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Forum Watch: Druids Don’t Lack Crowd Control
Published on August 18, 2007 by Phaelia 
Spells and Talents 
7 Comments
Azou of Sargeras wrote an insightful post about the perceived lack of crowd control available to Druids. He posits that — rather than not having sufficient crowd control in the form of spell — we instead suffer from a lack of appropriate creatures upon which our crowd control spell (Hibernate) can be applied. Here’s a snippet:
Hibernate is a very solid form of CC. It does not heal the mob, meaning you can sleep anything and not worry about having to damage it all over again. The mob stays put, meaning it won’t wonder into other mobs or maybe in the range of CC. And it lasts long enough with no diminishing returns.
We just don’t have mobs to CC. In TBC, the main mob types are humanoids and demons. Beasts show up here and there, but they are generally A) Non-elite and easily killed B) Straight-up immune.
Azou would like Blizzard to increase the number of CC-able Beasts and Dragonkin in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. From a Restoration Druid’s point of view, I would rather not have the additional responsibility of having to crowd control each pull. It’s often difficult enough to maintain Hibernate and heal at the same time in Heroics. However, I know that it’s an issue for our Balance-specced brethren, so perhaps a new ability — or a Talent to augment Hibernate — could be added. Maybe Hibernate could be modified to also affect plants, Elementals, and/or Undead. We are, after all, so in tune with Nature that I can see us having some powers over the abomination of unlife (although perhaps a “Banish” type spell would make more sense). This would increase the number of undead CCers from one (Priest) to two (Priest and Balance Druid) and could help reduce the difficulties of many Balance Druids when trying to find group spots in Heroics, especially given the strong Undead theme that will likely permeate many of the new instances.
Another option could be to grant heavily Balanced-specced druids a 51-point talent for Poylmorph: Plant, a spell already being used by some NPCs in BC instances. This would allow a fully Balance-specced Druid to more closely emulate its “parent” class (the Mage) since they would have had to sacrifice almost all other hybrid abilities to do so.
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Your last few articles have been good reads
Nice advise to new 70 restos too!
-Fleet
Thanks, Fleethoof! =)
Very good points, thank you. As a Balance Druid who knows what it’s like getting rejected for the top instances, having others recognize our shortcomings, and hopefully working to have them resolved, is comforting. Root would also be nice for some outdoor arenas/dungeons.
As a side note, I had fun on one encounter within Arathi Basin. Me and a Rogue guarded the mine. Lumbering in our direction comes a Turin Warrior, Priest, Hunter, and Mage. We’re doomed, right? Not so fast.
From stealth, I rooted the warrior, slept the hunters kitty, cyclone’d the priest, and my rogue counterpart destroyed the mage. The hunter followed his friend’s fate quickly, and as I spammed cyclone on the poor priest, the warrior barely got a swing off. If a toon priest could wet himself, I’m sure this one did.
Have fun, and great site.
Pesce
Special Forces
Alexstraza
(100% Druid Guild 150 members strong)
Pretty much hit the nail on the head. It’s really hard to CC things that are immune to our abilities or located in areas where they cannot be used.
I hate how most of the problems with Druids always come back to design oversights such as itemization and in this case, resists and location dependency.
I know Mages can’t sheep undead or demons, but they can still sheep humanoids and beasts while indoors. A poly: plant would be very cool, but I see a lot of trouble coming from Mages if this is a 30+ talent for boomkins. I’m sure there would be the normal knee-jerk reaction about Druids stealing their “job.”
Another great posting.
~Aiuriun
Spinebreaker
Pesce:
Thanks for commenting! I am definitely sympathetic to the troubles of Balance specced Druids. I would hate if you guys all threw in the towel and specced Restoration! Just think of the loot compe– I mean … BoomBoom for life, right?
I love PvP scenarios like the one you described. My husband (a Warrior) and I have had a couple of similar encounters, usually in Alterac Valley. Druids are sorta like the Spanish Inquisition. They never expect us (to win)!
Aiuriun:
Surely mages couldn’t complain too loudly were the Polymorph:Plant ability a 51-point talent with WotLK. Or at least … Blizzard could drown out their cries. After all, Druids are finally considered comparable tanks to Warriors. Why shouldn’t they also have the potential (if specced so deeply for it) to be similarly comparable to Mages? =)
Note: I have a 70 retired gladiator mage
The problem with giving a Poly:plant would be the INSANE CC a boomkin would have while retaining the ability to heal and being in plate armor.
Imagine this (bit extreme scenario):
cyclone someone, sleep a pet/feral druid, root some helpless warrior, recyclone, apply polymorph, continue to cycle CCs between targets
A wellplayed boomkin would have upwards of 4 CC abilities up at once, sleep roots and poly all being 12 sec and cyclone being 6. Thats honestly pretty extreme in a pvp setting.
I think a better solution would be to make cyclone last, say, 20 seconds with no DR in PvE while retaining it’s same extreme DR in PvP. That way it’s not as ‘good’ as polymorph (need to reapply more often, makes target immune so if it’s the last target the group may have to stand around waiting for it to break), but it is still a viable PvE tool.
Would make up for restos not having a rez too… a resto who can CC would be fantastic
-Fleet
You make an excellent point about giving Boomkin Polymorph. I do like your solution (increasing the time limit on Cyclone in PvE only) or would suggest making the Polymorph: Plant spell only work in PvE (because I think it’s just too cool to give up).
I disagree that giving Restos some form of CC would make up for not having a rez. I play a healer, not a crowd controller. I don’t want to be responsible for healing my group AND keeping a mob locked down! =)