invested by level 100
  ______                           _________________________________   

Level 2 Capricious Hunter Focus        63
Level 3 Ranged Weapons Lore            1
Level 5 Tactics Lore                   63
Level 8 Combat Reflexes                5
Level 12 Armor Lore                    1
Level 18 Concentration                 1
Level 25 Nature Weaver Focus           88
Level 35 Nature Weaver Lore            85
Level 50 choice skill
Level 65 choice skill

                
You will have extra skill points for your own use, those are needed for mod
points only.

Skill Choices & Reasoning
_________________________

* Capricious Hunter Focus- Reduces Regeneration times for the entire aspect,
and allow for higher combat art levels without penalty. Since we are going
to maximize dust devil and sinister predator levels 75 mastery is recommended
but 63 will grant you the mod points you need. 

* Ranged Weapons Lore-Increase attack speed, and attack rating with all ranged 
weapons. One point is good as long as you can increase all skills, offensive 
skills, or ranged weapons itself through items (+offensive and ranged skills
are common).

* Tactics Lore- increases damage and chance for critical hits with all weapons
but more importantly it stacks with Cap. Hunter Focus for gaining 
modification points. level 63 will grant you the mod points you need, not 
recommended any higher than 75 because of diminishing returns on the +damage.

* Combat Reflexes-Increases chance to evade attacks and reduces chance for 
enemies to score critical hits on you. Need 5 points here only to gain access 
to armor lore, the evade chance does have great effect in higher difficulties
but let it be boosted by gear since a Dryad has other means of evasion.

* Armor Lore-Increases the level of armor you may wear without speed penalties. 
Also decreases the regeneration penalty on armor pieces. Good to gradually 
increase when you have spare points; not all that necessary to dump points 
into until higher levels though.

* Concentration-Lowers regeneration times for ALL of your combat arts, and 
allows the use of 2 buffs at once. 3 at once with mastery. One point only for
the 2 buff allowance, if you decide on having a third buff, you want this
mastered at 75, and will have the points to do so if you follow my skill chart

* Nature Weaver Focus-Lowers regeneration times for the aspect and increases 
the max level allowed for ca's. This is where your points will go; you want 
mastery for this skill. As soon as you choose the skill an immediate point
boost is required, to start modifying and increasing combat art levels. This
skill increases Ancient Bark's armor and defense values.

* Nature Weaver Lore- Increase damage, cast speed, and chance for critical hits 
for the aspect. Also needs to be maximized, this is your skill for bosses. You 
need this for your Edaphic Lances' damage. It also increases healing for 
Ancient Bark and Golden Glade touch.

To be more specific, you are going to be keeping the two nature skills the 
same level as you (hard points mind you) and after you obtain 12 Cap. Hunter 
modification points, you can spread your extra points where needed, armor lore
or your other two skills. Between the 2 nature skills, 173 skill points will
unlock a total of 15 mod points for the nature tree. This will allow you to
fully modify every combat art except for acute mind which only gets 2 mods.


As for the two choice skills, they are just that. While it is up to you, here
Are skills useful to the ranged Dryad:

* Combat Discipline: Increases damage and regeneration time for combat arts in 
combos, also allows 3 combat arts in a combo and at level 75 4 combat arts in 
A single combo. Since the Dryad uses combat arts to deal damage, this skill is 
Very useful especially with vines/curse/lances in one combo for bosses.

***Thanks to Pipboy2k for the combat discipline info.***

* Voodoo Focus: decreases regeneration times of the aspect and allows higher 
Combat art level without penalty. Only 2 of the voodoo skills rely on the lore
To increase damage/efficiency, twisted torment and malicious totem and possibly
Viperish Disease (I cannot be sure it does not). So if you take the focus alone
You can have a powerful summon at your side as well as higher quality black 
curse and viperish disease.

* Enhanced Perception: Increases chance to find valuables. Also opens up the 
modifiers for EP on items which include +exp per kill and +chance to find 
valuables. 1st tier General Skill.

* Bargaining: Merchants offer better gear in shops. With high levels in this 
skill, you can find a whole list of rare (**) items for sale. Better quest 
rewards (or chance for?) with the 75 mastery. 2nd tier General Skill

Of all the extra skills for a dryad, these four seem to be the best choices. If 
you do want bargaining to shop however, you must put 5 points into a 1st tier 
general skill such as the EP listed above. 

               Combat Arts
               ___________

I am only listing the Combat arts used for the build, their modifications 
and recommended levels versus regeneration times. Unused CA's will not be 
mentioned at all here. Listed levels are applied to eaten runes only, socketed 
runes can increase the CA with little change in the build or its strategy. 


         
Ravaged Impact
______________ 

A single powerful strike to one target
CA level - 1 Regen under 1 second

Keep this mapped to one your main face buttons (i.e. hot keyed without having 
to press left or right trigger). Useful for finishing small groups, killing 
elites, and if you want a more intense fight, bosses. Just hold down the 
button and watch this CA tear apart anything.


1. Perforate- Gives chance for an open wound which is DOT
2. Breach- Gives chance to ignore enemy armor values.
3. Double Shot- This is what makes it worth a Damn, you fire 2 shots in 
   quick succession with this mod, it glitches and fires 3 when it should fire 
   2 while mounted. You cap out at around 6 shots/second with low regen

Darting Assault
_______________

Multishot attack starts at 3 projectiles shooting in front of the dryad
CA level 1 Regen less than 1 second.

Your group attack, since the damage on this CA is a little less that RI it 
is useless against less than 4 enemies, again hold down the button and watch 
the large groups fall!

1. Reload- Adds one additional projectile to DA (goes from 3 arrows to 4)
2. Throwback- Chance to knock back enemies works well most of the time and 
   gives you some breathing room if you get too surrounded.
3. Rotate- Allows you to fire at targets all around the dryad, instead of just
   the ones in front of her.

*****
Suggestion/Info for Ravaged Impact/Darting Assault by Phadin:
Regen per hit + x.x. Once a player has this mod at 0.5, they can start eating 
runes for RI and DA. Keeping RI bellow 1 second and DA at 2 will allow for
spamming of these combat arts with this mod kicking in. As players are able to 
increase this mod further, they can increase their CA levels with it. It should 
be noted this mod can be purchased on rings from merchants without Bargaining 
skill.



Forest Flight
_____________

Teleports the Dryad with a chance to root enemies in place (must be targeted).
CA level 1

This CA is a teleport/escape move only, it is very useful when needed though.

Dust Devil
__________

Create a wind cloud that provides increased evasion to the dryad and allies
in the cloud. Starts with a 45 second cooldown time.
CA level maximum allowed by focus

Very effective/helpful in platinum and niob.
1. Recondition- lowers the cooldown time by an initial percent, and lowers it
   further with additional CA levels.
2. Spell Shield- Provides protection from spells
3. Spread- Increases the Protective cloud's radius

*****
Suggestion/Info for Dust Devil by Phadin:
This skill with the mod to reduce cooldown time becomes very useful, 
particularly in the high difficulty levels where evade can be critical to your
survival. The regen mod is a bronze mod, so it can be picked up fairly easy as 
players move into platinum and niob. Once you have that mod, you can devour 
runes for the skill and actually REDUCE the overall regeneration time, as the 
cooldown usually drops faster then regen rate grows. At level 68, I have this
over level 30 and a total cooldown+regen of about 25 seconds. I imagine itll be 
very close to regen=duration by the time I decide to move up to platinum.



Sinister Predator
_________________

Buff. Increases Attack Rating and Attack Speed with Ranged Weapons. 
CA level maximum allowed, penalty from buff N/A

Ok this is one of your two main buffs, it increases effectivness with ranged
weapons while active and when fully modded will actually lower the regeneration
times for the Cap. Hunter Aspect! Good Deal.
1. Eagle Eye- Increased Chance for critical hits
2. Marked Shot- Chance that enemies cannot evade attacks
3. Hunting Focus- Decreases Regeneration times of the Cap. Hunter aspect. 
   This actually lowers the time with each additional CA level.

Marked Shot over Perforate: The other silver mod for SP grants a chance for
projectiles to pierce targets and potentially hit others. With perforate you 
will indeed see your arrows pierce often but the chance that another enemy is 
in the flight path is slim and blowpipes cannot pierce regardless.
	
Edaphic Lances
______________

A Stream of thorns shoot forth from the ground towards the target.
CA level whatever your focus limit will allow with the Regen less than 10
seconds 

*Avoid pumping runes beyond your limit because if you don't 1 shot a boss you 
 will need the regen to be under 10 seconds at the very least. (the 10 seconds
 will be lessened with acute mind running).

1. Density - Greatly decreases distance between thorns, allowing maximum
   effectivness against smaller targets and bosses with small hit boxes 
   (scorpion,crystal,inquisitor,colossus)
2. Stings- Damage Increase
3. Barbs- adds Bleeding Damage Over Time

Density over Thorns bronze mod:
At level 105 with level 50 lances the number of thorns went from 15 to 19
when taking the thorns mod and only went up to 21 thorns 26  CA levels later.
The density percent is at -49.5% at 76.x CA level. When testing Density
at CA level 50 the distance of thorns (density) went to -70% (very thin line
of thorns) so if one were to take the density mod over thorns they would 
likely not have more than 17 thorns but be able to use the lances effectivly
vs small minibosses and elites which is hard to do with a wider spread of 
thorns. Also with acute mind running thorns hitting for 2x,xxx damage, 4 less
thorns will not make all that much of a difference.

Tangled Vine
____________

Vines Shoot up from the ground to hold an enemy in place, inflicting light
damage 
CA level 1 
use this to hold bosses in place, it works on every boss in the game except
for one miniboss and ghosts.

1. Sprawl- Increased duration
2. Impair- Decreases rooted enemies' attack speed
3. Encroach- Small AoE effect around the target (approx 4 enemies).


There is another option for TV since you can cast multiple vines on bosses,
duration mod is not so needed, we can mod vines to damage mobs as well as hold 
our bosses. Again this is just one more option that does work.

CA Level- High as allowed by focus
 
1. Tendrils- Increases the damage of the roots (physical)
2. Singe- Roots add Fire Damage
3. Encroach- Small aoe effect around the target (approx. 4 enemies if close)

Since we have such great lore value and +damage already, this will make a fun 
diversion when your strangling vines can actually strangle and kill. And with 
the high amount of runes into vines versus high nature skill levels, the
duration will still be easily managed for bosses.

Golden glade Touch
__________________

Healing Spell
CA level High as possible while having the regeneration 
time at least .1 seconds below the duration. You can have this running mostly
all the time, and especially against mages/elites. Can heal in the xxxx's per
second at low-mid levels, I have had it at around 12,000 HP per second.
 
1. Flow-increases hp regen (more hp per second)
2. Persevere- Adds an invaluable willpower bonus while active
3. Diligence- Increases Duration, which allows you to keep dur. under regen.

Acute Mind
__________

Provides an intelligence boost as well as lowering regen times for all CA's.
CA level High as possible regen not an issue regardless of mod choices.

This is the most important part of your build when it comes to bosses, don't 
be afraid to eat runes, you need the intelligence boost to be in the 
thousands.

1. Insight - increases intelligence
2. Insight - increases intelligence further

Additionally you can take the proficiency bronze mod and lose 1/2 potential
INT increase in trade for lowering the cooldown time with CA level. With the
Pro. bronze mod the regen/duration ratio will equal out eventually. 

Ancient Bark
____________

Buff. Increases Defense Value, Armor Value, & HP Regeneration.
CA level as high as allowed by focus, Regen penalty N/A
 
The regen penalty isn't going to affect anything except nature skills in the
long run because Sinister Predator balances out Cap Hunter regen times versus
buff penalties. And while fighting bosses, acute mind lowers the regen of all
CA's so even the nature CA's are not affected in a way.

1. Rugged- Increases armor value
2. Divert- chance to reflect close combat
3. Invigorate- Improved healing


**
All modifications listed that increase, decreases or give chance for a bonus
are raised by a small % with each additional Combat Art level. (all CAs)


Now here is the catch, you need to have the 2 nature skills maxed as much as 
possible so you can have 10 mod points as quick as you can. Here are the 
first 10 to mod:

Sinister Predator- Eagle Eye,Marked Shot, Hunter Focus.
Ravaged Impact- Perforate, Breach, Double Shot.
Darting Assault- Reload.
Dust Devil- Recondition
Ancient Bark- Rugged,Divert.     
Golden glade- Flow, Persevere
Edaphic Lances- Thorns Stings
Acute Mind- Insight
Golden glade- Diligence
Edaphic Lances-Barbs
Acute Mind- Insight


After you mod those, you can mod out the rest whenever you want, you will have
15 mod points for nature weaver. You want to mod Sinister Predator and at least 
Ravaged impact fully first, darting assault & Dust Devil can get by for awhile
with only the Bronze mod. Without any plus skills gear, you may have to spread 
some points in Armor lore/Ranged etc. so the above mods are chosen in order of
importance for Convenience.

Items
_____

Weapons:
Now comes the choice of weaponry, will you wield a bow? Blowpipe? Perhaps a 
Shuriken? There are differences between them all. 

Bows:
Bows tend to have the highest damage of the 3 but have a slower firing rate 
than a Pipe or Shuriken. There are plenty of unique bows to be found and they 
usually have impressive stats! Also, the class quest reward for a Dryad is 
indeed a bow,so you can find one easily throughout your first campaign!. Bows 
are a good choice for beginners since they are common, have high damage, and 
have unique variants. 

Blowpipes:
My personal favorite. Their damage is considerably less than that of a bow,but 
they have 2 things going for them: faster attack speed and lack of a visible 
projectile. This means that when you shoot your pipe, the hit is instantaneous. 
The problem is finding a good pipe, they are rare to see in the first place and 
there are no unique versions (from what I've seen). Also, a common modifier on 
blowpipes is chance to inflict damage type (fire,poison,freeze,weaken) mods, 
this and their attack speed make them great for setting enemies on fire or 
poisoning them. 

Shuriken/Throwing star:
Their damage is somewhere between a pipe and a bow, not a bad choice if you 
don't mind being too close to your enemies since their range is extremely 
short. They have slightly faster attack speed than a bow and almost always 
have a modifier that adds open wounds chance. There is a unique star, but 
I have yet to see it. An interesting thought would be using a throwing star
and a shield together for the added shield defense and modifiers.

Armor:
The three main sets for a Dryad are based on the three aspect trees, Daerwins 
for voodoo, Detheya's for Capricious Hunter, and Leaves & Twigs for Nature 
Weaver. The Detheyas set is perfect for a Ranged Dryad and as such I will list 
the general stats of the set pieces.

-Detheya's Cowl (head) Grants a Willpower bonus and Bonuses to the Capricious 
Hunter Focus & Sinister Predator.
-Detheya's Protection (chest) Grants bonuses to Vitality & the Capricious 
Hunter Aspect.
-Detheya's Should Plates (shoulders) Grants bonuses to all Combat Arts, Darting 
Assault, and it reduces regeneration times for Capricious Hunter Aspect.
-Detheya's  Wrist Guards (bracers) Grants bonuses to Ravaged Impact and 
increase your attack value.
-Detheya's  Girth (belt) Grants bonuses to Stamina and Sinister Predator.
-Detheya's  Greaves (legs) Grants bonuses to Dust Devil & Forest Flight and 
also increases chance for critical hits.
-Detheya's Footwear (boots) Grants bonuses to Dexterity & Forest Flight and 
also reduces regeneration time for aspect Capricious Hunter.

Set bonuses unlocked for wearing partial or complete set:
Wearing 3 pieces Bonus- grants Health Regeneration
Wearing 5 pieces Bonus- increases aspect Capricious Hunter (also gain above 
bonus)
Wearing 6 pieces Bonus- increases all skills (also gain above bonuses)
Wearing 7 pieces Bonus- grants life leech (also gain above bonuses)

Exact values I didn't list, because the stat values vary with the level of the 
set pieces. If you cannot obtain the Detheya's set through any means (farming 
bosses, trading) Then you can look for good modifiers on other armor pieces, 
here is a list of ones I recommend:

+ all skills
+ aspect capricious hunter
life leech
Increased attack speed
+ chance for critical hits
Opponents level for deathblow % (when an enemy reaches the listed deathblow 
percent in hitpoints you will do double damage to it)
Chance for poison/burn
run speed + %
+ experience per kill %
+ chance to find valuables %
Chance for enemy to evade -%
Enemy defense -%
Armor +%
Defense +%

Regen per hit x.x seconds (the x's are values in terms of seconds so every hit
on a enemy with a .5 sec regen per hit modifer from your equipment recharges 
all of your character arts by .5, or half a second). This modifier is a must to 
have on at least one piece of equipment

All of the above are good modifiers to find for you rings and amulets as well. 
While the armor set Detheya's Agility is hard to find, the listed modifiers are 
common on items you may find in the field or in shops so building an armor set 
from one and two star items can be as effective if not more so than putting 
together an armor set.

Other notable set pieces/partial set combos:

*Eternal Flames Set

Wearing 3 pieces Bonus � Grants Damage Mitigation: Fire %
Wearing 5 pieces Bonus � Grants Chance that Opponent cannot evade attacks %

*Meho'Sun Set

Meho's Wristguards (bracers) sockets 1 silver, 1 gold.
Increased Attack Speed
Chance to disregard armor
Increased attack rating

Meho's Greaves (pants) sockets 1 silver, 1 gold.
Chance to evade
Run speed

*Tendrils of Time Set

ChestPlate of Time (chest) sockets 1 bronze, 1 silver, 1 gold.
Extremely high armor value split between all elements and physical.
Chance to find valuables.

*Daerwain's Revenge Set

Daerwain's Headgear (helm) sockets 1 silver.
Adds chance that opponents cannot evade attacks
Adds Intelligence
Bonus to Offensive Skills
Bonus to Tactics Lore.

Daerwain's Boots sockets 1 silver
Adds a bonus to knockback resistance
Adds dexterity
Chance to evade



Strategy and Tips
__________________

-The general strategy for killing normal enemies is to use darting assault on 
large groups, and using ravaged impact to finish the stragglers. Use only 
ravaged impact for champion monsters while having them rooted.
 
-Using forest flight to escape tough enemies not only teleports you, but also 
has a good chance to root enemies in place (enemies that were within a short 
distance of you at the time of your teleport). It can be used to strategically 
freeze groups of enemies for a time so you can easily fill them with arrows.

-Tangled vines works on any enemy, save one miniboss and ghosts. Use it on 
champion monsters so they cannot reach you, then ravaged impact them to death.

-Goldenglade touch, when fully modded can be kept active semi permanently, 
cast it when you are facing enemies of any type, you will never need to
use health potions.

-Dust Devil and Acute Mind also can be kept up semi permanently with the bronze
mods and rune investments.

-Putting tangled vines and edaphic lances in a combo, allows for auto targeted
lances which is invaluable against bosses because the auto target ensures 
precise thorns placement to score more hits. Manual targeting may be off or
boss may move out of the way, vines prevent this.

-Choosing your mount, early in the game (throughout your silver campaign) it is 
best to choose the Capricious Hunter Lizard since your regen times start out
high by default. Once you have you Regeneration times managed you can choose 
ANY lizard you wish, I choose mounts by color only.

Cap Hunter Lizard- Green
Voodoo Lizard- Dark Red with voodoo symbols covering him
Nature Lizard- Bright Blue/Neon green
Resistant Lizard- Dull Grey/Tan

All mounts give a 20% health bonus and Small Defense Bonus.


V.   Other useful Combat Arts
     ________________________	

This section is going to cover all the other Combat Arts that are not described 
as part of "The Build" but can easily be integrated into it if you so choose.
Will list a short description and pros and cons of each CA.


Twisted Torment
_______________

Slows down a single enemy's movement speed and inflicts slight poison damage, 
also increases chance for a shrunken head to drop from the infected enemy.

Pros

*  slowing down an opponent is never a bad thing
*  increased chance for shrunken heads is very good, and can be modified to 
   increase it further

Cons

*  poison damage over time is very low, even at high levels
*  slowed opponents can be stopped altogether by tangled vines
*  only affects a single enemy per cast

Viperish Disease
________________

Infects targeted enemy with a deadly poison, deals damage over time based on 
enemies hit points, disease will spread to enemies of the equipped shrunken 
head type which restarts the disease's duration.

Pros

*  with the correct shrunken head equipped entire large groups of enemies can 
   become infected
*  can be modified to inflict more enemies even if the correct shrunken head 
   is not equipped
*  the damage over time is not of a real damage type it is simply -enemy 
   hitpoints. It is NOT poison damage.
*  Every time the disease spreads to a new creature, the disease duration 
   resets 
*  The damage stacks, though not added but multiplied in some behind the 
   scenes way.

Cons

* without the correct shrunken head equipped, this will not spread unless 
  modified to
* damage seems to be very low the closer to full health an enemy is, damage 
  increases with lower enemy hitpoints
* damage starts at 8% enemy hp which is really low

Black Curse
___________
Lowers a single enemy's attributes by a percent

Pros

* since it lowers all attributes by a percent this is extremely useful 
  against bosses, it will lower their max hitpoints, defense, armor, spell 
  resist, attack rating, damage etc. very impressive even at level 1
* bronze mod 'porous' reduces the enemy's resistance to physical damage.

Cons

* none really, except the fact is only affects a single enemy

Malicious Totem
_______________

Summons a totem which shoots out small poisonous arrows

Pros

* Can be modified to lower cooldown, lower regeneration time, increase 
  physical or poison damage, increase rate of fire, and fear enemies away
* With certain modifications listed above you could have multiple totems out 
  at once, or a single fast shooting totem if you wish
* Shrunken head equipped will grant additional damage to the enemy type of 
  the shrunken head
* Damage is enhanced with +% damage, +% physical damage, and +% poison 
  damage items
* Damage is also enhanced by acute mind, can be deadly without voodoo lore.


Morbid Animus
_____________

Buff. Summons a spirit based off of the shrunken head type you are wearing to
fight for you.
 
*see "shrunken heads" for specific head types and summons*

Pros

* pets at high level can kill and survive the toughest enemies
* pets level increases with rune consumption and can easily surpass you own 
  level

Cons

* most common shrunken heads produce weak summons, even with high level
* summon is very slow (movement speed) The dragon summon is very fast though
* regeneration penalties become very high with the more runes put into this 
  buff, and might be hard to manage a pet level/ buff penalty ratio.
* Being a buff, you have to sacrifice one of the other two buffs to use it. 
  You can also max concentration to run 3 buffs.



Using the above Combat Arts, you can rework my build for some interesting 
hybrids, or come up with your own unique build! Here's an example a melee/
voodoo dryad:

Druid
_____

Uses Spear/Polearm weapons, also uses tangled vines (modified for 
damage) and an 'animal' morbid animus summon. With totems for ranged support.

Skills:
Tactics lore - Doubles as +damage and gives hunter mod points
Voodoo Focus
Nature Focus
Combat Reflexes
Armor Lore
Concentration
Polearms
Nature Lore
Consitution 
????


Combat Arts & How To Play her.
Ravaged Impact- Envenom, Breach, Double Shot
With spear attacks RI cause the Dryad to perform a quick double jab attack
which looks really cool and still adds in damage for 2 hits, but only 
shows one damage detail number.

Darting Assault-reload, Wounding, Rotate
Dryad holds the spear with one hand and performs a 360 spin still only
able to hit amount of enemies listed in the CA details. 


Dust Devil-recondition,Spell Shield, Spread
You can have a cloud up all the time ala golden glade touch with plenty of 
room to maneuver inside it.

Morbid Animus-Malice, Elevation, Fury
My scorpion is level 127 and he murders everything, I sometimes switch to the 
boar summon to follow my roleplay of a druid but the scorpion just is too damn 
good to unsummon.

Viperish Disease- gangrene, Transmission
Very useful skill to cast before a big fight, quickly infects the whole group 
you are fighting and leaves easy targets for your scorpion. 

Black Curse
Porous- Reduces enemies resistance to physical damage
Boss/Elite debuff

Malicious Totem
Solid,Pointed,Expert
Allows you to have multiple totems out at once which last for a long time

Tangled Vines-Tendrils,Singe,Encroach
This is my little aoe for small groups, even single enemies it kills pretty 
quickly. Boss holder as well. It does not work on the White Griffon or most 
ghosts.

Golden Glade Touch- Flow,Perevere,Diligence

Ancient Bark- Rugged,Divert
Damage Mitigation and Reflection. I could never choose different mods for this 
CA no matter what.

The playstyle is rather simple actually, Have ancient bark and animus running 
always and keep goldenglade and dust devil running when in fights casting 
viperish disease and totems before hand. Try to find a full voodoo set and 
luckily for you unique spears and polearms are extremely common. Usually the
animus will kill everything and you can generally focus on a few creatures 
with no worry, but you can hold your own without him if needed with vines,
viperish disease, totems and ravaged impact alone. 




VI.   Boss Strategy
      _____________

This is where your build kicks in against bosses, required is at least 1 rune 
in the black curse voodoo CA. Black curse lowers the enemy's attributes 
(including hp) by a % so it's good even at level 1. I'll lay it out in steps 
so its not confusing like the rest of the guide probably was lol.
1.	Cast your Acute Mind
2.	Cast vines and black curse (combo works good)
3.	Cast Vine/Lances combo (vine again so the lances auto target for you)

Bosses easily one shot killed (niob even without acute mind):

*Dragons
*White Griffin (vines dont work on him so use lances not in combo)
*Winged Daemon
*Octopuss

Octopuss it is really hard to hit him with a combo of vine/lances so put lances
alone in a slot to kill him.

Bosses That are hard to one hit kill but still go down in 2-4 hits with acute
mind in niob:

*Garganthropod
*Carnach
*Nameless Guardians
*Gar Colossous (One lance usually takes his shield out)

Bosses that are a pain in the ass to kill with lances, quicker to use bow:
*Crystal Boss

The boss should be either dead or close to it at step 3 in early 
difficulties, and may take 3 shots or more in higher difficulties. If he has 
more than half health left it's a clear sign that you lances or acute mind is 
not strong enough, you could use your 2 extra skills to help your damage or 
just try to pull off steps 2 and 3 again before your acute mind wears off.
That's it have fun!


VII.   Shrunken Heads
       ______________

Shrunken Heads, what do they summon and how can I get the good 
ones? 

Head type-Summon (a * or ** gives summon type of the magic and rare variants of 
the head type)

Animal- Wolf, *Boar
Barbarian- Kobold, *Desert Mage
Goblinoid- Goblin, *Orc
Undead- Zombie, *Skelton Warrior
Human- Human
Dryad- Dryad
High Elf- High Elf
T-Mutation- T-Mutation (floating ghost looking thing),*Leaping Plant, **Tree
Dragon- Lizard Man, **Small Dragon
Monster- skull rock creature,*Werewolf, **Minotaur
Insect- Spitting Spider, **Giant Scorpion

***Thanks to Gray Boulware for the * Werewolf find.***

Now, common heads (no *s) can be found off of any of the common creature in the 
land of its type. So a boar may drop an animal head while a zombie cannot. 
Shrunken heads themselves can have an increased chance to drop while using 
various Combat Arts with mods that have 'increased shrunken head chance'. There 
are also a few Combat Arts with the bonus chance already, without mods: 
Sinister Predator, Morbid Animus, Dust Devil, Twisted Torment. You must have 
those Combat Arts active to receive their bonus though. * Heads can be found 
off of some miniboss creatures and random champion ones: I have found the * 
animal shrunken head from the 'Raging Boar' mini boss and the * T-Mutation 
shrunken Head from the 'Tree' Miniboss on Dryad Island. All the rest of * heads 
I have listed I found from normal champions. The ** shrunken heads can ONLY be 
found from these story bosses:

** Insect Head (scorpion) - Garganthropod (scorpion boss in desert)
** T-Mutation Head (tree) - Gar Colossous (golem boss in Orcish Byway)
** Monster Head (Minotaur)- Octogalamus (octopuss boss in Orc Land)
** Dragon Head (Small Dragon) - Can be found from ANY large dragon, this is the 
one exception because it does not have to be found from the story boss dragon.

Each of these heads can be attained by ANY Dryad, since the bosses you must 
kill for the first 3 heads are located conveniently near a Resurrection 
Monolith. They can be easily farmed over and over again. There is a portal in 
Grunwich near its dragon, which is a short run from the portal. When hunting 
for these ** shrunken heads make sure you have the listed four combat arts 
active when the boss DIES, so he has a better chance to drop your head. They 
can be found as soon as silver difficulty, as I have just found a level 41 
** monster head in silver. Happy (Head) Hunting!

I don't use Morbid Animus or Voodoo at all, should I even bother with these
Shrunken Heads? 

Shrunken heads are very important to a Dryad regardless of the Combat Arts that 
You use. Think of the head as an extra armor slot, with chances for good mods
That can be found on the better head types. They all have a defense value of 
Course and I have found some very good mods on magic and rare heads including:
Deathblow
Nature skills + x
Cap Hunter Aspect + x
Voodoo skills + x
Hit Points + xxx
Chance to fear opponents away + %
+xx stat values dexterity, intelligence, willpower
+ % open wounds
Armor value poison + %
Armor value physical +%
Run speed (yes run speed) + %
These are modifiers I have seen personally on rare heads I have found, I have 
seen multiple good mods on one head for example. So keep hunting!

VIII.   Version/History
	_______________

6/29/2009 1.0 

- Guide revised, completed and submitted.

7/04/2009 1.1 

- Minor additions to the combat arts section for Dust Devil &  
  Tangled Vines.
- Added suggestions and reasoning for last two skills
- Added more info on Shrunken Heads.
- Added My Druid (melee/voodoo) Character.

7/17/2009 1.2

- Additions to the sections "items" & "boss strategy" listing useful set pieces
  and niob boss killing easiness with edaphic lances.
- Additions to the 'Druid' build
- Added Mount Descriptions
- Added desriptions for all Combat arts
- Added recommended amount of skill points required by lvl 100 for modifications
- Additions of werewolf and t-mutation summons
- major grammer and terminology overhaul.
- re-organized the guide to improve readability.
- minor changes to all sections improving the build formerly based on my level
  80 dryad to being based solely on my level 105 in niob.
- updated disclaimer

VIIII.	Thanks
	______

-	Ascaron Entertainment.
-	Gamefaqs.
-	Xbox Live Community.
-	All who support and may find this guide useful or any part of it. 
-	Phadin,PipBoy2k,and Gray Boulware for their suggestions that I have used in 
        my FAQ.
-	Special Thanks to Choujin for convincing me to organize my guide layout
	and further elaborate on Skills/Combat Arts, and addition of the Eternal 
	Flame Set pieces.

Contact info again: [email protected]