Diversity

Most serious WoW players have heard that the top raiding guilds such as Nihilum are "purists" so to speak. They use each class for a defined role. Priests are all shadow priests. Druids are all resto druids, except for perhaps a single feral to get the Leader of the Pack. Shamans are all resto.

Why is this? Well, when you break it down to the numbers, certain classes outperform others. When you look at a moonkin druid, for the most part you're looking at a DPS caster. There are several DPS casters, such as mages, warlocks, and the like. Most people disregard moonkins from the raiding arena based on the inability to outperform a mage in DPS. Mages tend to have more DPS and last longer in a fight.

So what is the problem with this? I personally feel the problem is with diversity.

Murien, the one-time feral druid, is now resto. And he says that this puts an entirely different perspective on everything. He has learned how to truly play his class by changing specs. He now uses barkskin, bandages, potions, and the like since he has learned 2 different roles of his class.

The same thing went for myself when I switched to shadow for a small while. I started to learn some of the great things about shadow priests, and I see why they are generally preferred in a raid setting. The end raiding guilds have a single disc/holy priest for Prayer of Spirit, and the rest are shadow.

But I personally feel that even if I cannot outperform a holy paladin in the context of a single target heal, I feel that I understand my class well enough to be one of the best healers around, no matter what class. I've learned the threat mechanics, how to survive (some of you may chuckle here...), how to not run out of mana early, how to properly gear myself. As a result, I feel I'm a very strong healer and that I could compete with the efficiency of a well geared paladin.

I think one of the things that these people are missing out on when they don't have moonkins, elemental shamans, and protection paladins are some of the best people to have in certain situations. Nermal is a prime example of a "poorly specced" druid, and yet she is consistantly high up on the damage meters, and can still do an amazing job healing. It's because she's learned her limitations, and has learned how to be the best mookie she can be.

These purist guilds may do a great job at progressing the raid. I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that if they come across a fight where a moonkin helps a lot, they will have one of their resto druids respec for that fight. Pity.