I guess I spoke too soon when I said that Druids were being mature about the Cyclone nerf. Balancedruid of Tichondrius demanded on the public forums that Blizzard reconsider the reduction of Cyclone from thirty to twenty yards. He states that although Resto Druids are very powerful in arenas, this form of crowd control is the most appealing aspect of a Balance Druid for most 5v5 arena teams. This change was notably absent form previous patch 2.4 Public Test Realm Build notes.

Several threads have been started on this topic. At least one was mysteriously deleted within five hours of its creation. Snuffymcmoo of Terokkar has begun a petition to rescind the change. Druids are flocking in protest to the change. I can honestly say that I'm not surprised at expressions of outrage. I was just expecting a little more- They're Druids, not Warlocks after all. I apologize for my earlier statements about Druids rolling with the nerf-hammer.

Drysc has recently conceded that not all specs of all classes are suited to battle in the arena. The goal is to make sure that all classes have an option to PvP. Blizzard considers Druids to be highly overrepresented in 2v2 and 3v3 arena brackets. Though they are slightly underrepresented in the 5v5 bracket, the developers consider this change to be in the best interest of the whole.

Players often must make difficult goal-oriented decisions on their characters. Do they want to arena/battleground, raid/instance, or solo grind? Very few specs are viable for all three. As a die-hard Shaman, I feel your pain, Druid friends. It's downright difficult to make Blizzard change their minds when they're set on balance. Just remember, you can always do what I do- roll Resto.

Tags: 2v2, 3v3, balance-druid, cyclone-nerf, drysc, resto-druid

Filed under: Druid, Patches, Analysis / Opinion, PvP, Arena