Highs
Several talents were removed (obviously) and for the most part I approve. Brambles got the axe, forever putting to ground the Owlkin Frenzy or Brambles debate. Typhoon is baseline now, freeing up some clutter from the tree. I wonder if it will get nerfed to the ground if every druid has access to it. Regardless, I'm glad to see it gone from the tree. I hated wasting a talent point on an ability that I only used on two fights. Nature's Splendor also received the axe, getting built in to the skills by default. Moonkin and imp. Moonkin went missing (and I can't say I'm sad). While I'd rather have Moonkin form as our spec defining ability, I'd also like to see it as an on-use ability. Read more about that below. Celestial Focus got removed and hard coded for choosing the balance tree. Vengeance also got removed and hard coded. That represents a fairly significant change in the school of thought between melee and caster DPS. But then again, melee is now hitting quite a bit harder than they used to. Back in the olden days, the 100% crit was to make up for the fact that melee hit more often but for less while casters did the large damage, large cast time spells.Lows
Earth and Moon was taken out. I like this talent and will talk more about it below because I put it back in my tree. I feel like tiers 2 and 6 really lack the bang for their relative buck. Tier 2 is just boring and tier 6 probably won't see true use until I decide to PvP or raid. Until then, it's a filler tier. Omen of Clarity is gone too. Granted, it was a mana regen for us. But for ferals, it was a crux and a serious DPS increase. I hope it's trainable, but if it's not, I wonder how ferals will be compensated. However these are just minor annoyances when compared to what I consider the ultimate low. Where are the options Blizzard? I recall a mission statement of sorts that said they wanted to provide us with interesting talent choices. While invariably we will crunch the numbers and determine the best of the best for talents, we ought to have some relatively close choices that we can't pick up. Filling out a tree completely (except for Lunar Justice) and then scrounging a few points in the Restoration tree is a cookie cutter build. Every single raiding Balance Druid will have exactly the same build. Neither interesting or choice.How Rel Would Do It
This is my redesigned talent tree. I kept Starsurge in the talent tree because I would like to see Moonkin Form as the "defining" ability of the Balance spec. But with an addendum: Make it a usable cooldown like Metamorphosis for warlocks. Clearly it would need to be less powerful (or scale with level).
I fleshed out the top row of Balance to provide more restoration options for advancing in that tree. They can get a full 5 points in the top tier with Genesis and Nature's Majesty, both which benefit them. I moved Lunar Justice to the top tier and reduced it to two points as it is strictly a leveling talent and I believe should be available to a leveling boomkin ASAP.
Given the relative power of Nature's Grace, I moved it to the second tier. I realize it is likely to change, but I still think it should be seated outside of the first tier. Moonglow appears in the second tier still. Both options might be appealing to a Restoration druid, giving them the options they need in the second tier.
In the third tier we find Improved Eclipse, Starsurge, and Balance of Power. Part of me thinks it is too early for Balance of Power, but I don't know what else I would place in this tier if I removed it. I linked Starsurge to Lunar Guidance in the 4th tier. I also linked Improved Eclipse to Euphoria, just as Blizzard did. I read some people complaining about that link, but it seems not only appropriate, but obvious given the continual buffing of the amount of Eclipse Energy generated by each spell.
The fourth tier brings Lunar Guidance, Solar Beam, and Gale Winds. I actually tied Solar Beam into Lunar Guidance, but I'm 50/50 on untying it. I realize that Solar Beam doesn't seem like a PvE talent in a 25 man raid environment, but given the likely popularity of the 10 man format and all of the preceding dungeons, I think a silence will provide a good chunk of utility to the Balance druid, expanding their possible role.
Tier five offers Euphoria, Force of Nature, Owlkin Frenzy, and the return of Earth and Moon. I like Earth and Moon, as a talent. I don't need this type of talent to be unique to Boomkins, but I do like the concept. While it does seem rather dull in its description, it offers a personal buff for buffing the raid's DPS. I like talents that encourage you to be a "team player" and reward you for doing so. Euphoria seems to be our mana regen spell now. With Dreamstate, Omen of Clarity, and Intensity gone, Moonglow is about our only mana regen spell remaining. Technically, it's more of a mana saver than a regen talent too. The fact that Euphoria buffs Eclipse while offering mana return is icing on the cake.
Tiers five and six are as Blizzard designed them. I think if Starfall is going to be our 31 point talent, it needs to stay as strong as it is now on Live. Currently, it seems to have lost its splash damage, which I'm ok with. Not much splash damage going on during boss encounters most times anyway. It's hard to pinpoint Fungal Growth's utility as it is NYI. I think this talent may need tweaking (fuse with brambles, imo) in order to appeal to raiders, but we shall see.
5 comments:
Keep in mind the trees aren't even close to final. For a few classes (druids, pallies, and DKs come to mind) they cut out talents just to make them fit the new model and haven't gotten to a working state yet. This also looks like why some talents got nerfed like Furor being down to 6% for now. I fully expect to see Dreamstate, Typhoon, and E&M back in a later build.
Also, they're considering moving clearcasting to trainable because every spec uses it anyway.
I know that things are not even close to final. However, it's at this stage that I believe Blizzard is most open to input. Once they decide on a path, our feedback will need to be more focused instead of suggestive.
I know OoC might be trainable. I actually hope it isn't. I'd like to see it as a talent in the feral tree (maybe tier 2). Qieth would like to see a reason for Balance druids to enter the feral tree and I agree. However, I'm not sure how practical that could be.
I do not expect to see Typhoon back in the tree. I expect it to get nerfed so that it's not too powerful for Resto druids. Given the new PvP tools we have, I think that might just be ok.
Interesting changes...
I absolutely agree with Lunar Justice in the first tier - I think it should also be rewritten so that it restores mana to you AND the first person who enters the lunar ray - that would make it useful in BGs.
I don't agree with Solar Beam being tied to Lunar Guidance... I'd rather people think for themselves "hey, a silence could be useful." I do think Fungal Growth should be tied to Force of Nature though.
Moonkin form as a cooldown is something I would absolutely love. Aside from letting us use costumes, I've always felt balance would benefit from an activated ability that increases our spell casting abilities, similar to Elemental Mastery or Arcane Power. Starfall and Treants are great... but something that makes our wrath and starfire hit harder or faster would be fun.
If they do axe OoC completely, I hope they put in a balance talent that reduces the mana cost of hurricane.
From a PvP standpoint, I'd love to see a way for us to heal ourselves in moonkin form. Either with IS restoring health (similar to a priests' devouring plague, or vampiric embrace) or with a short cd allowing us to rejuv ourselves only. That's if Moonkin doesn't become a cooldown of course... I think I like that idea better.
Rel, do you think Euphoria and Moonglow will be enough us from going oom? As it currently stands, I foresee mana problems (and I'm pretty sure we'll be expected to innervate healers, since they're going to have mana issues again).
Ok, looks like OoC will be baseline (at least that's the buzz) which I think should send ferals through the roof.
@Tulveli -
One of the neat side effects of turning Moonkin into a cooldown is that we would then have access to all of our heals most of the other time. In PvP that means choosing when to use Moonkin carefully because, timed poorly, it may need to be canceled to heal. I would prefer this to a rejuv that could be dispelled and worth nothing.
As far as mana regen, Euphoria reads a little vague, but it's 12% of your current mana, not your base mana. That's quite a bit given the larger mana pools thanks to sp ---> int. When I can proc Eclipse, I can run at almost full mana. There's no cooldown on Eclipse right now either, so sometimes if I'm getting low (~50%), I will chain proc Solar Eclipse to get my mana back. I expect that to change, though.
I did understand Euphoria to be total mana, rather than base mana, but I thought they'd said something about int giving less mana per point than it does currently, to balance the fact that we'll all be stacking it. But by the sounds of what you're saying, we'll have pretty big mana pools despite that (or is that not properly implimented on the current beta?).
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