State of Druid at launch day, your thoughts?

[Karnalsyn]

Shadowlands drops today!
Changes have been made and tweaks throughout the months leading up to this day for various specs

Are you happy with the state of the class as a whole?
Do you feel let down in some aspect of the class specifically...
DPS, Tanking of Healing?
Raiding, Dungeons or PVP?

Maybe something changed for the better and you're looking forward to it?

[chambers167]

I can't speak for resto and moonkin at all!

For feral I feel like we are.... exactley as we have been for the last expansion... and the expansion before that... and the expansion before that. We have nothing that changes our playstyle, we have nothing that I can see from a pve perspective that leads my class fantasy. Everything that I see a cat doing, another class does it all better. I'm using the same abilities as I used 5-6 years ago, is there really anything to get excited about?


For Guardian I feel like we are.... exactley as we have been for the last expansion... and the expansion before that... and the expansion before that. We have nothing that changes our playstyle, we have nothing that I can see from a pve perspective that leads my class fantasy. Everything that I see a bear doing, another class does it all better. I'm using the same abilities as I used 5-6 years ago, is there really anything to get excited about?

For tanking in general I think the game is in a bad way, they have had 20 years to come up with tanking mechanics... Aggro has been removed and with it most aspects of skill, Vengance was removed and with it a lot of the joy that comes with doing high dmg. What are we left with? Taunt on 3 stacks... come on there must be more interesting ways for tanks to engage with bosses.

[dexx]

Druids can move around the Maw faster than most other classes. So thats good.

[Whitepaw]

I can't speak for resto and moonkin at all!

For feral I feel like we are.... exactley as we have been for the last expansion... and the expansion before that... and the expansion before that. We have nothing that changes our playstyle, we have nothing that I can see from a pve perspective that leads my class fantasy. Everything that I see a cat doing, another class does it all better. I'm using the same abilities as I used 5-6 years ago, is there really anything to get excited about?


For Guardian I feel like we are.... exactley as we have been for the last expansion... and the expansion before that... and the expansion before that. We have nothing that changes our playstyle, we have nothing that I can see from a pve perspective that leads my class fantasy. Everything that I see a bear doing, another class does it all better. I'm using the same abilities as I used 5-6 years ago, is there really anything to get excited about?

For tanking in general I think the game is in a bad way, they have had 20 years to come up with tanking mechanics... Aggro has been removed and with it most aspects of skill, Vengance was removed and with it a lot of the joy that comes with doing high dmg. What are we left with? Taunt on 3 stacks... come on there must be more interesting ways for tanks to engage with bosses.

I agree that our spec's dps abilities/rotation has not been redesigned, but that is true for most specs. One of the specs which has received most positive acclaim - Fury warrior - has changed less than Feral!

But our Affinities have been buffed a lot, and that's meaningful as a Druid - including Heart of the Wild. If you never touch any of your forms outside Cat Form, then you'll never notice this. But you really should incorporate shapeshifting in your game.

We have also been buffed by having Primal Wrath not having an AoE cap. I think we're the only melee having a finisher without the AoE cap.

[Thage]

I've been having fun with Feral and Boomkin while leveling. Boomkin feels a little disjointed, but it's also really fun just dropping Sun/Moonfire on everything in sight and /dancing while healing through incoming damage.

[Gratlim]

I had a blast leveling to 60 as galactic bear, pulling everything on my screen with moonfire. Needless to say it went a bit too fast.
The cat weaving thing with HoTW is pretty nice as well. I plan on playing mostly solo (Torguast / Pvp) but so far, as someone who play feral on Classic but left my feral (from retail) back in Cataclysm, I am really enjoying myself.

I just wish HotW had a shorter CD. 5min is too long.

[jalena]

Boomkin feels a little disjointed, but it's also really fun just dropping Sun/Moonfire on everything in sight and /dancing while healing through incoming damage.

Disjointed is the word I've been looking for!

The eclipse mechanic really makes for a terrible flow while playing the class. Right when I get into a sun eclipse I manage to pull an add. And then just as I get into a moon eclipse I kill one of the adds with a suprise starsurge crit. The cast time on starfire feels like I'm hard casting pyroblast on a Mage.

I'm lazy, I guess? I like casters that nuke stuff without getting forced into spamming the wrong spell for 12 seconds?

Maybe if I continue to force myself to level up to 60 I'll eventually get used to it, but at 55 I'm already wondering if I've chosen the wrong class to main.

[Ragnarohk]

I just tried Guardian for the first time in forever in a dungeon. I liked the swipe spam.
Might switch from Resto/boomkin to Bear/cat

[Ryzeth]

Got Boomkin to 57, feels kinda awkward sometimes. Without CDs (or at the very least, without a good eclipse) even normal mobs feel like they take forever to die... With CDs I can pull half the screen and just zerg them to hell.

After getting Spriest to 60, it feels like a very jarring change of pace, where I could just Misery-DoT everything in sight, then pop Void Form + Searing nightmare them all.

Resto druid is nice at least. Mostly been leveling via dungeons and completing my campaign bars that way.

[Bloodyleech]

Disjointed is the word I've been looking for!

The eclipse mechanic really makes for a terrible flow while playing the class. Right when I get into a sun eclipse I manage to pull an add. And then just as I get into a moon eclipse I kill one of the adds with a suprise starsurge crit. The cast time on starfire feels like I'm hard casting pyroblast on a Mage.

I'm lazy, I guess? I like casters that nuke stuff without getting forced into spamming the wrong spell for 12 seconds?

Maybe if I continue to force myself to level up to 60 I'll eventually get used to it, but at 55 I'm already wondering if I've chosen the wrong class to main.

It doesn't matter if there are multiple adds or one single enemy. You simply use either wrath, if sun, or starfire, if moon. You don't spam starfire just because there are multiple enemies - it's a DPS loss. Use both dots, use wrath or star, depending on buff, use Starfall if 2+ enemies, use Starsurge if 1 enemy. Done. This is your whole single AND aoe prio.

[God Save The King]

I play guardian and restoration so I'll talk about those along with general feelings on the class.

Most of the unpruning was fluff with baseline stampeding roar being the only thing of real value. Heart of the Wild is interesting as a talent, but it really only works well for restoration during mythic dungeons where they have time to go cat form for a while. Guardian might see some use catweaving in raids but it's utterly useless while actually tanking. I'd like to see iconic spells like Mark of the Wild, Faerie Fire, Hurricane, Insect Swarm, Leader of the Pack, etc, return to druids.

Guardian feels like it has been in a 'funk' for several expansions. I like tanking. I like healing. I play every tank and healer each expansion to some level. I almost always start the expansion maining a druid as I like them the most but sometimes I shift away due to playstyle/being weak. Our rotation is easily the most simple. We have no magical mitigation at all. We have no interaction with our active mitigation and the rest of our kit. We perform our rotation and just roll our AM (with few exceptions). The spammable AoE is nice but the 5-target cap is really painful in dungeons with many pulls having more than 5 mobs in them. When I compare guardian to the intricacies of brewmaster brew management or protection warrrior clap/avatar synergy or other tanks they just seem to fall short. They feel simple and uninspired. They don't suggest 'druid', they suggest 'warrior' in bear skin. I'd personally like to see more of our spells available in bear form. I'd like some nature magic imbuing my attacks. Something to distinguish myself from a warrior.

Restoration feels great and I think it's in a good place. I'd want Nourish to become baseline and for us to get a different talent. Nourish very useful spell and competes with other amazing talents which makes it hard to pick. It doesn't really fill a niche. Cenarion Ward is much better for single target healing and Abundance is much better for raid healing. Our mastery shines in dungeons and haste/crit shines in raids. I'd like to see that gap closed as haste/crit is devalued in dungeons and mastery in raids. I'd also like to see Flourish become baseline too if possible.

[jalena]

It doesn't matter if there are multiple adds or one single enemy. You simply use either wrath, if sun, or starfire, if moon. You don't spam starfire just because there are multiple enemies - it's a DPS loss. Use both dots, use wrath or star, depending on buff, use Starfall if 2+ enemies, use Starsurge if 1 enemy. Done. This is your whole single AND aoe prio.

Yeah, to clarify my "spam the wrong spell" comment. What I mean is when I want to blast a single target, inevitably I'm in moon eclipse and vice versa for multi-target.

I feel like I have a knife and a spoon but keep ending up eating soup with my knife and cutting my food with my spoon because it's optimal based on when the food got to my table.

The two dots seem to have become afterthoughts. At least Starfall extends their duration, I guess.

There's word of some oddball priority rule to only refresh moonfire when in sun eclipse if you have soul of the forest talented which I have trouble believing is an intended feature but I expect will be the way it is until balance gets revamped again in two years.

[druchii5]

Unpopular opinion, but I really enjoy the simplicity of Guardian. He is my highest geared toon, and I was able to tank Mythic +15s in BFA with him without being anxious or feeling like I needed to juggle too many things. Leveling is super easy in Shadowlands. I like being able to pull many mobs and truly feel like a tank. I just wish they added more "oomph" and weight to the Guardian abilities/animations.

[Bloodyleech]

Yeah, to clarify my "spam the wrong spell" comment. What I mean is when I want to blast a single target, inevitably I'm in moon eclipse and vice versa for multi-target.

I feel like I have a knife and a spoon but keep ending up eating soup with my knife and cutting my food with my spoon because it's optimal based on when the food got to my table.

The two dots seem to have become afterthoughts. At least Starfall extends their duration, I guess.

There's word of some oddball priority rule to only refresh moonfire when in sun eclipse if you have soul of the forest talented which I have trouble believing is an intended feature but I expect will be the way it is until balance gets revamped again in two years.

I know what you meant, but I just clarified that this is a non-issue, as using the right phase-ability is always the case, no matter if it is 1 target or 5/8/whatever.
Starfire isn't an "aoe" ability, it is a hard casted wrath with some splash, while wrath is fast and generates more AP.

I'm pretty much topping meters all the time while simply playing like I said already - I even refresh dots when below 3 sec. Even IF this is a dps loss, it's so low that it can be ignored completely, as I'm simply not going 120% in heros or mythics. Soul of the Forest doesn't even interact with moonfire/sunfire - I'd even say that refreshing moonfire in sun eclipse would be a dps loss, not a gain.

[huth]

Yeah, to clarify my "spam the wrong spell" comment. What I mean is when I want to blast a single target, inevitably I'm in moon eclipse and vice versa for multi-target.

Your mistake is treating them as single and MT eclipses. Both are viable for both purposes, since DoTs are reversed compared to fillers and SS and Starfall don't give a hoot.

Far more annoying is fighting against interrupts.

- - - Updated - - -

Starfire isn't an "aoe" ability, it is a hard casted wrath with some splash, while wrath is fast and generates more AP.

It's only an AoE for those bugs in the Ember Ward... i can nearly oneshot those without Eclipse, and completely obliterate them with.

Sunfire counts too, for that matter.

[Soilx3]

I play guardian and restoration so I'll talk about those along with general feelings on the class.

Most of the unpruning was fluff with baseline stampeding roar being the only thing of real value. Heart of the Wild is interesting as a talent, but it really only works well for restoration during mythic dungeons where they have time to go cat form for a while. Guardian might see some use catweaving in raids but it's utterly useless while actually tanking. I'd like to see iconic spells like Mark of the Wild, Faerie Fire, Hurricane, Insect Swarm, Leader of the Pack, etc, return to druids.

Guardian feels like it has been in a 'funk' for several expansions. I like tanking. I like healing. I play every tank and healer each expansion to some level. I almost always start the expansion maining a druid as I like them the most but sometimes I shift away due to playstyle/being weak. Our rotation is easily the most simple. We have no magical mitigation at all. We have no interaction with our active mitigation and the rest of our kit. We perform our rotation and just roll our AM (with few exceptions). The spammable AoE is nice but the 5-target cap is really painful in dungeons with many pulls having more than 5 mobs in them. When I compare guardian to the intricacies of brewmaster brew management or protection warrrior clap/avatar synergy or other tanks they just seem to fall short. They feel simple and uninspired. They don't suggest 'druid', they suggest 'warrior' in bear skin. I'd personally like to see more of our spells available in bear form. I'd like some nature magic imbuing my attacks. Something to distinguish myself from a warrior.

Restoration feels great and I think it's in a good place. I'd want Nourish to become baseline and for us to get a different talent. Nourish very useful spell and competes with other amazing talents which makes it hard to pick. It doesn't really fill a niche. Cenarion Ward is much better for single target healing and Abundance is much better for raid healing. Our mastery shines in dungeons and haste/crit shines in raids. I'd like to see that gap closed as haste/crit is devalued in dungeons and mastery in raids. I'd also like to see Flourish become baseline too if possible.

Hard disagree on Heart of the Wild, it's amazing and has many many uses. Powerful offhealing for any spec if needed, ranged damage(and pretty crazy aoe with convoke) if needed, even offtanking in a clutch. I really like it, almost wish it was baseline.

[kaelix1]

The only thing i don't like about boonkin so far is Moonfire in aoe situation, for some reason, it really doesn't feel worth casting it for anything above 3 mobs

[huth]

The only thing i don't like about boonkin so far is Moonfire in aoe situation, for some reason, it really doesn't feel worth casting it for anything above 3 mobs

That's because it isn't. Keep it up on the main targets, don't bother with the rest.

Not really new, though. It's been that way since at least Legion, probably longer.

[eScar95]

I’m actually a new Druid player and I must say I’ve really enjoyed Balance, Guardian, and Resto. I’ve yet to give Feral an actual try.

[blankfaced]

Resto is a lot of fun. I went adaptive swarm and i enjoy soloing with both feral affinity and balance affinity. They both feel potent but feral of course has the added benefit of more dots to work with swarm, but balance has the benefit of being able to heal in moonkin. And in Torghast feral affinity resto is soooo much fun! Especially when you get the HotW permanent trait. And healing in dungeons feels good, lots of things to deal with every situation that comes up, with time in between to throw out some damage. And stealth is extremely useful without the whistle for WQ's and chests, sneak in and sneak out.

I'm enjoying my resto druid a lot and i'm glad i chose to level him up first. And Convoke made it a tough decision, but I didn't want to go with a typical resto druid playing in the happy fun forests with the sprites.