Hi all. Monsterbaby of the all Druid guild “Druids of the Beast” sent me this a few weeks back and I missed it in my inbox. I’d like to invite you to our first guest poster, who writes a great opinion on season 10 PVP. Please leave your feedback. I’m always looking for guest posters, and if you are engaging enough, there may be a more permanent spot for you!

-Sunfyre

“The new season was kick started a while back and it is already possible to spot the new strengths and weaknesses of the classes. A great number of restoration druids have turned feral – if they didn’t already during the last season. Feral is superior in arena, and you very frequently see your opponent consisting of a feral druid.

However resto druids are not to be underestimated, despite you get the feeling they lack the powerful direct heal for arena. Resto druids are a key element to Rated Battlegrounds. Usually resto druids are to be found as offensive healers, while they can heal a great number of people while running, without getting interrupted.

Moonkins are still the rarest druid spec to find in PvP, you do however bump into them once in a while, usually when you find them in RBG in the top of damage done, with their powerful and fast dots and starfall.

However the druid is still very doable in PvP in all three specs in this season, and having three sets of PvP gear to choose from, you have loads of possibilities.

The gear in season 10, is a major upgrade compared to the last set. Many smaller guilds, which haven’t started in Firelands, nearly stopped raiding, due to the fact, the Honor and Conquest gear is such a big upgrade, compared to the PvE gear.

So when it comes to ups and downs in the new season, it is definitely positive, that druids are still strong in every spec. In arena, you will mostly find druids being feral, due to the lack of abilities of moonkins, and the less powerful direct healing, compared to other healing classes. But it is definitely not impossible to go far in arena, with any spec – as long as you have the skills for it.

The downside of this season is definitely the massive upgrade of gear. The size of the upgrade compared to the amount of time you need to spend to get it, is very unbalanced in my eyes. This also leads to a lot of inexperience people, entering battlegrounds just to farm honor, to receive a strong set of gear, with no intention of using it for PvP further on. But this isn’t really any news, while it has been like that in most seasons.

Another downside with the new season is, you cannot cap conquest points by doing arenas only. This leads to a lot of inexperienced people, wanting to do RBGs, while the skill level and tactical requirement is a lot higher than arenas. Again, it is just to receive a strong set of gear, without having any intention in heading into high rating – so most people are fooling around at incredible low rating.

What I can recommend is, to do Rated Battleground with the same team, over and over again. It is great fun, and with the flexibility of going into several specs, that are all equally strong in RBGs, you can always be sure to get a spot, in case a healer, ranged dps or melee is missing. “

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As promised, there have been some more PVP tweaks made in the latest 4.0.6 builds.

• Moonkin Form now grants 15% damage reduction instead of increased armor. In addition, shapeshifting in or out of this form now breaks roots. Note this is not stated in the tooltip.
• Sudden Eclipse now restores 20 Solar or 13 Lunar Energy. Up from 5 Solar or 7 Lunar.

The change to Moonkin Form is nice, it’s basically giving us Disentanglement.  I’m curious to see if they meant “all rooting effects”, (such as frost nova).  I’d hope so.

The Sudden Eclipse change (4pc PVP bonus) seems like a pretty drastic one, although I would have expected it to grant 20 lunar and 13 solar energy.

Your thoughts?

I apologize for the tardiness in my posts.  I have been really busy working away from home (but in sunny Southern California) the last few weeks, and will continue to be working here through June.  I’ve stopped raiding at this point and you guys are my only connection to my World of Warcraft world!  Also, kudos to Balourd for stepping in and posting in my absense.

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It looks like we may have spoken too soon.  There are some following 4.0.6 changes which begin to slowly balance out the recent nerfs:

• Fungal growth duration has been increased to 20 seconds, up from 10. In addition, it should now be much more responsive when detonating Wild Mushrooms.
• Moonkin Form now grants 15% damage reduction instead of increased armor.
• Starfall will no longer strike targets that are not in combat and will now drop stars at a slightly faster rate.
• Wild Mushroom is now instant cast, down from 0.5 seconds. In addition, the radius of detonation has been increased to 6 yards, up from 3, and damage done increased by 30%.

The fungal growth seems like it’s going to be our new main staple for snaring / slowing people on the run.  The Moonkin Form change is a nice buff for damage from spellcasters, but really still does nothing when we’re rooted in frost nova being shattered by a frost mage.  The starfall buff is GREAT for dungeons.  The Wild Mushroom buff is an additional 15% from it’s previously stated 15% buff.

Also, Zarhym hints that while Balance druids will not be able to get ‘Entanglement’ which removes roots when shapeshifting, there are other plans that will be released after the holiday weekend.

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Rated Battlegrounds and the Arena Season are here!  Are you going to partake?  In which?

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Playing around in Durotar today, I was able to confirm some rumors about [Solar Beam].

Not only does Solar Beam silence the affected area for 10 seconds, it also provides a 5 second spell pool lockout.

More interestingly enough, the [Glyph of Solar Beam] extends the duration of the Solar Beam effect by 10 seconds, it also increases the spell pool lockout to a whopping 10 seconds.

I also happened to note that if you lock out a frost mage’s frost pool, they can’t ice block.

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I noticed something that perhaps hadn’t been advertised before, or at least, I hadn’t noticed it before.

From Ghostcrawler’s blog: “Players generally don’t hit hard enough to trigger the full effect of Vengeance, unless they are all ganging up on one tank, at which point someone in the group should have the ability to dispel it (Vengeance is treated as an Enrage effect for dispel purposes).”  (emphasis mine)

This may be a handy tool in PVP, especially rated battlegrounds, as we’re one of two classes who can remove vengeance from a tank.

Update:  It appears vengeance is dispelled and will not return for about 20 seconds.  This will be very handy in rated battlegrounds.

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While the other changes I announced did not make the patch notes (they were in previous beta builds that got rolled into 4.0.3a), the following change was made to the 4pc PVP set.

• PvP set bonus redesigned. While not in an Eclipse state, critical attacks against the druid restore 5 Solar or 7 Lunar energy, whichever is more beneficial. This effect can only occur once every 6 seconds.

I must admit I’m a bit underwhelmed.  5 Solar or 7 Lunar energy every 6 seconds?  That’s really not enough.

Personally, they need to somehow make a glyph, or an ability, that allows you to instantly proc an Eclipse.  Give it .. say, a 3 minute cooldown.  Even a 5 minute cooldown.  You just need it once in arena.

Also, give me threat reduction on barkskin.  Thanks.

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Our friends at MMO-Champion have been able to datamine the season 9 armors, however they’re probably not completely finished.  What do you think? Click to enlarge and see all models.

Courtesy of MMO-Champion

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Am I the only one who gets annoyed at all of the QQing by other classes when you kill them just using instants?  (Moonfire, insect swarm, starsurge on shooting stars proc, starfall, moonfire, and more moonfire).  I’m sorry.  Would you like me to stand there and cast a 3 second spell so you can counterspell, kick, pummel, skull bash, etc., etc., etc.?

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