New Druid Talent Trees in Mists of Pandaria (WoW 5.0)

Another Blizzcon has come and gone! I didn’t get to go in person but I watched the stream again this year. It was a lot of fun! The Q&As were pretty good as were the panels (I really enjoyed the art panel again this year), I even checked out some of the SC2 matches (hopefully I can learn something and try to get a bit better at it!). The Foo Fighters put on an awesome concert closing night! All in all a good time.

The next WoW expansion was announced, Mists of Pandaria, however I’m not going to go into that today as it would certainly take up an entire post! 

One thing that was definitely interesting was the new talent tree system! The new system sounds cool and potentially a lot more fun. One of the primary goals behind the revamp was to try to make talent trees more fun and customizable, which was the original intent behind the current format of them, however lead to the ‘cookie cutter’ builds which the devs aren’t too fond of. I’m sure even with the new system there’ll be setups that are more optimal for certain things, whether PVE, PVP, or certain encounters. It seems like  the abilities themselves will be a bit more fun though and a bit more mixed, so I think there will be some flexibility still there.

As is my understanding, the new talent trees will work as follows. You still select your specialisation (for Druids it would be Restoration, Balance, Feral (cat), and Feral (Guardian) - they officially split the bear and cat specs for 5.0). Choosing a specialisation will give you access to specific spells in addition to the core spells across all specs. They didn’t give too many examples of this sort of thing, but they did mention with the new cat and bear specs, a bear will not be able to use Shred or Rip, and a cat won’t be able to use Survival Instincts or Frenzied Regen. Based on this we can gather that certain abilities will only be available to certain specialisations. 

Talents, on the other hand, will be available to all specs. This is where you can customize now, and is potentially quite fun as it can give you access to abilities that before were only available to specific specs. You get a talent point every 15 levels, six in total, and you choose each tier from three options/abilities. If I remember right, you can’t do more than two in a row down one tree, so it encourages more mixing rather than just going straight down. 

It was suggested as well that changing talents will be easier to do than it is now and that you will be able to do so ‘out in the field’. If I’m understanding this correctly, you should be able to swap your talents while out in the world (out of combat, of course) without having to go back to your trainer, and it will be similar to the ease of swapping glyphs. It seems you still have to go back to your trainer if you want to do a full respec (to wipe your talents and specialisation if you were, say, changing from Feral to Balance). 

Enough preamble, let’s take a look at the proposed Druid talent tree! Keep in mind this may change a lot between now and 5.0 release. Thanks to MMO-Champion for the screenshots of the talents.

Tier 1: Feral Swiftness - Displacer Beast - Tireless Pursuit

This first set of talents is clearly about mobility. Displacer Beast is an interesting one, it’s kind of like a mix of Blink, Cloak of Shadows, and Vanish. The random direction aspect is a bit odd, and I wonder if that will stay in. It’s a pretty powerful ability, so the random direction may be to help downtune that a bit perhaps. My only concern would be, in a raiding context, the potential hazards of that - displacing into lava, a trap, a cleave, who knows! Tireless Pursuit sounds nice for escaping snares and roots, particularly with the speed boost to help you get farther away. Feline Swiftness is a nice straightforward speed boost, which I quite like.

Tier 2: Nature’s Swiftness - Renewal - Cenarion Ward

This tier is focussed more on healing abilities. Nature’s Swiftness is almost the same as its current implementation for Resto. In this version the spell cast is cost-free, which is nice. The most interesting change there though is popping NS makes the spell castable in any form. This could be a very nice talent for bears and cats, as using NS to battle rez someone would allow them to stay in form. This would be especially useful for bears as it can be so difficult to use a bear battle rez in PVE encounters. For cats and moonkin it will likely reduce the hit to their DPS from shifting forms to rez someone. 

Renewal is a straightforward talent, it’s exactly like the current Desperate Prayer for priests. 

Cenarion Ward is a bit odd. When I first glimpsed it I thought it was a shield of sorts, but that’s not what it is. Basically it seems a way of pre-HoTing - imagine placing this on the tank pre-pull, when he takes the first hit from the boss it will start healing as a 6 second HoT. Kind of underwhelming.

Nature’s Swiftness would probably be my pick in that set, especially for healing. CW doesn’t seem too great a healing ability. Renewal is a nice survivability talent, I’m not sure whether bears might prefer that or NS. NS would allow them to throw a Healing Touch or Regrowth on themself - Renewal would be a bigger heal but NS would let them cast BRs while tanking. 

Tier 3: Faerie Swarm - Mass Entanglement - Typhoon

Faerie Swarm is essentially an upgrade of Faerie Fire (which it appears we will still get, as this talent would replace FF if chosen). Pretty much just adds in a movement speed debuff. Mass Entanglement could be interesting for mass CC. Typhoon though I find the most fun out of the tree as it makes Typhoon available for all specs and usable in all forms.  As much as I dislike knockbacks (especially when I’m tanking), this seems like a fun thing to get. Admittedly I’m already planning on ways to annoy my tank friends by tree-phooning them while healing runs! It will be nice though for fights that require knockbacks for any druid to be able to pick it up instead of requiring they all go Moonkin.

Tier 4: Wild Charge - Incarnation - Force of Nature

Wild Charge gives a movement ability of some sort to each spec/form. Bear form is basically like current bear form, a charge which immobilizes the target and grants the bear 30% haste. Moonkin gets a sort of Disengage effect, allowing them to leap backward and gain Solar or Lunar energy. Caster form lets you fly to an ally’s position and the next healing spell cast costs no mana. 

Force of Nature seems like it could be fun - based on the tooltip, it seems you summon some treants to come help you deal damage or heal (and perhaps protect you while tanking?). I’ve always thought the idea of Resto summoning more treants to help them heal would be tremendously fun. I don’t think this talent will be feasible for Resto, though, which is sad. This is due to the last talent option:

Incarnation is both interesting and odd at the same time, and makes me wonder what their plans are for Resto. Essentially, Incarnation activates a sort of ‘super shapeshift form’. The two examples they gave were Feral, granting you use of abilities which normally require stealth, and Resto, granting the current Tree of Life cooldown abilities. This is what’s a bit odd. Based on the Wild Charge tooltip (non-shapeshifted Wild Charge giving a free healing spell), it seems as though they will continue to keep Resto as caster form rather than any return of Tree form. Basically Resto is required to take this talent, as the Tree of Life cooldown is such a significant cooldown for Resto. It certainly goes against the devs saying they want to provide more choice as, for Resto at least, there’s not much choice there. The other two talents do not seem anywhere near as valuable for healing as ToL (I’ve been working on a post that discusses all the valuable uses for the ToL cooldown). Gaining an extra Wild Growth target, being able to spread Lifebloom to multiple targets, and instant Regrowth casts are too important to bypass this talent. It’s an absolute must-have for Resto. 

Honestly I also find it a bit sad that, judging by the rest of the talent tree, a Resto druid may not get any tree form at all if, for whatever reason, they decide not to pick up that talent.

Tier 5: Demoralizing Roar - Ursol’s Vortex - Bear Hug

This is a new version of Demo Roar, as the current implementations of Demo Roar and Demo Shout will be gone in 5.0. Ursol’s Vortex seems fun, essentially an AE deathgrip. Bear Hug is mostly amusing for the name, should have some uses, likely more in PVP. 

Tier 6: Heart of the Wild - Master Shapeshifter - Disentanglement

The level 90 tier for the druid feels pretty lackluster. A lot of the other class level 90 talents were very interesting - Warriors could choose to get Bladestorm, Shockwave, or a new ability called Avatar. Rogues could pick up Shadowdance, Killing Spree, or Vendetta. Priests even had one called Void Shift that allows them to swap their health %age with a friendly target. Those all seem much more fun and interesting than the druid ones. 

The talents are focussed around shapeshifting and I suppose with emphasizing Hybrid roles. HotW cooldown would grant, for example, moonkins to generate Lunar or Solar power from healing spells, and would gain 50% of Intellect as Agility, etc. I suppose this may have use in PVP particularly for the druid really performing several roles (especially in, say, Arena, where they might have to off-heal, etc). I don’t see this being particularly useful in PVE though. It might be occasionally helpful perhaps in an emergency if, say, healers are down and a Boomkin needs to help heal some. It really doesn’t seem too exciting though.

Master Shapeshifter essentially gives you a stacking buff whenever you shapeshift which increases your melee or spell damage. Again, I don’t really see this being particularly useful, particularly in a PVE context. I can’t see many cats or boomkins shifting forms to throw out a random Moonfire/Rake/whatever.

Disentanglement seems a bit useful mostly for the heal. Removing roots is always nice but doesn’t seem particularly amazing (and is a bit disappointing that, not only will all specs have to talent that ability, it’s our level 90 ability). 

Overall though the 90 talents seem lackluster and, while perhaps trying to be ‘druid-y’ and ‘hybrid’, don’t really seem exciting or that useful.

There was also mention of a new druid healing spell that is basically a Resto version of Wild Mushrooms, where the Mushrooms heal instead of deal damage. Not too sure how I feel about that. I can see occasions where it might be useful, but it’s not particularly exciting, and will likely be pretty situational. Also assuming you have to plant the three mushrooms like Boomkins do, that’s another three globals spent not healing. It’s fine to plant pre-pull on a fight, but it’s just like the current Lifebloom 3stack tank-swapping issues at the moment. Three globals just to set up some healing, which obviously prevents you from doing any healing in those three globals. It seems like it will be clunky and inelegant and ultimately not too fun to use.

I’ll close with a sample talent tree which, in the above implementation of the talent tree, I would likely use for Resto. The talent tree is from Wowhead's sample MoP Talent Calculator.

Feline Swiftness for the general speed boost, which is always useful (and will likely allow a straight stat enchant to boots rather than requiring one with a speed increase). Nature’s Swiftness for the free instant spells, which I feel wins out for Resto - I’ve found NS to be way too valuable for me to really want to drop it, and Cenarion Ward seems lackluster as a simple HoT activated on damage as opposed to a normal HoT. Renewal would be nice for survivability, but I feel NS wins out for the Resto toolset.

Typhoon is mostly for the fun of grabbing it and useful for any additional fights which require knockbacks. Incarnation, as I mentioned above, is a must-have for Resto. Ursol’s Vortex I mostly grabbed for the fun of an AE deathgrip, though I don’t really see much use for any of those three talents for Resto in PVE. Lastly I grabbed Disentanglement, as the others don’t seem particularly useful for Resto (though also the tooltips shared by Blizz don’t describe much of the Resto benefits). Shapeshifting to get out of roots is useful and the heal when shapeshifting is nice for survivability.

Anyhow, I’ll wrap up there for now. Obviously this will likely undergo several changes before 5.0, hopefully it will be a lot more refined and improved by then. I look forward to playing with all of these in the Beta though! What are your impressions of the new talents? 

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!

I survived the Cataclysm!

Well, it's just over one week on now and yes, I am still alive! It's been an interesting and busy week. I was right in on the quick pursuit of level 85, followed immediately by heroics and, starting last Thursday, our first raids. We've already pushed to 7/12 (technically 8 with a 10s Chimaeron kill before the reset on Monday night), and back in again tonight. We should have an Ascendant Council kill with a bit better execution, and reports are Cho'gall has been easy on 25, so hopefully a kill on him right after.

Many have jumped in to the new Cataclysm dungeons and heroics. They're certainly quite different from the Wrath dungeons, and not just in the scenery! Trash hits hard and CC is almost a must on many mobs, and bosses have new and varied mechanics. Dungeons take time, require attention and awareness, and also a lot of patience. If you haven't been in them yet (especially in PuGs), be prepared for wipes and learning curves.

Don't be afraid to ask for CC! It can make a huge difference on how hard mobs end up beating on your tank and the group. Tanks too, don't be afraid to CC and set target orders, it helps a ton in controlling mobs.

DPS, be aware of how you can help your group out. I've added a new section in the Feral guide with some suggestions of how to help. Ferals have a great arsenal of off-heals which can help your healer, whether with a timely Tranquility or perhaps a Healing Touch with a Predator's Swiftness proc.

We do have some good CC as well as druids, whether it be simply rooting a target in place or perhaps a quick Cyclone on a target. The most useful CC in the Cataclysm content, though, is definitely Hibernate, which can sleep Dragonkin and Beasts.

Druids are looking alright so far at 85. Ferals, certainly, are doing some great damage (though there was a recent hotfix to stop Rake from benefitting twice from Mastery (source)). I can't decide so far whether Restos could do with a little boost or simply the healing classes are still a little off-balance. Pallies are still  a bit OP, though the recent hotfixes to them may help to bring them a bit more in-line with the other healers. The buffs to priests seems to have done them well too, at least for Holy priests, as they're doing pretty well now (especially after being quite low on beta). Druids and Shamans are looking quite equal, possibly a bit behind Holy priests though we'll see how it continues to play out as gear levels rise, more data gets out there, and as Blizz adjusts the balance more.

I've been trying to feel out just how aggressive with heals we can be given mana concerns, particularly on raid healing. Rejuv and Wild Growth are mana expensive but crucial on raid heals, so effective placement of those is important. Hopping into Tree of Life form to spread Lifeblooms out on the raid can also be effective as well as cheap in terms of mana, as well as providing more chances to proc Omen of Clarity with Malfurion's Gift. Wild Growth could use a bit of a boost, I think, to put it more on par with priest's Prayer of Healing and Circle of Healing abilities. Our tank healing tools are pretty strong and, with Empowered Touch, you can actually maintain Lifebloom on more than one target outside of ToL. Check out the Resto Guide for a full description on it, but essentially; if you go into ToL form, stack Lifebloom on two (or more) targets, you can then maintain the additional stacks through the Empowered Touch talent. By healing the additional targets with Nourish or Healing Touch, those spells will refresh the Lifebloom stacks, even outside of ToL form! So it's very feasible (and, if primarily tank healing, recommended) to keep LB stacks rolling on two tanks.

Lifebloom should always be up on a target, whether you're tank healing or raid healing. It's generally best used on the tank, but don't be afraid to throw it on another target or even yourself if needed. It increases our chance to proc Omen of Clarity if you've picked up Malfurion's Gift, provides Replenishment and mana regen with Revitalize, and is a nice strong heal. Be aware too of when it would be better to refresh a Lifebloom stack or let it bloom - a 3-stack can provide a really big heal if allowed to bloom (I've seen it crit for 30k+).

As awesome as some of the new ground effects look, I must admit they can get to be a bit of a mess and can really obscure some key mechanics in fights that are signified by yet more ground effects. Melee in particular tend to get tons of the new AE heals on their pile, making it difficult to see things like the magma pillar on Magmaw, or even distinguishing between the fire strikes by the fire elementals in Bastion of Twilight (they look just like the priest's AE heal but with a bit of a red tinge to it).

I've been debating some specs and gemming choices in raids. Intellect is definitely the best stat for Druids as it increases our spellpower, mana pool, regen, and spell crit, but, mana regen is still low, especially at entry gear levels, so Spirit is valuable. Gear, definitely, should have spirit on, and if it doesn't, I highly recommend reforging it on (Crit and Mastery are good stats to reduce to turn into Spirit - I don't recommend turning Haste into Spirit as Haste is also an excellent stat for us to push those HoT tick break points). I've been gemming a mix so far of Intellect, Spirit, and Haste. I've also picked up the following spec to reduce mana costs (with 3/3 in Moonglow) and increase mana pool a bit more (with 2/3 Furor). The points I sacrificed to get those two talents were 2 points out of Nature's Bounty. I did this largely due to Regrowth's high mana cost - because it is such an expensive spell, I'm not using Regrowth constantly, so the increased crit chance isn't such a big loss.

A quick note for gear: With the new enchant for Off-hands (+100 Int), a Main Hand + Off-hand pairing is generally stronger than using a 2-hander. That 100 Int is a big boost to our mana and spellpower.

I'll try to get some more updates up soon, along with some info on gear (particularly what pieces to be looking out for in raids and heroics). But I'm balancing this with still being busy in-game and the usual real-life goings on, so apologies in advance if some of the newer posts are a bit slow in rolling out! I am always updating my Resto and Feral guides, though, so do keep an eye on those, and feel free to get in touch with any questions or comments!

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!

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!

Druid healing at level 80 in Patch 4.0.1

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.

With Patch 4.0.1 just around the corner, I thought I’d touch upon preparations for the patch and raiding at 80 with the new specs.

I recommend stocking up on some gems and glyphs if you can, especially as I imagine many may have their prices gouged on the AH. The changeover from Emblems to Justice Points may not work out favourably as well - I’ve been preempting the change buy purchasing gems with emblems rather than waiting. 

Resto and Balance gems will likely not need too much changing, if any. All gems with Spellpower (Runed, Reckless, etc) will have the spellpower change to intellect. Feral gems will see more of a change - all of your Armour Pen gems will be changing to Crit (likely due to going to either Agility or Strength would be a problem for some classes). I’ve been stocking up on Rubies to resocket all of the Crit gems to Agility.

The new glyph system will be excellent, particularly if you are often respeccing your trees, as you will now learn glyphs once and they will remain in your spellbook. Many glyphs are simply changing in function and so it appears that you will be able to buy the current glyph now, and it will change along with the patch. I’ve been picking up as many glyphs as possible to have them on hand and ready for the patch.

Raiding as Resto in 4.0.1

I am planning on healing with the following spec at level 80 until Cataclysm hits:

I have opted for 3 points in Heart of the Wild for the Intellect (and consequent Spellpower) boost and have not placed any points into Nature’s Grace, as the additional haste will likely not be necessary if already haste-capped at level 80. Depending on the speed of damage incoming with the increased healthpools in the patch, I may consider moving points into Nature’s Torment to reduce the cast times on Nourish and Healing Touch. 

What will be most key is finding which spec works best for you, your gear, and the content you are working on. For raiding at level 80, I prefer the spec above to maximize spellpower and heals and also to provide some raid utility (by taking Revitalize to provide replenishment).

If you have been using the 18/0/53 Resto spec to pick up the haste from Celestial Focus, you may find you need to regem for Haste (or take Nature’s Grace) in order to help lift you back closer to the cap. Keep in mind the Nature’s Grace effect is a proc with a one-minute cooldown.

A note on haste: At level 80, you'll need 1015 haste to have enough in order to gain an extra Rejuv tick with the new hasted HoTs. Reforging will likely be very helpful in this. With mana pools increasing so much due to all our spellpower gems turning to intellect, regen will likely not be a huge issue, so Spirit is a potentially good stat to reforge into Haste and into Crit (especially as HoTs will also be able to crit). With the change to Tree of Life, spirit will no longer be feeding into our spellpower, so it's not as large a loss as it may have been in 3.3.5.


I will be using the following glyphs:

Prime: Lifebloom (increased crit chance); Swiftmend (unchanged); Rejuvenation (increases the healing of your Rejuvenation by 10%).

Major: Wild Growth (unchanged); Rebirth (unchanged); Healing Touch (when HT is used, the cooldown of Nature’s Swiftness is reduced by 5 sec).

Minor: Wild (unchanged); Unburdened Rebirth (unchanged); Dash (unchanged).

I’m very keen on the new setup as it gives room for some of the crucial glyphs (Swiftmend, Unburdened Rebirth) as well as glyphs which are useful but wasted glyph spots in 3.5 (Rebirth, for example).

As far as healing goes: You will definitely find yourself using all of your spells, and I highly recommend trying it out on live currently if you are not used to using them. 

Rejuvenation and Wild Growth will both be important in 4.0, but will be changing and will be best mixed in with all of your other spells. Preemptively blanketing a raid with Rejuvs simply will not work in 4.0. The duration of Rejuvenation is decreased, as well as the duration of the Regrowth HoT, so you will likely simply spam yourself OoM very quickly if you attempt to just cover the entire raid with Rejuvs. The cooldown on Wild Growth has also been increased to 10 seconds. You will still be doing some preemptive hotting, but it will need to be much more strategic and careful rather than mindless spamming. Wild Growth as well will still be a crucial heal, but with a greater cooldown and increased mana cost, you will not be able to do the 5 rejuvs/WG method in 4.0. 

Lifebloom will play an interesting new role. It will likely only be up on your tank, and its interaction with Nourish refreshing the stacks makes for a strong tank healing tool. Our new mastery where the presence of a HoT on a target boosts your heals on the target (similar to how Nourish works) will be really excellent both on tanks and on the raid. Lifebloom NO LONGER returns some of the mana cost, and Omen of Clarity has been changed so that it only removes the mana cost from cast-time spells. If you’ve been like me in Wrath where you’ve tossed out LBs on OoC procs for the free mana return, you’ll have to retrain yourself out of that habit.

Swiftmend and Efflorescence is another interesting, fun and very useful new tool. Swiftmend has always been an excellent heal, especially in emergencies. The new mechanic of Efflorescence proccing off of Swiftmend makes SM even more useful and interesting to use. Ideally, your Swiftmends will be targeted either on groups (ie someone in Melee or in ranged, or perhaps the tank if he’s stacked up with melee) to provide that additional HoT on the group. It can also be a nice additional HoT if you need to SM the tank so he keeps getting some healing on top of everything else. I still recommend using SM in emergencies, even if the target isn’t stacked up in a group. This is for several reasons: Swiftmend is still a good emergency tool if you need that instant heal (though so far it does seem to be healing for less than on life). If the target doesn’t need to move drastically far, he can also remain in the Efflorescence zone for additional healing. The area of the Efflorescence zone was increased to 8 yards, which gives a lot of space for people to move into. Others who need healing can also move into the zone, or perhaps it’s a place that the rest of the raid will be moving into.

Tree of Life cooldown has been reduced to 3 minutes, and it has a 30 second duration. Particularly in longer raid fights, you would be able to use this more than once in a fight. Regrowth is now our quickest cast heal, and in ToL form, it becomes an instant-cast spell. This can be useful for getting out lots of quick/instant heals out with little HoTs on them if you have a bunch of people that need to be topped up very quickly. Do keep in mind that Regrowth is now fairly costly in terms of mana, so don’t let yourself spam it til you go OoM. Wild Growth will also hit an additional target while in ToL form, so be sure to target those strategically to make most use of the additional HoT. A recent change to ToL saw it enabling LB to be cast on more than one target, so keep that in mind for use as well.

You will be using Nourish and Healing Touch while healing. Nourish will likely be one of your main spells for bigger cast heals, particularly on tanks as it will refresh your LB stack. Nourish is still boosted by other HoTs (though it appears you can no longer boost Nourish additionally through glyphs). Nature’s Swiftness is still a crucial talent to be used with Healing Touch in emergencies for a massive instant heal. Despite the long cast times on both Healing Touch and Nourish, they are still crucial, and HT can give you some nice big heals. On Beta, at least, tanks are NOT dying in one GCD. Gear will be updated with the 4.0.1 patch to have a lot more stamina, so healthpools will increase with the patch. Hopefully, then, tanks not dying in a GCD will be active in 4.0.1, and you will have time to use Nourish and HT. It is disappointing to no longer have 1-second or sub-1-second cast Nourishes as we do on Live, but the change should not matter with the change in healthpools. You WILL still have to time your spells well and make good decisions, as tanks and raid members WILL still die. Hopefully what we will not have is the tank deaths from two massive hits in 0.6 seconds despite constant incoming heals.


Tranquility will also be a lot more useful in 4.0.1 and beyond. The only change to Tranquility is that it now operates similar to Divine Hymn, in that it will affect members of your party OR raid - it is no longer restricted to party-only. This is a really excellent and useful change.

As we get into 4.0.1 and approach 4.0.3 and Cataclysm itself, I’ll keep updating on specs and healing. Though talent trees have been fairly consistent of late, there’s still always the potential for change as we approach the xpac. Specs and talent choices may need to shift slightly as well for when we get to level 85 end-game heroics and raiding. I’ll start updating the Healing Guide in preparation for Cata, which will likely undergo some changes between now, xpac release, and for the first few weeks after release as people hit 85, specs and spells are fine-tuned, and full theorycrafting gets underway.

Healing is looking like it will be fun, especially as a druid, so don’t panic about the new changes! They’re all a lot of fun so far and I think people will really find them enjoyable.