Blaugust Rambling about Baby Druid Changes

Druids Completely Wiped

With the confusion I experienced when I fired up WoW on my new computer, I decided to head from my level 91 Druid down to something a bit more familiar. I have a level 6 Druid that I started a few weeks before my computer died so I figured I could get used to the Legion changes at low levels before dealing with all the abilities and talents available later on.

To my surprise, when I got on ScarletPine, I had no abilities in my action bars. So I logged out and installed ElvUI – my main add on. This changes almost everything in the user interface and I figured if I at least saw something I recognized, it would make me feel better about learning a new situation. With the new UI loaded, I went to the spell book to load up my action bars…

Where’s Wrath and Moonfire? I know I just got Rejuvenation, but it’s dimmed out as not available – what’s going on?

Apparently, Legion is a complete wipe for Druids (I’m not sure about other classes). After some research, I found out that Feral is the default spec as a young Druid now. At level 1, you start out with the ability to shift into Cat form and can cast Shred. This is a significant change from Wrath – melee rather than ranged – and one that frustrates me, since I tend to prefer ranged characters. At least at this low level, melee is not too difficult. I wonder if they took away the Hunter’s bow at level 1 and gave him an axe?

I suppose it makes sense though – with shape shifting being the primary distinguisher for Druids it seems reasonable to highlight that ability at level 1. Having Wrath as the first spell made it seem like this was a ranged caster class.

The only issue I have with this, though is that you don’t get any ranged or healing abilities till level 10 – AFTER you’ve left the starting zone. The Hybrid nature of the Druid class is hidden till then which will make a newcomer think they are just another run-of-the-mill melee class. And it’s going to make anyone new to the game have to learn their ranged abilities in the wild rather than get a chance to practice them in the starting zone.

In any case, it seems there’s going to be quite a bit to learn in Legion.