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Druid Talents
New talents for Druids. Feral got uber-buffed and the 31 point Balance skill just looks awesome. Maybe now Balance Druids will be respected (as they always should have been) for DPS in MC.
*rerolls Druid*
"Just as individuals are born, mature, breed and die, so do societies, civilizations and governments."
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*respecs feral* :shuriken:
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Tuftears,Sep 23 2005, 01:38 PM Wrote:*respecs feral* :shuriken:
[right][snapback]90022[/snapback][/right]
Right behind you. :)
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ima_nerd,Sep 23 2005, 01:28 PM Wrote:Druid Talents
New talents for Druids. Feral got uber-buffed and the 31 point Balance skill just looks awesome. Maybe now Balance Druids will be respected (as they always should have been) for DPS in MC.
*rerolls Druid*
[right][snapback]90018[/snapback][/right]
I'll look at the restoration changes since they aren't as obvios but do seem to buff that tree as well.
I like the new Improved Healing Touch skill. Though I would rather it not be the prereq for NS. Sure my heal will still be slow, but 3.0 vs 3.5 is still better than the extra mana efficiency that I didn't really need. I might feel like I can actually get a heal in every now and then in Molten Core.
Insect Swarm is interesting. I'm assuming some ranks for more damage on the DoT part. Though all restoration druids will have it since gift of nature needs it.
Subtlety is higher in the tree which is nice since it is more important for a druid in the earlier instances than it is in the later ones.
Improved Rejuv is only 3 points now for the same effect.
Not sure about the improved tranquility. The problem with the spell wasn't the threat it generated it was the really long cooldown and the channeling. I would rather have the old talent or a talent that lowered the cooldown.
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It's all just zeroes and ones and duct tape in the end.
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Quite a few interesting changes. One noticeable absence is the lack of a talent in Feral tree to shapeshift directly between forms. Other then that, there are a lot of very interesting changes:
Moonkin form - 360% armor buff along with slight DPS increase? Add carrion swarm to that, and the DPS that druid will produce will definately increase.
Carrion swarm - a new spell that will hopefully help druids level better.
Hurricane is now LEARNABLE and TARGETABLE spell. It's interesting to see what will be it's new stats... And with such high damage reduction from Moonkin form, they can probably tank the swarms that they are AOEing fairly well.
Feral druids get a 25 point talent that can boost their intellect/stamina/strength by up to 20%, depending on the form they are in.
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They are also reducing the cooldown and cost of tranquility, so we will see it more often, I think.
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The cool thing is that all the 31 point talents now are viable in a raid. The uncool thing is it will probably cut down on any 21/21 type builds.
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*Drools*
*Drools again*
I love these changes. I heard they were going in the direction of making Feral talents useful for both forms, rather than split, and they did a really good job of it. They even made it so that oen of the best Feral Cat talents (the instant Energy) now only takes 5 in
Restoration instead of 15.
Trade yourself in for the perfect one. No one needs to know that you feel you've been ruined!
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Very nice
The one I'm especially looking forward to is Omen of Clarity working in feral form
*Ponders new cat dps build*
On a side note the Leader of the Pack ability may help with high level threat management. It buffs damage from tanks, rogues and hunters but not nukers. That may help tanks dealing with high damage mages and locks
For me I have a 48 Druid I'd like to push to 60 on rest exp. Here's what I'm planning to head for as a cat dps levelling build:
Minimum Required Level: 51
Required Talent Points: 42
Balance Talents - 11 points
Nature's Grasp - rank 1/1
Improved Nature's Grasp - rank 4/4
Natural Weapons - rank 5/5
Omen of Clarity - rank 1/1
Feral Combat Talents - 31 points
Ferocity - rank 5/5
Feral Aggression - rank 5/5
Feline Swiftness - rank 2/2
Sharpened Claws - rank 3/3
Improved Shred - rank 2/2
Predatory Strikes - rank 3/3
Blood Frenzy - rank 2/2
Savage Fury - rank 2/2
Faerie Fire (Feral) - rank 1/1
Heart of the Wild - rank 5/5
Leader of the Pack - rank 1/1
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ima_nerd,Sep 23 2005, 02:28 PM Wrote:Druid Talents
New talents for Druids. Feral got uber-buffed and the 31 point Balance skill just looks awesome. Maybe now Balance Druids will be respected (as they always should have been) for DPS in MC.
*rerolls Druid*
[right][snapback]90018[/snapback][/right]
Moonkin Form is going to changed. Mages in mail? No thanks.
ArrayPaladins were not meant to sit in the back of the raid staring at health bars all day, spamming heals and listening to eight different classes whine about buffs.[/quote]
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I find I get a lot of use out intensity, now that it applies to both cat and bear it will be better.
How often does OOC proc?
<-- working hard on his lvl 35 druid
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09-23-2005, 11:37 PM
(This post was last modified: 09-23-2005, 11:37 PM by Kevin.)
I can't figure out my spec now. :)
I had been a cat focus restoration build. But the changes in balance make the viable.
I do use innervate but oddly enough I don't use it that much in the big raids. I use it more in smaller scale stuff. There actually aren't a lot of fights in MC where you need innervate if your healers know what they are doing.
This opens doors for builds that just weren't there for me before with how I play. Heck I'm debating on Improved Mark of the Wild now a talent that I pretty much always got.
285 armor, 12 to all stats and 20 to all resistances is the base.
385 armor, 16 to all stats and 27 to all resistances is the fully talented.
So basically 100 armor, 40 HP, 8 attack power and 7 resist is what you give up for a chance to have 10 rage or 40 energy when you shift. For solo play it's an easy choice you go for the new improved Furor. Shift to bear and stun (and the extra second on the stun talent has it's uses) then stay bear or shift out into cat and get them with a shred (which you can make only cost 48 energy). Yes a druid has a long mana expensive way to gouge then backstab now. :)
Improved healing touch is going to help my healing a ton. There have been a lot of times where my heal missed landing by less than .5 seconds and someone died. I'm very excited about dropping the cast to 3 seconds.
Not to mention you can get to 70%, not 60% chance to not be interrupted on any of the heal spells, including tranquility now.
Extra dodge and speed for cat form is so nice. Improved demoralizing roar gives me more bite bite damage? I only need 2 points to get my extra combo points now, though being deeper in the tree it takes 17 instead of 15 to get.
Defiance and Master of Deception all in one talent. Not that you need the MotD for anything but PvP, I can stealth by just about anything even without distract.
Oh and partial travel from at L20, full at L21 now (30% faster movement outdoors as a cat) if you want it.
A DoT that drops chance to hit by 2%? That is actually a big deal on bosses if it works. You just added 2% to the MT's damage avoidance (or that warlocks if they pull aggro). Since I know that Gnolack runs at about 30% physical damage avoidance in Molten Core when he is MT over a full (about 7% miss rate with 12% dodge and 11% parry) I'm pretty excited about that. Of course that varies depending on if I remember to change my gear for each fight or get lazy but it's anywhere from 26-34% that I have recorded with recap. That could easily by 10,000 damage that doesn't need to be healed over a 3 or 4 boss run for the MT.
I just don't know what I want to do. I can live without innervate or Nature's swiftness but I don't know if I can leave both behind. I know a lot of my 5 man days are behind me but a full feral build even in MC would be nice. You can just be in feral form till one of the priests is low on mana and then pop out and help with the healing. Sure that aura is only going to affect your party but get in a group of rogues or hunters while you are up there in cat form doing like 85% of the damage of a rogue (Taranna would be running at about a 20% crit rate with 600 or so attack power, unbuffed, in her caster gear with a full feral spec and with the 20% int boost from the talen would have I think 5.8K mana unbuffed get a mix gear set and yeah). So yeah you could good DPS and still be able to pop out and heal when needed to. That is fun way to play a druid for me. As some of you know I do this when I'm main healer in a 5 man already on most of the trash mobs.
Too much good stuff for me. :)
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It's all just zeroes and ones and duct tape in the end.
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I definately still want to try out the new Feral stuff. But these changes make me excited about the Restoration tree now, too. Before it was "well, Restoration simply has the best". Now there's real sacrifices going on, instead of feeling like there's no better option.
Interesting thought - how will Subtelty and Improved Tranquility stack? Will a talented Tranquility have *no* aggro?
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Holy Nova has no aggro. So, why shouldn't a fully talented druid be able to pull no aggro while mass-healing everyone? Well, admittedly tranquility heals for a lot more than Holy Nova, but it also does no damage to the enemies, and even with a reduced cooldown time, it's still at 5 minutes.
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Tuftears,Sep 23 2005, 07:07 PM Wrote:Holy Nova has no aggro.
[right][snapback]90071[/snapback][/right] That's what it claims, but it's not quite accurate. If nothing has touched the critters you hit with holy nova, frequently they'll start beating on you. If a dem shout or anything that generates a small amount of aggro to a specific person hits them before your nova does, you won't pull aggro. So it's not exactly a no aggro skill, but darned close.
Intolerant monkey.
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My current plan has 43 points in Balance and 5 in Improved Mark of the Wild. Where I'm putting those last three points... I'm not sure.
Of course, up until now I've been 40 Balance, 11 Restoration. So it's not that big of a change in spec.
See you in Town,
-Z
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Prediction: Restoration Druids will respec in droves, then parade around in their respective capital cities in Moonkin form. After a day, they will wonder what the hell they were thinking in giving up Nature's Swiftness and Innervate, often dying from either being out of mana or not getting a heal off on time.
Balance didn't become "omguber!!1!1!!one". It got a much-needed shot in the arm.
See you in Town,
-Z
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Some nice improvements to the trees. Though the restoration tree feels a little weird now, with the talent placements...
Seeing that I am a very frequent PvPer, I want the versatility to deal with whatever situation arises. However, I'm also a frequent raider, and innervate is quite desired in MC... as well as in small man groups.
The old 9/11/31 build let me have the best of both worlds... innervate for PvE... feral charge & nature's reach for PvP. So, for my main gripe... now, that is no longer possible since they moved reach to a 11 point requirement. :/
So, one could do with an alternate 9/11/31 build that does not include reach (going to miss those extra 10 yards, especially when defending a flag). Alternately, give up innervate... I'm rather liking a 12/18/21 build for PvP, actually.
That said, feral and balance have gotten some needed boosts. Moonkin becomes a nuker with the AC of plate. How well that would work in PvP remains to be seen... interesting concept though. Feral damage looks like it's been nicely boosted. Cat form... does damage... some sort of stun or interrupt would've been nice.
So, I'm torn between specialization... and versatility... *sigh*
Onyxia:
Kichebo - 85 NE Druid
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And now Druids move ahead of mages for single-target magic damage. Oh God, when will it stop?
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