With the release of Wrath of the Lich King looming on the “soon” horizon, many players find themselves looking for ways to keep themselves busy. Here are 12 steps to ensure you’re as prepared as possible for stepping foot on the shores of Northrend. (Hint: buy warm boots)
Well, it’s happened, and the haters are out in force yet again. Their comments range from the triumphant to the deranged and to a thread are spiteful and petty. It’s a common activity any time a class gets a nerf but seems especially popular when it happens to one of the three auxiliary healing classes: the Druid, Paladin, or Shaman. It could be my predilection for playing these (I have two of the three aforementioned classes at 70, after all) that makes it all so apparent to my mind, but no matter the objective truth of it, the trend bothers me especially when the nerfs in question are so… well, you’ll see.
So what really is going on?
According to the patch notes, Druid PvP set bonuses are changing (the salient point is that the sets are all losing speed bonuses except Feral which will retain them on Cat and Bear/Dire Bear only, losing the bonus in Travel Form). Along with the drinking change, this is widely seen by many in the community as the nerf Druids need so that they are no longer the best healer in the 2v2 Arena. It diminishes their speed (remember that it’s just the Resto-specced Druids that are so amazing in 2v2), and drinking seems to have taken a hit.
As I was writing this, however, things took a sharp left turn, and now the Druid speed nerf for Ferals has been reversed. The bonus for Restos was also made more palatable, but I’m leaving that discussion in the hands of the inimitable Phae Phae to discuss.
Here’s the funniest part: we were slated to lose the speed boost in Travel Form where we have +40% movement speed. Cat Form — talented, but I’ve yet to see a Feral that doesn’t take the talent — innately has +30% movement speed. With this change, our combat form would have been faster than our Travel Form (assuming the bonus is additive).
Granted, many Druids use Travel Form as a cheap (mana-wise, not as in, “What a cheap move!”) method of shedding certain movement-impairing effects. As such, this set change could be seen as a nerf initially and, in objective light, it’s just that. Overall, it would have forced Feral Druids in battlegrounds and possibly elsewhere to use their combat form as their running form should they be sporting this set bonus. After all, we get Dash in Cat Form too, but not in Travel Form.
So the change was announced that Travel Form for the Feral set would indeed keep its run speed bonus and, true to form, the agitators are at it again. Now the complaints are that Druid “QQ” has gotten Blizzard to reverse the change with no thought at all to the initial outside “QQ” that likely got the alteration put in in the first place. Never mind that Restos have still lost the speed boost; we wouldn’t want to clutter things up with facts.
So thus far things are no different in PvP for Ferals than they were before. Moonkin seem to have gotten a buff from their set, and Restos… well, it’s definitely a nerf, but I can’t really comment on the utility of -0.2 second cast for Regrowth. Does it make up for it or is it a booby prize? Stay tuned!
Meanwhile, if you can stomach it, check out the Druid forums for hours of endless entertainment.
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No, its doesnt make up for the 15% at all. Its not even 10%, or even 2% as good as 15% speed was.
0.2 less regrowth, is like 1sec less CD on gouge on the old Rogue PVP sets. Its slightly nice to have, but really doesnt do any big difference(casting a regrowth is alsmost always bad. You can only do it if you have faked out a spellock/counterspell before or your school will get locked. Its super mana inefficient. Pretty much you only use it when you have no pets on you, no enemy CS up, and you cant heal your target anymore in any other way(NS excluded)
Atm the setbonus is the only reason i dont wear 2/5 T6 in arena, and lets put it that way, for the 15% speed buff, iam sacrificing alot of my stats just to keep it.
That new -0.2 on regrowth? I couldnt care less, if i have it, its “nice gimmick”, but i woulnd care if i ahve ot destroy teh bonus by using other gear.
*cry*, no more resto druid flag carrying in WSG pugs
It seems that it is always the hybrid classes getting the nerf, because someone comes along and figures out how to play them better than dedicated classes. Perfect example is a resto druid in 2v2… someone firgured out a slight advantage they had so **BOOM** out comes the nerf. I mean we can’t have a hybrid class doing something better than a dedicated class can we?
Resto druids are currently the strongest class, by far, in 2v2 Arena. They need a nerf. Druids are losing a bit of their mobility. They still be the most mobile of all healers, just not overpoweredly so.
And yes, your 4-piece is bad. My shadow 4-piece is 2 seconds less on the Weakened Soul for PW:Shield, which is also horrible. Get used to it.
And Vishero, What’s the dedicated class for healing in Arena? Priest? Don’t make me laugh. No, all the healing classes in Arena perform differently. Priests are tanks, Druids are mobile, Pallies are invulnerable, and Shaman have more offense/utility. No one class is a “dedicated healer” for PvP. This has nothing to do with Druids’ “hybrid natures”, it’s about an overpowered game mechanic that Blizzard is trying to fix. Remember, the test realms are just that, realms for testing. They are there so that Blizzard can test changes before they go live. Any change on the PTR can and probably will change again before it goes live.
“Resto druids are currently the strongest class, by far, in 2v2 Arena. They need a nerf.”
What irritates me the most is that my class is to be nerfed because a minor advantage it has in a small isolated part of the game which reflects into many other parts of the game where we are _fine_.
It would seem like Blizzard didn’t change their ways. Back when BC came out and everybody was crying for us to be nerfed Blizzard said they had no intention of doing so and “druids are fine. l2p.”. Two weeks later ferals got hit with the nerf bat so hard they still can’t walk straight.
History is repeating it seems. :[
My favorite part of this change is how resto druid viability in 5s will drop like a rock, and so will the population of druids.
I guess I can be happy we didn’t see a PVE nerf?
@saba:
No PVE berf yet. You seen the leaked internal “to-do-list” from blizz?
“Reduced efficiency of LB (BIG BIG BIG PVE nerf)
20y Cyclone range” among other things.
Yes druids need some tuneing in 2s and 3s, currently we are too strong
Ijsut hope that after this patch we wont be the w2orst of all ehalers again.
Any yes, it will destroy Druids in 5s completly, as our way of mitigating dmg is run from it, LoS it, we cant really tank it. Big problem in 5s.
I personally like the change to the resto PvP set bonus. I’ve always hated the speed boost since I rare ever went into feral forms (or even cheetah) during arena battles. But, that is just me. I’m a PvE healer and just do BGs for some extra gear and fun.
“And yes, your 4-piece is bad. My shadow 4-piece is 2 seconds less on the Weakened Soul for PW:Shield, which is also horrible. Get used to it.”
I don’t understand this attitude, sadly so common. Poiting out other things that are wrong doesn’t make a change right, and if you think your set bonus is useless, you should complain about it and not just go “ha-ha now we all share crappy sets, deal with it like I do”.
Some people are going way further by taking these changes as some sort of revenge, as if they were really mad at druid players because of some personal offense (“how dare you make me lose”). We find such example in those that directly ask for reducing Lifebloom healing power, not giving a damn about all those druids doing PvE. I don’t hear so many complaints about warriors even though they do pretty well in all 3 brackets. Also it’s weird how their logic doesn’t include the fact that druids aren’t that good at all in 5v5, where mobility can’t beat endurance when, wherever you go, there’s an enemy waiting for you. But, again, instead of finding a balance between the two scenarios, it’s easier to ask for a nerf.
I’m not gonna go with the old “2v2 isn’t balanced and will never be” because I think there are lots of minor changes to do yet, but common sense says 2v2 can’t be easy to balance. Some combos will work better than others, even if only slightly, and sooner or later you’ll have a bunch of them at the top. Actually that will be the case even in 5v5 too, only there are so many combinations with so many differently skilled players that nobody can really tell.
I think most of this hatred against druids, just like with warlocks and rogues, comes out of frustration. Take duels, for example. One thing is losing against someone, and another one is losing because there’s nothing you can do: all damage you deal is healed, or you just can’t move during the whole fight (warlocks keep you feared/silenced while they seem to never run out of mana, rogues keep you stunned/blinded/whatever). But, of course, you won’t generally complain when you get to kill a resto druid, a warlock or a rogue; even if they managed to do some of their frustrating game before dying.
Now, regarding the set bonus, change is probably fair. I’ll miss it in my balance pvp set (can’t complain much about the new one though), and feral druids being able to catch me even in travel form is not nice (I’ll admit they probably deserve it), but it should be something talent-oriented. Feral druids fight in melee, balance druids fight with spells, resto druids heal. Regrowth is pretty useful in PvP, so the minor casting time reduction will still help. I’d so take extra speed instead, but you won’t hear me cry. At least it won’t be the joke it was going to be (Healing Touch? seriously?), and feral arena viability won’t be decreased. Plus PvE viability remains the same (be it good or bad; I’ve raided with up to 4 other resto druids + 1 balance + 1 feral, so mine is pretty good so far
)
What’s amazing is so few players stop to consider resilience. Besides water, a big change was more and more resilience gear was available to players.
Resilience cutting down on burst damage favors HoT healing. Secondly, the very nature of arenas favors instants casts. Which again favors druids and to a lesser extent priests. (I have no knowledge of offensive casters heh).
This also made locks incredibly powerful at first, since they didn’t need crits. And everyone asked to nerf them, not realizing warriors and combat rogues could do incredible damage without crits (but couldn’t hide behind pillars)
Resilience has changed the game, and Blizz is still struggling to balance it. They haven’t even figured out how to balance arenas without affecting everything. And we thought pvp nerfs affecting pve was bad back before TBC.
Thanks for all the comments!
I don’t have a lot to contribute except to say that I’m a firm believer that Overpowered = “I don’t like it and I don’t want to take the time to consider mitigating factors.” In any system this complex it is nearly impossible to reach a level of balance desired by many players. Very very few claims of anything being overpowered are objectively based, and typically find their roots in the ego of the commenter. The grass is always greener, as they say, even for those of us playing Druids.
Regardless, we’ll press on as we always do, and find ways to remain competitive. It’s certainly not the end of the World…of Warcraft.
Am I the only non-druid player who could care less about movement speed but hates Cyclone?
I have never run into a situation where a druids run speed helped him beat my arena team, either 2v2, 3v3, or 5v5. Cyclone, on the other hand, has kept my team down one player more effectively and more often than any stunlock, fear, poly, or other cc method that exists.
Give druids their travel form speed buff back, and add a cooldown to cyclone please.
edit: Apparently editing was time based for the above comment, and I missed the window. My earlier post seems kinda harsh and unsympathetic, which was not what I wanted, so here are two things I wanted to add.
1.) I Loooooove this site.
It is excellent, and if its continued existence meant Cyclone lasted 80 seconds and was a 10K DoT…I would be ok with that. 
2.) I play one of the other hybrid classes (Paladin) and sympathize with any nerfs druids are about to recieve. After all, we had to completely re-think our PvE healing strategy after they nerfed us for arena (spell crit and the ensuing mana regen loss for healadins). The good news is that while we were weakened, it was not the end of the world that many thought it would be. In fact it probably made me a more versatile and effective healer, as opposed to a Flash of Light spam monkey.
@Ikyreax: /beam – I’m so glad you like the site! What nice things to say. If I can get an 80second, 10k DoT though, I think I’ll drop my blog and “play” Arenas professionally! Haha!
And as Lovemace recently pointed out elsewhere, Paladins are currently suffering from a lack of reactive mana regeneration. Yes, Illumination is still helpful in preventing your heals from taking all your mana, but there’s nothing you can do once you’ve been drained. =(