First and foremost, is that except for some very specific circumstances, there is just no real point to ever leaving caster form. Travel form has now become just something you use from L30-40, and as an escape skill if you happen to be outdoors. Underwater form, well, that's obvious. The bigger issue is with Bear/Cat forms. Oh, and one thing no one can quite understand is what exactly is the balance issue with letting druids go directly from bear form to cat form without using caster form as an intermediary?
Bear form I never use, because even if I get a complete 2nd set of armor/stamina gear and go heavy into feral talents, I'm still not going to touch a warrior in tanking ability. With my current normal gear at L57 (and my gear's not awful), and no points in feral, I come in at about 2000 lower than a well-equipped warrior in both HP and Armor, and that's with me having MOW and him unbuffed. Even if it were somehow possible to boost myself up to his levels, a) it would require lugging around a complete 2nd set of gear, and b) I still wouldn't tank as well, because of not having block or parry, and thus losing out on a lot of mitigation. Not to mention, warrior DPS is significantly above bear form DPS. Given that warriors are not exactly uncommon, I cannot forsee groups ever seeking out even feral-spec druids to be MTs for instance runs, especially raids.
Cat form I only use when I need to sneak somewhere, or to get 10 sec of faster running indoors, now that travel is only outdoors. With +Spell Damage items, moderate expenditures in the Balance tree and a high DPS staff (I use Spire of Hakkar at present), my caster-form DPS is at the very least in the same ballpark as my cat form DPS, without going heavy feral. Also, groups are even less likely to seek out a druid to be a faux rogue than they are to be a faux warrior, since cat form lacks Sap. (not that I am in the least asking for Sap, please understand.) Part of the problem is that the suite of cat abilities is rather lacking, especially a DD finishing move. Even when I have played cat to test it out, my finishing move never does much, if I even get to use it at more than 2-3 combo points, since stuff dies too rapidly for the DOT to work.
One suggestion I've seen to at least partially improve the forms is this: When you shift to bear form, some (largish) % of your SPI/INT is converted to STR/STA, and when you shift to Cat, they're converted into STR/AGI. This also would require changing cats to be like Rogues, and get DPS increase from AGI. This at the very least removes the issue of needing to carry 3 sets of gear around, and being far less useful in caster form to heal if you had put on a form gear set. Would certainly promote the more fluid shifting of forms, rather than just staying in 1 because shifting gear around is annoying.
The main thing that Druids DO get invited to groups for is to be a 2ndary healer, or, more rarely, to be a primary healer, as long as there's a paladin or shaman along. Thus, going Restoration seems rather indicated, as it enhances the role we DO have. Even heavy restoration though, I am not entirely sanguine about my ability to be a truly effective primary healer, since a) to do so I need some other rezzer along, and b) I have no way to quickly save someone near death, save for once every 3 minutes with Nature's Swiftness. (which really should recycle faster)
That kinda leads into the next concern I've seen raised a lot. If priests are intended to be the much better healer, why do they also out-nuke druids, but also (with inner fire) out-tank us and out melee DPS us? Yes, it takes a spell, and we could switch forms, but they can still cast heals while inner fire is going, if we're shifted, we can't. Not that I'm crying for a priest nerf at all, if anything I'd love to see them get something like sleep back, so they're more out of the mold of EQ Clerics, but the ability ratio does seem a trifle odd.
Another question I have is that why is it considered to be unbalancing for druid root to work indoors when other classes DO get indoor roots? Also, from experience I can say that roots rarely hold for anything close to their full duration, even if the mob is not being attacked at all, so the break chance may want to be looked at.
Some other random stuff:
1) Soothe Animal, in it's current incarnation, has almost no use whatsoever. Having to cast it on every single mob in the area, with it's short duration makes it easier to just either sneak or let them leash. This really should be a duration buff that extends in an aura around the druid. Makes sense too, that a druid should be able to run through an area of wild animals without being harassed.
2) Some community management might be in order with the druids, since I've seen a bunch of posts that a) say our talents are being intended to "fix" the class, rather than being supplimental like talents for, say, a mage, b) that there's no clear vision for druids, c) that the druid concerns are being ignored by staff, since no one has commented anything. Not saying that any of it's true, but the unchecked perception of those things is not good, I think we can agree.
3) Our top level talents are pretty weak in comparison to those of other classes. Example: the top Restoration talent just gives 1 person an extra 4-800 mana, depending on SPI, over 20 seconds, with a longish recycle. That's 1 heal at the higher levels. Hurricane has a really long recycle, and the top of feral is nothing too exciting either. Hurricane is the best of the bunch, but means losing out on most of the restoration tree, requires running into the middle of combat to use, and has a really long recycle, making it more of a situation spell than a utility spell.
OK, now my 2nd post giving some hard details in response to some questions on my first post.
That's just the thing, priests aren't just better at healing, they're better, or at least no worse, at nuking and melee too. Here's a comparison of nukes available at L60, with no talents involved:
Priest:
Mind Blast 8 - 1.5s 350mana cast 530 DD 8s timer (1.514 damage per mana)
Smite 8 - 2.5s 295mana cast 400DD (1.356 DPM)
Shadow Word Pain 8 - instacast 423mana 852DoT/18s (2.014 DPM)
vs
Druid:
Starfire 6 - 3.5s 315mana cast 475DD (1.508 DPM)
Moonfire 10 - instacast 375mana 200DD 384DOT/12s (1.558 DPM)
Wraith 8 - 2s 180 mana 250DD (1.389 DPM)
If one class is drastically better than the other at nuking, I'm missing it, though I know I'd love faster casting nukes.
As for melee, there's 1 priest spell that makes all the difference:
Inner Fire 6 - 202mana instacast +159 Attk Power, +1348 AC, lasts 3 min
The AC bonus jumps your armor to be a fair bit above that of a Druid (my armor is just about 2k with MOW up), and the ATTK power bonus is almost as big an ATTK increase as I get by shifting to Bear form. Plus, it costs you less mana than my shifting does, and you can still cast spells, use items and drink potions while it's going.
As for Druids healing as well as a priest, that's simply not true. Yes, our slow/big heal, Healing Touch, is about as efficient as yours. Our DOT-heal, Rejuvination is not as good as the priest DOT-heal, however, and the fastest heal we have that actually gives a set amount back, Regrowth is a 2.5sec cast, and is insanely mana inefficient if recast before the dot-heal component runs out, and even if you DO let it run, it's still less mana efficient than Healing touch.
The bigger issue though is this: Short of a talent very deep in the healing tree, which precludes going far into Feral or Balance, Druids have no way, whatsoever, of quickly healing someone to keep them alive. Rejuvination is our only insta-cast but has no flat heal component, and Regrowth takes 2.5s to cast. Even with the Nature's Swiftness talent, that's only 1 spell I can insta-cast every 3 minutes. If things go into the tank in a serious way, I simply don't have the tools to keep non-tanks who are getting pounded on alive reliably, and if lots of people are getting pounded, my AOE heal is quite problematic, and a VERY long recycle.
All of that's absolutely OK, though, I don't WANT to heal as well as a priest, you SHOULD be a better healer than me, hands down. As far as healing goes, I think the classes are right about where they should be. With enough talents spent in Restoration, I can be a passable primary healer, I just have to have a rezzer along, and I probably wouldn't be too successful, even at L60, at someplace like Scholomance.
The real issue right now though is, that 2nd rate healing is all that we ARE good at. The supposed flexibility of the class is just not there. If I do as much or more DPS in caster form as I do in my supposed DPS form, what reason is there for me to shift? If my tanking form will never be more than something used in extreme situational circumstances, where's my incentive to spend talents there, or to ever shift to it, especially when shifting means I can't heal? What we are now is effectively a Priest-Lite, since there's no incentive to switch forms. In which case, if we're just acting like a priest anyway, what reason is there to play a Druid instead of a priest?
The people on the priest forums posting about druids, I am sorry to say, don't have a real idea of what druids can and cannot do. If you go look at the druid pages, you won't find more than a very small handful of druids who like the alternate forms at all, at least for grouping. Now, for soloing, forms become a lot more useful. But if I was going to solo 24x7, why would I be playing a MMO?
BTW, the warrior I compared myself to in the first one, if you look on Thottbot for Alliance warriors, was like 60th in total stat point increases, and 8th for Armor. For alliance druids, I'm like 11th in stat increases, 9th in Armor. So, I am comparing apples to apples when it comes to gear levels, and my unenhanced Bear form, with a talent-enhanced MOW up, was 2000 hp less than him, and 2000 armor less than him. Not exactly the world's most viable tank, especially considering no block and no parry.
Now, one brand new things that they DID give druids which IS very nice in certain circumstances is the Hibernate spell. This is a sleep for up to 30 sec, that works on Beasts and Dragonkin. So, it definitely comes in useful in Sunken Temple and in Blackrock Spire. (the Spiders of Infinite Annoyance in lower are Beasts, so are sleepable) No complaints about the spell at all. But again, to use it I have to be in caster form, which does, of course, lessen any incentive I have to shift, and even further lessens any reason to take any Feral talents.
-Arlos
