Druids (Crossposting)

[Ualaa]

Boylston posted this on the other site: (www....... /showpost.php?p=295153&postcount=35 ) and I thought I would share it here.



Here are my BG experiences with my all-Boomkin team. Keep in mind I'm a fresh 80 who just finished leveling 4xDruids to go with a 5th druid that had been sitting at 80 for a long time. I have found the BG experiences with 4xL70-79s to be roughly equivalent to 5x80s in the top bracket.

I have played 4xShamans and DX+4xRets extensively in BG/Arenas, so I have a good frame of reference for what multiboxing teams can do.

Boomkins in BGs (as of end-of-WotLK):

Overall playstyle:
This is a fun, flexible team that has significant ability to impact a BG outcome. The team utilizes stealth and cooldowns to provide gameplay advantages that other multiboxing teams cannot offer. The team play remarkably like a solo druid, and the multiboxer must rely on the druid class's shapeshifting, healing, and escape tools in order to operate at peak effectiveness. In order to get the most out of this team, a multiboxing setup that allows precise mouse broadcasting is highly recommended.

Ways to play:
Much like a solo druid, this team is strong at survival IF YOU PLAY IT CONSERVATIVELY. This means popping barkskin, shifting into travel form and running away (with Rejuv ticking) if you face strong opposition.

Alternatively, this team can utilize stealth to achieve BG objectives that are very hard to duplicate on other teams. Alterac Valley is a great example-- it's possible to stealth deep into the enemy base and take out towers or graveyards with relative ease. Stealth also allows defensive opportunities that are unparalleled. In BGs with nodes to defend, the team can linger in stealth mode and encourage 1-5 enemy to come up for an "easy cap". You do not have to reveal your position until much later in a BG session. Although you may get overwhelmed later on at a node, you will have several minutes longer to keep the enemy guessing. A real viable strategy is to stealth-defend a node a couple times, then abandon it if you see a large zerg force and go capture 1-2 other nodes while the enemy mobilizes to take out the "evil multiboxer".

Alternatively, this team has the "Blaze of Glory" tactic available to it where you will pretty much guarantee your team's death in exchange for the death of 7-15 enemies. Starting from stealth, you can infiltrate a pack of enemies and barkskin, treant, starfall, (maybe hurricane), and typhoon the group around to great effect. Cooldowns on all these abilities are relatively short, so they can be utilized very frequently throughout a match. Sometimes, this tactic works without killing off your team, which can be a huge bonus.

Common attack methods:
Honestly, 90% of the time, my team will select the nearest enemies and unload instants while staying mobile. This normally looks like insect swarm, moonfire, typhoon. These three spells are the major source of my damage. A 5x stacks of MF+IS is a good chunk of damage and is hard for most non-healer spec characters to deal with. It does not kill as fast as a good Lava Burst salvo, however you do not have to stick to one spot to cast. Insect swarm, like some other DoTs, can be case without facing your target. Moonfire spam can also be suprisingly effective while pursuing weakened targets.

Salvos of Wrath are effective if you're dealing with other casters who aren't moving, but melees will generally close on you very fast if you try to stand at range and just use cast-time spells. I've found it much more useful to rely on instant cast damage/DoTs and then change my position to avoid taking too much damage.

Starfire is pretty much only good for situations where you have a LOT of time to cast uninterrupted or you are using it as an opener from Stealth. Using it against a melee is fraught with problems, as they will most likely close on you and either interrupt or cause you to lose facing against them with multiple druids. I have not used this spell much in most BG situations, unfortunately.

Hurricane is similar to above, although I am using it more frequently in the last several weeks. It is a decent spell to use while flanking a group of people. You might get several ticks off before being discovered, then you can switch to Starfall+Typhoons for more AoE punishment.

Treants are great, although I tend to use them more defensively than offensively. What I mean by this is I like to have them out marauding around so that it is harder for people to target me. The amount of DPS I receive on my main is dramatically reduced when they're in play.

Vulnerabilities:
Fear is a big vulnerability, especially when compared to shamans. The main strategy I use is to make sure that fearbomb-capable classes remain at range and die ASAP. Typhoon is very useful for keeping priests and warlocks at bay. If I do get feared, I immediately barkskin+trinket if available to try to increase the odds that I'm able to regroup and survive.

Healing is tied to shifting. Obviously this is not anything shocking, but breaking out of boomkin form to heal costs you GCDs and makes you squishier. This is a weakness compared to shaman or pallies. However... round robin Tranquilities is very, very nice. You have it available pretty often with a 5x team, and it has been shocking to me just how useful this skill has been in BGs, even during fights.

Starfall:
Starfall is strong currently, without a doubt. Without having played beta of Cataclysm, I think it will still be a strong spell because it frees you up to do other things while it's ticking away and is auto-targeting people near you. It may not be an I-Win button long-term, but it is still a nice signature ability that stacks well in multibox situations.

New Stuff in Cata:
Too soon to tell, since I've not played beta. However, there's some good stuff to be theorycraft-excited about. Thorns looks very potent at dealing with melee-AoE. New silence ability also looks fantastic and can be weaved in with current IS+MF spam. Moonfire power increases while mobile will also mesh well with the playstyle. The knockdown ability lends itself to round-robin-ing with Wrath/Starfall for situations where you might want to stand in there and dominate someone. Stealth + mass mushrooms looks like it could be very promising for BG node defense.

Play in Cataclysm??
The main dilemma I have at the moment is that all classes are getting big changes. The question is: will a team like the Shamans pick up more advantages than the druids. With the expansion, all classes appear to be getting buffed and changed, so it's hard to predict where the multi-boomkins will end up in terms of effectiveness.

Comparisons:
In short, I think that the Shamans are the ultimate defensive team that is able to function as a big ranged cannon, albeit relatively fixed in place. DK+Rets is a very offensive team that is able to steamroll opponents and keep moving. Boomkins are a sneaky team that is able to bring to bear good firepower when needed, is highly mobile, and has the advantage of being able to pick their fights.

Footnote: 4-5 druids can be split up in a variety of configurations, obviously. While I didn't cover the "All Feral" approach or the blending of Resto druids into the team, they are options. Druids may not be the best team at any given time, but they have a significant amount of "future-proofness" to them. They also make a highly configurable PvE team, should a player desire the challenge of heroics or other PvE content.
__________________
Cranky old-timer.
Active: 5xDruids (Boomkins)
Semi-Active: 4xShamans+ DK, Pally, or Bear tank
Semi-Active: DK+4xRet Pallies

Retired: 4xHunter+Priest or Druid healer
(Stormreaver-US-Horde)

[Paws]

Thanks, good post