Why do all Druid specs feel clunky?

Classes Druid
1

I’ve tried to main a druid this expansion. I really did. I tried to figure out all the specs and how to play them. I tested different talents and play styles within the specs. All of them feel terrible. The best feeling spec of the four seems to be Balance, but even it seems gimmicky. Either you’re dancing with Eclipses or you’re Lunar Calling the Starfire out of enemies. And that’s the one that feels best - Elune’s Chosen.

Balance has a different problem as well. One of theme and aesthetics. Druids used to be all about the Flora and Fauna - the living parts of nature, while Shaman were about the non-living parts. The strength of stones, the volatility of fire, etc. Over time Druids seem to have lost a lot of that theme, that connection to the living, breathing part of the world. Now its all stars and moons and celestial alignments, and …not the things that live and breathe and grow. Balance, as a spec, makes more sense as a 4th Mage spec than as what most would envision when they hear the word Druid. Druids seem like they have more Arcane spells/talents than an actual Arcane Mage. What happened to spells like Insect Swarm? Why can’t a storm of crows come in and attack the area instead of sparkly light particles? Why no Thornwhip? Why did they have to make Arcane Moon Mages out of the class that was supposed to be Life Magic themed?

Feral just seems to have too much going on. The rotation seems fairly straightforward, if you have any experience with an Assassination Rogue, but somehow it’s just wrong. Its potent though.

Guardian is probably the most straightforward and it has all the tools it needs to do the job, but it really feels like it needs more than Wild Charge, or Wild Charge needs a second charge.

2 Likes
2

I mean purely thematically we have 2 hero talents. KOTG & ELune’s Calling.Nature or Arcane. Balance Druid. Balance. And they removed things to bring button bloat down. Boomy isn’t clunky, it’s just either grossly overtuned or grossly undertuned. Each hero talent fits the spec in a different way from a DPS standpoint, and while EC may be more fluid for you, and while from a PVE perspective it sims higher, KOTG is the easier to pilot build that only marginally loses out.

Feral really doesn’t have much going on. Keep bleeds up, press ferocious bite. Line CDs up.

Can’t speak on Guardian just purely because the spec is so dull to play imo, but it fits a niche of a slow moving juggernaught that has a fair amount of self sustain and ramping tankiness.

I’ll be honest, not quite sure how druid feels clunky to you, all the specs are actually pretty fluid to play, they just face the issue of class devs not really knowing what to do.

3

IMO, the only really clunky part about playing druid is when you have to go bear and press regen. I can’t speak too much for pve, but it feels bad when you’re taking big spikey damage to have to spend multiple gcds to shift and start healing and stop all dps for 5s. And in PVP the healing is for nothing - in fact, I don’t think I even bother going bear form much anymore lol.

But regarding the theme, I actually love the starlord, warrior of elune theme. I just wish the hero talent tree (Elune’s Chosen) and Full Moon was remotely as viable as the other in PVP.

3 Likes
4

I agree with all of these analyses, but will add that I far preferred the Empowerment system to the Eclipse ramp-up and lock-in.

3 Likes
5

Its because Druids are the Manifestation of Blizzard itself.

1 Like
6

Playing Druid is a way of life. It has a specific rhythm and flow which is different than any other class. If you want easy then play hunter or something else. If you want fun, then embrace elune and enjoy all the gifts she gives us as talents and abilities. Understanding how all of the talents and abilities work together is the key to being a successful Druid. There’s no big easy button for this class. IMHO it’s the most fun and challenging class in the game. GG see you in Azeroth!

3 Likes
7

Why do people immediately go to this? First, no spec in the game is truly difficult. It might take a bit of context through playing so you can understand what happens during rotations, but that is not the same as difficult.

Nor was easy mentioned in this thread until you said it. So why did you say it? Why did you bring it into this discussion?

CLASS* = Any class in the game, because this statement applies to every single one of them.

Who ever mentioned a button? Who asked for the button? ctrl+f and type “button” and see if there were ANY mentions of a button before your posting. You are LITERALLY trying to present an argumentative stance to counter a position that has only existed in your imagination, within the confines of this thread. Who are you trying to counter?

** = Fixed it for you

5 Likes
8

I’ve tried so many times to main feral and the energy regen just feels so terrible.

1 Like
9

Okay well no, that’s not true. Specs have varying difficulty, ones like BM/MM are going to be much easier because of the rotational simplicity, while specs like Arcane are going to be more complex due to knowing super specific things.

However, then there’s specs like Boomy/Spri that are much more about knowledge checks.

Just because something isn’t complex for you, doesn’t mean it’s not complex for everyone. And to double down, certain encounters/fights/environments makes some specs inherently harder to play than others. E.g. casters with no sustain are going to struggle with high damage movement phases.

An easy example, frmo a R1 PVP perspective is this;
Devokers are super easy to play, barring a few small knowledge checks it really just comes down to a 2 button rotation (mostly just 1). I can play affliction, boomy, spri, arcane, ele, enh, etc… I can not play devoker because its simplicity is too hard for me to handle. Devoker is complex for me because it doesn’t work with my brain.

10

Because usually when people say “clunky” they mean “not easy to good damage with” which kind of defaults to the truth of BM hunter and the meme 3 button DH

11

Is it that they mean easy, or that people assume they know what others mean, regardless of what is actually meant, creating a self-feeding cycle of ignorance?

By clunky I mean the rotation/priority is just weird. I get that every class/spec has its own gimmick. Warriors have Rage, Rogues have Energy, Hunters have Energy but in orange, Mages have mana, but really only Arcane, BrM monks have a hidden stagger effect that has to be manipulated, etc. All of them have procs, burst windows when cooldowns align, spells that empower other spells, etc.

Honestly, I think the reason I find it to be a disjointed, clunky, awkward class is because all of the forms exist all of the time. No matter the spec you’re in, you still have about 75% of the toolkit for all the forms. In an attempt to create, I guess a synergy, with all of them, there’s this weird mixing of abilities from all the specs. For instance: In Balance Spec, there is still access to caster form resto), cat form, and bear form, and the class is built around being able to access all of that. So either you figure out how to manage your action bars, and all the abilities you need to have immediate access too, or you focus on only what you need just to do one task - caster dps.

No other class has that issue. Even other hybrids, when they select the role, for instance an Elemental Shaman, their toolkit is what they need to do that job. Sure, they have a couple of healing spells, but that just becomes part of their survival and/or after combat recovery. They don’t do a semi-switch to Resto, where they have to keep up with 75% of the Resto toolkit, to heal themselves. Nor do they have to semi-shift into Enhancement to utilize ghost wolf, Earth Shield, or Earthgrab Totem.

Having necessary abilities locked behind different forms, in itself, is not what makes the class feel clunky either. It’s that there is no intuitive action within the action bars that makes things work better. If I want to sneak around, cat form into stealth. That’s simple enough. However, if I’m playing Balance, cat form is not my combat form. If I have to enter combat, I have to shift forms. Simple enough. It just means I’m either clicking with my mouse to shift, or I have to assign Moonkin Form to a spot on an action bar. I also have to have Cat Form, Bear Form and Travel Form there as well. Now I could cast a spell to auto-shift, but that means I have to have Balance spells on the same action bar as my cat form abilities, and vice versa.

It’s not -difficult- to do these things. It is clunky and awkward trying to do all of that within the game, as is. I’m sure there’s addons that make this a lot more efficient. I don’t think you should have to have addons to play the game though.

2 Likes
12

What’s weird about druid rotations in any spec?

But you don’t use the forms as your rotation. Bear is for defensive purposes, travel is for movement phases, cat is specifically for feral and super niche situations for the other spces (e.g. movement or HOTW resto pump). Each spec is designed to play within their own form, not the others.

Okay, so playing into this theory;
What does a boomy do that requires it to play like a different spec in their arsenal? If I’m an ele and casting healing surge, or healing stream totem, then I’m playing an rsham by your opinion and that’s clunky.

Your incarns force you into form. Fluid Form is also a talent available to help you get into the form if that’s what you want to spec into. From a PVE aspect, you’re already GOING to be in the form you need going into combat, you won’t be swapping between them for that. From a PVP perspective it’s a skill that is nichely used.

Why do you need addons to use your abilities?

To be honest, it seems to me that you’re confusing clunkiness with something you find intuitive. You simply don’t like pressing forms or using alternate forms for different situations which is one of the things that druid is unique for. It’s fine to not like it, but your reasoning just isn’t… correct.

I also feel safe to assume that you wouldn’t like old hunter and how it played, as you swapped between different aspects for different situations, e.g. hawk for damage, cheetah/pack for movement phases, viper for mana.

13

Yes. They mean easy. Or:

Which is essentially the same thing.

Its all simply visuals

As Balance:
Moonkin form is just a buff you apply if youre not in form. Again, just visuals as i can cast my abilities without that form. Its just a buff. No different than Rogues poisons or Shamans applying Flametongue

Cat form is for speed. Like Dash. No different than paladins jumping on their horse

Bear form is just an extra defensive. Like Warriors Rallying cry, but permanent in the form

Shamans use heals and totems that cross over into their other specs. Healing totem is a resto based spell, and both ele and enhance have access to it and use it as part of their kit

Much like Bear form for Balance. Weird.

And youve got more than enough room to do it. As Balance you wont be using cat form to do any damage. You could literally just have wrath on your cat bar and problem solved

You make it “clunky” by trying to do it all at the same time.

14

I attempted to get my non-gaming wife into the game. After trying every class she found BM Hunter to be easy enough for her to play and actually enjoy the game. We’re not saying high end game content. Just low required knowledge to entry into the class and spec. For a starting non-gamer she proved the point. Sorry if you didn’t like the truth, but she only ever died if her pets died, lol, gg

15

Thematically, Balance threw me off for a while when it was first playable (TBC). I thought we would be tossing around nature spells all the time, but- due to the druid design from Warcraft 3- we were given both arcane and nature spells. Unfortunately, Blizzard has never quite known what to do with the spec and keeps bringing back Eclipse. Eclipse is the mechanic I enjoy the least about Balance, but I do know how it works and affects our rotation.

Yes, Balance is a clunky caster specialization with a terrible defensive toolkit. That said, it was fun in the past and could be fun in the future if they would just realize that Eclipse is an anti-fun mechanic.

16

It’s not clunky at all. It’s a simple builder spender spec like most others

17

Huh, isn’t the theme not being Astral a misconception, though? Moonkin is literally the favored of Elune, and ever since the beginning of time is nicknamed “laser chicken” for a reason.

I suppose what is odd about the spec is the name itself, because technically the keeper of balance of nature should’ve been Resto. But then, after they introduced the Eclipse mechanic, “Balance” gained a new meaning as of balancing solar and lunar influences, which is fine to me.

18

Compared to mage, warlock, shadow priest, and elemental shaman, it’s clunky. Having to switch eclipse states feels clunky.

2 Likes
19

hardly do you have to switch. It’s one eclipse all trash, one eclipse for boss.

20

We don’t switch eclipses anymore. If it’s single target you go solar, if its cleave you go lunar. You don’t cycle between them like we used to need to. And we especially don’t do what we did in DFs1 where you went lunar and still casted wraths because it was a DPS loss to do anything else.

I get not liking eclipses, but it’s not this super complex thing you guys make it out to be.

1 Like