Patch 2.4 is finally upon us. I've gone through the 2.4.0.8089 patch notes from my client and pulled out the items relevant to druids. If you've been following the PTR there aren't many big surprises today. The one big thing I noticed is that the proposed change to Swipe so that it wouldn't break crowd control is not in the final patch. At least, not in the notes and confirmed not in the patch.
Not a lot of changes for bears. Lacerate gets more damage from attack power, but I don't know how much more threat that will result in. The new +15 defense to chest enchant is very welcome for post-clefthoof bears. And some of the new idols have been buffed, although it's hard to imagine not using the Idol of Terror.
Cats get a lot of nice buffs in this patch. Temporary item enchants finally work for shapeshifters. The extra crit
has always worked, but the extra +12 damage / attack from Adamantite Weightstone is enormous for cats with their 1.0 attack speed. A lot more mobs are bleedable, making a major source of damage more useful. The Idol of Feral Shadows got buffed, too, and the Toskk model says this is now as good for DPS as the Everbloom Idol. Then again the party buffing Idol of the Raven Goddess now gives 20 extra +crit to your Leader of the Pack aura, giving your whole party +5.9% crit instead of +5% crit.
The change I haven't gotten my head around is Nurturing Instinct improving +heal based on agility, not strength as before. Since both bears and cats stack agility it means this talent may be useful; it should triple my healing for the times I go emergency healer. There's also a passive bonus to healing received in cat form. Overall I expect this change mostly makes feral builds more viable in arenas and won't make a big difference in raiding.
Finally, there's lots of new gear for druids, including some great new Badge of Justice tank gear. Karthis has a handy roundup of all the new feral gear, drops and faction gear included.
Here's a detailed list of patch notes edited for druids:
Feral gameplay changes
- Lacerate: This ability now deals additional damage based on the attack power of the Druid.
- Mangle (Bear) now properly triggers a 1.5 second global cooldown, increased from 1.0 second.
- Many shapeshift form tooltips have been updated to be consistent with each other.
- Nurturing Instinct increases your healing spells by up to 50/100% of your Agility, and increases healing done to you by 10/20% while in Cat form.
- When a Druid in cat form casts Pounce it will now properly animate.
- Battleground Rune Buffs:Speed, Restoration, and Berserking buffs received from battleground runes will no longer cause Stealth or Prowl to break.
- Non-corporeal Undead and Mechanical creatures are now susceptible to bleed effects.
- Critters: Ambient level 1 creatures will no longer be picked as subsequent targets by chaining spells and abilities.
Feral item changes
- Enchanting recipe to increase Defense Rating by 15 for chest armor.
- Idol of Feral Shadows: The bonus damage to Rip has been increased.(by almost 2x)
- Idol of the Raven Goddess: The bonus healing, critical strike rating, and spell critical strike rating from this item have been increased. (by about 2x for Leader of the Pack)
- Idol of Ursoc: The bonus damage to Lacerate has been increased and the tooltip clarified to indicate it applies to both initial and periodic damage. (by almost 3x)
- Idol of the White Stag: Duration increased. (by almost 2x)
- PvP Relics: The bonus resilience from Idols, Librams, and Totems is no longer stackable by swapping between multiple relics.
- Weightstones and Sharpening Stones: The bonus damage from these temporary enchantments now works while shapeshifted.
Non-feral changes
- Regrowth: The mana cost of this spell has been reduced by approximately 20%.
- Natural Perfection: This ability will no longer be triggered by taking
critical strikes while sitting. In addition, it is now affected by the
Subtlety talent and now reduces damage by 2/3/4%, down from 1/3/5%. - Lifebloom: The bonus coefficient on the final bloom effect has been
reduced by 20%. This spell will no longer cause error messages when
interacting with Spellsteal or while the Druid is under the effects of
Mind Control. - Spell Haste: Spell haste now reduces the global cooldown on spells
down to a minimum of 1 second. This change does not apply to melee and ranged abilities. - Cyclone range is now 20 yards, down from 30.
- Empowered Rejuvenation: This talent now properly affects the final heal from Lifebloom.
- Gift of Nature: This talent now properly affects the healing from Tranquility.
- Insect Swarm: Casting lower ranks of this spell is now properly penalized like other healing and damage effects.
- Druid Balance PvP Sets: The bonus movement speed for Bear, Cat, and Travel Form has been removed and replaced with a new bonus to Wrath and Starfire.
- Druid Restoration PvP Sets: The bonus movement speed for Bear, Cat, and Travel Form has been removed and replaced with a new bonus to Regrowth.
- Idol of the Crescent Goddess: The mana discount on Regrowth has been increased. In addition, it no longer sometimes fails to apply the healing bonus.
- Idol of the Unseen Moon: The cooldown added in a previous patch has been removed. (finally)