Poster: Ius at 3/12/2006 9:18:51 PM PST
Subject: A Guide to the Druid Races: Cow vs. Elf |
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NOTE: I'm looking for images of all the Druid forms; both Night Elf and Tauren. If you have some you'd like to see added, please post them.
This seems to come up fairly often on the forums here. I've been browsing them for over a year now and yet people, everyday, ask the same question: What's better, Tauren or Night Elf?
Well, I'm here to break it down for you so you can decide for yourself. At the end I give who I think is better for PvP and PvE.
~Tauren~
Racial abilities:
Endurance (Passive): Maximum health increased by 5%
5% extra health scales with gear (5% of 4000 health is 200, which is the same as adding 20 stamina to your character; for free!)
Warstomp: When activated, stuns all foes within an 8 yard radius for 2 seconds. 2 min. cooldown. .5 second casting time.
Warstomp is excellent in combination with Wrath, Entangling Roots, Regrowth, and to a lesser extent; Healing Touch.
You can also use Warstomp, as a Tauren Druid, to kind of get your own stunlock on an opponent. Open with Pounce, switch to caster form, Warstomp, then switch into Bear Form (assuming you have Furor) and Bash. While it's not nearly as effective as a Rogue's stunlock since you can't do much damage yourself for the duration of the stun, I have used it on multiple occasions in unison with other classes to get the edge in PvP on an opponent(s).
Warstomp can also be used in Moonkin form.
Nature Resistance (Passive): Grants you +10 nature resistance
10 nature resist can help some in AQ, possibly freeing up an item slot for other, more valuable, stats.
Cultivation (Passive): 15 skill bonus to Herbalism
15 to Herbalism is really only good if you actually have Herbalism as your profession. If you do it is a nice boost early on, and reduces your chance to fail while picking high end herbs by a little.
Pros:
-Can have the highest possible health out of the two Druid capable races
-Has an extra stun in caster form and the only AoE stun in the entire game
-Has the extra nature resistance which means less gear grinding for AQ
-Added skill bonus if you choose Herbalism as one of your professions
-Shaman are on your side in PvP
-Tauren = pwnzors due to gnome killing ability. (according to Paulo)
-Horde only
Cons:
-Tauren are large, causing some issues with sight in small areas. This also makes Tauren an easier target to manually select in mass PvP which, for healing, isn't exactly desirable
-Can look odd in some Druid armor
-Paladins make for a very boring fight and are a pain in the rear end in large group PvP
-Flight path from Moonglade is around 10 minutes... talk about irritating
-Horde only
Lore:
http://www.wowwiki.com/Tauren
Some in-depth lore can be found in the link posted above. If anyone has any other links please post them.
Mount:
Tauren ride the Kodo beast.
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/basics/mounts/kodos.html
Home city:
Thunder Bluff
Armor:
http://wow.segamer.com/settier0.php?set=185&race=t&gender=m
The above link has images of, and information on, every class armor set on every race and gender.
Forms:
*Space reserved for later information*
~Night Elves~
Racial Abilities:
Shadowmeld: Activate while immobile and out of combat to enter stealth mode -- lasts until cancelled -- 10 sec cooldown. Druids or Rogues with Shadowmeld are harder to detect while Stealthed or Prowling.
This is a great skill all around. Although it received a nerf in viability in 1.10 it is still a great racial. It can be used, instead of Prowl, by balance Druids to guard nodes in AB or to hide and wait for unsuspecting Horde to come around without being aware of your presence. While leveling, drinking and eating can be a dangerous thing on both PvE and PvP servers. Use Shadowmeld to ensure that you finish that cup without a Rogue or other Druid ambushing you or a mob popping right next to you.
Another, often overlooked, aspect of this skill is the stealth enhancement. According to Thottbot Shadowmeld adds 5 points to stealth, equaling out to one full extra level of stealth. Feral Instinct provides 3 extra points meaning that Shadowmeld essentially adds 1.66 points into the stealth enhancing portion of Feral Instinct for free!
Shadowmeld can also be used in Moonkin form.
Quickness (Passive): Dodge chance increased by 1%
Extra dodge is generally a good thing to have. In PvP it is great against other Druids, Rogues, Paladins, and Shaman. Against Warriors, however, it means 1% more chance for them to Overpower you, which is quite nasty. In PvE it means that you will take slightly less damage in your forms. Dodge is the only defensive stat we have in forms so its good to stack it.
Wisp Spirit (Passive): Become a wisp when dead with a movement speed increased of 50% (25% faster than a normal ghost)
This skill gets better and better the more you die. If you plan on dying a lot then this could be the skill for you as it makes those long corpse runs that much faster.
Nature Resistance (Passive): Grants you +10 nature resistance
10 nature resist can help some in AQ, possibly freeing up an item slot for other, more valuable, stats.
Pros:
-Faster corpse runs
-Extra dodge chance means better survivability in forms
-Class sets seem to have been designed with the Night Elf model in mind
-Extra nature resistance means less gear grinding for AQ
-Shadowmeld allows for safer drinking and makes a Night Elf Druid superior at stealthing than a Tauren Druid.
-In depth lore tying Night Elves very closely with Druidism
-Have Paladins on your side, providing you with nice blessings and allow for slightly faster raid progression
-Flight path is only a minute or so from various useful areas, enabling you to set your hearthstone somewhere on the Eastern Kingdoms and use Teleport: Moonglade to get to Kalimdor for easy travel anywhere!
-Alliance only
Cons:
-Will be nagged by some players for being a "Noobelf"
-Have to face Shaman, which are a tough fight in the PvP enviroment
-Alliance only
Lore:
http://www.wowwiki.com/Night_Elf
Some in-depth lore can be found in the link posted above. If anyone has any other links please post them.
Mounts:
Night Elves ride the Nightsabre.
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/basics/mounts/nightsabers.html
Home city:
Darnassus
Armor:
http://wow.segamer.com/settier0.php?set=185&race=ne&gender=m
The above link has images of, and information on, every class armor set on every race and gender.
Forms:
*Space reserved for later information*
^Overall^
PvP:
Tauren- when dealing with the PvP environment the Tauren's extra health is invaluable. Combine that with the fact that they possess the only AoE stun in the entire game which works in perfect unison with many spells and you have a clear PvP titan in the makings when choosing this race.
PvE:
Night Elf- for PvE the Night Elves pull slightly ahead of the Tauren for a few reasons. Corpse runs are an inevitable part of the game. With wisp form, those runs go a whole lot faster which really stacks up throughout your WoW career to save you a heaps of time. This makes the Night Elf slightly faster in everything than it's Tauren counterpart. The extra dodge chance that a Night Elf has is arguably better for Tanking since the longer the fight goes on the more health it saves.
Miscellaneous
General Druid Lore:
http://www.wowwiki.com/Druid_%28lore%29
This lore doesn't pertain specifically to either of the races but is an interesting read for any Druid-to-be.
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/story/
The link above leads to the lore section of this very site. Read it all to see how Druids have shaped the world today!
Druid form dances
http://media.putfile.com/Druid-Dance-Reel
"Who came first?", a Druid poem.
Taurens were the Original Druids
Then they forgot
Then NE became druids
Then NEs taught Taurens again
-Couresty of Sibyl-[ post edited by Ius ]
Love, Peace, and Flowers Baby!
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