"Improved Barkskin now Grants 80% additional armor contribution from cloth and leather items." -MMO Champion

When I look at a change like this, the first thing I try to think about is "If" it goes through, what will be the repercussions. I will list some of the observations I have determined

Pros:
-In 2v2, Resto Druids do exceedingly well, a nerf like this might bring them in line for that bracket
-The talent as a whole was exceptionally powerful, perhaps to the point that it needed nerfed

Cons:
-This will Discourage Hybrid Specs
-This may push Resto Druids out of existence in 5v5
-This will move the game closer to cleave in 3s
-This limits the variety of playstyle as a whole for Resto Druids

Pros Explained:
2v2:
In 2v2, Resto Druids are doing fairly well. If you look at Realm History

http://www.realmhistory.net/arena-statistics/class-breakdown.html

Druids are sitting at about 12%. I personally do not like trying to balance based on the implication of specs within a class, but if you do look into it, you will see Resto is the dominant spec for Druids in 2v2, but is less to a degree than some of the other healers that are have better representation than resto druids. Nevertheless, a change such as this cannot buff Resto druids ( I mean it is an obvious nerf). However, I do not think its implications will reach far. Resto druids do so well in 2v2 because the damage is more controllable, and as such Trees can heal using heals that take far less mana increasing their teams longevity, while being able to save other heals (such as Swiftmend and Nature's swiftness) incase something goes wrong when the druid goes offensive. Overall, I think this change will do little to actually bring Resto Druids closer to balance in 2v2s, but it will still help some.

Is the talent too powerful?:
This is not something I can really support with any form of data. However, let's be honest. For 2 talent points, Improved Barkskin allows Resto Druids to pop into human form to cc even if they are being focused, and it makes powershifting in travel form a very viable way to escape CC. This one talent completely changes the play style of Resto Druids, and as such it is not unreasonable to question whether such a talent should be in the game.

Cons Explained
Hybrid Specs:
Hybrid Specs (primarily and almost entirely I am speaking of the multiple variants of the 24/0/47 build) flourish by forcing a healing druid into human form to provide pressure similar to a disc priest, while still offering the druid survivability and a slightly decreased healing capacity. I do not particularly know where I would find the quotes I am looking for, but I believe there is a common consensus that Blizzard encourages Hybrid specs complexity to the game and uniqueness to classes. This nerf however will pigeon hole many if not all resto druids into the cookie cutter 13/0/58 resto build in 5s and 3s, and many from 2s. As a whole I cannot be certain that Blizzard wants the achieve balance by narrowing the game.

5V5:
In 5v5, Resto Druids are generally just undesirable. Our heals favor longer/enduring matches, and 5v5, being devoted almost entirely to burst, has little place for a resto druid that focuses primarily on healing. However, some resto druids do well by compensating for their healing by being extremely offensive cyclone spammers. The problem is, resto druids need to be in human form to cyclone, and a quick switch to a resto druid in human form in 5v5 before the barkskin change meant death, now it will still most certainly be negative. Although I do not particularly enjoy 5v5, many players do, and removing that part of the game from them does not seem just to me.

Cleave & 3v3s:
Let us be honest. Anyone that plays 3v3s has played the resto druid that runs with any combination of Ret/War/Dk/Rog who sits in tree form the whole game healing never once to pop out and do anything more. Such comps, as we all know, constitute cleave. However, what a lot of people don't see is the resto druids that run comps such as War/Lock/Druid, DK/Lock/Druid, War/Mage/Druid, Hunter/Dk/Druid, ect. Such comps, in order to work, require a Resto Druid that is heavily offensive, and as such in human form much of the game. With this nerf to Resto Druids survivability in human form, those comps will become even more uncommon, and we will see an increase in the number of Resto Druids healing cleave, and as such more cleave.

Limiting the Playstyle:
Although I have already hit on this point in several places before, I just want to re-iterate the idea. Many Resto Druids enjoy an offensive playstyle. Nerfing Improved Barkskin is one of the most obvious ways to force druids back into the tree form of season 5 and early season 6. Players should be given an opportunity to choose which form they want, Tree is good to get bigger more efficient heals, human sacrifices healing power and in some ways survivability for cc and damage. This change will human form heavily unattractive in high damage settings, especially 3v3 and 5v5. As a result, even if druids do fine in 2s in tree form, you are going to see a lot more tree-hugging in 3s and 5s.

I beg of Blizzard to please reconsider this change. Some alternatives I can see are ...

-Do not go through with the change
-Allow Resto Druids some of the utility they have in Human Form in Tree Form (Perhaps allowing them to Fairie Fire, Cyclone, Entangling Roots, ect)
-Move the nerfed version of this talent to early balance to allow Moonkins to get it too, and give Resto Druids Compensation to help us in 3s and 5s in deep resto in its place.

TLDR: Don't Nerf Me Bro

Data mined spell comparisons on MMO-Champ should be taken with a grain of salt. It doesn't say up from or down from, it doesn't give us the whole tooltip and it doesn't say whether that's for rank 1 or 2.

Hell, for all we know it could be a buff, in that the "while in travel form or while not shapeshifted" conditional is removed.

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Q u o t e:
Data mined spell comparisons on MMO-Champ should be taken with a grain of salt. It doesn't say up from or down from, it doesn't give us the whole tooltip and it doesn't say whether that's for rank 1 or 2.

Hell, for all we know it could be a buff, in that the "while in travel form or while not shapeshifted" conditional is removed.

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You are right, it very well could. However I do not have the ability to get on the PTR and test it for myself, and I have been told by people in game and on the forums that it has been cut in half. If it is the case though that the change is not as I have interpeted, then any clarification would be appreciated.

How about lowered a lot down into the resto tree for Balance druids to grab?

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Q u o t e:
How about lowered a lot down into the resto tree for Balance druids to grab?

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They don't want ferals to be able to access it.

The only answer is to duplicate it high up in the balance tree. :)

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Q u o t e:


They don't want ferals to be able to access it.

The only answer is to duplicate it high up in the balance tree. :)

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Honestly what's wrong with ferals having it?

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Q u o t e:


They don't want ferals to be able to access it.

The only answer is to duplicate it high up in the balance tree. :)

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Because the balance tree is not bloated enough..

It needs to be put with doomkin frenzy.

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Q u o t e:

Honestly what's wrong with ferals having it?

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Godmode with Berserk?

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Q u o t e:

Honestly what's wrong with ferals having it?

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PvE implications. 30% damage reduction on a 48 second (tier 9 bonus)/1 min CD is why IBF was nerfed for death knights.

Move Imp. Bark to Balance, imo.

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Q u o t e:


Godmode with Berserk?

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How does going from 20% damage reduction of the normal barkskin to 30% damage reduction = Godmode?

Unless you think feral druids can somehow combine caster form with Berserk, which I don't even think people would want to do even if they could.

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Q u o t e:


PvE implications. 30% damage reduction on a 48 second (tier 9 bonus)/1 min CD is why IBF was nerfed for death knights.

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That makes a lot more sense.

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Q u o t e:
Improved Barkskin has not changed for 3.3 (at least as of this posting). The tooltip was clarified to specify that only leather and cloth armor contribute, which was always the case.

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How hard is it for people to understand that anything posted on MMO champion/data mined and not recorded in the actual patch notes should be checked on the test realm to see if it actually was changed before crying about it. There are TONS of times tooltips are changed slightly in wording and people flip out because the data mined version only has the first rank of the ability and not the second.

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Q u o t e:
Improved Barkskin has not changed for 3.3 (at least as of this posting). The tooltip was clarified to specify that only leather and cloth armor contribute, which was always the case.

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Thank you very much for the clarification.

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Q u o t e:
Move Imp. Bark to Balance, imo.

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Q u o t e:
Improved Barkskin has not changed for 3.3 (at least as of this posting). The tooltip was clarified to specify that only leather and cloth armor contribute, which was always the case.

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that's what I told them all. They didn't listen to me. :(

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Q u o t e:


that's what I told them all. They didn't listen to me. :(

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It's a conspiracy!