With 11.0.7 now live, Blizzard is steadily working on the next major patch for World of Warcraft The War Within. Given that 11.1 will mark the start of Season 2, we can expect some massive overhauls to gear, class philosophy and overall PvE and PvP balancing.
Having said that, we will go over the Druid changes in the recent The War Within 11.1 PTR Development Notes. Keep in mind that these changes are subject to change as more players provide feedback to the dev team.
Table of Contents
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Druid PvE Changes
- Many talents have changed position in the talent tree.
- New Talent: Grievous Wounds – Rake, Rip, and Thrash damage increased by 10%.
- New Talent: Gale Winds – Increases Typhoon’s radius by 20% and its range by 5 yards.
- New Talent: Incessant Tempest – Reduces the cooldown of Typhoon by 5 seconds.
- New Talent: Circle of the Wild – Physical damage dealt by your abilities increased by 5% (25% for Restoration Druids).
- New Talent: Circle of the Heavens – Magical damage dealt by your spells increased by 5% (25% for Restoration Druids).
- New Talent: Lycara’s Meditation – You retain Lycara’s Teachings’ bonus from your most recent form for 5 seconds after shifting out of it.
- New Talent: Symbiotic Relationship – Form a bond with an ally. Your self-healing also heals your bonded ally for 10% of the amount healed. Your healing to your bonded ally also heals you for 8% of the amount healed.
- New Talent: Aessina’s Renewal – When a hit deals more than 12% of your maximum health, instantly heal for 10% of your health. This effect cannot occur more than once every 30 seconds.
- New Talent: Perfectly-Honed Instincts – Well-Honed Instincts can trigger up to once every 90 seconds.
- Ursoc’s Spirit has been updated – Stamina increased by 4%. Stamina in Bear Form is increased by an additional 5%.
Developers’ notes: These bonuses multiply together, so Druids’ health in Bear Form remains unchanged.
- Light of the Sun replaces Skull Bash for Balance Druids only – The remaining cooldown of Solar Beam is reduced by 15 seconds when it interrupts its primary target.
- Improved Rejuvenation has been changed to Lingering Healing – Rejuvenation’s duration is increased by 3 seconds. Regrowth’s duration is increased by 3 seconds when cast on yourself.
- Instincts of the Claw is now a 1-point talent (was 2) and has been updated – Ferocious Bite and Maul damage increased by 8%.
- Lore of the Grove is now a 1-point talent (was 2) and has been updated – Moonfire and Sunfire damage increased by 10%.
- Fluid Form has been updated – Skull Bash can now be used in any form and shifts you into Cat Form if necessary.
- Rejuvenation healing increased by 5%.
- Wild Growth healing increased by 5%.
- Rip damage reduced by 9%.
- Shred damage increased by 10%.
- Swipe damage increased by 10%.
- Ferocious Bite damage reduced by 8%.
- Cyclone duration is now 5 seconds (was 6 seconds).
- Incapacitating Roar now breaks based on a small damage threshold instead of any damage.
- Rising Light, Falling Night has been removed.
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Druid of the Claw
- Ravage damage reduced by 8%.
Balance
- Sunfire is now learned at level 10 (was a talent).
- The following talents have been removed:
- Light of the Sun
- Sunfire (now learned at level 10)
Feral
- Thrash now learned at level 10 (was a talent).
- Brutal Slash damage increased by 10%.
- Killer Instinct no longer increases damage dealt by Moonfire cast with Lunar Inspiration.
Guardian
- New Talent: Ursol’s Warding – Gain magical damage reduction equal to 5/10% of your damage reduction from armor.
- Reinvigoration has been updated – Frenzied Regeneration heals over 1/2 additional seconds, and casts Rejuvenation and Regrowth on you at 100/200% effectiveness.
- Verdant Heart now learned at level 10 (was a talent).
- Mangle damage increased by 10%.
- Maul damage reduced by 8%.
- Raze damage reduced by 8%.
- Raze now replaces Maul.
- Layered Mane has been removed.
Restoration
- Improved Nature’s Cure is now learned at level 10 (was a talent).
- Mastery: Harmony – Effectiveness increased by 30%. Now reduces its bonus with each additional heal over time effect.
Developers’ notes: This update to Mastery: Harmony is intended to reward more heavily the first few heal over time effects applied to allies while tempering the scaling at large heal over time counts. This scaling will still always make it a bonus to have additional heal over time effects on targets.
- Tranquility channel time reduced to base 5 seconds (was 8 seconds). Total healing unchanged.
- Nature’s Swiftness now increases the healing of Regrowth by 200% (was 100%).
- Flourish now causes an initial heal effect on affected allies, split evenly among them.
- All damage reduced by 20%.
Developers’ notes: This damage reduction keeps Restoration Druid’s physical or magic damage dealt equivalent to previous patches when selecting the Circle of the Wilds or Circle of the Heavens talents. We are making this change with the goal of moving Restoration Druids towards utilizing either their damaging physical abilities or magic spells instead of weaving between them both in order to reduce the damage rotation complexity.
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Druid PvP Changes
- Thorns (PvP Talent) has been redesigned – Now a passive that activates when you cast Barkskin or Ironbark.
Feral
- King of the Jungle (PvP Talent) has been removed.
Restoration
- New PvP Talent: Ancient of Lore – Shapeshift into an Ancient of Lore for 12 seconds, preventing all crowd control effects, reducing damage taken by 20%, and granting you access to Blossom Burst and Mass Blooming. Reduced movement speed and replaces Incarnation: Tree of Life. 1.5 minute cooldown.
- Blossom Burst – Heals an ally and applies 1 missing heal over time effect. If all of them are present, Blossom Burst critically heals.
- Mass Blooming – Heals 5 allies and applies 1 missing heal over time effect.
- New PvP Talent: Forest Guardian – Wrath, Starfire, Cyclone, and Combo-Point generating abilities extend the duration of your active heal over time effects by 1 second on up to 3 allies. Starsurge and Combo-Point spending abilities increase the rate of your heal over time spells by 25% for 4 seconds.
- Mastery: Harmony’s effectiveness is no longer reduced by 20% in PvP combat.
- Lifebloom’s healing has been increased by 15% in PvP combat.
- The following PvP talents have been removed:
And that covers all of the changes posted so far for World of Warcraft The War Within 11.1. Once Blizzard releases the PTR patch for players to test, we might see even more updates to the class balancing. You can check out the official development notes, here.
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