I miss healing and/or tanking, need some serious advice

Share your secret tips about your favorite class here !

I miss healing and/or tanking, need some serious advice

by nyctasha » Mon Mar 14, 2016 12:07 pm

This is a bit longer, but I want to get the best advice for my dilemma so bear with me please and thank you!

So I am very fond of hybrid classes in later expansions. Ive played tons of druid, shaman and paladin throughout expansions up to Cataclysm and did my fair share of both healing and tanking. I always got massive amounts of enjoyment out of it and got very comfortable with always being needed/required and having that responsibility.
Its just that direction that the game took from Cataclysm up that I dislike.

So I decided to relive the best times, Vanilla and TBC(mainly TBC for me, but the scene for it is dead atm)
Hell, I almost forgot how fantastic it was, no this is not nostalgia...I still do love it. The only real downside is that most classes in vanilla are so damn bare-boned and hybrids seem to be quite outdated and below average at nearly everything, but healing apparently and not only due to near non-existent itemization.

So since we are talking about nostalgia I went for hunter, which was my only vanilla char back in the day when I was totally oblivious to what mmo even is. While I do enjoy it tons, at my current level Im starting to miss the "being needed" kind of feeling. While there is overpopulation of warriors, it seems to be nigh impossible to get anyone to tank at low levels and when there is someone to tank, there isnt anyone to heal. Its just hour/two of waiting/begging only for that one person to disconnect in a midst of a run leaving us to either try to tank with pets, search for a missing member for another hour or just disband. Every time. This often happens after one bad pull and one single wipe, despite rest of the run being perfectly smooth.
This is not how I remember vanilla, we wiped and went back and wiped and went back and did whatever we could to finish it.

So Im finding myself overleveling it even with the absolutely minor amount of questing on a side that adds up over time and unable to finish off even that one quest for the last boss I so want.
Sure I can just quest/grind and have fun. But I so damn enjoy doing the runs that it really bums me out.


The problem here is warrior seems to be the only real tank in vanilla and Im just not fond of melees and never was. Druid and Paladin were exception, because of their specific mechanics and not being stuck in melee-sword-whacking mode. With them I had options.

Then there is a priest, the ultimate healer that has at least a bit of variety when it comes to healing, Im just afraid of not really having much fun just repetitively wanding away whenever Im not healing.

And at last my favourite hybrids. I went through all the forum "horror stories" of leveling/playing them on vanilla and it looks liek this:

Paladin seems to be that afk autoattack-stand-in-one-spot-forever kind of guy, that sounds utterly boring. Sucks as prot, sucks as ret and spams and only used for spamming buffs and single heal. Not sure if he can pull off at least 5-man tanking. Doesnt sound very exciting. Though he is considered good in pvp?

Druid seems to be just walking innervate and combat ress with some hots on a side. Balance is useless, feral is nearly useless, but he at least seems to be able to tank 5-mans. Druid was almost always my main. Hell, Id go for it, but again...Im worried that my end game will be just a walking utility, that noone will allow me some fun with tanking anymore and that if I switch to pvp, it is going to be pretty underwhelming experience (or so I heard).

Shaman as resto would be fine, possibly a lot of fun. But here we go again, elemental sounds like a pain to attempt to even try and Im unfortunately ele positive. Never really took interest in enhancement.

If Ill heal, I want it to be at least a little bit engaging (not x ranks of one single heal spam) and if Ill tank and enjoy doing so it would be really sad to get whacked at 60 for not being the "right" class for it.

Now I know many of the horror stories are just exagerrated and not entirely true, thats where I need advice. I have zero experience with vanilla versions of any of the classes apart from hunter.
If you can give me some examples from your experience about how druid/shaman/paladin/warrior are at the respective roles Id very much appreciate it.
nyctasha
Tester
 

Re: I miss healing and/or tanking, need some serious advice

by smilkovpetko » Mon Mar 14, 2016 2:21 pm

The problem here is warrior seems to be the only real tank in vanilla and Im just not fond of melees and never was. Druid and Paladin were exception, because of their specific mechanics and not being stuck in melee-sword-whacking mode. With them I had options.


Paladin seems to be that afk autoattack-stand-in-one-spot-forever kind of guy, that sounds utterly boring. Sucks as prot, sucks as ret and spams and only used for spamming buffs and single heal. Not sure if he can pull off at least 5-man tanking. Doesnt sound very exciting.


If you can give me some examples from your experience about how druid/shaman/paladin/warrior are at the respective roles Id very much appreciate it.


well too much hate for something but i guess you did not gave any efforts to investigate enough , you might check paladin forums (i am not so sure about druid community in server) but for paladins you are 100% bad informed.

Paladins are the best 5 man tanks where Warriors can't compete with them on same level with gear.

There is tons of itemization and items exist for paladin tanks , if you think that this is retail and you need tier set for paladin tank then you are wrong again , we are using offsets pieces from dungeons .

here are links that will help you and inform more about paladins :

viewtopic.php?f=43&t=22875
viewtopic.php?f=43&t=13492
https://forum.nostalrius.org/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=31907
/Wisdom is Priority
/Activity is Skill
/Skill is gear
User avatar
smilkovpetko
Legionnaire
Legionnaire
 

Re: I miss healing and/or tanking, need some serious advice

by nyctasha » Mon Mar 14, 2016 4:58 pm

smilkovpetko wrote:well too much hate for something but i guess you did not gave any efforts to investigate enough , you might check paladin forums (i am not so sure about druid community in server) but for paladins you are 100% bad informed.


No need to be condescending, I did in fact put a lot of effort into research. Ive been actively reading mechanics forums and plenty other vanilla resoruces weeks before I started actually playing and continue to do so, because Im still not entirely decided what to focus on and I just enjoy being informed. As I said, its all hearsay, I dont have first-hand experience with these classes in vanilla. If I took hearsay for granted, I wouldnt be asking here about advice from those that have a bit more insight.
Those class "descriptions" were just general summaries of what Ive read. I know how wow community absolutely loves parroting their "ultimate" knowledge from back in the day and wont give a single thought to alternatives.
Thats why I asked, I wanted to hear the alternatives.





smilkovpetko wrote:Paladins are the best 5 man tanks where Warriors can't compete with them on same level with gear.

There is tons of itemization and items exist for paladin tanks , if you think that this is retail and you need tier set for paladin tank then you are wrong again , we are using offsets pieces from dungeons .

here are links that will help you and inform more about paladins :

viewtopic.php?f=43&t=22875
viewtopic.php?f=43&t=13492
https://forum.nostalrius.org/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=31907


I meant the itemization in general, not specifically for paladins. Having to wear 45-55 level items as a feral druid is a tad ridiculous. I never said I expect to wear tier sets, you are jumping to conclusions I never even hinted. I played vanilla, just none of the hybrids and never played a warrior, thats it.

Thanks for the links, Id ask a few things about paladin..but I guess I rather wont.
nyctasha
Tester
 

Re: I miss healing and/or tanking, need some serious advice

by Undertanker » Mon Mar 14, 2016 5:25 pm

Restro druid is a beast at healing.

With equal gear level/skill to other healers, at the beginning, druid lacks a bit. With top end raiding gear, druid is #1. It's pretty much getting enough gear that Swiftmend spec isn't considered too much mana.

Also while leveling as a druid, they make better tanks than warriors due to not being gear dependent and their aoe tanking at low level is much easier that a warriors is. You'd have much more armor and HP than a warrior at low level.

Carry healing gear with you as you level and be specced Feral. You can heal / dps / tank any 5 man with great ease helping you fight the 5 man attendance boss as you level.
Undertanker
Stone Guard
Stone Guard
 

Re: I miss healing and/or tanking, need some serious advice

by Problazer » Tue Mar 15, 2016 2:36 pm

smilkovpetko wrote:Paladins are the best 5 man tanks where Warriors can't compete with them on same level with gear.


:roll:
Problazer
Senior Sergeant
Senior Sergeant
 

Re: I miss healing and/or tanking, need some serious advice

by Garfunkel » Tue Mar 15, 2016 6:33 pm

As a druid, you can:

-tank + heal + dps all 5/10-man content. In 20/40-man content, you will most likely have to heal but it's not just spamming Healing Touch, check the Druid forum for more info. Some guilds also bring 1 feral druid along, our Taladril does just fine as a hybrid kittycat/fluffybear.

As a paladin, you can:

-tank + heal + dps all 5/10 man content. In 20/40-man content, you will most likely have to heal while also taking care of pally buffs which are quite important. You might get to do some AOE tanking in few cases and if you're super lucky, your guild might allow you to be one of the handful of successful raiding ret paladins on the server but don't count on it.

As a shaman, you can:

-heal + dps all 5/10 man content and kinda tank most of them as well. In 20/40-man content, you will most likely have to heal while also taking care of totems. Some Horde raids bring along 1 enhancement shammy to use Nightfall but that's it. Like the Boomkin, Elemental shamans are extremely rare on the raiding scene.

This is strictly PvE. On the PvP side, things are quite different.
FInd me on: Laureliana - Lauraliana - Lauroliana - Lauruliana - Lauriliana
NELF POWER!
User avatar
Garfunkel
Stone Guard
Stone Guard
 

Re: I miss healing and/or tanking, need some serious advice

by nyctasha » Tue Mar 15, 2016 9:41 pm

Thanks a lot to both of you Undertanker and Garfunkel! Thats the kind of info I was really looking for. Glad to hear tanking is perfectly fine at least up until raids, which honestly are quite a lenghty deal in vanilla..Im not even sure if Id ever dedicate myself to it.

Both of you are making me want to just roll a druid, again. I really do miss the versatility, so what if its a bit more limited in vanilla.


Garfunkel wrote:This is strictly PvE. On the PvP side, things are quite different.


Im actually very fond of wpvp in vanilla and I might want to do fair share of it, maybe more so than the pve once I hit 60. I was never a fan of introducing resilience so I never was a big on pvp after that. I wonder how any of them stand against the rest here?
nyctasha
Tester
 

Re: I miss healing and/or tanking, need some serious advice

by Setah » Wed Mar 16, 2016 3:23 am

Hey there!

I was in the same boat as you almost exactly lol. As someone who's loved feral bear since retail vanilla and prot pally since TBC, when I first joined this server, I felt like I shoooould roll a non-hybrid class. But then I said "screw it" and rolled up both a pally and druid anyway.

I'm 31 on the pally now, 20ish on the druid, both tank-y, but can DPS just fine too. Tanking early dungeons as both is certainly possible. There was a bit of a learning curve for me on the pally, especially, since I hadn't played prot in a vanilla setting, but just be prepared with lots of drinks and it's really not too bad. You'll do lots of damage as either bear or prot pally, so that's actually a plus.

A lot of folks are naysayers about either spec, but for 5mans, they're actually extremely viable-- just takes a bit of practice (especially with the pally, since you don't have taunt). And don't be afraid to tell your group how to help you better handle pulls, either. Most folks are the helpful sort I've found. You just need to take the initiate sometimes.

As for raiding... I guess I'll see. It's my hope that I'll be able to find a tight knit group that's willing to let me tank a bit at least, and DPS a bit, but being flexible will certainly be key. I was lucky in retail vanilla, was in a guild where they were open to letting me bear tank quite often (even MTing a fair amount of stuff). I have my doubts I'll be that lucky here, but ya never know.

If you're on the PvE server, feel free to give me a whisper sometime if you want any advice/a fellow dungeon buddy. I've got a bunch of alts I'm working on as well, and am happy to help out a fellow addict of tank hybrids!
Kalain/Setah (PvE Alliance)
User avatar
Setah
Tester
 

Re: I miss healing and/or tanking, need some serious advice

by Rod3n » Wed Mar 16, 2016 3:06 pm

smilkovpetko wrote:Paladins are the best 5 man tanks where Warriors can't compete with them on same level with gear.


:roll:
- Roden
Rod3n
Private
Private
 

Re: I miss healing and/or tanking, need some serious advice

by zmandude24 » Thu Mar 17, 2016 8:25 pm

If you want to tank in the raids, go Warrior or go home. I don't know much about healers, but from what I've heard, I'd roll a druid or priest since they aren't a one-button spam marathon.
zmandude24
Sergeant Major
Sergeant Major
 

Next

Return to Mechanics and classes