druids
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Community class review from the EU: Druids
The EU community MVP Schwick is really great at compiling lots of good info. In the past, he's done compilations on issues raised by the community for Hunters, Priests, and Rogues, as well as a bunch of other stuff. Now he's come up with the first draft of his compilation on Druids. He asked forum-goers what their main problems with the Druid class are, sifted through all the responses, and put them together in a very readable format for the Blizzard devs (and other players) to have a look at.It seemed to me that most of the Druid issues had to do with items and abilities not scaling so well in endgame raids after Karazhan. There were some points that addressed other general issues, as well as arena PvP, but overall casual druids seemed pretty content. There wasn't even any mention of the graphical updates to the shapeshifted forms that many druids have been asking for.Keep checking the thread to see what additional thoughts the players had, and to see future drafts of the compiled suggestions.
Glove enchants for the discerning Druid
Earlier today, Karthis over at Of Teeth and Claws responded to a question from one of his readers regarding which glove enchant was best if you're a tanking Druid. In case you missed it, despite our massive coverage of the last patch, some old world enchants made their return -- including Enchant Gloves: Threat, which previously dropped only in Ahn'Qiraj.He examines the current options players have available for glove enchants, and backs up his opinion with solid math and theorycrafting. If you're wracking your brain trying to figure out which enchant suits your Druid best, I recommend going and checking out his post!
Shifting forms with one button in 2.3
Yes, I know this is 2.2's-day. One announced change for patch 2.3 has slipped way, way under the radar, though, and I think it could use some recognition. Using macros, Druids will be able to directly switch from one form to another (cat to bear, for instance), with only one keypress. Here's how it will work: /cancelform/cast Dire Bear Form (or whatever your target form is) Fun, eh? This works because /cancelform is going to be recognized instantly in 2.3, like /dismount is now. The macro should function no matter what form you're currently in.This also allows things like shifting from bear to caster, drinking a pot and/or using a healthstone, and shifting back into bear, all without interruptions and with only one keypress:/cancelform/use Super Healing Potion/use Master Healthstone/cast Dire Bear FormThe 2.2 patch notes included an item that seems related to this ("Cast sequence macros no longer get stuck at feral druid abilities"), but I think that's just a bug fix; the above macros don't work in 2.2 as far as I know. Here's my question, though: if you can make a macro to shift forms directly, why not just make the default form buttons have that same behavior? Maybe they will, but I haven't heard anything about it yet.[macros by Nandini of Darrowmere]
Guildwatch: A good healer is hard to find
Maybe it's just because Karazhan is full of undead, but it seems like healers are in dire need by guilds these days-- used to be that tanks were hard to find, but now almost everybody needs more healers-- holy Priests and Pallies, and resto Shamans and Druids. If you can cast a healing spell, we need you!Guildwatch is your weekly look at drama, downed, and recruiting notices from all over the realms, in both the US and the EU. For this week's glance at guild turmoil and triumph, hit the link below. And to send your own info in, just drop a line to wowguildwatch@gmail.com!
Shifting Perspectives: How to group with a Druid part 3
Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them, brought to you by David Bowers and Dan O'Halloran. This it the last in a series of features talking about How To Group With A Druid. I've already covered bear tanks, cat druids and Moonkin. Today, I will be exploring what Restoration druids bring to a 5 man group as well as what they don't do. If you feel I've left out any important points, be sure to leave a comment below! We love comments like healers love aggro control. WHAT TO EXPECT FROM A RESTORATION DRUID HEALING: Druids are built to be solid healers in both regular and heroic 5 man instances. They don't have to drop 40+ talent points to be good at it. Don't be surprised if you're druid healer is actually specced 31 points in Balance and 30 points in Restoration. That's more than enough for them to get you through alive. On the other hand, don't be screaming for healing non-stop if you are not the main tank. It's your job to control your aggro, not the healers job to blow half his mana on non-tanks. I understand mistakes happen, wandering mobs appear out of nowhere, the MT gets overwhelmed and loses control of an add or two. But if the healer is dumping more healing on you than the MT for every encounter, you need to scale back your dps or talk to your tank about their taunt tactics.
Shifting Perspectives: How to group with a druid part 1
Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them, brought to you by David Bowers and Dan O'Halloran.No one likes to be told how to play their class. We've each learned through trial and error what works and what doesn't. Yes, there is room for improvement, but, I swear, if one more person screams "HEAL PLZ" then I'm gonna make a macro that spams "TAUNT PLZ", "DPS PLZ" and "CONTROL YOUR AGGRO PLZ". And I shall refrain from uttering "Does your daddy know you're on his account?" No, really. I will. Ok, after tonight. I promise.My point is, when you group with a warrior, you know what to expect. Same with a rogue, mage or priest. They all have clearly defined roles. But druids, oh my, you never know what you're going to get. Will you get the guy who refuses to shift out of cat form to spot heal when the priest is OOM and the tank is going down for the count? Will you get the overcaffeinated shifter who can't decide if he is dps'ing, off-tanking, patch healing or nuking? Or what about the b00mk!n that insists he can tank Illidan because he has high armor rating even though he lacks significant dodge, resilience or snap aggro?I'm not saying these play styles are wrong or bad. There are many situations where these tactics are valid. I'm saying that groups need to know what kind of druid they are grouping with so they can all have an enjoyable and profitable pick up group. And to help you do that, I'm going to cover the major play styles of different kinds of druids and what you should and should not expect them to do for you. I'm going to start with the feral spec.
WoW Moviewatch: Druids Gone Wild!
It seems like someone ought to keep records of things like this: number of times that annoying punk Fandral Staghelm has been killed, longest train of festive holiday gnomes, and, of course, most dancing Druids in one place. I somehow doubt this video is proof of a record -- someone's bound to have gathered up more dancing Druids at some point, even if they didn't record it -- but such all-druid affairs never fail to bring a grin to my face (and the catchy music doesn't hurt). Haven't gotten your fair share of Druidry today? Then watch on!Previously on Moviewatch...
Build Shop: Druid 0/47/14
Last week I asked for Druid builds. How many of the builds I got do you think were Feral? That's right, all of them. Never let it be said I can't take a hint; here's a Feral build for this week. The tree is enjoying a justifiable period of popularity right now, I think. Every druid I regularly group with is Feral, and bear tanks do a great job. Tanks are in demand on my realm, so I haven't seen many druids get a chance to go kitty and shred some face butt, but when I have seen it it's been pretty impressive. And of course, like any other class that can heal, if they carry a healing set they can be pretty solid off-healers.I got two 0/47/14 builds from two different people. One build included Intensity and Savage Fury, while the other one had Brutal Impact and Natural Shapeshifter. For reasons I'll get into later, I prefer the first variant, by Athaliana of Moonrunner, so that's what I'll look at here. Oh, and to answer your question, bwest0526, there is, as you can see, no set reason why builds have to be 0/41/20 or 31/0/30 or other such patterns like that. However, talent trees are designed such that particularly appealing one-point talents are placed at 11, 21, 31, and 41 points into each tree, so many builds go into trees with the goal of getting one of those talents, and then put the rest of their points in a different tree for some other purpose. The 21, 31, and 41 point talents especially tend to be very good values in many cases.
Around Azeroth: Super elf!
I'm really not convinced that it's a bird or a plane. In fact, it looks an awful lot like a blood elf. But a flying blood elf? Kurthon of Aggramar explains that the shot isn't any kind of hack, but instead the combination of the quest item Sunfury Disguise and Druid's Flight Form. The result? Super elf!Do you have a unique shot of Azeroth or Outland that you'd like to show off to the rest of the world? Tell us about it by e-mailing aroundazeroth@gmail.com! Or perhaps you'd just like to see more of your pics from Around Azeroth. %Gallery-1816%
More Legendary weapons from the Kael encounter
Our good friend Boubouille over at MMO-Champion has posted pictures and stats of all the Legendary weapons found in the Kael'thas fight. Last week, we posted about that crazy axe, but it seems there's more-- seven weapons in total, and they're all amazing.There's a shield that gives +40 defense and can shield the user for 100,000 damage. There's an uber dagger for rogues, and an awesome bow for hunters. There's even a staff that not only increases both spell damage and healing by 325, but also adds over 1000 attack power to Cat, Bear, Dire Bear, and Moonkin forms.Nihilum is so far the only group to take on Kael'thas (and let us know about it), but they haven't spilled too much information about exactly how and why these weapons are used. We do know they're meant only for the encounter, and that when you die, the weapons disappear. But how and why they're obtained isn't quite clear yet-- I've heard the weapons are given to the raid when Kael's advisors are killed, but does that mean these weapons replace the raid's weapons or do they have to be looted and equipped? And what exactly is Kael doing during all of this that requires so much crazy power?As of this writing, Nihilum hasn't yet downed Kael, so they're probably more concerned with going after him then telling us about it. But once they down him (I predicted this past weekend, but we haven't seen anything yet), maybe we'll get some clearer answers about what the encounter is actually like.
PTR notes: Not-so-Clearcasting for Shamans
By now, you've probably at least heard (perhaps in haiku form) that shamans are facing a serious nerf in the upcoming patch. As a Resto/Elemental shaman, I figured I'd take a few minutes to lay out for you just what we, your trusty totem-dropping buddies, will be facing.Y'see, there's this ability called Clearcasting. Mages, priests, shaman, and druids can all get it under certain specs-- it basically gives you a mana-free spell every few casts, the percentage of which changes by class. Mages at full spec get a 10% chance, Druids get it as a chance on melee attack, and priests get it as a usable ability (with a 3 minute cooldown).Now, this talent is especially useful for Shaman, since we are notoriously mana inefficient-- supposedly, that's our tradeoff for being able to melee, heal, and cast damage spells. Way back when, the Clearcasting talent (in the Elemental tree) had a standard rate of 10%, but just recently, in 2.0.10, it was changed to anytime we got a critical spell hit.That's huge. But it's also what the devs apparently didn't like.
The continuing saga of Druid consumables
Druids make great tanks. Like any other class, they have strengths and weaknesses, and one of those weaknesses is that they can't use consumables, like health potions, in feral forms. A while back there was some buzz about the devs letting them use some potions in forms, and just having to decide which ones; that's been the Blizz party line for a while now. Now it looks like that may not be happening after all, basically because Druid tanks are currently working as intended™:Unfortunately we do not yet have much new information available regarding this topic. The developers are still evaluating which pots and procs should be usable in forms, but it is not an easy evaluation process because for the most part Druids currently appear to be performing where the developers want them to. Because the Druids appears to be performing the way the developers want, then they have to be very considerate and cautious in the evaluation process in order to avoid potential balance issues, which means that they also have to consider whether or not pots/procs in forms is even necessary anymore. I know that this might sound like bad news to some of you, but please remember that the evaluation process has not yet finished so it is still too early to proclaim doom and gloom. Druids, what do you think? Do you need pots, or are you doing OK without them?
Pushing the limits of a class trinity
Relmstein is at it again, this time with a look at class trinity in MMORPGs. This is old, old RPG strategy stuff-- basically almost every RPG out there is based around three different class roles: that of tank, DPS or healing. Tanks (like Warriors and Fighters) take damage, DPS classes (like Mage and Rogue) dish the damage out, and healing classes (obviously) keep the party alive long enough to win the battle. For a while now, game developers have tried to vary up this class trinity, so that you don't just have the same options in every game. In WoW, hybrid classes like Paladin and Shaman can play more than one role, and classes like Hunters and Warlocks have extra abilities (crowd control and buffing/debuffing) that help them be something more than what the class trinity lays out for them. Or there are classes like Druids, who can play all three roles at various times.But the problem here is that while there are some extra abilities floating around, there aren't any new class types to speak of. The reason for this in WoW is because the developers want to give every class the option to go all the way to 70 solo, which means classes that could be total crowd control classes, like Hunters, are forced back into one of the class trinity roles (in this case, DPS). So far, we haven't seen a really pure crowd control class-- at least not like we've seen pure tanking, pure healing, or pure DPS classes.So let's put our minds to it. What kinds of classes could we make that would do something fundamentally different from tanking, healing, or damage?
Druids get a hotfixy gift
From a hotfix that is now live on the servers: The Druid ability Lacerate will now land a small amount of instant damage, causing it to generate threat against bleed-immune creatures. The Druid ability Mangle (Bear) will now generate 50% bonus threat So good news for druids who tank. Blizzard isn't completely giving them back all of their DPS-- Lacerate's debuff doesn't affect "skeletal" creatures (as it shouldn't, since they can't bleed), and Mangle doesn't give any more damage, but Blizzard says they realize Mangle works best as a "snap aggro" tool, and with the bonus threat, it should do that. I'm sure droods will still have their problems, but these are two nice buffs for tanking druids, no question.More are on the way, too-- Blizzard says they plan to up the armor on many high end Bear Druid items, "particularly raid sets," as many druids felt that those pieces didn't scale as well as warriors' did. Those changes, says Blue, won't be coming until 2.1.0, but they are coming.
Number breakdown on classes in 5v5 arenas
Our good friends at Paladin Sucks point to this very interesting breakdown of classes in all the 5v5 area teams over 2000 arena rating. Can you guess which classes are winning the Arena PvP game?The answer surprised me: it's warriors. For all of their bellyaching, warriors are cutting through the opposition in the arena-- they make up almost 20% of all the players with teams above 2000 arena rating. And next on the list, surprisingly enough, is paladins-- with 33, they're 18% of the winning players. And maybe most surprising, Druids and Warlocks, the two teams who seem to dominate in PvP, are bringing up the rear in terms of players, with a measly 4% and 3% respectively.Now, this makes no distinction about what these players are actually doing in these teams-- when I go into the arena with my Shaman, it seems that all I'm doing mostly is trying to stay alive, and warriors with a healer behind them are very, very good at that. I believe the numbers came from the Armory (where you can sort by rating, but only by battlegroup), but whoever wrote it up didn't say where the numbers came from. I've reprinted the full list of classes with the number of players in teams with an arena rating of over 2000 after the jump, for the benefit of those of you at work.
WoW Moviewatch: Druid Epic Flight Form
Those folks over at Dementia Myndflame are at it again. Myndflame, for those not in the know, are the folks behind Zinwrath, Illegal Danish, and the upcoming Illegal Danish: Escape From Orgrimmar. They've put out some of the funniest WoW Machinima that I've seen yet, and continue the tradition with this quick spoof ad for what the upcoming Druid epic flight form might be like. We all know that Bliz should nerf druids, and this little video just takes it to the next step.Thanks to Clint Hackleman, Dementia Myndflame's Lead Producer, for the submission!
A realistic look at druid tanking
Druids have received some significant changes in the coming 2.0.10 patch, but while there's lots of complaint and speculation, there's little agreement on what the changes will actually do for druids. But the loudest complaint is that druids will no longer be able to tank and will be once more reduced to a pure healing role. Note that there are no changes to cat or moonkin effectiveness or damage output, which does leave DPS as an option (in both PvE and PvP) -- but with so many classes able to DPS and so few classes able to heal, druids are reasonably concerned about being marginalized. The facts on bears from the patch notes are as follows: Bear/dire bear form's health bonus has changed from +25% health to +25% stamina. While this sounds like a non-change, this means that +health enchants and health-increasing potions or flasks are no longer considered in the bonus calculation, resulting in a loss of health for some druids. Dire bear form's armor bonus has been reduced from +450% to +400%. The talent Savage Fury no longer affects mangle (bear), maul, or swipe. Savage Fury previously increased damage done by those abilities by 20% for two talent points. The ability lacerate is the only bear ability that is not effected by this change, but only because it wasn't effected by the talent previously. (This talent will still have benefits to cat form, but no longer benefits any abilities in bear form.) The talent Predatory Instincts has been changed from a critical damage increase of 3/6/9/12/15% to a critical damage increase of 2/4/6/8/10%. The rage normalization equation has been adjusted to grant more rage. While we won't know the full story until the final changes hit the live realms, by piecing together some of the data coming from players on the PTRs, I think we can make some reasonable guesses. Curious? Keep reading.
Breakfast Topic: Best class to solo with?
Though I can't find the link, I'm almost sure we've covered this before, but not with the changes after the expansion.Reader Will dropped a tip (thanks!) saying he has almost reached 70 with his Hunter, and really enjoyed playing his way up because Hunters are so good at soloing. I have to agree-- I haven't played anything as relaxing to solo as a Hunter, just send the pet, throw autoshot on, toss in a few arcane shots or stings for good measure, loot and repeat.His guildies say if he rolls a new alt, it should be a Rogue. Personally, I think Warlocks are a great class to be a solo artist with, but Druids certainly have been making headway lately. Will also wonders about builds-- I've had a great time soloing with my shadow Priest, but I've heard holy priests are a pain to solo (my resto Shaman has certainly been more annoying than a few other alts I've had).Because Blizzard has done so much to make almost every class viable solo, I'm sure everyone's got an opinion. Share yours and help Will out here.
WoW Moviewatch: Nerf Druids
I know, I know -- we had such a positive discussion yesterday about cries of "nerf this!" and "nerf that!" But this compelling video evidence is awfully hard to argue with. [Thanks, Tylluan, for pointing out that Joystiq tagged this video first]
Nerf.... wait, who do we want to nerf this week?
The cries to nerf warlocks have been so loud on the forums lately that it's nearly refreshing to see them replaced by something else. This week's nerf cries seem to focus almost entirely on druids, as forum posters run back and forth about whether or not druids are overpowered and, if so, how to fix them. And, of course, the there's always the constant cycle of "nerf your class, buff my class" posts.Those claiming druids are overpowered say that druids shouldn't be able to tank like a warrior, DPS like a rogue (or, I suppose, a mage, depending on spec), kite like a hunter, and heal like priest. And the druids argue that they can't do all of these things at once -- and to be as good as any primary class, they have to spec for it and gear for it which limits their effectiveness in other areas.And in a massively multiplayer game like this, where major class changes can come unexpectedly with any patch or hotfix, I wonder which class will be overpowered next week, and the week after. Taking all bets...
