jchapin wrote:
Think of it this way. You get set up in camp so the druid clicks offensive. 1st pull: ADD. Druid now needs to be a back-up healer but guess what. He just hit offensive so his heals are only at 50% for the next 5 minutes. Kinda hard to be a back-up healer at this point.
But you're arguing the exception and not the rule. EQ operates off the assumption that the greatest gains in the game are the result of doing the same thing over and over for hours on end. That's why folks "camp" mobs. The majority of the time, things are rutine and will stay that way most of the time.
Here's what will happen more often then your scenario. Group arrives at a camp. There's always that initial shake-down period as you kinda figure out what the group can do there (lets assume worst case a pickup group). Druid leave himself in "normal" stance. He's *exactly* as useful in a group as he is right now. He can heal when needed. He can nuke when needed. Unless you are arguing that druids are unable to fill their group roles right now, there will be no disavantage.
After the groups been going fine for 40 minutes or so, and the mobs are cleared, and the puller has the respawns all timed out and spread out, things get really really easy. There's another healer so druid switches to offensive stance. He's not going to be needed to path, and on the occasions he does, it's not going to be much. Gaining 25% more nuking ability is better, since that'll speed up the kill rate. Group continues killing mobs.
An hour later, the cleric leaves. Druid switches stance to healer mode. He wont be as good as the cleric, but he'll be able to fill in the spot for the time being. After all, the group has the mobs cleared and spawns timed out. It's "easy" at this point.
10 minutes later, then get a replacement, and it's a shaman. Now. Maybe the druid can stay as main healer, or he and shaman can swap duties there. Druid could probably switch to "normal" stance again and help his group the best.
You don't swap stances everytime you heal or nuke. You swap when your group makeup changes and you are required to take on a new role. Having a 5 minute refresh on the stance change button isn't going to be a problem at all the vast majority of the time. And if it is? You tell your group to pull a bit slower for the first 5 minutes until you can change again. Big deal. I'm betting in most cases, it wont even be noticed.
/agree czae. They'd have to restrict it to single target DD spells for it to make *any* sense at all. If they did that, then it would truely just be a flexibility in the group issue, and I think it would be workable. I still say it's a huge improvement when other classes get nothing or near to nothing, but we haven't seen or heard everything that they're considering so that's a bit premature.