hi. im Quor, and this is Druidic History 101. its a thread thats designed for the newer druids out there, and for people who dont know anything about druids that just might wander by. im writing this to give everyone who stops in an idea about what druids were, what they went thru, and what theyve become. so sit down friends, brethren, young ones....and learn.
About Me
ive been playing druid since the orignal retail launch of the game. i picked WoW up about a week after the launch (didnt preorder), and having come fresh off of final fantasy 11 (as a warrior) i knew that warriors were a VERY gear dependant class. gearing a warrior is expensive, and im not a guy whos savvy about making money. plus i wanted something different. i did a little research online, and came up with three choices; rogue, hunter, or druid. well, rogues and hunters seemed like damage dealers, and i didnt want to be a dime-a-dozen class, so druid it was. plus i LOVE shapeshifting. the very idea of it just makes me all tingly. im a big Werewolf: The Apocalypse fan for those White Wolf faithful out there, and druids fit that little niche pretty nicely.
so i made a druid.
As It Was
heres a link to what the retail launch druid talents looked like:
OG Talents
ya. thats right. huricane used to be a TALENT. and im sure many of you are wondering what the hell "swiftshifting" is. look down a little further in balance and youll see "weapon balance". 10% more damage with melee weapons. easily the most useless talent in game, being in the casting tree like it is.
click the next tab and check out feral. bloated, aint it? as of today, the only talents in the feral tree that are completely untouched are ferocity and feral charge. everything else has either been moved, adjusted, or just plain tossed out. im especially fond of the TWO 31-pt talents at the bottom, one of which is a 2-pointer. while a passive -25% to shifting costs aint bad, an extra combo on pounce was laughable (altho with the recent changes, it doesnt sound like such a bad idea anymore).
in short, feral and balance were TERRIBLY broken. hurricane completely sucked (it was pbaoe...or point blank aoe...think channeled arcane explosion), the rest of balance was, to be nice, crap, and feral....feral made grown war veterans weep.
it wasnt just talents tho. we didnt have a lot of the skills we have now, skills many druids consider as staples.
remember how leveling from 20-32 was? when youve got cat form, but all you have is claw, rake, rip, and that opening shred? well, imagine that, but all the way to 60. thats right, there was no ferocious bite. that didnt come until a few months later. there also no such thing as frenzied regeneration, or barkskin.
oh! and lets not forget resto!
its actually not too bad really. note the changes: furor only worked on rage; you had to spec down to intensity in order to get energy-on-shift for cat form. improved enrage was crap, and improved healing touch reduced COST, not the casting time, of healing touch. on the bright side, we get a 1 talent point 5% boost to all our heals, which is nice, but right next to that is combat endurance. remember what i said about weapon balance "easily being the most useless talent in game"? i lied. combat endurance was the most monumental waste of five talent points you could ever think of. shaman had combat endurance in their resto tree, except it was ONE point. and they STILL didnt take it.
also, innervate was a talent. see that? subtlety was lower in the tree as well. but compared to feral or balance, resto was a god send. innervate alone was insane, and the other buffs to the tree made druids pretty efficient healers. more efficient than priests actually.
these were our talent trees, and they had flaws. this meant druids were few and far between. only the most die-hard druidic fans played the class, and they made their builds work, be they resto, feral, or balance (admittedly, finding a balance or feral druid was incredibly rare). in short, these were our talents, and we loved them.
but druids all over the world, druids who loved their class, pushed for change. ideas were brainstormed, thoughts put to paper, and discussions had. slowly, things began to change.
Flux
starting in the mid-winter (january, about three months after release) changes began happening to the druids. first off, totally unexpected, was a huge buff to bear and dire bear forms.
during the WoW original beta, the armor values on leather items were much higher. about 2-3x as high as they are now, to the point where there wasnt that much of a difference between leather and mail. druid bear form armor WAS a 65% increase. dire bear form WAS a 125% increase.
1.2 patch notes: druids
in the space of a single patch, the mitigation druids had in bear forms almost tripled. it wasnt long until a few enterprising druids had snatched all the high armor items they could find, and Anna was the first druid worldwide (as far as im aware) to break the 10k armor mark (at HEAVY sacrifice to every other statistic).
but that was merely the tip of the iceberg.
shortly thereafter, near the end of march '05, blizzard dropped the 1.3 patch, introducing such things as the two first world bosses (kazzak and azuregos) and the dire maul instance (and its ever-so-yummy unyielding maul).
1.3 patch notes: druids
look at that. just admire it for awhile. ferocious bite added. barkskin added. frenzied regeneration (an ability that no druid could have dreamed up on our own; plenty ideas had abounded about a temporary damage shield and a DD finisher in cat however), our very own bear form bandage, and some pretty nice class changes. rebirth, for instance, used to be a three second cast, not two, and didnt ignore the rez timer (which created more problems than youd think it could). cat form receiving a flat DPS increase helped a lot too. and then there was swiftshifting....a % reduction in shifting when you shifted out of a form IF you shifted back into a form in under 6 seconds.
in other words, youre in bear and you want to heal. you pop out, healing touch yourself, and get back into cat form. with swiftshifting, the cost of doing so is reduced by 60% IF you make that shift into cat form in under six seconds.
thanks to this talent and the new ferocious bite ability, feral actually had some decent viability now. even the most hardcore min/maxed couldnt discount the ability of feral to do well assuming proper playstyle and gear setup. with primal instinct and swifthshifting, a druid could stack the physical gear they needed to excel as a feral while not being constrained by an anemic mana pool. an 85% reduction in shifting costs makes up for a LOT of lost int.
this also laid the foundations for what would later be known as the "swiftbuild". but im getting a little ahead of myself.
feral was doing a little better, but balance was still suffering. +dmg gear was relegated only to greens (<random item of natures wrath> etc.) and had yet to be incorporated onto blue and purple-quality items. the gear to support a balance playstyle, plus the lacking power of balance talents meant that many druids didnt dabble any further than 11 points into balance, and many would stop at swiftshifting and ignore omen of clarity totally. which reminds me....omen of clarity used to be a weapon buff, like the shaman weapon buffs. it also only used to work in caster form.
Mage Domination
patch 1.4 changed the dynamics of pvp.
1.4 patch notes: druids
shapeshifting can now BREAK polymorph. yup. druids used to be as vulnerable to polymorph in caster form as any other class. this change, combined with the lack of spell dmg gear and the prevalence of resto spec druids meant that any druid who knew how to spell fake could literally heal a mage to death. by using only regrowth and rejuv, i would repeatedly stab mages to death with my dinky caster dagger as they vainly tried to overcome my healing with their nukes.
coupled with a strong (and newly unbugged) opener from cat form, a druid could choose to flat out decimate a mage, or just wear them down if they so chose.
it was about this time that talk on the official forums began to turn towards class reviews. warlocks and warriors were to be first up on the table, expected sometime in the next patch or two, with hunters after that and then...druids!
and that my children, is where i leave you for tonight, for it is late, and old Quor here is tired. the lesson will continue another night.
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The history of the Druid classFollow
well hello there! good to see you all again.
when last we left our intrepid heroes, change was on the wind. class talent reviews had been announced, with warriors and warlocks being first, hunters being second, and druids slated to come after hunters! not a whole lot changed over the course of the next few patches, but druids did receive a few essential fixes, and the ever-adaptable druid playerbase continued to push the druidic class to its limits.
Battlegrounds!
following 1.4, came (naturally) 1.5, and with it, battlegrounds. two BG's were present at first; alterac valley, the massive 40v40 fustercluck, and warsong gulch, the 10v10 capture the flag. WSG is where druids finally began to shine in a role besides healing.
the (relatively) recent buffs to bear form, in addition to the change of swiftshifting, meant that a number of enterprising druids who prided themselves on their slipperiness tinkered with builds until they came up with what would be know as the "swiftbuild". named because it contained the "swift" talents (swiftshifting, feline swiftness, natures swiftness) it was THE premier flag running talent. 8/21/21+1, where you get -60% to shifting costs for 6s after shifting out of a form (great for a quick regrowth+rejuv before you take off again), faster speed in cat form (which meant quicker stealth and more evasive manuevering outdoors), and an instant heal or root every three minutes (which, coupled with a number of high armor items and frenzied regen, meant for a VERY hard to kill druid). druid flag running became an art, and we were nigh uncatchable...except for mages and shaman. druids couldnt shift out of frost-based snare effects. so cone of cold, frostbolt, improved blizzard, ice armor, and frost shock all were proof against our shifting prowess.
Help is on the way!!!
enter 1.6
scroll down a bit and youll see that druids can now break frost-based snares! a good druidin WSG was now unstoppable unless feared or stunned. life, at least for some druids, was incredibly good. decent killing power, very high survivability, and the undeniable power of giving your opponents blue balls made for some fun times.
as an aside, a happy consequence of this bug fix resulted in another bug; druids could shift out of DAZE. FROM MOBS. having experienced that first hand, i can say it was DAMN fun. i never died outdoors until they fixed that bug. nothing, mob or PC, could catch me. EVER.
talent reviews were still in the works, with the devs officially stating that, yes, hunters were first, and druids were right after hunters. there was even a lot of hope that druids would be RIGHT AFTER hunters, with a great deal of attention being paid to the class (instead of what many druids feared would just be a patch fixing the hunter patch).
Waiting with bated breath
patch 1.7
BIG buffs for hunters. now all three trees were equally viable, depending on who you talked too anyway (everyone has an opinion). hunters now became more of a threat; between pvp trinkets breaking roots, and pets with improved resistances, locking down a hunter with roots + hibernate was much harder. it was also about this time that the mainstream hunter population FINALLY realized that shapeshifted druids counted as beasts, and were thus susceptible to scare beast, which didnt help either.
as for druids, we got a few fixes, a few upgrades, and a nerf or two. roots was now subject to the diminishing effects policy that other forms of CC were subject too, effectively meaning you could no longer alternate max rank starfire and rank 1 root to keep an enemy snared until they died or your mana ran out. but we got a very essential buff too, and that was being able to shift OUT of feral form when feared.
you see, druids couldnt always use their pvp trinkets in feral forms, so if you were caught in cat or bear or travel while feared, then you were screwed. you stayed feared until it broke, you died, or it was dispelled. the same applied for stun mechanics too. now we could actually make use of our pvp trinket by shifting to caster and triggering it. i know what some of you are thinking, and no, this "buff" didnt suck. it was actually quite good. so keep in mind how special you youngsters are with your pvp trinkets in forms and other such nonsense!
lots of buffs to cat form tho, including the addition of agi adding AP in cat form. but despite these increases, cat still didnt have what was necessary to put it as a top notch damage dealer, and it wouldnt until the next patch. bear form on the other hand, was performing quite well. druids had tanked all of MC but rag, and a few open-minded and enterprising guilds had utilized druid tanks on parts of blackwing lair. the addition of zul'gurub and the jin'do fight also meant druids had at least one fight where being immune to polymorph made things infinitely easier, and this allowed some druids to show their stuff and start changing peoples minds.
but cat was getting its due in just a few short weeks, as the druid class was about to undergo a massive overhaul that would set the groundwork for druids as they are today.
Edited, Jan 28th 2008 9:03pm by Quor
when last we left our intrepid heroes, change was on the wind. class talent reviews had been announced, with warriors and warlocks being first, hunters being second, and druids slated to come after hunters! not a whole lot changed over the course of the next few patches, but druids did receive a few essential fixes, and the ever-adaptable druid playerbase continued to push the druidic class to its limits.
Battlegrounds!
following 1.4, came (naturally) 1.5, and with it, battlegrounds. two BG's were present at first; alterac valley, the massive 40v40 fustercluck, and warsong gulch, the 10v10 capture the flag. WSG is where druids finally began to shine in a role besides healing.
the (relatively) recent buffs to bear form, in addition to the change of swiftshifting, meant that a number of enterprising druids who prided themselves on their slipperiness tinkered with builds until they came up with what would be know as the "swiftbuild". named because it contained the "swift" talents (swiftshifting, feline swiftness, natures swiftness) it was THE premier flag running talent. 8/21/21+1, where you get -60% to shifting costs for 6s after shifting out of a form (great for a quick regrowth+rejuv before you take off again), faster speed in cat form (which meant quicker stealth and more evasive manuevering outdoors), and an instant heal or root every three minutes (which, coupled with a number of high armor items and frenzied regen, meant for a VERY hard to kill druid). druid flag running became an art, and we were nigh uncatchable...except for mages and shaman. druids couldnt shift out of frost-based snare effects. so cone of cold, frostbolt, improved blizzard, ice armor, and frost shock all were proof against our shifting prowess.
Help is on the way!!!
enter 1.6
scroll down a bit and youll see that druids can now break frost-based snares! a good druidin WSG was now unstoppable unless feared or stunned. life, at least for some druids, was incredibly good. decent killing power, very high survivability, and the undeniable power of giving your opponents blue balls made for some fun times.
as an aside, a happy consequence of this bug fix resulted in another bug; druids could shift out of DAZE. FROM MOBS. having experienced that first hand, i can say it was DAMN fun. i never died outdoors until they fixed that bug. nothing, mob or PC, could catch me. EVER.
talent reviews were still in the works, with the devs officially stating that, yes, hunters were first, and druids were right after hunters. there was even a lot of hope that druids would be RIGHT AFTER hunters, with a great deal of attention being paid to the class (instead of what many druids feared would just be a patch fixing the hunter patch).
Waiting with bated breath
patch 1.7
BIG buffs for hunters. now all three trees were equally viable, depending on who you talked too anyway (everyone has an opinion). hunters now became more of a threat; between pvp trinkets breaking roots, and pets with improved resistances, locking down a hunter with roots + hibernate was much harder. it was also about this time that the mainstream hunter population FINALLY realized that shapeshifted druids counted as beasts, and were thus susceptible to scare beast, which didnt help either.
as for druids, we got a few fixes, a few upgrades, and a nerf or two. roots was now subject to the diminishing effects policy that other forms of CC were subject too, effectively meaning you could no longer alternate max rank starfire and rank 1 root to keep an enemy snared until they died or your mana ran out. but we got a very essential buff too, and that was being able to shift OUT of feral form when feared.
you see, druids couldnt always use their pvp trinkets in feral forms, so if you were caught in cat or bear or travel while feared, then you were screwed. you stayed feared until it broke, you died, or it was dispelled. the same applied for stun mechanics too. now we could actually make use of our pvp trinket by shifting to caster and triggering it. i know what some of you are thinking, and no, this "buff" didnt suck. it was actually quite good. so keep in mind how special you youngsters are with your pvp trinkets in forms and other such nonsense!
lots of buffs to cat form tho, including the addition of agi adding AP in cat form. but despite these increases, cat still didnt have what was necessary to put it as a top notch damage dealer, and it wouldnt until the next patch. bear form on the other hand, was performing quite well. druids had tanked all of MC but rag, and a few open-minded and enterprising guilds had utilized druid tanks on parts of blackwing lair. the addition of zul'gurub and the jin'do fight also meant druids had at least one fight where being immune to polymorph made things infinitely easier, and this allowed some druids to show their stuff and start changing peoples minds.
but cat was getting its due in just a few short weeks, as the druid class was about to undergo a massive overhaul that would set the groundwork for druids as they are today.
Edited, Jan 28th 2008 9:03pm by Quor
Cool.
Keep it up old drood.
Me young drood appreciate it.
Oh, maybe drood is a new slang =P
Keep it up old drood.
Me young drood appreciate it.
Oh, maybe drood is a new slang =P
Hang on, I'll be back as soon as the popcorn is ready - don't start without me!
Excellent post - thanks for the info, and I can't wait for the second installment.
Excellent post - thanks for the info, and I can't wait for the second installment.
the crowd want's more.
Good work, interesting reading.
Good work, interesting reading.
5 posts
when i started wow the balance tree had the moonkin form... OWLS RULL!
hehe i remember the times innervate was a talent.
if a druid wanted to raid he had to be resto spec no matter what( and innervating yourself was not an option).
after getting to lvl 60 it took a while till i found a raiding guild that would accept a balance druid. the shock was when i got my first +dmg cloth item(it was epic on top of that). suddently all mages hated me ... but with time learned to love me.. actually my critical buff
hehe i remember the times innervate was a talent.
if a druid wanted to raid he had to be resto spec no matter what( and innervating yourself was not an option).
after getting to lvl 60 it took a while till i found a raiding guild that would accept a balance druid. the shock was when i got my first +dmg cloth item(it was epic on top of that). suddently all mages hated me ... but with time learned to love me.. actually my critical buff
Superb! I had forgotten so many of those old weaknesses.
Oh man.
Back in tha daaaaayeee. Yeah I remember when resto was literally the only way to spec a druid.
Improved pounce was the top feral talent... oh jeez. I remember trying so hard to be a feral druid during the pre-1.3 patch days. I took so much crap, as every druid without innervate did, and spent hours looking for any possible gear... I eventually caved in and went resto. Ferals now-days have it lucky. (Cripes I feel old)
A nice look down memory lane, quor. Can't wait to see part 2 =]
Back in tha daaaaayeee. Yeah I remember when resto was literally the only way to spec a druid.
Improved pounce was the top feral talent... oh jeez. I remember trying so hard to be a feral druid during the pre-1.3 patch days. I took so much crap, as every druid without innervate did, and spent hours looking for any possible gear... I eventually caved in and went resto. Ferals now-days have it lucky. (Cripes I feel old)
A nice look down memory lane, quor. Can't wait to see part 2 =]
I'm getting all nostalgic. I miss the day when you couldn't find a druid that wasn't 9/11/31.
I was never 9/11/31, lol. :x Kind of sad these are among the only things I do remember though. Wasn't the frost bug fixed some time in there too? The one where slowing frost effects weren't considered a snare and shifting did not clear them (frost shock in particular).
♪ Kin Jehn : Behemoth
Oh yeah I remember all of that well! My main is a Druid who was rolled two days after release, and I lived through most of what you write there and remember it well.
I remember trying to level as balance specc when hurricane was a talent because I liked moonfire! was constantly oom rofl! and never got above 35, but actually I miss you Tanâ, you deserved a better fate - but your feral succesor did succeed where you failed - he got to 60!
The good ol' days indeed.
Except for the 'good' part. There wasn't much good about them.
Does anyone remember when they suddenly changed the design on the Wildheart Spaulders?
Except for the 'good' part. There wasn't much good about them.
Does anyone remember when they suddenly changed the design on the Wildheart Spaulders?
Please "talk up" if your comprehension white-shifts. I will use simple-happy language-words to help you understand.
lol, didn't play when the druids sucked so much - I remember when innervate became avialable as a spell (think my druid was 38/39 at the time) so I never really went without the spell :) Tho I remember coming across a druid in a group who hadn't read the patch notes and asked me where to get it from :P
I do, Mazra. I had full Wildheart at the time, so the change was big enough I actually didn't care for them at first. ;\
ps: They changed all the graphics on tier 0 sets, but for druids the helm and shoulders were most noticeable.
pps: Here's the old Wildheart, compared to the current graphics. Now that I've had some time to get used to the massive shoulders, I rather like the changes - not that anybody wears the set any more anyway. :x
Edited, Jan 25th 2007 1:50am by Kouren
ps: They changed all the graphics on tier 0 sets, but for druids the helm and shoulders were most noticeable.
pps: Here's the old Wildheart, compared to the current graphics. Now that I've had some time to get used to the massive shoulders, I rather like the changes - not that anybody wears the set any more anyway. :x
Edited, Jan 25th 2007 1:50am by Kouren
♪ Kin Jehn : Behemoth
wow, good post. i remember those days. i struggled through 2 druids in original retail and gave up around 25-30 on both. ;) brings back some memories seeing those talent trees lol
Well, I came into the druid class after the talent review. I leveled feral and respecced to Resto for raiding due to the wonderful Innervate talent. Then came the switch to Swiftmend and I went I believe 23/0/28 for raiding. Now that BC and the new talents are here it is Feral all the way. I would be tempted to try moonkin but that will take a lot of gear gathering before I am willing to make that kind of switch.
4 posts
Don't forget the original water form quest for alliance druids that was almost impossible to do. You got killed lots of times trying to swim in deep water. Then there was the improved MOTW icon that never showed the correct value and all the other druid bugs that didn't get fixed for months and months. In those days druid was a challenging class to play..... if a bit slow to level. Nowadays when your feral druid starts with 1500 ravage, follows with a 1000 point mangle and then finish with a 2000 ferocious bite it's hard to think it's the same druid.
I personally hate the new shoulder design.
One word: Male Night Elf model design.
Okay, five words.
One word: Male Night Elf model design.
Okay, five words.
Please "talk up" if your comprehension white-shifts. I will use simple-happy language-words to help you understand.
Another memory - Female druids in feral forms had male voices for the first six months or so.
added patches 1.5 to 1.7, so enjoy :)
I'm looking forward to the more recent patches. It was around 1.6 or 1.7 that I began entertaining thoughts of making a feral tank. I started doing my homework, reading Hugehoss' posts on the o-boards, and some very thoughtfully written posts here, mostly by some guy named Quor or something.
Right about when 1.8 came out I left Cenarion Circle and rolled Beohrn, a bear tank wanna-be from the start, and I haven't looked back since. This retrospective on patches is very interesting.
Edited, Feb 4th 2007 10:32pm by selebrin
Right about when 1.8 came out I left Cenarion Circle and rolled Beohrn, a bear tank wanna-be from the start, and I haven't looked back since. This retrospective on patches is very interesting.
Edited, Feb 4th 2007 10:32pm by selebrin
aint research a *****? if you havent ever done experimental research, my advice is dont try. the only bonus of having most of my free time spent locked away in a lab is that i get to work with cute little hamsters and rats. the black syrian hamsters are especially adorable.
now, where was i....ah yes....1.8.
Glorious 1.8
the first thing you may or may not notice is the "normalization" of weapon speed. ask any old school warrior or rogue and theyll say that 1.8 was the end of an era; the era of the arcanite reaper and the barman shanker. many tears were shed at 1.8 by thousands of crushed warriors and rogues. for them, it was a dark day indeed.
but we're not warriors or rogues. we're druids. and for druids, 1.8 was like waking up from a bad dream. each talent tree had received a MASSIVE overhaul, in many cases becoming quite similar to what they are currently. hurricane was turned into a trainable skill and moonkin form replaced it, while feral received leader of the pack (long awaited raid/group viability for ferals) in addition to some general point slimming in both trees. toss in some miscellaneous talent changes, like omen of clarity being changed to what it is now, and "weapon balance" being retuned into "natural weapons", and the coming of the 11/32/5+3 build was at hand. feral druids finally had teeth, and balance had begun to get some real boom (altho you were still quite oom more often than not).
well, i should clarify; 1.8 was like waking up from a bad dream if you wanted to be balance or feral. if you really liked resto, then you were kinda peeved. resto actually got nerfed in 1.8. you see, as pasty mentioned before, "feral" druids were often really some kind of 9/11/31 build. innervate was simply TOO GOOD, regardless of playstyle. and when you contrasted deep balance and feral with deep resto....well, there wasnt much reason to go past 11 in feral or 9 in balance unless you were stupidly stubborn. to be quite honest, with 31 points in resto you could heal exceptionally well, and you had all around utility and survivability thanks to the early balance and feral talents. high survivability, good utility, decent damage....why NOT go resto.
the pre-1.8 resto tree was the envy of the other healing classes. priests and paladins wish they had what druids had, and shaman....shaman hated druids. for 1 point druids would get a 5% bonus to healing. for 31 we would get the best mana regen skill in game. for 5 points shaman would get a 10% bonus to healing, and for 31 points they would get a mediocre totem with 5 hp that had no pvp use, little pve use, but was wanted anyway because people wanted as much healing and mana as possible. whereas a druid could spec 31 in resto and be great at healing and good at other stuff, a shaman would typically have to dump 40+ points in resto to pick up comparable strength.
1.8 fixed that good. resto received some toning down, and while it was still strong, it was no longer so strong as to make three other classes weep. to put it another way, the talent cost/gain ratio of the druid resto tree was so good that many druids, being the practical folks they are, couldnt see a feasible reason to NOT spec resto. but thanks to this toning and the buffing of feral and balance, other ways of thinking and doing finally entered the druidic realm.
resto was no longer *the* way to go, altho many many people still held a stigma against non-resto druids. druids were still strongest at healing, but much respect was being won on a tanking basis, and with the new talents some druids with the dedication and means to acquire the higher end feral gear (such as the hammer of beastial fury from the new green dragon world bosses) were finally starting to put out some good numbers in cat. more than that, a small sect of druids, dedicated to the balance path, took advantage of the new, stronger balance tree, and decked in the best cloth they could find, began to make headway into the realm of druidic casting. these early druids pioneered the concept of downranking nukes, something that other casting classes could barely fathom. by downranking nukes, and with a proper build and gear setup, these balance druids could walk the line of aggro gain while casting almost non-stop, putting out impressive damage over the course of a raid.
life still wasnt easy tho, altho despite this, many druids had a renewed sense of hope that their problems as a class would continue to be addressed.
1.9 and 1.10
not a lot changed in the next two patches. a few bug fixes, a small buff to omen of clarity, a nerf to cleanse/dispel effects (including remove curse, cure poison, and abolish poison), and the opening of a new instance came with 1.9. nothing spectacular really, altho bug fixes and such are always nice. 1.10 had a bit more to it, with a mana cost reduction for healing touch (making it even MORE efficient) and the addition of other minor things like making ravage completely unavoidable aside from the natural chance to miss. rip received a minor nerf in that it was turned into a bleed effect, rendering it useless on a number of mobs it used to work on, but this would ultimately be for the good with the eventual advent of mangle.
the two biggest tho were the addition of equippable items (like the pvp trinket) being useable in forms, and the removal of the 1 second immunity on shift. the use of equippable items was in itself a huge buff, especially for pvp, as you no longer needed to drop the protection of a bear or lose the energy of cat to break a stun or fear. the 1 second immunity was a special effect granted whenever a druid shifted that made them immune to EVERYTHING. i have no idea why this was ever in game, but some fast-fingered druids were able to abuse this mechanic to render themselves nearly invincible while shifting forms.
more than that, an as-yet-unknown bug in bear form that involved heart of the wild meant that shifting into and out of bear repeatedly would HEAL the druid. this bug was unknown to many druids, as no druid really wants to **** away that much mana to heal themselves. but an enterprising group of druids (who i unaffectionately refer to as "almost exploiters" due to their tendency to push the limits of intended behavior) managed to find a very interesting use for the blackwing lair druid trinket.
Rune of Metamorphosis
this is the current incarnation of the rune. its previous incarnation, before xpac, was a % cost reduction on shifting. 30% to be exact. with this trinket, heart of the wild, enough stam and int, and the recently added natural shapeshifter talent, a druid could expend mana spamming bear form and heal themselves at a very efficient rate. add in the inherent 1 second immunity of form shifting and you had an invincible flag runner. it took blizzard two patches to catch this, probably because the rune of metamorphosis was discounted by a lot of druids as useless, but people manage to find a way to exploit every possible avenue they can in order to win. bit sad really.
so if you ever get pissed at another classes ability to snare you AS you shift into or out of a form, pst squalish on azgalor alliance side and tell him hes an @#%^.
Blizzard drops a bomb
thats patch 1.11 folks. it has a grand total of four druid changes. but among those four changes is arguably the single best change made to the druid class since release. namely, innervate being made a trainable skill.
*cue heavenly choir*
yeah, it was that good. with one single change blizzard basically said to the raiding community "there, now you cant use innervate as a reason to force resto specs on druids". EVERY SINGLE DRUID HAD INNERVATE, REGARDLESS OF SPEC! this was huge. insanely huge. i remember seeing eyonix post on the druid forums about this change. it was so huge that fake alamo made a "durid diskushun" thread on it that detailed the druid forum reaction to eyonix's announcement (which basically involved a lot of black whelping pictures dropping bombs on bears....it wasnt the real alamo, but damn was it a good approximation. quite funny).
despite this, many raiding guilds (ok, almost all of them) still insisted on resto specs, or at least some kind of high-efficiency balance/resto build (specically the 27/0/24 HT spam build, which had insane efficiency and was first suggested as a viable HT spam build during 1.8, but discounted in overall usefulness due to not possessing innervate). well, now that every druid everywhere had innervate, whether they were 20/20/11, 51/0/0, or 0/0/0, one of the biggest excuses for speccing resto was now dead.
in short, all but two roadblocks had been removed in the practical application of non-resto druids in raids. i speak of itemization and context. items to support healing builds abounded in the raid scene, but feral and balance were left high and dry, and even with the tier .5 armor upgrade sets (which supported a very hybrid style of play) it was hard for anyone but a resto to find leather. context to support the hybrid style of play never existed before outside of 5-mans or UBRS, as raids were so intensive they "distilled" each class down to its most efficient, effective component part. changing classes from the ground up was out of the question, so blizzard would eventually take a more innovative route, with plans for the xpac being a "hybrid playground" as far as itemization and encounters were concerned.
and that my friends, is where i leave you for now.
Edited, Mar 28th 2007 5:13pm by Quor
now, where was i....ah yes....1.8.
Glorious 1.8
the first thing you may or may not notice is the "normalization" of weapon speed. ask any old school warrior or rogue and theyll say that 1.8 was the end of an era; the era of the arcanite reaper and the barman shanker. many tears were shed at 1.8 by thousands of crushed warriors and rogues. for them, it was a dark day indeed.
but we're not warriors or rogues. we're druids. and for druids, 1.8 was like waking up from a bad dream. each talent tree had received a MASSIVE overhaul, in many cases becoming quite similar to what they are currently. hurricane was turned into a trainable skill and moonkin form replaced it, while feral received leader of the pack (long awaited raid/group viability for ferals) in addition to some general point slimming in both trees. toss in some miscellaneous talent changes, like omen of clarity being changed to what it is now, and "weapon balance" being retuned into "natural weapons", and the coming of the 11/32/5+3 build was at hand. feral druids finally had teeth, and balance had begun to get some real boom (altho you were still quite oom more often than not).
well, i should clarify; 1.8 was like waking up from a bad dream if you wanted to be balance or feral. if you really liked resto, then you were kinda peeved. resto actually got nerfed in 1.8. you see, as pasty mentioned before, "feral" druids were often really some kind of 9/11/31 build. innervate was simply TOO GOOD, regardless of playstyle. and when you contrasted deep balance and feral with deep resto....well, there wasnt much reason to go past 11 in feral or 9 in balance unless you were stupidly stubborn. to be quite honest, with 31 points in resto you could heal exceptionally well, and you had all around utility and survivability thanks to the early balance and feral talents. high survivability, good utility, decent damage....why NOT go resto.
the pre-1.8 resto tree was the envy of the other healing classes. priests and paladins wish they had what druids had, and shaman....shaman hated druids. for 1 point druids would get a 5% bonus to healing. for 31 we would get the best mana regen skill in game. for 5 points shaman would get a 10% bonus to healing, and for 31 points they would get a mediocre totem with 5 hp that had no pvp use, little pve use, but was wanted anyway because people wanted as much healing and mana as possible. whereas a druid could spec 31 in resto and be great at healing and good at other stuff, a shaman would typically have to dump 40+ points in resto to pick up comparable strength.
1.8 fixed that good. resto received some toning down, and while it was still strong, it was no longer so strong as to make three other classes weep. to put it another way, the talent cost/gain ratio of the druid resto tree was so good that many druids, being the practical folks they are, couldnt see a feasible reason to NOT spec resto. but thanks to this toning and the buffing of feral and balance, other ways of thinking and doing finally entered the druidic realm.
resto was no longer *the* way to go, altho many many people still held a stigma against non-resto druids. druids were still strongest at healing, but much respect was being won on a tanking basis, and with the new talents some druids with the dedication and means to acquire the higher end feral gear (such as the hammer of beastial fury from the new green dragon world bosses) were finally starting to put out some good numbers in cat. more than that, a small sect of druids, dedicated to the balance path, took advantage of the new, stronger balance tree, and decked in the best cloth they could find, began to make headway into the realm of druidic casting. these early druids pioneered the concept of downranking nukes, something that other casting classes could barely fathom. by downranking nukes, and with a proper build and gear setup, these balance druids could walk the line of aggro gain while casting almost non-stop, putting out impressive damage over the course of a raid.
life still wasnt easy tho, altho despite this, many druids had a renewed sense of hope that their problems as a class would continue to be addressed.
1.9 and 1.10
not a lot changed in the next two patches. a few bug fixes, a small buff to omen of clarity, a nerf to cleanse/dispel effects (including remove curse, cure poison, and abolish poison), and the opening of a new instance came with 1.9. nothing spectacular really, altho bug fixes and such are always nice. 1.10 had a bit more to it, with a mana cost reduction for healing touch (making it even MORE efficient) and the addition of other minor things like making ravage completely unavoidable aside from the natural chance to miss. rip received a minor nerf in that it was turned into a bleed effect, rendering it useless on a number of mobs it used to work on, but this would ultimately be for the good with the eventual advent of mangle.
the two biggest tho were the addition of equippable items (like the pvp trinket) being useable in forms, and the removal of the 1 second immunity on shift. the use of equippable items was in itself a huge buff, especially for pvp, as you no longer needed to drop the protection of a bear or lose the energy of cat to break a stun or fear. the 1 second immunity was a special effect granted whenever a druid shifted that made them immune to EVERYTHING. i have no idea why this was ever in game, but some fast-fingered druids were able to abuse this mechanic to render themselves nearly invincible while shifting forms.
more than that, an as-yet-unknown bug in bear form that involved heart of the wild meant that shifting into and out of bear repeatedly would HEAL the druid. this bug was unknown to many druids, as no druid really wants to **** away that much mana to heal themselves. but an enterprising group of druids (who i unaffectionately refer to as "almost exploiters" due to their tendency to push the limits of intended behavior) managed to find a very interesting use for the blackwing lair druid trinket.
Rune of Metamorphosis
this is the current incarnation of the rune. its previous incarnation, before xpac, was a % cost reduction on shifting. 30% to be exact. with this trinket, heart of the wild, enough stam and int, and the recently added natural shapeshifter talent, a druid could expend mana spamming bear form and heal themselves at a very efficient rate. add in the inherent 1 second immunity of form shifting and you had an invincible flag runner. it took blizzard two patches to catch this, probably because the rune of metamorphosis was discounted by a lot of druids as useless, but people manage to find a way to exploit every possible avenue they can in order to win. bit sad really.
so if you ever get pissed at another classes ability to snare you AS you shift into or out of a form, pst squalish on azgalor alliance side and tell him hes an @#%^.
Blizzard drops a bomb
thats patch 1.11 folks. it has a grand total of four druid changes. but among those four changes is arguably the single best change made to the druid class since release. namely, innervate being made a trainable skill.
*cue heavenly choir*
yeah, it was that good. with one single change blizzard basically said to the raiding community "there, now you cant use innervate as a reason to force resto specs on druids". EVERY SINGLE DRUID HAD INNERVATE, REGARDLESS OF SPEC! this was huge. insanely huge. i remember seeing eyonix post on the druid forums about this change. it was so huge that fake alamo made a "durid diskushun" thread on it that detailed the druid forum reaction to eyonix's announcement (which basically involved a lot of black whelping pictures dropping bombs on bears....it wasnt the real alamo, but damn was it a good approximation. quite funny).
despite this, many raiding guilds (ok, almost all of them) still insisted on resto specs, or at least some kind of high-efficiency balance/resto build (specically the 27/0/24 HT spam build, which had insane efficiency and was first suggested as a viable HT spam build during 1.8, but discounted in overall usefulness due to not possessing innervate). well, now that every druid everywhere had innervate, whether they were 20/20/11, 51/0/0, or 0/0/0, one of the biggest excuses for speccing resto was now dead.
in short, all but two roadblocks had been removed in the practical application of non-resto druids in raids. i speak of itemization and context. items to support healing builds abounded in the raid scene, but feral and balance were left high and dry, and even with the tier .5 armor upgrade sets (which supported a very hybrid style of play) it was hard for anyone but a resto to find leather. context to support the hybrid style of play never existed before outside of 5-mans or UBRS, as raids were so intensive they "distilled" each class down to its most efficient, effective component part. changing classes from the ground up was out of the question, so blizzard would eventually take a more innovative route, with plans for the xpac being a "hybrid playground" as far as itemization and encounters were concerned.
and that my friends, is where i leave you for now.
Edited, Mar 28th 2007 5:13pm by Quor
OMG,
I got so upset reading about all the stuff I use to have to deal with. Most Druid players are strong players playing a Druid, because we've had to to play with a class that has sucked for so long, and we had to learn how to win, or at least survive, against other classes.
Playing a Druid back in the day required a certain type of player, and still does to some point today. Druids were never the type to be Min/Max hardcore gamers, that was what the Rogue class was for.
Anyone else remember the leveling guide for a Druid?
Spec Resto -> get lots of friends -> group your way to 60.
or
Spec Resto -> open with Balance -> switch to bear form -> heal when needed
The first being by far the best way to level, notice that cat form is not in there anywhere.
Blizzard made our class, and never really knew what to do with it. Just look at the NPC druids you come across, and how they differ in a fight. Heck, a few weeks ago, I came across a NPC Druid that rooted me, and I couldn't shift out of it. They figured that most people wouldn't play a Druid, and if they did, they'd do so because they wanted a character to be one of the best healers, or anyone who'd choose to play a Druid, would be somone who would be happy with his character because of cool abilities, rather than ueeful ones, and that is pretty much how you can sum up the old Druid class with the exception of a Resto Druid.
I once was asked how I spent my 20 extra points, because they knew I had 31 in Resto.
I got so upset reading about all the stuff I use to have to deal with. Most Druid players are strong players playing a Druid, because we've had to to play with a class that has sucked for so long, and we had to learn how to win, or at least survive, against other classes.
Playing a Druid back in the day required a certain type of player, and still does to some point today. Druids were never the type to be Min/Max hardcore gamers, that was what the Rogue class was for.
Anyone else remember the leveling guide for a Druid?
Spec Resto -> get lots of friends -> group your way to 60.
or
Spec Resto -> open with Balance -> switch to bear form -> heal when needed
The first being by far the best way to level, notice that cat form is not in there anywhere.
Blizzard made our class, and never really knew what to do with it. Just look at the NPC druids you come across, and how they differ in a fight. Heck, a few weeks ago, I came across a NPC Druid that rooted me, and I couldn't shift out of it. They figured that most people wouldn't play a Druid, and if they did, they'd do so because they wanted a character to be one of the best healers, or anyone who'd choose to play a Druid, would be somone who would be happy with his character because of cool abilities, rather than ueeful ones, and that is pretty much how you can sum up the old Druid class with the exception of a Resto Druid.
I once was asked how I spent my 20 extra points, because they knew I had 31 in Resto.
Double Post
Edited, Mar 28th 2007 7:33pm by Ephen
Edited, Mar 28th 2007 7:33pm by Ephen
5 posts
nice. love all this info about where druids come from. go druids!
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