As of Patch 3.1, the effects of Revitalize (simultaneously renamed from Replenish to avoid confusion with the Replenishment effect) will be able to proc from ticks of our 51-point group heal, Wild Growth. This substantially increases the effectiveness of the ability for a number of reasons:

• Wild Growth has seven ticks instead of the six of a talented Rejuvenation.
• These ticks occur every second instead of once every three seconds, making it less likely that they will go toward overheal and yielding a much higher rate of restoration.
• Wild Growth hits up to five targets at a time instead of one per spell cast.
• While justifying the use of Rejuvenation can sometimes be difficult, there are many cases where the use of Wild Growth makes sense.

In short, the returns go from looking rather shabby to looking OM-NOM-NOM-delectable. To update the values presented under the Rejuvenation discussion, we’ll look at the effects it can have on just one target, keeping in mind that it has the potential to hit five of assorted shapes and colors. We can use a modified 8.57 casts per target per minute (60/7-second duration) and 1.05 procs per cast (0.15 * 7) to arrive at an approximate average PPM of 9.0, three times that of Rejuvenation:

Mana cost per Wild Growth Cast = 643
Wild Growth Casts per Minute = 60 / 7 = 8.57
Avg. PPM per Target = 8.57 * 1.05 = 9.0
Mana Cost per Target per Minute = (643 * 8.57)/5 = 1102.102*

* Here I’ve divided the total cost by five targets to avoid overstating the mana cost per target.

We can then apply this new PPM value to our previous calculations by individual class:

Avg. Return per Minute _DK = 9 * 16 = 144 Runic Power/Minute
Avg. Return per Minute _Warrior = 9 * 4 = 36 Rage/Minute
Avg. Return per Minute _Rogue = 9 * 8 = 72 Energy/Minute

For mana users, the return is again based on total mana pool, using the higher PPM of 9 instead of 3.

Avg. Return per Minute _Paladin = 9 * 0.01 * MANA POOL

Keep in mind that the above returns are on a per mana-using target basis. Assuming you hit a group of well-geared spell casters with it, you could be looking at upwards of 600-700 MP5 for your raid, more than (indirectly) compensating you for the cost of casting the spell.

Summary

With such a potent regenerative tool in their arsenal, Restoration Druids may soon be counted among those players who can contribute significantly to the longevity (or throughput) of their raidmates (alongside Moonkin, Shamans of all flavors and Replenishment-providing Survival Hunters, Shadow Priests, and Retribution Paladins), and with the unique twist of restoring more than just mana. Such a change would go a long way toward accomplishing Blizzard’s stated intention to "offer [Replenishment] to additional classes, as well as make sure that existing sources of Replenishment are more equitable." And if you’re wondering if Blizzard would consider giving such a tool to a healing class, remember that Shamans provide Mana Tide Totem, and Paladins provide Blessing of Wisdom, each of which has the potential to overshadow Revitalize, given the number of targets they can effect and the relative ease with which they are maintained.

Dear Blizzard,

I promise not to (excessively) lord my Wild Growth over DPSers if you give it the same proc chance per tick as Rejuvenation.

All my love,
Phae

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Speculation: Revitalize and Wild Growth

As we have suggested, we have become concerned that mana regeneration is currently too powerful, especially for healers. We want players to have to keep an eye on mana. We don’t want you to go out of mana every fight, but running out of mana should be a very real risk for sloppy playing or attempting content that you aren’t yet ready for. When mana regeneration is trivial then certain parts of the game break down – classes that offer Replenishment are devalued, stats that offer mana regeneration are devalued, and spells that are efficient are neglected in preference to spells with high throughput.
Here are a list of changes you are likely to see in 3.1. They will be available to try out on the PTR. Mana regeneration is somewhat technical, so please bear with us.

• Regeneration while not casting (outside of the “five second rule”) will be decreased. We think that (1) the ability to cast heal over time spells and then sit back and (2) benefitting from a clearcasting proc that also gets you out of the five second rule both provide too much mana regeneration, even over short time periods.
• To make this change, we are reducing mana regeneration granted by Spirit across the board. However we are also boosting the effects of talents such as Meditation that increase regeneration while casting. The net result should be that your regeneration while casting will stay about the same, but your not-casting regeneration will be reduced. This change will have little impact on dps casters, since they are basically always casting.
• The specific talents and abilities being boosted are: Arcane Meditation, Improved Spirit Tap, Intensity, Mage Armor, Meditation, Pyromaniac and Spirit Tap. Yes this makes these “mandatory” talents even more mandatory, if such a thing is possible.
• Since paladins rely less on Spirit as a mana-regeneration stat, we have to address them in other ways. We don’t want to change Illumination or Replenishment. However, we are going to increase the healing penalty on Divine Plea from 20% to 50%. Divine Plea was originally intended to help Protection and Retribution paladins stay full on mana. It should be a decision for Holy paladins, not something that is automatically used every cooldown.
• In addition, we are also changing the way Spiritual Attunement works. In situations with a large amount of outgoing raid damage, as well as in PvP, this passive ability was responsible for more mana regeneration than we would like. We want to keep the necessary benefit it grants to tanking Protection paladins, while making it less powerful for Holy paladins in PvP or raid encounters with a lot of group damage.
• We are also taking a close look at clearcasting procs themselves. One likely outcome is to change them to an Innervate-like surge of mana so that the net benefit is the same, but healers won’t shift to out-of-casting regeneration so often.
• We balance around the assumption that even 10-player groups have someone offering Replenishment. To make this even easier on players we are likely to offer this ability to additional classes, as well as make sure that existing sources of Replenishment are more equitable.
• These changes are ultimately being done to bring the different healing classes more in line with each other as well as to give the encounter team more leeway when designing encounters, who can balance with these new mana regeneration numbers in mind. In a world with infinite healer mana, the only way to challenge healers is with increasingly insane amount of raid damage, so that global cooldowns become the limiting factor since mana fails to be. An example is the Eredar Twins in late Sunwell. We weren’t necessarily happy with that model, and this change hopefully allows us to move towards giving healing a more deliberate and thoughtful pace rather than frenetic spam.

These are some pretty extreme changes. My initial impressions:

• The mention of heals over time and clearcasting procs (Omen of Clarity) in the first point makes me feel like this nerf is being directly targeted at Druids, though it will likely impact our Spiritual Sisters, the Priest, as well. Despite the Paladin nerfs, it may end up as a relative buff to Paladins (and possibly Shamans) who don’t rely upon Spirit.
• So much for learning to dance the 5SR dance. An across the board nerf to mana regeneration outside the Five Second Rule makes trying to time your heals and rotations less valuable.
• Intensity and Intensity-like effects are being buffed, but only to keep regeneration inside the Five Second Rule relatively equal to the current value. At the same time, mana regeneration across the board is being reduced. As a Druid, the value of Spirit was based largely upon its effect on Innervate. This represents a substantial nerf to Spirit and a corresponding buff to the value of Intellect since Replenishment is not being changed (to avoid devaluing the classes that provide it).
• Expect to see more Balance Druids pursuing 3/3 Intensity to make up for the nerf to mana regen within the 5SR.
• As Innervate multiplies out of combat regeneration, this may represent a substantial nerf. If they successfully handicap mana regeneration, we may see a lot more Druids using the [Glyph of Innervate] for the boost when used on themselves moreso than the benefit granted when conveyed to another. I hope that Innervate not being listed among the talents and abilities being boosted is simply an oversight.
• /mourn [Darkmoon Card: Blue Dragon] (Okay, okay. I know it’s two expansions old. But we had such good times together! /sniff)
• The nerf to clearcasting effects means Omen of Clarity will no longer help you get outside the 5SR, though the benefits for doing so are going to so greatly de-emphasized that I don’t really see why such a change is needed.
• This probably hurts Druids more than other healers because our go-to heal, Regrowth, is so much more mana intensive than that of other classes. Expect to take HPM (and therefore Nourish) into consideration in the future.
• The reduction in value of Spirit will cause Restoration Druids to purposefully seek out more cloth armor, possibly those items whose regeneration comes in the form of MP5. Here is the current breakdown of 0-Resilience, 0-hit rating epics with spell power:
  • 12 leather epics without Spirit
  • 45 leather epics with Spirit
  • 27 cloth epics without Spirit
  • 66 cloth epics with Spirit

  I’m sure non-Spirit cloth casters won’t be big fans of this aspect of the change.

Overall, these changes are terrible for Druids. Both Spirit and Innervate are taking a big hit in usefulness, Omen of Clarity is being nerfed for mana users, a popular (if outdated) trinket is being made obsolete, and no other stat is being made more attractive to us to compensate (hello, crit and haste, I still hate you).

Additional Restoration Changes in 3.1

You can view the full list of Druid (and lesser classes) changes here, but here are the ones that will affect Restoration:

• Thorns and Nature’s Grasp can be cast in Tree of Life form.
• Replenish – to avoid confusion, this talent has been renamed “Revitalize.” It now also works with Wild Growth.

For some reason, I thought we could already cast Nature’s Grasp in Tree of Life. That’s a nice buff for handling accidental PvE aggro (but too long of a cooldown to be much of an improvement in PvP). Huzzah for finally being able to cast Thorns in Tree of Life. And here I was expecting to have to wait until the Emerald Dream expansion! I hate the name “Revitalize,” but I’m thrilled to see it added to the splash HoT of Wild Growth. This change, combined with the overall nerf to mana regeneration should make it a more attractive 3-point investment.

Want impressions from other Druids in the blogosphere? Check these out:

• Kalon from ThinkTank
• Karthis from Of Teeth and Claws
• Keeva from Tree Bark Jacket
• Sydera from World of Matticus

P.S. Given the above, who thinks I need to rename Phaelia to something beginning with a “K”? Khaelia? Ew.

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Blue: 3.1 Changes (Mana Regen and More)

• Moonglow: This talent now also benefits Nourish.
• Nourish: Wild Growth applied to a target now increases the healing done by this spell by 20% like other heal over time effects.

This means that instead of spamming Regrowth as a raid heal, you’ll cast Wild Growth on the five raid members at lowest health (hopefully) and then apply Nourish to supplement the healing (WG will now grant a 20% throughput bonus). This not only gives Nourish a special niche (high HPM raid heal) but lessens the sting of the 6-second cooldown simultaneously being applied to Wild Growth. Also, it’s worth noting that, while Nourish remains the lowest option in terms of HPS, you’ll be using it on targets who are already getting healed over time by Wild Growth. A Regrowth bomb would likely just waste that HoT. I’m especially pleased about this new synergy and the idea that a Druid will “nourish” a “wild growth.”

Here are the revised HPM/HPS graphs for the new variations of Nourish. I’ll update the Direct Healing in Wrath article with these graphs (and updated observations) when these changes go live:

And, in case you missed them, here are all the other announced Druid-related changes in the upcoming patch:

• Aquatic Form is now available from druid trainers at level 16.
• Feral Attack Power: All weapons now have the potential to grant feral attack power based on their dps (as compared to the best superior-quality weapons available at level 60). Players will see their existing feral weapons grant roughly the same attack power as they did before (+/- 2 or so), but many new weapons will be options for the feral druid. Some feral weapons have had strength converted to attack power to be more appealing to other classes able to equip them. All druids will see the amount of feral attack power granted by an item in the item tooltip, if it grants any, but other players will not see that information.
• Remove Curse and Abolish Poison can now be used in Moonkin form.
• Genesis: Now works with Tranquility and Hurricane.
• Growl: Range increased to 30 yards.
• King of the Jungle – The Bear effect is now physical, and thus cannot be dispelled.
• Moonglow: This talent now also benefits Nourish.
• Nature’s Grace – Now also effects Revive.
• Nourish: Wild Growth applied to a target now increases the healing done by this spell by 20% like other heal over time effects.
• Polearms: Now trainable by Druids.
• Primal Tenacity: Now reduces the cost of Bear Form, Cat Form, and Dire Bear Form by 17/33/50% in addition to its previous effects.
• Protector of the Pack: No longer changes value based on party size.
• Savage Roar: The buff now persists outside of Cat Form but only provides its benefits while in Cat Form.
• Starfall: Instead of canceling shapeshifting, now cancels on shapeshifting into an animal form.
• Survival of the Fittest: This talent now grants 22/44/66% bonus armor in Bear Form and Dire Bear Form in addition to all of its previous effects.
• Swipe: Swipe (Cat) has now been added at level 71, dealing 260% weapon damage, costs 50 energy with no cooldown. All talents affecting the Bear Form version affect the Cat Form one as well.
• Wild Growth now has a 6 second cooldown.
• Bear Form: This ability will now grant the correct attack power per level for levels 71-80.
• Entangling Roots: When determining if a new Entangling Roots should overwrite an old one, and will now calculate the correct damage modifiers for the creature type of the target.
• Maim: Tooltip adjusted to match the duration the ability has always had.
• Opening: Opening doors and objects should no longer cause shapeshifted forms to be cancelled.
• Rake: The initial damage from this ability is now properly considered bleed damage, and will be increased by Mangle and Trauma.
• Savage Fury – Mangle (Bear) damage was being increased by a higher percentage than intended. This has been fixed, and in result Mangle (Bear) should see roughly a 16% damage reduction. Also fixed a bug with Savage Fury where the Rake bleed effect was not being increased.
• Starfall will no longer cause nearby creatures to become hostile for no apparent reason while the Druid is affected by fear effects. In addition, it will no longer pick ambient creatures as targets.
• Survival Instincts: The extra health from this ability now persists in all forms, but the ability can only be activated in Cat Form, Bear Form, or Dire Bear Form. This prevents the health gain from occurring multiple times if constantly shapeshifting.
• Swiftmend: Riptide will no longer cause this ability to light up, and this ability will no longer sometimes consume Earthliving off the target.
• Idol of the Emerald Queen: This idol was providing greater healing than implied by its tooltip. It has been reduced to correct value.
• Glyph of Rejuvenation: The heal from this glyph is now properly considered a periodic heal.
• Soul Preserver: This item will now interact correctly with Desperate Prayer, Lay on Hands, Riptide, and Wild Growth.

Boo at no longer being able to Swiftmend Bobo the Shaman’s Riptide!

Blue Tidbits

Responding to concerns from Priests that they’re not strong enough in PvE or PvP, Ghostcrawler made the following (much abbreviated) statement:

If your raid is stacked with Paladin healers your group healing will suffer. If your raid is stacked with Druid healers, your tank healing will suffer. If your raid is stacked with Priests, you won’t have any problems.

Um … what? Am I the only one who finds it alarming that developer opinion is that Druids aren’t good tank healers? Especially given that three (arguably four) out of five of our healing spells are designed for use on tanks? Lifebloom is too inefficient to use single-stacked, Rejuvenation generally heals too slowly to use as a raid heal and better serves as a buffer, Nourish works best on a target with one or more HoTs (and don’t even get me started on the 4-piece T7 set bonus), and Regrowth gets a 20% throughput bonus when used on a target who already has Regrowth (assuming the [Glyph of Regrowth], of course). With a 6-second cooldown on Wild Growth and 4-minute cooldown on Tranquility, we are definitely not specialized as raid healers. The changes to Nourish above will certainly help counteract the Wild Growth nerf, but I find it worrisome that a developer would make a statement that seemingly flies in the face of the spells and tools we’ve been given.

On a separate topic entitled It’s time for the silence mechanic to change, Ghostcrawler shared this bit of PvP-specific but encouraging news:

We are considering DR for silence effects.

Praise Elune! Am I the only one who’s tried trinketing out of a silence? Silence is nothing but a form of caster-specific crowd control and should have been subject to diminishing returns from the beginning.

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Nourish to Benefit from Moonglow and Wild Growth HoT (and Blues)

“Resto4Life” is sounding more like a prison sentence lately. And here are the rest of the Druid-specific changes announced (or discovered) today:

• Feral Attack Power: All weapons now have the potential to grant feral attack power based on their dps (as compared to the best superior-quality weapons available at level 60).  Players will see their existing feral weapons grant roughly the same attack power as they did before (+/- 2 or so), but many new weapons will be options for the feral druid.  Some feral weapons have had strength converted to attack power to be more appealing to other classes able to equip them.  All druids will see the amount of feral attack power granted by an item in the item tooltip, if it grants any, but other players will not see that information.
• Bonus Armor: The mechanics for items with bonus armor on them has changed (any cloth, leather, mail, or plate items with extra armor, or any other items with any armor).  Bonus armor beyond the base armor of an item will no longer be multiplied by any talents or by the bonuses of Bear Form, Dire Bear Form, or Frost Presence.
• Genesis: Now works with Tranquility and Hurricane.
• King of the Jungle: The Bear effect is now physical, and thus cannot be dispelled.
• Nature’s Grace: Now also effects Revive.
• Primal Tenacity: Now reduces the cost of Bear Form, Cat Form, and Dire Bear Form by 17/33/50% in addition to its previous effects.
• Protector of the Pack: No longer changes value based on party size.
• Savage Roar: The buff now persists outside of Cat Form but only provides its benefits while in Cat Form.
• Starfall : Now be cancelled by any shapeshifting.
• Survival of the Fittest: This talent now grants 22/44/66% bonus armor in Bear Form and Dire Bear Form in addition to all of its previous effects.
• Swipe: Swipe (Cat) has now been added at level 71, dealing 260% weapon damage, costs 50 energy with no cooldown. All talents affecting the Bear Form version affect the Cat Form one as well.
• Wild Growth: Now has a 6 second cooldown.
• Savage Fury: Mangle (Bear) damage was being increased by a higher percentage than intended. This has been fixed, and in result Mangle (Bear) should see roughly a 16% damage reduction. Also fixed a bug with Savage Fury where the Rake bleed effect was not being increased.

I’m really excited about the addition of a mana cost reduction for Feral forms on Primal Tenacity. This is essentially what I suggested last month in light of Feral mana woes and should make PvP as a BearCat much more fun and sustainable. On the other hand, the bug fix to Mangle – Bear was unexpected. I wasn’t aware this was an issue. Either way, ouch. Or maybe “less ouch.”

Not necessarily Druid-specific but still interesting:

Tapping: All player spells which cause a creature to become aggressive to you will now also immediately cause the creature to be tapped.  

This means we’ll be able to “tag” mobs using the slightly cheaper Faerie Fire rather than having to spend 4% additional base mana on a Moonfire. Not a big deal, but nice if you’re Restoration-specced and grouped with your husband’s leather-wearing DPS Warrior where your Moonfire is less than necessary to help kill things (and your mana would be better spent keeping your partner from impaling himself).

Want more delicious Feral stuff? Be sure to check out Kalon’s recent post The Collected Ideas on How to Fix Bears (But what if I wanted cubs!?) and Runy’s recent post on tanking idols (or the lack thereof), Azerothian Idol: Bears to Rock Out with New Idols.

This St. Patty’s Day, why not celebrate your arboreal nature with a Resto4Life Tree Shirt? Now through March 12, U.S. residents can save 17% on all orders $25 or more with code MARCH39 (Canadian residents can use code CADMARCH39).

PTR Changes: 6-Second Cooldown on Wild Growth

Question #1: How much do you want to heal?

This is a simple question that’s related to how much healing ability you are willing to sacrifice for the sake of improving your damage output. This assumes that the dual spec system won’t be immediately available after the release of Wrath and that you’re a cheapskate like me who is unwilling to respec to run instances. I’ve created a sliding scale of possible choices:

Question #2: How do you like to kill things?

Are you an “in your face” type of player that doesn’t mind getting her foliage mussed or are you more of a delicate flower who prefers the safety of killing things that can’t fight back?

Since the “lolwut” response to Question 2 isn’t actually a valid one (I love symmetry), there are six possible combinations that we can create. Here are six builds I would recommend to you, based on those preferences:

Build #1: The Pokey Peep, a.k.a. the Panzerkin

This type of build is heavy (HAHA) on the damage because it’s based on Moonkin, initially eschewing many of the trappings of Restoration in favor of many fun and powerful abilities at the bottom of the Balance tree. You’ll start at level 70 with a 55/0/6 build. This build focuses on many of the abilities that allow you to take a beating while you machine gun Wrath the mobs to death. Key abilities include:

• Brambles: Let the mobs munch on your thorny exterior while you gleefully blast them with Wrath, Moonfire, and Insect Swarm. You’ll pick this up instead of Nature’s Reach since root-and-nuke isn’t your goal.
• Insect Swarm: Insect Swarm is a cheap DoT that essentially costs the Global Cooldown to cast. It’s also uninterruptible. I opted to skip over Improved Insect Swarm because there are better options further down the tree.
• Moonglow, Lunar Guidance, and Dreamstate: These are pretty much staples for any caster dipping into the Balance tree, and you’d have feathers for brains if you skipped them.
• Moonkin Form / Improved Moonkin Form: Pretty obvious benefits. This gives you a lot of armor to stand in the face of your enemies. Not to mention an awesome dance.
• Owlkin Frenzy: What could be better than actually deriving a benefit from things hitting you in Moonkin Form? You’d opt to skip this 3-point talent if you were using root-and-nuke techniques.
• Typhoon and Force of Nature: It’s hard to pass up two 1-point talents as fun as these.
• Earth and Moon: Sounds like the name of a ballad-writing 80s band, doesn’t it? Well, it’s not. This ability provides a big boost to your damage output.
• Wrath of Cenarius: Another expensive talent at 5 points. Provides a bonus to spell damage for Starfire and Wrath.
• Starfall: This spell is pretty mana efficient, even for single-target DPS.

As you continue to level up to 79 (because you ARE going to switch back to deep Restoration the moment you hit 80, RIGHT?), you’ll continue investing points in the Restoration tree, picking up such abilities as Omen of Clarity, Intensity, Natural Shapeshifter, Master Shapeshifter, and Furor. A level 79 version of this build ends up being 55/0/15 .

Build #2: The Marshmallow Peep

Unlike her Pokey brethren, the Marshmallow Peep cringes at the idea of having her feathers ruffled and prefers to keep her opponents at a distance. As a result, she will skip over talents like Brambles and Owlkin Frenzy, picking up Nature’s Reach instead. This build starts out at 70 as 52/0/9 ; as you may notice, our lower investment in tanking frees up more points for us in Restoration. We’ll start with three points in Furor, three in Nature’s Focus, Natural Shapeshifter and continue investing until we have all the Balance-oriented Restoration goodies, including Intensity, Omen of Clarity, and Master Shapeshifter. We end up with a free point at 79 to place in a Balance talent of choice. I’d probably opt for a point of Improved Insect Swarm. This build ends up being 53/0/17 .

Build #3: Hybrid Close-Combat

If you’re planning to level up with a mixture of solo-questing and instancing with guildmates (but are too cheap to pay for respec costs), a hybrid build might be just what you’re looking for. I’ve started this build with Moonkin Form, one point away from nabbing Swiftmend, but there’s nothing to say you couldn’t do it the other way around if you want. This build begins at level 70 as 31/0/30 . Because we don’t have the points needed to bolster Regrowth, we’ll instead focus on Healing Touch, picking up Naturalist and Empowered Touch. Key abilities from the Balance tree include:

• Brambles: This is a staple in any “tanking” build.
• Insect Swarm: Once again, Insect Swarm is a really cheap form of damage that only costs 1 point to acquire.
• Moonglow and Lunar Guidance, and Dreamstate: We won’t initially have the points we need to pick up Dreamstate, but it’s a priority for talent point expenditures between 70 and 80.
• Moonkin Form: This is the reason we start with 31 points. We’ll pick up 3/3 Improved Moonkin Form as we level, though the points aren’t available at the start.

As you level up to 79, you’ll want to pick up Dreamstate, Owlkin Frenzy, and 2 points in Improved Moonkin Form (though you could opt to substitute points in Wrath of Cenarius for IMF). This build ends up being 39/0/31 at level 79.

Build #4: The Confused Cannon

This is the root-and-nuke variation Build 3, Hybrid Close-Combat. It also begins as 31/0/30, though again you can choose to start with Swiftmend and pick up Moonkin Form at 71 if you prefer. We’ll drop Brambles in favor of Nature’s Reach + Nature’s Splendor. As you level up with this build, you’ll similarly pick up Dreamstate and Improved Moonkin Form, though with no need for Owlkin Frenzy, you’ll make the choice to pick up Wrath of Cenarius. This build ends up being 39/0/31 at level 79.

Build #5: The Thorn Bush

This build is perhaps the least efficient in terms of suitability to tank since it doesn’t pick up Moonkin Form at any point and even the armored Tree of Life can’t cast Balance spells. Nonetheless, its strong HoTs may make this a feasible option for the player who wants to stay as true as possible to her Restoration “roots” but still pack a bit of firepower. In terms of Balance abilities, I’ve selected Starlight Wrath, Moonglow, Nature’s Majesty, Nature’s Grace, Nature’s Splendor, and Brambles. The 17/0/44 build at 70 is comprised of most of the “core” Restoration abilities up to and including Tree of Life but eschews Naturalist, Tranquil Spirit, and Empowered Touch, instead emphasizing Regrowth. Improved Tranquility is also omitted, though you may wish to consider it if you plan to do a lot of instancing.

Leveling up with this build, you have three options:

• Spend your points in Balance to boost your firepower with 5/5 Vengeance and Insect Swarm. Spend the remaining three points on additional spell power from Lunar Guidance. An example of this build is 26/0/47 .
• Spend your points in Balance to boost your healing with 5/5 Genesis and Insect Swarm. Spend the remaining three points on additional spell power from Lunar Guidance. An example of this build is 26/0/47 .
• Spend your points in Restoration to acquire Wild Growth. Definitely pick up Improved Tree of Life for its aura improvement and Spirit –> healing power conversion. Other talents that I recommend you consider include: Improved Tranquility and Empowered Touch. Spend any remaining points in Genesis once you have Wild Growth. An example of this build is 19/0/51 .

Build #6: The Conscientious Objector

You are a delicate flower. You cringe at the idea that something should actually hit you. It might be carrying a Tree-eating parasite, after all. In any case, this build is quite similar to the Thorn Bush. You might even opt to include a point or three in Brambles as a damage shield for your adoring tanks. Should you not, your starting build would look something like 16/0/45 . You can choose to follow any one of the three approaches outlined under Build #5: The Thorn Bush above to help you decide where to spend your remaining points as you level to 79.

Final Notes

Keep in mind that these are suggested builds that you should feel free to adapt to your own preferences and playstyle. These are also recommendations from a Restoration Druid. Should you choose to pursue one of the more deeply Balance-specced builds, I can’t recommend Graylo’s articles over at Gray Matter highly enough. Read up over there, too, so you don’t look like a n00bkin.

So which (potentially modified) playstyle will you be trying out? (And don’t say “Feral” or I shall beat you about the shoulders with my branches.)

This St. Patty’s Day, why not celebrate your arboreal nature with a Resto4Life Tree Shirt? Now through March 12, U.S. residents can save 17% on all orders $25 or more with code MARCH39 (Canadian residents can use code CADMARCH39).

Moonfire Spamming Your Way to 80 in Wrath

Andurial of Alleria (US) writes in:

I thought I would give you a bit of preliminary data on 3.0 raiding (with more to come after tomorrow’s BT raid). Although my guild had intended to raid yesterday, Alleria was in the toilet so that didn’t happen.  However, we did throw together a ZA tonight to check out how our numbers were doing.  I have to say, it was mightily impressive.  The place was in the bag with 24 minutes left on the bear timer though of course there is no longer any bear to be had. [My spec is] an 8/0/53 build including Wild Growth. We were running with myself and a Discipline Priest (as apparently Disc is now where it’s at for priests who can let go of their CoH teddy bear that they cling to). As it turned out he and I were neck and neck on healing through most of the instance.

Instantly, I could tell a difference in HPS with it jumping up to about 1300 instantly and going as high as 1900!. Running with a Shadow Priest and Ret Paladin, there were no mana issues at all (which was incredibly comforting) that were not solved with an Innervate during a particularly daring set of pulls going up to the Lynx boss (including pulling the entire Lynx room and boss at the same time).  Amazingly we never wiped, only lost one player to the Lynx’s cleave and Wild Growth actually came out shining.  Now, here’s the thing.  It is a fundamental change in play style.  Lifebloom which used to do between 60-70% of my healing was now down to a roughly equal 35% with Wild Growth with Wild Growth passing on some fights like the Lynx or Dragonhawk. I also was using HT a bit (with the Glyph) for some quick throughput heals while HoTs were ticking.  All in all, I’m not hyperventilating like I thought I would be, but it’s going to take some getting used to.  I’ll let you know how it goes in a 25-man real raid environment after tomorrow and Friday.

Image credit to Eggo

Metrogon commented on An Early Thanksgiving:

I ran my first raid since the patch tonight on Mount Hyjal.  Usually the druid healers (including myself) way dominate the other classes on overall (trash) healing meters.  Tonight, however, I and the other Druid were at the bottom.  At first analysis it seems that the other healing classes got a larger boost than druids from the patch.  I used to feel useful in that instance especially, but after tonight I feel like they could replace me with a Paladin of less skill and still turn out better.   Am I doomed to respec to Moonkin to become comparably useful again in a raid?  Or am I just suffering from "learn2play_again" issues and will eventually catch up to the other classes as my skills with the new spells increase?

Keeva responded to Metrogon’s concerns on An Early Thanksgiving:

I wouldn’t worry about it too much at the moment, Metrogon… post 3.0 mobs have less health, they’re hitting for less, and there’s so much mana regen flying around that our healers were just spamming constantly (not best practice, but they were like kids in a candy store and I couldn’t very well tell them to heal less). To quote one of the priests though:

“I don’t normally spam like I did last night. With the changes to CoH, the changes to PoM, the free flash heals (awesome LOL), and whenever I dispelled someone it heals them, I was just going nuts to see what my best HPS would be.”

So basically he was going nuts, spamming everything he possibly could – I think he got something like 4000hps at one point. We can’t possibly compete with that, especially on trash. I felt wholly superfluous on Hyjal trash to the point where I stood and tweaked my mods for most of it rather than wasting my time trying to squeeze any heals in. I wasn’t missed.

Understandably, it all made me feel a bit slighted. A few days ago, I was a superstar healer in my guild; last night.. I could barely get any heals in, and even rolling Lifebloom seemed to contributing very little.

I tried not to let it get to me too much though. I think that once we get into the expansion and mana becomes a little more of an issue, when other healers won’t be able to go nuts and spam constantly, things will be a little more balanced. When we go back to having actual assignments rather than “snipe heal anyone with a health deficit yay” and/or spam group heals constantly to “win” on the meters, we will be back up towards the top of the list for effective healing.

I’d like to hear YOUR stories of raiding and/or instancing. Is Wild Growth as hawt as I’ve heard? Is anyone toying with Nature’s Splendor instead? (Sadly, I have none of my own experiences to share, yet, as I only just got my UI configured this morning!)

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Mailbag: Patch 3.0.2

• Haris Pilton has launched a new line of bags and jewelry. Check her out in the World’s End Tavern!
  These bags are 22-slot and cost 1200 gold. Relevant to Druids in particular given the amount of gear we’re known to tote around. Keep in mind that, with Wrath of the Lich King right around the corner, 22-slot bags will probably become much more accessible soon.
• Mounts at 30?! Yes, it’s true: Apprentice Riding and mounts are now available at level 30. Training costs 35 gold.
  This makes the Druid Travel Form gained at level 30, a 40% speed increase, slightly less exciting (though it remains a great PvP tool due to being insta-cast and usable in combat). I’d like to see it made available at level 20 alongside the Shaman equivalent, Ghost Wolf.
• Equipping an item will now cancel any spell cast currently in progress.
  This is a substantial change as it invalidates idol-switching for any spell with a cast time (Wrath, Starfire, Regrowth). If you use macros of this nature, make sure you check them and make changes before you raid.
• Barkskin: The cost of this spell is now reduced by Tree of Life Form.
  With 2370 base mana at level 70, Barkskin will cost 228 mana in ToL, down from 284.
• Rocket Boots Xtreme and Rocket Boots Xtreme Lite can no longer be used in the arena. These no longer have a failure chance.
  Maybe now people will realize that OP Arena mobility is the strict domain of Druids, not engineers!
• Juicy Bear Burgers now correctly increase healing as well as spell damage.
  But don’t let BBB catch you eating them!
• Druids: Mangle will no longer incorrectly indicate a 100-yard range on the tooltip.
  Corrected a typo in the tooltip for the Druid spell Rip (Rank 4).
  I swear Druids are the most tooltip-maligned class. Our class developer must be the office drunk.
• Taking the Druid flight path from Moonglade will no longer dispel buffs.
  I find it sad that I never noticed that it did this.

All in all, nothing too exciting (although I am looking forward to getting a couple of alts mounts now). These types of patches tend to whet my appetite for new content, in this case Wrath of the Lich King. 360% armor buff and no movement speed reduction while in Tree of Life? Yes, please!

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Notable Changes in Patch 2.4.3

In another surprise, Feral Druids will be relieved to know that, while Scare Beast has had its range extended to 30 yards, it will retain its 1.5 second cast time. Thanks to reader Jaegor for pointing this out below!

» See all patch notes for Patch 2.4.2 (via MMO Champion)
» Read Flyv’s humorous impressions of Patch 2.4.2 and Druids

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Change to Natural Perfection Reverted

Druid Talent (Restoration) – Natural Perfection will no longer proc by normal melee attacks.

What this may mean is that the 3-point talent will no longer proc from those melee attacks that would have otherwise been critical hits if not for the Druid’s Resilience rating. Interestingly, no such change is being made to the similar Priest talents, Blessed Resilience or Focused Will. Obviously, what’s good for one should be good for the other, and if they really are nerfing this ability (and it is a nerf, regardless of being classified as a bug fix), the same should apply to both classes.

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Patch 2.4.2: Natural Perfection "Fixed"

Hurricane by Triggerman

As previously predicted, the range on Cyclone has been reduced from 30 yards to 20 on both the TTR (Tournament Testing Realm) and PTR (source). With Nature’s Reach, the range drops from 36 to 24, so it’s an additional nerf to the benefit afforded by this talent. As of today, Patch 2.4 will include the following nerfs to Restoration-based PvP:

1. Drinking nerf
2. Nerf to end bloom of Lifebloom (the same heal that occasionally occurs when our HoTs are purged); this forces Restoration Druids to spec down to 5/5 Empowered Rejuvenation if they want to compensate for the reduction, locking them out of other talents from Balance and Feral considered to be synergistic and essential
3. Reduction of Natural Perfection from 15% damage reduction to only 12% (it is worth noting, however, that NP was buffed so that it benefits from the dispel resistance provided by Subtlety)
4. Removal of 4-piece set bonus from the Restoration set (+15% speed bonus in forms)
5. Cyclone reduced from 30 yards to 20; Nature’s Reach reduced from 36 yards to 24

Sadly, this change is pretty much the nail in the coffin for Restoration-based PvP and will severely handicap already struggling Balance Druids in Arenas. I guess Blizzard is still working toward their goal of having no more than 60 Druids at 2200+ rating. So much for making incremental changes to see how they affect things.

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PTR: Cyclone Range Reduced to 20 Yards