I’ve been curious about this spell since I saw it in the talent tree years ago. Unfortunately I wasn’t at the time my level wasn’t high enough to use it and then I took a break and when I came back it was gone. I just wanted to know if anyone thought it was useful or interesting to use.
The description of the spell was
Symbiosis is a druid ability, available at level 87. Casting the spell creates a symbiotic link between the druid and the friendly target, granting each the use of a new ability, appropriate to the other’s class.
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Kinda busted honestly. Combinations fell into two categories: overpowered or awful. You’d cast it on a mage and get ice block for example if you were resto. Or if you were resto and casted it on a shaman you got spiritwalker’s grace, that’s right…you could cast and move…doh. I can’t recall any class getting anything particularly strong from the druid, it usually just went onto whoever gave the druid an ability they wanted.
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I disliked it entirely because what you received depended on group composition, and was subjected to competition from the other Druids in the group. A cycle you were forced to go through after every wipe. Glad its gone and would be happy to never see it again.
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Rogue’s would beg me for Symbosis because it gave them Growl which for some reason made them Neo in the Matrix with the crazy amount of dodge it provided.
I miss being a bear running around with Bone Shield, Shield Reflect or Bubble.
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I loved using it on a mage as balance. Boomkin mirror images!! But yeah it was kind of disappointing if you didn’t have your top choice in your group.
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How could I forget LifeGrip as Resto? That was fun in RBG’s. You didn’t need a mobile tank, just let the mobile Resto Druid get ahead of them and life grip them. Warriors and Blood DK’s were common FC’s back then.
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I watched a YouTube video on it after I made this post and the mirror images seemed so cool. But based off of druid responses it seems like it was a disappointment, and honestly in my opinion, as I only play balance and resto, the mirror image is the only one that seems worth it.
I played every spec of druid during mop, in pvp. Bear druids in RBGs would go feral and use it on a paladin to get divine shield so they could never be double capped on in flag maps.
Boomkins got unending resolve when they used it on locks and it would give them rejuvenation. This comp was absolutely broken and never died.
I can see why it would be annoying for those who raided on druids, but in PVP it was one of the most fun parts about a druid.
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As other people have stated, certain combinations were bonkers. I would have loved to see a modified version return in Shadowlands (instead of the covenant ability). It was a unique spell that went along with the Druid theme quite nicely in my opinion.
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The -best- one was with a Hunter as Feral. You got Play Dead. It was amazing.
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Symbiosis was hilarious really. I understand that it was impossible to balance but the fun I had with it back in the day. Examples…
1: Would hang out with my shammy buddy and symbiosis gave him the ability to stealth in wolf form…oh the world pvp ganks or worse giving my mage friend Healing touch lol.
2: Having a self bubble from pallies was amazing espcially running pug raids.
3: Boomy mirror image was fun too.
4: Rogues gave you the ability to transfer combo points back when combo points were mob specific.
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The whole spell list is still available if anyone wants to check it out:
https://wow.gamepedia.com/Symbiosis
I didn’t care for it since we were doing 10-man at the time and we didn’t raid with a Monk or a Death Knight, so I couldn’t get Bone Shield or Elusive Brew, which were the only actual tanking abilities on the Guardian Symbiosis list.
I usually just put it on a shaman to get Lightning Shield for extra DPS. Yay. 
I remember the first time I put it on our Ret Paladin to try out Consecration, and he spent 10 minutes laughing that it gave him Wrath as his new spell. “What am I supposed to do with this?!?” was his reaction.
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Thanks for the list. As someone who plays mostly balance, only the mirror ability from a mage seems worth it.
Actually, Unending Resolve from Warlocks was probably the best for raid. And it gave Warlocks Rejuvenation so they could throw a heal on themselves. Misdirection from Hunters was also pretty useful!
Cloak of Shadows was the best.
Unending Resolve was the backup and it didn’t protect you from my interrupts.
If you were a big brain boomkin, you could give it to a warrior as a way to escape melee attackers, then you Wild Charge to your mushrooms (if Y-axis movement) or Displacer Beast. You were impossible to catch.
Sometimes, I’d give Symbiosis to Shaman for Solar Beam. It came in handy for trash and Heroic: Megaera in TOT.
IIRC, the best options:
Guardian - Monk - Elusive Brew
Feral - Priest - Dispersion
Resto - Mage/Shaman - Mage if Ice Block was needed, other Shaman for Spiritwalker’s Grace.
Balance - Rogue - Cloak of Shadows, otherwise, AMS if you were good at pre-casting for mechanics (you can negate a lot of deadly mechanics if you timed it properly).
It was very much a “cool in 20% of cases and completely worthless in the other 80%” ability.
I totally understand why they got rid of it. The amount of work it would take to make all the symbiosis combos interesting and balanced would probably be as much as making all 4 druid specs’ talent trees interesting and balanced. (Which has never happened, either, and would be vastly preferable to symbiosis.)
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I liked it as a resto druid. A lot of useful cooldowns to pick from.
I think the real problem was just that it forced every other class in the game to either deal with an extra keybinding that they usually never actually had or just leave that half of the buff wasted.
An easy solution would have been to just give the symbiosis target a passive buff so the druid just had to decide what ability they wanted and not have to make other people deal with occasional additional abilities they may or may not care about.
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Amazing. Resto getting a better deal than the other specs is unprecedented in Druidic history.
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I would have liked to see it as resto.