Patch 3.0.3 is here, and it's almost certainly the last patch before Wrath is released next Thursday. Unlike the other eight classes, we've gotten all our talent points refunded, which makes this a good opportunity to switch up your spec if you want to, maybe to whatever you'll be leveling with in Wrath. This isn't really because we got huge changes so much as it is because two of our talents were reduced in the number of ranks [edited for correctness]:

• Earth and Moon is now 3 ranks for 4/9/13% increased spell damage taken, and increases your spell damage by 1/2/3% (old: 5 ranks for 3/5/8/10/13% increased damage taken from Arcane, Fire, Frost, Nature and Shadow, and increases your spell damage by 1/2/3/4/5%)
  
• Moonfury is now 3 ranks for 3/6/10% benefit (was 5 ranks for 2/4/6/8/10%)

Hard to make a change like that without refunding talent points. Further Balance changes:

• Eclipse's buff duration was raised to 15 seconds and its bonuses doubled, but the cooldown raised from 30 to 40 seconds. Overall a buff to what I still think is an inspired talent. (Although some of this seems to have already been live in 3.0.2? Boomkin, help me out.)
• Apparently Moonkin were getting way too much mana back from Hurricane, so Moonkin form now only gives mana back from single-target spells.

And for the ferals, we have a few bear-form buffs, and a small cat nerf:

• Bash will now interrupt spells even on stun-immune targets. Excellent.
• Berserk clears the cooldown on Mangle (Bear); there was a problem where using it while Mangle was on cooldown (i.e. most of the time) would not give its Mangle-cooldown-reducing benefit.
• Survival Instincts is now off the GCD, like its inspiration, Last Stand. Say what you will about homogenization, but I'm glad to have this tool.
• Growl's cooldown reduced to 8 seconds, again like the warrior version.
• Tiger's Fury ranks 5 and 6 (level 71 and 79) have had their bonus damage decreased. I've never really played with these ranks, so I have no idea whether this was necessary or not. Beta players?

Not much of a change for Resto, but for the sake of completeness:

• Nature's Swiftness and the Honorless Target buff gained when entering the world will no longer be able to trigger Omen of Clarity.
• Swiftmend will now properly benefit from Genesis.

Finally, if you still haven't gotten it together and done your Swift Flight Form quest (and you should -- it's fun), you can simply train the spell at level 71 at your class trainer, providing you've dropped the 5000g to train epic flying already. The quest line is still in the game, and will still reward the form at level 70; the level 71 thing is just another option. The Warlock and Paladin epic land mounts have gotten the same treatment.

Tags: balance, balance-druid, bear, cat, druid, feral-druid, patch-3.0.3, restoration-druid, swift-flight-form

Filed under: Druid, Patches, Talents