After maining Priest for years, the class is starting to feel a little stale and I’m opting to switch mains for the end of SL and the upcoming expansion. I have always mainly alted a Shaman and a Druid so I’m stuck between those two as my new class.
I’ve been leaning more to Druid because the class fantasy for me is unparalleled, I love the transmog and I love the race options and lore for druid.
That being said, I am absolutely terrible at it. I’ve mostly done Balance which I love the visuals for, but it feels a bit clunky and hard to get used to. I’ve always managed to fudge my way to max level each expansion, but it’s always felt like a slog so I have a feeling I’m not playing it right despite my attempts to read guides to ‘get gud’. I’ve never dipped my toes into Feral or Guardian because picking up the spec at a somewhat higher level always felt a bit overwhelming.
Since leveling has gotten a bit less of a time sink, I am going to be leveling a Highmountain Druid to really dig into the class from square one. My question for you seasoned Druid players is which spec should I look into and if you guys have any pointers or opinions on your experience as Druids. Any input is appreciated!
For context, I am a casual player mostly healing regular and heroics, LFR, questing and transmog runs as well as a bit of Torghast.
TLDR; New to druid, looking for opinions/guidance on which spec I should go for and how to get less bad.
You cannot go wrong with Guardian. It’s a fairly straight forward spec that excels in high mob density fights, and nigh unkillable.
It’s also extremely easy to learn. But if you enjoy Balance, go with Balance. I don’t like leveling ranged classes, they feel incomplete until they get to max level and get all their talents/abilities fleshed out. But that’s just me
I am a healing druid for raids and dungeons but I quest in balance.
I’d suggest that as the gear swaps just fine, tho it’d probably be fine either way.
The treant talent is great and the whole toolkit supports the ranged dot style; from knock back to vortex to roots to shadowmeld to prowl – if you get over your head, you can plan the attack. It’s fun.
Beauty of Druid is you can constantly change it out.
Feral is fun to play
Balance I can’t really say, ranged isn’t my cup of tea
Guardian is solid, easy to learn tanking on, very versatile. I’d venture to say Druid has a lower floor on tanking, but still a reasonably high ceiling to maximize it. without things like ranged interupts, you’ll have to get creative and learn LOS pulls, etc. CatWeaving, etc.
Resto is a blast. While not blowing out the DPS meters, it is wicked fun to play. Coming from a priest, you’ll have to learn to trust your HOTs and understand what they are capable of. Get used to people not being 100%. Generally, with 3-4 HOTs rolling on your tank, most tanks have enough self healing that is all you’ll be doing.
You just have to learn not to get behind. Never have no HOTs rolling.
The great part of Resto right now is all the viable talent, legendary, and covenant options so you can customize how you want to play. Unlike Priest which is basically Kyrian + Flash Concentration. You may also customize you set up based on which affixes are present in M+. LIke on Necrotic and Spitful weeks, I’ll usually pick up Mass Entangle. On Sanguine, Balance affinity for typhoon knock back to help out there.
Shaman is also a wicked fun healer right now. Just so much utility to play with with various totems, interrupts, etc. Add to that the fact it can crank out DPS really seamlessly is really fun. Can’t go wrong there.
I start maining balance this patch and I’ll be honest with you it’s not the funniest spec in the game, the core rotation and the mastery they added in SL is clunky, but once you reach good haste let’s say 20% and use talents like full moon and you chose convoke the spirits, the spec kinda get a smooth rotation and it feels nice to play.
Also I have to say, I never played restoration druid in my life but this week I gave it a try and I’m having a blast, is a fun healer for sure and I’m enjoying it.
Balance has always been my least favorite spec of not only druids but like… the whole game. I still mained it for my raid group for a little while in s1 because it was so broken but I don’t think you’re the only one who feels it’s clunky. One thing you’ll find about a lot of us druid mains is that we’ll run every spec and just be a druid rather than just be a resto druid or a balance druid. You’ll quickly figure out that that druid is indeed the master class and will struggle to enjoy anything less. Welcome aboard!
You should level as Guardian or Balance, honestly. Guardian is regarded as the easiest tank spec to play in the game by most people and Balance is pretty simple as well. Either 2 wraths or 2 starfires, then the opposite spell while you are in your eclipse until the new eclipse starts, then you switch spells, throwing in a Starsurge whenever you go above 40 astral power or a starfall for AOE.
Resto is honestly not bad either with the affinities and certain warmode talents that buff your affinity form.
I started playing guardian druid towards the and of bfa and i must say it was quite fun and easy but now i main resto and having a blast playing it it fun to jump around and be mobile while spreading hots i tried out boomy but wasnt really my thing but guardian and resto are in a good spot right now so id say try it out!!!
I’m on the same boat as you. I’ve been trying to look for a main ever since I got back from a big break. I love druid and I love, love, balance because as you said, the aesthetics are too good. I personally dislike healing because I feel like I’m just not that good with healing and paying attention xD. I really wanted to try and do some keys but I’ve heard that balance isnt perfect so I decided to just do LFR, questing, transmog and farm/collecting instead.
One thing I’ve learned is to never go with the flavor of the month and just play what you enjoy the most.
Just because it isn’t meta doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy yourself in keys. I wouldn’t expect to do any world firsts or anything of that nature but you could certainly still do keys for fun, even stretch your wings for ksm/ksh.
Exactly Drewbeary. I don’t turn down balance druids, no matter what tank I’m playing. Unless you are pushing high keys…everything is viable and useful and has a place. Learn the utility balance can bring (like treants on necrotic weeks).
I’ve been a rogue for a long time but do not like that I can’t really solo rares or some older dungeons/raids so I switched to Guardian druid that will dabble in resto. So far it is great. I can pull a bunch of quest mobs and solo most of the outdoor rare mobs. Note - I’m very casual so I’m not trying to do raids or mythic so I’m no expert at Guardian but I can get by enough to solo stuff my rogue can’t.
I would say Feral and Boomkin are pretty fun, boomkin requires a bit more getting used to, and know how, but feral is straight forward for the most part.
Feral tips:
Always use prowl into a rake for a stun.
Keep bleeds active where possible, keep rake on 1-3 targets.
If you are facing 8+ targets focus on primal wrath, thrash/swipe, skip rake.
For 3-5 targets, keep rake on 3 targets, and use primal wrath where applicable followed by ferocious bites where applicable.
Use convoke when applicable with celestial spirits leggo, the CD is shorter, but in the long term produces more dmg.
Prior to convoking, you should apply at least one rip on the primary target with 1 combo point, following the berserk/convoke, or plain convoke to increase the dot time on rip (when using sabertooth).
For massive bursts use berserk into a convoke, then ferocious bites. Do your best to use executes at or above 50 energy for damage modifiers. During the berserk window should you run low on energy, you should use tigers fury following as many bites as you can.
The rest is mostly bleed maintenance on mobs. Rake should be your default.
I only use shred when it procs for ST, or default into swipe/thrash for Combo point generation.
I don’t use maim unless skull bash and Might bash are on CD, unless a boss then it isn’t effective, if multiple mobs typhoon is useful.
If you’re playing a troll your racial is useful post convoke with berserk, as haste regenerates your energy and can be quite useful. You can also owl weave prior or after berserk ends with sunfire/moonfire, but sunfire is my default. The more bleeds you have up, the more likely convoke is to use ferocious bites.
I macro Berserk w/ trinkets and pre-pot (agility).
I use ELVUI with 6 bars total, and use shift variants 1-4 for mobility, and bear form macro for pvp, which puts me in bear form then hitting it a second time activates frenzy regen (running guardian affinity).
Wild charge is perhaps the most versatile and useful of the second talent row (25) in my opinion.
I leveled a Feral up until ilvl250ish, then played boomkin for Season 2, early season three, then boomkin for season 3, but I prefer feral. I have a better grasp on feral than boomkin, but boomkin hasn’t hindered me. My only issue with boomkin is disliking a predetermined cycle I must follow in order to be optimal. Not that it is “Bad,” but it takes getting used to.
