@Tone: OOC being passive is a good thing .. and a bad thing, too. It used to be useful for helping to protect your HoTs from dispel since it was a buff and therefore benefitted from the pre-WotLK version of Subtlety. Overall, I’m pleased about it being switched over to an innate ability, but it does have its downside. I believe that I worked it out as a very slight increase to proc rate over what it is currently in live, so you should get more bang from your buck than you were.

I definitely agree that the change to Nature’s Grace is going to make playing Balance a lot more fun. That was a bizarre, broken dynamic from day one, and I’m glad to see that they listened to the copious player feedback asking for it to be revised so that it better complemented Wrath.

@Nichgoul: I have heard that the aura from ToL currently stacks. I can’t imagine it will go live that way though as it seems too good to be true.

@Zaira: Haha, yes, you’re right. And it’s something I’ve considered, but I think Phaelia’s “off spec” will probably be reserved for PvP or PEWPEW. I thought that leveling a baby bear would help me understand that other aspect of our class better than I do now. More than likely, though, I’ll get her to 30ish and she’ll start collecting dust. I have so many alts in that level range!

@Werebeef: /agree; it’s not uncommon for guilds to bring two Trees along.

@Lotha: Just do like me and keep the bottle beside your desk! I mean …

@Zackoria: I’m cool with turning into a Priest. They have prettier armor anyway. ^_^ It *does* seem like all of the healing classes are becoming more homogenized than before, but each of them seems to be bringing their own flavor to the spell type previously associated with another class. For instance, the Druid group heal Flourish is still a Heal over Time, but the majority of its healing is up front so it’s not as likely to be overwritten. Our “Flash Heal” gets a signficant efficiency increase when used on a tank who is likely to have Rejuvenation running on him.

@Tone: Huzzah for insta-cast Rocket-Kitteh!

@Hokuto: Same here. I’m not one to avoid spoilers myself (though I haven’t really looked into quests or dungeons or factions). The fun of thinking about new builds and abilities is just too tempting!

/cat dance

“30% snare penalty has been removed. ”

“now only reduces the mana cost of your healing over time spells (Rejuvenation, Lifebloom, Regrowth and Flourish) by 20%.”

Blizzard still cant write patch notes, Should be 20% snare and STILL reduces mana by 20%. >.>… lol

A flash heal, a HoT AoE, and now a free spell proc, does it sound to anyone else that were slowly turning into Priests? XD I also see Ferals are getting an AP form of SnD, hehe.

@Nichghoul healing and DPS in these situations are completely different. DPS has to be at tip top raid capacity to earn their spots. Healers have to fit into the role they are assigned and fit well. Besides, all the other healers group specific buffs and spells are going raid wide as well as our aura, so rest easy. ^_^

And to cap off this post, i started this around 1, my friend comes over to help me with rotors and brake pads, and now its 9PM and i just finished… I cant win here. ><

This situation where a raid leader has such membership at his disposal that he can pick and choose what he wants as far as classes and specs is ideal, but not necessarily reflecting reality for most players.

So what is the difference for a Resto Druid? Resto Druid output is high enough to justify their presence on its own. The output often leads over other classes by quite a bit. The utility of ToL even now is only effective if you are in a group with someone who is getting a lot of healing (the tank), and the benefit is not considered so dramatic that it is considered necessary for a raid to be successful.

So rest easy, we are only gaining here.

Besides, hots own pretty hard so I don’t think it’ll be too hard to fit two trees in a raid.

Its been said directly by blizzard that we will more than likely be able to have ‘two specs’ on us at any given time. It wasn’t mentioned what the mechanic was for switching (I’d assume visiting a trainer or somesuch) but it would help most of us to have a spec for farming/dailies/pvp and a raid/instances spec. It would let you keep one druid for both healing and rocket-bear-ing.

I am worried that this will mean that no matter how good healers are, people will frown on taking more than one per raid, like a ret pally, you only need one (not saying this is true but it is a common impression wether true or not) i’m not sure i like this change at all tbh