Balance Changes for Druids
 |
| Druids just want to have fun! |
A short entry regarding some thoughts on the Blizzard class balance session can be found below at MMOmelting Pot:
And THIS is why Druids are upset at Patch 5.0
by Hugh Hancock on November 12, 2011
Read the article at this link.
My response which entails a small fear:
The question is just how much are they going to tweak the druid specs and be able to avoid losing the functionality of the individual roles as a whole. I remember the days of vanilla/BC when druids were ‘hybrids’. They were basically brought in to battle rez and nothing more. Due to the mixed nature of the druid back then the class as a whole was seen as nothing more but a filler spot in progressive raids. I honestly don’t want to go through that again with my druid.
Still, Patch 5.0 is far away and that proposal of hybrid change will be something to keep an eye on for the future.
What I am currently cringing at is the upcoming 4.23 patch 20% nerf to Wild Growth without any form of compensation in PVE/PVP. Not to forget to mention the change to the glyph of Wild Growth which will suffer a small penalty for its usage: Glyph of Wild Growth now also increases the cooldown on Wild Growth by 2 seconds.
I'm not sure that the Development team truly understands that that particular glyph is widely used by restoration druids solely due to a poor lack of other good glyphs to pick in its spot. These changes seem more like a band-aid than an actual balance fix.
Thanks for reading!
I have to admit as someone who only PvPs on her druid, I'm disappointed in these changes. The lack of choice in the glyph department is a joke especially when compared to the other classes (thinking Priest in particular). A minor boost to our single target healing to make up for the wild growth loss would also have been nice. I know comparing priests and druids is a bit like apples and oranges but I recently levelled another priest and when her flash heal at lv 73 was out-healing my lv 85 druid's regrowth, I cried a bit inside.
ReplyDeleteAs for 5.0, it's certainly going to be "interesting". Have to disagree with this though:
"They were basically brought in to battle rez and nothing more."
Our Druids (I was in a server first guild for the vast majority of vanilla) were valid members of our raid team. They didn't even have to share their innervates. We even had some raiding as feral towards the end of the expansion, certainly before shadow was seen as acceptable for the priests (in my guild at least). Balance definitely wasn't an option though. I remember someone speccing Boomkin when it was introduced and being caught dancing in IF by our sense of humour lacking GM/Raid Leader. He got gkicked instantly and only invited back when he could prove he was resto.
Personally I'm torn. I miss the days of feral charge in PvP as resto. I miss being able to beat most melee classes, even the feared arcanite reaper warriors in bearform but at the same time, in raids I want to heal, not be messing about doing sub par dps and sub par healing. I'm hoping (optimistic to the last) that like archangel/atonement/evangelism builds for Disc, that it will be a choice.
Hi Harpysnest and welcome! What I would have given to be on your raiding team back in those days! My raid leader believed in the old 'warrior=tank and priest=healer' combination. How nice it could have been if only he had his eyes as wide open as your RL seemed to have.
ReplyDeleteA choice would be nice if given. I personally do not see myself being forcibly stuck into a Blizzard hyrbid niche whilst pretending to be happy about the proposed stark changes to the class. Time can only tell if what the developers envision is truly something that will benefit druids as a whole. I'm still wishing for a complete wipe of the slate on the whole thing.