Calling all Hybrids.

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dakeyras

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I desperately need your help! I am sitting with 2 level 70 toons (Shaman and Lock) and find that I do not enjoy them all that much. It honestly feels like a chore when I log them on to do dailies, raiding, pvp, etc. Of the two I like the Shaman most since I can always respec for a completely different experience when I get bored with the toon. I have always been partial to hybrid chars in most games I play, so I thought Shaman would be perfect. It turns out I was wrong.

So now I have to decide on another toon, but I want to stick with the hybrid thing. That leaves me with a Druid and a Paladin. Both of them can tank, heal and dps (both of them is a bit weak in the DPS dept though).

Can someone please give me some advice on the 2 classes and a rundown on how they operate endgame? I played both to level 34 to get a feel for them, but still cant decide on one. On the one hand I the mobility and zero-downtime on druid, but then I just drool at aoe tanking/grinding of the paladin...
 
If i had to choose between palla and druid il take the druid.
 
U can try a hybrid spec for warrior.. it just wont really take effect until u reach 70 tho. Spec is prot/fury.. can tank in instances aswell as dps.
 
Sadly ... I have lost count of the amount of people rolling pallies expecting a certain job function end game raiding and catching a hard wake up call when they try and raid @ level 70.

As it is now, pretty much most of them are expected to heal because of their insane survivability and mana efficiency. Once you start to get into SSC/ TK / MH raiding, you actually see a small percentage of them playing a tanking roll. I would rate their aggro holding abilities of one of the top tanking classes in game available, especially with multimob handling.

But as DPS... I seriously think you will suffer getting into a decent raiding guild as dps spec. Pally DPS is just not up there with the proper full out DPS classes.
The one reason I would NEVER roll a pally is I have seen what a chore it is to buffing people in raids. Multiple paladins in a raid is awsome from a dps class point of view, their buffs are insane... but hell... without proper mods and stuff, being a buffing boy will become very very annoying... BoK on everyone for this boss... BoW for the raid on this boss ... BoS on this boss and thats per character as everyone has their own requirements... then there is a wipe, buff all over again, and dont forget all the pets need different buffs as well. Suppose I am spoilt as a hunter, I dont have to buff people all the time.
In the past the buffs only lasted 15 min's and that was a HUGE pain. Rebuffing all the time.

Druids are currently the hottest hybrid class out there, since they are incredibly strong healers in resto spec and awsome tanks in feral ... and they supply that +5 % crit to all physical dps classes in their party. In arena you have people begging for druid healing partners. They are just that good. The battle rezzes they bring to the table are also incredibly handy to have in any raid force.

I suppose it depends what you enjoy playing... for me, I like solid dps. If someone ganks me or look for trouble... you nuke the crap out of them and kill them fast and /dance on their corpse hehehe.
Nothing better than doing a 7 / 8 k crit on someone trying to look for trouble with you.

There is a joke going around about pallies...

Q : How many rogues does it take to kill a pally ?

A : Two... one to gank him and the second one to wait for him @ his Inn after he used his improved Hearthstone to get to safety :D

Anyway, thats what I see happening with pallies on my realm, perhaps some of the other members have different experiences... but oh well... thats just my 2 cents.

cheers and GL with whichever choice you decide upon :)
 
Pornolio, I think you've hit the nail on the head.

Pallies are first and foremost healers.

Don't get me wrong, they're awesome multi-mob tanks but if you want to Raid you're most likely going to be healing.

Retlol isn't viable enough for you to get a DPS spot over another DPS class until you're in T6 content.
 
Old thinking.

Pala's can dps and can and do earn their raid spot. Anyone who can't see this is either narrow minded or stuck in old thinking (pre patch 2.2. or 2.3 or somewhere around there) or both.

I've played a pala since the release of wow and gone through it all... can't tank for silt; can't heal for silt; can't dps for silt; cant @#@$ for @#$$. Now thankfully they can it it all well.

But if you are wanting advice on which to go with Pally or Druid... I'd suggest druid based on your post and (assumed) play style. With the druid you get it all. Mellee dps, tank, healer and caster dps. Out of the 2 it gives the most options.
 
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Hmmm interresting...

Have you got any wws stats I can have a look at just to compare ?
Reason I am asking, we have a BT raiding guild on our server who has a die hard retribution paladin who refuses to respec, but on bosses his max dps is around 900 dps max. Which is pretty low, hence he is getting a lot of flack from the other dps classes.

I would love to see some comparisons on boss fights just how much dps a retri pally can produce. Up to date I have not seen one that could deliver proper dps... it doesnt mean there arent any available... just means I have never seen one in action in around 3 years of active raiding.

Perhaps if they are viable, it would be nice to get that exstra crit buff they can produce ( not sure if it stacks with feral crit buff though )
 
There is only 1 true hybrid in this game at endgame. Feral druids. It's the only class and spec that can fulfill two roles (dps or tanking) with a simple gearswitch.

Every other class has to respec. Paladins and shamans included. It's why i personally don't believe Shams and Palas are hybrids. They're specialists in whichever role they choose as much as the 'pure' classes. Don't ask a resto shaman to dps or a prot paladin to heal, they'll simply perform poorly at it, and you'd be better off bringing someone of the requisite spec to fill that role if it's needed.

So if you really, truly want flexibility in your endgame, if you want the ability to pewpew one fight, tank the next, sometimes both in the same encounter, you really only have 1 choice. Barecat(tm).

Which is probably why there are so damn many of them around these days.
 
I have a drood, and I yeah, they are a lot of fun to play. My respec bill is starting hit my wallet hard, but its still a lot fun. Just don't try to be feral for arena. It's either resto or bust.

Khayne hits the nail on the head. Read his post. I'm too lazy to write out my own.
 
Or you could roll a resto druid, also a hybrid to some extent. My 19/0/42 can also do good dps with those balance points, really fun in BG. With this build you should almost never die in any BG, unless they gang up on you.
http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Sylvanas&n=Strobe
Excuse my lucky cap and the Piccolo :)
As a raiding resto druid, you can pretty much ignore any non-hot talents on the resto tree, as you'll almost never use them, being in tree form most of the time. Put those in balance and pwn :)
The reason i didn't put them in feral is mainly because the resto gear complements the balance talents far more.
This used to be my main for about 2 years. Now i use it to farm stuff for my rogue.
http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Sylvanas&n=Dangerboy
 
Dak, I have a 70 shaman and a 70 druid as well as a 40 warlock thrown in there somewhere. I can honestly say that the most fun I've had in this game, is playing my druid. And you'd be surprised at how much DPS you can put out in kitty form. If you want to play a hybrid, I can sincerely suggest a druid - they rock!
 
"As a raiding resto druid, you can pretty much ignore any non-hot talents on the resto tree, as you'll almost never use them, being in tree form most of the time. Put those in balance and pwn"

Just a tip, you could go that route indeed, or go down feral just far enough for bash and feral charge, and far enough down balance for Control of Nature. Then you have a mean raidhealer as well as a brutal spec for pvp - grab a MS warry partner and mash your face against keyboard to a 1800 rating and omgfreeloots.

The real problem though is that by now people have realised this, and in my experience at least we have to fight off the resto druids with a 10 foot pole - what used to be one of the rarest things in WoW has become so FOTM, it's not even funny.
 
Thanks for all the input guys. After carefull consideration I have decided to go with....

BOTH! I cant seem to decide right now, so leveling them both until I get a better feel for the classes. Both of them 38 at the moment, so will hopefully make a final choice before I hit outlands.
 
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