Elemental Shaman or Balance Druid Pros and Cons Please.

[AnanWalker]

So I wana create a caster and I cant decide between Elemental Shaman or Balance Druid.
I would like you to say all the pros and cons of the classes(in what they are good and bad) and which one is more needed and better in raiding.

Thank you.

[Graven2]

I radied on a Mage since Vanilla and swapped to an Ele Shaman for Cata to switch things up. I love the gameplay, but strongly dislike the drop in DPS (I still mostly top meters in my guild, but it's frustrating to know I could be doing more as a different class). For this expansion as a whole, obviously Boomkins have been very strong, but there's really no logical way to project that forward into MoP -- the truth is, no one has any idea how DPS classes will perform, so by playing a hybrid, you're running a big risk. If your specific spec is hurt by a patch, etc., you have no recourse. As a pure, you can spec change and still perform the same role, making sure you're always competative.

If you compare a Boomkin and Ele Shaman to a Mage this expansion, you'd find that even when Arcane or Fire faultered, you always had the other as an elite option, whereas Ele consistantly ranked behind BOTH on many fights throughout the expansion (and you could end up stating the exact same thing about Boomkins next expansino for all we know).

As for raid utility, all buffs and debuffs are getting normalized in MoP (see MMO front page). You should consult the new system and see where you'd fit best among your fellow raiders.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Balance tops damage meters.

Shaman is getting a major review in MoP.

[Miralynn]

Nice... guy asks for pros and cons between ele/boomkin and the only person who bothers responding ignores the question asked to post 'so rowl a maeg lul'.

I play both a shaman and a druid - resto/boomkin and ele/resto(practically never used because I hate shaman healing). Personally I find that on equal gear levels, it's easier to maintain consistently high DPS as ele. Plus you have totems to cover basically any buff the group is missing, and elementals come in very handy. However, as a boomkin, you have battle rez at your disposal, innervate returns a damn sight more mana than T-storm does in long fights where your mana gets low, and popping tranq as a boomkin if say a healer's down and you're in a heavy-AOE-damage phase does more healing than popping healing rain does as elemental.

They've both got their pros and cons, so really it's a matter of choosing which variety of group utility you prefer.

[scadouche]

Nice... guy asks for pros and cons between ele/boomkin and the only person who bothers responding ignores the question asked to post 'so rowl a maeg lul'.

You may actually want to read what he says...

OT: Boomkins bring a brez (don't underestimate this) a raid CD and solid damage/utility
Shamans bring solid damage and totems to buff the raid. They have no damage reduction outisde of the 16k stoneclaw which can be reason to not bring them into progression.

If I were to choose between the 2, I would take the boomkin for the utility they can bring to a raid.

[Shawman]

Going to be biased here and vote Elemental Shawman

In all seriousness I like their play style of quick strikes, heavy burst, lots o' crits and a fairly decent mobility, especially with the lightning bolt glyph.

I've never played a Boomchicken so I can't speak for them.

Oh, and Elemental's mastery is just awesome- nothing like watching a hundred bolts of lightning flying all over the screen!

[biggslimm]

Nice... guy asks for pros and cons between ele/boomkin and the only person who bothers responding ignores the question asked to post 'so rowl a maeg lul'.

If you are going to criticize a response you should actually read it first.

OT: I find that Boomkins bring more utility and more damage currently.

[mistuhbull]

Ele has IMO one of the most well made "rotations". It flows and is intuitive. The only other caster I have played that can match the beauty that is ele "rotation" is Affliction.

[AnanWalker]

Any opinion is appreciate.

[AnanWalker]

How about single target which one is better?