Thinking about changing my class.

[Kazrilos]

As simple as it says, I'm thinking about changing my class. I'm quite happy as a warrior right now; and I feel I can do well as one. I certainly do not do badly. However, I want to feel like I can fall back onto another class should the situation ever require it, and sometimes, especially since 3.2, I've felt like warriors are still doing well, but outclassed. Especially during my yesterday raid in Ulduar where I really felt I was being hit extraordinarily harder than usual.

Blizzard's words on how they do not want to buff an overpopulated class, even if they somewhat need it, disturbs me, and I want to be able to have another tank class if I ever feel I really need to change.

My problem is that I feel Death Knights are undergoing a continuous buff and nerf cycle and I don't feel that playing one is wise at the moment, from a tanking perspective. My other problem is that Paladins, who I keep hearing are the kings of tanking (I don't care how true this statement is), I don't want to play because I find their rotations and tanking style to be monotomous and I can't be bothered with such dull playing. Also I don't believe that if they are the Gods of tanking that they will stay up on their high-tower forever. I get the feeling one day they're going to be hit with a nerf that will upset many players. I don't know if that's true, but I don't feel like risking it.

That leaves me down to a Druid tank, and I've been curious about Druid tanking for a long time now. On my server, EU-Blade's Edge, there's ONE Druid tank that I ever see. He doesn't do badly, but he's one of these foreign players who hardly ever says a word and I doubt ever really read up on classes when he chose it.

I recently read that "Paladins are the best tank, Druids are the second best" in various wordings around various forums. Of course these are just statements that haven't been backed up with any evidence at all, and I want to know for sure that (especially since 3.2)... are Druid tanks useful? Do they perform well? Are they difficult to heal in a heavy hitting encounter like Vezax? Generally, can they tank as well as the raid would like them to.

Not seeing any at all since the beginning of TBC, I find it hard to answer these questions myself and I would appreicate input from others, both people who play with/as a Druid tank and especially people who heal one as either MT or OT.

Regardless of people who think they're bad or good, I'd like to hear input from players and decide for myself whether or not I shall continue levelling my 61 druid into Feral, or have him as Resto.

And I don't want anyone to post about how much they feel for their Paladin and Death Knight, I'm not asking about them. I want to know the opinions of Druid tanks.

[Thornupurass]

I play a druid got him to 80 and he has got 31k unbuffed i can tank naxx and uld with my 10 man group threat is good, dodge is good and health is good its considered one of the best or the best main tank. most of the higher progression guilds on my server have a druid main tank. It is a good choice. i have played warrior aswell and overall druid is a much better playstyle and due to your server not having any druid tanks you can show them how good it is

[insertname]

I love my druid, but I love it for its flexibility, not necessarily for the tanking ability. I'm resto/feral and heal/dps more than I tank. i have tanked naxx, but not ulduar, so take my comments with a grain of salt. First, my impression is that Blizz has in fact managed to get all the tanks relatively close to each other, and should they get very far apart they will most likely be adjusted. Druids probably have a slight edge in time to live because of larger health pool and possibly slightly higher mitigation. they may retain this slight edge for a bit because druid tanks are an underplayed spec and further nerfing - although possibly warranted - may effectively make the spec virtually disappear. With that in mind, I'd say druid tanks are in a pretty good place. Mitigation and health are great. Threat is good, even aoe threat since the swipe change. However, I think there are more important reasons to consider than effectiveness, since at the end of the day I don't think the differences there are that big. I think you need to consider play style, class roles and flavor: Play style - my impression is that Druid tanks have the simplest rotation of all the tanks: our emergency buttons are limited, our key skills are few and the rotation repetitive. This is not necessarily bad. I'm not a great player, I like simple. I find this style suits me and allows me to be a decent tank. But I understand Warriors have the largest "bag of tricks" of all the tanks. If you like the complexity of the warrior tank you will not enjoy druid tanking. class roles - druids shine in the other class roles. You will find that you are asked to heal and if you like complex rotations look no further than cat DPS. So if you go druid you may find yourself tanking less, just because the other roles are more fun or more needed. flavor - this is a small thing, but it affects some people. If you like to see your shiny new gear, you'll be unhappy with druid tanking. Even with the new forms, you'll be staring at your own furry butt 90% of the time, so no one will see that awesome staff with the glowy enchant. Now, I love my forms and I rarely am out of one or another. I barely notice what my gear looks like, but if you like your shinies you may find yourself wanting to switch back. So If you like playing more roles than just tanking, are looking for a simpler tanking rotation and enjoy the thought of switching forms more than looking at your gear, then I'd say go for it. But I would not switch based just on efficiency considerations.

[glyakk]

I am also playing a Druid tank and have found that i do as well as every other tanking class out there. This is my first character to 80 and only very recently joined a progression guild, (very excited about that btw). I have done all the Heroics and even against high t8 geared dps i hold aggro very well and have great survivability in basically pre-raid gear. I do apologize since I do now know much about the other tanking classes at end game but am leveling one of each so i will be able to eventually make a better assessment of this.

[Bludzooka]

I played a druid through BC was cat mostly but much more bear towards the end and just about bear all of WOLK. In fact I found playing bear so enjoyable I leveled my warrior to 80 to see what it was like tanking with them and have him pretty geared as well.

Some of the big differences I have found is no shield block, the warrior has like 4 interupts that i can think of, the druid has one with a one minute cool down that can be reduced to 30 sec with 2 talent points.

What I love about the druid is it doesn't seem like I ever have many rage issues and I love and feel spoiled by 360 degree swipe. I think it's better than concecrate because that is a tick damage where I can control how many times I swipe, mainly if you have a new mob coming into the fight one swipe usually grabs them. My rotation it seems is much easier with the druid than warrior.

The last thing since I leveled my warrior I've been working on an ally druid and I love not having to worry about defense rating. And while I'm by far not the best warrior I can't seem to get my dps very high which isn't a big deal as a tank, but I started an 10 man EOE where my warrior was doing like 990 dps, and I brought my bear in and he did 1600 dps, some of that is gear difference between the toons but I think a little maybe class difference.

I'd say go for it, if your druid is 60 you've passed the enduring part of leveling a druid imo.

I'd recommend Herb and Alch. Herb is awesome because you can pick in animal form including bird, and Alch is nice especially with the added buff and duration Alch's get with their own pots and Indestructable Alch Stone at 75 from easy easy mats.