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Night Elf is to Ninja as Tauren is to Giant, Stompy Cheeseburger
Published on September 11, 2008 by Phaelia 
PvP 
33 Comments
I bet you thought this was going to be a silly post about how Alliance Druids are better than Horde Druids. Sadly, that is not the case. I’ve been up since 3 AM deploying a revamp to the design here so you’ll just have to settle for a summary of recent and upcoming changes.
Upcoming Changes to Shadowmeld
The Night Elf racial ability Shadowmeld is slated for a significant change in an upcoming build:
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| Shadowmelded Night Elf or proof I was too tired to make a new picture? |
This new ability can be used in combat and will allow Night Elves to “vanish” to allow their tank re-establish aggro, canceling the effect as soon as they determine it’s safe to do so. Bears may also find it to be great fun to preemptively assassinate the person creeping too close behind them on threat, sort of like “Oh I know you jus’ didn’” but with a bear paw. There are many implications for this change, including:
- If you aggro one or more mobs while ungrouped, you can use Shadowmeld to de-aggro them, wait for them to path away, and saunter (or sashay, if you prefer) away unharmed.
- While still possible, the Shadowmeld + drink technique will only be usable once every three minutes in Arena.
- Now Druids can wipe their raid recovery efforts just like stupid Hunters who are too good to die like everyone else.
And for those worried about the loss of the descriptor, “Night Elf Rogues and Druids with Shadowmeld are more difficult to detect while stealthed or prowling,” have no fear. This ability is being separated into a new, passive racial skill called Elusiveness.
8926 Build Changes
Restoration (and Restoration-related) changes that went live in last night’s build include:
Skills
- Abolish poison now lasts 8 sec on the target. (Previously lasted 1 min)
Talents
- Gift of the Earthmother (Tier 10) changed to - Reduces the base global cooldown of your Rejuvenation and Lifebloom spells by 2/4/6/8/10%, and causes your Healing Touch and Nourish spells to refund 1/2/3/4/5% of their base cost for each healing over time effect on the target.
- Replenish (Tier 9) changed to - Your Rejuvenation spell has a 5/10/15% chance to restore 8 Energy, 4 Rage, 1% Mana or 16 Runic Power per tick.
- Subtlety (Tier 2) now reduces the chance any of your spells will be dispelled. (Previously only affected HoTs)
- Nature’s Splendor (Tier 3) increases the duration of your Moonfire, Insect Swarm, Rejuvenation, Regrowth, Lifebloom and Flourish spells by 2/3 sec.
I have to boggle at the nerf to Replenish and assume that people are seeing larger returns from it than I have been expecting (I admit I haven’t tried it, yet). That’s just going to make the decision to skip over that talent even easier.
I’m not entirely surprised by the change to Gift of the Earthmother whose benefits were likely conceived long before the design and addition of Nature’s Splendor. At 3 points, Nature’s Splendor extends the length of your Lifebloom by 3 full ticks, making the GCD reduction from GotEM less important. The previous bonus of having 0.5 seconds shaved off the GCD for Lifebloom and Rejuvenation also devalued spell haste rating, of which there seems to be an excess in Wrath. With the aforementioned nerf to Replenish continuing to make Rejuvenation the pink-haired stepchild of Druid HoTs, this talent is significantly less attractive than it was, though it still retains the 1/2/3/4/5% mana cost reduction for each heal over time on the target for both Healing Touch and Nourish.
Nature’s Splendor has been changed from a percentage-based bonus (10/20/30%) to a concrete increase of 1/2/3 sec. This is a nerf to the benefit it provided to spells lasting 10 seconds or more (Rejuvenation, Regrowth, Moonfire, Insect Swarm) and a buff to Lifebloom and Flourish. This will still be a must-have talent for Restoration Druids.
Sadly, the change to Abolish Poison was reverted. I guess stupid-OP-Shadowsteppin’-Hemo-Rogue-Say-“Nyah! Nyah!”
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Pallys are great trash tankers but might face problems with spellers due to OOM or just a lack of spell defend abilities. If your group is about to kill raid boss with some spell abilities, high constant melee damage and bleed/spell resistances better get decent warrior.
Love the picture, Phae :3
Also, I guess this is my first comment even though I’ve been a long time reader of your blog. Hello there!
I was under the impression that flourish, while a heal over time, had a set maximum heal amount, similar to a direct heal, just group wide. If that is the case, how is extending the amount of time it heals for a buff? Wont that simply lower the amount it heals for each tic? The Description itself even claims that the heal starts big and then steadily reduces in effect as the Hot portion runs out. Hots are all described as healing x amount per tic. Were the mechanics of flourish changed in this build to add healing based on hot length? Or is it set up more like a group wide regrowth that has a direct heal and then a specific heal per tick effect?
@Lilyani: Hello there.
Thank you for commenting! I’m glad you liked the picture.
@Qix: Well I’m assuming that the amount it heals for is going to be increased overall. I’m at work right now though so I can’t test it for myself, but I’ll comment here when I find out!
It doesn’t look like Shadowmeld will be as useful for soloing as you say. From the description, it doesn’t actually remove you from combat. It’s more like a fade that you can hold on to for a while.
@Crythia: Actually, the descripton reads “Any threat is restored versus enemies still in combat upon cancellation of this effect.” Any mobs that you were in combat with would LOSE that combat state when you SM so you wouldn’t regain the threat with them. It’s important to note that this wouldn’t work while in a group, however, as your groupmates would keep them in combat with you.
@Phaelia: You are implying that you would lose combat state, when it never actually states that. (And most abilities like this that do make you go out of combat specifically say so in the description) It just reduces your threat to 0 from them, which is still technically “in combat.” To me it reads more like a priests fade, which you can pop after body pulling someone and actually have negative threat from them, but if you are not grouped you are still attacked. As much as I’d love it to be a pure vanish, I wouldn’t get my hopes up for it.
@Crythia: I’m guessing that it does since that’s what the Blizzard poster said it would do. ^^
@Phaelia: Then they should say so in the tooltip! Right now it looks like some of the old Shadowstep tooltips…
The nerf to Replenish and most especially to GotEM are huge and make Tiers 9 & 10 an absolute joke. I fully expect Blizzard to get me excited about the new Druid talents and this latest build only succeeds in making me angry. If these talents remain in their present state, I will most definitely be spending those 8 points deeper into Balance.
“…although you can use it in combat, and it will cause any mobs currently on you to de-aggro, it doesn’t actually take you out of combat unless you’re the last one on the hate list of any mobs that you were engaged with.”
-Kalgan, Blizzard Poster
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=9679753606&sid=2000&pageNo=6#105
Not sure how this would effect Arena matches…
And leaving every Night Elf alive in a wipe (except for an MT Nelf, obviously) seems a bit overpowered, but hey, it makes up for Wisp form >_>
hey, cheers for the info Phae.
I’m personally very excited about this change, finally something to fight back at the hunters/rogues
and common, i think clearly with this change on top of others, they are trying to make resto druids in pve impossible to kill 
Ah, here we go:
“…forces a detarget.” - Kalgan, Blizzard Poster
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=9679753606&sid=2000&pageNo=7#132
So, for arenas, when Hunters or Warlocks (or Death Knights) just sick their pet on you and focus on other things, you’ll be able to force the pet to drop aggro and drink, until they realize this and retarget you.
QQ @ abolish poison changes. I was looking forward to making rogues cry. /sigh.
I also think the other changes suck as well, but eh. I guess it will all even out. And grats to all the Nelfs! That shadowmeld change seems pretty sweet.
Emees last blog post..AFK
“2. While still possible, the Shadowmeld + drink technique will only be usable once every three minutes in Arena. ”
I’m so used to automatically doing this all the time. I don’t have a macro, my fingers just magically make it happen.
I’m definitely going to be one of the people constantly blowing this cooldown for silly reasons.
On the other hand, as a druid, my understanding is that cat form can drink now, and the drink -> stealth thing works! So defintely a buff for druids.
I do feel a bit sorry for the other casters now though.
About the changes on replenish..
I don’t know under WotLK standards, but my idea thinking in terms of level 70 stats was the following. Tree of Life, -20% cost for rejuvenation. Improved ToL, -15%. Moonglow, -9%. That makes rejuvenation cost 415*(1 - 0.2 - 0.15 - 0.09) = 232.4 Considering a duration of 15 seconds with talents (let’s consider the new ones for this) that’s 5 ticks, with a 15% chance to make an average of 0.75 procs to return 2% mana. Let’s say 10k mana to keep it simple, 0.75*0.02*10k = 150. Like that, 83 mana per spell, it would be an incredibly efficient self-heal.
Was it so good to nerf it? I’m not so sure. 50ish mp5 for 12-15 seconds on other casters, a lot less on melee, it doesn’t look game-breaking to me.
A little off-topic, but here goes: Could you do a comparison hpm- and hps-wise of the glyphed and talented Healing Touch vs the talented nourish at lvl 80 in Wrath?
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I can already forsee abuses for the new shadowmeld, as well as the new human racial. People will be draging mobs over to others and dropping the agro on to them.
@Flynx: For me, I’ll probably just pick up points in Living Seed sooner than I would have otherwise (I’d been skipping over that to come back to it at later levels).
@Azleus: That’s a good question. I imagine in Arena matches you’ll probably have to run off, drop combat, drink, then Shadowmeld just as before (except you won’t be able to do so nearly as often). Interesting point about being able to Shadowmeld and rez the raid! I wonder if that will work!
@Nichgoul: LOL … as if we weren’t already pretty darn hard. I’ve only died once in Northrend so far (excepting instances), and that’s because I foolishly ran into a pack of mobs.
@Azleus: Although hopefully by then, you’ll be stealthed so retargeting you will be no simple matter!
@Emee: I’m pretty disappointed by the Abolish Poison change, too, but I can understand it. It does seem odd since I noticed Cure Poison costs the same amount of mana as Abolish on the beta right now.
@Kelerain: Interestingly, I’m actually going to have to keybind Shadowmeld to my gamepad with these changes. I’m sure that will lead to its fair share of “blown” cooldowns for me, too!
@Ermengol: It would be a very efficient self-heal but I agree that it wasn’t game-breaking.
@Ayeba: At some point I would like to do so. Not today, however.
@Lotha: Actually, that doesn’t work in WoW. What you’re describing is something called “training.” It was a common griefing tactic in EverQuest which probably led Blizzard to ensure their code would cause mobs to automatically leash back to their spawn points if the person they initially aggroed dropped all aggro.
LOL…the Shadowmeld change just about made me choke on my Soy Milk with laughter. I am so going to get my husband (a hunter) Killed…all the time. Stupid hunters and their surviving asses. Although this does me he essentially gets two FD’s which sucks and makes me a little annoyed. But I’m finally glad to see a useful racial. I am very excited for the boomkin aspect of this new racial. I might just have to grow some feathers. Although I am still disappointed in the amount of points I have to waste in the resto tree to be a good tank, wish blizzard would do something about that.
As a fairly casual raid healer I’m ecstatic about the change to Nature’s Splendor. Lifebloom, unless nerfed, is just such an amazing spell that with the extra 3 seconds I imagine almost never running out of mana. Another thing it allows is finally being able to keep five stacks up comfortably, which has previously been my best method for dealing with fights in 5-mans that have a lot of AE damage. Of course previously I had to choose one person who would die.
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@Replenish Nerf:
Well, I am expecting a Rejuv glyph to get it up to 6 ticks. ^_^ That makes it 90% proc chance per Rejuv, with 10k mana it is approximately 25 mp5. Not familiar with the new gearing system but currently - not very impressive. I guess using Rejuv Rank 1 and 2% mana restore (50 mp5) seemed too OP. But I bet that druids will end up on DK Rejuv duty rather than keeping the casters up.
The thing is Phaelia, I don’t believe Shadowmeld is a stealth effect any longer (hence the concern of Night Elf Rogues and Druids over their “Elusiveness”), with this change it is more of a Fade/Feign Death effect, you’ll still be visible to player characters. Although, with the ability to use items in forms, drinking and stealthing maybe possible in Cat Form, if this was what you had originally meant, my apologies for belaboring the point.
I made the perfect LOL picture for Shadowmeld tree. ^_^
http://mine.icanhascheezburger.com/view.aspx?ciid=2001823
Too tired to read the rest of the comment, ill finish that tommorrow. =/
Jezzabell, the thing is downranking will be effectively removed from game. They’re giving the same mana cost to all ranks; learning higher ranks just makes spells more effective.
Nice to know the glyph makes Healing Touch somewhat efficient. Outside of using it with Nature’s Swiftness, when healing as a moonkin, Healing Touch always seemed way too slow to me. Probably was too. Other healers were already finishing their own casting and I ended up having wasted lots of time and mana for disputable benefits.
I still have my doubts about using it in ToL compared to Lifebloom or Regrowth, but as a moonkin it is undoubtedly much welcome.
About the Replenish nerf: it works even if it’s overhealing, so I think it’s ok. It was restoring me 95-ish mana, not so bad, specially with ToL now being EXTREMELY mana-efficient; LB is almost for free.
@Zamir: I’m on PTR right now and after using HT glyph (only because Nourish is out of my reach atm) I was compeled to come here and check what Phae said about it.
I’m at 1126 spell power (formely 2127 healing), and my glyphed HT and rejuv are healing for the same amount. Ok, HT on this scenario is 1s faster (if talented), but rejuv has a MUCH higher chance to crit (again, if talented), leaves a 21s-window opened for a swiftmend and, glyphed (50% more healing if applied on a target that already have it), would be even more efficient.
I still don’t see a point for that glyph, and it gets worse: Nourish at 80 will be our fast heal of choice, imo.
@Spectrum: I’m sort of unhappy about the change to Nature’s Splendor myself. I’m glad Lifebloom will last a little longer, of course, but the smaller increase on the duration of Regrowth and Rejuvenation means we have less time to Swiftmend. Poop. And … you’re going to try to run 5-stack? Crazy man.
@Jezzabell: If I end up on “DK rejuving duty” I am so rerolling. Well, at least if they’re DPSing!
@Azleus: I wondered that myself, but the first part of the spell reads exactly the same. It had better still be an invisibility since it’s cooldown has gone through the roof! I guess we’ll see with an upcoming beta build.
@Zackoria: I LOL’ed. Seriously.
That. Is. Win.
@Zamir: I’m still not sure what niche the Glyphed HT is supposed to fulfill. I guess I should probably crunch some numbers again. Busy, busy!
@Hokuto: How often are we going to cast Rejuvenation on ourselves, though? To restore our mana? Blech. That seems like a horribly annoying mechanic to me.
Replenish is one of those things where it’s a culmination of all your resto druids. On paper, per druid, it’s a really small amount of return power to the raid. But if you have three druids doing it, it can end up being a good 200 DPS boost to the raid in 3.0, which *can* make a difference between a 1% wipe and a kill, as it’d be 72K damage in a 6-minute fight.
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I wasn’t thinking about tossing rejuv on myself, actually. I guess it’d be good for everyone but better for some: warriors and rogues would get the most of out it, since they’re manipulating limited “power” pools, and every extra energy point equals more dps. Mana users wouldn’t be thrilled about it, as they’re already well served with replenish-effects: I’ve run an heroic on PTR with prot pally, ret pally, enhance shaman and a BM hunter and the replenish effect was up pretty much all the time. The mana torrent is almost annoying.
To be honest I probably won’t be picking neither it or Living Seed when I hit 80… But as Nature’s Splendor is out of reach for a lv70, I might as well keep either for raiding until the expansion (if only my guild didn’t give up on raiding, that is… /sigh).
Oh, and I’m waiting on your number crunching for that glyph. I really want to know what’s its point after all. The more I test it, the more I /boogle.
@Lume and Hokuto: I think you make a good argument for Replenish. Maybe I’ll have to give it another look.
I’m also waiting for my number crunching on that glyph, but I admit that I’ve been turned off by the recent, rather sweeping changes (yay, beta, I know). I may wait a bit until things are more finalized, or at least until after the patch where they fix us back to Tree-Gods …
Currently I play elf/hunter (my 3th lvl 70 char) - I love the ability to FD+drink/eat even in the middle of combat. I use it A LOT in pvp… now the new racial nerfes this combo almost to zero.
I realy realy dont like the change, I am so angry at the moment that i am thinking of canceling my account and quit this finally.
@Yog Barbarian: I guess FD/drink only works in PvP? I was under the impression they added combat pulses to prevent it during boss encounters in PvE. In any case, Druids are in the same boat with a much more restricted ability to get away, drink, and Shadowmeld until found.