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Indoor Roots and Mark(ed) Improvements
Published on May 22, 2008 by Phaelia 
Spells and Talents 
18 Comments
More rumored changes were mentioned today, with some very exciting implications for Druids of all flavors. I’m not going to list everything here, but I am particularly excited about the rumor that both Entangling Roots and Nature’s Grasp will be usable indoors. In my opinion, this is a completely necessary change after the announcement that Death Knights will have the Chains of Ice spell which "Forms icy chains around the enemy, locking the target in place for 15 sec." It would be nonsensical for Death Knights to lose potency indoors ("Only useable at night" perhaps?), and Balance Druids would have been up in arms if this new class gained access to the indoor root they’ve been clamoring for. What this means for Restoration Druids, however, is that we will presumably have a valid form of crowd control that’s usable in instances, freeing up another group spot for an non-Healing specced rezzer (ex. Shadow Priest, Elemental Shaman). Obviously, we’ll have to work extra hard to both heal and help CC, but we Druids are no stranger to giving it our all, right?
On a related note, I wanted to draw attention to a comment from reader Sayari on my earlier WotLK to Redress Druid Shortcomings article:
Earlier today, Thottbot posted spell data from the alpha build, though it was quickly taken down. It was up long enough to see some of the new spell scalings:
Mark of the Wild (Rank 9)
750 armor, 37 to all attributes, 54 to all resistances (untalented)
Talented would be 1050 armor, 52 to all attributes, 75 to all resistances.Also, Lifebloom goes all the way up to rank 3 at level 80. Unfortunately the mana cost rises significantly to 430 — quite a jump from 220 (Rank 1) — while the base healing increases to 441/970 from 273/600 (Rank
Thorns
Description: Thorns sprout from the friendly target causing 140 Nature damage to attackers when hit. Lasts $d.
Talented (with Brambles) it would be 245 damage per hit (and have a 15% chance to daze the attacker), that is a huge boost to the utility of thorns.
So even our long-neglected class buff, Mark of the Wild, may be getting some love, as well! Keep in mind that if this change to Thorns and Brambles goes live, the threat value from the damage of fully talented Thorns will be multiplying by nearly a factor of six in addition to the threat from the daze effect. From what I’ve been able to tell from the alpha talent tree, it would be possible to spend 58 points in Restoration and still get 3/3 Brambles (though not Insect Swarm).
Finally, we have a couple of pretty nifty new enchants to look forward to:
- Enchant Cloak – Wisdom: "Permanently enchant a cloak to reduce threat slightly and increase Spirit by 10. Requires a level 60 or higher item."
- Enchant Boots – Tuskar’s Vitality: "Permanently enchant boots to give a minor movement speed increase and 15 Stamina. Requires a level 60 or higher level item."
These two combination enchants are in addition to the improvements likely to be made to the standard enchants like +Healing to weapons and +Spirit to bracers.
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I am excited that BRK is back, though!
/cry I love you, ty for everything.
If there are indeed multiple ranks of lifebloom, I wish Rank 2 would have been posted. Remember that the +healing formula penalty is (level next rank of spell is learned +5)/(current level). So assuming Rank 2 is learned at 71, lifebloom rank 1 would provide 95% +healing coefficient. And Rank 2 would almost definitely suffice for the most part. So although our ‘main heal’ was getting more pricey, downranking wouldn’t be too painful in most situations.
Sidenotes: Flourish has been confirmed to be castable in tree form (tooltip needed revision) and Nourish was in the tag description earlier in the page (and I haven’t seen it ‘taken off’ as it were). So it looks like both spells are castable in TOL.
Still no OOC rez though *sniff sniff*.
“Sidenotes: Flourish has been confirmed to be castable in tree form (tooltip needed revision) and Nourish was in the tag description earlier in the page (and I haven’t seen it ‘taken off’ as it were). So it looks like both spells are castable in TOL.”-Zaria
I was kinda hoping that Nourish would not be castable in tree form for some reason, that way you would have 2 different styles of play tree, and not tree. But I guess you don’t have to be in treeform all the time, but I felt like the should be some reason to still have Healing Touch besides the Nature’s Swiftness Healing Touch. Or maybe my logic is messed up and I just want to limit myself too much…
Lifebloom rank 2 is learned at level 72, costs 295 mana and heals for 350 hot, 770 bloom
Rank 1 will still get nearly full +healing benefit and will probably be the rank of choice for endurance healing.
I thought I read somewhere that there will be a +spirit enchant to boots as well. I may need to do some digging.
The brambles stuff sounds good, but is probably too good to be true. A 70 kitty with 3000 AP would have white (non-crit) attacks for around 300. In a 71-80 AV everybody in the BG would be starting with a damage shield that does 245 back at the poor cat?
I find it difficult to imagine a 15% daze on Thorns (and/or treants, which I thought someone also said). Attackers who average more than one attack per second (felines, many rogues) would find find themselves dazed five seconds into the fight.
If the daze isn’t just on self-cast thorns, your entire raid will want thorns. If someone is going to be one-shot, the extra aggro isn’t an issue. If they aren’t going to be one-shot, the daze just might let them get away from that loose mob.
On the other hand, daze isn’t a stun. A rogue who is dazed could still blind me, and the daze cost him very little at that point. A feral can probably shift out of a PvP daze. There also seems to be a lot more CC on the way (Warriors AoE CC in a cone attack as one example). So maybe it does fit in with other classes LK abilities.
I would be very shocked to see non-moonkins rooting inside instances. Here’s why
1) Despite its unpredictability, roots is effect against any melee mob.
2) All packs contain at least one, and usually more, melee mobs.
3) No hybrid-healer has any sort of instance viable CC.
4) The only healer with CC is the dedicated healer (priest) and is very narrow, undead only.
Combine those facts together and I would be shocked to see healing druids casting roots in any capacity in an instance. Barring a major reworking of instance mechanics, a healer providing universally applicable CC would simply be too unbalancing. Extra CC provides vastly greater instance utility compared to OOC rez and is not comparable.
It simply won’t be happening. Moonkin yes. Us, no.
@Crythia: Oh, I’m sure they’ll have all the standard enchants availableat slightly higher “item value.” I was just pointing out the few that were “combination” enchants that we haven’t seen before. It’s cool that I don’t have to lose all the Spirit to Boots because I wanted a Boar’s Speed enchant instead.
@Erdluf: I kind of suspect that the Brambles thing might be a little too good, as well. Kitties (whose attack speed is normalized to 2.0) attacking a Thorns’d target would be less affected than a fast-hitting Rogue, but it would be painful. Still, Blizzard has made dispels a pretty integral part of PvP, so I think there should be some hefty consequences for NOT using Dispel when it’s possible. I do not think we’ll be giving Thorns to non-tanks in PvE, though. That’s just throwing gasoline on the fire in terms of extra aggro.
@Bigtoy: I have to say that I disagree. You’re right that no hybrid-healer has a reliable form of CC right now. But Druids are required to bring those classes to their groups if they want a rez. Why shouldn’t we be able to make up the difference via a reliable form of CC ourselves? Many “optimal” group configurations go Tank + Healer/Rezzer + 3 x CC/DPS (even if one of those CCers is something with limited utility like Warlock Banish). A Druid’s group goes Tank + Healer + 2 x CC/DPS + DPS/Rezzer. By giving Druids a reliable form of CC, they shift the roles around a little bit but end up with essentially the same potential utility. Not to mention that it’s more difficult to CC and Heal than it is to CC and DPS. Really, they HAVE to give it to us if they give Death Knights indoor roots. They’re a “non-traditional” CCer, as well, since they perform the tanking role.
I’m very glad to see the improved MotW changes, that’s been needed for a while. (Especially now that I’m leveling a baby tree– sapling, perhaps?)
@Phae/Bigtoy: Our CC is temperamental. For example – it works just fine in large portions of ZA and all portions of MH. So its not that we have never seen its utility in an instance, just that now we’ll see its utility in *all* instances. We use it all the time leveling, and in arenas – why not in instances? They have stated before that its just a matter of tuning things to account for it.
Also, this is alpha. While its fun to speculate from what we see as their direction, they might just be experimenting to see what is overpowered and what could make it in. I don’t know if Deathknights getting this sort of CC is an affront to us or not – mostly because they are a new ball of tricks, and not something i can directly relate to the balance we currently see in game. So I’ll hope we get it, try not to expect us to – and see what happens when some more concrete numbers come out in a few months.
Rebuttal
While the total number of roles stays the same (1 tank, 1 healer, 1 rezzer, 3 CC) stays the same, having a class capable of both healing and CC is vastly superior to a healing/rez. Think back to the old Scholomance instance, a priest was required. Even Karazhan highly favored bringing priests, though with 10man a shadowpriest slot is at least plausible. So imagine that degree of preference given to druids for *every* 5 man instance. Pugging a five man with two hard spots (universally effective CC and healer) filled with a single class is too tempting, and too unfair to other healers.
Also Blizzard will now have to plan for the very real potential of having 4 CC in a 5 man run. Not sure if they want to cope with that.
Finally, crowd control has a greater utility than rez. You only need an OOC rez when someone dies. Which should be less often than once a pull. Which is how often CC is used.
Priests have a full strength CC because they are a pure healer, they should have a slight ‘edge’ for earning the healing spot because it’s all they do. Now whether this needs to be addressed with the dramatic rise in shadow utility and the infeasibility of a druid maintaining a heroic gearset for every role is a very good question. If Roots was not universally applicable in every instance, that would greatly change the calculus. But with the current balance of the Holy Trinity of Tank/DPS/Healer, giving a healer a universal CC will not be happening.
<3 to Phae
Priests are not somehow more a “pure” healer than a Restoration Druid. They can spec Shadow as easily as I could spec Feral or Balance. Okay, okay … as easily as SOME people OTHER than me could spec Feral or Balance. ^_^ They aren’t somehow more deserving of a “full strength” CC than we are simply because they only have one other role to spec into (magical DPS). I really take issue with the idea that Priests should somehow be the “best” at healing because they don’t have as many alternate specs as Druids, Shamans, and Paladins. We should all be considered equal when we’re deeply specced for healing because we aren’t getting hybrid benefits, especially at this level of play.
Right now, every type of CC right now has certain, specific limitations:
- Freezing Trap: usable on anything but difficult to deploy and refresh
- Polymorph: usable on Humanoids and Beasts, easy deploy and refresh but heals target to full
- Frost Nova: usable on multiple, non-ranged mobs; requires group to be conscious of mob’s position; short duration (8 sec) with a 21-25 sec cooldown
- Shackle Undead: usable on Undead, easy deploy and refresh
- Banish: usable on Demons and Elementals, easy to deploy, difficult to refresh
- Seduce: usable on Humanoids, difficult to deploy and refresh
- Hibernate: usable on Beasts and Dragonkin, easy to deploy and refresh
- Entangling Roots: usable on non-ranged mobs, requires group to be conscious of mob’s position, some argue it breaks more easily than other forms of crowd control
- Sap: usable on Humanoids outside of combat
- Blind: usable on Humanoids, long cooldown and breaks on damage
Also, some mobs in WotLK are predicted to have the ability to “pull” players to them, in which case Roots would be unusable on them.
I agree that CC has greater utility than out of combat resurrection. But a Druid’s group by default often loses a form of CC so they can bring a rezzer since the Druid can perform neither role (and the rezzer can’t CC, either). Giving us a form of CC would help ease that burden, even if it is more difficult to execute than a Mage’s Polymorph.
I’m not sure why Blizzard would consider it okay for Death Knights to have an indoor Root but not Druids. A Tank is as essential as a Healer.
It really depresses me when people somehow think that Warriors and Priests are more deserving of Tanking or Healing than others who fill the same role because they are “Pure” or otherwise limited to that role. That was a fine view to have back at 60, but it hasn’t been true for a long time. Warriors and Priests are BOTH hybrid classes as surely as paladins and shamans are. They both can fill 2 roles easily, and Fury DPS/Arms PvP as well as Shadow DPS/Discipline PvP are COMPLETELY viable specs to be in WoW at this time. It’s time you realize that neither class deserves a special place in their role.
/Moonkin dance!
Blind can be used on any target and is very short (10 seconds).
I could have sworn that all I do is heal, too, barring an occasional battle rez or innervate, in which case we can say similar things about every other healer. In fact, I’m easily outdamaged by these ‘only healing’ priests when we’re all in healing gear despite having to use mana for every bit of my plausible raiding damage.
If priests are supposedly ‘pure healers’ then why would they even get a form of crowd control? Oh, it makes logical sense for them to have an advantage over undead, but that’s not healing. A utility given to a class that is either a tank or healer (or DPS, depending on the game) takes away any bit of ‘pure’ there can be. If they are to be pure healers then their strength should lie in simply better healing, and the non-pure healers would have to be given something else to compensate, else they’d fade from the endgame scene. Priests aren’t pure healers; they’re the jack of all heals.
The simple truth of the matter is that, at the moment, there are no pure healers. There are very, very rarely any pure healers in an MMO. The primary healers are the four classes that can heal specced into their healing tree. Each one has some utility and versatility it can bring to the table, and each one does their job differently from the others. In a game where gear is not swappable in combat, save weapons (Which do help), and gear is almost always itemized strictly towards one role, performing as an effective hybrid in the midst of battle (which is where hybridization really matters) falls short most of the time. I would argue that balance druids, elmental shamans, and shadow priests perform as the best hybrids on the casting/healing scene. Yes, although we can change our roles between combat, I’ve never really seen that versatility actively sought out for. It becomes more of a little bonus.
The closest thing I’ve played to a pure healer is a white mage in FFXI without a subjob. Even then, I’m still responsible for debuffing. Clerics in EQ were for a long time the real healers, but they still weren’t pure – just the best.
I’m pretty sure I agree with the rest of what’s said about the possibility for it to be overpowered if instance mechanics remain the same. I highly, highly doubt instance mechanics will remain the same, though. I just have an issue with the notion that only 25% of our healers are ‘pure healers.’ Forget the character selection screen, I’m specced 61 resto for a reason :p
Edit: One day I’ll figure out the probably-obvious way that these comments operate so that it doesn’t look like I’m replying to someone when I didn’t mean to and vice-versa
I’m confused how come everyone’s excited about Mark becoming viable, or saying thorns would be overpowered, etc. Did I miss something that would put all these stats in context? Stamina scaled massively from 60 to 70, what’s to say they won’t rework these other changes likewise? I think it’s great to see what the new spell designs are so I can get a feel for how it might change playstyle. But as far as base numbers go, I don’t know how anyone can evaluate their impact without an appropriate context.
@Nilianil
Just scroll down and type. =)
@Nilianil: The weird cascading thing is something specific to Firefox that I haven’t been able to debug. It does it to me, too, but it hasn’t really bothered me so I haven’t … you know … fixed it. ^_^ Sorry for the confusion. Maybe I’ll take another look.
@Kalaghan: For my part at least, I’m assuming that Mark will “scale better” than the equivalent Fortitude buff since Blizzard has specifically said that we shouldn’t expect Stamina values to climb in as great a proportion as they did between original WoW and Burning Crusade. Assuming they listened to the class feedback, Mark is probably getting a little extra, well-deserved loving.
As for Thorns, there are only a couple of other damage shields in the game: Molten Armor (self-only) and Retribution Aura. Even if either or both of these get a considerable buff, it doesn’t lessen the awesomness of Thorns since, as far as I’m aware, Thorns stacks with Retribution Aura. I suspect it’s a PvP-motivated buff, though, one that Balance Druids sorely need!