Shaman vs. DruidFollow

I'm not positive about druids, but Shamans probably melee/cast a little. The totems are decent at low levels, but at higher levels most of the totems are nearly useless.

One difference is there are no Alliance Shaman, you have to go Horde if you want to be one.

Some beta people thought Shaman was the best thing since sliced bread and hated Druids. Shaman need to use the proper totems in the proper instances.

Anyway, I love Druids and will be playing a Night Elf Druid myself. Shapeshifting is cool and lends a whole new aspect to the hack/slash play that most other classes have.

I have read the class descripions on the WoW page and other random websites. It answers most of my questions, but I was trying to get a little gameplay info from a beta player. Thank you for suggesting though.

I was trying to get a little insight how the average gameplay of the class' are.

For instance, while grouping, what are the more common roles of the 2 class' from what you folks noticed in beta?

With a combination of spells and melee, which class tends to have higher dps and/or melee better? From what I have read, it seems shaman melee better but I have not seen much about the cat form for druid and its melee potential.

My view of Druid and Shaman is that both Druid and shaman can do pretty much everything, but Druid can do everything better than Shaman, heal, damage, tank. The catch is, Druid can only do one thing at a time, tank in bear form, heal in biped form, deal damage in cat form, and can't do all three at once like a shaman.

Dunno, that's the way I see it, I could be -totally- wrong, since my view is that of a relatively low lvl - didn't get that high in beta.

EDIT - Yeah, ***** that, I am totally wrong.

Edited, Mon Nov 22 17:42:46 2004 by Cheesybeef

Shamans are better melee/tanks than druids.
Shamans are possibly better nukers than druids.
They are about equal when it comes to healing, all things considered.

IMHO, shamans are over-powered and druids are under-powered, but some people feel differently.

On the old beta boards someone actually parsed their cat form damage and their druid form damage.. and druid form was higher DPS. That is the reason people don't talk much about cat form DPS.

What druids need (from a consensus of many druids)

1) More armor in bear form and/or shields
2) Cat form needs a finisher that is a DD not a DOT
3) Form damage needs to scale up or their needs to be items that scale up the form damage
4) Ability to shift directly from cat to bear and not have to be a druid in the middle.
5) Lower shifting cost so it doesn't chew up all your mana.

/bump

Can I get a set?

I played a Shaman to level 34, and a Druid to level 29.

My big mistake saying druid can wear mail, that was a huge error on my part.

Except you didn't answer the poor mans question, but I can easily assume you were telling him shaman own the druids.

It's true. :D

And as far as the lat paragraph. I can quote 90% of that from people on the WoW forums and Vault that are level 60 shaman's. I'm sure the shamans that killed you in pvp were of much higher level or just purge nuke nuke nuke earth shock, lightning shield, whack whack whack, heal, and continue on.

/agree, if you spent even a minute reading th edruid forums when OB was still up youd know how bad they have it, at best, even if they spec restoration, there only half a healer, there tanking abilities as stated above r less then adiquate, and there dps as a cat is like a rogue using no weapon.

I was bored one day, and went to Thottbot, i checked the highest armor for a druid not using the staff that adds 260 armor. The highest i found was around 1660, no with bear form, it adds 125% of that when u shift into it, so your at around 3500, and if you spec feral, you can jack it up to a maybe 3800, now compare thaqt to ne war lvl 60, and they have 5k ATLEAST.

Now if you still say a druid is an equal tank, u r delirious, or on some drug. They r about 75%-80% of a healer, caster, tank, and dps, but overal they are very underpowered.

Comparing a druid to a shaman is like say, hey c that broken down car with one headlight, and 3 tires, i bet it can beat that escalade if they went head to head, and off-road.

LOL. NVM. The above posters pretty much covered it. ^^


Edited, Mon Nov 22 18:52:15 2004 by Palison

Edited, Mon Nov 22 18:55:01 2004 by Palison

Umm, a shaman is NOT the equal of a druid in healing. Its heals are far less mana efficient, and do less total healing. Shaman's 1 advantage in healing is a good 1.5s heal. Overall I'd take a priest or druid as a healer before I took a shaman. Shamans should be used for their damage and versatility, not for their healing power.

"By definition, Druids are tanks, Shaman are not. At high levels Druid Bear form is considered an equal counterpart to the warrior class with the addition of having the ability to heal."

no. wrong. actually, the dire bear form only helps with some catch-up (b/c at about 40 your lvl 10 form is seriously lagging behind its parent class), and is in no way comparable to a warrior of a similar level. remember, at 40 shamans get a large armor boost w/ mail, and warriors get an even better boost w/ plate. in fact, the dire form was regarded by most druids throughout the cb as mostly worthless. remember to that that awesome armor increase we see in bear form is often less than the amount of armor granted by shields; so at lvl 60, your bear form is giving you the armor of your warrior's shield... not to mention that plate armor good old warrior's slapped on.

"If you want to tank and at the same time be a hybrid then go druid, but groups will only want you to tank for them. "

wrong. groups will always want you for the buffs (motw is, as we all know, touted as "the best buff in the game") and as a healer/melee class (healer first). part of the appeal of a druid is that, more so than with a priest, they can take care of themselves if aggroed, but not that they can draw and hold aggro constantly, or even take on multiple mobs as a tank and then hold that hate while they're being healed. moonfire is always appreciated, and when outside an instance, as is your roots. most druids will tell you that you enjoy only a short window in which you can tank anywhere near efficiently as a pally or war.

"Druids are supposed to be the more powerful hybrid healing class but in reality most of their extra healing powers require them to focus on the healing which eliminates them as being healers in combat, and makes them a tank by default."

i disagree. regrowth and healing touch are, raw and un-modded, really powerful heals. if you take regrowths insta heal and its heal over time, then you wind up with a really serious healing spell.

"ressurect the whole team if they all die in a dungeon, thus giving them a second chance"

here's where the druid v. shaman argument is weak: shamans are a mix between palladins (like with ancestral spirit rezzing and all) and something rather like druids. they aren't druids, and they aren't the "horde palladin." so no, a druid can only rez one person at a go, but that's because the alliance already has a palladin to be a tank/rezzer, if needed, and the horde has the shaman.


"Shaman are a much more ranged combat class, but in general shaman are not a melee class, nor a tank class. Shaman are as known, a jack-of-all trades. They can do a bit of everything and the reason people call them 'over-powered' is because they CAN do everything. But the thing is, shaman dont do one specific thing really well. They just do everything okay. They aren't amazing tanks, they aren't the best healers, they don't pull well, and they have very limited buff options."

except that a shamn does more melee dps at high levels than a druid, b/c the druid is staying clear of their forms (which do less dps). and shaman have better armore at high levels than the caster druid (mail v. leather). this last part sounds almost like you could replace shaman with druid and get what everybody is saying about druids (and in my experience druids are just what these people say they are: mediocre at everything). granted, druids have a better buff than shaman, and have some nice pulls like moonfire and faerie fire. but even then, that's barely an edge on the shaman.

generally people draw with a shaman because the shammy has a really nice getaway trick by lvl 20: earth totems + spirit wolf. people loose against a shammy, especially a tauren shammy, because imh experience, a shammy is generally doing greater dps than a druid and other casters or caster hybrids... they do damage comparable to, but not the same as, a pally... a lot of people were still underestimating the shaman by the end of ob. also... another reason people loose frequently to a shaman is cause the wolf form is not only fast, but consistantly fast (unlike dash, or flee or whatever) so that the shammy can hunt you down.

i actually think the two classes are pretty even until lvl 40, though.


EDIT: clarit, contradicted myself cause in the frenzy of typing, i mis-edited.

Edited, Mon Nov 22 19:13:22 2004 by sheapearce

Quit posting the same crap. A SHAMAN is much better at EVERYTHING in this game than any Druid any day. LMAO who said a Druid is a tank? I play on PvP server and they are ALWAYS the first to fall. I ran solo to lvl 32 and by no means did I get a chance to play the highend game yet, but I can tell you I know a few peeps who have that were Shaman and were very rarely beat BY ANYONE. A Shaman is a very powerfull class handsdown. I think we will probly get the shaft soon when all the kids start getting OWNT in release by Shamans in PvP. And to the poster who said in the highend game that totems are useless? wtf are u an Alliance member or have you ever played this game? Totems are the bloodline of a Shaman and any member in his party at ANY lvl would be thrilled to have them on the ground during battle you can betcha ballz on that one. Shamans can Tank, they can heal,they can nuke, they can dot,they can buff(totems) they can pull agro, they do have high dps when geared right. Just ask the 37 pally I ran into =P. Anyways choose what your gonna have fun with but know that if you do play a Shaman on a PvP server your head will have a huge pricetag on it at any battle. You will be targeted first every time I know I was.