Even as a druid lover, I would be hard pressed to choose druid over shammy for a Warrior. But then, I wouldn't choose Warrior unless I was planning to be a raid tank, and then why would I choose anything but a cleric? But shammy would still still be a better leveling partner I think.
It's definitely more constrained. War+Brd is good for anyone who really wants track and doesn't want to heal. I wouldn't recommend war+cle unless someone frequently grouped with buddies. It'd be miserable slowly grinding away on mobs.
I think it's more that you've max/min'd yourself so far out of the sweet spot in the group game that you really aren't in touch with it anymore. I had the same issue when I used to max/min, it makes anything else feel like suffering until you realize you're putting yourself at such an extreme edge in the game that logging in becomes a chore. I've said something similar in the past, and say it again here...You guys that build groups with the purpose of trivializing the game have succeeded, but that has also put you out of touch with the average group experience. Build a non-optimal group and you might be surprised how fun that can be instead of having mage x 5 or serker x3 or whatever the flavor of the year happens to be for you. Currently I'm doing bard/sk/paladin/bst and it's fun, even if it sub-optimal. The Sk/Pal compliment each other extremely well in the group game.
If you're looking for something more out of the box, a War + Chanter box can tackle quite a lot of content without the need of "actual" healing. Knowing what all the buttons do on both sides can get you quite far in the progression chain utilizing double DPS mercs. Few niche cases will need cleric mercs causing DPS drops but alas it isn't for the weak willed.
I agreed with you until you brought up bard/sk/pal/bst. That's a really strong 4box team, especially in current content with so many undead. I think you'd have a lot of fun if you stopped playing with such a strong 4box team that trivializes the content. Maybe try dropping the sk for a monk and swap the pal for a wizard if you really want to experience genuine EverQuest instead of optimizing your way out of an authentic group.
/agree. sk/pal/bst/brd is extremely optimized. SK & PAL are extremely strong when paired with a bard & beastlord. Basically berserkers that wear plate on crack.
I guess having no haste or runspeed is preferable to having haste and best-ever runspeed + double invis + not terrible DPS.