Oh, and I want a moose...

So last week I ranted about what I don't like about the new talent tree builds for the beta in Cata. And after I posted it, I thought about how useful that post is to the devs, to any audience I might accrue, and to myself. And I decided that there is some relevance, but it's also missing something. After all, if you're going to point out problems, you need to point out solutions to those problems, too.

I'm looking forward to Cataclysm. Don't think I'm not. But I have specific things I want to see, both for my class and for the game itself. Some of them I have no doubt Blizzard will achieve. Others are a little more sketchy.

I want healing to stop having a rotation

On most fights nowadays I hit Wild Growth, then five to six Rejuvs, then Wild Growth. Occasionally I mix it up by keeping Regrowth on one or both tanks instead of one of my WG button pushes, but that's about it. If I'm not sticking to this rotation, I feel like I'm underperforming, not living up to my potential as a healer and potentially letting people in the raid die. I'd like to see raid healing as being more about choice and less about spam. And from what I've read about in Cata, that is entirely the case. So that's definitely heartening.

I want my tree form back

I know I'm not going to get it (unless it comes in the form of one of the medium glyphs that Blizz is implementing), but I'm still going to miss it. The tree form dance has always been my favorite and the distinct silhouette of it has always made picking myself out of the crowd easy (I've never raiding with more than two other trees in any raid, so generally it's not hard to find me on screen). Plus I just like the idea of a druid turning into a tree. It feels right that resto druids get a distinctive shape, the same as the rest of the druid pantheon.

And as for lore, one of the most holy and important sites for night elf druids is a tree, the proverbial tree of life. Its destruction signaled the end for immortality among the night elves. Trees and life are tied together in an extremely important way and I think representing the lifegiving form of druids with a tree is entirely accurate. I agree that tree form needed some overhaul and I think that the devs were right when they said tree form didn't feel much different from caster form, but I think removing the form entirely (or reducing it to a long cooldown with some pretty serious drawbacks) isn't really the way to go. Unfortunately, I wasn't asked and at this late date, I'm pretty sure there's nothing to be done about it anyway. Regardless, I want some form of a tree back in Cataclysm, even if it's only a shapeshift form that has no bearing on my playstyle.

I want interesting spell choices

I love how Swiftmend works, that it's dependent upon another of our spells to work and that, through a glyph, we can make it work even better. Similarly, I love how Nourish works, increasing its throughput as I have more hots stacked on a target. Again, I need a glyph to get fully there, but it still works. I want spells to be interdependent. I want to have to think about how the spells I've applied will affect the spells I'm about to apply. And I think that the way the new Empowered Touch works (reapplying Lifebloom to a target when Nourish crits) is a great step in that direction. But I wish there was more. Maybe the whole resto druid heal game would become too convoluted with another step, but I like the complexity.

When I played in vanilla, I was a one-button healer. So I am totally in love with all the shiny new buttons I've gotten since then. I want there to be a fine art to resto druid play, a game that takes time and willingness to fully master. That kind of challenge excites me and keeps me coming back to play every raid lockout.

I want talent choices out of the feral tree

Weird, huh? Balance seems to have all the great caster stuff, but I'm bucking for something out of the wrong tree. Maybe Feral Swiftness is meant to be a talent enterprising druids of the resto or balance persuasion can take, but is it really leading anywhere? I know that feral is already difficult to balance because of its own dual nature, but something in there for the casters to go for would be extremely nice. It seems like the other classes all have options in both their other trees, but resto druids only have one other way to go. And our own tree is cluttered with things meant for balance and feral druids to take at the top, so I feel doubly screwed. Embrace our feral side, resto druids! We're kitties and bears, too!

I want it to be epic

This is less about my class and more about the feel of the expansion in general. With the sad patch that was ToC, all of WotLK felt large and intense. We're rushing to deter the Lich King's minions, but we've been detained from that by the rising of one of the Old Gods, who we must kill to avoid global destruction, and now we're all going to learn to joust, but we will defeat you, Arthas, and take back the Frozen Throne! /end scene

My point is that WotLK was superb in the storytelling arena. And I hope they kept the same writers for Cata, because I look forward to seeing far-reaching storylines, great drama played out on the world stage with the players either in the front row or as part of the action. I haven't heard a single person deride the Wrathgate cinematic as a waste of time, so take that as an example of the heights we can reach with the technology we have. It's worth it for oh so many reasons!

We have a really great game on our hands, no doubt about it here. But I want to see it move beyond even that in the Cataclysm era. I want to see healing become more dynamic and fresh, challenging and interesting. I want druid talent trees to be unique and fun, not locked into a static lump by role restrictions. I want to see the amazing stories I know that Blizzard has in store for us unfurl and take shape. This is not a list of demands, this is a list of wishes. So please, Blizz, grant my wishes!