I've never played a Druid, is it fun at higher level? Compare to a Shadow Priest

[Tyrael the Impatient]

I'm thinking about how Druid Moonkin could be? Is it more like a Shadow Priest, or Elemental Shaman or Warlock or Mage?
Or something else?

Don't be afraid to be a little personal on how you feel the class is, love to hear it.
Just don't have enough time to try many classes to a higher level, want to make the right choice now, hopefully.

I'm all about PvE and having a fun time.
I'm quite the fan of the Monk class but that's the only class I have at 90, so.

[Deleted]

I, personally, prefer the playstyle of a shadow priest to that of a Boomkin. For me, Boomkin playstyle is unnecessarily clunky but straightforward, while Shadow rewards good decisions and expert skill with better DPS. I know people will disagree with this, but it's just my opinion.

I've played a Restoration Shaman since Burning Crusade, and recently changed from Resto to Elemental based on the performance of the Restoration spec (I was tired of being, essentially, a magikarp in 25 man raids). I respecialised my abandoned Balance Druid to Resto to satiate my healing needs after previously writing off the spec and I'm having a brilliant time levelling from 80 to 90.

All I'd say is, opinions and preconceptions change with time. The only real way to know if the Boomkin will work for you is to play it. Your own style of play is different to everyone else and is therefore ill-equipped to advise you on how a class performs.

If you're thinking of levelling one, do it. You'll know by about level 40 if it's for you or not, and that should only take a couple of days.

[Tyrael the Impatient]

Does Blizzard recognize that Moonkin is unnecessarily clunky?
Is there any chance of changes like you saw within the Warlock, major change.

[Deleted]

I do not share the same thoughts at all. I've been playing boomkin for over 5 years and it has improved a lot over the years.
There is barely to no clunkiness left and with glyphs you can stay in Boomkin form as long as you'd like.

If you are all about PvE then a Boomkin is a good choice for you.
It's a very desired class to have in raids and has plenty of tools and dps to help your raid kill bosses.

In my opinion, compared to Cataclysm, Boomkins did lose some of their magic in pvp.
We went from being a dot class to being a more single target orientated class.

If you want to have fun in PvE, definately try out a Balance Druid, there has not been a spec that could make me reroll.

[autotrendauto]

My favorite druid skill is the instant flying form.

[Deleted]

I think Blizzard are happy with where the Moonkin is, as well as the large player base of Moonkin Druids.

Moonkins were changed from simple mana users to mana users with the addition of the lunar and solar energy bar (similar to Warlock shard change and Ret Pal change). It doesn't look like they'll be moving from this, and they shouldn't. It's an interesting system, but for me, it has its limitations.

[Tyrael the Impatient]

I do not share the same thoughts at all. I've been playing boomkin for over 5 years and it has improved a lot over the years.
There is barely to no clunkiness left and with glyphs you can stay in Boomkin form as long as you'd like.

If you are all about PvE then a Boomkin is a good choice for you.
It's a very desired class to have in raids and has plenty of tools and dps to help your raid kill bosses.

In my opinion, compared to Cataclysm, Boomkins did lose some of their magic in pvp.
We went from being a dot class to being a more single target orientated class.

If you want to have fun in PvE, definately try out a Balance Druid, there has not been a spec that could make me reroll.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts, this does really help me get a feel on how Druid is.

So Druid Moonkin is more like a Mage, than Shadow Priest or Affliction, Warlock - that's good for me

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I think Blizzard are happy with where the Moonkin is, as well as the large player base of Moonkin Druids.

Moonkins were changed from simple mana users to mana users with the addition of the lunar and solar energy bar (similar to Warlock shard change and Ret Pal change). It doesn't look like they'll be moving from this, and they shouldn't. It's an interesting system, but for me, it has its limitations.

Cool! Interesting system, but what do you mean it has it's limitations? Like compare to what?

[Deleted]

Some people call it limitations/clunkiness, I call it tactics. The Eclipse management divides the good Boomies from the bad ones.
Solar is more orientated for AoE dps while Lunar is for single target. You obviously need to prepare to get into the right Eclipse in boss fights, so you need to have a good understanding what's going to happen. Only by playing a lot and understanding when to switch Eclipses you will truly master your Boomer.

[Raintola]

Does Blizzard recognize that Moonkin is unnecessarily clunky?
Is there any chance of changes like you saw within the Warlock, major change.

In what way is it clunky?

[GKLeatherCraft]

Druid is just win, basically, I have 2 lvl 90 druids, One Balance/Resto and my main that I've had since i started which is Guardian/Resto, which i find more fun, I also have a lvl 60 twink, and working on my 70 twink at the moment, So yeh, they are awesome, And Boomkin as it stands is doing very nicely, I do more PvP than i do PvE and I've seen some sick almost insta kills recently by Boomies, it's funny to watch, not so funny to receive lol, But they are a fun class, and Boomkin is also a nice playstyle, easy to learn, like most druid specs, more difficult to perfect, But ofcourse the big thing with a druid is if you get tired of one spec, there is still very different playstyes left

[Harmzuay]

Some people call it limitations/clunkiness, I call it tactics. The Eclipse management divides the good Boomies from the bad ones.
Solar is more orientated for AoE dps while Lunar is for single target. You obviously need to prepare to get into the right Eclipse in boss fights, so you need to have a good understanding what's going to happen. Only by playing a lot and understanding when to switch Eclipses you will truly master your Boomer.

This. Balance is a little deceptive. It's easy to grasp, but there's a a lot more than meets the eye. Zoomkins (Balance Druid in Blood Legion) has some videos on Youtube that you'd probably find helpful once you hit raids.

[Tyrael the Impatient]

Some people call it limitations/clunkiness, I call it tactics. The Eclipse management divides the good Boomies from the bad ones.
Solar is more orientated for AoE dps while Lunar is for single target. You obviously need to prepare to get into the right Eclipse in boss fights, so you need to have a good understanding what's going to happen. Only by playing a lot and understanding when to switch Eclipses you will truly master your Boomer.

Hey, when you say it like that. It sounds like fun I enjoy the idea of a challenge.

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Forgot to ask, in end game, does casting feel fast?

[Tyrael the Impatient]

Everyone likes different classes. The only way to find out if it's the class you enjoy more than any other is to actually play it. Everything else is just personal opinions. For instance: I love my mage, no other class is as much fun for me to play. Meanwhile my best friend hates playing a mage. So the best advice you're going to get on here is to give a druid a try. The one thing they have going for them is that they can be any spec so you'll have lots of options for how to play it when you finish leveling.

But there are things you guys could tell me, such as does casting feel fast (bursty?) at end game or is it a slower pace (planning pace)?

[Quibble]

I love druids, it was my main back in vanilla and start of tbc and altho it is no longer my main... I still love it.
I have one problem with druids.. and that is the shapeshifting, I like to find cool stuff for transmorg, but 90% of the time I didn't get to see it when playing boomkin or feral.. So I went back to healing, as I did back in vanilla, now where tree of life is a cooldown..

[Teokis]

Yes! Druid is my favorite class and the most fun I have had with any (All classes).
Compared too a shadow priest? Moonkin and Shadow are both reliant on procs. Lol :P

[Deleted]

Balance, in order to be average that is, is fairly simple to play. Keep 2 DoTs up and other than that basically use 3 spells depending on the Eclipse state you are in. In order to BASICALLY understand the class, some reading and watching youtube videos will do. I'm not an expert since I'm playing Restoration MS and I only have the Balance OS for occasional use. However, as it happens with all classes and especially with Moonkins, if you don't have the right gear and particularly trinkets, don't expect to see any high numbers. Balance becomes fairly good on 535ilvl and above.

Priests aren't also that hard to play, but they need more micromanagement since their damage comes mainly from DoTs. Other than that they have 2 other abilities, one of which is channeled and the other one has a 8-10sec CD. I'm being, for once more, pretty plain in my explanation and obviously there are more things into it, I'm just mentioning the basic stuff.

Micromanagement in both cases isn't an issue, since with an add-on such as ''Tell Me When'' you can set up everything to your liking. Other than that, both characters rely on multidotting for maximum results. Since, I assume, you are a casual player, I'd go with my personal preference; Do you like being a chicken or do you like being in a transparent form and have wings and ravens? It might sound stupid, but this is a GAME, so play whatever makes you happy. The only indisputable fact is that having a Druid in general offers you the ability of being able to play 4 different specs with one character, which is unique.

[Mirri]

Well, I'm not sure how much you'll be raiding and stuff on your druid - but moonkins are pretty heavily gear dependent. Being able to hit 5273 haste and maintain a high level of crit is almost the starting point of moonkin dps. As your gear becomes better, you will work towards the 10.3k haste breakpoint. This makes casting much smoother and pretty fast-paced with lots of procs. End-game moonkin is an amazing class - challenging yes, but really fulfilling. It also bring a lot to the table - off healing, raid-cds, multi-dotting and heavy heavy burst dps through stacking cooldowns. They are also a dot class and they do rely heavily on their dots for their dmg and procs.

If you're not going to be getting much raiding done though, moonkins can feel a bit lackluster. I feel demo/destro warlocks might be more suited to you if you want a different playstyle from shadow priests as moonkins play a bit similar to shadow priests.

Of course, being able to spec all the different roles in the game - tank, healer, melee and ranged dps - ensures that you almost never feel bored :P

[Tyrael the Impatient]

I don't like the micromanagement on Shadow Priest, it causes me to watch other things than my character and what's happening on the screen.

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Well, I'm not sure how much you'll be raiding and stuff on your druid - but moonkins are pretty heavily gear dependent. Being able to hit 5273 haste and maintain a high level of crit is almost the starting point of moonkin dps. As your gear becomes better, you will work towards the 10.3k haste breakpoint. This makes casting much smoother and pretty fast-paced with lots of procs. End-game moonkin is an amazing class - challenging yes, but really fulfilling. It also bring a lot to the table - off healing, raid-cds, multi-dotting and heavy heavy burst dps through stacking cooldowns. They are also a dot class and they do rely heavily on their dots for their dmg and procs.

If you're not going to be getting much raiding done though, moonkins can feel a bit lackluster. I feel demo/destro warlocks might be more suited to you if you want a different playstyle from shadow priests as moonkins play a bit similar to shadow priests.

Of course, being able to spec all the different roles in the game - tank, healer, melee and ranged dps - ensures that you almost never feel bored :P

I'm actually looking into Druid because, I love healing as Monk and tanking as Monk but I want a new class at level 90 cus Monk is all I have.
At the same time I wish to try something like casting and that's this or Shadow Priest or Shaman that can both heal and deal casting damage.

[Othinsson]

I'm a raiding resto druid, with full feral and boomy offspecs and I have to say, I really want to switch to Boomkin. It's just so much fun, especially when you get a string of Starsurge procs and turn into a turret. Almost like Ascendence for ele shamans, but without the cooldown.

Edit: I also find Shadow priests really dull. If I'm going to be a dot class, I'd rather just play on my warlock.

[Tyrael the Impatient]

I'm a raiding resto druid, with full feral and boomy offspecs and I have to say, I really want to switch to Boomkin. It's just so much fun, especially when you get a string of Starsurge procs and turn into a turret. Almost like Ascendence for ele shamans, but without the cooldown.

Edit: I also find Shadow priests really dull. If I'm going to be a dot class, I'd rather just play on my warlock.

Doesn't people say that about Moonkin or any class when you compare them to a 3 spec Mage?