Comments on 4 Haelz: I am NOT a Potted Plant

I'm kind of sad they're taking away the speed debu...

2008-07-15T15:46:00.000-04:00

I'm kind of sad they're taking away the speed debuff to ToL form. I think you can't really compare druid healing with any other class/spec combination because it is unique in the mere trade of utilization between Healing Touch and HoTs. Catform is designed for DPS...moonkin for ranged dps/buffs/survival...bearform for tanking/survival, all of which is enhanced completely by the character of the form.
But ToL inherently limits the druid's breadth of healing ability; in this way you could say that it is at heart situational healing form, even if raiding druids like yourself don't want to believe it.
The speed debuff emphasized this situationality of the form, and now it's going away, making ToL that much more boring and un-druid-like. Sad day.
Anyway, thesis is: doesn't seem arbitrary to me.

Boar's Speed doesn't get you all the way, but you'...

2008-05-29T16:10:00.000-04:00

Boar's Speed doesn't get you all the way, but you'd be surprised at how much it helps all around. Much more noticable than vitality in terms of helpfulness.

P.P.S. 'scuse the typos. Also forgot to mention so...

2008-05-23T09:40:00.000-04:00

P.P.S. 'scuse the typos. Also forgot to mention some of my heals actually increased (like the bloom of my LB went up by about 100 or so and my rejuve ticks too, I think).

You're exactly right. I specced dreamstate/ht afte...

2008-05-23T09:19:00.000-04:00

You're exactly right. I specced dreamstate/ht after hitting 70 to heal instances and did not like it at all. Standing there spamming downranked HT goes completely against the mobility of the druid. After speccing pvp resto I got frustrated at not being able to kill anything, but loved HoT healing. I respecced restokin, this time with emphasis on HoTs, and its working out great for me. didnt lose too much in heals(about -10-15 per tick of LB), regen is pretty awesome for my gear, can kill things pretty quickly. I've only raided kara and still played the role of rolling lb and throwing lbs /rejuve/regrowth around, only I don't have to be in the tanks group, and get to run around with no speed penalty, freely rebirth and decurse. I think winning a 12minute long game with a mage against a warr/druid speaks for the strength of this spec. lol I think you can tell how much i love this spec, sorry for the wall of text. I understand that in a raid you're expected to maximise your healing for the benefit of the raid, and ToL form does that.

Boris.
P.S. Love blog, bell, keep up the awesome work. Forgot to add that in my earlier post :D

@boris - I've considered it, but that's not what m...

2008-05-22T19:45:00.000-04:00

@boris - I've considered it, but that's not what my healing style is about, nor is it what my guild expects of me. They want a tree druid, I want to play a tree druid. Dreamstate/restokin druids are more about HT healing, generally, and my place in the raid is with HoTs. Thank you very much for the suggestion, though :)

just a thought, have you considered going restokin...

2008-05-22T19:23:00.000-04:00

just a thought, have you considered going restokin? my druid is and i love it

u can always drop that 34th point out of moonkin form and put it into the resto tree

im currently 34/0/27 and its awesome :)

@anonymous - You misunderstand. I compare to Shado...

2008-05-22T11:17:00.000-04:00

@anonymous - You misunderstand. I compare to Shadowform because it is a form designed for a specific job. AKA, doing dps. Also, when you take on shadowform, don't you also reduce your damage taken? Now, that won't help you against a one-shot boss, but it will help you with AoE damage, thus it's another benefit of the form. Comparing percentages is getting nitpicky, especially when other auras do different percentages, and the tree's aura is designed not to help just them, but all healers healing the people in the affected area.

When we're doing the actual RoS fight, I'm expected to keep Insect Swarm up on the first phase, and I cannot do healing due to the aura, so I must DPS...therefore, I have no problem being out of tree form. Just like, when you are healing, which is something Shadowform cannot do, you have no problem being out of Shadowform. However, when I am healing, something that ToL is designed to do and that the form can only do, I expect to be in tree form. Just as you expect to be in Shadowform while you DPS.

Call it a QQ if you like, your opinions are allowed. If I didn't want them and enjoy debating these topics with you guys, I'd disable comments :P

I'm sorry but this IS a QQ. Your constant comparis...

2008-05-22T10:54:00.000-04:00

I'm sorry but this IS a QQ. Your constant comparison to SP doesn't hold water. Shadowform gives 15% more damage. You're saying ToL gives 25% more healing. Well shoot that's 10% more! There are a couple fights I pop out of shadowform for just so I can spam PoM and renews if things are looking a bit iffy. And I don't complain about it.

There's nothing arbitary about a tree being slow. There's also nothing arbitrary about a 41 point talent having a ton of pros and a couple cons.

@Alyse - I don't have the money to download, and I...

2008-05-21T19:56:00.000-04:00

@Alyse - I don't have the money to download, and I don't have the programs to do it for free. I'll look it up on youtube when my headache goes away :P

but you look so pretty in your vase :pp.s. downloa...

2008-05-21T18:06:00.000-04:00

but you look so pretty in your vase :p

p.s. download Untouched by the Veronicas

p.s.s. do it

I was merely pointing out the every class complain...

2008-05-21T16:46:00.000-04:00

I was merely pointing out the every class complains about something, and thoose are common complaints for other specs in your class I hear.

In anycase, I don't feel the need to continue reading your journal considering your lack of grace when talking to people whos opinions differ from your own

kthnxbye

@anura - I wouldn't mind if it wasn't so completel...

2008-05-21T16:29:00.000-04:00

@anura - I wouldn't mind if it wasn't so completely arbitrary and go against what a resto druid is designed to do: mobile, HoT-based healing. It's like telling a shadowpriest "Hey, for this fight, we want you to do exactly what you do normally, but you have to be out of shadow form. This will hold true for half of the rest of the raid boss fights."

Druids are not much less squishy than priests at all. In fact, if you factor in shields v. Barkskin (one of which completely absorbs damage and is on a shorter cooldown), as well as controlled use of Fade and Fear, we are more squishy than Priests. Especially if we itemize in a mix of cloth and leather, we'll get one-shot just as fast.

If you'd like, we could argue that a druid's lack of threat reduction is a detriment, as well as its inability to out of combat rez, and its difficulty with spike damage. These are all things keeping druids from being the be-all-end-all healer. We have difficulties with raid healing and our HoTs being overwritten.

At this point, many raids only bring one resto druid for its aura in the tank group and for rolling lifeblooms. Removing one of those for something so ridiculous is rather idiotic, no matter how you slice it. This is not a QQ, this is a "WTF." I don't like dealing with the "OP" chants, I want to know a reason that druids have to lose the form designed for their chosen role because we have to be able to walk from point A to point B at the same speed as everyone else.

Arguing it's because bears and moonkins have gear issues is irrelevant. It's a completely different animal. The point is, there are no bosses where you say "hey, maybe the bear should tank this in caster form, and the moonkin shouldn't hand out its aura" nor is there one where you say "hey, spriest, DPS but keep out of shadowform. It will get you killed."

Every healing class has some downside. I agree wit...

2008-05-21T16:10:00.000-04:00

Every healing class has some downside. I agree with alot of people that if you are a tree you are probably going to move slowly.

I honeslty think thats what sucks about being a druid, there are drawbacks in EVERY form, whether its being a bear tank, in higher end raids where gear is scares, being a moonkin where spell dmg leather isn't abundant, or being a slow tree. There has to be a balance so the druid class isn't OP, and balances with other classes. If you wanted to be an ideal healer, be a priest, but get use to being 1 shotted. If you want to be a pally, its Flash of Light spam ftw, and Shamans whore their totems out, many times not using ones that are advantageous to them.

Resto druids are sought after in raiding, PvP, and more or less any group composition because they are not as squishy as priests and more versital than Pallys (barring instances/raid encounters where specific healers are required). But dont worry if enough people complain about it, it might change. But I agree, cheetah form and run away or respec w/o ToL if it's such a bother

When Supremus is chasing me, Bell, I just go to ch...

2008-05-21T15:57:00.000-04:00

When Supremus is chasing me, Bell, I just go to cheetah form and zoooom away!

I've found that most of the time when something is chasing me, I don't need to be healing like I normally do... Dropping form and throwing some lifeblooms while running is pretty doable, to me?

I bound my tree shift to my T key for a reason! I pop in and out a ton!

@BellFortunately, I'm a rogue and don't have to co...

2008-05-21T12:46:00.000-04:00

@Bell
Fortunately, I'm a rogue and don't have to concern myself with this vagaries such as the movement speed of things that shouldn't move. :D

Unfortunately, I can't see any real way to make up...

2008-05-21T12:35:00.000-04:00

Unfortunately, I can't see any real way to make up the speed decrease. Boar's Speed is an option, but 8% speed increase is still not enough to outrun Thaladred or Supremus. =/

After reading Cynra's post, I did a bit of researc...

2008-05-21T09:57:00.000-04:00

After reading Cynra's post, I did a bit of research - there's three different gems that grant minor run speed increases (I seem to recall reading somewhere that it's a +8% increase, but I don't know if it's multiplicative or additive), but none of them are healing-focused. Now I'm not sure how you do those fancy item link things, but they're the the swift skyfire, swift windfire, and swift starfire diamonds. The former two give attack power bonuses, and the latter gives +12 spell damage. It sort of makes sense, as it's melee that would be needing the speed boosts otherwise, but that starfire diamond kinda throws the whole thing out of whack...

havesomehots mentioned Speed Pots and I agree with...

2008-05-21T09:18:00.000-04:00

havesomehots mentioned Speed Pots and I agree with your response: you probably don't want to blow a potion cooldown for that. There are a couple of alternatives. A number of meta gems exist that have a small run speed increase, but I don't believe any are healing related (at least I've never come across one!).

One of the enchants I've wanted for my healing priest recently -- and just cannot find -- is Boar's Speed. 9 Stamina is 90 health and then there's the 8% increase to speed. It doesn't stack with any other speed increases since it's the cap, but, really, what are your alternatives? Fortitude? Vitality? Consider it as an alternative; you'd still be moving 12% slower than anyone else, but that 8% might be a huge difference!

I'm sure it made sense when they initially thought...

2008-05-20T20:09:00.000-04:00

I'm sure it made sense when they initially thought of it, but didn't have the insight to forecast how it would affect resto druids in critical raid encounters.

Actually, I'm surprised it made it past beta. Certainly resto druids would have complained about this. Or was it a surprise?

Regardless, it's silly, particularly when considering the fact a Moonkin's summoned trees move faster. Oh wait, they don't help keep a raid (or instance group) up with heals so they don't need to be gimped.

Arbitrary indeed!

@havesomehots - that could work, except I tend to ...

2008-05-20T16:18:00.000-04:00

@havesomehots - that could work, except I tend to horde my potion cooldowns for scary moments, and chain-chugging swiftness pots isn't viable with the cooldown.

Just small suggestion but havent u ever thought of...

2008-05-20T16:08:00.000-04:00

Just small suggestion but havent u ever thought of have swiftness potions on u? (they cost next 2 nothing on AH) works for me XD

Totally agree with you Bell!

2008-05-20T15:14:00.000-04:00

Totally agree with you Bell!

Unfortunately without being the developers who dec...

2008-05-20T13:08:00.000-04:00

Unfortunately without being the developers who decided to put that onto ToL all we can do is speculate as to why. Do I think it's fair? No I don't. I'm sure they have a reason but it certainly doesn't make sense to me. At the least you'd think the Treants in the game would be slow too to give some help towards that logic.

The only other talent 41 talent point I can think of that's situational is Avenger's Shield from the Pally prot tree. Simply because of CC used you can't use it alot of times nor would you want to if you need a mob you're pulling to come to you quickly so you don't have adds.

-agree-It's always been there, and it's always bee...

2008-05-20T12:02:00.000-04:00

-agree-

It's always been there, and it's always been a pain in the bum. Need to avoid something? Sure as heck can't move fast enough to avoid -anything- in tree-form.

My most recent memory of when tree-form was a detriment was in TK. We were fighting A'lar, and I was healing one of the add-tanks... running back and forth keeping them in range, and avoiding the flames... which brought me out of range again... plodding...

I can only said I made a valiant effort... to the point where I decided to hop out of tree form for finding my tank again, and (sometimes) back into it to heal him.

Blizzard really, really isn't nice to us.

"My only thinking is that Blizzard is going from t...

2008-05-20T11:42:00.000-04:00

"My only thinking is that Blizzard is going from the lore angle in that trees generally don't move very quickly..."

Explain the moonkin's treants, then. D: