A look at one of the often over looked characters in WOW.
Of the many different character classes in WOW, each having a different
accepted role, there is one lauded as superior by those who play them,
and scoffed at by those around them. There are a few responsibilities
that must be filled for a group of adventurers to succeed in a dungeon.
There must be a “tank,” someone who gets the attention of the monsters
they are attempting to kill. A healer is important to keep the group
alive. There are damage dealers who are primarily responsible for
slaying the monsters in melee or from a distance. Characters in charge
of crowd control stall certain targets to make taking down others
easier.
Each class generally fills one role with ease and can switch to another
if it is needed. The Warrior, for example, is first and foremost a
tank. Warriors are given the most abilities to generate and maintain
the focus of the foe. But in a group with two warriors, or if another
class wants to try their hand at tanking, the warrior can be used as a
damage dealer. The WOW Paladin, normally used in instances as a healer
and support character, can generate cause enough threat to hold the
targets attention.
The Druids of Azeroth, made up of the Night Elf and Tauren populations,
have an interesting mix of abilities. To WOW, they are the shape
shifting Jack of all Trades. They can heal the party, with efficiency
topped only by the Priest. In Cat Form they can deal melee damage and
sneak around their enemies with the guile of a Rogue. If shifted into
Bear Form, they are capable of performing tanking roll of a Warrior.
While in Moonkin Form, they can dole out massive damage by raining down
arcane and nature spells on the target. This wide range of abilities
makes the druid the ideal member of any party, if one person fails, the
druid can switch over to the vacated role and pick up the slack.
This is not often how the party views the situation, however. In small
instance groups of five people, the druid is often taken only if they
are willing to be a healer, despite their versatility. A druid desiring
to fill another role, especially the popular role of damage dealing, is
shunned. The WOW developers gave druids certain abilities, such as moon
fire or faerie fire, which are very visible spells. These spells have
beneficial effects for the group, but a druid casting them on a target
will often be ridiculed from the party for ‘wasting mana’ that should
be reserved for healing.
The issue stems from two major problems in WOW. The first is the lack
of healer classes. There is only one class out of eight on each faction
that is a dedicated healer, the Priest. There are two other classes on
each side that are capable of healing, the Paladin for Alliance and
Shaman for Horde, then the Druid. The low amount of available healers
leads to less players playing them, which feeds right into the next
dilemma. The second problem being that most players are too
shortsighted to see beyond the Druids healing ability. There are many
people with the immutable mindset that if a druid can heal, he should
heal. While they are an effective healer, they are quite effective at
every other role they can fill as well.
No one would ever accuse Blizzard entertainment of being hasty with
their decisions. WOW and their other games have had their release dates
pushed back many times. In the past hardcore fans of Blizzard’s work
know that this delay is for the best, the company labors to produce the
finest quality product. The Druid went through months of internal
testing and balancing before the concept became a reality. By giving
the druid all the basic abilities of a rogue, a warrior, a mage and a
priest, it is quite clear they had a greater intention for the class
than staple healer.
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