A druid is one of the 2nd job along the line of Gaian Magicians. Druids are known for their superior crowd control (CC) skills, with signature skills like Explosion of Petrification and Yak Advent. Druids, as second class of Kahunas, also has buffs which are often desired. People typically refer to druids and their similar, battle kahuna, "hunas".

Role

Druids play a primarily support role with DDing abilities and minor healing abilities. A fully skilled druid is expected to crowd control when dealing with larger group of mobs, and to buff the entire party. Occasionally, druids are called upon to help heal the party. A druid will be spending most of the time in melee combat, utilizing one-handed or two-handed axes.

In DPs

As aforementioned, druids are support characters. They have three main buffs: Forces of Sacred Fire, Rock Energy, and Speed of the Wind. In all cases, the first two are required to be on at all times. In situations where there is a lot of migration, Speed of the Wind is also required to be on at all times.

Additionally, druids have Support of Gust, Gale of Reflection, Reflection of the Soul. While the latter two are questionable in effect, the first one is a tremendous help to any fast-attack DD (i.e. Shadow Hunter and Assassin).

When it comes to crowd controlling, druids have an upper hand in being able to render a target immobile, and depending on skill, unable to attack, and perhaps making it so others cannot attack the target. The primary three crowd controls for immobilizing a target are: Dark Water Seal, Explosion of Petrification, Shackle of the Ground.

Druids are also capable of healing, and even replacing healers for short amount of time with respect to location of a dungeon party. Restoring purified water is a heal over time with fast cool-time and quick cast-time. A more powerful heal - Essence of life has slow cast-time, very slow cool-time, but heals significantly more. A third healing skill druids possess is Spirit of Restoration, which heals everyone over an area.

In Siege

Whereas in a DP, druid's main function is support and DD, in a siege druids are almost entirely CC and support.

Currently, druids are the sole class who are capable of resurrecting another player in another party on the same side of the siege - a valuable skill that could mean being able to save a wiped party in the middle of a dungeon during a siege, saving lots of time.

Druids are also capable of casting Tears of Gaia on another player, giving that player the ability to resurrect without help, like using a bottles, but with some limitations.

Petrification and yakking has different effects in siege than in normal PvE - people can attack the petrified/yakked players, resulting in essentially a 15 second and 10 second period in which the opponent can do absolutely nothing except use their pet.

Druids also possess a mass-petrification which will petrify everyone within a certain radius for 10+ seconds, again, rendering them completely immobile and unable to do anything for the time being. This skill, however, has a long cool-down. Still, there is another skill with a much shorter cool-down: root of mother nature, which will stop opponents in their tracks in an area for 5 seconds while inducing damage over time.

In addition to CCing and supporting, druids hold a number of area-damaging attack spells, which aren't nearly as effective as those of other classes, but contribute to damage and causing confusion/chaos. Of those AoEs, the most prominent are Huge Rock Fall and Vacuum Shockwave.

Equipment

A druid's build can vary significantly depending on the role they want to carry out. Druid's most useful stones are: Vitality, Strength, Wisdom, Intelligence.
Druid's most useful weapons are: 2h axe, 1h axe+shield, 1h staff+shield, 2h staff. Druids will almost always have an axe equipped as it is their main form of combat against enemies. However in pvp, a druid may use the staff to maximize damage from DoTs and nukes.

Switching

It is not uncommon for a druid to perform build switches in middle of dueling to take advantage of other equipment. For example, although restoring purified water can be used with an axe, the axe's lower m.attack value reduces the effect of the heal compared to when using a staff. Similarly, a druid may choose to use axe for pulling a stun-lock on an opponent with inferior physical defense.

PvP Combos

Combos are not inherently programmed into Rappelz, however certain effects should be taken into consideration when it comes to ordering the usage of skills.

Stun-lock combo

Using: Enchant-weapon Lightning, Support of Gust, Recklessness of Thunder, 1h or 2h axe. The combo is started off with some sort of disable - such as seal or petrify. When the effect is about to wear off, the druid will cast all the necessary self buffs, and lastly restoring purified water. Then the druid proceeds to use shackle of the ground to make sure the opponent does not try to run, and then blasting rock cut, which is instant cast and will stun the opponent. Because of the high attack speed from self buffs, the chances of landing stuns on an evenly matched opponent is fairly high, leaving the opponent unable to perform any action until the stun-lock is off. Some druids will follow up on the stun-lock combo with the disabling combo.

Disabling combo

Using: Explosion of Petrification, Yak Advent, Dark Water Seal, Shackle of the ground.
The beauty of this combination is the ability to render an opponent harmless while the druid has time to regenerate, wait for cool-downs, and figure out the next move. Used correctly, in a one-vs-one battle, this combo can kill or massively hurt an opponent.

The druid starts off with Dark Water Seal, it has the longest cool-times, and enables the druid time to start casting any other skill before the end of the effect. Near the end of the lifespan, the druid would cast shackle of the ground followed by an optional scorching flame. Note however, that for the time in which the only CC effect is shackle, the opponent is able to use skills however running is not an option. A druid may try to fit in a nuke from huge rock fall or vacuum shockwave. Before the effect of shackle of the ground is off, the druid will then cast Explosion of Petrification and probably sit down to regain some mana. The petrification lasts 15 seconds, and deals quite a bit of damage. A smart move at this step is to either move far away from the opponent or to get real close and equip an axe. The reason for this is that the druid cannot attack the target while it is petrified (in a duel or field, not siege). The petrified target will be able to attack as soon as its out of petrify, however the druid who has practiced this combo will probably get the blasting rock cut off first, thereby stunning the opponent and giving the druid time to cast yak advent. Yak only lasts 10 seconds and the opponent is mobile, leaving the druid most likely running further away. Druid probably want to cast a quick restoring purified water in case the opponent is fast with his fingers and try to pull one of their combos. One move to discourage that from happening is to throw a vacuum shockwave, which has the chance of silencing an enemy, therefore stopping any combos. The next step is to use explosion of petrification, which has by now cooled down or at least close to cooled down. After the explosion of petrification, seal is cooled down, and the combo can be used again. This combo depends highly on a druid who has high m. accuracy, which is why a wisdom build is often recommended for pulling this.

PvE

One department druids certainly are lacking is pve. Druids are notorious for having the lowest damage per second (DPS), and thus the slowest farmers.

Farming

Druids are perhaps saved from humiliation by their own buffs - Forces of Sacred Fire and Rock Energy and Speed of Wind are the three primary buffs that give druids more melee ability than the other mages. Having said that, druids are however lacking in physical skill attacks. One skill druids find themselves often using in the field and DPs is Spinning Blow, it is a relatively fast cool-time relatively high-powered skill that requires the druid to be using a heavy weapon. To make up for damage, druids are often using support of gust to increase their attack speed by 25%+, and to make up for lack of defense, druids have a handy restoring purified water skill. However, now mana becomes an issue, which is why druids also have enchant-weapon: water, which has a chance to recover a bit of mana on every basic attack (attack without using a skill).

DPs

Druids typically won't have any trouble finding a spot in a DP, they are welcomed as buffers, supports, healers, and occasionally DDers. As of the latest Epic 6 update, dungeon mobs have become significantly harder to kill, which makes druids as crowd controllers also a desired trait. High level DPs rarely attempt a dungeon or dungeon boss without a druid or battle kahuna in the party.

Pets

Great thing about being a class that does so many things is that there isn't really a wrong pet combination. A druid focusing on healing and support may use a blue pixie, angel, octopus, or unicorn whereas a druid focusing on DDing may use a hawkman, orc, Cerberus, salamander, skeleton, harpy, genie or yeti. A druid with focus on crowd control would probably use a siren, naga, or ifrit. There is no real "wrong" way to put a druid and a pet together.

More Information

The Kahuna Thread (Rappelz Forum)
Miniguide to roles (of kahuna) in DP (Rappelz Forum)