Saw an interesting conversation in EC about Druids.

[Flunklesnarkin]

I usually group with anybody.. but i can tell you today.. i seen a lot of druids lfg..

ended up grouped with 3 druids in same group at one point. (and im a cleric)

[Wayfarin]

Ok Question for you all. Friends play a bard and a warrior, we are levelling together.
Is my druid going to be fine healing them at higher levels (14 at the moment) Or is it actually going to go a lot slower?

I'm seeing the bard as being on slow duty.
I can't see a huge mana efficiency difference between Clerics and Druids, unless you are just going to rock out 1 CH a battle and ride on that?

Looking over the spell lists it doesnt look like things will start to change until 40s (shaman have canni and clerics have CH).
Thoughts? I'm not HUGE on what class I play really. thought druid would be good with bard, giving us the ability to kite, but I don't want us to be feeble in tanking situations at higher end.

[Diggles]

Bards are complete utility. Regen, Clarity, Melee chant, movement, all of that.

Druids are *ok* healers, clerics will always be top but you can make due, it's just going to require a lot more med periods.

[Diggles]

The thing is about druids, they do a bunch of things, they just dont excel at them (except some buffs). They'll never dps as hard as a wiz, they'll never heal as good as a cleric, and they'll never be able to kite as well as a bard/wiz-(dunno if this is true, I never have quadded on a wizard)

[Flash]

Originally Posted by Diggles [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

The thing is about druids, they do a bunch of things, they just dont excel at them (except some buffs). They'll never dps as hard as a wiz, they'll never heal as good as a cleric, and they'll never be able to kite as well as a bard/wiz-(dunno if this is true, I never have quadded on a wizard)

So why does everyone think this makes them bad? Versatility beats specialization in a lot of cases, especially in a game like this. It's not just specialize or solo, there's room for unique snowflakes too.

[Diggles]

Because there are other classes that have more versatility. A group will take a bard over a druid because it can provide the druid's half and more. I'm pretty sure a bard can even out dps a druid while twisting

[socialist]

Is it true that they're usually not wanted in a group past 35

Druids have no place in the optimal group setup, but since they're pretty versatile and few groups are optimal, druids are alright for most things. The less perfect the group, the better a druid fits in due to their versatility. People who are doing something very challenging or have the luxury of picking any class for their group probably won't want/need a druid.

[Flash]

Originally Posted by socialist [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Druids have no place in the optimal group setup, but since they're pretty versatile and few groups are optimal, druids are alright for most things. The less perfect the group, the better a druid fits in due to their versatility. People who are doing something very challenging or have the luxury of picking any class for their group probably won't want/need a druid.

Optimal groups can be more than 6 specialist. It doesn't HAVE to be one tank, one healer, one crowd control and 3 damage dealers. Versatility has its place in min-maxing.

[Taminy]

Originally Posted by Flash [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Optimal groups can be more than 6 specialist. It doesn't HAVE to be one tank, one healer, one crowd control and 3 damage dealers. Versatility has its place in min-maxing.

I would agree than cleric/tank/cc/3 dps isn't the best group.

I'd actually say it's cleric/tank/cc/backup healer/2 dps. But shaman are a much better backup healer than druids - as was already pointed out. On the other hand when I was leveling to 60 (I'm a warrior), I never turned down druids for groups unless we had 2 or 3 healers already. I was never into forming absolutely perfect groups. I think those people tend to spend too much time LFG only to log off or they have cleric/warrior/monk/enchanter/rogue/rogue then die because of a bad pull or respawn and the cleric can't heal the tank and the enchanter at the same time.

However, I did a lot of duoing from 51-60 with my shaman friend which was faster xp than any group - and when we invited a druid along for a trio, the experience was god awful...

[Diggles]

I'm sigging this.

Also, there are no limits in min maxing, since it's for raiding.