Bill Kelly

Should you roll a Druid?



Posted: Friday, February 06, 2009

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Are you Druid material? The World of Warcraft offers many choices in both race and class when it comes to creating a character. Of them all the Druid class is the most challenging and most rewarding. I consider Druids the Quarterbacks of the World of Warcraft.

With the Druid you have the ability to play and fill several roles within the game. The tired expression Druid: jack of all trades - master of none is both outdated and inaccurate. As the class continues to grow and change the modern druid, especially with the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, is a major force to be reckoned with. Gone are the days when Druids were laughed at and ignored as a serious threat. The era of the Druid is upon us and more and more players are looking to take advantage of this previously overlooked class.

The very thing that makes the Druid such a fun class to play is the same thing that makes it hard to learn; versatility. While most classes in World of Warcraft typically will have one job or role to fill in the game the Druid has several. In a situation where the warrior has only tanking to worry about, or the mage only damage, the druid may play the part of damage dealer, spell caster, healer, and crowd controller all at the same time. Learning how to play a Druid really well involves patience, moment to moment situational assessment, the ability to prioritize tasks on the fly and the ability to be in the right form, at the right place, at the right time. Anyone can play a Druid poorly, it takes someone special to play one really well!

In a group situation, be it casually grouping for quests or running dungeons and instances, youll need to be open to what the group needs. Will you be a healer keeping those around you in the fight? What about a tank or melee role romping around in the form of a Bear of Cat? How about a spell casting Balance Druid dropping spells all about you and leaving a trail of waste and destruction? The answer is youll probably be all three, and more. If your main tank goes down you may need to pop into bear and stabilize the situation while the priest rezzes the tank, or if your groups mage gets wacked you may flip over into Moonkin and start dealing damage with offensive spells. If the priest gets into trouble youll need to switch your attention again and either help him heal out of the situation or, more often than not, rez the priest yourself. The good Druid will constantly be on the move, switching in and out of forms on the fly and filling in the gaps the instant they appear.

On the solo hunting side the Druid is a master. With the ability to do it all from damage to crowd control to healing the Druid can be a one man killing machine. In fact, Id argue that because Druids were such an undervalued class in the past is the reason why there are so many top notch high level Druids running around today. When Druids were once forced to hunt on their own (no one wanted to group with them!) they honed their skills in the wild. The players that could not play a druid well solo eventually quit the class. With tons of practice at killing mobs and keeping themselves alive those young Druids that made it are now the masters running top end Raids, high end Arena teams and causing havoc in the battlegrounds. Thanks for reading!

Bill spends way too much time running Druids, Hunters and Priests around the Battlegrounds and Arenas of World of Warcraft. Chances are you'll find him running amok in game or adding to his websites at WoWDruid.com and HunterPvP.com.
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