Ok, so I have felt this for a very long time, and along the way I have met some people with the same sentiments, others not. I feel that Druids need a little help. Druids do not fill any niche because of their jack-of-all trades build, that I can expect. Although this provides the player with a lot of options and possible fun factor, when you get into the serious raiding (and especially 6 man game) this starts to become a major detriment. Druids cannot match the healing power and speed of clerics. When you throw in HoTs, the efficiency and aggro generation is unmatched. Druids do have a quicker cooldown on their quick heal, but it's still very underpowered. Shamans have better longevity due to their ability to regenerate mana, so they can heal a single target for a longer amount of time. Don't get me started on runics. Yes, the shaman runic snares, but its so stupidly more efficient than the druid one, which sees little to no effect from the HoT portion. The druid group heal has an obscene mana cost, which if lowered, would still render it situational use, which is fine since it is nice to have options with regard to what heal you want to use. The high mana cost is in no way justified by the HoT portion, which is pretty useless. I think that many druids would be happy to see the HoT removed and the mana cost lowered.
Now let's talk DPS. We all know clerics with Divine rage, Yaulp VI and ancient hammer can put out 300 dps. A druid can eclipse this mark by chain nuking a mob with almost 0 cold resists. Even so, their dps output has horrible mana efficiency, even twisting in blizzard. Shamans can DoT, which in most situations (not all) is a preferred method of DPS. DoTs spread out hate generation and are typically more mana efficient. Not to mention the DoT (which shamans get 2 great single target ones) are poison based and not too difficult to land on conventional NPC's. Not only that, they can heal while putting out almost optimal dps via DoTs, while druids cannot (partially the same goes for clerics). Nuking just takes too much cast time, and is just plain inefficient in terms of mana and time usage. Mask of the hunter is also no better (actually worse) of a self buff than the bulwark line. So druids in the mana regen department are also the worst of the 3. So here you have it, both the most inefficient in terms of DPS and healing with mana output, and the worst mana regeneration. Losing on both accounts.
Druid pet: At first this pet was really fun seeing it nuke for 501 dmg (post archaic) and DoTing. It loses it's novelty when you realize the major function of a druid in a group is typically healing and this new cool spell doesn't help you with that! The damage output of this pet is above average for a non relic pet. The problem is, it doesn't have the bulk to back it up. If it's going to keep the hp it has, I feel this pet would serve better proc/casting a single target 300-500 pt heal on group members. The pet is less likely to be in the line of fire healing vs procing a 500 dmg DD and chain proc'ing a DoT. I think it would be a step in the right direction.
Keep in mind, I make all these accusations and observations having extensively played all 3 priest classes. There is a markedly large difference in power between druids and the other 2 priest classes.
Now let's talk DPS. We all know clerics with Divine rage, Yaulp VI and ancient hammer can put out 300 dps. A druid can eclipse this mark by chain nuking a mob with almost 0 cold resists. Even so, their dps output has horrible mana efficiency, even twisting in blizzard. Shamans can DoT, which in most situations (not all) is a preferred method of DPS. DoTs spread out hate generation and are typically more mana efficient. Not to mention the DoT (which shamans get 2 great single target ones) are poison based and not too difficult to land on conventional NPC's. Not only that, they can heal while putting out almost optimal dps via DoTs, while druids cannot (partially the same goes for clerics). Nuking just takes too much cast time, and is just plain inefficient in terms of mana and time usage. Mask of the hunter is also no better (actually worse) of a self buff than the bulwark line. So druids in the mana regen department are also the worst of the 3. So here you have it, both the most inefficient in terms of DPS and healing with mana output, and the worst mana regeneration. Losing on both accounts.
Druid pet: At first this pet was really fun seeing it nuke for 501 dmg (post archaic) and DoTing. It loses it's novelty when you realize the major function of a druid in a group is typically healing and this new cool spell doesn't help you with that! The damage output of this pet is above average for a non relic pet. The problem is, it doesn't have the bulk to back it up. If it's going to keep the hp it has, I feel this pet would serve better proc/casting a single target 300-500 pt heal on group members. The pet is less likely to be in the line of fire healing vs procing a 500 dmg DD and chain proc'ing a DoT. I think it would be a step in the right direction.
Keep in mind, I make all these accusations and observations having extensively played all 3 priest classes. There is a markedly large difference in power between druids and the other 2 priest classes.
Last edited: