Hello everyone,
I hope all of you are getting by through Monday (Had a long shift myself…)
As far as I am aware Druidism is the emphasis of nature and the celestial conjuration sorts whereas Mage is heavily implied to be strictly Arcane.
Yet I cannot help myself but ponder on how “Balance-Druid” is any different than mage considering both taps into Arcane. Would they consider all the same as Arcane users?
How is Druidism magic any different than Mages regarding the use of Arcane excluding nature’s magic?
Going for lore reasons than gameplay’s
Hope to get some replies!
Cheers!
Elune factors in somewhere.
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If I remember right, some balance spells were only marked as arcane because it would have been a waste to create an entire element of moon magic for part of a single spec of a class. It wasn’t meant to be “real” arcane.
Arcane mage magic isn’t really celestial. It’s just a nebulous sort of magic power that’s just called arcane.
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That does make sense!
I concur that it would’ve been too much of a trouble to include celestial magic in which it would have to be yet another retcon & just too much of a hassle. Perhaps it is indeed celestial magic within lore & nothing further to be said, unless Elune’s appearance or otherwise.
Thanks for giving the input!
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One difference that comes to mind is how the spells are cast. Mages seem to gravitate towards study, research, and a touch of talent. Druids are less booky and more pseudo religous I think, in that they appeal to the powers that be (in the case of balance, the moon or sun). That’s how I see it anyway, I could be wrong. Ultimately they draw from the same pool, arcane, they just do it differently.
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I just can’t get over the fact that there are still some “solar” spells left over from the last rework.
We got this whole night theme with moon and stars cool theme going and then ruin it with sun stuff.
ugh.
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Apparently the sun stuff was a diversity stunt to make the Tauren feel represented. It’s so the druid identity isn’t so intertwined with the nelfs alone.
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While simultaneously adding Elune to a bunch of Balance Druid talents and spells, distancing it even more from Tauren who refuse to acknowledge Elune.
The reason tauren paladins and priest were added wasn’t because they refused to acknowledge Elune. It was because they believed the nelf version of druidism focused too much on the moon and not enough on the sun. There was a pre-cata dialogue between Aponi (the first tauren paladin) and another tauren about it too.
Them cows acknowledge both the sun and the moon equally. They just give Elune a localized name.
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How I see it is that the druids are able to pull from the moon as it is a fixture in nature the same way the can from the sun.
Honestly I think lore druidism is probably closer to what the class was in Vanilla. We still had lunar strike and moon fire but wrath was still green we had, insect swarm, mark of the wild which has actually been used in the books by Malfurion. Balance has gone from being nature based to celestial based.
Another example is Mal’s command over storms, something else we were able to do with hurricane (I really miss that one) but then it was replaced with starfall.
I agree with this. It doesn’t appear to be arcane in the sense that it is similar to mage abilites but they needed a spell class for it. I may be beating a dead horse here but really a lot of the druid celestial abilities we use should belong to the NE priests, especially starfall and fury of Elune. But there is no class/race uniqueness so the druids got it instead.
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Same thing goes for shamanism, but instead of nature, shamans draw power from the elements.
It’s a good concept, I find these differents fonts of magic to be very cool
Got a source for this? Because your phrasing is seriously sensationalist and sh!t-stirring.
As for the actual discussion, a simple fix would include that “moon magic” is arcane, and “sun” magic is a mix of light and life magic.
As a long time (NE) druid player, I do miss Balance being more about nature. Gimme my insect swarm back!
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And that localized name isn’t used for Balance Druids talents and spells. Elune’s name is.
Druidic involvement with the Arcane is limited and incidental.
But most important is the attitude difference. Druids approach nature magic with humility. They are very good at asking Nature to do something with it.
A Mage take the arcane forces by their throat and shape them into a desired outcome by force of will as an act of hubris. There is no such thing as a humble Mage.
Somewhat related, and though it is a point that I’ve repeated, Balance druids shouldn’t be associated with Elune. Though there’s a scarce few moon-based spells such as Moonfire that can be kept because of their iconography and how Moonkin do seem to have a connection to Mother Moon. I just personally find that someone with celestial magic whether it’s from Elune or not should not be a druid.
Bringing it on topic, as others said Balance druids aren’t mages because they aren’t really using arcane magic, and even if it ends up that they are for whatever reason (Say that Elune ends up a Being of the Arcane like a Titan or a Constelar) the magic is still gifted upon them through another force rather than manifesting the magic themselves.
I think that balance druid is like a purifier. Their magic are use to destroy corruption and the like. The night elves use moonwell to purify surroundings area. Moonwell also is said to require the water from the well of eternity under Nordrassil. These seem to imply that pure arcane does have purification property. Or I guess one could say it’s order-ing the corruption. The other magic balance druid use being solar that’s classified as nature magic but it should also does burn things.
Edit: Hmmm… Or maybe it’s just star magic that does the purification.
Why? What are you basing this on?
Source for this assertion? Moonfire (and starfire) has always been Arcane. Teleport: Moonglade has always screamed Arcane to me. Even Dreamwalk has a very Arcane flavour to it.
Arcane being associated with druidism makes a tonne of sense. They are keepers of natural order after all.
Using an arcane effect doesn’t make you a Mage. Or do mages stop being mages if they use Frost or Fire?
It’s all about how they use magic. Druids use magic granted to them no matter what school it is. Mages literally twist the universe by forcing their will upon it.
THAT IS WHAT MAKES THEM MAGES. It’s also why arcane magic is inherently corruptive. it’s very easy to get addicted to that rush of power.
It’s also why Illidan despite his inherent talent for mastering the arcane never cast a single moonfire in his life.
Did you mean to respond to me? What you’re saying has nothing to do with the points I picked at.
No one has said druids are mages, or that using arcane makes one a mage.