Firstly I'd like to thank the folks who visit my pages. Glancing at the changes to the moonkin on the forums, I'm not sure how this will effect me and/or my rotation. Usually in a fight like in Baradin Hold during the fire phase I'll be strafing around the room spamming moonfire since, as you move, you have a buff that reduces mana cost and increases damage of moonfire. It's an awesome tool, at least I think, so this new thing they're implementing in the upcoming patch might be interesting or challenging or both...
I'll include the Druid patch notes here, but not much else...
From Blizzard:
Druids
Druids now gain 1 attack power per point of Strength, down from 2. They continue to gain 2 attack power per point of Agility while in Cat Form or Bear Form.
Entangling Roots and the equivalent spell triggered by Nature's Grasp no longer deal damage.
Ferocious Bite damage has been increased by 15%. In addition, its base cost has been reduced to 25 energy and it can use up to 25 energy, for up to a 100% damage increase.
Innervate now grants an ally target 5% of his or her maximum mana over 10 seconds, but still grants 20% of the druid's maximum mana over 10 seconds when self-cast.
Mangle (Cat) damage at level 80 and above has been increased to 530% weapon damage, up from 460%.
Omen of Clarity clearcasting buff from now lasts 15 seconds, up from 8 seconds.
Ravage damage at level 80 and above has been increased to 975% weapon damage, up from 850%.
Shred damage at level 80 and above has been increased to 520% weapon damage, up from 450%.
Swipe (Cat) now deals 600% weapon damage at level 80 or higher, down from 670%.
Talent Specializations
Balance
Earth and Moon's duration has been increased to 15 seconds, up from 12.
Fungal Growth spell visual effect has been updated to be less visually intrusive and more aesthetic.
Lunar Shower has been redesigned. When casting Moonfire, the druid gains Lunar Shower. Lunar Shower increases the direct damage done by Moonfire by 15/30/45%, and reduces the mana cost by 10/20/30%. This effect stacks up to 3 times and lasts 3 seconds. While under the effects of Lunar Shower, Moonfire generates 8 Solar Energy, and Sunfire generates 8 Lunar Energy. The amount of Lunar/Solar Energy gained does not change based on the number of points spent in the talent, or stacks of Lunar Shower. Those druids who wish to delay transition in or out of an Eclipse state should now cast the one of their two basic attacks which will not move the Eclipse bar (either Starfire or Wrath).
Solar Beam has a new spell effect.
Wild Mushroom: Detonate can now also trigger Earth and Moon, in addition to Starfire and Wrath.
Restoration
Symbiosis (Mastery) has been removed and replaced with Harmony. Harmony increases direct healing by an additional 10%, and casting direct healing spells grants an additional 10% bonus to periodic healing for 10 seconds. Each point of mastery increases each bonus by an additional 1.25%. Healing Touch, Nourish, Swiftmend, and the initial heal from Regrowth are considered direct healing spells for the purposes of this Mastery. All other healing from druid spells is considered periodic.
Glyphs
Glyph of Berserk duration increase is now 10 seconds, up from 5.
Glyph of Ferocious Bite has been redesigned. It now causes Ferocious Bite to heal the caster for 1% of maximum health for each 10 energy used.
Glyph of Innervate now causes the druid to gain 10% of his or her maximum mana over 10 seconds when Innervate is used on a friendly target, in addition to Innervate's base effect.
• • • Back to Owl • • •
Well, I'm wondering how the Solar Beam will look, especially since I got a new graphics card and can play the game on ultra visual settings without lag or disconnect issues (or so far I've noticed). Definitely worth the investment, I'll consider it my own birthday present to myself. ;-)
I think I like the idea of entangling roots no longer doing damage. It wasn't like it was doing any in the first place, but often times if you did deal damage to the snared target it would break, which was annoying when I was leveling back in the day, although leveling it was almost pointless unless I used nature's grasp so it would snare on the attacker and hold them still while I got away in cheetah form.
But now it seems that it will work much better as a crowd control mechanic in groups. No damage means it won't be breaking prematurely. I can only imagine how polymorph would work for mages that are leveling. Imagine you come across a chest you can open and there's one humanoid near it. You sheep it and then you go and loot the chest and run away? Might work. I'll probably test that theory sometime and if I remember I'll post about it.
As far as crowd control goes in groups, I can't tell you the number of times I've cast entangling roots only to see my target turn into a sheep and then a toad. Sure enough, the mage and the shaman in my group targeted the same thing. If I got a gold for every time that happened, HA! Well, when patch 4.2 comes out, hopefully it won't cause anymore bad pulls. Imagine sheeping a target and the tank had just gone afk and you didn't know it. As a mage you'd be squished... unless you're a night elf mage then you might remember to shadowmeld. Same story for a night elf druid like myself. As Owl if I were to root a target and nobody else was there to save me, I'd shadowmeld and let the mob reset itself.
With this change, there could be fewer tears when in a pug that is new to crowd control. Something I'm looking forward to. Imagine in Grim Batol for instance. As a bear tank I could hibernate one target, root another, buff myself with thorns, go to bear form and start attacking. Sounds like a lot, maybe so, but if I was the only one with CC abilities, I'd try to use it if the group needed it.
--OWL
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