Druids already have a tough time as healers for a lot of reasons. We have difficulty dealing with spike damage, and this can make some of the more difficult 5-man and raid encounters more difficult. We don’t have an Out of Combat Rez, so if your five man wipes, chances are everyone has to hoof it back. (What I wouldn’t do for an OOC rez…but that’s another topic!) What CC we have is very limited and conditions specific. We don’t have a lot of “utility” or buffs to offer. Most of the time we can’t see our fancy gear. Basically, the Resto Druid is a one-trick pony.

But that one trick, boy. Wowza. Our HOTs are the bee’s knees. We can keep multiple targets in full health by the strength of our Lifebloom and Rejuvination spells alone. Because of this strength, the Tree Druid has come to be quite useful in raiding situations. Sure, we can’t really deal with spike damage, but we can alleviate spike damage and kind of smooth it out for the other healers in the raid. Once maligned, the Tree Druid is now a sought after addition to most raiding groups.

Now it seems Blizzard has seen fit to reduce the effectiveness of our primary, Numero Uno healing spell ? Lifebloom. For patch 2.4, currently on the PTR, Lifebloom has taken a hit with the nerf bat. From the numbers I have read, Lifebloom took approximately an 8% hit in effectiveness. I won’t get into math here, there is plenty out there for you to see. In the simplest terms, our most useful, most effective spell is now not as effective.

Why? Was it unbalancing raid encounters? No. It’s not like having a Tree Druid is an “I Win” button for ZA or SSC or anything else. Was it unbalancing 5 man encounters? Most certainly not. We can be quite effective 5 man healers, but in the end groups usually prefer a Priest or Holy Pally. The reason for the nerf, it is assumed, is PvP and, more specifically, 2v2 arenas. Resto Druid teams have been so effective in 2v2, that a great deal of whining about our class has surfaced. For those whiners, I encourage you to roll a druid and see just how “OP” we are.

I’m asking you Blizzard, please don’t nerf us. We have enough limitations as it is, don’t take away our one sharp stick. You can read other thoughts on this change on the following pages/blogs: Moonfire, Resto4Life, Lifebloomer, Leafshine and HealerLFG.

I approve this message. -Pummra

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 27th, 2008 at 3:15 pm and is filed under Druid. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.