4x Druids

[Mosg2]

Now that my DK+Rets are fairly well geared out I'm considering another team more focused for rated BG's.

I was thinking of Druids. I love my Rogues at 68, but I hate not being 100% self-sufficient as a PvE team. Having no heals, no ability to tank and no rez makes me steer away from them. There's always ways to work on your PvP gear with PvE :/

The other consideration was 4x Warlocks and a Shaman healer. You'd get fear protection, nice mitigation, and awesome ranged damage.

I'm just thinking about what would be fun, manageable, and competitive as a BG team:

5x Druids (Probably Ferlol)
4x Warlocks/1x Shaman
4x Rogues/1x Druid

[Ualaa]

I'm going with 5x Druids and 1x Disc + 4x Warlock, one per faction, for battleground PvP.



The Warlocks/Shaman, get totems and rez (plus self rez and soul stones).
I like Disc as the healer more, for eventual mobility when the locks can move to affliction as they gear up.

I'll start a mix of Demonology and Destruction. Have not decided which yet. I like the idea of 4x Felguards and Soul Link. But then Shadow Fury on round robin, can be nice too.

Eventually, with enough gearing, I'd like to go Affliction entirely or mostly. Very mobile, never needing to stop moving. Priest can heal, while mobile... well druid could too. Go with Soul Linked Felhounds, for fun against casters.



The druids, can run 5x or 4x, I would go 5x even if you'll pvp with them as a 4x group.
You could run them as Feral or Balance in pvp, either would be quite decent.
Quest and do dailies the same all DPS specs.
But run Feral + Tree + 3x DPS, through PvE, for a full set of badge PvP gear, a step above pure honor gear and a step below current arena gear.

5x Druids would be very devastating as flag runners in EotS or WSG.
Boomkin gets you ranged dps, strong armor, typhoon on round robin, cyclone/root, etc.
Feral gets you IWT spam to negate pillar humping.
You'd stealth kitties as either, but Feral would be the better at it.
Both would have B.Rez on round robin, Tranquility, etc.

[asonimie]

Warlocks are a blast to play. I'm startin to play mine again today (full deadly/furious gear) after grinding my rogues gear for 2 weeks.

I don't agree with the druid idea tho. I think they look great on paper and against a test dummy... but in practice it's one of those things that just doesnt click. Just my opinion.

[cmeche]

I tried AV on my lvl 69ish 4x Boomkin team and found it very lacking compared to my shaman team at that lvl. I can't comment on how they would be at 80, but getting nice aoe healing + aoe dps with shaman is hard to beat. Plus having to pop out of Boomkin to heal is fricken annoying. I am prob playing them wrong......but shamans were just sooo much more fun/easier to play.

I do love the the fact that druids can stealth though. Comes in handy during some situations.

[Mokoi]

Warlocks are a blast to play. I'm startin to play mine again today (full deadly/furious gear) after grinding my rogues gear for 2 weeks.

I don't agree with the druid idea tho. I think they look great on paper and against a test dummy... but in practice it's one of those things that just doesnt click. Just my opinion.

I agree on the druids, they seem like a great idea, but.. in practice, they were very underwhelming. Go with what you want though =) I can imagine 4-5x feral in gear would be pretty devastating.

[Ualaa]

I would think druids would rock in battlegrounds, partially because of the randomness of battlegrounds and partially because of the plethora of tools they have at their disposal.

I agree, they lack focused burst, which takes away from their power in something like arena. If Nature's Swiftness applied to any druid spell (Starfire as well as Wrath), they would have similar burst to the Shammies Elemental Mastery combo.

They lack the fear protection, that stacked Tremors get.
They cannot self rez, once per toon, when everyone is dead.
They do not have grounding totems vs casters.
They don't have the passive healing from healing stream totems.

They do have similar levels of armor to the shammies, but need to drop the armor to heal.
Typhoon on round-robin, is similar to Thunderstorm.

They have two instant cast dots, which like warlocks do not require facing.
Both groups (druids or warlocks) are much more vulnerable to fear then shammies, but they can attack to a degree despite facing.
Also, Wrath is a much faster casting spell then Lightning Bolt, so Druids are much more mobile.
Rejuvenation and Lifebloom are heals which can be cast on the move.

Druids have Cyclone and Entangling Roots for crowd control effects.
Druids have stealth, which Shammies and Warlocks do not have.
They have AoE power between Hurricane and Starfall.
Between shifting from travel form to cat form, they are one of the best flag runners.

It depends on the game and battleground, and the opposition.
They won't do nearly as well in arena, but that is their lack of burst.
In any battleground with some level of cover, they can Starfire, Moonfire and Insect Swarm, which are all spells without travel time, so they cannot be found by tracking where the spells are coming from.

I think they'll do quite well in battlegrounds, as opposed to arena.
But play differently.

[Crel]

5x druids are fun, can do dailies, heroics and pvp. Feral is viable as a sneak class that could devastate bg's like av and possibly ab. However ppl confuse the fact that because they can dps tank and heal, that they do them all well at the same time. My vote goes for feral more for large bg's or world pvp, otherwise go locks and priests for teh dot bomb.

[Stealthy]

I would think druids would rock in battlegrounds, partially because of the randomness of battlegrounds and partially because of the plethora of tools they have at their disposal.

I agree, they lack focused burst, which takes away from their power in something like arena. If Nature's Swiftness applied to any druid spell (Starfire as well as Wrath), they would have similar burst to the Shammies Elemental Mastery combo.

They lack the fear protection, that stacked Tremors get.
They cannot self rez, once per toon, when everyone is dead.
They do not have grounding totems vs casters.
They don't have the passive healing from healing stream totems.

They do have similar levels of armor to the shammies, but need to drop the armor to heal.
Typhoon on round-robin, is similar to Thunderstorm.

They have two instant cast dots, which like warlocks do not require facing.
Both groups (druids or warlocks) are much more vulnerable to fear then shammies, but they can attack to a degree despite facing.
Also, Wrath is a much faster casting spell then Lightning Bolt, so Druids are much more mobile.
Rejuvenation and Lifebloom are heals which can be cast on the move.

Druids have Cyclone and Entangling Roots for crowd control effects.
Druids have stealth, which Shammies and Warlocks do not have.
They have AoE power between Hurricane and Starfall.
Between shifting from travel form to cat form, they are one of the best flag runners.

It depends on the game and battleground, and the opposition.
They won't do nearly as well in arena, but that is their lack of burst.
In any battleground with some level of cover, they can Starfire, Moonfire and Insect Swarm, which are all spells without travel time, so they cannot be found by tracking where the spells are coming from.

I think they'll do quite well in battlegrounds, as opposed to arena.
But play differently.

Pretty much this. In BG's & WG they are very much a run & gun play style, as opposed to the turret defense play style of shammies.

Their lack of burst is noticable against certain classes (e.g.: resto druids with full HoT's, pain suppressed disc priests etc), where shammies can purge / brute force through quite easily.

Apart from AoE fear, they are also vulnerable to direct damage spells (which shams can negate with grounding totems) - if you aren't HoT'd up, you can easily be focus fired down before your HoTs start ticking...

Thier AoE is great though - multiple Starfall's followed by Hurricanes will rip through groups very quickly.

I've found Starfire isn't that effective - the cast time is so long that it gives opposing players time to move our of range or counter it. Dotting poeple up and finishing them off with wrath works well though.

All up they are fun team to play and give a me refreshing change of pace when I get a bit tired of playing my shammies.

I'd recommend them as a backup team rather than a primary team however...

Cheers,
S.