With the release of Wrath of the Lich King looming on the “soon” horizon, many players find themselves looking for ways to keep themselves busy. Here are 12 steps to ensure you’re as prepared as possible for stepping foot on the shores of Northrend. (Hint: buy warm boots)
Inspired by Currant’s recent Feral summary, I’d like to share some of the rumored changes to the Restoration spec as of the most recent update to Alpha. As always, keep in mind that these changes aren’t necessarily going to make it into the final release. They’re still fun to look at, though!
- Tree of Life Changes
Bark’s Blessing (a bestowable, Spirit-based +Healing buff) has been replaced with a 40 yard raid-wide aura that increases healing received by 5% and is no longer tied to Spirit. Two additional changes: players can cast Remove Curse in Tree of Life, and the movement reduction has been removed. - Spellpower
Recent rumors indicate that, rather than talents being used to convert +spell damage into +Healing, items with +Spell Damage are being converted to +Spellpower. Items with +Healing are being converted the the equivalent amount of +Spellpower. The +Healing coefficient on heals are being increased to compensate. This means that spell-based DPS/healing hybrids will be able to fulfill either role passably with talents used to differentiate the two. - Melee and Spell Modifiers Condensed
Along the same lines as the universal spell power change above, it seems that spell haste rating and melee haste rating will be combined into one stat. The same is true of spell hit rating and melee hit rating as well as spell crit rating and melee crit rating. Some players theorize that melee crit rating from Agility will not give bonus spell-based crit chance. Likewise, neither would Intellect give bonus melee-based crit chance. Regardless, this change would be very helpful for spell-casting melee classes like the Shaman and Paladin. - PvE Diminishing Returns Removed from Cyclone
No more 6-3-1.5 duration on Cyclone, at least in PvE. This is an amazing change, especially for Balance Druids, and it unlocks a temporary but very effective form of Crowd Control for instancing.
A particularly amusing inclusion in the “Bug Fixes” section of the most recent Patch Notes was:
Multiple ranks of Lifebloom from the same druid will no longer be able to be active on any one target.
Apparently, at one point during the Alpha, players could roll 3 x Lifebloom of all three ranks on the same target. This bug was only discovered due to an surge in suicide rates among Resto Druid players.
And on a note that’s unrelated to Restoration Druids, there’s a rumor that Ferals presently benefit from Windfury and other weapon-based procs. All I can say is, “PAWS OF FURY!!!” Oh and not to forget that procs and pots were available to Ferals on the PTR at one point and to keep in mind that this change might not be a sure thing, yet.
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I hope that they will keep potions for ferals.
all answers like ‘how do you think you could drink pot with claws?!’ can be beaten with ‘…and how do you think that Warrior in Tier 6 could grab anything smaller then cauldron?!’
If the cyclone thing stays and dragons are a prevalent in Wrath as we hear, then Druids will become the kings of crowd control, Cyclone, indoor Roots and Hibernate. No more getting turned down for pugs cause you are not crowd control…now you will see LF1M for (druid pref) and then GTG.
Root the Warrior, Sleep the dragon, Cyclon the caster…dot the heck out of the whatever is being tanked…
Some of these changes are just druidlicious! Makes me want to pull my druid out of mothballs and get him the last little but to level cap in anticipation of WOTLICKEE.
I think I prefer the current ToL aura to a proposed flat 5% increase. I had hoped they would do something that would encourage bringing multiple resto druids to a raid.
@Haupt-
You bring an excellent point, and I don’t believe Blizzard is going to follow through with all these changes when it is all said and done. The changes for Roots and Cyclone are great for Druids in general. The problem is, they are going to be viewed as overpowered by our peers, particularly when it comes to Restoration Druids.
If you think about it, it becomes entirely plausible for you to main heal a group as Restoration, and maintain all 3 of those CC, provided that the other players are remotely competent, and appropriately geared. Could we do this indefiniely? No, but we could certainly do it long enough for most pulls.
In other words, we become the new default healer. 3 viable forms of CC we are able to use while solo healing a 5 man! No other healing class can boast that utility in 5 mans. This becomes problematic for us. The response will be to either nerf our healing abilities (which hurts us in terms of raiding) or not follow through with the proposed changes (which hurts Feral and Balance Druids who have been screaming for this). The only other alternatives that I see is to grant all of the classes multiple viable forms of CC for instances, or to make a large portion of the mobs non-CCable, both of which result in a net gain of 0.
I just don’t see Blizzard giving this all to Druids. Mind you, I’d love to have it, I just don’t think its happening. It makes us go from viable to solely dominant in 1 fell swoop.
well… they wont keep all changes for sure, because now 5 druids party just rox in every 5man dungeon.. stealth run with tank, melee dps/offtank, healer, CC…
just throw them some cookies!
my idea of nerfing MY class (sounds strange) is changing requirements for CC form.
like add CC spell bonus to tier 9 talent.
for instance:
for every druid cyclone works as a 1sec stun, and spell interrupter.
but, on tier 9 of balance talents if you ‘buy’ a MUST HAVE talent, your cyclone spell will get 6 sec stun bonus, and diminishing returns removed.
roots can work like snare or daze, and only resto druid with tier 9 talent, will get immobilize bonus for roots.
hibernate… I cant find feral lore to connect hibernate with cat or bear, but I think you can see my idea..
Im not talking about removing 3 forms of crowd control. Im talking to connect them and make one or two of them really powerful only for some builds.
just like with feral charge when they move it up from feral tier.
Where are you finding these changes by the way Phae?
These all look lovely! As a resto who loves being a moonkin too, I was just curious if there as any more info out there.
I kind of love and hate the spellpower change. On the one hand, that makes it easy to get gear, and I wouldnt have to change sets to heal or do damage.
But on the other, I would have to respec in order to do any damage as a tree or heal as a moonkin, I would look like every other druid out there (which I do NOT want at all!!), and… really the whole idea is silly in my opinion. Also, it creates way more competition for items in raids. Which is, again, silly.
Sigh.
Thanks phae!
@Warscreamer: Ferals still can’t use potions in the Alpha. They are simply benefitting from weapon procs like Windfury. Sorry for the confusion.
@Haupt: It is my most fervent hope … and yes, while it might be overpowered, it sounds like many instances are going to have very large group pulls. With enough forms of CC distributed among healers, I think things could work out okay.
@Fikkle: Do it now! The Midsummer Festival provides 10% bonus exp to those who dance around the pole. =)
@Sydera: From what I understand, bonuses like this one are currently being treated cumulatively. So 2 Druids = +10% healing. But I can’t really say I expect that to continue.
@Yggdrasil: Yes … but … but … think of all the How-To articles that could be written!! They should leave it in so I can have something new and interesting to write about. =)
@Warscreamer: Changes like that would make it pretty much impossible to level as a Balance-specced Druid. We rely too much upon the immobilize effect of Entanging Roots so that we can nuke away without fear of having our faces smashed in.
@Inwë: Shhh … it’s over here. I don’t think our sameness-looking will be any worse than it is right now. If nothing else, we’d only look like the Balance-specced Druids. Of course, if they go with a similar token system, we’ll also look like Ferals, but they’re generally in Bear Form anyway so …
hmm… to be honest balance spec is the only school not mastered by me
I was full resto from lvl 1 till tBC then feral till 70, again resto till SSC raids.. and now Im back to feral DPS.
moonking is just not for me, I have my mage for ranged DPS.
however you are probably right
about pots… I never checked DPS/tank enchants on weapons, but I think some of them could be useful for druids.
and I still think that druids could use pots not only in Tauren form (its not necessary for Night Elves).
Yeah they better keep the pot thing, and the new Aura makes tree form all the more inviting
@Abagoo: Ferals still cannot use Pots in the Alpha. >.< Sorry!
Anyone heard the rumors that they’re going to make lifebloom a 1sec cast? Or that they’re going to make it so a druid can’t shift forms if they have a dot on them? Guildmates were talking about this the other day, I’ve not found any confirmation yet though. The talk I heard was its to balance out 2v2 arena/pvp.
@Sio: Lifebloom won’t be a 1 second cast persay, but there is currently a 5-point talent called “Gift of the Earthmother” that will lower its subsequent GCD to 1.0 seconds along with that of Rejuvenation. This will allow for much more legroom in terms of spell use since it will free up a larger portion of the 5.5 second Lifebloom cycle.
The “no shifting if you have a DoT” on you seems completely fallacious and illogical. I’ve read nothing like that and suspect it’s the result of someone’s vindictive rumor-mongering.
News from Paris:
Entangling Roots will work indoors as well, to help druids get into heroic groups
New ability: Flourish. 1.5sec casting time healing spell, its effectiveness depends a lot on what HoT effects are on the target
Cyclone won’t be changed
Potions, on-hit effects and items will work in forms.
@Warscreamer: Excellent! I’ve summarized everything I’ve been able to find in a post about the WWI. Thanks for the tips!