New Tree of Life model datamined

Boubouille at MMO-Champion has datamined the long-awaited new Tree of Life model from an upcoming beta build (click the image above for a high-res version), and commentary's already starting to fly on the forums. Some players are really enthusiastic, others are not (Cirocco of Rexxar's notable soundbite: "Hunchback of Notre Lame"), and others think it's a little too masculine-looking in comparison to the older treant model.

If the posture looks a little familiar, it's because the Tree apparently shares the male orc's skeleton and animations (at least for the moment), although I'm having difficulty locating the YouTube video that a player claims to have seen of this. The new model isn't yet live on the beta, so unfortunately I can't yet get a video for myself. EDIT: Thanks to our readers, it's been located -- go here.

I really like the new model, but I'm surprised that Blizzard thought it was a priority for an update given the Tree of Life's new status as a Metamorphosis-like cooldown. Bears and cats finally got their update in patch 3.2, so I'm hoping that Moonkin, Travel and Aquatic Form are next on the list. At any rate, it's a spot of good news (well, to me, anyway) in a patch where cat DPS has nose-dived, bears are going crazy trying to hold aggro in 5-mans, and trees are ... well, no longer trees. Past the cut you'll find a quick note on the WoW Insider team's take.

While I liked the form, reception was somewhat mixed behind the scenes here at WoW Insider --

• "Kinda like John Kerry cerca 1978."

• "More like a Kennedy than a Kerry."

• "The 1970s called (and) want their discotrees back."

• "A Tree of Life walks into a bar. The bartender says, 'Hey bud, why the long face?'"

• "A big rock with feathers piled on it."

• "Looks like a pagan hipster to me. It should have a Macbook under one arm and a soy latte in the other."

-- and Michael Gray decided to run with the comments and produced the following (click for full size):

Mat McCurley also had an amazing John Kerry Photoshop job I'd love to add here, but he's not around at the moment.

So there you go, folks. What's your take on the new forms?