Hurricane Svetok

[Zarathustra]

Well, I've been playing my Druid, Svetok (Thunderhorn) and have him up to 55. Balance specialization with just a bit of Restoration thrown in, and I'd say I have a pretty good grasp of what the different balance abilities are and are not capable of.

If you go to the Blizzard forums you'll see a good deal of dreck being slung around regarding Hurricane, ESPECIALLY since the announcement that the spell will not be changed. A quick browse across those forums reminds me just how much I love this place. :blush:

My question to Lurkers is just what should be done - if anything - to "fix" this spell? Or is it allright as-is? My personal feelings are that for its low damage and huge mana cost, the interruption rate should be lower. Or at the very least, a second talent point should be allowed which would lower the chance of interruption.

Of course, this is disregarding that the master of nature damage has an "ultimate" spell in his arsenal that barely tickles enemies. (Note: I still use it often and wouldn't want to do without it, both for the aesthetic and situational utility.) I'd like to see it as an instant-cast like before the patch was applied, but if Blizzard says this is overpowered I don't think there's any way that's going to happen.

[Skandranon]

My question to Lurkers is just what should be done - if anything - to "fix" this spell?  Or is it allright as-is?  My personal feelings are that for its low damage and huge mana cost, the interruption rate should be lower.  Or at the very least, a second talent point should be allowed which would lower the chance of interruption.

Of course, this is disregarding that the master of nature damage has an "ultimate" spell in his arsenal that barely tickles enemies.  (Note: I still use it often and wouldn't want to do without it, both for the aesthetic and situational utility.)  I'd like to see it as an instant-cast like before the patch was applied, but if Blizzard says this is overpowered I don't think there's any way that's going to happen.
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It seems pretty good to me, from where I stand. Yes, the damage is nothing special, I agree, but it's still 2/3s of Blizzard's DPS, which is respectable. There is no way that Hurricane will suffice as the primary AoE for a group, but that's intentional. Druids have the ability to fill the healer slot, and can also sub for DPS and offtank decently when needed. Being able to bust out a top-quality AoE would be just a little much.

I think the interruption is a designed flaw, to prevent Hurricane from being primary AoE. Hurricane is, however, a powerful secondary - and I don't think anything needs to be changed about it in that role. It does respectable damage while enhancing the survivability of the primary spellcaster (Mage/Warlock) by quite a lot with the 20% slow. Having a healer or even a secondary healer able to do that is worth quite a lot.

[DarkCrown]

I had the spell for quite a while before I respecced to mostly restoration. It does do pretty decent damage, but there is no way it can be used as the main AOE. One of the reasons is that it's sure to draw huge aggro and be interrupted if the druid is the only one doing AOE.

So the useful time to use it is when you have a mage already doing area damage, and drawing the aggro. My problem here is that it's almost always more useful in this situation to be using your mana to heal the mage, rather than adding damage.

The top spell of the balance tree should be something that's used often, and is noted for its utility by other players. Hurricance just doesn't even come close to innervate in this regard.

-DarkCrown

[savaughn]

Stand next to a paladin and pick up the additional 35% resistance to interruption.

[lemekim]

Blizzard designers said that they don't want druids to impede on territory of Mages and Warlocks, that is AoE. Although it is hard to do that with 1 minute cooldown, and with only moderate dps, it's still apparently too much.

I think Blizzard should totally scrap the damage aspect of the hurricane, and replace it with some useful instant AoE debuff with low mana cost (much like frost nova in size) - such as 50% attack and casting speed reduction for 10 seconds or something to that effect.