Shogg I love you for the ability to continuously write reasonable paragraphs like this, but what I don’t love is that this isn’t what Blizzard writes, because they don’t write anything for it, they just add the NPCs and let people hit each other on their forums until one side wins the “this is whats happening” argument.
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I do, because its the same 7 people who did it in the last thread multiple times.
Pack it in.
I literally would go back into the last thread and have to trawl through 1k replies of who did whats.
It is tiring.
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Can’t we just have a crypt lord with a saddle instead?
I don’t like weird bat reskin.
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Welcome to Druid Hero Talents.
Because Druid has four specs, Blizzard’s unable to think of anything interesting, so most of the talents are incredibly generic just to vaguely fit two specs.
(Because Resto Druid also Catweaves, thus Feral + Resto)
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I wanted permanent single treant as an ability for Keeper of the Grove.
I want my tree to stay!.. Has nothing to do with RP cough
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I think they’re pretty cool.
but a Crypt Lord would be cooler.
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Not to mention, the Sunreavers were re-admitted into Dalaran recently. Just imagine the shock of both parties. Over a decade of brutal conflict that escalated throughout the years, the peak of it all being the Purge of Dalaran, finally being over. You’re both in the same city, right across the street from each other. Everything seems to be normal; or rather, even better than normal. A long time of unprecedented peace, even longer, and far more cordial than that of post-Third War Azeroth.
And then, your floating city crashes into the ground. All those years have been for nothing. A city as old as the eldest of your race that are still alive has become a wreckage, and with it, most of your friends, rivals, and otherwise. The city you both have spilled enough blood to put out every fire in Quel’thalas over is now no more different than any other wreckage that dot the landscape of Azeroth, with all its knowledge, all its history, and all its people.
If that wouldn’t make the Silver Covenant and the Sunreavers calm down for a while, nothing ever would.
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Can’t begin to express how tired I am of that particular rig.
Even a Vizier carrying us around with its awkward little “myesssss” arms would’ve been better.
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Such are the disastrous consequences of the popularisation and misuse of the “show, don’t tell” storytelling style.
As we’ve all noticed, Blizzard has a habit of shoving stuff into the game without any context or any written lore that is told to us that we can use to make sense of it. In an ideal world, we shouldn’t have to try and intuit what the lore is based on observation, Blizzard should just come out and tell us. But sadly, for whatever reason, they don’t do that. They leave it up to us to fill in the holes ourselves, when we shouldn’t have to.
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Personally if I were designing Keeper of the Grove Hero Talents, I would’ve turned Force of Nature into a passive spell (it is currently a talent/cooldown nobody likes). Granted I am slightly hypocritical here by making it a passive, but I think it would’ve been really cool if your abilities basically also summoned treants passively, turning Balance into a pseudo-pet spec, with maybe a permanent treant pet too. Additional talents would also call on other forces of Nature, and since the spec already is with a heavy Night Elf theme, those forces could be units from Warcraft 3 - Faerie Dragons (already something that Balance tree has btw!), Chimaeras, Hippogryphs, Mountain Giants.
Alternatively, as one is Keeper of the Grove, who in WC3 has abilities Entangling Roots, I would expand on that with design themes taken from Wildstalker, with a focus on offensive plant-themed spells. I would re-skin certain cosmic-themed abilities to be more grounded, sorry for the pun. Sunfire could become Insect Swarm. Maybe Insect Swarm can be a permanent effect that ‘spreads’ to nearby mobs? Starfall can become Hurricane. Full Moon and others could be you growing a massive vine that slams on people and whatnot. And all your abilities grow vines around enemies to harm them, like how Malfurion did in Darkshore cinematic. Funnily enough, I think this way the Hero Talent would become a bit more generic and less Night elf-themed, as any Druid can control Nature.
Restoration Druid Keepers of the Grove with my design would also have permanent pets and their abilities summon helpful forces of Nature. Faerie Dragons can dispel magic effects, Mountain Giants can tank bad magic effects, etc. I know people don’t like Grove Guardians or even a pet-focus, but this could also be really cool with helpful treants (maybe even Ancients?) instead of other more offensive forces Balance summons.
Elune’s Chosen can stay as the cosmic-design niche Balance has, for anyone who wants to be a planetary orbital cannon.
I would immediately hang up Feral if Keeper of the Grove was anywhere like what I had in mind. I got so excited when they announced that the Hero Talents would also change some visual effects and whatnot. When I saw Keeper of the Grove I got my hopes up - something you should never do with Blizzard, as I’ve been burnt too many times - that we’d finally have a plant-focused offensive caster again.
But nope, if you play Balance your choice is between… Your New/Half/Full Moon spells call down additional Moons (cool!), and… every 30 seconds your treants cast Moonfire and your Wrath/Lunar Strike has some small green explosion or whatever. I don’t even know what the Dream Burst looks like, because it’s so boring sounding. Tying the entire Hero Talent tree to Force of Nature makes it so incredibly clunky and unfun.
With Druid of the Claw, I think Ravage definitely needs a better animation. But ‘your Ferocious Bite has a change to become a Better Ferocious Bite’ is still kinda boring. I would simply make Ravage the Ferocious Bite replacement. Why attach it to a random chance?
Wildstalker could instead of vines have more DoTs/bleeds. I’m thinking like, jungles and tropical diseases. Since Mastery change to all periodic effects, it’d make sense if you also had some bleeds apply Poison and/or Disease effects, or have a new ability altogether (maybe another DoT that replaces Ferocious Bite, sort-of like Devouring Plague is for Shadow Priests?) This way, the Hero Talents would also split the Feral design into two types, Wildstalker that is Bleed/DoT heavy, and Druid of the Claw that is more physical bite/attack-heavy. But right now, with Rampant Ferocity and Wildstalker’s Bursting Growth talent, it’s almost like Wildstalker also wants to Ferocious Bite as much as Druid of the Claw does.
Wildstalker Restoration Druid… could have some sort of Herbalist/Hermit/Alchemist vibe to it. You create poultices and herbal medicine to aid with your heals. Your Nature’s Cure could remove all negative effects, not just Curses and Poisons. Maybe even bleeds! Some sort of First Aid fusion with Nature magic to heal others would be a really cool archetype. Your spells could grow Nature-y armour around people to shield them. Like, Regrowth could cause a growth of Nature on the target that protects them.
Finally, Druid of the Claw itself is very jarring. It reads as a nice Bear and Cat form fusion, but the execution is just poor. Changing into a Bear as a Feral Druid just to do a juiced up Mangle simply sounds convoluted and forces you into taking the Fluid Form talent from the Class tree just to manage it better… but to reach Fluid Form, you need to follow the spellcasting-side of the Class tree. All for a Choice node, so actually… the entire Bear and Cat form fusion doesn’t even work out! Druids of the Claw are Bears on top of it all! I know technically Cat form users can also be called of the Claw, but Legion already made the distinction for Cat form Druids to be Ashen. In fact, Ashamane is what I imagine when I think ‘Wildstalker’.
Why can’t Druids of the Claw instead have some shared form, a Dire Bear or whatever? Or - make that part of the choice node with the aforementioned one, so you get to choose - do you want to play as someone in Cat Form who changes forms to Bear form now and then for powerful Mangles/Swipes, or you have a new form that combines Bear and Cat form into one?
I can’t speak for Elune’s Chosen Guardian side much, but I do feel it weird that almost all of the tree is about Fury of Elune, Full Moon, and Lunar Beam. As Guardian, you only have access to Lunar Beam, with one choice node making Fury of Elune a RNG proc. I find Moonfire spamming Guardian Druid fun so I don’t mind the design idea, but I think it could’ve been incorporated a bit better. Maybe Guardian could have another cooldown also empowered. I know one big weakness for Guardians has been the lack of any spell damage mitigation, so some sort of Lunar shield to protect against spell damage would’ve been the perfect opportunity to implement here.
sorry for essayposting
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As a small addendum, by this I do not mean that it is good grounds for them to unite and to set aside their differences permanently, I just think it’s good grounds for them to at the very least have a truce and cooperate!
The Silver Covenant remains a faction which’s entire intention since its founding was sabotaging the Blood Elves and the Horde’s efforts, being founded by wary High Elven members of the Kirin Tor with the entire purpose of attacking the Blood Elves and the Sunreavers at a moment’s notice, should they step out of line. Purge of Dalaran or not, them getting along with Blood Elves for no reason that would involve at least some degree of self-preservation would be entirely nonsensical!
They didn’t just partake in the Purge of Dalaran, they were planning one as far back as Wrath of the Lich King!
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Ok, that’s a genius idea. Why can’t we have that instead? D:
“Your destination, my liege…hmnyess.”
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I just wish Keeper of the Grove got a Keeper of the Grove druid form…
Would look cool!
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them getting along with Blood Elves for no reason that would involve at least some degree of self-preservation would be entirely nonsensical!
A pity that’s exactly what we’ll get. Heehee hoho
As an sp player: first time?
Jk i know feral has been in a rough spot for a while now.
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Well, Shadow Priest at least has been one of the S-tier specs in PvE for S3 and S4. Can’t speak for before as I didn’t play in S1/2…
But honestly, even if it’s a monkey’s paw situation, I do wish Ferals would get more attention like Shadow Priests have had.
I can promise you more =/= better.
We have not went one expansion since legion without a major rework to the spec. And blizz still manages to fumble the balancing of the spec, as you point out yourself, to rhe point one lf our most iconic utility spells, Mass Dispell, got given a 2 minute cooldown because it was making fights trivial in m+. And it caused a gigabtic nerf for pvp as a result.
It is well and truly an insane spec for clinically insane people.
Thanks blizz
I think it should be for the entire raid, because if your raid’s story is entirely contained to the last boss, you’ve fundamentally failed to create an interesting raid.
I also think they should drop the asinine LFR (and now story mode) raid release delays, but I expect those exist solely in order to stretch out subscriptions, so the money men will insist on it.
Players lose nothing from the entire raid before released on LFR on day 1 of the raid release.
Some raids are always gonna have filler bosses, but are you gonna get the full vibe of Karazhan by skipping straight to Malchezzar? Is Kil’Jaeden going to make as much sense if you’ve not done the Kalecgos and M’uru fights in Sunwell? Wouldn’t people want to see what happened to Fandral Staghelm in Firelands instead of just jumping straight to Ragnaros? Ashvane in Nazjatar?
Imagine skipping to the Jaina fight - as the Alliance - for Storymode Battle of Dazar’alor without any other context.
Editing: The blizz decision strikes me as a misguided response to final LFR boss tuning being typically too high. Razsageth stacking up to a 5-10 Domination stacks before those who have half a brain paying attention can carry the other half of the raid through the fight, sorta deal.
To which my response is…that’s not what it should be for.
If LFR is tuned so that the average group is spending two hours on the final boss, that’s probably a failure of design and balancing by your teams.
If they want LFR to have bosses to fall over after 1-3 attempts, then they should tune and modify mechanics accordingly. And if they don’t want that, then they’re stupid. No one has fun racking up a half dozen Domination stacks as you endlessly wait for replacements to filter in and out after people leave. It’s a game, it’s meant to be fun.
I can’t see inside their Design Dojo, only make guesses about intent, but yeah, this hits me as a paper thin stopgap measure for an issue they created for themselves.
My suggestion, as I’ve been making for some time, is scrap LFR, drop in the story mode that is literally impossible to fail, and then give everyone a nice full set of cosmetic raid transmog at the end of it using the colours you would have had in LFR.
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I’ll let Chris Metzen know.