New PTR Build: Ain’t getting better
Mad Alchemist’s Potion
It seems this new potion has a 95% chance to proc an additional elixir effect, and it’s class dependant - meaning you will get buffs depending on your class, so casters should get Elixir of Draenic Wisdom or similar, and melee classes should get Elixir of Mastery or Major Agility. Good news. But I wonder how will it work with different specs or roles - what exactly will my feral druid get?
Druid
- Growl: The chance for this ability to land successfully on its target is now increased by hit rating.
- Challenging Roar: The chance for this ability to land successfully on its targets is now increased by hit rating.
I believe spell hit rating was previously increasing the chance for these spells not to be resisted so this is good news. Tanking druids still lack serious hit rating though.
Warlock
- Unstable Affliction: The silence from this ability is now subject to diminishing returns.
What can I say… nerf to dual lock teams.
Warrior
- Challenging Shout: The chance for this ability to land successfully on its targets is now increased by hit rating.
- Taunt: The chance for this ability to land successfully on its target is now increased by hit rating.
Same as for druids, a welcome and needed change. Intimidating Shout, Demoralizing Shout and Piercing Howl are not getting changed though.
Raids & Dungeons
- The Mechanar: The Cache of the Legion can now only be looted by players who are present during some portion of a successful attempt of the Gatewatcher Gyro-Kill and Gatewatcher Iron-Hand encounters. In addition, on Heroic difficulty Gatewatcher Gyro-Kill and Gatewatcher Iron-Hand no longer drop Badges of Justice. Instead, the Cache of the Legion contains a Badge of Justice for each player present.
My favorite Badge of Justice farming instance is getting nerfed :((
You can read the full patch notes on worldofraids.com.
Also, I’d like to point out that Ming, considered a very good rogue (and a very nice blogger) thinks Rogues are finally the strongest class in TBC.
I got no idea how I missed this, but Wowinsider is here to point it out. Druids will be able to shift forms without exposing themselves to vulnerable human form, which is in my opinion overpowered (I got a druid, remember). While the change looks very cool and somewhat logical, I believe it is hard enough for any class to catch a druid as it is.
Also from latest patch notes:
- PvP Trinkets: Insignia of the Alliance, Insignia of the Horde, Medallion of the Alliance, and Medallion of the Horde now clear the debuff from Judgement of Justice.
So long paladin, you shall not catch my druid anymore! Can this please be nerfed?
“I believe spell hit rating was previously increasing the chance for these spells not to be resisted so this is good news.”
- What made you think so? They’re classified as Physical in WoWhead, so I’d guess that the only thing “wrong” with them was that Hit Rating wasn’t being taken into account for them… And maybe the reason Demoralizing Roar hasn’t changed as well is because it’s already working ok? Just guessing, though!
“Tanking druids still lack serious hit rating though.”
I’m on my "Druid Tank Starter Gear" set (almost: still lack a couple items from some loong chain quests), and I’m starting to miss my cat gear’s +HIT, so I’d have to agree on this one!
“Druids will be able to shift forms without exposing themselves to vulnerable human form, which is in my opinion overpowered”
Frankly, I don’t see why! Say you’re in cat form and need to switch to bear: switching to human does not give you *that* much advantage over druids! In fact, it may even lead to a bit more “lazyness” because since druids no longer use caster form in between, they may not use a heal pot or instant HoT before going to bear…
I do like the change though! Now I can switch to bear, Demo Roar, back to Cat to DPS… Or get out of some place stealthing and instantly shift to Flight Form and get away without giving the mobs guarding that entrance enough time to aggro me and prevent me from getting to Flight Form!
It *would* be OP if Druids could use some items such as heal pots while in cat/bear forms, but it would also not hurt much if Druids could use quest items in forms, although it’s an improvement after 2.3 because when you try to use those items you automatically switch to human form, so that saves at least a bit of work for feral druids questing…
They are classified as physical, but did you ever tried using Taunt or Growl while silenced? Warrior’s Thunder Clap works the same me thinks.
Unfortunately, I can’t find any official info about this so I might be wrong. Still, those abilities weren’t affected by hit rating either.
As for shapeshifting: players usually wait with stuns and similar abilities exactly for those times when druid has to shift in caster form. Also, it will be impossible to catch a druid out of cat/bear forms in order to drain his mana.
Forgot to mention… PvE wise, this change is great, but it’s PvP I’m worried about
I don’t PvP!
Still, is Drain Mana something “useful”, against a feral druid?
Also, what’s the problem of *not* draining his mana? If he doesn’t go to caster form, he won’t make use of it anyway, and if he does go, it’s same as always, no?
Maybe it’s because I don’t PvP, but I seriously don’t see how it can be so OP for druids to switch forms without going through caster form… Can you give an actual example of what you do that you won’t be able to do?
For example, lets say I play with a holy paladin 2v2 arenas (and I do), versus warrior and resto druid. It’s basically a fight where I have to drain druid’s mana, otherwise it’s impossible to kill any of my opponents.
First of all, druid has to be in my line of sight to even start draining, which he will try to avoid by all means. I tend to slow him down as much as possible with Curse of Exhaustion (-30% movement speed), so he has to shift out to caster and back to travel/cat whatever. Well timed paladin stun followed by fear gets him stuck in caster form where it’s possible to do whatever needs to be done, cast DoTs, drain mana etc.
With 4/5 set bonus on arena sets, druids get passive +15% movement speed while in cat/bear/travel forms. With low mana usage for travel form (under 300 I think), he can shift almost indefinately thus breaking any snares, which will mostly affect warriors and rogues, but other classes also.
I suck at explaining things, so I’ll quote Shadowborne’s PvP guide (http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=712446898&sid=1):
Killing warrior+druid with warlock&paladin
Every smart Warrior/Druid does the same thing, cyclone your Paladin and kill your pet.
You can park your felhunter in the middle of the arena and have your Paladin spam heals on him and chase the druid around with blessing of freedom, interrupt all his cyclones by spamming fear on him and using spell-lock. Drain his mana as much as possible and once he’s OOM you can burst them down. Have your Paladin save blessing of protection and dispell the druid as much as you can so he doesn’t have any buffs on him and when he pops innervate BOP the felhunter and send it on the druid. After innervate has been dispelled park it back in the middle of the arena.
Rogue&druid vs. lock&paladin
Rogue Druid
WITH A PALADIN
Just kite the rogue around with BoF and spam dots and CoEx. CoEx will get decursed but if you keep spamming it, in between the global cooldown you’ll get away far enough from the rogue to where he’s never hitting you. Just have your Paladin drink as much as possible and keep your Felhunter on the druid and when you get distance from the rogue, stop and fear him then drain his druids mana. Takes about 10-15 minutes but they’ll eventually go down.
Hope it helps.
Read the explanation (sort of!), but still don’t get it!
I mean, if you’re concerned with a resto druid, he can’t “resto” much in bear/cat/travel forms! So he *has* to, at some point in time to do his “restoing”, be in *caster* form, just like it is today…
The only thing he’ll be able to do that he can’t today is going from bear->cat/travel, but if that’s all he’s doing, then he’s not “restoing”, is he? Thus failing the purpose of him being there in the first place… Or am I still missing something?
Like I said, I don’t PvP, and I also fail to see *how* this is OP, especially if on more than 1×1. I could see some bit of OP on 1×1 as the Druid could start prowling in cat form, do some DPS, including some initial stun, then bear, add another stun, then cat, more DPS with possibly another stun… But on anything more than 1×1, if it’s resto druids you’re worried about, they *have* to be in caster form sooner or later to do their healing job!
Not to mention that form switching still triggers GCD, still spends mana, still triggers 5 sec mana regen delay…
Well I have to agree with you, he doesn’t ‘resto’ much if he’s in forms other than caster.
I have enough problems catching druids as it is, this will only make it more difficult.
Let’s put all the bull I said so far aside. How will you as a hunter catch a druid who is fleeing from you in battlegrounds? Sooner or later you will blow your traps/concussive shot and will be left with nothing. This change just makes it faster and easier to shift out of snares, which IMO druids don’t really need.
p.s. nerf aimed shot
Q: “How will you as a hunter catch a druid who is fleeing from you in battlegrounds?”
A: I won’t!
I don’t PvP, remember? 
Anyway, if he’s doing nothing but running, then why not take him back? I mean, in more than 1×1, if he’s running is actually not killing nor healing, so he’s not a problem. If he wants to kill/heal, then he’ll come back! So if he runs too much, leave him and take on the other guys! Who cares if the druid is the last one standing? If the rest of his team is gone, so his he, no?
I must say that I enjoy those changes as my main is a Druid and for PvE it’s kind of cool: start with kitty/prowl, stun, put some bleed effects and combo points, switch to bear to Demo Roar if it will take a while downing it or if it has particularly nasty hits, back to kitty to continue DPSing, back to bear for some high damage soaking and even a bear-mode heal, back to kitty, etc, etc…
I wouldn’t worry too much about Druids becoming OP in Arenas/BGs: if that turns out to be an issue, Blizz will nerf it somehow: 99% of every class changes are to keep them from being OP, so that won’t last much longer if it becomes an issue…