A change has been made to tranquility and how many targets it effects.  This should be a large buff to our utility.  Unfortunately, there are no changes to balance incoming so far.

• Tranquility now targets 12 raid members (up from 5) each time it heals when used in a 25-player instance. This change also applies to players using the Symbiosis version of Tranquility.

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A change has been made to Force of Nature that makes it instant cast, not require targeting, and also have three charges.  This allows virtually 100% uptime of a single treant.

• Force of Nature is no longer on global cooldown and summons a single Treant. The Treant no longer has a control bar, immediately uses its special abilities on the Druid’s current target, and accumulates 1 charge every 20 seconds up to a maximum of 3 charges.

• Restoration version of the Treant now casts Swiftmend on the Druid’s target when summoned. This version of Swiftmend does not require or consume a heal-over-time effect on the target.

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Another change in the never-ending saga that is Cyclone … it’s range is now 20 yards. The tier gloves, however, continue to extend the range by 5 yards.

The cooldown has also been lowered for ferals from 30 seconds to 20 seconds.

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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?

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Another patch has hit the PTRs, and it looks like Wrath has been tweaked based on our feedback.  I think they’re much closer to the right track now for Wrath, and Hurricane definitely looks neat.

What are your thoughts?

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The 4.3 PTR notes have been updated once again, and once again, there is silence regarding moonkin.  I primarily take this as a good thing, as they don’t see to nerf us, our mushrooms, etc.  That being said, I was kind of hoping for a mechanic change to Starsurge to justify the new 4T13 bonus.  I guess we’ll have to keep waiting.

That being said, Swipe (Cat) did get nerfed a considerable amount.

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I’m… still alive?

Here’s a recap of Balance changes in 4.2.

• Entangling Roots and the equivalent spell triggered by Nature’s Grasp no longer deal damage.
• 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.
• Omen of Clarity clearcasting buff from now lasts 15 seconds, up from 8 seconds.
• Starfire damage has been increased by approximately 23%.
• Wrath damage has been increased by approximately 23%.
• 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.

Obviously, these are buffs all around, except for the change to Lunar Shower.  Lunar Shower had become so powerful in it’s current state, that they had to make changes to it.  It’s obviously still a great utility while on the run, however, the ‘moonfire/sunfire spam’ component has really been removed.  The odd thing, though, is it appears that you can Moonfire right into Solar Eclipse, but you can’t Sunfire into a Lunar eclipse (since Sunfire becomes Moonfire again).

Comments?

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It has been announced, at last :

Wrath of Tarecgosa – When you deal damage, you have a chance to gain the Wrath of Tarecgosa, duplicating the harmful spell.

Expect a high proc chance to make it Legendary. I suspect this kind of working like the Ele shaman mastery, except for full damage.

In other exciting news, the full Tier12 has been discovered, and it looks %&”$ awesome. What do you think?

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Some news from the PEE TEE ARE

All class abilities which place a buff on friendly targets no longer generate any threat. This goes for raid-wide buffs like Mark of the Wild and Power Word: Fortitude, as well as triggered effects such as Blessed Resilience or Fingers of Frost, and single-target buffs like Dark Intent and Hysteria. The exception is buffs which directly cause healing or damage, such as Thorns or Renew. Abilities such as these still generate normal threat.

Omen of Clarity clearcasting buff from now lasts 15 seconds, up from 8 seconds.

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.

They were clearly trying to prevent people to stay too long in an eclipse state (probably about the solar eclipse overpowerness) and it seems they found the way to incorporate it.

What this means to our AOE rotation :

• We still want to be in solar eclipse. The damage increase to our Wild mushrooms, Typhoon, Hurricane and Insect Swarm is still pretty considerable. The only difference is that we can’t spam Sunfire anymore. Doing so will push us out of the eclipse state.
• The solutions we have  :
  • Shrooms on cooldown, hurricane while we wait. Typhoon if it’s safe.
  • Shrooms on cooldown, insect swarm spam while we wait. Typhoon if it’s safe.
  • Shrooms on cooldown, starfire while we wait.
• On another note, Wild Mushroom triggering Earth and Moon is a huge but subtle buff, making all our attacks deal an extra 8% that we would probably not have otherwise.

Testing is needed.

In other exciting news, the stats on Tarecgosa’s Rest are out, and it seems like it will not be so fitted for us ! We’re talking about hit and crit. Thanks to reforging, we’ll be able to get a few of that hit replaced with tons of haste. And the insane amount of red sockets makes it definitly best in slot! ilvl 404 wuuuut ?

To conclude, I will say that the new Tier 12 models are available (except the shoulders). Looks like it’s made out of a treebark which is kind of cool. What do you think?

Please visit mmo-champion for all your pictures, details and daily dose of awesomeness.

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Had to share this with you guys. Here’s what’s new with Moonkin in next patch :

Many crowd control abilities no longer cause creatures to attack players when they are cast. The creature will not attack the player when the crowd control wears off, and nearby creatures will not become hostile to the player either. However, if a visible player gets too close to the target creature, the creature will remember and attack the player when the crowd control effect wears off. The intent is to make it easier for dungeon groups to manage crowd control assignments and pulling packs of hostile NPCs. The abilities affected by this change are: Hibernate, Entangling Roots [...]

Entangling Roots and the equivalent spell triggered by Nature’s Grasp no longer deal damage.
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.

Balance
Insect Swarm now generates 8 Lunar Energy for druids with Eclipse.
Moonfire now generates 8 Solar Power for druids with Eclipse.
Sunfire now generates 8 Lunar Energy for druids with Eclipse.

Glyphs
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.

Allright so basicaly a buff to our damage, but a nerf to our utility. The CC change is pretty sweet, you don’t have to be scared of slow-on-taunt tanks anymore. Innervate : Really? 0.5% mana per second? I know I’m not wasting this 3min cooldown for another guy’s  500 mana! Hello new glyph choice. Monsoon or Focus, probably. I believe the Solar power changes are on apply only, which means you don’t get 8 power each tick (that would be awesome though), but hey, it does accelerate our transitions a bit. I believe that’s how the spell worked in beta (correct me if i’m wrong).

Any thoughts on this guys? How have you been performing in ZA and ZG with your druids? I find myself on top of dps alot of times. Getting those new epics help out too. Haven’t stepped in any raid so far. Guild pretty much dead. Server pretty much dead. Just enjoying the moonkin life.

Tune in later for more news!

Source : MMO-Champion

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