Updated Druid Forms in 3.2Follow

I hate to be the pooper here ...

But this is the long-awaited Druid forms upgrade???

As someone who is currently a 78 Nelf Druid and has a 70 Tauren Druid w/ over 70 days /played, I feel that this is way too little, too late.

Tied to skin tone? Tied to hair color? Seems like a convenient workaround to actually creating an interface.

The models are fugly. I'd pick the old one over just about any of them. They aren't tied to items or achievements, and are thus no better than the original forms. Part of the original complaint was that feral druids have no way to differentiate themselves - no customization through armor/items. This does not fix that. At all.

Don't get me wrong. This isn't very important in the grand scheme of things ... But for what it is, it sucks.

Eh, the new ones have a nice poly increase and they remove the weird face of the NE bear; I'd take them over ye olde bear, but I'd rather they stuck to markings. Makes the druid feel less wild to have dangly bits all over the place.

You know what bothers me? And is a silly thing to fixate on?

The Horde bears get to have eyebrows.

It's a standard Disney trick, because trying to animate something without eyebrows and have it display an emotion human beings can clearly understand is damned difficult. Between that and the fact Horde bears have eyes complete with iris and pupil, they just appear more alive.

But in the end I'm really just happy they toned down that ridiculous snarl.



Edited, May 27th 2009 10:12pm by Zemzelette

Nono, Alliance cat has always been better. Horde gets better bears.

I <3 Horde bears.

Edited, May 27th 2009 9:42pm by isyris

They've openly stated that they are continuing to work on further ways to make the Druid forms unique, ie. working on a way to make armor/gear somehow contribute to the visual of the Druid Form.

I, too, am a little disappointed in the N.elf Bear forms. However, as mentioned, Alliance cat form has always beaten out Horde cat form so I'm hoping this fact remains true and Alli-kitty's are fantastic. And ultimately, the more I think about it, the more urked I am that their official stance on Moonkin & Tree forms is "That's later down the road". I would have preferred they waited until all forms could be updated in the same patch.

This is, for the most part, a bandaid fix. I was just hoping for a larger, more substantial bandaid. Druids have long demanded new forms, and it seems they may be rushing through rebuilding the models (poly count, etc) to ease some complaints. Regardless, I'm happy for the changes, and welcome them. Anything new is better than the old, IMHO...and every Druid should be thankful Blizz is at least taking the time to make the changes happen. I just really think Blizz should have sat back, finished all the models & animations (for all forms), and put some time/thought/effort into more than just the visual portion (ie. armor/gear mechanics) before releasing them. Druids everywhere would have rejoiced, but instead the caster forms are going to complain endlessly until they get their models, and overall people are going to want to know about any type of future scaling that affects the visuals.

*crosses fingers for uber kitty models*

Your NE Druid has antlers?!

I don't really think the model needs antlers, I'm not really decided on the face markings. I wouldnt mind if there was some way for my NE to have equivalent marks on his face in humanoid form, but I think it's to tie in with the markings female NEs have (My Druid is male though)

While I agree with the eye comments to an extent, I like how they're trying to make the animal forms tied in at least a little with the humanoid forms. Night Elf eyes have no pupils and glow gold so I'm quite happy with that being a holdover to the animal forms. I particularly like it with the current kittyform when you stealth in the dark and all you can see are those eyes.

I'm just really hoping they use the riding cat model as a base rather than the lynx this time.

Edited, May 28th 2009 6:10pm by Rasen

Antlers was supposed to be a nod to NE Druids, not necessarily the player ones. And I agree the markings are probably from the females.

That's just an idea though. I imagine Blizz could make something much better.



You just reminded me of something that has always irked me, lol. In lore, the vast majority of NEs have silver eyes and those with gold eyes, like Malfurion, are said to have great destinies.

But, all Male NEs in WoW have Gold eyes. >.< And it is the NPCs, too, so it isn't just like the PCs are supposed to be "heroes."



I'm hoping for a completely new model, but I'm not getting my hopes up. As long as the Tauren cat doesn't look like the ridiculous Final Fantasy behemoth-thing, I'll probably be happy with them.

I'm excited for the ToL and Boomkin forms, though. I'd love to be a tree that has a theme like the magical forests in Crystalsong or covered in some crazy flowers.

Tree Form?

Thats a pretty trendy druid wearing his GAP shirt.

It would be great if, on top of colors, you could choose from a variety of tree types. Like, palm/cherry/willow/oak.

Things could get interesting. XD

What about a raptor for cat form which, when dash is activated, puts on a pair of rocket skates?