Finally!

It finally happened.

After finishing about my fourth Feathered Raptor Arm project, I press the solve button...
And my stArchaeologist meter jumps all the way up to 100 fragments to solve the next item! I open my Archaeology pane and, lo and behold, the Fossilized Raptor mount is my next project!

To all of the other Archaeologists out there, keep on going! It'll come up eventually!

Again With the PvP Nerfs?

Druids have always been known to be one of the most mobile PvP classes in the game. Shifts cancel roots and movement impairing effects, Forms cancel polymorph, Berserk cancels fear, etc etc. But bit by bit, at least on the PTR, all of that is being taken away. Why?

• Shapeshifts: Entering or leaving a shapeshift no longer cancels root effects. It continues to cancel movement slowing effects.
• Glyph of Entangling Roots redesigned. It now reduces the cast time of Entangling Roots by 0.2 seconds, rather than making it instant cast.
• Skull Bash (Cat) / Skull Bash (Bear) now prevents spell from that school from being cast for 4 sec, down from 5 sec.
• Berserk no longer clears the effect of Fear or makes you immune to Fear for the duration.

Druids, unlike other classes, can't cancel snares without shifting. Other classes have that ability.

Some people are proposing that this is because Blizzard sees Ferals as OP and overrepresented in battlegrounds. While this may be true, the reasons for it are different; Feral bleeds were part of the problem and were nerfed on the PTR. Okay, fine. But is having a class that can't be chain-feared by a warlock that bad? Furthermore, the reason Ferals are so common is because they're really the only viable PvP spec in the druid class. The only way you can really fix this is to buff Moonkins; nerfing druids to the point of being incapable of PvP isn't the answer. It's not okay to get rid of our signature PvP mobility.

At this point, all we can do is hope it doesn't go live.

This Just In!

(Isn't that banner just the coolest thing you've ever seen? Check out the rest of NightmareDragon's art here.)

• Wild Mushroom is now instant cast, down from 0.5 seconds. In addition, the radius of detonation has been increased to 6 yards, up from 3, and damage done increased by 15%.

•  The Shooting Stars buff duration has been increased to 12 seconds, up from 8 seconds.

 The change we've all been waiting for! Wild Mushroom is now instant cast, meaning we now have more during-movement DPS. The AoE being bigger is a huge, huge change- It'll now be a reliable spell. The damage increase coupled with the casting and bigger radius means that there's now reason to cast it. 

I'm not entirely sure what to think of the Resto and Feral changes. Resto sees a big change in the form of...

• Nourish is now trained at level 8, down from level 78.

• Healing Touch is now trained at level 78, up from level 3.

It's rather mind-boggling, really. I'm no theorycrafter but I can tell this means big change. Keep in mind, I only have one resto druid parked at level 23. Our trees also see...

• Empowered Touch now also affects Regrowth.
• Nature's Bounty no longer affects Swiftmend, but now has a new effect. When the druid has Rejuvenation on 3 or more targets, the cast time of Nourish is reduced by 10/20/30%
• Glyph of Regrowth now causes the heal-over-time effect to refresh itself on targets at or below 50% health, up from 25%.
• Glyph of Wrath now increases damage done by Wrath by 10% and no longer requires Insect Swarm on the target.
• Omen of Clarity can no longer trigger from helpful spells (aka heals), unless the Restoration talent Malfurion's Gift is chosen.
• Rejuvenation is now trained at level 3, down from level 8. In addition, its mana cost has been reduced from 26% to 16%. 

The last change in particular is nice, although I hope it doesn't mean we return to RG spam. And now, here's the Feral changes.

• Lacerate damage has been reduced by approximately 20%.
• Mangle (Bear Form) weapon damage (at level 80+) has been reduced to 235%, down from 300%.
• Mangle (Cat Form) weapon damage percent (at level 80+) has been increased to 460%, up from 360%.
• Maul damage has been reduced by approximately 20%.
• Rake damage has been reduced by 10%.
• Rip damage has been reduced by 10%.
• Shred weapon damage percent (at level 80+) has been increased to 450%, up from 350%.
• Berserk (instant Mangle proc) now has a new Spell Alert identifier. In addition, Berserk no longer breaks Fear or makes the druid immune to Fear.
• Pulverize weapon damage percent has been reduced to 80%, down from 100%.

 The cat ones were to be expected. Blizzard said a while ago damage would be shifted from bleeds to direct attacks a bit more, so no surprises there. But the bear changes are... odd. I've said before that I don't care for the fear-break removal. The Maul nerf, while it really doesn't affect us since nobody in their right mind uses Maul anymore, makes me ask...Why? They're also reducing Mangle damage, and again, I'm asking why. I never felt that it was too high, personally. But the worst change I can see is the Pulverize nerf. I mean, we already barely want to cast it so we don't lose our lacerate stacks to begin with, so why nerf the damage/threat output? I guess the feral changes are hit and miss this time. The sky isn't falling or anything- it just seems odd.

But overall I'm incredibly happy, and I can't wait to level my Boomkin to 85 and sink my teeth (beak?) into the new spell.

Also... A moment of silence for Mana Drain. :(

See you next time-
Kaleesh

Don't Worry!

I'm not dead! I just haven't had the chance to post, what with all of the holiday hubbub and, well.... My newfound addiction to archaeology and programming. ^^'''

Anyway, Ghostcrawler's most recent post details Upcoming Class Changes in light of the first few weeks of Cataclysm.

The one thing in the post that made me so excited that I forgot everything else was:

We’re buffing Wild Mushroom. It’s a cool spell that isn’t getting enough play.

Can you say, amazing? I'm just wondering how and when. The removal of fear-immunity from Berserk is a real kick in the pants, though. I guess it's not gamebreaking but it was a wonderful utility to break fear as a tank so you can go clean up the aggro, or prevent yourself from sailing into the next pack of mobs.

I did not see, however, our Mastery on the list of ones that need improving. It's not horrible, but it's just so... boring. I'd really like some change on that end.

Unfortunately I don't have much to say for other classes at the moment; most of it is just flat buffs and whatnot. So...

See you next time!
-Kaleesh