Restoration Changes

Classes Druid
1

Hey everyone, I just wanted to follow up on my previous post regarding the Druid class design and talent trees. Here is another list of things I would like to see changed:

Druid Talent Tree

  • Rejuvenation duration increased from 12sec to 15sec.
  • Hibernate, Soothe & Cyclone are now baseline and replaced with 2 new traits.
  • Lycara’s Inspiration and Lycara’s Teachings merged.
  • Heart of the Wild adjusted:

Restoration gets the empowered version of Wild Growth.

Feral gets the empowered version of Feral Frenzy.

Guardian gets an empowered version of Frenzied Regeneration.

Moonkin gets an empowered version of Starfall.

Hero Talent Tree

Keeper of the Grove

  • Treants of the Moon: Grove Guardians no longer cast Moonfire and cast Rejuvenation on nearby targets once every 6sec.
  • Wild Synthesis added to Bounteous Bloom. New Effect: Grove Guardians healing is increased by 60% and Efflorescence, and your other summons heal for 30% more.
  • Early Spring: Swiftmend and Wild Growth cooldowns reduced by 2sec instead of 1sec.
  • Blooming Infusion Reworked: Every 5 Regrowths you cast makes your next Rejuvenation last X sec longer. Every 5 Rejuvenations you cast makes your next Regrowth instant.

Wildstalker

  • Hunt Beneath the Open Skies: Reworked
  • Thriving Growth: Rip and Rake damage has a chance to cause Bloodseeker Vines to grow on the victim, dealing (97.5% of Attack Power) Bleed damage over 6 sec. Removed. Healing increased.
  • Strategic Infusion: Attacking from Prowl increases the chance for Shred, Rake, and Swipe to critically strike by 8% for 6 sec. Removed. Your periodic heals have a 4% X% increased chance to critically heal. (Increased)
  • Wildstalker’s Power: Rip and Ferocious Bite damage increased by 5%. Reworked.
  • Lethal Preservation: When you remove an effect with Soothe or [Nature’s Cure / Remove Corruption], gain a combo point and heal for 4% of your maximum health. If you are at full health an injured party or raid member will be healed instead.
  • Flower Walk: Healing increased
  • Bursting Growth: When Bloodseeker Vines expire or you use Ferocious Bite on their target they explode in thorns, dealing (86.4% of Attack Power) physical damage to nearby enemies. Damage reduced above 5 targets. Healing increased.
  • Resilient Fourishing: Reworked.
  • Root Network: Reworked.
  • Twin Sprouts: When Bloodseeker Vines or Symbiotic Blooms grow, they have a 30% chance to cause another growth of the same type to immediately grow on a valid nearby target.
  • Vigorous Creepers: Bloodseeker Vines increase the damage your abilities deal to affected enemies by 4%.

Note: Pretty much the whole Wildstalker talent tree needs a new identity. It should focus more on improving HoTs and giving them unique effects, while Keeper of the Grove should be more geared toward summons and burst healing.

Restoration Talent Tree

  • [New] Genesis tier set effect added to talent tree.
  • Verdant Infusion: Reverted
  • Germination: Changed. When you cast Rejuvenation, it automatically applies it to the same target.
  • Wild Synthesis: Moved to Keeper of the Grove. Reworked.
  • Cultivation: Changed from requiring 2 points to 1 point.
  • Unstoppable Growth: Changed from requiring 2 points to 1 point.
  • Liveliness: Your damage over time effects deal their damage 25% faster, and your healing over time effects heal 5% faster.
  • Master Shapeshifter: Is now baseline and the mana gained through Wrath, Starfire and Starsurge is increased.
  • Y’seras Gift & Waking Dream merged and adjusted.
  • Embrace of the Dream: Healing increased/Reworked.
  • Call of the Elder Druid: Reworked.
  • Dream of Cenarius: Reworked.
  • Nurturing Dormancy: Reworked.
  • Lifebloom traits: Photosynthesis, Harmonious Blooming and Verdancy need to be condensed.

Note: A few of the issues I have run into while playing Resto Druid for a while are mana management (though have greatly improved on it but still run into it from time to time), short HoT durations, and having to constantly reapply them the moment they run out (especially when stacking two Rejuvenations). I also feel like there were a lot of fun talent options I wanted, but I’m always forced to constantly pick the ones that improved Lifebloom, which left very little room for more interesting builds. Rejuvenation will always be my favorite HoT, and with all the reworks and free space I have proposed, I hope they can introduce some more unique effects for our HoT spells.

Thanks for reading! :slight_smile:

2

I can see the vision you’re going for here, but I do strongly disagree with some of your ideas.

Heart of the Wild isn’t supposed to be a throughput buff for the druid’s main spec. If it is, that makes it completely mandatory. There puts pressure on an already highly constrained class talent tree. I would much rather an improved version of one of their abilities be in the spec tree where it can compete with other similarly balanced throughput abilities, if it is going to exist at all.

Removing all damage aspects of the spec and hero trees for restoration is a terrible idea. Being able to add damage is always valuable, even from the healer position. In fact, in M+, the best healers are almost always the healers who contribute the most to group damage while still being able to meet necessary healing checks. Stripping that away only hurts druid’s position.

Additionally, even if Blizzard did decide to remove the damage aspects of the hero tree, doing so in the name of higher healing numbers doesn’t really address the problems with the spec. Resto druid is already designed to be an HPS darling. While it started the season under tuned, several rounds of aura buffs has landed it in a strong HPS position again. What the spec needs is a fundamental redesign of how its HoTs interact with one another and the rest of the kit. Focusing on its raw healing output isn’t going to make the spec feel better to play nor improve its position where it is weak.