In the last 3 days alone, I've been absolutely certain that I'm playing as a Hunter, then Priest, now perhaps Warrior.
The answer, my friend, lies before you. Don't be afraid to reach out and grasp it ;)
Light guide you, William.
Get away from me! Perverted old crone!
You must have played in a very competitive guild if your guild lead wanted to kick druids for not placing themselves (high enough) on heal meters. I would never join a guild that treats people like that.
Leadership had changed and no longer was there a Druid class lead. To them they'd heard that Druids are healers and if the Druids are placing dead last on the meters it means they are bad players, not that the five million holy Paladins we had were sniping their heals. I mean, even Selexin countered claiming he'd placed highly, right? The leadership hadn't thought it through that maybe Selexin's situation was different and that our own Druids were at an extreme disadvantage. We were probably bringing too many healers (we were on farm by this point), but it is telling to know that the ones seen as unnecessary, lazy, and ec were the Druids.
Druid would probably be my least favourite choice for 5 mans as well and playing a (hybrid) druid I would rather tank or play the wildcard (off-dps, off-tank, off-heal), but it's definitely doable, especially if the group doesn't suck and / or if there's a shadow priest, dps shaman or ret paladin as well - I mean, we are talking about 5 mans after all, not Naxxramas, right? *wink*
True that we are not talking about Naxxramas, but as I said before we have a differing viewpoint on how important 5-mans are. In my experience they're just a small stepping stone - like gnome's engineering racial is nice but you'll get to 300 anyway. My viewpoint is that many Warriors can tank 5-mans, but don't have the skills to step up and be a solid MT. If being a Druid sets you back a whole skill level to sit you on par with sub-par Warriors, that is the class's fault and not your own. Of course this is my opinion and you're free to disagree with it, but it may resonate with some readers who are on the fence.
I'd wager that druids are still unmatched as flag carriers thanks to their high mobility, anti-snare, anti-polymorph and high survivability in general.
Stuns and fears are a major nuisance, but which class is better suited to deal with it as a FC?
Frost mages have more counters to both stuns and fears. They even have a method for dealing with death coil (ice block), and blinking (also removes stuns) out of the flag room may prevent the cast if quick enough due to LoS altogether. And if Horde, UD frost mages have WotF.
I agree that druids aren't exactly the biggest threat in PvP, even though with the right (hybrid) gear (Feralheart, Genesis, PvP sets) and increased damage output they become quite dangerous.
Any class with more gear than their opponent is going to be a monster in PvP. I don't want to be standing next to an Enhancement Shaman with Hand of Rag when I'm in greens either.
As Selexin wrote, druids may not excel in any role, but it's still a long stretch from not being perfect to "being weak".
It isn't the Druid itself that makes it weak, it's by comparison to what all the classes around it can do okay and what they can do extremely well. The other classes aren't one trick ponies either - they do a lot with many ways of uniquely dealing with situations, while still retaining something that they're the best at. People are creating mains right now, and they ought to know that the returns a Druid gets for effort is not going to match up to the other classes. They make great alts and are fun to level, but at 60 things aren't so smooth.
For someone that is leveling more than one character while multiboxing, leveling a Druid doesn't make sense unless he already knows he loves Druids. He seems to be using it to support the Warrior's leveling, and for that one of the other healing classes would be better. Druids' big strength they bring to the table is their mobility, and that doesn't help any of their allies until TBC.
What's up with the huge number of warlocks? Even more than warriors or mages!
Warlock is a tasty class for min-maxers to pick when they've never played one to high level before. A god in PvP, great raid damage, utility, solo prospects, good leveler...
Play style that somehow drives the majority of players away?
I don't expect the forecasted warlocks to all make it.
True that we are not talking about Naxxramas, but as I said before we have a differing viewpoint on how important 5-mans are.
I don't think I said anything about the importance of 5 mans in terms of tanking - only that druids make very good 5 man tanks.
Personally I enjoy tanking dungeons for a change from (raid) healing, especially since there always seems to be a lack of dungeon tanks.
They even have a method for dealing with death coil (ice block) (...)
I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that abilities like paladin's bubble and mage's ice block let them drop the flag, which is always a risk.
Any class with more gear than their opponent is going to be a monster in PvP. I don't want to be standing next to an Enhancement Shaman with Hand of Rag when I'm in greens either.
I didn't mean better gear compared to their opponents, but gear that's better suited for a balanced playstyle.
A druid in hybrid gear will do considerably more damage (both physical & magical) than in healing gear.
People are creating mains right now, and they ought to know that the returns a Druid gets for effort is not going to match up to the other classes. They make great alts and are fun to level, but at 60 things aren't so smooth.
As I said before: I would never recommend playing a druid if you want to excel in a certain role.
I like being versatile, that's why I'm going to main a druid (with hybrid spec) - and I'm getting a lot (fun!) out of playing one.
But as a wise man (or was it a woman?) once said: It's okay to disagree.
Quite interesting to see the differences in polls between this one, the Reddit's one and the MMO Champion's one.
The number of wars is expected, however a fair number of them won't stick to the class (based on my observations).
The number of warlocks in this poll is quite insane. UD warlocks have always been a thing though. The fact that there are more people wanting to roll a druid or a hunt than a rogue is unexpected too.
On the Reddit poll, I'm really surprised to see that many players intending to play shaman. That may be due to that one private server where you're instant 60 and can easily be BiS Naxx, resulting in a large number of Ele shamans zerging those poor ally lads. I hope they don't think they will own the world when they're fresh 60.
But overall, given the many years that WoW has, the numbers are normal. And don't worry, despite the large amount of wars, you will still struggle to find a tank at times. Tanking in Vanilla as a war is not exactly a fairy tale during leveling and as a fresh 60. Besides, many wars just want to dps.
PS : the link to the poll on MMO Champion. https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/2441187-What-class-are-you-planning-on-playing?highlight=poll
On the debat around the viability of druids in Vanilla, in my guild back then, we had a druid feral who was the second off tank. He could easily main tanked the 20 raids. We also had him main tank Ragnaros on our first down (we found out that feral druid were better than warriors on him). He also did this job on Vael, Broodlord or Majordomo. And countless off tanking.
In 5-10 dungeons, they were the deal. As a war dps, aggro wasn't an issue with a druid, whereas with a war, it could be difficult at times (especially in the beginning of fights).
Feral druids who want to tank have to dedicate more than warriors, but it is still doable.
People are creating mains right now, and they ought to know that the returns a Druid gets for effort is not going to match up to the other classes. They make great alts and are fun to level, but at 60 things aren't so smooth.
As I said before: I would never recommend playing a druid if you want to excel in a certain role.
I like being versatile, that's why I'm going to main a druid (with hybrid spec) - and I'm getting a lot (fun!) out of playing one.
This totally depends on what you mean by ”return” and by ”fun”. If all you think about is topping damage meters you can’t roll a Hunter either, and healing meters all the same. That’s one of the reasons I despise such meters, there are a lot of things such as CC, removing debuffs and so on, which can’t be measured. There were several times I played with my mage friend who cared so much about damage meters he often just jumped in and Arcane Explosioned everything. When you were on the right mood that could be fun, even good, but if the healer or the tank (I’ve played all roles, also not-topping dmg dealer in such groups) didn’t enjoy him taking so much freedom just for the sake of damage meters he could just not heal/taunt to teach him a lesson. That was really off-topic. But what I wanted to say is that stuff like shifting out casting an innervate then shifting back in between packs is just not something that will ever show up on a meter, but if the group finishes their goal smoothly all is good right?
Based on the below raid composition posted on a Horde guild recruit page, I think we need a lot less druids a LOT more shamans (1 per group apparently).
Incredible, 1 druid, 8 shamans, 6 fury warriors, 6 frost mages, 6 warlocks. Only 3 holy priests. I remember some of my old MC raids back in vanilla, with 11 warriors and 11 holy priests! Hahah
the amount of locks needed for roster seems a bit too high compared to what I have experienced.
I'd love to go Lock or Hunter, because I like the class fantasy. However, having mained rogue since vanilla stealth has become part of my play style.
I'd love to go rogue, but just DPSing isn't really what I want to do. I want to be useful, not fight for groups and drops. So I've been thinking Druid, but I like PVP, and it seems druids require a lot of effort to kill things. I may like it, but we'll see.
So yeah. I don't know yet.
Based on the below raid composition posted on a Horde guild recruit page, I think we need a lot less druids a LOT more shamans (1 per group apparently).
Incredible, 1 druid, 8 shamans, 6 fury warriors, 6 frost mages, 6 warlocks. Only 3 holy priests. I remember some of my old MC raids back in vanilla, with 11 warriors and 11 holy priests! Hahah
What even is this garbage. Nobody please ever refer to this. It's super dumb.
Edit: Not flaming Selexin. But this whole comp thing is A. dumb because there's no such thing as THE optimal comp, there are just ones that are good and those that are less good in a general sense, and B. there's a lot of stupid shit in this.
Gensei don't worry I agree with you. When I saw this, I took a screenshot and left their forum.
Incredible, 1 druid, 8 shamans, 6 fury warriors, 6 frost mages, 6 warlocks. Only 3 holy priests. I remember some of my old MC raids back in vanilla, with 11 warriors and 11 holy priests! Hahah
From my experience, this setup is far from perfect as you have noticed. Too many locks, one druid too few, not enough rogues and not enough priests. I'd also say there are too many fury warriors. If my memory serves right, fury warrior in raid team A was each warrior's wet dream, but maybe two made it there.
I have fond memory of my druid friend joining our guild pretty late. He was one of two druids on his first MC run and the other guy had good gear already. He walked out that night with half of T1. So druids have that going for them - not much competition.
Paladin because nothing is more fun to kill Horde Warriors ;)
if the real class ratios are anything like this poll we are going to run out of demons
if the real class ratios are anything like this poll we are going to run out of demons
Based off of polls and discussions I've seen on other sites, new / less experienced players are less likely to pick warlock. So I wouldn't bet on this poll being completely accurate to the population in Classic.