Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Yet another angry post from a disappointed ex-tree

I have a confession to make. A confession that probably will insult some of you. But the truth is that I hate night elfs.

I never realized it until today, when Blizzard snatched my treeform disguise, leaving me all but naked, staring in disbelief at my bouncing boobs from the outer space.

Suddenly it dawned upon me that this is how my resto druid will look from now on. Gone is the soulful, androgynous tree with the air of old wisdom and mystery. Instead I’m looking at a freaking bimbo with pointy ears and purple hair. Yak. A night elf. That’s what I am, that’s what I’ve been beneath the surface all this time wehen I thought I was a tree.

I hate my night elf form so much that I have to rail and shout about it in this unplanned for blog post, written on the fly in a state of rage. My excuse for defying my non-posting policy is that if I didn’t post, I’d probably smash something coming in my way.

The farewell procession
Just like Shintar, I participated in our realm farewell celebrations to the tree form last night. We did a beautiful slow procession through Dalaran at walk speed, lining up around Krasus landing and filling the air with a sparkling tranquillity rain. We danced and we cried. I believe most of us were tauren, but that didn’t matter. In the tree form we’re all brothers and sisters.

Today I woke up to see the next strike against us: the new tree forms displayed at MMO-Champion – so ugly that I don’t know what to say. They look very aggressive and extremely masculine. I can vividly imagine them in some kind of treeslapping melee fight. One commenter compared them to Quasimodo, adding “I’m a druid, not a hunchback football player”. And I can’t but agree.

Tree of life will be on a cooldown from now on. Well, they wouldn’t have needed tu put that restriction on us. The new form is so depressing that you’ll only shape into it reluctantly, in a case of emergency. Maybe that's why they're doing it. So we won't miss our tree form so badly.

Zelmaru at Murloc Parliament is taking the consequences, going cat on her druid rather than tree, since she can’t stand the changes.

For my own part I wouldn’t go that far, but it certainly feels as a setback and it will probably take me some time to get used to the changes.

Better in battlegrounds
The battlegrounds is a different case though. I’ve spent some time in those lately (shocking, isn’t it!), and noticed that the treeform isn’t optimal in that setting. You could as well run around yelling to everyone: “Look here! I am a healer! So you’d better take out me before anyone else! I’m even a bit bigger so you can target me more easily! Just come over and kill me!”

As a night elf I think it will be easier to find a good hidden spot to heal from without being noticed. Despite your purple hair and bouncing boobs. (By the way if you’re wondering where Blizzard found those breasts, a guildie provided me with a link to their source of inspiration. Can you blame me for thinking night elfs look stupid after seeing that?)

So for PvP purposes I can even I even welcome the changes to druids. But for anything else I mourn the day when they took away our treeform and replaced it with a temporary Quasimodo buff.

End of angry rant. Back to blogging slow mode. I promise.

46 comments:

Korenwolf said...

Ahh someone else who can't stand the nelf form, male or female. There's something about it which I just can't bring myself to like. Ok my preferred forms are dwarf & gnome, so I'm definitely in the "shorter the better" camp.

I had already decided that I will be changing my nelf to a worgen as soon as race changes are allowed, though I'm starting to think I'll keep the nelf as the "feral" druid and level the worgen as the "caster". Which will leave me short on the healing alt front for a while.

Damm you Blizz.

I'm willing to be sold on the new form, but it's going to take a good salesman (and I hate salesweasels, I'm in tech support), but at the moment it's too "solid" and "top heavy" for my liking.

Unknown said...

i actually LIKE the way the new treeforms look. i want to see them in motion, though.

that being said, i'm sad to see the old ones go. i wonder if anyone did a procession on my realm last night. if i had finished patching, i could've checked, but it took me so long that i just gave up and went to bed.
: (

Gronthe said...

@ Korenwolf: Whether a hunchback or boobs, NElf females are going to be top heavy.

Hideous new tree form indeed!

Ratshag said...

Me favorite tactic in BGs always been fer ta spot the healer, then make they's life miserable with stuns and interrupts. Back in TBC, primal mooncloth were what caught me eye first. In Wrash, is been treeforms. Guess I'll be lookin' fer some new easy-ta-spot sign of "I's a healer!" in Cata.

Dwism said...

This is not a legit complaint! Real resto druids do not have tree form. Only TBC and Wrath druids have tree form.
We are going back to the old country now, and you saplings need to get a grip.
Real healers do not hide behind wacky forms, they heal!! (also, roll dwarf druid, honestly!)

Anonymous said...

....I like Night Elves. >_>

Maybe it's just the fifteen-year-old in me, though.

Issy said...

I was just happy that my hairstyle will finally be seen after the amount of gold I've spent changing it :P

I felt a little tug when I saw Shintar's post, but on the whole I am just keen to embrace the changes.

Tesh said...

I play a Druid to use the forms. If I wanted a generic healer/caster/fighter, I'd have chosen one of those classes.

...but I'd still play Tauren. NElves are just... meh.

Unknown said...

"Messing with player models is always risky and we know the current Tree of Life model is one of those things that is either loved or hated. That is why, as promised, we are offering a minor glyph if you just prefer the older, treant-based, version of ToL."
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=27187854055&pageNo=1&sid=1

Anonymous said...

I am going to miss tree form and I don't even heal! I have a bear tank and lazer chicken. The biggest problem I have with this change is that it is the druid's signature. Bear form, flight form, the manatee, the cat(s), the lazer chicken, and and the Night elf???

I have to say I like many of the changes that were implemented but as the old saying goes: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

zetter said...

Personally I always wanted a dwarf druid but they got Shammys instead :(

Zetter

Tessy said...

Can't stand the tree form on my durid - it has always looked like overcooked broccoli to me. The new forms are not better though, they look slow and hideous indeed.

Kurnak said...

I always found druid forms had the disadvantage of making everybody too uniform. You couldn't tell at single glance if a cat, bear or tree had decent gear. Moonkins at least showed their weapon. When Blizz introduced the fur changes according to hair colour I felt it was a shame tree form didn't reflect the same change in the bark or leaves or moonkins were still showing the same feater/fur colour combo.
So I still don't know how to feel about losing the permanent tree form (haven't logged in yet, I want the full patch to be downloaded and the last 1,2 Gb is taking ages), I guess the best option would be to give some customization like the current temporal tree form with its different leaves colour and keep it permanent as it was.

Redbeard said...

I still have a hard time looking at the NE male. I may have a beard, but they look completely goofy on NEs.

The female NEs have been growing on me. (Okay, cut out the middle school snickering and double entendres.) The shape is okay, but come on; I know some guy came up with the chest bounce that they all do. And while I know that a large chest alone doesn't mean that it's impossible to perform athletic feats, let's just say that it's not typical, either.

What Larisa needs is a good old fashioned Tauren Druid.

Klepsacovic said...

I also hate night elves.

SpiritusRex said...

Grrrr.......no comment necessary regarding NElves, although I am sorry your tree form got borked.

I also happen to like the inspirational link for the boobies.

What? At my age you take whatever cheap, or expensive for that matter, thrills you can get.

Campitor said...

I like the new tree forms but I wish they would make it permanent instead of a temporary buff. Why should moonkins and ferals be the only ones to get a perma-form?

And yes, I hate the current tree form. It looks like a tree that is about to die of fungal rot. At least the new trees look robust.

Nils said...

Stop the nostalgia! - I actually like the new form. :)

For playing a Night elf - I agree with you: I also hate them.

But that's why my Druid is a Tauren ;)

Shintar said...

That new tree form looks like a dude with a beard and a huge afro! Embarrassing...

Fortunately I hate neither my tauren's nor my night elf druid's caster forms, but I am annoyed by the way Blizzard went about this change. It really felt like trees were singled out for no reason, since all the other specs were allowed to keep their permanent shifts.

Mari said...

Hope I'm not the only one who is actually HAPPY to see the treeform go away, I always thought it's kinda ugly, had too big lower jaw and looked like sadface. I'd also like to see my character with her face, hairstyle and gear, not something resembling level 5 mob.

I picked a Druid not because of forms, but because it's the only class that can perform all 4 roles, the only healer with stealth and the best healer while running (coupled with disc priest maybe). If Paladins were less boring when I started playing I might have considered choosing Paladin over Druid for my main.

Well, in Cata Paladins are getting more complicated, but Druids will heal without being shapeshifted all the time so I'm kinda motivated to still play my Druid, especially in Cata.

Also not racechanging to Worgen, I know so many players are itching to play Worgens in any form, but I'm not one of the werewolf lovers. :(

redcow said...

I'm definitely saddened by this change. Not having a signature permanent form to call my own definitely feels lonely in a sea of bears, cats, and moonkin. We even have forms for flying, traveling, and swimming, but our signature form for healing is now...ourselves? It seems pretty unfair to single out resto druids like this, and all of the arguments against ToL have yet to convince me the change should have taken place :(

Ngita said...

Ahh thanks Ben, yes I dislike the new form as well.

You call yourself a tree and dont have green hair? Sif. Perhaps its because my tree predates tree form but I happy that its not a perma form now. Druids have allways had great looking gear(outside t10), even the hats and it allways seemed such a waste to never see it.

Anonymous said...

Personally I like the new tree forms, but that being said, I'm a guy and I don't play a druid.

Really though, they look like they should start spouting beat poetry and organize anti-war campaigns any moment!

Lume said...

Just race change to worgen like I will! =)

Anonymous said...

I too have never liked the night elf look. However I never liked tree form either. It's probably the reason why I took so long to start healing on my druid.

Therefore I too am considering switching my nelf to worgen once they allow that in cata.

Jen said...

I love night elf females and I'm happy I get to see her more now... even though I did love my tree form and I do miss it. The new one is beyond ugly so I hope we're getting that new glyph soon!

Larísa said...

@Korenwolf: It’s very possible that I’ll turn my druid into a worgen as well tbh. It depends on how the female versions will develop. I haven’t liked them too much, they’re not wild enough in my opinion. But I hope they’re not done with them.

@Perlimar: the motion might change them a bit, but I’m suspicious. It boggles my mind why they had to look so masculine.

@Gronthe: It’s a bit strange tbh. You could as well think of the opposite. You’d expect a race being so close to the nature to have a more solid connection to Earth, being heavy at the bottom.
Although tbh I always pictured them as rather slender, striving to reach the sun and the stars. Reaching up in the air. That’s why the old trees are better. They could have stretched them up higher even more in my opinion.

@Ratshag: It’s YOU that is the guy ruining my BG experience!!!

@Dwism: With all the respect for our elders, I have no idea what you’re talking about old man. ;)

@Issy: I never bothered much about my NE looks since I didn’t expect to spend a lot of time looking at it. Now I suppose I’ll visit a hair dresser and see if I can come up with something better than my pony tail.

@Tesh: exactly. Now we’ll be like any shaman or lock or mage. One in the crowd. :(

@Ben: I had missed that so thank you for pointing it out! Made my day!

@Anonymous: And it seems so randomly and unfair. Why can cats remain cats and owls remain owls and bears remain bears why only the trees have to give up?

@Zetter: Eh… I can’t say that I think druid is fitting for a dwarf, as little as it would work for a gnome. But worgen seems natural.

@Tessy: I’ve never quite understood the broccoli analogy. To me the trees are … trees. Sure, they could be better than they are, but the new one is really horrid.

@Kurnak: I don’t know why, but I kind of enjoy the uniform aspect of druids and I’ve never felt that I’ve missed the armory. Sure you miss some individuality but on the other hand it gives… a feeling of belonging to a community. When I’m in a battleground I smile whenever I see a fellow tree on the opposite side. We may be fighting, but deep down we’re sisters and brothers. Thanks to your common form.

@Redbeard: Oh, don’t talk about the male. They’re far worse than the female imo. Stupid hair cuts, features I just don’t like. There’s something about them that doesn’t feel elfish at all. I prefer the blood elfs so much to the NEs, especially the male.

@SpiritusRex: Eh… you enjoyed that link? Hm… I don’t know if I’m glad or saddened. ;)

@Campitor: About to die of fungal rot? Noooo. It’s just old and wise!

@Nils: You… like it? Well what else can you expect from a tauren? ;)

@Shintar: Embarrassing is the word. But now that I’ve learned you can glyph it away, I’m not as upset as I was at first.

@Mari: I’m sure you’re not alone, although the majority that speaks up now has a different opinion. But I suppose that if you’re on the “winning” side you don’t feel the same urge to talk about it. For my own part worgen is definitely an option worth to consider.

@Redcow: Yep. It’s like a punishment. If it at least was the same to bears, owls and cats…

@Ngita: I never liked the colour of the green hair to be honest. But I didn’t pay much attention to the styling of my NE look since I wanted to be shapeshifted as much as possible. Now I’ll probably visit the barber for the first time and see if I can improve it a bit.

@Anonymous: Poetry? Nah. I think that’s the problem. They look more like they’re melee fighters than spellcasting healers.

@Lume: I might.

@Jen: well, at least we can enjoy our old forms as it is now. But the day the new forms get into the game I hope they bring us the glyphs at the same time.

Thogrum said...

As a dwarven warrior (of the fury variety)I like seeing a druid healer. I know one tick of a sweet HoT will be as good as a single heal from a priest or a pally, AND I can go get into trouble some more! (And my healers know I am often in THAT situation!)
As for the new models of the form, I definatly see a tinge of LotR's Ents....total fantasy fail. Ents are not druids. Ents are tree people. Druids are people so in tune with nature that they can take on it's forms to protect it and it's allies.
That said, I'd think twice before taking an axe to the new tree form in a BG...They look scary!
Oh, who am I kidding? I wouldn't think. I'd just charge. :)
Cheers!

Kaputt said...

That was the first time you promised us a rant,
and GAVE us a rant! :D

I didn`t expect that.
But I laughed. A lot. Was that your intention?

Please, do me the favor and read it out aloud to yourself. Just once.

:)

Kaputt

Kaputt again said...

By the way:

"New Tree of Life
Art is very subjective. We're very used to the phenomenon of half of a class loving say their tier set art and the other half thinking they are the worst thing ever.

Messing with player models is always risky and we know the current Tree of Life model is one of those things that is either loved or hated. That is why, as promised, we are offering a minor glyph if you just prefer the older, treant-based, version of ToL. " MMO-Champ


I love the new tree form, now I wanna play resto druid. Hated ugly and ridicoulus old form. That was not a tree, it was a bush.

Kaputt
out

Anonymous said...

You are not the target audience for those night elf organs. Other subscribers (that make up much bigger share of revenue) are interested in them though.

Tam said...

It seems to me the simplest solution to this is to become a cow ;)

Derrek said...

I actually enjoy the view of a night elf female model, maybe because I'm male... You rage because you don't like how pixels of a female model look in a computer game?? You're either intolerant/discriminatory or it's just subconscious envy, which is even worse. You make smart women, naturally born with big boobs, feel bad. Then, I guess you're one of those persons who wear tight turtle-necks in RL (don't take this literally). May I suggest that you go outside, walk in the park or talk to real people more?

Blogs written out of rage are always failures. Always.

zetter said...

@ Larisa dwaves not druidic!!!! What about Pikle the dwaven druid in Forgotten Realms hes a hero.

Zetter

Anonymous said...

I can live with the look of my male tauren, but I was also sad to lose my tree form. I didn't realize how sad until I hit the wrong key in a heroic and there it was (for a limited time of course). My heart sank. I want my funny tree back.

I don't know what to make of the new tree forms but I hope this glyph gives us the old tree form with the new one on cooldown.

Anonymous said...

@Derrek

WTS Fail troll.

Take your own advice. Pot meet kettle.

Rachel said...

I dunno...no offense intended to you at all, but as a woman who plays WoW, I don't mind the nelf models at all, or any of the models for that matter. I kind of want to feel sexy when I play a fantasy game.

As for the trees, I toooooootally agree. The old ones just looked wise and stoic, and the new ones look....almost aggressive. :<

Oestrus said...

Hey there, Larisa! Long time reader - first time commenter.

The changes to tree form, along with the sum of the other changes just proved too much to bear for me (no pun intended). I don't feel like a druid anymore and haven't for some time. You still seem like you do have some attachments to the toon, so you're not nearly at the point that many of us were already at.

I would second the suggestions of others to try for Worgen (as soon as the females get perfected and don't look like Amy Winehouse anymore) or possibly even Tauren. I adore my cow and I have gotten to enjoy how regal and proud they look, versus the uppity look of the Night Elf females.

Overall, do the class proud for those of us that which we could have stuck around and seen bigger things and just couldn't bring ourselves to endure such harsh and extreme changes to a class we once loved.

:)

Rhii said...

The new tree forms have *beards*. Lady druids everywhere are very disappointed.

Tal said...

I'm actually really glad they removed tree form - I hate looking like a broccoli. That might be 'cause I'm a Tauren and not a Night Elf, though.

As for BGs, I'm not sure it'll make that big of a difference. Restos will still be the only druid spec that doesn't have a specific form. On the other hand, this is a "nerf" to resto healers that were actually specced for PvP (no more talent to increase armor in tree form), which is a bit sad.

Dwism said...

@larisa talking to Derrek

Whoa, you go girl, and all that! Bout time you kicked some of the loud obnoxius drunken fraternity boys out of my.. ehh *your* nice inn.

Derrek; if you had read anything she has ever written before you would be embarrased to learn just how wrong you are.

Dhusque said...

Ah. So that'll be the ent of the line for the old tree form then?

Got to admit - I like the NE character models. All the bouncing and jiggling aside, they don't take up much screen real-estate unlike those hulking Tauren frames. Besides! Everyone who's anyone spends most of their time in kitty form anyway! ^_~

I'm not lovin' the new tree forms though... Blizz have clearly been hitting them with the ugly stick until it broke.

River said...

Druids upset they can be polymorphed now, and with talent polymorph if broken dazes you.

Unknown said...

@Larisa -> @Redbeard:
Regarding blood elf models, I like the overall look of both sexes, but I can't make myself play a male BE. The reason? That sideways jump thing. I just can't handle it :P

MB said...

Right on!

I also really disliked playing a NE. That bouncing just drove me nuts, it was so annoying. It's why I've never gotten beyond level 25 or so on any night elf character (of course, I last tried playing one a few years ago, so it took quite a bit longer to get to 25 than it does now!).

I giggled at the Katy Perry link. Amazing how much it does look like the night elf jiggling -- that never occurred to me when the (hilarious) skit aired on SNL last month but it's *perfect*!

Unknown said...

I've often wondered why they decided to make the druid resto form a tree and not a centaur hybrid closer to the look of Cenarius? That would seem to be a little closer to the lore, and maybe the humanoid half could show that person's gear?