mikelolol wrote:
You want things back to the way they were, how exactly were ranged DPS supposed to have a chance against ferals?
The same way they did it before the changes? With Berserk no longer breaking fear effects, you could still Scare Beast or Fear/Psychic Scream. Hunters still have traps and Deterrence, plus Disengage gives them distance as well. Mages would be the most vulnerable and I don't disagree that being able to bypass every single range gain by a Frost Mage was overpowered, but completely removing that ability wasn't the right way to do it.
And your whining is just as bad as ours. Your blanket statements even worse. We don't gather over waffles, we gather over a mug of beer.
Overlord Theophany wrote:
Also, how do enhancement shamans have a way to deal with a hunter while rooted? Or a frost mage? They're even more boned than a feral.
Glyph of Shamanistic Rage enables them to remove magical debuffs every minute (plus the 20% mitigation from Shamanistic Rage in the first place). And they have a ranged root of their own (talented Frost Shock). Also, their heals are better than Druids, even if the Druid puts two talent points into increasing them.
Overlord Theophany wrote:
You're being completely irrational and whining entirely too much. It's a change that good druids will deal with. Yeah it sucks, but it's been a pretty ridiculous mechanic for a long time now (it was literally impossible to keep a feral off of a ranged DPS class since they got a cat feral charge bar focus CC or bleeding their mana dry via repeatedly peeling).
I know that you're focused on yourself and how much it sucks, but you really need to look at the big picture and see how this stuff works in arenas and rated BGs.
The high-end Arena Druids I've read posts from are saying it's a class-crushing change.
I know that a lot of non-Druids don't get how anyone can whine about losing an ability that was clearly OP, but when you lose your ONLY ability to counter endless kiting, it turns ugly. Reports from rated BGs are coming in (and has been since the PTR) with nothing but disgust from Druids. Frost Mages can kite a Feral Druid endlessly, as can most classes with a root.
Charge doesn't work while rooted. Thorns does pitiful damage against ranged (compared to damage taken) and can be dispelled. Cyclone has a 20-yard range and takes 1.7 seconds to cast.
And I know IBF and all that other stuff doesn't counter roots specifically, but they're tools to avoid other forms of CC. Like IBF enables the DK to break stuns, something Druids can't do.
With this change, the only anti-CC Druids have is anti-snares, by powershifting, which in turn reduces the damage output to pathetic levels. Especially now that they also switched our DPS from bleeds to direct damage.
Was shapeshifting out of roots too powerful? Yes. Was removing the ability and giving Druids nothing in return the right choice? No.
If they gave us a cooldown that enabled us to break roots, I'd be fine with it. The problem, and reason why so many are ************************ whatever you call it, is that Blizzard took away our only defense against being kited and gave us zero in return.
Of course, launching this change on top of massive nerfs across the board for Ferals was pretty lame. They should have checked how the nerfs had affected PvP and then gone ahead and changed shapeshifting. Knee-jerk reactions usually end badly. You'd think they'd have learned this by now.
Overlord Theophany wrote:
Edit: BTW, IBF is worse than Barkskin. I would give anything to have 12 secs of 20% reduced damage on a 60 sec cooldown.
It doesn't work like that, Theo. If you want Barkskin, you have to lose everything else. It's not like we have AMS, AMZ, a pet with a stun and Death Grip. Want to switch your IBF, AMS, AMZ, Gnaw, Strangulate and Death Grip for Barkskin and Survival Instincts, sure. Have fun taking 20% less damage every minute (and 50% every 3 minutes) while you're rooted. Oh, but I forgot, Bear Form is OP, right?
And to repeat myself, in case mikelolol think I'm high on waffles and suffering from xenophobia (I'm not), I don't disagree that shapeshifting out of roots was OP. I just don't think we deserved to be completely gimped the way we were. That's how most other Druids feel as well. The fact that we're now sitting ducks to a number of classes is what we're "whining" about.
Edit: And I know this will generate some flak, but I'm fine with that. I get why others just look at how shapeshifting was before and then nod and think removing it was fine, but you need to play a Feral Druid to understand just how crucial shapeshifting out of roots is to our viability in PvP.
Yes, we'll work around it (in fact, I managed to kill a Frost Mage the other day in world PvP*), but it was a pretty hard kick to the gonads. Hard and not really elegant. Many Oboard contributors have suggested other changes, but Blizzard ignored it and just removed the mechanic altogether, resulting in this whine fest.
*He was a farmbot.
Edit2: Probably the longest post I've written in a while. I'm done with discussing and whining, though. Whoever thinks my posts need to drop below the filter is welcome to PM me and we'll carry it on there, but this thread will derail into nowhere soon.
Edited, Feb 14th 2011 4:08pm by Mazra