Fixing the Druid class tree in Dragonflight

Classes Druid
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Hey fellow Druids! I’m not usually one to post on the forums or anything, but lately regarding the Dragonflight talent trees I’ve felt the need to share some ideas I have.
Image for visualisation (sorry for paint skills):

[Album] Dragonflight Druid Class talent tree

General thoughts:
I do believe that there is a lot of good things about our class tree, for instance the fact that our tree consists of mostly utility, which I believe is a good thing for a class tree to do. However, certain problems was present in the tree and these are my solutions.

Connected lines:
I felt like it was a big problem with how few possibilities you had to get to the other side of the tree if you started on one side. Having to start from the top of the tree to be able to get to the capstone on that side feels wrong and I’ve connected the 2 sides in the middle. I’ve not connected skull bash on purpose seeing as it should be an investment to aquire kick as boomie or resto.

Ability placements:
Some abilities in the tree I believe was placed incorrectly, for instance I’ve made Cyclone and Soothe baseline, and underneath Wild Charge/Tiger Dash is now a choice node of Mass Entanglement/Bash. Previously the choice has been between these 2 abilities, and it makes it possible to still have incap roar + bash, which is very valuable to have both in PvP. I’ve also moved the passives down 1 row, since those are usually more relevant to the other specs, and should therefore be more accessible.

New abilities:
As druids I feel like there’s a lot of potential for cool new abilities that plays into our class fantasy of having multiple shapeshift forms, and it doesn’t show too much in what we’ve got so far. In the picture I included 2 potential ideas, Bearhug and Chickenfat.
Bearhug: Hug a friendly player, redirecting x% of their damage taken to yourself for the next 4 seconds. Only usable in Bear Form.
Chickenfat (passive): Immunity to certain knockbacks in Moonkin Form.
I do love that Nature’s Vigil is back, but there is still so much potential!

Random thoughts:
I wouldn’t know where in the tree or exactly how to implement this and is therefore not in the picture, but I believe there’s a potential to add Survival Instincts and Force of Nature to the class tree. Losing rake stun as other specs (mostly as resto) is also something that I’m sad to see go, and there should be a possibility to add it into the class tree somehow.

Final thoughts:
There are certain issues I have with the spec specific trees as well, but I didn’t have as clear of a vision on how to fix it as I did with the class tree. I do really hope that Druids will get a new dev sometime soon seeing as the previous one has quit. Seeing that every other class is getting updates regularly is demotivating and it’s what led me to share my ideas here, hoping to motivate others, so that once we get a new dev, changes will be made quickly.
Feel free to criticize and share your own thoughts below! :smile:

3 Likes
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My major issue would prolly be i dont rly understand the class tree.

Its adding stuff thst makes u do more damage for the first 5 seconds of a new shapeshift. But this means we will now have to come out of catform to go back into cat form between every pull?

We have heart of the wild, but to make it worthwhile ur going to spend double the points to go into boomkin or healer. So what emergency tank?

Maybe its my inexperience, but it feels like the trees trying to create the old shift swapping minmaxing. But the trees dont rly look set up to really make it a thing.

Id kinda like one of the last traits to be replaced by symbosis. With such a demand for the return of this ability i dont quite understsnd why they didnt bring it back.

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I do see your problem with furor, but I don’t believe it’s meant as a damage gain at all, sure there might be some instances in m+ where there’s 15 seconds downtime between pulls, but that will be a minor dmg increase overall at best, and shouldn’t really affect gameplay too much. However, if it brings back owlweaving as a cat, it’d be horrible. I honestly believe it’s there as a utility talent, to allow for quick bursts of healing, or to stack up ironfur to soak a mechanic, which can actually be quite useful.

Personally I like the shift swapping, as long as the reason we’re swapping as feral or boomie isn’t to do more dmg, but to bring some form of utility, so even though it might not make you top dmg if you’re put on such a job, it will still lead to our class bringing something interesting which is always a good thing.

As for Symbiosis, if it would ever come back, they need to make certain changes to it. First off, it should only give an ability to the druid and not to the player you’re linking to, seeing as that created certain weird interactions. Secondly it needs to be way less impactful spells, since a lot of them created huuuuge issues especially in pvp with some cc chains or with defensives. Afaik it was also a nightmare for the devs to have such an ability in the game, and honestly as far as I’m concerned, there’s no need to bring it back, since I’d rather have other new interesting things.

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True i imagine things like getting ice block from frost mage is Considered OP in pvp situations.

Itd need to be altered, but would be a rly nice spell to get back, i dont know maybe it will feel better when i get to actually try it as i primarily am only able to realisticslly look at it.

Otherwise im pretty happy with tbe direction of the feral tree. Not perfect but defintly good.

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Unfortunately Furor is just bad as it is. This is supposed to be a strong final talent in the tree, geared slightly toward Feral.

  • No-form is activated all the time due to shapeshifting transitions, getting out of roots and snares, avoiding getting hit from Hibernate or Scare Beast, or simply casting Cyclone or something else. This means you are unlikely to gain any “free” heals.
    It is currently not possible to get “Tree of Life” form to solve this.
  • Similarly, Bear Form is regularly activated from Disorienting Roar, or when you want to utilize Frenzied Regen (which has minimal cost and is locked on cooldown).
    In addition, there are no abilities worth using anyway. Nothing is baseline, and Maul is in the spec tree. So the only thing you can press is Ironfur if you have specced that.
  • You can spec into Moonkin Form and perhaps get a couple of free Starsurges. This is the single only thing that Furor is good for, since you might be able to avoid generating Astral Power - otherwise, resource costs is (and should be) a non-issue.

So yeah, it basically gives neither utility nor damage increase.

1 Like
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I have my own take on the Class tree, I feel like Furor is just not good and promotes bad gameplay (weaving in between forms etc), replacing it with something like Ekowraith, Creator of Worlds might be good however not as a capstone talent.

also, about Symbiosis, I think making it grant the Druid an ability which is a take on the target’s ability might be interesting

some suggestions include:

  • Balance + DK = Raise Treant (Raise a Treant fight by your side. You can have a maximum of one Treant at a time. 30sec cd)
  • Balance + Hunter = Double Tap (Your next Starsurge will fire a second time instantly at 100% power without generating Solar or Lunar power. 1min cd)
  • Rogue + Feral = Deeper Stratagem (Gain 1 additional max combo point. Your finishing moves that consume more than 5 combo points have increased effects.)
  • Guardian + Hunter = Misdirection (Misdirects all threat caused by the targeted party or raid member to you and reduce their and your damage taken by 15%, beginning with their next attack within 30 sec and lasting for 8 sec. 1minsec cd)
  • Feral + Warlock = Soul Swap (Applies Rip, Rake, Thrash and Moonfire to your target. 30sec cd)

I made a list for each class and Druid, but I think you get the idea, making it a unique power boost (that the Druid can change when needed), and (of course) a 20+ point talent.

and of course, Force of Nature in the class tree with WoD (heal/bleed/taunt/cast spells treants)

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I do see where you’re coming from regarding Furor, especially as there has been things like owlweaving in the past, which promotes horrible gameplay as a feral, and if that’s ever the case with Furor, it’d be bad. But like I said in my previous reply, I do believe it’s a talent strictly meant for utility, as with most other talents in our class tree, and while it may not be strong enough to be a capstone, having the chance to stack up 5 stacks of ironfur in those 4 seconds can make you very tanky for a big physical hit if you ever need to soak something. This does unfortunately lead to it being more or less useless in pvp, which is a shame, but it will have its uses in pve.

As for your Symbiosis suggestions, I love them! However, it does pose a problem, seeing as it’d be the only capstone talent in our tree with actual power, opposed to only utility and you’d be forced into it. I can also see how it’d be a nightmare to balance, which can certainly make for some weird comps never seen before in pvp, and it might lead to a bigger imbalance because of it. Not saying I wouldn’t love to see it be implemented, but it’d require a lot of work (which is unfortunately one of the reasons it got removed in the first place).

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Furor will cause problems in pve as well. imagine having to wait 15sec between pulls, just so you can get that massive damage reduction. or in a dungeon, a guardian druid can’t just shift out of Bear and then back into bear to get that damage reducing (he can but it’ll likely cause a wipe), but I agree it isnt good for pvp

I support a full rework of the class tree, Symbiosis will be more easily accessible, not an “end” capstone but easier to get (check https://imgur.com/a/oILYWc7)

The reasons Symbiosis was removed in the first place were:

  1. it gave the target an ability, making it significantly harder to balance, especially in pvp.
  2. you couldn’t properly balance so much utility on top of what Druid already has. Feral + Priest was broken cause Feral got a defensive (Dispersion) and Priest got a nice, ranged CC (Cyclone).

by making it grant a combat benefit to the druid, you make the druid chooce what he needs and what will benefit him most in that fight/ in pvp. none of these abilities are that broken, but each one has a use.

People want to see symbiosis back (for some reason im yet to figure out), and if they want it so bad then they can have it in a more balance form.

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