Let me credit the original idea to Anaro over on the beta forums (and his own blog, Cataclysmic Shift). He suggested that Thorns become a usable ability like Barkskin. Upon reading his suggestion, I had an epiphany: That IS a great idea for Thorns. So I got permission to flesh it out here, on my blog. Hopefully you'll leave some feedback about the thoughts and what you think Thorns should be. Here's the idea:
Thorns - 17% of base mana, Instant cast, 1 minute cooldown.
Thorns erupt from the druid, causing damage to all attackers for 10 seconds. Shares a cooldown with Barkskin.
Thorns erupt from the druid, causing damage to all attackers for 10 seconds. Shares a cooldown with Barkskin.
Ok, so that's the base ability. It would give the resto druid some added danger. The bear druid would get another cooldown that they could trigger if Barkskin was not needed. For the raiding cat and the raiding Moonkin, this would offer very little. Since our goal here is raiding utility, let's introduce another talent. This talent would fundamentally alter the ability, which I think could be considered and "interesting" challenge.
Empowered Thorns - Channels the power of your Thorny aura, causing a 5/10/15% increase in spell damage for the duration of the aura.
This is the caster version, planted down pretty far in the Balance tree to make it unique to Balance druids. A similar version could be used for cats but, honestly, they don't need more crap! Some napkin math says that this would be approximately a 2.5% increase in DPS if used on cooldown (assuming a constant DPS). It could have interesting implications with Eclipse, Starsurge, and DoTs, as far as when to cast, etc. I think this is on par with the kind of increases we are looking for from talents. It sure beats Genesis and Owlkin Frenzy, that's for sure!
5 comments:
Your Empowered Thorns is just a trinket.
I'd like Thorns that returns 50% of physical damage for 10 seconds (only for moonkin).
I think Thorns is a defensive ability even if it causes damages.
Any activated ability can be boiled down to a "trinket" if you look at it the right (or wrong) way. Sure, the mechanism for the delivery of that trinket changes, but it amounts to the same thing.
In my mind, a defensive ability is one that reduces or prevents damage. An offensive ability deals damage. Thorns does not actually reduce any damage as it is. It is simply a passive damage dealing ability that requires damage input to create damage output (not unlike rage in that sense). By changing thorns in this way (and then talenting it), it becomes a proactive offensive spell instead of a passive one. Player decision enters into the equation, and I think that's become a development goal for Blizzard lately.
Simply put, passive spells are not very interesting. While your suggestion is interesting, it is still passive. I do like the basic idea, making a much more "defensive" cooldown (since it will deter damage) but is doesn't offer raid viability as far as I can see. Any fixes for that?
I agree my suggestion is useless in a raid context.
Unless we can choose a friendly target and put this 10 sec buff on the tank to protect him and increase his threat... but it looks like a healer ability now ^^
I have to say the "trinket" approach is a really neat idea, especially if it was cast-able on others and lasted a significant time (10sec is pretty short, maybe 20 or 30?).
Also, thanks for all the excellent posts.
-Longtimelurker
let me start by saying "awww. . . i got a bogus. . . "
You know what Anon1/2 - That's brilliant! It would be like a misdirect for us. I know a lot of Boomkins would not like to have the responsibility of misdirects or a damage reduction ability as it will invariably lead to them be required to use it at specific times within a fight, possibly mucking up the rotation, but I absolutely love the idea. I see no problem with heaping a little more raid responsibility on DPS. I think it's been a long time coming.
@Longtimelurker -
Thank you and thank you! I'd say the one problem with a longer buff is that it will consequently be weaker.
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