Question about Druid and Shaman

[Tensius]

Quick question for any of you that have played either druid or shaman (or preferrably both): because both of these classes are considered support classes, or hybrid, or whatever you want to call it, I like the thought that these classes offer buffs that can strengthen the team to balance out the fact that they're not as good as any of the parent classes. So, between shaman and druids, which one has better buffs to offer the group?

Which one in your opinion is more fun to play between the two, and why?

[piscene]

I have not played shaman, but I can attest to the fun of the druid. Shapeshifting, tanking as a bear, dps'ing as cat, swimming as aquatic form. Plus you get cool healing spells. It's all good!

[laffncry]

i suggest druid..there are so many things you can do with it. tough it's goes the same for shamans, i just like playing druid. but it's still your choice man. enjoy!:grin:

[Aerath]

Both can buff the group tremendously, with Shamans winning out there imo.

Druids perform better in a 'parent' role - ie. are better @ tanking/healing and roughly equal @ dps as shamans.

However, Shamans function more as a proper hybrid - a druid does one task well, but only one at a time really.

As to which is the most fun... I can't answer that one for you. For me, it's been my druid so far, but recently rolled another shaman (alliance side this time) and it looks like the overhauls the class got since I last touched one has given it a bit of a boost in how much fun it actually is.

[Tensius]

I've only gotten my druid to level 10, so I don't know much yet about how the game plays for them. So far, I've mainly been doing lots of healing, a few Moonfire and Wrath here and there, but mainly healing my Warrior friend (please, let's not get sidetracked into a Warrior vs Druid talk). I love being able to buff him up with Thorns and Mark of the Wild, and I love how I can stop enemies (most of the times) in their track by using Entangling Roots. Those are the things I've enjoyed doing so far.

From what I've read, a druid is more capable of being decent at one thing at a time, more so than a Shaman in that one thing that they spec for, whereas a shaman is more balanced all around (balanced as in a jack-of-all-trade type of balance). So can you druid or shaman players tell me what you normally do within a group? I'm really just trying to understand the things that you guys end up doing, whether it's healing, or buffing, or whatever, because level 1-10 doesn't really show what the rest of the game will be like.

My group will consist of my character (druid or shaman), my warrior friend, a rogue, a mage, and a priest. We're close friends and/or family, so we'll pretty much do everything together and won't have any of the bickering that normally goes on when playing with strangers. I'm making this character purely for the fun of the class, since I won't have to worry about being told how to play or what to do with my character, so I'm trying to make sure I pick the right class.

How many levels do you think I'd have to play either the druid or the shaman to be able to get a feel for the class? From playing my Hunter and from reading tons of info on the other class, it seems to me that level 10 is when things even begin to get remotely interesting, and 20 is when the class start to actually emerge. So I'm assuming by arond 25-30 is when I'd know for sure when a class would be fun or not, but maybe I'm wrong?

[Aerath]

Druids - you're generally brought on board for one specific task. Either to tank, or to heal. I've tanked all but 2 runs in TBC. Exactly one of those runs was filling a 'random' slot as DPS in a PUG (pick up group). The other was a guild run that included a Protection warrior. Druids are 'awesome' in a random slot as they can DPS, Off tank, off heal etc etc, but suffer in the fact that they don't really bring crowd control with them.

Shamans, generally get to fit the DPS slot. You can forget about tanking anything high level. Even off-tanking might give the healer a fit. A Restoration specced Shaman can heal adequately, but I lack the experience to comment on their viability to main heal lvl 70 instances. They offer a tremendous boost to groups through their use of totems, solid dps and quick back up heals and removing debuffs.

You'll need to play a druid to mid twenties at the least, as you don't get cat form till lvl 20 and won't even get most of your abilities till a few more levels... If you go full feral, you should have an idea by the time you filled out Feral Swiftness, which gives you extra movement speed in feral forms.

For a Shaman, again, I'd say level 20ish. By then you've got an idea of what the totems do and how Shamans play in general. Maybe even lvl 30 for some of the big shammy spells.

[Tensius]

So, basically if a shaman is in a group, they usually start out the fight doing melee dps, and then filling other slots as needed, whereas a druid start out either tanking or healing, and then filling other slots as needed? I was thinking that with my group, I'd always start out in (presumably) cat form for melee dps, and then filling slots as needed. So is the shaman dps better than cat form dps in melee?

[Aerath]

Well, as shaman you'd fill all roles at once in a regular 5 man group.
Raids tends to be more specific in tasks for people, so less switching between roles there.

As to the druid, if you're tanking a Big Angry Boss, you are -not- going to be switching out to cast a heal. Said boss would pulp you. Similarly, if you're healing, you won't be focusing on dps as the tank would die without you keeping him alive. Only in the DPS slot will you get to use all abilities as the situation requires.

Shaman DPS and Cat DPS should be pretty comparable. Shamans buff the entire party through their use of totems (and thus up their damage), whilst Druids help the melee classes and alleviate some of the healing needed through Improved Leader of the Pack (a talent) in Feral Spec, and caster classes in Balance spec.