I've got a horrible confession. When I'm in a battleground, like say Arathi Basin for example, and I ride into a fight, like I recently did at the Gold Mine, and see one of my allies throw a shiney bright ball of life and light into the fray, I make the conscious decision right then to remain in caster form. You see, that priest just made a target of herself and there's not a whole lot that will dissuade our opponents from trying to kill her. But one thing that might is a tree wildly waving around her arms full of healthy leafy greens.
So the horrible confession? After the cataclysm, I'm not going to miss tree form. Not one bit. I don't even like tree form. And I'm not just talking about being ugly. I mean it is ugly, but even worse than that is just how conspicuous the form is.
I rarely even use tree form. I stealth into Arenas, and leave stealth when I cast cyclone. I want to cast roots and moonfire and switch to cat forms to create distance. The only time I use tree form is when the opposing team starts to focus fire me and I need the extra armor. You know how they're saying the "new" tree form will be a cool down based ability to generate significant burst healing? That sounds really good for those situations.
Sometimes I feel guilty about deflecting attention to my sister-in-law, Leafpool. I mean, like, I'm not actually trying to get her attacked, but I know I could draw attention off her pretty easily and instead I stay all sneaky and mix up heals with cc.
The new CD on ToL ONLY benefits the PvPers and not the PvEers. I for one do not like to PvP at all, and i don't see my self shifting around to dp DPS or anything of the sort, Thats why we have a boomie and a feral in the raid, so i can heal and they can do the CCing stuffage.
ReplyDeletebut in all honestly, in a PvE situation, the CD will become annoying (think of LK, for dealing with, oh i don't know necrotic Plague, and u need to move but you cant because your snared from ToL, or when He casts Defile and your in form, you wipe the raid because your moving in Slo-mo.
I hate the ToL CD for those reasons. But i can def see how the strict PvPers are happy about that, but the strict PvEers are not.
A 50% snare is a big deal. I certainly understand why the intial reaction is "whoa! wtf?" I just bring it up because I think there's a huge overreaction to it.
ReplyDeleteAnd I should point out that I'm not a strict PvPer. I like PvP, especially healing PvP . . . but I also enjoy PvE immensely. I enjoy PvE healing. I love druid healing. But I have no attachment to the Tree of Life form. I like the associated buffs. I understand some players emotional attachment to the form as iconic. There's nothing wrong with icons. Personally, however, my opinion is that it's ugly.
Classes will be rebalanced against each other with Cataclysm. As long as resto healing is competetive with other classes, and I trust Blizzard to make it so, I won't miss putting on the tree disguise.
I figure in it's final incarnation, it'll be like any other cooldown based ability in PvE. I mean, what if a shaman blows heroism right before the phase change on Putrecide? Sucks right? It always sucks to waste a cooldown. Smart shamans who know the fight won't let that happen, though. So, yeah, there will probably be times when it would suck to use the ToL cooldown. Smart resto druids will learn to not use it at those times.
Not only are we missing the Form (which i happen to love) But the benifits. Resto Druids are now going to be the only Class that can be polymorphed. Granted the whole Concept is OK but why take away the form? Boomkins arent going to lose their Chicken suit, Bears and Kittehs are staying the same, so why us? Yes i can see where they want us to "Shift more" But i mean, Bears Cats & Chickens are all staying the same and i cant see them shifting to heal so why do we need to LOSE a form to be forced to DPS when need may be? Yes Learning to use the Cooldown isnt the issue, the issue is changing something so drastic that it forces us to relearn something. Its like having a level 80 Warrior you just bought off ebay. You need to learn all these things to be good. Granted we have 5 levels to learn it but how many resto druids will be around when cata hits that arent duel speccing dps to level? The 50% snare is the BIGGEST issue out there.
ReplyDeleteOMG theres a fire!!! Wait wait im healing you all im going to die i cant move!
I can just see that happen and honestly its going to suck. You use hero/lust when there is time to dps the crap out of something and be as fast as we can be.....well same for this, Pop ToL to heal as best as we can and whoops a fire spawns.
I see all points of views with everyone i just cant see this being a benifit to the class
Unless we all have a priest in the raid to Life Grip us away from the fire.
Naw, we're not being forced to "relearn" how to use ToL. There was nothing to learn in the first place about the form as it currently exists.
ReplyDeleteAnd you're not being forced to dps. The option is available, and will be a godsend in PvP, but you don't have to take advantage of it any more than any other healing class is forced to dps.
The versatility and, presumably, the healing boost on the cooldown are definitely a benefit to the class. Just for balance sake, some sort of drawback should at least be tested. Whether it remains a 50% snare will depend on how testing goes, I imagine.
Hello,
ReplyDeleteI just want to comment on the comparison that has been made between Bloodlust and the ToL. First of, you have to understand that Bloodlust is an aura. That means, even if it's cast at the wrong moment it's still effective for the remaining time the buff is up.
ToL is a different story. IF we can find a perfect moment in the fight to pop ToL we still need to be almost 100% sure it's synchronous with the stuff happening around us. If this isn't the case, the ToL will be completely wasted cause we are FORCED to shapeshift out of the buff and completely lose it.
So in comparison with Bloodlust, ToL is quite -pardon my language- shit. Where bloodlust will linger after a bad cast and still can be used up to it's maximum effect in a badly chosen situation, our ToL will forever be lost in the remembrance of that epic fight where that shapeless druid just wasted an awesome cooldown cause he was dying of a fire debuff.
I'm sorry but I'm rerolling.
"IF we can find a perfect moment in the fight to pop ToL we still need to be almost 100% sure it's synchronous with the stuff happening around us."
ReplyDeleteYup, yup. And the good raiders will be.