Do you feel Moonkin was the wrong creature to go with for Balance druids?

[Nenavn]

If I remember correctly, the Owlbear or Moonkin were the chosen creatures of Elune and even featured in the classic Druid quest chains to unlock their forms and spells.

[huth]

If I remember correctly, the Owlbear or Moonkin were the chosen creatures of Elune and even featured in the classic Druid quest chains to unlock their forms and spells.

The Bear Form quest heavily involved them. I wish they brought the form quests back, they added a great deal to class identity.

[Shennanigans]

I like the idea of a brief cenarruis change for CDs and the like

[Gaidax]

I think people here miss the point of the fact that druids take animal forms, not shift into actual sentient beings like dryads and such.

Moonkins are animals that possess quite a few natural magical tricks in their sleeve, thus they fit balance perfectly.

Canarius offsprings, however, are sentient and besides are not known for their arcane abilities. I'm not even taking about the fact that Canarius and his kind have nothing to do with Trolls and Worden, seeing one of those shift into dryads would be pretty odd and off. I'd say silly even.

[ravenmoon]

Do wild Moonkins even cast spells? I forget.

no they don't, until late classic, they were exclusively feral creatures, in fact, the Great bear quest to get bear form involved a moonkin, they were certainly not created with druid in mind, despite what Apple wrote. I think Caydiem, a female blizz CM back then really liked the moonkin and she played a druid, albeit a healer one, she use to convey our class concerns to the devs at the time.. when we were all quite annoyed the druid was turned from the blockbuster malfurion-esque caster of WC3 and WotA trilogy to an almost exculsive healer because healers were in short supply.. so the other roles got suffocated and they only made improvements and gear drops for resto spec.

we really had issue with that cos it was not the WoW druid fantasy, that only had tranquilty ass the only healing spell and you thought of druids either as bears or powerful casters of nature magic.. we felt that in creating a playable shaman class they had shunted a lot of druid nature abilities to the shaman (which seemed the case througout the alpha/beta) and i remember a lot of the druid beast abilities got shunted to the hunter - things like Eyes of the Beast, tame beast, etc are all druidc, druid could even mind control beasts back in those days.

ANyway, Caydiem really loved the moonkin, she thought it was cute, and i think she was why they did it.. in an attempt to appease us, cos i really don't think they were interested in doing anything but more healing for the druid until a philosophy changed happened somewhere along the road to WotLK - and they started wanting to make or felt all specs should be viable. Even then, Balance druids did not get viable till WotLK, and did not get really equal in power till Cataclysm - things like hybrid tax were exacted until they decided to get rid of that...realizing that it was okay to be the best in some encounters, and that people really liked actually being able to be the best as a balance druid or shadow priest and prefferred that fantasy and style over doing a warlock or a mage.

it was the right way to go ...because it gave the game more diversity, it would be far more boring if your only option for being a viable caster was as a mage or a warlock.

Moonfire spells got added to Moonkin in Winterspring, but that is still the only spell they cast in the game, as far as i know.

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Druids turning into Cenarius-like creatures would be ugly and stupid as far as I'm concerned.

and i'm sure you'd love it when you see the cool artwork and the lore they drum up around it.

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If I remember correctly, the Owlbear or Moonkin were the chosen creatures of Elune and even featured in the classic Druid quest chains to unlock their forms and spells.

chosen creatures of Elune yes, unlcok their forms/spell NO !!.. the moonkin was part of the BEAR quest. Elune connection is a night elf thing, which is where druidism comes from, so it's not surprised that the creatures are involved with the class, and they were exclusively with the bear form quest- they are part man/bear/owl remember, had nothing to do with balance till they just decided to make it the form..which they can (let's not forget that), there was no precedence, no indication, no prior lore, no set up, i still suspect, Caydiem wanted it, and that's why you got it.

now i feel they have a chance to go beyond the limit of the moonkin when they flesh out the lore, get Astral form and Cenarion form as alternatives, even make the forms 3 schools of Balance druidism and write lore..if balance druids ever became a separate class, you could have Astral, Moonkin and Cenarion specs.

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I think people here miss the point of the fact that druids take animal forms, not shift into actual sentient beings like dryads and such.

Moonkins are animals that possess quite a few natural magical tricks in their sleeve, thus they fit balance perfectly.

Canarius offsprings, however, are sentient and besides are not known for their arcane abilities. I'm not even taking about the fact that Canarius and his kind have nothing to do with Trolls and Worden, seeing one of those shift into dryads would be pretty odd and off. I'd say silly even.

Moonkin are humanoids, not animals.

[Tacotruck]

I said back at the time that dryad or keeper of the grove form would have been a LOT cooler, but they went for the easy fix and then have been super lazy about never, ever updating it.

Honestly I think they now regret having a spell casting form at all.

[Dreyen]

dryads and keepers of the groves arent exactly animals, it'd be weird to shapeshift to them... beside they don't use lunar powers. Moonknis make sense, they are an animal blessed by elune

[huth]

chosen creatures of Elune yes, unlcok their forms/spell NO !!.. the moonkin was part of the BEAR quest.

You managed to contradict yourself in less than a paragraph. Congratulations.

Bear Form is a form, and back then, was the first one a druid would get. So they were involved in unlocking your forms, as stated.

Also, Owlbears are not part man, that's purely your own confabulation.

[Wildmoon]

No form would be the best.

[Khaos01207]

How can you hate the moonkin? and if you do, just use astral form, but don't take away our boomkin ;/

[ravenmoon]

You managed to contradict yourself in less than a paragraph. Congratulations.

Bear Form is a form, and back then, was the first one a druid would get. So they were involved in unlocking your forms, as stated.

Also, Owlbears are not part man, that's purely your own confabulation.

I thought he was referring to unlocking moonkin form.. in the context of the topic, that should not surprise you. we do get a lot of mis-information. but i remember those days very well as those were the days i played wow the most, and i was almost exclusively a druid, had 3, one i played as resto, one as feral, one as balance, balance was the weakest, and my favourite because it was the one most like the WC3 Malfruion style druid, with the end talent Hurricane - this was before 1.7/8 which saw some much needed boosts to the other specs, I also remember how shocked we were that they chose the moonkin... .. in retro spect, it's resto that shoudl have got tree form, and balance just stayed in caster form, and maybe developed some animal augments like Malfurion has.

[huth]

I also remember how shocked we were that they chose the moonkin...

Not at all, you mean? Back then we were happy they threw us a bone at all. Though asphyxiating because you stood in a puddle was kinda weird.

[Scrubkin]

I would love to see an updated moonkin form but I am one of the few who actually like being this big ugly creature. I have played since the end of vanilla and have been a boomkin since the beginning of BC.. and because ive been boomkin for so long it has become a bad habit that in raids its easy to locate my big ugly self amongst the chaos at times. So I would hate to see it completely go.

Sometimes in raid when crap hits the fan, or people panic for dumb reasons the RL will yell out, "stack on the ugly boomkin". I am a marker of my own. haha

[Vightnic]

Yes. Moonkin form has always sucked. It looks like a human put on a mascot suit for a non-hooved hippogryph.

[Deleted]

Moonkin may do fit but personally I despise the form, so happy about astral form. Then again, I don't like the whole shapeshifting thing at all, not sure why, either it's because you shapeshift into the ever same look or it's because it's like even my char wants to be someone else.

[huth]

I would love to see an updated moonkin form but I am one of the few who actually like being this big ugly creature. I have played since the end of vanilla and have been a boomkin since the beginning of BC.. and because ive been boomkin for so long it has become a bad habit that in raids its easy to locate my big ugly self amongst the chaos at times. So I would hate to see it completely go.

Sometimes in raid when crap hits the fan, or people panic for dumb reasons the RL will yell out, "stack on the ugly boomkin". I am a marker of my own. haha

Oh, no, no, the update shouldn't change that at all or Blizzard failed majorly. We should still be identifiable as Moonkin afterward, just HD moonkin.

Compare old BC Illidan to Legion Illidan, or pre-WoD models to post-WoD. That's the kind of thing we're looking for.

[Thelxi]

Not really no. I was very happy with the initial astral form glyph though. Of course they had to go fuck it up in WoD and give it an overwhelming blue hue, but that is a different story.

[ravenmoon]

Oh, no, no, the update shouldn't change that at all or Blizzard failed majorly. We should still be identifiable as Moonkin afterward, just HD moonkin.

Compare old BC Illidan to Legion Illidan, or pre-WoD models to post-WoD. That's the kind of thing we're looking for.

agreed, whiles i do think they could have gone way cooler with a Cenarion (dryad/keeper) for the balance form, the new moonkin should really just be HD, with a more owlish face - but .. . i also think a Cenarion glyph and ultimately something more like Malfurion is what balance druids should have with Moonkin, Astral & Cenarion being glyphs or talents you could choose instead.

[Wildmoon]

Elune is less a part of Druidism than it's a part of the Night Elf culture as whole. Praying to Elune is not really a part of Druidism. It's just what Night Elves do. People get it mixed up that druids got their power from Elune. They don't. They get it from nature as whole. Celestial power happens to be a part of the world too.

[Deleted]

Elune is less a part of Druidism than it's a part of the Night Elf culture as whole. Praying to Elune is not really a part of Druidism. It's just what Night Elves do. People get it mixed up that druids got their power from Elune. They don't. They get it from nature as whole. Celestial power happens to be a part of the world too.

Elune is the mother of Cenarius, who is an icon of druidism. Druids are very close to the astrological cycle and the stars, so having Moonkin form feels very fitting to that, IMO.You are quite literally taking upon the form of an Elune-blessed creature, that she created to protect her sacred places in the world.

Moonkin protect the Balance of the wild, and they are guardians of one of its deities. Which is very fitting.

Much of what we consider druidism is heavily intertwined with Night Elf culture regardless.