Feedback on new Grace of the Land

[Gyromitre.2609]

Hello!

I don't post on this forum pretty much ever but I felt like dropping a word or two about the recent changes to Druid's alacrity.
I have been playing Druid in raid as a heal/tank for a year now, and I'm not so happy with the new direction for alacrity generation.
I don't believe I am the only unhappy one, but even if I was I'd feel like I should at least try and give my feedback.

To be succinct, I think the issue can be put into the following sentence:
> tying alacrity generation solely to Celestial Avatar makes the experience less interesting and less fun.
In my opinion, the pain points are:

1. Due to the way Alacrity is needed in raids (100% uptime on 5 people), you are basically forced into a very fixed rotation.
   This is true even with the changes, because you'd have to generate an unreasonable amount of alacrity for it not to be a problem.
   This change hurts reactivity, makes boon-giving feel more like a chore than it needs to be, and in general is a regression.
   Alacrity generation with Spirits was not more interesting of course, but it allowed the true healer role to be at the forefront of the Druid gameplay.
    
2. Due to the way Alacrity is generated, you either give Alacrity or you don't.
   While Druid is not the only one in this case, I feel it is worth mentioning that boons are more fun to provide when you have flexibility.
   In this regard, the changes to Scrapper are great: there are a lot of ways to generate Quickness, and switching utility skills depending of the fight feels fun and rewarding.
    
3. Due to the radius of Celestial Avatar skills, Alacrity generation is unpleasant and inconsistent.
   Some skills have 360 radius, some skills have 240. Celestial Avatar 5 is also impractical to use (I understand this is by design, but this does not help here).

In my opinion, the possible fixes are:

1. Add different ways to generate Alacrity, even if in complement of Celestial Avatar. 

• It could be through other boons.
  "When you or your pet grant Protection, also grant Alacrity to your target."
  Protection comes to mind for the elegance of trait synergy (Verdant Etching), but even Swiftness or Might could work here.
   
• It could be through beast skills, with an internal cooldown.
  "Beast skills grant Alacrity to allies around your beast and to allies around you."
  Not my favourite approach since it's very similar to Invigorating Bond, but it would also open the door to Beastmastery spec being useful for Druid.
   
• It could be through combo fields, just like with the new Scrapper.
  "Grant alacrity when you succesfully combo a field with a blast or a leap finisher."
  As I mentioned, I found that this approach really worked and made me consider skills and traits that I hadn't before.
  Blasts would work well with some of the new spirits, and obviously Staff 3 and Warhorn 5.

2. Make the Celestial Avatar skills have a consistent radius, and/or provide Alacrity around the Druid as well.
As I mentioned, 240 radius is an issue with boon generations, nothing really new here.
It's especially the case when they're skillshots. It's especially the case when they are long range heals that you are trying to apply to someone.

Finally I'll just clarify that this is not about power level (which is a very complicated/controversial issue) but simply about fun.
I believe Druid is fine, both healing and alacrity after the last patch. I just want to note that the change is, in my opinion, a step in the wrong direction.

Thank you for reading!

Gyro

Edited July 18, 2023 by Gyromitre.2609
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