Hurricane Post-Patch

[Zarathustra]

The worldofwarcraft.com forums are abuzz with complaints... which means things are just the same as usual. It seems every class forum has members deciding "their" class is getting screwed over by Blizzard in one way or another, and usually I pay them no heed. But this complaint seems valid, and I'd like to hear some Lurkers' thoughts on it.

Hurricane, the heavy-hitter of the Balance tree, now must be channeled. The overwhelming sentiment on the official forums is that this makes it far less effective and puts a nail in the coffin of any Druid wishing to specialize in Balance. Looking at the stats, I'm not entirely sure why this change was made. It seems the damage over time isn't anything amazing (just high enough to score the Druid some aggro and have him backing off from a few mobs), and I didn't notice any word at all about this being an overpowered spell or "broken".

I did see some complaints about the Feral tree being neglected by most players since some things were dubbed "broken" (the truth of that claim is not something to which I can attest). I can't help but get the feeling that bumping Hurricane down a notch, along with increasing the power of the Feral side of things, may have been a move to try and encourage players to explore that path as well.

It just seems, in my opinion, that the end goal of the Balance tree now isn't worth it, and throws a wrench into my character plans. Any thoughts on this?

[Bun-Bun]

Initial caveat: I have not gotten to try Hurricane yet, so I'm analyzing from my general knowledge of druids rather than specific experience.

Hurricane, the heavy-hitter of the Balance tree, now must be channeled.  The overwhelming sentiment on the official forums is that this makes it far less effective and puts a nail in the coffin of any Druid wishing to specialize in Balance.

Yes, this change makes Hurricane pretty pointless. I would challenge the conclusion that it makes the whole Balance tree worthless. My take would be that Hurricane was never all that and a bag of chips as the jewel of Balance. The real winners in the tree are those talents that enhance Moonfire, the staple of the Balance druid. The loss of Hurricane is not critical. For my character plan, it's not even important.

The best part of Hurricane, in my view, is the 20% speed reduction. The small damage is something of an advantage if you're trying to avoid aggro. I always thought of Hurricane as a spell that could be combined with Demoralizing Roar to substantially reduce the wear and tear on your tank when the tank is swarmed. I realize that this view is really only valid if the druid is the tank due to aggro generation, and channeling throws that whole view out the window.

I did see some complaints about the Feral tree being neglected by most players since some things were dubbed "broken" (the truth of that claim is not something to which I can attest).  I can't help but get the feeling that bumping Hurricane down a notch, along with increasing the power of the Feral side of things, may have been a move to try and encourage players to explore that path as well.

This may be true, but I can't help feeling a push to Feral would be better accomplished by enhancing the cat-form finisher and fixing the supposedly-broken backstabbing moves. The large improvement in bear-form armor this patch makes the Feral line much more viable if you're a bear fan, too.

It just seems, in my opinion, that the end goal of the Balance tree now isn't worth it, and throws a wrench into my character plans.  Any thoughts on this?
[right][snapback]63326[/snapback][/right]

Without knowing your plans, it's hard to comment, but the loss of Hurricane shouldn't have that much effect on Balance druids. My current plan leaves it out completely in favor of Nature's Swiftness.