An idea for Tree of Life form

Classes Druid
1

To start off, I’ve loved playing druid since I first made mine back in the days of BC and have always been amazed at how no other major MMORPG on the market has really capitalized on the idea of transformation effects to the level of WoW’s druid to the point where it has been forever cemented into the core identity of the class. With that being said though, it’s because of transformation as a part of its identity that I believe that the greatest disappointment in the history of the druid class has been the removal of the baseline Tree of Life form.

For players who started after the launch of Cataclysm and haven’t touched druid on WoW classic, the Tree of Life form was the primary transformation effect in the Restoration talent tree and was the Treant form from Vanilla that druids currently have as a skill learned through a tome. While it gave an increase to healing and provided a group-wide aura increasing healing received, it was often avoided by druid players not only because it brought about a penalty to movement speed, but it was also at the very bottom at the talent tree, sacrificing more viable versatility options to get it. As WoW went into BC, the increase to talent points as level caps went up made Tree of Life form slightly more ideal for stationary fights, and the removal of the movement speed penalty in WotLK made the form considerably more viable.

However, due to a handful of factors from both devs and players at the time, the Tree of Life form was forever chopped down in patch 4.0 and rebirthed as the Incarnation talent for Restoration and its epic Moai broccoli form that we’ve had ever since. This to me has always been a shame, because removing the standard form and relegating it to a temporary option was a cut against the very identity of the class and what really makes it unique not just in WoW, but in most major MMORPGs out there. Because of this along with the whole “unpruning” theme of Shadowlands, I believe that this would be a great opportunity to bring the previous Tree of Life form back.

Yes, I am well aware that it’s a hard ask because of all the other chaos going on in development right now (who I hope are safe out there in the Firelands), and especially because of druid players who might not be as much of fans of such a main theme of the druid class as I am that I will continue to refer to as the “but muh mogs” players. To these players, I would ask a question: why do you play druid? If it’s for the theme of manipulating forces of nature, there’s shaman manipulating elements (a.k.a. forces of nature) while druid has always remained closer to -being- a force of nature. If it’s for the mechanical healing style of Restoration druid as a mobile HoT-based healer, Mistweaver monk and even Holy priest to a lesser extent can fit closely enough to that style. If it’s for the class set transmogs, while I do find that to be the closest thing to a fair argument than the other reasons, fortunately the majority of those sets can be acquired via pieces that are not set pieces restricted to druid-only.

For actually implementing the previous Tree of Life form, it would require three things:

  1. The Form Itself: at least the visual would be easy since we have that epic Moai broccoli form to keep the Vanilla treant how it is now. Mechanically, it could be the same or lower boost values for increased healing and armor with spell numbers adjusted accordingly. Maybe to keep it from being a bit less pointless than Shadowform for Shadow priests (it’s literally just a passive damage boost), maybe have one spell enhancement from the current Incarnation talent form or a passive form of a previous Restoration talent that caused Wrath to heal a random ally for a portion of its damage.

  2. The Incarnation talent: if Tree of Life were to become a standard form, this would require a change to the Incarnation talent for Restoration. In the spirit of the original Tree of Life form, I’d propose something like a “World Sapling” form or something along those lines that would have all the current effects of the current talent with an increase to healing and maybe healing range along with a root effect on the caster for the duration of the ability to honor the intent of semi-strategic gameplay from the original Tree of Life form. The visual could maybe be a smaller version of Vydhar (the talking tree) in the Runewood of Stormheim with a goal of using as many existing assets as possible for development convenience.

  3. The “but muh mogs” players: Don’t worry, y’all wouldn’t be forgotten. The solution for this part is a pretty simple one dating back to WotLK with Glyph of Stars for players who like playing Balance but not as a moonkin. Green translucent character aura effect, falling leaf visual from the old Mending weapon enchant from Cataclysm, call it “Glyph/Tome/Whatever of Verdancy”, and potential fashion crisis averted.

Apologies for how long this all is, but that’s my whole take on the matter. Despite this being the WoW forums and what potential negativity could come with them, I am curious to see what other druid players think on the matter (and maybe some dev opinions wouldn’t hurt either if they can catch a break).

Anyway, keep having fun and stay safe wherever y’all are.

1 Like
3

I’m game. I’ve wanted this for years.

1 Like
4

Too long.

Just state you don’t like broccoli form and what you would replace it with.

I miss the old tree form way back when. It did slow your movement speed though I think. But it had neat animations.

Good luck on your quest to change broccoli form though.

1 Like
5

I know it’s long, but I wanted to make sure everything got in.

I do like every form, even the original treant we got because of how we have it now as a universal vanity form. If you took the time to read what I said in full though rather than skimming to the end, you’d notice that what I don’t like is that Restoration no longer has a proper transformation effect tied to it.

What I was suggesting would be along the lines of that old tree form at least on a mechanical level. I just refer to the current tree form from the Incarnation talent so that the goal would be getting stuck with a 1.0 model.

6

The treant form boosted hots I think.

By a pretty serious margin.

Are you wanting it back? It prevented polymorph was its prime function too. For arenas.

1 Like
7

IIRC, increased healing by 15-20% and grant a group-wide aura increasing healing received by like 6%.

I’d suggest reading the original post I did in full. Yes, I know, it’s long, but I do explain what I’d like to see in that.

8

You got it. Will-do next time

9

You left out a key part of the history. Like so many nice nice things, we lost Tree of Life because of PvP. Tree druids were the only healing class who had to don a giant “kill me first” sign in BG. The choices for deep resto druids were to shift into tree and immediately get focus fired, or stay in night elf and take a huge hit to mitigation, mana efficiency, and healing throughput. You’d think people would see all the green spells and glowy leaves and focus fire either way, but I always lived a lot longer in elf form than in tree. It wasn’t THAT big a deal because there were great hybrid PvP BG utility specs that dipped into feral. Arena druids would run tree, especially with good gear, because in arena if you haven’t figured out the healers within the first few spells you’re doing it wrong.

The real problem came in Cataclysm with the introduction of specializations. Tree form with its “kick me” sign would have been mandatory for resto druids. Immunity to polymorph isn’t worth squat when you’re dead. To make PvP “fair” they relegated our beloved tree form into a cooldown and while they were at it they nerfed the class so hard that even PvE healing became unfun.

Because of the specializations, I don’t think there’s a version where perma-tree comes back. If the form is worth the shapeshift, it becomes mandatory, and then PvP restos are back to the focus fire issues.