In an effort to give balance some sort of PvE glyph (or maybe just nerf Solar Beam more), the Glyph of Solar Beam is changed on the PTR to the Glyph of Omens:

While you are not in an Eclipse, the following abilities now grant 10 Solar or Lunar Energy: Entangling Roots, Cyclone, Faerie Fire, Faerie Swarm, Mass Entanglement, Typhoon, Disorienting Roar, Ursol’s Vortex, and Mighty Bash.

This has already changed once, Solar Beam was removed, so it could likely change again.  Using Faerie Fire/Swarm while on the run will obviously be a help for movement DPS.

Also, treants were modified to cast an instant spell on summon to help avoid the summon lag.  Resto druids were given swiftmend which seems great, however balance druids were given… entangling roots.  Which does nothing for PvE.  Hopefully they’ll re-think this and give us some sort of PvE boon.  (Shooting stars proc, perhaps?)

[Sunfyre's Nest RSS] | [Sunfyre's Nest on Twitter]

A lot of you probably got excited (as I did) when I first saw the patch notes for 5.1 — more moonkin buffs!  There actually are not additional buffs, but a reflection of hotfixes that were applied way back on September 20th.

There were a few small changes that don’t look to be part of a hotfix, however, including a nerf/buff to Solar Beam as well as a change to Symbiosis:

• Solar Beam now lasts for 8 sec.
• Glyph of Solar Beam now increases the radius by 100% instead of the duration by 5 seconds.
• Symbiosis is now a two second cast.

The symbiosis change is welcome, as I’m sure all of you have been as frustrated as I am about placing it on raid/party members.  The solar beam “nerf” I think will actually be welcomed.  It’s rare you get someone stuck in a solar beam for the entirety of 10 (let alone 15) seconds, but now giving a double radius will make it more useful.

[Sunfyre's Nest RSS] | [Sunfyre's Nest on Twitter]

Playing around in Durotar today, I was able to confirm some rumors about [spell]78675[/spell].

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 [item]Glyph of Solar Beam[/item] 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.

[Sunfyre's Nest RSS] | [Sunfyre's Nest on Twitter]

Just one slight change in the most recent beta build:

• Solar Beam now affects targets within 5 yards, down from 10 yards.

Not going to complain a whole lot.. 10 yards was kinda OP.

Also, looks like PTR received a slight patch.  I’ll provide details shortly.

[Sunfyre's Nest RSS] | [Sunfyre's Nest on Twitter]

First off, I have to give credit to Druidpwn on the MMO Champion Druid forums for these screenshots. I’m currently at 39,000 feet flying to Miami so I can’t get onto the PTRs.

Starsurge and Solar Beam have had their graphics updated:

Starsurge:

Starsurge (from the front):

Solar beam:

Sunfire (thanks to Garenzo @ MMO-Champion Druid forums):

Note: It also looks like Sunfire proc’s Lunar Shower. I would assume it’d benefit from all of the other talents benefiting from Moonfire as well.

[Sunfyre's Nest RSS] | [Sunfyre's Nest on Twitter]

During the 4/16 Twitter Developer Chat Chat, Zarhym released one of their “most exciting” changes to Cataclysm is a new Balance Talent called “Solar Beam”.  It appears it will work like the sun beams in the Freya encounter.

“Some of the new Balance talents for druids, like Solar Beam, which works like Freya’s spell where it instantly silences a target and they have to move out of the beam to get rid of the debuff.”

Looks interesting for PVP, and perhaps for trash pack pulls in PvE, but I’m not seeing a big PvE bonus for this.  But it might be a big boon for arena druids, allowing you to force healers out in the open and not LoS-ing behind a stupid box.

[Sunfyre's Nest RSS] | [Sunfyre's Nest on Twitter]