On Friday I wrote about the recent egregious increase of reagent costs for Rebirth and Gift of the Wild spells with Patch 2.1. Today, another “undocumented change” was discovered, although it isn’t known whether this change was intended or accidental. As of last Tuesday, the resurrection window from the druid combat rez now disappears when the Combat flag drops from all party members. What this means is that Rebirth can no longer be used a a wipe recovery tool and can only be used for wipe prevention.

The only time Rebirth was usable for 5-man wipe recovery was if the druid had brought along a pocket rezzer (as is Blizzard’s apparent intention). In raids, it could be used by a skilled druid when Divine Intervention, Soulstone, and Reincarnation were not available, but this has always been the most difficult to execute wipe recovery method. It seems almost spiteful of Blizzard to further nerf this already limited ability.

On a more positive note, it is possible that this change is a precursor to as-yet-unannounced plans to finally give druids a normal resurrection spell. Perhaps these two changes (reagent cost increase and wipe recovery removal) were made while internally testing this new class ability. It is likely that — due to the previous backlash when ferals temporarily gained the ability to use potions and weapon procs — they are reluctant to get our hopes up for such a longed for spell until they are more sure of its effects on balance.

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Every major patch includes a long list of changes, most of which are documented in a set of formal patch notes. Some changes, however, escape the notice of whoever is responsible for compiling these notes. It may be an unintended oversight, but these changes seem to more often than not be to the detriment of players.

Patch 2.1 brought included a host of positive changes for the druid class, including the increased viability of Barkskin and our epic flightform quest. However, one undocumented change was the increase in reagent cost for both Wild Quillvine and Flintweed Seed. These two items are the reagents used by druids to cast our group buff, Gift of the Wild III, and Rebirth, our in combat resurrection spell. Quillvine saw a 50% cost increase, from 10 silver to 15 silver. Flintweed saw a 250% cost increase, from 20 silver to 50 silver.

Quillvine 15s	Flintweed 50s

There already exists a marked cost disparity between Restoration and Feral druids because of the placement of the Improved Mark of the Wild talent alongside Furor in the first tier of the Restoration tree. The burden of single-target and group buffing during raids has always fallen to Restoration druids since their buff is 35% more effective (to be fair, I have grouped and raided with many a generous and thoughtful Feral who has willingly shared his cache of Thornroot/Quillvine with me). To further increase the raiding burden upon the druids who have already foregone damage abilities seems unfair. And to increase the cost of our in combat resurrection spell so dramatically while Restoration druids are still suffering from the lack of a normal resurrection spell in 5-man instances is just salt in the wound.

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So just recently, I finished my rep grind and nailed my Earthwarden. Then I blew some cash to feed my impatience and enchanted it for +35 Agility. I was a VERY happy camper. This was Monday night.

Tuesday, 2.1 went live and my uber tanking weapon of doom… isn’t. What the hell happened?

Well, I’m not sure. I may just be imagining things, but there is some support for what I’m seeing. First, though: background.

During the last big patch, 2.0.12 or whatever it was, Bear Mangle was gutted. In addition, Savage Fury, a talent that for 2/2 boosted several moves by 20%, including Mangle, was changed so that it no longer affected Mangle (Bear), and only Mangle (Cat). So the damage nerf to Mangle was incredible, no matter how you look at it. Druids could once do some soloing and handle multi-mob pulls with bear, but the nerf to Mangle’s damage in that form took it out of any serious consideration. Maul was, and is, competitive.

They also removed the threat multiplier from Mangle in that patch.

To make tanking remain viable, Blizzard hotfixed the threat multiplier and put in a lesser one than existed before. By the time most of us had logged on, our threat was fine, but the damage…there was none to be had.

So along comes 2.1. By this time, Warriors and Rogues have geared up with 75+ dps one-handers and their damage has skyrocketed, especially in arenas. Blizzard says to themselves, “Okay, we can give some back to the fuzz-butts.”

So they give Mangle back 15% of it’s damage, but still don’t change Savage Fury. Okay, it’s not much, but it’s something. Cool. They also change the threat multiplier so our threat will remain relatively static. This is reasonable, but given the prior over-reaction, it can hardly be considered a real buff.

But…and there’s always a but, isn’t there…something’s wrong.

My Mangle damage in Bear has gone down. It is virtually indistinguishable from my Maul damage, and both crit for the same in the 800 range. I haven’t really paid enough attention to know if there is a real problem, but the boards are starting to talk about Feral AP not being applied correctly. I should be seeing benefits from 200-ish AP and +15% damage here, but my numbers are smaller.

I’m not the smart type that can do the tests that are done regularly, so I’m going to be watching the boards, and I won’t rule out that it’s my imagination, but people are pulling aggro off me now that were utterly incapable of it before. If my damage has gone down AND my threat has gone down, that’s an easy explanation. I do know I didn’t suddenly start to suck at tanking and those people didn’t suddenly get four free epics.

I guess we’ll see how this one shakes out.

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Tanks with large furry bottoms everywhere are rejoicing at the recent post of Pantone of Mal’Ganis wherein she reveals a macro to allow bears to use potions midcombat:

#show Lesser Healing Potion
/castSequence [stance:1] reset=3 Dire Bear Form, Lifebloom
/stopcasting
/use Lesser Healing Potion
/stopcasting
/use Master Healthstone
/stopcasting
/cast [nostance] Dire Bear Form

Purportedly, this macro can shift you in and out between 0.5 and 0.7 seconds depending upon latency. Sadly, our ursine brethren still lack the ability to use potions while shifted. Let’s hope for the addition of a right-clickable potion hat some time soon.

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As part of the quest to complete the Master’s Key, Khadgar sends you to seek the blessing of Medivh, without which your completed key is about as useful as a fishing weight. Of course, Medivh has been dead a long time, so you’ll have to travel through the Caverns of Time to speak to him. You find him in the Black Morass, concentrated on the task of opening the Dark Portal so that the orc armies can ravage Azeroth. Resist the urge to Moonfire him (if you’re a Night Elf) or to hug him (if you’re a Tauren) since approaching him will trigger the Black Morass event.

Before you begin:

• Prerequisites: You must have completed the quest associated with the Old Hillsbrad instance before you can enter Black Morass. You should have completed all the steps of Karazhan attunement up to retrieving the Second and Third key fragments from Steamvault and Arcatraz and should have the followup quest entitled The Master’s Touch in your quest log.
• Group Composition: Having the right group composition — especially while you’re learning the instance — can be tremendously helpful. The ideal group composition is a tank with solid AOE aggro, a healer, and 3 DPS classes, one of whom can act as goalie (a ranged DPS class like a Hunter or a Mage works best since they can easily switch their focus and have good AOE tools).
• Consumables: When learning any new content, it’s always a good idea to bring along a few potions for a boost. Healers should expect to bring along a couple of Super Mana Potions and a stack of water per attempt. Everyone should have a health potion for emergency use. Anything that gives relevant stat bonuses is a plus, too. For Druids, Golden Fish Sticks or Blackened Sporefish are helpful.
• Talk to Sa’at: Upon entering Black Morass, you will find a Blood Elf standing to the right side, offering you his assistance. Talk to him to get a Chrono-beacon:
  

  Chrono-beacon The Black Morass Binds when picked up Unique Use: Calls forth a guardian of time to assist you inside the Black Morass.

  You can use Chrono-beacons in times of crisis and can return to Sa’at to get another. This is useful should a group member die after using her beacon. She can get another from her on her way back to the instance.

• Clearing the Instance: Before triggering the event start, be sure that you clear all the wildlife (spiders, jaguars, and crocodiles) surrounding the four portal spawn points and the paths in between them. You may find yourself overwhelmed by portal trash, and having a random crocodile aggro during a boss fight can be disastrous. Clearing the area should take about 10-15 minutes, but should your group fail an attempt, you can talk to Sa’at to ask him to turn back the clock so you can try again. You can do this a limited number of times before Sa’at tells you that his powers only go so far, at which point you’ll need to reset the instance.

Before beginning the event, make sure that your party is fully buffed, ready to go, and mounted. When approached, Medivh will yell out something and portals will begin randomly spawning — one after another — at one of the four possible locations shown below:

Map Courtesy Amp WoW

From each of these portals, a Rift Lord (melee) or Rift Keeper (caster) dragonkin is spawned. Ending his or her life will close the portal he or she protects. While the portal is open, other dragonkin will come through, including Infinite Assassins, Infinite Chronomancers, Infinite Whelps, and more. Unless provoked, these dragonkin will ignore your group and make a beeline toward Medivh. When they reach him, they will begin attacking his shield. Once that shield reaches 0%, your group will fail the event. For this reason, it’s imperative that your tank approach each portal first so that she can position herself to attack the Rift Lord or Rift Keeper while standing in the path between the portal and Medivh (Rift Keepers are casters and can be more difficult to position properly). That way, any additional mobs that come through the portal get caught up in the tank’s AOE abilities. Those that do get past your tank should be picked up and dispatched by the group’s designated goalie. This positioning is outlined below:

Rift Lords: These are pretty simple Warrior-type mobs. They do Sunder Armor and Mortal Strike, though, so try not to allow the tank’s health to drop too low.

Rift Keepers: More difficult than their melee counterparts, Rift Keepers come in two varieties: Mage and Warlock. The Mage version casts Frostbolt on its primary target and will cast Polymorph and Pyroblast on other group members. It can be useful to watch who they target to anticipate a Pyroblast. The Warlock version casts AOE Shadowbolt, Fear, and a curse that increases vulnerability to magic damage. Because of the curse, a Resto Druid will want to stay out of Tree of Life for the Warlock variety.

After each of the portals, you should be able to determine whether you need to drink or not (you should always drink at 60% or less mana). You’re more likely to need to drink after a Rift Keeper since you were unable to use Tree of Life for mana conservation. Your party should continue to the next portal and engage so that they don’t fall behind. Drink as quickly as you can, switch to Travel Form or mount, and join them at the next portal. You will want to save your Innervate for the bosses.

There are eighteen portals, and every sixth portal, you will fight a boss. The first two bosses will be engaged in front of a portal while trash mobs continue spawning. The last boss heads directly for Medivh and should be engaged near him. Luckily, you don’t have to contend with additional trash spawns on the final boss.

Portal 6, Boss #1: Chrono Lord Deja

The first and easiest of the three bosses, Deja is basically a tank and spank. He has a minor nature-based AOE that’s easily healed. You should have no trouble keeping up with the trash while fighting him.

Portal 12, Boss #2: Temporus

Definitely the most difficult of the three bosses. Temporus stacks a 10% healing reduction debuff on your tank, similar to that of Fankriss the Unyielding in AQ40. It stacks up to a maximum of 7 applications, reducing the healing received to 30%. For this reason, a tank with a high dodge rating can be very helpful. There are different strategies for dealing with this debuff depending on your group composition. Don’t get any funny ideas about switching into Bear Form to try to pull aggro. He isn’t tauntable and you wouldn’t get far in the healing gear necessary for this instance. Another option is to have two group members use Chrono-beacons at the same time. Although all three bosses have the ability to instantly dismiss a of Keeper of Time, it’s an ability that’s on a cooldown. Using two of them can buy you enough time for the healing debuff to drop from your tank.

Because Temporus is so difficult, you won’t want to divide your focus between him and the trash spawns. It’s a good idea to pull him off to the side of the portal, allowing the trash to move to and beat upon Medivh’s portal for the duration of this fight. You can always send someone to drop a Chrono-beacon on the portal to help clean up the mess if you notice Medivh’s shield dropping below 40%.

Portal 18, Boss #3: Aeonus

Pretty easy, especially after Temporus. He has a minor frontal AOE, so the tank will want to position him so that he faces away from the rest of the group. He also periodically casts Time Stop, an ability that freezes everyone (except for him, of course) for 4 seconds. Stay in Tree of Life and stack up your heals over time and you should have no trouble. Feel free to use any Chrono-beacons you have left to help burn him down.

Completing Black Morass is arguably the most difficult step in the quest to complete Karazhan attunement. Its fast pace and unforgiving group composition requirements can quickly overwhelm a group. Once you master the strategies, however, it becomes a quick and fun way to gain reputation with Keepers of Time (with the Timelapse Shard as an Exalted reward).

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