“Never judge things by their appearance… even carpetbags. I’m sure I never do.”
Mary Poppins
Resto-Druid on Wowhead
I was hoping for a class designer statement on the fate and future of the Resto-Druid class. A defense of dropping Displacer Beast, for example. It looks like that we will hear nothing from Blizzard, nothing at all. Silence speaks volumes.
However, the community can step up and make a statement. Wowhead has just released its Restoration Druid Review – Battle for Azeroth Community Opinions. And we thank them for the effort and presentation.
This is not a gushing overview of how great our class is, nor is it a full out condemnation. It is frank and straight-forward, written by guys who know their stuff. I have no doubt that the BlizzDevs will read it but it will not create change. I feel like they have us right where they want us: in the middle with no chance to shine.
Having read it, a few things stand out. One was that my fear of running in a bad tier set for the entire expansion has come true:
The spec needs interesting Azerite traits that can impact gameplay in a positive way. The Azerite system seems intended to replace artifact traits, set bonuses, and legendaries, but fails to live up to the billing. Several are barely noticeable.
They try to finish it on a positive note:
Overall, we are hopeful and excited to see what happens with Resto Druid in BFA.
By “what happens” I’m guessing they mean when we get higher secondaries like Haste or Mastery. I don’t think that we’ll see any tuning, our class has mostly been ignored and has run unchanged for a long time. Again: zero explanation from any Blizzard Developer.
Coffee Cakes and Crits 
Maybe by “see what happens” they are looking beyond what we currently have to the next tiers of Azerite gear in future patches. It has felt like many classes and specs are saying similar things about the early Azerite gear being quite meh.
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I really hope so. I know that new expansions can make us feel weak and that is by design, then two years later we are walking like gods over the content. I hope for things interesting most of all.
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Displacer Beast removal seems to be another “Whack! SLOW DOWN!” – move. But time will tell indeed. I hope gearing is less complex than it seems.
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I think that it will be simpler. They promised that ilevel with be the decider with our primary stat as most important. But, I can easily see having two pieces of the same ilevel that I swap because I invested traits for one thing (healing) and in another (questing) and needing to carry full sets of extra gear in my bags. Yikes!
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Aha, ok, I see. Time will tell indeed then. Yikes! Time to clear bags!
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