WoW Patch 3.1 PTR Druid glyphs and undocumented changes, part 2
NEW AND ALTERED GLYPHS
GLYPH OF REBIRTH: Players resurrected by Rebirth are returned to life with 100% health. (Old: Increases the amount of health on a character brought back to life via Rebirth by 100%.)
This is a substantial improvement on the current glyph, but whether or not you'll find it useful is going to depend on your individual circumstances. A Druid of any spec in a competitive raiding guild may find themselves called upon to Rebirth as much as possible in order to keep attempts at progression content going. Of course, we don't know what the fights in Ulduar are going to be like, but if we see predictable raid damage on the level of, say, Sapphiron or Kel'Thuzad, the glyph will make it substantially safer to battle-rez someone without losing them to AoE a moment after.
GLYPH OF STARFALL: Reduces the cooldown of Starfall by 90 sec. (Old: Increases the duration of Starfall by 2 sec).
Eh. Starfall right now is... not that great, and one of the most routinely ignored talents in a PvE Balance build. Now that it no longer has a chance to proc stuns, it's also not quite as useful (and by useful, I mean overpowered) in PvP. However, it is extremely useful as a damage ability that's essentially fire-and-forget while you've got melee on you. How useful is the reduced cooldown? How long do your arena matches typically last? Probably worth picking up if you're Balance for arena.
GLYPH OF BERSERK (NEW): Increases the duration of Berserk by 5 seconds.
Hrm. That's pretty nice for both Bear and Cat, especially because one of the Bear's weaknesses as a tank is a lack of burst AoE threat outside of Berserk. It should also provide a nice DPS boost for kitties.
GLYPH OF WILD GROWTH (NEW): Wild Growth now affects up to 6 targets.
This is similar to existing glyphs for Shamans and Priests increasing the number of targets healed by Chain Heal and Circle of Healing respectively. It's a welcome addition to a Resto Druid's arsenal, especially if you're typically on raid healing duty. If you do mostly 5-man content, you can safely consider this glyph superfluous, as Wild Growth already hits up to 5 people.
GLYPH OF NOURISH (NEW): Your Nourish heals an additional 6% for each of your heal over time effects present on the target.
Between this, recent buffs, and the change to Improved Regrowth, they are really pushing Nourish as more of a main-line healing spell. I'm going to have to dig out my calculator soon and try to see how much closer this gets Nourish to a glyphed Regrowth assuming HoT's already present on the target. At the moment, I'm not sure whether this stacks with the Tier 7 4-piece set bonus.
GLYPH OF SAVAGE ROAR (NEW): Your Savage Roar ability grants an additional 6% bonus damage done.
Interesting. This, Glyph of Rip, and Glyph of Berserk are going to be the three required Cat glyphs for maximum DPS builds, particularly if you've got an Arms Warrior in your raid applying Trauma (removing the need to Mangle), but it is a sign that Bear and Cat builds and damage are moving farther and farther apart.
GLYPH OF TYPHOON (NEW): Reduces the cooldown of your Typhoon spell by 3 seconds.
Another glyph that seems intended for Balance PvP, but probably a bit more useful than Glyph of Starfall.
GLYPH OF BARKSKIN (NEW): Reduces the chance you'll be critically hit by melee attacks by 1 to 0% while Barkskin is active.
This and the new Improved Barkskin talent in the Restoration tree seem aimed at shoring up Resto's abysmal performance so far in Wrath arena (saw that coming!), although the glyph can obviously be put to good use for anyone's PvP sec. 1% crit reduction is worth an extra 75 resilience at 80. This might be helpful until you get resilience-capped (if that's going to be possible without horribly gimping yourself in Season 6 gear, of course).
Patch 3.1 brings us Ulduar, dual specs, significant changes to all the classes, and more! We've got you covered from top to bottom with our Guide to Patch 3.1.
GLYPH OF REBIRTH: Players resurrected by Rebirth are returned to life with 100% health. (Old: Increases the amount of health on a character brought back to life via Rebirth by 100%.)This is a substantial improvement on the current glyph, but whether or not you'll find it useful is going to depend on your individual circumstances. A Druid of any spec in a competitive raiding guild may find themselves called upon to Rebirth as much as possible in order to keep attempts at progression content going. Of course, we don't know what the fights in Ulduar are going to be like, but if we see predictable raid damage on the level of, say, Sapphiron or Kel'Thuzad, the glyph will make it substantially safer to battle-rez someone without losing them to AoE a moment after.
GLYPH OF STARFALL: Reduces the cooldown of Starfall by 90 sec. (Old: Increases the duration of Starfall by 2 sec).
Eh. Starfall right now is... not that great, and one of the most routinely ignored talents in a PvE Balance build. Now that it no longer has a chance to proc stuns, it's also not quite as useful (and by useful, I mean overpowered) in PvP. However, it is extremely useful as a damage ability that's essentially fire-and-forget while you've got melee on you. How useful is the reduced cooldown? How long do your arena matches typically last? Probably worth picking up if you're Balance for arena.
GLYPH OF BERSERK (NEW): Increases the duration of Berserk by 5 seconds.
Hrm. That's pretty nice for both Bear and Cat, especially because one of the Bear's weaknesses as a tank is a lack of burst AoE threat outside of Berserk. It should also provide a nice DPS boost for kitties.
GLYPH OF WILD GROWTH (NEW): Wild Growth now affects up to 6 targets.
This is similar to existing glyphs for Shamans and Priests increasing the number of targets healed by Chain Heal and Circle of Healing respectively. It's a welcome addition to a Resto Druid's arsenal, especially if you're typically on raid healing duty. If you do mostly 5-man content, you can safely consider this glyph superfluous, as Wild Growth already hits up to 5 people.
GLYPH OF NOURISH (NEW): Your Nourish heals an additional 6% for each of your heal over time effects present on the target.
Between this, recent buffs, and the change to Improved Regrowth, they are really pushing Nourish as more of a main-line healing spell. I'm going to have to dig out my calculator soon and try to see how much closer this gets Nourish to a glyphed Regrowth assuming HoT's already present on the target. At the moment, I'm not sure whether this stacks with the Tier 7 4-piece set bonus.
GLYPH OF SAVAGE ROAR (NEW): Your Savage Roar ability grants an additional 6% bonus damage done.
Interesting. This, Glyph of Rip, and Glyph of Berserk are going to be the three required Cat glyphs for maximum DPS builds, particularly if you've got an Arms Warrior in your raid applying Trauma (removing the need to Mangle), but it is a sign that Bear and Cat builds and damage are moving farther and farther apart.
GLYPH OF TYPHOON (NEW): Reduces the cooldown of your Typhoon spell by 3 seconds.
Another glyph that seems intended for Balance PvP, but probably a bit more useful than Glyph of Starfall.
GLYPH OF BARKSKIN (NEW): Reduces the chance you'll be critically hit by melee attacks by 1 to 0% while Barkskin is active.
This and the new Improved Barkskin talent in the Restoration tree seem aimed at shoring up Resto's abysmal performance so far in Wrath arena (saw that coming!), although the glyph can obviously be put to good use for anyone's PvP sec. 1% crit reduction is worth an extra 75 resilience at 80. This might be helpful until you get resilience-capped (if that's going to be possible without horribly gimping yourself in Season 6 gear, of course).






Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
kozom Feb 25th 2009 7:40PM
so...balance didn't really get much or really ANY direct love this patch so far. /sad panda
And i agree, they are pushing nourish WAY to much on us, and i think b/c it wasn't embraced by the masses as the do-it-all heal they want it to be they just nerfed/buffed it's way into our hearts.
kozom Feb 25th 2009 7:42PM
ohl, and by ANY I mean any PvP/PvE changes that would do a considerable change.
Zeplar Feb 25th 2009 7:47PM
I don't use Nourish in raids because unless there is some serious damage going on, the shamans and paladins are going to be filling that role. It's up to me to be keeping up HoTs and Wild Growth each CD, not sniping Paladin heals.
Brent Feb 25th 2009 7:56PM
Nourish is meant to be spammed, whereas Regrowth isn't. With T7x4 Nourish is a better HPM and HPS spell than Glyphed Regrowth, and the Glyph of Nourish is *better* than T7x4 (no I don't think they'll stack). With about a 40-45% crit rate on Nourish, it leaps ahead of Regrowth on HPM and HPS, so basically what they've said is "Use Regrowth as a Heal + Hot. Use Nourish as a spam heal."
Personally I think its better this way as its slotted Regrowth back to where it should, as a buffer heal to get more HoTs up and clean up some damage, not as a Spam Outside of Hot Refreshes.
hold up Feb 25th 2009 8:12PM
"With T7x4 Nourish is a better HPM and HPS spell than Glyphed Regrowth"
I hope your talking about after the 3.1 changes. Otherwise /disagree. There are many numbers crunched on elitistjerks.com that supports the theory that glyphed regrowth trumps nourish in all cases.
I'm very upset about this because Glyphed Regrowth was my main heal when assigned to Tank Healing. High crit = Faster next cast + living seed. It definitely looks like Blizz wants to pigeonhole us to play the way they want.
People weren't using Nourish so they buff it and then nerf Regrowth. I could have understood if they just buffed Nourish and let the player decide which method they like, but their intention was very clear.
Jamesisgreat Feb 25th 2009 8:08PM
Do we know if we're getting talent points refunded again with this patch, seeing as they seem to being moved about/ new ones introduced?
Blizzardvictim Feb 25th 2009 11:24PM
So bear armor is getting nerfed again, and resto is getting nerfed also? Blizzard sure doesn't seem to care much about the people playing druids, does it? First they nerf the hell out of our armor by removing the armor bonus on trinkets, then they see people aren't playing druid tanks anymore so they buff survival of the fittest (which results in more people playing bear tanks), but now they are deciding that Survival of the Fittest is OP, and nerf it as well.
I'd been healing with my druid and had been looking forward to dual specs so I could start tanking again, especially since Survival of the Fittest made it worth being a tank again. My bad. With the upcoming armor nerf that pretty much gets rid of my tank idea. And with resto getting nerfed the only thing left is Boomkin, which is amazingly dull (same 3 spells, over and over and over).
Guess it's time to level up that DK and see how much raid content I can get through before my subscription expires.
DruidX Feb 25th 2009 11:40PM
So Blizzard is nerfing Bear tanks (again), and resto druids (again). Why can't they just leave us alone? I had respecced to resto following the huge armor nerf, only to see some of my resto spells nerfed shortly afterward. Then Blizzard decides a couple months later, following the massive dropoff in bear tanks, that they were too enthusiastic with the nerf bat, and they increase Survival of the Fittest to make us viable tanks again. I was looking forward to dual speccing tank/resto, but now, again, they are nerfing our armor. Also resto is getting whacked. I'm sick of it. If I respecc Balance , no doubt blizzard will put huge nerfs on Boomkins.
Guess I'll level up my DK and see all the raid content I can before my subscription expires in a couple months, cuz I'm definitely not going to renew.
PeeWee Feb 26th 2009 5:11AM
Can I have your stuff? At least until you're coming back?
Bezulba Feb 26th 2009 6:01AM
The armor nerf was needed since we got an insane amount of armor and our best trinket was one out of BRD(!!!!) because of it.. obviously you haven't played as a bear at all since we are still on par with all the other tanking classes. Yes we got nerfed, but we also got buffed on other places.
You, sir, are just moaning about something you no longer have any clue about.
Woshiernog Feb 26th 2009 12:02AM
Can anyone explain to me the change to Glyph of Rebirth? I'm really not seeing the differance between the versiona dn new version.
Oteo Feb 26th 2009 12:21AM
From my understanding, the old glyph just doubled how much the HP brez'd person got, while the new glyph resses them with full health. Example:
You want to brez your offtank with 30,000 HP. Rebirth, unglyphed, resses the target with 3000 HP.
Old Glyph: Target is ressed, gets 6000 HP. (3000 base + 100%*3000 (glyph) = 6000)
New Glyph: Target is ressed, gets 30,000 (100%) HP.
Woshiernog Feb 26th 2009 12:29AM
Oooh, I thought the old glyph give them full health. Thanks for the clarification
Delerowen Feb 26th 2009 12:36AM
That sounds better. I wasn't to sure how the glyph worked anyways, but that does make the glyph more viable with Resto Druids
iira Feb 26th 2009 12:44AM
Jeez, a little emo?
I generally use regrowth to help out a spike in damage, mostly hotting up the tank and letting our disc priest do the impact healing, however I welcome the buff to nourish, because it is a very fast heal, and in cases like Frost Blast, seems to work pretty well. Will probably drop Living Seed, with such a huge nerf Regrowth's crit potential (very sad!). Probably will pick up replenish, seeing as spirit is getting the nerf stick, which sucks for us because stacking it gave us good regen and some SP!
Scarvo Feb 26th 2009 1:02AM
Allison, I'd like you to comment on Owlkin Frenzy - is it worth taking for ANY reason now?
I've been relatively happy with it in that it lets me take out 7 mammoths at once and it's been useful in some heroics ... but with physical damage as the ONLY proc, I can't see it being worth that OR general PVP.
Allison Robert Feb 26th 2009 3:00PM
I would say it depends a lot on what you do with your moonkin. If you raid frequently, I would say drop it. Raid damage is almost always magic-based, and if it won't proc OF anymore, there's really no point to having it. If you don't raid much, OF is of circumstantial use, like the one you're describing here while out grinding on melee mobs. It shouldn't proc much in heroics unless you've pulled aggro as the vast majority of PvE AoE damage is (again) magic-based. So I would say that, outside of soloing, Owlkin Frenzy for PvE purposes is basically useless.
For PvP purposes, it would depend a lot on the matchups that you and your partner find most troublesome to deal with. If you have the most difficulty with casters, I'd say bag the talent and go for something else. If you have the most difficulty with melee, it's still worth taking.
However, there's been some talk since the article went live that they may NOT change Owlkin Frenzy when 3.1 hits the live servers, so I wouldn't respec just yet. I'll be keeping an eye on the Druid changes on the PTR.
evankimori Feb 27th 2009 2:37PM
What I think Bliz needs to take a look at concerning OF is the proc itself. I've gotten it to proc off some silly things at times, like even that quest is Skald where you dismember corpses for some reason.
Anelf Feb 26th 2009 1:25AM
How many players are leaving the game because of Blizzard constantly messing about with their class dynamics? It's getting very tiresome re-evaluating my spell rotations, glyphs and itemization every time a patch drops.
Gothia Feb 26th 2009 3:01AM
The nourish buff is in the same category as Shaman healing wave and Priest Greater heals. The spells are not raid viable because they have a long cast time that results in excessive overhealing. Blizzard still doesn't get the concept of healing or just don't give a crap what limited choices they give raid healers. The spirit nerf is going to be a druid/priest killer.