05-07-2004, 02:32 AM
Quote:I like Mages because battles are not simply "click on a monster, press a button, and sit back." A Mage will never survive a prolonged melee encounter with a mob of their level.
Most of my experience with WoW thus far comes from playing a Druid, and a lot of what you say applies to them as well. In fact, I'd say that their attack options vary quite a bit more. Right now, using animal forms in battle is horribly broken (I don't use them other than for the novelty of it), but I expect Blizzard to address that shortly.
Even taking Bears and Cats out of the Druid arsenal, there are still quite a bit of weapons at a Druid's disposal. If there's a "jack of all trades" class, the Druid is it. He's an attack spell caster, a melee character, a healer, and a utility character. Once Bears and Cats are adjusted, his options get even larger.
The downside to this huge variety is that he's mediocre in each category. I'm constantly amazed at players saying they can easily solo enemies 4+ levels higher than them. My Druid surely can't. I can take on most enemies one-on-one that are within a level or two of me, but even two enemies at or near my level make mincemeat out of me. Three enemies is certain death.
It might be that my Druid is woefully underequipped, but my gut feeling is that it's because his attack options are intentionally underpowered to make up for his extreme versatility. He's a marginal spellcaster, a marginal tank, a marginal healer, and deals out marginal melee damage.
It's a pity that I play mostly solo, as the Druid is a great party comrade. He can sub himself into whatever role is lacking in the group.
The quests that give me the most amount of trouble are the ones where you have to enter concentrated enemy camps and either kill specific enemy types or grab a specific item. Since I have no way of dealing with groups of enemies, I had to learn how to make each and every battle a one-on-one battle, while still making headway towards my goal.
Frankly, it really reminds me playing a Warrior in Diablo when faced with a room full of witches. You sneak in, activate one, and dispose of it in a safe battleground. Rinse and repeat. If you activate more than one or two, you're toast.
All the while you have to hope that you are clearing them out fast enough to stay ahead of the respawn rate so that an enemy doesn't mystically appear behind you during a fight.
All this might seem like common sense to anyone who has been playing WoW for any amount of time, but it certainly involves strategy.
The battles themselves involve an equal amount of strategy. Druids can't just spam their most powerful attacks for the duration of the fight, because they don't really have a most powerful attack. They have a lot of useful lesser spells, but nothing "uber".
My usual method of attack is to "pull" a desired enemy using either Starfire (high mana cost, high damage, long casting timer) or Moonfire (insta-cast, low damage-over-time). There are pros and cons to using each pulling spell. Starfire would be my preferred choice most of the time, but the casting timer is so great that enemies sometimes wander out of the spell range before I can get one off. Thus, if an enemy is moving away from me, I'll generally use Moonfire. If the activated enemy is at a great enough distance, I'll try to get off a Wrath (medium casting speed, medium mana cost) or another Starfire while it closes the distance.
Faerie Fire and Moonfire are both insta-cast spells that I like to keep on the enemy during battle. Rejuvenation is an insta-cast "heal-over-time" time that helps keep my Druid alive, so it's one that I like to keep active. I constantly have to check all of these buffs and debuffs (they all have very short timers) during battle to make sure that they are all a go, as they really can mean the difference between an easy victory or an embarrassing death. The problem is that constantly casting these spells will deplete my mana pool to nothing, so I have to selectively cast them for mana conservation.
All this while my Druid will be madly wailing away with his slow-as-molasses staff. It does high enough damage, but it's too slow to interrupt any spells (the Bristleback Geomancer quest was a pain++++). Right now I'm contemplating spending some much-needed skill points into a faster weapon skill, but seeing as though Druids need as many skill points as they can get I'm unsure if it would worth the cost. I can't go all strength and stamina, because my spell casting abilities will suffer. I can't go all spirit and intelligence, because then I won't be an effective melee Druid dude. There's also agility, which is never useless. Not to mention Tradeskills.