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  • 240. Re: The Druid: Our problems   23/08/2007 04:11:01 PDT
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I have tried to put the original post (which was long) across in the most concise and yet accurate fashion below. Whilst I understand that you maybe feel it is unreasonable to forward 7+ pages of feedback, I think whatever feedback you send should be whole and complete instead of reworded in your own interpretation. I feel your own interpretation misses a few key points especially along the lines of feral PvP viability.

Original post
If any of the following points do not seem to make sense, please refer to http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=508511340&sid=1&pageNo=1

Feral
There is a concern that Druids do not scale at the same rate compared to other classes in either tanking or DPS roles. This is thanks to a lack of feral specific items at BT/Hyjal level and lack of support of general melee buffs such as Windfury and weapon procs. Ferals also gain much less benefit from haste rating.

In PvP, a feral Druid does not have a role to play that could not be accomplished better by another Druid spec, or another class. Roles include: Do DPS (Warrior/Rogue is better), Cycle Cyclone (Balance Druid is better - Armour/Ranged DPS), Run interrupts (Restoration Druid is better - Mana pool/heal inbetween).

A feral can attempt to combine all three but shapeshifting costs limit this greatly and ultimately teams with members that focus on one role instead of multiple changing roles are more successful - the feral needs a role that is unique to feral, not a rehash of what a balance/resto Druid can already do. (See Feral - PvP: Mixed Roles & Lack of a role)

Restoration
The restoration tree is bloated with many 5 point talents in the initial 3 tiers. There are also useless talents which cannot be ignored (Imp. Mark vs Furor). Tree of Life is too limited thanks to no buffing, decursing or depoisoning.

Restoration PvP relies too much on line of sight which means that whilst it is strong in 2v2 it is weak in 5v5, this encourages the use of more durable healers in 5v5 (eg. Paladin). PvP concerns are one of survivability and yet the resto arena gear has the least stamina/resilience of all healers; also, there is a lack of healing cloaks and a second ring with resilience.

Balance
Mana issues prevent the use of anything but our most mana efficient DPS cycle. Cycles include IS/SFx4, IS/MF/SFx3, IS/MF/Wx6; Moonkin perception would improve if we could at least use our middle efficient cycle (IS/MF/SFx3) in a majority of fights without the reliance on a shadow Priest.

Balance relies too much on deeper-restoration than feral, requiring to 'waste' 10 points before getting to Subtlety/Intensity compared to ferals 'wasting' 0 points. Force of Nature is practically useless in nearly all PvE and PvP environments thanks to no control.

Balance Druids have no cooldowned self- or group-buff abilities such as Heroism, Nature's Swiftness (cannot be used in Moonkin), Elemental Mastery, PoM, AP, etc; this makes other offensive casters preferable. Itemisation focused on MP/5 puts our spell crit very low compared to other offensive casters, and the MP/5 is not needed.

Questions for the developers
* Will druids ever be able to gain benefit from melee ‘buffs’ such as windfury or weapon procs?

* Are there any plans to re-evaluate the scaling and itemisation so that druids (of all specs) have their own loot upgrades to chase rather than stealing other classes’ loot?

* Can the feral Druid be given a unique role for PvP instead of mimicing balance/restoration Druids use of Cyclone?

* Can the restoration tree be slimmed in the initial tiers and talents moved around to allow both balance and feral Druids to have the same level of access to their relevant talents.

* Can the restoration Druid in PvP be made to rely less on LoS thus making it a more attractive option for a healer in the larger arena brackets.

* Can balance have improved utility in PvP to make it more attractive to arena teams compared to other offensive caster hybrids?
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  • 241. Re: The Druid: Our problems   23/08/2007 04:11:41 PDT
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P.S. another WWS report (this one from Blood Legion, #6 PvE ranked US according to WowJutsu.com).

http://www.lossendil.com/wws/?report=yscdmpyujct21&s=8855-9078

Top rogue: 2130 DPS
Top druid: 1221 DPS

Again, look at the buffs for both the rogue and the druid. You'll note the vast difference in energy gains and haste rating buffs, I hope.

"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents"
-- H.P. Lovecraft
"The Call of Cthulhu"
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  • Emerald Dream
  • 242. Re: The Druid: Our problems   23/08/2007 04:13:15 PDT
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Q u o t e:

One more problem :
The community feels that the Tauren cat form is UGLY :D
change it...please please please ^^



Sad but true... When I first heard about the game I wanted to be a Tauren Druid. I started late and having seen the cat form, rolled an orc hunter (then quit for several months and came back as a night elf druid).

Night elf cat, bear and flight forms > Tauren. Though cat form being the biggest one. Never know though, they may implement "pet grooming" in with that supposed up-coming ability to change your character's hair/appearance. Thus giving Taurens the ability to look better. Don't hold your breath though ;)
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  • 243. Re: The Druid: Our problems   23/08/2007 04:22:33 PDT
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Ah yes, sorry Synneth. I didn't mean to imply that the original post would be discarded or overlooked.

I will of course be providing the link as well as the document which I generated from it.

I think. Tharfor, I am!
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  • 244. Re: The Druid: Our problems   23/08/2007 04:25:04 PDT
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I'm happy with your summary of feral pvp items, I'd like to add the small detail that strength boosts our healing as well as offensive capability which is why AP items/gems make us lose out twice over. It's a clearly pvp oriented talent (Nurturing Instincts) that generally available pvp gear fails to make use of.

Don't read too much doom and gloom into that though :) The dragonhide pieces are a solid base.

There's a lot more I'd like to add regarding melee being weak in pvp and relying on spells or "payloads" such as poisons/heavy burst/MS effect to keep it viable and ferals having...pretty much neither of them, as well as barkskin being our only means of both defending ourselves and applying cyclones offensively. Too weak.

[ Post edited by Rhenne ]

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  • 245. Re: The Druid: Our problems   23/08/2007 04:39:31 PDT
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@ Tharfor: We greatly appreciate that You took the Courage to join the Hell which is a Class Forum.
This open dialogue is a pretty rare opportunity and I hope it does not get spoiled by emo-hate-infested postings.

Now, what I would like added to your summary are a few issues regarding Feral PvP.

My main concern regarding group PvP as Feral relates to the inefficiency when facing advanced teams.
Teams that know once they put pressure on you as Feral its GG.

Being focused and thus relying on switching to Bear Form means your DPS-Capabilities become Nill.
You may Soak up lots of Damage ... atleast Melee-wise however all you are doing to your team is draining its Mana.

So while being ignored as Feral thus leaving you free to wreak Havoc as Cat (Do decent DPS) and or
play the Tactician,
(Cycloning the Warrior on your Healer, Charging, Maimimg, Stomping, Stunning enemy Healers,
rooting that boy running away from your Warrior-Friend etc etc.)
being (easily) forced into Bear Form takes all this Utility (Try casting a Cyclone with a Stunlock-Warrior on You lol),
Damage Capability (I do less Damage than with Lvl 60 2.0 for Christ's Sake) ... basically evrything away from you and all whats left is a Beary-Burden on your Team.

So the Question I Pose is this:

Will Bear-Form Damage and therefore our ability to actually fight in 5v5 against competent Teams
be increased to a Level where we actually pose a threat again?


Or is all my time spending on PvP/Arena worth nothing in the End?

Basically Cat is ok for when youre being ignored, however Bear Form is beyond broken when it comes
to professional PvP (every Arena Bracket with emphasise on 5v5)

I Cannot stress this enough.
Buffing Bear Damage could easily fix us for the Arena, yet I guess Blizzard is too afraid of us becoming
too favourable as Tanks in PvE once again.
Finding a solution to this is not my job though i could offer a few tips.
- Once being attacked as Bear by a PvP-Target triggers Bear Rage increasing all Dmg done by 75%
(Remember with 2.1 our Dmg got halved)
- Or simply let us be the Damage-Tanks we once were (Give 130% Mangle and Savage Fury back), however reduce the Threat-Coefficients
As Offtanks of Choice this would only help your Raid


PS: Oh Look! Its a big Tauren with greenishly glowing Hands popping out of that Cat/Bear ...
... BAM Intercept, Kick, Silence, Scatter shot, Fear, Pummel, Intimidation, Deathcoil, AE Fear etc etc.
Congratulations you just lost 6k HP trying to cast a Cyclone.



Thanks for your Time

one disgruntled Feral PvP Druid







[ Post edited by Grunzalot ]

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  • 246. Re: The Druid: Our problems   23/08/2007 04:39:38 PDT
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@Tharfor: Best blue-post I've ever read in the forums. The summary covers all the major problems which should be adressed first, although there are still several smaller issues for the future.
This summary + link to the original post and a developer reading it is the best we could wish for I think. Let's hope they put our problems on high priority so we don't have to wait for 2009 to see the impact :P

My favorite is the rare occasions while questing of passing another Moonkin, stopping to stare in confusion, and then dancing.It always appears to me as some sort of hilarious mating ritual.
-Eyonix
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  • 247. Re: The Druid: Our problems   23/08/2007 04:44:54 PDT
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Q u o t e:


Feral
Feral druids in PvE are concerned that the items available to them in end-game are few and far between. They feel that they are being left behind as other DPS classes, such as rogues, continue to out-damage them.




Druids are not concerned about rogue doing more damage than kitties. The issue is that rogues scales alot better. If druids are supposed to do 80% of the dps of a rogue (since we have lotp and the ability to OT), druids should be able to maintain this 80% throughout the entire game, even in tier10 gear. Right now this is not the case, druids scales alot slower than rogues with every new dungeon/itemset beeing released.



Q u o t e:

The is also growing support for druids to gain benefit from haste ratings, weapon procs, enchantments, and other melee ‘buffs’ such as windfury totems. The druid community generally agree that this would help them to keep up with other DPS classes in the current end-game.



This is a valid issue, why should druids as the only meleeclass not be able to take advantage of procs and windfury totem?



Q u o t e:


In PvP, feral druids are facing similar issues with no druid orientated cloaks and rings (note: druids feel that strength, agility, and a little intellect are more important than raw attack power in this regard). The bonuses available on the druid armor sets are considered to be weak when compared to other classes.




Spot on, though I think all the +healing on the feralpvp set should be removed and replaced with strength. Then feraldruids that really wants +healing can grab NI in the feraltree, while the more dps/cc focused feraldruids can ignore it, without beeing penalized by useless statallocation on their pvpset.

There really needs to be pvp options for feraldruids in the rings, neck and cloak slot. The ring/cloak from ssc (razor-scale battlecloak and ancestral ring of conquest) is exactly how the pvprewards should look like.

A much easier solution would be to replace str with attackpower as feraldruid's primary stat and rework the str affected talents accordingly.



Q u o t e:

Restoration
The restoration tree is considered ‘too full’ and any druid who spends his points there has to make difficult decisions for healing and will never have any points left to spare for solo-ing purposes. This is a problem for most ‘raid’ orientated specs, but it still considered a problem nonetheless.
((Tharfor’s comment: if you are in a raiding guild and consider yourself a serious player, surely you have the money to change your talent point allocation whenever it is necessary (every day perhaps). I mean that for all classes, btw, not just druids.))

Restoration in PvP is considered to be very strong but is dependant on sustaining heal-over-time spells and ‘hiding’ out of line of sight before being targeted by opposing DPS classes. Many players feel that this is a sort of exploit and that without it restoration druids would lose their survivability.
((Tharfor’s comment: if it’s an exploit, it would be punishable and eventually fixed. Perhaps the arenas were designed with line of sight in mind? We know that some boss encounters were…))

Items for a restoration druid are not as weak as those for feral, but many feel there is still room for improvement.




The restoration tree is way too "fat" and it needs to be slimmed down. Even if you dump all your talentpoints in this tree it still doesn't feel enough. The major flaw with the restoration tree is that there's too many different talents that adds very little to your healing. Not to mention that direct heals and hots are treated like two different "trees" within the restoration tree, which means you need to basically spend twice as many talentpoints just to get the same bonus to your healingabilities like the other classes. Having to spend 5 talentpoints to get 30% dispel resistance, which is basically a requirement for pvp restoration and balance druids, is a cruel joke considering all other classes get the same dispel resistance for only 2 points. Also see imp motw and imp pwf as another example of this.

Regarding the restoration arenaset something needs to be done with the lack of spirit and innervate. Using full gladiator pvpgear/honorrewards my spirit is sitting at 139. Not one pvpitem boosts my spirit even a single point. Innervate needs to be reworked and the only solution I could think of (which would also help in pve) is that it should be based on mp/5 instead of spirit. In that way innervate would actaully be useful to cast on someone else than yourself or a fellow druid which makes alot more sense considering innervate has always been supposed to be a group/raid utility spell that should work as a manarestorer to any manauser. Innervating myself in full arenagear gives me roughly 1.5k mana back, which is laughable. It's obvious innervate has been completely overlooked by the devs when looking at it from an arena pov.

Lastly concerning los and druid survivability it goes hand in hand. Druids are designed to be paperhealers that can't take a beating so the only option we have is to kite and "los" our opponents. With an extremely fragile casterform (the form we need to be in to be of any use to our arenateam) we're apparently balanced around beeing able to kite the opposing team flawlessly. This is working in 2on2 but in 3on3 and especially in 5on5 there's just too little space and too many players around to successfully kite and get away without a scratch. Restorationdruids in 5on5 takes a helluva beating, just like every other class, the only difference is that restorationdruids lacks defensive options. After being intercepted and beeing pounded on while stunned for 3 seconds it's simply too late to go bear since more than half of your hp is gone. Avoiding los completely in 5on5 is impossible if you want to be of any use to your team. Druids will get intercepted and we will go down alot faster than any other class because we lack defensive abilities while stunned/cc'd.

There's two options to fix druid survivability in arenas. Either buff our casterform armor and reduce the armor coefficient in bear/moonkin or give us the option to shift into forms while cc'd. I like the second alternative the most and I've always felt it should've been an option for us since the release of this game. Also barkskin which is our only defensive mechanism in casterform is too easy to purge/dispel.



Q u o t e:

Balance
The balance tree has seen a lot of attention in recent times and is now a viable caster DPS option. Again, however, it is felt that the mana pool is too low and DPS must be sacrificed to avoid running out.
This may be resolved in the upcoming reworking of itemisation for balance druids.
((Tharfor’s comment: surely being able to moderate your own DPS in relation to your mana and working with your ‘support’ classes is the intention? I don’t think any class should be able to go ‘full nuke’ and not suffer the consequences if the target doesn’t die quickly.))

Balance druids in PvP are few and far between despite some good crowd control options. A recurring request is that druids are able to control the treants summoned by Force of Nature much like mage elementals or warlock and hunter pets. There is also concern that despite being a DPS caster, there is no ‘fun’ involved as there are no ‘cooldown’ abilites (like Presence of Mind for mages) which create big crits and reduce other casting times.
((Tharfor’s comment: again, isn’t this a feature of multiplayer? If everyone was dealing out erratic burst DPS, it would be too chaotic for other players on your team to predict.))




The biggest issue with moonkins and arena is that we're far too limited while in moonkinform. If you compare moonkins to elementalshamans and mages you'll notice that both these classes have all utility available to them at all times, and this while still having equal survivability. Why are we being penalized while in moonkinform when we don't get any advantages over other classes? A moonkin needs to be able to decurse and remove poison, currently there's too many restrictions (similar to ToL) which is the biggest reason why most serious arenateams aren't even thinking about bringing balancedruids. There's just so much better to bring a mage or an elementalshaman since they can use all their utilitymoves without any restrictions or limits while having roughly the same survivability.



Q u o t e:

*Can the balance tree have more burst DPS options to remove the tediousness of the current slow and steady output of damage?


Changing the mp/5 to spellcrit on our honor/arenaset would be a big step in the right direction. This way balancedruids would get viable burst options thanks to nature's grace. Another change I'd like to see is remove the 41pt talent force of nature and replace it with a burstoption similar to beast within or deathwish.

[ Post edited by Kheletarr ]

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  • 248. Re: The Druid: Our problems   23/08/2007 04:52:45 PDT
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Q u o t e:
The restoration tree is considered ‘too full’ and any druid who spends his points there has to make difficult decisions for healing and will never have any points left to spare for solo-ing purposes.

/agree
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  • Die Silberne Hand
  • 249. Re: The Druid: Our problems   23/08/2007 04:52:59 PDT
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Dear all,

I have read your posts and I am amazed of the level of civilized conversation about druid class issues here *thumbs up*.

I would like to thank everyone here for their constructive posts and the good discussion I enjoyed to read and I support all points mentioned here! Thanks for Tharfor taking time to really discuss our concerns and summarizing your feedback. I envie you for your Community Team which often gave good and dedicated feedback and tries to keep constructive posts alive and letting everyone feel, that their concerns are being heard.

Greetings from Germany

Landriel
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  • 250. Re: The Druid: Our problems   23/08/2007 04:56:12 PDT
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Ok I'll post again since my original question was overlooked.

Is it an intended 'fix' that our powershifting has been nerfed by the upcoming PTR patch?
We can't powershift "inbetween" energyticks since energyticks will be individual and not global.

This is a huge loss for me in dps. If you want I could bring up some statistics and info for what powershifting actually does for feral dps.
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  • 251. Re: The Druid: Our problems   23/08/2007 05:03:11 PDT
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I challenge you. I feel that you are starting it from wrong end :(


Q u o t e:
Mana issues prevent the use of anything but our most mana efficient DPS cycle. Cycles include IS/SFx4, IS/MF/SFx3, IS/MF/Wx6; Moonkin perception would improve if we could at least use our middle efficient cycle (IS/MF/SFx3) in a majority of fights without the reliance on a shadow Priest.

You do realise this cycle actually generates most dps while being most mana efficient. I use IS/MF/3X starfire and yes, I've tested wrath based ones, without mana and really on 1k spelldamage gear this cycle also is best for dps.

Q u o t e:
Balance relies too much on deeper-restoration than feral, requiring to 'waste' 10 points before getting to Subtlety/Intensity compared to ferals 'wasting' 0 points. Force of Nature is practically useless in nearly all PvE and PvP environments thanks to no control.

FoN is fine as it is. You can use it PvE, but it is weaker compared to other no controll pets like Elementals.

Also balance does NOT need Intensity, but however subtlety is too high on restoration.


Q u o t e:
Balance Druids have no cooldowned self- or group-buff abilities such as Heroism, Nature's Swiftness (cannot be used in Moonkin), Elemental Mastery, PoM, AP, etc; this makes other offensive casters preferable. Itemisation focused on MP/5 puts our spell crit very low compared to other offensive casters, and the MP/5 is not needed.

While I agree we need active - visible utily for PvE, but mana/p5 is important stat. That stat with +spelldamage si what makes your dps suprior versus i.e. mages on fights that last like 15 minutes. You simply outlast other casters like shadow priests/mages (warlocks have life-tap, so there you go). balance druid is quite mana efficient caster, and with 150 ish mana per 5 while casting, and in-combat you simply cannot run oom. So I as raid-kin support mana per 5 stats over crit. But i find they all should be balanced.

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Tharfor
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  • 252. Re: The Druid: Our problems   23/08/2007 05:11:04 PDT
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Q u o t e:
Is it an intended 'fix' that our powershifting has been nerfed by the upcoming PTR patch?
We can't powershift "inbetween" energyticks since energyticks will be individual and not global.

This is a huge loss for me in dps. If you want I could bring up some statistics and info for what powershifting actually does for feral dps.

Powershifting? You mean expending all your energy then popping out and back into catform to take advantage of furor?

And I assume you are talking about this change:

Q u o t e:
Power Regeneration: Any effect which triggers a change in your rate of power regeneration (Mana, Rage, Energy, Focus) will now cause an immediate reward of some power at the old rate of increase, and then begin new “ticks” of power at the new rate approximately 2 seconds later. This was done to improve functionality of abilities such as Evocation and Innervate so that they did not have wasted “ticks”.


Since the change is on the PTR at the moment and seems to be unrelated to the act of powershifting I would say that the impact on powershifting has been overlooked (either accidentally or intentionally).

I'm not too sure what jurisdiction I have over the PTR feedback but I'll see what I can discover. If/when the change goes live and starts to affect people on a wider scale, then we might be able to draw more attention to it.

"Even my skills would rust if I simply stand and watch all the time."
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  • 253. Re: The Druid: Our problems   23/08/2007 05:30:55 PDT
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I do not wish to be arrogant about this, but most people don't powershift due to two reasons:

1) They think it's too stressful.
2) They don't think it's worth the effort.

This is mainly why people aren't screaming about this change, because to be fair, most druids don't powershift. However those who DO powershift are really disappointed with this change.

All in all, I don't think people who aren't powershifting have any rights to complain that we need to get buffed, because they aren't doing everything they can to increase their dps. "I AM SMASHING MY MANGLEBUTTON HARDER BUT THERE IS NO MORE DPS" -> Create whinethread on forums.

The whole powershifting thing is definitely not 'intended' for extra dps, however it's the only way to actually use the full benefit of your manapool. Paladins and Shamans utilize their manapool while dpsing, why shouldn't we? Overall though, I wouldn't mind if they implemented some sort of ability to just give us raw energy from our manapool.

[ Post edited by Hemo ]

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  • 254. Re: The Druid: Our problems   23/08/2007 05:40:17 PDT
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In regards to bloated Restoration tree and it being interpreted as such being merely a matter of individual decisions and a matter of respecs.

Take a look at the Paladin Holy tree, perfect example for a tree where you could live with 40 pts. essentially and have your healing covered. Somehow it seems they picked up that concept and enhanced it for Shaman and Druid Restoration tree. This is what we got. We have a few differences, t4 and t5 do have more payload, t2 is fatter.

As Restoration druid you won't stop at 40 pts. however for obvious reasons (why would you stop there?) 41 pts. will have to do. If the goal is to have 20 pts. free then you will find yourself cut off from some talents which are essentially needed (why would you skip Imp.Regrowth and Living Spirit for ToL?). So 44 pts. are minimum. This excludes: a) any (full) investment into HT-oriented talents, b) any full improvement to Tranquility. This is where the main problem lies, you have to leave one spell nearly unimproved in order to be able to have some points left to spend elsewhere. These points left are totalling the number of 17. If you want to improve Feral grinding you will be left at 12 pts. and still left with a quite deserted HT. That is the problem. Not only you have too many talents centered around one spell but also the entire tree is divided between HT or no HT, if you're going for both in order to become a fully versatile healer and every kind of threat reduction talent taken then you are out of points to spend. The difficulty of choice does not exist really because unlike other class trees the Restoration tree does not have real auxiliary talents. The majority of talents are intertwined and linked with eachother for the spells they are supposed to improve.

So to summarize it:
- low number of auxiliary talents
- tree is divided between HT or not HT
- extra payload t4 and t5
- too many "N talents lead to fully improved spell Y" pathways with partially gravitational effects on subsequent talent choices commonly culminating into picking ToL making 41 pts. mandatory.

[ Post edited by Crowcloak ]


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  • 255. Re: The Druid: Our problems   23/08/2007 05:56:24 PDT
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Hi Tharfor, thanks so much for addressing out problems and forwarding them to the devs! I hope it's not too late to add my input. It's about something quite specific that i'm eager to see solved:


Q u o t e:

Balance

... A recurring request is that druids are able to control the treants summoned by Force of Nature much like mage elementals or warlock and hunter pets...


I'd like to see this get more focus, because it is both an AI issue and a bug rolled into one. This issue isn't that we just want it, it's that the treants do strange things sometimes, and can make a bit of a nusance out of themselves. Possibly, if this could get it's own paragraph, you might consider writing something like this:

"Treants summoned by Force of Nature act unpredictably. Because they attack targets seemingly at random, they will tend to break CC'd mobs and players if spawned near a group of enemies. Frequently, they do not attack the nearest enemy to their spawn point, or will attack multiple targets. Additionally, it is possible for them to 'freeze' if feign death / vanish is used, or even upon spawn, which causes them to refuse to attack any further enemies until despawned. The community feel a pet bar, or an attack ability or macro, are neccessary to prevent misbehaviour."

I hope that paragraph isn't too long or wordy. I tried to be as concise as possible while still including the main points. Is that OK for everyone in the thread? I hope I detailed the bug correctly, i've only had it happen to me a couple of times before I respecced, so included all the possible causes identified in various threads. Hope some of that makes the cut :).

PS.

Q u o t e:
There appear to be no items designed from a druid point of view in instances beyond Karazhan and Serpentshrine Cavern – druids are forced to chase rogue items.

As detailed before, the problem isn't that druids are forced to roll on rogue loot - we have the exact opposite problem! Rogue loot is in abundance, but rogue leather is often not a viable upgrade for a druid. Rogue loot has meduim-low armor, medium stam, high AP, Agi and haste. Druid tanking loot needs high armor, high stam, high agi and some str. Druid DPS loot is fine with medium low armor, and medium stam, but requires high str and agi equally. AP of equal value to the strength bonus ends up about 80% (1 / 1.25 from talents) as effective, because of druid talent bonusses. Therefore, druid specific blues prove better for druids than rogue epics. This works out both in theory and practice; i've never heard of loot arguments between the two classes since TBC was released :P.

- Noobs whine, pro's adjust -
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  • 256. Re: The Druid: Our problems   23/08/2007 06:10:46 PDT
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Q u o t e:
P.S. another WWS report (this one from Blood Legion, #6 PvE ranked US according to WowJutsu.com).

http://www.lossendil.com/wws/?report=yscdmpyujct21&s=8855-9078

Top rogue: 2130 DPS
Top druid: 1221 DPS

Again, look at the buffs for both the rogue and the druid. You'll note the vast difference in energy gains and haste rating buffs, I hope.


Uhhhh.... sorry, but Furi has kinda Warglaive of Azzinoth set. Dunno if you can compare that to a druid with our "imba" feral itemization
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  • 257. Re: The Druid: Our problems   23/08/2007 06:11:28 PDT
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Now I know I'm not a Druid but i have observed many of the problems people have been describing here.
As our gear improved i was able to observe a constant drop in dps coming from our Druids, especially the ferals in raids.
While they shouldn't be dropping too low i cannot say I would be happy seeing them on the top either since i still consider them a support class same as i wouldn't like to see an elemental or enhancement shaman on top. Gear wise Balance druids seem to have the hardest time finding gear since outside of Tier sets there is little to no gear for them. One of our balance druids has been relying on Arena gear thus far. It's not doing the job anymore though due to the lack of +hit rating.
I am glad to hear the Z'A will provide new gear for them.

As far as the Resto Druid goes what's wrong with him? U guys have insane HoT's that work out fine in Arena too as far as i could see. Came up against a team with a resto druid and we had no chance. He would throw around HoT's and when a melee started beating on him, go into bear and take little to no damage. Shift out when it becomes critical then rinse and repeat it was crazy.

Druids tanking are great i love em the only problem there is, is taht they can sometimes be on a streak where they will get hit 3-4 times in a row unlike warriors that will have a dodge parry or block in there somewhere. Other than that they're awesome.

I don't know who was saying 'will druids ever be tanking when a warrior hits 18k hp 19k armor and 60% avoidance unbuffed?'
Well yes ofc druids can still tank at that stage why wouldn't you? 22k armor is not a huge problem for a druid nor is the 16-17k hp and 40%+ dodge.

Either way the only real problem i see druids have is suitable itemization. Other than that you shouldn't be complaining too much since you have a very decent class right there.
And Remember: You still are a support class so don't expect to be top on dmg meters.

PS: I'm a shammy and all i complain about is threat generation and the fact that my totems only have 5hp :P

[ Post edited by Rihataur ]

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  • 258. Re: The Druid: Our problems   23/08/2007 06:14:49 PDT
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Q u o t e:
I do not wish to be arrogant about this, but most people don't powershift due to two reasons:

1) They think it's too stressful.
2) They don't think it's worth the effort.

This is mainly why people aren't screaming about this change, because to be fair, most druids don't powershift. However those who DO powershift are really disappointed with this change.

All in all, I don't think people who aren't powershifting have any rights to complain that we need to get buffed, because they aren't doing everything they can to increase their dps. "I AM SMASHING MY MANGLEBUTTON HARDER BUT THERE IS NO MORE DPS" -> Create whinethread on forums.

The whole powershifting thing is definitely not 'intended' for extra dps, however it's the only way to actually use the full benefit of your manapool. Paladins and Shamans utilize their manapool while dpsing, why shouldn't we? Overall though, I wouldn't mind if they implemented some sort of ability to just give us raw energy from our manapool.


Have to admit, I have Furor 5/5 but the only time I "powershift" is if I'm DPS on the Curator in Kara and during his evocations... Unfortunately (well, I love it, so not REALLY unfortunately) I tend to be tank more than kitty, and timing a shift in and out during a boss fight for an extra 10 rage would be a bit suicidal ;)

I do admit though, waiting for your energy to tick from zero to 42 (for a Shred) seems like forever :)

*EDIT* Also, for people who were whining about powershifting costs, get Natural Shifter. Requires 8 points in Resto... You'll already have 5 from Furor (unless you're REALLY stupid and powershift for no reason) ;D

[ Post edited by Seba ]

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  • 259. Re: The Druid: Our problems   23/08/2007 06:16:42 PDT
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Q u o t e:


Uhhhh.... sorry, but Furi has kinda Warglaive of Azzinoth set. Dunno if you can compare that to a druid with our "imba" feral itemization


And the warglaives should account for 75% more dps than your nearest feral druid?

And the itemization is exactly the point as well, isn't it?
It's not just game mechanics or itemization, It's a combination of both.

"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents"
-- H.P. Lovecraft
"The Call of Cthulhu"
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