The notes for patch 2.1 were updated on the PTR today, confirming that the patch will be going live this Tuesday. There weren’t many druid-related addendums to the notes, but here they are:

• Taunts: The taunt system has been adjusted so that warrior Taunt, druid Growl, and paladin Righteous Defense will now grant the player the correct amount of threat even when the creature or its target is crowd controlled.
• Force of Nature: The Treants summoned by this spell will now correctly attack your target even if it is neutral or non-aggressive.
• Swiftmend: The button for this ability will now be greyed out when your current target does not have Rejuvenation or Regrowth.
• Malorne Raiment and Malorne Regalia: These sets no longer erroneously apply a reduction in cost to some druid spells.
• Changed the socket bonuses on the Windhawk set to something more appropriate.

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While I use many “general purpose” UI addons, I plan to showcase a few that I think would benefit most players of the druid class, be they resto-specced, feral-specced, or oomkin.

A couple of months ago, a priest friend of mine turned me on to the ArkInventory addon. Developed and maintained by Arkayenro of Khaz’goroth, ArkInventory combines all of your bag slots into one pane, similar to the All-In-One Inventory addon. ArkInventory goes a step further, however, allowing you to use predefined categories (or create custom categories) for sorting items. You can then create regions within your inventory to associate with one or more categories. After that, whenever you pick up an item, it will automatically be added to the appropriate inventory region (assuming you’ve set one up), allowing you to easily group all your consumables or leatherworking items into their own sections without having to try to logically sort items into bags of variable size.

Example setup of ArkInventory

Any druid who collects multiple sets of gear Druids, in particular, really benefit from this addon. As an example, I have created individual regions for Healing, Magical DPS, Melee DPS, Tanking, and PvP gear sets. This is in addition to regions for consumables, tailoring, leatherworking and skinning, non combat pets and mounts, quest items, assorted resistances, and non-soulbound green items for selling/alt distribution.

To be objective, there are some downsides to using this addon:

1. ArkInventory does slow the transfer of items between your bank and inventory. You can minimize the delay, however, by doing the following:
   • Turn off auto sorting. This keeps the addon from resorting your items every time you make an inventory change. Under the main menu, go to the Sorting submenu and uncheck Instant.
   • Turn off bag display. You must turn off the display of your bags for the toggle on auto refresh to take effect. Under the main menu, go to the Hidden Frames submenu and check Bag Changer.
2. It can be difficult to switch out bags since there is no indicator of which bag contains which items in your inventory pane (luckily, profession- and class-based bags have slots which can be color-coded). As infrequently as this is an issue, I generally disable the addon, switch out my bag, then reenable it.
3. Obviously, should you ever play your character on another system, the contents of your bags will be in disarray. You’ll need to move both the addon and its configuration files (which specify how your want your category regions setup) to keep from losing your settings on a new computer.

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One of the things that makes World of Warcraft unique when compared to many of the MMOs that preceded it are the considerably lighter penalties for dying (repair bills and invulnerable corpse runs). Along with the much lessened penalties, the designers decided to spread the ability to counter these penalties among many classes instead of a few. Shamans can resurrect themselves, warlocks can conjure Soulstones, and paladins, shamans, and priests all have the ability to resurrect fallen comrades. Druids, on the other hand, have the Rebirth spell, a method of resurrection which, unlike standard Resurrection, can be employed in combat:

Of the four classes who can primary heal (priests, druids, paladins, and shamans), druids are the only class who do not have a resurrection spell not subject to a cooldown, the idea being that Rebirth is a strong enough spell — even with its 30 minute cooldown — that druids should not also be able to cast a time-unrestricted version. It has also been stated that Blizzard worries about the combination of an unlimited resurrection spell being used in conjunction with Stealth.

Prior to and immediately following the release of the Burning Crusade, druids were more or less quiet about the issue of not having a normal resurrection spell. However, as more and more druids performed the role of main healer for the new 5-man instances, the concern grew. And today with many druids reaching the threshold where their gear can only be further improved by Heroic instances (or raiding), the forums are cacophonous with complaints about the lack of this ability. Restoration-specced druids struggle to find places among Heroic groups because groups rightfully worry that the inevitable result of using a druid for main healer will be endless, time consuming runs back to the instance. There are ways to get around this limitation, such as being sure to bring a paladin, shaman, or priest along, but this makes druids the only class required to bring someone else along to perform part of what should be considered their role (when specced and geared for it). It also assumes a plethora of available healing-types which does not always exist and imposes a competition for healing items to which other healers are not subjected.

Druitt of Lothar made a post asking those druids clamoring for the addition of a normal Resurrection spell address five issues that he perceives with the spell being given to druids. Like most threads of its type, you have to filter out a lot of superfluous bickering to find logical discussion, but I thought that the points he raised would serve as an excellent framework for this entry.

1. Stealth + Resurrection would be overpowered.

It is possible for a group of rogues and druids to stealth to the back of some instances, assassinate the boss mob(s), and hearth out (this is currently possible in Sethekk Halls and is considered the best way for rogues and druids to acquire the Shoulderpads of Assassination). It is also an instance dynamic that Blizzard has been aware of for some time, dating back to stealth runs for the Seal of Ascension quest in LBRS. When Blizzard wants to prevent this from being a viable option, they employ one or more of the following methods:

• Mobs which have Truesight and have a larger aggro radius toward characters who are stealthed. Partied rogues are frequently unable to sap a given group of mobs because one or more of them see through stealth.
• Stealthed and triggered spawn mobs. These are mobs that you can't see until they're in range to aggro and attack you. These mobs include the assassins in the room with Blackheart the Inciter.
• Narrow corridors in which mobs patrol, making it harder to stay out of the perception range. Sometimes these corridors have the added difficulty of one or more stealthed or triggered spawn mobs, making getting through while stealthed even more difficult.

It's also worth noting that stealth and resurrection is the most difficult and time consuming method of respawn circumvention. A group would be much better off with a Soulstone, Reincarnation, or Divine Intervention. And in many cases, it would often be faster to reclear the mobs that have respawned.

2. Rebirth + Resurrection would be overpowered.

According to Druitt:

"No other healing class has a full-blown IC rez. Soulstones, Ankhs, etc, have specific limitations and do not work like your standard rez. If Druids get an unlimited, OOC rez then a unique IC rez becomes OP."

While it is true that Soulstone, Reincarnation, and Divine Intervention all have specific limitations, it is also true that Rebirth is subject to some pretty hefty limitations:

• Only usable once every 30 minutes (identical to Soulstone/Divine Intervention/Reincarnation).
• Hugely prohibitive mana cost (68% of base mana), forcing you to often forgo its use as wipe prevention for fear you won't have enough mana to complete the encounter.
• Nominal reagent cost (18s).

I feel that these costs sufficiently offset the costs associated with other classes' wipe prevention/wipe recovery abilities. And all of those classes (with the exception of the Warlock) also have a standard Resurrection spell.

3. "All the other healers can do it" is not a valid reason for needing the ability.

To the contrary, the game post Burning Crusade is heavily balanced around creating solid, capable groups, both in PvP and PvE. When a Restoration druid has sacrificed the ability to farm, solo, or kill other players to be a better healer, she does so with the understanding that she will be "compensated" for her sacrifices by increased desirability in groups. A druid should have every reason to expect to be as desired as a Holy priest or Holy paladin. A paladin can even have fewer points in her Holy talent tree and still be more desirable since she has the Resurrection spell which is needed so often for Heroic instances. Just as a feral-specced druid can expect to have tools comparable to those of a warrior so that she is desired as a group tank, so too should a Restoration druid be granted tools that make her competitive with priests, paladins, and shamans.

4. Druid abilities that are not unique to Druids, but are not shared by all healing classes.

This, I feel, is probably the weakest argument presented by Druitt in his post, the basic premise being that we should not ask to have the same abilities of other healers. Some examples of these abilities might be Fade, Blessing of Protection, or Power Word: Shield. The difference is that these abilities, while very strong and helpful, are not necessary to the role of a healer. Resurrection very much is, to the point where druids are turned down for advertised healing spots because, "sorry, we need a rezzer."

5. Druids are flexible in filling roles even when off-spec.

Finally, Druitt puts forth the argument that, because druids can also tank and dps, they should not expect to be on par with other healers. This is a disappointing sentiment to hear from a Druid. Feral-specced, he should recognize that he is far from a stellar healer when he's specced for Bear Form tanking (what is odd is that he claims to be superior to his restoration-specced Shaman when healing from his Feral spec). Similarly, I cannot hope to tank anything (besides possibly 5 STV gorillas) with my 43-point Restoration build. I made the tradeoff to be a good healer and expect to have the necessary tools available to me as a result.

All in all, I don't see that any of the above arguments holds much water when really scrutinized. I can only hope that Blizzard takes some of these things into consideration and levels the playing field among all the healers of various classes.

Additional Thoughts:

Along with the discussion of whether or not druids should have access to Resurrection, there has been substantial discussion as to the form/limitations that said access should take. Many ferals have expressed reticence at being given access to a spell that would force them into the role of a healer post raid wipe (helping with resurrection). With that in mind, I think that it should probably be a talented skill, on the same level as Nature's Swiftness, 21 points into the Restoration tree. This would allow players who enjoy using the Dreamstate build to heal to pick up the skill as well as the forest of more deeply-specced Restoration druids.

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I’m a recent convert to player versus player gameplay (having just over 3000 lifetime kills). I participate in two arena teams, one that’s 3v3 and one that’s 5v5, and neither of which is rated highly among the many teams of the Reckoning Battlegroup. For a long time I refused to participate in any PvP content, believing the premise to be unfair to those who don’t spec to do damage. There is no Honor in healing, despite the fact that it makes you the #1 target for rogues and Mortal Strike warriors. The Restoration tree offers little defensability, so more often than not, I spent my limited PvP time at the graveyard waiting for my 30 second resurrection while the rest of my team farmed Honor.

That’s begun to change, however.

With the addition of the Healing Done statistic to Battleground leaderboards, it feels as though healing is appreciated and valuable. It also provides a gauge to determine how you are well you are filling your role each game you play and relative to other healers of both factions. In fact, when the leaderboard showed only Damage Done and Killing Blows, it effectively devalued the contributions made by those specced to heal so the addition of this stat, while likely a small development effort, represents a large payoff for people like me.

Survivability of the Restoration spec has also been improved with defensability added to several core Restoration talents. Subtlety, for instance, now has a chance to prevent heals over time from being dispelled in addition to its PvE threat reduction. Heal dispelling was a large problem for druids whose quick heals are primarily those that require time to take effect. A new 3-point talent, Natural Perfection, not only provides 3% greater chance to crit with all spells but reduces the damage of ranged and melee critical strikes against the druid by 10%. And of course, all druids have greatly benefited from the the addition of Cyclone — to such a degree that members of other classes clamor daily for a reduction of the spell’s effectiveness.

So much have I recently enjoyed Arena and Battleground play that I recently respecced from 61 points Restoration to a spec which includes 8 points of interrupt prevention in Balance. This slightly more hybridized spec affords some defensive utility in PvP without compromising much PvE healing ability. And let’s face it, healing for Drek’Thar with more than one warrior or feral druid present is a challenge that any PvE-healer would find tasking!

Despite my recent advances on the field of battle, I recognize that I have a very, very long way to go. Which brings me to Gromzy.

Gronzy of Ner’zhul is a high-ranked druid who’s dipped far enough into Restoration to have picked up Tree of Life. He’s also picked up the same 8 balance points that I have plus 11 points in Feral — enough to pick up Feral Charge. She’s ranked 6th in 2v2 and 5th in 3v3 within the Bloodlust Battlegroup, and anyone who’s seen the stats demonstrating how poorly druids typically perform in Arena will recognize how impressive these rankings are. Best of all, Gronzy has shared her triumph in video form. At 322 MB, the video’s a considerable bandwidth investment, but it’s worth it to any Restoration druid who wants to enjoy Arena play without losing strong PvE healing ability.

Some things I learned from this video:

• Healer? What healer?
  
  Gronzy does a tremendous job of avoiding becoming the primary target of her opponents. She begins each game in stealth (which I already do) and makes use of the Dash ability (which I have not). When she is targetted, she quickly shapeshifts into cheetah to dart away or into Bearform, making her a less attractive target. I suspect that she annoys her opponents so much with her kiting that they make a conscious decision to ignore her, allowing her to heal away with little fear of reprisal.
• Healing Spells
  
  The only time she uses Healing Touch is in combination with Nature’s Swiftness. She relies instead upon Regrowth as her “big” heal with lots of Rejuvenation + Swiftmend to supplement. This may have something to do with the fact that she hasn’t chosen any of the Healing Touch talents, but that spell is too slow even talented to be of much help in Arena.
• Line of Sight
  
  She does a great job of using Line of Sight to best advantage, purposefully choosing positions that allow her to quickly remove herself from her the possibility of being range attacked by her opponents. At one point, she even hides behind a pillar and is able to heal her teammate without revealing herself.
• Cyclone Much?
  
  Wow, does she spam Cyclone. She seems to have a great sense of internal timing so that she can lock down at least one opponent for the full duration of non-immunity (6 + 3 + 1.5 = 10.5 seconds). I imagine that your teammate(s) would need to have pretty high hit point totals to allow you to spend so much time doing so, but it’s still very impressive!
• Feral Charge
  
  While I’m not about to shift 11 points out of Restoration and into Feral to pick up this talent, Gronzy makes frequent use of it, preventing paladins from getting up to all kinds of mischief and generally wreaking havoc among caster opponents. I imagine that it’s pretty confusing to people initially trying to determine her talent spec, too (although at this point I’m sure she doesn’t fight many people who don’t immediately recognize — and fear — her).

These are just a few of the methods that I’ve noticed her using, but I definitely plan to keep the video as a reference on superior gameplay in Arenas.

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European CM Ommra just announced that Tree of Life will finally gain access to the Barkskin spell with the release of patch 2.1:

Druids will be able to cast Barkskin in Tree of Life form in 2.1.

Severely limited in defensive ability, Tree of Life will gain a small amount of usability in arena with this change. This will also allow trees to pair of Tranquility + Barkskin in 5-man instances and raids.

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