[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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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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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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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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The co-efficient to Starfall is being changed in 3.3.3.  That’s where the real boost in damage is, not the flat rate.  The values posted from Ghostcrawler are below:

Main star
Old coefficient: 4.8%
New coefficient: 37%

Splash damage
Old coefficient: 1.2%
New coefficient: 13%

This is a huge buff.  I ran some numbers which I feel are fairly accurate, although I don’t claim to be a theorycrafter:

Givens:
Moonkin form, 4000 spellpower

Current Starfall:

Main star: 687.5 – 764.5 damage
Splash star:  138.6 damage

3.3.3 Starfall:

Main star: 2247 – 2346 damage
Splash star: 683.1 damage

As you can see, the main star component of Starfall was nearly tripled, and the splash star damage went up by nearly 6 times.  This will be a huge boost to Starfall, especially in an AoE situation.  The [Glyph of Starfall] will be a definite must have.

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Here’s a developer’s description of the Nature’s Grasp change.  It does appear that you will be able to have more then one roots up at once.

Nature’s Grasp is a self buff that causes things that hit you to become rooted. That effect now has 3 charges. There is a small internal cooldown in between roots to keep say a rogue who hits you twice very quickly from wasting two charges. In your example, both the DK and pet should get rooted. If the DK breaks the roots and gets on you again, they will get rooted again (subject to the 45 sec duration).

The intent of this spell was to be a defensive tool for druids. Since it hasn’t quite kept up, we wanted to try to get it to be more useful (i.e. do its job) rather than come up with an entirely new mechanic.

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The PTR was updated with the following balance changes:

• Typhoon mana cost has been reduced from 32% of base mana to 25% of base mana.
• Starfall damage has been increased. Now causes 563 to 653 Arcane damage (Up from 433 to 503) and 101 Arcane damage (Up from 78) to all other enemies within 5 yards.
• Nature’s Grasp: Now has 3 charges, up from 1.

While I rely on both heavily in Icecrown and welcome the changes, I was hoping for something a bit more substantial.  I may not be a PVPer, but I really don’t think this is a huge burst difference in PVP, either, and I hope this is not what they were promising.  Considering that Starfall cannot continue to proc while stunned, it seems underwhelming.  I’d like to see that restriction reverted, too.

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