Druid Changes.

[Janie]

Fired the game up again last week as I was ill off work, was nice to see the Druid had some work done on it, I stayed as a healing druid but with Hurricane becoming a buyable skill and Insect Plague a new talent tree skill in the resto tree it made the healing druid more fun with these 2 new options.
From the number of 'Wildkin' (is that right?) Druids I guess the balance tree is much better.

PS I also hit 60

 

[Vicslav]

My level 59 Druid is nearly all balance but i rarely use Moonkin form , i still find it more fun to hit a mob with starfire ,moonfire,wrath [ for which i get full value being specd in balance] and then finish them off in dire bear .

This is just solo PvE though so i imagine i will find things different when i hit 60 and group more ,

I found that in Moonkin form i was using far more mana and had more downtime but its maybe that my gear is all wrong .

 

[McHoff H. McChrist]

Moonkin doesn't seem that popular amoungst druids (never seen one use it in an actual fight ), though I wouldn't mind that funky aura. \o/

 

[Janie]

Most of the runs at the end instances I did always seemed to have a Moonkin (not wildkin ) Druid if there was another druid aside from me, when someone in the group posted the damage they always seemed to be doing ok as well, generally up with the mages/rogues/hunters. With my new spells I can easily out damage a Healing priest and even the odd warrior tank My best was 7th place in a 10 person 'Baron Run' and I was still neck and neck with the priest in healing
Hurricane is a great damage spell if all the agro is locked down well, and Insect Plague while not doing much damage is nearly mana free (less than 200) and it's a instant cast, throw in the odd Moonfire and melee and you can still have plenty of mana left for healing (and inovate is always there if things go really bad!).
I like the changes.

 

[Zeus]

druids in my guild quite like the changes, but still are annoyed that druids are a fundamentally flawed class (allegedly.).
me, i just laugh when they say this, and point at soulshards, end game pets, and how useless 50% of all our talents are. but thats not the point

moonkin arnt bad. helpful to put in a group of casters for boss fights. but of course, 3% isnt actually all that much. i'm on about 15% normally, 18% isnt a vast amount better. it increases my overall dps by 3%. obviously, every little helps... i just feel that there are other hings druids can do that help more.
the reason theres so many about at the moment, is because theyre still new. (what is it? 2 weeks theyve been out?)

 

[Janie]

I still don't understand why there are a couple of Feral talents in the Restoration Tree. When I hit 60 I had 41 points spent in Resto and 10 in Balance, which meant i have every healing improvement talent available and over 200 + to healing on my equipment - can't seem to get a 7th piece of the Wildheart to drop though, which i'm told is the +healing bonus :/

 

[Zeus]

erm, if you really want healing bonuses, go for items from Dire Maul (west drops nice ones in my experience). much nicer than wildheart. the tier 0 sets are only there to look cool tbh. (and yes, i do have full dreadmist. its crap, but its looks soooo sweet )

 

[Janie]

I only went to Dire Maul once, it lived upto it's name

 

[Zeus]

asin dire, or you got mauled?
i love the place. but then warlocks are quite suited to it. east = demons = cool. west = elementals = cool. north, not so great, but can seduce and stuff.
i also have done a lot of DM west for dreadsteed quests.
just remember, DM is meant to be harder than UBRS, so you dont want to be turning up unprepared for that

 

[Janie]

I only went in one of them, not sure which one, killing lots of tree monsters sort of in a square courtyard, then we caught up with a talking imp who I think we were supposed to follow, but someone had a quest they needed to do - killing boss water elemental (i think) which we did then that person quit, and we left. I didn't like it at all, took ages to get to as well. Maybe it needed another chance, but after starting raiding with 10 and 15 people, going back to just 5 is dull
Although on saying that I had one visit to Zul'Gerub (spelling?) and detested that completely.

 

[Zeus]

i actually prefer 5-manning.
makes you actually feel like you're doing something important. in a 15man raid, all i have to do is press tab and 1 (shadowbolt spam ftw ). in 5man, i'm probably there instead of a mage, so i have to be on crowd control (with succubus or banish or enslave), aoeing, nuking, and actually doing these things *well*, because i dont have 14 other people to make up for me not trying.
give a 5man UBRS a try - thats always a laugh

oh yes, you were in DM east - the easiest of the DM instances. the imp quest is to get the key to the rest of DM.
ZG is... interesting. its a good instance, i like it. but its a major step up from places like UBRS, with a lot more coordination and planning required. highly scripted boss fights and stuff too. that said, it can be very annoying because its so easy to wipe there

 

[Janie]

I find the druid more challenging in with more people, it's more people to heal you aren't the only healer so you have to make sure your not both healing the same person, the combat res comes more into play (if another healer goes down) the inovate can be used on your or you can use it on another healer, and when things are going easy you can join in the combat more without someone screaming 'don't fight' at you. But yes I can see how a non healer would prefer the 5 person team as you never have to worry about whats going on in the other teams when your a 10-15-20 person party anyway.

 

[McHoff H. McChrist]

Janie - you have groups with more than one druid in at a time? :O


I much prefer small-man harder stuff, personally. While co-ordinating in a big raid can be entertaining, once you get into a pattern, it's rather dull. Spamming f. heal, f.bolt, dispel, decurse etc gets dull as hell. That's one of the reasons I prefer pvp to pve; you're reacting to the situation more.
DM was quite fun, and I still pop back there now and again.
UBRS can still be cool if you don't go with a perfect 15-man raid. 10-manned it last night with me and 2 resto-shamans healing, was great fun. Cost me 7-8g in repairs and pots, but I enjoyed it.

With my new spells I can easily out damage a Healing priest

You haven't seen the might of the OMFGDPS holy nuker! *BOOM* headsmite!

 

[Janie]

I much prefer small-man harder stuff, personally.

Ok i'll start the ball rolling....

But enough of your gnome warrior fetish.