WoW Druids

Another short post just to give Feral Druids out there some insight as to the future.
Feral druids AE
And in case it gets asked, Feral druids we haven’t forgotten about your AE either. We’ll try and announce something soon. (src)
Druid can’t train Weakness Spectralizers
This is a known issue and I believe we are hotfixing it. (src)

Upcoming feral tanking itemization changes
I have made so many Feral threads that I actually chilled on it a little because there were so many cries of favoritism. But I think on reflection, and as this thread suggests, I can’t win on that regard so I might as well just reply to whatever threads I want [...]

This is a brief look at what you can look forward to in the expansion for your druid.  I will be breaking down the individual specs in later articles, I just want to give the readers of Spooncraft and general idea and a long time druid lover’s POV.
I have loved my druid since the day [...]

No no wait! There’s more druid news! As if we haven’t been drilled to the ground with enough druid posts (like paladins) there’s still plenty more!
Feral AP changes
I’ve made no secret that we think the FAP solution is a little awkward and kind of sticks out with all of the other shared gear solutions.
We think [...]

Making healing more like Rogue/DPS Class playstyle ?
Yes, that’s the kind of thing we’re thinking about. Rogues can’t just spam one ability (most of the time) because their system is set up to where they want to use one kind of ability then switch to another kind. Or to use a different example, Frost mages [...]

Doomkin! Such a scary and nasty spec. I don’t want to call it overpowered, but damn they’ve got some potential there.
So this took some digging but apparently there was a change to stealth in between 3.0.2 and 3.0.3 so that the stars would no longer target a stealthed opponent. The AE splash from a star [...]

Starfall Changes
We don’t have a problem with Starfall breaking stealth. There are plenty of other spells that do so and Starfall is hard to spam.
However, Starfall is an unusual spell in that it isn’t channeled and can even follow the druid around. So we are going to change it so that shifting cancels the spell. [...]

Druids are one of the classes getting a lot of attention as we get closer to Wrath of the Lich King, the Feral tree especially. Alamo be praised!
ARMOR
We are changing the way bear armor works so that bonus armor on items does not receive the bear armor multiplier. Specifically this means that trinkets, rings, necks [...]

A lot of Feral Druid and Balance Druid news hitting this post, we even have a few bones to throw the Resto Druids out there too!
Balance tree scaling
We don’t think Balance dps is far above Elemental at 80, if in fact it’s high at all. Posting numbers from a theorycrafting spreadsheet does not provide solid [...]

Be prepared for a massive wall of text. This discussion is pretty intensive as well so it’s worth the read if you play a druid.
ETA for Feral model customization / Feral mana issues
It is very, very dangerous for us to pre-announce features. Players tend to be remarkably unforgiving if features get cut or priorities get [...]

OMG BEAR DRUID!
Customization options for Druid Forms
New art for forms, customization per form, and even the possibility of showing some gear in a form is all stuff we are talking about. When we have a firm plan we’re ready to unveil, I’m sure you’ll hear about it. (src)
Feral Q&A (src)
1. Feral Mana Pools are very [...]

There are a lot of changes coming up including the great Paladin nerf (I really don’t think it’s so bad honestly) as well as the Hunter changes to aspects and such.
Death Knights got a little tweaking in the way of DPS increase in Blood. Druids got some barely noticeable drops in their DPS for feral [...]

Druid
Consequences of 10% armor increase on bosses for feral druids
It will hurt Feral dps, but we also needed to hurt Feral dps a little. Cats with a cat spec really hurt stuff now.

It will be a slight threat nerf to bears and warriors (and DKs and paladins slightly less) but tank threat is so enormous [...]

Jason sent this in a while ago and I feel bad that things have been so hectic I hadn’t used it. So please don’t hate me man! Here it is in full glory, Jason’s Druid POV.
Let me first start out by saying that I am by no means an expert at WoW or playing a [...]

Some good news and some not so good news in this batch of Blue posts. Druid healing not so much nerfed as just forced off easy mode.
Lifebloom nerf
Even if you only consider PvE, the reason we changed Lifebloom, as I have said before, was it became the correct answer to any situation a Resto druid [...]

Once more presumably these changes will be coming in Patch 3.0.3 for the Live servers in preparation of retail release of Wrath of the Lich King. Credit to MMOC for pooling this info off the talent builders and skill lists.
Death Knight
Skills
Frost

Targets affected by Chains of Ice now regain 10% of their movement each second for [...]

This is coming from MMOC and the Official Wrath of the Lich King forums. Now in the title I say that they’re possible class changes because anything can happen; they could push these as hotfixes, they could come out with 3.0.3, they could come out on Nov. 13th with the retail Wrath of the Lich [...]

Quoted from Ghostcrawler on the Wrath of the Lich King Beta forums.
Also remember that people get hung up sometimes on the avoidance tank who dodges, dodges and then dies when a hit connects. Without crushing blows, you aren’t going to run into as many situations where the very next hit can kill you, unless you’re [...]

All my Moonkin out there should enjoy this post.
Here is what we’re inclined to do about Balance. It isn’t a done deal yet because we just talked about it and didn’t make the actual changes yet, so it’s possible we’ll hit a snag (though I don’t see why).
Moonfury and Earth and Moon down to 3 [...]

Druid
Feral abilities
With regard to abilities, we have been torn between giving bears (and cats) more unique abilities versus giving them tanking abilities that many players considered “core.” We could have certainly come up with something more original than Last Stand for bears, but at the time, a lot of bears were comparing laundry lists of [...]

Druid
Feral

Predatory instinct now reduces the damage taken from area of effect attacks by 10/20/30%. (Up from 5/10/15%)

Dire Bear Form armor contribution from items has been lowered from 400% to 370%
Growl range has been increased from 5 yards to 20 yards

Restoration

Wild Growth healing value has been greatly increased. (Up from 350 to 686 for Rank 1, [...]

Ghostcrawler on Druid Healing Changes
Here are the changes we’re making next patch. See how they feel.

Wild Growth: Coefficient and healing increased. Mana cost decreased. Cost should be about the same as Circle of Healing. It doesn’t heal instantly, but will heal for about double what CoH does over its duration.
Nourish: Reduced mana cost by somewhere [...]

Skills
Feral

Mangle - Cat damage increased from 160% normal damage to 200% normal damage. Additional damage increased as well. (507 to 634 for Rank 5)
Rake damage has been increased. (from [ 6% of AP + 387 ] to [ 18% of AP + 1161 ] for Rank 7)
Swipe now affects an unlimited amount of targets

Talents
Balance

Nature’s Splendor [...]

Upcoming changes
For now, all I’ve got is that Starfall can’t be dispelled.
We are also discussing Mangle (Cat) or Rake buffs so cats don’t feel so penalized by positional requirements, particularly in PvP. (src)
Bear Tanking in WotLK
Druid threat is on par or greater than other tanks, and with the Swipe change, that includes group threat as [...]

So we all know Paladins and Death Knight can effectively tank by AOE means. Paladins with consecrate are a god send for lazy DPS or no-CC 5 man dungeons and it really does make trash in smaller raids like Kara a freaking breeze sine you just focus fire one target at once and never worry [...]

Here’s a list of all the undocumented class changes that have come through in this patch. Very interesting stuff here and I’ll have to play around with it to really have an opinion but right now on paper, I see Death Knights finally getting some damage buffs and survivability nerfs which might put them BACK [...]

Use the class menu below to jump to the information you specifically want to see.

Death Knight
Druid
Hunter
Mage
Paladin
Priest
Shaman
Warrior

Death Knight
PvP changes
Death knights have a lot of options at the moment, which is cool, but makes it really hard for another player to catch a break and burn a death knight down. So we’re going to try some [...]

We got a new build last night that so far hasn’t done much but add some pretty exciting class changes. A healthy mix of nerfs and buffs and some retooling that makes tree synergy much smoother.

Death Knight (8970: Skills | Talents)
Blood

Blood Aura - Now healed by 2% of the damage done, up from 1%. [...]

Druid
Balance
Skills

Barkskin is now usable in all forms.

Talents

Earth and Moon (Tier 10) changed so your Wrath and Starfire spells have a 100% chance to apply the Earth and Moon effect. It now also increases your spell damage by 1/2/3/4/5%. (Previously had a 20/40/60/80/100% chance to apply the Earth and Moon Effect)
Eclipse (Tier 9) changed so when [...]

Druid
Spirit for balance druids
Spirit to crit might be too good. The way moonkins stack crit, things might get out of control fast. Spirit to damage is more likely. If your damage is low, and I agree it might be, we want to buff that through base spell damage and coefficients. We aren’t likely to do [...]