Why was today’s earlier post a puff piece about the awesomeness of Druids?

Well, maybe it was my spending last night’s writing the WoW Insider article that just went live 25 minutes ago.

 The topic?

Why, the incredible awesome “holy shit I wish I were in that guild” all-Druid hanky panky that went on Saturday on Dark Iron.

Go read the article, see the pics, watch the videos, and then come back and tell me you don’t understand why I might be feeling mighty damn proud of the players that roll Druid.

Rock on, guys (and gals) of the Penny Arcade Alliance!

Edit: What I can’t stop doing, is picturing in my mind’s eye a potential Penny Arcade or PvPOnline comic of the Crow event…

A lone Horde, happily standing by a river in Terokkar… maybe a tauren, fishing pole in hand, straw hat on head… fishing away.

Next panel, a few ominous-looking Swift Flight Form crows flap down, coming in for a landing near him. The fisher-horde says in intelligible text, looking mildly worried, “Here for the fishing, guys? Guys?” One of the birds has a word balloon saying “CAW”.

Last panel, as a hundred or more Swift Flight Form druids are clearly continuing to come in for landings, grabbing a perch anywhere they can, one even perched on his head looking upside down at him, all staring red-eyed at the obviously panicking/quaking hordie, the horde is saying something that is gibberish/noise to the reader, while we are looking at a third person view of two of the Crows in the foreground, that have their heads turned to each other, and one is saying to the other one, “Don’t let this one run too long; the last one was chewy.”

I have been playing my shadow priest lately, and loving it.

I started last weekend at level 64, and said, “Screw the dailies! Time to burn, baby!”

By Sunday evening, I was level 67. JUST level 67, but it’s still very cool.

I am only three lavels away from being able to equip the ridiculous number of epics I have amassed in the bank.

Like what? Oh, I dunno… like the Frozen Shadoweave Shoulders, Robe and Boots, the Spellstrike Hood and Pants, the Belt of Blasting, and the Eternium Runed Blade.

Yeah… umm, so maybe I could have spent more time leveling instead of farming money for gear I can’t use yet. Sue me. I’ve always been goal oriented. And getting pretty loot is a goal.

My point is, I have three characters that are reasonably high level; a 70 Feral Druid, a 70 BM Hunter, and a 67 Shadow Priest.

All three have leveled predominantly by soloing quests as much as possible, and farming mobs.

I have heard a great deal about how easy Hunters are to solo. Let me lay that one to rest right now. Hunters are strong soloing classes because you have the tools to keep multiple mobs occupied at once, with just as an exmaple your own pet tank, a lockdown Ice Trap, and in the case of a bad pull, Feign Death. There are lots of ways you can play around with the mobs as a Hunter. If you practise them all like Big Red Kitty teaches, you can become a formidable soloing master. No question.

Not far behind, in my opinion, is the Shadow Priest. With Power Word: Shield, Psychic Scream, self-healing Vampiric Touch instant-cast DOTs, instant-cast Power Word: Death for finishing blows, Mind Flay to slow incoming targets, the chance of Blackout stunning mobs, they just burn like crazy at high levels. If I get really overwhelmed by a group of mobs, putting up Power Word:Shield and Psychic Scream and running for it usually works well.

There is of course the Rogue, as exemplified by Cassienn, as a soloing class. Able to stealth up to targets, bypassing waves of trash to get up-close-and-personal to the bad guys, Sap one you might want to get out of the way and focus on another, Distract, Dodge-tanking, they are awesome. Kicks against spellcasting, Rogues get all sorts of fun toys.

But I think, in my opinion, the best has to be the Feral Druid. Biased? Sure, of course I am. But let’s face facts.

I can stealth in kitty form past all the trash like a Rogue. I can get right up close to a mob, even a boss, and start to claw like crazy with Pounce and all my nice big damage output whammies, getting some serious pain in fast. As soon as I start taking some hurting, I can cast some HoTs and shift to Bear, and still do decent damage as I pound away on my target. I can handle multiple mobs or a decent elite on my own in Bear form, and with a swiftshifting Potion macro I can replenish my health at least once, I can pop my Feral Regeneration to keep going when I get low, and depending on the mob hit him over the head with Bash to stun his ass long enough for me to shift out and fire off Regrowth and my two HoTs before going back to Bear. During the entire fight, my Leader of the Wild talent is giving me a stream of self-healing that cannot be discounted.

Shadow Priests may be Mana Batteries, but Feral Druids are the energizer bunny of soloing classes. We keep going, and going, and going…

When I was short on cash, I used to go into level 50-60 instances on my druid to sneak past the trash, assassinate the bosses, and disenchant the BoP Blues for some sweet shard loving. 30 to 45 minutes on some of those huge Azeroth instances, complete clears of bosses.

While it’s possible to solo those instances as a Rogue or Hunter, I’d have to say that it just isn’t as easy, the other classes just don’t roll it all into one package like a Feral Druid does. If you kick ass as a Hunter, you still have to take down that trash to get through. If you are a master Rogue, you still have to wear leather armor facing a boss and have to relyon dodge-tanking and hope your pots and high damage output get the job done.

Seriously… most of my audience rolls Druid, so I’m preaching to the choir… but if you play a lot of alts, and just don’t know what class might be right for you to have fun soloing…

The only limitations to what you can do as a soloing Druid are in your ability to think fast, adapt to changing circumstances, and match your abilities to your current needs.

It may seem like a lot to master and learn. But I’ll tell you a secret; every class is challenging to play well. Don’t make a judgment based on perceived difficulty, make it based on what looks like fun.

If you choose to play a Feral Druid, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.