Druid changes next patch

Just posting for easy access. Only going to post the druid ones.

CLASSES

  • DRUID
    • Class
      • All Druids now learn Swipe at level 10.
      • Swipe and Brutal slash damage reduced by 50%.
      • Killer Instinct changed to 2 points, granting 3/6% physical damage and armor.
      • Nurturing Instinct changed to 2 points, granting 3/6% magical damage and healing.
      • New Talent: Improved Swipe – Increases Swipe and Brutal Slash damage by 100%.
      • New Talent: Forestwalk – Casting Regrowth increases your movement speed and healing received by 5% for 3/6 seconds.
      • New Talent: Gale Winds – Increases Typhoon’s radius by 20% and range by 5 yards.
      • New Talent: Incessant Tempest: Reduces the cooldown of Typhoon by 5 seconds.
      • New connection between Rake and Rip.
      • New connection between Maim and Tireless Pursuit.
      • New connections connecting Skull Bash to Primal Fury and Matted Fur.
      • New connection between Verdant Heart and Ironfur.
      • Wild Growth moved up and Remove Curse moved to the side.
      • Improved Rejuvenation moved up the tree.
      • Sunfire moved up and Starsurge moved to the side.
      • Feral druids now start with Rip instead of Thrash.
    • Balance
      • The Balance Druid tree has been redesigned.
      • Lunar Eclipse no longer increases the critical strike chance of Starfire.
      • Lunar Eclipse now increases the damage Starfire deals to nearby enemies by 50%.
      • Umbral Intensity now further increases the damage Starfire deals to nearby enemies by 10/20%.
      • Circle of Life and Death has been removed.
      • New Talent: Cosmic Rapidity – Your Moonfire, Sunfire, and Stellar Flare deal damage 13/25% faster.
    • Feral
      • Circle of Life and Death damage over time duration compression reduced to 20% (was 25%).
      • Taste for Blood bonus to Ferocious Bite damage increased to 4/8% per bleed on the target (was 2/4%).
      • Rampant Ferocity damage increased to 35% of Ferocious Bite damage (was 25%).
      • Dreadful Bleeding bonus to Rip damage reduced to 15% (was 20%).
      • Infected Wounds bonus to Rake damage reduced to 25% (was 30%).
      • Veinripper increase to bleed durations increased to 33% (was 25%).
      • Lunar Inspiration damage increased by 66%.
      • Tear Open Wounds moved to row 4
      • Survival Instincts moved to row 5.
      • Infected Wounds moved to row 5.
      • Berserk moved to row 6.
      • Moment of Clarity moved to row 7.
      • Berserk: Heart of the Lion and Berserk: Frenzy moved within row 7 and connections changed.
      • Position of Wild Slashes and Brutal Strike swapped in their choice node.
      • Lunar Inspiration now a choice node with Feral Frenzy.
    • Guardian
      • The Guardian Druid tree has been redesigned.
      • Ursine Adept is now baseline.
      • Innervate can now be cast in Bear Form.
      • Front of the Pack moved to row 3.
      • Flashing Claws switched positions with Reinvigoration.
      • New Talent: Thorns of Iron – When you cast Ironfur, you also deal Physical damage equal to 30% of your armor, split among enemies within 12 yards.
      • New Talent: Raze – Strike with the might of Ursoc, dealing Physical damage to all enemies in front of you. Deals reduced damage beyond 5 targets.
      • New Talent: Moonless Night – When you cast a single-target ability on an enemy afflicted by Moonfire, you cause them to burn for an additional 10% Arcane damage.
      • New Talent: Lunar Beam – Summons a beam of lunar light at your location, dealing Arcane damage and healing you over 8.5 seconds. Pathing restructured.
      • Earthwarden, Tooth and Claw, Reinforced Fur, and After the Wildfire/Guardian of Elune now have connections into the final gate section.
      • Pulverize, Blood Frenzy, and Twin Moonfire have found slightly different homes.
      • Vicious Cycle, Fury of Nature, and Scintillating Moonlight have changed icons.
3 Likes

Lol wow. does it say when this is taking effect?

I’d like to say from a boomy pvp standpoint there’s some big W’s, and maybe 1-2 L’s.

So, my initial thoughts are: Boomy can now go down to well-honed instincts (as we need unfortunately) without taking 2 points into thrash and swipe. However, we still have swipe due to it being baseline so that saves us a net of 2 points and gives us the ability to spam that to get stealthies out still. Good change.

Typhoon talents seem kinda useless tbh. I don’t think I’ll be taking any of them. If the knockback or something was increased substantially, I’d consider it but just 5s shorter cd and a small range? Nah. This however is kind of a good change because since I don’t feel obligated to take those, I can take some other talents I was missing from the OG tree.

Remove corruption moved over to the side, YES TY. Now I don’t have to drop a defensive to take that vs shamans and locks. My lord ty ty ty ty. Huge change.

For the balance tree, idk what all has been “redesigned.” I guess I’ll have to wait and see but just going off what they posted, I’m bummed the crit chance was removed from lunar eclipse. Especially being pvp focused, I couldn’t care less about cleave damage over crit. I definitely want the crit instead.

ColaD is great for pvp, arena anyway. I’ll take the new talent because it’s a massive dps gain (but why does it have to be 2 points now?). I’m curious if the ticks just tick faster but the duration stays the same? I’d be happy with that; makes multi dotting easier.

If that’s the only change though it’s just a net loss of a talent point though which sucks and doesn’t help anyone. So I hope the redesign changes some of the pathing or something. Like a good example would be not requiring me to take lunar shrapnel for pvp. It’s utterly useless.

I’m excited either way! I do kinda wish they made it easier to take Natural Recovery in the druid tree without needing the heals above however now that there’s free points I’ll be able to snag Nature’s Vigil and Innervate so I think that’s fine.

I don’t know sadly.

Lol…. I was wondering why they didn’t bring back lunar beam with laser bear.

Well…

There it is.

Indeed haha. Also, that new ironfur talent seems to be kinda cool for bears yeah? Maybe it’ll help make it “feel” better to press. I know that was a contentious topic in a different thread.

1 Like

This change is definitely PvE related, as lunar eclipse is the only one you currently want to use in PvE and theorycrafting and such showed you only ever wrath to go into eclipse, and single target when you popped CA/Incarnation. Lunar eclipse was just too good and they’re obviously trying to get people to go into solar for single target but it will have to see.

That’s what the new talent does, less DoT refreshing is a win for everyone. Talent points got shifted around with two 2 point talents becoming 1, and two single point talents becoming 2, so your build may lose a point, but overall no point changes. They put up a post describing this just a little bit ago. Tree looks much better to me.

Raze looks interesting. Our own pseudo revenge.
The cost sucks though. Its like they learned nothing from maul.
Would be nice to see it proc off gore.
mangle for st/raze for aoe.

Edit… nvm it replaces maul!
Thats interesting!

Thats as a huge buff for ursocs fury.

Worried about the feral changes being a precursor to shifting feral back to bite gameplay again, which would be awful. Also why are we addressing feral’s bleed aoe but assa rogue aoe bleed is completely fine despite bleeds being a core identity of feral when poisons were typical the identity of assa rogues?

Regardless I imagine the bite buffs should help in single target a bit and I like the idea of centralizing the berserk talents in the tree.

In terms of PvP the LI/Frenzy choice node is just AWFUL. Being able to moonfire while kiting and proc bloodtalons or just to build some cps while at range was phenomenal but we now have to choose between that and arguably our biggest DpS CD when combined with Swarm. Feels really bad man.

20 Likes

Yeah, and I can understand. It just sucks because from a pvp standpoint, I don’t even get to take advantage of the re-direction or compensation, it’s just simply a nerf.

That’s good to hear, so that’s definitely a plus. hrm… gotcha. Well I hope it evens out then, idk which talents got changed. No pathing changes or…? Anywhere I can see this?

Its locked on the lazer bear side.

/shrug

feral tree doesnt seem to be updated yet

2 Likes

Over on the PTR forum there’s a picture in their changes and reasonings thread: https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/druid-updates-in-1005/

1 Like

This is really, really, really dumb.

22 Likes

Omg these clowns! Whyyyyy. Why do I need rejuv/swiftmend for remove corruption. WHY. I’m so mad dude. So with the new changes in the druid tree I gain rejuv/swiftmend, which idc about at ALL because I can’t cast them in moonkin form, and innervate. So I mean it’s a net positive for sure but… the dispel is the massive thing. That needs changed asap.

3 Likes

Totally agree with you regarding Lunar and Frenzy now being a node choice. I really hope it gets reverted. Maybe don’t buff Lunar’s damage by 66% and just buff it by 25% or so, and let use keep both. Just like you said, Lunar’s utility value is so good to build Combo Points while kiting and also make Bloodtalons easier to proc, and I’d hate to lose that utility.

7 Likes

Ok woa… woa woa. No, this entire thing is terrible now. They completely ruined the balance tree. Like entirely. I went from stoked to in shambles. I really, really, REALLY hope these don’t go live.

6 Likes

Would definitely be really nice being able to rejuv and swiftmend in moonkin form…and I know it’s not a direct comparison but spriests are able to renew and pom without leaving their “form”.

3 Likes

Garbage changes

6 Likes

haha, got all excited when I saw that remove corruption was moved to a side, crashed to Earth like a full moon proc when I saw it was still gated behind talents I dont want

6 Likes

How do you feel about the feral changes?

1 Like

As a Resto Druid who doesn’t pick up sunfire or starsurge because I am super lazy, with these changes I was able to keep my build and even pick up 1 point Forestwalk, Verdant Heart, and Improved Barkskin. But I assuming these changes are wack for the other specs from the feedback so far…