Druid Changes - 1.8

[savaughn]

Damn, I didn't even think about wrath.  You're right.  Wrath and moonfire let a druid break 200 easily.  And they also get to AoE with 360% extra armour.  Oh, and they can decurse.

I've always maintained that for the majority of MC bosses, the optimal number of mages is zero.  It's just more obvious now.
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Call me crazy, but I always thought that the biggest thing a Mage brings to the table for end game raids was Arcane Subtlety. This doesn't make nearly as big a difference on the Alliance side where the Paladins can throw Salvation, but horde side this makes a massive difference in how much damage you can throw out.

With Subtlety AND Salvation, a Mage who swaps out to AM on occassion literally CAN'T pull aggro. You're talking about a 70% reduction in threat. My AE may be throwing out crit hits for 500+ but carries only slightly more threat than a Hunter's Volley.

I know it sounds kind of off topic, but I think this kind of thing is far from trivial and I use it as an example of what I see as the overall picture. Given optimal nuking builds, I think real world results will still put a mage far and away ahead of druids. I think blizz did exactly the right thing with the balance tree. It's close enough that the "it must be optimal or you can't come" crowd can't ban Balance druids, without removing the role of a mage. It's a tricky line to walk.

Similarly, to flip the argument over and say that Druids now obsolete mages... well, that requires you to ignore a lot of the mechanics that come in to play in these encounters. I think your pessimism is misplaced, Skan. We don't have to pwnX0r any given area in the game to have a use. It's like the discussion we had where you were concerned that because warlocks can contribute significantly to AoE, that this somehow obsoleted mages. It wasn't true then and it's not true here.

I haven't had a chance to raid with a Moonkin in my group yet, but I personally look forward to it. :wub: Arcane/Ice Crit Power... ACTIVATE! :P