Do melee affinities turn Resto into a melee spec?

[Weissrolf]

If I take Guardian or Feral Affinity for my Resto druid, will that turn me into a melee class as far as game/raid mechanics are concerned?

[theburned]

If I take Guardian or Feral Affinity for my Resto druid, will that turn me into a melee class as far as game/raid mechanics are concerned?

Sadly no, so youll be fucking over everyone, but look on the bright side, melee healer dps is a lot higher than ranged healer dps.

[Sprucelee]

Makes dungeons especially fun, make sure you learn all the abilities and when not to be in so you don't screw them over as you go for leet healer deeps

[Gemini Soul]

If I take Guardian or Feral Affinity for my Resto druid, will that turn me into a melee class as far as game/raid mechanics are concerned?

If you step into said role, melee dps by being in melee range or tank by taunting you will be susceptible to any mechanics that effect them like an AoE that hits melee cause your in melee range or a massive hit/debuff from a boss that hits the tank if you have aggro.

[Weissrolf]

@Gemini: The question was rather the other way around. Will range effects target me when I am in a melee role?! If so then I am sure no raid would want Resto druids anywhere near the other melees just for the small dps addition. This in turn makes melee affinities useless in many raid situations.

[Gemini Soul]

@Gemini: The question was rather the other way around. Will range effects target me when I am in a melee role?! If so then I am sure no raid would want Resto druids anywhere near the other melees just for the small dps addition. This in turn makes melee affinities useless in many raid situations.

No, range effects only target people who are at range and if your in melee range then you wont get it. Now if there is any healer specific effects like an anti healing debuff the boss puts out on healers only, i doubt you could cheese it by being in kitty and melee when the boss is about to cast it.

[Sprucelee]

Gemni, that is not correct.

In raid and dungeon encounters there are often specific mechanics that only effect ranged, as a role, it does not matter where you are actually standing. If you are classified as range, which includes ranged casters, hunters, and healers (minus Monks, and now Paladins it seems), you will be targeted by those mechanics no matter where you are.

There are also mechanics that only target melee, but those are more rare, and the opposite would be true. The tank ones are more obvious, but it is the same role based system.

It would be up to you to understand which mechanics can target your role, and to not cause problems for other roles/stacks, or vice versa.

- - - Updated - - -

To add, yes, occasionally there are mechanics that are based on range as a distance (and not a role), but that usually it is "the farthest person", or a variant of that. And often in those situations there will also have a mechanics such as "if no target is available, the raid will receive X metric ton of damage", this is often the same with tank mechanics.

If you are not following still, just ask yourself: If it was that simple.. why wouldn't the whole raid just stack in melee all time to avoid all ranged mechanics? This is standard raiding 101 stuff.

[Fiftyonred]

Gemni, that is not correct.

In raid encounters there are often specific mechanics that only effect ranged, as a role, it does not matter where you are actually standing. If you are classified as range, which includes ranged casters, hunters, and healers (minus Monks, and now Paladins it seems), you will be targeted by those mechanics no matter where you are.

There are also mechanics that only target melee, but those are more rare, and the opposite would be true.

It would be up to you to understand which mechanics can target your role, and to not cause problems for your roles/stacks, or vice versa.

- - - Updated - - -

To add, yes, occasionally there are mechanics that are based on range as a distance (and not a role), but that usually it is "the farthest person", or a variant of that. And often in those situations there will also have a mechanic such as "if no target is available, the raid will receive X metric ton of damage", this is often the same with tank mechanics.

If you really not following still, just ask yourself, if it was that simple.. why wouldn't the whole raid just stack in melee all time to avoid all ranged mechanics. This is standard raiding 101 stuff.

Standard raiding 101? Can you then please be so kind as to mention a number of examples of this? And i guess you have a large number of examples you can whip out, since it is soooo standard.

[Gemini Soul]

Gemni, that is not correct.

In raid and dungeon encounters there are often specific mechanics that only effect ranged, as a role, it does not matter where you are actually standing. If you are classified as range, which includes ranged casters, hunters, and healers (minus Monks, and now Paladins it seems), you will be targeted by those mechanics no matter where you are.

There are also mechanics that only target melee, but those are more rare, and the opposite would be true. The tank ones are more obvious, but it is the same role based system.

It would be up to you to understand which mechanics can target your role, and to not cause problems for other roles/stacks, or vice versa.

- - - Updated - - -

To add, yes, occasionally there are mechanics that are based on range as a distance (and not a role), but that usually it is "the farthest person", or a variant of that. And often in those situations there will also have a mechanics such as "if no target is available, the raid will receive X metric ton of damage", this is often the same with tank mechanics.

If you are not following still, just ask yourself: If it was that simple.. why wouldn't the whole raid just stack in melee all time to avoid all ranged mechanics? This is standard raiding 101 stuff.

Range is not a ROLE, there are only 3 roles Tank Healer and DPS. You don't all stack up in melee because bosses do things that are bad when players are grouped up. So you spread and some boss effects favor targets who are at range aka who are not in melee range of the boss instead of those in melee range of the boss, because if a melee person is out of melee range they too can get hit by these same effects. From a pure design point, its a HELL ALOT EASIER to say Spell X:favors targets who are Y yards away instead of Spell X:favors Balance druids, MM Hunters, BM Hunters, Warlocks, Mages, etc, heck they would now have to go back and EDIT ALL of those so called spells remove Survival hunter from them and add Survival Hunter and Havoc DH to the "melee" spells. If

Standard raiding 101? Can you then please be so kind as to mention a number of examples of this? And i guess you have a large number of examples you can whip out, since it is soooo standard.

I second this, its up to you @Sprucelee to provide proof off this

[Sprucelee]

Really? LOL... this is kind of sad to see... I guess it does not matter in LFR (though even something simple as a dungeon ability like Lens Flare and Windwall [Ranjit] in Skyreach would have been obvious by now? Being a single range in far too many CM carries made that one annoying!)

My favorite example in WoD was Retched Blackrock on Oregorger, it was literally a game of the ranged moving down a hallway and using the space to not get near melee, which resulted in them getting put in a pool, or more likely the range getting hit by Explosive Shard.. which was a melee only mechanic. There you go, both examples in one fight

Anyway, go talk to a Mistweaver about how much fun it was to test which mechanics they forgot to exclude them from early on. Blizzard is pretty good about that now though.

[Elestia]

The affinities are more about the passive they give you. If it's a damage heavy fight, guardian affinity is the best choice. If you need to move quickly, kitty affinity is best.

Most of the time though, if you want to deal damage on fights with a lot of burst healing, and you don't need feral or guardian affinity, you'll just take balance to dps at range.

[Tiberria]

No, Feral Affinity does not give you immunity from mechanics that do not target melee in the same way that every melee DPS spec has and the same way that Holy Paladins and Mistweaver Monks have that protection. Yes, there will still be mechanics in Legion that target ranged specs only and that do not target tank/melee DPS specs (and HPally/MW). They are apparently aiming for there to be less of them, and there will still be some things that melee have to run out for. However, there will be specific mechanics that prevent ranged specs from being in melee without risking creating a shit show (think stuff like Shadowfel Burst). The problem with Feral and Guardian Affinities are that you are not going to be able to use the active part of those affinities to contribute off spec DPS on any fights or phases of fights where ranged specs can not be in melee, which is going to make the active portion entirely useless on a number of fights.

If you want to contribute off spec DPS during portions of the fight and can not be in melee range, you are forced to take Balance Affinity. Resto Druid DPS is only on par with the DPS of other healers while using Feral or Guardian affinity. It's significantly lower than the DPS contribution of every other healer if you try just casting Moonfire, Sunfire, and Wrath.

If offspec DPS doesn't matter for that fight, you can just take whatever affinity you want for the passive. I think the Balance passive is pretty weak/situational and of little use on most fights if you can pay proper attention to positioning. Both the Guardian and Feral passives can be really nice . If you don't need the 10% damage reduction to survive effectively, the extra movement speed is a really decent perk.

[Weissrolf]

Seems to me that the main use of the affinities is the passives and the off-healing abilities for Feral and Balances specs (especially solo). I read that even Guardian does more damage on his own compared to using affinity DPS abilities.

[Adramelch]

Range is not a ROLE, there are only 3 roles Tank Healer and DPS. You don't all stack up in melee because bosses do things that are bad when players are grouped up. So you spread and some boss effects favor targets who are at range aka who are not in melee range of the boss instead of those in melee range of the boss, because if a melee person is out of melee range they too can get hit by these same effects. From a pure design point, its a HELL ALOT EASIER to say Spell X:favors targets who are Y yards away instead of Spell X:favors Balance druids, MM Hunters, BM Hunters, Warlocks, Mages, etc, heck they would now have to go back and EDIT ALL of those so called spells remove Survival hunter from them and add Survival Hunter and Havoc DH to the "melee" spells.

That's just flat out wrong and any raider worth his salt knows that.

[Shiftyfish]

Standard raiding 101? Can you then please be so kind as to mention a number of examples of this? And i guess you have a large number of examples you can whip out, since it is soooo standard.

first example of this that springs to my mind (mostly because I was spiteful of our mistweaver for it at the time) was a boss like Iron Qon in throne of thunder would not choose to throw his spear at mistweavers because of fistweaving the AI considered them melee (while Ranged/melee may not be roles you can choose in some interface the game DOES distinguish between the two in it's logic)


there are sure to be other more recent examples but I haven't raided with mistweaver in some time and I also believe they no longer recieve that exemption due to fistweaving being gone.

while I don't want to sound condescending I also believed this function of the game detecting whether or not your are melee or ranged via spec was common knowledge as well so /shrug

-edit-

after thinking a bit on this I do believe Socrethar in HFC had a similar ability. I'm fairly sure the debuff he would place on players in p2 that would cause them to pulse aoe damage and have to step away from the raid was flagged as a "ranged only" thing. as it would target a resto druid even if standing in melee but would not target say a fury warrior because for them to have to step away and not blow up the raid would mean they just stand there and not DPS for an extended period of time.

[Deleted]

Range is not a ROLE, there are only 3 roles Tank Healer and DPS. You don't all stack up in melee because bosses do things that are bad when players are grouped up. So you spread and some boss effects favor targets who are at range aka who are not in melee range of the boss instead of those in melee range of the boss, because if a melee person is out of melee range they too can get hit by these same effects. From a pure design point, its a HELL ALOT EASIER to say Spell X:favors targets who are Y yards away instead of Spell X:favors Balance druids, MM Hunters, BM Hunters, Warlocks, Mages, etc, heck they would now have to go back and EDIT ALL of those so called spells remove Survival hunter from them and add Survival Hunter and Havoc DH to the "melee" spells. If




I second this, its up to you @Sprucelee to provide proof off this

You are wrong, melee specs/holy paladin/mistweaver can't be targeted by felseeker even if they are 100y away from the boss, that's because they are counted as melee. And there are a ton of other examples for other expansion as well, like the knockup in the Malkorok fight.

[Nitros14]

Standard raiding 101? Can you then please be so kind as to mention a number of examples of this? And i guess you have a large number of examples you can whip out, since it is soooo standard.

Hellfire Citadel

Archimonde - Shadowfel Burst, Dark Conduit
Mannoroth - Felseeker
Xhul'horac - Voidfiend spawns
Tyrant Velhari - Edict of Condemnation
Fel Lord Zakuun - Befoul
Socrethar - Gift of the Manar'ri
Iskar - Fel Incineration Beam
Kilrogg - Heartseeker
Hellfire High Council - Fel Blade
Iron Reaver - Unstable Orb, Blitz

Wiped a few times on mythic Mannoroth because some joker healer/ranged didn't move out when fel seeker was coming.

You're very wrong about this, but if you want to be wrong that's your business.

Hey I found proof, here's Fel Seeker right on the boss with lots of people at range. https://youtu.be/Ky0GHS-8Yr4?t=1m52s

Before ranged roles existed back in Burning Crusade and WOTLK? it used to be for a lot of mechanics you needed X players outside of melee. Illidan for example wouldn't cast Agonizing Flames on people in melee if you had at least 5 players at range.

And in Vanilla they just targeted melee anyway and yelled owned like Frost Blast from Kel'Thuzad in Naxxramas 60.

On topic: You're still counted as ranged healer whatever your talent choices. Only mistweaver monks are flagged as melee.

[Selerian]

Highly opinionated ppl with over 2k posts, offering their "expertise" left and right while ignoring basic raiding concepts and mechanics... /facepalm

[theburned]

Hellfire Citadel

Archimonde - Shadowfel Burst, Dark Conduit
Mannoroth - Felseeker
Xhul'horac - Voidfiend spawns
Tyrant Velhari - Edict of Condemnation
Fel Lord Zakuun - Befoul
Socrethar - Gift of the Manar'ri
Iskar - Fel Incineration Beam
Kilrogg - Heartseeker
Hellfire High Council - Fel Blade
Iron Reaver - Unstable Orb, Blitz

Wiped a few times on mythic Mannoroth because some joker healer/ranged didn't move out when fel seeker was coming.

You're very wrong about this, but if you want to be wrong that's your business.

Hey I found proof, here's Fel Seeker right on the boss with lots of people at range. https://youtu.be/Ky0GHS-8Yr4?t=1m52s

Before ranged roles existed back in Burning Crusade and WOTLK? it used to be for a lot of mechanics you needed X players outside of melee. Illidan for example wouldn't cast Agonizing Flames on people in melee if you had at least 5 players at range.

And in Vanilla they just targeted melee anyway and yelled owned like Frost Blast from Kel'Thuzad in Naxxramas 60.

On topic: You're still counted as ranged healer whatever your talent choices. Only mistweaver monks are flagged as melee.

There are a few mistakes in this statement overall its mostly true, holy paladins are flagged as melee.

While I have nothing to confirm or deny it, most mechanics on xhul seems ranged based, rather than targetting ranged specifically, and I am pretty sure the voidspawns are one of them.

Addtionally on mannoroth the wrath of guldan target 1 healer, 2 melee and 2 ranged.

On topic:
Doing dps as a resto druid with feral affinity in legion dungeons, there are several mechanics which targets you even if in melee.
Notable ones being first boss in HoV, BRH, DHT. Then you also have 2nd boss in NL, cats during trash in DHT. Quite sure there are a lot more that I have just forgotten though.
There are also mechanics which targets based on ranged, blade rush in Court of stars being one of the most important ones.
@Gemini_soul
You don't even know how they coded it, there is a big chance they have just put every spec into 2 groups of: ranged/melee and tank/healer/dps, and have mechanics hit targets within whichever groups they want it to hit, even though it would be inefficient, if it was the only way to have mechanics target specific speccs I am sure they would do it.

[Adramelch]

While I have nothing to confirm or deny it, most mechanics on xhul seems ranged based, rather than targetting ranged specifically, and I am pretty sure the voidspawns are one of them.

Pretty sure the voidfiends are spawning on ranged/healers and are not range-based. Black hole spawns on ranged players of the top of my mind.