Patch 4.1 Druid Changes and Resto Specs

Happy Patch Day everyone! 4.1 finally arrives this week! Be sure to open your launcher up early to download the patch and don't forget to update all of your addons.

The Resto Guide and Feral Guide are updated for 4.1, but I wanted to get this post up first for a nice summary of the changes as well as a look at the Resto talent tree changes.

Let's start by taking a look at the official patch notes for druids, before diving into some Resto spec options with the altered talent tree! Full patch notes can be seen on MMO-Champ here: Patch 4.1 Rise of the Zandalari Features.

• Lacerate bonus threat has been removed and replaced with increased initial damage done.

• Efflorescence has a new spell effect.

• Enrage no longer increases physical damage taken.

• Lifebloom's bloom effect has been reduced by 20%.

• Prowl has a new icon.

• Savage Defense has been redesigned slightly. Instead of a single charge absorption, it now places an absorption effect on the druid absorbing up to 35% of the druid's attack power (modified by mastery, if applicable) in damage and lasting 10 seconds. There are no longer any charges on the effect.

• Stampeding Roar's duration has been increased to 8 seconds, up from 6. The movement speed effect has been increased to 60%, up from 40% and is no longer cancelled by cancelling shapeshift form.

• Swipe (Bear) cooldown has been reduced to 3 seconds, down from 6, and is now on trainable at level 18 (training cost has been reduced). In addition, the bonus threat from this ability has been removed and replaced with increased damage done.

• Swipe (Cat) damage has been doubled.

• Thrash bonus threat has been removed and replaced with increased damage done.

• Druids now innately have 100% pushback protection from damage while channeling Tranquility.

Balance

• Starsurge damage has been reduced by 20%.

• Solar Beam is now more responsive when enemies move into or out of it.

Feral

• Berserk is no longer on the global cooldown.

• Feral Swiftness now also causes Dash and Stampeding Roar to have a 50/100% chance to instantly remove all movement impairing effects from the affected targets when used.

Restoration

• Gift of Nature (passive) also reduces Tranquility's cooldown by 2.5/5 minutes.

• Efflorescence has been redesigned. It creates a healing zone at the feet of a Swiftmend target, but this healing zone now restores health equal to 4/8/12% of the amount healed by Swiftmend to the three most injured targets within 8 yards, every 1 second for 7 seconds. This periodic effect now also benefits from spell haste, but the individual ticks cannot be critical effects. In addition, Living Seed is no longer a prerequisite talent for Efflorescence.

• Malfurion's Gift now reduces the cooldown of Tranquility by 2.5/5 minutes.

• Nature's Swiftness now also increases the healing done by the affected nature spell by 50%.

Glyphs

• Glyph of Rake is now Glyph of Pounce, which increases the range of Pounce by 3 yards.

Druid Bug Fixes

• The troll druid models for Flight Form and Swift Flight Form has slimmed down to be more in scale with other druid flight forms.

• Druids should no longer have UI issues after leaving a vehicle.

A lot of changes! I won't be going into detail on the Bear and Balance changes, though they've seen a few. Stampeding Roar has gotten a nice buff, with a longer duration and greater movement speed applied, however the range still hasn't been adjusted so that remains fairly small.

Feral cats see some nice new changes - Swipe damage has been doubled, making it much better for AoE attacks again (as opposed to tab-Raking, which had been a much more effective means of AoE for smaller add packs). Berserk is no longer on the global cooldown which is a very nice change. The talent Feral Swiftness has also been altered to allow Dash and Stampeding Roar to remove movement impairing effects, restoring some of the mobility to Ferals which was lost when shapeshifting was altered to no longer free you.

An important change for all druids too is that Tranquility now has 100% pushback protection - therefore it is no longer needed to pair Barkskin with the channel if you don't want to or can't without risking losing Tranquility ticks.

Image from Keeva's post on TreeBarkJacket: Efflorescence Graphic Changed

Resto sees several big changes in this patch. Efflorescence has a new spell effect (visible above) and has been redesigned - the healing is now 4/8/12% of the amount healed by Swiftmend to the three most injured targets within every second for 7 seconds, benefits from spell haste, but cannot crit.

Nature's Swiftness is also getting a slight buff, it now increases the healing done by the affected Nature spell used by 50%. When combined with Healing Touch, then, you'll see it heal for an additional 50%. This will hopefully make the spell more attractive for those who haven't taken it as well as a nice buff for those of us already using it.

One of the big changes coming to Resto is the reduced cooldown for Tranquility. Speccing into Malfurion's Gift will reduce Tranquility's cooldown to 3 minutes, bringing it in line with other raid cooldowns such as Power Word: Barrier and Divine Guardian. This looks set to make Tranquility the Resto druid's 'raid cooldown'. While I personally think a damage mitigation cooldown (or component) would have been a bit better (and also bring us in line with the other healers), this will undoubtedly still be a strong cooldown for Resto druids. Tranquility can be excellent and lifesaving in a fight and being able to use it multiple times per fight will be extremely helpful for Resto druids. This also gives us a bit more freedom with when we decide to use our Tranquility - often in a fight there are times you want to save the Tranq for a specific time, which may discourage one from popping it earlier when the raid may need it. The reduced cooldown will give us some more flexibility now in when and how often we use it. Combining Tranq with other raid cooldowns (especially, say, a Power Word: Barrier glyphed for increased healing received while under it) will also be extremely powerful measures for raids.

Resto Specs
The biggest change for Resto in this patch is to our talent tree, as Living Seed is finally unlinked from Efflorescence. This will theoretically free up a few points for many druids and also allow druids to take a full 3 points in Efflorescence (especially with its new effect) without being required to spend another 3 points just to get it. I had hoped that Living Seed itself would see a redesign, especially as many druids look set to drop it, but we'll have to wait on that point for now.

The big question now remains: Where do I put those spare points?

Regardless of where you decide to spend the points, two of those points will have to be within the first three tiers of the tree just to get you to the higher tiers - so you will be spending points in either Blessing of the Grove, Living Seed, or Perseverance. How you decide to spend them though will depend largely on what you're healing and your role. With this in mind, below are some sample specs you could try (for convenience sake, I have kept the Balance and Feral trees as 8/2, picking up mana saving talents):

All-around healing - 2 points in Blessing of the Grove, 1 point in Living Seed.

This is a pretty solid all around spec, picking up a point in Living Seed for its contribution to tank healing, 2 points in Blessing of the Grove for its contribution to raid healing. This spec also picks up Nature's Swiftness and, for those in need of a dispel, Nature's Cure.

Tank Healing - Picking up 3 points in Living Seed.

This spec continues to pick up 3 points in Living Seed for its contribution on dedicated tank healing, as well as picking up Nature's Swiftness.

Spell Damage - Taking points in Perseverance.

In this spec I've gone with the all-around spec, but moved the point in Nature's Cure over into Perseverance for the bit of reduced spell damage. A spec like this can be particularly nice for hard modes (particularly in 25 mans when dispels may be handled by other classes) to get that extra bit of damage reduction.

This last spec also starts to venture back into the other flexible points in the tree. Despite the buff to Nature's Swiftness, I imagine many may still shift that point elsewhere in the tree (particularly dedicated raid healers). Nature's Cure is also a potential candidate to move in situations (mostly 25 mans) where magic dispels are covered by other classes.

You can also pick up points in Nature's Bounty, such as in this spec:

Here I've combined the Rejuv boost in Blessing of the Grove, Swift Rejuvenation for the reduced Rejuv GCD, Gift of the Earthmother to help frontload those Rejuvs, and Nature's Bounty to reduce the Nourish cast times for spot healing on all those targets which have been Rejuved.

These samples give you an idea of the bit of extra flexibility we now have in the tree! As ever, much of your choices will come down to how you heal and your role in raids and 5 mans. You can also adjust the Balance and Feral trees as desired, though again, I've gone with the 8/2/31 basis with mana saving talents for simplicity and for broad use.

Tangedyn over at The Inconspicuous Bear made a very useful tool to help you decide where your talent points may be best spent based on each talents worth: Living Seed Replacement Talent. Simply by going through your Recount/Skada/World of Logs/etc healing percentage breakdown and looking at your points spent and raid buffed spell crit, his tool can help you evaluate where your free points would be best placed.


As ever, don't be afraid to play around with the different specs and see which ends up working best for you! While a treant is forever, a talent tree is as flexible as you need it!


Happy speccings!

Patch 4.1 on the PTR and some Kitty updates!

First off, I would be remiss if I didn't mention Patch 4.1 now being available on the PTR! You can see lots of updates on it at MMO-Champion, as well as the official Blue Post here. Lots of exciting stuff to come, including new heroic 5-man dungeons (a revamped Zul Gurub and Zul Aman) and possibly either some new raids (Firelands?) or at least a set-up for the new raids. So far the only big druid mention has been a short mention that the 'spell effect for Efflorescence has been changed'. It still seems to be a little unclear just what the change is - so far, reports are showing that it is primarily a graphics change, and we are now creating a green flowery rune rather than a bright green circle (which obscured many dangerous ground effects). Here's a little screenshot of it, courtesy of Keeva's TreeBarkJacket (Efflorescence Graphic Changed), who in turn found it on the Druid Forums I believe:

Actually looks pretty nice! Hopefully this will be visible enough that people will still be able to see it to run into, but shouldn't obscure any dangerous AE graphics in the process. Be sure to update your fellow raid and party members to its new look!


There has also been some discussion on Elitist Jerks over whether the heal itself has been revamped slightly to make it a smarter heal, but there's not much information yet, and it's all subject to a lot of change between now and when this patch goes live. There's some interesting discussion though, so to check it out go here: New Efflo Discussion.


In some other news, I've made some minor updates to the Feral guide to reflect some of the 4.0.6 changes. I'd in particular like to note Tangedyn taking over the guide on the WoW Druid Forums (Yawning apparently has stopped playing) - you can find his guide here. I've also updated the link within my guide.


Tangedyn also had an excellent post on The Inconspicuous Bear with good explanation of some of the feral cat changes with 4.0.6: Adapting your Cat for 4.0.6. 


There are four primary changes which he discusses:


1. Ferocious Bite is no longer high on our rotation priority list when the boss is above 25% HP. With the buffs to Shred in the patch, it's overall a higher DPS gain to continue shredding (even at 5 CP) rather than trying to work in Ferocious Bites, as this poses no risk of Savage Roar or Rip falling off. When the boss is below 25% HP, though, you should absolutely be using Ferocious Bite, as it will refresh your Rip with the talent Blood in the Water. This talent was also adjusted slightly in the patch so that FB will now instantly refresh Rip instead of refreshing after a slight delay (which it used to do), which sometimes resulted in Rip falling off.


2. With the above changes in mind, Glyph of Berserk is now our best glyph for the third glyph spot (over Savage Roar / Tiger's Fury), as the greater time in Berserk gives us more time to Shred. Glyphs of Rip and Shred should absolutely still be your other two glyphs.


3. Again taking into account the changes to Shred (and to Mangle) which increased our weapon damage contribution, and also the changes to the trinket Unheeded Warning which now increases your weapon damage, this trinket is now our BiS trinket by far.


4. A final point is the value of Haste for cats has increased some following the patch, putting it about equal with Crit, and both being a bit behind Mastery.




And finally, in some exciting news on the raiding front, we successfully took down Nefarian on Heroic mode this week!

Derwent, Blackwing's Bane!

This now takes us to 9/13 Heroic, with only Ascendant Council, Chogall, Sinestra, and Al'akir left! We've started work on Chogall now, with the hope that we will be able to take on Sinestra right after (bit unsure whether we need to kill AC before we can face Sinestra or not). Al'akir should fall not long after!


Also, Potion of Illusion + Sandstone Drake is just awesome:

User Interface and Power Auras Exports

I've had a few questions about my UI and which addons I use, so I thought I'd make a post for easy reference. I grabbed a still from my Maloriak video and a couple of other screenshots to mark up so it was clear which addons are doing what. I've listed them all below including links to their page on Curse.com. (Permanent page set up on the right-hand side links here.)

Addons

1. Vuhdo - Healing and Raid Frames
2. Power Auras Classic - Customisable notifier (de/buffs, spell CDs, procs, etc)
3. IceHUD - Customisable HUD
4. Parrot - Scrolling Combat Text
5. Deadly Boss Mods / DBM Spell Timers - Boss Encounters
6. Omen - Threat Meter
7. Recount - Damage Meter
8. SexyMap - Customisable MiniMap skins
9.  Quartz - Cast Bars
10. Chocolate Bar Broker Display - Bar for Broker Plugins

11. TipTac / TipTac Talents - Customisable ToolTips / Displays target's talents (0/0/0)
12. (not visible) oRA3 - Raid assist
13. Tidy Plates - Customisable Nameplates
14. (not visible) Simple Raid Target Icons - Quick customisable raid target marking

15. RoguePowerBars - Buff/Debuff tracker and timers

Power Auras Import Codes

For those of you using Power Auras Classic who would like to use my setup, I'll include the Power Auras import codes below. To set these up, all you have to do is bring up the Power Auras editor in-game by typing /powa. You can then import this setup directly by clicking the Import button and pasting the code in.

Resto Power Auras
Wild Growth cooldown

Version:4.9; icon:Ability_Druid_Flourish; buffname:Wild Growth; x:-45; customname:48438; bufftype:15; alpha:1; isResting:0; inVehicle:0; spec1:false; customtex:true; combat:true; size:0.15; y:-160; texmode:2; ismounted:0

Nature's Swiftness cooldown

Version:4.9; icon:Spell_Nature_RavenForm; buffname:Nature's Swiftness; x:45; customname:17116; bufftype:15; alpha:1; isResting:0; inVehicle:0; spec1:false; customtex:true; combat:true; size:0.15; y:-160; texmode:2; ismounted:0

Omen of Clarity proc w/ Timer

Version:4.9; icon:Spell_Shadow_ManaBurn; buffname:Clearcasting; customname:16870; alpha:1; isResting:0; inVehicle:0; customtex:true; combat:true; size:0.15; y:-160; texmode:2; ismounted:0; timer.h:2; timer.Texture:WhiteRabbit; timer.enabled:true; timer.cents:false; timer.Relative:CENTER; timer.Transparent:true

Tree of Life Timer - (Credit to Keeva at TreeBarkJacket for the base for this aura, from her Power Aura Exports post.)

Version:4.9; b:0.9765; icon:Ability_Druid_TreeofLife; buffname:Tree of Life; r:0.9922; customname:33891; alpha:0.2; isResting:0; inVehicle:0; exact:true; spec1:false; customtex:true; combat:true; size:0.15; y:-115; ismounted:0; anim2:1; finish:0; timer.h:2; timer.Texture:WhiteRabbit; timer.enabled:true; timer.cents:false; timer.Relative:CENTER

Power Torrent proc

Version:4.9; icon:Ability_Paladin_SacredCleansing; buffname:Power Torrent; texture:172; alpha:0.7; isResting:0; inVehicle:0; spec1:false; combat:true; size:0.49; y:-50; ismounted:0

Feral Power Auras
Tiger's Fury cooldown

Version:4.9; icon:Ability_Mount_JungleTiger; buffname:Tiger's Fury; x:-45; customname:5217; bufftype:15; alpha:1; isResting:0; inVehicle:0; spec2:false; customtex:true; combat:true; size:0.15; y:-160; texmode:2; ismounted:0

Berserk cooldown

Version:4.9; icon:Ability_Druid_Berserk; buffname:Berserk; x:45; customname:50334; bufftype:15; alpha:1; isResting:0; inVehicle:0; spec2:false; customtex:true; combat:true; size:0.15; y:-160; texmode:2; ismounted:0

Predator's Swiftness proc

Version:4.5; b:0.0588; g:0.0235; icon:Ability_Hunter_Pet_Cat; buffname:Predator's Swiftness; alpha:1; isResting:0; sound:11; wowtex:true; combat:true; size:0.75

You will likely need to do at least some minor tweaking to these Power Auras even if you don't want to adjust the size/positioning/etc. The biggest thing to note is these Power Auras are customised to my spec - the Resto ones only trigger for my Resto spec, which is my second spec. If you bring up the edit option, you will see the following:

This is the edit window for the Wild Growth cooldown. This one is set to trigger only when in combat. You can see at the bottom of the edit window that the box next to 'Spec 2' is ticked - this means this will only work in my secondary spec. If Resto is your main spec, simply tick Spec 1 instead of Spec 2 (or tick both if you have two Resto specs), and so on as needed for the other codes.

If you already have some Power Auras set up, it's a good idea to back up your current PowerAuras so that you don't lose any of your own settings. To do so, simply type /powa to bring up the PowA window and click 'Export Set'. Simply copy/paste the code into a text file and save it to your computer. Should you lose your Auras, you will be able to hit 'Import Set' and paste that saved text file in to get them all back.

Cataclysm Feral Druid Guide is up!

Just in time for Cataclysm launch, my Feral Druid Guide is up!
Link here: Cataclysm Feral Druid Guide!

As with my new Cata Resto Guide, the old Feral guide has been taken completely down in order to start fresh with the new guide for Cata.

I'll be updating the guide as new information comes in and with new patches and changes.

Enjoy the new guide, and enjoy the launch of Cataclysm!

The Shattering! 4.0.3a lands tomorrow

MMO-Champ is reporting that patch 4.0.3a is landing on live servers this week! We're only two weeks away from Cataclysm's launch (where did the time go??), and this patch will bring about all the landscape, zone and quest changes as well as new class/race combinations (though Worgen and Goblin characters are only available with Cataclysm). There will also no longer be portals in Dalaran or Shattrath, so I suggest resetting your hearthstones to places like Stormwind/Orgrimmar or else placing your toons at places with convenient transport to major cities (Valiance Keep and Warsong Hold in Borean Tundra are decent ideas, with transport direct to SW/Org).

For those in Stormwind, there will be a new auction house and bank in the Dwarven District (along with additional innkeepers), so you don't have to be stuck in the busy Trade District if you don't want to. I think there are similar changes in Orgrimmar, but I don't know the specific details.

There are a lot of Druid changes in this patch, which is basically just bringing us in line with Beta and ultimately Cataclysm.

• Bear Form now provides 10% bonus health, down from 20%.
• Nourish no longer consumes Omen of Clarity.
• Rejuvenation has had its mana cost increased by 30%.
• Soothe now has a 1.5-second cast time.
• Swipe (Cat Form) can now be used even if the druid does not have a primary target selected.
• Thorns: beginner tooltip revised to no longer imply the spell could be kept up at all times. In addition, Thorns damage has been reduced by 60%.

Feral

• Brutal Impact now increases the mana cost of spells on the victim by 5/10% for 10 seconds, down from 15/30%.
• Leader of the Pack now heals for 4%, down from 8%.
• Survival Instincts now provides 50% damage reduction, down from 60%, and its cooldown has been lowered from 5 minutes to 3 minutes.
• Swipe (Bear Form) damage has been reduced by 20%.
• Vengeance is no longer cleared on exiting Bear Form, and instead is cleared upon entering Cat Form.

Restoration

• Empowered Touch now procs from Healing Touch as well as Nourish.
• Heart of the Wild: the Bear Form Stamina bonus from this talent is now 2/4/6%, down from 3/7/10%.
• Malfurion's Gift no longer has Fury of Stormrage as a prerequisite talent.
• Natural Shapeshifter now also increases Tree of Life duration by 5/10 seconds.
• Revitalize is now a 2-point talent, down from 3. It provides a 20% chance to return 1/2% of the druid's total mana on periodic heals from Lifebloom or Rejuvenation. This effect cannot occur more than once every 12 seconds.
• Swift Rejuvenation is now a 1-point talent, down from 2. The global cooldown reduction this talent provides to Rejuvenation remains 0.5 seconds.
• Symbiosis: heal-over-time spells (Rejuvenation, Regrowth, Lifebloom) can no longer benefit from this Mastery merely by refreshing themselves. A different heal-over-time spell must be present.

Glyphs

• Glyph of Healing Touch now reduces the cooldown on Nature's Swiftness by 10 seconds after using Healing Touch, up from 5 seconds.
• Glyph of the Treant (new) allows druids to keep the original treant Tree of Life look... if they must. Must they?

Bug Fixes

• Blood in the Water now refreshes Rip to the correct value.
• Flight Form now properly appears in the trainer window before Expert Riding is learned.

A lot of changes in there. Some nerfs in there, but overall it's nothing too massive. You'll likely feel a bit of a hit at level 80, but at 85 things balance back out again. Not mentioned in there is also the change to Efflorescence, where it now has a diminished effect when healing more than 6 players at once. There's been some debate over just how this is working now (if it's healing 6 for full and less for the additional people in, if it's healing only 6, if it's healing everyone stood in for less... etc) and, as far as I'm aware, no official confirmation/clarification yet on it (someone let me know please if you've seen something). I'd like to state, though, this is NOT restricted to Druids - ALL healing classes are having their AE spells reduced in exactly the same way. Shammy Healing Rain, Priest Holy Word: Sanctuary, and Holy Radiance all have the same changes. So don't panic!

There are some nice changes for the Resto talent tree with this patch which finally bring us in line with Beta. Empowered Touch now allows both Nourish and Healing Touch to refresh Lifebloom stacks, which is an excellent change. Revitalize is now a 2-point talent, which is nice as it frees up a talent point to put elsewhere and, in a similar vein, Swift Rejuvenation is now only a 1-point talent. Another very nice change is Malfurion's Gift no longer requires Fury of Stormrage, so if you either cannot afford the points or simply don't wish to spec it, you can still pick up Malfurion's Gift.

With those changes in mind, I suggest picking up the following spec at level 80, which should carry you nicely into levelling from 80-85 in Cata 2/0/34.

Largely this is picking up Malfurion's Gift, though if you don't feel you need the extra Omen of Clarity proc chance at 80, you can opt to put one or no points into this talent. I opted for Malfurion's Gift over Blessing of the Grove for both 80 and eventual 85 spec. OoC with Regrowths (especially when in ToL form using instant-regrowths and being able to cast Lifeblooms on multiple targets) will be extremely helpful for mana management both now and especially at 85. Though, you can move points into there if you like, especially at 80 where Rejuv-spamming is still doable with little mana consequence. If you're having mana problems or simply want a larger mana pool you can still move some points over into Furor as well.

ETA: I've updated my Resto guide to include the above 4.0.3a changes: Resto Guide.

The Feral tree is largely unchanged. For kitty I suggest sticking with the 0/33/3 spec, as this picks up the max DPS talents as well as some nice survivability talents.

This can be a nice spec to begin the levelling process at 80 as well, as picking up Thick Hide will make you uncrittable. Brutal Impact is a very useful talent but will likely be less useful while levelling, and you can easily pop two points in there as you hit 81 and 82. The point in Survival Instincts could be moved around as well, I personally like it for emergencies, especially if I ended up pulling too many mobs.

It also looks like the new Tree of Life model will be coming with 4.0.3a (much to my dismay), but the Glyph of the Treant should be available if you want to keep your old Tree-form. I'll be hunting down an Inscriptionist to get that made! I'm hoping it's just trainable at the Inscriptionist trainers.

Otherwise, enjoy the last moments of the old world! Grab any last screenshots, head through any last ZG runs (no raptor for me!), take a stroll through the Park in Stormwind one last time, and so forth!

Cataclysm Faction Rep Guide for Resto and Feral Druids

By the way - Druid Tier 11 looks amazing on Beta.

There are plenty of new factions in Cataclysm, all with useful items for Resto and Feral druids available from their quartermasters with rep. I still need to go through more of the items from dungeons and heroics to see the full extent of items available and start building early BiS lists, however, this should give you a good idea of what's available through rep and which reps you'll need to work on as you level up. I'm also including the faction items available before level 85, as you will likely find them useful while leveling and first encountering heroics while you work on getting more upgrades. All factions have tabards which will raise your reputation with that faction in Level 85 dungeons.

Firstly, your helm and shoulder enchant reps! Regardless of what gear you have or how you obtain it, you will need these enchants. It appears the helm enchants are still Account-bound, but not the Shoulder enchants.

Helm Enchants
Resto:
-Arcanum of Hyjal - 60 Intellect / 35 Crit
Requires: Guardians of Hyjal - Revered

Feral(cat):
-Arcanum of the Ramkahen - 60 Agility / 35 Haste
Requires: Ramkahen - Revered


Shoulder Enchants - Therazane (Deepholm)
All shoulder enchants are available with Therazane rep. You begin hated with Therazane and completion of the full questline in Deepholm should bring you to Honoured with Therazane. Dailies or wearing their Tabard will get you to Exalted.

Resto:
-Lesser Inscription of Charged Lodestone - 30 Intellect / 20 Haste - Honoured
-Greater Inscription of Charged Lodestone - 50 Intellect / 25 Haste - Exalted

Feral:
-Lesser Inscription of Shattered Crystal - 30 Agility / 20 Mastery - Honoured
-Greater Inscription of Shattered Crystal - 50 Agility / 25 Mastery - Exalted

Onto the individual faction items!

I'll organise this as Factions - Spec - Items. For Resto items, I'm listing both items with Spirit and without, as both are viable, though in some cases items with Spirit may be preferred for mana regen. I have not listed any caster items with +hit or damaging spell procs.

Each item is listed as follows:
Name - iLvl - Level Required - Rep Required - Item Slot - Item Stats

Guardians of Hyjal (Mount Hyjal)
Resto:
-Cloak of the Dryads - 333 - 83 - Honoured - Back - Intellect / Spirit / Mastery
-Thousand Bandage Drape - 325 - 84 - Honoured - Back - Intellect / Spirit / Mastery
-Aessina-Blessed Gloves - 346 - 85 - Revered - Intellect / Haste / Mastery

Feral:
-Sly Fox Jerkin - 333 - 83 - Honoured - Chest - Agility / Crit / Mastery
-Acorn of the Daughter Tree - 346 - 85 - Revered - Neck - Agility / Crit / Haste
-Nightrend Choker - 333 - 85 - Revered - Neck - Agility / Crit / Haste


Ramkahen (Uldum)
Resto:
-Ammunae's Blessing - 333 - 83 - Honoured - Finger - Intellect / Spirit / Mastery

Feral:
-Quicksand Belt - 346 - 85 - Revered - Waist - Agility / Hit / Crit

Misc:
-Reins of the Brown Riding Camel - Exalted
-Reins of the Tan Riding Camel - Exalted


The Earthen Ring (Vashj'ir)
Resto:
-Pendant of Elemental Balance - 333 - 83 - Honoured - Neck - Intellect / Spirit / Mastery
-Cloak of Ancient Wisdom - 346 - 85 - Revered - Back - Intellect / Crit / Haste
-Leggings of Clutching Roots - 346 - 85 - Revered - Legs - Intellect / Spirit / Crit

Feral:
-Softwind Cape - 346 - 85 - Revered - Back - Agility / Hit / Haste
-Signet of the Elder Council - 359 - 85 - Exalted - Finger - Agility / Haste / Mastery


Wildhammer Clan (Twilight Highlands)
Resto:
-Mantle of Wild Feathers - 333 - 83 - Honoured - Shoulder - Intellect / Spirit / Haste
-Belt of the Untamed - 359 - 85 - Exalted - Waist - Intellect / Spirit / Haste
-Lightning Flash Pendant - 359 - 85 - Exalted - Neck - Intellect / Crit / Mastery

Feral:
-Swiftflight Leggings - 333 - 83 - Honoured - Legs - Agility / Crit / Haste
-Stormbolt Gloves - 359 - 85 - Exalted - Hands - Agility / Crit / Haste


Baradin's Wardens (Tol Barad)
Resto:
-Insidious Staff - 346 - 85 - Revered - Staff - Intellect / Haste / Spellpower / Mastery
-Shimmering Morningstar - 346 - 85 - Revered - Main Hand - Intellect / Spirit / Crit / Spellpower
-Mandala of Stirring Patterns - 359 - 85 - Exalted - Trinket - Spirit / Mastery Proc

Feral:
-Spear of Trailing Shadows - 346 - 85 - Revered - Polearm - Agility / Hit / Haste
-Unsolvable Riddle - 359 - 85 - Exalted - Trinket - Mastery / Agility (use)

Misc:
-Reins of the Drake of the West Wind - Exalted
-Reins of the Spectral Steed - Exalted


Justice Point Vendors
There are also many items available to purchase with Justice Points. This is why it will be very helpful to cap your Justice Points on your toons before Cataclysm launches (the cap is currently at 4000JP) - you will be able to buy 1-2 pieces of blue 85 (iLvl 346) gear from the Justice Point vendors if you have 4000JP saved. You'll be able to earn more Justice Points at 85 in the heroic dungeons.

Resto:
-Cluster of Stars - 2200JP - 346 - 85 - Helm - Intellect / Spirit / Haste
-Robes of Forgetfulness - 2200JP - 346 - 85 - Chest - Intellect / Spirit / Haste
-Somber Shawl - 1650JP - 346 - 85 - Shoulder - Intellect / Spirit / Mastery
-Blessed Hands of Elune - 1650JP - 346 - 85 - Hands - Intellect / Spirit / Crit
-Leggings of Late Blooms - 2200JP - 346 - 85 - Legs - Intellect / Haste / Mastery
-Apple-Bent Bough - 950JP - 346 - 85 - Offhand - Intellect / Spirit / Haste
-Celadon Pendant - 1250JP - 346 - 85 - Neck - Intellect / Spirit / Mastery
-Thatch Eave Vines - 1650JP - 346 - 85 - Waist - Intellect / Spirit / Haste

Feral:
-Mask of Vines - 2200JP - 346 - 85 - Helm - Agility / Crit / Haste
-Tunic of Sinking Envy - 2200JP - 346 - 85 - Chest - Agility / Crit / Hit
-Embrace of the Night - 1650JP - 346 - 85 - Shoulder - Agility / Crit / Hit
-Sticky Fingers - 1650JP - 346 - 85 - Hands - Agility / Haste / Mastery
-Leggings of the Burrowing Mole - 2200JP - 346 - 85 - Legs - Agility / Mastery / Expertise
-Amulet of Dull Dreaming - 1250JP - 346 - 85 - Neck - Agility / Crit / Haste
-Sash of Musing - 1650JP - 346 - 85 - Waist - Agility / Mastery / Expertise


There are also some crafted items which will be available:

Leatherworking
Resto:
-Chestguard of Nature's Fury - 359 - 85 - Chest - Intellect / Crit / Mastery
-Lightning Lash - 359 - 85 - Waist - Intellect / Spirit / Haste

Feral:
-Assassin's Chestplate - 359 - 85 - Chest - Agility / Hit / Crit
-Belt of Nefarious Whispers - 359 - 85 - Agility / Hit / Mastery
-Razor-Edged Cloak - 346 - 85 - Agility / Crit / Mastery

Jewelcrafting
Resto:
-Eye of Many Deaths - 346 - 85 - Neck - Intellect / Haste / Mastery
-Ring of Warring Elements - 346 - 85 - Finger - Intellect / Crit / Mastery

Feral:
-Band of Blades - 346 - 85 - Finger - Agility / Hit / Crit
-Elementium Destroyer's Ring - 346 - 85 - Finger - Agility / Crit / Mastery
-Brazen Elementium Medallion - 346 - 85 - Neck - Agility / Crit / Haste
-Entwined Elementium Choker - 346 - 85 - Neck - Agility / Crit / Haste


That's a pretty big list to be getting on with! There will also be some profession-specific pieces which you may be able to use, for example: Engineering; Agile Bio-Optic Killshades, Camouflage Bio-Optic Killshades. Alchemy; Lifebound Alchemist Stone. Etc!

I'll leave the list at that for now. Hopefully it will give you a better idea of where to look for upgrades and enchants and help you plan your levelling route to get as much rep as you can as you quest and level up.

Druid Healing and Kitty DPS 4.0.1, updates! and new tree form models!

UPDATE: I've completed the Restoration Druid Healing Guide for level 80 in 4.0.1, which you can find here: Full Guide: How to be a Tree! Resto Guide for 4.0.1 and Beyond!

The guide will again be updated when Cata hits to reflect changes for level 85, a full 85 spec, new gems and enchants, etc!

The old 3.3.5 Guide was removed, as was the placeholder in progress guide for 4.0.1, so be sure to update any bookmarks or links you may have.

The dust is starting to settle following the Patch. Lots of little (and big) bugs and issues which will hopefully be either hotfixed or, in the very least, will be addressed in upcoming patches.

The WoW Forums are often helpful both for reporting bugs and finding out more information about anything you may be experiencing. The Bug forum can be seen here (along with this helpful post on How to Write a Good Bug Report). Technical Support and Mac Tech Support are also very helpful (and there are some known crash issues with Macs with this patch). If you have a crash, ALWAYS send your error logs in to Blizz (a form should pop up automatically to do so), and you can also post your crashlogs on the forums as well (that's also much more helpful than just posting 'I crashed!!111').

Kitties should be feeling a lot better today! We had a blue post acknowledging the pretty major class imbalances at level 80, and we got a hotfix (along with other melee classes) boosting our damage!

Originally Posted by Ghostcrawler (Source)

We made many changes yesterday. A lot of these were bug fixes, and many bug fixes will affect damage one way or the other. So just because you don't see a specific change referenced below, doesn't mean it didn't change.

With that said, here are the specific changes we made in reference to my previous post:

1) We buffed the base points and coefficients of many  warrior dps abilities. We didn't do as much to tanking abilities.

We buffed the base points and coefficients of many  Ret abilities.

We buffed the base points and coefficients of many  Feral cat abilities.

Kitty DPS should be looking a lot better than it was a couple of days ago. A quick test on the dummy saw mine had jumped pretty substantially and was looking a lot more comparable to what it was before the patch, so good news there.

I wanted to do a couple of quick updates on Healing and Kitty DPS. I've been a bit slow in getting my fully updating my guides namely for things like the above - things are buggy and subject to change, and my own playing with specs and discussions with others will lead to some alterations in my suggestions in the guide. I will be getting the full guides up, ideally over the weekend, but wanted to clue everyone in to the delay!

Healing updates:


Reforging is your best friend! Given how high mana regen is for many at level 80, especially with ICC gear and the now very large mana pools, you will find that Reforging the Spirit on your gear will be incredibly helpful. The two stats you will likely want to Reforge your spirit to is Haste and Crit.

Haste: To get an extra tick on our Rejuvs (see this post on Type H for Heals for some good background on this), we need to hit a haste cap of 1015 haste now. Reforging will help you get there without forcing you to regem.

Crit: On pieces which already have Haste on, you can Reforge Spirit into Crit. As all of our HoTs can now Crit, it's great to pick up some extra Crit to help pack some more punch into our HoTs (especially now that they have reduced durations).

Gear: You may find yourself wanting to pick up some new pieces of gear as well (or swap out with ones in your bank). Thinking along the same lines as the reforging of Spirit above, gear that has Int/Haste/Crit on it (as opposed to Int/Spirit and Haste or Crit) may be a lot more valuable in boosting both your Haste and your Crit. An easy one to pick up (especially if you have a Boomkin offspec) is swapping out the Idol of the Black Willow with the Idol of the Lunar Eclipse. On similar lines, Blood Queen's Crimson Choker over Bone Sentinel's Amulet, etc.

Ultimately, swapping out pieces of gear like that and Reforging Spirit will depend some on just what you're doing in game, i.e. your gear levels, if you're doing 25 man raids or only 5 mans, etc. While the Reforging can be a bit expensive (my pieces seem to have usually run about 10g a pop to Reforge), you can return them to their original stats at no charge. Play around with your gear and stats and see what works for you, and keep an eye on your mana (and on your healing style - if all you're doing is spamming Regrowth nonstop (now a mana-expensive spell), you will likely drive yourself OoM quickly regardless of gear or mana pool).

If you are finding you are still having some mana issues, I recommend keeping the gear changes and changing your spec to maximize your mana pool. Heart of the Wild should definitely be picked up in any spec, as it is a straight boost to your Intellect, which will increase your spellpower as well as your mana pool. Revitalize is another excellent talent providing both more mana regen for us but also grants Replenishment for the party or raid.

The optional talent you can pick up is Furor in the Feral tree to help with your mana pool. Furor will give you 5%/10%/15% increase to your maximum mana. A note on Furor: This talent will increase your mana pool but NOT your Intellect - this means it will NOT increase your spellpower. It can provide a pretty massive increase to your Mana pool, though, which can be very helpful. Even just one point in here can be useful, and there is room to move 1-3 points out of the Resto tree into Furor.

With all that in mind: This is the following spec I'm currently testing out. I'll discuss after which points can be potentially moved around in both the Resto tree and into Furor.

The two in the Balance tree are in Nature's Majesty for the straight Crit increase. Again, with Crit affecting all of our HoTs now, these are a valuable two points to pick up.

This spec does not pick up Furor (I wanted to maximize my points in the Resto tree and test out my mana regen with the gear and Reforging changes before picking up that talent). The following points I think can potentially be moved around to go into Furor if you find you need it:

Nature's Cure: This talent is a very nice utility talent, but a potentially optional one. If your primary raiding is in 25 mans (and possibly 10 mans with a good group makeup), you may find you don't need this talent as the cleanse is provided by another class in the group. If it is, you can likely skip this talent (check with your Raid Leader if you're unsure). You may want to pick it up again once Cata launches, though, as I imagine it may be useful in 5 man dungeons while leveling or in Heroics.

Blessing of the Grove: The general consensus on this talent so far seems to be that it feels quite weak. I've kept it for the time being as I'd like to maximize my heals as much as I can, and also as I'm still feeling out just how Druid healing will be (namely, whether our focus will keep up with Raid healing as our primary role, or whether it will indeed shift to tank healing, as our tank healing tools have been improved immensely). Given Rejuv is both strong as an additional HoT on our Tanks (especially with our mastery) as well as on the raid, this may still be good to keep, but again, may be a point or two you can shift out.

Empowered Touch: I would only suggest taking points out of this talent if you are doing absolutely NO tank healing at all. Nourish got a bit of a nerf, really, so you may end up using Healing Touch more on tanks than Nourish (at least if you're healing larger hits), so the Lifebloom refresh may not be as useful. The straight boost to both Nourish and Healing Touch will be very helpful. Again, some of this will depend on healing dynamics at 80 - whether we're healing more on the raid, the tanks, and also the speed of hits and health pool sizes at 80. ETA: Starting to get some proper raids in (that aren't lagged or otherwise completely horrendous due to patch bugs), you WILL be using both Nourish and HT, especially while tank healing. Nourish was indeed nerfed a little (though largely too due to the Glyph of Nourish now removed from the game) but it is still a good heal and, with this talent, it will refresh the Lifebloom stack, which is great. I prefer to keep this talent.

Naturalist: Again, I would only suggest taking points out of this talent if you are doing absolutely NO tank healing at all / if you're not using Healing Touch or Nourish at all. I prefer to keep this talent.

Nature's Majesty: You could also move a point or two out of this talent in the Balance tree, especially if you have a significant amount of Crit from gear already, but it is a pretty easy straight 4% Crit boost to pick up, so I'd spec into it if possible.

For more information you can again see my post Healing at 80 in 4.0.1, and I'll have the guides properly updated soon. I'll go ahead and add some of this new info there as well in the meantime.


Kitty Updates:


I mostly wanted to do a quick update on Kitty DPS and I'll get into more of the nitty-gritty later. Again, Reforging will be your friend - with armour pen on gear changing to either haste or crit, you may find yourself having too much of one stat or another. As mentioned earlier, we've had our damage boosted in a recent hotfix, so you should see your overall output go up a lot too. Don't forget, hit buffs are gone, so if you haven't already, make sure you're hit capped. You may also need some more expertise, as we no longer have Primal Precision (which increased our expertise).

The following spec is the max dps spec, including some utility talents which there is room for which I'll cover.

Thick Hide: I personally like this talent for its utility - it's the bear tanking talent which will make us uncrittable. Useful, I think, for emergency tanking situations and to avoid getting completely demolished by stray adds you may pick up.

Survival Instincts: Similar to Thick Hide, this is a useful survivability talent. For the mere damage reduction, I'd suggest picking it up even if you don't get Thick Hide. It's still particularly useful for fights, especially like Pungent Blight on Festergut and similar moments. Both these talents can be picked up without sacrificing DPS.

Brutal Impact: This is a nice talent which puts our interrupt onto the same cooldown as Rogue/DK/Shaman interrupts. Even with the spec above, you will be able to pick up this talent by level 85. If you want to pick it up at 80, you can drop some points in Thick Hide or Survival Instincts to get it.

Nurturing Instinct: I tend to prefer this talent for PVP (to increase your healing spells on yourself and others and to increase heals done to you, making you a bit more useful and durable), but it can also be a nice utility talent, particularly with concern for preserving healer's mana in Cata. Certainly a talent you can take.

Infected Wounds: This talent will generally be picked up by Bears, or covered by similar talents for other tanks. Can be a useful utility talent to pick up, though, particularly if in groups or raids where another class isn't providing the debuff, or for questing/leveling to reduce some damage taken (though for questing/leveling, taking Thick Hide to become uncrittable may serve you better).

The Prime glyphs (Rip/Savage Roar/Shred) are still your three key glyphs to maximize DPS. There's a bit more flexibility for your Major glyphs. Feral Charge will be useful to work in more Charges and, consequently, more Ravages. Rebirth can be useful for utility, and Faerie Fire will just give you a bit of extra range. In my Minors, Dash is still helpful and Unburdened Rebirth crucial. I picked up Challenging Roar ONLY because I specced into Thick Hide for emergency tanking situations. You can swap that out.

ETA: I forgot to include this earlier, I made up a nice macro for our new Skull Bash ability which will allow you to have both abilities on the same binding/same spot on your action bar, and which one is available will be dependant on which stance (form) you're in.

#showtooltip
/cast [stance:1, nomod]Skull Bash;

/cast [stance:3, nomod]Skull Bash(Cat Form)

Again, you can see more information in my post on Kitty DPS at 80 in 4.0.1, and I'll be fully updating the kitty guide as well (it's in progress). The post also includes links to the new stat/gear analyzer Mew and an excellent post about kitty dps on the WoW Druid Forums.


I'll leave it there for now, plenty more updates and changes to come I'm sure!

I'll end with a glimpse at the new Tree form models, originally posted on MMO-Champion. These were data mined out of the latest beta update.

The forms are... interesting, at first glance. I'm undecided so far on my opinion of them, really - I've been way too distracted by both the talent/gear/etc issues following the patch as well as the technical issues, so I haven't really looked too thoroughly at them and formed a full opinion yet. I'll have to get a look at them in beta too. For those who are really concerned about them though (and it's possible the models will shift - I do not know if those are final models or not), there was the following blue post about ToL posted on MMO-Champ:

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. 

So it seems that the Tree of Life glyph is indeed in the works as a future glyph (not sure if it's also in that beta build or not), though rather than giving us a long lasting appearance (as opposed to the 30 second cooldown), it should just give us our Treant version of tree form back. Regardless, it's great to have that option, which I just may pick up, as I love our treant-version of Tree form.

That's all for now!

Kitty DPS at level 80 in 4.0.1

ETA: Additional post with some updates here!

Some quick news first, Cataclysm finally has an official release date of 7 December, 2010! Post here.

Also, as the game world (or at least specs et al) did not blow up this past Tuesday, Patch 4.0.1 is not yet live. It is most likely coming next Tuesday (12th), but I'm not promising anything! As ever, dates can change and nothing has been officially announced (as of this writing, at any rate).

Following my post on Druid healing in 4.0.1, I thought I'd spend some time on Feral DPS in 4.0.1.

Cats are getting a bit of a mixed bag in the upcoming patch and in Cataclysm. We have some nice new talents (even if 'NomNomNom' was retitled 'Blood in the Water', which makes it sound like it should boost our Seal-form dps I think!) which, while not really game changing, are still nice boosts. Those who have struggled with kitty dps in the past will find the buffs and debuffs a bit easier to maintain, while those who enjoy the complexities of kitty dps will be pleased to know that you still have to be sharp as ever to maintain them all. We have a new, reliable interrupt off the GCD for both cat and bear form (and new Brutal Impact which can reduce its cooldown, making it on par with other classes' interrupts). With the new armour specialisations, we shouldn't have other classes yoinking our BiS pieces (oh, the raging I've seen over Tossk's Maximized Wristguards when warriors have rolled on them in pugs....).

In fact, the only real downside for cats right now seems to be in terms of actual damage numbers. As is my understanding (and correct me if I'm wrong), warriors are in a similar position right now on Beta and PTR, and a lot of the issues seem to stem from the disappearance of armour penetration a a stat (as arpen was a massive boost to all physical damage classes). I could have sworn I saw a blue post mention in passing that the developers were aware that both warrior and feral damage was low and hadn't finished being tuned, but I can't for the life of me find that post again (if anyone has seen it and can source it for me, I would appreciate it). Because of that, do not quote me on it! But I'm hoping I did actually read it and didn't just imagine it in my hopes for a fix.

Just doing a straight comparison of simple DPS self-buffed on a dummy on live and on Beta, it seems like I've lost about 2k in straight DPS. (This is with the same gear BUT, some different stats due to the arpen gem change, and missing some talents because of the new level cap). That all being said, don't panic! Simple numbers aren't the end of the world and, especially with more testing on the PTR, Beta, and when patches and more go live, hopefully the numbers will be tuned up. Cat gameplay itself is not facing any drastic changes (and have some really nice alterations in my opinion), and changes in simple numbers (rather than entire abilities) are a lot easier to come about.

Also, do keep in mind, Blizzard is NOT trying to balance all the classes around level 80 at this patch - this is all in preparation for Cataclysm, and for ultimate balance at level 85. EVERY class is going to be out of sorts for a while, and damage roles in particular will have very prominent and easy-to-see changes just from watching the damage meters in fights. The change in level cap will also affect which points we can get - you will be 83 before you can get Master Shapeshifter, which means at minimum 4% less crit than you have currently.

On to how to prepare for patch 4.0.1!

For one, if you haven't already, stock up on some gems. You may want to check the currency converter on MMO-Champ to see just how many Justice Points your current Emblem stock will get you, but I might suggest to play it safe and pick up gems now with Emblems rather than waiting (as gem prices will be changing too). It's looking like the Honour Gem quartermasters are removed as well, so if you have spare honour lying around (gems are 10k each) you may like to pick up some with that too. I suggest picking these up before the patch day as I expect many people will be taking advantage of high demand following the patch, so AH prices will likely be high.

All Armour Penetration gems will be converting to Crit Rating gems in 4.0.1. They will also all become yellow. For cats, the best bet for gemming seems to be replacing those crit gems with Agility (Delicate Cardinal Ruby). While you theoretically could keep the crit gems, remember - Agility contributes both to your attack power in Cat Form and to your crit rating, and Agility will scale with Kings and Gift. Also - Hit gems are becoming blue gems in 4.0.1 (from yellow). Most cats need to gem for hit with ICC gear and you may find yourself losing some socket bonuses where you've placed Hit gems into yellow sockets. Socket bonuses are arguable but you may find you still wish to take them, in which case you may have to shuffle your hit gems around as well as your new Agility gems.

You may also need some new enchants, the first which springs to my mind is the Executioner enchant (which increases arpen on proc). Likely your best bets for a replacement enchant will be Mongoose or Massacre. 

As with Resto and Balance, I recommend stocking up on some glyphs pre-patch, as they will likely shoot up in price on the AH as well.

At level 80, I'm planning on using the following spec at level 80:

As mentioned earlier, we do not have enough points at level 80 to pick up Master Shapeshifter, so we will have a crit loss until at least level 83. A number of the new talents are boosting our buffs, debuffs and energy. Blood in the Water will be excellent towards the ends of fights - you won't have to worry as much about whether throwing in some Ferocious Bites will result in your Rip falling off. Endless Carnage is increasing Rake and Savage Roar durations. Predatory Strikes is increasing our Ravage damage and Stampede makes it easier to actually use Ravage in our rotations, particularly on movement fights. ETA: Playing around on Beta, I've also realised another great boost to Stampede - because we get 10 seconds to use Ravage, you can Feral Charge a target while stealthed, get off a Pounce while still stealthed to get that bleed up, and be able to pop Berserk and still have time to get that Ravage in before launching into your full rotation. With Predatory Strikes increasing Ravage crit chance on targets above 80% health, it's great to throw that into our opening attacks.

Primal Madness is a nice boost as well - increases our maximum energy by 20 during Savage Roar and Berserk. On top of that, haste will now feed our energy regen. I will say this - despite my actual numbers being lower, it was definitely a lot easier to keep all my buffs and debuffs up, and I found myself both having the time and the energy to work in Ferocious Bites a lot more frequently. The difference in energy does feel noticeable (to me at least!).

You can see as well; there are enough points for me to pick up Thick Hide (a Bear/tanking talent which makes me uncrittable) and Survival Instincts, a useful survivability tool. There are enough points remaining for me to pick up Master Shapeshifter and Brutal Impact at 85. 

Glyphs:

Prime: Rip; Savage Roar; Shred. These three glyphs are still as crucial as ever.

Major: I'm still undecided on Major glyphs. It seems like we have the potential to be flexible here (and even be able to pick up some Bear glyphs). Feral Charge seems like a potentially good glyph, particularly as it would allow us to work in more Ravages in a fight. Rebirth might be a nice utility glyph to have in raids, particularly to assist healers when you need to Battle Rez someone. The Major glyphs still feel quite open to me. I'd be interested in doing more detailed research on the Ferocious Bite glyph and in seeing some theorycrafting on it. Preventing it from converting extra energy into damage seems like a waste of extra dps, although perhaps it would have some use in keeping energy levels up. However, as I was not feeling energy starved on Beta, I don't really see an advantage to this glyph in a PVE context.

Minor: The only crucial Minor glyph is, as ever, Unburdened Rebirth. Glyph of Dash is still very useful. Challening Roar may be a nice glyph to have as feral (particularly if you pick up those Bear talents in your spec) for emergency tanking situations to keep adds off of healers. Your minors are pretty flexible though.

In terms of our actual rotation: Really, not much is changing in 4.0.1 and in Cataclysm (so far). The main difference will really be working in Ravage more into fights and likely using Ferocious Bite much more than we do currently (especially towards the ends of fights). (For more information on the actual rotation and maintaining our buffs and debuffs, check out my Kitty DPS guide).

Movement fights will offer the best use for Stampede/Ravage. Some examples in ICC when you can use Feral Charge (Cat) and throw in a Ravage!

- Marrowgar: Jumping to Bone Spikes or back to Marrowgar after a bonestorm.

- Lady Deathwhisper: Leaping to LDW between waves of adds, leaping to adds themselves, or leaping back to LDW after running away from ghosts.

- Gunship: Leaping onto the Battle Mage .

- Putricide: Leaping onto the green or orange goo or Professor Putricide.

- Rotface: Leaping back onto Rotface after Ooze Explosion.

- Princes: Leaping between the Princes on each target change.

- Blood Queen Lanathel: Leaping back to BQL after fear/BloodBolt Whirl.

- Dreamwalker: Leaping onto adds.

- Sindragosa: Leaping onto Frost Tombs or Sindragosa (though be careful of Tail Smash).

- Lich King: Leaping onto Raging Spirits; onto the Lich King when running back from dropping off a Necrotic Plague, back in after transitions or after dpsing valks.

You can also use Feral Charge to open fights - if you're running in and unable to start stealthed, you can cast a Faerie Fire on the run in then Feral Charge, hit a Ravage, then launch into your normal rotation. You also have 10 seconds to use Ravage in before you lose the proc, so you don't need to use it right away - you can refresh another debuff beforehand if needed or, as mentioned earlier, if you start and Charge stealthed, you can get your Pounce in beforehand.

In summation; mostly good changes in terms of talents for Cats. The patch will be a little trickier for dps in terms of rebalancing stats around, as the removal of arpen is very significant for us, affecting both our dps and our gear stats as they shift to accommodate the change. It's seeming like cat dps will be taking a hit in this patch (though we will see when it actually goes live), but hopefully this will be taken care of soon if it is a problem. Though also, do keep in mind, Blizzard is NOT trying to balance all the classes around level 80 at this patch - this is all in preparation for Cataclysm, and for ultimate balance at level 85. EVERY class is going to be out of sorts for a while, and damage roles in particular will have very prominent and easy-to-see changes just from watching the damage meters in fights. Again, don't panic! Have fun, check out the new talents, and play around with your gear and stats (reforge if you need to!) to see what works for you. With a quick glance at Toskk's DPS Gear Method, it does not yet seem to be updated for 4.0.1 (and I'm not positive if it will be - if anyone knows for sure, let me know). I'll be keeping an eye on that and similar sites, as they are all extremely helpful for balancing stats on gear for dps.

ETA: There is a successor to Tossk's DPS Gear Method called Mew. There's a nice write-up of the programme over at the Fluid Druid, which includes some screenshots as well as how it works. There's an online version of Mew here (requires java), a downloadable binary here, and a code developers can download here. Yawning of No Chicks Allowed developed it and also wrote up a very detailed guide to kitty dps which is up on the WoW forums here, definitely worth a look!

As with my Resto guide, I'll begin preparing a full Feral dps guide for 4.0 and Cataclysm. Again, it will be a work in progress, as changes are still coming in and will continue to do so at least until Cata's release, if not for some time after as well.

RAWR!