Lissanna at Restokin has summed up the spell and ability changes Resto Tree Druids are facing in Patch 4.1. This is information based off the PTR, but the patch looks like it's going to be pushed to live soon and looks accurate, though final patch notes will be the last word. Check out her overview of changes to Cyclone, Lifeblook, Malfurion's Gift, Effloresence and Living Seed.
Druid notes in WoW PTR Patch 4.0.1
September 25, 2010 By
The pre-Cataclysm class balancing patch 4.0.1 hit the Public Test Server and with it many changes to the Druid class. Here are the notes via MMO-Champion:
Balance
- Wild Mushroom now affects targets within 3 yards, down from 10 yards.
- Entangling Roots now lasts 30 sec, up from 27 sec.
Feral
- According to the tooltips, Swift Flight Form, Flight Form, Aquatic Form, Travel Form, Bear Form, Cat Form no longer make you immune to Polymorph.
- Swift Flight Form now costs 8% of base mana, down from 13% of base mana.
- Skull Bash now has a 13 yards range, up from 8 yards.
- Pulverize now increases your melee critical strike chance by 3%, up from 2%.
- Endless Carnage now increases the duration of Savage Roar and Pulverize by 4/8 sec, up from 3/6 sec.
- Stampede now makes Ravage not require stealth for 10 sec (up from 3 sec), it will also cost 50/100% less energy.
- Predatory Strikes now affects targets at or above 80% health, down from 90%.
Restoration
- Rebirth no longer costs mana.
- Rejuvenation now costs 20% of base mana, down from 25%.
- Mastery: Symbiosis (Revamped) – Increases the potency of your healing spells by 10% on targets already affected by one of your heal over time spells. Each point of Mastery increases heal potency by an additional 1.25%.
New Druid Restoration Mastery in Cataclysm Beta
September 25, 2010 By
The Druid Restoration Mastery Deep Healing has undergone a big change in the Cataclysm beta. It is now designed to encourage more Heal Over Time usage by Tree Druids by increasing your the output of your heals on a target that already has a HoT on it. Ghostcrawler explains the idea behind the change:
We like the shaman version. The druid one is problematic for a couple of reasons. Conceptually, a hot is often the last thing you think of putting on someone who is grievously wounded. Second, at the moment the bonus is only calculated on the initial application and not the ticks. If we can fix that problem, then the druid mastery would be better. It's also possible we'll just redesign it.
New Resto druid mastery: Increases the potency of your heals on targets upon which you have a hot.
It benefits both hots and direct heals equally while still supporting Resto being a healer that cares a lot about hots. It encourages layering different spells while disincentivizing Rejuv blanketing.
Examples:
1) You cast Regrowth on someone who has a Rejuv = bonus healing.
2) You cast Nourish on someone who has a Lifebloom = bonus healing.
3) You Swiftmend a Rejuv = bonus healing.
4) You cast a Rejuv on someone who does not have a Regrowth, LB or WG on them = no bonus healing.
5) You cast Rejuv on someone who has a Rejuv = no bonus healing. (You merely refreshed Rejuv.)
6) You cast a Wild Growth = bonus healing on those with preexisting hots.
Q u o t e:
C). Rejuv, then LBx3. Rejuv falls off, and LBx3 is refreshed by Nourish. Will the LB ticks retain the mastery benefit?
Yes. There was a hot on the target, so Nourish benefits (from the mastery in addition to Nourish just working that way).
Q u o t e:
If someone gets low and they don't have a HoT on them already, are you really going to want to put on a HoT, THEN a heal? Probably not.
My impression is that some of you are going from the extreme of "Rejuv everyone in the raid" to "Rejuv nobody but the tank." The reality will probably be somewhere in the middle. Some targets will have hots on them and some won't. The more hots you can keep up, the better off you'll be, but you'll have to balance that against the mana cost of doing so. I don't think it's as simple as "always do X."
Cataclysm Druid Tier 11 Stormrider’s armor set images
September 23, 2010 By
A poster on the MMO-Champion forums from the Raven's Nest EU guild has found images of the druid T11 Cataclysm Stormrider armor set.
Set bonuses were discovered earlier by MMO-Champion:
- Balance: Stormrider's Regalia
- Druid T11 Balance 2P Bonus – Increases the critical strike chance of your Insect Swarm and Moonfire spells by 5%. / Instant
- Druid T11 Balance 4P Bonus – Whenever Eclipse triggers, your critical strike chance with spells is increased by 99% for 8 sec. Each critical strike you achieve reduces that bonus by 33%. / Instant
- Feral: Stormrider's Battlegarb
- Druid T11 Feral 2P Bonus – Increases the periodic damage done by your Rake and Lacerate abilities by 10%. / Instant
- Druid T11 Feral 4P Bonus – Each time you use Mangle (Cat) you gain a 1% increase to attack power for 30 sec stacking up to 3 times, and the duration of your Survival Instinct ability is increased by 50%. / Instant
- Restoration: Stormrider's Vestments
- Druid T11 Restoration 2P Bonus – Increases the critical strike chance of the periodic portion of your Lifebloom spell by 5%. / Instant
- Druid T11 Restoration 4P Bonus – Whenever you have Lifebloom stacked to its maximum of 3 applications on its target, you gain 540 Spirit. / Instant
WoW Druid T11 armor set bonuses revealed in Cataclysm beta build 12942
September 11, 2010 By
via MMO-Champion:
- Item – Druid T11 Restoration 2P Bonus – Increases the critical strike chance of the periodic portion of your Lifebloom spell by 5%. / Instant
- Item – Druid T11 Restoration 4P Bonus – Whenever you have Lifebloom stacked to its maximum of 3 applications on its target, you gain 540 Spirit. / Instant
- Item – Druid T11 Balance 2P Bonus – Increases the critical strike chance of your Insect Swarm and Moonfire spells by 5%. / Instant
- Item – Druid T11 Balance 4P Bonus – Whenever Eclipse triggers, your critical strike chance with spells is increased by 99% for 8 sec. Each critical strike you achieve reduces that bonus by 33%. / Instant
- Item – Druid T11 Feral 2P Bonus – Increases the periodic damage done by your Rake and Lacerate abilities by 10%. / Instant
- Item – Druid T11 Feral 4P Bonus – Each time you use Mangle (Cat) you gain a 1% increase to attack power for 30 sec stacking up to 3 times, and the duration of your Survival Instinct ability is increased by 50%. / Instant
Druid buffs and nerfs in Cataclysm beta build 12857
September 4, 2010 By
via MMO-Champion:
Balance
- Hurricane base damage increased by 33%.
- Innervate now regenerate mana equal to 20% of the casting Druid's maximum mana pool, down from 33%.
- Starsurge now has a 40 yards range, up from 30 yards.
- Entangling Roots now has a 2 sec cast time, up from 1.5 sec.
- Starfall now has a 40 yards range, up from 30 yards. Base damage increased by 33%.
- Lunar Shower now increases damage done by your Moonfire by 15/30/45% (Up from 2/4/8%)
- Force of Nature now has a 40 yards range, up from 30 yards.
- Solar Beam now has a 40 yards range, up from 30 yards.
- Lunar Guidance no longer increases the radius of your Solar Beam.
- Moonglow now reduces the mana cost of all your damage and healing spells.
- Nature's Majesty now increases the critical strike chance with all spells.
Feral
- Thrash now has a 6 sec cooldown, up from 5 sec.
- Swipe (Bear) base damage increased by 33%.
- Swipe (Cat) now deals 215% weapon damage, up from 125%.
- Furor now increases your maximum mana by 5/10/15% instead of increasing your intellect by 2/4/6%.
Restoration
- Lifebloom now heals over 10 sec, up from 7 sec. Costs 7% of base mana, up from 5%.
- Omen of Clarity is now properly flagged as Passive.
- Regrowth HoT effect reduced by 60%, now heals over 6 sec instead of 21 sec. Cast time reduced from 2 sec to 1.5 sec.
- Natural Perfection is now a Tier 5 talent, down from Tier 6.
- Swift Rejuvenation is now a Tier 6 talent, up from Tier 5.
- Revitalize revamped – When you periodically heal with your Rejuvenation or Lifebloom spells, you have a 8/16/24% chance to instantly regenerate 3% of your total mana. This effect cannot occur more than once every 6 sec.
- Heart of the Wild no longer increases maximum mana by 5/10/15%, now increases Intellect by 2/4/6%.
[WoW Patch 3.3.5] Raid healing guide to Halion
July 8, 2010 By
Matt Low of WoW.com has posted a 25-man raid healing strat guide to the Ruby Sanctum boss Halion. It covers all phases of the fight and gives advice for all healing classes.
WoW Cataclysm closed beta druid spell, ability, mastery and talent list
June 30, 2010 By
The WoW Cataclysm closed beta has officially begun and the NDA has lifted. MMO-Champion is one of the first out of the gate to post a complete list of the current druid spells, abilities and talents, including masteries, new spells and recent dev comments about class changes.
[Resto 3.3.3] Comprehensive Resto Druid guide
May 2, 2010 By
Keeva at Tree Bark Jacket blog has posted one of the most comprehensive guides to playing a Resto Druid I've seen yet. This extensive guide covers just about everything a Resto Druid needs to know: talent specs (below the haste cap, over the haste cap, raid healing, tank healing, 5-man healing), explanation of Druid talents, overview of healing spell types, healing rotations (raid healing, tank healing, 5-man healing), stats to look for on gear, gems, glyphs, idols, trinkets, consumables, enchants, addons, macros, keybinds and leveling guide. You getting the idea? Current as of WoW Patch 3.3.3.
[Resto] How to raid heal
April 20, 2010 By
Anaram of the guild Paragon has posted on her guild forums a guide on raid healing. It's not about rotations and spell selection, but about how to choose who to heal and when. This is geared for 25-man raiders. Thanks to the Dreambound Druid blog for the link!
