So it's time. There has been little to no response from Blue on the Beta forums when it comes to Balance Druid mechanics. I'm not worried that Blue doesn't care, because I think they do. I think they've got some cards up their sleeve that might be changing what we complain about. Slowly but surely, they are trying to patch Eclipse till it "works" for us. Maybe we don't need a patch. Maybe we need a full reset.

Eclipse - The Theory

I think it's important to be very clear about what we want Eclipse to do for our rotation. Currently in Beta, it feels like Eclipse acts as a switch. When Eclipse procs, I switch nukes. I'm offered a damage incentive to perform this switch. I might or might not want to cast DoTs depending on their DPET under their respective Eclipse. Given the latest verbiage from Blizzard, I will likely want to cast Starsurge after I reach the midpoint of the Balance Bar to help proc the next spell switch. This interaction is rather boring and although I can't break it down to a static rotation due to crit, I can come pretty darn close.

While I agree that Eclipse should entice me to change what I am doing, I'd like to see a more involved method for interaction. Why must it be just a flat damage boost? I believe that Eclipse ought to fundamentally change my spells. I think at some level, Blizzard agrees with this as well. They want Eclipse to act as an incentive for changing spells. While their solution (having it buff damage) is clearly the simplest solution, it's also not that interesting. So how do we spice up this mundane ability?

Eclipse the Mechanism

As stated, the current Eclipse mechanism is rather uneventful. Perhaps it could offer DoT extension, drastically increasing the DPET of my DoTs and therefore making them an integral part of my rotation. Perhaps it could add a DoT to my nukes, not unlike what Languish (4T10) already does. Perhaps it could allow me to place charges that will explode when Eclipse expires. Or maybe these charges could trigger some Savage Roar type buff that will increase my damage, thereby making it my goal to swing from Eclipse to Eclipse as rapidly as possible to maintain this buff. There are many options (and I'm not saying any of these is particularly compelling or even the best way to go).

The point here is that there are many options for changing the feel of Eclipse that don't involve a flat damage booster. If anything I would suggest that Moonkin form (if it becomes a cooldown: finger's crossed) be the ability that offers a static damage increase and Eclipse provide the more interesting rotational modification.

What We've Got So Far

So I suppose I should point out that while it seems like some of the Balance community is unhappy with the modifications to Eclipse, we have received some improvements. First and foremost is the extension of the Eclipse buff to 45 seconds, allowing us some leeway for movement without "losing" Eclipse uptime. That alone helps pacify our movement penalty, allowing us to pick up our rotation right where it left off.

Eclipse is now buffable through the mastery stat. I think it should continue to be buffable through that stat as it allows our Eclipse some extra scalability outside of just proccing faster (through crit and haste). This new model seems like it will always have roughly the same uptime for Eclipse due to the fact that it cancels at 0 power. Will that make mastery more valuable than either haste or crit? We'll have to do some number crunching, but it certainly won't hurt. Personally I'd like to see Eclipse last 15 seconds or till the halfway point, whichever comes later.

We've gained a smidgen of control over Eclipse procs thanks to the Balance Bar (although this also adds some rigidity to our rotation). No longer are we waiting for that special Wrath crit or suffering the agonizingly slow Starfire cast praying for that crit at last. We have a visual marker and a set progression rate that will allow us to control when we proc Eclipse. Double-edged sword imo, but it's better than no control at all.

What We Want

We = Me, myself, and I. The three of us have conferred and we'd like to see more dynamic introduced. It's a poorly kept secret that I am a fan of complex rotations with situational aspects. I like the feral rotation. If my guild didn't have a kick-@$$ feral druid, I'd try to slip into that position. But I'm also attached to my Balance Druid for sentimental reasons. We asked ourselves if Eclipse really introduced complication into the rotation. We came to the conclusion that Eclipse is like a switch. Throw it up and you cast Arcane spells. Throw it down and you cast Nature spells. You throw the switch by reaching the end of an Eclipse bar. Lights on . . . lights off. Not very fascinating. Now while I am grateful for the additional control, I still would like more.

A lunar and solar eclipse should feel different. They should do different things. I should want to make a choice between the two. Is it better to push a Lunar Eclipse now, or a Solar? And the situation ought to determine that. Mana efficiency has been mentioned a few times. Perhaps one buff should scale well with haste while the other emphasizes crit. This would allow for a meaningful choice during heroism. Again, possibilities here are only limited by balancing the damage output. Whatever changes come, I seriously hope we promote more spell synergy and less "Cast A till proc, then cast B. Repeat"

So they are here! A return to simplicity and it is simply. . . crappy. The trees come with a caveat: Druids are not as far along as Paladins in development, and as we all know, Paladins get fixed about half-way through an expansion so that's saying something! You can check out the talent trees over at mmo-champion. In lieu of going through talent by talent, I thought I'd just hit the highs and the lows.

Highs

Several talents were removed (obviously) and for the most part I approve. Brambles got the axe, forever putting to ground the Owlkin Frenzy or Brambles debate. Typhoon is baseline now, freeing up some clutter from the tree. I wonder if it will get nerfed to the ground if every druid has access to it. Regardless, I'm glad to see it gone from the tree. I hated wasting a talent point on an ability that I only used on two fights. Nature's Splendor also received the axe, getting built in to the skills by default. Moonkin and imp. Moonkin went missing (and I can't say I'm sad). While I'd rather have Moonkin form as our spec defining ability, I'd also like to see it as an on-use ability. Read more about that below. Celestial Focus got removed and hard coded for choosing the balance tree. Vengeance also got removed and hard coded. That represents a fairly significant change in the school of thought between melee and caster DPS. But then again, melee is now hitting quite a bit harder than they used to. Back in the olden days, the 100% crit was to make up for the fact that melee hit more often but for less while casters did the large damage, large cast time spells.

Lows

Earth and Moon was taken out. I like this talent and will talk more about it below because I put it back in my tree. I feel like tiers 2 and 6 really lack the bang for their relative buck. Tier 2 is just boring and tier 6 probably won't see true use until I decide to PvP or raid. Until then, it's a filler tier. Omen of Clarity is gone too. Granted, it was a mana regen for us. But for ferals, it was a crux and a serious DPS increase. I hope it's trainable, but if it's not, I wonder how ferals will be compensated. However these are just minor annoyances when compared to what I consider the ultimate low. Where are the options Blizzard? I recall a mission statement of sorts that said they wanted to provide us with interesting talent choices. While invariably we will crunch the numbers and determine the best of the best for talents, we ought to have some relatively close choices that we can't pick up. Filling out a tree completely (except for Lunar Justice) and then scrounging a few points in the Restoration tree is a cookie cutter build. Every single raiding Balance Druid will have exactly the same build. Neither interesting or choice.

How Rel Would Do It

This is my redesigned talent tree. I kept Starsurge in the talent tree because I would like to see Moonkin Form as the "defining" ability of the Balance spec. But with an addendum: Make it a usable cooldown like Metamorphosis for warlocks. Clearly it would need to be less powerful (or scale with level).

I fleshed out the top row of Balance to provide more restoration options for advancing in that tree. They can get a full 5 points in the top tier with Genesis and Nature's Majesty, both which benefit them. I moved Lunar Justice to the top tier and reduced it to two points as it is strictly a leveling talent and I believe should be available to a leveling boomkin ASAP.

Given the relative power of Nature's Grace, I moved it to the second tier. I realize it is likely to change, but I still think it should be seated outside of the first tier. Moonglow appears in the second tier still. Both options might be appealing to a Restoration druid, giving them the options they need in the second tier.

In the third tier we find Improved Eclipse, Starsurge, and Balance of Power. Part of me thinks it is too early for Balance of Power, but I don't know what else I would place in this tier if I removed it. I linked Starsurge to Lunar Guidance in the 4^th tier. I also linked Improved Eclipse to Euphoria, just as Blizzard did. I read some people complaining about that link, but it seems not only appropriate, but obvious given the continual buffing of the amount of Eclipse Energy generated by each spell.

The fourth tier brings Lunar Guidance, Solar Beam, and Gale Winds. I actually tied Solar Beam into Lunar Guidance, but I'm 50/50 on untying it. I realize that Solar Beam doesn't seem like a PvE talent in a 25 man raid environment, but given the likely popularity of the 10 man format and all of the preceding dungeons, I think a silence will provide a good chunk of utility to the Balance druid, expanding their possible role.

Tier five offers Euphoria, Force of Nature, Owlkin Frenzy, and the return of Earth and Moon. I like Earth and Moon, as a talent. I don't need this type of talent to be unique to Boomkins, but I do like the concept. While it does seem rather dull in its description, it offers a personal buff for buffing the raid's DPS. I like talents that encourage you to be a "team player" and reward you for doing so. Euphoria seems to be our mana regen spell now. With Dreamstate, Omen of Clarity, and Intensity gone, Moonglow is about our only mana regen spell remaining. Technically, it's more of a mana saver than a regen talent too. The fact that Euphoria buffs Eclipse while offering mana return is icing on the cake.

Tiers five and six are as Blizzard designed them. I think if Starfall is going to be our 31 point talent, it needs to stay as strong as it is now on Live. Currently, it seems to have lost its splash damage, which I'm ok with. Not much splash damage going on during boss encounters most times anyway. It's hard to pinpoint Fungal Growth's utility as it is NYI. I think this talent may need tweaking (fuse with brambles, imo) in order to appeal to raiders, but we shall see.

I've always felt like Thorns was a weak spell. It's always been a bit of a misfit spell. It does damage, but not much. It provides threat, but not much. Lately, with the way damage and threat have scaled, Thorns seems negligible. I don't think that's the direction Blizzard wants to go with any spells. In lieu of a new beta build to talk about, I'll yak about this!

Let me credit the original idea to Anaro over on the beta forums (and his own blog, Cataclysmic Shift). He suggested that Thorns become a usable ability like Barkskin. Upon reading his suggestion, I had an epiphany: That IS a great idea for Thorns. So I got permission to flesh it out here, on my blog. Hopefully you'll leave some feedback about the thoughts and what you think Thorns should be. Here's the idea:



Ok, so that's the base ability. It would give the resto druid some added danger. The bear druid would get another cooldown that they could trigger if Barkskin was not needed. For the raiding cat and the raiding Moonkin, this would offer very little. Since our goal here is raiding utility, let's introduce another talent. This talent would fundamentally alter the ability, which I think could be considered and "interesting" challenge.



This is the caster version, planted down pretty far in the Balance tree to make it unique to Balance druids. A similar version could be used for cats but, honestly, they don't need more crap! Some napkin math says that this would be approximately a 2.5% increase in DPS if used on cooldown (assuming a constant DPS). It could have interesting implications with Eclipse, Starsurge, and DoTs, as far as when to cast, etc. I think this is on par with the kind of increases we are looking for from talents. It sure beats Genesis and Owlkin Frenzy, that's for sure!

TL:DR

Ironic that I would include this on one of my shorter posts, but here it is. Thorns is an uninteresting spell in both live and beta. It also feels rather useless. Changing it into a usable offensive cooldown with a talent to augment it for the caster's benefit offers a solution to both of those problems. It also creates an interesting talent, not like the current Brambles, which is simply a percentage increase /yawn. Leave your thoughts and comments!

I initially wasn't going to post my thoughts yet due to the massive talent system changes that are en-route. But then I figured, what the heck!? I'm bored so let's do it!

While I'm glad to hear GC acknowledge that the current version of Eclipse is not working well, I'd like to throw in my 2 cents about what I'm seeing this build.

Starsurge:

Currently, I feel that Starsurge is not nearly as integrated as I had hoped. It is unaffected by talents such as Nature's Reach. It does not proc Nature's Grace when it crits. It does not increase the "balance bar" favorably. Instead, it always adds Solar Power. Because of this, it lacks a certain synergy with Eclipse.

While I enjoy Starsurge against leveling mobs, I was trying to integrate it into a rotation against dummies and in the new instances. It did not feel like it was fitting in with the rest of the rotation. I'll say the same for DoTs later when I talk about them.

Eclipse:

I am hoping for some changes here, and it sounds like I'll get to see them thanks to a comment by GC. But I'll go ahead and share my current thoughts on Eclipse. I feel like a bar watcher. I'm zoning on the bar and forgetting all else. This is neither exciting nor productive for me as a raider. I feel like this is much less of a reactionary rotation and is much more anticipatory. I can essentially control my proc to within two casts. While I can see how this would be useful, I find it to be the equivalent of pressing a button at the right time. If it is equivalent, then I would much rather prefer the button to press. Less on the fly math (or addon to do it for me, which there will be).

I also find Eclipse to be rather unusable while leveling till 82. Either there aren't enough mobs to get enough power or there are too many mobs to make using anything but hurricane a bad decision. The decay is extremely rapid. While I understand not wanting to allow moonkins to carry over Eclipse power from fight to fight, it decays so quickly getting from one mob to the next usually sets you at zero. Maybe the decay should be something other than linear so that at high levels it decays quickly, but it is much slower around the +25 energy level, allowing a leveling player to carry over a small chunk of power yet preventing the raiding player from starting fights "fully charged".

DoTs:

I'm really just not feeling them. They don't boost my other spells. This means that they need to do the equivalent DPET of my nukes or they probably aren't worth using. Currently, that's where I sit. I use them to gather a lot of mobs to AoE down. I never use them in a single target rotation unless I'm moving.

The boosts to Moonfire's DD simply didn't do enough. I unglyphed my Moonfire and was incredibly underimpressed by the crit damage of my Moonfire. I was expecting much more. And after spamming it, I still felt like it was lacking. I think it's trying to be a nuke and a DoT at the same time and consequently, it is neither. Fortunately, I think a simple solution is available. Switch all of the DD Moonfire talents to DoT increasing talents. Since the DoT scales with both haste and crit, I feel that this will allow the boosts to ride out longer than a DD boost would. It would also place the spell on the DoT side of things. With the movement bonus from Wrath of Cenarius, this would still encourage us to spam moonfire while moving (at least three times). All suggestions aside, I really don't feel like this spell is going to fit into a rotation unless it decides whether it is a DoT or a DD spell (primarily).

EDIT: These posts are gonna be like my way of talking about relationships. I probably will forget to mention the 100 cool things while telling you about the 1 or 2 bad things. It's a character flaw, but that's the way it is. Anyway, let me assure you that there are plenty of cool quests and quest lines available. Most graphics are pretty impressive. Landscapes look good. Outside of the little Balance bubble, things are lookin pretty sharp. Can't speak for other classes though, I'm strictly druid here.

We're actually working on restoring the epic feeling to epic items in Cataclysm. Epic loot should be epic, and something to be very proud of. Our plan is to try and get the Heroic -> Blue Gear and Raid -> Purple Gear balance back. (Source)

Remember back to vanilla WoW. Remember the Wildheart Set? It was a dungeon set that really showed that you had invested in your character. And then this wondrous thing happened. An extensive quest line to upgrade to tier 0.5! Blizzard introduced the Feralheart set. A hybrid rare/epic loot set. And that gear felt Epic. I did the quest line even though I had better gear out of raids because I absolutely loved the fact that the gear was truly epic. People noticed it. And when you inspected someone that was fully in purples, you were blown away.

It's sort of like The Incredible's: When everyone is special, it means that no one is. When everyone has epic gear, then the gear really isn't epic anymore. It's common. I don't see the logistics between allowing everyone access to the content (and therefore gear) and making epic items feel epic again, but I sure am glad this made their radar. I've been hoping Epics would become Epic once more. How about you?

This is a response to 10mans vs 25mans: Is Equity Needed? over on Graylo's blog. If I'm gisting incorrectly here, I do apologize, but this was how I perceived the post.

The Removal of Obligation

Graylo addressed the purpose of changing the 10/25 to a single raid lockout and ended by stating that he didn't understand why the removal of obligation meant that the two formats needed to be relatively equal. As a raider who would prefer the 10 man format simply because it requires less organization and does not require me to depend on 24 other people, a few of which are guaranteed to bail or otherwise let me down and cause attendance problems, I feel that this is obvious.

Repeatedly, Graylo talks about choosing between the format and the gear. He claims that it makes no sense for a player to state that they like a 10 man format but raid 25 man instances for the better gear. And, he claims, their actions prove they do not like the 10 man format as much as they like the 25 man gear. This is true. However, I think a larger issue is being missed here. The player doesn't prefer one format or another more than they prefer making their character the best that they can. Currently that is a "no choice" desire. If one desires to maximize one's character, one is forced to run the 25 man version of the raid. Without equalization of 10s and 25s, one will be forced to choose 25 mans again. But this choice has absolutely nothing to do with the format of the dungeon. It has to do only with the loot available. All other things being equal, the player would not choose to participate in the 25 man. They would choose the 10 man. In some respects, their choice of format is being removed by their desire for gear.

I see no problem in scaling the 10 man encounters up to the level of 25 man encounters. Keep in mind that with the current implementation of the raid system, a 10 man dungeon is balanced around the idea that the players in it only have access to the previous 10 man gear. These items had a lower ilevel and consequently meant that the characters for which the dungeon was balanced were less powerful. Changing the lockouts and the gear dropped would allow Blizzard to rebalance the 10 mans so that they would prove challenging to people in the previous tier's best gear. This could include factors like steeper penalties for standing in fires since there is more room. Larger AoE explosions requiring more selective positioning. Having the same or slightly more adds per DPS on a fight to promote triage. Not scaling back health pools by the exact ratio of expected DPS. There are many ways to "balance" a fight that doesn't involve taking the 25 man encounter and scaling it directly to the damage and healing that a 10 man version could do.

The Slippery Slope

The slippery slope is a common argument for gaining support. Unfortunately, most slippery slope arguments are logical fallacies, more commonly known as the Fallacy of the Altered Standpoint. Asserting that if we let X happen, then Y and Z will follow in order to gain support for stopping X only works if Y and Z really will follow. I know a few people that pine for the 40 man raid days. They miss the epic feel. But the biggest resistance for changing to a 25 man raid format came in the form of guild size. How should a guild of 40 downsize to 25? I don't think you can say that the demand for the 40 or 5 man raid style really will follow from equalizing 10 and 25 man loot. In fact, as long as the Dungeon Finder stays in place and the dungeons act as an entrance point for gear, I doubt you'll ever see people asking for equalized difficulty on the 5 man front. If that were to happen, then quests would have to provide gear that was good enough to enter the raids straight out.

Equalizing 10 and 25 mans will not only simplify loot tables for Blizzard (a clear goal) but it will offer players a choice between the feel of the instance and the possible speed with which they get gear. The key to this is having the 10 mans drop the same quality gear. I don't mind taking a little longer to gear up because I prefer the format of the 10 man. I do mind not being able to reach the same level with my character without doing a 25 man. Is it possible that the 25 format will die once people have begun to gear up and then they drop to the 10 man format for achievements? Sure. But this is a slippery slope argument just like the one above. There is absolutely no certainty and why would a 25 man raiding guild drop 5 of its contributing raiders to downsize into 10s and get achievements? I think once the guild decides to run a 25 man format, they will stick with it until they either can't field the 25 man raid anymore or simply disband. They won't change midway because they've got the gear.

Tell Players to Choose

I have to disagree vehemently here. I should not have to choose between raiding casually in the 10 man format because it is easier to manage or raiding competitively in the 25 man format because it takes more effort on some peoples parts to organize. Especially if I am not the person organizing. Forcing players to choose between rewards and enjoyment is silly. Games simply aren't built around the second place. Especially if the choice is binding (as it will be when the lockout is shared). What made that choice OK so far is that it did not preclude a person from seeking their enjoyment in the game through either means. Not only would it permanently place the 10 man raiders half a tier behind, but it would insure that transitioning from a 10 man to a 25 man guild would be difficult and the transition from 25 to 10 would yield almost no benefit for the person looking to downsize. It would encourage those raiders who liked the 10 man format to join a 25 man raiding guild, gear up, and then scoot on back to their 10 man format where the fun lies.

Recognition

I feel it is important to mention recognition here. There is a great deal of recognition involved in raiding. That recognition needs to be available for the 10 man raider as well. Creating a "class system" where a 10 man raider can be king of the paupers, while the 25 man raider is king of the kings will never get players to view 10 man achievements on par with 25 man achievements. Offering a special "poor man's" award for completing the 10 man content in 10 man gear is akin to offering ribbons to those people not placing first. It would be hard for people to look at this as anything other than the winner of the loser's bracket. That's not a particularly prestigious title and the 25 man raiders will continue to look down on the 10 man raiders as far as "difficulty" goes.

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!

Beta Opt-In

To opt in for the beta, make sure that you have uploaded your system specs. Just follow this link to get the ball rolling.

Professions

Blizzard posted a Professions Preview. Here's my digest!

Blacksmithing, Leatherworking, and Tailoring

• Many of the green (and possibly some blue) items made during the process of leveling these professions will contain random stats. In most examples, two stats on these items will be set, and two will be random. The idea with these items is to mix up the skill leveling items so you're not just, for example, creating 10 pairs of boots that are all exactly the same.
• Superior-quality items that require more materials than other recipes in the same skill range provide multiple skill-ups. For example, if a recipe takes three times the reagents, it will give you three skill-ups.
• We didn't feel like we were getting much flexibility from specializations, so they have been removed for all three of these professions. The intent was to help people diversify their profession to feel different from that of other players, but through other professions we've found systems that work better to this end, such as simply making recipes available that you can earn over time.
• To follow up the previous change, all items that required a specialization are now useable by anyone.
• Tailoring the high-end Cataclysm items will center around a single cloth type that can be crafted through five different recipes -- each with their own material components and a long cooldown.
• All three professions will create their starter sets of PVP gear, which will be upgraded with new recipes every season. In general, these are meant to keep pace as an entry-level PvP set below whatever the current Hero Point set is.

I'm fairly displeased with bullet number two. I feel that the item itself was the only motivation needed to craft it. If an item required more mats, it was likely that the item was more desirable. The desire for the item provided the motivation to craft it (and subsequently use it). I feel like this type of change plays into the hands of those with deep pockets. The more you can afford to spend on expensive materials, the faster you can level up your skill. I do not see how this is of any big benefit to the new player or the cash-strapped player.

Scaling recipes for PvP? Will I have to relearn and/or buy them every time? Or will they automatically click over to the new version in my spellbook? I sure hope I don't have to buy them every season or you will see me buying none of them. Let another more interested person stay current there.

I'm glad to see the specializations go. They were minute at best and didn't really differentiate the population, as Blizzard observed. I do worry for Engineering, though. Will several items that used to be Engineering playthings will be open to the general public? I think that takes a great deal of appeal away from the profession. Which leads me to...

Engineering

• Engineering is still being designed, but expect new unpredictable gadgets to use on yourself or enemies. Toys, explosives, and even a new vanity pet or two. Oh, and powerful mechanical bows and crossbows in addition to guns.
• In general, we want Engineering to remain a tradeskill mainly focused on creating fun or useful gadgets for the engineer, but we are exploring options for items that can be sold to other players for profit.

At least they realize what the pull of Engineering would be. I would love to see more of the Engineering craftables available to slackers like myself, who are too lazy to level Engineering. However, the rational part of me is glad that they might not be. Now. . . what can I buy from an Engineer to blow myself up with? Damned goblins!

Inscription

• With the large number of class changes coming with Cataclysm, many existing glyphs will see new functionality.
• Minor glyphs are woefully uneven from one class to the next right now, so they're a focus for us to clean them up and try to ensure that everyone has minor glyphs they're excited about.
• New Darkmoon Cards will be added, with hopes they'll all be as awesome as the Greatness card.
• We'll be adding more major glyphs as well, but in the hopes of making them as balanced as possible, we'll likely wait until after the expansion ships to add any for the new abilities in Cataclysm.
• New and more desirable off-hand and relic recipes will be added.

The cynicism embedded within me is hard to contain. While I am glad that they are changing some glyph functionality, I get this feeling that we will go live with a glyph that still reduces pushback on wrath. They are "focusing" on cleaning up minor glyphs and want us to be excited about it. I'll be excited if my minor glyph changed what my spells looked like. I enjoy the convenience of the current minor glyphs but I am not excited about them in the least. I choose them because they are functional, not fun.

As far as the off-hands and relics are concerned, will these be more desirable than what was crafted before? Or more desirable than what we have now. If it's the former, I fart in their general direction. If it is the later, I might actually be interested. Here's to hopin', eh?

Jewelcrafting

• Some gem colors have changed! Hit is now blue. Mastery and Dodge are yellow. Intellect is now red. These simple changes have created a much more diverse matrix of gem cuts.
• New Jewelcrafting dailies will be introduced.
• Many cuts are being added to support the new Mastery stat.
• Some new Cataclysm jewelry recipes have completely random properties, and can sometimes create superior and epic versions.
• Jewelcrafters will have some fun new (and potentially lucrative) vanity items, including fist weapons, rhinestone sunglasses, monocles, and stardust (sprinkle on players for entertainment).

That seems very vague. I wonder if we would treat mastery as we treat Spellpower today. Will we be seeing all yellow gems with the occasional green to activate our meta and orange to include spellpower for socket bonuses? If Blizzard isn't careful, their "diverse matrix" of gem cuts might be reduced to "whatever has mastery on it". I also didn't realize that fist weapons were vanity items. I guess I'll go delete my vanity rogue, since he will be even worse now.

There's more stuff on the gathering professions and their respective "specials", but you can read up on that in the link near the top. All I will say is that, now that we can craft the special hides from gathered skins, Leatherworking should become much more accessible than it was previously (until you could buy Arctic Fur with orbs). Fishing will still be used for making top of the line foods. Damn miners get a chance at gems while gathering. Skinners get a chance of intestinal spray and/or blood splatter, yielding +1 to stench and repulsiveness. Go skinning (6:1 conversion rate on skins to heavy skins)! We will also see the release of three new levels of bandages, hopefully correcting the scaling problem that we tend to see as an expansion grows older. And sorry, Graylo, but just say no to bandages that scale with HP. It sounds good, but it creates a booger of a deal in PvP.

Smo over at his blog posted up our first look at the Alpha testing talent trees for druids. I'm just gonna work my way from the top down in the Balance tree so don't take my first comments as the ones that I feel strongest about. It's just easier to organize that way.

Tier 1

Starlight Wrath
This still decreases Wrath's cast time. I was hoping this would interact with Wrath in a different way, but I suppose they wanted to make sure that Wrath and Starfire don't feel like the same spell. I appreciate that sentiment, but will be very irritated if the haste scaling issue for Wrath continues past WotLK.

Genesis
Boring. Looks like its still going to be a filler for Resto druids to get through the tree. I will say that the verbiage is currently unclear, but it looks like it only affects the periodic portion of our spells. Since it looks like the direct damage of Moonfire will have some significant boosters (including during movement) and IS looks weak, I'm not seeing this talent as useful.

Tier 2

Moonglow
Unchanged. A 9% Reduction in mana cost might seem trivial, but I understand that we might actually have to give a damn about mana. It sure could make a rotation interesting if we had to worry about going OoM.

Nature's Majesty
Unchanged.

Improved Moonfire
Revamped. It now only increases the direct damage of your moonfire spell. This, compounded with a few other talent changes looks like a herald to the return of "Ye Olde Moonfire Spam".

Tier 3

Celestial Focus
Pushback on everything . . . but Wrath and Cyclone? Maybe spells under 1 second won't be able to be pushed back. But this seems like a pretty poor design considering how crucial Wrath and Cyclone are for our PvP arsenal.

Solar Beam
Well, I'm charging my lazer cannon. But let me see if I've got this right. Solar Beam will call down a big, highly visible ray of light. Moonfire shoots down a distinctive arc of silver light. Another talent is going to leave a silver ray over a dead body. Maybe if we're lucky, we'll get a talent that puts a perma-mark over our heads letting people know where we are at all times. We better hope that people fear us in PvP or we'll be a gank magnet.

Ok, that was a rant and said nothing about the actual talent so I suppose I should get back on track. A guaranteed 3 second disorient on an instant cast with at least 1 more second of silence as they run out. Combined with roots, this COULD be very powerful. It can also act as a barrier in doorways and things like that, forcing people to either stay out of los or bite a few seconds silence and run into full view.

Nature's Grace
I'm shocked. Stunned. Flabbergasted. What in the name of Zeus's butthole is this talent doing here? Still in tact. Still causing scaling problems with haste. Maybe they are hoping that with the new changes to DoTs with haste that we won't care. Maybe that's true. Blah.

Nature's Reach
Nothing new here.

Tier 4

Nature's Splendor
Same-ol' same-ol'

Lunar Justice
This is the marker spell I was talking about earlier. I don't really understand it's point outside of leveling unless mana is going to be a huge issue without raid buffs. I sincerely hope that it is not a problem to such a degree that I have to pick this talent up and carry it around in my raiding build. Very nice leveling implications for us though. And AoE grinding will be fun.

Tier 5

Brambles
This talent makes a large jump from tier 3 to tier 5. I find it funny that a talent that we barely consider taking now would be budgeted to a higher tier without any improvements, practically assuring that we won't need to put points into it. Especially considering that this tier contains Vengeance, one of our must have 5 point talents.

Starsurge
Well here it is. This is the "Nature's Torrent" that we heard tell about. It comes with a knockdown so it definitely will help our peeling ability in PvP. I'm actually glad it's not instant. It will make planning a bit more interesting in PvP and maybe even PvE. We see an Eclipse meter interaction from a later talent, but it seems rather minor (especially if the bar is 100 Lunar and 100 Solar).

Vengeance
Still rockin out that increased crit damage. It's no surprise this talent didn't change.

Dreamstate
Could be key again if mana goes down the pooper. I suppose it all depends on how high our int numbers go. It got moved up one tier. It also now leads to Euphoria. More on that later.

Tier 6

Gale Winds
Up a whopping 3 tiers from its original place, Gale winds remains unchanged. I think they just ran out of creative juices. Where's the addition of increased Starfall damage?!? And Wild Mushrooms! Cause that wouldn't be OP at all. C'mon Blizz, let us have the one button press to kill everything ability!

Lunar Guidance
Providing a nice little bonus to the radius of Solar Beam and a small chunk of Eclipse energy from Starsurge. I think this talent is supposed to introduce "complexity" into the rotation because its damage will be so good that we will have to cast it. Things that make you go hmmmm....

Balance of Power
This is our hit talent. Converts spirit to hit and adds an additional 4% on top of that. No surprises here. Actually, the conversion ration of spirit to hit is 1:1. That's higher than I expected, so maybe one surprise.

Tier 7

Moonkin Form
Moonkin Form! Now with added armor and raid wide critical strike! In a bit of a switch of roles, Moonkin Form now offers a raid wide buff, which is nice. I'm glad to see them up this from the leak that had only increased armor.

Improved Moonkin Form
Switching from crit (as leaked in alpha) to haste, with this talent, we will now bring 5% crit and 5% haste to a raid. That's a nice little package. Not to mention our tangibles such as battle rez and innervate. It seems like a good day to be a druid when people start looking at raid composition.

Tier 8

Owlkin Frenzy
It seems like its reverted to the pre mana regen version. Not too awesome.

Wrath of Cenarius
So this is rather odd. It only affects Moonfire, and it only affects it while you are moving. Welcome back, Moonfire spam. How I have missed you! Goodbye Moonfire Glyph, how I have loved you! And that means Starfire glyph is probably going bye-bye too. So then . . . focus, starfall and IS (our least buffed dot) or if we're lucky we'll get a Glyph of Slow Wrath.

Tier 9

Eclipse
I'm having trouble reading this one. It will obviously be necessary, but it also looks like you will have an Eclipse Meter without this talent. Maybe we will see a hybrid resto/balance build with offensive possibilities in PvP, given that critical hits will move the bar. Anyway, speculation aside, this is gonna be a staple talent.

Typhoon
Still the same.

Force of Nature
No changes. I was hoping for one stronger pet, but I suppose the three pet thing has some validity. If we're lucky, blizzard will allow pets to stand at 135 degrees from the front of the mob to avoid dragon tails and poop effects. (Sorry, I seem to have lost my couth filter for the moment)

Tier 10

Earth and Moon
50% reduction on its effectiveness. I don't mind that though. It goes in line with decreasing the raid bonuses (which will really help them balance 10/25 man expected outputs). We retain the personal bonus, so that's a plus.

Fungal Growth
Here's the snare from Wild Mushrooms and ... treant death? Well, in PvP, that will be nice. But whatever happened to Wild Mushrooms being a synergistic piece of the Balance rotation? So far this is the only talent I see that impacts them. And that impact has a very limited PvE scope.

Tier 11

Starfall Not awesome. Maybe I'm reading it wrong, but I see almost a 400 base damage reduction with no splash damage. Are you kidding me? I'm not griping because I lost something that was OP. I'm griping because our 51 point talent is so lackluster that I wonder if I'll even want to take it. And Starfall has always been one of my favorite Balance spells since its inception. I'll take it because I love effortlessly aggroing a large number of mobs to Hurricane down. But I'm not gonna take it without saying that it seems like a pretty poor change.

---

Resto Tree

Blessing of the Grove (BotG)
BotG is another talent that is synergistic with Moonfire. I can't imagine that we would pass on this for one of the other talents given that any time we move we will be spamming Moonfire.

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Summary

I'm pretty disappointed with many of the changes. They left an inherent haste scaling problem in tact. They eliminated most boosters to IS. They boosted the direct damage of Moonfire so much that it's hard to believe we would ever glyph for it and, consequently, Starfire. I feel like many of the spells gained a PvP aspect, which I am glad for. I would love to feel a little more secure in PvP. I dislike that many of our spells will now leave obvious markers of our presence. Moonfire was a tell-tale sign of our presence in a fight. Now we'll be seeing three beams of light! And a couple of them stay for 10 or more seconds!

While I still see the haste problem, especially given that it is both our Mastery and a passive on Improved Moonkin, I feel a lot better about synergy. I find Eclipse less than interesting and really wonder how boring GC's life must be for him to find it "really excit(ing)". Word on the street is that we will see different mechanics for Eclipse popping up. I pray the word is right.

I really wish I could get on and test the synergy right now but I don't have an alpha key so I can't do that. Here's to hoping those of use from the druid community that got a key are giving specific and prolific feedback.

Uninspired graphically, to say the least, although the character sheet seems to have a few more bells and whistles. Also the terrain in the background seems quite well rendered. Maybe it's time to stop playing this game in greyscale wireframes... The Eclipse Meter (tucked under the character frame) seems like the progress bar for capping PvP objects. It's fairly safe to say that I wasn't expecting anything grandiose from the meter itself, so this is not a shock. It does meet the basic requirements of the meter, showing the progress relative to both Eclipse types and highlighting an Eclipse when it has been reached (look at Solar there). Now on to the more important issue: Mechanics.

The New Eclipse

The damage done by your Wrath is increased when you reach 100 Solar Power, and the damage done by your Starfire is increased when you reach 100 Lunar Power. Effect will last for 15 sec. Mastery increases the damage done by your Wrath and Starfire when you gain Eclipse.

This is the word on the web from mmo-champion. While I understand this is an Alpha build, and folks, you really shouldn't take what I say all to seriously, I am going to react to this. I'm sick in bed and have nothing else to do but type, read, or watch youtube, so that spells luck for you! Rel's ramblings on Alpha!

Control

This new Eclipse mechanism offers a tad more control over when we proc the next 15 seconds of boosted power. Smo posed the question of how this was any different than our current version given that we could prevent an Eclipse proc by switching to the spell whose Eclipse was on cooldown. At first, this got me. I know it is a huge DPS loss to prevent an Eclipse proc, but how was this new mechanic any different. Then it hit me: You could guarantee an Eclipse proc after you stopped moving with the new system. You could not do this with the old system.

For the sake of argument, let us assume that the Eclipse Meter ranges from +100 Lunar Power to +100 Solar Power. Also, let us assume that we are on our way to proccing a Solar Eclipse. Now, we know movement is coming up in 5 seconds and we are at 95 Solar Power. Casting another Starfire could conceivably push us into a Solar Eclipse and cause us to waste portions of the buff while moving. Here is where we find a measure of control we did not have previously. We can opt to cast a few Wraths and so long as this doesn't bump our Eclipse Meter down to <85, we will be able to proc Eclipse with one spell after we stop moving. Starsurge (with talents) will generate 15 Power, allowing us to reach 100 Solar Power and proc our Solar Eclipse.

Currently, we could switch spells, just like in the previous example, to avoid proccing the next Eclipse. Then, when we stopped moving, we would resume casting Starfire in order to try and proc Eclipse. Now here's the difference. We might not crit on that spell cast. No Eclipse. We might not crit on the next spell cast. Still no Eclipse. Hell we might not crit until the 5th Starfire and there's 10+ seconds wasted without an Eclipse proc. The current mechanic is reliant upon RNG. The new mechanic can be manipulated so that it is not. In my opinion, that is a small win.

Scaling Damage

There are some movements you just can't predict. Fire on the Beasts. Orbs on the Twins. Goo on Putricide. Slimes on Rotface. The list goes on and on. It is entirely feasible that we have procced an Eclipse and we lose valuable time moving. If the Eclipse Meter moves based on damage done, this will also slow our next Eclipse Proc. I am rather disappointed that this is not a sliding damage modifier or even a damage modifying step function, giving us plateaus of damage increase within certain ranges of Eclipse Power. The proc based nature of Eclipse will still penalize us while moving (although it looks like Moonfire Spam is back to fill that DPS void). I'm hoping to see a change here, but the mastery bonuses seem like a place where Blizz started the redesign so I'm not sure I will see any change.

TL:DR

The new Eclipse Meter, while graphically uninspiring, offers the player more control over when they receive the Eclipse buff, allowing them to make greater use of the procs. However, the proc based nature of Eclipse will still impose a penalty on players when unpredictable movement occurs. All in all, it seems a good start but I would like to see it refined a little more into a sliding damage modifier instead of a proc based ability.

Ive been following a lot of the talk going on about the proposed raid lockout change and how it is a blessing or the doom of the world. One thing that has consistently been bothering me is the tendency of the "anti-change" faction to base all many of their arguments on comparisons of the current 10 and 25 man raids. I cannot stress enough that 10s as we know them will cease to exist. Right now, 10s are tuned to be accessible yet difficult for players who cleared the previous tier of 10 man content. Since almost every tier (even Ulduar in some senses) was being pugged on the 25 man level, most players exceeded the tuning gear level. No longer will that be the case.

Progression Pathway

Here's what I see happening. Cataclysm will hit and we will all level to 85. The first tier of content will be tuned to the 25 man ICC gear level. Gear of this ilevel will be accessible during the end of the leveling process. Yes, I know, all your hard earned work might get replaced by some epic quest chain reward at 84. Swallow it down. I predict there will be two instances in this first tier of content. Lets call them instance A and instance B. Instance A will be tuned for the new 85s. It will drop the next ilevel of gear. Most guilds will need to clear instance A before having success in instance B. Instance B will be tuned for the completion of instance A. This will be the first true raid instance in Cataclysm and will be our first real example of content that is tuned to the same difficulty in 10 and 25 man for our current gear.

I sincerely hope that the second 10 man smacks the ever-loving crap out of peoples faces. I think the first instance has to be a little under-tuned to propel people into the new expansion. And when that second 10 man reaches out its mighty hand, drawing back for the biggest of b!+ch slaps, a lot of people will realize that maybe they miss having the shelter of 24 other people. The 10 man raider will shoulder a larger chunk of responsibility. The average 10 man player will likely have to make prolific use of an offspec in order to increase raid viability and configuration. I'm blessed with the ability to have two Balance specs. I really hope that changes and I am forced to adopt a feral tank spec to improve raid viability.

Personal Stakes in a Raiding Environment

I want to be pushed. I want to have a larger investment in the outcome of a raid. I work my butt off in 25 man, doing my best to pump out great numbers while minimizing damage taken and playing "pro" in general. I want to work with other people that do exactly that. Now I'm not implying that there are people who don't care, but let's face it. Some people slack in the 25 man. Nobody would notice if I came in 10th or 11th on the charts instead of 2nd or 3rd. At least they wouldn't say "Rel! Do your damn job man. We know you're slackin!" But in a 10 man, where my effort has a greater impact on the outcome, I might hear just that. "Well, without a collective DPS of X, we won't be able to do this before enrage. That averages out to Y DPS per person and I look at this list. . . Rel, you're not pulling your weight, you fatkin. Step it up." And step it up I would. Because in the 10 man, I'm not buffered by 24 other people doing their job.

Stratification & Homogenization

Here's where stratification comes in. Currently the raids are stratified, with a 10 man raid building into a 25 man raid as a viable progression pathway. Part of me likes this system. It would be nice if the instances scaled with average ilevel or some such nonsense, but I don't see that happening. So the progression pathway becomes a loot and badge pinata that you have to run in order to stay at the forefront of progression. If you're not running it, then you're falling behind or letting your team down.

Homogenizing the raids into a single choice reduces the required time to stay "on the curve". Like it or not, WoW is designed to be a time sink and it is slowly losing some of its older playerbase to the fact that it takes many many hours to stay competitive (the entire point of the game for some people, myself included to a degree). This relieves that problem a little, as does capping the number of badges you can receive. It also allows a player to spend more time on alts. Personally, I'm not an altoholic. I abhor the leveling process. I really don't like grinding for things either. I like raids because its tantamount to overcoming a challenge with a collective group effort (of which I like to imagine I am an integral part).

The only downside to homogenizing raids is that 25 mans don't feel as epic because they drop the same loot. Even more of the same loot doesn't really make the "epic" feel return. So why run a 25 man? Well you might actually have 24 friends. Maybe. More likely, you're in a 25 man raiding guild and want to continue in that 25 man raiding guild because chances are you aren't the raid leader. That and forming your own 10 man guild would require a lot of work. Also, I will guess that folks running 25-mans will potentially gear up quicker. With all content being equal (however this is achieved), losing one DPS on 10 man will be much more significant than 1 DPS on 25 man. I'm not even looking at it from a scrub/star perspective. In a 10 man, there are on average 5.5 DPS, 2 tanks, 2.5 healers. Sometimes that off-tank is a really good DPS, other times not. If 1 DPS dies then you've lost somewhere between 17% to 20% of your DPS. In a 25 man, there are 16.5 DPS, 6 healers, and 2.5 tanks. One DPS lost is ~6%. That's a pretty significant difference. Even your best DPS isn't putting out 15% of your DPS (or you're doing some serious carrying) in the 25 man setting.

I know I'm ranting, and I do apologize, but it really irks me that so many people are getting angry about this change. Like it would be utterly impossible to make the 10 and 25 man raids close enough in difficulty to make the choice based on personal desire, not loot. I say, hold on to your knickers, dry those cryin eyes, and wait for some beta information to trickle through. I bet people will be surprised at just how different the 10 mans feel. I know I'm excited!

In World of Warcraft: Cataclysm we’ll be making several changes to class talents and abilities. Here you will get a glimpse into some of the changes we have in store for the druid. The information you’re about to read is certainly not complete, and is only meant to act as a preview of some of the exciting new things to come. Let’s kick things off by checking out some of the new druid spells and abilities!
New Druid Abilities

Thrash (Level 81): Thrash deals damage and causes all targets within 10 yards to bleed every 2 seconds for 6 seconds. The intent here is to give bears another button to hit while tanking. Talents will affect the bleed, such as causing Swipe to deal more damage to bleeding targets. 5-second cooldown. 25 Rage.

Stampeding Roar (Level 83): The druid roars, increasing the movement of all allies within 10 yards by 40% for 8 seconds. Stampeding Roar can be used in cat or bear form, but bears might have a talent to drop the cooldown. The goal of this ability is to give both bears and cats a little more situational group utility. 3-minute cooldown. No cost.

Wild Mushroom (Level 85): Grows a magical mushroom at the target location. After 4 seconds the mushroom becomes invisible. Enemies who cross the mushroom detonate it, causing it to deal area-of-effect damage, though its damage component will remain very effective against single targets. The druid can also choose to detonate the mushroom ahead of time. This is primarily a tool for the Balance druid, and there will be talents that play off of it. No cooldown. 40-yard range. Instant cast.


Changes to Abilities and Mechanics

In addition to the new abilities listed above, we intend to make changes to some of the other abilities and mechanics with which you’re already familiar. This list and the summary of talent changes below it are by no means comprehensive, but they should give you a good sense of our goals for each spec.

All heal-over-time spells (HoTs) will benefit from crit and haste innately in Cataclysm. Hasted HoTs do not reduce their duration, but instead add additional HoT ticks. Haste will also benefit Energy generation while in cat form. Unlike the other healers, Restoration druids will not be receiving any new spells. They have plenty to work with already, and our challenge instead is to make sure all of them have a well-defined niche. A druid should be able to tank-heal with stacks of Lifebloom, spot-heal a group with Nourish and Regrowth, and top off lightly wounded targets with Rejuvenation.

We want to add tools to cat form and depth to bear form. If a Feral cat is going to fill a very similar niche to that of a rogue, warrior or Enhancement shaman, it needs a few more tools -- primarily a reliable interrupt. Bears need to be pushing a few more buttons just so the contrast between tanking and damage-dealing is not so steep. Barkskin will be innately undispellable.

We will be buffing the damage of Mangle (cat) significantly so that when cat druids cannot Shred, they are not at such a damage-dealing loss. Druids will lose Abolish Poison with the dispel mechanics change, but Restoration druids will gain Dispel Magic (on friendly targets) as a talent. All druids can still remove poisons with Cure Poison and remove curses with Remove Curse.


New Talents and Talent Changes

Tree of Life is changing from a passive talent to a cooldown-based talent, similar to Metamorphosis. Mechanically, it feels unfair for a druid to have to give up so much offense and utility in order to be just as good at healing as the other classes who are not asked to make that trade. We are exploring the exact benefit the druid gets from Tree of Life. It could strictly be better healing, or it could be that each heal behaves slightly different. You also will not be able to be banished in Tree of Life form (this will probably be true of Metamorphosis as well). Additionally, we would like to update the Tree of Life model so that it feels more exciting when you do decide to go into that form. Our feeling is that druids rarely actually get to show off their armor, so it would be nice to have at least one spec that looked like a night elf or tauren (and soon troll or worgen) for most of the time.

We want to make the Feral cat damage rotation slightly more forgiving. We do not want to remove what druids like about their gameplay, but we do want to make it less punishing to miss, say, a Savage Roar or Rake. The changes here will be on par with increasing the duration of Mangle like we did for patch 3.3.3.

Balance druids will have a new talent ability called Nature’s Torrent, which strikes for either Nature or Arcane damage depending on which will do the most damage (or possibly both), and moves the Eclipse meter more (details below). The improved version of Nature’s Torrent also reduces the target's movement speed. 10-second cooldown.

Restoration druids will have a new talent called Efflorescence, which causes a bed of healing flora to sprout beneath targets that are critically healed by Regrowth. We plan on giving Feral cats and bears a Kick/Pummel equivalent -- an interrupt that is off the global cooldown and does no damage. We feel like they need this utility to be able to fill the melee role in a dungeon or raid group, and to give them more PvP utility.

We want to make sure Feral and Balance druids feel like good options for an Arena team. They need the tools to where you might consider a Feral druid over an Arms warrior, or a Balance druid over a mage or warlock. Remember that the PvP landscape will probably look pretty different for Cataclysm with a focus on rated, competitive Battlegrounds.


Mastery Passive Talent Tree Bonuses

Balance

• Spell Damage
• Spell Haste
• Eclipse

Eclipse: We are moving Eclipse from a talent into a core mechanic of the class and making it less random. Balance druids will have a new UI element that shows a sun and a moon. Whenever they cast an Arcane spell, it will move the UI closer to the sun, and buff their Nature damage. Whenever they cast a Nature spell, it will move the UI closer to the moon, and buff their Arcane damage. The gameplay intention is to alternate Arcane and Nature spells (largely Starfire and Wrath) to maintain the balance.

Feral (Cat)

• Melee Damage
• Melee Critical Damage
• Bleed Damage

Feral (Bear)

• Damage Reduction
• Vengeance
• Savage Defense

Bleed Damage and Savage Defense: Feral druids will receive two sets of passive bonuses depending on whether the druid is in cat or bear form. Bleed Damage will be improved for cats. Savage Defense is the current bear mechanic for converting crits into damage absorption and will be improved for bears.

Vengeance: This is a mechanic to ensure that tank damage (and therefore threat) doesn’t fall behind as damage-dealing classes improve their gear during the course of the expansion. All tanking specs will have Vengeance as their second talent tree passive bonus. Whenever a tank gets hit, Vengeance will give them a stacking attack power buff equal to 5% of the damage done, up to a maximum of 10% of the character’s unbuffed health. For boss encounters we expect that tanks will always have the attack power bonus equal to 10% of their health. The 5% and 10% bonuses assume 51 talent points have been put into the Feral tree and the druid is in bear form -- these values will be smaller at lower levels. Remember, you only get this bonus if you have spent the most talent points in the Feral tree and are in bear form, so you won’t see Balance, Restoration, or Feral druids in cat form running around with it. Vengeance will let us continue to make tank gear more or less the way we do today -- there will be some damage-dealing stats, but mostly survival-oriented stats. Druids typically have more damage-dealing stats even on their tanking gear, so the Vengeance benefit may be smaller, but overall the goal is that all four tanks do about the same damage when tanking.

Restoration

• Healing
• Meditation
• HoT Scale Healing

HoT Scale Healing: HoTs will do increased healing on more wounded targets. The mechanic is similar to that of the Restoration shaman, but with HoTs instead of direct heals. In Cataclysm, we anticipate druids using a greater variety of their spells so there is a distinction between healing and HoT healing.

We hope you enjoyed this preview, and ask that you provide your initial thoughts and feedback on what was presented here. Please keep in mind, what you’ve just reviewed is a work in progress and as we move closer to the Cataclysm beta, you’ll see these changes as well as others continue to develop in response to testing and feedback.

Ok, so here's what I think:

This is a hidden charge system for Eclipse. The meter will slide based on which spell we cast (like planting a charge) and then casting the opposite spell will slide the bar back towards the balance point (like consuming a charge). What I don't understand is how they think this will force us to "alternate spells". I think what will happen is that we will pick a spell to buff and only use the other spell to fill the meter, possibly rarely if Nature's Torrents moves the meter a great deal.

You had to guess I was gonna bring this down to charges =]

I don't dislike the Wild Mushroom thing. I only hope that when it blows up, it causes psychedelic rainbow colors to confuse the victim =]. No, honestly, it seems like an odd mechanic. Are we gonna have to plan 4 seconds in advance to use this? I can see the use of this mushroom in PvP, but in PvE, it seems like it could get unwieldy. They did suggest that we would want to use it against single target so I can only assume they expect that to be in our rotation. Consequently, I am beginning to think we will have more spells that deal nature damage than deal arcane damage (include typhoon) so we might be looking to push to the solar side of Eclipse.

As far as Mastery goes, I'm a little disappointed that they chose haste, as we're not pushing any type of crit soft cap now that Eclipse (as a talent) is gone. What with the clipping of Wrath, and the obvious scaling of gear and rapid inflation, I think we are going to find ourselves with some serious problems. IF we get to the point where haste is just too high, it will inherently push us towards the Lunar portion of the Eclipse bar. I hate being forced into a certain spell by stats alone. I wish our arsenal would be variable enough to make the choice between pushing to Solar or pushing to Lunar a player based decision without a harsh damage difference. Some of us like Machine Guns. Others like Lazer Cannons. I like being able to choose between the two...

Also, let's truncate the qq about DoTs scaling with Haste and Crit.

Most hots and dots, including druid ones, will benefit from haste and crit. The exceptions are things like Deep Wounds and Ignite, which are already tied to crit.

So there you have it. HoTs AND DoTs will scale with haste and crit.

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The last thing I'd like to do is post a list of my questions for Blizzard. I posted on the WoW forums but that got pushed back 13 pages in under an hours so I doubt it will get read.

Eclipse

• Is the slider going to be based on the damage dealt by the spells or by the number of spells that are cast?
• Will DoT spells contribute to the meter, and if so, will they contribute their full amount upon cast or upon damage dealt?
• Will AoE spells contribute to the meter (primarily those that still fit within the standard single-target rotation)?

Wild Shrooms

• Can they be detonated by proximity before 4 seconds?
• Do they suffer a damage penalty if detonated by the druid before the 4 second growth is over?
• Do they effect the Eclipse meter?
• Is there any type of lasting poison cloud? (I'd love to see this)
• Does it cause visual impairment to the detonator and all effected?
• Will it use the same placement as FoN or can we summon it on a target?

Nature's Torrent

• Is it instant cast?
• Will it always move the Eclipse bar to one side or will it push it further into the side it currently occupies?
• Will this nuke be significant in damage or more of an Eclipse filler

There was a post recently on the new stat system. I've included it here:

As many of you know from panels at last year’s BlizzCon and posts here on the forums since then, Cataclysm will bring about major changes to familiar character stats such as Intellect, Armor Penetration, Defense, and others, ultimately designed to make the effects of stats more easily understandable and make gear choices more interesting. As these changes will have a significant impact on how stats work and relate to one another, today we wanted to offer you a closer look at exactly what’s in store and explain some of the rationale before Cataclysm arrives.

The most obvious question these changes raise is "Why are stats being changed, and why now?" As the game has matured, we've run into increasingly complex issues with the current stat system. Many stats are inherently confusing, and the way they interrelate can feel convoluted. Attack Power, for example, currently translates to damage, but so does Armor Penetration. Defense provides five different statistical benefits of varying utility. Mana regeneration involves understanding multiple stats and rules and often ends up being irrelevant anyway. In addition, the difference between a "good stat" for a class and a "bad stat" can be extreme. Some casters want Haste but not Crit; hunters want Armor Penetration but not Haste. There are other overarching issues, as well, such as Intellect not being very exciting for casters despite it being a core stat -- and these are just a few examples.

Our ultimate goal is make gear a more interesting (and less confusing) choice by making each stat valuable to more players. While the reasoning behind some of the following changes may be clear, we understand that you may have questions about some of the less obvious alterations, and we'll do our best to answer any questions you may have here on the forums.

What You’ll See on Gear

Stamina - Because of the way we will be assigning Strength, Agility, and Intellect, non-plate wearers will end up with more Stamina than before. Health pools will be much closer between plate-wearers and other classes.

Spirit - Come Cataclysm, this stat should only be found on healing gear. Non-healing casters will have other systems in place to regenerate mana, and we are designing special solutions for Elemental shaman and Balance druids who often share gear with healers (more on this below). Raid buffs that currently boost Spirit (such as Blessing of Kings) will only boost the primary stats of Stamina, Strength, Agility, and Intellect. We are also likely changing the five-second rule and other quirks of the current regen system.

Intellect - Intellect will now grant Spell Power (more on this below). Intellect will also provide less mana than it currently does.

Haste - Haste will become more attractive for melee classes by allowing them to recover resources such as energy and runes more quickly. Our intention is for Haste to let you "do stuff" more often.

Block Rating - Block is being redesigned to scale better. Blocked attacks will simply hit for 30% less damage. Block rating will improve your chance to block, though overall block chances will be lower than they are today.

Parry - Parry no longer provides 100% avoidance and no longer speeds up attacks. Instead, when you parry an attack, it and the next attack will each hit for 50% damage (assuming they hit at all). In other words, Dodge is a chance to avoid 100% of the damage from one attack, Parry is a chance to avoid 50% of the damage from two attacks, and Block is a chance to avoid 30% of the damage from one attack.

Mastery - This is a new stat that will allow players to become better at whatever makes their chosen talent tree cool or unique. It's directly tied to talents, so what you gain from improving this stat is entirely dependent upon your class and the talent specialization you choose. We’ll talk more about specific Mastery benefits in the future.

Armor - The way Armor mitigates damage is not changing, but the Armor stat has been rebalanced to mirror changes to the armor curve in Cataclysm. As a result, bonus Armor will go down slightly overall. We are also changing the mitigation difference among armor types so that plate doesn’t offer so much more protection than mail, leather, and cloth.

Resilience - This will only affect damage done by players and critical damage done by players. It will not impact crit chance, mana drains, or other such effects.

Strength, Agility, Hit Rating, Expertise, and Critical Strike Rating - These will all still appear on gear as well. Aside from situations mentioned elsewhere in this list, in general these will function similarly to how they do now, though the details -- such as how much Hit Rating you might need to effectively combat high-level creatures (more on this below) -- are likely to change.

Being Removed from Items

Attack Power - This stat will no longer be present on most items as a flat value, though it will still show up on some process. Strength and Agility, which will be present on items, will grant the appropriate amount of Attack Power (generally 2 Attack Power per point of Strength or Agility) depending upon which stat a particular class favors. Agility may provide less Crit than it currently does.

Spell Power - Spell Power is another stat that you'll no longer see present on most items. Instead, as mentioned above, Intellect will grant Spell Power. One exception is that caster weapons will still have Spell Power. This allows us to make weapons proportionately more powerful for casters in the same way they are for melee classes.

Armor Penetration - This stat will no longer be present on items. Armor Penetration will still exist in talents and abilities.

Shield Block Value - This stat will no longer be present on items, since the amount blocked is always proportional to the amount of damage done. Talents and other effects might still modify the damage-reduction percentage from 30%, however.

Going Away Completely

MP5 - This stat will be removed from the game completely. Holy paladins and Restoration shaman will be redesigned to benefit from Spirit.

Defense - Defense is being removed from the game entirely. Tanking classes should expect to become uncrittable versus creatures just by shifting into Defensive Stance, Frost Presence, Bear Form, or by using Righteous Fury.

Spell Ranks - Spell ranks will cease to exist. All spells will have one rank and will scale appropriately with level. The levels at which you can learn certain spells are being changed in order to fill in some of the gaps, and we will be introducing some new spells to learn along the way as well.

Weapon Skill - This stat will be removed from the game completely. Classes will start with all the weapon skills they need to know and will not need to improve them.

What Else You Should Know

Combat ratings - All ratings will be much harder to "cap out" at maximum gear levels. Ratings will be steeper in Cataclysm, and creatures in later tiers of content will be harder to hit or crit, similar to how level-83 mobs are harder to hit or crit than level-80 mobs.

Reforging - While these changes will go a long way to making a wider variety of stats more attractive, we understand that sometimes you simply don’t want more Hit Rating on your gear or you’d rather have more Haste than more Crit. In Cataclysm, we are going to give players a way to replace stats on gear as part of the existing profession system. As a general rule of thumb, you’ll be able to convert one stat to 50% of another stat. While some conversions (like converting Stamina to Strength) won’t be permitted, the goal is to let you customize your gear more.

Gems - We are changing the gem colors of a few stats as a result of these adjustments. For example, Hit is likely to be blue instead of yellow. We'll have more details on this in the future.

I think there are some interesting points in there. Particularly those about Mastery and Reforging. I'm not surprised to see Spirit reworked in such a way and quite frankly, I think it will help simplify the loot tables. One consequence that I see from all of this is that we will now be able to wear mostly leather gear, since we won't mind (and in fact will need) the spirit it provides. Moreover, Reforging will allow us to convert any extra spirit we might pick up into Int or Mastery.

I will say, however, that this system doesn't seem inherently less complex, which seems to be a driving goal. Mastery is vague to say the least, and I wonder how it will compare to Intellect (the new SP) or Crit or Haste. After all, if Mastery makes a spell hit harder, isn't it basically the same as Spell Power? And then there is this:

If you are a Balance druid or Elemental shaman:

• You will still share gear with Restoration druids and shaman.
• Your gear will have Spirit on it. It won’t have Hit on it.
• You will have a talent that converts Spirit to Hit. We will adjust talents accordingly so that you want about as much Spirit as, say, a warlock wants Hit.
• Hit on rings and other such gear will still benefit you.
• Raid buffs will no longer boost Spirit, so you shouldn’t find yourself unexpectedly over the Hit cap because of buffs.

I do have a major concern with haste. Allowing melee classes to recover resources more quickly seems to provide yet another scaling method for them. As a spec that is already having trouble keeping up with the Jones's, I worry that additional scaling with melee will make them more desirable at higher levels of gear. Perhaps this is the point of Mastery (to provide extra scaling).

All told, it's a little to early to cast predictions or theorycraft any of this. I expect that although Blizzard wants to make gear choices interesting, we will find a way to reduce the choice to an equation, despite the introduction of new variables. I still anticipate being able to find BiS lists and I still anticipate gearing guides. Only time will tell...