Cataclysmic Shift: New Balance

Wednesday 14 July 2010

New Balance

So I've mananged to have a look around the new Balance Druid talents inbetween world serve downage and I must say that I really do like the direction this new talent system is heading.

That said, much of the Balance tree is boring, passive and just not fully designed (which has been said in Blue). For example, Starsurge is given to you as soon as you choose Balance as your specialisation, but then the talent for it is still there.

The "Balance Druid" bonus gives 'pushback reduction' on Wrath, Starfire, Entangling Roots, Hurricane, Typhoon (huh?), Hibernate, and Starfire (twice?).
"Feral Druid" has no tooltip description.
"Restoration Druid" has 'pushback reduction' on Healing Touch, Regrowth, Tranquility, Rebirth, and Nourish.

Pretty much anything that was remotely boring is no longer in the tree with the exception of: Moonglow and Balance of Power. Other casters are getting hit as part of their spec declaration, so it wouldn't surprise me to see Balance of Power disappear in the near future. Moonglow, however, is a surprise to see still there as it is much more of a Resto talent. I expect it to simply be a placeholder so that Balance Druids are able to progress down their talent tree for the time being, as tier2 is very boring (3pnt Moonkin and 3pnt Lunar Justice). Also, the first two tiers are made up of solely 3pnt talents, which doesn't make for great streamlining whatsoever.

Currently, Earth and Moon, Nature's Splendor, and Dreamstate have vanished. Dreamstate isn't a surprise, but Earth and Moon is. Nature's Splendor is something that I'd like to see kept, however, I've been unable to log back in to check whether it's been baked into the base spells. (Edit: Insect Swarm is 14sec by the tooltip and Moonfire is 15sec)
Moonkin Form and Typhoon are likely base spells of Balance (I had them in my spellbook after completing my spec), as they are no longer in the talent tree.

All in all, I think class design is progressing in leaps and bounds, and I believe we'll see some interesting construction over the next few builds. Nothing regarding Moonkin can be truly critiqued until the trees are further developed.

Edit:
It appears Mark of the Wild is now giving 7% to Strength, Agility, Stamina, and Intellect. It was previously only 5%. Small change, but a change nonetheless.

Edit2:

Q u o t e:
Let me guess, Paladins will be last :P

Druids aren't as far along as paladins, so I'm sure we'll hear now how they are always last. :) - GC

1 comment:

Anonymous14 July 2010 at 18:07
Looks nice!

/ Le Boomkin
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A (long) brief Bio

I started off as my Mage, Oraan, at the very beginning of Vanilla and raided Molten Core until: 1) I was sick of turning up 30mins early to a raid to make water for everyone, including those who loved to have fun instead, and 2) we really started to hurt for Warlocks when one of our two took the night off.
So I was asked to swap to my Warlock (which I had been leveling on the side for kicks) and suddenly was thrown from the sidelines of being a random Mage into being a frontline Warlock.

Onaar, as a Warlock of old, I had duties beyond simply making water as a Mage. My beloved imp, Zeptuk, bravely charged into the fray to pull, my Banishing finesse put me at the front of 40 other players (sometimes as the sole Warlock for the night), and my Heathstone ninjaing was unparalleled. These were my glory days of raiding.

My leveling addiction gained momentum with Anaro, my Druid, who leveled as old school and pre-Druid patch Feral. I eventually hit 60 and then occasionally subbed in for other healers throughout MC and Blackwing Lair while maintaining the role as Warlock class officer.

After about 8 months of clearing BWL, I completed my Warlocks tier2 Nemesis with my shoulders finally dropping...

We then moved on to AQ40 on its release where I further took up the role as raid strat devisor, which got us to the Twin Emperors before Naxxramas was released and then I subsequently moved overseas.

I finished leveling my Paladin in the lead up to BC. I barely raided beyond Karazhan in BC, but had made a somewhat official transistion to my Druid as both Moonkin and Resto. I completed all raids of BC, all but TK and BT as progression clears.

Moving back from overseas, WotLK again saw my Druid as the focus, however, I was joined by a load of extras from BC; Shaman Raaon, Rogue Roaan, Naaro Warrior, and Raano Priest.

I progression healed Naxx, Malygos and Sarth as both Druid and Pally, before settling back into a non-raiding routine where, in addition to leveling all my 70s to 80, I added another Shaman as Ranao and Death Knight Naaor.

In WotLK, I have cleared all but Ulduar as multiple characters (primarily Druid and Paladin, but ICC instead as Priest and Enh Shaman).
I will always be a healer at heart and I am always drawn back to the Druid, especially as the underdog Moonkin.

Other characters have had various other experiences, such as my Subtley Rogue in Arena (until they were buffed :S), my Frost DK tank, and so on. I've raided to varying degrees with all characters in WotLK bar Warrior tank and Rogue, but Druid, Pally, Warlock, Priest, Enh Shaman, and Ele/Resto Shaman the most.