This is a bit of a misconception, especially with 1.12 talents. While generally yes, druids are "worse" than priests, that's only because of mana issues and the huge mana cost of regrowth, if you are, say, the guild leader and have a dedicated team of shamans constantly feeding you mana tide totems, you don't have to innervate any priests, you'll use it on yourself (along with chaining mana pots and demonic runes). Then you top meters like nobody's business because hots are surprisingly good at that.Druids are basically Priests' bitches in vanilla. The moment Priests shout mana low. You quickly click on said Priest and click on Innervate like a good boy.
This is a bit of a misconception, especially with 1.12 talents. While generally yes, druids are "worse" than priests, that's only because of mana issues and the huge mana cost of regrowth, if you are, say, the guild leader and have a dedicated team of shamans constantly feeding you mana tide totems, you don't have to innervate any priests, you'll use it on yourself (along with chaining mana pots and demonic runes). Then you top meters like nobody's business because hots are surprisingly good at that.
That's an extreme case, obviously, but it does happen, my guild leader was exactly like this, it was really annoying and he only used mana tides for himself. And *even then*, he wasn't always the top healer in fights and at one point after AQ came out, he couldn't compete with paladins (due to JoL).
Your only spec viable for raids is pretty much Resto, most guilds won't bother taking in non-Resto Druids for raids.
That was true in vanilla. Nowadays you can get at least one spot as feral. Cat dps loses out to rogue and warriors (unless you have some serious cash to blow on flasks) but the feral aura boosts their dps which compensates for the loss and feral druids can still bring some decent utility. You'll be able to off-tank certain encounters with a simple gear switch because the cat and bear build overlap to a degree (this will free a fury warrior so he can dish out more dps), and you bring an extra innervate to the raid.
The downside is that you won't usually be allowed to roll on druid gear, but you WILL be rolling on dps gear which can piss off some people, all though some of the best feral gear out there is stuff nobody wants. There's also no way a raid will take more than one feral so that means you'll have to fight for that spot if you have more than one druid who wants to do it too.
I believe Naxx gear makes ferals even more viable but i never got that far.
Yeap, I meant vanilla. I don't know about nowadays. I last played in Legion and only managed to clear up to Heroic Night Hold in pugs... You can easily get into raids as a Druid bear tank no problem in Legion. Back in Cata I think ferals were even stronger or strongest then but I didn't do any raids in Cata.
With this powershifting style you'll still lose out to fury wars and rouges but Leader of the Pack gives a 3% extra crit to everybody in your party and that's the trick of it. The 3% aura also works when you are off-tanking. With the extra innervate (that you can also use on yourself to boost dps if the raid doesn't need it) and combat rez you add enough utility to compensate ditching an extra rouge or warrior.
Another knewl thing is that Druids have a world of their own. There's like underground camaraderie between them you don't see with other classes.
Another knewl thing is that Druids have a world of their own. There's like underground camaraderie between them you don't see with other classes.
At vanilla launch people didn't understand how important spirit was for warriors with regards to reducing downtime.Doesn't compare to Paladin solo leveling. You don't even have a rotation. You just autoattack and then AFK for a full minute while the mob dies to auto because Paladins don't have actual offensive abilities, just seals (auto-attack buff) and judgment (which, if used for instant damage, does pathetic damage on a high cooldown while burning mana that you're better off saving for self-heals to reduce downtime). A Paladin's auto does far worse damage than a Warrior's too, or a Shaman's for that matter.Warrior solo leveling. Ironically, warrior and priest together are a match made in haven.
You're not wrong, but I'll take dull over extended downtime warrior has even if you rely on bandages to minimize it. Not to mention if you're remotely conscious while playing that paladin basically cannot die compared to a warrior who pulls two mobs and is done goofed.
Doesn't compare to Paladin solo leveling. You don't even have a rotation. You just autoattack and then AFK for a full minute while the mob dies to auto because Paladins don't have actual offensive abilities, just seals (auto-attack buff) and judgment (which, if used for instant damage, does pathetic damage on a high cooldown while burning mana that you're better off saving for self-heals to reduce downtime). A Paladin's auto does far worse damage than a Warrior's too, or a Shaman's for that matter.Warrior solo leveling. Ironically, warrior and priest together are a match made in haven.
Druid healing may not be as optimal as Priests, but it's a lot of fun in PvP.
Priests are the most engaging class with the broadest toolset that actually gets used. They have 3 viable and *great* specs (shadow for PvP) and have access to probably the best itemization in vanilla. They also have a very smooth leveling experience once you know what you are doing and are always in demand in groups for dungeons and raids.
This is actually correct, perhaps only Warrior DPS in vanilla isn't mindless, otherwise everything else is. Warlocks spam shadowbolt, Mages frostbolt/fireball, Hunters steady shot + aimed shot, Rogues sinister strike + eviscerate/slice and dice (you don't use the bleeds due to the debuff limit).
It's very funny how people think they won't have to grind in vanilla or that the DPS rotations aren't extremely short and repetitive. If you want to play something that isn't mindless, play a healer or a tank, and if you don't want to grind, play the AH.
That said, it IS possible to find an engaging playstyle (healer, tank) and not to grind, as opposed to current WoW, where you have gamey shit like artifact power for which you HAVE to grind and healing/tanking has been consistently degenerating in their complexity over the expansions.