Shaman vs. Druid (Level 1 - 19)

I’m starting a “Versus” series that will share with you my dirty little secrets from my recent bout of altitis. Since my main is a shaman, I’m going to compare the alts I’ve been playing to how it is to play a shammy. Hopefully this will encourage other folks to try out the shaman class — or at the very least give an insight into why the class doesn’t suit your play style.

I’ve been dying (and terrified!) to know how I would do on a PvP server and after reading some posts about what classes do best in PvP, I tried a Rogue and a Druid. Today I’m writing about my PvP Druid, Minnietaur on Gul’Dan server.

On PvP Servers

First, my impressions of the PvP server. There is way more dueling than I’ve ever been exposed to. Everyone duels everyone all the time. I’ve only dueled once so far (I don’t accept duels from people more than 1 level above me at this point) against a level 19 warlock. He pwned me. That Fear spell is the worst. I have to figure out how to counter that on the druid. At least he was nice about it and didn’t taunt me. Which is another thing that seems to be common on this server: trash talking and general jerkiness. “Every dork for himself” kind of atmosphere.

Now, I’m used to the Crossroads being attacked fairly often on Normal and RP servers, but Gul’Dan takes it to an entirely new level. You can hardly see the mailbox for the skeletons piled around it and you have to do a LOT of walking because the flightmaster is almost always dead. I wish there was some way to suppress “The Crossroads is being attacked!!!” in chat because it’s just a constant scroll. The flip side of this alarmism is that there are an unusual amount of 50+ Hordies often milling about so, strangely, I don’t feel as unsafe as you might think. One level 70 even summoned Furious Mister Pinchy for us lowbies to have fun wailing on. It was pretty funny, but we did manage to down him after about, oh, 30 minutes. (Contrary to what WoWWiki says, FMP did not start attacking us until we attacked him. He was just this ginormous lobster standing by the mailbox, essentially hanging out and minding his own business.)

Honor Able

I have been attacked once and so far it’s my only fight with an Alliance member. (I’m going to make you wait in suspense to find out who won. Heh.) At level 10, as you know, Druids must go to Moonglade to jump through some hoops to get Bear Form. Da bear ftw! Now, what I didn’t realize was that Moonglade is contested territory, so the minute I teleport there, I’m flagged for PvP. This somewhat terrifies me, but I figure, “hey, it’s Moonglade! We’re all druid brothers and sisters! How bad could it be?”

So I trot over to talk to this Great Bear Spirit dude who is supposed to teach me the bear ways and whatnot and… OMG! Another level 10 druid! But it’s a night elf! His name is in red and everything! But he’s talking to the GBS so I decide to let him live. I sit down across from him and wait my turn with the Spirit.

Well, Night Elf boy is taking forever with the GBS so I go up to the Spirit and start talking to it. In the MIDDLE of my discussion, Night Elf Drood attacks me! Rat Bastidge!! Oh, man, it is ON! I blast the crud out of him with my nasty mace which I’d just purchased at the AH and then he starts running away! Cowardly icehole! Dear readers, I am playing a druid, at peace with the earth and her creatures. Should I let him run like the little girl he is? Or chase him and kill him till he’s dead?

Oh, he’s so dead.

And in about 2 mace-bonks, he was. And I got my very first 2 honor points!

The moral of the story is don’t mess with a druid when she’s gettin’ her bear on. Especially if she left you alone in the first place.

Hmpf!

Class Comparison

Now to the original reason for this post. How does being a druid compare to being a shaman at these low levels? Being hybrids, they are fairly similar. However, the resto-specced druid wasn’t as good with mana as the elemental-specced shaman. Bear form is definitely nice, but it’s balanced by the earth totems the shammy has. One big difference was the ability to stop spell casters. The druid is sorely lacking in comparison to the shammy on this one. Shammy can cast Earth Shock quickly and often. Also, it’s tougher for the druid to stop shifty buggers from running away (Sludge Fen, anyone?) The druid can use Entangling Roots, but the cast time is longer than Frost Shock or the Earthbind Totem (both instant) and the druid can’t use the roots indoors or in caves. The one thing I will give the druid, though, is the ability in bear form to Swipe multiple enemies at once. That’s a very nice feature.