Confused about what gear is for resto and which is for balance after the changes to spellpower, spell hit, and spell crit? Guest author Graylo of Gray Matter graces our glen with a guide to gauge the gear guaranteed to gain glory and greatness! 
In addition to the newly-discovered Glyphs, these are the Druid-related patch from the latest build on the Beta servers:
Feral
- Primal Tenacity now reduces the duration of Fear effects by 10/20/30% and reduces all damage taken while stunned by 10/20/30%.
Old version: 5/10/15% fear reduction and 5/10/15% damage reduction while stunned- Infected Wounds effect now reduces the movement speed of the target by 10% and its attack speed by 3%.
Old version: 10% reduction to both movement and attack speed- Challenging Roar now has a 3 minute cooldown, reduced from 10 minutes.
Restoration
- Replenish now gives a 5/10/15% chance to restore 10 Energy/5 Rage/2% Mana or 10 Runic Power per tick.
Old version: 5/10/15% chance to restore 10 Energy/4 Rage/2% Mana/10 Runic Power per tick
Flourish Amount Healed Unchanged; Nourish Dynamic Changed
MMO Champion is reporting the total amount healed for Rank 1 of Flourish as 1610, which means the overall amount healed as not been nerfed as we had feared. Everyone celebrate, but do so quietly so as not to attract the attention of the nerf bat!
As expected, a change has been made to Nourish whereby it heals for an additional 20% provided you have a Rejuvenation, Lifebloom, and Regrowth running on the target. I say “expected” because with two Restoration Druids and a Priest in the raid, you could feasibly have healed for 35% more (Lifebloom x 2 + Rejuvenation x2 + Regrowth x 2 + Renew). Gift of the Earthmother appears to remain unchanged, still restoring 5% mana cost on Healing Touch and Nourish per heal over time on the target. It’s probably safe to expect a change similar to the one made to Nourish, however.
Balance Druids to Benefit from Improved Scorch
A recent change was made to the Mage talent, Improved Scorch:
Improved Scorch – More damage types added, now your Scorch spells have a 33/66/100% chance to cause your target to be vulnerable to Fire, Frost and Arcane damage, increasing damage taken by 2/4/6/6/10% and lasts 30 seconds. Stacks up to 5 times.
This means that a Balance Druid can expect to receive an additional 10% damage on all Starfire, Moonfire, and Starfall spells, assuming a Mage with 18 points in Fire is present.
Changes to Energy, Mana Regeneration and Potion Mechanics
Mana- and Energy-users can expect to see an interesting difference in the way they regenerate mana. It now regenerates steadily over time rather than waiting for 2-second “ticks” to increase. The overall effect is a more constant stream of mana, though it not clear if the actual formula has changed. You can view a video of this new mechanic via Filefront here.
Say goodbye to chain-potting in the expansion. Blizzard is implementing a "one potion per encounter" debuff called Potion Sickness:
While I’m personally pleased at the idea that I may not have to bring 20 Super-Duper Mana Potions to each raid (or whatever they’re called in the expansion), I recognize that this as a nerf to Alchemists who use trinkets that afford them X MP5. Also, keep in mind that, while I’m sure at this point that most of us are accustomed to having ample regeneration and not needing to chain pot, that probably won’t be the case when we reach level 80 and start to gear up. Mana management and personal mana-restorative abilities will become essential for raids. This also places increased pressure on DPS to complete encounters before their healing corps runs dry.
Note also that this debuff will apply to Super-Duper Health Potions, a consumable frequently brought in mass quantity by tanks. Healers will have to be more careful not to have our tanks need the use of such consumables since they are no longer going to be available more than once per encounter.
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Huge change for the better IMO. Similar to the changes in stat pots at the beginning of TBC, it’s a limiting factor for encounter design. Namely, the difficulty for the encounter at the proper gear level had to be tuned for chain potting. Eliminate chain potting, it can be tuned at the proper level for not relying on pot spam.
At least on my server (Sen’Jin), the price of Super Mana Potions is skyhigh right now, and the price of Dreaming Glory has quadrupled over the price several months ago. And without this, with the accessibility of raiding in WotLK, I think the problem would just get worse.
The potion thing admittedly worries me because I’m a potion-spec’d Alchemist, but hopefully Blizz knows what they’re doing and will turn around and show us some love… (and give us new potions to make)
Pikes last blog post..So You Want to Play a Hunter? Part 4
while the improve scortch thing looks nice (moar dmg == good!), it doesn’t make a lot of thematic sense to me…
and where is the love for elemental shaman? (and moonkin, to a lesser extent) earth and moon only adds 6% nature damage, while the closest shaman equivalent lowers mana costs and crit for the entire party (which, while good for raid benefit, makes the shaman look worse on the meters…).
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maybe alchemists will get a trinket that can end the debuff without leaving combat? personally, i don’t like the change for non-raiding, non-alchemist QQ reasons. i’d like to have the option for my leveling warrior to be able to pot more than once if a fight goes hairy…
For priests and druids that shouldn’t be a problem. After 2.4, mana isn’t a problem anymore, imo.
Every other mana user, well… They’re in trouble now.
I agree with Luke, maybe alchemists will get something to counter that, as now alchemist stones are useless with the new passive alchemist skill that increases the effect of elixirs, flasks and potions. At least I hope so…
@Karmakin: I’m inclined to agree. The number of Super Mana Potions players were expected to bring and consume on non-farm content was just over-the-top and really detracted from the fun of raiding. It also reduces the amount of farming I have to do and, in my mind, makes injectors more attractive than they once were (I often didn’t bother getting my pots converted into an injector because I knew how quickly I’d go through them).
@Pike: It looks like Alchemists are going to get a slight bonus from any potion they consume that they can make themselves. That should help mitigate the sting at least a little bit.
@Luke: Well, Mages also cast Arcane spells, and I imagine they’re trying to encourage more varied build choices rather than the FIRE-UNTIL-2-PIECE-T5-THEN-ARCANE formula we saw in TBC. As Sylvanra points out, though, poor Nature gets left out in the cold with only two class abilities increasing the amount of damage done by Nature. I hope that the Potion Sickness isn’t something that can be circumvented. Lower need and correspondingly lower demand for mana potions will help keep their price in check.
@Hokuto: Unless they change the core dynamic of mana regeneration, I think you’ll find that mana is once again an issue at level 80 as your gear won’t be caught up with your level to provide you the type of regeneration we’ve all grown accustomed to. It certainly won’t be as painful as it was at the start of Karazhan (since the formula has been adjusted), but keep in mind that a lot of gear as you level is often lacking in Spirit. It will probably take a least a little bit of time to get your regeneration to a more manageable level.
Phaelias last blog post..Beta Patch Changes (Build 8681)
This is what surprises me about having 6 glyphs active at once. On one hand they are restricting the buffs alchemy provides presumably so it’s easier to tune encounters and people aren’t forced to farm as much. Then they turn and give you 6 glyph spots, which means 6 glyphs will be required for raiding, and the encounters will be tuned assuming you have them. Just seems like 2 different groups worked on this.
I’m actually not really sure I like this at all. If, and a big IF, they change mana regeneration to the point that pot chugging is not necessary then that’s fine by me. However, will they tune mana regeneration to work just as well with poorer gear as with raiding t700 gear? Who can say. Personally on my current not amazingly geared druid if I have a tank who isn’t very well geared or DPS who aren’t paying attention or we get in a sticky situation I really don’t like knowing that I’m only allowed to pot once. I still have my innervate, yes, but I like the back up of being able to think, “Okay, 10 seconds until I can pot again if I need to.”
I’m also with Pike on this, I’m an alchemist and one of the reasons I’m an alchemist on my current main toon is being able to make pots! I guess we’ll see what happens, everything is bound to change.
This sounds like a good change to me (on the other hand, I rarely use more than one mana pot per fight as a resto druid anyway) but I’m wondering if Blizz is going to distinguish between different kinds of potions now, or suspend the debuff for certain types of potions.
Eg will we be able to chug down a shadow prot potion and a health potion in the same fight? If taking a prot potion prevents us from taking any other potions in the same fight, then resist fights (like Shahraz) might get a bit more dicey.
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i dont know if glyph are needed for raiding.
it is still unknown how power the glyph are. MOTW for 30 min more is not that powerfull but handy. so i understand that this is a minor glyph. LB 1 sec more is very powerfull. instead of 6 targets for LB now 7 targets. so i guess it will be major glyph. in the list of yesterday it will be propaly only the most powerfull glyphs.
We just have to wait and see.
Well, yeah, glyphs will be required. I have to believe that going without a glyph would be somewhere between going with empty gem slots and going with empty armor slots. But there are only six slots, and the glyphs don’t get consumed. So it’s not comparable to requiring 10-20 pots for every night of raiding.
It does hit the alchemists pretty hard, but then again they have been raking it in hand over fist for a while now. (I’d guess that daily-driven inflation has hit potion prices harder than anything.) I can’t think of any other non-gathering profession that makes so much money.
The change to regeneration ticks seems like it will have a greater impact on the Energy side of things, since Energy ticks are much larger (relatively speaking) than Mana ticks. Energy-users sort of “live paycheck to paycheck” with their abilities,
with a much larger percentage of their Energy bar used for each one. So having a constant stream of regeneration would make abilities available sooner in some cases, even if the overall Energy use over time would be the same. I think it’s a good change that will make gameplay a little smoother, with timing that feels more natural. I can see it being especially useful when you’re desperately trying to get off a stun attack. Being able to use Maim a second sooner could make a big difference!
On a related note, I imagine that avid Cat Form powershifters (for increased DPS) will be taking a close look at this change. I’m not sure if it makes things better or worse for them (I’m not much of a powershifter myself… well, not for DPS anyway!
) but it seems like it will definitely affect the timing and returns from that technique.
In regard to the Potion Sickness change, I think it would be fun if Alchemists could do a quest chain to develop an immunity to it.
Not because I want to circumvent the game mechanic, but more just because I wish Alchemy was a little more interesting as a profession. Alchemy obviously has a lot of utility, but aside from the Alchemist’s Stone trinkets, and Mad Alchemist Potions, there isn’t much character to it. I’d love to see Blizzard add more quests and special perks (even just silly ones) … maybe opportunities to develop your own recipes which are enhanced in certain ways (sort of like how glyphs are going to work for spells). I’d love to see Blizzard take Alchemy into the realm of “mad science.” Why should Engineers have all the fun blowing stuff up? 
The problem with this is that this is in the vein of EQ1 things mentioned previously by Phae – blizzard is taking something away in order to give it back again via a mechanic. The case in point is right now everyone can drink a potion every potion cooldown (2mins). They are taking that ability away in order to unlock it for alchemists. Does this make alchies potentially more special? Sure. But its at the cost of others. They are nerfing everyone in order to recreate the status quo on one category of people. This is worrysome.
I am an alchemist. Always have been. And it worries and saddens me that I may end up switching to inscription with my herbalism, just because my abilities may be even less useful to my raid and friends overall. A better solution might be a carrot rather than the stick. Make all elixirs/pots work better on alchemists. Have an Elixir of healing add +65 healing (instead of 55) when taken by a master alchemist. This way you reward someone for a skill/ability, instead of punishing everyone to get the same result.
ummm…please pardon my ignorance, but it looks like Improved Scorch stacks 5 times, and is fully talented at 10%…meaning that it would debuff the target for 50% more damage…right? Am I misreading that?
<—remaining totally mum on the issue of Flourish.
@Yggdrasil: The % on the increase doesn’t increase, just how often scorch applies it. Meaning it stays at 2% and stacks up to 10% with a full 5-stack.
Has it been confirmed that the potion sickness is applied after a single potion? Maybe you don’t get it until you pot 5 times? Maybe they intend to tweak it so that if you pot right on the CD a few times in a row you get it, but if you have potions off CD for a while and don’t pot that often you won’t really notice it. Kinda like how the sweets of headless horseman works, but not quite as unpredictable.
They are also introducing a ton of other mana regen stuff in WotLK, such as the resto druid Replenish talent. I’m sure they will tweak it to the point where you won’t suddenly feel out of mana like you would if potion sickness were introduced right now, with no other changes. It sounds like they are trying to lower the need for potions to make raiding / instancing cheaper for everyone.
@Thalosar, the 1 extra second on lifebloom will mean more then 7 targets combined with the new Gift of the Earthmother talent, lowering the GCD of lifebloom with another 0.5 seconds.
@Yunk: Presumuably, consumables like Super Mana Potions are more of a constant cost than Glyphs will be. You should be able to “settle” on the Glyphs you intend to use and then stick with them rather than having to replace them every time you go to raid. Encounters can be tuned with the expectation of a certain X output (be it healing, threat, mitigation, or DPS), but I imagine they’d rather not tune for something like mana potions which forces players to expend Y amount of gold just to be able to participate without significantly overgearing the encounter.
@Awlbiste: Remember, they cannot design encounters that cannot be completed. They’re simply reducing the amount of mana that will be expected for players to have. I certainly can understand that Alchemists of all people would have objections to this, but they’re not dissimilar to the objections voiced over Guardian/Battle elixirs in the past. =/ I do think the Alchemical Blood buff that gives you a bonus for every potion you consume that you can manufacture should be enough reason to find benefit in the profession, aside from its obvious monetary potential.
@Thalosar: Glyphs will be — and definitely SHOULD be — necessary for raiding. They’re akin to not filling out your talents, in my opinion. And remember, Glyphs that aren’t considered “Greater” are going to be less “essential” than the best of the “Greater” Glyphs. Obviously, 1.5 hour long MotW is less worthwhile than something that bolsters the duration of your Lifebloom, but you won’t be choosing between two such Glyphs.
@Cisko: With any amount of committment, Jewelcrafters make more money than any other production tradeskill, hands down. It’s fairly ridiculous. I have a hard time begrudging Alchemists after seeing how much money Mr. Phae has been able to make as a Jewelcrafter.
@Tone: I definitely agree that the regeneration change is likely to have a much larger effect for Energy users. It just makes things more of a headache for theorycrafters on the mana side.
I love the “paycheck to paycheck” analogy, btw.
I’m afraid I must disagree with the idea that Alchemists should somehow be immune to the mechanic of Potion Sickness. Doing so would create similar pressure on raiding guilds to have guilds full of Alchemist similar to the recent pressure to have guilds full of Leatherworkers! Overall, I think it’s a very positive change and should make for more enjoyable raiding.
@Zaira: I’ve not read anywhere that Alchemists will be immune to Potion Sickness. Instead, I believe they’re slated to derive additional benefit from the consumption of any potion (Flask, Elixir included) that they themselves can manufacture. I think all production tradeskills need be kept in line with one another to avoid one trumping the pack; Alchemy unfortunately affords its constituents a much, much greater benefit than some of the others since it grants access to an amazing trinket and allows the player to earn a good living selling his wares.
@Yggdrasil: I did a double take at that myself.
@Oni: It has been confirmed that Potion Sickness occurs after the first potion so that you can only use one potion per encounter and must wait a certain amount of time out of combat for the timer to reset itself.
Oh no…poor warrior/pally tanks have to learn to be like druid tanks and not drink health pots all the time..I Like the idea!!!!!
@Abagoo: Don’t be a mean bear!
I think the debuff needs a better name. I nominate “Punch Drunk” but that’s just cause I’m weird.
It’s possible that the potion sickness debuff is just a temporary limit to keep players from zerging thru content too fast in the beta. Maybe it’ll be gone by release…
@Regindyn: Cute.
@Appleblossom: No, I don’t think so. They’ve considered potion chugging problemsome for a while, and I’m inclined to agree. It’s really no fun to have to bring and consume 40 gold in mana potions a night in addition to Elixirs, reagents, and repair costs. Along the same lines as their change to make Innervate trainable to increase the viability of Feral and Balance specs, when something becomes required to raid, it’s a problem.