Druid changes in 8885

The latest beta push, build 8885, had changes for pretty much every class. Druids, of course, were no exception. Balance received the bulk of the changes, though it's mostly on the level of small tweaks. A few talents were moved around in the talent tree. Notably, Insect Swarm has been pushed down two tiers and correspondingly buffed up to 5% reduced chance to hit.

The really interesting part of the Balance tree changes is some great synergy for Resto druids. For instance:

• New Talent Nature's Splendor (Tier 3): Increases the duration of your Moonfire, Insect Swarm, Rejuvenation, Regrowth, Lifebloom and Flourish spells by 10/20/30%.

• New Talent Genesis (Tier 1): Increases the damage and healing done by your periodic spells by 1/2/3/4/5%.

• Focused Starlight renamed Nature's Majesty and now affects Nourish and Healing Touch as well.

Looks like yet another step in the new quest to open up the talent trees and give us more options. Oh, and the Moonkin Aura now hits any raid member within 45 yards. Edit: Nature's Grasp now trainable, 100% chance to hit.

Turning to my currently preferred tree, Feral, we don't have quite as many alterations, but there's some good stuff there too, in the form of two new talents for bears:

• New Talent Mother Bear[PH][NYI] (Tier 8): Increases the bonus attack power for Bear Form and Dire Bear Form by an additional 20/40/60%, and for each friendly player in your party, damage you take is reduced while in Bear Form and Dire Bear Form by 1/2/3% [corrected].

• New Talent Natural Reaction[PH] (Tier 6): Increases your dodge while in Bear Form or Dire Bear Form by 2/4/6%, and you regenerate 1/2/3 rage eveyrtime you dodge while in Bear Form or Dire Bear Form.

That [PH] indicates that these numbers are placeholder values, so don't take them too seriously. The intention in putting in these bear-specific talents is to force people to decide whether they want to be cats or bears, so you don't have one talent spec that's both a great tank and a 95% great DPSer. And I know what I just said about PH values, but damn – 20% 12% reduced damage in a full group? Awesome.

Finally, Resto got some love as well; some of it was previewed already.

• Tree of Life aura is now a flat increase of 3% healing received for the whole raid.

• Furor (Tier 1) changed to: Gives you 20/40/60/80/100% chance to gain 10 Rage when you shapeshift into Bear and Dire Bear Form or 40 Energy when you shapeshift into Cat Form, and increases your total Intellect while in Moonkin form by 2/4/6/8/10%.

• Nature's Focus (Tier 1) now affects Wrath, Entangling Roots, and Cyclone in addition to Healing Touch, Nourish, Regrowth and Tranquility.

Here we see more Balance synergy. And as for Furor, my guess is that the proposed change from yesterday (100 energy) just didn't make it in yet; beta builds are typically some days behind development versions. At least, that's what I'm hoping.

[via MMO-Champion]