Some Groundwork! The Druid!

I think that I'm going to start the actual content on here with how the different tanking classes feel when playing.

The druid!

I'll start with those cuddly bears first, since he is my new main and the guild's MT. What makes bears so great? Well, for me, the feel of combat is very similar to other melee classes, as you might expect. Bears and warriors are close cousins in battle, and basic moves can be easily compared between them. A happy bear charges into combat, swipes all the mobs a couple times, then mauls the crap out of them one by one. Bears are very visceral, the moves feel fluid and the animations are good for the kinds of moves you're doing. When I hit mangle, it really feels like I just mangled that orc to pieces. It's really in your face satisfaction with the druid.

The moves that a bear has available may look small compared to, say, a paladin, but I don't think of that as a weakness. It's very much an advantage to me. Every move has it's purpose, and they all seem to work together to turn that cuddly bundle of fur into whirling dervish of teeth and claws. Feral Faerie Fire is a great pulling tool, puts up a debuff, and doesn't use ammo! Its short CD also means i can go back to it in low rage situations since it costs nothing to cast. Mangle does significant damage and also puts up a debuff to increase bleed damage. This is important for lacerate, the bear's answer to stacking sunders. Ok, it may not be the same, but it definately feels the same. The penalty for letting sunders drop is a bit more of a problem than lacerate though, so that's another reason I like it. Maul is just a move, it's kind of boring, I've got it macro'd with my mangle so I don't have to worry about it. It's good, with the glyph its damage is pretty amazing for trash, but it's not all that impressive as far as gameplay is concerned. But swipe, on the other hand, is really amazing. This move used to be pretty terrible. They totally redesigned it and it is THE move of bears. Swipe swipe swipe! Hit mobs behind you, in front of you, all around you! It's great threat on packs, and I've even held packs against prot paladins, the supposed kings of aoe packs.

What I like about feral druids is the only ability that has a CD in our standard rotation is mangle, but with maul macro'd with it, you can still hit it as often as you like. This really allows us to fine tune our threat generation to tailor the situation. 3 or more mobs? Swipe and maul like crazy! 2 mobs? Maul and mangle ftw! Just that one guy? Mangle, maul, and stack those bleeds up! No need to wait for CDs, you can modify what kind of threat you are doing on the fly. It's that kind of control that makes druids great.

Ok they can dish it out, but can they take it? You Bet! Bears have alot of armor and alot of HP to take the hits. They also stack dodge exclusively via Agi. Because bears share gear with (ugh) rogues and cats, they make use of agi for avoidance, and now, thanks to savage defense, utilize all that crit and AP on the gear, too. Against most bosses in ulduar, you can expect to keep that little shield up most of the time, which is great to help out those people in the back with the dresses on throwing light at you. Druids often get flak for not having alot of defensive cooldowns, but I think they have just enough. Barkskin is on a short CD and gives a good bit of relief on incoming damage. It also puts a spinning barrier of thorns around your head, which is also cool. Taking alot of damage? Survival instincts increases your HP by a fair amount, which gives the healers more of a cushion to the incoming hits. You can also use your frenzied regeneration at the same time, which converts rage into healing, and glyphed, it will also increase the healing you take from it. The heals are percent based, which is why it's a good idea to use it when you've increased your HP from survival instincts. There's another handy tool that isn't very useful for raid bosses, but can be used pretty creatively to produce some positive results, and that's nature's grasp. It's a buff that casts roots on the next thing that hits you, allowing you to run away from it. Take that chance to shed that bear form and throw a few heals on yourself, maybe even moonfire the punk before shifting back into bear. Like I said, not terribly useful, but it certainly has some use in PVP.

The last think I'm going to talk about is versatility. Druids are the true jack of all trades. You've got it all, tanking, healing, melee dps, and caster dps. You could walk around with 4 sets of gear and be whatever the game has to offer. That kind of flexability is one of the druid's greatest strengths. Warriors are fun and all, but if you get bored of hitting stuff with swords, you've gotta log out, because that's all they got. Druids can do it all, and they are quite good at it, too. My druid is dual spec'd resto, and he gets plenty of use out of it, because as awesome as tanking is, you need some variety in your life.

If you've read this far, congratulations! Next time I'll be talking about warriors, so stay tuned!