With Patch 2.2 out the door, the official information about 2.3 hasn't stopped all afternoon. Here's what's in store for Druids as confirmed on the official forums by blues:- Spell damage added to Healing gear. This was hinted at during Blizzcon and confirmed today: All +Heal gear will receive one-third of the healing bonus as +spell damage. So a chest piece with +750 healing will now also have +250 spell damage. The addition of spell damage is a bonus and will not lower any other stat on the equipment. (source)
- Intensity is changing. Currently, this Restoration talent increases your mana regeneration in combat 5%/10%/15%. After Patch 2.3, the mana regeneration will increase to 10%/20%/30%. (source)
- Innvervate will not be changing, but Tranquility will be receiving the benefit of +Heal gear. (source)
- Druid combat rez is having its cooldown reduced from 30 minutes to 20 minutes. CM Bornakk went on to confirm that the cooldown will not be reduced any further since that would seriously imbalance PvP. (source)
- Zul'Aman is ready to go in Patch 2.3. This is important news for druids as some Balance spec itemization issues were promised to be addressed in this 10-man post-Karazhan instance.
- New relics for Druid, Shaman and Paladin PvP players. Blues didn't have specific details but promised they would be tailored for many different specs. (source 1, source 2)
- Moonkin's PvP viability will get a boost: they will be able to cast Remove Curse while in Moonkin form. (source)
- Tree of Life form will be able to cast Cure Poison and Abolish Poison. (source)
- No changes planned for feral druids in this patch. (source)
The +spell damage bonus is a welcome addition to all of those Resto specced raid healers looking to do some pewpewpew in their offtime. Again, I see it as another reason there will be a resurgence in the Dreamstate spec. It will also help with some much needed +spell dmg itemization on leather items for Balance druids.
With the Intensity change, I forsee a revival of the Dreamstate healing spec (deep Balance & key Restoration talents resulting in maximum Mana Regen for endurance healing). I also see this as part of Blizzard's commitment to making Spirit a more valuable stat.
Tranquility receiving the benefit of +Heal great is going to make it more of an aggro magnet than it already is. This, in turn, will make the Improved Tranquility talent mandatory (reduces Tranquility threat 100% for 2pts). But where are you going to pull those 2 points from? Especially if you're a Dreamstate Druid? The answer is: you don't and you continue to ignore Tranquility except in extreme circumstances.
The combat rez cooldown reduction is much welcomed. I know many druids have been campaigning for a regular rez, but let's not snub our snouts at this change. I ended up combat rezzing the healer in a pick up group last night in the first 3 minutes. And healing him. And Innervating him. And healing the tank. And then I went back to cat dps. But I digress. The quicker I can reuse this, the better.
Finally, Zul'Aman. Though we have no details on the Moonkin drops in the new zone, the next patch is promised to go up soon on the PTR and then on to Live quickly after that. Details should be forthcoming soon. I just wish that the Moonkin itemization problems could be addressed without forcing us into raid zones.
The relic issue has been a big one lately. Druid Tank just wrote an excellent blog entry about this very issue two days ago. Why is a level 60 green item the best relic for a bear tank? I'm glad to see that Blizzard is starting to address this issue, but it would be even better if they offered a non-PvP alternative as well.
Balance druids getting Remove Curse in Moonkin form is probably a great boon to PvP'ers when facing Warlocks. I don't pretend to know the details of Druid based PvP, so if any commenter has insight into the impact of this change on Moonkin PvP gameplay, please let us know.
Tree druids can now cast their two poison curing spells without shifting out to humanoid form. What else is there to say about this change other than: finally!
Information is still pouring out of Blizzard fast and furious, so check back for more updates!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-26-2007 @ 8:19PM
Tumples said...
As I expected and I'm glad for tbh as a feral druid. The feral try is working really well at the moment, about time the balance and restoration trees got some love.
If the itemisation in ZA is good enough it might even turn me over to moonkin :o
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9-26-2007 @ 8:29PM
tmklein said...
forgot to mention the changes to the macros and the way they shift forms:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=879058320&sid=1&pageNo=1
see post 16 and 18 for the most details.
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9-26-2007 @ 8:40PM
Urthona said...
SQUEE
(If the Bloodfang armor is used as the model for the "new Balance set" I'm going to shoot myself.)
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9-26-2007 @ 8:46PM
Autumnbear said...
Night Elves will now train Humans to be Druids?
I can only wish. ^_^
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9-26-2007 @ 8:53PM
Traxus said...
Regarding the +spell damage added to +healing items: does this apply only to items that are strictly +healing, or does it include items that have +damage and +healing? In other words, if the item has both spell damage and healing already will it still see a spell damage increase?
Thanks for any clarification you can give.
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9-26-2007 @ 9:18PM
Omacron said...
Is this +healing change intended for WOTLK armor, or EVERY piece of healing gear becomes balance worthy?
If so, time for me to throw on the moonglade raiment.
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9-26-2007 @ 10:37PM
hamiltonerics said...
As a Moonkin, I went CRAZY over that doubling of intensity's... intensity. People said dreamstate was the end of OOMkin, and maybe for well geared players it is. But, if this + dreamstate do not = a huge boost in anti-OOM-ness (you follow that?), then I will be thoroughly surprised. We'll see, I don't care to do the math... well, not now anyway
Remove Curse? I don't PvP Much... I just kinda do whatever, but hey, any spell we can cast in Moonkin Form is awesome. Plus I'll have something useful with which to replace Soothe Animal on my main action bar (I like symmetry, and there are 7 spells on it that I use)
My biggest complaint is the Zul'Aman itemization. I think it's amazing that we are getting some *hopefully* decent items, and ZM will be really accessible to a lot of people. But a lot of other people, perhaps the majority, won't be able to really get a solid amount of gear from there. As a high school student, any raiding I do will be sporadic at best. I leveled up LW on purpose, and am 15 points away from the craftable set (and what a 15 points they are), so throw in some more customizable ones. I don't really want +healing, just +dmg and some crit! And while I'm not in heroics, throw some gear in there and 5-mans, besides the lame quasi-set of mixed blues.
Rant over...
Hooray for out tree friends!
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9-26-2007 @ 10:39PM
hamiltonerics said...
Oh, and...
Shifting from Moonkin into Flight Form instantly?
HELL YA!
-Sylvanra, Perpetual recruit of Critical Business[A]-Smolderthorn
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9-26-2007 @ 11:57PM
Mark said...
It was previously stated that feral druids have a problem with scaling and would be receiving a buff this patch as such. Lets hope its next patch then.
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9-27-2007 @ 6:11AM
Fyxie said...
Abolish poison in tree?!? Finally! Not to mention +spell dmg from healing gear and lowering the cooldown of rebirth?! It's too good to be true! And the intensity changes *drools*!
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9-27-2007 @ 8:40AM
Vestras said...
All pure win.
One thing that pisses me off though, How would reducing the cooldown on Rebirth unbalance PVP? Who the hell ever casts a rez in PVP? That cooldown remains the reason you will not see a resto druid being the sole healer of a group, you always need one of the others along to rez, even if they dont use any other healing abilities.
Come on Bliz, get serious and give us a decent cooldown!
As for the rest, no complaints. I'm a dreamstate druid and i am really looking forward to getting some of my punch back in while I am healing. being able to throw Insect swarm and have it do damage again would be great. I too hope Moonglade gets a serious overhaul. I have almost a full set, but It's just not that good right now.
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9-27-2007 @ 8:47AM
orin said...
The Intensity change is huge. Currently the only way to make Spirit regen as much as MP5 over a 10 minute boss fight is if you also have things like the Blue Dragon trinket, Bangle trinket, and Primal Mooncloth sets all stacked on top of talents and such. Then you *might* get as much mana regen. Most Druids don't do the math to figure that out though.
With the Intensity change, a Druid with 600 Spirit and in the FSR 90% of the time will now gain 5400 extra mana. Assuming 1 Innervate used, that will make it so that 1MP5 = roughly 2.4 Spirit if the Druid then goes on to get full raid buffs.
Anyway, without getting into the math any more than that, lets just say I'm really happy to see this change. :)
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9-27-2007 @ 1:28PM
Sean said...
A few things:
I like the changes, they are nice, BUT!!
1) Still no MotW in tree form? It is a real pain shifting in and out all the time during a raid.
2) Remove curse still can't be cast in Tree Form. Please don't give me the "it's a balance talent" argument, because MotW and HT are both in the Resto Tree.
3) Trees still walk slower. Of all the stupid things that are on the tree form, this one tops them all. Get rid of it. When was the last time you saw a PvP with a druid in Tree Form? I can't even dream of it. It's also a major pain in several boss fights where running is involved.
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9-27-2007 @ 2:21PM
h8rain said...
Woot on the 20 min cool down on battle rez, but....
I have said this over and over that Tree of Life should have a separate non-battle rez, with no cool down. I mean the freaking name is Tree of Life. RRRR frustration. I want to switch to Resto druid, but only if I can act as a main healer.
+1 on the ToL walking slow. What's the point?
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9-27-2007 @ 2:22PM
Kamileon said...
I don't think these changes will make Dreamstate builds for healing more viable.
Dreamstate (and Lunar Guidance alongside) is pretty good for boosting up healing as a druid when you're undergeared, but endurance healing, which is mostly just a concern for raid healers will still be the domain of Tree-specced druids. Especially with the change to intensity. Regening more mana from spirit actually makes dreamstate less necessary.
Rolling Lifebloom stacks in treeform for the cost reduction is more mana-efficient than Dreamstate/HT healing. And more unique and effective as well.
I am a moderately geared tree druid nuding 1600 +heal, but with nearly 600 spirit raid buffed. (I'm a mishmash of healing pieces from kara and SSC; my only "tier" gear are my T3 bracers I haven't been able to replace.) and I can still cast LB until my branches fall off with the help of my friendly local shadowpriest. (Who gets all my innervates.)
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9-27-2007 @ 5:19PM
Kraf said...
I'm a moonkin, and have been a moonkin since lvl 60, and am finally glad to see dispell curse and more gear added. Even though i get around pretty well in raiding with the armor i have. I'm really happy to see more put in, but then again that might atract more people to respeccing.
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10-04-2007 @ 6:10AM
nekkiddo said...
Resto druids should also be able to cure diseases. They're supposed to be masters of nature.
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