Anyone who has been in the arena combat system in World of Warcraft for any length of time has seen the rise of the Druid take place. There used to be a time when, if you needed a healer on an arena team you were looking for a Paladin for their survivability. Then players realized the power of a discipline based priest and their usefulness, and they entered in force. However over this past season Druids have been replacing almost every other healer in the arenas. Why, and are they overpowered? If so should they be nerfed?

Look at most high ranked 2v2 team and you will see one big thing in common with them, they have a druid. Look at almost any 5v5 and you notice the same thing. Is this simply due to an arena mechanic similar for the requirement of a mortal strike warrior, or due to them being too powerful in the arena setting. Let's start by looking at the roles a druid can fill.

Druids can fill a number of roles in an arena or battleground and because of this it is very hard to see a druid and immediately make a call on his roll and his priority on your kill list. In fact many druids will come out in a different form, or stealthed completely, to throw you off and disguise their true purpose.

Healers - These come in two forms although you will rarely see the second. They are caster and tree form. Most druids will not switch into tree form simply due to the loss of mobility and the restriction on the spells you can cast. Druids in are capable of casting huge heals as well as keeping up multiple heal over time spells. This allows them to keep refreshing multiple players at one time, or minimizing incoming damage on a target while repositioning.

Bear Form - In bear form a druid gains a huge increase to armor allowing them to mitigate a huge percentage of all incoming damage. This makes them very hard to drop quickly. While they do not put out huge damage numbers, druids often switch to this form to minimize incoming damage when being targeted. Due to shape shifting they are also very hard to slow down.

Cat Form - In cat form a druid can do rogue type damage and is very hard to stop. While they can not stun lock you as bad as a rogue they can hurt almost as bad, and as with every other form of druid are almost impossible to slow down.

Boomkins - These are druids that specialize in casting damage spells. They are big huge cuddly looking moonkin with a nasty surprise. They are called boomkin for a reason, when they target you, you go boom. BigRedKitty said it best in his blog when he said the following about looking at them and then having them hit you...: “Awww, pretty birdie… OW!! MEAN BIRDIE! NAUGHTY BIRDIE!”

So what makes a Druid so great in arena combat? Well for one, for some reason every single one I have run into seems to be glued to the tiniest piece of terrain in the arena and you can never get line of sight on them. Ok, maybe this is just player ability and not really anything to do with the class, but for some reason more than any other class druids know how to use the terrain to the fullest. Very annoying. On to the serious issues though.

Arenas all count as outdoor areas, therefore druids can use their root and cyclone abilities. Both are amazing abilities that allow them to control players. For those that haven't fallen victim to either ability they work like this:

Entangling Roots - This spells is a 1.5 second cast time spell that roots the person in place and places a DoT on them for the period of time they are rooted. It generally lasts about 10 seconds in PvP, but can break earlier.

Cyclone - This spell is another 1.5 seconds cast time spell and effectively removes its target from the game for 8 seconds by making them immune to everything but unable to do anything for that time.

The problem here is that as soon as you start doing anything dangerous they seem to be able to know and hit you with a cyclone and then keep you in one, seemingly forever. When you are not cyclones you are hit with entangling roots.

The second thing that makes a druid so good in the arena system, is their adaptability. Sure, once specialized they can't do the other things their class is capable of doing all that well, but they are still capable of doing them. So, even though you establish that a druid you are fighting is a boomkin, it doesn't mean they can't switch over and heal in an emergency.

The third thing that makes them especially good in small scale combat (2v2 and 3v3) is that they can keep moving the whole fight and cast almost all their heals as instants instead of cast time heals. Combine this with their CC and versatility and they are very tough to beat. Add in the next point and they are almost certainly over powered.

The last thing that makes a druid so powerful in arena combat is their ability to get out of almost any slowing, snaring, or CC effect there is. All they need to do is shift form and they break almost any effect on them.

Let me start by reminding you that I am new to the whole PvP aspect of the game, and as such not all that great at it. However, I do hold my own in the teams I am in and we are 50/50 or better, so can talk with some level of experience. Also, let me remind everyone that I am not a huge fan of "nerfs" to character classes. Nerfs usually result in class individuality being eroded and the classes becoming more and more alike, which is never a good thing. Each class should have their own very specific role and be great at it. They should also be able to specialize through talents and meet a different role or two at a competent level, say 80% of a specialist class at that role.

Having played enough arena battles to see how druids function in them though leads me to the conclusion that either every single druid player out there is a caffeine junkie PvP god or that the class is over powered in the arena environment (especially in 2v2 and 3v3).

My beliefs and stance on changes and my belief that druids are over powered in arenas make it a little difficult for me to come up with a valid change that I would recommend. However, I feel very strongly that in the current environement that something needs to be done with druids to limit their rise to power. Currently they can pretty much ignore all CC, have amazing CC of thier own, have speed, versitility and healing. What more could you ask for.

It is to the point that many players that I know are avoiding 2v2 and 3v3 as they feel they just can't compete if they do not have a druid on the team. They are focusing on 5v5 where a druid is useful but not required due to the number of other players and options available. Those that do want to 2v2 or 3v3 and in desperate searches for druids for their team or currently leveling a druid for the next season. This as much as anything demonstrates the point that they are probably too good in PvP.

All of that being said, I think any changes that take place need to be considered carefully so as to just effect the PvP aspect of the class on not PvE. None of the abilities are over powered in PvE as far as I can tell as they just don't cause enough effect. In small scale PvP though they are deadly, hence the pure number and record of druids out there.

The Messiah has had his say, what’s yours?  Do you think druids are overpowered in arenas? How would you fix them? Do you think they are good the way they are? I want to hear your comments and explanations.

Email me at: Byron Mudry - ([email protected]) or post in our forums thread!