My comments were aimed at end game mostly.
If you want to PVP play druid as shamans are not great at pvp healing. if you do not plan on pvping or not healing in pvp then they both of some great things about them. Shaman have really bursty dps which is great for PVP and 5 mans. Druids give probably the most versatility of any hybrid class which is why I love playing them you can really do anything, dps, heal, tank.
Thank you Ms. Dot! Sorry my font wont let me put the two periods above the o.
Shaman is more fun to play. I say that choosing to main druid this time around
Why do you think shaman is more fun to play?
My retail main is a shaman and my classic main is a druid.
Druid leveling during the first 20 can be painful, but it is great afterwards if you like tanking or if you like soloing because you can prowl as a cat to avoid obstacles on the way to your objective. Being able to swap from cat to bear when things get hairy and self-heal makes soloing much easier, plus you can dispel curses and poisons, which are very common.
Druid also has increased travel speed at 20 (with two talent points for cat form) and 30 (travel form) and aquatic form.
In PvP, your forms are your strength. You can pop forms to get out of snares, but, while in form, other druids can hit you with hibernate because you’re technically a beast.
Shaman has gone through many changes since I started mine in TBC, so hopefully I don’t get this wrong, but with I felt like I was a useful utility player in a group because I could drop totems that fit the situation, including useful buffs and dispels. I didn’t find soloing that challenging, but I also wasn’t trying to kill anything I couldn’t handle, either.
In PvP I like to protect flags/objectives and I felt I could do that with shaman by keeping my totems refreshed. However, it’s easy for totems to be destroyed from range, which decreases your usefulness.
I like both classes. I’d recommend trying each out, but I’m afraid that most who try druid who aren’t gung-ho on it might tire of it before it gets good.
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druid gets painfull to level at certain levels. and painful to find gear for at others.
speed boost from 20+ is VERY nice.
lol true! …
I actually like them both imo. Druid healing wasn’t bad, it’s not crazy amazing but still fun.
My top two characters are a druid and a shaman. So I’m pretty intent on leveling both of them, lol. Both are hybrid classes with a heavy spread across all different attributes. But the comparison ends there.
Druid: Sheer role versatility. Depending on build, you can do quite well in DPS, Tank, or Healer roles. More importantly, in cat and bear forms, you don’t use mana AT ALL other than switching into those forms. So a bear tank uses rage, just like warriors, and don’t depend on their mana pool to tank like a Paladin or Shaman would. Cat form also uses energy like a rogue does. So your roles are quite sustainable. And aside from a full prot warrior, feral druid bears make for great tanks. As a healer, they have the best heals over time and managing those heals make solo grinding very very easy and quick. Very fun class to level. That being said, they are indeed jack of all trades, master of none. You’re a good healer, but never as good as a Priest. You’re a good tank, but not as good as a full prot warrior. You’re a decent DPS, but you’ll never compete with rogues, fury warriors, or mages.
Pick Druid if you like to have the ability to do … everything … on only a single character. Druids also have some unique utility spells that make them in demand, namely Innervate, Combat Res, and Mark of the Wild aka the best buff in the game by a landslide.
Shaman: Best Support Class In The Game. Hands Down. Shamans can sorta tank with rockbiter and earth shock, but their mitigation is not that great. They can also DPS, but just like druids, they are out classed by dedicated dps classes. But what Shamans bring to the game is a HUGE selection of totems that buff teammembers significantly. Mana Spring to give a bit of mana to a caster heavy group. Strength of Earth totem to buff melee as well as Windfury totem which makes warriors and rogues salivate. Grace of Air to raise crit chances and ranged dps. A totem that taunts mobs. A totem that slows mobs. Tons of totems to offer magic resistance to different elements. Sooooo many totems and your skill bars will fill up quick. So while an Enhancement shaman will have only decent dps … his totems will massively buff the dps of everyone in the party, meaning your contributions will be very much felt by everyone. Plus shaman also has a ton of utility spells like water breathing and Far Sight.
Play Shaman if you want to play a pure support class with party wide buffs, up to four at a time. Play Shaman if you want warriors and rogues to kiss the ground you walk on.
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Shaman for healing. Druid for tanking.
The biggest issue with Druid healing in 5 mans is the lack of a res. And Shamans just bring way more utility to the group (windfury totem especially if you have a warrior and rogue friend makes this the easiest choice ever).
Druid CAN Tank.
Druid has stealth.
Druid (in catform) has Track Humanoids.
Druid’s Travel Form is faster than Shaman’s Ghost Wolf.
Shaman is OK, but Druid is the best class.
P.S. Shaman DOES have a self-rezz plus a regular, repeatable rezz. (But you should hopefully not need these too often!)
I have played both to max level and raided and PvP’d with both. Here’s my take.
Druid is one of the best solo levelers and grinders in the game after 20+, and maybe the best. Levels 1-20 are super painful, as Druid base mana is low and spells are quite expensive, so you’ll spend lots of time staff whacking. They come with a ton of inherent perks. If you level feral, they’re incredibly efficient because they don’t use their expendable resource in combat. They have stealth, heals, buffs, good damage, outdoor CC, beast CC in Hibernate (which is often ignored but is very strong while soloing outdoors), and Travel Form too. They’re really self-sufficient and very fun to play.
For endgame they have two great raid specs (Restoration, Feral Tank), one “viable” one (Feral Cat, though it’s a lot of work and not really recommended).
In PvP Druids have three totally viable playstyles and multiple valid builds for each, which is nice. Balance PvP with good gear does ridiculous burst, is hard to catch, and difficult to kill, but melt pretty fast if caught. Resto Feral hybrid is a really solid 1v1 spec with decent damage, incredible survival, and a really fun hit and run playstyle. Restoration is good in PvP because healing is good in PvP, but also because they’re excellent at securing and defending certain objectives (great at defending flags in AB, and obviously incredible flag runners).
Shamans are also pretty good soloers but not as good as Druids. Ghost Wolf is obtained 4 levels earlier but has a long cast time unless it’s improved (which is a good point investment for sure). Healing for shamans is nice but it’s less efficient and you have to stand still to cast it as Shamans don’t have access to the hots druids do. They also use the same resource to fight as they do to heal, which hurts. Generally in order to preserve mana with Shamans you’ll go enhance, drop a searing totem and use rockbiter weapon and try to avoid using your damaging spells like shocks. Totems are great but a fairly frustrating thing to manage sometimes, particularly in caves where they have the side effect of increasing your effective threat radius. Shamans level a little bit more slowly than Druids but most classes do, as Druids are an S tier solo class.
Shamans IMO are thematically very compelling. Their electric spells, totems, big weapons, and shocks all really bring the class together and give them a very fun and unique flavor. All 3 specs are fun to play and have a high skill cap.
Endgame, Shamans have fewer raid options than Druids. One of Shaman’s biggest problems is that you need to be able to gear to both do your job and drop your totems as they expire and fights move around. Elemental is thematically compelling but has threat and mana issues that are difficult to solve, as constantly pumping out spells and keeping your group buffed leaves you with mana problems on long fights. Enhancement’s issues are similar but they have a niche in the form of being your raid’s dedicated Nightfall bot, so you might be able to do that. Restoration is again the go-to raid spec, as Mana Tide totem is hard to live without, and healers also tend to have gear and a playstyle that supports buffs and heals at the same time.
In PvP, all 3 Shaman specs are pretty good, although Enhancement is sort of gear and luck dependent. All 3 specs have have loads of outplay potential with grounding totem, sentry totem, the infamous frost shock, and earthbind totem. Elemental is usually the go-to, as it does ridiculous burst without a lot of gear and is also very very fun to play. Speccing NS gives you access to a big heal or instant cast lighting spell. Restoration is good, too, although most of the benefits of being a Resto shaman are PvE-oriented. Keep in mind that totems can be killed in PvP, so totems like Mana Tide with longish cooldowns and big impact are considerably weaker in PvP situations.
Hope this helps.
I just leveled a Druid to 13 and gave up. If you’re looking for a class that requires a little more strategy then you might like it. I was constantly casting in regular form and then transforming into bear for melee. It’s sorta cool, but you’ve only got one bear ability early on (maul) so it’s a little dull. I’m sure cat form is much more fun but it doesn’t look like I’ll be getting there. The class just feels janky and awkward to me. Maybe part of it is Mulgore. The zone is a snooze fest.
On the other hand I just started leveling a Shaman and am having much more fun. Casting spells -> melee feels much more fluid. And I find totems really fun and useful.
But it’s like everyone says, it all comes down to preference.
Is the Shaman leveling in Mulgore? I was just curious I found leveling a druid there to be a bit of a drag. I really like the environment but mob density is tight and the druid just felt slow with too much staff whacking. Then getting Bear, cool but pretty slow still from 10 to 12.
I leveling an Orc Shaman to 12 as well and really had a blast. So I wasnt sure how much the zone has an impact on it.
Great point!
I personally cannot STAND questing in Mulgore. It’s always worth the hoofing to Durotar. You have access to better groupings with other people leveling up too as there are simply twice as many races that start there and even Undead can EASILY hop on the Zep to quest there right off the bat.
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Exact same experience as you. I’m leveling the Shaman (Orc) in Durotar, and it’s fun. Tauren Druid in Mulgore felt slow, and while Mulgore is nice I just don’t like questing there.
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Unless you are the healer in which case everyone else gets to ghost run.
My main is my shaman and my alt is my druid so 