11.20.06

Aftermath of a Nerf

Posted in Blogs, Druid News, Commentary at 1:10 am by tangedyn

16 Nov 2006 marks a bleak day for the druids. On the beta TBC servers, druids were just finding out that they were getting nerfed.

1. Weapon procs will no longer work in cat or bear form.
2. Consumables (e.g. healthstones, bandages, potions, food and water) will no longer be usable in cat or bear form.
3. Only 2 ranks of Improved Leader of the Pack will be obtainable, for a maximum of 4% heals, down from 6%.
4. Nurturing Instincts now converts 25%/50% instead of 50%/100% of Strength into +healing
5. Barkskin cooldown increased from 1 minute to 2 minutes

To be fair, we did receive some buffs too:

1. Primal Fury and Blood Frenzy rolled into one talent
2. Improved Starfire is now called Celestial Focus. Besides giving 5/10/15% chance to stun with Starfire for 3 seconds, it now allows a druid to resist pushback by 25/50/70% while casting Wrath.
3. Barkskin no longer increases casting time

The main focus of the outcry in the druid forums have being with the removal of weapon procs and consumables while in forms, and secondarily with the nerf to Improved Leader of the Pack. While druids have been unhappy over many issues in the past, never has the reaction been so strong before, including

1. Spamming other forums with our happiness
2. Making very rude posts directed at Blizzard employees, including the use of the F-word and ASCII images of giving the middle finger
3. Organising a mass sit-in in Ironforge on Tichondrius server, resulting in 120+ naked gnomes in one area, some of which were spamming the zone with calls and demands to unnerf druids.

I cannot condone the above actions taken because firstly, they are against the Terms and Conditions and will lead to suspension and/or banning of forum or game accounts, and secondly they are immature. However I can certainly understand the reaction to the nerfs.

Druids are almost undeniably the weakest class in the game currently, this is obvious from the fact that they are the lowest population class within each faction as well as their overall performance in PvP. While the beta has improved things somewhat in comparison with other classes, especially with the patch before the current Patch-of-Death, we are still the lowest in the food chain. This nerf was unwarranted, for many reasons.

1. We are already the weakest class in the game, there should not be any need to nerf us further
2. Allowing druids to use consumables and weapon procs can never be considered as overpowered. Every other class can use it in any form or stance they have. If it is not overpowered for them, then it is definitely not overpowered for us too. This nerf is completely unnecessary.
3. Blizzard has remained absolutely silent over this issue, even with the hundreds of posts asking them to clarify and communicate about the decision they have made. It’s beginning to look like they cannot justify why they have done what they did.

The reaction from the druids also show more than just that they are unhappy and many of us are immature. It also shows:

1. Many druids do what they did knowing the full consequences of their actions.
2. They do not care for such consequences.
3. This is because they have reached the breaking point - the nerfs has been the straw that breaks the camel’s back - and are prepared to cancel their accounts and quit the game over what has happened.
4. Therefore they had nothing to lose. At best, they obtain the changes we all need. At worst, they lose the use of an account they do not intend to keep if druids do not become un-nerfed.

Druids are already the least-played class in the game, and it does look like Blizzard wants to keep it that way. They do not even seem to care that what they did will be causing more druids to leave the game or to reroll to other classes.
How the druids are feeling about being treated by Blizzard can be summed up by the following post by Johgan on the druids beta forum.

Noone every complained about it? Wow, you must not visit the druid forums very much. For as long as I have played my druid there have always been complaints about no procs in forms. Basically over the last two years they told us over and over that it wasn’t happening, but never really giving a reason that I know of. After two years of this the complaints may have become less frequent, but that was only because it was something the druid community had given up hope on. When they put the procs into Beta people were like, “Finally! After 2 years they have really listened to us!” and then like Lucy pulling the football out in front of Charlie Brown the devs let us fall flat on our face.

With the following picture by Karadok to illustrate

How do I feel about what has happened? Well, I’m not about to quit the game yet. I have a level 60 hunter that I am currently very happy with. I also have a level 51 warlock and a leve 54 shaman (although I’m probably not going to touch the shaman except to play around with dual-wielding windfuried weapons for a short period of time). I could always switch to my hunter or level my warlock to 60 and switch to that when expansion comes, but I will not make a decision until then. At the moment though, I am unsure to what my guild’s policy is to switching mains come the expansion.

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