Yeah 1-19 really sucked, and even when we get cat form our finishing move is a DoT. We don't get "Rogue's Evaserate" until later.
I dinged 40 last night, and it was a loooooong grind. I completed elite quest in Refugee point, I completed all the yellow quest in STV, and I still had like 5 bars left. So it took all night to hit 40. I think it was just the fact that I wanted my panther mount, Dire form, Stealth rank2 (which is really fast!).
It's not the lack of grinding, we can non-stop grind... kill 3 mobs in cat form, change to caster, cast regrowth, cat form again... rinse, repeat, all night long.
I look at Druid as FFXI's Red Mage. They can cast White mage heals (but not as good as a white mage), they can cast Black Mage nukes (but not as good / powerfull), and they can melee/tank (but not as good as the specialized melee classes).... But we can do all of those (DPS, Tank, and Heal) which others can't.
I like the different bars we get (rage, enegery, mana), it's unique for a job to have all those. You really have to like being a bear, cat, moonkin, and the flight form in outlands. I love being a DPS in a instance, getting a large pull, changing to bear form and not having anyone die.