World of Warcraft: Dragonflight - Druid Talents and Abilities Preview

[Cosmic Janitor]

Then they can say well people are never happy...

To be fair, only the moronic fanboys keep saying that. Many others have long realized that Blizzard is constantly pulling monkey-paw shit on us, because when we ask for one thing we always get something vaguely resembling it, but utterly broken and backwards that we didn't ask for at all.

[Glorious Leader]

To be fair, only the moronic fanboys keep saying that. Many others have long realized that Blizzard is constantly pulling monkey-paw shit on us, because when we ask for one thing we always get something vaguely resembling it, but utterly broken and backwards that we didn't ask for at all.

Its beyond even that. Getting new abilities has basically been a given literally every expansion even if it was just because they added more talents or borrowed powers or whatever. The budget for this game has been drastically cut and this is just more evidence of that. Same for them stretching out the dungeon releases like wtf... looking more and more like a hard pass especially for 50 bucks.

[Myradin]

So basically the same system we have now but with the illusion of some choice between the nodes.

Let's watch all the idiots lap this up.

Thats what people have been saying for years. But no, apparently we have to go back to this because someone might make a meme spec that gets nerfed shortly after.

[Kellorion]

jesus christ the blue post took 8 years to scroll through
what a nightmare shit design

[OokOok]

To the idiots and blizzard sheep who are excited about this, let me explain to you exactly how this is going to go down...

Blizzard will tell you how innovative and unique this new talent system is, they'll tell you that the possibilities are endless and that there's a build for EVERYONE! anyone can make their own unique build and still be viable in all content.

The expansion will be released.....several of the theory crafting players and endgame players will have designed builds that are really good. These builds will be so good that once again...players will all use this one specific build because it's the best....
Now... this'll piss off blizzard because it ruins their whole "Innovative unique talent system with multiple builds" because now players are doing what they have ALWAYS done..and are all using the exact same talent build.

SO! Blizzard will start to nerf these builds everyone is using in order to make people space out and start being unique. But someone will make a new OP build and everyone will start using that instead.... Blizzard will nerf that too. We'll get to a point where the new talent system is just like the original talent systen...the last talent system...the legion weapon system...the BFA system... all systems before it, where one build is better than the rest and everyone uses it...

Blizzard will refuse to admit their talent system is shit and they have no idea after 20 years how to work it and instead will blame players for being bland and sheep and wanting to follow the 1% instead of creating their own unique builds...

[Nyel]

This looks AWESOME

We basically have exactly this already just in a different layout.

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Thats what people have been saying for years. But no, apparently we have to go back to this because someone might make a meme spec that gets nerfed shortly after.

It would have made sense as the underlying horizontal character progression next to a new vertical progression system. This "new" talent tree serves really no purpose at all as it's neither new nor improving what we have now.

[Firann]

Row 7

Primal Fury: When you critically strike with an attack that generates a combo point, you gain an additional combo point. Damage over time cannot trigger this effect.

This is too specific to feral. It should not be in the main druid tree. The main druid tree should not "buff" spec speficic abilities. The main druid tree basicly says if you are feral go left. If you are balance go right. If you are bear you have somewhat two paths.

I also do not like how balance druids turned out. I wish they were reverted to more nature damange dealers (monsoon, hurricane etc.). The current itteration of balance druids feels more like an Astromancer rather than one that is in balance with nature.

[Dorfadin]

no mana regen for resto druids, looks like its the final nail in the coffin for me, played resto since TBC, some good expansion, mostly bad, but i have always been the main resto druid in our guilds raid, sick of having to use double mana pot per fight this expansion, meanwhile shammies monks priests and holy pala end the fight with 70%+ and not using any pots, me been oom for the last minute of the fight is no longer fun, this needs fixing.

[Wangming]

jesus christ the blue post took 8 years to scroll through
what a nightmare shit design

Yeah long ass walls of text aren't the best way to convey useful information. And it is not rocket science to figure out what to do instead. FFXIV, GW2 and even TESO is doing it. Hint: It begins with V and ends with ideo.

[Cosmic Janitor]

Yeah long ass walls of text aren't the best way to convey useful information. And it is not rocket science to figure out what to do instead. FFXIV, GW2 and even TESO is doing it. Hint: It begins with V and ends with ideo.

A video? Nah, that is just a major fucking pain in the ass to look stuff up. The best form here is hands down just the calculator, as it gives you all the information you need and is way more hands on on top of it.

[Sularis92]

I dont get it, so in the Druid talents as a guardian druid to get the typhoon spell i have to spend points on a bunch of useless caster stuff just to reach typhoon?

Whats the point of making a "Druid" talent tree if you are going to hide talents behind a pile of very nice specialized talents that are useful to only a fraction of specs...

Typhoon is already locked in to Balance Affinity anyway, unless you are a balance druid. Nothing is changing, you have to pick the same caster talents in Dragonflight that you pick now in order to get it, its just not *one* talent anymore.

[shise]

People really have to stop reading into the talents.

They have been built as an EXAMPLE, it doesn´t mean that the builds will look like that, they simply wanted to give people a bit of a preview, and possibly collect feedback.. but not on the darn example but the general picture.

[Nyel]

People really have to stop reading into the talents.

They have been built as an EXAMPLE, it doesn´t mean that the builds will look like that, they simply wanted to give people a bit of a preview, and possibly collect feedback.. but not on the darn example but the general picture.

Uhm what? What you see now will mostly be what we get at 10.0 launch. These are previews of the mostly final talent trees and not "examples". Sure they'll tweak numbers and maybe shuffle around talents, but that's it.

[bloodmoth13]

People that never played with the original talent system or who have a romanticised view of it pretend like it gave you lots of choice and originality when in reality 90% were the same net build and most of the choices are just filler.

The game moved away from this for a reason.

In all fairness this IS a better system no matter how you look at it.
I believe the class tree is almost all utility, whatever isnt utility and affects performance will be mandatory.

The spec tree i doubt will be anything more than your mandatory skills and everyone will play the same cookie cutter builds but if they keep utility separate and allow us to choose what utility we bring that will be imo ideal (hell sometimes i dont even want specific skills that my spec will be balanced around because i dont like using them so getting some choice will be really cool).

My personal ideal system is VERY close to this. Id like to see 'school' instead of 'class', and make 'schools' work across armor classes that will allow a quick and easy way for certain specs to be added to the game like dark ranger, shadow hunter and other archer specs getting tacked onto existing 'classes'

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Row 7

Primal Fury: When you critically strike with an attack that generates a combo point, you gain an additional combo point. Damage over time cannot trigger this effect.

This is too specific to feral. It should not be in the main druid tree. The main druid tree should not "buff" spec speficic abilities. The main druid tree basicly says if you are feral go left. If you are balance go right. If you are bear you have somewhat two paths.

I also do not like how balance druids turned out. I wish they were reverted to more nature damange dealers (monsoon, hurricane etc.). The current itteration of balance druids feels more like an Astromancer rather than one that is in balance with nature.

That really needs to be addressed imo, main tree should be solely utility with nothing affecting performance otherwise you will be 'forced' into a playstyle and it removes the interesting parts of the system.

agree on balance druids too, they are basically priests in the sense of 'priestess of the moon' stuff. its all sparkly astral cosmic shit instead of roots vines and plant based stuff. We have enough cosmic shit, we have no 'naturemancer' specs. Id like to see some more plant stuff in the animations where flowers bloom in the sun cycle and mushrooms appear during lunar cycle or something.

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People that never played with the original talent system or who have a romanticised view of it pretend like it gave you lots of choice and originality when in reality 90% were the same net build and most of the choices are just filler.

The game moved away from this for a reason.

I hated the old system but this actually fixes many of the main design flaws with that system and i dont think you are being fair about it.

The old system in vanilla dictated every new ability you got for your spec and were shared by all specs, blizz then was forced to design trees in a way where spec critical skills were inaccessible by other specs, meaning you werent playing your spec till level 40. This is fixed immediately by splitting the trees and giving you spec specific spells off the bat. That was fixed in cata admittedly by doing the same thing but that came with other issues, which were basically that your talent tree gave you specific skills off the bat but you were contesting utility and throughput, which in almost every situation was a no brainer, so you had dps spec or pvp spec.

That was fixed in MoP when they made similar skills compete on an exclusive tier so that you could get impactful skills but they were exclusive with others.

This system actually combines the best of all systems (progression was one fun part of the original one, to give it some credit and leveling felt empty afterwards)
The class tree can be completely utility based which is fantastic (provided they frikkin do it right and dont muck it up) while the spec tree focuses entirely on throughput.

It has a lot of potential to be the best system so long as they dont fall into design pitfalls.

[shise]

Uhm what? What you see now will mostly be what we get at 10.0 launch. These are previews of the mostly final talent trees and not "examples". Sure they'll tweak numbers and maybe shuffle around talents, but that's it.

We don´t even have a beta yet, this might be an internal Alpha.

So yes, there´s a big chance of big changes on that.

[Nyel]

We don´t even have a beta yet, this might be an internal Alpha.

So yes, there´s a big chance of big changes on that.

No, there's really not. I mean what could / would even change? 99% of the stuff seen there already exists or existed before - easy route for Blizzard. It's not like they will replace this with brand new stuff and this is just a "preview" and not - for most parts - the final outcome.

I bet it will be almost exactly the same with Dragonflight launch. Quote me on that in 8-10 months.

[shise]

No, there's really not. I mean what could / would even change? 99% of the stuff seen there already exists or existed before - easy route for Blizzard. It's not like they will replace this with brand new stuff and this is just a "preview" and not - for most parts - the final outcome.

I bet it will be almost exactly the same with Dragonflight launch. Quote me on that in 8-10 months.

Obviously the spells are not going to change...

But the way the talents are distributed, requirements in points to unlock further ones down the tree... move some up or down, sideways... that all can make huge differences.

Yes, a LOT can change. And some people are focusing so hard on that as actual live builds... it´s beyond stupid. The whole goal is to show us how the new talents will look like and they actually bothered placing some "real" examples.

[ellieg]

We don´t even have a beta yet, this might be an internal Alpha.

So yes, there´s a big chance of big changes on that.

Its the same thing literally every xpac.

Original alpha gets released. Players give feedback on why certain things are bad. Other players say "hey man, its just alpha, it'll change." Then beta gets released with no changes. "This still needs changed" . Other players "its just beta, it'll get changed" . Then the game get released without changes and everyone goes "wow, this is bad, if only someone could have seen this coming." Then at end of the xpac they release a statement "we've listened to your feedback and have learned from our mistakes, we are changing this". Certain players respond "see they do listen ". Then repeat for the next xpac

[Nyel]

Obviously the spells are not going to change...

But the way the talents are distributed, requirements in points to unlock further ones down the tree... move some up or down, sideways... that all can make huge differences.

Yes, a LOT can change. And some people are focusing so hard on that as actual live builds... it´s beyond stupid. The whole goal is to show us how the new talents will look like and they actually bothered placing some "real" examples.

I even said these things might change, but all of that are tiny tiny tiny changes and nothing big or huge. Shifting talents around has very low impact on the system due to how the system is implemented.

[Wangming]

A video? Nah, that is just a major fucking pain in the ass to look stuff up. The best form here is hands down just the calculator, as it gives you all the information you need and is way more hands on on top of it.

That's a separate issue. Informing players about changing systems and giving them tools to come up with optimal builds are two different things.