What Does One Do With A Druid?

[Bun-Bun]

I have now played my first character (a druid) up to level 25. I'd like to share my thoughts about the class with you. I'd ask you to keep in mind that I never played in the beta, so there may well be some obvious things I'm missing.

I'll pitch in my dos centavos. I got to level 54 in the beta, level 23 now.

      My first thought is that WoW is really two different games. There is the game you play solo, and then there is the game that's played in instances. The instance game rquires you to group. You can have fun outside the instances with a group, but it's rarely necessary in order to quest.  For a druid, or at least for this druid, these two games play in radically different ways.

That's a good analysis of the way things work, IMHO.

The solo game is fairly straighforward; pull with one of your ranged attacks (starfire works nicely), cast a moonfire and a faerie fire as they're incoming, keep the rejuvenation going on yourself, and whack them with your weapon of choice. When the battle is over, heal yourself; rinse and repeat. As long as you don't take on anything more than 2 or 3 levels above you, or pull more than 2 or 3 mobs, you can kill just about anything in the game with this approach.

That's my usual approach to killing mobs. I'll toss a bigger heal on myself if I get in trouble, but it's not usually needed.

You can make good use of entangling roots, locking them in place while you pelt them with wraths. I haven't used this strategy as much as some people do because I can't count on it working everywhere, and because this approach seems to kill a bit more slowly.

This is a nice way to go if you want safety over kill speed, but it has its cost in downtime after each fight for drinking. I do it for variety or to soften up mobs I think will be problematic. Roots is not terribly reliable, though, so I often go back to Plan A mid-fight.

The question with the solo game is "Where do I make use of my shifting skills?"; the one thing that sets druids apart from the other classes. In the solo game I have yet to find a time where shifting to either form is to my advantage. In bear form I kill much more slowly, though perhaps with a greater safety factor, than I do as a caster. In cat form the damage output is very good, but the chances of dying go up immensely. You also have to shift back to caster form to heal for the next battle. The net result is that your overall killing speed is slower. The only times I shift are when I want to prowl as a cat, or when I want to swim more quickly.

I think you're missing a bit of tactics that improves using forms either as a consistent (solo) or a situational (group) strategy. The big advantage of caster form is the ability to turn mana into life; you can more easily access that advantage in forms if you have the Swiftshifting talent. When the hit points get low, you can pop out to caster form, heal up, and go back to being feral, all mid-fight.

"So what about the instance game?", you ask? If the group has any kind of tank, say a warrior or a paladin, then there is no point in trying to tank as a bear. The other players can do a better job. Playing as a bear all you'll do is make the healer work overtime trying to keep you alive. As a cat you're an underpowered rogue. Again you find yourself giving the healer fits as you wade into battle. So that leaves you in caster form. If you're wise you'll avoid as much melee as possible. As is the case with tanking, the other players do it better. Your damage output is just not on par with the melee classes. In all the instances I've played I find I do the most good as support. Mark of the wild is a good buff, and the healing spells are more than adequate for a group that's not trying to play too far above their level. Moonfire and faerie fire do a good job of increasing  the damage output of the group.

I think you're mostly correct. Druids are much better healers than anything else, so that's what they're expected to do in groups. Since a Balance-spec druid can do comparable DPS to a Feral-spec cat-form while being available to heal, the incentive to do forms in parties is pretty low. I can conceive of a Feral-spec druid using cat-form to do DPS while shifting to caster as needed to do secondary healing, but that requires a fair amount of skill, and the gear choices to maximize damage in cat-form reduce healing ability significantly. I can also conceive of using bear form to off-tank an add occasionally or charge to stun at a critical point, but that takes talent points and specialized gear to do effectively.

Do I do any of that? Heck no. Maybe it's just me being a mediocre druid, or just my style, but I prefer to stay in caster form 24x7 unless a special need presents itself. It simplifies my gear setup tremendously.

I do want to do a Feral spec druid eventually, but I'm waiting until the bear form is a bit more durable, and the cat form a bit more damaging before wading into that one. I did try a Feral spec a few times during beta; it just never felt right to me.

The one thing that sets druids apart from the other classes is their ability to shapeshift. Up to this point it seems to me that there is no clear reason to use these abilities. I find myself playing as an underpowered priest and wondering what the designers had in mind for this class. I also wonder if I'm missing some key strategy.

I think you're on the money, although most druids wait until level 40 to start complaining about the forms pooping out. :)

I guess I'm just lucky that I enjoy playing an underpowered priest - with stealth, combat rez, a good buff, a taunt, travel form, aquatic form, and a nice DoT. :)