I feel deflated on my druid character

Classes Druid
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Ret paladin is the favorite of the decade (paladin in general) and I’d rather play that :expressionless: But I like balance druid

But everyone keeps telling me if I want to delves and do stuff on my own, to play guardian instead. But I dont want to be guardian (or feral), I like how balance druid looks.

But literally only one person has ever told me “its ok by itself” not great, not the best, not paladin levels, not even mage levels they get a ton of defensives and do really good on their own…just “okay”. But that was the most positive thing I got told about balance

I love how balance looks, but if I get to 80 and can’t do as much as most other classes(mage I soloed a 50 million boss at 80 :O), then I guess maybe its just not the class for me. But very disappointing as its been amazing leveling it up, its a beautiful class for spell effects.

The point of this? No reason other than to rant my emotions away. I love the spec, but its really really extremely disheartening when everyone says play a different spec to solo with…or its “ok by itself”, not good or anything…just…ok…

On the positive note. I do kinda like guardian I guess, but then I’m limited to one single spec the entire time. But I do like its pretty much sorta the only magical tank in the game with the arcane stuff. None of the other tanks are really “magic”. Could say blood DK sorta is or prot paladin, thats kinda its own magic…but I have a different idea by what I mean by magic tank, like its actual spells and stuff. And its the first magic tank in the game.

The downside to that is, I’ll NEVER tank in a group. All tanks must lead a group, and I do not lead in games, do not lead in real life…definitely a follower not a leader lol. Too softspoken and quiet from what I’ve been told and most people don’t understand me unless they know me really well. And I’m deaf so I can’t hear people on voice anyway (well maybe thats a good thing? can’t be screamed at lol)

Sorry for the useless thread though, tried to be as positive as possible toward end of the post with guardian. I just won’t ever tank is all lol, but I do kinda like as I said the guardian “tank mage” sorta theme it has going on.

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A few things;

  • Ret handles delves 1 to 3 just fine, and I hear Prot handles them even better.
  • If you’re having fun solo playing a Guardian, you aren’t wasting your time. You can always play Feral or Moonkin for group content.
  • It sounds like you really want to know how Balance is at end game. IDK that anyone can give a great answer yet since the season isn’t open. Blizz will likely engage in more balancing too.
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Guardians and Balance do enough damage for group content. The issue Balance has when doing world quests and delves is durability. We feel like we’re made of paper, and Regrowth doesn’t heal nearly enough to keep us going. If you choose to delve as Balance, make sure you take some of the defensive and crowd control talents that keep you on your feet. Mass Entanglement, Cyclone, Mighty Bash, and Soothe (to remove enrage effects) are all handy. I also recommend talents that boost Barkskin, including Bristling Fur and Oakskin. Don’t forget to use Entangling Roots and Typhoon to keep enemies from beating on you. We take more work than a melee spec or a mage, but there are tools to make us more durable.

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This goes the same for PvP on the Balance Druid. We’ve been relatively (to previous iterations) squishy lately, and our self-healing has been reduced quite a bit. We rely a lot on cycling Cyclone on diminishing returns, to deny enemy burst cooldowns or keep them at low health. I wish we’d see a defensive buff, though, even at the expense of some CC or even burst damage, because I know how frustrating Cyclone is to play against as well, and relying on it probably doesn’t feel as good as it could if we had just been slightly more durable.

As Fangsong correctly said, though, whatever content one runs – theorycraftying and testing talent builds (ofc as the season starts we’ll see all the open world / M+ / Raiding / PvP experts put out great guides as always!) can always help us maximize our strengths and make the most out of the situation :slight_smile: Overall, I find the joy in learning to pull off the right move to survive and plan for the continuation of the fight as a Balance Druid is the epitome of WoW fun, but that’s of course just my opinion.

Edit / TL;DR: I’m looking forward to the Boomy changes, and hope we’ll see more changes following the feedback… maybe in the way of having slightly more survivability next?? :dracthyr_love_animated:

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I’m confused about the issue. You like ret want to play Balance druid?

The thing you have to understand is people whine so much about classes, but they are all decent (at least the 4 or 5 classes I have been leveling). Balance and feral are squishy but if you use your class abilities and rotate your cooldowns you will be fine.

I mostly play feral but did some t3 delves on my balance. The AOE dmg is crazy and rotating cooldowns and running trees I had absolutely no issue completing it.

Is the spec squishy? Yes, but if you know your toolkit it’s not much of a problem from what I have experienced. Also, they are getting a talent revamp. It’s exciting to see what Blizz will be cooking for the spec.

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No, more the opposite. I don’t actually want to be joe the paladin # 1,000,001. But really dislike being squishy. Most of the dps specs are pretty tanky in TWW, and my favorite I’ve tried turns out is THE squishy one. Sure one class has to be the squishiest I guess, like someones always on the bottom. But I don’t really care about meta or anything like that, I just don’t want to be squishy lol.

Which goes back to, when I ask about it everyone tells me not to play balance druid if I don’t want to be squishy. So while was having a ton of fun, like said, ended up to deflated to play my druid. Not only because what people told me…even YOU say they are squishy lol. But its the fact they are indeed squishier than mage :expressionless: I did play mine more, and I couldn’t solo the same things I could on a mage…and thats a MAGE of all things.

Yes I can switch to guardian, but too slow and kinda boring to me. Feral is ok, resto is pretty fun tbh…just balance deflated my druid character is all.

But thats the thing, even MAGES like said have a ton of defenses and don’t actually feel squishy if use them properly (granted it can be pretty intense as a mage if don’t use the defenses properly). Like even my mage of all classes can solo 50 million HP mobs if no one shows up.

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Gotcha, This is a problem with the game, and actually a game design issue. In a vacuum you can create a class that is squishy but you have ways to heal, defend against it. Without any other classes to compare it to it would seem fine. The squishiness keeps you from pulling everything and you have to play a bit smarter with what you are doing. Example is how classic plays.

The problem is we do not have 1 class/spec and its not in a vacuum. Balance could be squishy and do 500kdps but another class could not be squishy and do the same amount. Unless you really loved the spec why would you play it? So I completely get where you are coming from as I get stuck on the same thing from time to time.

The end it is alway going to be to play with what you have fun with. Even though Balance and Feral are squishy they are a lot of fun for me so Ill continue playing them. It can get frustrating at times when you are trying to do something on spec B and find it really difficult but spec A breezed through it. But thats how the game has always been.

Anyway, Balance is squishy BUT if you learn to use the druids toolkit it’s not awful. Plus you can absolutely melt mobs with all the AOE. I hope they get a bump in armor or whatever they can add to make it a little bit tougher but again I had no issue completing delves/dungeon/world content as Balance and Feral.

We have 2 heals right away that can get us back up, Frenzy regen and that instant cast I cant remember the name of. We also have Barkskin, treants that taunt, a few abilities that allow us to push mobs away or lock them in place and rejuv that takes 4 or 5 to get us to a decent place if we get low. The toolkit is there to keep us alive just got to learn to use it.

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Thanks :slight_smile: I think will keep going. I mean, mage is the same way in the end…a huge toolkit that has to be pretty much learned how to use properly. Balance may or may not be quite that level toolkit for defenses (though tbh it feels a bit OP everything mages get if you go for talents that heal/defensive)…but I do really like balance, so I think I’ll actually stick with it after all.

Do whats fun and not listen to people saying “just switch to X spec or class” lol. Not that I even listen to that for the meta xD

I’ll try keeper of the grove though, I bet that would help a lot especially the tree cooldown to 45 seconds I think it is and the rest of the tree buffs. I’ve been doing the other one cause apparently its “better”, but maybe thats partly it. I haven’t used the trees much.

I do notice the AOE and damage is insane though, and the spell effects are amazing.

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Feral is my main spec since Wrath. It feels like home when I play it. But I get bored since its been the same for a while now. I leveled in Feral then had to do some delves after I hit 80. I switched to balance to see how it was and damn did it melt everything. Treants taunt everything and I just blasted it all away. It was a lot of fun!

Anyway, hope you have fun with it.

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Then the solution to your problem is play Balance and ignore the forums.

The forums don’t know the difference between “viable” and “optimal.” Balance isn’t optimal but it’s definitely viable. Learn the best way to use your class tools and you’ll be fine. As a long-time Feral player who’s more used to being considered a joke class than a meta one, getting into PuG groups can be a bit challenging but once you’re in them, an off-meta player who knows their spec is worth more than a meta player who doesn’t.

If you know Boomy and know it well to the point that you can demonstrate a decent mastery over all your class tools, you’ll be just fine. And being off-meta isn’t forever. Blizzard isn’t blind. They can see when a spec is under-performing and they’re quicker to buff bad specs than they are to nerf good ones. Tuning adjustments come hot and heavy when an expansion is just starting so your salvation may even come sooner rather than later.