Well here I thought the druid changes may be more interesting than priest and shaman changes, but I was W-R-O-N-G. You see, Blizzard thinks resto druids have enough to play with already, which means perhaps this is a nod to priests having a truly biggest toolbox than the other healing classes. Or maybe druids do have more than enough to play with, but I know at level 60 that this does not seem to be the case. So on the whole, I am disappointed with no new spells coming to resto shamans considering all the new toys the other three druid roles are getting.
However, there is one bit of big news. I mean...BIG.
Yes that's right, Tree of Life will no longer be your passive state but a cooldown-based ability. This means druids will finally be returned to heal as much as other classes without needed to be in tree form all the time. You will finally be able to admire your gear (not so important), and you will not automatically be target number 1 anymore in PvP based on appearance alone. This will revolutionize the battleground experience for trees, who always get picked on. Plus this may be the new "different spell" for druids, in that they can enter tree form to really be clutch for 30 seconds or however long the ability lasts. Perhaps not the game-changer that heroism is for shamans, but I imagine this could be a similar result for endgame raiding.
Druids will be able to dispel defensive magic like all other healing classes, but the same dispels remain for curses and poison. Plus HoT's will benefit from haste, which will help tremendously. Speaking of heal over time spells, a new talent called Efflorescence will cause a bed of healing flowers to sprout beneath targets you critically heal with regrowth. This means that melee could get bonus heals just for standing next to a tank, and could make resto druids better tank healers.
Which leaves us with the mastery top level bonus, which is called HoT Scale Healing. What an original name, Blizzard, honestly. However, the ability is nice as it will be the heal over time equivalent of the shaman mastery, increasing the effectiveness of HoT spells for targets with less health. Again, making a druid healer more clutch, but perhaps to a lesser degree since it is heal over time spells.
So that's it. Hopefully I stretched that lack of news to a full entry here, and I think the extra week of paladin work will give us more to talk about next weekend. So far, druids have the biggest appearance change, but shamans and priests have to be a bit more happy looking forward to cataclysm. See you next time!
I was shocked, really. The coolest thing on healing as a Druid was playing as that cute Brocolis who do the Twist when dancing. Sad sad sad. They should have nerfed the form instead of putting it on a CD. =S
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