Don’t get me wrong, I think pruning is warranted. But Blizzard seems to be hacking away at the most fun spells. I’ve come across 3 examples of this so far and I am not informed enough on every class to know if there are more, so I’ll focus on these: Adaptative Swarm, Murder of Crows, Chi Wave.
- Adaptative Swarm is a spell available to Feral and Restoration Druids which applies a damage or healing over time effect, regularly bouncing between friends and foes. It can be enhanced to have a chance to split into two swarms between each bounce. This is an insanely fun spell, seeing all the swarms bounce around the dungeon group after a few casts. It is interractive in that you have to pick your target depending on whether you want to refresh the effect or let it bounce, and you need to be mindful of the number of stacks on that target to not lose any. It fits perfectly in Restoration Druid’s thematic and fantasy, yet Blizzard is planning to outright remove it from that spec. I can’t wrap my head around it. Can we get rid of Cenarion Ward instead? It’s barely more than a halfway point between Rejuvenation and Swiftmend, it brings nothing new to the table gameplay-wise.
- Murder of Crows currently is a 1-minute cooldown for BM Hunters which applies a DoT to a target. If the target dies during the DoT, the cooldown is reset. This incentivises active gameplay, picking the right target to get the reset, multiple times in a row. Blizzard wants to turn it into a pick-and-forget passive that applies every few casts of Kill Command, with no reset mechanic. Surely Bloodshed, the choice node alongside Murder of Crows, was a better candidate to be turned into a passive applied by Kill Command?
- Chi Wave is an active Monk talent that sends a damage or healing wave bouncing between friends and foes 7 times (which means that it heals or damages 8 times in total). I actually like the idea of turning it into a passive tied to Rising Sun Kick, however I would have a suggestion. Currently, the plan is to have it be applied by the next Rising Sun Kick every 15 seconds. I fear that this creates a pattern where you feel like you’ve “missed” the optimal window if you’ve used Rising Sun Kick right before the Chi Wave proc. To remedee this, I have a suggestion:
“Passively acquire Chi stacks over time, up to a maximum of 4. Rising Sun Kick and Vivify consume all stacks to release a wave of Chi energy that flows through friends and foes, dealing Nature damage or healing. Bounces to targets within 25 yards, twice for each stack consumed.”.
or buff its passive choice node so it’s good in M+ (where some rdruids don’t even cast rejuvenation). Nature’s swiftness should also get a good passive choice node.