World of Warcraft’s Druid Class is Broken…
Filed under: MMORPG Related, Opinion, World Of Warcraft
There I said it… It had to be said and now I’ve gone and done it. No matter how many times Blizzard tries to adjust, tweak, alter, or change the druid class it will always be broken. Why? Because the fundamental principles on which the class is based are broken as well. In an MMORPG you simply can’t have a un-hybrid class such as the druid.
Before all you druid fanatics jump down my throat, allow me to say this: I played as a druid for nearly the entirety of my WoW career. I leveled him all the way to 70 (my one and only character above level 20) before I was done with the game for good (Naturehooves whoo!). I am not a hater of the class, but rather a critic of the way the class was mis-managed during the early stages of the development of the game.
There are many successful druids out there. By saying the class is broken I am not implying that it is also unplayable. However, that said the class also can’t ever be fully realized in the structure that Blizzard created for it. Created upon the theory that you can play as either a rogue, warrior, healer, or mage depending on what talent tree you decide to sink your points into, the druid arguably became one of the weakest classes in the game very early on in the development. While Blizzard decided to give the druid a bunch of “off-abilities” to make it mime a certain class they could never fully allow the class to become as powerful as any of those same classes. As such, druids are usually relegated to being an off-tank, off-healer, or off-dps.
Of course, this all sounds fine to an average MMO gamer. Sure it sucks that the druid won’t ever be as powerful as one of the mimed classes but it makes up for it in the fact that it can technically play as any of the mimed classes through its various shape shifting forms. This is what most players would logically think… they are wrong.
The druid is not a hybrid class, but rather, a class that can assume the role of whatever the person/party needs for the time. This all largely depends on two things: gear, and talents. Without the right combination of each you aren’t going to do a very good job at whatever class you decide to mime. Hell, even with the best equipment and perfect talent spec you’ll only be as good as an average person of the mimed classes. Of course, if you gear/talent up for one specific off-class you are also completely and totally gimping yourself for all of the others. Afterall, bear druids do not make good moonkins…
I haven’t played the game in a while. In fact it’s been many a month since I have wandered the green pastures outside of ThunderBluff. Having said this I do not know exactly how the druid class plays anymore. I keep up with the updates and haven’t noticed any spectacular alterations that would change this fundamental flaw, but maybe there is something you only notice when you are actually playing the game. In anycase, I stand by what I said: World of Warcraft’s druid class is broken.
Oh… please, for the love of god, no “learn2play” type of comments. I was probably one of the most successful druids on my server and when I played the game I knew the class better than the back of my own hand.
April 7th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
Great write up, its hard to explain how (for the most part) the hybrid’s in WoW are not truly so. Had a hell of time trying to explain this to people myself.
April 8th, 2008 at 5:13 am
as a casual player I like it that way. My druid is much easier to solo than my rogue which was my first character created.
I suppose we just play the game very diffrently as I do no do PVP and I am not into a guild. So for a player like me, the hybrid is really great.
April 8th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
You’re perspective is entirely too narrow. While game designers must always keep min/max style players in mind during the development process, they cannot cater entirely to those players in ever class, environment, quest or challenge. Perhaps the Druid cannot be as effective at any one role as the mimed classes, but they provide other benefits from a game design perspective that those other classes lack. Just because hardcore MMO players like yourself ultimately can’t make them the best at any one thing, doesn’t make the class broken. The ‘the best” at some element of the game doesn’t necessarily equate to balance or value. From a design perspective, It fills a different need and caters to a different player.
April 9th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
Hmm.. I’ve always said to druids, “if you wanted to be a tank roll a warrior.. if you wanted to be a dps melee, roll a rogue”. Maybe not as simple as that. But if you were looking for perfection in one type of the class, roll that class. Do not roll a hybrid expecting to be amazing, when there is a class already designed for that particular roll. Also, pvp & pve are totally different. Druids have made it huge with arenas, mainly in the 2v2 division. You talk to any melee class in pvp(specially warriors), druids are annoying as hell. 3+ forms of cc that share different diminishing returns?? Every class has something to complain about, but your agreement is because you don’t like being a hybrid it seems.
April 10th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
A druid was my first toon and God did I hate him until around lvl 30. I discovered some of the tricks to survive and life got better, somewhat. Being a soloer leveling was a real task and time consuming and since I did not group except on the rare exception of playing with my son. By the way I only have time to log on at lunch time at work so it took a long time to level. So I made it to 70, got my flying form and started making more gold thana “farmer” ah so! My hunter made 60 in no time and I have a Blood Elf preist that is a 19 and cruising fast, but I support everybody with the druid. Spec’d feral and bad!
April 29th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Druids have really changed.
They have gotten to the extent where they are more of a power class than a lacking one. There are now Druid twinks of extreme varitiy, and they have also become EXTREME cheaters on the Horde, who are some of the only people who know how to uitilize the class to it’s full extent. I play Druid myself, and they are VERY good for battle grounds nowadays, I don’t know how they were then, but I’ve got a lv 40 now, and at battle grounds I have 2200+ honor and some cool stuff to boot. Only problem is that Druids can’t train to get the more damage dealing weapons. I would say that is one of the only setbacks. Just something to think about
May 3rd, 2008 at 7:58 pm
I love my druid !! I am resto spec’d so I don’t have alot of the issues that ya’ll are having. I do find that it is difficult to lvl solo. Other than that, I have no issues with her.