Hello!
I started writing this post as a comment on other threads, but I felt like making my own thread would probably be best, as it accidentally grew quite long. I’ll try organizing my feedback as best as I can, with my own reworks/redesign ideas added as well. Note that I’m not focusing on specific talents or mechanics, or even gameplay design, but more general, descriptive concepts. Hope this will be at least an interesting read!
To begin with, I feel like the Druid Hero Talents are in a really rough spot right now, and I don’t really have high hopes considering Beta got announced, as major redesigns likely won’t happen any more. Will the Hero Talents stay as is? Visually, mechanically, conceptually? Or could they still change quite a bit (and hopefully for the better)?
When I look at other classes and the fantasy of what their Hero Talents bring, mechanically and visually, I’m interested. Evokers get mass Disintegrate that looks cool and impactful, Mages get a phoenix and the Kael’Thas orbs, DKs get the entire combat-on-mount fantasy… When Hero Talents as a concept got announced, as sort of secondary talents that’ll also bring visual differences to the class/spec, I got excited for Druids. There’s so much you can do with this!
Needless to say, I am very disappointed, as I struggle to find anything inspired, interesting, and visually fun and cool in any of the Druid Hero Talents in their current iteration, except maybe Elune’s Chosen for Balance with the celestial and cosmic focus. Where’s the fantasy for the rest, though? What’s the identity of those Hero Talent trees?
Keeper of the Grove feedback
Keeper of the Grove - for Balance, I was very excited. Given the premise of Hero Talents bringing visual changes to the class, I had high hopes that this would be the Hero Talent tree for Balance that takes the cosmic focus away from Balance and brings forth more nature/plant-based spells. What you get, however, is… disappointing to say the least. Force of Nature, as your main Hero Talent mechanic, a talent that I don’t think ever got chosen in Dragonflight? Rest of your tree is passive with boring % increases. Woo. Where’s the visual interest? Dream Burst, and maybe your Force of Nature treants casting Moonfire? If anything, that’d fit Elune’s Chosen more.
Keeper of the Grove for Restoration Druid is at least better, as Grove Guardians was used frequently, even though the talent was also disliked, as you didn’t have much control over it? However, again - where’s the visual interest, the fantasy? Keeper of the Grove is an iconic Warcraft 3 hero, who did have treant summoning as a spell. Why not lean into that? Turn Keeper of the Grove Restoration Druid into a pet summoner healer class!
Keeper of the Grove redesign
If anything, the way I would’ve redesigned Keeper of the Grove is to turn both Balance and Restoration into a pseudo-pet/summoner class, where your abilities passively can call upon y’know, forces of Nature to help you. Since it’s already with a heavy Night Elven theme, the forces can be known Night Elven allies: from treants to Ancients, Faerie Dragons, Dryads, and more. You have a % chance to summon stronger allies with stronger effects (e.g. Ancients), and maybe the Force of Nature/Grove Guardians immediately summons a stronger ally as well as one of the talents, to give more agency and control. Perhaps you could even have one treant pet as a permanent passive companion!
Some of your spells also get a visual rework, where Sunfire gets replaced by Insect Swarm - functionally same, but perhaps as a swarm it could also infect nearby enemies they come into contact with/stay permanent (as an additional Hero Talent effect). Starfall can become old Hurricane with the Tornadoes and thunderstorms, and so on.
Entangling Roots could have so much fantasy built on it - something that even got explored in Terror of Darkshore cinematic, where Malfurion pulled an orc into ground with vines. Growing animated vines that attack or constrict would also be a much cooler aesthetic than what we currently get. Ironically, this is something that Feral Wildstalkers got, which… also doesn’t make much sense to me. I’d much rather see Balance grow offensive vines around the target! Perhaps that can replace Starsurge as a ST spender, as a Vine Slam ability, that also calls forth a powerful ally of Nature! There are so many possibilities (and not all of the ideas need to happen!) that ‘Keeper of the Grove’ offers as a concept, that I simply feel are unutilised.
This way, I think the Hero Talents for Balance Druid can be split into two different niches - one with a cosmic focus (Elune’s Chosen) and one with a more plant-y, summoning nature focus. Either as a pseudo-pet summoner, or simply more nature-y version of the class. Restoration Druid’s niche here would be a pseudo pet-summoner healer, with perhaps stronger casts/reactive heals and weaker focus on healing over time effects (that’ll be for Wildstalker, which I’ll get to in a second).
Wildstalker feedback
For Feral, Wildstalker especially is awkward. Offensive vines sounds like something I’d expect from an offensive caster like Balance. Since my redesign of Keeper of the Grove got those, I’d remove the Bloodseeker Vines entirely, as… the entire mechanic is also passive. Your visual interest, the cool factor is a bunch of weird-looking glowing vines around the enemy. I’m not even sure if other players can see them. While some talents in the tree sound interesting (spreading vines, Bite making vines explode), I am still somewhat disappointed by the fantasy.
I feel like the design also lacks a stronger identity, at least for Feral Druid. What or who is a Wildstalker? It feels like the idea is to have a spec focusing on effects-over-time (which is also the intended spec design in TWW, so will Druid of the Claw lack needed support?), but has talents supporting the Rampant Ferocity playstyle in AoE, through Bursting Growth. You have awkward support for Moonfire (now thankfully buffed by Mastery, as I understand?), but to my knowledge you don’t want to run Convoke with Lunar Inspiration as Feral Druid, even though Convoke was fun with Rampant Ferocity, wheras Adaptive Swarm fits the identity far better.
For Restoration Druid, Wildstalker seems to lean into the ‘catweaving’ playstyle, which I’m actually fine with. However, thematically, you’re still somewhat lacking an actual identity to put a name onto the ‘catweaving’ style.
Wildstalker redesign
If I were to redesign Wildstalker, I would keep the idea of an effect-over-time spec. As for Restoration, this seems to be the ‘catweaving’ spec, I wouldn’t change that (and Keeper of the Grove would thus become the caster-weaving spec then). With the name ‘Wildstalker’, I think of the wilderness - forests, jungles, swamps, bogs, plains. I’m reminded of hermits who live in those areas and know how to cure - or afflict - various toxins, diseases, curses etc.
With a lot of the Druid class design already revolving around Night Elven themes, this could also have something more evocative of Troll (and Tauren) vibes. Ashamane was a Wild God that the trolls interacted with, and lived in the jungles of Azeroth. I’m surprised there’s very little reference to her! In fact, Feral Frenzy’s (an ability that is very similar - if not intended to be the replacement of - Ashamane’s Frenzy from Legion) cooldown reduction is something that Druids of the Claw have.
This is what I’d lean into with Wildstalker. For Feral, you’d have more focus on damage-over-time effects. Maybe on top of just bleeds, you can also get a Disease effect. Perhaps that could even replace Ferocious Bite, to really hone in on the damage-over-time identity. I know this probably sounds way too similar to Devouring Plague from Shadow Priests, but it’s not like the Bite is different from Rogue’s spenders either. The Disease effect would be a short DoT, that maybe could make your other DoTs tick faster as well. And other talents in the tree can give removal protection (if someone clears bleeds/Disease/your effects, they all explode for % of remaining damage), or a curse effect, so on.
For Restoration Druid, the hermit fantasy in my idea could tap into WoW’s First Aid, where on top of natural magics you also know physical triage. You could infuse poultices and bandaes with Nature magic, you could grow splints with Nature magic and so on, and do it all from a distance! Maybe with the fantasy of Barkskin (and Ironbark), your abilities could even grow a small shield on allies. As those hermits know a variety of cures, Nature’s Cure could additionally also dispel Disease effects.
And as Keeper of the Grove is a Grove Guardians pet summoner spec, Wildstalker takes Nourish as the other choice node. Since Feral’s Wildstalker redesign version replaces Ferocious Bite, Nourish gets replaced by a thematic ability as well. Because Wildstalker is more oriented around HoT effects, Nourish could become a channeled ability, where the fantasy is you infusing all the physical triage and your helpful effects on the target to become more powerful (tick faster?).
Druid of the Claw feedback
I do not have much to say about Druid of the Claw, as I think the ideas are fine. You’re the big, fearsome beast who launches massive attacks - sorry, Ravages - on the enemies. I welcome the idea of shapeshifting between Cat and Bear form for either spec, although I know the intention wasn’t for Ferals to go to Bear form as part of their already very complex rotation.
There are still some confusing aspects, though. First, why does Ravage have to be a RNG proc? And secondly, the Fluid Form talent in the Class tree feels mandatory to have this shapeshifting between forms feel more… well, fluid. Dreadful Wound also feels a little uninspired (and perhaps something fitting Wildstalker more). And honestly, outside of Ravage, there really isn’t anything more to the spec. What actually makes this a Druid of the Claw? You don’t even have the roar from Warcraft 3!
Druid of the Claw redesign
So, because Wildstalker is the effect-over-time spec in my redesign, Druid of the Claw for Feral would therefore become the more instantaneous damage spec. In a way, Ravage already does this, but why make that an awkward RNG effect? Have it replace Ferocious Bite entirely! Your AoE damage would shift away from Primal Wrath spam, maintaining it in AoE as a damage modifier. Rampant Ferocity could even be pulled into this tree and have something new (and interesting) replace it for the Feral spec tree, to truly make Ravage as a bursty AoE ability. That has a coolness factor in of itself, seeing big burst of numbers pop up, even if the Ravage’s current attack visual looks a bit plain!
For Guardian’s Druid of the Claw, I feel like the Hero Talent tree could utilize and interact with the Guardian tree a bit more, too. Because the identity is launching massive, powerful attacks, there could be some more interaction with the Pulverize and Raze abilities. Especially when Elune’s Chosen already fills the Moonfire-spamming ‘galactic bear’ niche. The capstone talent could have an additional interaction with either, or maybe have it just increase your defensiveness when casting Ravage somehow. Or, you could roar with each Ravage, decreasing damage taken from afflicted foes and/or increasing your damage done slightly?
This way, the Hero Talent spec gets its own identity. For Feral, the focus is less on your bleeds and more on your bites, carrying over the Dragonflight’s more bite heavy design, and Wildstalker can be the Hero Talent spec designed around bleeds. For Guardian, the spec identity will be you launching powerful physical attacks (as opposed to the more magical lunar attacks Elune’s Chosen Guardians will do), while being a sturdy and fearsome bear.
Elune's Chosen feedback and minor redesign
This is the spec that fully leans into the cosmic nature of Balance Druid, and the galactic bear archetype Guardians have, which I’m fine with conceptually. Your first talent making Full Moon also call down extra Crescent Moons sounds cool! I don’t have many notes flavour-wise. It’s bright and flashy, and visually interesting. I feel like Guardian Druid could’ve done more with this, though. Especially as this is all about you being a magical bear!
Thus, there’s not really much for me to ‘redesign’. Since Druid of the Claw is the big, powerful, fearsome bear, with many passive talents increasing the defensiveness, perhaps Elune’s Chosen Guardian Druids could use lunar magic in more defensive ways as well? Lunar Beam makes you leech life, cool! I would rather have it give Bears some magical resistance or an absorb shield, though. I feel like that’d be more fitting thematically, and also help Guardian’s weak points more (as you have no easy ways to mitigate spell damage).
Thank you for reading, if you made this far! I recognise that there are other classes (and/or specs) who got even worse deals with their Hero Talents, and unfortunately it doesn’t seem like everyone’s going to get cool new toys to play with. While I acknowledge that the Druid class is the most difficult to make Hero Talents for, I do feel like overall, what we ended up with is incredibly bland and generic, with only Elune’s Chosen having strong identity and fun visuals.
Hopefully my ideas sound a bit more interesting and/or give some ideas on how to improve them through the Beta iteration cycle. My proposed redesigns also give each Hero Talent spec a stronger identity that helps them differentiate from the other option for each class spec. Wildstalker focuses on empowering your effects-over-time, Keeper of the Grove becomes a pseudo-summoner with a nature focus, and Druid of the Claw is all about your powerful, physical attacks. Elune’s Chosen doesn’t need much, as the concept of wielding celestial power is already a strong niche.
What do you think? Or maybe, you have your own ideas for Druid’s Hero Talents? Do you wish there was something else that would’ve become a Hero Talent tree instead?