Balance in MoP: Talent trees as of 23-11-11

Well Blizzard have updated their Mists of Pandaria information today with a sneak peak at not only updates to the talent calculator since a month ago at BlizzCon, but they've also included the new spellbooks for the current 10 classes! While this is all still pre-alpha, do make note of the fact that anything said in this article today can change at any time, so future developments may make this post invalid.

Today, I'm going to be looking at what's changed in the talent tree to begin with, then look at the Balance spec's new specialisation. For clarity purposes, and from what people seem to be getting confused about lately:

• The talent trees refer to the six-tier, three-choice trees we were shown at BlizzCon, that are shared between all three (or four) specs of the same class. Meaning a Guardian Druid can pick up Nature's Swiftness, etc.
• The specialisations (specs) are the three (or four) different choices that each class can choose at level 10, each having their own perks that only THEY can get. People seem to be thinking that Blizzard are dumbing the game down by doing this, but in my opinion it doesn't - Blizzard in MoP are essentially making the talents that everyone takes baseline, for example how many half-brained MM Hunters do you know that skip over Careful Aim? It's now baseline. Or more closer to home, how many half-brained Balance Druids do you know that skip over Euphoria? That's also baseline.
• Class abilities are ones that all specs of that class will have as baseline, for example Wrath or Cyclone.

Now that that's out of the way, let's have a look at the changes to the talents! Following this link here should direct you to the right place if you want to compare.

Tier 1) Unchanged. So as before, we'll likely be taking Feline Swiftness (Increases your movement speed by 10% and by an additional 20% while in Cat Form.) as Moonkin in PvE. Especially as Dash does the exact same thing as Tireless Pursuit, and Displacer Beast could end up being detrimental in some circumstances. The only fight I'd see Tireless Pursuit talented into would be on a fight like Atramedes and gong duty.

Tier 2) Again unchanged. Likely to be a toss-up between Nature's Swiftness and Renewal, depending on fight mechanics. You may need to emergency heal yourself back up by 30% health (useful in conjunction with a class ability later) and get a bit of survivability, or you may want to be able to insta-Rebirth without dropping form.

Tier 3) Once again, no change. We'll get to the actual changes soon, I swear. The choice is between snaring (single), rooting (AoE) or knocking back (conal). Quite a bit of choice to have there, depending on boss mechanics.

Tier 4) Changes! Kind of. More clarification than anything else really, but we now get to see the rest of Wild Charge and Incarnation's capabilities:

Click on the images if they're too small to read.

Wild Charge hasn't changed Moonkin's specific utility, however don't forget that you can also use Bear Form's charge-with-immbolisation-and-haste, jump back and enjoy 45% haste with Eclipse (or 31%, if the tooltip for new Eclipse is to be trusted), although Stampede at the moment (what it seems to be replacing) is only melee haste, so we'll have to see. But we now see that the cat section of Stampede is also included with the free ravage. Travel form gets some survivability for getting out of crap, and then some extra damage reduction after that, and flight and aquatic form both get movement increases with the rabid seal lion also enjoying travel form's 20% damage reduction. Looks like a lot of fun for the shapeshifting Druid, and even Moonkin-focused ones get fun with Disengage.

Incarnation now gives us what we want - something to pop for Time Warp, and a nice damage bonus to boot. It's spec-focused, so we'll only be getting Chosen of Elune for now, but I'm happy with that. We give up Treants for Incarnation however, so if you usually forget to pop the trees before Time Warp, this might be the better option - sims will only tell which provides the bigger DPS increase in the long run however.

Force of Nature is still unchanged. It's meant to do something different for each spec, but there's been no clarification on that as of yet.

Tier 5) No changes here either. A choice of disorientation (AoE), Death Grip (AoE) or stun+damage (single).

Tier 6) No changes here, but a bit of clarification for other specs on Heart of the Wild:

Not a lot new for Balance, but we now know what Guardian and Resto Druids get from this. And it's about as much as we could have asked for when looking at the preview for Balance and Feral a few weeks back. An interesting, yet useful, tidbit is that Restoration Druids using HotW don't use mana while casting damage spells, which would help a lot in phase 3 Raggy - just a pity HotW isn't used until level 90 in any case.

HotW seems to be the most useful out of the three at 90, although I'm sure that there will be some encounters that make use of Disentanglement's heal/root-break, and depending on how Symbiosis will work, Master Shapeshifter might look more enticing.

Now onto the spellbook for Balance Druids! Instead of going through every single spell like the talents and saying that 80% of them haven't changed, I'll focus on what has to lower the crit on the wall of text, and most spells have had the levels they're learned at changed - look at the link at the start for the detail of when we get what:

• Leather Specialisation has been moved to level 1, from level 50. This hasn't changed for classes like Warriors or Shamans, as they change armor at level 40, but it's interesting that we get 5% intellect from the get-go for wearing all leather.

• Rejuvenation now has an instant heal, then heals over time. Nourish has been removed from Balance's arsenal. Regrowth and Nourish become Resto-only, as well as Revive, our out-of-combat res. Good luck explaining to pugs that the only way you can res them now is via Mass Res or using a 10min cooldown on them!

• Bash no longer has a rage cost AND shifts you into bear form - you can now simply stun without macro no matter your spec, just remember to change back to Moonkin afterwards.

• Eclipse now has two talents baked into its baseline "giving you an eclipse bar" - Nature's Grace and half of Euphoria. The tooltip appears to be incorrect however, as the haste you gain (on each eclipse now, rather than when you cast MF/IS - sadface) is only 1% as opposed to 15%. The half of Euphoria we're getting is the mana return whenever we enter a new eclipse.

• Starfire is now Balance-only. Restoration, Feral and Guardian will only be using Wrath as their spell nuke for damage. It also appears to be 0.5 seconds faster cast baseline than it used to be.

• Starsurge is now at level 12, but appears to be unchanged otherwise. Starlight Wrath appears to be removed however, so this is the fastest cast nuke at our disposal now, with Wrath at 2.5sec cast and Starfire at 2.7sec.

• Moonkin Form now has 20% increased Nature and Arcane damage, up from 10%, and has Moonkin Aura split from it for use later on.

• Insect Swarm revamped. Now no longer deals damage, but increases damage from your Wrath, Starfire and Starsurge spells by 30%, but can only be cast on one target at a time. Nerfs our multi-boss damage, but in turn increases our single target damage, which should make us more valuable in the long run with more fights having one boss than two or more.

• Swipe seems a little confusing - it looks like that it's castable in all forms, but damage changes depending on what form you're in.

• Remove Corruption is Balance only. Restos get Nature's Cure, which includes Magic effects, but Feral/Guardian loses out on the spell entirely (not that you'll often see them switch forms to decurse mid-combat).

• Dash activates Cat form, no need to switch first and cast later like Bash earlier.

• Solar Beam is given to Moonkins now, whether you want it or not.

• New spell: Killer Instinct. Moonkin's version of Nurturing Instinct from Ferals of today, grants 100% of your intellect as agility when in cat or bear forms. This increases the value of Heart of the Wild, to make 150% of your intellect as agility if you choose to go cat or bear form during HotW.

• Euphoria, as mentioned, now only does half of what it used to, and gives you a 24% chance to double your lunar/solar gains outside of eclipse.

• Hurricane still does nature damage, seems the devs have forgotten about the arcane damage component of it to make it desirable in lunar eclipse for the moment.

• Barkskin is listed as a spec ability, but that's mainly because it's been removed from Restoration and replaced with Ironbark, which is essentially Barkskin, but is able to be cast on other players. For the rest of us Druids, it remains unchanged.

• Moonkin Aura now gives party and raid members 5% crit, instead of 5% haste. With Wrath of Air totem being removed too, this means that the only way to get your haste buff now is from Shadow priests.

• Owlkin Frenzy is now 3/3 and fully in our spec now, which should please a fair few Druids that couldn't afford the points into there because of the speculation about what actually triggers it.

• Nature's Grasp is now 1 charge, down from 3 charges. Cooldown and duration are unaffected though.

• New spell: Might of Ursoc. All Druids get this spell, and it's essentially Frenzied Regeneration split into two, and then buffed a bit. Guardian Druids' FR is back to how it used to be however, with rage turning into health, but Might of Ursoc not only increases your health, but increases it by 30% instead of the 15% FR gives today. 

• Starfall has been buffed in a rather large way - whenever you proc into Lunar eclipse, the cooldown on Starfall is reset, so we should always have some form of AoE in Lunar now! It's a start, and I'd like to see either Hurricane, or better yet Mushrooms do Arcane damage to buff up Lunar's AoE capabilities, but it's certainly a good overall DPS boost so we don't have to wait for Lunar every time Starfall comes off cooldown.

• Lunar Shower is now a passive spec ability for Moonkin... Thanks Blizzard, really appreciate that. Seriously though, it nerfs our solar cleave, which in all honesty was overpowered for fights that require constant AoE. If we want to continue cleaving for mushrooms, we just give up using Sunfire and IS, and use some other spells (possibly whatever we steal in Symbiosis), or switch to cat and swipe, or whatever. We're Druids, we're versatile enough to work around it until Blizzard nerf us again.

• Stampeding Roar now removes roots and snares in addition to its current effects. Pretty nice, have to say. If we go for Tireless Pursuit, the name suddenly becomes incredibly apt: Frost Nova'd? Stampeding Roar. Followed up by Freeze? Dash. Followed up by a lucky Frostbolt freezing you in place? Tireless Pursuit. Angry Frost Mage? You betcha.

• Wild Mushroom is now Balance and Resto only. Wild Mushroom: Detonate is now Balance only, with Fungal Growth of today tied into it. Restos get a nice ground healing area akin to Efflorescence when they bloom their shrooms. Very, very nice indeed.

And now for the grand finale... Symbiosis!

This spell is potentially very awesome, what it does is:

Now that doesn't give a lot of information about the utility of it. 

1. It could be one random spell from their spellbook, and you give them one random spell from yours, which will likely end up spending about 5mins at the start of a raid spamming Symbi to get a nice swap for both classes. It says that it'll be useful depending on spec and class/combat role, but random spells are still random, so that'll likely not be implemented.
2. If not, it could send the Druid a useful ability from the target, and only ever send that spell, for example it would always be Arcane Blast from a Mage, or Avenging Wrath from a Paladin. For Restoration, it might always be Evocation from a Mage or Lay on Hands from a Paladin. This would be 40 new spells in total that a Druid would be able to use, or 10 for each specialisation, which is the most likely role Symbi would take.
3. Or it could send a spell depending on the target's spec, so a Frost Mage could send Frostbolt, a Fire Mage send Fireball, and an Arcane Mage send Arcane Blast to a Balance Druid, but to a Guardian it could be Ice Barrier, Dragon's Breath or Alter Time, respectively. This opens up to a whole range of abilities that would be VERY hard to balance on Blizzard's part, as potentially a Druid could use 33 new spells, including using Symbi on other spec Druids (for a Balance to gain Wild Growth, for use with HotW), or 132 in total - but some may be shared of course. Symbiosis likely won't be implemented in this form.
4. What we give to others would be interesting for classes such as Rogues, Warriors, and especially Monks, Hunters and Death Knights as they don't use mana. I'd imagine Rogues would get something like Rake which uses energy, and Warriors take Enrage or Maul as it uses rage mechanics. Unless the spell we send costs no resource, which would make Arcane Mages always want me for free Starfires, but yeah - it looks like Druids are going to have to do some research on this spell to not only see who benefits the most from our Symbi, but who we also benefit the most from in synergy. Across all four specs. Theorycrafting people, go!

It looks like quite an interesting expansion for Druids, and unless Monks end up being really, really awesome, I think I'll be sticking around on my little Boomer for the foreseeable future.

Wall of text crits you for Chuck Norris.

Mists of Pandaria: Druid Talent Review

Wow, it's been a long time since my last post... About 6 months as a matter of fact! Mixture of college work and Firelands appears to have gotten in the way of the simple process of me thinking up a topic and actually writing about it.

Ex Cineribus are now 6/7hc, so all we need now is a bit of gear to push p3 on hc Raggy asap, and we've worked out we can reasonably do at least 5/7hc in one evening, as well as having our raid leader chase a vole around his house for 15mins, while having a couple of oddly unsuccessful attempts on Domo that had wipes that shouldn't have happened. Oh well, we were tired I guess.

Onto the matter at hand, however! BlizzCon and come and gone, and I'm sure we've all had time to digest the fact that Pandas are coming, Blizzard are implementing a new class, pokemon battles, level 90 and of course, new talent "trees". The idea behind the new talent system is that in the entire game there will be 11 trees, one for each class - as opposed to the 30 we have now for ten classes. Specs will still be in the game, and there will be 34 different specs to choose from, with Druids splitting up into four separate specialisations - Balance, Feral, Guardian and Restoration - where you'll get new abilities every 10 levels or so that will be unique to that specialisation. Classes will of course have their core class abilities that any spec can have.

Like glyphs however, you can quickly change these talents on the fly while in the middle of the raid, so if one encounter requires one talent choice, but is useless in the next, all it takes is a quick switch and you're good to go. Personally, I think this is a good option to have and while many people are screaming that this dumbs the game down further, I think it just gives Blizzard more scope when designing encounters, and they don't have to force players to have two Resto specs because one fight requires single target healing, while others focus on AoE heals.

Now I know it's a little early to be speculating how abilities will work out, and I'm sure a lot of these will in fact change by the time even alpha comes out, let alone beta or even 5.0 live. But this is what I have to work with, and this is what I'm going to pick apart.

Here's what the Druid talent tree will look like as of BlizzCon:

As you can see, you get a new talent unlocked every 15 levels. Now, because Blizzard likes giving players, especially hybrids "choice" in their builds, you can only pick one of the three talents before carrying on. 5.0 is going to be fun before MoP actually ships, with Warriors having Bladestorm and Shockwave taken away from them until level 90. Ah, the QQ of arena-goers and tanks alike for the few weeks it'll be until they get those signature abilities back again. That is, unless Blizzard decide to change those end talents.

Level 15

The Mobility Tier!

Feline Swiftness
Increases your movement speed by 10% and by an additional 20% while in Cat Form.

Looking at the other two options, this looks like the clear winner for PvEers. Firstly because the speed increase is better than boot enchant speed increases, so you can focus on the more powerful stat boosts, and secondly because the other two at level 15 are 3min "oh-shit" buttons that aren't likely to be used, unless a feral decides he needs stealth mid-fight for Displacer Beast, or there's some rooting/snares going on for Tireless Pursuit.

Displacer Beast
Instant, 3 min cooldown
Teleports the Druid up to 20 yards in a random direction, purging all periodic damage effects and providing stealth for 10 sec. Attacking or taking damage cancels this effect. Using this ability activates Cat Form.

Useful PvP talent for not just ferals, but anyone needing an oh-shit button to get out of the crap quickly. I can see Resto and Balance PvPers taking this one, Ferals/Guardians PvP actually have a choice here between this and Tireless Pursuit, which could prove to be interesting, especially when going vs them in arena.

Tireless Pursuit
Instant, 3 min cooldown
Removes all roots and snares, and increases movement speed by 70% while in Cat Form for 15 sec. Does not break prowling. Using this ability activates Cat Form.

Very useful PvP talent again, similar to the last one. How it'll differ however is the obvious snare and root removal, and it'll allow you to chase down your target once they get away. Again it'll be interesting to go against Ferals in PvP, as they have two viable options.

Level 30

The Healing Tier!

Nature's Swiftness
Instant, 3 min cooldown
When activated, your next Cyclone, Entangling Roots, Healing Touch, Hibernate, Nourish, Rebirth, or Regrowth becomes instant, free, and castable in all forms. The healing and duration of the spell is increased by 50%.

Ok, think about this for a moment. Nature's Swiftness, available to all four specs. Not only that, but you no longer drop form when casting the above spells, instant cast, free, and more powerful.

One thing is for sure, as a Moonkin myself, not having to drop form to BR someone, then get back into form again can be a bit of a pain sometimes. This is also a godsend to Bears who've in the past either had to wait for a break in damage, or get the offtank to taunt while they BR someone then get back into combat.

Oh and for PvP, 50% extra duration on Cyclone? Oof, painful.

Renewal
Instant, 2 min cooldown
Instantly heals the Druid for 30% of maximum health. Useable in all shapeshift forms.

Druids get their own Desperate Prayer. Not a lot to say about this really. It's a pretty amazing talent for tanks to add an extra tanking cooldown, especially when used in conjunction with Frenzied Regen where your maximum health is increased further. For other specs, it's a solid PvP talent that can help healing out a bit, just like how Priests use it. PvE even has its uses as well for the other specs, when high raid damage has just hit. Can see top guilds pushing more Balance Druids into their progression kills again for not only the Tranq's, but also speccing into this for more survivability.

Cenarion Ward
7680 Mana, 40 yd range
Instant cast, 30 sec cooldown
Protects a friendly target, causing any damage taken to heal the target for 2660 every 2 sec for 6 sec. Gaining the healing effect consumes the Cenarion Ward. Useable in all shapeshift forms. Lasts 30 sec.

If this also includes yourself, and doesn't have to be cast on others, this is not too bad a grinding spell. Other than that, around 8k healing for 7680 mana doesn't seem particularly enthralling for any spec. Especially with the 30sec cooldown on the spell itself and the effect being consumed as soon as you are hit. Would be nice as a core ability that you could put on the tank pre-pull, but I wouldn't invest in this over Nature's Swiftness or Renewal in its current state.

Level 45

The Control Tier!

Faerie Swarm
Decreases the target's armor by 12% for 5 min and reduces the target's movement speed by 50% for 15 sec. While affected, the target cannot stealth or turn invisible. Deals 49 damage when cast from Bear Form. Useable in all shapeshift forms, but incurs a 6 sec cooldown while in Bear Form or Cat Form.
This talent replaces Faerie Fire.

Basically Faerie Fire + snare. Useful for small-scale PvP when you have physical DPS with you (or you are one yourself) and you want to chase down an opponent. Useful in BGs when chasing down the flag carrier. Not so useful in PvE, when Faerie Fire can do the same job, as bosses are usually immune to snares. Where it will come into it's own however is when mobs ARE susceptible to snares. As long as you're in caster, tree or moonkin form, you can spam it to your heart's content and shoot down fire from the moon, but even in bear or cat form you can keep a good kite going, especially if you chose to go for Feline Swiftness earlier in the tree you'll be joining the ranks of Elemental Shamans, Hunters and Mages in kings of kiting!

Mass Entanglement
4480 Mana, 30 yd range
2 sec cast, 1 min cooldown
Roots all enemies within 12 yards of the destination for 8 sec. Damage caused many interrupt the effect. Cannot be cast while in Bear Form or Cat Form.

It's quite an interesting talent, being able to root everything around you, one which I can see having quite an impact in PvP, especially if it ignores LoS. Balance Druids will also find this useful if they spec into this, Ursol's Vortex (explained later) and use Solar Beam to silence all casters 15yds around them, and root them in an easy-to-mushroom-explode spot. Don't forget however that this looks like it's a Druid's version of a Water Elemental's Freeze too, so you can cast it at a group of enemies at a distance.

As for PvE, again with the rest of the control tier, it depends on whether the mobs will be susceptible to rooting effects, let alone snares.

Typhoon
5120 Mana
Instant cast, 20 sec cooldown
Summons a violent Typhoon that strikes targets in front of the caster within 30 yards, knocking them back and dazing them for 6 sec. Useable in all shapeshift forms.

Like Nature's Swiftness, this is another toy that used to be deep into a spec, but is now available for all Druids to use, potentially. Anyone who's PvPed with me knows how much I like knockback abilities, and PvE has its uses, such as Beth'tilac, Rhyolith hc, and Raggy in current content.

Level 60

The Specialisation Tier!

Wild Charge
Grants a movement ability that varies by shapeshift form:
Example:

• Non-shapeshifted
  Fly to an ally's position and your next healing spell costs no mana.
• Bear Form
  Charge to an enemy, immobilizing them and granting you 30% haste.
• Moonkin Form
  Bound backward and gain 20 Lunar or Solar Energy, whichever is more beneficial to you.

Unlike the next talent, this one doesn't matter what specialisation you're in, so I hope to God that the bear form haste also includes spell haste, then I'll be a happy Boomer. In other news, Druids appear to have stolen from Warriors this time, and have picked up the ability to Intervene at an allied target, but instead of absorbing damage the Druid instead gets a free heal out of it. A new oh-shit button if you get knocked away from your partners in arena, for example, or if you're standing in crap and you want a quick getaway and then heal your sorry ass for standing in the wrong place. The Moonkin example appears to be a PvP orientated one, unless Wild Charge happens to have no cooldown, in which case I'll charge in bear form, switch to Moonkin and bounce back out again, with extra haste and just that little bit closer to the next eclipse. Not to mention on a fight like Raggy, we can fill in the spot for Magma Traps and have an improved form of Disengage at our disposal.

Incarnation
Instant, 3 min cooldown
Activates a superior shapeshifting form appropriate to your specialization for 30 sec:
Example:

• Feral: King of the Jungle

Improved Cat Form that allows the use of all abilities which normally require stealth, and allows use of Prowl while in combat.

• Restoration: Tree of Life

Tree of Life Form that increases armor by 120% and enhances Lifebloom, Wild Growth, Regrowth, Entangling Roots, and Wrath spellcasts.

Now I'm going to nit-pick at this. I see this as an overlook by Blizzard, or they simply wish to make this an optional talent, as opposed to a specialisation base ability, but this to me seems a bit... Iffy to me. The entire talent system Blizzard boasted about was that you could be awesome and be a Guardian bear tank and also have access to both Nature's Swiftness and Typhoon. Here, what they've done is make each specialisation have their own spells in the talents. I could be a Balance Druid who wanted to help out healing when needed on high-healing phases, but I don't get Tree of Life when I pick Incarnation, I get whatever it is Blizzard will end up giving Balance. As seen by the level 90 talents, Blizzard are attempting to get Druids to use more forms more often, and while it would be nice for Balance to get a DPS cooldown, I don't think this is the way. Maybe if Incarnation put a cooldown on all four improved forms at once, it'll be balanced, but personally I think it's stupid to have spec-specific abilities in the talents, why not just make it a core specialisation ability?

Force of Nature
40 yd range
Instant, 3 min cooldown
Summons 3 treants to assist in the Druid's current combat role. Treant capabilities vary by specialization. Usable in all shapeshift forms.

... "vary by specialisation" again? Another tier with another choice however, all three could be very desirable abilities that I'll wait for theorycrafters to find out where the top DPS is in. Then Blizzard will realise that choice here is not really choice. One simply does more DPS/healing/survivability than the other in one encounter, in another another talent may do more. We will have to wait and see.

Level 75

The Guardian Tree!

Demoralizing Roar
Instant 30 sec cooldown
The Druid roars, disorienting all enemies within 10 yards for 4 sec. Using this ability activates Bear Form.

Nice, short-cooldown defensive ability that could be used as QQ bait in PvP. Great for trash/add fights in PvE to give the Druid a few seconds of no incoming damage too. Demo Roar from live appears to be gone in MoP, along with Demo Shout (not sure about Scarlet Fever/Vindication though, or if the 10% damage reduction will be baked into baseline Druid/Warrior abilities).

Ursol's Vortex
Instant 30 sec cooldown
Conjure a vortex of wind that pulls all enemies within 15 yards toward your own location. Useable in all shapeshift forms.

The only ability in this tier that doesn't shift you into seeing a big butt in the middle of the screen, I vaguely went over this ability earlier when combining it with mass entanglement. Personally, I find this is a great talent if your tank (or you) are having trouble positioning adds. it's only 15yd, so it won't pull a great deal toward you, but hey, us Druids have to continue to steal other class abilities (DK's Gorefiend's Grasp), just as we have done since vanilla.

Just because it is the only ability that doesn't change you to bear doesn't mean it's the talent that Feral, Balance and Resto go for however, but I can see a fair few uses for this spell.

Bear Hug
Instant 1 min cooldown
Melee attack that stuns the target and deals 10% of the Druid's health in damage every 1 sec for 3 sec. Effect canceled if the Druid moves away, attacks, or takes any other action. Using this ability activates Bear Form.

I have to admit, I think we'll be seeing a name change on this as I couldn't take it seriously when I first saw the name by itself. One thing I can say however, is that it seems rather OP at the moment - Can see a few Ferals in PvP using a combo of Rake, Rip and Bear Hug on a healer to take out a large portion of their health - at current gear levels Bear Hug alone will take out around 40-50k health in just 3 seconds alone. Ouch.

Level 90

The Shapeshifting Tier!

Heart of the Wild
40 yd range
Instant, 6 min cooldown
Dramatically improves the Druid's ability to serve combat roles outside of normal specialization for 45 sec.
Example:

• Balance

Healing spells generate Lunar or Solar Energy and benefit from Lunar and Solar Eclipse. In addition, grants 50% of Intellect as Agility, 10% of hit rating as expertise rating, and increases armor by 95% while in Bear Form.

• Feral

Grants 50% of Agility as Intellect, increases hit rating by 100%, and increases armor by 95% while in Bear Form. In addition, regenerates 2% of maximum mana every 5 sec.

I have to admit, at first look this entire tier kind of scared me a little - why the hell would I want to do a role outside of my own when I've specced the way I am? If I choose to be a Moonkin, I want to pew pew with lasers, not be a fat bear or be a healer-tree! Then I realised that this spell was on a 6min cooldown, so likely a once-an-encounter ability to step in for a moment and take a fallen ally's role while they get ressed, buffed and ready to start fighting again. The ability only lasts 45secs, and of course you don't get full benefit of being in that secondary role. Heavy raid damage and you're in Lunar Eclipse? Super-Tranq! Not in eclipse but need to heal anyway? You won't be put out of your Nature's Grace for long now, as your healing spells will help you into eclipse! Tank died? Pop HotW, Bear Form, Taunt, Nature's Swiftness, Rebirth tank, you're the saviour!

It's a really cool ability that I personally am excited for.

Master Shapeshifter
Improves the Druid's effectiveness at briefly switching between forms. Your melee abilities increase your spell damage by 10% and your non-instant spellcasts increase your attack power by 10%. Both effects stack up to 3 times and last 15 sec. each ability used which benefits from one of these effects consumes one application of that effect.

Another ability that I was wondering why it was a level 90 ability at first. And to be fair, even after coming up with ways that it could be useful I was still struggling to justify it to be comparable to HotW and Disentanglement. Guardian Druids may find the most use out of it when they're not actively tanking the boss, and even then it's not that great to lose the Vengeance buff for it. Might be nice as an opener to get a headstart on threat, but... Nah.

If they made it so that instant cast spells are also included, then it could open up to a very nice AoE rotation for both Feral and Balance - swipe, swipe, swipe, mushroom explode (each mushrooms counts as a separate spell for things like the legendary, second boss in Grim Batol, etc), swipe, swipe, swipe, mushroom explode, etc.

As it stands, I doubt many would take this, unless it really opened up the hybridisation between Cat and Caster.

Disentanglement
Shapeshifting now removes roots. In addition, shifting into a form heals the Druid for 20% of maximum health. This heal cannot be received more often than once every 30 sec.

Powershifting is back! And seemingly with a vengeance too. Guardian Druids appear to be the new Blood Death Knights, with the ability to not only heal themselves for 30% of their health, but they can also remove roots and heal another 20% at the same time! As a sidenote again - best used while under Frenzies Regen, but obviously this is going to be harder to time in PvP when you might need the root escape.

And of course, for the other specs this is also a very desirable talent to aid healing and keeping out of crap.

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All in all, this looks like it could be a very interesting expansion as a whole for all Druids, but I wouldn't hold my breath for all of these to be the same when it gets to this time next year. One thing's for sure though, next expansion we'll likely see another shake-up in the talents - one new talent every 15 levels is all nice and well when there's 90 levels in the game, but next expansion would have to add another 15 levels to cap it off, or another 30 levels for two tiers and have a nice round level 120 to farm for... Either that or they'll just have level 100 talents and start going up in 10's or something. All I know is another 5 levels in the expansion after MoP likely won't work with this setup.

The Bronze and the Infinite

General musings of the game and its lore here again pretty much, this time in draconic flavour! Or more specifically, time-dragon flavour! Apologies for how long it's taken to get out, I've had a few other things to focus on, and this post itself is rather long... I was working on something else too as I could soon add to this post, but meh, if things entirely change this post will be for nowt. And I apologise for the long read too...

Time travel is fun, you get to see past events and sometimes you even get to take part in them (in WoW's case it seems to be 100% of the time if you're not a bronze dragon). So this blog post will be looking at the masters of time travelling, the Bronze Dragons, and their adversaries, the Infinite Dragonflight. There will be many parts that I'll be speculating, so don't take too much of it as fact.

First thing's first, the Bronze Dragonflight. This is the dragonflight that we're familiar with in terms of the watchers of time, and looking after the past, present and future, all at the same time. Tiresome job, it seems, but they also seem to be able to detect when time isn't flowing as it should. Their leader, Nozdormu the Timeless One, rarely comes away from missions to the mortal world, seemingly preferring the place between times so that he can travel easily from one era to the next. His current mission however has severed the link between him and the rest of his flight, so he's dubbed as "missing". The rest of the flight have now taken up his mantle and fight to preserve timelines, along with trying to find their leader at the same time.

The direct cause for timelines being broken at the moment is whatever the motive the Infinite dragonflight have. Not much is known at the moment about them, although there are some fairly obvious links into who their leader is. Just not why they exist, and why they're hostile.

The first time we see them is at level 66 in Escape from Durnholde Keep (assuming you haven't seen the rare spawn outside CoT). In the original timeline, Taretha Foxton set off a diversion that allowed the young Thrall to escape Durnholde and start his journey. Meddling agents of the mysterious infinite dragonflight, however, have kidnapped Taretha. Since she is unable to create a diversion, the bronze dragonflight asks players to do it themselves. So what would have been the chain reaction if Thrall could not escape?

• Orcs continue to be stuck in internment camps, their lethargy from Mannoroth's blood/Shamanism becoming an increasing problem. The orcs would die out.
• More taxes required from the human nations to maintain these camps would have weakened the ties between the kingdoms further. Inter-kingdom feuds could become violent, resulting in wars that end up with Humans killing each other.
• Following on from the previous two points: no unitary Human or Orc nations = harder for Medivh to send the Night Elves backup for the Legion's return. It would also mean that races we have today would not exist - the Darkspear Trolls would have been wiped out by the Sea Witch and murlocs and the Tauren would have been killed off by the centaur. Which would end up being bad news for Azeroth as a whole... UNLESS:
• Without the threat of the orcs escaping from the internment camps, Arthas, Uther, Jaina and co. would be able to more time investigating the plague instead of dealing with orcish raiders. This could mean that Uther could have spent more time with Arthas, and guiding him in the right direction (as seen in Blackrock and Roll, Arthas had to be reminded by Uther to not exact vengeance on the orcs, as it would only bring him down to their level).

So overall we're looking at the Legion either not returning to Azeroth with a third failed race of pawns (first the Highborne, then the Orcs, here the Scourge); or if Kel'thuzad and Mal'ganis still managed to distribute the plague and have it grow to the levels it did in the Third War, then Archimonde would have taken the power he needed from the World Tree/Well of Eternity as needed to resurrect or summon Sargeras, or just utterly destroy Azeroth anyway. This equates to... Not a lot really, either the Infinites are working heavily for the Burning Legion, or heavily against them and are preserving Azeroth in that way. It would keep to a smaller world after all, the night elves sticking with themselves, or at a stretch the dark trolls and furbolgs, and the races of the Eastern Kingdoms sticking to themselves - until some dwarf goes exploring by sea or air, that is.

The next time we see the Infinites are in Caverns of Time again, this time in the time where Medivh was creating the magic with Gul'dan to create the passage between Draenor and Azeroth. Apart from the wildlife in the area anyway, the only mobs you fight are Infinite dragonkin. And a lot of them. Here if they succeed, Medivh will die and the Orcs will never have reached Azeroth. The chain of events are that:

• The orcs, filled with the bloodlust that Mannoroth gave them, would have continued to fight each other, and with the demonic energies slowly killing off the orcs, it is likely that they will have completely perished - that is if the Shadow Council also completely fail on creating the portal, as original lore states that Medivh had barely any influence on the creation of the Dark Portal, merely guiding Gul'dan to Azeroth.
• With Medivh dead, Sargeras's spirit could have been captured by the Infinites - as dragons do know more about the titans and the Legion than Humans did at that time - instead of being released into the Twisting Nether when Khadgar killed him.
• The Humans, High Elves and Dwarves would have remained separate from each other, and would have been unlikely to have received aid in their times of need, resulting in possible successful attacks from Trolls and Dark Iron Dwarves, to name a couple of powerful factions. The Bronze dragons claimed that had the bridge between Draenor and Azeroth not formed, then the human kingdoms would have raged into a civil war.
• With no Orcish Horde to have the thought of conquering other worlds, Ner'zhul would not have created multiple portals in Draenor in order to escape. If he had not escaped, then Kil'jaeden would not have captured him in the Nether and turn him into the Lich King. Essentially, the orcs would have served their original purpose to the Legion (extermination of the Draenei on Draenor), and would have been left to destroy one another.
• Following on from the previous point, with no Lich King on Azeroth, there would have been no Third War from the undead plague, and in turn no Scourge to have destroyed Quel'thalas and the Sunwell (and no second coming of the Legion). It in turn means that Kil'jaeden would have not been summoned through Kael'thas (in fact, the Blood Elves would still be High Elves, and likely still being separate from the Humans because of the lack of threat from the Horde).
• The Druids would likely still be in the Emerald Dream, Malfurion included. With the events concerning the Nightmare (spoilers for Stormrage novel incoming), would this have also meant that Xavius and N'Zoth would be a lot more successful in their attack against the mortal world?

And I'm sure there are a lot more implications to be considered, as this event basically dictates the start of the well-known history of Azeroth. The First, Second and Third Wars would not have happened, as well as many storylines that get covered from the past 5 years in WoW. Admittedly many of the storylines in the past 5 years would have been changed because of the other Caverns of Time instances, but this one I feel makes the largest changes of all.

The third instance in Burning Crusade's Caverns of Time was the 25man raid Battle for Mount Hyjal. While there are no actual Infinite Dragonflight in here, we are sent to this place for a reason. When you think about it, if you wipe in there, Archimonde would have easy access to Nordrassil and ultimately destroy it/Azeroth. So whatever it is the Infinites have done, they've done it and left, while the Bronze have sent us just too late (I personally blame how long it took to take Kael and Vashj down) afterwards. We're there to pick up the mess and vanquish the second coming of the Legion... A second time.

This one's a bit hard to see where the Infinite are coming from, but other than the obvious "Lololol let's destroy Azeroth, our home, 'cause we is crazy mofos!" I can't really see what benefit would come from Archimonde absorbing the power of Nordrassil. Perhaps they are testing things out to see what Archi would have done with the extra power - Nuke the place? Sacrifice himself as a worthy host for Sargeras? Simply go all Glubtok on us and turn to dust for having too much power in his body? Actually, that could work... Either way, the Infinite either knew something we didn't, or they're just messing around with the timelines for the sake of it.

Our most recent installment of the Infinite Dragonflight in Caverns of Time is in the Culling of Stratholme, another Warcraft III scenario that we get to play out in an MMO setting. The Infinites only turn up in the later half of the instance, similar to Escape from Durnholde, and largely try to stop Arthas from getting to Mal'Ganis.

Ultimately, in this instance Arthas has already stopped the more influential members of the Scourge in Stratholme, the only commander stopping him now was Mal'Ganis, where he met his ultimate fate of being puppeted (that's a word now) to Northrend. The first living citizen that he attempts to kill - as opposed to the already-turned Undead for the first part - turns out to be an Infinite dragonkin. Could this have been a plan to salvage Arthas and keep him in the path of the Light?

In addition, he would have failed to track down Mal'Ganis in order to follow him to Northrend. Arthas would not have turned into the Lich King's champion, Kel'Thuzad would have stayed dead, Quel'thalas would have survived, Archimonde could not have been summoned, the list goes on. As we've seen in WoW, it's not like having Mal'Ganis dead in Northrend seemed to last very long, so there's little to be changed about his storyline, apart from playing as bait again. The basic gist of it seems to point at the Infinite flight once again fighting against the Burning Legion and protecting Azeroth from encountering them a second or third time.

Another interesting point of note is the last Infinite that you see (assuming you get to that stage within 25mins) is that it's corrupting a Bronze Dragonkin.

This action in itself doesn't prove much, as we don't see what happens to the Bronze when the corruption is complete - only the Infinite goes back through the portal he comes from. It is assumed that this is part of the process to turn the Bronze into Infinite, and in Cataclysm the Infinites have some kind of link with the Bronze, more than just having the ability to time travel.

This supported by Occulus outside of the Caverns of Time. In vanilla he was one of three protectors to the entrance of the Caverns, and in TBC and WLK he was merely standing outside. Now in Cataclysm, he's now Occulus the Corrupted as a rare spawn patrolling around the Caverns - as a member of the Infinite Dragonflight. This shows that the Bronze do have some sort of link with the Infinite, and that's likely what's happening at the end of Culling of Stratholme.

With time travel however, it is hard to ascertain which came first - with the powers of Asaad being able to turn the Tol'vir back into their stone form, we can't for sure know which of the two time travelling dragon races came first, and which is the corrupted version. We just assume for the moment that the Bronze are the good guys, because they're the ones we're associates with and have been doing quests with, rather than against. However - don't forget that this isn't the first time we'd be working for the wrong man.

There is one time where we meet the Infinites outside of the Caverns of Time, but once again this is in Bronze domain. At the Bronze Dragonshrine in Northrend, Chromie sends us off to the Bronze Dragonshrine as it seems the Infinite have waged an all-out assault on the shrine. They've also put up a time storm above it meaning that immortals can't cross the shield - while no Infinite can get out, it also means that no Bronze (or any other immortals) can't enter. So Chromie has to send you, a mortal, to go over there and help defend it, as well as finding out some kind of intel as to who the leader of the Infinite is.

What you find, after a few waves of Infinite, is that the device Chromie gave you revealed Nozdormu - the leader of the Bronze flight! As far as we know (and that Chromie still lets on) is that the Bronze Aspect was away on very important matters and now that you've discovered him, it's all ok that he's there! Because obviously instead of the device working as it should have done, Nozzy is just fighting against the Infinite threat... Yeah, I don't think anyone questing in Dragonblight bought that. Although it would be nice if that was the case.

An upcoming raid in Cataclysm appears to be another Caverns of Time focused one. This time, we're sent back 10,000 years, to the War of the Ancients. At the time of writing this post, not much is known about why we're being sent there, how much Bronze/Infinite integration there will be (even if there is none, we can add the formula of the previous CoT raid, that what's done is done and we have to fix it before 10,000 years of history is changed).

Interestingly enough, if you've managed to read this far, you've probably guessed that I'm a bit biased to the Infinite being the antagonist against the Burning Legion, and have been trying to save Azeroth from these horrors ever happening. However in here, I'm assuming that if we fail, the Legion wins and Azeroth gets destroyed. This very much points the Infinite as working FOR the Legion, or their belief. When thinking about it in this respect:

• Durnholde: Thrall dead/still captured would mean that a very powerful Shaman is out of the mix.
• Black Morass: The Horde stopped from ever entering Azeroth takes away a large, powerful force from Azeroth.
• Mt. Hyjal: Archimonde succeeds and absorbs enough power from Nordrassil to either destroy Azeroth, or to help find Sargeras a new host and to let him destroy it.
• Stratholme: No Arthas would mean no champion of the Lich King, who would ultimately get destroyed by the Legion as a "failed experiment".
• War of the Ancients: The Legion wins.

It appears that the Infinite are looking to destroy Azeroth. While it is certain they are from (or causing) time anomalies, they don't appear anywhere other than Azeroth. At least they're not in Outland - dragons as a whole seem native to Azeroth, any other drakes either traveled to Outland, or had their eggs transported there (Netherwing). So why would they want to destroy their own home planet, especially when as far as we know, they're not present on any other planet?

Perhaps they're not destroying, perhaps they're just "reshaping" the world into their own image? It is through nether magic that black dragonflight eggs changed into netherwing, and in turn properties of the Netherwing fuelled the process for the Twilight flight. The Chromatic flight were created by infusing the eggs of different flights with all other dragonflights magic/blood. These have all been created while in the egg form, however the Infinite seem to be created from plain corruption of existing Bronze dragonflight.

With Nozdormu appearing as the leader of the Infinite, and Bronze dragonflight being corrupted into Infinites, it is almost certain that these two flights are one and the same, but from separate time frames, or from parallel universes, where the wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff seems to have collided. Who's to say that the time we're experiencing now is the correct one? It's the one we're used to and have memories of, but when a slight change in time far in the past can change the future, your "memories" may have been different to the ones a mere 5 seconds ago. Perhaps the Bronze are Nozdormu's creation from the Infinite, and the latter are attempting to restore their time.

Nozzy knows the cause of his death, it was the first thing shown to him in time travel. He knows he can't escape it, but damn as hell if he isn't going to try. Especially when on his doorstep there are ancient whisperings, deep underground, egging him on in the right direction...

Call to Arms: Eye of the Storm!

I don't really know why this battleground is my second Call to Arms. It's the one I hate the most... Probably because I've been in it so damn much it's quite easy to see which tactics work, which don't work, and which Alliance people I so wish got knocked off into the abyss by an Ele Shammy for being so dumbtarded.

Anyhow, Eye of the Storm made its début in the Burning Crusade expansion. The setting is either in Netherstorm or a chunk of land off Outland that has the same properties as Netherstorm, as a battle for control for that chunk of land. Four key points on this chunk of land are of interest: the Fel Reaver Ruins; the Mage Tower; the Draenei Ruins; and the Blood Elf Tower, all in four corners of the map. There is a land bridge down the centre of the island that is a key choke point that the Alliance and Horde fight for, with a desirable flag to mark your territory with.

The aim of the game is to be the first team to hit 1600 points. You can earn points in two ways - one primary and one secondary. The primary way is to capture the four places mentioned above, with the more bases you own, the faster your points generation is. The secondary way is picking up the flag in the centre, then dropping it off at one of your bases - the more bases you own gives you more points per capture. I call this one secondary because it's based on the amount of primary objectives you've obtained.

So this battleground seems to be a mixup of Capture the Flag and Domination style FPS games (or for the WoW similarities, a mixup of Warsong Gulch/Twin Peaks and Arathi Basin/Battle for Gilneas). The basic tactics would appear to be: to capture the bases, then get the flag in the centre for a quicker victory. Well, it goes a little deeper than that, as well as a some tactics outright ignoring the flag in the centre.

First thing's first, a general tactic that matches in with all the others is that you should spend no longer than 30-45secs in open space, with the exception of flag hunting in a 2-2 base strategy. Another rule of thumb is that, as it's a fairly big place - COMMUNICATE! Let people know of incomings, so that the rest of the group can adjust.

There are three main tactics that I like to use in EotS, that can be switched between upon a whim depending on how the opposition reacts - although it is best to try to stick to the onei tactic.

For easy reference, here are the terms that I use when inside the BG:

EotS: The BG itself

Spawn: The floating rocks you start in for Preparation

MT: Mage Tower, bottom right/south east side of the map

DR: Draenei Ruins, bottom left/south west side of the map

FRR: Fel Reaver Ruins, top right/north east side of the map

BET: Blood Elf Tower, top left/north west side of the map

Flagpoint/FP: Where the flag spawns, centre of the map.

Home bases: The two bases closest to your spawn point. For Alliance this is MT and DR; for Horde this is FRR and BET.

Enemy bases: The two bases furthest away from your spawn point. For Alliance this is FRR and BET; for Horde this is MT and DR.

Tanks: While most of the time in PvP tanks are useless, having a Prot Warrior/Pala, Blood DK or Feral-Bear Druid in PvP gear carrying the flag in EotS can earn your healers some leverage.

2-2 with Flag Running

The first tactic is relatively simple. To put it bluntly, the minimum amount of bases you need to sustain is two. No matter how many flags you try to capture, keeping one base throughout will be tided over by the opposition's three by the time 1600 points is attained.

So the setup of two bases under your control becomes the first step. This is generally the easiest tactic to start off with, however expect your opponents to either mirror or go for another tactic below. But it is the easiest defensive tactic to implement: 5-6 at each of the nearby bases, which leaves a flag runner group of 3-5.

If the enemy are pushing bases, split up accordingly. Remember that bases are captured in a similar style to Tol Barad and many TBC PvP objectives: heavily outnumbering the opposition in an area means faster capture of the base. No flags or 10sec cast on a certain area, you just have to be there, and be unstealthed. So if the Horde decided to zerg DR with 12 players, the players at DR would be better off going to MT, then the flag running group and the old Alliance at MT would be better off to push for FRR. Most of the time, go for the diagonal opposite to where the enemies go. With all PvP however, these aren't scripted encounters so you may have to skip a base and go for the next one along.

Once two bases are in control and relatively safe, the flag running group can proceed to run to the middle, get the flag and cap it, or chase after the enemy flag runner(s).

Suggested setup:

0-1 Tanks

5 Healers

9-10 DPS

3 Bases to 1

This is easily my favourite tactic. This tactic ensures a win, if you keep hold of three bases for the majority of the battle. You don't need to capture any flags, but you do still need communication. What this strategy essentially entails is that you send seven people to one of your "home" bases, one to the other home base, and seven to the second base's opposite number.

So for example, if you were Horde, you could send seven to BET, one to FRR, and seven to MT, or adversely seven to FRR, one to BET, and seven to DR. As Alliance, the tactics would be to initially have one at MT, and seven at DR/FRR, or one at DR, and seven at BET/MT.

If the opposition decide to zerg a base that has seven, or cut through FP to get your lone defender, communication is key. Simply shuffle along your defenders so that diagonal opposites have a larger defense, and the base in between has a few. This will happen more than you might expect, considering you're blockading 15 enemies into one base, they do have a tendency to all actually wait back a bit instead of fragmenting themselves straight from the graveyard to either one or two bases.

The person on their own must call out for any incomings, and how many, so that the two neighbouring bases can send one or two players each. Whoever you choose for this role may differ from group to group, although personally I like to see a Disc Priest or Resto Druid as they can withstand a lot of incoming damage and can essentially "tank" a group of players until backup arrives.

Suggested setup:

0 Tanks

4-6 Healers

9-11 DPS

4-0 Quick Win

Hardest strategy to implement, especially against other organised teams, but if you get lucky, you can suppress the opposition into a quick win. This strategy involves pushing the enemy back and barring off any attempts to bypass your force.

This means that the bulk of your attack will be going toward the enemy bases - around 6 to each, being on the lookout for any enemies trying to sneak past. The last three need to be dynamic: they will start off by going through the middle, intercepting any enemies that attempt to go past, and then the two side groups need to quickly count how many enemies are at the enemy bases, so the three can quickly flank and suppress the rest of the opposing force.

Once that is done, the three backup the other enemy base, while one person from the first base goes back to take the direct opposite base (so travel between BET and DR, or between FRR and MT). The five that are left need to start heading toward the enemy's spawn point and stop any from going past. This involves being on the constant lookout for stealthers, so be aware. When the second enemy base is taken, again one person from that group goes back to take the corresponding home base, while the rest suppress the enemy back to spawn point.

If the attackers do their job properly, you should get two very bored players at the home bases, and thirteen will be surrounding their spawn point. As you can probably tell from this, it'll be difficult to hold the enemy back as it'll be their 15 against your 13, so clever play is suggested. The two home defenders will be keeping an eye on both their base, as well as the direct opposite base while the 13 attackers need to keep the enemies from getting to any of the bases, or to the middle.

If you desire a quicker win, you can turn into a 12-man attack force, and have a Druid/Shaman flag running solo.

Suggested setup

0 Tanks

4-6 Healers

9-11 DPS

Three Paladins are also suggested for the quick travel between bases.

Zerg without Flag Capture

This is one of the easiest tactics to implement spontaneously. It is essentially sending 10-13 people to one base at a time with a second 2-5 lag-group to stay behind and stop opposition. The aim is to win by spending most of the match by holding two bases against the opposition's single base, with the final one being contended. As contended bases don't generate points the 2-1 setup should prove fast-paced, yet slow win.

From time to time, you'll find this tactic is very demoralising to the other team with the constant death whenever defending, that end up "giving up". It's in human nature to be upset when you lose something, and this tactic ensures that the opposition will be consistently losing bases throughout the match - you will be too, but that's what you're planning to happen anyway.

The tactic works around the basis that the "attacking group" of 10-13 players would basically only stop to kill enemies at the base. Doing this alone with a large group of people should turn the base into contested, but that shouldn't matter as it's the job of the 2-5 people behind to capture the bases. As soon as the enemies are dead, the attacking group moves on to wherever the leader tells them, it's as simple as that.

Suggested setup:

0 Tanks

3-4 Healers

11-12 DPS

Zerging with Flag Running

This tactic works similar to the previous one, with the only difference being that the bases captured by the attack group come a little slower, but are more random and should earn slightly faster point generation.

This tactic involves the attack group going to the middle whenever they don't have the flag, then running toward an enemy-owned base with the flag. Their aim is to then capture the base, and score the flag. The rest of the team tries to maintain defense on one or two other bases, but need to know when to run and when to defend. Try not to capture the flag when there's only one base, as that only rewards 75 points, as opposed to the 85 points earned from two bases, or 100 from three. So if your team is about to score, don't give up the base too easily.

Once the attacking group's base and flag is captured, they return to the middle and repeat the process, the defending teams will need to move around the map when they know they'll be overpowered by the enemy. Typically the attack team has 5-9 people in them, with 6-10 defenders, depending on how many bases you wish to keep hold of.

Suggested setup:

1 Tank

4-6 Healers

8-10 DPS

Good luck and try not to get under the weather! *groans from audience*