NE now too good to pass up?

[GratedWasabi]

Well, I'm curious what you guys think about this. With the new racial changes, NEs effectively get vanish. Although I hear something about how if other people are around it keeps you in combat so you can't stealth? Having never played a Night Elf, how does this work?

Does the change make Night Elves clearly the race to be as a Druid? Getting what amounts to a 2min CD Vanish seems like it totally evolves the class and is worth giving up the awesomeness of Horde. Is the ability less useful then I imagine?

I've also done some testing and I'm 99% sure that Troll Berserking is a flat 20% Haste for 10 seconds, including energy regen and GCD reduction. How does that compare to Shadowmeld? I've played a Tauren druid and don't really want to go that route and definitely not going Worgen.

[redsunrising15]

Breaks on damage, easily detectable. Shadowmeld = still useless.

[lichslaped10]

i use it to get out of combat and hide if we wipe on my druid

[Venjin]

Imo, it depends on what spec you mainly want to play. Shadowmeld itself is pretty useless, however, NEs and Tauren are the best races for feral tanks, while worgen are good for all 4 specs, and trolls would get the best benefit as either boomkin/resto.

And if you don't care about racials, go with whichever race you like best.

[Darkdruidelf]

I LOVE it as resto. In arena you can shadowmeld to get out of combat and drink, sometimes, if the team sucks, practically right infront of them lol

[redsunrising15]

Unless I'm missing something, shadowmeld doesn't remove you from combat. Never works for me, boss still runs at me, players still hit me, /sigh

[Deleted]

you used to occasionally be able to get a restealth off back when you had to shift out using shadowmeld/sit..

so i'd say that it would most likely work and be usefull now with the change... however the tauren racial is also changed to work on a shift...

so whatever you fancy rly.

[Yalingo]

alliance boomkins still might use it as a threatdump since there is no other viable way for boomkins to do it.

[Armaggeden]

most of my characters are night elves, and i absolutely love shadowmeld.

[Invictus9001]

Shadowmeld is barely useful as it stands. The only added benefit with the upcoming change is being able to use it instead of "prowl"; but then again that's like hiding behind a fern instead of hiding in a basement.. you could do it, but one (Shadowmeld) is way less effective than the other (Prowl). By the way, if a player notices where you're at when you Shadowmeld... you're pretty much screwed. (Insert sound of AOE hitting you.. here.)

In terms of Alliance, Worgen (IMO) make the best feral cat DPS. (Skinning speed bonus, effective crits through skinning, combined with Herbalism for use of Lifeblood/haste pop = win win. I've never bothered trying to tank (bear form) as a druid and have no desire to whatsoever. I'm not much for the headache of healing either, so at most I'd dual-spec as a boom/crit-chicken.

For Horde: Troll is the way to go IMO. Berserking racial, plus (profession-wise) using Lifeblood for haste pops and micro-self heals, in addition to the Troll racial for Regeneration. I also feral cat DPS with my troll druid, who is also doing Skinning/Herbalism like my Worgen druid.

[littlepiggy]

vanish takes you out of combat
shadowmeld does not

[Jademist]

Am I the only one who rolls on a race because I like the race and racials are only a bonus?

I've never picked a race for their racials. I've been more of a "lore" type guy where I picked a race because I liked how they look and the lore behind them.

I still find Tauren druid to be the coolest.

[Sny]

In PvE I've found that Shadowmeld will only reliably save you if everyone else is dead, you'll likely still get targeted if a hunter has feigned death or a rogue has vanished, but not always. I can pull this off as a priest with fade, but it's fairly useless in PvE otherwise.

[Chilifan]

In pve shadowmeld is fairly useless as melee, since bosses can see through it that close.

In pvp, shadowmeld is amazing if used properly. Have to make a few corrections about comments stated above:
Shadowmeld does drop combat if you have not healed someone in combat in the last 6 seconds (not including yourself).
Therefore, if a feral or moonkin stuns someone, cyclones someone, or even just runs away and shadowmelds, they will drop combat.
However, if a resto druid heals someone and shadowmelds, they will remain in combat for 6 seconds after the heal was cast.

[commanderbeatdown]

Shadowmeld is awesome for feral ganking or from escaping from players on pvp servers.

Drop some bleeds, then follow the fomula:

Shadowmeld + Flight Form = Win

Just about the best escape there is.

[coldbear]

Breaks on damage, easily detectable. Shadowmeld = still useless.

If you've thought Shadowmeld has been useless for Druids for the last few years you've never had a clue about playing this class. I've used it constantly in pvp for years and years to massive effect, and even more in pve.

Sure it's had plenty of drawbacks and issues and problems. It's also a huge, almost OP advantage in some situations to be able to escape any situation whatsoever damn near. Timed right it's a great, though not foolproof, way to reset a fight, escape or apply tons of burst damage via a reset opener.

They just made an already awesome racial even more powerful. The only reason this might not be too much power in the hands of ferals is the recent change to Pounce.

---------- Post added 2011-01-08 at 08:26 AM ----------

vanish takes you out of combat
shadowmeld does not

I'm gonna have to throw a B.S. flag on that. Unless they've changed it recently (been months since I could play)

http://www.wowpedia.org/Shadowmeld is at least how it was working in WOTLK:

Using shadowmeld will temporarily remove you from combat. When you cancel the effect, all aggro that was held towards you is restored.

[Shornaal]

vanish takes you out of combat
shadowmeld does not

Shadowmeld DOES take you out of combat, i usually use it on guarded nodes (i have mining with my cat) to reset combat and fly away. Flight form is usable only out of combat, so definitely shadowmeld works in that sense.

In terms of Alliance, Worgen (IMO) make the best feral cat DPS. (Skinning speed bonus, effective crits through skinning, combined with Herbalism for use of Lifeblood/haste pop = win win.

If worgen is superior is for it's 1% crit chance, surely not because his skinning/herbalism skills, as every race out there can have those two professions. Both the crit from skinning and the haste from herbalism are sub-par profession-wise, you'd gain more benefit from professions giving pure agility as it's worth more than double of every other stat.

[Fierae]

I never got taken out of combat when on bosses in PvE at any stage in wrath, only if you did a quick moonfire pull and shadowmeld, for instance for bugging the Azjol Nerub packs.

In PvP it did though, could flight form right out of there if I wished.

[Sneakysnado@Gmail.com]

I'm gonna have to throw a B.S. flag on that. Unless they've changed it recently (been months since I could play)

http://www.wowpedia.org/Shadowmeld is at least how it was working in WOTLK:

These people are just bad and assume since they suck at using the ability it doesn't work.

Shadowmeld is absolutely amazing and it makes my rogue infinitely better, I use it all the time to re-stealth and if you've ever played a rogue or against one you know how powerful that is.

I honestly don't know why there aren't more PvP videos showing off how OP shadowmeld is, because I definitely could make a video with all the time I've used it and I'm not even a PvP buff (<25k HKs, and I've been playing since release).

[Deleted]

vanish takes you out of combat
shadowmeld does not

It does. I mainly use shadowmeld on my Druid to get into Flight Form when things get hairy.