So Blizzard released a druid talent preview for our pleasure. I'm returning my old post on the leaked alpha tree with updated information to correspond with the new preview. So instead of a mass listing, I'll just link you to that old post and talk about what I think in this post.

Cataclysm Talent Writeup

Synergy

Having a bunch of really cool talents is nice, but if they don't play nicely with one another, then they often end up falling by the wayside. Fortunately for us, we seem to have a good deal of synergy going on. There's a compilation of talents that will make the direct damage of Moonfire very heavy. There's a talent adding some snare to our shrooms and trees (upon death, which has some nice PvP implications. A few talents sync up with Eclipse, providing both mana return and increased damage and/or bar movement. Supplying both mana regen and increased damage, Eclipse will continue to be the focal point of the druid rotation.

Moonfire seems to be Blizzard's answer to Moonkin movement issues. I must say, affording us what seems to be appropriate Moonfire spam makes me a little giddy. There are three talents boosting the DD of Moonfire. Improved Moonfire and Blessing of the Grove both increase the DD by a set percent. I don't foresee anyone skipping these talents, as they are both necessary to move down their respective trees. The real clincher here is Wrath of Cenarius. This talent will increase the DD of Moonfire and reduce its mana cost while we move, turning Moonfire into a veritable lazer cannon! This does mean we wont be using the Moonfire Glyph. Consequently, we will want to dump the Starfire Glyph as well. That is, of course, if glyphs don't change (and they will).

Eclipse is clearly our "bread and butter". It (along with non-trivial contributions from other talents) will separate us from any other druid casting spells. With the addition of the Euphoria talent, we will receive a mana refund for reaching Eclipse, increasing our desire to alternate between Eclipses as rapidly as possible. A prerequisite of Euphoria is Dreamstate, so we're going to be picking up some passive regen as well. From what I can tell, mana management might actually be a concern (and I believe it should be), so if you're feeling a little miffed about having to take Dreamstate to get this puppy, rest easy. It might allow you to skimp on points in Moonglow (which would be nice because we want Improved Moonfire).

Did I mention that the mana return on Euphoria isn't even the reason we want to pick it up? Yeah, this talent is a "twofer" as my pappy always used to say. Not only do we get a nice mana refund, but Euphoria packs a significant punch with its increased power generation upon critical strike. I do wonder if it will add the energy on spell impact or spell cast completion. As we all know, Nature's Grace was changed to activate on spell completion due to the travel time on Wrath and given the ability to predict an Eclipse, it would help us know when to switch the spell we were casting.

In addition to Euphoria, there are two other talents that improve Eclipse: the cleverly named Improved Eclipse and Lunar Guidance. It may come as a shock, but Improved Eclipse actually improves Eclipse. Along with increasing the bar movement you will get out of each cast, it provides some ancient philosophy: "The best defense is a good offense." Taking damage (I imagine this mostly in PvP environments but still, damage happens in raids. I suppose it could crit...) will now generate some Eclipse power, allowing you to get the DPS ball rolling again quickly after surviving an onslaught. Lunar Guidance is the talent that ties our new toy, Starsurge, into Eclipse. This talent acts as a push further into your current Eclipse bar. I see imagine this playing an integral part in our rotation. And I noticed that the cooldown happens to be exactly as long as our Eclipse proc. That calls for a thoughtful "Hmmm....." Naturally, I haven't actually got to play with the mechanics, but if Starsurge doesn't scale well and the Eclipse meter moves based on damage (and not a set number upon spell cast/impact), its possible that Starsurge will only hold a temporary spot in our rotation. Notice that Starsurge is not affected by Vengeance, or Nature's Majesty (or Starlight Wrath for that matter). This may be an oversight, but (and particularly in the case of Vengeance) this lack of integration might cause Starsurge to fall behind the damage curve far enough that even a 15 power move might not be worth the cast (and cast time).

Mushrooms and Treants both gain a snare. I'm still disappointed here (in a sense) because I feel as though Blizz promised me a great deal of synergy involving Mushrooms and my other talents. Right now, I'm just not seeing that. Sure the snare component of the Mushrooms is nice for PvP and possibly situational for PvE, but will I really want to be integrating Mushrooms into my rotation when I could use Hurricane with Gale Winds (which I anticipate picking up given the plethora of points we have)? I was hoping that Wild Mushrooms would either apply Earth & Moon, or be augmented by Gale Winds. Without one of those (and possibly both) I really doubt it will be worth casting.

This is more of an irritable piece. Where is the arrow from Moonkin to Improved Moonkin? Can I blow points in Improved Moonkin? If I ever have to answer an email or tell asking me why a player's raid isn't benefiting from Improved Moonkin and I look up that player and they don't have Moonkin for some asinine reason, I will commence shooting little bunnies. And each little bunny will report to the good lord that their lives were forfeited because of the worst question ever asked in WoW. I'll even teach the little bunnies the name of the transgressor so the Good Lord can dole out more appropriate punishment. /rant off

Well that's all for now folks! More to come as more comes out!