Balance druid -- Defense

Classes Druid
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Druid

So like I just can’t even.
I am so goddam waiting for someone, riot or anyone, to release an actual competition for wow. This sheer incompetence is beyond me. A 100-buck triple-A Game staying in beta until the very last season of every expac is shameless.

next time delay the game for one more year and give more than 2-3 months for class design. Horrible

If the game was free, I wouldn’t care.
But the fact that you have to buy it, pay monthly, and still have Cash shops + battlepass on this game… no reason not to be angry. Just horrid.

worst part is, these changes won’t change anything really RIP.

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I was playing Balance in a BG the other day. A feral got a full set of bleeds on me, then I cloned them while kiting. Bleeds ticked so hard while they were cloned that I had to go bear form and pop FR.

I died to those bleeds during FR and Barkskin. From a single feral, who had no uptime on me after getting bleeds up.

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yup we have zero defense.
the ironic part of it all is that our main defense, bear form frenzy rejuv, is 2 percent weaker than intended in PVP.

The bug fix won’t change anything… And seeing how long they took to do this with the laughable 20 percent buff to our hots, I don’t see anything being done to us anytime soon.

Laughable, ridiculous.

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When I’m feeling masochistic, I run delves as Elune’s Chosen. Nothing like losing 40% hp through barkskin and moonkin form to auto attacks from non boss / non empowered trash mobs. Only swapping to bear after Well-Honed Instincts procs.

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I wouldn’t be surprised if there was somehow a bug that’s making us take way more damage than we’re supposed to. If I switch from Boomkin to Feral the survivability is so much better. It’s night and day.

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This in particular actually floored me. Thanks for FINALLY fixing the frenzied regen bug I guess… But to buff 2 talents that we don’t even take, that heal for nothing, and that drop form to apply… Like, come on lol. When we’re taking damage and need to recover, the last thing we need is 1)to break form, stand and cast an aoe heal, 2)to leave form and take even more damage to throw up another hot, 3) stand there taking damage that’s going to HEAVILY outweigh the 20% extra (so still nothing) hots themselves. If you’re standing trying to cast or throw up a hot, you’re better off just using the cast for a clone to stop damage altogether… So out of touch.

The amount of globals involved for such minuscule healing is asinine compared to literally every other dps spec defensively. We need damage mitigation or healing WHILE taking damage and without such a massive dps loss. Not some paltry hot healing.

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LOL wouldn’t surprise me. Was just talking about this in a different thread. Feel like I have all the survivability of tissue paper. Which would be fine if the trade off was significant damage output, but it also feels like I’m throwing wet noodles at the mobs.

I’ll try feral out but I was really looking for a ranged DPS. My Ele Shaman looks like a more and more attractive choice each day.

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They should just make Survival Instincts baseline for all specs

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  1. Revert the PVP nurf to FR allowing it to heal for 32% of our full HP in Bear Form. Its not like we are able to pump out damage in this form or clone. Realistically, it still would only be healing for 20% while getting trained by warriors who were buffed.

  2. Increase the healing from Regrowth by 20% with the instant cast we receive from Keeper of the Grove boosting that by another 10%. We are having to dump AP to be able to get that instant cast.

  3. Ysera’s Gift needs to make a comeback for Boomie. Even the nurfed version that replaced the 5% every 5 seconds. I believe it was 3% every 5 seconds. Should be baseline for Boomie and Resto.

  4. Moonkin form needs just a flat 5-8% damage reduction. The nurfs were put in place to armor due to the game being slower. Now, the game is much faster with more damage being thrown out. They could even reduce the armor to 100% down from 125% if we received the 5-8% all damage reduction in Moonkin form.

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I’d be fine with it being a talent on the class or spec tree. I miss having that trickle of healing and would definitely grab it if it were made available again.

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I have a legit Q for druid mainers.
I was doing a 7 cot with my balance alt, I had to heal myself/shapeshift/barkskin almost constantly. Is it true that the defensives of balance suck this much?
My main is a lock, and going from that tanky class to bdruid felt like ripping a paper into two.
In df, defensive wise hunter was similar, but this is even worse than hunters previous state…

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12

Yes, it is horrendous.
On higher keys, 12 and above 80% of the time you have to go to bear form and frenzy reg and renewal on AoEs or if random casts blasts on you, cos Barkskin will most probably be on cooldown.
Yes we have instant cast regrowth every now and then that helps, but it’s not enough, as it’s not healing you even close to 30% - 50% of your hp.
Going into bear form gives you an extra million or 2 of HP, but it is not a defensive or mitigation in any sense… As most AoEs in the game are magical and not physical.
PvE wise, squishiest DPS are probably balance druid and Shadow Priest right now…

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I have just up’d items to 619, was thinking about pushing with it. BUT NOPE.
I am really sorry for you guys. it is unacceptable

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Some ideas:

Druid

  • A 1-2% buff to Thick Hide & Natural Recovery
  • Buff to Matted Fur
  • Brambles made into a Class Talent with increased absorption and reduced backlash
  • Passive alternative to Nature’s Vigil that leeches Major Cooldown dmg as absorption

Balance

  • Aura dmg reduction buff
  • (PvP) Frenzied Regen buff in PvP +1% per tick / or more - if one less tick (Faster heal)
  • Regrowth Buff (IMO just revert DF hybrid-healing/mana changes)

Elune’s Chosen

  • Fury of Elune / Full Moon damage on main target leeches healing, reduced for procs
  • Glistening Fur buffs Thick Hide

Keeper of the Grove - is pretty good defensively

**For Hero talents - perhaps Boomy could get the ‘Frenzied Regen useable in Cat Form for Feral’ treatment – for Moonkin Form!

PvP Talents:

  • Celestial Guardian once again made effective against all damage types
  • Celestial Bulwark - Instant, 20 sec CD, Costs 50 AP - Major shield (like all other casters have always had)
  • Malorne’s Swiftness alternative / changed into Malorne’s Might: Travel Form reduces all damage taken by 20% and cannot be reduced below 100% movement speed.

**Mobility:
Buff Tiger Dash: e.g. 35 sec cd, +160% speed for 3 sec & movement impairing effects immunity
The other options are ok

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15

A lot of good ideas here.

I’ve just wanted to see a flat buff to moonkin form. How and why mobs hit so hard when I’m a big owlbeast is just not fun.

The instant cast regrowth ever 5 casts could be brought down to 3 casts as its just not impactful. 2 charges of barkskin and buff it more. As it is now its a very week defensive.

Yes we have bear form, but going out of moonkin feels like dated gameplay. No other spec has to just stop dmg to live. I know my Warlock just hits a button and back to blasting.

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I have read so many posts concerning Balance Druid defense. The two options are either increase healing, gain healing spells or capabilities, and revert the hybrid tax/nurfs to FR and Natures Vigil (how is NV still a capstone when no one takes it?). OR, they need to buff walls like barkskin, add buffs to Moonkin form, add talents that create barriers or reduce the amount of damage we take. The easier path would be allowing us to heal ourselves. If they are afraid of balance druids off healing too well due to blizzards push to make healers more relevant and necessary, then put a buffer to reduce the amount or heals do to friendly targets. Just let us heal ourselves and live, or give us defensives and live.

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The reason I prefer the damage reduction route is so that we can remain focused on dealing damage, as mentioned in this thread – most specs don’t have the problem of having to stop or shift to defend. For PvP specifically, shifting Balance into a more durable spec COULD justify finally nerfing Cyclone, hence alleviating the complaints of other specs about it as well.

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Don’t you touch my cyclone!! It’s all I have….

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It is, indeed… But it doesn’t have to be :smiley:

I think a more durable spec could be more enjoyable for us as well, since we’ll get to cast more.
Let’s face (tank) it… Kiting just isn’t AS effective as it used to be (due to all the post-MoP prunings/re cycles giving melee too many mobility tools and too much micro-CC to pet classes too - a hard(casting nightmare) truth many refuse to admit until they play one of the less FoTM all-rounder casters lol). The tuning between instants and casts is also on the table… But first, the position of the spec on the scale of mobility v durability needs to be (re)established. Druids aren’t magi nor warlocks… IMO archetypes were just lost with the aforementioned change history, and everything is homogenized now… Ironic, given the talent trees (TBH just cookie-cutter 3.0) This also has to do with armor types, and tuning that too… As we’ve seen. The problems go deep. I say it’s time for the iron feathers to glisten in the moonlight :slight_smile:

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I mean you are right. Balance Druid use to be slippery. Force of Nature rooted to peel for self and teammates, displacer beast was a means to kite (taken away because it acted too much like blink) Loved being able to kite and heal. It was the Druid playstyle and made it unique to the other casters.
Mage: kite, snares, roots.
Shaman: totems for buffs, roots, healing, shenanigans.
Spriest: void stuff, face tank
Lock: face tank, port when :poop: hits the fan, lock rocks
Druid: pray they don’t have the plethora of abilities to get out of roots to root them, typhoon them back 3 feet, bait a kick for clone, sit in bear, die.

Kite and heal. We don’t need to be forest warlocks.

2 Likes