Hello.
Considering my options for midnight. I am primarily interested in M+. I’m mostly a ranged player that dabbles in heals and occasionally tanks. I am looking for class viability, good survivability and easy party invites. It seems like Shaman (just based on group utility) outshines druid simply due to plethora of interrupts, lust and windfury buff.
I know the numbers are not in but how are druids stacking up against shaman for next expansion?
Thanks so much!
With shaman you wont be able to tank so I dont know how important that is to you.
not too important. mostly about ranged and healing tbh
****With shaman you wont be able to tank… yet**** wink wink
Going off of the ranged specs (balance and ele), Balance probably wins the survivability contest with better mobility and access to bear form + FR, while shaman I would say gets the edge in terms of utility.
Viability looks pretty good for both specs in midnight, and both playstyles look to be pretty engaging in terms of the caster lineup this time around. I’d honestly recommend playing all the specs you’re interested in on the beta or remix to get a feel for what you like. I think the options you picked are great, as I main ele and have a feral/balance alt/co-main for a good number of expansions now and can say they are a blast in terms of gameplay and fantasy.
*yet
It’s time, Blizz.
I disagree with that assessment. Shaman have plenty of mobility and self heals. If you’re dying as an Ele shaman, you’re just not moving. It’s not about a lack of mobility.
I’m not saying that elemental lacks mobility/survivability as a whole, I’m just saying balance edges it IMO. Again you can be very successful/viable with both specs.
I just disagree as a whole that a Balance Druid is more “survivable” than an Ele Shaman.
As it stands RIGHT NOW, Shaman have Astral Shift and Stone Bulwark (I know we are losing that), and we have Wolf/raptor form with Spirit Walk/Gust Of Wind AND potentially ( I don’t use it) Wind Rush. Add in the fact that you can also talent Earth Shield, Healing Stream, Elemental Resistance, and Refreshing Waters, our ability to self-heal is pretty stellar.
Again, I know in Midnight we might lose some of this (notably Stone Bulwark), but all things considered, I think an Ele Shaman’s ability to stay alive is much greater than a Balance Druid.
The main thing I think Balance Druids have in their favor is the instant casts. Shaman have Spiritwalker’s Grace for a window of casting while moving, but Balance has a handful of instant casts that allow them to DPS while getting out of danger.
However, more often than not, I see Balance Druids being mostly glass cannons, where they do big damage, but end up getting nuked by one or two things and taking a dirt nap. Meanwhile, as a Shaman, I can hit a defensive and avoid half the damage, get an instant cast Healing Surge, and keep fighting.
i have never played druid in M+ so i know nothing about them. I just love the idea of being a haranir or worgen with them just for class fantasy. That said, I did a 11 Ara Kara on my shaman last night and our tank died on 2nd boss with 15% left. I was able to pull out Mr. Pebbles and we downed the boss. Not sure Boomy could have done the same with bear form 
I’m guessing that would go under list of utility rather than survivability. Because Bear Form seems like an endless way to DR things without incurring a CD like on the last boss of Gambit when you eventually run out of everything and just take Stars to the face.
Here’s maybe a thought:
Currently in TWW, Ele and Resto have some stat disagreements - you can get around it by swapping a few pieces but at lower gear levels you’ll need more items to swap to appease those gearing requirements… this is assuming your stat preferences will be different in Midnight. Of course you’ll need to compare that with Boomkin/Resto but.. maybe something to consider.
yeah. you end up having to focus on one spec with weapons / jewelry / trinkets needing to swap around. You save time on set pieces but lose time on that other stuff.
Dis you go into the Druid forums also and ask? Or are you just going into the forums of the class that you’ve already decided to play for validation. But you should go with a Druid. Resto Shamsns got annihilated in Midnight. Same with Ele. Lost tons of abilities for a more streamlined and bland playstyle.
This is true - Resto Shaman was gutted hard.
Right now, on Beta Shammy is veeery weak compared to the other healers. There is time to fix that but with raid and M+ testing currently happening are closing in on the “please dont hold your breath stage”. Unless something changes, expect Druid (and every other healer honestly) to outperform them in straight-up heals. People are going to yell about utility, but their utility does not shine enough compared to the dumpsterfire healing numbers, in my opinion. Restro Shammy got shot down during the pruning wars hard.
Edit: Talking about dungeon/M+ currently, havent kept an eye on the raid testing as much
Well, healing output really isn’t a concern as this can be remediated by tuning. The big thing is whether or not we feel powerful with what we do have… as in, our healing profile. Since we now basically have 1x CD (Ascendance or Healing Tide), tuning should put quite a bit more power into our “rotational” heals. I think it should be expected for Resto Shamans to receive a blanket aura buff.
I agree with you, but the question is whether they do something about it or not. Most of our healing in Midnight seems to be passive and proc-based, from what I have seen in the Ancestral Guidance discord with their chatter and logs. This makes me worry a bit about handling dicey situations and well…boring if most the healing is passive. But I could be looking at it wrong
Yeah, I can certainly see where you’re coming from. Something to note is that incoming damage should be much flatter and less spikey in Midnight, based on the adjustments that Blizz has made. So, hopefully, it’ll be easier to accurately buff specific things as snap-burst healing shouldn’t be as mandatory.
Correct me if I’m wrong here but I thought Earth Elemental was changed so it couldn’t taunt/agro dungeon or raid bosses, but only mobs.
Hmm… Maybe the single target threat is enough to hold aggro off of dps? I looked up Greater Earth Elemental and the only ability they have is AoE taunt on a 5sec CD. Because yeah, dungeon and raid bosses are immune to the taunt.