Briar

It's a pretty epic thread, can't lie. I didn't give it a look until 15+ pages thinking to myself, "Still??" I see why it's so divisive. I like your reasoning in #1, however, if you follow it along it completely invalidates N/G. Not by means of a slippery slope, but simply by virtue of everyone defaulting to one option out of two. SINCE N/G is a thing, equipping it right then is, philosophically, the right avarice to satisfy (acknowledging that the avarice cake is split 5 ways). "Can you prove it wrong though? Can you? :)" Facetiously setting me up under flawed pretenses. It's not a matter of proving you wrong. It's a matter of doing right by the system in place. I'm not ignoring your 1/5 slice of avarice, I'm using the system given to us (N or G) for its intended purpose. Again, acting on behalf of the lowest common denominator (1/5) not only makes N/G pointless, it advocates rolling N on BoP because vendor price. All it takes is a Whiskeywarrior to come along and ninja some shit under those pretenses, then we can have another epic ninja loot thread. I think why your thread is so long is because it speaks to the philosophy of N/G vs the lowest common denominator of 1/5. One could argue that N/G was put in place to make rolling on BoP easier (pretty sure that's why it manifested, via boss loot dramaz before N/G existed), thus it doesn't apply to BoEs. To that I point to the just-clearly-stated-defintion-of-N, "If I win, I'm going to equip this right now or when level appropriate", and the same reason why it shouldn't apply to BoEs is the same reason that the philosophy of 1/5 should be applied to BoP, "This may be BiS for you, but my epic mount isn't going to farm itself." What then? You want to lose your raid item to someone that intends to vendor it and have that be justified by this precedence? Any semblance of trust among could-be-friends (and the unique fun of finding awesome boe shit you can wear) is gone. I can acknowledge that some folks will slip through the cracks... while some will cheat (saw a guy equip green gloves to roll N on a BoE blue, inspected him again after the final boss fight... wearing Gloves of Holy Might, as an aside, I won and equipped the blue), but if the mistrust becomes such that everyone starts inspecting everyone before/during rolling on shit, then, "I will equip this right now" justifies and makes a valid place for N.

This is an interesting thread. I have no idea where this mentality came from, the one prevailing here, as it didn't exist 10 years ago. Not on my server, anyway. This is a very telling sign of the times. Back on a smaller server, this wouldn't happen. You could argue it however you wanted, but the blacklist was real. There are a lot of reasons for why communities were stronger '05-'07, but watching people play WoW these days confirms to me that Blizzard fucked up by trying to give too much to too many. Now everyone thinks they're entitled to roll N simply because they G, and have rationalized N into G so that "they're the same!" making the whole N/G system useless. All because a bunch of people can't sit by while purples go to another and need a reason to justify their rolling to satisfy their avarice. That's all this super long, "oh, I'm so rational, why can't you guys get my 2+2, purples = $$$ argument" is for, imo. This game was better when <5% of the player base experienced level 60 content.

My suggestion to you is to prioritize like this; Stam > Int > Agi/Str. Reason being is that the % bonuses on Cat abilities are sufficient when you have mediocre Agi/Str, while you gain 2AP per STR (+20% in Cat with 30 pts Feral) and 1% Crit per ~20 AGI (which is the lower than Hunters, Warriors and Rogues). Int isn't necessarily your HP in the way that a Priest's mana is their HP, but the mentality is very similar; if you have no mana, you're going to die. I don't know where you've put your points, but I've found that shooting for 30 pts in Feral is the best use of points during the mid-late 30s. You shouldn't be using Healing Touch while being hit, and Nature's Swiftness (while nice) requires too much investment into one role (healing) while that 30 pt talent buffs all 3 (20% Int + 20% Stam/Str in Bear/Cat). Omen of Clarity and Natural Shape Shifter are just begging to be paired with 30 (or 31) pts Feral and should help the versatility of Druids really come into its own... free shifts are beyond useful for a class that's best utilized by shifting often. You shouldn't have the mana issues you're currently having with decent gear and optimized talents. Briar is only 2 levels higher than you but she has ~2300 mana with MotW while still using the staff from Deadmines (because Arcanist Doan thinks the Hypnotic Blade is amazing).

I've played a Priest at 60 and twink 39, I've also played hPal at twink 39. I'm playing a Druid now and I honestly do feel it's a matter of personal choice. As Xylon mentioned, they all bring things to the table. I would rate hPal > Priest, on the grounds of mana use (Priests can go oom quick), durability (+more tools vs healer killers), and utility (HoFreedom, HoProtection, BoM/W/K). That said, if you want a change up from the usual, Ret is boring (Seal of Command with a great 2H kills people anyway), while Shadow can melt faces but still suffer from Silence/Kick/Pummel/Counterspell during Mind Flay/Blast. Now Druids... I will give them the crown of highest skill cap between the three. I still haven't taken Briar heavily into PvP since she's only about to hit 37, but the class provides a ton of things to do while fights provide a limited number of GCDs in which to do things. Unparalleled in being a mobile HoT dispensary, I can't even wait for the days of Swiftmend despite being Feral right now. I think Druids can force multiply in group PvP the same way they do in a 5 man instance, which is more than a single Priest or hPal. Root, Nuke, Heal, Kite, Stealth, Ambush/CheapShot/Backstab/SinisterStrike (with Seal Fate in Feral tree), Tank, Charge, Stun, Decurse, Antivenom... if the class had Dispel it would be completely broken. Add Engineering and the only limit to being absolutely ridiculous is the skill of the player and utilization of GCDs. Even if I only ever become slightly above mediocre, it's hard to get tired of having so many tools until people just assume they can use you for whatever the group requires in an instance while claiming every class has a higher priority on loot because Druids don't have a pure role (<- of all the things Druid related, I hate this one the most). Still, I like the challenge/freedom of gearing my char using all the primary stats except Spirit, and Leather is, for the most part, diverse enough to cover all the things Druids do. I will also add, of the three, Druids are the most comfortable leveling experience by far. If you want to Priest/Warrior/Rogue, you can. Lastly, Alliance has more Druids and more 60s, while Druids are still the least played class on both sides. 10/10 would roll Druid again. Fears and stuns (in cat/elf) ruin your life, but they do that to everyone except Orc Fury Warriors.