Update at 2008-02-15 2:01 CST: Community Manager Nethaera has posted concerning the set bonus change for both Feral and Restoration:

The Restoration 4-piece Gladiator set bonus has been changed in the next PTR build. It is now the old Stormrage set-bonus, which is -0.2 seconds off Regrowth. In addition, the speed bonus to Cheetah will remain on the Feral 4-piece Gladiator set bonus.

Oh well, at least I can remember using Regrowth in Arenas.

World of Raids is reporting as yet unannounced changes to all three Druid 4-piece set bonuses from Arena Gear from its current value:

4: Increases your movement speed by 15% while in Bear, Cat, or Travel Form. Only active outdoors.

to three distinct set bonuses for the Balance, Feral, and Restoration sets. The new 4-piece bonuses being reported from the PTR are:

• Balance: Your Wrath casts have a chance to reduce the cast time on your next Starfire by 1.5 sec.
• Feral: Increases your movement speed by 15% while in Bear Form or Cat Form. Only active outdoors. The Feral 4-piece set bonus will remain as listed above.
• Restoration: The casting time on your Healing Touch spell is reduced by 0.25 sec.

The change to the Restoration set bonus is devastating. As Runycat stated on an earlier post, “I can’t remember the last time I ever cast Healing Touch in an Arena match.” I cast them all the time in Arenas … but only in conjunction with Nature’s Swiftness! This one single change could topple Druids in 2v2 Arenas, while nothing is being done to help improve their standings in 5v5. The Feral change is plainly a nerf and an unnecessary one at that; admittedly, I am not very familiar with Feral Arena PvP, but I don’t think they use Travel Form very often. The Balance change (either one) is the only one I would consider positive, especially the occassional reduction on cast time for Starfire. That might actually be a nice PvE bonus (so too might the HT bonus, at least for Dreamstate healers).

Related Posts

• Arena 2 Class Set
• Cheetaz R 4 Run
• 15% Speed Bonus (Not) Restored

Edit on 2/21: Community Manager Kalgan (US) has announced that this change will now only be active in Arenas.

Players on the 2.4 PTR are reporting that the method by which drinking restores mana has been adjusted so that the amount returned starts off low and increases each tick. It was originally reported by Matthan of Endor (EU) and later confirmed by Community Manager Hortus to be an intentional change:

This is an intentional change to how drinking works. The amount of mana regenerated now ramps up, so you will see little or no mana regen the first few seconds and then it will increase as the duration continues.

It appears this change did not make it into these patch notes, I’ll see about getting it added to future notes.

Community Manager Vaneras later responded to the resulting outcry from this change on another thread:

It is true that a change in 2.4 in regards to drinking. The intention is to offset some of the mana regeneration from drinking so that the mana gained from drinking will be less in the beginning of the duration, but it will ramp up and increase towards the middle and end of the duration.

It should be noted that we specifically made sure that there would be little to no change in the amount of mana regenerated by players, who drink between pulls or during gauntlet runs. There should be almost no difference in the amount of mana yielded if you sit to drink for at least 6 seconds, which most players do.

Many players accurately assumed that this change was made in response to complaints about casters — and especially Druids — drinking [Star's Tears] to restore mana in Arenas. This supposition was later confirmed by Vaneras:

The change is being made to have as little impact to PvE players as possible, but it has to affect all water as this fix applies to Arenas, battlegrounds, and world PvP, which will have specific emphasis in the upcoming expansion.

For those wondering about the nitty gritty math behind how this currently works on the PTR, Vaneras explains:

After the change you will gain little to no mana after first tick(~2 seconds), the second tick(~4 seconds) will give you the normal amount of mana+66% extra and the third tick(~6 seconds) will give you the normal amount of mana+33% extra, and then it levels out after that. This means that you will still gain mana before the ~6 second mark (before the third tick), however it will be less than what you are used to now. At the ~6 second mark you will have gained as much as you would have before the change.

Ironically, Druids will likely be the class least punished by this change since running HoTs allow us to stay away from combat longer and at least half of us have the racial ability, Shadowmeld, to protect us while drinking. And as other healers derive less benefit from drinking, our relative longevity will actually improve.

Thanks to Currant of Druid Tank and reader Bullar for clueing me into this change!

Related Posts

• Tastes Great and Just as Filling
• Trinketed Lifebloom Nerfed on PTR
• Vaneras: Druid PvP Viability Under Review

It would appear that the previously “leaked” patch notes were, in fact, faked. Here are the changes officially announced just this evening:

• Empowered Rejuvenation: This talent now properly affects the final heal from Lifebloom.
• Gift of Nature: This talent now properly affects the healing from Tranquility.
• Insect Swarm: Casting lower ranks of this spell is now properly penalized like other healing and damage effects.
• Lacerate: This ability now deals additional damage based on the attack power of the Druid.
• Mangle (Bear) now properly triggers a 1.5 second global cooldown, increased from 1.0.
• Natural Perfection: This ability will no longer be triggered by taking critical strikes while sitting. In addition, it is now affected by the Subtlety talent.
• When a Druid in cat form casts Pounce it will now properly animate.

A couple of buffs to Restoration, although I’m not sure I understand the change to Empowered Rejuvenation. Was this spell improperly affecting the bloom effect of Lifebloom and will no longer do so? ER reads like it should have only affected the heal over time portion of Lifebloom. The Gift of Nature change is a nice increase to a rarely used spell.

There were two other changes of note affecting all casters, one of which we already knew about, but the other which is a complete (and welcome) surprise:

• Spell Haste: Spell haste now reduces the global cooldown on spells, down to a minimum of 1 second. This change does not apply to melee and ranged abilities.
• Spirit-Based Mana Regeneration: This system has been adjusted so that as your Intellect rises, you will regenerate more mana per point of spirit.

Now that is interesting, especially since it will constitute a need to rewrite several of the analysis pieces here. Additionally, the following idols will be adjusted:

• [Idol of the Crescent Goddess]: The mana discount on Regrowth has been increased.
• [Idol of Feral Shadows]: The bonus damage to Rip has been increased.
• [Idol of the Raven Goddess]: The bonus healing, critical strike rating, and spell critical strike rating from this item have been increased. In addition, it no longer sometimes fails to apply the healing bonus.
• Idol of the Unseen Moon]: The cooldown added in a previous patch has been removed.
• [Idol of Ursoc]: The bonus damage to Lacerate has been increased and the tooltip clarified to indicate it applies to both initial and periodic damage.
• [Idol of the White Stag]: Duration increased.

And the Masquerade Gown has apparently not been appropriately affecting the Tree of Life aura:

[Masquerade Gown]: The Spirit bonus from this item will now properly trigger all benefits from the Tree of Life talent.

Related Posts

• PTR Patch 2.2
• Patch 2.4.2: Natural Perfection "Fixed"
• PTR Patch Notes and Epic Flight Form

Thankfully (for Restoration-specced Druids, at least), these changes appear to have been false.

MMO Champion is reporting on class changes that may be included as part of Patch 2.4. They are currently assigning the likelihood of these changes being accurate a 50% chance:

• Cyclone range reduced to 20 yards, down from 30.
• Lifebloom healing coefficient reduced by (?).
• Natural Perfection now reduces damage by 2/3/4% down from 1/3/5%
• Tree of Life: You may now cast any Restoration spell in this form.
• Improved Tranquility: Now also reduces the mana cost of Tranquility by 10/20%.
• Moonkin Form no longer gains 150% attack power or mana returned from melee hits, but now refunds 2% of your total mana every time you critically hit with a spell.
• Force of Nature: Treants now have a 15% chance to proc Entangling Roots on the target.
• Nurturing Instinct: Increases your healing spells by up to 50/100% of your Agility, and increases healing done to you by 25/50% of your Attack Power.

If true, these changes would represent an enormous nerf to Restoration Druid viability in PvP (and depending upon the reduction to the +Healing coefficient of Lifebloom — PvE). In my opinion, these changes seem far too severe for a single patch and would undoubtedly cause a large number of Restoration Druids to quit the game entirely. I’m definitely (extremely hopefully) leaning towards these patch notes being fake.

Related Posts

• “Fake” Patch Notes Not So Fake after All
• It’s ARBOR DAY in Azeroth!
• Patch 2.4 Official Class Changes

Shan’Do Malfurion Stormrage by Paulo Henrique

According to a recent article at Computer and Video Games previewing Wrath of Lich King, it’s possible that the next Hero class to be released will be an Arch Druid:

What’s more, with any luck, we’ll see more Hero classes some time after release, the hot Zitron tip being some kind of Archdruid quest directly connected to Malfurion Stormrage and the much-anticipated Emerald Dream.

Assuming this is true (it isn’t a direct quote from Blizzard, so let’s not get too excited), where could they possibly be going with an “Arch” Druid? Druids can already fulfill the existing roles — healing, tanking, melee DPS, caster DPS — with the appropriate spec and gear set. What then would set the Arch Druid apart from the Druid? Oh, I know! They’ll get out of combat resurrection!

Related Posts

• 2.4 Mana Regen: Regrowth as the New Raid Heal?
• It’s ARBOR DAY in Azeroth!
• Community Spotlight