moonkin vs elemental

[flowison]

i know, they are not as good as mages/warlocks/etc. but i like to play underdog speccs.
whats better and why?
pvp and pve.

gogo

[anrey]

Elem is very powerful also can support party with heals, oomkin is a joke.

[varth]

Elem scales insanely well with gear. Once they are sitting in full bwl gear they are arguably the strongest on demand burst in the game. Here's a video of a bwl geared ele shaman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JE_KzAEBIVc IONEYE

[flowison]

in this video the shaman always has berzerker buff, trinkets on.
senseless

[varth]

Math is hard I know, and trinkets make sense because they are up every 3 minutes.

[Nugeneration]

Ele shaman can burst hard, but it isn't near as potent as 3MM. There is a reason 3MM were the best at eliminating a single target in the game during retail. Outside of the 3min they are very, very subpar though for pvp.

Mage can also blanket CS and a shaman/caster will die in the mages rotation. Locks are the only real true counter to them, but SL locks eat all casters. Part of the more defined rock/paper/scissor balance behind vanilla.

Not sure why you like underdog specs, are you asking for world or BG pvp? World pvp doesn't really matter, but druids have the upper hand in world pvp in almost all situations vs all classes. You cannot force a druid to commit to the point of death unless you severely out gear then on world pvp. Likewise you can always retreat as a druid in world pvp.

Balance is better off spamming Starfire/Moonfire in bgs against certain classes as balance MF will be your only damage spell you spam.

[flowison]

yeah, 3mm > eletrinket

[Nugeneration]

Honestly I'd recommend running a Shaman/Druid resto. In vanilla in pvp these classes play so much different that now.

Resto druids spend more time in bear doing damage than they do healing (1v1/world pvp). You also have the option to kite melee with dots before charging into the thick as a bear to regen mana.

Resto Shaman play similar with kiting, but can be much more aggressive instead of outlasting their opponents due to rapid interrupts and purge.

As a druid the damage you gain by laser chicken doesn't really contribute anymore to your success than what the pvp resto build does in fact in contributes less.

Shamans do have a better niche with Ele and I'd stand by Ele shaman being more powerful than their enhancement brothers at later gear levels for pvp.

Enhancement would be the most underdog spec if you were looking at purely playing underdog specs and not classes.

Edit: To be more clear on druids and hopefully to help paint a better picture.

Regardless of the spec a druid chooses they must utilize all their forms constantly in pvp to be the small scale pvp powerhouse they are.

So even being a boomkin you will spend just as much time in all other forms, but you're depleting your survivability resource and utility when you start shifting into chicken for casting spells.

Chicken itself costs mana, the spell spamming furthers that depletion. You will use bear for stuns/silences/healing/damage still. You will still use cat/cheetah for escapes and kiting with dots and you will use caster for healing and spells all the same.

It just adds extra stress to the class it really can't fully support the playstyle intended in vanilla.

For PvE of a guild will take a boomkin to raids by all means play it if you want. Instances and 10m/zg can be done with hodgepodge specs and requires far less min/maxing

[Larsen]

A good portion of vanilla raid content is resistant to nature damage, so elemental shaman is not really a viable PvE role across the board. It's situationally strong in PvP, though. Balance druids can get around the resistance issue by using arcane spells, which are generally better anyway.

[Nugeneration]

A good portion of vanilla raid content is resistant to nature damage, so elemental shaman is not really a viable PvE role across the board. It's situationally strong in PvP, though. Balance druids can get around the resistance issue by using arcane spells, which are generally better anyway.

Balance druid should benefit from warlock's curse too if that isn't bugged for arcane spells on this server.