Tanking for Druids
by Elizabeth Harper 
Mar 15th 2006 at 7:30PM
Of course druids are a
highly versatile hybrid
class, but sometimes you want to maximize your ability in a single area. And in this case knowledge -
knowing what you want to do and how best to accomplish it - is power. With this in mind, I present Alterreality's
excellent post
with regards to bear and warrior tanks, which is full of hard, numerical data and clearly shows a druid's strengths in
tanking (high HP and armor) and weaknesses (lack of available leather defense gear, inability use shields, etc).
Overall, it sounds like a warrior's access to defense gear (reducing critical strikes against them) starts to be more
and more beneficial on more and more difficult bosses, making them the only obvious choice for end-game content.
What do you think - can druids hold up to the tanking ability of a warrior?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mezzum Mar 15th 2006 9:39PM
Druids are easily the most misunderstood class in the entire game! I know this, I am one!
The important thing to remember about druids is that is it NOT their talents that make them excel in whatever they're doing. It's the player! I'm a feral druid, I also have nearly +250 to healing, I can heal just as well as any other druid out there (arguably better! My Heart of the Wild talent gives me WAY more mana that I used to have), I also have over 10k ac, 320 defense and 7k hps! I can tank anything outside of MC/BWL, and some stuff IN MC. I'm a multi-ability class... I'm not the best at all of them, but I'm damn good!
I can tank, I can heal, and I can dps. Such is the value of the druid class!
jennie Mar 16th 2006 8:02AM
The class gives you the ability to do all that, sure, but I've met bad druids who either forgot they weren't warriors, or (worse) had little experience in certain roles but didn't admit it. I recently tanked my way through my second instance ever as a druid -- I'm usually more called up on to heal. Due to my lack of experience using growls and controlling aggro I was not as good a tank as our warrior, but he let me have the chance to improve my skills. We later tried a different strategy, with me as a healing offtank, which I really loved. Didn't have to worry too much about aggro, didn't have to worry too much about healing, just made sure the squishies didn't die :)
MacDork Mar 16th 2006 8:38AM
What bothers me most about playing a druid is that people are so intolerant of feral and balance-built druids. I get invites to instances all the time, and as a feral druid, my healing sucks. I've further specialized as a cat-form feral, so I'm essentially a rogue-like player w/ some special abilities that other rogues don't have. When people find out that I'm not restoration-specced, I'm uninvited because I don't fill the role they were initially expecting me to, even if they don't yet have a full party.
PickyPants Mar 16th 2006 1:29PM
I understand your annoyance Macdork, but I have to say when I start a 5-man (with me as the tank (warrior) to hit an instance, dps classes are a dime a dozen.
Now I would never boot someone out of a group, especially a feral druid (whose DPS I love), but with such tight quarters, someone to be a dedicated healer is priceless, and those damn priests are too few and far between.
And Mezzum, its all good that you're such an awesome druid, but you can't say that gear and talents don't change that. A great player can still be a bad tank/healer without +250 to healing and 10k AC.
Mezzum Mar 17th 2006 2:04AM
I completely agree, you can have great gear and still be a bad player... it takes MUCH more than gear to make a player good. The main point I'm trying to make is that it takes more than talents to make a druid a "healer" or "feral" the reason that I say that is that I'm feral specced as far as talents go. But with my feral talents, I'm a better healer than I was restoration specced. Many people have a belief that your talent spec defines what role you should play. With druids, that is not necessarily the case. Druids are a multitalented class (no pun intended) and can fill which ever role is needed (tank/healer/dps) and the gear matters much more which role they can fit effectively better than their talent spec does.