But at least for me every druid i played with that was healing longer than just 10 raids or something didn't liked the treeform alot, including myself. I know the tree is an awesome healer in raids and from outside there is no reason to complain about but if u play a lot of druid u have the feeling ur just an hot machine for raids and as a single healer in dungeons for example it often is counterproductive due ur slowed all the time, switching costs mana and stopping mp5 reg when group is moving fast. Often u stop using it in such situations because the switching costs more mana than the tree buff benefits. Also the tree is ugly^^ The 2nd problem with it is if u don't have an superior tank in a Dungeon ur hots wont be enough to heal him so u need to switch off to use healing touch. It feels like u have an broken identity. Ur most effective way to heal is most time not rly useable and u have to make cuts when u heal alone. I know it works, but it don't feel good if ur "best" talent is a form that cutting off half of ur healing identity (being the healer with the biggest slowest direct heal in classic) . Or instead tree having a 3min cooldown talent "Blessing of Elune" that lowers mana cost of heals for 50% for 20 seconds like paladins had in wotlk would fit druid much better in my opinion. Another idea i had for 31 talent would be a Passive "Roots of Life" that giving willpower heal buff the tree is doing plus lowers your mana cost of hot healing spells for 20% after 2-3 seconds not moving your character. (would be graphically awesome if animation wise around your feet growing flowers and rose roots up your feet until full effect
)I'm aware if i don't like tree i can go moonglow build 24/0/27 (what i usually do) and i really love moonglow, but it has one BIG downside: ur not able to skill cast resistance for heals - ZERO. so if u get aggro as moonglow healer ur pretty much fucked and moonglow generating very high aggro. No other healing class having this problems. I played all heal classes in leveling AND with 60 and i can tell u that this puts u behind against all others in bad groups. Priest having 70% with 2 points AND fade+shield. Pala having 100% with conci and shield+plate. Shamans 70% and they are also more tanky. Druid zero or u go deep restro and we are back on the switching problem in dungeons (Sure u can say then just don't go tree, but whats the point of having 31 talent not using?) U could adress that with switching the postion of improved mark of the wild with nature's focus. So moonglow druid having weaker mark but can get their 70% . Another option would be to add healing touch to guidance of the dream. Yeh u have the barkskin, but it makes casting heals slower and we talking about emergency situations.
So u could keep Tree and buff moonglow or change tree form to something mana saving. I'd love to have more Druid player opinions on this. Because maybe lots of druids i never talked with love their tree form so it would be better to just give moonglow build cast interrupt avoidance.
I think most of ppl never played vanilla heal druid in a competive way so don't know the fact that it had the biggest direct heal of all heal classes with insane +heal effect due 3.5 cast time, so they think of it as pure hot machine. But in vanilla at least when i was playing it in 2005 in a progress guild on my server (place 2 of server) it was not just a meme healer like it was threaten in newer classic. I was an effective healer because i did MT moonglow heal with 2.5 procc or 3 secs big casts letting tank drop 3-5k health before healing (what later in the flash flash bam bam i need best heal log so i flash into others big heals to be place 1 era wasn't rly viable anymore due it will land in overheal^^ also kills got so fast that u can flash the whole fight without manaprobs in modern classic) .
Even back then competive good heal druid was a very rare thing, like i was the only one on the whole server... but still Healing touch is a very important identity to classic druid for me. That is why the tree form bothers me so much. And stuff like assenia's bloom on turtle for example was an awesome way to improve it for modern faster healing.
And i want to mention i really liked the spell "overgrowth" in Epoch where u put up 5x reju in a group with 1min cd and 2.5 casttime - Would be very cool as an follow up talent of Preservation.