Is the t3 set useful for boomkin/balance druid, or are they going to be using odd pieces and lower stat/tier items like the bloodvine (cloth) set as their best-in-slot items?
Wondering about PvP and PvE. Maybe druid t3 is good for pvp since they don’t have to worry about as much hit rating?
Tentative about rolling a druid. I don’t mind healing, but I’d prefer to be able to swap to damage. I always envied stealthers when I played hunter in vanilla, but am not sure if i’d like a full melee class like rogue (due to latency/potential OCE/NA sharding, and it just being different from ranged classes that I’m used to)
I mean if you get into full t3, you’re going to blow people up either way. And since you don’t have to worry about mana efficiency, you’ll nuke people - you do have good damage, just no longevity. That said, you don’t get any damage or even tank benefits from the t3 set, so you will very likely aim for better itemized pieces. IE: less spirit, more spell power/crit/etc.
It does give intellect (which is mana/crit), but not spell power. It only gives healing power - which is why you wouldn’t want to wear it if you’re going purely Boomkin.
Thanks for the replies. I might not play the boomkin/balance druid dream then if a lot of my BIS are a tier lower than others classes. I’ll have to do more research.
There are items in Naxx that will offer you what you’re after, just realize in advance that it’s not though the path of tier gear.
Additionally there is no rule that says you’re forced to use Leather; you can easily use cloth items that are better itemized for Balance play. They offer more +damage and better Mp5 / Spirit values than the leather (typically)
Do not pass up on good leather drops if you can get them tho.
The PVP blue set is a very good place to start, it’s got the + damage and high armor values.
The Blue PVP set, (the one they intent to release) is crazy good for most classes; this includes Balance druid and it’s a great place to start because Rank 10 is easy… Get a group, and do the BG’s in an organized way; you will be there in no time.
From there you can get into a raid guild, pick up some cloth items with the stats you need for PVE, and gear up to T2.5 that’s very well built for Balance.
After that, get into Naxxramas and upgrade with offset leather / weapons and trinkets.
Balance druids are really good when played well, but they are very gear dependent like most classes in Vanilla.
I’ll look into druids more. I like their playstyle but I dislike the idea of putting effort into a class, that already has a hard time competing, only to be let down by lack of gear on par with other pure dps classes.
I get the feeling that their best gear for dps will be hybrid too. And I was hoping for pure spellcasting.
If you’re not going to play a druid as a support class in group pvp you should play a mage or something. Solo world pvp druid is still great because of stealth and pure slipperyness.
Balance druid not very good in group pvp? I tend to favour classes with mobility and trickiness, which is why I rolled a hunter in vanilla, but am now looking at druid/rogue.
I wouldn’t mind healer if it weren’t mostly staring at the UI.
We must have played very different games back when 1.12 was around then, because I honestly do not know where you are getting your info from.
Druids are one of the best for longevity, especially hybrid specs. We have escape mechanics in place to distance our self, fast/instant shapeshifting which if used correctly, gets us out of all sorts of situations.
HoT’s, stalking, re-stalking, insta-armor bear form, rush attacks, faire fire to deal with stealthers, etc.
Druids are frankly king (if played well) in longevity with a diverse set of offerings for any situation.
I’ve read many guides that state balance druids have more mana issues than other casters, but its a non issue when the boss fights are short (due to people having more gear).
Druid PvP in classic is very nuanced and full balance is the rarest PvP spec (with HotW/NS and NG/NS hybrids being more common). Balance druids do have heavy starfire crits but when playing against premade your kill power will be quite weak compared to locks and mages. In fact the majority of your damage will be primarily with your dots. Mana is certainly an issue, so be prepared to drink a lot.
In group PvP almost all druids are more useful healing since their burst potential is pretty weak. In 1v1 or world PvP you tend to wear out your opponents with dots while healing yourself.
They aren’t really. There just aren’t any good balance spec set benefits.
End game BiS for a balance druid is actually mostly cloth gear. You can still get some crazy high spellpower and balance is amazing for PvP. The mana issues make it not so great for raiding though.
Armor is one of the least important stats for PvP. And if you’re thinking of the armor bonus from moonkin form, well moonkin form is bad. There are probably two good PvP specs for balance and neither of them pick up moonkin form.
29/11/11 picking up feral charge in the feral tree and insect swarm in the resto tree.
You’re completely correct about Moonkin form, the balance specs and armor in general, but for druid flag runners armor is important. Regardless for flag running the build isn’t going to be balance, it’ll be either more resto heavy grabbing swiftmend 8/12/31 or feral 1/29/21. Resto is probably the better pure flag running build.
I’d argue that if you have a premade you can rely more on the heals of your teammates and defensive feral talents become more important such as heart of the wild.
But either way both builds are good for flag running.
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