As the title asks. Just seems like a class you can do it all with. Plus, Rdruid is the only healer I havent figured out over the years. And since its so good in M+ and PvP…im kinda determined to learn how to play it
No. I love Druid; if you know you’re about to take massive damage, you can just go into Bear and salvage a bit of your health. There probably is a down side but I can’t think of any.
Downside? When switching to another character, the loss of instant flight/mount takes awhile to get used to.
Not having /flap sucks when you’re so used to just jumping off cliffs and flapping 5 feet before you turn into a pancake.
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There are a lot of classes that can play more than 2 roles at this point. I would say that “you can do it all” is a pretty bad reason to specifically pick Druid these days. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t play druid, but make sure that there is at least one spec that you want to focus on. There isn’t much room in this game for “okay at everything, great at nothing”.
Specifically in terms of playing Resto, healing via HoTs is both our strength and our weakness. The ability to get so much healing onto a target before damage even occurs is amazing, but those HoTs can also feel very slow if you fall behind on healing. So it’s not just a reactive whack-a-mole style of healing, it’s all about staying as ahead of the damage as you possibly can. That makes it a good fit for some, not so much for others. It can be stressful compared to playing a more reactionary healer, but we get some of that back due to the advantages of having a huge portion of our toolkit be instant-cast spells combined with high-mobility and lots of utility.
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Resto druid mana efficiency is abysmal in raids. I would say the worst of any healer class. Mana in m+ is rarely a problem. Mana in pvp is pretty bad too but it’s generally an issue for everyone except preservation evokers and fistweaving monks.
For sure. As a DPS Druid I usually Innervate whoever is lowest on mana during my Innervate windows. That’s basically always our Druid healer. (Our other healers are a Monk, Priest, and Pally.)
Only conisistent downside i can think of is if you like transmog restos your only real option to see it correctly. Balance glyph of stars makes it all blue so you loose a lot of detail and feral/bear you wont ever really see it unless your just standing in the city.
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Yea I agree with whelp. The only downside to playing druid is that you wont see transmog while playing Balance, Feral, or Guardian. I understand that druid is all about shapeshifting, but sometimes you just want to do stuff with your normal form. There is a toy I really like that transforms you into other characters and sometimes I get the Tauren that uses a two-handed weapon (polearm I think). I play Feral and it reminds me a bit of Dragoon from FFXIV when I use that toy, just big sweeping strikes and stuff.
Not being able to show off your transmog as much as other classes (bar the evoker, of course). Getting kicked back to humanoid form when doing dreamseeds and pulling weeds. Otherwise, it’s a solid class.
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I think one downside for Druid (but also for many other one spec per role classes) is that your role viability / enjoyment is much more reliant on tuning.
For example if you play Mage, Warlock, or Rogue it’s very likely that at least one spec will be good. As long as you’re okay playing a different spec within the same class you can continue doing your role with that class (ranged dps for mage and warlock, melee dps for rogue). Similarly DK, Warrior, Hunter, and Priest all have two specs that have the same roles, so if one is tuned badly or is just un-enjoyable for you you can easily swap to another spec that may be better or more fun for that patch.
If Balance is not fun that patch or is tuned or works in a way that makes it bad, you’ll have to swap to an entirely new class to continue playing a ranged dps. Same idea with Feral if for some reason you’d want to play as a different melee. Sure you can swap between Feral and Balance and still be dps, but there’s still a significant difference between melee and ranges that could prevent someone from making that change.
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This is kind of why Im considering switching mains. I play Rsham pretty exclusively. Enh and Ele are fun, but not enough for me if Rsham ever hit the dumpster. I was thinking Bear for M+ and RBG, Resto for M+ and PvP, and balance and feral just for fun, or RSS, just something to play around to break up the monotony. Ill realistically never play Rogue, but Feral could give me a lil niche stealth playstyle.
Also, thank you for that insight. A part of my brain was also thinking that. Im not a FOTM jumper, and I do not raid. But I cant think of a time when Ive ever seen Rdruid bad for M+ or Arenas.
Shadowmeld - Flight Form in World PvP / Questing when you get into trouble.
The downside is that playing another class will make you miss druid. We can do everything. Shapeshift out of roots/slows, instant flying, stealth, teleports to other continents like mages can etc.
The brightside is that there is always at least 1 druid spec that is “meta”. You’ll never have to change your class if you’re a FOTM player who likes all 4 specs.
It’s also nice if you know how to play all 4 specs. I main resto, but if the group I’m applying to only needs a tank or a melee dps etc I can just change to fit the group’s needs.
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Ive been playing Rdruid in PvP. Its been quite the curve from Rsham but its a lot of fun…i did however throw my mouse at the wall the other day…stupid DH had me so mad.
But I do like Guardian too for M+…so I may try it. I depsise Paladin and am pretty bored with Rsham…and the fact that it doesnt get much love.
Love tank and heals as a druid, interesting and fun rotations. cat and balance are okay but never clicked with me
The downside of druid is that it is rarely the top dog in any environment. Resto tends to slip in more often than everyone else, but Bear tends to be OP for like a patch and then subpar for the next full xpac or so.
Cat is nearly always looked at as a flat “no thanks”.
Boomkin is not bad, but goes through cycles of being powerful or not (and is CONSTANTLY reworked, so don’t get too hung up on one version because it won’t last). Boomkin tends to stay VERY squishy, so even when you’re good, groups would rather have something else.
It is a wonderful class, but blizzard is always quick to nerf it and very hesitant to buff it significantly (ala mages and warlocks)
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My thoughts exactly, though balance is at least one of the most visually pleasing casters imo.
I don’t consider it a downside, but get ready to use shapeshifting a bit if you want to catweave and travel form because it’s faster than mounting up in a dungeon. Some folks might not like the idea of shifting eating GCDs but I think it makes the class unique.
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You are no longer the most mobile class. So don’t expect to just shapeshift and run away in pvp. Those days are long gone.
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Shapeshifting requires a global cooldown which makes feral a pain to play outside arena where there are more than 3 people around.
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You will constantly be unstealthed by a all sorts of random spread DoTs while stealthed and it takes much longer to restealth compared to rogues.
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Your heals suck as feral in comparison to other hybrids like ret paladins and enhancement shamans.
And probably more I’m too lazy to think of right now.
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Absolutely.
If you want to be constantly frustrated, enjoy complaining, or just enjoy misery then DON’T for the love of all play a Druid…
If on the other hand, you giggle and silliness, love being flexible in filling roles, and just are generally a happy person; then you’ll fit right into a druid.
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