So, last night/early this morning, MMO-champ released the early listing of spells that druids are giving and receiving for the Symbiosis spell that’s been so controversial.
I’ll be honest. I knew when I first read it that it would be a balancing nightmare, but the more I see, the more I think Blizz should just scrap it and give druids another spell while leveling, because this is just NOT going to end well. So, first off, let’s take a look at what druids will be getting. I’ll mostly focus on the bear and kitty specs, since those are the ones I currently play, but if there’s a particularly horrid offender in boomkin or resto, I may touch on it. As with all beta information, all of this is subject to change at any minute in time, so take it with a grain of salt, as I have.
So here is what druids are getting from:
Death Knights – Guardians get “Bone Shield”, Feral gets “Death Coil”.
Another defensive cooldown for bears definitely couldn’t hurt anything, but it seems like taking the easy way out. Feral getting Death Coil is ridiculous since their rotation (currently) is already pretty GCD locked, and energy starved. Admittedly, I haven’t played it on the beta, but I have yet to see anything that would change that enough to justify another 40 energy-costing ability.
Hunters – Guardians get “Ice Trap”, Feral gets “Play Dead”.
Bears with Ice Trap makes absolutely no sense to me. If you’re like me and get Ice Trap and Freezing Trap mixed up all the time, Ice Trap is the one that creates the patch of slowing shit on the ground… so why on earth would tanks need an aoe slow like this? Maybe there are some mechanics in some boss fights? Maybe? I don’t know, but it seems silly. Kitties getting “play dead” (druidic version of feign death) makes sense, as kitties tend to be high on the threat scale, and cower really only drops like 10% threat or something. Play dead could definitely come in handy in some circumstances.
Mages – Guardians get “Mage Ward”, Feral gets “Frost Nova”.
Mage Ward is what used to be Frost Armor. I could see this being useful in pve on some rare situations, and making bears REALLY annoying flag runners in pvp. Frost nova for ferals… oh god, I can just hear the pvp QQ right now. Holy crap that’ll be absurd.
Monks – The spells received from monks have yet to be implemented.
Paladin – Guardians get “Consecration”, Feral gets “Divine Shield”.
Bears with consecrate… because clearly, our aoe threat is a problem at this point, amirite? Kitties getting Divine Shield will be another one that will make kitties powerful in pvp. 50% damage reduction on an already difficult to kill, FAST class? Woof.
Priest – Guardians get “Fear Ward”, Feral gets “Dispersion”.
This symbiosis makes the most sense to me. Fear Ward is a *fantastic* idea that’s not overpowered, and will see legit use in both pve and pvp. Dispersion for kitties is right in the same lines. THIS is what symbiosis should be for druids.
Rogue – Guardians get “Feint”, Feral gets “Redirect”.
I like the idea of bears having an AOE damage reduction. It may only see some modest usage at best, but it’s still a good trade. Kitties getting redirect, and all of a sudden every kitty on the planet loves their friendly neighborhood rogue. Combo points have been the major downfall of kitties in pretty much every target-switching boss fight, and this is a fantastic way to combat that.
Shaman – Guardians get “Lightning shield”, Feral gets “Feral Spirit”.
Initially, I /headtilt’ed at bears with lightning shield, but it’s a fun idea that could augment thorns, and also see legitimate usage. Kitties with spirit wolves (or spirit kitties maybe?) are an interesting idea, but with Treants being given to all specs, i’m really curious about this choice.
Warlock – Guardians get “Life Tap”, Feral gets “Soul Swap”.
A tank, willingly taking some (20% in this case) of his health for some rage may seem like a questionable choice, but I think this would see a lot of use in 5-mans, between pulls when Enrage is on cooldown. Not terrible, but not great. Kitties getting soul swap is a great way to combat the lack of opener burst that they’ve suffered from. Minor target swap fights (like Spine or Blackhorn) would see kitties ABSOLUTELY LOVING this ability.
Warrior – Guardians get “Spell Reflection”, Feral gets “Shattering Blow”.
Spell reflect will be an AMAZING ability for bears, when they already kind of suffer on magic damage fights. Ferals getting “shattering blow” is yet another one where I can see massive amounts of pvp tears. Pally bubble shattered by a kitty? what is this I don’t even
Now then… What does everybody get in return from druids?
DKs: Blood recieves “Might of Ursoc”, Frost and Unholy recieve “Wild Mushroom: Plague”.
Blood DKs get another defensive cooldown (increases health by 15% for 20 seconds)… again with taking the easy way out. Wild Mushroom: Plague is just another disease spreading ability. Simply put, it drops a mushroom for 30 seconds, and everything in it’s area get the diseases pulsed onto them every 3 seconds. It’s a cool idea, but between the level 15 talents, DKs don’t need ANOTHER way to apply diseases… and the cooldown (3 minutes) is pretty extreme for this.
Hunters (regardless of spec): Dash
This will definitely see use, but seems like it would be used more for the root/snare breaking than the movement speed increase. It doesn’t seem terrible, all things considered.
Mages (regardless of spec): Healing Touch
Mages get a heal. They’ll definitely find some use for this, but again… meh.
Monks: Brewmaster receives “Survival Instincts”, Windwalker receives “Savage Defense”, Mistweaver receives “Cyclone”.
Tanks getting a defensive cooldown, yadda yadda. Windwalker getting a large dodge cooldown… That seems like a weird choice. Mistweaver getting cyclone seems like it makes the most sense for this class, to be honest. It’ll probably see the most usage in pvp though.
Paladin: Holy gets “Rebirth”, Ret hasn’t been implemented yet, Prot gets “Barkskin”.
Spreading around the battle rezes. This really isn’t a bad idea at all. Tanks with another defensive cd, second verse same as the first.
Priest: Disc and Holy get “Entangling Roots”, Shadow gets “Tranquility”.
I *really* like the idea of Shadow having a massive aoe heal in tranq. It will definitely see some pretty good pve usage in big aoe fights. Disc and Holy getting a root will most likely be used in pvp more than anything else.
Rogue (all specs): Growl.
….rogue tank for the win? Idfk. At least they give them a big armor increase for this. It could definitely be the difference between a wipe and a kill if the tank goes down.
Shaman: Ele and Enhance get “Solar Beam”, Resto gets “Prowl”.
I have always loved “solar beam”, because packs of casters can be really nasty, in both pve and pvp. Prowl for resto shaman… I am not entirely sure the thoughts behind this, but way back in the day when I first started playing, I remember thinking that ghost wolf form WAS a stealth form, so this is probably a bit of fanservice for all of us who used to think that.
Warlocks (all specs): Rejuvenation.
DPS with a heal. yawn.
Warrior: Arms/Fury get “Stampeding Shout”, Prot gets “Frenzied Regeneration”.
This one i’m really confused about. I don’t think there will be a lot of times where you’ll need to use Stampeding Shout/Roar in quick succession, so having it on two people in the raid is a bit… strange. Although, I suppose it depends on the raid group and the encounter so who knows. I understand a tank getting a defensive CD, but Frenzied Regen for prot, when they already have Enraged Regeneration seems pretty redundant…. idk, maybe it’s just me.
Now then.. as you can see, some of these are pretty good, some of these are REALLY good, and some of these are just full of what the fuck. My evaluations may not be 100% spot-on, but that doesn’t change the fact that some of these are significantly stronger than others, and some will see a lot of one-sided usage over others. I’m not quite sure how these things are going to get balanced out. I just don’t quite know what Blizzard’s intention was for making a spell like this where druids are going to be SO FOUGHT OVER for this one bloody spell. This is yet another reason that I don’t see myself continuing on with my druid for MoP, but that is another story for another day.
Warcraft Of The Worlds 
Maybe the extra Stampeding shout will find it’s use on the new challenge system, where you race against the clock ?
I honestly hadn’t considereed using it with challenges. It could definitely be useful there.
We usually have 3 druids in our 10man raids, so that will mean 6 people will be affected by Symbiosis at any time. I see some really good things for raid cooldowns; our shadow priest being able to use Tranquility. Perhpas the boomkin can use Cloak of Shadows on an Ultraxion-like fight. And Deterrence for our resto druid could perhaps save the moment.
But yeah, it will require some planning, and some of them have close to nothing usefulness about them (boomkin with misdirect?). But it’s beta, so perhaps things aren’t completely done yet? Let’s hope. 🙂
Lae
See, most of the time I’m the only druid… occassionaly there’s a resto druid in my 10m. But you know like I do that some groups will see some druid stacking for symbiosis buffs, which goes against blizz’s usual encounter design.
There will not be a single effective arena team without a druid if this makes it through beta, IMO.
I dunno if I would go that far, but it will definitely make some comps STUPIDLY powerful, for sure.
It’s nice to see that ferals are getting some abilities that are actually useful. The abilities gained by restos need a lot of work.
I’ll admit that I looked much less at the boomkin and resto spells because I don’t play boomkin or resto. I’ll give them a closer look later this afternoon maybe.
Play dead made me go into giggle fits. Anyway, after seeing all of these, what looks like the most fun for you, dps or tanking?
Strictly in regards to symbiosis? I think feral dps came out the winner. But I will most likely stick to tanking because I’m damn good at it, and I really enjoy it.
Now will I continue tanking on my druid come MoP? Its not looking too good at this point. Its not completely ruled out though.
Not all Warrior Tanks will have Enraged Regeneration now, it is moving from baseline to Talent, and sharing a slot with both Second Wind and Impending Victory, which have been designed well enough to compete. Giving a Prot Warrior a second healing option for an emergency might be useful, depending on the raid make up.
Nice wrap up though.
Oooh. I honestly hadn’t noticed that Enraged Regen was moved out of the baseline for warriors. Thanks for pointing that out!
Some thoughts.
As a priest, I think Shadow getting Tranquility is a good thing. They removed Divine Hymn from Shadow’s repertoire. What will be even better is if it does not break Shadowform.
Entangling Roots as a healer, though… /yawn.
For hunters, getting Dash will actually be huge in PvP. It’ll have its uses in PvE, though, too, especially when Disengage and/or Deterrence are on cooldown.
Some of the others (like warlock and mage) just make me think, “You have to be aware of other people’s health bars, as well as your own, now.” Windwalker doesn’t surprise me with SI, though – look at rogues with Evasion and getting Growl. Warlocks getting Rejuvenation also makes sense if/when they end up being the offtank with that Metamorphosis deal. Mages getting Healing Touch is kind of strange, but it might be useful with Presence of Mind in PvP.
The difference between rogues getting growl and Windwalker getting SI is that a rogue’s growl also gives them a HUGE armor boost, so they can actually take a few hits without being murdered, while someone else scrapes the tank off the floor.
GC already said that the idea for warlocks and that metamorphosis glyph wasn’t for them to be viable tanks, so much as to provide extra survivability in those unforeseen (and increasingly likely) OSHIT moments, which is why giving them Rejuv seems weird. Maybe it’s so healers don’t go apeshit when they lifetap themselves into oblivion? /shrug
Someone said on twitter that mages won’t be able to PoM healing touch… i think it may’ve been Lisanna, but don’t quote me on that.
Well, like I said, the comparison is kinda there with Evasion re: rogues. It’s not a GREAT comparison, but the only real one available.
And yes, I know it’s not for them to be viable main tanks, but they would be able to off-tank. So for things like an emergency tank, or encounters where you need/want a ranged tank (think Maulgar, Leotheras, Mimiron p4, Blood Princes, etc.).
PoM not working with Healing Touch will be a bit silly, I think, but understandable.
Also, I totally meant SD for Monks. >.> And while I’m remembering – tanks getting Ice Trap is not necessarily a bad thing. This also means that hunters 1. aren’t the only ones responsible for this kind of thing (especially valuable when you only have one hunter), and 2. allows a bit of room for error on the part of the hunter, because of the annoyances behind Trap Launcher.
It seems odd that mages would get healing touch. Since mages have a glyphed evocation and if we die there’s the Cauterize talent (http://www.wowhead.com/spell=86949/cauterize) followed up by a nice Ice Block to stop the DoT.
It would seem more fit to get a DPS spell, like moonfire, just to add to our rotation.
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I completely agree. While heals *could* be useful for pvp, its pretty much bubpkiss for pve.