Build 8962 notes

Problem: I have the first article in a series of articles about my Balance Druid talent tree, but there's been probably 4 or 5 builds worth of changes to that tree, many things I'd like to stick in mine. So I might as well just throw out that post, update my tree (with my new ideas and what Blizz has done), and start over. THAT will sure be fun.

Let's talk Boomkins, and then anything else that catches my interest. All of this comes from MMO-Champion.

Druid: Balance

Earth and Moon (Tier 10) changed so your Wrath and Starfire spells have a 100% chance to apply the Earth and Moon effect. It now also increases your spell damage by 1/2/3/4/5%. (Previously had a 20/40/60/80/100% chance to apply the Earth and Moon Effect)
We like more spell damage, but the spell damage was probably added to incentivize going 5/5 in the talent; previously most people probably would have saved 2 talent points by going 3/5 for a 60% proc rate.

Eclipse (Tier 9) changed so when you critically hit with Starfire, you have a 33/66/100% chance of increasing damage done by Wrath by 10%. (Previously 20/40/60% chance)
Eclipse still sucks, and that's all. I might give this talent its own post, because I have ideas for how to make it better.

Improved Moonkin Aura (Tier 7) gives 3% spell haste for all ranks and now you gain 5/10/15% of your spirit as additional spell damage.
I was hoping for Spirit to Spell Crit, but a blue post on the Druid boards says that they think that's too much crit, dangit. But only fifteen percent? If Druids have 400 Spirit, that's only 60 spell damage. Maybe they'll have more than that, but give them 100 more Spirit and the damage increase still isn't much.

Improved Faerie Fire (Tier 7) increases your critical strike chance against targets afflicted with Faerie Fire by 1/2/3%.
We like crit, but I'll leave it to the theorycrafters to determine if the mana and global cooldown lost on keeping FF up will justify the additional crit. And is it your personal crit chance or is it the crit chance for the whole raid? They should clarify the tooltip.

Nature's Splendor (Tier 3) changed to - When you cast Moonfire, Insect Swarm, Rejuvenation, Regrowth or Lifebloom you have a 33/66/100% chance to increase it's duration by 3 sec.
Makes more sense than the old way, considering most periodic spells tick every 3 seconds, except Lifebloom.

Druid: Restoration

Gift of the Wild now affects the whole raid.
We like this; less reagents when buffing the raid. Not that uh, I've ever been in a group larger than five people.

Lifebloom healing reduced. Mana cost increased. (Check Skill list for details)
Oh noes! More nerfs to Lifebloom. Yet Another Blue Post I may need to talk about is the one about the shift Blizz wants to make in Druid healing. They want it to be less reliant on Lifebloom; they want to get Druids out of the "roll LB + place HoTs in between" thing. Also, apparently the healing coefficients on Lifebloom when BC launched were too high. So it's a total accident that Druids are good healers, basically.

Flourish renamed Wild Growth.
Whhhaaat? That's my sweet Herbalism heal. That I can use in Moonkin Form.

Wild Growth renamed Lifeblood. Lame! That's a name that is dumb I think.

Druid: Feral

Glyph of Swipe has been removed.
IIRC (and hey, who checks facts these days?), Glyph of Swipe upped the number of targets hit by a Swipe from 3 to 4, which sounds really good. Instead, we get this...

Glyph of Maul has been added - Your Maul ability now hits 1 additional target.
I don't get it. I haven't Bear tanked on my Druid since Zul'Farak, but I'm pretty sure I spammed Swipe most of the time. Which, you know, may or may not be how you "AoE tank," but it worked good enough for me. So why are they giving the Bear tanks two methods of hitting more than one dude? Like I said, maybe I'm out of my mind, but I would think most Ferals would rather have a 4-target swipe than a 2-target Maul.

Mage: Arcane

Arcane Blast changed. Each time you cast Arcane Blast, the damage is increased by 15% and mana cost is increased by 300%. (Previously 25% damage increase and 75% mana increase, but the 300% is most likely a typo and should be 30%)
Ha ha. I wonder if that typo reflects in-game? Probably not, but I would like to see the numbers for that.

Mage: Fire

Flamestrike mana cost reduced and is now a 2 sec cast. (Previously 3 sec cast)
This might make the Firestarter talent more attractive.

Mage: Frost

Frozen Core (Tier 5) now reduces damage taken by all spells. (Previously only affected fire and frost)
This seemed like a useless talent before, when it only mitigated Fire and Frost damage.

Shatter (Tier 4) is now 3 ranks. It increases the critical strike chance of all your spells against frozen targets by 17/34/50%. (Previously 5 ranks and increased by 10/20/30/40/50%)
Ice Shards (Tier 2) is now 3 ranks. It increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Frost spells by 33/66/100%. (Previously 5 ranks and increased by 20/40/60/80/100%)
We like the condensing of talents, especially the "necessary" talents that Blizzard is trying to cut down on. Simply cutting down on the point cost works great.

Paladin: Glyphs

Glyph of Turn Evil now Reduces the casting time of your Turn Evil spell by 100%. (Old - Reduces the cooldown on Turn Evil by 5 sec.)
Chain-fear those dang Metamorphisizeded Warlocks!

Priest: Shadow

Dispersion (Tier 11) changed to - You disperse into pure Shadow energy, reducing all damage taken by 90%. You are unable to attack or cast spells, but you regenerate 6% mana every 1 sec for 6 sec. Dispersion can be cast while stunned, feared or silenced. If Dispersion runs its full duration, and you are not the victim of any damage or harmful effects during its duration, your spells gain 25% damage for 1 min.
So it's like Barkskin now, but way better in terms of damage reduction. And the spell damage will make it better for grouping, since 6 sec. without damage is probably 6 sec. too much for a lot of people.

Rogue: Assassination

Ambush damage increased. (Check skill list for details)
Rogues rejoice!

Focused Attacks (Tier 8) gives your melee critical strikes 100% chance to generate 1/2/3 Energy. (Previously 30% chance)
Still doesn't sound good; it should be at least 10 energy. Rather, 10 energy with a low proc rate.

Rogue: Combat

Backstab damage increased. (Check skill list for details)
Rogues continue to rejoice...

Shaman: Enhancement

*New Talent* Earthen Power (Tier 9) - Your Earthbind Totem has a 50/100% chance to also remove all snare effects from you and nearby friendly targets when it pulses.
That's pretty neat.

Warlock: Glyphs

Glyph of Unending Breath - Increases the swim speed of targets affected by your Unending Breath spell by 20%.
Why do Shaman still have to spend a reagent for the same effect?

Warrior: Fury

*New Talent* Heroic Fury (Tier 9) - Removes any Immobilization effects and refreshes the cooldown of your Intercept ability. (45 Sec Cooldown)
This makes casters sad, but it's something PVP Warriors have really needed.

Warrior: Protection

Tactical Mastery has been moved to Tier 2 Arms.
Makes more sense there.

Well, that's all I see that's interesting. Because, you know, I just kinda skimmed it.

WHAT'S THIS?!

*New Skill* Freezing Arrow (Level 80) - Fire a freezing arrow that places a Freezing Trap at the target location, freezing the first enemy that approaches, preventing all action for up to 20 sec. Any damage caused will break the ice. Trap will exist for . Only one trap can be active at a time. (3% of base mana, 40 yd range, Instant cast, 30 sec cooldown)

That's pretty neat. That's really neat. Based on some forum browsin', the only problem is you have to use the target cirlce. And as we all know, aiming a targeting circle in PVP is usually coupled with fail, as you're either standing still while you aim it or your running backwards useless or something like that. I'm sure they won't make it a direct target; that would be too easy.

Notes from the PTR

My character copied in like one day. It's probably a good thing I got in as soon as I could, because copies are taking even longer now. Result: tons of level 1 people trolling the starting area chat.

Observations so far, as seen from my Druid:

- I had to change my character's name from "Rawfle" to "Notrawfle."
- When I copied old [Not]Rawfle, I was logged out in a Shattered Sun building. Because this is a new server, there's no progression yet on the Isle; it's just that one building with a handful of quests. I didn't die, but I was a bit confused at first why dudes were hitting me as soon as I zoned in.
- Not having mods is way wierd.
- Orgrimmar is way laggy, because people really have nothing to do but duel to try the new stuff.
- Those last two make for a deadly combination for me. My build is 51/0/10, so I got Starfall and Typhoon, but I had to skip on the new and improved Omen of Clarity, along with Intensity. The problem is, my gear is crap, and I suck at PVP. AND, I don't have any of my mods, and I use a lot of mods. Pitbull, Dominos, Power Auras, etc... all these things that help me do better. Thus, I lose a lot of duels. I've mostly been beating Warriors and stupid Paladins. Maybe I'm a noob because I depend on mods, but who doesn't?
- It'd be nice if we could get 1c respecs. :(
- Speaking of talents, I've got an interesting bug on my talent window. I spent all my points, but when I went to look at it later it said I was 48/0/10, and I had three talent points left. But, while my 3/5 Earth and Moon and 1/1 Starfall were still filled in, Starfall was greyed out, because you need 50 points in a tree to get to its last tier. Just an peculiar bug. I didn't try spending the 3 bugged points; I thought the world might end or something.
- I got my Tauren some wicked horns that shoot straight up. The total cost of sawing (?) my character's bovine features and coloring them white cost a grand total of 14 gold! Wow! I stuck with the braided beard, although I may change that at some point, bringing my total cost up even more.
- Who's actually going to "test" Inscription? You're only option, really, is to already be an Herbalist so you can either grind out the mats yourself or be lucky enough to have some Peacebloom lying around your bank. You can't just buy herbs off the auction house, because these are new servers. What you can do, however, is buy a metric ton of herbs off the AH on the live servers, then copy your character and go to town. However people find ways to level Inscription, it would be filled with pain and misery I'm guessing.
- The treants have a pet bar! We like that. I didn't check what behavior they set to, but they do attack as soon as I summon them. Obviously they still die fast and have no real use other than annoyance.
- I miss OPie; it helps me condense a lot of crap into a few keystrokes. Like, I normally have all my CC (ER, NG, WS, Cyc) on the 4 key,and all my forms and mount on `. Can't do that now, unless I can get that mod running on the PTR client. Maybe I can.

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Not a lot to do on the PTR really. I probably will just stay Balance and continue dueling people. But what about the new skills? I can't seem to get Typhoon to work, or at least the knockback, so we'll call that a bug. I did keep standing still to cast it, because I kept thinking it had a 1.5 sec cast time (it had that in beta).

Starfall seems best when paired with Celestial Focus, giving every single star hit on your target a 15% stun chance. I was dueling a Warlock and I had her chain-stunned for maybe 6 sec. So that was fun. The cooldown seems a bit long. I think one minute would be better, or two minutes. Also, the act of summoning stars is a buff on you, meaning someone can dispel it and stop the spell. That sucks, but probably a coding limitation. If it was a targeted AOE or a point-blank AOE, you could move out of its range, making it useless. It probably has to be a buff so the game can use your current position to determine what targets are in range. So can they make it an invisible buff or something?

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It's only been a week, dangit! Why am I taking five days to make new posts?! Got two almost ready. So don't you loyal readers fret (all one of you). More delicious content is on the way.