Druid Symbiosis Abilities and Spells Other Classes Get

Note: Last updated April 15, 2012.

Shadow Priests get Tranquility.

Healing Priests get… Entangling Roots?!

Since the level cap has been raised to level 87 on the beta, Druids now have access to their level 87 spell, Symbiosis. This is one of the more popular abilities in the game because it’s one of those things where every class has a vested interest in it.

What Druids get from Symbiosis

Guardian Feral Restoration Balance
Death Knight Bone Shield Death Coil Icebound Fortitude Anti-Magic Shell
Hunter Ice Trap Play Dead Deterrence Misdirection
Mage Mage Ward Frost Nova Ice Block Mirror Image
Paladin Consecration Divine Shield Cleanse Hammer of Justice
Priest Fear Ward Dispersion Leap of Faith Mass Dispel
Rogue Feint Redirect Evasion Cloak of Shadows
Shaman Lightning Shield Feral Spirit Spirit Walker’s Grace Purge
Warlock Life Tap Soul Swap Demonic Circle: Teleport Unending Resolve
Warrior Spell Reflection Shattering Blow Intimidating Roar Intervene
Monk TBD TBD TBD TBD

Sources and notes

1: WoWHead Mists of Pandaria Symbiosis Comments
2: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/4427534745
3: Owlkin | Symbiosis Results
4: http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/1103278-MoP-Symbiosis
5: http://www.wowheadnews.com/blog=202586/symbiosis-breakdown-what-abilities-it-brings-to-each-class 

I did my best to cross reference spells and abilities in the WoWHead Mists database. Certain spells that had key words like “Energy” instead of a different form of energy used naturally by the class and spec, “Druid” or included certain Druid abilities like Rip are almost guaranteed to be the Druid form. Another dead giveaway is the level when the ability is gained (it should say 87). However, Not every ability lists that. In the event of inconsistencies, I deferred to the MMO Champion list as it’s the most recently updated.

What you get from Symbiosis

Death Knight Blood Frost Unholy
Might of Ursoc Wild Mushroom: Plague Wild Mushroom: Plague
Hunter Marksman Beast Mastery Survival
Dash Dash Dash
Mage Frost Arcane Fire
Healing Touch Healing Touch Healing Touch
Paladin Protection Retribution Holy
Barkskin TBD Rebirth
Priest Shadow Holy Discipline
Tranquility Entangling Roots Entangling Roots
Rogue Assassination Subtlety Combat
Growl Growl Growl
Shaman Elemental Enhancement Restoration
Solar Beam Solar Beam Prowl
Warlock Demonology Destruction Affliction
Rejuvenation Rejuvenation Rejuvenation
Warrior Arms Fury Protection
Stampeding Shout Stampeding Shout Frenzied Regeneration
Monk Brewmaster Windwalker Mistweaver
Growl Savage Defense* TBD*

* Speculation based on tooltips. Savage Defense costs 3 Chi. Chi is Monk only energy.
Wrath is listed as a Symbiosis spell but is not attached to a class.

Reactions

I don’t even want to think about how they plan to balance this ability for arena usage. I wouldn’t be surprised if they just disable it entirely, but I’m sure they’ll give it a spirited attempt anyway. The main purpose of Symbiosis is to give classes and specs certain abilities that they otherwise wouldn’t have access to. Mages get a Heal, for example.

Shadow Priests with Tranquility is pretty darn nice. Part of me wishes Holy Priests had it, but the other (sane) part of me knows that if that were to happen, Priests would instantly jump to the top. Divine Hymn/Power Word: Barrier and a Tranquility would be blatantly overpowered.

Wasn’t expecting DPS Shaman to receive Solar Beam, but since they’re all with the elements and stuff, I can see why.

Restoration Druids receiving Leap of Faith? I guess it’s payback time Sad smile.

Curious with the Balance Druids receiving Mass Dispel. Though it could be used as a more offensive ability since you don’t really see Balance Druids whipping out debuff removals as much.

Feral Druids receiving Divine Shield from Paladins. Ho boy.

If you notice a spell that’s in the wrong spot or if an ability’s missed, let me know but make sure you toss in a source (Screenshow, WoWhead link, or something).

Let’s assume you’re a Druid in a raid group with every conceivable class and spec compositions (Let’s say science is thrown out the window and the raid limits are higher than 25). Who do you give Symbiosis to and why?

 

29 thoughts on “Druid Symbiosis Abilities and Spells Other Classes Get”

  1. I’m still stunned that tranquility is being given out.  That’s so blatantly overpowered compared to all the other abilities.  If your raid has a shadow priest, you get another raid wide cooldown for free, if not too bad.  Am I missing something?

    Reply
    • Divine Hymn is Holy only. Power Word: Barrier is Discipline only. They felt Shadow could use a cooldown just in case your raid didn’t have either of the healing priests. . 

    •  @mattuzzi An elemental & enhancement shamans get solar beam instead of a spirit link totem equivalent?  And what about ret pallies?  are they getting something to balance raid wall & aura mastery?  Seems very broken to me that they’re going to use a druid’s presence to balance a perceived imbalance between other classes, and to require one druid per class that is felt wanting?
       
      If every druid/shadow priest combo you bring to a raid yields you an extra tranquility, I’d fear the roster viability of other classes/specs.

    • Elemental and Enhancement Shaman never had a raid wide cooldown to begin with. I don’t think Ret Pallies either (not since Divine Sacrifice/Aura Mastery). Shadow Priests have historically had access to Divine Hymn and still do. They substituted 1 cooldown for a potential different one. 

    • Yeah, I guess but it still seems strange to me that the net effect of having a druid and shadow prient in the same raid is an extra raid cooldown vs all the other pretty situational abilities.  I look at symbiosis as the utility spell equivalent to the hunter pet buff, a kind of a catch all to add more flex in class makeup for various PvE encounter situations.
       
      What they have going for pretty much every other class combination kinda fits that bill, but while they’ve given everyone else a random tool, they’ve given the shadow priest combo a bulldozer.
       
      This looks not too different than the dark intent problem they ran into with shadow priests in this expansion.

  2. What am I missing that Bears get Life Tap from Locks? 
    And the image of Boomkin Intervening made me laugh.
    Plus Resto defensive cooldowns, huzzah! 
     
    I’m digging that there it looks like there won’t be a universal best answer since a bunch of random abilities will be situationally useful.

    Reply
  3. The order in which I would want them, this is obviously dependent on that situation: Warlock, Shaman, and DK’s. Some people are very up in arms about this ability I am very excited about it, and I look forward to figuring out how to use the abilities given to me in a raid situation.
    For the fun times I want to do priests. It’s payback time.
    Awkward question, do you have to get the other persons permission or will there be Symbiosis Rape?

    Reply
    •  @AunakaHeals The druid has complete control over the Symbiosis link. That means controlling who is linked, when they’re linked, and when they’re *not* linked. A druid can cancel the link at any time. While this spell will be a wonderful tool for raiding, PvP, or group content, it’s also susceptible to use as a griefing tool (read: Matt’s Lifegrip comment).As I’m currently unable to access the beta where I am, I can’t get in and test it yet. But once I can, I’ll be all over this.Who knows, I might be able find the time to throw another guest post at Matt about Symbiosis from a druid’s perspective. 🙂

    •  @AunakaHeals The druid has complete control over the Symbiosis link. That means controlling who is linked, when they’re linked, and when they’re *not* linked. A druid can cancel the link at any time. While this spell will be a wonderful tool for raiding, PvP, or group content, it’s also susceptible to use as a griefing tool (read: Matt’s Lifegrip comment).
       
      As I’m currently unable to access the beta where I am, I can’t get in and test it yet. But once I can, I’ll be all over this.
       
      Who knows, I might be able find the time to throw another guest post at Matt about Symbiosis from a druid’s perspective.

    • @AunakaHeals
      The druid has complete control over the Symbiosis link. That means controlling who is linked, when they’re linked, and when they’re *not* linked. A druid can cancel the link at any time. While this spell will be a wonderful tool for raiding, PvP, or group content, it’s also susceptible to being used as a griefing tool (read: Matt’s Lifegrip comment).
       
      As I’m currently unable to access the beta where I am, I can’t get in and test it yet. But once I can, I’ll be all over this.
       
      Who knows, I might be able find the time to throw another guest post at Matt about Symbiosis from a druid’s perspective.

  4. The first thing I’m doing is finding one of my raid’s priest and life gripping him! They used to place bets about who’ll be the first to need a grip on Spine heroic… and it’s payback time!

    Reply
  5. I think there’s been a lot of over-reaction to this really. For non-druids I don’t think it’s going to cause much of a balance issue. Maybe a couple of spells need to be tweaked for PvP (casters with heals). There aren’t any flat DPS increases which I think makes it work so well. You could argue that the DK one leads to a slight DPS increase, but my first reaction is that it won’t be all that much, and you’ll need to be a pretty good DK to take advantage of it. Otherwise, I reserve judgement on PvE until I see raid encounters. Maybe there’ll be periods of intense AoE healing where not much DPS happens, and you will actually want your shadow priest busting a tranq to help out the healers. Sure, there’s a lot to think about now, but I totally enjoy spending the time between raids trying to decide how to optimise my contribution. As for what druids are getting, I see a lot of cool utility. No more will I have to ask the priest to use Leap of Faith, by then it being too late.  My only real concern is what Guardian spec will get, since there’s so much mitigation and self healing – are they going to be inferior without symbiosis?

    Reply

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