WoW Danomatic: The Daily Druid

WoW feral cat druid best spec, talents, glyphs, dps rotation

DanO — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 19:57:30 +0000

Chase Hasbrouk at WoW Insider (aka Alaron of The Fluid Druid) posted a new Feral Cat Druid 101 guide earlier this year. Current for Patch 4.0, it covers cat stats, best talent spec, glyphs and dps rotation.

WoW Patch 4.1 changes for Resto Tree Druids

DanO — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 19:04:36 +0000

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

DanO — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 23:41:19 +0000

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%.

Druid spell changes in Cataclysm Beta Build 13066

DanO — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 23:36:39 +0000

MMO-Champion has datamined a new Cataclysm beta patch (13066) that has yet to hit the server. For Druids, these are the spell differences found:

Balance

Nature's Torment is now named Nature's Grace and now resets the cooldown of Nature's Grace instead of Nature's Torment.

Feral

Thrash affects all targets within 8 yards. (Tooltip clarification)
Tiger's Fury now increases physical damage done by 88.8% for 6 sec. (This one is weird, might want to wait before theorycrafting)
Pulverize base additional damage increased by 66%.
Stampede now affects your next Ravage. (Tooltip clarification)
Fury Swipes – When you auto-attack while in Cat form or Bear form, you have a 5/10/15% chance to cause a Fury Swipe dealing 200% weapon damage. This effect cannot occur more than once every 3 sec. / 5 yd range, Instant

Restoration

Lifebloom can now be cast on an unlimited amount of targets while under the effect of Tree of Life.
Omen of Clarity (Passive) – If specialized as a Feral Druid, Omen of Clarity will also have a chance to occur from your auto-attacks. (Tooltip clarification)
Tree of Life now lasts 30 sec, down from 45 sec. Costs 6% of base mana, down from 13% of base mana.
Efflorescence no longer procs from Regrowth critical heals, now procs when you heal with your Swiftmend spell. Now heals all nearby friendly targets within 8 yards (up from 4 yards) for 10% of the amount healed by your Swiftmend over 7 sec.
Blessing of the Grove no longer increases the damage done by your Claw and Shred.

New Druid Restoration Mastery in Cataclysm Beta

DanO — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 23:24:57 +0000

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."

source

Cataclysm Druid Tier 11 Stormrider’s armor set images

DanO — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 18:36:28 +0000

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

DanO — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 18:36:22 +0000

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

Feral Druid tank spec for Patch 3.3.5

DanO — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 04:47:51 +0000

Why am I posting this with Cataclysm imminent? Because I'm getting quite a few hits from the people searching Google for this information and I don't have exactly what they are looking for. Until now.

The biggest problem players are having finding this information is that nothing much has changed for the feral druid tank spec from patch 3.3 to 3.3.5. The best guide for Feral Druids that incorporates Patch 3.3 changes is the one over at Tankspot. Talents, Glyphs, gear, threat rotations, gems, enchants and best-in-slot are all listed.

Enjoy while you can. Everything changes in Cataclysm. Everything.

Cataclysm beta early leveling impressions for druids

DanO — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 13:00:54 +0000

Lissanna of the Restokin blog gives her impressions of leveling a druid from 1-20 in the Cataclysm 12857 beta build. A lot of abilities are granted earlier than before and both feral and balance leveling are much smoother than they were originally. Which is good since neither spec was considered an early leveling build when the game launched. Bear and Resto aren't generally considered leveling specs and aren't addressed in her article.

Cataclysm build 12857 Balance druid impressions

DanO — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 06:24:04 +0000

Lissanna of Restokin has taken her beta Balance druid to level 85 and has posted her impressions on the class so far. She touches on the new Eclipse UI, going OOM much faster, the new Wild Mushroom spell and more. Remember that this only impressions in the current beta build. Much will change on the way to launch.