Shockadingle
Legend
Sounds like some exciting stuff to me.
* Rogues and Surv will be too strong, but balanceing is never perfect.
* Disc will be brought back in line with other healers with three big nerfs, but not necessarily below other healers. Atonement is a powerful ability if the Disc plays more as a dps class with passive atonement heals, kind of like affliction lock, except he can have his dmg heal targets other than himself. And still has flash-heal spam. Unlike most healers you can still generate some heals while kicked via atonement+SWP and Schism.
* Aflic lock, which looked so promising in 7.0 but fell short may make the grade now. Their #1 issue in arenas was the mana cost of drain life, which is both their primary dmg and healing spell rolled into one. LifeTap should solve that mana issue. Haunt is already a huge dmg burst and it sounds like it will be even bigger. (Is Agony getting a buff too?.) Also making hunt an even bigger burst increases the likelihood of resetting it's cooldown(happens if the target dies).
* Balance Druid gets a comparable heal to other hybrids, 2x as much dot dmg(they already top bg dmg just by spreading moonfire).
Also balance mobility with huge dots should serve as a soft-counter to both rogues and survival hunters, both of which can be kited, in addition to warriors, dps monks. It sounds like balance could be a viable 1v1 match for the likes of ret pallies.
* Feral losing the stun is a blow, and reduces the usefulness of them having heal, but the heal will still change their play-style in an interesting way, and I feel that, in the spirit of the game, all druids, like shaman, should have some hybrid-level healing ability. It moves feral from the overpopulated pure melee camp with war/rogue/surv hunt/death knight/demon hunter, to the hybrid melee camp with ww monks and ret palies. In arena where stuns are countered with trinkets and off-heals, and re-stealthing is inhibited by dots, replacing the stun with a self-heal may be an overall buff to ferals, especially since they are most efficient when they spread dots rather than trying to run away to re-stealth. Their play-style will change from 'in-and-out' to 'stay-in.'
* Rdruid IF they make regrowth closer to other healers' spam heal, or lifebloom is strong enough to make up the difference, then they will be in a good place with 2 huge dots and mobility instead of cc. You can expect to see Rdruid with top dmg in bgs, alongside balance, and huge instant-cast spread-pressure in arenas too. The mobility should make them hard to focus/burst by the top melee burst classes.
But when is this patch going live? Maybe many months away.
* Rogues and Surv will be too strong, but balanceing is never perfect.
* Disc will be brought back in line with other healers with three big nerfs, but not necessarily below other healers. Atonement is a powerful ability if the Disc plays more as a dps class with passive atonement heals, kind of like affliction lock, except he can have his dmg heal targets other than himself. And still has flash-heal spam. Unlike most healers you can still generate some heals while kicked via atonement+SWP and Schism.
* Aflic lock, which looked so promising in 7.0 but fell short may make the grade now. Their #1 issue in arenas was the mana cost of drain life, which is both their primary dmg and healing spell rolled into one. LifeTap should solve that mana issue. Haunt is already a huge dmg burst and it sounds like it will be even bigger. (Is Agony getting a buff too?.) Also making hunt an even bigger burst increases the likelihood of resetting it's cooldown(happens if the target dies).
* Balance Druid gets a comparable heal to other hybrids, 2x as much dot dmg(they already top bg dmg just by spreading moonfire).
Also balance mobility with huge dots should serve as a soft-counter to both rogues and survival hunters, both of which can be kited, in addition to warriors, dps monks. It sounds like balance could be a viable 1v1 match for the likes of ret pallies.
* Feral losing the stun is a blow, and reduces the usefulness of them having heal, but the heal will still change their play-style in an interesting way, and I feel that, in the spirit of the game, all druids, like shaman, should have some hybrid-level healing ability. It moves feral from the overpopulated pure melee camp with war/rogue/surv hunt/death knight/demon hunter, to the hybrid melee camp with ww monks and ret palies. In arena where stuns are countered with trinkets and off-heals, and re-stealthing is inhibited by dots, replacing the stun with a self-heal may be an overall buff to ferals, especially since they are most efficient when they spread dots rather than trying to run away to re-stealth. Their play-style will change from 'in-and-out' to 'stay-in.'
* Rdruid IF they make regrowth closer to other healers' spam heal, or lifebloom is strong enough to make up the difference, then they will be in a good place with 2 huge dots and mobility instead of cc. You can expect to see Rdruid with top dmg in bgs, alongside balance, and huge instant-cast spread-pressure in arenas too. The mobility should make them hard to focus/burst by the top melee burst classes.
But when is this patch going live? Maybe many months away.
Well, at least for non-Surv Hunters.
