Warlords of Draenor (ALPHA) - Restoration Druid Changes and Discussion
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1.) General Information
2.) Spells & Abilities
(a) Changes from Live
(b) New Spells/Abilities
3.) Talents
(a) Changes from Live
(b) New Talents
4.) Glyphs
(a) Changes from Live
(b) New Glyphs
5.) Stats
(a) Changes from Live
(b) New Stats
6.) Professions
(a) Primary Profession Changes
(b) Secondary Profession Changes
7) Community Change Requests
8) Contributions
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GENERAL INFORMATION
This thread will keep all of the new Restoration Druid changes on the 6.0.x Warlords of Draenor beta client up to date and available for discussion. The purpose of this thread will be to discuss the changes that are being implemented with the understanding that this information is subject to change drastically from one beta patch to the next. Please try to keep this discussion civil and helpful. If you feel like any information from any posters should be added, feel free to send me a message with a link to the post(s) and I will get around to adding it as soon as I can.
Finally, please understand that MMO-Champion, while frequently visited by members of Blizzard, is not the place to get up in arms about a change, demanding that something be adjusted “or else”. Once open, a similar thread to this will hopefully be made on the Warlords of Draenor Official Beta forums to give direct, visible feedback. Links to the two main threads (this one included) are:
MMO-Champion: http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...amp-Discussion
Official Blizzard Forums: _
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SPELLS & ABILITIES
There are going to be several changes to our healing capabilities come the start of 6.0 and into Warlords of Draenor. Blizzard has expressed their philosophy of retuning the healing spells here as well as the abilities they are removing here, but I will summarize them below.
Changes from Live
Druids will be keeping many of their signature spells for Warlords of Draenor. Healing Touch, Rejuvenation, and our Efflorescence will stick around as our high efficiency healing spells, while Regrowth and Wild Growth will be designed around higher throughput and less mana efficiency. This will be coupled to our smart heals not being quite so Einstein level of smart and instead randomly picking targets within range of the spell cast rather than the most injured ones.
As you might have noticed, however, not all key and memorable Restoration spells were kept around and were instead lost in the cut. Innervate has been removed as a mana-returning spell, and Blizzard has stated that our spells have been adjusted accordingly. Nourish has also been removed as a low healing, high efficiency healing spell. Most importantly, Symbiosis has been removed from our repertoire.
Symbiosis was used by Druids primarily for a defensive purpose, albeit not exclusively (see: SWG). Instead, all Druids, Restoration included, will be given Survival Instincts in a buffed fashion. This ability will now reduce our damage taken by 70%, likely for 12 seconds as it does currently on Live. It is yet unsure if this can be used in all Druid forms, or if it will require shapeshifting into either Cat or Bear forms to use, much like Might of Ursoc.
Wild Growth has been hit with a major change in addition to it no longer being an entirely smart heal. The spell now has a 1.5 second cast time, much like its other area of effect healing spells from other classes (i.e., Chain Heal).
Tranquility has been adjusted, and likely for the better. In the new iteration of Tranquility, the spell will now heal every raid/party member within its range every 2 seconds for a total of 8 seconds. As this change will no longer place heals over time on players, it is likely that Haste will not effect its healing done.
As will be discussed in the Glyphs section, Glyph of Efflorescence has been lost as it is now baked into the spell itself -- meaning that placing your mushrooms to leave Efflorescence active is now baseline for all Restoration Druids.
Rejuvenation is no longer our blanket spell as we have lost Swift Rejuvenation, making the GCD of Rejuvenation equal to all other spells in our arsenal rather than 1 second.
Heart of the Wild has been changed to no longer provided bonuses to our primary stats (i.e., Intellect). Nature's Vigil healing done while active has been reduced to 16% while healing from damage done has been increased to 35%.
New Spells/Abilities
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Discussion
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TALENTS
Warlords of Draenor is introducing new talents for players at level 100 for us to again choose from. There we also some changes made to the existing level 90 talents that was mentioned above. For a look at the talents for Druids, you can check out the original post made, or see if the Talent Calculator has been updated.
Changes from Live
In the most recent information, there have been few changes to the Restoration talent tree. It appears that the level 75 talents and below have remained unchanged, but time will tell if changes are incoming. Heart of the Wild now no longer increases our baseline Intellect or Stamina by 6%. Nature's Vigil has also been adjusted to increase healing done by only 16% (down from 25% on Live), but increase our healing via damage done to 35% (up from 25% on Live). No other changes are currently available.
New Talents
At level 100, Restoration Druids will be given the choice of three new talents: Moment of Clarity, Germination, and Rampant Growth. Each will be discussed below.
Moment of Clarity is similar to the current Legendary Meta Gem in Mists of Pandaria, in that it replaces our Omen of Clarity (the next cast time spell costs 100% less mana) and causes all spells cast within the next 5 seconds to cost 100% less mana instead. There was some discussion on Twitter some time ago whether this would include spells such as Rejuvenation and Lifebloom between Celestalon and Hamlet. It is unclear what the end result was at this time.
Germination is a new ability that allows Druids to place two Rejuvenations on a target simultaneously. It appears that there is already discussion on whether this will be a good choice for us to use, and more theorycrafting data will be placed here as it arrives.
Rampant Growth forces our Swiftmend to consume a Regrowth or Rejuvenation on our targets, but removes the cooldown restriction of the spell, allowing for burst healing at the cost of our heals over time.
Discussion
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GLYPHS
Blizzard has been working towards making our lives easier, and one such change will allow us to automatically learn some glyphs. The summarized portions, along with any changes, are mentioned below.
Changes from Live
Blizzard will be giving all players a few of their Major Glyphs as they level in order to help the average player who has not yet leveled stay up to par and give them some help while playing.
At level 25, Druids will learn Entangling Roots, Fae Silence, Ferocious Bite, Maul, Omens, and Cat Form.
At level 50, Druids will learn Might of Ursoc, Nature's Grasp, Rebirth, Rejuvenation, and Savagery.
At level 75, Druids will learn Faerie Fire, Healing Touch, and Master Shapeshifter.
New Glyphs
There have been many new glyphs implemented for Druids to use, many of which appear to be related to the Balance specialization. Regardless, several of them appear to be somewhat useful (or at least situational) for the next expansion Restoration Druids.
Glyph of Imbued Bark - While Barkskin is active, when you are interrupted the resulting school lock has 50% reduced duration.
Glyph of Enchanted Bark - For 10 seconds after activating Barkskin, you are immune to Silence and Interrupt effects.
Glyph of the Shapeshifter - Each time you activate a shapeshift form, you are healed for 5% of your maximum health.
Glyph of Travel - Travel Form grants an additional 60% movement speed, but can no longer be used while in combat. This effect is disabled in battlegrounds and arenas and cannot be combined with other temporary speed bonuses.
Discussion
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STATS
At this point I'd like to talk about the stat changes that are coming with Warlords of Draenor. There are several major stat changes including the removal of some historical stats (Hit and Expertise), as well as the addition of new, more innovative stats for us to use.
A link to Blizzard's most recent blog post can be found here that details all of their changes. I will summarize them below.
Changes from Live
As an Intellect-centered class, I will focus on the changes to Intellect and how they will impact us. For more information on the changes to Agility and more, please see the above link.
Blizzard is attempting to normalize all primary stats for players so that balance may be more easily achieved. Intellect in the next expansion will no longer increase the chance to critically strike with our spells, healing or damage. We will be normalized with all other caster classes and be given a baseline 5% chance to critically strike with our spells and abilities.
Spell Power will continue to influence the potency of our spells and abilities, adding to the entirety of our throughput in healing and damage.
Since we do have the tendency to cast our damaging spells on occasion (Wrath and Moonfire come to mind), we are subject to the changes of Hit and Expertise. We, along with all players, will now have a 100% chance to hit with our spells against targets that are no more than 3 levels higher than us (including boss targets). As such, spells that modified our ability to hit targets have been adjusted, meaning that Balance of Power for Restoration has been removed.
New Stats
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Discussion
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PROFESSIONS
Professions are apparently getting some changes in the next expansion, allowing them to be more of a personal choice rather than one that will be of primary benefit to raiders. The short of it can be found here. Any new information posted, including specific information, will be detailed below as it becomes available.
Primary Profession Changes
The most important change that is being implemented with Primary Professions is that there are no longer any direct combat benefits that any profession will have, thus allowing players to choose the Primary Profession of choice rather than of necessity.
There have been minor changes to Herbalism and Mining that will allow them to gather their resources from any node in the world, just at a reduced gain rate.
Health Potions no longer share cooldowns with other potions, but instead with Healthstones, making Warlocks less necessary in raids and making the potions useful once again.
Secondary Profession Changes
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Discussion
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COMMUNITY CHANGE REQUESTS
Below are listed any solid community suggestions for change, along with any well-written posts that may support their reasoning:
1.) _
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CONTRIBUTIONS
I would like to extend a huge thanks to everyone who has helped make this thread and the thread on the official forums active and full of pertinent information. While I will not be able to list everyone, please know that even the smallest bump or bit of information goes a long way. Below are the people who have contributed largely to keeping this information up to date:
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