Hello!
I am a new player and looking to decide which class to main. I wanted something that can do melee dps and ranged dps. how do these two classes compare?
Thanks!
Shaman melee (enhance) is in a better spot then Druid melee (feral) at the moment. The shaman melee rotation and button bloat is a bit more then druid.
For range, Druid range (moonkin) seems to usually be better off then shaman range (elemental) but is tougher to play.
These are just slight differences at end game level. If you are new and will focus on leveling and doing lower end content until you’re comfortable both are fun. Just a playstyle difference.
Druid also has a tank spec, where as shaman doesn’t. Both shaman and druid have a healing spec too.
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thank you so much for your reply!
I’ve been a shaman main since the end of BC and I think you should go Druid. Balance and feral almost always do solid damage and you have great utility and survivability. Bear tanking is very simple but very effective. I can’t speak for resto Druid as I hate that healing play style.
Ele is usually never meta and enhance has only been meta recently because it goes from 0-100 on damage. Playing storm build your damage is based on DRE procs.
The main reasons why I still play shaman over Druid is because nobody can see my mog on Druid with shapeshifting and because I have sunk cost fallacy with shaman after putting so much time into it.
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Honestly if you dislike shapeshifting and setting up action bars go with shaman lol.
I find Druid very confusing to navigate as I have to set up like 4 different action bars for one spec …
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Both are good and have flexible kits.
Do you like playing as an animal or would you rather play as a humanoid that uses armor and weapons?
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LOL! I really like the fantasy of worgen druids just because i feel like i am a fully fledged shapeshifter with warewolf form hehehe. Their spell animations are pretty blah.
With shaman i like the lightnings but i hate the ungodly amount of buttons and somewhat clunky rotations because of procs. Feel like my reaction is just slightly off
I think the simplest way to pick between the two is whether or not you like shape-shifting
Druids are cool, i love the class fantasy (even more than sham tbh) but i just dont like being a cat the whole time lol
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As a new player, you’re going to enjoy both classes for different reasons as both offer what you are looking for at a generic level. As someone who plays both classes as my mains and a casual player (have real life responsibilities) heres my take, playing since beta:
Druid Class
- always fall back to this class because of the diversity in specialization.
- cat form fills the melee niche with high mobility and benefits of stealth. I’m also a fan of rot damage, which a good cat bleed build provides me
- i’m not tank material, but in the rare time i need to kill x elite mobs for a quest and want to one shot it, dropping into bear form is brilliant for it. Also a solid buffer when playing other specs - enter bear form, get beefy for a big damage spike, swap back to whatever spec you are playing.
Restoration Druid
- primarily a healer, restorarion druid doesnt often top damage meters, but its incredibly survivable in most content.
- resto druid doesn’t require the visceral knowledge of encounters that a discipline priest needs, but ramping up heals needs just enough knowledge to time heal-over-time to not become a wack-a-mole game.
- resto druid is hard for new players because it requires putting faith in your healing over time to do its work. Instant result healers (every other but disc and, to some degree, pres evoker) immediately see their heal. Druids healers apply their heals, sit back and wait. A slow trickle but equally high healing.
Feral (Cat)
- i dont typically enjoy melee classes, but cat always piqued my interest from when restoration druids used to weave cat form dps
- has traditionally been a highly complicated rotation for minimal results (easy once known, but thats with any class). Capable of high reward in the right hands
- comfortably sits low-mid range of dps across all specs/classes with elitists (0.3%) being the exception. Its definately had a couple highs and currently is doing decent dps.
- ignoring dps numbers, its just a fun spec to play! Stealth, rot damage (my playstyle anyway), high mobility, off healing second to none (my experiences), good variety of forms/flavor
Balance Druid (Caster)
- only appreciated this spec in Dragonflight after all these years. Hated the look of the form/chicken/star and felt overly complicated but I’m quite enjoying it this expansion
- Rot damage (yay!) with some heavy hitting single target (full moon crits are satisfying)
- great M+ utility for certain weeks for those who like this content
- mobile and has a fluid button rotation
- it’s like cilantro: you either love it or hate it, but those who love it REALLY love it.
- ramp based damage, meaning low health mobs will give you very low damage on meters (think early M+) but really excel with higher level content, bosses and raids and PvP
Shaman
- ghost wolf is a fun mobility tool that offers speed and defense if talented
- until Augment Evoker and certain monk class tree talents, was the undisputed utility king
- has been slowly losing its identity in all specs expansion by expansion
- all specs are generally very squishy for a mail-wearing class
Enhance
- whack a mole button rotation that is the most proc dependant of all classes/specs from my understanding of it
- can burst things down quickly when procs line up
- provides great utility in melee heavy groups
- some of the best attack animations in the game
- generally the most vocal and toxic of all shaman players in discord and forums in my opinion
- i dont play it so will defer to others
Elemental
- lightning build is the current meta by a large margin, which is expected to change in 10.2 - but i personally feel it night just put fire builds in line with lightning after tuning is done so pick the flavor you prefer
- my favorite dps caster visuals/animations in chain lightning overloads on large mobs
- earthquake stacking is both utility and great dps
- i play and prefer fire builds, and like destro warlocks, sending giant meatballs in single target is fun. Expected to be a simple rotation in 10.2 with good results. 10.2 tier set favors fire
- turret casting reliant (lightning build) and can be challenging for high mobility fights for some
Restoration Shaman
- as someone who plays all healers, definately feels like the slowest of the bunch for casting.
- utility outmatched by augmentation evoker and monk
- probably the most fun healing spec for dealing damage, but does give up healing to do so
- alright external cooldowns with earthshield (6% damage resist i think), healing tide and lifelink totem, but other classes currently outshine these unless a buff comes out
- its a really fun, perfectly good class for the content i play, and many have success in high level content and has been known to push content during some patches or expansions and i do still play it, but its selling features continue to get watered down as more specs and classes take the utility niche restoration shaman once had. Its what makes shaman a hard class to main, as these forums heavily emphasize
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New player with 18k achievement points?
Could be an honest inquiry behind language barriers, an inherited or bought account, or a troll.
Hoping something just doesnt translate well for the player.
Elemental is variable between builds, balance less so. If you’re just looking to have fun and not chase optimal builds ele offers more.
Enhance is similar to elemental in the above regard but then I’d say if you’re looking to not have variability; learn once and then practice, shaman will leave you with less variability as with druid dps you can vary the talents you play while maintaining the same core feel in gameplay.
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I have been a Shaman main since Burning Crusade and Druid main alt since Shadowlands. I primarily heal and have gotten 2k+ rating for every season since Shadowlands S2.
There are a lot of excellent comments here, but the primary ones to leave you with are: Druid rdps and mdps have been much easier to pick up than Shaman rdps and mdps for the last two expansions. Additionally, Shaman seems to be losing their identity and are desperately in need of a rework and developer love.
Healing however on both is really good, with Shaman being very easy for new players as their healing style is very straightforward. Druid is solid as a healer but requires more knowledge of the dungeon damage profiles.
Short and sweet is both are really good, for slightly different reasons, but if you are choosing between Druid and Shaman, I would pick Druid because their rdps spec has been easier and stronger more times in the last two expansions than Shaman.
One location that has some well put together videos to help you make up your mind is (as with all ranking videos and opinions for that matter… not everyone agrees): https://www.youtube.com/@skillcappedwow
Edit:
I just realized you only asked for a class with mdps and rdps… Beast Mastery Hunter is a super easy rdps right now and MM Hunter is an alternative, Survival Hunter got pretty seriously nerfed since the start of Dragonflight, but I have been told they are fun to play.
Tha k you so much! It was an amazing response and definitely helped me lean towards deuid more.
Also the reason i say new player is because i really dont understand a lot about group content in this game. Ive been playing it as a solo for so long that i am new to anything group related.
Also ive been playing hunter and have no idea how other classes work this expac