What does a druid bring to the table?

[Tikker]

our little guild has a core of Hunter, Priest, Warrior and Shaman


What utility would a druid bring to the group?

I understand that the druid and shaman could be interchangeable, but I'm not sure that the shaman could do enough DPS to justify using the druid as 2ndary healer

or vice versa

[Lyion]

Well, the main thing I'd consider is a Druid would allow one of your members to be AWOL and the group to still function.

[10sun]

That is what the shaman is for.

Druids give the best buffs... and are otherwise priests in disguise. Haven't seen a druid do much else effectively.

[Tacks]

dragon CC

[TalnHawk]

Druids do a lot of things ok, but nothing outstanding. I have been in groups where I have had to be the main tank, the primary healer, and someone just along to add DPS. The groups worked out ok but we had a little more downtime than if there was a warrior or a priest. I have not grouped that much though to be able to tell you anything else though. I am also only lvl 36 at this point.

To me though, the druid is a perfect for soloing. Depending on the quest, I usually take on mobs 2-3 levels higher than me without much difficulty and not too much downtime. Even with elites 1-2 levels higher I can hold my own.

[Zanathar]

When I play my druid I usually facilitate a lot of e-orgy's, followed by steamy man-on-man oil massage... I also turning into a bear right before climax.

I just cringed

[brinstar]

i play a druid now because a couple of RL friends picked up the game

when they're not on i look for groups in instances and i find that druids fill in any gaps the group might have

priest having trouble keeping up? backup heals
too many adds? bear tank mez
light on damage? cat form rogue
plus a couple of decent buffs as well as beast mez

plus it's fun

[Gaazy]

lies

[Langston]

I think druids are an under-utilized class.... they have a lot of utility. I think of a druid in WoW to be very similar to a shaman in EQ... a lot of different abilities - but not the best in anything. A shaman in EQ could fill a lot of different group roles. The main difference was the power of slow in EQ - that particular niche doesn't exist for a druid in WoW.

[VisionZ1]

Druids are jack of all trades- good buffs, mid fight rezzing, off tank....sorta, innervate a priests mana (super helpful, but long cooldown), fairie fire armor/vanish, less healing but lwr mana consumption than a priest, not a ton of dps but its dps

[Shneider]

It will depend upon how the druid is specialized and where you are fighting. If outdoors druids can perform limited crowd control via entangling roots and nature's grasp as well as use hibernate on beasts and dragonkin (if they are not immune).

People forget to consider Thorns when calculating DPS usually, in which case if you are working on an encounter that has NPC's with lots of low health minions they are usually torn to shreds. This also helps to maintain agro obviously; especially when coupled with faerie fire, moonfire a quick heal over time then flop to bear; the druid will take very little damage in most cases with this. As for specific roles, main tank (then flop heal to save the priest mana- shadow priests generally like this) though typically main healer. If the druid has nature's swiftness you get an instant spell (Healing Touch) every 3 minutes as well. Omen of Clarity will grant mana free spells too.

Cat form has limited utility but I usually save it for casters if I use it at all, or if you come late to an instance and the group has no warlock you can usually catch up to the group/raid.

PVP: Haven't done much of this myself since most people will know enough to try to catch the druid indoors. Would like to see druids included in stealthed squads in battlefields or raids, though typically I just stay behind the scenes in multiplayer PVP; Faerie Fire rogues followed by root in possible such as when defending Tarren Mill, then let the guards finish them. Tranquility might serve a purpose but I have yet to even use it.

Anyway, don't discount druids as the good ones will use all the skills available to them in the right situation

[Atalya]

i just made a druid twink because my guild is lacking on defensive capable warriors and on healing (at times) this way going feral allows me to get up to a 5k hp 6k defense tank as well as switcing to a back up healer role when our main tank is on. I think druids are very versatile and almost almost regret having made a mage to 60 first of all =p

[Captain Insano]

hmmm... I'm very very torn right now... the druid is fun but really doesn't accel at much... I plan on continue playing mine until 60 but damn do I hope we start standing out in some way shape or form.

[Arlos]

Well, Druids are actually pretty useful in Sunken Temple and in Blackrock Spire (both upper and lower). This is mostly because only druids can sleep Dragonkin, so make sure you keep Hibernate up to date. Also, you can sleep beast-flagged mobs, which is handy vs the spiders in LBRS, and may be useful in Maurdon. (Only did Maurdon twice, so don't know it that well)

Beyond that, no, Druids don't stand out. Useful to have a couple on a raid, to give everyone MOW, and to battle-rez, but there's nothing they stand out as.

I played a Druid to 60 in beta, and you can guess by the fact that I play a Paladin now what I thought of the state of the class. They CAN be acceptible primary healers, if you build them for that, and get Nature's Swiftness. They'll never really be a real nuking class, despite having nukes though, so don't look for DPS roles, to be honest. Cat form was functionally useless, as I did more damage in caster form, and didn't have to deal with spell cooldown from shifting forms to heal if I needed to. Bear form, now that they gave it an actual armor value, is OK, but it'd be a pretty desperate group that took a druid as a main tank in a tougher instance.

If I wanted to play a character that filled a variety of roles and I was Horde, I'd go shaman. Alliance side, I'd probably play shadow-priest or my current character, paladin.

-Arlos

[chanteez]

cat form isnt useless at all.... i was in brd last night... hitting a 55 mob in caster form for max 7 damage, switch to cat form and was getting damage up to 159.

Tanks noticed the difference when i was fighting in cat form, and when priest needed help, i switched out.

I scouted mobs out visually for group np.

i could provide healing, rez during battles, mez if necessary, dps in cat form., i have not noticed any real spell cooldown from switching myself, if its there, its not noticable.

Druids stand out if you enjoy it and can play it well, like any other class. I have np getting groups, nor do our other druids.

During big fights i cast innervate on priest, or myself depending on if priest is still alive, like last night doing general in bd. we killed him with healers being 49 priest and i at 46.

I've played druid in beta to 60 as well, and i obviously had different view of our abilities

[xaoshaen]

I'm largely with Arlos on this one, though Cat form has been vastly improved. The biggest problem with cat form is that it's a less versatile rogue without a useful finishing move. Generally, by the time you have four or five combo points loaded up on a mob, slapping a damage over time ability on it is functionally useless, especially in a group.

Druid caster DPS can be all right too, if you go with a Balance spec. You can push Moonfire to a 650-700 point spell for 338 mana with +10% chance to crit (though last i checked the additional crit damage only applies to ~210 instant damage). Wrath is only going to average about 250 points, but with only a 1.5s cast time, it's spammable, and makes the most of +nature damage items. You'll never be a mage, but you can kick out some solid DPS when you're not healing.

[Arlos]

In Beta, I'd built my druid to split pretty equally between restoration and balance, so I had both Nature's Swiftness and the +10% melee damage Balance talent. Combine that with the earlier moonfire talent, and with a top end staff, I was easily outdamaging cat form with the staff + moonfire combo, and I had enough Spirit to functionally regen most of the mana Moonfire took before the dot wore off and I had to cast it again. So, except when I needed to sneak, I never ever used cat form unless I needed to sneak. What was the point when I was outdamaging it, and didn't have to deal with any of the tradeoffs?

-Arlos

[Captain Insano]

don't hate me... I am going full on feral with all the cat abilities right now at least until I get the speed increase.

I already have improved nature's grasp, and the ability that lets you channel heals through melee... After I'm done with the cat talents I will extend the range of my spells.

I have some ideas that might work well in PVP I want to try out for a bit. When I'm 60 I will probably have to respec to help out the guild pharm teh fatt l00tz.

[Shneider]

Whatever floats your boat <shrug>. I do not view it as something that is worth the time investment, that is until the honor system and battle grounds are in place. When that time comes I figure large scale player vs. player encounters will be more common and people will have druid extermination squads equipped with spider belts or at least use some semblance of tactics to prevent druid ambushes. If we get a hunter's mark on us or another faerie fire, you can forget any chances at stealth--I am not sure if the rogue vanish ability gets rid of the former but I am pretty sure the latter prevents the use of the ability; if I'm wrong, kudos otherwise we generally know your pain. If you are stunned in feral form you don't have the luxury of free action potions, and if you decide to shift out and shift back the mana cost will exact its toll. Well, that's my perspective on it basically. Without tangible rewards for PvP I just couldn't care less to even test those ideas.

[chanteez]

i guess for me... i'm always in zones fairly higher than myself, and staying in caster form for dps isnt beneficial since dps sux on mobs 7 levels higher to 10 levels higher... in cat a difference is noticiable in those instances.

i was soloing 49 ogres in tanaris at level 45, tho took longer than its worth to me.
based on resists.

Also i can be effective when i choose to pvp, tho thats when i tend to be aggressive druid vrs healing druid.

[Rynin]

Another thing you have to consider with druids, is that they indirectly lower the DPS of the mob, by keeping Rejuvenation on the main tank throughout a fight. This will help with not just healing, but also with mana preservation for all healers.

I am restoration specced, and I use forms a great deal. Not as much as a Feral spec might. If I pull agro, I go cat form (if I have mana to spare) and use cower.

If we have a capable priest in the group, I go bear form (with bear form gear on, and Paladin Devotion Aura, I have 10550 armor), and I off tank adds.

I use cat form to scout areas for the group like Chanteez does also.

We are VERY capable main healers, but the problem is of course, we need a paladin in group to rez in case more than one person dies every 30 minutes. We indirectly increase melee damage output with Faerie Fire (I still think this needs to also be a -30 or so to all resists, to help increase damage output for casters as well). We provide indirect DPS with thorns, like someone mentioned earlier. We indirectly lower mobs DPS with rejuv, Restoration specced druids have the ability to innervate (400% mana regen for 20 seconds) every 6 minutes. We also have the ability to instant cast any nature spell (wrath, roots [if outdoors], any heal spell, and Hibernate), we also have some very nice weapons at our disposal to use. There are quite a few very good 2H Maces out there, that do quite a bit of melee damage to mobs. When I am in a group, I melee a ton, because #1 it provides more DPS, #2 I want Omen of Clarity (proc that is put on weapon, that when procs, next damage or healing spell costs no mana) to proc as often as I can, #3 I have 2 Maces that I use quite often, one that stuns for 3 seconds, and one that lowers Str by 50 on the mob. Both of these indirectly decrease the dps of the mobs as well.

That is just a few things that druids offer, you have to really be very utilitarion as a druid I feel. Thats how I play anyway. I am a heavy spirit (330), with intellect (287) and Stamina as last priority. I know we may not excel at any one thing, but we do bring a variety of things to a group.

Now once cat form ever gets some love, and the rage generation issue in bear form is resolved, I think we will be pretty much well rounded out.

[xaoshaen]

In Beta, I'd built my druid to split pretty equally between restoration and balance, so I had both Nature's Swiftness and the +10% melee damage Balance talent. Combine that with the earlier moonfire talent, and with a top end staff, I was easily outdamaging cat form with the staff + moonfire combo, and I had enough Spirit to functionally regen most of the mana Moonfire took before the dot wore off and I had to cast it again. So, except when I needed to sneak, I never ever used cat form unless I needed to sneak. What was the point when I was outdamaging it, and didn't have to deal with any of the tradeoffs?

-Arlos

Arlos, in beta, cat form was useless. It's been vastly improved. Really, the only thing I think it needs at this point is a finishing move that doesn't suck.

[chanteez]

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/threa ... id&t=77293

[Mechafox]

I love my druid, and recently have found it to be very effective in PvP. Im to lazy to post any strategies here but people are figuring out some wicked good strats for PvP, just take a look around on various WoW websites.

[Tacks]

99% of a druids pvp strat that I fight goes like this:

see person, root person, spam moonfire, root comes undone (or i vanish or use potion) druid turns into cheetah form and runs away like a big pussy.