@Abagoo: Nice avatar! I have to admit that the Feral changes sound pretty nice. Maybe YOU’LL have to convince ME to stay Resto! Haha! Not really. Tanking … /shudder

@Tone: Great, great point about the motivation behind removing the need for “defense” gear as a means to unify gear. Let’s face it: how many specs/classes need leather with +defense on it?

I’m also not 100% sure about the mana regen thing, but it wouldn’t surprise me AT ALL as a way to nerf Resto Druids who bunker down in Bear Form to protect themselves from mana drains. Drain-casters have been complaining for a while that we shouldn’t get to regenerate mana if it can’t be affected by a drain. I agree with you: BOO!!

@Phaelia: Druids will no longer regenerate mana in Bear Form/Cat Form? Oh, man… this would be a pretty harsh change, from my perspective. I think it would really mess up the fun dymanic of playing a feral druid (particularly when soloing). It would also greatly increase the chances of getting “stuck” in caster form. If this really happens, I hope they have a good reason for changing something so fundamental. It would be really disheartening if it was another PvP-driven change to punish Resto Druids in the Arenas. I think this is the first piece of Alpha info I’m really bummed to hear. :’( Most of the things I’ve read are all about increasing the fun of the game. This one seems contrary to that.

Great! I hated the huge cost of 5 talent points for it, particularly when the only ability affected in ToL is Regrowth, and “Dreamstate” builds didn’t really have the spare talent points available to make use of it either.

@Ketsugi: I also doubt that WotLK will encourage shifting from one form to another. From what I’ve read, it seems that Ferals no longer regenerate mana when they’re in Bear Form/Cat Form, making powershifting a lot more difficult.

@Warscreamer: Yeah, Infected Wounds is pretty ridiculously good in its current form, especially when you consider that the 50% attack speed reduction is likely to affect spellcasting speed, too, since melee and spell haste are being combined. Feral Druids would have an undispellable, physical Curse of Tongues. Of course, maybe this is revenge for all those kitty cats I’ve hibernated in BGs…

@Artorin: I’m afraid that I don’t follow. The description for Frenzied Regeneration that I’ve found reads, “Frenzied Regeneration now only has one rank. Frenzied Regeneration will now restore 0.1% of your max health per rage instead.” So at a rate of consumption of 10 Rage/sec, wouldn’t that mean 1% of your health every second or 10% total?

@NotAnIssue: I’m actually considering how I will have to adjust my Nostromo layout to include all these new and amazing skills. I already have most keys serving double duty via macros with a CTRL modifier. I might have to bite the bullet and add an ALT modifier for the expansion.

And I definitely hope that you’re right about Ferals no longer having to PvP to get gear for PvE … especially if Infected Wounds goes live. ^_^

@Yggdrasil: As of now, they’ve changed Nature’s Focus (the talent that prevents healing spell interruption from damage) to a 3 point talent and moved it into Tier 1. This is a very nice change to reduce some of the over-the-top bloat in the Restoration tree.

Soothe Animal is probably going to be helpful in a wider array of scenarios since they’ve indicated that there will be more mobs for us to Hibernate in WotLK. It also affects Dragonkin now, which is a nice change.

@ ketsugi: Um, yeah. I feel dumb. Excellent catch there.

@ SuraBear: Yeah, that was a typo I thought I caught but that went through anyway. I’ll fix it. Another good catch.

As for the itemization, I’m still looking forward to seeing how it looks once that becomes available.

OMG! Where? Soooo good if true! I hate that anything in the world environment I have to wear arena/BG gear for.

I think you’re thinking of Mangle. The maul change will only affect bear form.