Jiryn of Gorefiend (US) posted to the Wrath of the Lich King forums, requesting once again that Druids be considered for the addition of an out of combat resurrection spell:

In Wrath of the Lich King please give Druids something they’ve needed for quite a while. A Non-cooldown res, much like a Priest, Shaman or Paladin resurrection. This would be a second rez of theirs to use at the end of fights or after wipes when they have been Soulstoned. We’ve waited long enough; give us the FULL healing potential we were supposed to [have]!

  The post was blue-tagged with this (disheartening) response from Bornakk:

Then after this it would probably be Mortal Strike that’s needed, right? We understand there are many spells and abilities that other classes have that would make things easier for players, but we also need to be careful in morphing all classes into one big green blob that all have the same skills. Right now having an awesome ability like Battle Resurrection sets Druids apart from the regular ressing classes.

And before anybody asks, we are working on the new talents and spells for each class but we don’t have any details to provide on them at this time.

Because clearly, Mortal Strike is an ability commonly associated with the healing role. That’s just silly. Shamans have wipe recovery in the form of Reincarnate, Paladins have wipe recovery in the form of Divine Intervention (well, assuming they’re grouped with someone that can also rez). Both of these abilities are in addition to having access to a standard resurrection spell. Bornakk goes on to follow up on his original comment with the following:

I was just pointing out that instead of the normal out-of-combat res that other classes have, Druids have a much more unique and special ability. I understand that having more out-of-combat res abilities on more classes would make wipe recovery easier, but we want to be careful in not having abilities given out to every class and make them less unique.

If you are in a 5-person dungeon and the Druid is the only healer, while you don’t have wipe recovery (cables and Soulstones aside), you can organize your group and approach each of the pulls with this in mind and be more cautious to avoid the wipes. It make take a wipe or two to straighten things out, but adapting to the situation can make things run a lot smoother.

So essentially, Druids (and the people who decide to group with them) just have to be better at the game than other healers and their groupmates. I’m glad someone is telling me this now! Rather than go off on a another gigormous rant on this subject, I’d like to share one of my favorite responses:

Where are people getting off on the idea that an OOC rez is unique and giving one to druids would remove the ability’s/class’s uniqueness? Re: the ability–three classes have it. Unique = three identical abilities across three classes but no more? Re: the class–we are unique in that we are the only class that can main heal yet cannot rez the party after a messy pull/boss fight. That is, we are uniquely disadvantaged.

…

I would like to remind Blizzard that not everyone gets to run in guild groups where mistakes never happen and everyone is a machine. Things crop up in real groups. Kids get chased off their computers by mom. Connections are subject to hiccups, lag spikes, and bottoming out entirely. Sometimes you just have to put out that grease fire on the stove. We get punished for not only being in groups with horribad players, but for little unpredictable occurrences that any other healer can make up for once the damage is done. At one point, a long time ago that is now a hazy druid memory, I could understand this; few instances had stealth-spotting mobs, and druids were rarely main healers. This is not the case anymore. Please, let the game change with the times. We are not asking for an ability that makes any other healer unique; we are asking for an ability that every other healer has.

— Alice of Kirin Tor

Related Posts

• Rebirth Bugged (or Nerfed)
• Vaneras: Standard Rez Unlikely
• Out of Combat Resurrection

According to Lead Developer Kalgan, Blizzard determines the necessity of PvP-based nerfs based on class representation in Arenas and their overall population relative to that of other classes:

One of the things we look at is class representation in arenas (although normalized for class popularity). In this particular chart, a value of 100% means the class is represented as we’d expect, a value over 100% means the class is represented that much more often than we’d expect, a value below 100% means they’re represented less than we’d want (obviously this chart doesn’t include a spec breakdown in any way).

	2v2	3v3	5v5
Druid	276.0%	184.0%	80.5%
Hunter	43.0%	50.2%	43.0%
Mage	8.7%	96.0%	96.0%
Paladin	19.7%	29.5%	147.4%
Priest	113.3%	164.8%	185.4%
Shaman	37.8%	50.4%	138.6%
Rogue	144.2%	175.1%	61.8%
Warlock	149.2%	93.2%	111.9%
Warrior	130.4%	90.7%	79.3%

Edit: one other detail regarding the chart, this one is set at 2200+ rating.

He later responds to a request for the chart relevant to the 1850 rating with the following:

	2v2	3v3	5v5
Druid	184.0%	138.0%	92.0%
Hunter	50.2%	50.2%	50.2%
Mage	61.1%	87.3%	87.3%
Paladin	68.8%	88.4%	137.6%
Priest	133.9%	133.9%	154.5%
Shaman	75.6%	88.2%	138.6%
Rogue	154.5%	154.5%	82.4%
Warlock	121.2%	102.5%	102.5%
Warrior	90.7%	85.0%	85.0%

Continue reading ‘Kalgan: Druids 176% Overrepresented in 2v2′…

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We Druids finally received a blue response to our pleas and inquiries about the upcoming nerf to the Lifebloom +Healing coefficient, albeit not the one we have sought. Responding to a thread originating back in February, Community Manager Tharfor (EU) has posted:

It easy to see why people would view this change as a nerf, but the truth is that the coefficient was already artificially inflated.

Resto druids are still very strong at what they do. I notice when I’m raiding with mine that I don’t do very well on the healing meters, but that’s just because of the way that druid healing works.

Are we Druids then to infer that we are not intended to perform well on healing meters, those tools pored over by the most diligent of endgame raiders when making decisions about who needs to improve or even who should be permanently cut from their rosters? This statement is tantamount to telling raid guilds that a Restoration Druid isn’t intended to contribute as meaningfully as other healers. All this despite having less utility than Paladins or Shamans, lacking the raid healing tools of Shamans and Priests, and having all almost all of our "special" contributions (Rebirth, Innervate, MotW, Thorns) provided as well or better by Balance and Feral Druids, the sole exception being Tree of Life aura.

This is the first time I’ve heard that a change was needed to reduce the performance of a class/spec acknowledged to underperform in exactly the same area that the reduction is being applied, and I suspect Tharfor will regret putting his paw in his mouth (his forum avatar is a Night Elf cat). I’ve done my best to try and stay positive about the changes in Patch 2.4, but this feels like a punch in the gut; I’d Lifebloom myself, but it probably wouldn’t even top me off anymore.

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Great news for those disheartened by the PTR change to drinking whereby the first few seconds suffered much-decreased mana regeneration. Community Manager Kalgan (US) has just announced that this mechanic will now only be active in Arenas:

You haven’t read it wrong, but we’ve decided to have that rule only apply inside arenas. It’s an inconsistency, but one we’re ok with to prevent water from feeling unnecessarily weird everywhere else.

This change — or rather, lack of one — should make instances like Heroic Black Morass much more manageable.

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Portions of the patch notes reported by MMO-Champion.com as having been leaked early last week have shown up in the latest iteration of the PTR Patch Notes. So far, these changes include the following:

• Lifebloom healing coefficient has been reduced.
• Natural Perfection: This ability will no longer be triggered by taking critical strikes while sitting. In addition, it is now affected by the Subtlety talent and reduces damage by 2/3/4%, down from 1/3/5%.
• Nurturing Instinct increases your healing spells by up to 50/100% of your Agility, and increases healing done to you by 10/20% 5/10% of your Attack Power while in Cat Form.

For those who don’t remember, we may possibly expect to see the following additional changes (in one form or another):

• Cyclone range reduced to 20 yards, down from 30.
• Tree of Life: You may now cast any Restoration spell in this form.
• Improved Tranquility: Now also reduces the mana cost of Tranquility by 10/20%.
• Moonkin Form no longer gains 150% attack power or mana returned from melee hits, but now refunds 2% of your total mana every time you critically hit with a spell.
• Force of Nature: Treants now have a 15% chance to proc Entangling Roots on the target.

Continue reading ‘“Fake” Patch Notes Not So Fake after All’…

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