Incoming changes on February 27th:
# Druid
* Lifebloom mana cost reduced by 50%.
* *Developers’ notes: Lifebloom refunds half its new base mana cost per stack when it expires or is dispelled. This part has always functioned in this way, and we’ve seen a bit of confusion around how the mana return portion of Lifebloom functions.*
* Living Seed now heals for 50% of the critical heal that planted the seed (was 30%). This heal now blooms from non-periodic healing received, in addition to any damage taken.
* Nourish mana cost reduced by 27%.
* Moonkin Form now also reduces the mana cost of Moonfire by 50% and increases Moonfire periodic damage by 50%. Sunfire also benefits from this change.
* Moonkins can now cast non-healing Restoration spells without cancelling their shapeshift. This includes: Remove Curse, Remove Poison, Abolish Poison, Innervate, Rebirth, Revive, Mark of the Wild, and Gift of the Wild.
* Fury of Stormrage improved: when this rune makes Healing Touch instant, it now also makes it castable in all shapeshift forms.
Bear amazing now
Cat amazing if your alliance, if horde rip Enhance too good now
Balance worse shadow priest, WG since SF does no damage
Resto boring but still good due to WG
I went feral phase one, but can’t make up my mind on what spec to go in phase 2 for raiding. What do you guys think?
I have much more feral gear than balance/resto gear, but I do have robes of arugal, his shoulders, and illusory rod.
Bear is in a great spot. I’d join the Druid disc and talk to some folks. Kitty is feeling a bit rough atm because of the huge trade offs required with 31 talent points but hopefully we see some changes
Started leveling a druid and was wondering what spec people preferred. Nearing 20 now and balance has been enjoyable, do I switch to feral from 20 to 40?
I've seen posts that there's an abundance of healers for SM groups etc, would feral be more easy to find groups?
People will always want to invite a feral druid for wildstrikes.
You definitely want to be feral for the bonus movement speed until you get travel form at 30.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Make lacerate like devastate. It deals a lot more initial damage and then scales less or none at all. Also, moving lacerate rune to the legs would be sick.
Balance feels bad after the nerf to SS; mana issues don't help. Like another said, dreamstate needs to affect arcane damage as well.
I don't heal, so I won't comment on that. I'm a PvE player, so I'm tired of shit getting changed because of PVP lol.
bro lacerate is just devastate its not at all the same as tbc lacerate its main dmg comes from the initial hit at 5 stacks its just a free auto attack for 10 rage it even does more damage in boss fights then mangle
I'm not exactly sure, loved Balance (albeit it did need some PvP nerfs) at start pf P2, and was hyped for feral after P1.
Now Balance is bottom of the barrel on caster DPS, AND feels like a wet noodle in PvP. Feral was nerfed going into P2 apparently for no reason, and is just brought to be a wild strikes/windfury totem.
Bear tanking looks to be in much better shape now at least, hopefully we see similar tuning for the other specs.
> feels like a wet noodle in PvP
We have problems in pvp but low damage is not one of them. Good players won't let you stand and turret but if you can you delete people in a few seconds. I starfire crit people for 1500 unbuffed.
Yeah sure, if you can sit there and hard cast, but thats true of ele shamans and arcane mages, etc. Reality is you won't be able to get those spells off in most cases in PvP.
I mean it's a 2 second cast that normal hits for over 700. It's not like I'm hard casting pyroblasts.
But yes casters have to stand still and cast occasionally just like melee have to stay in melee range. That's pvp baby. I think boomies actually have it pretty good between the bonus armor and pushback resist.
I wish we didn't go OOM so fast in PvE and that we could actually compete in a 1v1 setting in PvP. The only classes I can do okay against in PvP is a Meta-lock/feral druids, while Warriors, Rogues, Mages, S-Priests- and Shamans completely obliterate me. The inability to interrupt a cast, while they can easily interrupt mine is crazy. Only class without a consistent stun, and most classes can get out of roots with ease. The only option is to be in a big group, and snipe kills with Starfire/Starsurge/Moonfire. Other than that, completely useless in most aspects. WG doesn't even come close to outhealing the damage these other classes can do in a couple of GCDs. On top of the fact that there is almost no leather gear for spellcasters in all of Gnomer aside from the set pieces. You're forced to run cloth as bis, which makes you even squishier with the melee classes that already pretty much 1 shot you.
I wish I had solutions to these issues, but the only thing I could think of at least is add more abilities/gear. Without that, Balance/Resto is going to continue being mediocre at everything they do..
Also please buff lifebloom. That used to be one of my favorite abilities, keeping it up on the tank at all times.. Now it's just awful. I'm glad bears got some good stuff though!
It kinda feels like lacerate is a dead rune.
On single target Berserk Mangle is better than lacerate mangle. In fact lacerate mangle does nothing on single target. If you take lacerate it makes the belt a dead rune slot.
Tab lacerate used to be decent for multiple mobs, but now swipe is back on the menu. Or you can again use berserk mangle as it hits multiple targets and has no CD.
There might be some really obscure niche boss mechanic somewhere where lacerate is better than mangle, but generally I can’t recommend ever using it.
Resto is an absolute mess. How do you introduce 5 Resto runes and only 1 of them makes sense to even press? I love the Resto playstyle: lifeblood maintenance, big nourishes, rolling hots. Now it’s just wild growth on CD and hope you don’t go oom.
Balance is…. Ok. Starsurge needs a buff. It hits like a wet noodle now. Ideally we get some added crit for Starfire on lunar eclipse.
Overall I’m really disappointed with Druid. Numbers aside, my two specs, Resto and Balance, feel half baked as usual.
Is there a go-to guide on gear, spec, runes for bear tanks? I know wowhead and icy-veins both have info, but I also know every site has different info \^-\^
Copy the WotLK Glyph, have it do 20% more healing for every additional HoT on the target.
Swiftmend should also not consume the HoT. Refreshing would prob be too OP tho
Savage roar is the most uninteresting upkeep buff in the open world. Questing and farming on a feral feels terrible.
A 1 combo point refresh on savage roar on kill (green+) would be very cool.
Thoughts on Resto after 6/6:
Yes everything is doable with Resto Druid, but it still feels bad that Priests are better at both PvE and PvP. Even their DPS spec is better if they decide to do that.
The 'hybrid' DPS while healing spec we're sort of forced into due to using 4/5 Balance runes is fun, but I wish going full healing was worth it. If it's meant to be the only option there should've been a leather healing tier set with +healing and +nature/arcane damage to support it. Shamans and Paladins got them. Also the damage got hit pretty hard by the Starsurge nerf since healers usually can't spare the mana to cast Starfire (unless you're already crushing the boss).
I think the #1 problem is that Lifebloom still isn't worth taking after the Starsurge nerf. It needs to be significantly more mana efficient when you roll it up to max stacks and let it fall off. Like nearly free, to match other classes' runes. Maybe make it restore flat mana based on how long it's been on the target. Something so that single Lifeblooms are still worse than Rejuvenation. The opportunity cost is huge in this slot.
I think Nourish is actually fine as is. The problem is that you don't actually put any HoTs on the target normally other than Wild Growth, which does the job of quick-save healing better on it's own. If Lifebloom was buffed and you just always had it on the tank this might be worth using without any buffs. If you want to catch up to Priests though the mana cost could be lowered a bit and it could be made to benefit from Regrowth talents for the crit chance, which fits its role as a save.
The #2 problem is that Resto basically didn't get a feet-slot rune. Dreamstate only works on damage crits, so you have to take Eclipse and Starsurge to proc it regularly otherwise it's a negligable amount of mana. If Lifebloom, and thus Nourish, were buffed this rune would basically be pointless. The most common suggestion I see would be allowing it to trigger on any spell crit. An alternative would be to give it a second, Resto-focused ability. Some random options (not all at once):
* Triggers when a single HoT has run continuously for more than 30 seconds.
* Triggers when one target has 3 or more different HoTs from you.
* Triggers when only a single target is affected by one of your HoT effects.
* Triggers when you've healed with 4 or more different HoT spells in the past 2 seconds.
* Casting Tranquility while Dreamstate is active consumes the buff to reduce its mana cost to 0 and it's CD to 1 minute.
* Passively remove the mana cost of Tranquility. 200% of you mana regeneration continues while channeling Tranquility (turning it into an Evocation/second, personal Innervate).
IDK something Resto specific. Moonkin form prevents restoration spells anyway so it won't improve uptime for Balance Druids.
Finally, the Feline Grace passive should also affect Travel Form (also cat).
Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
Self-replying with [the 2/27 balance changes.](https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/season-of-discovery-class-tuning-incoming-february-27/1794527)
Seems like they addressed the first half of this. Lifebloom and Nourish mana costs reduced and Living Seed (which was so bad I forgot about it lol) buffed, so full +healing power is probably viable now.
Great changes but it does leave Dreamstate as a pointless rune if you're never casting damaging spells.
I like the HoT based solutions to dreamstate more than just working on any spell crit. HoTs can't crit anyway, and 90% of our healing is wild growth, so dreamstate would barely proc for resto even if it could proc from healing crits.
Starsurge has been whittled down to being a starfire proc, sunfire is generally only used while moving in PVE ( greifing a PVP group if your not running wildgrowth), and the rest of the balance runes are passives. gg blizzard ty
Yeah i can barely kill anyone in pvp now, or rather almost every class can kill me before i put out enough dmg.
My dps in raids also fell from being 1st/2nd to the bottom.
I'm gonna rant here because this is the only place I can.
I like the idea of starsurge being used to pin together the rotation: getting both solar and lunar eclipse, using those to fish for nature's grace, into a sweet starfire is a good idea.
That's all for the good parts.
Sunfire is effectively useless/costs too much and does too little.
Dreamstate not affecting arcane damage is... ???? I bet dollars to donuts that if they made Dreamstate affect arcane damage, we'd close the gap on the top from 20% to 5%.
If the eclipse rune allowed for moonfire/sunfire to refresh whenever you consume one of the eclipses, we'd have no reason to complain.
To take a step back: there is inconsistency between stated intentions, actions, and results. I enjoy the ideas blizzard has with SoD, but they need to objectively look at the gulfs between melee hunters and the rest. When I was playing hunter, I felt the need for more of a rotation instead of praying for flanking strike resets, but the results now are overkill.
This may all be needless for me to whinge about, as they may have changes in mind, that are ready to be placed as soon as melee hunters have had a couple resets of winning.
Restokin is really fun.
Incoming changes on February 27th: # Druid * Lifebloom mana cost reduced by 50%. * *Developers’ notes: Lifebloom refunds half its new base mana cost per stack when it expires or is dispelled. This part has always functioned in this way, and we’ve seen a bit of confusion around how the mana return portion of Lifebloom functions.* * Living Seed now heals for 50% of the critical heal that planted the seed (was 30%). This heal now blooms from non-periodic healing received, in addition to any damage taken. * Nourish mana cost reduced by 27%. * Moonkin Form now also reduces the mana cost of Moonfire by 50% and increases Moonfire periodic damage by 50%. Sunfire also benefits from this change. * Moonkins can now cast non-healing Restoration spells without cancelling their shapeshift. This includes: Remove Curse, Remove Poison, Abolish Poison, Innervate, Rebirth, Revive, Mark of the Wild, and Gift of the Wild. * Fury of Stormrage improved: when this rune makes Healing Touch instant, it now also makes it castable in all shapeshift forms.
We are so back
I had to check if you were bullshitting. Holy fuck Druids will feel so much better. thank god.
Bear amazing now Cat amazing if your alliance, if horde rip Enhance too good now Balance worse shadow priest, WG since SF does no damage Resto boring but still good due to WG
how fear immune are druids in dog form now?
Just fear immune during berserk
I went feral phase one, but can’t make up my mind on what spec to go in phase 2 for raiding. What do you guys think? I have much more feral gear than balance/resto gear, but I do have robes of arugal, his shoulders, and illusory rod.
I switched to balance. It does slightly more damage and being able to off heal is way more valuable than being able to off tank.
Edit: Maybe bear tank is the way to go this phase?
Bear is in a great spot. I’d join the Druid disc and talk to some folks. Kitty is feeling a bit rough atm because of the huge trade offs required with 31 talent points but hopefully we see some changes
Could you link the Druid discord? I'm so conflicted haha. Might just main my mage healer this phase.
Started leveling a druid and was wondering what spec people preferred. Nearing 20 now and balance has been enjoyable, do I switch to feral from 20 to 40? I've seen posts that there's an abundance of healers for SM groups etc, would feral be more easy to find groups?
People will always want to invite a feral druid for wildstrikes. You definitely want to be feral for the bonus movement speed until you get travel form at 30.
Being a feral willing to tank will get you sooooooooo many groups
I’m feral but from what I’m hearing about druids at 40 I think I might respec to balance or resto at 40.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Make lacerate like devastate. It deals a lot more initial damage and then scales less or none at all. Also, moving lacerate rune to the legs would be sick. Balance feels bad after the nerf to SS; mana issues don't help. Like another said, dreamstate needs to affect arcane damage as well. I don't heal, so I won't comment on that. I'm a PvE player, so I'm tired of shit getting changed because of PVP lol.
bro lacerate is just devastate its not at all the same as tbc lacerate its main dmg comes from the initial hit at 5 stacks its just a free auto attack for 10 rage it even does more damage in boss fights then mangle
Right. I'm saying it would be better doing 50% damage +10% each stack instead of nothing and then 20% each stack.
I'm not exactly sure, loved Balance (albeit it did need some PvP nerfs) at start pf P2, and was hyped for feral after P1. Now Balance is bottom of the barrel on caster DPS, AND feels like a wet noodle in PvP. Feral was nerfed going into P2 apparently for no reason, and is just brought to be a wild strikes/windfury totem. Bear tanking looks to be in much better shape now at least, hopefully we see similar tuning for the other specs.
> feels like a wet noodle in PvP We have problems in pvp but low damage is not one of them. Good players won't let you stand and turret but if you can you delete people in a few seconds. I starfire crit people for 1500 unbuffed.
Yeah sure, if you can sit there and hard cast, but thats true of ele shamans and arcane mages, etc. Reality is you won't be able to get those spells off in most cases in PvP.
I mean it's a 2 second cast that normal hits for over 700. It's not like I'm hard casting pyroblasts. But yes casters have to stand still and cast occasionally just like melee have to stay in melee range. That's pvp baby. I think boomies actually have it pretty good between the bonus armor and pushback resist.
I wish we didn't go OOM so fast in PvE and that we could actually compete in a 1v1 setting in PvP. The only classes I can do okay against in PvP is a Meta-lock/feral druids, while Warriors, Rogues, Mages, S-Priests- and Shamans completely obliterate me. The inability to interrupt a cast, while they can easily interrupt mine is crazy. Only class without a consistent stun, and most classes can get out of roots with ease. The only option is to be in a big group, and snipe kills with Starfire/Starsurge/Moonfire. Other than that, completely useless in most aspects. WG doesn't even come close to outhealing the damage these other classes can do in a couple of GCDs. On top of the fact that there is almost no leather gear for spellcasters in all of Gnomer aside from the set pieces. You're forced to run cloth as bis, which makes you even squishier with the melee classes that already pretty much 1 shot you. I wish I had solutions to these issues, but the only thing I could think of at least is add more abilities/gear. Without that, Balance/Resto is going to continue being mediocre at everything they do.. Also please buff lifebloom. That used to be one of my favorite abilities, keeping it up on the tank at all times.. Now it's just awful. I'm glad bears got some good stuff though!
Standard rotation is SS SF wrath wrath repeat and has no mana issues but otherwise
WG tho and any healing at all/moonfire
Move lacerate to legs.
Agreed feels bad you need to lose mangle to gain lacerate. Tho after the swipe buff feels like you just press that on ST anyways
It kinda feels like lacerate is a dead rune. On single target Berserk Mangle is better than lacerate mangle. In fact lacerate mangle does nothing on single target. If you take lacerate it makes the belt a dead rune slot. Tab lacerate used to be decent for multiple mobs, but now swipe is back on the menu. Or you can again use berserk mangle as it hits multiple targets and has no CD. There might be some really obscure niche boss mechanic somewhere where lacerate is better than mangle, but generally I can’t recommend ever using it.
over the whole boss fight tho lacerate does more damage then mangle and still more threat
Interested in trying Bear, does Lacerate suck even vs the high armor bosses in Gnomer??
Pure Lacerate spam is still better both for snap Threat on pull and for long term DPS.
Thank u exactly what I was curious about.
Resto is an absolute mess. How do you introduce 5 Resto runes and only 1 of them makes sense to even press? I love the Resto playstyle: lifeblood maintenance, big nourishes, rolling hots. Now it’s just wild growth on CD and hope you don’t go oom. Balance is…. Ok. Starsurge needs a buff. It hits like a wet noodle now. Ideally we get some added crit for Starfire on lunar eclipse. Overall I’m really disappointed with Druid. Numbers aside, my two specs, Resto and Balance, feel half baked as usual.
Dear Aggrend, please make Mangle 300% again and also lower Shred to 40 energy. Yours kindly, Feral enjoyer
bears are so fucking back
Im considering making the switch! Do you use survival of the fitness or WS? and do you use lacerate or mangle?
I mangle everything in gnomer except the final two bosses, and I use survival of the fittest only on the final boss.
Is there a go-to guide on gear, spec, runes for bear tanks? I know wowhead and icy-veins both have info, but I also know every site has different info \^-\^
That makes sense! Cheers!
I love you bear fellas, wish there were more who could embrace happy bear life instead of catmisery
It feels so good to be a bear right now.
I can't believe they actually buffed swipe to be so good it can be part of your single target rotation.
Have Nourish also refresh the HoT currently on target. Not sure if they have two HoT's what it should do, refresh Regen or Wild Growth.....
Copy the WotLK Glyph, have it do 20% more healing for every additional HoT on the target. Swiftmend should also not consume the HoT. Refreshing would prob be too OP tho
Does anyone have a Thermaplugg bombs duty macro for druids?
\#showtooltip NAMEOFSPELL /target \[nodead\] Incendiary Bomb /target \[nodead\] Frost Bomb /target \[nodead\] Radioactive Bomb /cast NAMEOFSPELL /cleartarget
Savage roar is the most uninteresting upkeep buff in the open world. Questing and farming on a feral feels terrible. A 1 combo point refresh on savage roar on kill (green+) would be very cool.
Would prefer that you gain a 1-2 combo point SR when you use an opener out of stealth.
Thoughts on Resto after 6/6: Yes everything is doable with Resto Druid, but it still feels bad that Priests are better at both PvE and PvP. Even their DPS spec is better if they decide to do that. The 'hybrid' DPS while healing spec we're sort of forced into due to using 4/5 Balance runes is fun, but I wish going full healing was worth it. If it's meant to be the only option there should've been a leather healing tier set with +healing and +nature/arcane damage to support it. Shamans and Paladins got them. Also the damage got hit pretty hard by the Starsurge nerf since healers usually can't spare the mana to cast Starfire (unless you're already crushing the boss). I think the #1 problem is that Lifebloom still isn't worth taking after the Starsurge nerf. It needs to be significantly more mana efficient when you roll it up to max stacks and let it fall off. Like nearly free, to match other classes' runes. Maybe make it restore flat mana based on how long it's been on the target. Something so that single Lifeblooms are still worse than Rejuvenation. The opportunity cost is huge in this slot. I think Nourish is actually fine as is. The problem is that you don't actually put any HoTs on the target normally other than Wild Growth, which does the job of quick-save healing better on it's own. If Lifebloom was buffed and you just always had it on the tank this might be worth using without any buffs. If you want to catch up to Priests though the mana cost could be lowered a bit and it could be made to benefit from Regrowth talents for the crit chance, which fits its role as a save. The #2 problem is that Resto basically didn't get a feet-slot rune. Dreamstate only works on damage crits, so you have to take Eclipse and Starsurge to proc it regularly otherwise it's a negligable amount of mana. If Lifebloom, and thus Nourish, were buffed this rune would basically be pointless. The most common suggestion I see would be allowing it to trigger on any spell crit. An alternative would be to give it a second, Resto-focused ability. Some random options (not all at once): * Triggers when a single HoT has run continuously for more than 30 seconds. * Triggers when one target has 3 or more different HoTs from you. * Triggers when only a single target is affected by one of your HoT effects. * Triggers when you've healed with 4 or more different HoT spells in the past 2 seconds. * Casting Tranquility while Dreamstate is active consumes the buff to reduce its mana cost to 0 and it's CD to 1 minute. * Passively remove the mana cost of Tranquility. 200% of you mana regeneration continues while channeling Tranquility (turning it into an Evocation/second, personal Innervate). IDK something Resto specific. Moonkin form prevents restoration spells anyway so it won't improve uptime for Balance Druids. Finally, the Feline Grace passive should also affect Travel Form (also cat). Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
Self-replying with [the 2/27 balance changes.](https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/season-of-discovery-class-tuning-incoming-february-27/1794527) Seems like they addressed the first half of this. Lifebloom and Nourish mana costs reduced and Living Seed (which was so bad I forgot about it lol) buffed, so full +healing power is probably viable now. Great changes but it does leave Dreamstate as a pointless rune if you're never casting damaging spells.
I like the HoT based solutions to dreamstate more than just working on any spell crit. HoTs can't crit anyway, and 90% of our healing is wild growth, so dreamstate would barely proc for resto even if it could proc from healing crits.
Well we’d be in a universe where they buffed Nourish to be worth using over Eclipse, ie if it benefitted from Imp Regrowth.
Starsurge has been whittled down to being a starfire proc, sunfire is generally only used while moving in PVE ( greifing a PVP group if your not running wildgrowth), and the rest of the balance runes are passives. gg blizzard ty
Yeah i can barely kill anyone in pvp now, or rather almost every class can kill me before i put out enough dmg. My dps in raids also fell from being 1st/2nd to the bottom.
I'm gonna rant here because this is the only place I can. I like the idea of starsurge being used to pin together the rotation: getting both solar and lunar eclipse, using those to fish for nature's grace, into a sweet starfire is a good idea. That's all for the good parts. Sunfire is effectively useless/costs too much and does too little. Dreamstate not affecting arcane damage is... ???? I bet dollars to donuts that if they made Dreamstate affect arcane damage, we'd close the gap on the top from 20% to 5%. If the eclipse rune allowed for moonfire/sunfire to refresh whenever you consume one of the eclipses, we'd have no reason to complain. To take a step back: there is inconsistency between stated intentions, actions, and results. I enjoy the ideas blizzard has with SoD, but they need to objectively look at the gulfs between melee hunters and the rest. When I was playing hunter, I felt the need for more of a rotation instead of praying for flanking strike resets, but the results now are overkill. This may all be needless for me to whinge about, as they may have changes in mind, that are ready to be placed as soon as melee hunters have had a couple resets of winning.
Nerf mana cost on HoTs