Full disclosure; I’ve never really been into Druids before. But with this effectively be “the Druid patch”, I felt like maybe I should give the class an honest shot.
But honestly, I’m really struggling to find any enjoyment here.
It feels like they have way too many buttons, and you’re supposed to kind of “do everything at once”. The talent trees make it mandatory to invest in other forms, abilities shift or require those forms… it just all feels super overwhelming.
It feels like you’re trying to play four different characters at the same time.
And that’s for every single spec.
It feels so complicated, I actually looked up a macro that just automatically clears all of my hotbars, for every form, for every spec, just to try and piece a “core rotation” together again.
It may just be that this isn’t the class for me, and that’s fine; not every class is for everyone. But I genuinely wonder if I’m just not “getting” something about the Druid? Or is being insanely complex just part of the kit?
In that whole post you never actually mentioned the spec that you are trying to play.
I’ve played Resto Druid as my main in every expansion since vanilla and I still don’t even know what half of the Feral and Guardian spells are. For me, cat form is just for stealth, run-speed bonuses, and fall-damage reduction. Bear form is just something I use as a semi-turtle.
If you feel some compulsive need to learn everything about all 4 specs then that sounds like a personal issue. For each druid spec, you can generally focus mostly on one form and one set of abilities, with the others being used for niche purposes.
Balance may seem intimidating but I find it the easiest out of all the druid specs. Balance in reality IMO has like 5-8 spells which really isn’t a lot. It’s just sunfire moonfire and everything else.
It’s true that Druid is quite unique in the way that we’re hybrids with access to every spec type which gives us a lot of versatility.
You don’t necessarily have to learn how to use that versatility if you play more casually, but if you spec into heart of the wild, you do become a true hybrid and get even greater access to the stats of the other specs so you’re more effective at their respective roles. In that case it could definitely be a good idea to be able to utilize that versatility.
If you really do enjoy one Druid spec, I definitely recommend trying the others too. It can be really fun to feel like a Swiss Army knife but you don’t have to in order to be effective at your respective role.
Druids are the jack of all trades, we are a hybrid class. We are the only class in the game that can perform all 4 roles, and we have the tools to do a secondary role decently efficient. As a Resto druid, I can spec my talents to be an effective backup tank in a pinch, or I can spec balance and do decent damage.
Naturally this is going to lead to a lot of buttons, but those buttons are only ever going to be used in niche situations. I don’t go into bear form unless I’m trying to survive a massive amount of damage and I need the extra Stamina and Vers.
I don’t go cat form unless like someone said earlier, I am trying to move somewhere quickly, stealth, or reduce fall damage while wild charge is on cooldown.
Lol I see more grumpy posts from the durids than I am used to here. Come on brothers and sisters, nourish the sapling
@op - yeah…druids can be overwhelming to learn. There are a lot of spells and abilities that you have at your disposal, and I don’t feel like you need to expect to be able to use all of them right away. My advice is to take it slow for now; just put the core buttons you need for any given spec on your bars until you are comfortable with them and can mentally process adding more. Try to be consistent with specs imo - if ferocious bite is in a certain spot of the cat form bar on feral spec, try to have it be in the same spot for the cat forms on your other specs too. Eventually it b comes second nature and it’s worth the investment of time I believe. Good luck!
Bear:
Mangle on CD
Thrash on CD
Maul (or your talented equivalent) to keep from rage capping
Boosted Lasers if you’re a laser bear
Fill gaps with Swipe
Cat:
from stealth: Shred
Claw
Rip
Shred for points
Ferocious bite whenever you are able
Keep bleeds active
Toss in thrash if you aren’t running the talent to make shred and swipe auto-apply it
Balance:
Blue laser
Red laser
Yellow laser if you have it speced
Get to eclipse (Nature for single target, Arcane for AOE)
Use surge or starfall as appropriate to keep from capping astral power
Resto:
HOT ALL THE THINGS
Sometimes hot them twice
Be a tree as often as needed
umm guardian druid is the easiest tank. There are too many buttons and for doing +20 you don’t need to know too much about the spec. There are special plays you can do but those are for like high key pusher.
Moonkin is pretty easy as well
Feral get a WA that track your bleed and blood talons
Well I can’t bring myself to Tank ever again, but I’ve tried healing, and both DPS specs in dungeons or just running old legacy raids. None of the specs feel very natural to me. I’ve always preferred Resto Druids in groups, but I find playing one feels crazy stressful, and again, just more buttons than I can handle.
Balance feels awfully slow, though I may just not be playing it correctly. Feral feels kind of the same, given the reliance of DoTs.
I think there’s maybe just more depth there than most classes, where getting the most out of your character requires being pretty familiar with all of your abilities across all specs. Most specs have a pretty “abridged” rotation. I’ve played the DK for so long, it feels almost mindless to play by comparison.
You pretty much answered your own post here. Druid abilities (for all 4 of the specs really) just require a deeper understanding of the game than a majority of other classes.
DH is the opposite. Druids have a lot of buttons, while DH doesn’t have enough buttons, which is why any one with half a pulse can parse well on one. At least you don’t play a DH
It’s a big spectrum and no two classes have the exact same learning curve
i feel like resto has a few to many.
it also seems like some of my healing macros and keymod macros bug out with the new mouse over heal option.
so space on my 12 button key map over capacity.
U can put the FORM skills in HOTBAR 1 as it changes automatically each time u change ur form.
AND the SPEC skills in hotbar 2 so when u change forms they’re still there.
And put the other skills in the other hotbars, i usually have 2 hotbars for the classtree so they never change and another 2 hotbars to mounts, consumables, toys, etc…
Feral is slow but balance in pvp is all about burst, u kill the target in a few seconds, but in pve its always boring and repeating in all classes tbh…
U didnt said if u play pvp or pve and wich spec, tell us and i can help u more.
