Druid-related tidbits from the latest PTR build:

• Entangling Roots: This ability will no longer be overwritten when the new Entangling Roots would do less damage.
• Feral Charge: It is now possible for the interrupt and root effects from this ability to be resisted separately.
• Natural Perfection (Restoration) – Now also grants the Natural Perfection effect after being critically hit, reducing all damage taken by 1/3/5% for 8 seconds. Stacks up to 3 times.
• Natural Perfection: This talent can now trigger while the Druid is sitting.
• Tree of Life: It is no longer possible to have the bonus healing aura from this ability while not actually in Tree of Life Form.
• PvP Trinkets: Insignia of the Alliance, Insignia of the Horde, Medallion of the Alliance, and Medallion of the Horde now clear the debuff from Judgement of Justice.
• Growl: Resist rate is now affected by melee +Hit rating. (credit to Kapoue)

Hooray for Judgement of Justice becoming trinketable, although in most cases, I think I might need to save my trinket for something more sobering. Like a 5-second mace stun or 10-second Fear. The change to Feral Charge seems like it will be a buff since two separate resists gives you a greater chance of at least one of the effects being applied (the root or the interrupt). You can see all the latest changes over at PvP Scene.

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• PTR Patch 2.1.2
• Patch 2.4.2: Natural Perfection "Fixed"
• “Fake” Patch Notes Not So Fake after All

Before the release of the Burning Crusade (back when the level limit was capped at 60), I was asked how ugly gear would have to be before I’d rule out wearing it for its stats. My response at the time was, “I’d wear a chicken on my head if it had 50 Spirit!” Well, if the images of Zul’Aman loot are any indication, it would appear that Blizzard has accepted my challenge. Our shiny new — ostensibly Tier 5 equivalent — armor and weapons appear to be made of just about every natural material one could find lying around in a field: dried grass, mud, feathers, rocks, pieces of bird nest, and paint colors that would offend the senses of even the most primitive peoples. As an example, look at the Helm of Natural Regeneration, an item that drops from Jan’alai:

Helm of Natural Regeneration Binds when picked up Head Leather 328 Armor +33 Stamina +39 Intellect +30 Spirit Red Socket Yellow Socket Blue Socket Socket Bonus: +9 Healing Durability 70 / 70 Requires Level 70 Equip: Increases healing done by up to 86 and damage done by up to 29 for all magical spells and effects.

Obviously, those are some pretty sweet stats. But then take a look at what it looks like when worn (pictured at left, preview courtesy of MMO Champion). While it isn’t exactly a chicken on your head, it instead makes YOU look like a chicken. Honestly, Blizzard, is this some sort of punishment for guilds unable to clear SSC for decent looking gear? Are we to be made fun of in our hula skirts of +50 STA and coconut breastplates of 120 +Healing? Actually, that would be kinda cute — at least on female Night Elves — so I’m sure there’s nothing of the sort in store for us. WTB visibility toggles for every slot!

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• Zul’Aman Druid Leather Previewed
• Mailbag: Zul’Aman Healing Chests
• Gearing for Arenas

The Public Test Realm patch notes for Patch 2.3 were released yesterday. While most of the changes related to Druids were already announced, there were a couple of notable additions. Here is the complete list of upcoming changes along with my comments:

• Barkskin: It is no longer possible to cast this spell while Cycloned.

  You can’t be damaged while inside a Cyclone, so you’d only be wasting your Barkskin if you used it.

• Cure Poison and Abolish Poison are now usable in Tree of Life Form.

  Huzzah! Finally, fewer ToL Limitations. While nice, I’d say that removing poisons is only about 30% of the reason I’m forced to shift out of ToL. 70% goes to Remove Curse which seems a far more popular debuff type for mobs to throw around.

• Cure Poison, Abolish Poison and Remove Curse range increased to 40 yards.

  This is really great news for Arena play. It was so annoying to be in range to heal a teammate but not close enough to him to remove his Curse of Tongues.

• Entangling Roots: It is no longer possible for multiple Druids to have Entangling Roots on the same target. In addition, it will now always be removed correctly if multiple Druids overwrite each other’s Entangling Roots.

  Hrmph. So double Druids can no longer give each other “back up” in terms of one set of Roots breaking early (likely eating into each other’s DR in the process).

• Feral Attack Power: Items that granted bonus attack power in Cat, Bear, Dire Bear, and Moonkin forms have been re-evaluated. In almost all cases, the attack power on the item has been increased. This change corrects an issue where feral weapon damage was not keeping up with other classes in its rate of increase.

  This seems like a great change pretty much across the board for Ferals.

• Force of Nature: This ability will no longer automatically break stealth on victims in its casting area. Nearby stealthed characters may still be attacked if they are too close to the summoned Treants.
• Heart of the Wild: This talent no longer provides 4/8/12/16/20% bonus Strength in Cat Form. Instead it provides 2/4/6/8/10% bonus attack power.

  There is some debate over whether this is a buff or a nerf and whether it’s intended to push Ferals toward picking up Rogue gear.

• Hibernate: This spell will now always be removed correctly if multiple Druids overwrite each other’s Hibernate.

  That would need to be a whole lot of Druids in one Arena for this to matter. ^_^

• Intensity (Restoration) increased to 10/20/30% mana regeneration.

  This is the change I’m most excited about from the upcoming patch. It should change the way I value Spirit, at least in PvE.

• Primal Fury: This talent will now be learned correctly even if purchased while the Druid is dead.

  Bug fix.

• Rebirth cooldown reduced to 20 minutes, from 30 minutes.

  Another nice change. I still want regular resurrection, though.

• Remove Curse is now usable in Moonkin Form.

  VERY nice change. Now Moonkins can really be Mages and complain about having to take time away from boom boom to decurse. =)

• Shapeshifting Spells: Some of these spells were causing additional unintended threat. That additional unintended threat has been removed.

  I’m curious which forms were receiving unintended threat. I knew those Mudfin Frenzy were just a little to persisent in attacking my Seal Form!

• Soothe Animal: This spell now properly consumes Nature’s Swiftness.

  When I first saw the words “Soothe Animal“, I was expecting something more along the lines of “Soothe Animal is worthless and has been replaced with a spell that conjures a giant chicken on your head. We felt that players would get better use out of this spell.” Darn.

• Tranquility now gains additional benefit from spell damage and healing bonuses.

  Wow. It already seemed pretty powerful to me. I wonder why spell damage bonuses are included, though.

• Grounding Totem: This totem is now destroyed upon redirecting any spell to itself.

  This means that a Cyclone will destroy the totem rather than simply putting it on cooldown.

• Items: Arena Relics: New relics have been added to support all talent trees for relic users. In addition, most of the arena-system relics have been renamed so there is a more consistent naming convention.

  This will be nice for Ferals and Boomkin participating in Arenas and will hopefully provide some additional options for tanking. /crosses fingers

• Items: Overseer Disguise: It is no longer possible via use of this item to be on a mount while in Moonkin Form or Tree of Life Form.

  Some players can be quite creative.

• Zul’Aman: Zul’Aman is a 10-player, level 70 outdoor instance located in the Ghostlands. Players will be able to confront six new bosses including the Forest Troll Warlord Zul’jin.

  This is worth mentioning because of it supposedly being a great source for off-spec itemization, particularly Moonkin.

And in case you missed them, there are some pretty nice changes to Leatherworking, as well:

• Stylin’ hats no longer require Zhevra leather.
• Greatly increased the radius of the Drums of Battle, Drums of Restoration, Drums of Speed, and Drums of War.
• Removed the casting time from the Drums of Battle, Drums of Restoration, Drums of Speed, and Drums of War.
• Slightly increased the radius of Drums of Panic.
• Reduced the casting time of Drums of Panic and added a global cooldown equal to the casting time.
• Drums of Speed and Drums of Restoration are no longer world drop recipes, and can now be obtained from the Mag’har and Kurenai faction vendors with revered standing.
• A new recipe is available from Grand Master leatherworking trainers to create glove reinforcements, providing a substantial armor bonus. Reinforcements are a permanent enchantment and cannot be placed with other permanent enchantments.
• New recipes are available from Grand Master leatherworking trainers to make 20 slot quivers and ammo pouches.
• New recipes are available from the Honor Hold, Thrallmar, and Lower City quartermasters to create 24 slot quivers and ammo pouches.

If you’re looking for other classes’ perspectives on this patch, I would encourage you to check out the following:

• Feral Druid from Of Teeth and Claws
• Priest from Priestly Endeavors
• Rogue from Parry, Dodge, Spin!
• Shaman from Resto4Now

Related Posts

• Patch 2.4 Official Class Changes
• “Fake” Patch Notes Not So Fake after All
• PTR Patch 2.2

Blizzard recently announced that all items with +Healing will be gaining an automatic amount of +Damage equal to 1/3 the item’s +Healing value. While this may not sound earthshattering, it’s worth noting that for the same item stat allocation, a healing item will typically have double the +Healing as the equivalent +Damage item. If we consider a very simple example, if an item has 300 +Healing, the damage caster equivalent would have 150 +Damage. With the upcoming change, the healing item will gain a “free” 100 +Damage (1/3 * 300). That’s an amazing 66.7% of the spell damage available to pure damage casters, all while retaining the amazing +Healing stat. To be honest, I’m surprised there hasn’t been more protest from damage casters…

Nhara of Rajaxx wrote in this weekend to share her experience on the Public Test Realms. Bedecked in her shining Primal Mooncloth Robe and with 60 points invested in Restoration, she videoed her encounter with Uvuros of Shadowmoon Valley, a level 70 Elite mob that typically takes 2-3 players to kill. Of her experience, she writes:

I started with Zahna, the elekk in Nagrand which is part of the “kill
an elite of every animal race in nagrand” quest series. The fight was pretty easy, and I downed her on first try, so I spread out my wings in search for a greater challenge and ended up in front of Uvuros, which some of you may know from a 5-man elite quest in Shadowmoon Valley. I didn’t really think that I would stand a chance, but I just had to try it.

While Nhara doesn’t manage to kill Uvuros, she does manage to drop his life to a very respectable 66% before running out of mana. In her current healing kit, her 1830 +Healing will convert to an additional 610 +Damage. Imagine the havok she will subsequently be able to wreak on Outland elites! All in all, a very impressive feat and one that is promising for the rest of us, especially given the upcoming spell damage bonus. Thanks, Nhara!

Note: Normally, I like to embed these sorts of videos in my blog so that you don’t have to leave to view them (unless you want to). However, the DivX web player is giving my Vista system fits and crashes my browser when I attempt to preview the video. I do not, however, have any issues viewing the video through the DivX site.

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The cooldown on our combat resurrection spell Rebirth will be reduced from 30 minutes to 20 minutes in an upcoming patch:

We want to whack the cooldown from 30 minutes down to 20 minutes.

And just to say it, we have no current plans to lower it further and make it usable in arenas. A full druid team with a bunch of Rebirths sounds a little wonky.

While I am appreciative of any attention given to the lack of viability of Druids as 5-man healers (except when “backed up” by another healer), a reduced cooldown on Rebirth doesn’t address the essential problem of not having a standard resurrection spell: you can’t ressurect more than one group member unless one of those that died is herself another Druid or a “real” rezzer. If anything, this change is discouraging because it’s likely the only improvement they’ve decided to make.

Rebirth Rank 6 68% of base Mana 30 yd range 2 sec cast 20 min cooldown Reagents: Flintweed Seed Returns the spirit to the body, restoring a dead target to life with 3200 health and 3200 mana.

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