Hey, just coming back from a years long break and am trying to pick out a main. I kinda would like to focus on one character but like to play every role so naturally a druid came to mind.
I feel kind of overwhelmed when looking at their kit. They can do so much in each spec as far as form shifting that it seems kind daunting to me. Is there a steep learning curve for the class?
I think the difficulty comes from remember what tools are in which forms. Sometimes that can limit what you may want to do and when you want to do them. While most other classes can do most things without the added hassle of swapping forms and thus swapping other tool kits, druids have to think about that.
But its not overly daunting and is a very fun way of engaging in the class fantasy.
For example, when I heal, if I’m feeling frisky for dps, I’ll through some moon and sun fires out, go into cat form, do some dps, pop out when energy is low and toss out some HOTs, rinse and repeat. Very fun in my opinion.
Its a very fun class. Any class that you can stealth, heal, tank, melee and cast dps means you can change flavor.
What most do instead of picking a main toon, we pick a main spec of druid, and then maybe and alt spec.
I love druid…
i think it’s kind of a middle of the road class. it def takes a while to learn, but you should be fine if you’re just re-learning. i would def focus on one spec at a time. and by focus, i mean at least a few months of experience to really master it. Even I still learn new ways to optimize my class to this day.
I think all specs require a certain amount of skill, especially something like feral. High apm class for those that like clicking and shapeshifting though. If you have any specific questions about restoration, I can def help you out…we have flavors of all kinds on the druid board 
i should also say I also love this class…haven’t even played alts since i switched from my priest back in TBC. I Especially love the part where the class fantasy is so well done, and we are one of blizzard’s favorites 
Id say that each spec individually are friendly on the casual level, learning and playing all 4 at a high level will take some time. Try bear, its hella fun this xpac.
As people have said, spend time with each spec.
Depending on what you want to do and how far you want to push you might find that Balance is better than Feral and vice versa. Or you might find one is more fun than the other. Personally, if I dps I play Feral, I love the playstyle.
I mean Guardian and am having a blast in M+ and raid.
As for Difficulty I’d say Feral is a tad more difficult than Balance just because of the rotation.
Guardian is, imo, the easiest tank spec in the game as you basically cannot die with Ursoc’s legendary for 30 seconds every 3 minutes.
Resto is fun as well, but it takes getting used to HoTs and not really having an “oh crap” heal outside of Swiftmend and the empowered Regrowth with the ability I forget the name of.
Once you’re used to a spec in its base form that’s when you want to start weaving.
Guardian and moonkin weaving is fun, feels great, and can outburst a lot of classes.
Resto and kitty weaving is a good playstyle too in M+. You do good damage and once you learn damage intake patterns it keeps things interesting.
Bear is the king of world content. Things may die a little slower, but as compensation you can pull entire zones.
At the basic level, druid has a little bit higher knowledge floor than most classes simply because it has four specs, and each spec uses a different form (if you count resto using caster form). Once you learn what spells you can cast in each form, the difficulty lies in creating good keybinds to allow you to use the large number of utility spells. I would advise setting up each form so that similar functions are used in each form. For example, I have wild charge set to Z in every spec, and in every form (when I have it talented). That way, regardless of what role i’m playing, I can hit z and know that it is some sort of movement ability. I just need to have the cognizance to realize what form I’m in so that I don’t boomkin disengage when I wanted to leap to a friend in caster form.
Balance is clunky thanks to eclipse mechanic. You may or may not like it.
Feral is probably the hardest spec to master. I have seen a lot of bad ferals out there including myself.
Restoration and Guardian are pretty easy to play.
Edit: I forgot to mention one more thing; don’t forget to remove Maul off your action bar. You’ll thank me later.
Shadowlands eclipse is a MUCH better iteration compared to BFA with the spell alternating for extra damage. That was tedious.
I’d say it’s also the hardest spec to pick up. Until aoe damage picks up and their utility is improved, this spec will still fail to see even mediocre representation.
Guardian is sure easy to play. It’s a good spec for “I need to focus on the content, not the spec.” It’s also nigh invulnerable 17% of the time with Incarn and Ursoc’s Fury leggo.
Resto requires more planning and some knowledge of when damage is incoming. Speaking purely from a m+ standpoint, if you get behind, it’s hard to catch up. Convoke leggo and flourish help quite a bit, but a little planning helps a lot. That being said, it is largely a throughput healer as opposed to a damage reduction healer, so it has some disadvantages in difficult pulls unless you get help from other members. Sometimes just a rally makes all the difference where pally can devo/wings/ashen or a rsham can link/healing tide/ascendance etc.
That being said, I greatly prefer rdruid healing.
I got a druid.
Definitely not the most complicated class there is, however, it is easy to be average with every class. To really strive to be good can get quite challenging.
Keep in mind, druids, in all forms, have a lot of utility.
Bear is pretty straight forward. UFR/Incarn is just all around nice tank build.
Got your typical set of AoE abilities and set of single target. 2 of each actually. 1 range DoT.
Got 1 interrupt / 1 aoe interrupt. Speed boost. Self healing, mitigation and a few other utility tools.
I tried healing as druid — hated it personally. It is a very proactive gameplay, whereas holy paladin, let’s say, is reactive.
Boomie — I’d fall asleep playing boomie. But overall is highly desired in M+ community
Haven’t really tried kitty.
When it comes to shapeshifting, there is usually only 1-3 situation abilities that would require you to shapeshift out of your main form. Once you learn their usage, it’s quite simple.
Example — as healer, you can use bear form to soak mechanics, pop self heal or aoe speed boost. stumpering roar. (and it’;s 1 button=1GCD)
Best way to learn is to play.
Feral druid is super straightforward and easy in pvp. Loving it
We do have a lot of buttons, but you’ll be mostly interacting with abilities specific to your chosen spec’s form (plus a handful of common utilities). Bears will spend the vast majority of their time using bear abilities, boomies casting spells, etc. In that way, the number of abilities you need to care about is naturally limited. As you become a better player, you’ll discover uses for your off-spec forms and abilities. That’s part of the joy of being a Druid, but just understanding your spec abilities will get you most of the way there.
Resto is the exception to the rule. As Resto, you’ll very likely be dipping into either kitty or boomy abilities to deal damage, but even that isn’t overwhelming. I say go for it!
And test the abilities in different forms.
Some abilites, like stampeding roar, incap roar, will automatically shape shift you to the right form when you use them.
I think the trick is to figure all those out, figure out some of the macros that make life nice, and then spend time on your keybinds. All my other classes, keybinds are pretty simple. And honestly, it wasn’t until about 6 months ago that I finally fixed my atrocious keybinds on the druid I’d been playing since LK. My keybinds were terrible. What I did was keep swaping specs, and forms with each spec and try to figure out what spells I actually need an use. Then all the auxiliary abilities that are used across specs, I made sure all those keybinds were the same spec to spec and form to form. If some spells were based on talents, I kept the spell locations for those talents the same, just made a macro that is based on the talent, for example renewal versus wild charge. Took me a while to get it set up, but since then I’ve copied the keybinds to every druid I have and my quality of life has improved.