Black Raven Dragoons

[Zancarius]

After hearing about the nerfs slated for a few classes, thanks to a heads-up from Sonikku, I decided to take a look at some of the rumored changes. I don't like most of the alterations although there are some that make a very slight bit of sense.

Druid Changes

Purportedly, druids will be facing changes mostly to Dire Bear form. Reduced armor, hit points, and attack power (probably even a strength reduction, due to the rumored drop in damage output in Dire Bear).

Priest Changes

Now, if you can believe this... priests are getting a nerf. Apparently prayer of mending is going on a fairly lengthy cool down.

Paladin Changes

It just gets dumber. Forbearance is no longer strictly an anti-shield debuff. It also reduces the paladin's damage output by 15% for the duration of the debuff. As if paladins weren't low-DPS enough...

I also believe the pally bubbles are being changed such that they're no longer a total immunity but are now damage-capped.

Discussion - Druid Changes

The druid changes have supposedly been made in order to appease warriors. This makes me feel bad, because I'm precisely in the league of warrior that was responsible for the change (as it was protection-spec'd ones who did the most complaining). And, I'll confess, pre-L70, I was somewhat annoyed at losing aggro to a druid, mostly because of the additional healing load placed on the priest who now had to keep track of two tanks. However, at L70, I noticed that holding threat from a druid (and stealing it) was mostly trivial.

...and now there's this.

With the armor and hitpoint reduction of Dire Bear form, it is no longer a viable tanking spec. It should, theoretically, work for offtanking, but the reduction is such that the class is going to be gimped significantly. I can understand some of the changes, but I think they could have been addressed a bit better by giving protection warriors similar bonuses. Here's why.

A feral druid at L65 has roughly the same armor and hit points as my L70 warrior. Granted, they have neither a shield block ability (to completely block incoming damage periodically) nor particularly high defense skill. The lack of these traits implies that a druid is bound to take far more damage. However, the fact that a druid at L70 has twice the armor a protection warrior has seems rather strange. A class intended specifically for tanking has less armor than a hybrid? More hit points, too? Perhaps changes to the gear set a warrior receives should have been considered--give us more armor and more stamina.

One of the gripes from druids has been the reduced damage of Dire Bear form on the PTR. This is something of a double-edged sword. As a protection warrior, I'm designed for one purpose: Tanking. That means absorbing damage and maintaining threat on the target. Whenever I solo, I understand that my damage output is going to be poor. Thus, it's somewhat sensible that another class or hybrid capable of tanking should have approximately the same damage output. Instead, again, my L65 druid has about twice the DPS of Thal. Then again, Dire Bear form is also supposed to provide additional benefits with regards to strength (or attack power), so it only makes sense that a druid should have higher damage.

I've mixed feelings over the situation, mostly because if I work my tail off for gear, I still wind up with fewer hit points than another character, 5 levels lower, in mostly greens. Is this an issue of the druid spec being overpowered? No, I don't think so. What it is an issue of is clearly mediocre gear choices for warriors. Or, better yet, increase the talent bonuses of the protection tree by a factor of two. This would mean increasing the armor bonus from items by double and the stamina boost of Vitality (a near-end talent) by double. This way, druids could have remained happy, and warriors would have approximately the same hit points and armor.

Again, I can understand where some of the warriors are coming from. If a hybrid class capable of dealing fairly significant damage can also have more armor and hit points than a talent spec that effectively limits your character to one job only--I think something might need to change. On the other hand, the changes are so drastic, that the druid class is effectively gimped now. And I still feel bad for griping. Perhaps it simply is an issue of warriors no knowing how to tank. Hell, I've not been able to hold aggro well at all the last several instances. Maybe the druid rebuttals have a point...

[Alikasia82]

I also learned of these changes. I have a link for the complete list for those who are interested.

These changes make me a very sad bear . . . best for druids now to heal or do the balance thing. Cat form is still viable . . just not as productive at 70, imo.

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnot ... notes.html

[Zancarius]

I don't think the nerfs were going to affect catform that badly, aside from the drop in critical strike rating. That will probably reduce the efficacy of catform slightly. Dire Bear, however, doesn't seem to be quite as viable. I still think feral druids will serve as decent off-tanks, but their ability to take damage has taken a very serious hit.

Thanks for the link. I'm not sure what motivated a lot of this nerfing aside from whiny warriors such as myself.

[Sonikku]

Whenever I saw a warrior in PVP, I knew I was going to be at a disadvantage if I engaged. But if I put poisons on my daggers and got the jump on them, I still had a chance to bring one down. Seeing a level 70 feral druid in bear form however was a nightmare. Completely impossible for me to bring down, whether I got the jump on them with lucky criticals or not. I must admit, it was annoying seeing the 70 feral druids doing nearly as much dps as me with insane amounts of stamina and armor.

It was just too much to punch through. Don't even get me starting on entangling me, preventing me from going to stealth, healing to full and running off with the flag in cat form. In of themselves all of these things would be acceptable, but together it started to become a case of Jack of All Trades, Master of Everything. I still feel druids should be able to tank in a pinch, but while some will disagree I feel the nerf was warrented.

[Zancarius]

Seeing a level 70 feral druid in bear form however was a nightmare. Completely impossible for me to bring down, whether I got the jump on them with lucky criticals or not. I must admit, it was annoying seeing the 70 feral druids doing nearly as much dps as me with insane amounts of stamina and armor.

That's a very, very good point. The DPS, armor, and hit points were insane on Dire Bear. Even on my druid, I could oftentimes take down three mobs of the same level or higher in dire bear without losing as much as half of my total hit points. Not to mention such a feat could often be accomplished in less time than it would take my warrior to drop a single mob dual wielding.

It's completely unlike when you and I would duel. The armor and defense on Thal meant that she was very difficult to drop, but both of us would leave the fight almost even with regard to hit points. It's pretty bad when a protection warrior seems far more gimped than a hybrid. Imagine how it is being one: spend 57 talent points on the protection tree for mediocre DPS at best, lack the ability to heal, and barely generated more threat than a bear. (Actually, the latter point isn't true. I did notice that I could quite easily steal aggro from a druid by simply applying sunders once I hit L69-L70. Prior to that level, holding threat from druids who were lower in level than I seemed a difficult endeavor.)

Don't even get me starting on entangling me, preventing me from going to stealth, healing to full and running off with the flag in cat form. In of themselves all of these things would be acceptable, but together it started to become a case of Jack of All Trades, Master of Everything. I still feel druids should be able to tank in a pinch, but while some will disagree I feel the nerf was warrented.

Again, you raise a number of good points. You're certainly the PvP fiend of us all, and I can see where you're coming from. I recall dueling Gizmodruid once... what an awful fight. I think it lasted over 10 minutes with him doing about 50 damage per swing (when he would hit). I knew I couldn't defeat him, particularly when the fight consisted of entangling roots, back up out of range, heal, rinse, and repeat. The thing that put a smile on my face was his total frustration...

But again, the druid class has become quite powerful. I am glad they haven't decided to nerf cat form thusfar, however. Feral druids are the perfect grinding class: Go to cat form, kill a few mobs, pop out, heal, and by the time you have to repeat, your mana is back to full. Dire bear, on the other hand, seemed quite overpowered.

Here's my take on the spec and how it should have behaved. As a hybrid class, switching forms shouldn't provide a distinct advantage over other classes that are designed exclusively for that purpose. Cat form doesn't do more DPS than an equally-geared rogue. Thus, why should dire bear--a form designed for tanking--do more DPS, have more armor, and more HP than an equally-geared protection warrior or better. I know--I'm griping. But here's why: Isn't it just a little silly that my L65 druid has the same amount of armor and almost as many hit points when she's wearing mostly greens as my warrior does with mostly blues? The upshot: I'm busting my tail gearing up my warrior and my druid winds up with almost the same perks five levels lower. (As an aside: One of the druids on the message boards who complained about the nerfs had over 13k hit points and 25k armor at level 70. Thal can't even break 11k armor. Something's pretty smelly in jungle when this happens.)

Then again, perhaps the better solution would have been to buff protection warriors such that their total armor and stamina bonuses from items was a bit higher. A 5% increase in stamina seems a bit low for an almost-end-tier talent (vitality). I'm not sure why the buff wasn't swapped to 10% increase in stamina and 5% increase in strength... instead, it's exactly the opposite. Ahh well, looks like the damage output of protection warriors might be getting a small boost. Not that it'll matter. I still fight for the bottom DPS slot even with a holy- or protection-spec'd paladin on board. At least I give retribution paladins a chuckle when they've done over twice the damage I have.

[Lithium]

The druid changes they are making are totally foundless and stupid on Blizzard's behalf. I don't get *why* they feel the need to break down the utility of a very, very useful class.

Blizzard never fails to amaze me with their continuous stupidity in their gameplay mechanics department.

As for priests... it *really* only seems as though shadow priests are getting a nerf. And, to put it bluntly, fuck them. They deserve whatever bad comes upon them for rolling a selfish spec to be completely useless. I hate to beat a dead horse, but I've said time and time again. Want to roll a damage cloth class? Roll a lock. Roll a mage. But don't roll a shadow priest and fuck your group over.

Here's always been my gigantic gripe with shadow priests, and why I use the word "selfish" to describe them. When raiding, shadow priests would insist on rolling on healing items and on damage items. How fucked is that? On one hand, they're taking from the pockets of the healers. On the other hand, they're stealing items right out from under mages and locks. Hear me out. Say you took an awesome damage robe, and a shadow priest wins it. Okay. He does more "damage". Now... put that robe on a mage or warlock, and fucking tell me it wouldn't be 50x more potent on that class.

So yes. I will shed not one tear for the nerfing of shadow priests. Selfish, useless, and a total waste of a spot in a party or raid.

As for the prayer of mending "Nerf", it's not too bad. 20 secs on a spell I never personally used anyway. When they nerf the potency of our healing (in the manner that they just messed up the druids' versatility), *then* is the time for priests to get upset.

I just feel plain awful for druids and what Blizz just did to them. A few druid friends of mine have retired their druids because of it. I just hope they don't quit the game before Blizz fixes it. They will undoubtedly have to fix it... because there's no way this is a bright decision.

/.02 cents

[Grimblast]

It has been a long time since Blizzard has done such a heavy nerf since they nerfed rogues a few years back. I don't think they thought this change through very well.

[Sonikku]

Don't retire your druids just yet guys. The nerf is on the test realms, it's not written in stone.

[Zancarius]

That's true. Perhaps they'll instead decide to give the protection branch approximately equivalent buffs. Doubtful, but it would make more sense than nerfing druids.

[Sonikku]

Omg... The new Epic flight form! ><

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kfr3602ANI

If that doesn't offset these nerfs, nothing does.

[Lithium]

Hahaha... that video was awesome.