Druid or Paladin? Please help.

Hi all. I'm new to WoW and can't figure out what class to choose. Rather than starting one of everything, perhaps some more experienced players can help advise me.

My main concerns are survivability, ability to do ranged attacks and endgame. Other than that, I am not really sure. I don't care how hard or easy leveling is, but I will be soloing mostly, so easier leveling is a bonus.

I'm thinking of either paladin or druid. I like that both are versatile. But I cant choose.

I prefer the look of heavier armor, and think moonkins are kinda dumb looking.

I want to be able to do ranged attacks while in battlegrounds. Is that possible with a paladin, or do you pretty much have to be melee to do any good in battlegrounds as a paladin? I have rarely played melee classes in group pvp, but I found when I've tried it, I spend a short time being in the middle of the fray, and most of my time being dead... Which is why melee in pvp doesnt really appeal to me.

I would like the option to be good at dps and healing... of the three, tank appeals to me a little less.

Another thing is that I'm not sure how I like the idea of having to shapeshift out of moonkin form to heal in pvp. I want to be able to dps and also heal myself and others. It would be nice to be able to slap a HOT on some people, then go to dpsing, but does the HOT cancel out when you switch to moonkin?

So, Druid or Paladin? I'm torn.

Or maybe someone has a different suggestion?
|||Well, at least you narrowed it down to 2 classes.

Paladins don't have a ranged attack (except for judgments which they use to pull), so if this is a major priority then a Druid is your only choice.

Both classes have high survivability; paladins wear plate armor and druids have moonkin form with a great armor bonus. And both do well in endgame, both PvE (raiding etc.) and PvP.

Both are extremely versatile; Paladins can be healers, melee dps and tank. Druids can be tank, healer, ranged dps and melee dps. Paladins are considered the best healers in PvP (together with Discipline Priests), but Druids have the advantage that they can heal even when they're specialized in Balance (ranged dps). Yes, they need to shift out of Moonkin form, but that's not a major concern.

I just want to mention one more class: Shaman. They can also be healer and dps, and don't need to change forms to change roles. Perhaps there's a reason why you don't like them, but I thought I'd mention them anyway.|||IMO play the paladin class. There were a lot of druids at the end of wotlk and there will be considerably more on the alliance side at least with the addition of worgens.

I leveled a paladin to 80 and raided with it some and enjoyed it, lots of versatility.|||go druid more fun!!! and if u dont like meele u do balance :D easy! or u go tree and heal!! very good class more fun than paladin in my opinion... if u wanna go balance go ally if u want to b feral go horde i say... but race dont matter hope i helped|||I'm going to go with some different advice. If you want to play a ranged character and don't like the look of Moonkin form (or having to drop form to do certain things) then I wouldn't go with either a Paladin or Druid.

Paladins don't have a ranged spec, and the only ranged damage spec druids have requires Moonkin form.

I'd actually look at playing a Shaman. You give up the ability to play as a tank, but if you don't really like melee, I can't imagine tanking would be a high priority. You still get to wear mail and a shield, and you don't have to worry about dealing with forms if you need to throw out a heal.