Druid discussion thread - 3 roles, 5 stages of grief - Page 2

Daboran · 03/02/07, 7:06 PM

I mentioned this elsewhere, but it seem to me that the best move to give Druids true flexibility would be to swap SotF with Savage Fury in the tree.

It's now possible to gather an offtank set of gear and tank efficiently (only 415 defence required) with a Feral/Resto (~30/~30) build. Voila - you have a healer with adequate raid offtank ability and decent healing for the price of a gear swap. Keeping SotF at 3 points makes sense as it's a pretty powerful talent - you may have to move Imp Shred or change it but I don't think so - Shred is hardly an imbalancing move in PvP -Imp.Shred is more a PvE talent.

If you want to go the "Fury Warrior" or "Tank" route you invest deeper in Feral and give up the healing utility in favour of damage and better tanking talents (as it should be for balance reasons).

Of course yet again it boils down to Feral itemization to make this feasible too.

Tuftears · 03/02/07, 7:09 PM

I foresee the future of druid itemization being armor pieces with zero stats and 20 sockets. Druids will be jewelcrafters!

Anyway, on a more serious note, I'd like to see druids get something experimental and different, not be watered down versions of warriors. It should be easy to point to a fight and say, 'a druid would be better here', then at another fight, and say 'a warrior would be better there'. As it stands, it's not at all clear now.

Giving swipe a threat multiplier for instance, made druids obvious choices for pulls with several mobs. Now that the swipe multiplier has been removed and warriors have Thunderclap usable in defensive stance, warriors have become the one-size-fits-all choice.

Chimp · 03/02/07, 7:11 PM

Originally Posted by Lord BEEF

Blizzard is re-evaluating the raid gear in general. I think the best thing we can do is to encourage them to adjust the feral set to be very specific for improving tanking, and not just the same 'all stat' gear but at a higher item level.

I think most druids would agree that they'd rather have a consistent source of tanking upgrades, and have dps upgrades be the scarcer items as non set drops, crafted items, and stolen rogue gear.

Very true. Although the hypothetical gear listed above seems like it would definately be very nice for both forms, as it makes great use of the generous returns on armour/agi/stam ... obviously armour being the easiest way for blizzard can get the 'most value' out of the itemisation points available to ensure the gear is useful for both cat and bear.

Would Feral Druids prefer to completely ignore int/spirit on all their gear? I would have thought even relatively small amounts of each would be incredibly useful for the occasional clutch heal (to save yourself or another raid member) ... or even just switching forms a couple of times when sudden need to OT / BR /innervate arises.

CD · 03/02/07, 7:21 PM

Originally Posted by Daboran

I mentioned this elsewhere, but it seem to me that the best move to give Druids true flexibility would be to swap SotF with Savage Fury in the tree.

I totally agree but for that to work we'd also need to be able to hold aggro without Mangle- meaning Maul would probably need to be buffed again.

As things stand we need 33 Feral as a minimum for adequate durability in a raid setting (Even just for offtanking). That means we can't get any tier 7 talents from the other trees and it seems a bit like telling DPS/ Prot warriors they need to miss out on MS or 5/5 Flurry if they wish to offtank.

CD · 03/02/07, 7:28 PM

Originally Posted by Chimp

Would Feral Druids prefer to completely ignore int/spirit on all their gear? I would have thought even relatively small amounts of each would be incredibly useful for the occasional clutch heal (to save yourself or another raid member) ... or even just switching forms a couple of times when sudden need to OT / BR /innervate arises.

Some Hybrid items would be good but we already have those available- Moonglade, pvp stuff, random leather epics from heroics. We desperately need some pure feral sets now and maybe ZA/ T6 instances could give a mix of hybrid and pure feral upgrades at some stage in the future.

Lord BEEF · 03/02/07, 7:35 PM

Originally Posted by Chimp

Would Feral Druids prefer to completely ignore int/spirit on all their gear? I would have thought even relatively small amounts of each would be incredibly useful for the occasional clutch heal (to save yourself or another raid member) ... or even just switching forms a couple of times when sudden need to OT / BR /innervate arises.

I hate it on my tanking gear, but I actually like it quite a bit on my dps gear. For example I absolutely love the moonglade set pieces. Generally I'll just pop out to heal the main healer if they've taken damage but they still need to keep healing the tank.

That said, I'd easily give up moonglade for high armor / solid dps items like the examples posted in this thread.

Exewut · 03/02/07, 7:45 PM

I actually prefer some spirit/int on my dps gear.
Perfect example is Netherspite. Do one transition, run and shift out to heal some raid members while the healers regen, and shift back in. With enough spirit you can do this every transition and make the healer's life a lot easier.

But then again, if I had to choose between T4 gloves and Windslayer wraps, I wouldn't have to think long.

Boevis · 03/02/07, 8:16 PM

There's a big difference between a couple pieces with int, and the 74 that is on Malorne, especially when you consider that the gloves have no agility, and the entire set has only 124 stamina (the "best blues" for the same slots have 183 sta with the same number of sockets)

Greenexile · 03/02/07, 8:30 PM

I'm actually really concerned that as of yet there has been no blue post saying that they're not completely satisfied with the resto tree. I know all the focus is on the ferals right now and rightfully so, they went from being the strange druid who doesnt wanna heal to the powerhouse gods we all levelled up as and now are about to become the guild's last tanking resort.

However, resto is so full of holes it needs some sort of attention. I'd be happy with them just saying they'd get around to fixing it eventually. ToL is pathetic. With a new focus on five mans we *need* a ooc rez. I've put 60 points in resto and there are still things I'd like to pick up. Not to mention the feeling of completel useless'ness when you're out and about solo.

If I had the time I'd bite the bullet and reroll a shammy / pally / priest or something, but instead I'm stuck with the ol' flowery druid. How much do those levelling services cost anyway?

Boevis · 03/02/07, 9:05 PM

I could write a 10 page paper on the failures of tree of life, and could easilly add another 5 about how horribly bloated and useless the majority of our resto tree is.

Playered · 03/02/07, 9:14 PM

Originally Posted by Boevis

I could write a 10 page paper on the failures of tree of life, and could easilly add another 5 about how horribly bloated and useless the majority of our resto tree is.

I could do the same on the failure of balance druids and the worthlessness that is Moonkin

Jayde · 03/02/07, 9:50 PM

Originally Posted by Playered

I could do the same on the failure of balance druids and the worthlessness that is Moonkin

Perhaps someday we could talk Blizzard into deleting the Balance tree, making a Cat and Bear tree, and bringing with it world peace and harmony in one fell swoop.

Zyla · 03/03/07, 12:18 AM

Originally Posted by Jayde

Perhaps someday we could talk Blizzard into deleting the Balance tree, making a Cat and Bear tree, and bringing with it world peace and harmony in one fell swoop.

ill be honest. I've played since launch, and I've still never understood the point or purpose to the balance tree :P

Reasonable minds may differ, of course.

Playered · 03/03/07, 12:28 AM

It was nice in v.early wow, but then they 'fixed' things and made it shitty while making other things good.

As to Balance's purpose; timesink of making players spend ages getting the best non-set gear available and trying to prove its not worthless, kinda worked I guess.

Beast Mastery is almost as bad for PvE, however atleast they made it PvP friendly, Moonkins are just there to take the initial nuke instead of a healer or something in PvP but I spose when they die atleast the team doesn't loose much.

Oh and instead of idling in Shattrath I decided to do something just as pointless, I redesigned the Resto Tree:
http://talents.unleashedgaming.net/?p=vt&i=12126
The [+] icon means I changed it, and the 'normal' icons were annoying to put in and are ment to be the real ones.

Basicly has some talents buff Tree Form, makes PvP more viable and attempts to make Regrowth more worthwhile.

Probly really overpowered and yada yada

Didn't have the will to touch the Balance tree without the support of Alcohol and a Barge Pole.

Zyla · 03/03/07, 2:24 AM

Theres some awesome comedy talent trees to come out of that site.

http://talents.unleashedgaming.net/?p=vt&i=3434

for example.

Edit: Revising my Class/Sig.