Shifting Perspectives: Do restoration druids need a cooldown?
by Allison Robert 
Feb 22nd 2011 at 8:00PM
The title of today's Shifting column is maybe a little misleading. Strictly speaking, restoration already has a cooldown -- the still-controversial Disco Soul Patch Groovy Tree that has wildly gesticulated its way into all our hearts (well, some peoples' hearts) -- but now the developers are considering other possibilities in light of some data from tier 11 raids.
Not that we have access to said data (or anything to go on besides our usual rampant speculation), but a few trends have emerged from tier 11 that make the possibility of getting a big cooldown a bit more likely.
This was announced this past week in a thread devoted mostly to priest and shaman tweaks, so I've included only the pertinent section:
NethaeraWe agree with the sentiment among some players that Restoration druids and Restoration shaman are lacking in the healing cooldown department. The shaman buff and Power Word: Shield adjustment above should bring all healers reasonably close in terms of throughput. The decision on who to bring then might end up being dictated by the strong cooldowns offered by paladins or priests. This isn't the kind of thing we can address via a hotfix, but it is something we are looking at for the next major content patch.
As always, we appreciate your continued constructive feedback and will do our best to keep you informed of ongoing developments.
As always, we appreciate your continued constructive feedback and will do our best to keep you informed of ongoing developments.
There are two stand-out points here:
- Blizzard isn't concerned about healer throughput once these changes have gone into effect. I'm a little ambivalent on this. Druid throughput in comparison to paladins and priests was at shocking lows for a significant portion of tier 11, a consequence of raid design and (Blizzard posited) an overly-expensive Rejuvenation and Wild Growth pre-4.0.6. I can only assume that the developers are looking at numbers we don't have, so let's concede the point and assume that healer throughput has reached acceptable equivalency these days. If a skilled player can pump out roughly the same numbers on any healing class, the question over which you'd take then hinges on the next point.
- Healer cooldowns have an impact on class desirability. This isn't the sort of observation requiring a rocket scientist to make. Druids and shaman simply cannot compete with paladins and priests on this count; Guardian Spirit, Pain Suppression, and Hand of Sacrifice exercise too great an impact on tank survivability in raid content.
While the druid still excels at maximizing throughput even in stressful, high-movement environments (Valiona and Theralion say hello!), that's not a substitute for the ability to prevent huge chunks of damage. And as anyone who slogged through the early Wrath version of Sartharion-25 with three drakes up can tell you, it's also not a substitute for the ability to chain cooldowns in tandem with a skilled tank to weather the most dangerous portion of a fight.
The popular "Barkskin option"
A targetable Barkskin has been a very frequent suggestion on the druid boards, but I have to admit it leaves me cold. A 20% damage reduction for any target on a 1-minute cooldown is much too powerful a bonus in PvP for Blizzard to realistically implement, even allowing for the fact that Barkskin can be dispelled. In PvE, it's the equivalent of handing a tank's standard short-duration cooldown to anyone in the raid, and that feels pretty overpowered as well. Verdus, commenting on Restokin's excellent post concerning the issue, made a point that will be all too familiar to experienced WoW players: The choice over using a desirable cooldown for yourself or the tank isn't really much of a choice. Being able to slap it on a tank, particularly in heroic raid content, amounts to kissing any personal use of the cooldown goodbye.
I tend to agree with Lissanna's observation that simply making Barkskin castable on other players would create more problems than it would actually solve. Moonkin and cats would be obligated to use the spell on cooldown to protect tanks or vulnerable raid members, and that's both a distraction and damage loss that other DPS are rarely asked to shoulder. Moreover, not tying it to resto druids specifically would all but invalidate Blizzard's efforts to address the desirability of druid healers in relation to paladins and priests. All druids' getting the bonus doesn't change the spec's situation versus healers with access to more powerful cooldowns, and -- although this could just be the bear druid in me that's still smarting and angry over the loss of root breaks from shapeshifting as of 4.0.6 -- I'm getting intensely weary of one spec's issues overflowing into everyone else's.
Make no mistake; the potential cooldown is one meant to equal existing cooldowns that overwhelmingly save tanks in high-pressure situations in raid content. While I agree that this cooldown should happen, the most obvious option is problematic, and I think more discussion is warranted.
What race should you choose for your druid? What happened to Tree of Life? How can you get started as a bear or cat in Cataclysm? Shifting Perspectives has the answers!Filed under: Druid, (Druid) Shifting Perspectives
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
MikeLive Feb 22nd 2011 8:26PM
From the perspective of a Moonkin, hell no. You guys already got a brand new model for a cooldown really only seen during boss fights while us Moonkin are stuck with the archaic and ugly model for every single aspect of combat.
Scunosi Feb 22nd 2011 8:33PM
They're saying they need new life-saving abilities, not new shiny graphics. If something huge is about to hit your tank there's almost nothing a Resto Druid can do about it other than line up hots, which is pretty much what they've been doing all along anyway.
Don't worry, we'll get our new forms...eventually...I hope... :(
cyanea85 Feb 22nd 2011 8:57PM
When the best that I can do (as a Resto Shaman) seeing my tank go down under a flurry of hits is throw an instant spell every two minutes at him...while Priests and Pallies can actually reduce the amount of damage he's taking to something healable for long enough to figure out what the problem is and hopefully fix it...it's a bit insulting. I'm not looking for another awesome spell. I'm looking for something that will make me not feel like a drag on my raid.
MikeLive Feb 22nd 2011 9:00PM
Downvoted for sarcasm... fair enough.
@cyanea85 Agreed. I've healed on my Shaman very little since Cata, as every time I attempted was major fail. It was really discouraging after topping the healing meters (and undercutting the overhealing meters, but that's not hard when I was working with a Druid and sometimes Paladin) during ICC.
e-girl Feb 23rd 2011 4:14AM
I dont know about you but I WANT MY PERMANENT TREE FORM BACK
Hiwa Feb 23rd 2011 7:06AM
I'm gonna contribute to this derail and mention that at this point I'd rather heal looking like a moonkin than that big piece of asparagus the developers stuck us with. Thank goodness for the glyph to use old tree form. At least it doesn't make me shudder in horror every time I see it.
dlaiyre Feb 22nd 2011 8:27PM
Shaman - soul link in some form.
Druid - Some form of %Targethp absorb short cooldown if not used. (arcane please)
Elmo Feb 23rd 2011 9:31AM
Soul link would be cool but they have now tried it twice (during Wrath and Cata Beta's) and never managed to get it working without beeing completely OP which is a shame really.
but I do agree Shamans and Druids need a proper cooldown for high damage situations (a pain suppression/PW:Barrier kind of thing)
dlaiyre Mar 1st 2011 1:06AM
Soul Link -- Could be in a new form.
x (1-3 min) cooldown
"You bind souls together with a target, all heals on the either target will heal the linked soul for xx%, death for either the shaman or linked soul will consume the link, and return both to xx% health. Lasts 15 seconds."
I feel like druids need something simple they already have a lot to track without adding more 'timers' to their concousness.
-Glyph of Swiftmend now also reduces physical damage taken by the target by 10% for xx seconds. (should probably be higher than the 15 that the crit effect sham/priests have)
-I would like to see a targetable cooldown. Perhaps with a small consequence: 'Consumes Rejuvenate and Regrowth effects on the target' (leave lifebloom ofc.)
Docseuzz Feb 22nd 2011 8:29PM
Good article, but what do _you_ suggest?
Allison Robert Feb 22nd 2011 8:34PM
Personally, I haven't arrived at a conclusion yet, aside from the certainty that Barkskin is poorly situated to step up as an option. I was more interested in hearing what my fellow druids thought.
Sky Feb 23rd 2011 1:43AM
But what if there was a talent in deep resto that allowed you to cast Barkskin on other players? Put it together with some other talent so druids dont have to 'waste' points on it. That way only resto druids get the cooldown and the dps specs dont have to worry about it.
Meccaryn Feb 23rd 2011 1:48AM
like i've always mentioned many, many times:
simply make Force of Nature trainable for all druids - with a talent in Resto to buff either
a, mana regen effect whenever the treants hit a target
b, increased healing power until treants expire - making FoN both an offensive/defensive cooldown
with the 'fire and forget' nature of FoN - it will be a great addition to Resto arsenal, capable of landing 'extra dps' while still doing their intended healing duty.
Twill Feb 23rd 2011 2:51AM
For them Druids:
Note: Paladins have a spell identical to Barkskin. If we lose its self-reduction utility, we still are behind paladins.
(This is just my wish-list for making Druid healing perfect.)
-Remove the link between Efflorescence and Swiftmend. Efflorescence needs to be its own spell.
-Add a buff that is applied to the target of a heal from Nature's Swiftness. This reduces damage by 40% for however long the disc. priest's ability does. (Pain Suppression?) Also have Nature's Swiftness' cooldown match the disc priest's ability.
-Give us Healing Surge. I don't like Regrowth as our expensive mini-bomb.
-Return Regrowth to the long HoT it was in WotLK. I miss having HoTs that lasted for more than 10 seconds. (Slightly buffs tank healing since its better to AoE heal with tons of Rejuv.)
-Give ToL this dance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H30AjPM3xWo
-Make Lifebloom immediately apply 3 stacks if it already had 3 on that target. I hate accidentally having it fall off >.<
-Organize a dance party because all of my dreams have come true!
-Get Moonkins a Wind Elemental because I wants it. Shaman have two elementals, Why can't Moonkin be the Birds of the Sky we always knew we were destined to be!
-Make Force of Nature baseline, with Balance having it work like it does now, and Restoration having it like a Shadowfiend
-Give Moonkins the ability to fly for 10 seconds. Yea. You heard me. That would be so awesome! Next expansion maybe...
-Give moonkins Whirlwinds that pick up people that stand in it. It moves around like Flame Orb. I thought it would be OP, but look at Flame Orb and Ring of Frost.
-I apologize for my crazy ass comment. I boy can dream right? The flying for 10 seconds though... that really would be awesome.
Twill Feb 23rd 2011 2:54AM
Another thing!
-Rework Thorns:
Thorns now absorbs 25% of damage taken and reflects it back at the attacker. This cannot exceed 10% of your health (the druid who casts it). Lasts a bit longer than duration that Paladin/Priest abilities do. (This is because their abilities reduce dmg by 30/40% respectively).
I chose 25% because of the reflection mechanic.
Obviously the cooldown would be increased as well.
Twill Feb 23rd 2011 3:20AM
Another reason Barkskin on tanks is bad:
Tranquility needs a way to not be gimped. If we are attacked while channeling it, the duration is cut short.
Tom Feb 23rd 2011 3:47AM
I suppose it's the premise of the article, but I think the focus is too much on the need for a single Tank Damage prevention cooldown a'la Pain Suppression.
Speaking from the perspective of a Disc Priest the scary moments in the fight for me were not so much the tank taking a lot of damage - in those situations you call for heals and the other healers help you out. There were very very few fights where you had to have a Damage Prevention cooldown to cast - Mimiron's Plasma Beam in phase 1 springs to mind, Sarth 3d pre nerf, for the simple reason that either Tank cooldowns were available, or else the fight had to be balanced by Blizz with the expectation that you weren't rocking 4 Priests with Pain Suppression.
I'm not saying there were no times to use Pain Suppression, there definitely were, but typically I would be casting it on the Tank in order to free myself up to heal the raid who were about to die.
In THOSE situations Pain Suppression could be traded out for (and eventually was once Divine Hymn showed up in it's final form) a large Raid Heal Cooldown.
So whilst I'm not saying don't give an extra cooldown to Druids or Shaman, I just don't know that the focus needs to be so heavily on a Tanking cooldown. Shaman for instance might benefit more from a large Raid Heal cooldown.
Styvorama Feb 23rd 2011 6:00AM
I thought it would be cool for ToL form to augment Thorns so it works as a tank cooldown. This will force a 3 minute cooldown on said ability, and be another interesting mechanic for us to pop into tree for. Will also make it a big decision to use, as will cost us our tree form to use it.
I think it should work like Pain Suppression, something like Thorns - reducing 40% damage taken by the target over 10 seconds(maybe word it "When in Tree of Life form, Thorn harden, reducing all damage taken by 40%, but only lasting 50% of its original duration.")
brammage Feb 23rd 2011 12:43PM
Currently:
Nourish is fairly pointless, in that it heals for very little, takes as long to cast as Healing Touch, and does the same amount of healing per mana as Healing Touch.
Nature's Swiftness is also fairly useless since we no longer have a big "nuke" heal to use it with.
So:
Change Nourish so that it has the same cast time, healing, and mana cost as the current Healing Touch.
Change Healing Touch so that it becomes a very big, very slow heal that we can macro with Nature's Swiftness, just like it used to be in WotLK.
Scunosi Feb 22nd 2011 8:31PM
I thought Barkskin was now undispellable anyway?
Another idea I read about a lot is turning Thorns (via Talent or Glyph) into something more useful. I know Thorns had its time to shine when Cata first came out and it was eating Rogues (boy those were fun times) but since it's subsequent nerfs it's gone back to being semi-useless. Of course, unless they radically changed the spell it'd end up with the same issues as the proposed Barkskin changes, that being a short cooldown and being able to cast it on others, meaning you'd constantly be using it on others.
Of course, if they made it more protective instead of (laughably) offensive, say, 'the target is protected by a thorny bush' or something, and gave it a longer CD, that'd help out Moonkin PvP as well, though not PvPing as Feral I'm not sure if they need another defensive CD. I know as a Moonkin I'd love to have a real defensive CD instead of just popping Barkskin and still seeing myself get nuked, just a tad bit slower.