Last night Community Manager Eyonix responded to questions about playing as a Moonkin, including a question posed by Solur of Skullcrusher, “So how many pieces of cloth does your Moonkin wear?” (The answer was 3.) Eyonix goes on to defend Burning Crusade’s lack of leather armor with spell damage by saying:

I’m disappointed that you wouldn’t treat armor the same as any other statistic. As a caster, you really do owe it to yourself to prioritize your gear so that caster stats have priority over defensive stats. You have chosen to play your character as a caster afterall. Armor is a defensive statistic, and while it can be useful, you really should be focusing on the items that benefit you as a caster the most. I think people forget that the armor bonus on the Moonkin ability was mostly a flavor bonus.

Mmmmm!
Tastes like turkey!I can’t really say that I agree with Eyonix’ assessment of the 400% armor bonus afforded to our Moonkin form as “flavor.” After all, Moonkin are encouraged to regenerate mana by meleeing (albeit, this dynamic is widely regarded as both silly and broken). Balance’s clearcasting ability, Omen of Clarity, also requires that Moonkin be in melee range since it cannot proc through spellcasting like the clearcasting abilities of the Shaman, Priest, and Mage. If the armor bonus really is just “flavor,” why not also award it to the Tree of Life? This would certainly increase the viability of a deep Restoration-spec in Arenas. Which, of course, only points out that an armor bonus — on any of our forms — is certainly more than just “flavor.”

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The release of patch 2.1.3 included several minor bugs related to the druid class:

• The Healing Aura from Tree of Life is not being applied party members at full range.
• Druid talent Mangle’s duration icon isn’t being refreshed properly on reapplication.
• The Druid talent Force of Nature causes stealthed party members to lose their stealth.
• Druids are able to learn Dire Bear Form before learning Bear Form.

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Good news from the European Forums today; according to Community Manager Vaneras, the development staff is aware of the poor performance of Druids in Arena and are “looking into” possible improvements:

The Druid class is somewhat under-represented in the Arenas, which there of course are various reasons for. The developers are looking into the Druids overall performance in the Arenas, so I would say that it is too soon to give up on your Druid just yet.

I personally enjoy PvPing on my Druid, but I play mostly in the battlegrounds.

Vaneras made a similar post in the European Rogue forums today, responding in much greater detail to a post which laid out several of the perceived issues with Rogue Arena viability.

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Good news to the forest of druids lamenting over their inability to decurse and buff while in Treeform. Nethaera posted today that the spells available to this form are still under review and, while she does not promise a quick response, it’s nice to know that the topic is under consideration:

We realize that people want Tree of Life form to have more of those types of spells available. In fact, I’ve mentioned it before on a thread awhile back. However, there is a lot of debate going on about which ones would be valid additions without being overbalancing or skewing something else. We will let you know what is decided as we move forward, but please don’t expect anything immediate. I can’t promise you that. All I can do is tell you that we know these are requests people have and are pondering the fate of the trees.

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European CM Vaneras responded to complaints about the druid class’s lack of a standard resurrection spell without cooldown today:

1. The Druid have a resurrection ability, which can even be used while in combat. Albeit it has a long cooldown, but it is a resurrection ability nonetheless.
2. If Druids had the same abilities as other healing classes, then why choose to play with those classes at all?

My point is that all classes are different from one another, and it is supposed to be that way.

…

Interesting suggestion indeed, which I will note down for sure, however I personally do not think that we will ever get to see a “normal” resurrection ability being given to Druids.

To Vaneras, I would pose the question, “If other healing classes all have the same much-desired, time-saving ability but the druid does not, why choose to play with the druid at all?” In fact, this question was later posed to Vaneras in the same thread, to which he responds:

Because of the many other abilities that Druids have, which the other healing classes don’t have… Do you see what I am trying to say with this?

If one healing class has the same abilities as other healing classes plus a little more, then there would be no reason to play with those other healing classes at all. Each healing class are good and strong at their own particular thing, as is intended, and that is why we have different healing classes. One group of players might prefer one type of healer that is strong in one field, whereas another group prefer another type of healer that is strong in a different field. If all healing classes could do exactly the same, then there really wouldn’t be a reason to have different healing classes… It all comes down to choice really, because you cannot have it all.

Fruitcake of Aggramar responds to this assertion with a statement about endgame progression through Heroic instances:

Not having an out of combat Resurrection with [no cooldown] is too much of a drawback. In Heroics people die all the time, like I said in an earlier post.
In a game where you can get 1-shotted due to a polymorph resist or a dodgy crit, a Resto Druid isn’t going to get very far only ressurecting once every 30 minutes.

Vaneras admits that having an out of combat Resurrection spell is “very important” but asserts that we — unlike all other healers — should have to bring along another healer to perform the role of rezzing:

This is true… Out of combat resurrection is very important in Heroics, but that does not mean that Druids are not useful as healers in Heroics just because they don’t have that ability. There are 3 other classes that can resurrect out of combat(plus jumper cables if you have a lucky engineer in your group), so if you have one of those classes with you in your group, then you are covered fairly well… Nobody says that the main healer has to be the same person that is also has to do all the resurrecting.

As I said before, out of combat resurrection is indeed important in Heroics especially if the Tank is poorly geared. And it is also clear that having no out of combat resurrection is a drawback for the resto Druid who plays in Heroics… But limiting yourself with specific class combinations in groups and pigeon-holing those classes with specific class roles can be an equally large drawback… Especially when it comes to Heroics. If you are having trouble with forming a group and are unable to find a specific class and role combination for your Heroics group that you would like, then you have to compromise and look for other ways to form a group. A Druid can function very well as a main healer in a group, and if the group for an example has a Shadow Priest or a Shaman with them for DPS, then the lack of no out of combat resurrection issue is covered right there.

Taking a so called “offspecced” healing class with you to fill the second spot is not necessarily a bad thing. Healing classes are often very good at other things than just healing or resurrecting, which is why you see so many “offspecced” healing classes that are not super interested in just being healers all the time. I think that the example I mentioned above with a Resto Druid and a Shadow Priest or a Shaman will be a good choice to bring with you in a Heroics group, even though they do not serve the traditional class roles. With two spots taken with for an example a Shadow Priest or Shaman and a Resto Druid, then you both DPS, Healing and out of combat resurrection. That leaves you 3 slots for Tanks, additional DPS, off-tanks or even secondary healers.

All in all, this is the lengthiest response from someone in blue type on the subject and — while offputting and upsetting — at least it shows recognition of the issue. One would only hope that “very important” would mean, “We recognize that Restoration-druids are unfairly handicapped with respect to other healers with whom they compete for group spots.” but unfortunately, it seems that the trend of giving druids fewer tools than are necessary to fulfill their chosen role will continue.

What many fail to recognize is that giving druids an out of combat resurrection spell would have no effect on game balance; the spell inherently has no effect on combat. Vaneras admits that the sole purpose for this arbitrary limitation is to make druids less attractive as main healers for instances relative to our competition. It’s notable that none of the traditional arguments against druids getting Resurrection (stealth, for example) are even mentioned. Druids are being penalized purely for the sake of making us less viable without any regard to game balance (or fairness to the spec). When will the developers figure out that this is not a good form of “game balancing”?

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