5.2 :: Balance Druid Changes!
by Sunfyre on Dec.22, 2012, under Mists of Pandaria
The PTR notes have been released for 5.2, and others have been datamined by our friends over at MMO-Champion. I’ve parsed the notes to only show relevant balance druid changes.
- Cyclone will now share diminishing returns with Banish, Seduction, Bind Elemental, Hex, Freezing Trap, Wyvern Sting, Gouge, Sap, Hibernate, Paralysis, Polymorph, Ring of Frost, Repentance, and Quaking Palm.
- Displacer Beast has been redesigned. It now triggers Cat Form and grants 50% increased movement speed for 4 seconds after teleporting, and no longer activates Prowl.
- Cenarion Ward now grants 100% increased healing.
- Rejuvenation now costs approximately 9% less mana.
- Revive and Mark of the Wild now cost 55% less mana.
- Faerie Swarm can now snare more than one target at a time.
- Mass Entanglement now has a 30 second cooldown (was 2 minutes).
- Typhoon now has a 30 second cooldown (was 20 seconds).
- The Treants summoned by Force of Nature now deal more damage and healing, and the Force of Nature tooltip will report the capabilities of these summoned pets.
- Soul of the Forest
- Balance: Now generates 40 Lunar or Solar energy upon leaving Eclipse.
Datamined changes:
- Symbiosis now has a 6 sec cooldown.
Reviewing these changes, it looks like Heart of the Wild may become more attractive. While mathmatically, Nature’s Vigil will remain unchanged, it loses the power it had when we stacked it with Incarnation. I still do not think we’ll look at Cenarion Ward — the versatility of Nature’s Swiftness (including the ability to NS rez) is just too attractive. Cyclone hit ferals hard (they now have a 30 second cooldown), but I’m not sure if the DR change will affect us too much. I’m still skeptical about Force of Nature. I think it’s there just to be there.
The Soul of the Forest change seems interesting, but the thing to note is it only affects one side of Eclipse: Lunar to Solar will still require two non-Eclipsed Starfire casts. This will shorten the Solar to Lunar, though, only requiring two non-Eclipsed Wrath casts, instead of the previous three. (And 4 without SotF). As Hamlet pointed out, as unattractive as Wrath is (especially non-Eclipsed), this may prove to be very useful.
What are your opinions?
3 Comments for this entry
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Latest on Mon, 10:14 am: Not really, but treants get worse.
: Hey Sunfyre. I get the legendary Meta soon. Does anything Major change when i get to gem? Statweights, Playstyle. thx
: Wait, what you just said doesn't make sense. What makes us go straight to 20 energy? With SotF it takes 2 casts to reach lunar. 2 casts to reach solar. Without SotF it takes 3, correct me if i'm wrong.
: Sorry, I don't understand where your getting the 20 from, 100 80 60 40 20 0 40 80 100 or sotf 100 80 60 40 20 0 (40 sf + 40 sotf) 80 120 ??
: Hi sunfyre, how would you say the 4p t15 will be with SoTF? Does that also maybe make mastery more valuable?
: Hey Sunfyre. I'm trying to wrap my head around what you've been saying about SotF. How exactly does it not reduce Starfire casts by 1?
: Started a Druid....3 days ago or something like that.... Anyways i got to lvl 60 and im not using gear SETS so much as im using the things that look especially helpful such as Int and Spir Stacke, Occasionally with some 14-15 haste involved..... Im not one of those guys who go out and get the best pve/pvp gear But i really need some help..... im a resto balance mix and well my hits are only doing about 5K at lvl 60 :/ what sohuld i do?
December 30th, 2012 on 2:52 pm
I do like that SotF seems more attractive now. Casting out of Eclipse always bugs me, and shortening that (even on just one side) is a welcome change. Will I replace badass Moonkin armour for it? Probably not, but it’s worth playing around with, I think.
Cenarion Ward buff makes it more attractive for Resto, I think. Getting rid of that instant-cast ‘ohshit’ ability is a hefty toll, however. Not to mention another HoT on a CD isn’t as useful as I’d like. Maybe it’d be more useful for another spec? I personally use Renewal for Balance, however.
December 30th, 2012 on 5:55 pm
Why renewal? Nature’s Swiftness heals about as much, twice as often, and you can use it on rebirth.
December 31st, 2012 on 1:44 pm
Mainly because I’m used to it being there as an ohshit button, and have had trouble making a macro to do the same thing that I can spam while GCD is active to use it ASAP. NS would be more useful for rebirth as I could work it into my already existing macro, though. Good call. That makes more sense.