As someone who has played since BC, there have been countless visual spell/ability animation updates over the years. Some I liked, some I disliked. Such is life.
That being said, for the first time ever, I truly despise these newest updates. I love the current green, forest, leafy iteration that is on live: it is my favorite visual “toolkit” that Resto has ever had. I even have my transmog and mounts all on that same theme: I really enjoy logging in on that character.
These new butterfly filled, pastel shaded visuals are NOT for me in the slightest. I sincerely hope that these will be added only through Glyph modifications: don’t take my forest-like, green nature-filled druidic flavor away from my… Druid!
23 Likes
I agree, it seems very thematically jarring for all the resto druid effects to suddenly be butterflies. There’s nothing in the kit which ties in to that?? The plant-centric visuals make a lot more sense for the class flavour and I like how they’re specific to rdruid
9 Likes
Personally keep the new visual but ditch the butterflies and replace with more leaves. Keep the spells more Nature themed not some whimsical fairy.
Rejuv, I’m not sure if bugged on the ptr or incomplete but the animation and sound don’t match up, the animation seems to be cutting out half way but the sound continues, the old animation matches both in sync. Personally it looks poorly done if this is actually intended.
The “New” Efflorescence I honestly can’t even tell what has changed, maybe someone has a better keen eye then myself but I see no difference currently.
In short, I’m also not a fan of these new butterfly effects.
12 Likes
Agreed. Please give us a glyph or something to use the current (live) spell effects. Not a fan of the butterflies.
12 Likes
100% this… i was actually excited to see that they updated some visual effects for rdruid and then was EXTREMELY disappointed when i saw what they were… butterflies make zero sense and not to mention they look like literal paper and the new green effect/color is a complete miss… it’s just a bland basic color that just reminds me of the cheesy shadowland covenant abilities. Would have loved to see at least a nice deep green like entangling roots has. The older animations just look a million times cooler and just fit thematically. I always loved how the druid spell animations looked and would often turn my UI off and cast random things just to look at them.
The new ones are definitely a downgrade and at the very least would just like to be able to keep the current animations via a glyph or something…
9 Likes
Not a fan of the butterflies either and I hope they take notice. Hoping they update the glyph system soon and add new leaf color options.
8 Likes
If they’re going to be going through and doing spell visual overhauls I think they should pause and instead implement a customizable system where we can at least pick colors of certain things like butterflies or turn them off like optional things on the character creator screen. Things we can adjust in the barber shop like our forms.
Colored butterflies in some of my cast animations might be nice if I could match them to different mogs.
3 Likes
So glad to see other people are as disappointed in this update as I am.
It’s not that I hate butterflies, and I’m sure some people are stoked about the new animations. But I’ve been playing my druid since 2005. The thematic shift to something that has zero tie in to any of my class abilities or previous aesthetic is jarring. Butterflies? Since when? Why?
Edit to add: Please also bring back the big “BURST” of life feeling from casting regrowth. Losing that big eruption of leaves just feels bad.
12 Likes
I hate to constantly sound negative toward the art team (I had a lot of issues with the shaman visuals this expac) but I have to be honest about these.
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Rejuvenation looks terrible. Not only is the original rejuv iconic and has aged beautifully, but the new one has weaker colors and the animation cuts off awkwardly and suddenly. It feels cheap. I vastly prefer the current rejuvenation.
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Efflorescence. I actually really dislike the current visual with the little green tribal art around the perimeter. I have always wanted something similar to what the Druids on the broken shore in Legion were casting. I can’t tell a difference with this one yet, hopefully it will be updated soon.
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Lifebloom. Not much of an opinion on this one. The current visual is fine, and the new one also seems fine.
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Regrowth. So I don’t have as big of an issue with the butterflies as some do, but I will say that overall I prefer the current visual. This new one looks faint or pastel, less rich in color. The burst of the heal is also smaller.
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Wild growth. I don’t hate the new one, but I prefer the current one.
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Tranquility. Iconic spell visual. Don’t change it please. It looks like you’re just adding more green around the hands during this so I guess that’s okay.
5 Likes
Agreed. I appreciate the work the art team puts in for us, but these updates really don’t feel “druid” to me. The butterflies, the yellow-green dust- just feels like a different class to me.
More vibrant green, more leaves, more graphical fidelity to what we have already would be perfect.
10 Likes
Gotta disagree here, I love the new animations and they actually match with Adaptive Swarm now (it’s not just updated for Resto).
1 Like
Butterflies are not opposite to what a druid is, they are not opposite to forest-like and green nature things either, they are related. I personally found the new visuals beautiful, hopefully they will add that effect to every other healing spell druid has in the near future.
2 Likes
The blue and yellow butterflies are essentially the new universal hand-glow effect for druid nature spells. So basically leaves/plant effects have been largely replaced by bugs for resto druid. I get that insects are a nature-related visual, and a resto spell that summons butterflies would fit thematically, having it be the PRIMARY particle effect for a nature-healer makes no sense.
4 Likes
But it’s not only butterflies, there’s still the nature-green thematic combined with them.
I mean playing classic you can even see on the original regrowth that there are little green bug looking things. The effects aren’t detailed enough to really tell what they are but it’s clear that they have a body and wings.
I at least hope they will give glyphs for the original animations. I’m of the opinion that these changes overall look awful for resto. They’re beautiful but they don’t feel ‘right’ to me personally.
9 Likes
We have badass diablo druids using deep green root spells and then we have blue haired woman blue butterfly pale green spells for wow. Its a disgrace
4 Likes
Butterflies are eating my cedar trees and they make them the primary resto druid spell particle. It doesnt fit one bit
1 Like
Sure, but it’s a pale snotty green as opposed to the beautiful verdant green we used to have. And it’s interspersed now with primary blue and yellow butterflies.
I remember those, but they were vague and fantasy-like enough that they could be little nature sprites or something. Now instead we have butterfly shaped party city confetti themed after the LA Rams.
4 Likes