Who needs other classes?

Some of my best in-game memories stem from all-druid runs. For example, a few weeks long I had a fixed group for running Slave Pens Heroic. One resto, one balance and three ferals, meeting up around 2300 every night for a quick stealth run. In Slave Pens you only have to kill 3-4 groups of mobs in order to get to all bosses.
Or, back in the days of patch 1.9, killing Onyxia. Well not actually killing her, but hell, did we try. Mainly we failed because we were only 25-30 people, but we came close a few times. And remember, this was in a time where ferals were a joke and boomkins were brand new.

Please feel free to share some of your anecdotes regarding druid-only runs in the comments.


So how will this fine tradition continue during WotLK?
My guess: Better than ever.

1) We are officially considered main tanks
During BC they only planned for druids to be OTs - yet we were able to tank almost anything pretty successfully. With the new system where no encounter will need a certain tanking class (e.g. a warrior), nothing should stand in the way of doing all bosses with druids only.
All our new emergency buttons will make it even easier.

2) We can do "viable" DPS
Balance and feral druids will dish out as much damage as other classes can - and with the effect of raid stacking being reduced, we will not miss the other buffs as much. This might even be the biggest factor acting in our favor come WotLK.

3) We have good AoE damage
The new spells in the balance tree in combination with the removal of the Hurricane CD will enable us to deal with AoE pulls much better.
Also the new, unlimited Swipe and Berserk make ferals capable of dealing some AoE damage.

4) We finally have good indoors CC
With Entangling Roots being available indoors now, we can reliably CC any mob we encounter. Of course its use is limited against ranged enemies (casters, hunters, healers). Clever use of LoS and having a lot of OT-capable players (all ferals and maybe even some boomkins) should alleviate that. Not to forget Hibernate.
Also, we have many interrupts at our disposal: Bash, Maim, Feral Charge, Cyclone

5) We can heal. A lot.
Resto druids have always been one of the best healing classes out there, and that will hopefully continue with WotLK. Wild Growth gives us a nice new tool to fill a niche we traditionally had some troubles with, and Nourish should help in some situations also.
With the new spellpower system boomkins should be able to heal pretty well while in DPS gear as well, making them an excellent emergency healer. And of course having 5 Tranquilities per group is pretty useful in many situations.

6) We still have all the great utility/adaptability
Everyone has a battle rezz, a normal rezz, an Innervate, a Tranquility, can off-tank, can heal, can stealth, can CC, can interrupt and can DPS. 'Nuff said.


The only possible showstoppers are the following missing ablities:
- Ability to dispel magic and disease
- Offensive dispel
- Mind Control (might be an issue in Naxx)

Those may make some instances/raids harder, and might make some impossible to finish. But Blizzard has stated that they don't want anything to depend on certain classes any more; so my guess would be that we can do almost everything without other classes.
It will be harder in some cases, but that only makes it more fun ^_^


So, what do you think? Will we have an easier time mounting all-druid raids?

The Great Indoors

Do you know that feeling? Limited. Slow. Somewhat incomplete. The feeling we have when we venture into the dark? Like you are missing an important part of yourself?
I always had that feeling when going someplace which is indoors. Somehow it just doesn't feel right. I am a druid. I love the outdoors.

Especially because I am faster and can root things :)


With the upcoming changes that 3.0 brings we will lose most limitations brought unto us from being inside. So what will we gain from that newfound freedom?


We're faster (well, at least us ferals)
Feral Swiftness gives us 30% more speed. This allows us to move through instances faster than anyone else. Especially when you combine it with a speed enchant on your boots.

So what good is it, you ask? In combination with our brand-new Revive, after a wipe in an instance a Night Elf druid will now be able to recover from a wipe faster than anyone else. Yes, that means you will most likely be the only one running, while the others go for a quick smoke. But I don't mind, if it saves a few minutes - for example if you wipe in Karazhan on Shade of Aran.

In PvP it is moderately useful, as BGs (mostly) and all arenas are outdoors anyway. Only in WSG it really shines; being faster inside a base can make a big difference, especially when carrying a flag - or chasing the flag carrier. Suddenly that tunnel doesn't seem so long anymore. Well, at least when that devious pally hasn't thrown a Judgment of Justice on you.


We can root stuff
I almost afraid to mention it, because someone at Blizzard could read it and realize what they have done. Druids are now the only class with two true CCs in PvE. We can Hibernate and Root.
Yes, rooting is only useful against melee mobs, but most pulls in instances have at least one of those. Also you can pull a caster mob behind a corner and root him out of sight of the group, if you are a crafty one. I can already see the mages QQing when they find out about that one.

This should help especially Boomkins, as many see them as the "lesser" caster DPS. Together with the plethora of new and improved AoEs they have now, this should end the doubts people have about bringing one.


We can use Nature's Grasp
For me, that is the biggest change. Nature's Grasp now is not only usable indoors, but also a baseline spell with 100% proc chance. A great escape mechanism, if a druid pulls aggro from a melee mob by accident (or a stealthed one pops out suddenly - Shadowlabs anyone?). He is rooted and you can move away, while the tank has an easier time regaining aggro, with the mob being stuck in place and all.

Another great application for it is as a tank. You're getting punched in your face by three or four mobs, and your healer tells you that he has trouble keeping you alive? Pop NG and after a mob has been immobilized, just take a few steps back. Voilà, you have just reduced incoming damage considerably, making your healer's life easier. Especially as Entangling Roots now are much more reliable (they do not break randomly any more, but after a certain amount of damage has been done).



The only things left that can only be used outdoors are flight form and travel form - and as their counterparts (mounts and flying mounts) have the same limitation, I can live with that quite well.