video of the new bear form!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOpsbAUEe90

*many people are unhappy with the color scheme being tied to their hair/skin color, as this extremely limits customization. Very, very few people will be happy with the hair/skin color, bear skin, and cat skin that go together, and the vast majority would likely prefer a mix-and-match.

Would be cool, eh?

http://petopia.brashendeavors.net/html/mobs/mob_amanibear.html


And gimme a diseased grizzly skin with Swine Flu.... http://petopia.brashendeavors.net/html/mobs/mob_diseasedblackbear.html

Who's with me ?

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Q u o t e:


This is true. However, moonkin and tree are newer models and looked way better than cat or bear. Even though I'm resto specced at the moment, I don't really mind that we didn't get an update.

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Weren't Owlkin and Treants part of "vanilla WoW" anyway, and those are the models that moonkin / tree form have..?

So excited. But alas, do I pick the one that fits my Druid's fur color, or the one that looks the most girly? :O

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Q u o t e:
So excited. But alas, do I pick the one that fits my Druid's fur color, or the one that looks the most girly? :O

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The game's going to pick the one that goes with your fur color for you.

WTB New moonkin :(

Great work Blizzard. I am really happy to see that actual action was taken and previews are coming to us to ease our losing of faith for progress in this matter. Even though I am primarily Resto and Balance I am totally happy with the way the new forms looked. If only Feral is upgraded first I will roll Feral for one of my specs when theyre released.

And despite some of the very few negative comments, I hope that does not discourage your artists. Because I guarantee the majority of the druids here are very pleased with the new bear forms and we look forward to seeing our other combat forms upgraded as well. I am betting the cat forms will be even cooler looking than the already awesome bear forms -).

So, what is the general reaction to the fact that a druids hair (Night elf) and fur (Tauren) color alters the form?

I understand it's logical, but is it honestly fair in a sense? Just because a Tauren druid may have black fur, doesn't mean he doesn't want to be a Polar Bear in northrend (insulted against the cold) and a regular old brown bear in the woods (camoflauge and again, natural habitat).

For the cat forms I could imagine it being far more of a choice thing. Most all kinds of large cats survive quite well in either hot or cold habitats, though again breed definately depicts advantages. They tend to be much large and bulkier in colder climes than in warmer ones where they're built more for an advantage of speed. And, again, natural habitat: A druid would want to be a Snow leopard/tiger in Northrend, and a Normal red-black stripped tiger in STV.

I am not satisfied with the current changes to bear form. Despite them being "new models", their resemblance to the old models are near-identical. Therefore, they will undoubtedly be viewed as reskins nonetheless. And we don't want reskins.

The greatest addition, and the one I believe most druids have been clamoring for, is the visual appearance of gear. Every player wants to flaunt their new epic item. Amani war bears have armor on them, why can't dire bears? If it really is too complicated to accomplish such a task, I propose at the VERY least, a specific type of armor displaying corresponding to a certain item level. If the player is wielding a ilvl 200 chestpiece, then a corresponding, visual chestpiece will appear on the bear... ivl 213 and soforth.

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Q u o t e:

The other forms do remain a work in progress. We decided it best to release bear and cat as soon as they were ready. We started them first because they are the oldest of the form models, and were in desperate need of a revamp and some additional textures to bring them more in line with the higher resolutions we've been using in the expansions. The Art team remains very busy on several different tasks for World of Warcraft, but now that new art for cat and bear are imminent, we'd like to keep pushing out new forms sooner rather than later.

I dig the original post summary. :)

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I would not have believed it if I did not see Blizzard confirm it.

For that, <3.

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Q u o t e:
So, what is the general reaction to the fact that a druids hair (Night elf) and fur (Tauren) color alters the form?

I understand it's logical, but is it honestly fair in a sense? Just because a Tauren druid may have black fur, doesn't mean he doesn't want to be a Polar Bear in northrend (insulted against the cold) and a regular old brown bear in the woods (camoflauge and again, natural habitat).

For the cat forms I could imagine it being far more of a choice thing. Most all kinds of large cats survive quite well in either hot or cold habitats, though again breed definately depicts advantages. They tend to be much large and bulkier in colder climes than in warmer ones where they're built more for an advantage of speed. And, again, natural habitat: A druid would want to be a Snow leopard/tiger in Northrend, and a Normal red-black stripped tiger in STV.

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The requirement of the hair color did honestly not phase me. Because we're mostly in our forms to begin with, so our original hair color is not even seen too much. I am just happy to begin to see the new forms actually released, and that they come in several choices per form is even better.

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Q u o t e:



The requirement of the hair color did honestly not phase me. Because we're mostly in our forms to begin with, so our original hair color is not even seen too much. I am just happy to begin to see the new forms actually released, and that they come in several choices per form is even better.

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*Nods* So you're comfortable with changing your character's hair color when this comes out in order to obtain form colors you approve of?

And what if you like one cat look, one bear look, and the two have completely different colors required to obtain?

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Q u o t e:
I am not satisfied with the current changes to bear form. Despite them being "new models", their resemblance to the old models are near-identical. Therefore, they will undoubtedly be viewed as reskins nonetheless. And we don't want reskins.

The greatest addition, and the one I believe most druids have been clamoring for, is the visual appearance of gear. Every player wants to flaunt their new epic item. Amani war bears have armor on them, why can't dire bears? If it really is too complicated to accomplish such a task, I propose at the VERY least, a specific type of armor displaying corresponding to a certain item level. If the player is wielding a ilvl 200 chestpiece, then a corresponding, visual chestpiece will appear on the bear... ivl 213 and soforth.

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If you're not happy with this improvement
http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/2084/oldnewp.jpg
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/images/druid/ss1.jpg
Chances are what you wanted would of taken too long to happen, or you wouldnt end up being happy with it regardless.

I've been a druid for a long time, and though I wanted armor too I am very happy with this preview personally. It's a huge leap over the old unchanged form of many years.

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Q u o t e:


*Nods* So you're comfortable with changing your character's hair color when this comes out in order to obtain form colors you approve of?

And what if you like one cat look, one bear look, and the two have completely different colors required to obtain?

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I'm happy having the ability to look different than other Druids. I am willing to do a lot of things for that. o_O

And as for bear/cat...well, that's why Feral is now pretty much one or the other. :)

I would actually like some now MODELS for forms instead of just new skins and textures.

I notice a lot of people complaining that the new skins are tied to hair color and such.
To be perfectly honest, the idea makes sense. If I look a certain way, my animal forms should resemble me. Why would a pale, white haired druid be a black or brown bear?

EDIT: However, I feel that gender distinctions should MOST DEFINITELY be implemented. Especially looking at female taurens in cat form.. they're male lions. It's weird.

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Q u o t e:


*Nods* So you're comfortable with changing your character's hair color when this comes out in order to obtain form colors you approve of?

And what if you like one cat look, one bear look, and the two have completely different colors required to obtain?

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Most of the time when we spec in feral we are either primarily in bear or primarily in cat. So we will be able to pick the one we want to be in the majority of the time. Which is what matters. And to be able to even have some nice variety in our primary combat forms, even that is a huge upgrade to druids. Personally I am happy with all of the new skins for bear I see so far. I mean really compared to the old one the old one looks like garbage from the Playstation 1 era. These changes couldnt come soon enough.

Excited for the new cat form :))

Hope they make it cooler and make it look more tougher than the original one. Just like the Horde version, looks like a killer :D