This will be my general blog about Game Design, mainly in World of Warcraft and possibly other games as well.
My thoughts on the Druid class preview
Posted 04/11/10 at 5:08 AM by Kurisu
So for the last couple months I've again been playing my druid as my main character, mainly as a healer role versus the tank role I took in the beginning of the expansion. As with most of the class previews they show some pretty ambitious game design and I'm not really sure that they stem from PVP or a general increase of movement fights that would occur in Cataclysm but whatever, it's to be told later on.
NOTE: These are mainly first thoughts of mine written down, there will be overthinking.
Now I put this under General instead of Balance because I think this spell will be widely used by Resto in PVP, I would find it funny if Balance gets a talent to make it snare with the explosion to be exactly like Teemo's ultimate in League of Legends. They probably won't because they are giving the new balance talent nuke a snare but I like it on this instead since it isn't affecting the Eclipse bar (least I wouldn't expect it to), possibly even go as far as letting it be cast while stunned as deep balance for somewhat deeper planning. I think it'll be very interesting tool to add into causing setups for kills depending on the damage, I think eventually it will need a cooldown unless it is given a limit (obvious but nothing stated at all) and I would assume the limit would be one with a possibility of two/three talented.
This is my major concerns come up for this ability.
Does it explode before it becomes invisible? If it doesn't I'm a bit worried about executed Cyclone->Mushroom->Starfire combos to help kill a player because without knowing the HP scale of Cataclysm that would be a lot of burst damage that isn't preventable from a healer. If it does then you have an issue where people would just spam them like crazy mana cost issues aside and cause weird reactions. Blizzard can definitely avert this by attaching a cast time of say 1.5/2.0 seconds and making it instant for moonkins, it's less of an issue this way because moonkins are a part of the DPS portion of the team and I think it becomes less of an issue in some sorts.
# All heal-over-time spells (HoTs) will benefit from crit and haste innately in Cataclysm. Hasted HoTs do not reduce their duration, but instead add additional HoT ticks.
# Druids will lose Abolish Poison with the dispel mechanics change, but Restoration druids will gain Dispel Magic (on friendly targets) as a talent.
# Tree of Life is changing from a passive talent to a cooldown-based talent, similar to Metamorphosis. Mechanically, it feels unfair for a druid to have to give up so much offense and utility in order to be just as good at healing as the other classes who are not asked to make that trade. We are exploring the exact benefit the druid gets from Tree of Life. It could strictly be better healing, or it could be that each heal behaves slightly different. You also will not be able to be banished in Tree of Life form (this will probably be true of Metamorphosis as well). Additionally, we would like to update the Tree of Life model so that it feels more exciting when you do decide to go into that form. Our feeling is that druids rarely actually get to show off their armor, so it would be nice to have at least one spec that looked like a night elf or tauren (and soon troll or worgen) for most of the time.
# Restoration druids will have a new talent called Efflorescence, which causes a bed of healing flora to sprout beneath targets that are critically healed by Regrowth.
# Unlike the other healers, Restoration druids will not be receiving any new spells. They have plenty to work with already, and our challenge instead is to make sure all of them have a well-defined niche. A druid should be able to tank-heal with stacks of Lifebloom, spot-heal a group with Nourish and Regrowth, and top off lightly wounded targets with Rejuvenation.
Masteries:
Restoration
Healing
Meditation
HoT Scale Healing
HoT Scale Healing: HoTs will do increased healing on more wounded targets. The mechanic is similar to that of the Restoration shaman, but with HoTs instead of direct heals. In Cataclysm, we anticipate druids using a greater variety of their spells so there is a distinction between healing and HoT healing.
First off I want to lead off with this quote from GC:
He is obviously saying that won't work at 85 and to be honest that brings a smile to my face though I have to see how it plays out, the quoted information above states that spot healing will be Nourish/Regrowth with Wounded targets being healed by Rejuv (though for some this isn't new). One thing I found interesting was that they didn't bring up Swiftmend which is a pretty big tool in the Restoration box, I doubt it's removed though because that would be warranting a post saying such.
I truly love how haste works now, the shortened duration of Rapid Rejuv was an immense pain despite the gain in healing, it further enforced the "doing nothing but Rejuv" play style (slight exaggeration but restos understand what I mean). I'm glad they added deep healing to our hots but I wonder how heavy the effect will end up scaling, I assume functionality wise it works like the Rejuv glyph but based on how high it ramps up with mastery and health may prove if it's valuable, I would like to see it work with nourish as well.
One thing that alarms me is how will haste scaling work, I'm slightly surprised that both haste and crit will scale with our gear, I was only expecting it to be haste. Though since we are probably losing Nature's Bounty crit in itself will become a more important stat since it impacts passive healing a lot differently with HoTs than haste does in sorts, especially since practically all resto druids don't have a reason to not get Nature's Grace and Celestial Focus with 5 extra talent points to spend at 85. This is to not say haste isn't an important stat due to the way we use instant spells but with so many effects like Healing Rain, PW:Barrier, Efflorescence, and the usual suspects I wonder how much we would be casting Rejuv by itself in this idea of casting it on heavily wounded targets. I’d almost say we would be covering more spot healing on a good number of fights and depending on how Efflorescence works we might have a decent backup for Chain Heal in melee pits if we reach certain crit levels and how the effect works.
Things that will need to be tested when beta comes out:
How Efflorescence works:
-Does it spread/stack?
-How much does it heals?
-What is the duration?
--Is it based on the amount crit?
--Is it affected by [Revitalizing Skyflare Diamond]?
--Does the effect cause a hot or a straight heal
---If hot does it benefit Nourish
-How big is radius of the effect?
-How many people will have to get hit by the effect to make it worth caring about?
Does [Revitalizing Skyflare Diamond] affect our HoT Crits?
How much haste does it take to create a new HoT Tick?
I think it's safe to say I'm very intrigued about Efflorescence and how it can impact druids but at what cost?
There isn't much to say, I like Thrash and Stampeding Roar are totally awesome and solid and thrash would need more actual live testing than anything. Like is it frontal AE or 360 like Swipe. My main concern comes from the disparity between tanks, with the way block/parry works they are enormous bonuses to damage mitigation (parry decreases damage by 50% and block reduces it by 30%), one of the main things I want to test out is how tanks compare going into the raid level content because it seems like bears might have it tough unless we have a substantial lead on armor/health. Yes we are Health machines currently but this is the end of the expansion and Ilevel is very dependent thing with bears.
Savage Defense has to be doing some AMAZING stuff for it to be the third mastery. I believe right now in BIS gear a SD proc is about 2800ish which isn't much when bosses like H-LK hit for 35717 melee swings, BQL for 18289, Festergut for 22485. We'll see how it plays out but I think bears might fall behind in some cases especially if not able to "abuse" stam socketing. Granted making it a mastery gives it 2 ways to scale so I'm trying not to be terribly negative about it. Vengence sort of helps SD so we will see how that plays a role into it too, essentially gives SD an Organ mechanic. Also I've given it thought that maybe I'm just not of the TAKE IT YOU BEAR philosophy. *shrug*
Cat's have a kick, THANK GOD. That alone made my day on the feral side of things.
I love the way they made Eclipse, I'm not sure how exactly it'll scale (and they don't seem to have a solid idea how they want to go about it either from a later post I think I read) but the removal of RNG from it is a great thing for druids. That being said I would think it would be best if the bar was set by casts with crit giving eclipse a bonus push in that direction. I like Nature's Torrent but I sincerely wish it was an instant spell without a cooldown because balance could use a spell that allowed movement aside from refreshing moonfire/Swarm though I guess that's what they want the mushroom to be. I would still prefer this over the Mushroom though because it allows for decent interlacing mechanics when switching sides of the bar, with this type of iteration mixed in, using Torment with the bar would be somewhat easier to control while basing it on casts. Example: I would guess it's a bar of -10/+10 with 0 giving no bonus and each spell cast would be like +/-1, I would make crits +/-2 with torments being +/-1.5 with +/-2.5 on crits. You would Starfire to max nature and then do one of two things, wrath with Torrent to exhaust or Starfire with Torrent to maximize Torrent DPS.
Though one aspect I find interesting is if it was based on damage Starfall could end up being a way to keep the Eclipse bar in the nature side for AE portions like Hurricane/Typhoon or in some ways keep Wrathing if it's a fight with add waves.
NOTE: These are mainly first thoughts of mine written down, there will be overthinking.
General Changes:
Quote:
# Wild Mushroom (Level 85): Grows a magical mushroom at the target location. After 4 seconds the mushroom becomes invisible. Enemies who cross the mushroom detonate it, causing it to deal area-of-effect damage, though its damage component will remain very effective against single targets. The druid can also choose to detonate the mushroom ahead of time. This is primarily a tool for the Balance druid, and there will be talents that play off of it. No cooldown. 40-yard range. Instant cast.
This is my major concerns come up for this ability.
Does it explode before it becomes invisible? If it doesn't I'm a bit worried about executed Cyclone->Mushroom->Starfire combos to help kill a player because without knowing the HP scale of Cataclysm that would be a lot of burst damage that isn't preventable from a healer. If it does then you have an issue where people would just spam them like crazy mana cost issues aside and cause weird reactions. Blizzard can definitely avert this by attaching a cast time of say 1.5/2.0 seconds and making it instant for moonkins, it's less of an issue this way because moonkins are a part of the DPS portion of the team and I think it becomes less of an issue in some sorts.
Resto:
Quote:
# All heal-over-time spells (HoTs) will benefit from crit and haste innately in Cataclysm. Hasted HoTs do not reduce their duration, but instead add additional HoT ticks.
# Druids will lose Abolish Poison with the dispel mechanics change, but Restoration druids will gain Dispel Magic (on friendly targets) as a talent.
# Tree of Life is changing from a passive talent to a cooldown-based talent, similar to Metamorphosis. Mechanically, it feels unfair for a druid to have to give up so much offense and utility in order to be just as good at healing as the other classes who are not asked to make that trade. We are exploring the exact benefit the druid gets from Tree of Life. It could strictly be better healing, or it could be that each heal behaves slightly different. You also will not be able to be banished in Tree of Life form (this will probably be true of Metamorphosis as well). Additionally, we would like to update the Tree of Life model so that it feels more exciting when you do decide to go into that form. Our feeling is that druids rarely actually get to show off their armor, so it would be nice to have at least one spec that looked like a night elf or tauren (and soon troll or worgen) for most of the time.
# Restoration druids will have a new talent called Efflorescence, which causes a bed of healing flora to sprout beneath targets that are critically healed by Regrowth.
# Unlike the other healers, Restoration druids will not be receiving any new spells. They have plenty to work with already, and our challenge instead is to make sure all of them have a well-defined niche. A druid should be able to tank-heal with stacks of Lifebloom, spot-heal a group with Nourish and Regrowth, and top off lightly wounded targets with Rejuvenation.
Masteries:
Restoration
Healing
Meditation
HoT Scale Healing
HoT Scale Healing: HoTs will do increased healing on more wounded targets. The mechanic is similar to that of the Restoration shaman, but with HoTs instead of direct heals. In Cataclysm, we anticipate druids using a greater variety of their spells so there is a distinction between healing and HoT healing.
Quote:
Let me know how that Rejuv spamming with WG on cooldown works out for you at 85.
I truly love how haste works now, the shortened duration of Rapid Rejuv was an immense pain despite the gain in healing, it further enforced the "doing nothing but Rejuv" play style (slight exaggeration but restos understand what I mean). I'm glad they added deep healing to our hots but I wonder how heavy the effect will end up scaling, I assume functionality wise it works like the Rejuv glyph but based on how high it ramps up with mastery and health may prove if it's valuable, I would like to see it work with nourish as well.
One thing that alarms me is how will haste scaling work, I'm slightly surprised that both haste and crit will scale with our gear, I was only expecting it to be haste. Though since we are probably losing Nature's Bounty crit in itself will become a more important stat since it impacts passive healing a lot differently with HoTs than haste does in sorts, especially since practically all resto druids don't have a reason to not get Nature's Grace and Celestial Focus with 5 extra talent points to spend at 85. This is to not say haste isn't an important stat due to the way we use instant spells but with so many effects like Healing Rain, PW:Barrier, Efflorescence, and the usual suspects I wonder how much we would be casting Rejuv by itself in this idea of casting it on heavily wounded targets. I’d almost say we would be covering more spot healing on a good number of fights and depending on how Efflorescence works we might have a decent backup for Chain Heal in melee pits if we reach certain crit levels and how the effect works.
Things that will need to be tested when beta comes out:
How Efflorescence works:
-Does it spread/stack?
-How much does it heals?
-What is the duration?
--Is it based on the amount crit?
--Is it affected by [Revitalizing Skyflare Diamond]?
--Does the effect cause a hot or a straight heal
---If hot does it benefit Nourish
-How big is radius of the effect?
-How many people will have to get hit by the effect to make it worth caring about?
Does [Revitalizing Skyflare Diamond] affect our HoT Crits?
How much haste does it take to create a new HoT Tick?
I think it's safe to say I'm very intrigued about Efflorescence and how it can impact druids but at what cost?
Feral:
Quote:
* Thrash (Level 81): Thrash deals damage and causes all targets within 10 yards to bleed every 2 seconds for 6 seconds. The intent here is to give bears another button to hit while tanking. Talents will affect the bleed, such as causing Swipe to deal more damage to bleeding targets. 5-second cooldown. 25 Rage.
* Stampeding Roar (Level 83): The druid roars, increasing the movement of all allies within 10 yards by 40% for 8 seconds. Stampeding Roar can be used in cat or bear form, but bears might have a talent to drop the cooldown. The goal of this ability is to give both bears and cats a little more situational group utility. 3-minute cooldown. No cost.
* We want to make the Feral cat damage rotation slightly more forgiving. We do not want to remove what druids like about their gameplay, but we do want to make it less punishing to miss, say, a Savage Roar or Rake. The changes here will be on par with increasing the duration of Mangle like we did for patch 3.3.3.
* We plan on giving Feral cats and bears a Kick/Pummel equivalent -- an interrupt that is off the global cooldown and does no damage. We feel like they need this utility to be able to fill the melee role in a dungeon or raid group, and to give them more PvP utility.
* We want to add tools to cat form and depth to bear form. If a Feral cat is going to fill a very similar niche to that of a rogue, warrior or Enhancement shaman, it needs a few more tools -- primarily a reliable interrupt. Bears need to be pushing a few more buttons just so the contrast between tanking and damage-dealing is not so steep.
* We will be buffing the damage of Mangle (cat) significantly so that when cat druids cannot Shred, they are not at such a damage-dealing loss.
Feral (Cat)
Melee Damage
Melee Critical Damage
Bleed Damage
Feral (Bear)
Damage Reduction
Vengeance
Savage Defense
* Stampeding Roar (Level 83): The druid roars, increasing the movement of all allies within 10 yards by 40% for 8 seconds. Stampeding Roar can be used in cat or bear form, but bears might have a talent to drop the cooldown. The goal of this ability is to give both bears and cats a little more situational group utility. 3-minute cooldown. No cost.
* We want to make the Feral cat damage rotation slightly more forgiving. We do not want to remove what druids like about their gameplay, but we do want to make it less punishing to miss, say, a Savage Roar or Rake. The changes here will be on par with increasing the duration of Mangle like we did for patch 3.3.3.
* We plan on giving Feral cats and bears a Kick/Pummel equivalent -- an interrupt that is off the global cooldown and does no damage. We feel like they need this utility to be able to fill the melee role in a dungeon or raid group, and to give them more PvP utility.
* We want to add tools to cat form and depth to bear form. If a Feral cat is going to fill a very similar niche to that of a rogue, warrior or Enhancement shaman, it needs a few more tools -- primarily a reliable interrupt. Bears need to be pushing a few more buttons just so the contrast between tanking and damage-dealing is not so steep.
* We will be buffing the damage of Mangle (cat) significantly so that when cat druids cannot Shred, they are not at such a damage-dealing loss.
Feral (Cat)
Melee Damage
Melee Critical Damage
Bleed Damage
Feral (Bear)
Damage Reduction
Vengeance
Savage Defense
Savage Defense has to be doing some AMAZING stuff for it to be the third mastery. I believe right now in BIS gear a SD proc is about 2800ish which isn't much when bosses like H-LK hit for 35717 melee swings, BQL for 18289, Festergut for 22485. We'll see how it plays out but I think bears might fall behind in some cases especially if not able to "abuse" stam socketing. Granted making it a mastery gives it 2 ways to scale so I'm trying not to be terribly negative about it. Vengence sort of helps SD so we will see how that plays a role into it too, essentially gives SD an Organ mechanic. Also I've given it thought that maybe I'm just not of the TAKE IT YOU BEAR philosophy. *shrug*
Cat's have a kick, THANK GOD. That alone made my day on the feral side of things.
Balance:
Quote:
* Balance druids will have a new talent ability called Nature’s Torrent, which strikes for either Nature or Arcane damage depending on which will do the most damage (or possibly both), and moves the Eclipse meter more (details below). The improved version of Nature’s Torrent also reduces the target's movement speed. 10-second cooldown.
Masteries:
Spell Damage
Spell Haste
Eclipse
* Eclipse: We are moving Eclipse from a talent into a core mechanic of the class and making it less random. Balance druids will have a new UI element that shows a sun and a moon. Whenever they cast an Arcane spell, it will move the UI closer to the sun, and buff their Nature damage. Whenever they cast a Nature spell, it will move the UI closer to the moon, and buff their Arcane damage. The gameplay intention is to alternate Arcane and Nature spells (largely Starfire and Wrath) to maintain the balance.
Masteries:
Spell Damage
Spell Haste
Eclipse
* Eclipse: We are moving Eclipse from a talent into a core mechanic of the class and making it less random. Balance druids will have a new UI element that shows a sun and a moon. Whenever they cast an Arcane spell, it will move the UI closer to the sun, and buff their Nature damage. Whenever they cast a Nature spell, it will move the UI closer to the moon, and buff their Arcane damage. The gameplay intention is to alternate Arcane and Nature spells (largely Starfire and Wrath) to maintain the balance.
I love the way they made Eclipse, I'm not sure how exactly it'll scale (and they don't seem to have a solid idea how they want to go about it either from a later post I think I read) but the removal of RNG from it is a great thing for druids. That being said I would think it would be best if the bar was set by casts with crit giving eclipse a bonus push in that direction. I like Nature's Torrent but I sincerely wish it was an instant spell without a cooldown because balance could use a spell that allowed movement aside from refreshing moonfire/Swarm though I guess that's what they want the mushroom to be. I would still prefer this over the Mushroom though because it allows for decent interlacing mechanics when switching sides of the bar, with this type of iteration mixed in, using Torment with the bar would be somewhat easier to control while basing it on casts. Example: I would guess it's a bar of -10/+10 with 0 giving no bonus and each spell cast would be like +/-1, I would make crits +/-2 with torments being +/-1.5 with +/-2.5 on crits. You would Starfire to max nature and then do one of two things, wrath with Torrent to exhaust or Starfire with Torrent to maximize Torrent DPS.
Though one aspect I find interesting is if it was based on damage Starfall could end up being a way to keep the Eclipse bar in the nature side for AE portions like Hurricane/Typhoon or in some ways keep Wrathing if it's a fight with add waves.
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- My thoughts on the Druid class preview (04/11/10)
