[Glyph of Focus] is being nerfed in 3.3.3.  This seems to be mostly a PvP nerf, but obviously Starfall will still be a huge buff.  I really didn’t think Focus was the way to go in PvE just because of the range nerf.

• Glyph of Focus: Now increases the damage done by Starfall by 10%, down from 20%.

Moonfire, Starfire and Starfall glyphs will be the way to go

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Sunfyre’s Nest recently turned 6 months old, and I have to admit when I began writing 6 months ago, I never envisioned anyone really visiting it, let alone having so many repeat visitors.  I of course have to thank Ballerkin, who gave me my first shout out, as well as Lissanna, who provides the most referral traffic.  In the last six months there have been over 600 comments and 63,000 page views.  Thanks for keeping me entertained and providing me with so much insight.

Thanks for everything,

Sunfyre

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I was fortunate enough to receive [Nibelung] tonight, and I wanted to give a quick update on the Val’kyr proc.

The Val’kyr Guardian, summoned by the nonheroic Nibelung, averages about 1750 damage or so.  (1700-1900 damage before resists).

The Val’kyr Protector, summoned by the heroic version, averages about 1950-1960 damage.  (2000-2200 damage before resists).

A small buff to the proc, but a buff none the less.

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Question of the Week:  Do you plan on using the [Glyph of Starfall] in 3.3.3 if you aren’t currently?  How about the [Glyph of Focus]?

I haven’t sat down and theorycrafted a whole lot on the glyph of focus, and whether it’s worth dropping [Glyph of Moonfire] or [Glyph of Starfire], but I’ve decided not to pick it up, and here is my reasoning:

While Starfall is going to be a great boost to all of our DPS, and a 20% boost would be nice, the place it’s going to really shine is Blood Beasts on Heroic Saurfang (as the main star component is not treated as an AoE), as well as Lich King (it’ll do some massive AoE and splash damage to the Vile Spirits).  Cutting the range by 50% would really counter-act that, and I believe really cut into the utility of the spell.

I’m already using [Glyph of Starfall] and definitely will be going forward.

What do you guys plan on using?

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I feel like I haven’t really personalized much of my blog lately, and have just been reporting the balance druid news.  I’m away for the weekend on a quick vacation, and had a few moments to sit down and talk about what I’ve been up to the last few weeks.

If you’ve been following my Tweets closely (or paid attention to the blog), you’ll notice that I returned to the Horde.  The several months I spent as a Night Elf were .. different, but it just didn’t feel right.  Seriously Casual is a great guild with great people, it just didn’t feel like my home.

I joined a guild called “Titan” on Blackhand in early February, and spent about a month there.  There were some good people in Titan, however I did not particularly agree with their leadership style (or lack thereof).  I don’t want to go too into detail, but it really felt like people logged in to raid, spent 4 hours raiding, and logged back out, with no real discussion, theorycrafting, or passion to understand the fights.

I’ve recently stumbled on my current guild, Out of Line, on Stormreaver.  They are 9/12 heroic, and this week we’ve made great progress on Putricide.  I expect him down this week.  (5% wipe is our best attempt).  So far I really love it here.  The players for the majority are in their twenties and in college or careers, so while it’s a grueling schedule, they understand that we all have careers that may occasionally take priority.  Everyone’s also on a first name basis, which is a new thing for me, but it’s nice, it seems like people are actually interested in getting to know each other.  People are online all the time, on Ventrilo and in game, and there’s plenty of discussions and theorycrafting during our downtime, and a lot of discussion and collaboration during the attempts as well.  So far it seems like I’ve found a comfortable home to settle into while we finish Icecrown and move into Cataclysm.

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Apparently nerfs to the encounter are now being called “hotfixes”.  The following nerfs were applied to ICC:

• In the Lord Marrowgar encounters, the boss will no longer reset threat after a bone storm and will now wait a small amount of time before attacking at the end of a bone storm.
• In the Deathbringer Saurfang encounters, the boss is now less likely to cast Blood Nova on targets affected by Mark of the Fallen Champion.
• In both normal and heroic versions of the 10 player Rotface encounter, the mutated infection ability will not be cast as quickly while the fight progresses.
• In the 10- and 25-player heroic Festergut encounters, the malleable goo ability should no longer target pets.
• In the Valithria Dreamwalker encounters, the duration of Emerald Vigor and Twisted Nightmares were slightly increased.
• In the Sindragosa encounters, the duration of the instability debuff was slightly reduced.

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I wish Blizzard would patch the PTR already so I can log in.  (If you have multiple WoW accounts tied to one Battle.net account, you currently cannot log in).  I want to melt the world, damnit.

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Eyonix just posted the changes to stats that we will see in Cataclysm.  Many we expected.  Spell power will go away, and intellect will provide spell power.  Weapons, however, will still provide spell power.  Spirit will only be found on healing gear and will be an un-needed DPS stat.  Balance druids will still be sharing gear with resto druids.  But wait?!  I thought we wouldn’t want spirit?!

Eyonix has an answer:

If you are a Balance druid or Elemental shaman:

• You will still share gear with Restoration druids and shaman.
• Your gear will have Spirit on it. It won’t have Hit on it.
• You will have a talent that converts Spirit to Hit. We will adjust talents accordingly so that you want about as much Spirit as, say, a warlock wants Hit.
• Hit on rings and other such gear will still benefit you.
• Raid buffs will no longer boost Spirit, so you shouldn’t find yourself unexpectedly over the Hit cap because of buffs.

This certainly looks interesting.  I’m sure more will come.

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What one thing would you like to see changed for balance druids in Cataclysm?  Being that it’s a cataclysm, I’d like to see the balance tree completely overhauled.  Specifically, the cap issue needs to be addressed, both with haste and crit.

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Here are the druid related questions and answers from Developer Chat:

Q. Is there any ETA on tree / moonkin form graphical update?
A. Moonkin is hard because Moonkin players are so in love with that form. It’s tough to change it at all. We currently hope to do a new tree form for Cataclysm, but no promises.

Q. Has there been any thought of changing Eclipse to charges so that Moonkin dps doesn’t suffer so much from moving?
A. Yes. Expect a major overhaul in Cataclysm that keeps the same basic idea (alternating from Arcane to Nature) but in a way that is more core to the class. Like everything though, there is the risk that we may decide this idea sucks once we see it in action.

REALLY?  We love moonkin form?  REALLY?

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