Cataclysm preview thoughts #2 (TLDR: I’m excited overall)
At the risk of starting to sound a bit like a broken record, I’d like to talk about the Cataclysm preview again. Yay! Just for something new and different 
We’ve decided to consolidate hunter pets into one class of hybrid pets, rather than having various pets with different roles. Mechanically, it feels unfair for a hunter to give up his choice of animal because it isn’t in the pet family that he needs; so instead, all pets will have the same basic stats and function. Also, we have decided to allow hunters to only tame wolves, cats, and bears, as our design goals for exotic pet types haven’t worked out over the last few years, and we now realise that all other exotic pet types add nothing to the hunter class except for art. All pet abilities from the former classes will be available in their basic forms, but will be renamed appropriately.
We knew this would be a controversial change, and I’m sorry if taming a purple spotted chazwazza was what drew you to the hunter class.
Ok, so it’s a stretch – I doubt Blizzard would ever do that – but the point is – in the past, Blizzard have opened up MORE options for hunters to tame different looking pets. Some have had new abilities, but many are just the same types of pets with new skins, or the same kind of abilities, but retooled to suit that family of animal. Why? It adds no function or performance – it’s purely art. It’s just to keep hunters happy by introducing some new and different skins. Hunters love their pink tallstriders, or matching their pet according to their race or RP style.
I like the idea of the cooldown, I just don’t like my appearance being put on cooldown with it.
That’s it. It’s really that simple (don’t let the walls of text fool you!)
- LOSE: Polymorph “immunity”. I’m torn about this. On one hand, I don’t care a whit about PvP. But on the other hand, I think it’s a bit unfair that resto will be the only spec that can be polymorphed. Of course, we can shift to cat or bear to get back out, but I can’t help feeling slighted that we will be the only spec vulnerable to poly in the first place. However, it’s only returning to the way it was before tree.
- KEEP: All existing aura effects and bonuses. As above – these will either become innate bonuses, or will be reworked into the tree accordingly. Once upon a time our tree form gave us discounted healing, to the point where popping out of tree and healing for a short period of time would put a real strain on your mana. Blizzard felt this was unfair (see above – we shouldn’t be stuck in a form to be as good as other healers), and made it so that as long as you had the tree talents, you could have the mana discount anytime.
- GAIN: Here’s the exciting part. We didn’t get any new spells, but the ToL “cooldown” has great potential. We don’t know what it will be yet – but I’m hoping that it isn’t just a flat spellpower buff (ie: 500 extra spellpower for 15 seconds), but a raid or tank-saving ability. GC has hinted at Tranquility becoming more like Divine Hymn; I think I would be quite pleased if the ToL “cooldown” gave us access to a Divine Hymn-like ability. Something that has the potential to save the raid.
- I agree that we shouldn’t be “stuck” in tree form, where tree form only just brings us level with other healing classes, rather than setting us apart.
- It will be good to not feel stupid or “bad” if I realise I’ve been healing out of form by accident.
- It will be good to be able to debuff a boss or use CC without wasting GCDs to get back into healing form.
- I know that overall, this will be a buff to my class. This could be the raid-saving cooldown I’ve been hoping for.
- I agree that we shouldn’t waste talent points to pick up a form that is mostly cosmetic.
- I’m excited to see how they make the new tree form look.
- And yes, it will be refreshing to be able to be a caster occasionally.
Possibly Related Posts:
- Super quickie: Cata glyphs observations
- So, what’s going on?
- A little bit of history repeating itself
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I was under the impression that they were making Druids polymorphable just like everyone else in Cataclysm, since all healers will have a defensive magic dispel.
You’ve voiced a lot of my concerns about this.
I LIKE my tree form and having it be gone would make the game feel differently to me. I’ll be seriously sad if there is no way to keep it active at all times.
Here was my idea for the cool down.
For the next 20 seconds Nourish will refresh all of your HOTs on the target. 3 minute cooldown.
It works well with the HOT nature of Trees. When you really need to spam heal the tanks for extra healing (the targets most likely to be loaded with HOTs) you can do just that. You can use it on random raid members as well. Imagine XTs tantrum where you already have rejuv up, then you go back and throw nourish on them to give them a quick heal and refresh the rejuv to max time (or for a more current boss think Blood-Queen Lana’thel and her Bloodbolt Whirls).
It was just an idea I was kicking around. I agree I would really like to see the cooldown do something interesting and different rather then just increase output for a short time.
Where: Dalaran central fountain
When: Every Saturday at 12pm (your server)
Goal: Save the Trees
Objective: All horde and alliance 1-80 players meet at the central fountain at noon for a gathering of the Trees. If you have a druid please spec into TOL to show support for this Symbol of Nature. Mages and Warlocks please assist by making portals in the 3 major cities for your faction to Dalaran and summoning players to the central fountain for this weekly event.
Pass the word for this event so it can gain momentum in the coming weeks before the release of Cataclysm.
Blogs are great, I have really enjoyed you commentary on this change. Your arc of acceptance on this has closely mirrored my own and I think that you have helped the transition for Revolution > Acceptance go a little smoother for the whole community.
As far as the CD goes, I am concerned that they will either come up with a cool ability that is a balance nightmare that puts us on the nerfer-coaster or they will loose their nerve and cheese it with what I have been referring to as “Avenging Grass”.
I am nervous about the fate of preemptive HoT Healing in the era of mana management but other than that I am pretty excited about Cata as well.
for the sake of argument, the introduction of the pet talent trees an expansion or so ago for hunters sounded an awful lot like the pet homogenization fake-quote you put there. They did homogenize pets at some point. They aren’t above going against what players want.
That said, I fully expect to see a minor glyph for tree form’s graphic. Tree form is losing it’s worthiness of being a talent for basically just being a cosmetic graphic, and that fact isn’t going to be changed. However, since GC said they could consider the minor glyph functionality, that’s what people need to be focusing on supporting. Minor glyphs are for cosmetic purposes, like how mages get polymorph graphics.
lissanna´s last blog ..Cata mechanic changes: Further Resto analysis 
I’d like to dispel a very common misconception that’s been going around. Currently, there’s nothing inherently wrong with healing from caster form. The personal difference between tree and caster is ~100-200 spellpower, depending on how much spirit you’re packing. That’s a manageable loss. You only “need” to be in tree form if you are bringing the 6%-healing-received aura, and even then you should endeavor to switch out when it is productive: casting an offensive spell (Moonfire, FF, cyclone, roots), or simply before a Mind Control mechanic so you are susceptible to poly.
Blizzard is fully capable in the 4-6 months before Cataclysm of coming up for a raison d’etre for tree form and preserve the flavor of the class.
If they’re concerned with inability to DPS in form, (which is a retarded reason–where are we going to find the mana to DPS if healing is now a mana-efficiency game instead of a throughput game?) make trees able to cast DPS spells in form. Make tree a truly full-time shift–even moreso than it currently is–and then you can safely balance around all druid healers being in tree form, much like you balance around all druid balance specs to be in moonkin form, all druid tanks are full-time in bear, all druid melee dps are full-time in cat.
Then, quell all the “I hate tree form graphics” people by actually giving us nice updated graphics for the form, complete with some customization/skinning options like cats and bears get, and a graphical menu option to not locally show certain shapeshift forms so that people who want to stare at their character’s armor during fights can do so.
Controversy solved, everyone’s happy. Too bad it won’t happen. It’s too late to save the trees mainly because because Blizzard are insufferably arrogant when it comes to these kind of decisions and at this point will probably push the change through because it’s controversial and has morphed into a point of pride. Killing tree form has probably become a sacred cow of one or several of the designers there, and will probably bruise someone’s ego if it doesn’t come to pass in some form.
Finally, a balanced post… I agree with most of your points. And I thank you for not using the stupid “If I wanted to see my armor, I would’ve rolled a priest” argument. (Only works if the priest suddenly became a HoT healer which, afaik, hasn’t happened yet.)
Jen´s last blog ..In which Jen travels
I’m more concerned with the shifting from caster-to-tree utility loss; it feels like a nerf for those of us who know how to manage forms and a dumbing down for those who call it “clunky.”
There’s no doubt gaining a cooldown will be a buff, but the loss of shifting tools into lesser shifting tools (our DPS is even weaker in Feral forms and Feral forms cannot heal) seems to crush a bit of the utility I enjoyed and loved.
For me, it’s not just a cosmetic form. There is that part of it, and I wouldn’t be so annoyed if our gear didn’t always look like green-brown leftovers from the art department.
I don’t agree we need our Forms to make us “better” than the other healers, and that making us on-par was what the Form was supposed to do, just like how Forms do for Moonkin, Bear, Cat and Shadow Priests. I don’t feel like I’m giving up a lot to switch out as I do it on hardmodes anyway, with no difficulty.
If this goes through as is, I won’t be playing a druid in Cataclysm. Work whatever you want out, but I don’t want to have to shift into treeform on a CD to gain a buff.
Are they going to do that to other druid specs? Are boomkins, bears and cats going to have to perform their roles in base form and then shapeshift into their respective forms to gain a buff? I think not.
As you said, it isn’t just about the abilities or utility, being a tree is my identity.
Vyll
I will be cancelling my subscription if the change goes through without some means of retaining even a cosmetic at-will ToL. It would be so easy to do and not affect any of the other proposed changes at all.
I love my druid and this game, but this is insufferable.
If Blizzard has gotten so arrogant that such a small goodwill gesture isn’t worth considering, then clearly I can find something else to spend my time and money on.
Everyone who opposes the loss of permanent, at-will tree form should print out the “I shapeshift therefore I am” graphic and mail it to Blizzard in a plain, legal-sized envelope along with a request to save the trees.
Great post, Keeva. After the shock of OMG WTF U TAKE MAH TREE FORM??!1?1111, I actually sat down to think about it and came to some of the same conclusions as you.
I like the whole tree on cooldown thing, soley because I imagine it as us hitting a button, and then we’ll turn dark red and glowing and we’ll grow into this huge ridiculous monstrous tree that stomps around and is all like RAAAAAWR!!! I imagine it to be similar to Jafaar at the end of Aladdin when he finally has the power of the lamp and turns into that huge evil genie.
However, if we get to be evil-genie-tree-form Jafaar and save the raid, but we can’t walk around as trees in dal, and whack critters with barky arms, and dance for minutes on end, then, I don’t know. I feel like the trade off won’t be worth it.
Averna´s last blog ..Cataclysm: Druid Preview
@Averna And we’ll be losing the awesome tree form backhanded slap!
This really brightened my spirits about the changes! Thank you! Wonderful analysis from a refreshingly positive point of view- everything I’ve read about druids has been overwhelmingly negative. To be fair, I’ve been negative myself.
I’m still sad about not being able to mitigate damage on targets though.
I disagree with you that we’ll keep the aura. This isn’t based on much, it’s just a feeling I have. I probably feel this way because I feel it opens the way for a fun new ability. I think we should be able to cast a healing increase aura over an area (or just on one target) that increases the healing done to those standing in it (or the target). It would be situational, but fun, if it was in a targeted area. It would be a tank saving cooldown that would work very well with our HoTs if it worked on a single target.
Beautifully written post. I agree with most everything. (I’m still cringing at the PvP implication though of getting chain Cycloned by a resto who weaves HoTs between CCs like candy.)
I just want to keep tree form around for much the same reason as most others. It’s adorable and for the past two expansions it’s been iconic of the resto spec.
Hana´s last blog ..[Paladin] While the Preview’s Not Up
Lissanna: But the problem with a glyph is that I can’t see a way that it can allow you to be a tree at will, unless it creates a toggle in itself. I certainly don’t want to appear as a tree *ALL* the time.
Jen – I can’t say “I would have rolled a priest” – I started my druids back in vanilla when there was no tree form. Being indignant and saying I’d rather have rolled a priest would make me look a bit loopy
Sorry in advance for the wall of text Keeva; lovely post though it gave me some things to think about:
Honestly, for Cataclysm I was hoping to see news of updated Tree and Moonkin forms. It was quite disheartening to see that trees were getting axed (no pun intended).
I picked a Druid as my first healing toon because it was so different from the other healing classes. Tree form is part of that. The animations are awesome, who doesn’t get a chuckle out of the tree form dance or tree slapping mobs around?
One thing that boggles me is their concern about restos not being able to dps in form. What healer expects to be dpsing in a healing spec? As others have said here and on other blogs: if they need my lolresto dps there is likely a bigger issue.
I don’t mind loosing the polymorph immunity, given the way that they are redoing the dispel mechanics. In PvPland it wouldn’t be very fair to have one healer type immune to polymorph and able to dispel it off others; in PvE on the other hand it would be quite handy to still be immune.
I enjoy my bark and roots, its just part of who Whisteria is to me. While the idea of a cooldown is kind of neat, I don’t like the idea of loosing my beloved form. I hope that they put that minor glyph in with a toggle or something. That way I can still be the tree I want to be and be a “competitive” healer by Blizzard’s standards.
The developers should have waited until they had decided what the cooldown was going to be before announcing it rather than just going: “Oh, by the way we’re axing tree form, but we’re going to give you a cooldown in its place instead.”
On a final thought: I’d like some less tacky looking druid tier. If your going to make me look at it at least make it pretty. =)
Well thought out posts, and comments too. Your analysis of the “identity issue” is spot-on and highlights exactly what Blizzard hasn’t addressed. This is not in any way a gameplay question; it’s all about what it means to be a healing druid. For example, there’s no reason they couldn’t give us a big cooldown even with tree form; certainly they just announced that for paladins.
I’m still not as accepting as you on the loss of a functional tree form. For me, being a druid is a matter of choosing your form. With this design, choosing Resto means “sorry, you don’t get to be a form. You look like everyone else.” It takes away the defining feature of being a druid.
I’m still not a happy camper about this. Despite the overtones of QQ, it does make me feel like I should respec or play alts. Discouraging healers is perhaps not a goal that Bliz should pursue.
Overall, I do like the goals they’re pursuing with the healing design. In terms of gameplay I am OK with not gaining any new spells, as we do have quite an arsenal already. However, there’s a part of me that looks at Healing Rain or the new Paladin cooldown and thinks “isn’t there something they could give us?” Very low on teh sexxxy for druids — especially when our cooldown will just highlight our big loss.
I love healing, and I love the healing direction for Cata. But overall, I’m rather depressed about the direction for my druid, and that’s disconcerting.
@Bellwether I didn’t think of that! Now I’m upset again.
Typical Blizzard, they want us to have more “offensive utility” so they force us out of Tree Form to cast disgusting balance abilities instead of buffing the tree punch.
They’re always killing off unique play styles. What about all of the Tree-DPS specs? It seems they’re going the way of Blood DK DPS, melee locks (the old firestone proc’ed extra fire damage upon melee), melee boomkin, etc.
I’ll miss my tree.
[...] not the only one thinking about it either. As I was thinking about this topic Keeva, Beru and a veritable forest of trees have been writing on the same [...]
Keeva, I didn’t mean to imply you said “go roll a priest”, but this is the argument I’ve seen thrown around and it’s absolutely ridiculous.
Jen´s last blog ..In which Jen travels
I know
Just saying – it would be dumb for me to threaten to quit in favour of a humanoid healer, since I started out without tree form in the first place. How far I’ve come since then!
Still seems like tree form was a target to me. Moonkin form is/was for a long time nothing but passive bonuses and I see nothing being done there. The only time moonkin form is not passive is for owlkin frenzy, a talent that was not added until Wrath. So I ask again does Blizz plan on taking out Moonkin form with the same argument? If they want to use that arguement then why aren’t they taking out Moonkin as well?
Moonkin can’t cast anything that isn’t already available in caster form. I haven’t asked much, but not one has been able to explain that to me. Also worth noting that Moonkin are balanced around having that increase in spell power by shifting into their form, as well as their 5% crit buff to the raid.
I know for sure that I give up healing as a druid when tree is gone. I went this way because I wanted to run around in tree-form. If it is gone, that spec is gone for me too. I’d rather go back to tanking than healing then. Good thing about druid is you can do many different things.
I go heal with my shaman, who looks almost the same as my druid will look then… sad but true, the flavor is gone and I’m really sad about this.
I waited for something that would make me buy the next expansion, but all I read makes me want to just leave it alone before they take away more and more and more until we all look the same — they know they just have to sugar coat it with a new buff and that people will swallow it…
I guess I will be taking a lot of screenshots and make some ingame movie of my tree, so that I can remember how cool it looked to /bow in it or /wave in it. Or well, the dance of course.
*twisting off*
Why do I imagine the new ToL as the Restodruid version of the warlock’s Metamorphosis? Temporarily increases armor for a short period, increase healing by 20%, and while in this form you are immune to polymorph, lasts 30sec, etc.