Latest [Druid] Ability Pruning Changes!

[Deleted]

As a PvE feral druid, I'm fine with it so far. Played about ~15 hours of Alpha already and not once have I thought "Damn where is X skill?" Apart from flight form which has been merged into a travel form type macro anyway.

I can see this effecting pvp, but in pve, nah, the only 2 I regularlly use in PvE are bark skin and Might of Ursoc, but given the Survival instincts buff, it's more then enough to compensate the loss.

[Peacemoon]

As a PvE feral druid, I'm fine with it so far. Played about ~15 hours of Alpha already and not once have I thought "Damn where is X skill?" Apart from flight form which has been merged into a travel form type macro anyway.

I can see this effecting pvp, but in pve, nah, the only 2 I regularlly use in PvE are bark skin and Might of Ursoc, but given the Survival instincts buff, it's more then enough to compensate the loss.

My worry is the developers are looking at our skills purely from a "would you use this in a raid encounter" paradigm, and cutting lots of abilities that don't fit the specific role we are assigned. WoW is more than just raid fights though - I hope they don't lose sight of this.

[solidbear]

I dislike some of these changes, but I've been playing since Vanilla, and gone through with every druid change... some I loathed, but I'm still here!

As a resto druid, I'll miss barkskin

The one stack lifebloom.. thats going to change healing up a bit and I'm extremely excited!

[Tapaj]

Only pruning I didn't like was the removal of Mushroom Bloom in favor of Genesis, Even then its not horribad, just different, no more mass burst healing outside tranq. Rj RJ Rj Genesis...snore gonna feel like a monk now lol

[gestapo]

As a PvE feral druid, I'm fine with it so far. Played about ~15 hours of Alpha already and not once have I thought "Damn where is X skill?" Apart from flight form which has been merged into a travel form type macro anyway.

I can see this effecting pvp, but in pve, nah, the only 2 I regularlly use in PvE are bark skin and Might of Ursoc, but given the Survival instincts buff, it's more then enough to compensate the loss.

Hi Moosie. I know you mentioned before that you're on a lower bandwith connection and unable to stream. If you do have the chance, please do upload some footage to youtube. I haven't been able to find a single Feral alpha video.

Also, I worry for Feral despite your experience. I want travel forms to be different, for e.g. I like using travel ground even in places where I can fly.
I enjoy using entangling roots as a core druidic ability and I would be devastated to lose it. I can concede losing the ability to instant cast it for pvp balance, but I think we should keep the actual spell. I often FF & then root a mob while I work on another.

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My worry is the developers are looking at our skills purely from a "would you use this in a raid encounter" paradigm, and cutting lots of abilities that don't fit the specific role we are assigned. WoW is more than just raid fights though - I hope they don't lose sight of this.

I agree with this. Raids alone cannot be used for balancing.

WoW is more than just raid fights

[Henako]

As a PvP Feral, losing Skin, Roots, and Might of Ursoc is a pretty brutal hit. Tying that in with the merging of Pounce and Rake, I just feel like we're losing a lot of flavor for little gain. I understand the reasoning behind the latter change, but it still feels kinda gross. We've been opening with Pounce for.. ever.

[hullaballoonatic]

Good Removals - Unnecessary abilities that added complexity and not depth

• Barkskin
• Might of Ursoc
• Hibernate
• Nature's Grasp (assuming entangling roots + PS still exists. without that, though, lack of NG is disappointing)

Bad Removals - Significantly disappointing. Detracts from the depth of the gameplay.

• Entangling Roots

Confusing Removals - I can live without these, but why? They didn't cause bloat.

• Moonfire
• Lacerate
• Hurricane

Ferals currently have no pve CC.

[Juvencus]

More worried about Barkskin removal than anything else due to the CC-effect.

Also what's up with Moonkin form raid buff?

[Cyberowl]

Aww, Hibernate, Barskin will be kinda missed, but Pounce and FF? The fuck, I want to keep my opening stun and the stealth blocker... I used FF all the time, why do they think it is a unnecessary ability?

[timmytompadderham]

I sort of wonder if hibernate will go into the talent tree. Otherwise they gave up on CC in 5mans?

[Deleted]

I'm actually pretty happy with it all except for the travel form change. When I'm going back and forth from the bank to the auction house for any reason I prefer not to be flying, either cheetah or stag form would be fine.

So I'm really hoping they don't enforce this in cities.

[gestapo]

Good Removals - Unnecessary abilities that added complexity and not depth

• Barkskin
• Might of Ursoc
• Hibernate
• Nature's Grasp (assuming entangling roots + PS still exists. without that, though, lack of NG is disappointing)

Bad Removals - Significantly disappointing. Detracts from the depth of the gameplay.

• Entangling Roots

Confusing Removals - I can live without these, but why? They didn't cause bloat.

• Moonfire
• Lacerate
• Hurricane

Ferals currently have no pve CC.

I disagree with some of this list. Barkskin should have stayed. It's a terrible candidate for removal because now we don't have anything we can use while under cc effects (stun/fear).

Hibernate - also a bad one. Remember this isn't only a pve game. It was useful against other druids/shaman in ghost wolf/hunter pets, not to mention just fun to use out in the world.

Nature's Grasp - I'm okay with if we keep Entangling Roots. That's really crossing the line, losing out on such an iconic druid ability as Feral. Never thought I'd see the day.

Moonfire - Another bad change. Why is it so bad to have moonfire as Feral? The ability pruning is going too far at this stage.

Lacerate - Not sure how i feel about it.

Hurricane - Nerfing fun, got it. Who cares that it's a balance spell and that it did crap damage as Feral? It was fun to use!

[Erdluf]

So are we looking at no DoT or HoTs of any kind until level 10 (when you get to pick a spec)? Seems like a strange way to train a new druid.

[Deleted]

Only travel form change annoys me, so i cant use cheetah in flying areas?

otherwise i like what they are doing a s a whole, feral has a lot of core mechanics which will still make it a a strong class in my opinion.

[Zathan666]

I dislike some of these changes, but I've been playing since Vanilla, and gone through with every druid change... some I loathed, but I'm still here!

As a resto druid, I'll miss barkskin

The one stack lifebloom.. thats going to change healing up a bit and I'm extremely excited!

Finally yeah, it was about time. Less ramp up. I'm a bit concerned about the removal of mushroom: bloom. Genesis is still a clunky mechanic if you need emergency AOE heal that mushrooms provided. Never really liked Genesis for AoE heal, takes too many GCDs. It's ok for 2-3 targets. Hopefully true burst heal won't be needed as much in WoD so it should be fine.

[gestapo]

otherwise i like what they are doing a s a whole, feral has a lot of core mechanics which will still make it a a strong class in my opinion.

I don't think that's the argument here. There are a lot of abilities that are just fun to use that are not game-breaking to keep in WoD. Abilities that come to mind are entangling roots, hibernate, moonfire (from a Feral pov of course).

[Mrbleedinggums]

Why remove owlkin frenzy? Also removing most of the iconic abilities that were the cornerstone of why I chose the ultimate hybrid class? No. I run three specs-- Guardian, Resto, and Balance-- just so I can capitalize on my utility to the raid. I can tank and emergency heal the raid on my boomie, and I can help control adds on my bear when needed. Losing abilities like owlkin frenzy and tranq (although I understand tranq's reason more, but why not just make it less healing) completely ruins my panzerking abilitie; let alone the full arsenal of my druid utility.

Also, I agree with the multi-travel form arguments; There are places that are flight-friendly that I prefer running around. I would have to see it to notice if the pros outweigh the cons.

Also, why remove hibernate? I used that ability non-stop when dodging any beast mob to get an herb.

[Deleted]

I have just taken another look at the ability pruning changes overall. Is it just me or have Druids been hit the hardest? I know that hybrids generally have been hit the hardest, but meh. Seems to me that any 'hybrid' gameplay that exists today will truly be dead in WoD

[wrathblade]

Atm i feel like feral is losing to many spells that actually had a spot on my bars.

Blizz needs to remember that ferals have 3 action bars to fill.
In bear form i have maul and mangle and lacirate.
but in cat form i get my rake and shred instead.

My definition of bloat is like hunters are atm. the have to spamm to many attacks that all do a tiny bit more dmg.
Not using rake would reduce a ferals dps allot, Yet a hunter can choice not to use an attack because it's only 1% stronger then arcane shot... thats button bloat to me.

Atm i see feral druids not having any attacks left in bearform so it's just a meatbag form now?
In a dunguon like in start of cata we can't even root 1 mellee mob aka where without CC ( you ever tried to make a heroic back then? NEED MAGES! )
I don't mind them removing things like sooth and hurricane but some spells don't add to the bloat!

Sins when does my shaman have to keybind farsight? i like it and it's a fun spell but it's not for combat.
Same goes for druids and all the other classes.

There's a giant difference between having to use 15 spells in combat to do 100% of your potencial dmg or having 7 spells for combat with 3 CD's and 5 rarely used in combat spells.

If always macroed everything onto the 12 buttons i had. by using a shift mod macro.
My Cd's nearly always went on my extra mouse buttons and in total i had like 30 keybinds max!
I always played with macroes and tbh ppl just keybind to bloody much.....
Never would i make a keybind for a spell like hurricane, that doesn't mean ill never use it but it will be on a extra action bar thats auto hidden on the side of my screen.
I know i can click it and use it but a keybind for it? Hell! id forget the keybind every single time.

I don't know why blizzard is taking the bearform attacks away from feral druids. i also don't understand by guardian druids have to lose so much feral attacks.
To me the best thing to do is nerfing the dmg done by guardian druids in cat form.

As for feral it's always a giant dps los when going into bearform ( it's a owshit form for us mostly ) but why remove the attacks if we don't want to stay in the form for longer then needed?
I want to beable to kill something while in bearform, that doesn't mean i want the same dmg as catform! i just want buttons to push instead of waiting on the CD of my 2-3 attacks...

It's the same reason i didn't level my warrior to 90. Having most of my dmg done in a xx sec window because of 1 spell isn't fun for me. seeing ill be waiting on 1 damm CD?
Same reason i loved my rogue in cata but hated the slow pace in mop. ( cata was energy capped while mop was energy starved )

Still it is Alpha and most druids dislike the roots beeing removed so i'm not that concerned.
Tho i HOPE blizzard won't turn my little druid into a bleed specced rogue without much utility.

( hell even rogues could tank bosses using evasion why can't druids in bearform by saccing there dmg? )

[gestapo]

I have just taken another look at the ability pruning changes overall. Is it just me or have Druids been hit the hardest? I know that hybrids generally have been hit the hardest, but meh. Seems to me that any 'hybrid' gameplay that exists today will truly be dead in WoD

I looked at other classes I play. There are fewer losses they have to deal with. Warlocks losing Fel Flame is one (absolutely no reason to).
But druids have been thoroughly gutted - at least from a Feral perspective (I can't comment on balance/resto since i don't play those)

The latest notes pretty much sucked out the 'fun' of the class for me and I'm glad I didn't pre-order. Now I'm just hoping that feedback and testing will revert some of this unneeded pruning.