Well in talking to my friend/trusty GM Rhutra, be brought up a valid point. "What are you going to do when you get to 80?" I really dont enjoy raiding with my Paladin. I think the key words there are "with my paladin". I could see how raiding wouldnt be that bad if I was a caster DPS. Don't stand in the fire, don't pull aggro, goodness. I just hate having to run around, check facing, avoid things, its just not fun. And tanking a raid seems way too stressful, I can barely manage heroics.
So, in thinking about it, I see two viable options for "endgame": Druid and Shammy. The reason I say two viable options more comes down to utility than anything else. First of all, I want a class that can heal. That rules out most classes right there. Healing can be a great way to go through heroics and pick up DPS gear no one wants/needs. Secondly, I want a class capable of ranged DPS. Yes, I kind of just want to stand there and nuke. Now, that does leave one other option: Priest. However at this time I am not totally sold on Shadow Priest, obviously Holy priests are good healers (I'll leave best healer arguments for others). But I've always said feel and enjoyment is more important to me than raw numbers. As of right now, Shadow Priest isn't as fun. I might adjust that thought down the road (it has been known to happen), but as of right now, its Shammy vs Druid.
Healing:
This one seems like a no brainer to me. Although my buddies from WTFSpaghetti might disagree, Druid is the big daddy healer in Wow. I really enjoy druid healing mechanics and I rarely feel overwelmed healing normal content. I like "maintenance healing" throwing dots on everyone, trying to make sure everyone is in a nice middle zone. I have never healed on a shammy, so I don't really know how it works. I know most of the tools that are there, but most of my shammy research has been DPS related.
DPS:
On this side it's the Druid I have no idea about. Shammies are fun. I love chain lightning. I love throwing lightning bolts and shocks. I think Elemental is like an awesome armored mage. I don't much care for the totem mechanic, but they help more than get in the way, and they're good for groups, and don't require buffing individual people like pally buffs (ok, gift of the wild is even easier, but this wasn't a debate about best group buffs). I also think shammies LOOK really cool. Yes I can be bought with cool appearance. Now, I know the spells a druid gets, some of them are quite cool. My main issue with the druid is appearance related. Why does Moonkin have to look so dumb? Everytime I see one, I think back to azuremyst seeing the moonkin waddling around. I can almost be ok with the broccoli, but seriously?
This is where I ask for help from you my readers. Balance druid, how good are they? Right now I give a slight edge to the Shammy because they can heal and I just like them. Maybe thats enough. But having a druid at 71, its kind of a shame to waste him.
Stay a while and listen.
11 years ago
3 comments:
I've only ever raided as enhance/resto shaman, but I'll pass on my likes/dislikes.
Pros for shaman...
You get to see your gear and not waddle like a bird. Bloodlust... every raid should have one. Easy dps rotation for ele...Flame shock, lava burst, lighting, lightning, lightning, the only challenge is to make sure you keep flame shock up at all times.
Healing easy to learn, harder to master. While learning to heal, you can be assigned to heal raid and faceroll chain heal, but the fun part is using riptide/chains to proc Tidal waves, then getting the ultra-fast HW bombs or +25% crit LHW (whose crits enable the damage reduction of ancestral fortitude AND return mana through imp. water shield)I really like healing raids as shammy, the setup is rather elegant.
Lots of cool pvp tricks for large-scale pvp (and faction champions fight).
Cons for shaman...
Resto and ele shammies share gear with each other and sometimes Holy Pallies but nobody else. This means gear is hard to come by, you'll be relying on emblems more than drops. You can drop down to get cloth/leather but a lot has spirit which has no use whatsoever to shamans for now. Ele in particular is hard to gear for since they almost never put +hit on SP mail, gotta find it on jewelry, weapon, or gems/enchants.
5man healing (other than HTOC5) is too easy, Earth shield is almost all the healing good tanks need on all trash... the only danger is forgetting you are healer when you get into a dps rotation to kill time.
Another shammy con.. seem weak for small-scale pvp/arena.. or so I've heard. I dont arena.
Pros for Druids, though i don't have one higher than 40something...
The +3%hit that boomkins provide is just as important as bloodlust, and it seems its easier to find a shaman of any kind than a boomkin or shadow priest. It just seems like all the druids on my server are feral/resto and all priests heal. (admittedly Anvilmar is small horde-side) Bigger deal in 10man.
Tend to be arena powerhouses if you're into that.
Use same stats as clothies so taking some spirit cloth is possible, even though sp leather is sparse.
Cons...look like retarded chickens with no gear.
Might be harder to learn dps rotation with eclipse procs.
I wish I could comment on fun factor of elemental, but ive spent all of wrath as enhance dps... which is much easier to gear for since we share hunter gear. Ele has reputation as worst turret class... dps gets really smashed in movement fights since our insta-cast shocks are on shared 6sec cooldown. Ele DPS rotation is so simple it may get boring.
Your really can't go wrong with either one. Druids are VERY good healers and with the correct gear and rotation, they can pull some of the top DPS in the game.
Same can be said with Shaman, but I see alot more boomkin that do more dps then an elemental shaman.
In regards to healing I will say this, Druid healing is easier to start off and maintain. I see alot of trees that in my opinion aren't good healers, yet if you look at the meters you wouldn't be able to tell.
Shaman healing is harder to master then druid healing and I am happy to say that there is only one druid tree that consistently gives me competetion. All the other trees I run into think they are so good and OP until they look at the healing charts and get pissed because I beating them in every category besides overhealing.
The Tier 9 4 piece bonus for Druids is silly OP. SILLY!
However, Shaman bring the totems and people love da totems.
You want more 2% more haste? Bring a shaman
You want +196 more spell power? Bring a Shaman
You want an additional 45mp5? Bring a Shaman.
Try both and see what you like, either one you aren't going to be disappointed.
Shaman...
Zura's comment covers a lot of the reasons:
"5man healing (other than HTOC5) is too easy, Earth shield is almost all the healing good tanks need on all trash... the only danger is forgetting you are healer when you get into a dps rotation to kill time."
The thing about healing as a Shammy is, it feels like you are DPSing..
Chain heal LOOKS like Chain Lightning, but health bars go up instead of down.
If everything is under control.. ES, Riptide, healing totems etc. and mana isn't an issue, then your spell rotation goes a little like this:
One for your buddies...
One for the Mobs...
One for your buddies...
Two for the Mobs.
Seriously, if you like watching Chain lightning lighting up a room, you will love it when you are doing the same with heals.
They are also awesome in the BGs
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