@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!

@Nilianil
Just scroll down and type. =)

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

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.

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

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.