Thursday, April 19, 2012

Bring the player, Not the Class - Druids

In the interest of this slogan I have been thinking heavily about Blizzard's treatment of druids, and to some extent shamans.

With Shamans in mind, we are the only two healers that lack any kind of protection spell in the sense of 'life-saving' mechanics.

I'm not saying I desperately need these mechanics to be a great player, I actually do very well, however for 10 man heroic raiding it puts me and the shaman in an awkward place compared to priests and paladins. Both the shaman and myself have considered heavily switching to a paladin because necessity requires having those kinds of 'saving' graces in order to proceed.

Short of Tranquility (because honestly Nature's Swiftness + Healing Touch is such a minimal heal it's a joke :( ) we really have no huge "OH %@##" button or burst healing. Tree form is very useful but again the time to turn tree + cast can hinder healing in environments that call for fast, effective healing.

All of this wouldn't bother me if the title slogan didn't seem to be the excuse for giving out abilities to all classes, seemingly leaving druids out of the mix.

What do you all think? What would you add to the druid healing arsenal to amend this?
Shamans are getting their DR CD in 4.1.

Druids haven't gotten one yet, I would imagine they are trying to think of one that is "druidy" while still being functional.
I did not see the changes to shaman, that might relieve a little pressure off our backs to cover our priest/paladin when necessity calls (IE: Chimaeron Feud phases that come back to back) but it still leaves us lacking in that department.

Druids are heavily tied to Nature, the Emerald Dream, Malorne, and Malfurion... surely out of at least those three they could come up with something :)

Perhaps a shield of roots or leaves... granting the fury of nature that somehow allows a tanks natural defense CDs to be usable again. Or just simply allowing our current spells to have different functions, ie:

Thorns: Also cast a thorny shield around the target, absorbing *yada-yada* damage while damaging the target.

Barkskin: Now Castable on a target while in tree form. (or in general).
more homogenization, sweet.

The last idea happens to be pain suppression without the reduction in threat.
I'm basing this on Blizzard's own model. Perhaps in a bit of spite over the fact that almost all classes can do most of a druid's ability and yet we seem to hold nothing unique short of shapeshifting.

I also feel for many fights we lack the abilities necessary to fill any other role short of raid healer.

If they're going to hold true to the mantra of "Bring the player, not the class" and continue to design elements around required burst healing, then they need to bring druids up to speed.

No comments:

Post a Comment