I know the sort of Druids you're talking about. Just sit there, toss out the occasional damage over time spell that hardly even gets to tick before the target dies, don't really contribute in any fashion anyone can notice...waste of space. A badly-played Druid is down there with a lazy Wizard. If a player wants to phone it in and still contribute meaningfully, make a Rogue.
A Druid who stays active can do enough to justify his presence. It's a fair enough healer to get the job done if you don't have a Cleric or the Shaman's overworked. Optionally the Druid can provide the Cleric a safety net in groups where monsters are running around due to someone else failing or where the puller keeps pulling even if the Cleric is pleading for a mana break. Having both Snare and Root allows for satisfactorily effective crowd control. Druids can contribute to spell interrupts, have fair (not great, but tolerable) spell damage potential, and generally have a wide enough toolset to fill in most jobs the group might need help with. In specific situations there's also Harmony pulling, Charm (very powerful somewhere like Kael Drakkel), and evac's if needed.
It's not one of the min-max grouping classes, but so what? Grouping isn't that tightly tuned in this game anyway. Heck, Enchanters and Shamans can solo most so-called group content. I rate the player as generally more important than the class; a moderately-balanced group composed of motivated players will nearly always do better than a "perfect" group composed of half-effort slackers.
Danth
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