I dont even feel like a HoT healer anymore...

[Stormhusk]

Well people are responding from PvE perspectives which is fine, but what about PvP perspective? Tree PvP got worst : /

PvE ill admit got some decent changes but PvP tree is worst now to be honest.

[Myrrar]

PvP is completely unbalanced now, so you can't judge any class on how they are doing in PvP. We used to be unstoppable, now we actually have skill to be good in arenas and rated BGs at 85. For someone who has been doing arenas since they were released and always being boringly op, I'm glad we'll need a bit of skill now.

[fizikz]

lifebloom glyph seems OP as hell - I'd rather have LB be powerful, but only one target at a time than weak and multiple targets.

[Warcraft]

They did shorten the durations;
rejuv - 12 sec from 18 sec?

for a lot of people the duration was not shortened because of haste affecting duration. for me it was around a 10sec duration prior to 4.1 and now its at a constant duration of 12.

[Squishie]

When cata is released I will be busy back packing round Australia for 2 months. So I have not been paying a lot of heed to how we will play at 85. But with the changes to our tree hots still account for much more than 50% of our healing. The only thing that I really see as having changed is our healing niche.

Before we where pre-emptive healers. We cast for casting sake mostly the time. That's not hanged somewhat into a more reactive play style. We still have the tools to preempt incoming damage and deal with it. But mana strts to become an issue with blind blanketing the raid. It's just a new style to get used to. I certainly find it more fun than mindless blanketing just for the sale of it.

[Ravenblade]

Okay first off apologies for quoting the original posting as the debate obviously has progressed a bit and I have only noticed it today but I think adding a different branch here.

First off Hots clearly got nerfed in my eyes the durations are shorter by A LOT and your limited to Lifebloom for the fact it only can be cast on one target at a time and Wild Growths CD is increased.

The various changes are there intentionally to put Druids on equal footing with other healers in terms of efficiency. The thinking is that HoTs shouldn't be as efficient and guarded by low maintenance as in the past and that direct heals are now part of your healing.

Now these are my ideas on how to fix tree in PvP and PvE in general that wouldn't make them more OP and make them enjoyable!

That would imply that something is broken, at this stage of development all concepts should be pretty much only need minor polishing which in fact is the case.

- Lifebloom glyph: allows you to use Lifebloom on 2 more targets at the same time. (so max of 3 targets at same time)

The target limitation is there because Lifebloom is insanely cheap and efficient again. There are various things granted by Lifebloom and thus the one-target limitation is fine per se, it should have always been like that but the design flaws of Restoration in the past did not allow that immediately but Cataclysm design however does.

- Regrowth's hot needs to be increased to possibly 10 sec from 6 and it would be more enjoyable and bring back the HoT healer feel.

Regrowth got changed. It's faster now and more front-loaded. And for that matter the "HoT healer feel" was never a constant one, Lifebloom spam, Regrowth spam, Rejuv/WG spam. That's not a feel, it's a nausea. You can create a better meaning for HoTs without relying on duration factor alone and I do think they are pretty much right on track.

--Tree of Life CD needs to be reduced to 1 min but change there abilities like this;
>Regrowth is instant but has a 3 sec inner CD (un-spammable)
>Instant roots 5 sec CD (like glyph)
>Duration is 15-20 sec since the CD is shorter, but shorter CD would allow more fun into PvP and PvE because everyone loves tree form!
>Everything else how it was ability wise can stay the same.
>This Tree form works like this; its an ability so you can also go out of tree form but feel free to go back into tree form, so how long the duration last thats how long you can feel free to shift in and out of tree form!

First off the spam factor of Regrowth is a key-selling point of the new ToL to underline its design purpose as emergency tool and not something you should use every time the cooldown is ready thus adding a 3s cooldown would completely negate it. I also would rather have them addressing the remaining PVP-related flaws before changing it into an average self-buff. I also think at this moment the opportunity costs for instant root with cooldown are better represented by glyph than by a form. Also keep in mind that cooldown and purpose are often companions, so playing around with the cooldown while killing its purpose would make little sense.

- Increase Rejuvenations HoT duration by 6 sec, that seems reasonable not asking for much.

It is really asking for alot. It's like a maximum security prisoner asking for a week of free leave without surveillance. Maybe a harsh comparison but you are basically asking Blizzard undoing something they changed on purpose. The reduction from 15s to 12s and leaving it there goes hand in hand with their overhaul of healing in general.

Now put all of these ideas into perspective and picture it, all these ideas seem reasonable and they would seem to fit perfect enough for the game to still be balance and enjoyable and bring back that HoT healer feel again!

What do you guys think?

I think to put it mildly you are asking for a reversal of something which had to be changed to make it balanced. Restoration felt always like a square-wheeled car, they added more wheels because they thought it would speed it up until they realized they need to make things more round. Instead of being reduced to a tunnel-visioned HoT spammer we will be healers maximizing the potential of our HoTs by combining them with all the healing spells we've got in our arsenal unlike in WotLK or TBC.

[Deleted]

I almost only use my HoTs, so I most surely feel like a HoT healer.

Rejuv, Lifebloom and Wild Growth are my three most used spells, by miles.

I don't quite see how you're not feeling like a HoT healer, unless you're playing a Nourish/HT focused spec.

[Mmpie]

I don't know, I happen to love our updated style of healing. We actually have to put thought into it, which imo only makes playing more fun.

I really enjoy trying to decide when to pop ToL. Then when I see my beloved tree, I say "okay, let's do this!! Instant regrowth here, second lb there, bam!"

As for PvP, I don't really do much of it, but I've been dabbling in it more lately (I'm tired of the other faction constantly raiding our cities on my server, so bgs help me feel better). Before I would never be able to survive against a very well PvP-geared rogue but now my hots keep me up and they eventually give up

[jearle]

The new druid healing style is just flat out awesome, you can raid heal at a 10 or if needed you can tank heal at a 10. The sheer amount of healing you can do on the run is insanity and the OHSHIT tree form is killer.

I love not having to be in a form to heal, maybe a glyph for those that want to stay as a tree constantly, but don't make the rest of us suffer as brown celery with you.

[Vudu]

I can't really comprehend how a druid can't feel like the HoT healer of wow atm. Sure you might occasionally use a cast time, but you still use FAR more hots than any other class. I play a holy priest, probably the next highest hot user, and while it's a fair bit of my healing, most of my casts are not hots (depends on fight obviously).

Personally I would think that having access to other healing styles (and thus being viable at something other than persistent aura dmg fights or raid blanketing) would be an improvement.

[bigjenk]

sounds legit you just want double output from 2 of your spells even though with the new hr nerf your the strongest healer, and more than triple the uptime of tol, and now that bloom is cheaper you want to be able to keep it up on 3 targets all the time. Basically you want a buff from pre 4.0 while every other healer took a nerf and for pvp reasons when every one of the top 3 comps from tournaments of late has a common theme, lsD mlD triple healer with a D

[Dariela]

I was a fan of druid healing before, but as I get used to the new changes I'm even more a fan.

I am far more versatile then I was before. I no longer balk at being a "tank healer" where before I would try everything in my power to get put on the raid instead. Treeform is awesome now, when things are going south I feel like I have something that might actually save the day, instead of watching hots tick and hoping some other healer gets a fast heal off.

I miss being a tree, but let's face it, if you are looking at your character model while healing you are doing it wrong.

[Deleted]

I miss being a tree, but let's face it, if you are looking at your character model while healing you are doing it wrong.

I was waiting for someone to say those magic words

+1 for Dariela!

[Eharenda]

I miss being a tree, but let's face it, if you are looking at your character model while healing you are doing it wrong.

Quoted for being awesome.

Also, I have been playing my druid on beta a bit, as well as on retail, and I'm really a fan of the way things are going. I like that tree form is my emergency button, in case things go south - I can't tell you how many times it's saved the day when something's gone wrong. As for the shorter duration on hots - it's to make sure we stop going afk after casting regrowth etc.

[SirLancelittle]

I certainly feel like the new tree is an improvement over the WotLK tree. By the end of WoTLK I was doing 90% of my healing with rejuv and wild growth. I tried healing other ways but the simple truth is cast only these two spells gave my 30%-50% more healing done, essentially no overhealing, and no mana problems (If you tried spamming regrowth, nourish and lifebloom, you occasionally had mana problems). I now find myself using most of our spells (with the exception of the way too slow nourish). This is, imo, a very very good thing. However...

I also have a holy priest alt. When all the changes came out, I tried healing some on her.... And I won't be healing with my druid in Cataclysm. I'm not saying my priest was a better healer (in terms of hps, or mana). I'm saying my priest was way more fun to play. Why? Holy Priests have way more spells to choose from. They have way more flexibility. And while druids got some substantial changes to play style as compared to the end of WotLK, we haven't gotten any substantially unique spells since BC. What do I mean? We still pretty much have direct heals (at varying speeds), 2 HoTs, 1 direct AoE heal, and 2 instant heals with a cooldown (counting nature's swiftness). The new ToL has some sweet abilities, effervescence seems pretty useful, but one of these is on a long cooldown and the other is an indirect heal (meaning we don't even get a new button to push).

I'm not trying to sound bitter, though I probably come across that way. I don't mind switching to a new character, I've do so semi-frequently anyway. I'm just a little sad the resto druid has gotten so little love over the past couple years.

[BoomChickn]

I still feel like a hot healer... sure 12 sec rejuv is a pain but that spell was badly needing a nerf.

[Makatafinger]

i find myself spamming regrowth all the time.

[trtrmitya]

Also I don't care what you all say I still want permanent tree form. That is all.

Seconded. Druids were all about forms all the time.
I vote to get Tree form back with longer hots. Actually as they were before 4.0...

[seany69er]

We don't need the multiple lifeblooms outside of tree, would make us overpowered.

We are already Over Powered LOL

[Lekscene]

You don't feel like a HoT healer anymore, because you are not one. There are no niches.