German Community Manager Zolphea writes:

Also an einer Terrorkatze wird, unseres Wissens nach, nicht gearbeitet.

Was wir jedoch planen, ist, Baumrinde mit Patch 2.3 in der Katzen- und Reisegestalt nutzbar zu machen.

Mein gott! I don’t speak German! What does that mean?!? Oh. PvPScene also has the translation:

Currently we are not working on a Dire Cat Form. But what we plan is to make Barkskin available in Cat and Travel Form!

I don’t get “caught” in kitty very often, but this might help when trying to get away and getting mace stunned while a cheetah. I guess they decided not to allow Bear Form to use Barkskin because they feel that it would be unbalancing in PvE.

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Good news for Restoration spec in Arenas. Community Manager Eyonix has announced that our lackluster PvP talent, Natural Perfection, will be seeing an additional effect with the next PTR update:

The Restoration talent, Natural Perfection, will now also (upon the next data push to the Public Test Realms), grant the Natural Perfection effect after being critically hit, reducing all damage taken by 1/2/3% for 6 seconds. This will stacks up to 5 times.

While this is obviously a buff, its overall value is questionable. 3% damage reduction from being crit the first time, 6% the second, 9% the third, 12% the fourth … and if it isn’t a Rogue hitting me, I’m dead already. This likely won’t be a significant survivability increase.

Edit: Wow! Within a single day’s worth of feedback, Eyonix has responded to concerns that the damage reduction would accrue too slowly to be helpful. They’re buffing the damage reduction to 1%/3%/5% per rank, stacking up to 3 times. That’s 15% benefit with a little over half the number of crits to max it out!

We’ve read through a great deal of feedback and are making another adjustment to the Natural Perfection talent which you’ll see in the next PTR data push.

“Now also grants the Natural Perfection effect after being critically hit, reducing all damage taken by 1/3/5% for 6 seconds. Stacks up to 3 times.”

While I’m very excited for this change, I still really like my idea of the following addition:

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Users from the Public Test Realm are reporting that the recent change of MP5 to Spirit on the Vengeful Gladiator’s Refuge (S3 Restoration) that was reported last week has since been reversed. Whether or not this is direct response to the outcry of several high profile Druid Gladiators like Mookysolo or Blizzard independently recognizing that such a change would be an unwanted nerf to Druid longevity in Arenas, many Druids (including me) are joyful at this recent news. While I generally have no objections to Spirit as a viable PvE stat, I find the idea of stacking Spirit on Arena gear to be of questionable merit, especially given the upcoming change to make our Innervate more visible and thus much more likely to be dispelled.

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Visitors sometimes e-mail me with specific questions related to Druids. Last night I was lucky enough to get two e-mails with some great questions that I thought I might share. Please feel free to comment with any additional information you think might be helpful!

Bigtoy of Cho’gal asks:

Does the Tier 5 two piece (+6 seconds to Regrowth) fundamentally change the efficiency of Regrowth or not? 27 seconds of ticking is a lot, but is it enough?

Adding two additional ticks to Regrowth will increase the base amount healed by its HoT portion by 2/7 (7 ticks to start off, and we’re adding 2 more). That’s a 29% improvement to the heal over time portion. To calculate the change to efficiency (measured in HPM), we divide the improvement to the amount healed divided by the unchanged mana cost. Since the mana cost is unchanged, it’s simply 29%*. Depending on how often you use Regrowth (and assuming you use it more than for just Swiftmend which is, by the way, unaffected by this set bonus), this might be considered a pretty nice bonus. On the other hand, Regrowth is an expensive spell — albeit less so in Tree of Life. While this is by no means a terrible bonus, it’s important to keep in perspective how often you’re casting Regrowth and whether you’re getting its full value (additional HPS padding on a tank along with a long-running Swiftmend catalyst, for instance).

* Note: As Vacamuerta points out in the comments, the total efficiency change for Regrowth will actually be lower than 29% since the above calculation does not take into consideration the direct heal (which is unaffected by the set bonus). Determining the efficiency change by factoring in both portions of the spell, she finds that the efficiency change is only 14.5%. Thank you for pointing this out and finding the value for us, Vaca! (dead cow?)

Someshta of Frostmane asks a question that’s probably on several people’s minds:

I was also curious whether or not you thought I should spend my honor on the Veteran’s Kodohide Boots, Belt, and Bracers, even though the Vindicator’s stuff is coming out soon. I can’t actually use them until 70, but if I decide to get them then I want to stop at 69 to Honor farm.

Blizzard has stated in the past that they will always give a 2-week notice before beginning a new season. If you find that you’re going to cap out on honor (you can carry no more than 75k each season), I’d buy the boots (my favorite choice). Otherwise, go ahead and save your points. Even if Season 3 isn’t released at the same time as Patch 2.3, it can’t be too far behind since the sets are already viewable on the PTR!

Thanks to both of you for the questions! And on another note, Dan O’Halloran, one of the authors of the Shifting Perspectives column over at WoWInsider and the author of the One Druid, Many Worlds blog was gracious enough to mention Resto4Life in his most recent blog article, “Druid Blogs You Should Be Reading”. The site was fortunate enough to be featured alongside several other of my favorites, including … well, they’re actually all among my favorites so be sure to check them out! And thank you, Dan! The added exposure for my new URL is greatly appreciated!

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According to recent reports from the PTR, Blizzard has swapped all MP5 on Season 3 armor for Spirit at a value of 1:2.5. At first glance, this appears to be a nerf to Restoration PvP viability as Spirit is generally regarded as worthless in a PvP setting. However, consider that the shorter an Arena game, the greater the equivalent MP5 value of Innervate (more mana returned over a shorter period of time). On the other hand, in 2.3, all players will be able to see the buffs a player has, making Innervate that much more vulnerable to dispel. While it’s still up in the air whether this is a buff or nerf, it should at least make Arena- and Battleground-obtained armor more attractive in PvE (where many Druids espouse the value of stacking Spirit).

• Previous Stats via MMO Champion
• Updated Stats via MMO Champion

Mookysolo of Ner’zhul, well-known Druid Arena PvP mogul strongly objects to this change as a substantial nerf to the PvP viability of Druids. Here’s a snippet of what he says:

The irony of it all is that these changes could not have come at a worse time. With the recent change allowing enemies to see your buff/debuffs AT ALL TIMES, this means the chances Innervate will be dispelled is very high. Currently in high rated Arena (specifically 2v2/3v3), my Innervate will be dispelled the moment I’m in LoS of a Priest/Shaman; now this is just with the use of mods like Focus Frame, Cenemycastbar, etc. After the buff change, every single Priest/Shaman will remove my Innervate without thinking twice even if I take the time to go out of LoS, Innervate, and buff myself with “filler” buffs like Lifebloom, R1 Rejuv, R1 MotW, and R1 Thorns, players will make it a top priority to spam purge on me until my Innervate is removed. This also means they will not need to Purge until they cannot Purge anymore buffs, this means they Purge, check if I still have Innervate, repeat.

Edit: Huzzah! Recent reports from the Public Test Realm indicate that this change has been reversed!

In other Patch 2.3 news, Cromlis of Cenarius is reporting a signficant change to spellcasting for Druids while in forms:

If you try to cast a spell while you are in a form, then you will automatically shift out and cast that spell.

For example, if you are in bear form, and you press regrowth (via spellbook or a button on an action bar), then you will automatically shift to caster form and start casting regrowth. This works for moonkin, and any form really. As long as it is a caster ability that you cannot use in your current form, you will automatically shift out and cast it.

This signifies an end to the need for using the “/cancelform [stance:1,2,etc.]” command at the beginning of all heal spell macros since the game will now automatically shift you to caster form if you current form denies you the ability you’re attempting to use. And for those who aren’t necessarily comfortable with this change, note that it can be disabled by entering the following console command:

/console autoUnshift 0

Thanks to Kai for this helpful tip!

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