Our old mastery had to do with our HoTs getting boosted on targets at lower health, which had various issues. Summed up here in a recent reply from GC:
Deep Healing Mastery
We like the shaman version. The druid one is problematic for a couple of reasons. Conceptually, a hot is often the last thing you think of putting on someone who is grievously wounded. Second, at the moment the bonus is only calculated on the initial application and not the ticks. If we can fix that problem, then the druid mastery would be better. It's also possible we'll just redesign it.
They ended up redesigning the mastery, so it now looks like this:
New Resto druid mastery: Increases the potency of your heals on targets upon which you have a hot.
It benefits both hots and direct heals equally while still supporting Resto being a healer that cares a lot about hots. It encourages layering different spells while disincentivizing Rejuv blanketing.
This looks a lot more positive and in good keeping with the druid's style of healing. This looks like it will encourage both use of our HoTs and our direct heals. In concept it's a lot like what Nourish is today, an ability that is boosted by the presence of HoTs, and this is looking like a nice progression upward from that.
A bit more information on the new mastery from GC:
Examples:
1) You cast Regrowth on someone who has a Rejuv = bonus healing.
2) You cast Nourish on someone who has a Lifebloom = bonus healing.
3) You Swiftmend a Rejuv = bonus healing.
4) You cast a Rejuv on someone who does not have a Regrowth, LB or WG on them = no bonus healing.
5) You cast Rejuv on someone who has a Rejuv = no bonus healing. (You merely refreshed Rejuv.)
6) You cast a Wild Growth = bonus healing on those with preexisting hots.
Rejuv, then LBx3. Rejuv falls off, and LBx3 is refreshed by Nourish. Will the LB ticks retain the mastery benefit?
Yes. There was a hot on the target, so Nourish benefits (from the mastery in addition to Nourish just working that way).
If someone gets low and they don't have a HoT on them already, are you really going to want to put on a HoT, THEN a heal? Probably not.
My impression is that some of you are going from the extreme of "Rejuv everyone in the raid" to "Rejuv nobody but the tank." The reality will probably be somewhere in the middle. Some targets will have hots on them and some won't. The more hots you can keep up, the better off you'll be, but you'll have to balance that against the mana cost of doing so. I don't think it's as simple as "always do X."
It looks like some positive news for Resto druids. Hopefully we'll see some changes in the Balance tree for resto in the next build as well.
In other news, some more of the pre-Cataclysm events are up on the PTR, so closing in again on patch 4.0 and the Cataclysm launch date. I wouldn't be too surprised to see 4.0 hit in the next 1-3 weeks. No word that I've seen so far on whether the Operation: Gnomeregan and Echo Isles events will be ending with that patch, but they'll likely not be around for too long, so if you still want to get those done, sooner is probably better!
Brewfest has also started up again, though there are no new achievements for this year. The new holiday boss LFG system is in place again to help you go defeat Coren Direbrew. You can queue up as often as you wish for a chance at the drops (same drops as last year, looks like), but you'll only get the goody bag once per day, which contains 2 Frost Badges and I think a chance at the mounts.
The Harvest Festival is also up for a few more days, including the Uther's Tribute quest, which I recommend checking out (particularly as the Plaguelands will be changing in Cata).
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