Patch 5.0.4 Druid Changes

[Myrrar]

General Changes:

• The relic slot is gone. Our relics are now useless, but it's no reason to fret-- all other classes are losing their relic and ranged weapon slots.
• The Feral Specialization has been split into two different specs, Guardian (for bear tanking) and Feral (for cat dps).
• New travel form! We now have a stag form. If you like, you can go back to cheetah with a glyph.

New Abilities:

General:

• Might of Ursoc, a survival cooldown that forces you into bear form. Shifting out of bear form will cancel the buff.
  

Restoration:

• Ironbark for Restoration-- our first external damage reduction cooldown!
  
• Wild Mushroom: Bloom can be used for some fun AoE burst healing.

Balance:

• Astral Communion, a great quality of life change that will allow you to set up your eclipse state before battle.
• Celestial Alignment, a new, powerful DPS cooldown.

Feral:

• Nothing brand-new for Ferals, just some changes to existing abilities.

Guardian:

• Savage Defense is completley new. No longer our Mastery, it is an active avoidance cooldown.
• Our new Mastery is Mastery: Nature's Guardian, and increases our armor.

Other Important Ability Changes:

Removed abilities:

• Pulverize has been removed.
• Demoralizing Roar has been removed.
• Challenging Roar has been removed.
• Insect Swarm has been removed.

Restoration:

• Swiftmend now has Efflorescence baked in.
• Mastery: Harmony now lasts 20 seconds, up from 10.
• Lifebloom duration was increased from 10s to 15s

Feral:

• Tiger's Fury will not increase your maximum energy.
• Mangle no longer applies a bleed damage taken increase-- that buff is no longer necessary. It does apply the Infected Wounds slow.
• Thrash can now be used in Cat form.

Guardian:

• Frenzied Regeneration have been reworked. It is now a very short cooldown heal that costs rage.
• Mangle no longer costs rage, instead, it generates 5 rage.
• Thrash, Lacerate, and Swipe no longer cost rage. Rage is for active mitigation and avoidance, rather than threat.
• Thrash, Lacerate, and Faerie Fire now all have a 25% chance to reset Mangle's cooldown.
• Thanks to Thick Hide, bears now have a 25% passive magic damage reduction.

Balance:

• Moonfire and Sunfire are both available in all Eclipse states, and will be kept on the target at all times.
• Eclipse now grants 15% spell haste immediately on trigger, and restores 35% mana.

Talents

Calculator

Talent Changes and New Talents:

• The talent system is changing dramatically in 5.0.4. You will still select a specialization, but all specializations have the same small talent tree (6 tiers, one talent per tier-- we'll only be able to access the first 5 tiers in 5.0.4).
• Druids have four total specializations, since Feral has been split into Feral and Guardian.
• Most of the old talents you're familiar with have been rolled into spec-specific abilities and passives that you will learn naturally as you level up, or when you swap to the associated spec. For example, Feral druids no longer need to talent for Survival Instincts, Omen of Clarity, or Predatory Swiftness. These abilities and passives from pre-5.0.4 talents have not been lost.
• We can only select one talent per tier.

	Talent	Level	Description
	Feline Swiftness	15	Increases your movement speed by 15%
	Displacer Beast		Teleports the Druid up to 20 yards forward and activates Cat Form and Prowl. Instant cast, 3min CD.
	Wild Charge		Grants a movement ability that varies by shapeshift form (15 sec cooldown) Non-shapeshifted: Fly to an ally's position. Bear Form: Charge to an enemy, immobilizing them for 4 sec. Cat Form: Leap behind an enemy, dazing them for 3 sec. Moonkin Form: Bound backward from your enemies. Can only be used in combat. Travel Form: Leap forward 20 yards. Aquatic Form: Increases swim speed by an additional 150% 5 sec.
	Nature's Swiftness	30	When activated, your next Cyclone, Entangling Roots, Healing Touch, Hibernate, Nourish, Rebirth, or Regrowth becomes instant, free, and castable in all forms. The healing and duration of the spell is increased by 50%. Instant, 1 min cooldown
	Renewal		Instantly heals the Druid for 30% of max health. Usable in all forms. Instant, 2 min cooldown
	Cenarion Ward		Protects a friendly target, causing any damage taken to heal the target for 6174 (+ 57% of SpellPower) every 2 sec for 6 sec. Gaining the healing effect consumes the Cenarion Ward. Useable in all shapeshift forms. Lasts 30 sec. 24.8% base Mana, 40 yd range, Instant cast, 30 sec cooldown
	Faerie Swarm	45	Grants an improved version of Faerie Fire that also reduces the target's movement speed by 50% for 15 sec. This talent replaces Faerie Fire. Instant
	Mass Entanglement		Roots your target in place for 20 sec and spreads to additional nearby enemies. Affects 5 total targets. Damage caused may interrupt the effect. Useable in all shapeshift forms. 30 yd range, Instant cast, 2 min cooldown
	Typhoon		Summons a violent Typhoon that strikes targets in front of the caster within 30 yards, knocking them back and dazing them for 6 sec. Useable in all shapeshift forms. 30 yd Range, Instant cast, 20 sec cooldown
	Soul of the Forest	60	Aessina's blessing grants a benefit which varies by your combat specialization. Balance: When a Lunar Eclipse ends you gain 20 Solar Energy and when a Solar Eclipse ends you gain 20 Lunar Energy. Feral: Your finishing moves grant 4 Energy per combo point. Guardian: Mangle now generates an additional 2 Rage. Restoration: You gain 50% haste for your next spell when you cast Swiftmend.
	Incarnation		Grants a superior shapeshifting form appropriate to your specialization for 30 sec. You may freely shapeshift in and out of this form for the duration of Incarnation. Instant, 3 min cooldown Balance: Chosen of Elune: Improved Moonkin Form that gains 25% increased Arcane and Nature damage while Eclipse is active. Feral: King of the Jungle: Improved Cat Form that allows the use of all abilities which normally require stealth, allows the use of Prowl while in combat, and removes the positional requirement of Ravage. Guardian: Son of Ursoc: Improved Bear Form that reduces the cooldown on melee damage abilities and Growl to 1.5 sec. Restoration: Tree of Life: Tree of Life Form that increases healing done by 15%, increases armor by 120%, and enhances Lifebloom, Wild Growth, Regrowth, and Entangling Roots spellcasts.
	Force of Nature		Summons 3 treants to assist in the Druid's current combat role for 15 sec. Treant capabilities vary by specialization. Useable in all shapeshift forms. 40 yd range, Instant, 1 min cooldown
	Disorienting Roar	75	Invokes the spirit of Ursol to roar, disorienting all enemies within 10 yards for 3 sec. Any damage caused will remove the effect. Useable in all shapeshift forms. Instant, 30 sec cooldown
	Ursol's Vortex		Conjures a vortex of wind at the destination location that reduces the movement speed of all enemies within 8 yards by 50%. The first time an enemy attempts to leave the vortex, winds will pull that enemy back to its center. Lasts 10 sec. Useable in all shapeshift forms. 30 yd range, Instant, 1 min cooldown
	Mighty Bash		Invokes the spirit of Ursoc to stun the target for 5 sec. Useable in all shapeshift forms. Melee Range, Instant cast, 50 sec cooldown
	Heart of the Wild	90	Increases Stamina, Agility, and Intellect by 6% at all times. When activated, dramatically improves the Druid's ability to perform roles outside of their normal specialization for 45 sec. Grants the following benefits based on current specialization: Non-Guardian:While in Bear Form, Agility, Expertise, Hit Chance, and armor bonuses increased, Vengeance granted, chance to be hit by melee critical strikes reduced. Non-Feral: While in Cat Form, Agility, Hit Chance, and Expertise increased. Non-Restoration: Healing increased and mana cost of all healing spells reduced by 100%. Guardian Druids may also cast Rejuvenation while shapeshifted. Non-Balance: Spell Damage and Hit Chance increased. Mana cost of all damage spells reduced by 100%. Instant, 6 min CD
	Dream of Cenarius		Wrath, Starfire, Starsurge, and melee abilities increase healing done by your next healing spell by 30%. Tranquility is not affected. Nourish, Healing Touch, and Regrowth increase the damage done by your next 2 Moonfire or Sunfire casts by 65% or by your next 2 melee abilities by 25%. Each of these bonuses lasts 30 sec.
	Nature's Vigil		Increases all damage and healing done by 20% for 30 sec. While active, all single-target healing spells also damage a nearby enemy target for 25% of the healing done, and all single-target damage spells and abilities also heal a nearby friendly target for 25% of the damage done. Instant, 3 min CD

Druid: Symbiosis

• The Druid will select a raid or party member and cast Symbiosis on them.
• The target cannot be another Druid.
• The target gains a buff that tells them what spell they have temporarily learned, and that spell temporarily appears in their spellbook, and they can drag it to an action bar.
• The Druid’s Symbiosis button will become the ability they gained from the target class.
• The Symbiosis link is cancelled if: the Druid clicks off the Symbiosis buff, or the Druid or the target changes continents or enters or exits an instance, or the Druid or the target changes talent specializations.
• Symbiosis fails to cast if Symbiosis is already active on that target.
• Symbiosis cannot be cast in combat.
• For the non-Druid target, the icon will revert to a placeholder (uncastable) Symbiosis icon when Symbiosis ends, but will become the Symbiosis-granted ability again the next time Symbiosis is cast on that target.
• The ability gained from Symbiosis is always something chosen to match the Druid’s specialization and the target’s combat role.
• The target always gets the same spell unless they change combat roles. A Druid of a given specialization always gets the same spell from each different class. If there is a change of specs, there is a change of spell.

Glyphs

General Majors

• Glyph of Rebirth: Players resurrected by Rebirth are returned to life with 100% health.
• Glyph of Innervate: When Innervate is cast on a friendly target other than the caster, the caster will gain 10% of maximum mana over 10 sec.
• Glyph of Stampeding Roar: Increases the radius of Stampeding Roar by 30 yards.
• Glyph of Stampede: You can now cast Stampeding Roar without being in Bear Form or Cat Form.
• Glyph of Cat Form: Increases healing done to you by 20% while in Cat Form.
• Glyph of Faerie Fire: Increases the range of your Faerie Fire by 10 yds.
• Glyph of Barkskin: Reduces the chance you'll be critically hit by 25% while Barkskin is active.
• Glyph of Cyclone: Increases the range of your Cyclone spell by 4 yards.
• Glyph of Master Shapeshifter: Reduces the mana cost of all shapeshifts by 90%.
• Glyph of Dash: Reduces the cooldown of your Dash ability by 60 sec.
• Glyph of Entangling Roots: Reduces the cast time of your Entangling Roots by 0.2 sec.
• Glyph of Nature's Grasp: Reduces the cooldown of Nature's Grasp by 30 sec.
• Glyph of Skull Bash: Increases the duration of your Skull Bash interrupt by 4 sec, but increases the cooldown by 10 sec.
• Glyph of Hurricane: Your Hurricane and Astral Storm abilities now also slow the movement speed of their victims by 50%.
• Glyph of Prowl: Reduces the movement penalty of Prowl by 30%.
  

Resto:

• Glyph of Healing Touch: When you cast Healing Touch, the cooldown on your Swiftmend is reduced by 1 sec.
• Glyph of Lifebloom: Casting Lifebloom on a new target grants that target as many applications as the old target had. This effect will not occur while in Tree of Life Form, or when Lifebloom has less than 2 sec remaining.
• Glyph of Rejuvenation: When you have Rejuvenation active on three or more targets, the cast time of your Nourish spell is reduced by 30%.
• Glyph of Wild Growth: Wild Growth can affect 1 additional target, but its cooldown is increased by 2 sec.
• Glyph of Blooming:Increases the bloom heal of your Lifebloom when it expires by 50%, but its duration is reduced by 5 sec and your Healing Touch, Nourish, and Regrowth abilities no longer refresh the duration.
• Glyph of Regrowth: Increases the critical strike chance of your Regrowth by 40%, but removes the periodic component of the spell.

Balance:

• Glyph of the Moonbeast: You can now cast Healing Touch, Rejuvenation, Rebirth, and Tranquility without cancelling Moonkin Form.
• Glyph of Solar Beam: Increases the duration of your Solar Beam silence effect by 5 sec.

Feral:

• Glyph of Savagery: Savage Roar can now be used with 0 combo points, resulting in a 12 sec duration.
• Glyph of Shred: While Berserk or Tiger's Fury is active, Shred has no positional requirement.
• Glyph of Ferocious Bite: Your Ferocious Bite ability heals you for 1% of your maximum health for each 10 Energy used.
• Glyph of Pounce: Increases the range of your Pounce by 3 yards.
• Glyph of Maul: Your Maul ability now hits 1 additional target for 50% damage.

Guardian

• Glyph of Might of Ursoc: Increases the health gain from Might of Ursoc by 20%, but increases the cooldown by 2 min.
• Glyph of Frenzied Regeneration: For 6 sec after activating Frenzied Regeneration, healing effects on you are 40% more powerful. However, your Frenzied Regeneration now always costs 60 Rage and no longer converts Rage into health.
• Glyph of Survival Instincts: Reduces the cooldown of Survival Instincts by 60 sec, but reduces its duration by 50%.
• Glyph of Fae Silence: Faerie Fire used in Bear Form also silences the target for 3 sec, but triggers a 15 sec cooldown.
  

Minors

• Glyph of the Cheetah: Your Travel Form appears as a Cheetah. This glyph will prevent Glyph of the Stag from functioning.
• Glyph of the Treant: Teaches you the ability Treant Form.
• Glyph of the Predator: Your Track Humanoids ability now also tracks beasts.
• Glyph of Stars: Your Moonkin Form now appears as Astral Form, conferring all the same benefits, but appearing as an astrally enhanced version of your normal humanoid form.
• Glyph of Charm Woodland Creature: Allows the Druid to befriend an ambient creature, which will follow the Druid for 60 min.
• Glyph of the Chameleon: Each time you shapeshift into Cat Form or Bear Form, your shapeshifted form will have a random hair color.
• Glyph of Grace: Feline Grace reduces falling damage even while not in Cat Form.
• Glyph of Aquatic Form: Increases your swim speed by 50% while in Aquatic Form.
• Glyph of the Orca: Your Aquatic Form now appears as an Orca.
• Glyph of the Stag: Your Travel Form can now be used as a mount by party members. This glyph is disabled while Glyph of the Cheetah is active.

Other Resources for 5.0.4:

• Icy Veins' Restoration 5.0.4 guide.
• Icy Veins' Balance 5.0.4 guide.
• Icy Veins' Feral (Cat) 5.0.4 guide.
• Icy Veins' Guardan (Bear) 5.0.4 guide.

[Roia]

For the resto changes, it should also be noted that Lifebloom duration was increased from 10s to 15s.

[Zstr]

talenets are so sick, I'm really confused what to choose, they all shit and useless, not giving any DPS performance
challenge accept: kill boss without talents

[stevietv]

talenets are so sick, I'm really confused what to choose, they all shit and useless, not giving any DPS performance
challenge accept: kill boss without talents

That was the whole point of this new talent system. They are now supposed to be play-style choices instead of throughput boosters. All the talents that you used to choose to boost your DPS are now rolled into the specific spec abilities given when you choose your specialisation

[Laringar]

talenets are so sick, I'm really confused what to choose, they all shit and useless, not giving any DPS performance
challenge accept: kill boss without talents

Ah, gotta love people who don't pay attention. Let me break this down for you.

L15 tier: Movement abilities. Getting on boss faster means more time on boss, means more dps. (Ignore Displacer Beast, it actually is completely useless.)
L30 tier: Healing abilities. Remember, dead dps = no dps. This takes load off your healers, good for those big raidwide damage spikes. Think Spine. (Yes, we won't be doing Spine itself in MoP, but that doesn't mean there won't be raid fights with adds.)
L45 tier: CC abilites. Again, dead dps = no dps. This can help you escape when you're surrounded by adds. Once more, think Spine.
L60 tier: Damage abilities. EVERY ONE OF THESE ABILITIES IS A DPS BOOST.
L75 tier: More CC and survival. Look at the third one. How can you say that having a FIVE SECOND STUN in all forms is useless? Sure, it doesn't work against raid bosses, but there are more than just bosses in raids.
L90 tier: More damage abilities. Dream of Cenarius was so OP for ferals in the beta that they had to nerf the contribution by half, we were topping the charts because weaving free heals in was giving us such a huge damage boost. Remember that the new Predatory Swiftness lets us cast a HT without shifting out of cat.

Now, I suggest reading the talents again, and then eating your crow while it's still warm.

[ganush]

talenets are so sick, I'm really confused what to choose, they all shit and useless, not giving any DPS performance
challenge accept: kill boss without talents

Say what you want, but as a resto druid, I would have killed to have typhoon and mighty bash/ursol's vortex on Rag. If you actually take a sec to think about think about the abilities you may find a fair amount of fights that you could have found utility for them in. I prefer bosses that take more than just DPS to kill.

[Kylecat15]

Ahh can't wait! I want to level a kitty and mainly PvP, I guess that's the only time Displacer beast would ever be useful.. but then I wouldn't be able to leap behind my target :x.

[Laringar]

Displacer Beast isn't even useful in pvp, because it doesn't clear dots, pop incoming projectiles, or anything like that. It doesn't even give you a random direction. The other person just has to know where you were pointed, toss an aoe in that direction, and tada, a 3 minute cooldown ability is wasted. Wild charge is so much more useful, as you get a wide variety of movement abilities on a mere 15 second cooldown.

[Trotheus]

Kind of disheartening to see feral ruthlessly nerfed patch after patch. But Blizz historically never knows when to stop nerfing. Perhaps in another 18 months when 3 people worldwide play it they'll scratch their heads and wonder, for the first time, if they went too far.

[Ilnezhara]

Kind of disheartening to see feral ruthlessly nerfed patch after patch. But Blizz historically never knows when to stop nerfing. Perhaps in another 18 months when 3 people worldwide play it they'll scratch their heads and wonder, for the first time, if they went too far.

We have all relentlessly been fighting for feral viability in the beta/PTR and blizzard has responded with an equal and opposite reaction to the one we wanted.
Yes, feral is garbage in PvE. One of the 5 worst DPS.
Yes, SR is a horrendous and clunky mechanic that makes our damage suck in PvP.
Yes, NS for feral is OP.
Yes, our survivability is by miles the worst of any melee (and much worse than a lot of casters, pretty much all excluding balance druids (trend?).
No, feral is not in a good spot at all and shifting roots does NOT *NOT* make up for it.


Will feral recover? Possibly. Will it be fun to play until it does? Nope.

[Torque21]

Glyph of the Stag is necessary for people to be able to mount you, correct? (Otherwise you'll still look like a stag but not be mountable?) If so, I like this. I originally thought we'd always be mountable if we want to look like a stag instead of a cheetah, which could get annoying.

[Erot]

Glyph of the Stag is necessary for people to be able to mount you, correct? (Otherwise you'll still look like a stag but not be mountable?) If so, I like this. I originally thought we'd always be mountable if we want to look like a stag instead of a cheetah, which could get annoying.

i am in the same boat as you. not too fond of people constantly wanting to ride me around.

[exochaft]

Glyph of the Stag is necessary for people to be able to mount you, correct?

Correct, you need to have Glyph of the Stag in order for your Travel Form to function as a passenger mount.

On a separate note, I've noticed a lot of animosity towards the changes to Feral. I'm not quite seeing where ferals have been "ruthlessly nerfed patch after patch," unless you mean every beta build? Even then, with respect to beta builds, Ferals were horrid in the beginning and have gradually become more powerful with each build. Ferals were even theoretically at the top of Patchwerk-style fights for a while, but even with some adjustments we're considered in a better place Feral than some pure DPS classes. Be that as it may, we won't have a good idea until we get into the actual PvE raiding content on much larger scale than beta.

From a PvP perspective, I do have some reservations since this SR model was scrapped for being too penalizing at the end of WotLK. Be that as it may, there are many other quality of life changes that should assist Ferals in performing.

[Selentin]

Faerie Swarm doesn't have 2 min cooldown

[Deleted]

As a long time feral I can tell you one thing: Starting an xpac underpowered >>>>>>>>>> Starting overpowered.

[Ashrr]

I'm currently able to cast Stampeding Roar in humanoid form without the Glyph of Stampede. Bug, I guess.

[Sprucelee]

Same here, it should just automatically move you to kitty and cast it. That's how it was working on beta.

Also, use mushrooms (bloom) while you can . Due to scaling, at 85 they are about 100% stronger than they are at 90.

[huth]

I'm currently able to cast Stampeding Roar in humanoid form without the Glyph of Stampede. Bug, I guess.

Have you actually tried casting it? It should be castable in all forms, just change you into bear if you're not in cat or bear. The glyph only removes the forced transformation.

[Ashrr]

Have you actually tried casting it? It should be castable in all forms, just change you into bear if you're not in cat or bear. The glyph only removes the forced transformation.

That's the thing, it keeps me in humanoid form without the glyph. On beta, it auto shifted me.

[huth]

So it's bugged. I see.