New Tree of Life model datamined
by Allison Robert 
Oct 13th 2010 at 5:00PM
If the posture looks a little familiar, it's because the Tree apparently shares the male orc's skeleton and animations (at least for the moment), although I'm having difficulty locating the YouTube video that a player claims to have seen of this. The new model isn't yet live on the beta, so unfortunately I can't yet get a video for myself. EDIT: Thanks to our readers, it's been located -- go here.
I really like the new model, but I'm surprised that Blizzard thought it was a priority for an update given the Tree of Life's new status as a Metamorphosis-like cooldown. Bears and cats finally got their update in patch 3.2, so I'm hoping that Moonkin, Travel and Aquatic Form are next on the list. At any rate, it's a spot of good news (well, to me, anyway) in a patch where cat DPS has nose-dived, bears are going crazy trying to hold aggro in 5-mans, and trees are ... well, no longer trees. Past the cut you'll find a quick note on the WoW Insider team's take.
While I liked the form, reception was somewhat mixed behind the scenes here at WoW Insider --
- "Kinda like John Kerry cerca 1978."
- "More like a Kennedy than a Kerry."
- "The 1970s called (and) want their discotrees back."
- "A Tree of Life walks into a bar. The bartender says, 'Hey bud, why the long face?'"
- "A big rock with feathers piled on it."
- "Looks like a pagan hipster to me. It should have a Macbook under one arm and a soy latte in the other."
Mat McCurley also had an amazing John Kerry Photoshop job I'd love to add here, but he's not around at the moment.
So there you go, folks. What's your take on the new forms?
So there you go, folks. What's your take on the new forms?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 8)
Juelz Oct 13th 2010 5:07PM
I lol'd
Heilig Oct 13th 2010 5:58PM
Sorry to hijack the thread at the beginning, but her is that video you couldn't find showing the orc animations.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXEtwCpZYxs
LXj Oct 13th 2010 6:13PM
I would actually prefer one of these:
http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/936925
Ironically it was published the same day as new tree form leaked
Joker Oct 13th 2010 7:02PM
Looks like something from Shadow of the colossus.
Just seeing it makes me want to climb on it's back and attack it's weak points for massive damage.
Sedirex Oct 13th 2010 7:21PM
I wouldn't mind it, if only there were one that had, you know, brown bark and green leaves.
Saeadame Oct 14th 2010 2:30AM
@Sedirex - uhhh you mean like the one on the far right? I don't know what colours you're seeing, but that looks pretty brown-and-green to me.
Boz Oct 14th 2010 8:24AM
Double-hijack for relevant information from Ghostcrawler:
"Messing with player models is always risky and we know the current Tree of Life model is one of those things that is either loved or hated. That is why, as promised, we are offering a minor glyph if you just prefer the older, treant-based, version of ToL."
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=27187854055&pageNo=1&sid=1#13
Tunacanjones Oct 13th 2010 5:07PM
First thing, I thought was "hunchback". "Why the long face?", my pal asked in snarky tone of voice when he saw it.
Not liking it.
Qot Oct 13th 2010 8:02PM
Now people will complain that they *have* to go into ToL sometimes rather than they can't stay in ToL all the time.
Runtimerror Oct 14th 2010 5:23AM
Omg - with those glasses...it's 'Woody' Allen!
The old tree form at least reminded me of the Ents in the Lord of the Rings books.
What these guys need is a good forest fire. Why did they have to kill the trees? :(
thatguy Oct 13th 2010 5:07PM
Is that a beard? With a soulpatch...and an afro?
*goes to reroll druid*
Daigeil Oct 14th 2010 7:04AM
holy shit, it's Jimi Hendrix
Eirik Oct 13th 2010 6:25PM
Treebeard?
stephen Oct 14th 2010 8:47AM
Don't you mean Jimtree Hendrix?
C4G Oct 14th 2010 2:50PM
Soulpatch? Is that what they are calling goatee's now? LOL!!!
Marluxia.Kyoshu Oct 21st 2010 8:07AM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul_patch
Eli Oct 13th 2010 5:07PM
Psh I hold private jam sessions of indie bands in my house then kill them afterwards so I can say I"m the only one who's listened to them.
North Oct 13th 2010 5:07PM
I like them much more then the old forms but I have to agree with you that it doesn't make too much sense to make such a large model change when they removed perma-tree of life.
Here's hoping moonkin form gets an update.
RogueJedi86 Oct 13th 2010 5:12PM
At least moonkin looks cool and race-specific. What about the generic Aquatic Form that has looked ugly since launch? Or the Travel Form, oh god the Travel Form. Travel Form's hoof icon makes no sense for a cheetah, but I heard they were originally supposed to be stags to match the hoof but they ran out of time and used the cheetah model that's seen all over the game. Imagine a revamp of Travel Form that makes it into a Stag for Night Elves, Gazelle for Tauren, and other hooved things for Trolls and Worgen that would make sense(horses?).
pyschorvn Oct 13th 2010 6:04PM
HOW ABOUT SOME CHARACTER MODEL LOVE????? Where are the upgrades for the characters that we see -all the time-. I think it's a waste of resources when they could be updating the horrendous player models from vanilla.