Breakfast Topic: Jack of all trades, master of none?
by Jennie Lees 
May 31st 2006 at 7:00AM
As a druid, I often find it hard to figure out my place in life. Sometimes I'm up there with the tanks, soaking up damage and dancing in bearform; sometimes I'm sneaking around with the rogues; and sometimes I'm standing at the back with the Priests healing.Druids truly are a jack-of-all-trades class, in my opinion. However, with the right gear and talents, they can master one -- or all of them -- too. My main is a mostly-feral druid, but I recently popped on the Test Server to try out the new Swiftmend talent. The premade characters are restoration-specced with healing gear, and I found myself out-healing priests in instances as a result.
I also tried playing a priest and rogue, and found my experience with druids led me to grasp these other classes quickly. So, while some may criticise the druid for being an all-rounder, that all-round experience is valuable in some circumstances. It's certainly good to know what being a tank feels like when one is stood at the back trying to keep said tank from dying.
Is this jack-of-all-trades approach valuable for other classes, too? Or is it unique to the shapeshifting druid?
Filed under: Druid, Odds and ends, Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Luka May 31st 2006 7:46AM
I'm a resto specced druid and as far as I saw when I was playing with damage meters, we can heal as good as them, even better if we keep innervate for ourselves.
Our only problem is that we lack some aggro reducing talent like priest's fade.
We got growl (which is really nice in case of emergency), but the fact that we need to transform into cat and go melee makes it a really expensive ability we can't really use most of the time.
I don't know how is priest gear on test servers but druid gear is really imba, with almost +1000 heal. I don't know many druids that have a gear 75% as good as this one.
twh May 31st 2006 8:17AM
The greater irony is that this is the kind of questions Paladins WANT to ask themselves, but with too many factors to list make us the laughing stock of the game.
Not to bash on druids or anything... but I really wish I had the problem you just described. ;_;
Bobbo May 31st 2006 11:01AM
I feel like warlocks are similar, however our choices are a little different. In instances we are usually shadowbolt machines, but I also find myself prepped with any number of various situational spells that I may have to use when stuff starts going wrong. If you have a good group, however, you can feel like a jack of all trades who isn't even playing the card game, as you'll never have to use them.
DaMan May 31st 2006 11:20AM
@3
You're mixing utility with actual hybridization of roles. Warlocks are not true hybrids, a "jack of all trades". That distinction belongs exclusively to Shamans, Paladins, and Druids.
Every class has utility.
Druids are unique in that their mechanics mirror the actual mechanics that Warriors and Rogues play with, which is much different than the mana-based stylings of Shaman and Paladins.
tibbsy May 31st 2006 12:12PM
I love my druid's versatility! It is exactly as described - the jack of all trades, the master of none. As a bear, a druid can growl (taunt), but has few methods of gaining aggro quickly (ie. sunder, shield block/revenge). In cat form, the druid has a Sinister Strike equivalent, has openers for coming out of stealth and finishers for expending combo points. But the druid lacks the defensive abilities that rogues have such as Blind, Vanish and Evasion. And as mentioned above, the druid has core healing and debuff-management spells, but lacks the defensive abilities like Shield and Fade. If you are just starting out and don't know what class to play, druid are great in that you will experience each role, allowing you to decide what you like and what you don't.
@4: I agree with everything you said except for the punch line - every class has utility. As a player with a rogue main I can tell you now that Rogues are the one class that lack utility (in raids, at least). Yes, we do damage. But so do mages and warlocks. Problem is, we need to be standing in the melee zone to deal out our damage - unlike tanks, however, we don't have plate or a huge hp pool to rely on. We just die, or suck up healer mana. Additionally, every class grants the raid group some raid-wide benefit: Locks soulstone, Mages have Arcane brilliance and debuff-management, Priests have Fort (and for a special few, Fear Ward), etc... Rogues have ... what? Ninja looting? There's a single raid utility that comes to mind: disarming traps in the suppression room of BWL. Rogues as a primary source of damage generally do their job well, but I would happily challenge people to look at this video:
http://www.warcraftmovies.com/stream.php?id=20934
I tell you now that rogues could never accomplish someting similar.
I hear a lot of arguments on the gen chat on my server over how druids just become heal bots in the end-game. This may be true, but I'd be happier being a druid and *having* utility, over a class that offers nothing above what other classes can do equally well.
Whew, thank god that's outta my head :P Anyways, bottom line is that I love my druid because of all the things he *can* do, even if he can't do them quite as well as role-specific classes. Need an offtank? I'm there. Primary healer out of mana? I'm there. Want extra dps? I'm there. In a party of 5, few other classes will give you that kind of promise. Except shamans (lol).
jpc May 31st 2006 12:38PM
That video is f'n awesome.
javier Jun 1st 2006 9:56AM
I'm a protection spec warrior and I am definitely a jack of all trades. If things get really hairy I just stop tanking and begin off healing with bandages, if my own health gets low I just sit down and eat, its my job to prevent a wipe at all costs. If we are short casters I just go buy a bunch of grenades and other ranged damage dealing items and go to town with them. If we need DPS I switch to my full leather set and just pwn dual wielded daggers and whirlwind, who needs blade flurry.
Wait, no no, actually I just sit there and get mobs really pissed at me so they don't beat up my fragile teammates who can't seem to take a punch, wimps.
On a serious note, I love druids. My guild leader and good friend is a druid and is always willing to do what the situation needs, even if that involves a costly respec. He's at home in cat form, but now that blizzard has basically nerfed the only good feral set out there he's kinda screwed in that area. he's actually resto specced now and basically hates it, but does it for the guild. Druids rock, but they really deserve a better feral set.
Yashua Jun 5th 2006 9:23PM
HERE HERE!!!!!!!!!