I havent had any hate actually. I found it very hard to find groups as a healer though. ):
I noticed this as a ret pally too, I’ve been beating rogues my level in some groups. It just depends on the gear I guess, I had a better 2h mace from a paladin quest then that rogue had daggers.
Go do some parses when you get to raiding. Druids smooth out the damage incoming curve, but they take more over the duration of the encouter than warriors do usually. An individual hit on a druid is smaller, but warriors avoid more hits entirely.
It doesn’t matter though. They both work fine. If there is a good player behind it, I dont care which one I have unless the warrior has a TF. Or its a fear fight.
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Druids can do fair DPS while leveling. They fall behind at max level when gear is better itemized for other DPS classes.
But yes, for dungeon leveling their versatility can really shine.
I am going balance as well,fun times!
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To play any Hybrid Class in Classic you need to get out of the Retail mentality of pigeonholing yourself into one specific role. Hybrids were never meant to be amazing at one role but a jack of all trades. Yes, they lacked certain key features (like Paladin taunt for e.g) which weren’t realized until BC and Fully Complete till Wrath.
Hybrids were able to do things in an instant and switch to many different roles and brought tremendous utility to groups like what the OP did in his run. I’m currently playing a prot paladin and have been doing really well so far but I immediately switch to healing when healing is required. It’s the same with druid you will be healing, dpsing and tanking within a single run which i think is pretty darn sweet compared to say a warrior whose just tanking. Hybrids have a much more BROADER role to play in a dungeon or raid then a more specialized one and good raid leaders understand that top damage and healing is not everything.
Yes, you’re not going to be top healing, or top DPS or top tank but you’ll be dpsing in Cat form in one fight switching over to healing in another fight then quickly going into bear mode to tank certain adds and probably back to healing and back to bear again!! How many classes get to do that? I find druid to be the perfect ADHD class but a class that requires the MOST skill to play in Classic
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Suddenly I wanna do a feral druid…
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Here’s to all my fellow hybrids. I raise a glass you! May we keep on trucking 
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Except you can do these things and the “I’ll just do a bit of everything” is precisely why people play sub-optimally, spec sub-optimally, and contribute to the issues with Druids fulfilling roles.
At best you can do two roles with pretty solid efficiency: Feral DPS and Tank or Resto Heal and Balance DPS, and you swap gear as appropriate. A deep Feral in +healing gear can do just fine maintaining HoTs on a single group or doing one of the low stress healing job, but its probably better to just stay DPS.
I get the fantasy of doing everything but Vanilla era fights just aren’t that varied to require big swings in DPS/Healer/Tank numbers.
Been doing just fine as a Bear Tank in all dungeons so far, I am also researching end game and have found I can be an OT/Dps hybrid just fine.
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An average ret won’t be out-dpsing an average rogue at higher levels.
THE BEST! It’s been my main for almost ten years, Id hope that I know what I’m doing by now. Haha
Druid tanks probably clear 5 mans faster than any right? Even at 60?
Ret is rubbish. Ret was a literal joke even in BC, and I should know. My first character was a pally, and I had to level prot because it had better offense and defense than ret.
What’s happening here is that either the rogue is far lower level, they can’t hit the mob due to level/hit rating, they have a terrible main hand weapon, or the mob is dying before they can use their finishing moves. Unlike modern WoW, combo points are mob specific and not attached to your character. Mob dies, combo points are lost, and dps is nonexistent. These aren’t issues for end game bosses, so the rogue can shine.
As for bears not being good tanks… how is that hilariously wrong? You do know tanks in classic and BC needed defense rating to be effective tanks, right? Leather items with defense didn’t exist (either at all, or in sufficient quantity… not entirely sure there as I didn’t play druid back then), so druid tanks couldn’t reach the defense cap. If you weren’t defense capped back in the day, you basically weren’t a tank. The boss could hit you as hard as they hit a dps, all it took was one bad roll of the dice during the fight.
Doesn’t max feral need Pummelers and a specific helm to even do decent dps?
Druids get hate because a streamer from a Pserver said once that Druids can’t raid in Classic and have not tools for dungeons so everyone just repeats it.
But the fact is as a Druid you are one of the most valued people for any dungeon. A Druid can Tank, off Tank, Heal, off Heal and DPS. A Druid has a Battle Rez and can melee & ranged dps and has a CC for beasts and dragon kin.
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Same with m.j e i just re-created my same old original retail druid from years ago lol
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I personally LOVE having druids in grp. Their heals and kitty/bear is hella sexy till raid. And even then they are amazing healers. Their buffs are unique and help anyone n everyone. They get Brez. Druids are so d*** versatile idk why anyone would turn down a druid for anything. Druids stand proud, at least some of know your worth!
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Yeah… if there is a druid who knows what he’s doing he’ll out dps rogues and mages who aren’t showing up full throttle.
Druids are THE class for 5 mans and open world. They start lacking in raids. But that’s not until BWL and later. And even then AQ40/AQ20/ZG started offering some good hybrid oriented gear.
But right up to BWL a Druid is one of the most versatile classes in the entire game. If you like doing 5 mans or any kind of open world content then a Druid is the perfect choice.
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