[Druid] 2.1 Changes

Thyril · 04/13/07, 11:17 AM

* The "Druid Epic Flight Form" is now available through a series of quests.
* "Barkskin" now reduces all damage taken, with its duration reduced to 12 seconds and cooldown reduced to 1 minute. The tooltip has been adjusted to indicate this ability can be used while frozen, incapacitated, or cowering in fear. That functionality was already present, but not listed in the tooltip.
* "Bear Form" and "Dire Bear Form": The bonus health from shapeshifting into these forms will again be removed correctly when shifting out of these forms.
* "Cyclone": This ability will no longer work on hunters with "The Beast Within" active or hunter pets with "Bestial Wrath" active.
* "Feral Charge" now suppresses all Slowing effects while charging the target.
* Fixed a data error that caused "Swiftmend" to generate more threat than intended.
* "Force of Nature": These pets will now come into the game with full health, including that gained from a percentage of their master's stamina.
* "Gift of the Wild", ranks 1 and 2, are now available on trainers.
* "Gift of the Wild": Rank 3 of this ability now has the same range as ranks 1 and 2.
* "Improved Leader of the Pack": This ability will no longer generate threat.
* "Lacerate": The tooltip has been adjusted to indicate it does initial bleed damage when the ability first lands.
* "Lifebloom": Each additional application of this spell will now include the full bonus from effects which increase healing. The final heal, however, is still unaffected by stacking multiple applications of this spell.
* "Mangle(Bear)": Damage increased by 15%, but bonus threat reduced so that overall threat generation will be unchanged.
* "Nature's Grace": This talent is now triggered by "Swiftmend" and "Lifebloom", and is triggered by and affects "Cyclone".
* "Nature's Grasp": The mana cost has been removed from all ranks as intended.
* "Omen of Clarity": This spell is no longer castable in "Tree of Life Form" or "Moonkin Form".
* "Prowl"will now be broken correctly by damage shields such as "Oil of Immolation".
* "Rake": The tooltip has been adjusted to indicate the initial damage done is bleed damage. In addition, "Rake" can now always be re-applied, even when "Mangle" is active.
* "Shapeshifting" will no longer remove the "Rotting Putrescence" creature debuff.
* "Subtlety"(Restoration Talent) now applies to all spells, not just healing spells.
* "Swiftmend": This ability will now be correctly penalized for casting low rank "Rejuvenations" and "Regrowths" just as other healing spells are penalized.
* "Teleport: Moonglade": This spell is no longer castable in "Tree of Life Form".
* "Tree of Life Form": The tooltip has been corrected to indicate "Nature's Swiftness" and "Rebirth" are castable in this form.

Three questions:

1. Will the changes to lifebloom make ToL more viable in raids? It seems that lifebloom is edging on overpoweredness due to the healing/mana ratio, especially once the full stack is reached.

2. Will Balance Druids be more desirable in raids with the threat reduction talent? It effectively allows Balance Druids to push their DPS 20% higher. The question would be can current Balance Druids push their DPS any higher without encroaching on cloth items.

3. Is orange really the best color for the horde epic flying form?

The changes to barkskin are also very welcome and perhaps are my favorite change out of the Druid notes.

Lord BEEF · 04/13/07, 12:17 PM

1. I'd say yes. Rolling lifeblooms will do 450 or more health per second on a reasonably geared druid that's specced for it, and that should definitely help the throughput of trees which is their biggest weakness. The downside of this is that keeping it rolling forces you to remain within the five second rule, but that's what the bangle of endless blessings is there for

I wanna see the math on its healing efficiency

It's also a really nice boost for pvp healing, coupled with the barkskin change. While I'm not going to be in tree form in pvp, having a 3 stack of lifebloom on someone will help protect their other buffs from being purged/dispelled so they're more likely to keep bloodlust or whatever.

(I don't fully understand how purging works with lifebloom so correct me. From what I gather if you have a 3 stack and someone purges you, it'll remove 2 of the stacks and give you one or two 'bloom' heals, I'm not sure how many, but then the last lifebloom will still tick)

2. More viable, but I still don't see them as terribly desirable. Itemization is still very poor outside of the tiered sets and I'm not sure if you really gain in raid dps gain by adding a moonkin over another caster

3. Orange you glad it's not the same model as night elves?

Quasar · 04/13/07, 12:49 PM

* "Barkskin" now reduces all damage taken, with its duration reduced to 12 seconds and cooldown reduced to 1 minute. The tooltip has been adjusted to indicate this ability can be used while frozen, incapacitated, or cowering in fear. That functionality was already present, but not listed in the tooltip.

This always confuses me. Reduces all damage taken... by what? To what? I assume it means Barkskin reduces damage taken from A to B where 0 < B < A and B != the current value (10 or 20%?), i.e. Bear Shield Wall? Or B = 0 (which I doubt), i.e. Bear Divine Shield without the aggro drop in PVE?

Thyril · 04/13/07, 1:03 PM

Originally Posted by Quasar

This always confuses me. Reduces all damage taken... by what? To what? I assume it means Barkskin reduces damage taken from A to B where 0 < B < A and B != the current value (10 or 20%?), i.e. Bear Shield Wall? Or B = 0 (which I doubt), i.e. Bear Divine Shield without the aggro drop in PVE?

If I understand it correctly, all damage, magic and physical, will be reduced by 20% for 12 seconds. It's a mini pain suppression on a minute cooldown.

roquer · 04/13/07, 2:05 PM

Also, bear & cat form shapeshifting costs reduced from 44% of base mana to 35%.
travel, flight and seal form reduced to 13%
Moonkin is reduced from 28% to 22%

Daboran · 04/13/07, 2:15 PM

I would be a lot more enthusiastic about the Barkskin change if they allowed it to be cast in Bearform again. It's far too dangerous to shift into caster to use, even if you did you lose a good proportion of the buff through global cooldowns.

Sherard · 04/13/07, 3:18 PM

Originally Posted by Lord BEEF

1. I'd say yes. Rolling lifeblooms will do 450 or more health per second on a reasonably geared druid that's specced for it, and that should definitely help the throughput of trees which is their biggest weakness. The downside of this is that keeping it rolling forces you to remain within the five second rule, but that's what the bangle of endless blessings is there for

I wanna see the math on its healing efficiency

I would tend to agree with this. The increased efficiency allows us to legitimately use lifebloom stacking and still be an efficient part of the raid.

Raid-wise this is also a major boost, as having effectively 5 hots from one single druid on a tank will significantly reduce burst-damage on the mt.

Two things that do concern me about this patch both have to do with regen:

1.) Though Tol druids are dependant on sprit stacking, we will no longer recieve the bonus mana regen from the 5 second rule due to lifebloom stacking on top of traditional rotations. In essence, the we will not recieve the full benefit of the stat we are heavily itemized in like other healing classes can, limiting our overall viability in a raid.

2.) Changes to consumables will no longer allow us to use elixirs and flasks to make up for lost mp5 and +healing due to spirit-stacking. The result for me is that i will drop more of my spirit in favor of +healing and mp5 in order to keep my raid healing viabitlity on par with other healing classes. Basically with this nerf we have to choose between being highly effective healers ourselves or making everyone elses heals significantly better, we can no longer do both.

Branar · 04/13/07, 3:35 PM

* "Nature's Grace": This talent is now triggered by "Swiftmend" and "Lifebloom", and is triggered by and affects "Cyclone".

Is there something I'm missing here, or can Nature's Grace not possibly be triggered by Cyclone (since it can't crit)?

Morghus · 04/13/07, 4:09 PM

I'm pretty happy with the change to Barkskin. With a shorter cooldown it's easier to remember to use it, and 3 seconds are negligible. The boost to mangle-damage is of course really neat.

I'm not sure what

* "Feral Charge" now suppresses all Slowing effects while charging the target.

means though, could someone clarify?

Quasar · 04/13/07, 4:12 PM

Originally Posted by Morghus

I'm pretty happy with the change to Barkskin. With a shorter cooldown it's easier to remember to use it, and 3 seconds are negligible. The boost to mangle-damage is of course really neat.

I'm not sure what means though, could someone clarify?

If you've ever been Slowed or had Chilled effects on you, Hamstring, etc, and Charge someone, you hear the FWOOSH of your charge as you ever so slowly glide across the ground towards your rapidly escaping foe. I imagine it'll bypass the slow when charging so the FWOOSH is more apt.

Aphyrax · 04/13/07, 4:15 PM

I tried raid healing in ToL and found it very lacking because stuff just hits so damn hard these days. I am not sure that change will be enough.

One problem with the chain lifeblooming is that you blow through mana real fast. If you keep up lifebloom on 3 targets you use 5280 mana per minute in tree form. You will never get out of the 5 second rule and you don't get the balance efficiency talents. And if you chain lifebloom on a single target you might as well spec 34/27 and use healing touch. Higher heal throughput, better clutch healing, and no restrictions on the spells you cast.

Someone please convinve me otherwise because I really like the concept behind ToL.

Delodax · 04/13/07, 4:22 PM

Originally Posted by Thyril

"Subtlety"(Restoration Talent) now applies to all spells, not just healing spells.

It would be really interesting to know if this means that stuff like Insect Swarm and Barkskin will gain resists against dispelling or if it only applies to the aggro...

Morghus · 04/13/07, 4:22 PM

Originally Posted by Quasar

If you've ever been Slowed or had Chilled effects on you, Hamstring, etc, and Charge someone, you hear the FWOOSH of your charge as you ever so slowly glide across the ground towards your rapidly escaping foe. I imagine it'll bypass the slow when charging so the FWOOSH is more apt.

Oh yes. Of course. For some reason I interpreted it as the slowing effects on the target I was charging. Stupid of me.

It's been an annoying detail for such an important mainstay with most talent-builds. Glad they're fixing it. I just hope we won't fall through the world now though.

Crowbite · 04/13/07, 4:34 PM

Originally Posted by Aphyrax

I tried raid healing in ToL and found it very lacking because stuff just hits so damn hard these days. I am not sure that change will be enough.

One problem with the chain lifeblooming is that you blow through mana real fast. If you keep up lifebloom on 3 targets you use 5280 mana per minute in tree form. You will never get out of the 5 second rule and you don't get the balance efficiency talents. And if you chain lifebloom on a single target you might as well spec 34/27 and use healing touch. Higher heal throughput, better clutch healing, and no restrictions on the spells you cast.

Someone please convinve me otherwise because I really like the concept behind ToL.

There really isn't room for more then one ToL druid in a raid. You throw him in a main tank group and only keep the lifeblooms rolling on him. It makes no sense to keep other up with it.

Playered · 04/13/07, 4:36 PM

My HoT spamming is ALOT more viable with my Dreamstate spec than in ToL spec, I find that odd considering that is the role ToL is ment to be best suited for. However now that they finally buffed it I will renew if instead of just letting it float off, 560/sec combined with rejuvenation will be going for over 2200/3sec for me alone, 2 Druids will be able to pull off around 5000/3sec healing with HoTs alone, heck even on 2-3 people at the same time if needs be, god'damned.

ToL is just flawed because its based on spirit & based on spamming, both counteract each other (spamming=MP5, spirit=casting breaks).
The only way to counteract it would be to give ToL a passive bonus of 15-30% spirit regeneration (intensity x2/x3) while in it.
I get around 30 MP5 for my bangle proc, given that a ToL Druid would have notably higher spirit that would be perhaps 40 MP5 for an extra 15%, something along the lines of 20-25% would just make tree alot more viable as a spirit based chain-caster.

Alternativly they could add a JoW ontop of the BoL effect onto ToL, so whenever healing spells are cast on someone with the aura, they get <x> mana back, would help mana issues on all healers and reduce the need for mana pots etc.