Rerolling and torn between shaman and Druid. I’ll mostly be playing with friends (mage, rogue, warrior) and I’m not sure which to make.
I know I’ll be healing some but Not entirely sure if I want to dive deep into the resto tree.
What are the pros and cons of each? How are they in pvp/end game 5 mans. (I don’t think I’ll be raiding entirely too often)
Any advice helps! Thanks in advance!
I’ve been reading that lvling a shaman is pretty boring as it’s all about white hits, and WF procs. On the other hand my first toon ever was a druid in vanilla, and I almost quit the game entirely after getting to around 23 on it, as it seemed boring AF, and I didn’t want to stare at a animals backside the entire game. Also destroyed the point of having cool looking gear when you can never see it as a druid.
Druids made amazing flag runners in WSG. That’s about all I know for Classic.
Of the two I would go shaman in vanilla. Druid and Shaman were fun to lvl in later expansions only to me.
Druid will let you tank and get into runs way easier. Gearing the druid will be faster respectively. Druid also had 2 viable raid specs (tank or heals) wherein shaman really only has 1 (heal).
Depends on what you want to do really. Are you focused on PvP or PvE? Will you be leveling with these same people or are they ahead of you? Do you want to heal end-game or would you rather DPS or tank?
Both excel in pvp when played as an actual hybrid. This is assuming 21 points or less into the resto tree. (Go 21 in for nature’s swiftness). Remember, you’re not a dps class.
For enhancement, there are no hard and fast counters, but some classes will always give you trouble.
Learn your totems. Love your totems. For tremor, grounding, earthbind make easily accessible key binds that you can hit without thinking.
Start here, grasshopper, and the rest will come.
Edit: Both can be boring to level initially, but the druid especially gets more fun as you get access to more toys.
Shaman. If you’re a druid, and the last person standing, you can’t res.
drooooooooood is your friend!
so much versatility.
Druid is great but it’s hard to gear for anything other than resto especially in the first few phases when we don’t get any +feral AP weapons. Advantages of druids include excellent WPvP capability and typically easy access to gear in raids since usually not a lot of druids are taken.
Shaman is also a great choice. Elemental can do insane burst in PvP rivaled only by PoM pyro mages. Shamans are in very high demand for raiding as you want one per group if possible. So you’ll get into raids easier but have more competition for gear.
If you want to heal, but don’t want to heal full time, then Druid is the clear choice from my perspective.
You can’t really do a hybrid resto build on Shamans because you lose Manatide, and the only thing you’d really pair that with is Elemental, which is just a mess all around in Classic.
On the otherhand, you can still be a very effective healer when running a HotW/NS (0/30/21) hybrid build that allows you to DPS/Off-Tank/Heal as needed.
This is basically what all the OG flag runners went with back in Vanilla.
Except…you CAN battle rez the healer
Unless you ARE the healer
Druid: Slow strong heals and instant hot. Stealth available. Can spec tank. But, has no real res, caster form very squish, even more squish than priest but no aggro reducer.
Shaman: Can spec super high pvp damage. Aoe smart heal. Good utility buffs. Can use shield and mail for a not squish experience. Has real res.
Hope that helps.
shaman for dps ele,enhance and druid for heals but shaman can heal also.
shamans are good for pvp.
I will mainly be grouping with them while soloing when they are not on. I’m a pretty casual player so the endgame is kind of a distant blur for me but I know back in the day pvp was my main thing while sneaking in some 5 mans and a raid or 2 here and there.
Really I just want to provide as much utility as possible. Between having a warrior rogue mage and potentially a priest joining we will have dps, tanking, and heals down. So I want to boost my party as much as possible and fill in when needed.
Question for Druids: Does +attack power effect all feral forms & abilities (claw/paw) that do damage up close?
Was it you that created a similar post the other day? In any case, you can’t go wrong with shaman for utility. They bring so much to any group.
Yes it does.
In PvE i’d say Shaman is better overall as a healer, most utility, windfury which synergies immensely with DPS Warriors who are everywhere right now, an actual rez ability etc.
Druid’s main perk in PvE over Shaman is their ability to tank and should weight on your decision (whether you enjoy the role at all or not).
In PvP both are great but work in entirely different settings. Resto Shaman shine in large groups and as said above has an insane synergy with Warriors in particular. They can also function like 3 minute mages with better dueling power as Elemental if DPS is more your cup of tea. Enhance is a fun gimick spec but fairly easily countered.
Druids on the other hand shine as 1v1ers and skirmishers. In WPvP you want to either support Rogues or act like one and form gank squads, same in AB and Alterac. Caveat to that is WSG where you’re expected to be the defacto flag runner.
Shaman is sooooooo boring.*
*Your mileage may vary.
Lots of folks here are forgetting that Shaman can Tank dungeons/questing from lvl 10-60 too. Sure it’s not as optimal as the other Hybrid Tanks, but it can be done quite easily if you know how to do it, have appropriate gear and a competent healer.