Druid Overview
General thoughts
"The Druid gives players several play style options." While you have several play style options, you cannot be equally good at all of them. Let's look more indepth at your choices:
"In normal form, a druid in normal form is a caster that can fight with spells or weapons." "Normal form" means elf or tauren. A "caster" druid chooses to concentrate their talent points in the Balance tree, while a "healer" druid concentrates in the Restoration tree. While not as powerful in dealing damage as a mage, due to most of our spells being DOTs, we have the advantage of being able to wear leather armor. Druids who concentrate in either of these lines should be on the look out for +INT items, to maximize their mana pool. "With its ability to heal itself and fellow characters, the Druid can also take on the role of a Priest. A Druid is not as versatile in its abilities as a Priest is, lacking the spells Holy Word: Shield and Resurrection, but is otherwise a very capable healer." Actually, the druid was given a limited use Resurection ability late in Beta... it doesn't help much if the party wipes, but can be cast once during combat (Can't be used again for half an hour). Druids are just as effective healers as Priests, but it takes a little more effort.
"In Bear form the Druid becomes a Warrior with Rage. While in Cat form the Druid becomes a Rogue with Energy and stealth. The Druid can also transform into two other special animal forms." The Druid's third talent tree is Feral spec. Here you can maximize your potential as a shapeshifting druid. Currently, shapeshifting Druids do well until they get to about L40, then their damage and ability to tank in comparison to Rogues and Warriors drops significantly. This may change in future patches, as Blizzard has recognized that this is a problem. Feral spec druids should concentrate on maximizing their +AGI gear.