A Study Of N00bs

[mjdoom]

You call this limiting?

Druid, Tank, Rezzer, something something. Hmm. All aoe classes have some form of CC, even weak hunter aoe has the fantastic Freeze trap. I don't think you're limited. Do you want space for four rogues or something?
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I have yet to find a group that thought using CC was a good idea in the Lyceum; maybe you know something I don't?

Shackle's never really required, though it does make a few encounters more painful.
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First off this makes no sense whatsoever but I'll assume you meant that it does make a few more encounters less painful. One specific example that sticks out in my mind is the Weldon Barov fight in Scholo. Especially considering that you play horde and do not have turn undead how would you approach this fight without any CC? Between Barov's aura and three mobs (with only 5 PCs and any pets they may have) they can deal out significant damage and don't die particularly quickly. Not knowing too much about Shamans I will assume that your warrior can take Barov and Shaman can off-tank one of his guards. That leaves a pet (or two in rare cases) and 2 dps classes to try to kill the other guard before moving along. They then have to proceed to down the other guard and Barov while the healer attempts to keep them all alive without going OOM (might not have to heal the shammy as much). I'm not saying that this isn't doable; but I am saying that I certainly wouldn't want to have to try it. You could always try to have a pet and the shammy draw the two guards away and have everyone else try to burn down Barov before they die; but that is arguably not beating the encounter. Being able to shackle one of the guards serves to lessen damage taken, help with focus fire, and ultimately shorten the battle (and you can keep that guard shackled as long as you have to if you need to regen to kill him). As I said; if you really want to try this with a druid healer go ahead; but I'd much prefer a priest myself.

The people that are completely biased against classes either don't know their class strengths. As demonstrated by Hilary, Druids can be for more ideal than priests for encounters.

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I don't have a bias against druids, I just feel that given some of their limitations there are times where you are better served to have a priest; maybe even bring a priest and a druid so you have the best of both and the druid can use cat form for dps or bear form for tanking when he doesn't have to heal.

I also looked back at Hillary's posts and see very little clear demonstration that druids are more ideal than priests. She pointed out that they have innervate which can be an excellent skill for long battles but is generally unnecessary (my priest rarely goes oom in instances). I will note that it is a trick druids could have up their sleeve for the aforementioned Barov encounter. She also pointed out the leather armor but Inner Fire means that this is really a non-issue. A priest with IF up probably has more armor than a druid outside of bear form. And I would argue that CC is kind of a moot point. Each class has their own form of CC that has its uses. Both are relatively limited if you ignore MC (which you seem to not be sold on). If you have more faith in MC (and I'd think CoS would help with this) then that will probably swing the CC advantage toward the priest.

I am far from thinking that druids can't make good healers; on the contrary I know that they can. That said; their hybrid nature leads to more inherent limitations on druids as a main healer (or else they would probably be too powerful). Ignoring all of these limitations and pointing out their advantages in other areas does not make them a better choice for main healer. It may very well make them a better choice in certain scenarios and would make it preferable to have priest/druid over priest/priest in many cases though.

In the end it is important to not only know the strengths of other classes; but their weaknesses as well. If you want to compose a solid group then understanding these strengths and weaknesses properly will probably lead to a group that can roll through most of the game. As you astutely pointed out this game is relatively easy once you figure stuff out. The reality that you can't always just compose the exact group that you want means that you have to improvise a bit more sometimes. In these cases a proper understanding of what you are approaching and who can best approach it will help you to succeed.

- mjdoom