Hail, druids. There really aren't too many known changes to our class on the patch 3.3 PTR. As I write this, the only gameplay change you're likely to notice will be the buff/nerf to pet avoidance, which will only affect the Balance talent
Force of Nature. More experienced Balance players will have to chime in here, because the wording on the change makes it sound like they're referencing an existing feature. I'm racking my brain trying to remember if Blizzard's ever done anything to tinker with the treants' survivability versus AoE damage, and I don't think they have. My guess is that the wording is just in line with similar changes in other classes with access to pets. Anyway, the change reads as follows:
Avoidance (passive): Now reduces the damage your pets take from area-of-effect damage by 90%, but no longer applies to area-of-effect damage caused by other players.
For PvP, I think this is going to be business as usual, because the treants have historically been weak to AoE, and a key part of Balance arena strategy is timing a treants cast when your enemy's AoE or escape abilities are on cooldown. For PvE, it's a considerable buff, and it means that you'll no longer have to /headdesk over losing a key damage cooldown to a boss AoE.
Apart from that, the only other known change to the class is a bug fix on
rank 15 Rejuvenation (correcting the base duration from 15 seconds to 12 seconds), but we'll keep an eye on the PTR for you, and any additional changes will be noted here.
Tags: balance-druid, balance-druids, druid, druids, force-of-nature, patch-3.3, patch-3.3-changes, patch-3.3-wow, rejuvenation, treant, treants, world-of-warcraft-patch-3.3, wow-3.3-changes, wow-new-patch, wow-patch, wow-patch-3.3, wow-patch-news
Filed under: Druid, Patches, Analysis / Opinion, News items
Oct 1st 2009 at 8:30PM 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
paul Oct 1st 2009 8:36PM
Aaaw, but I liked the treant death animation/sound?
Ah well, theres still plenty more in pvp I suppose :P
Maximize Oct 2nd 2009 1:45AM
The "change" to trees may be the focus of this article, but the part that SHOULD stand out is the "bug fix" for rejuvenation. If nothing else is adjusted, this will effectively remove a tick from out rejuv. What that means is that the healing spell that accounts for about 50% of our healing during the course of most instances is taking a 20% nerf (pre-talent). Put a different way, it could be as much as a 10% nerf to our overall healing.
I have no idea why nobody has mentioned this before.
themightysven Oct 1st 2009 8:57PM
Avoidance on live realms is 80% and applies to all AoE damage. At least for Warlock and Hunter
(I remember this from when the voidwalker tanked Sarth +3)
Everyone who has a pet get the same change except, strangely, Shamans. Maybe they were already there, or they forgot 'em (either writing it down, or doing the change)
Allison Robert Oct 1st 2009 9:10PM
I noticed the lack of notation concerning Shaman pets as well -- I would guess it would apply to Fire and Earth Elementals and enhancement's wolves.
I'm pretty sure Force of Nature treants lack any significant AoE protection, but I could be wrong. I'm still paging through patch notes to make sure I didn't miss anything.
Texicles Oct 1st 2009 9:17PM
I believe that this is to keep treants survivability in line with the changes to full-blown pet classes (especially hunters). Hunters have been promised some changes to their pets, such that they're less apt to die in a fire, as the devs have openly acknowledged that pet AI is limited as are pet controls.
Gamer am I Oct 1st 2009 9:23PM
I know that the PTR notes just came out, but the lack of class changes has really caught my attention. Does this mean that Blizzard likes where class balance is?
Allison Robert Oct 1st 2009 9:29PM
Not necessarily. This is only the first and earliest version of the PTR patch notes, and we're likely to see a number of other changes. That said, we're probably within 4-6 months of seeing the Cataclysm beta go live as well, and I'm curious whether they're reserve larger, sweeping class changes for that.
themightysven Oct 1st 2009 9:32PM
It's possible that avoidance does only apply for Hunter and Warlock pets.
Shaman may have been skipped over, note that Death Knights have to talent into their pets avoidance
Peter Oct 1st 2009 9:36PM
I think class balance is pretty good right now, especially in raiding.
The other thing is that Cata is going to be a massive undertakin as far as Masterys and the new streamlined talent trees. My guess is they don't see much of a point spending a lot of time balancing specs that are going to change drastically in 6-8 months. (yes, I predicting an early 2010 release).
darth.static Oct 1st 2009 9:57PM
From the 3.1 patch notes:
"The shaman's Fire Elemental and Spirit Wolves, mage's Water Elemental and Mirror Images, and druid's Treants have all gained avoidance from area-of-effect damage similar to what warlock and hunter pets already have. "
So balance druids get a pvp buff for 2 patches, then get the big Blizz nerfhammer yet again. What have they got against feathery deathchickens?
Neirin Oct 1st 2009 10:29PM
trees currently have 80% AoE dmg reduction (or some very high percentage). this was added in 3.1 or one of it's subsequent mini-patches. It might have been around in the latter part of 3.0, but I distinctly remember the pet survivability question being a big problem on fights like sapph or grob where using trees was a waste of mana and a gcd.
vern Oct 2nd 2009 4:16AM
Rejuv is just losing one tick. LOL "just". This is of course MAJOR for druid healing as this is done without changing the value of one rejuv tick = rejuv lost 20% healing
Confirmed by GC:
We don't want rank 15 to have that extra tick. It is technically a bug in that we didn't intend for it to have that behavior, but obviously we sat on the change for awhile. However since the popular Resto style has now become Rejuv on as many people as possible, we thought the extra tick had become problematic. Frankly we think druids can absorb the small nerf without hurting their overall healing much.
We're not trying to hide a nerf, and we can certainly change the patch note to not say bug fix if that makes it go down any easier.
We'll look into any discrepancy in numbers between rank 14 and 15 and make sure things are working as intended.
Matthew Oct 7th 2009 10:43PM
Sad news for the PVP Resto Community:
1) Rejuv / Swiftmend = Less heals now. (one less tic = less insta heal)
2) Less armor in caster mode. (At least they didn't nerf tree form - yet?) This will make me more of a healbot and not do my offensive spells.
It is autumn, and the leaves of my resto druid fall.