According to MMO Champion, Blizzard has updated the official talent calculator with what we assume are changes coming to the WotLK beta environment. Here is a summary of all the Druid changes with discussion to follow:

Balance

• Moonkin Form mana cost has been changed from 22% base mana to 538 mana. The report of this change has been retracted by MMO Champion.
• Typhoon mana cost has been increased from 475 to 645 and the range changed from 20 to 24 Yards.
• Force of Nature mana cost has been changed from 12% base mana to 284 mana. Cooldown has been reduced from 3 to 2 minutes.
• Starfall mana cost has been increased from 655 to 866. Range increased from 30 to 36 yards. Damage seems to be changed as well but it looks like the version displayed in the talent calculator isn’t the first rank of the spell.

Feral

• Faerie Fire range has been increased from 30 to 36 yards.
• Primal Tenacity now increases your chance to resist Stun and Fear mechanics by 5/10/15% (Old version : Reduces the duration of Fear effects by 5/10/15% and reduces all damage taken while stunned by 5/10/15%)
• Improved Mangle now reduces the cooldown of your Mangle (Bear) ability by 7% (instead of 0.5 sec) and reduces the energy cost of your Mangle (Cat) ability by 2.

Restoration

• Tree of Life mana cost reduced from 28% base mana to 978 mana. The report of this change has been retracted by MMO Champion.
• Flourish mana cost decreased from 585 to 450. Amount of healing decreased (Rank 1 now heals 672 HP instead of 1610). It appears that this change may have been made in error. Current talent calculator lists the amount healed at its previously reported value (Rank 1, 1610).

Impressions

Of course, the biggest hubbub (in my head) surrounds the change to Flourish, a change that can only be described as a nerf with its mana cost reduced slightly and its healing output decreased dramatically. Disappointing, but I’m curious what Rank 3 will look like. On a related note, reader Thalosar asked a question about the 15 yard radius associated with Flourish and what we could expect to use it for. In my opinion, it’s preferred use may end up for the MT and surrounding melee since it will count as another HoT and therefore benefit from Gift of the Earthmother (which restores 5% mana on Nourish and Healing Touch per HoT on your target).

Interesting changes to the shapeshifting mana cost, not only of Tree of Life but of Boomkin, too. I’m scratching my head over the rationale, as reader Zaira points out in the comments on yesterday’s Flourish Preview:

Tree Form mana cost shift was changed from 28% base mana to 987 mana (static) which seems a wee bit harsh for level 50 when you can get it, but lacking a movement penalty, and being able to cast all spells in it at the moment, it seems like we won’t be practicing shifting-in-and-out rapidfire, and with master-shapershifter being so conveniently located it will probably be more affordable.

For comparison, at level 70 a Druid has 2370 base mana, 28% of which is 663.6 mana. For a Balance Druid, Moonkin Form costs 521.4. That makes this a nerf at level 70, though it’s not clear how much base mana we’ll have at level 80. Maybe they’re trying to make Natural Shapeshifter more attractive, though I can’t imagine forgoing it since it unlocks Master Shapeshifter, increasing healing done while in Tree of Life by 4%.

The Mangle (Bear) cooldown change represents a nerf of 0.08 seconds since the change means its cooldown will go from 5.5 to 5.58 seconds. Even worse, the energy reduction for Mangle in Cat Form has been cut by 66%, down from 6 to 2. Primal Tenacity is being changed back to its current, live description which is actually a nerf since it removes the mini, perma-Barkskin (while stunned) that they were getting in Alpha. This is definitely a disappointing change for Feral PvP. I asked Runycat of Unbearably HoT for her impressions. Here’s what she had to mew:

Blizzard has apparently reverted to the kind of language we currently see: 5/10/15% resist to stuns and fears. Why? I can only postulate, but I’m assuming they deemed it over-powered — and I may tend to agree.

In terms of PVP, you might think hey, getting damage reduction while feared or stunned (you know, when you’re super dotted or getting the @#$% kicked out of you by a Rogue or a cheap-ass mace Warrior) is pretty great! You could even go so far as to argue that Warriors can pick up 2/2 Second Wind and regenerate health and rage… But if you have a Druid anticipating the fear or stun, shifting into Bear Form, gaining an extra 500-550% armor (depending on whether or not you’ve got all points in Thick Hide) and 25% STA and then having an additional 15% damage reduction? It’s admittedly a little ridiculous. I suppose you could argue, "Hey, that won’t even happen that much if each Fear and stun’s duration is reduced by 15%, but there’s a problem there, too.

I realize that S4 is seeing a massive influx of counter-comp teams (and that those may seem "unfair" to specific teams), but certain classes rely heavily on the key timing of their fear effects (notice I used "Fear" and not "Horrify") to survive, and we certainly wouldn’t want to reduce the effectiveness of mace-stuns (I’m not bitter) either. Apparently Blizzard has decided that it’s better to just give us the "chance" to resist entirely (15%+5% base chance = 20% total chance to resist a fear or stun) rather than give us a straight-up advantage across the boards. While I’m not one to underestimate minor advantages, would riding out a 20 second fear really be worse than a 17 second fear? Maybe; that extra 3 seconds could mean the difference between a quick Cyclone/heal and your teammates dying. But is it worth spending 3 points in the Feral tree? I doubt it.

I admit that I’m shocked to see the mana associated with Balance spells like Typhoon and Starfall increased. One of Balance’s major concerns right now — and apparently in the Beta, too — is mana usage. An increase in mana cost without some improvements to the availability of mana regeneration seems ill-conceived. WTB Line-of-Reasoning on that change.

Moving Pictures of Moving Kitties

And now for something completely more fun and enjoyable than reading about how you’re going to be nerfed before you even get the fun abilities to try yourself (admittedly, it’s probably a lot less painful this way). First up, I have a couple of videos from Felidae of Outland (EU) to share for the new Pounce animation which is really cute (cuteness mileage may vary for mouth-breathing Tauren Cat Form):

And here’s a second video recording from Felidae of the new Feral Charge animation in Cat Form.

There are actually three videos which show Feral Charge in Cat Form, but this was my favorite. You can view the other two here and here.

Related Posts

• Beta Patch Changes (Build 8681)
• Build 8962 Changes
• Official "Beta" Changes to Druids

Edit at 8:08 AM MST: Added changes discovered from comparing the Alpha talent trees to the Beta talent trees.
Edit at 10:26 AM MST: Added static tooltips for some new abilities. Thanks, WotLK WoWHead!

Table of Contents

• General Changes Affecting Druids
• General Druid Changes
• Balance Changes
• Feral Changes
• Restoration Changes
• Impressions
• More Information

The Wrath of the Lich King beta has officially started, and Blizzard has lifted the Non-Disclosure Agreement previously prohibiting participants in the Friends and Family Alpha from sharing information about the expansion. Along with the newly-begun beta, a new version of the WotLK-ready game client and patch notes have been released. Much of what has been previously reported and discussed is included therein, but I’ll bold the Druid portion of the notes below with a discussion about things I believe to be new at the bottom of this post:

General Changes Affecting Druids

• Spellpower
  • All items and effects which grant bonuses to spell damage and spell healing are being consolidated into a single stat, Spellpower. This stat will appear with the same values found on items which grant “increased spell damage and healing” such as on typical Mage and Warlock itemization.
  • For classes which do not heal, they should see no change in the character sheet other than new tooltip wording.
  • Healing characters will see their bonus healing numbers on the character sheet decrease, however, all healing spells have been modified to receive more benefit from spellpower than they received from bonus healing, with a net effect of no change to the amount healed by their spells. Some talents have had to be rebalanced to accommodate this change, but the amount healed will remain roughly the same. In addition, some talents will provide only healing spell power.
• Overhealing is now reported in the combat log.
• The Warrior skill Hamstring now only has one rank and no longer causes damage.

General Druid Changes

• Brambles (Balance): Now increases the damage done by your Treants, and also damage caused from your Treants and Barkskin has a 5/10/15% chance to Daze the target for 3 sec.
• Thorns damage reduced to 73 from the Alpha value of 141. With Brambles, that number is 147, down from 246.
• Entangling Roots: Can now be used indoors.
• Improved Mark of the Wild (Restoration): Now a 2-point talent, down from a 5-point talent.
• Nature’s Grasp (Balance): Can now be used and can proc indoors.
• New Spell: Revive – Returns the spirit to the body, restoring a dead target to life with health and mana. Cannot be cast when in combat. 
  

  Revive Rank 7 72% of base mana 30 yd range 10 sec cast Returns the spirit to the body, restoring a dead target to life with 1800 health and 1365 mana.  Cannot be cast when in combat.

• Omen of Clarity (Restoration): Now a passive spell. Now also works for spells (healing and damage). Proc rate is roughly 6% with a 10 second internal cooldown.
  

  Omen of Clarity Each of the Druid’s spells and attacks has a chance of causing the caster to enter a Clearcasting state.  The Clearcasting state reduces the Mana, Rage or Energy cost of your next damage, healing spell or offensive ability by 100%.

• Soothe Animal can now be used on Dragonkin as well as Beasts and is now instant cast.

Balance Changes

• Celestial Focus (Balance): The stun proc now works with Starfall.
• Focused Starlight (Balance): Now also works with Starfall.
• Force of Nature (Balance): Cooldown reduced to 2 minutes, down from 3.
• Hurricane: No longer has a cooldown (was 1 minute).
• Moonglow (Balance): Now also works with Starfall.
• Moonkin Form (Balance) no longer increases your attack power or causes you to regenerate mana off melee attacks, but now has a chance to cause you to instantly regenerate 2% of your total mana every time you critically hit with a spell.
• Nature’s Grace (Balance): Now also reduces the global cooldown of your Wrath spell by 50% while in effect.
• Nature’s Grasp (Balance): Can now be used and can proc indoors.
• Nature’s Reach (Balance): Now also reduces threat generated by Balance spells by 15/30%.
• Balance-specific threat management for Balance can now be found in the Balance tree, within Nature’s Reach.
• Vengeance (Balance): Now also works with Starfall.
• The proc from Improved Moonkin Form (Balance) now lasts 8 seconds instead of 10 and has a 30 second internal cooldown.
• Tier 10 talent Nature’s Fury (Balance) talent (applies a debuff increasing Nature and Arcane damage taken) has been renamed as Earth and Moon.
• Brambles (Balance) now only increases the damage from Force of Nature by 15% instead of 75%.
• Force of Nature (Balance) cooldown restored to 3 minutes (was 2 minutes in Alpha).

Feral Changes

• Faerie Fire (Feral): Now an 11-point talent, down from being a 21-point talent.
• Feral Charge (Feral) is now a 21-point talent, up from being a 11-point talent.
• Feral Charge (Feral): Can now be used in Cat form.
• Feral Instinct (Feral) no longer increases threat generated in Bear form, but now increases damage done by your Swipe ability by 5/10/15%.
• Improved Faerie Fire (Feral): Now also works with spell hit, in addition to ranged and melee hit %.
• Mangle (Feral): Now increases the damage done by Maul in addition to Shred.
• Primal Tenacity (Feral) now reduces damage while stunned by 5/10/15%, and reduces the duration of fear effects by 5/10/15%.  
• Survival of the Fittest (Feral): Increased to 2/4/6%, up from 1/2/3%.
• The mana regeneration penalty when in Bear Form, Dire Bear Form and Cat Form has been removed.
• Lockjaw (Feral) (Finishing move that dealt damage and stunned for X+1 seconds.) has been replaced with Savage Roar:
  

  Savage Roar Rank 1 25 Energy 100 yd range Instant Finishing move that increases attack power by 25%.  Lasts longer per combo point:   1 point  : 9 seconds   2 points: 12 seconds   3 points: 15 seconds   4 points: 18 seconds   5 points: 21 seconds

Restoration Changes

• Improved Tranquility (Restoration): Now also reduces the cooldown of your Tranquility spell by 25/50%.
• Nature’s Focus (Restoration): Now a 3 point talent, down from a 5-point talent. Also moved to Tier 1, up from Tier 2. Now also includes Nourish.
• Subtlety (Restoration): Now a 3-point talent, down from a 5-point talent. Also moved to Tier 2, up from Tier 3. Also now only reduced threat for Restoration spells, and reduces the chance that your healing over time spells (Lifebloom, Regrowth and Rejuvenation) will be dispelled, rather than all Druid spells.
• Tranquil Spirit (Restoration) now also includes Nourish.
• Tree of Life (Restoration): 30% snare penalty has been removed.
• Tree of Life (Restoration): Can now cast Dispel Curse.
• Tree of Life (Restoration): You can now cast all Restoration spells (Healing Touch) in the form, but Tree of Life now only reduces the mana cost of your healing over time spells (Rejuvenation, Lifebloom, Regrowth and Flourish) by 20%.
  

  Tree of Life Shapeshift 28% of base mana Instant cast Shapeshift into the Tree of Life. While in this form you increase healing received by 25% of your total Spirit for all party and raid members within 45 yards, and you can only cast Restoration and Barkskin spells, but the mana cost of your healing over time spells is reduced by 20%. The act of shapeshifting frees the caster of Polymorph and Movement Impairing effects.

• Improved Tree of Life (Restoration) now only grants 100% additional armor instead of 360%.
• Improved Tree of Life (Restoration) now boosts the Tree of Life aura by 15% instead of 3%.
  

  Improved Tree of Life Rank 3 Increases your Armor while in Tree of Life Form by 100%, and increases the effect of your Tree of Life Aura by 15%.

• The healing done by Flourish (Restoration) has been increased from 672 to 4410. The mana cost has been tripled from 450 to 1425.
  

  Flourish Rank 4 1125 Mana 40 yd range Instant cast Heals up to 5 friendly party or raid members within 15 yards of the target for 4410 over 7 sec. The amount healed is applied quickly at first, and slows down as the Flourish reaches its full duration.

Impressions

There were several very nice surprises for those who have been following the Alpha changes. I think I’m most excited about Omen of Clarity as a passive effect that procs on both healing and damage spells. Finally, Restoration Druids will have a viable form of clearcasting, making this talent a must-have (and fun)! Tree of Life is losing its silly movement restriction and gaining the ability to cast Remove Curse and Healing Touch. This means we’ll no longer have to shift out to use our Nature’s Swiftness + Healing Touch macro. All positive changes that shouldn’t prove unbalancing. The news of an out of combat resurrection spell, while expected, is definitely a welcome confirmation. In terms of PvP, Subtlety no longer providing dispel resistance to Innervate is a very annoying change.

Balance Druids are probably Chris Farley dancing in Moonglade with the incredible changes to their Chicken Form. No more silly melee/AP mechanic! Maybe they heard the Epic Dolls podcast where that was lamented… The change to Nature’s Grace so that it actually lowers the Global Cooldown of Wrath is phenomenal, making Eclipse-based rotations like those described by Graylo more viable. Brambles will no longer add a Daze proc to Thorns as previously reported but instead will give the Daze effect to Barkskin. Interesting change; I now hope that Daze doesn’t increase threat because it will make Barkskin a less desirable means of dealing with unwanted aggro.

I admit I didn’t pay as much attention to the Feral changes over the course of the Alpha (but certainly welcome commentary from readers). One significant new development is the change to mana regeneration in forms. I was under the impression that Druids in Cat and Bear Form were regenerating mana at the same rate as in caster form in live, but apparently such was not the case. It was also rumored in the Alpha that Ferals wouldn’t regenerate mana at all in forms, which would have been a blow to both PvP and PvE. The Feral ability Lockjaw (a CP-based stun) has been replaced with a Finishing Move similar to the Rogue’s Slice & Dice that buffs Cat Form’s AP for a duration based on the number of CP when used.

More Information

• The Balance Perspective from Gray Matter
• Full patch notes via MMO Champion
• Updated Talent Trees from MMO Champion
• The WotLK Wiki (great all-around resource)
• The Official Beta site
• Official Read-Only Beta Forums

Related Posts

• Build 8962 Changes
• Druid Changes, Rocket Kitteh and Pounce Videos
• Beta Patch Changes (Build 8681)

This is in response to the Blog Azeroth Shared Topic Top 10 WoW Memories from Cathmor of Eye for an Eye.

1. During the last few hours of the open beta, Phaelia was level 12 and fishing in the lake in Moonglade. I pulled up a Golden Pearl which sold for a whole GOLD to the vendor. I used the proceeds from my find to  buy a dress and some flowers so I’d “go out in style.”
2. Back when Scholomance could be raided with up to 40 people, I was there with my  first guild. In the last room with the balconies overlooking where Darkmaster Gandling eventually spawns, we were standing outside of the room with the ridiculous number of skeletons historically used by Paladins to pad the DPS meters. I had a cosmopolitan (cranberry juice and vodka) sitting beside my keyboard and, in the process of standing up from my desk, my leg bumped the keyboard tray, pushing it into my desk and knocking over my drink. Frantically trying to mop up the mess, I must have hit the autorun button on my mouse because before I knew it, I was charging into the room alone. I’m pretty sure we wiped.
3. I’m sure that most Druids would agree that one of their most memorable moments was turning level 68 and training Flight Form. Flying was (and still is) one of my favorite things in Warcraft. And the feeling of freedom from insta-cast Swift Flight Form is far better than the casting-time based mounts that other players get. They can’t jump off of Aldor Terrace and shift halfway down (just make sure you don’t shift into Tree form like I did earlier this week).
4. During my single season as a “hardcore” Arena player, my husband and I played a 2v2 game against a 2-Rogue team. Now, I know that some people say Druids are OP in Arenas (and they must have been for me to be able to reach 1915, to be honest), but that doesn’t mean that playing one isn’t incredibly stressful. Melees were the worst for me. I hated the feeling that someone was trying to kill me/not letting me heal my partner (yeah, I was definitely not cut out for PvP). Anyway so we play this 2 Rogue team and I’m terrified. Despite this, I think I played my best Arena game ever, keeping away from both Rogues, keeping Abolish Poison on both me and Mr. Phae, and rolling HoTs at the same time. When we won, we got 28 points from them, which means they were much higher rated than we were. I have to keep telling myself that they weren’t the alternates on a “farm team.”
5. Phaelia is a Tailor/Leatherworker. I was one of the first players on my server to craft the Primal Mooncloth set. I remember sinking 800 gold or so into buying enough cloth to craft the belt (I made the robe first) so that I could complete the set bonus. Putting all three pieces on was a huge accomplishment and set me belt and shoulders above most of my guildmates at the time.
6. For weeks, I diligently did the Daily Fishing Quest, hoping to get one of the cute little baby crocodiles (I’m from Louisiana originally, so it has sentimental value as well as matching my robe). I was beginning to get really discouraged as day after day I got the same junk: hooks, elixirs of water walking, and the occasional fishing knife. One Friday afternoon, though, Valenna was over to play poker with Mr. Phae. I turned in my quest, asked him to cross his fingers (which he did), and lo and behold out came Toothy! Now if only he could help me get a Fishing Hat! 
7. Like many guilds, Aegis Hestia stalled out on the Gruul encounter since it was really the first raid we tried in 25-man progression. I think we probably worked on him for 6 weeks before finally downing him, so that first victory was extra sweet. 
8. My very first non-combat pet was the White Kitten, given to me by my good friend, Fikus. I guess he camped Lil Timmy, Boy with Kittens enough times to get kittens for several friends. “The Abominable Snowball” is still in my bank’s kennel and retains her sentimental value.
9. I got my introduction to MMOs in EverQuest, playing for five years as a Ranger (ouch). My limited experience with healing in an MMO came in the form of raiding with Clerics. The raid content in EverQuest 1 was relatively shallow, with corps of clerics dedicated to casting their Complete Heal spell in regular intervals. So that other Clerics could keep track of their place in line, they would make simple macros like:
   

   /rsay ~* Casting COMPLETE HEAL on %t ~~ 10k HP in X seconds! Primadonna, you’re up next!! *~
   /cast Complete Heal

   When I first started instancing with my friends, I made similar macros for all my heals:
   

   /p Incoming Healing Touch on %t!! 500 hp in 3 seconds!

   I was promptly informed (by Valenna) that this was annoying and that if I didn’t stop, he would put me on ignore.

10. Last month I was standing outside of the Magister’s Terrace instance, waiting for my group to do whatever it is that group’s find to do while you’re waiting at the summoning stone and some random person of some random class came up to me and said, “/cheer I love your blog!” That made my whole evening.

Related Posts

• It’s Not ALL about the Heals
• Daily Quest: Intercepting the Mana Cells
• [70+] Personal Quests (Complete)

Inspired by Currant’s recent Feral summary, I’d like to share some of the rumored changes to the Restoration spec as of the most recent update to Alpha. As always, keep in mind that these changes aren’t necessarily going to make it into the final release. They’re still fun to look at, though!

Continue reading ‘More Resto Rumors’…

Related Posts

• Build 8962 Changes
• Official "Beta" Changes to Druids
• Wrath Recap

People love to speculate. Whether it’s oil, futures, gold, or changes to our favorite game, we love to scry the future using dubious methods that range from rolling the bones to data mining. Me? It gives me hives. Okay, not really, but I hate speculating. Why? Because I could be wrong. It’s odd, yes, but that idea that I really don’t know keeps me from wanting to get crazy with preliminary information simply because I know how often I have been wrong. Assumptions are funny that way. Blogging isn’t exactly held to a high standard, let’s be frank, but one thing we try to do here at R4L is ensure that we aren’t just talking out of our knotholes. Even when we are.

That said, it’s hard not to want to know what’s going on and what the loudmouths in the blogosphere like me think about it. So here it is, commentary from a solitary bear in the woods about what may or may not be. Speaking as your unsolicited ursine seer, these are the Feral-relevant points I’ve found.

Continue reading ‘Oracular Bear’…

Related Posts

• Build 8962 Changes
• Official "Beta" Changes to Druids
• Beta Patch Changes (Build 8681)