The latest patch notes can always be found at
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/implemented/

The Burning Crusade
- Several years have passed since the Burning Legion's defeat at the
Battle of Mount Hyjal - and the races of Azeroth have continued to
rebuild their once shattered kingdoms. With renewed strength, the
heroes of the Horde and Alliance have begun to explore the broken
lands beyond the Dark Portal. What dangers or rewards await mortal
champions in Draenor? And what will the Alliance and Horde do when
they discover that the demons they thought vanquished have returned
to renew their terrible Burning Crusade?

General
- A stirring of events has begun throughout Azeroth and rumor points
to the Dark Portal as its source.
- Mazk Snipeshot in Booty Bay now sells bullets.
- The Auction House now sorts by buyout price first, then by current
price. This should filter all of the items with outlandish buyout
prices to the bottom of the list.
- Players will now need to be level 58 to pass through the Dark Portal.
(The Burning Crusade Expansion must be installed.)
- Collector Edition pets are now blue items and a confirmation
dialogue will appear to prevent accidental deletion.
- Pets will no longer attack targets that are under the influence of
crowd control (sheep, banish, etc.).
- The title "Scarab Lord" can now be chosen in game for select players.

PvP
- Players can use the /teamquit or /teamdisband command in order to
leave an Arena team.
- A new bracket has been added to Alterac Valley for level 61-70.
- Added a sorting function so that the battleground and scoreboard can
be sorted by any of the categories.
- Healthstones and summoned warlock pets will no longer cost a
soulshard to summon in the Arena preparation area. All summoned
items and pets will be dismissed on leaving the arena.
- The last pet a player had summoned will be resummoned outside the
Arena upon leaving.

Druids
- Due to various talent changes, all Druids will have all their talent
points refunded.
- "Feline Swiftness" has been renamed "Feral Swiftness". The dodge %
increase now also applies to Bear and Dire Bear Forms.
- "Improved Moonfire" has been reduced to 2 ranks, for a 5/10% bonus.
- "Insect Swarm" has had its damage on all ranks increased. The mana
cost of ranks 1 and 3 has been increased. The mana cost of ranks 4,5
and 6 has been decreased.
- "Nurturing Instinct" now grants its benefit at all times, but the
bonus has been reduced to 25/50% of Strength.
- "Improved Starfire" has been renamed to "Celestial Focus" and now
also increases the chance to resist casting pushback when casting
"Wrath" by 25/50/70%.
- "Blood Frenzy" benefits have merged with "Primal Fury".
- "Improved Leader of the Pack" has been reduced to 2 ranks for 2/4%
total health healed.
- "Pounce" no longer requires the druid to be behind the target.
- "Barkskin" is now usable while stunned.
- Druids now need substantially less agility per dodge.
- "Dire Bear Form" armor bonus increased to 450% and health bonus
changed to a 25% percent health increase instead of a flat increase.
- The Health bonus of "Bear Form" has changed to a 25% percent health
increase instead of a flat increase.
- "Swipe" has had its threat bonus multiplier removed.
- "Maul" has had its threat bonus multiplier changed to a flat value
similar in threat per time to "Heroic Strike".
- "Regrowth" has had its mana cost reduced by approximately 18%.
- "Tree of Life" healing bonus now increases the healing received
by your party members instead of the healing dealt by your party members.
- The "Tranquility" base amount healed per second has increased by
approximately 273%. The radius of effect has increased from 20 yards
to 30 yards. Mana cost has increased by 40%. The Cooldown has
increased from 5 minutes to 10 minutes. The Duration has decreased
from 10 seconds to 8 seconds.
- "Mangle" will not stack multiple copies from multiple forms or
druids anymore. This was never intended behavior. The percentage
modification on bleeds has increased from 25% to 30% and "Mangle"
now increases the damage from "Shred" as well. In addition, "Mangle"
will now benefit from the damage boost from "Tiger's Fury".
- "Enrage" will now show up in the combat log and in floating combat text.
- "Lifebloom" will now correctly consume clearcasting.
- "Predatory Instincts" has had its tooltip adjusted to indicate it
only works in feral forms, and that it increases damage by a percent,
not damage bonus by a percent.
- If a spell is resisted, it will no longer break stealth.
- "Tree of Life's" bonus healing aura will now reactivate correctly
when "Banish" wears off.
- Shapeshifted druids will now be able to speak to npcs while
shapeshifted.

Hunters
- "Multi-Shot" has had its mana cost adjusted back to a value closer to its pre-2.0.1 version.
- If your pet has been recently revived by using "Call Pet", it will
no longer reset back to full health.
- If a Hunter "Wyvern Stings" an enemy already asleep from
"Wyvern Sting", the "Wyvern Sting" sleep will now be reapplied
correctly.

Mages
- "Frost Nova" (Water Elemental Spell) has been renamed to "Freeze".
- "Ice Lance" is now correctly affected by "Elemental Precision".
- "Ice Armor"is now correctly affected by "Elemental Precision".
- "Frost Armor" is now correctly affected by "Elemental Precision".
- Mages will no longer see line of sight errors if the target moves
behind an obstacle after the spell "Arcane Missiles" has begun
casting.
- "Blazing Speed" no longer PROCs while the caster is mounted.

Paladins
- "Blessing of Might" now also increases ranged attack power.
- "Improved Righteous Fury" now also reduces all damage taken while
active by 2/4/6%.
- "Improved Divine Shield" (Protection Talent) has been renamed
"Sacred Duty" and now also increases total Stamina by 3/6%.
- "Improved Resistance Auras" has been renamed "Spell Warding",
reduces all spell damage taken by the Paladin and is no longer
tied to Resistance Auras.
- We have fixed a bug where the damage bonus from "Holy Guidance" was
being added to physical attacks.
- "Divine Illumination's" duration has been increased to 15 sec, from
10 sec.
- There will no longer be a slight delay on receiving the buff from
"Light's Grace" when it occurs.

Priests
- "Mass Dispel" will no longer cause stealthed Rogues and prowling
Druids to lose stealth.
- "Surge of Light" (Holy Talent) can no longer be triggered by using items.

Rogues

- Due to various talent changes, Rogues will have all talent
points refunded.
- "Evasion" (Rank 2) now reduces the chance that ranged attacks will
hit the Rogue by 25%, reduced from 50%. It is now available at level
50.
- The "Cloak of Shadows" cooldown has been reduced to 1 min, from
2 min. Now a trainable ability at level 66.
- "Shadowstep" (New Subtlety Talent) attempts to step through the
shadows and reappear behind your enemy. Your next "Ambush",
"Backstab" or "Garrote" ability is increased by 20% and lasts 10
sec. This is only usable while stealthed.
- "Premeditation" (Subtlety Talent) has had its range increased to 30 yards.
- "Preparation" now only resets the cooldown of the "Evasion",
"Sprint", "Vanish", "Cold Blood", "Adrenaline Rush" and
"Premeditation" abilities.
- "Wound Poison" now causes damage and reduces all healing by 10%,
stacks up to 5 times.
- The Cooldown for "Blind" has been reduced to 3 min, from 5 min.
- There is no longer a random chance the effect of "Sap" will end
(i.e. removed the heartbeat resist check). The effect will still
end early when the target is damaged.
- Each rank of "Weapon Expertise"now provides 5 weapon skill.
- "Surprise Attacks" now increases the damage from "Sinister Strike",
"Backstab", "Shiv" and "Gouge" by 10% instead of 8%.
- Resisted spells will no longer break "Stealth"/"Vanish".
- Combo points added to a target should not be reset until you add a
combo point to a different target.

Shaman
- "Earth Shock" no longer causes increased threat.
- "Frost Shock" now causes increased threat.
- The training cost for "Strength of Earth Totem (Rank 5)" is now correct.
- "Nature's Guardian" will now work properly even when you don't have
an enemy targeted.

Warlocks
- Melee damage of "Felguard" has been reduced.
- The damage increase component of "Soul Link" has been improved. The
damage mitigation component has been reduced.
- The cooldown of "Shadowfury" has been reduced to 20 sec, from 1 min.
- The mana cost of "Soul Fire" has been reduced by approximately 45%.
- The feedback from dispelling "Unstable Affliction" is now affected
by "Shadow Mastery".
- Pets will again have their mana reset to full in addition to their
health when first summoned.
- "Demonic Resilience" will now properly reduce pet damage taken.
- Fire objects in the game world (bonfires, braziers) will no longer
trigger "Nether Protection".
- When a Warlock is under the effects of "Backlash" and "Nightfall",
only one of the effects will be consumed by a "Shadow Bolt" cast.

Warriors
- "Weapon Mastery" Rank 2 of this talent now grants full immunity to
"Disarm" mechanics, and will properly display "Immune" when a
"Disarm" is attempted.
- "Slam's" swing time is no longer slowed by damage taken.
- "Rampage's" rage cost has been reduced to 20.
- The daze portion of "Piercing Howl" will now still land even if the
target is already snared.
- The bonus threat of "Devastate" on all ranks has been increased.
Bonus threat will no longer decrease as ranks increase.

Items
- The energy gained from "Thistle Tea" now decreases with levels past
40.
- "Idol of Ferocity" now increases "Claw" and "Rake" damage instead
of reducing energy cost.
- "Idol of Brutality" now increases "Maul" and "Swipe" damage instead
of reducing rage cost.
- "Idol of Health" now provides bonus healing on "Healing Touch"
instead of reducing its cast time.
- The rage gained from "Gri'lek's Charm of Might" now decreases with
levels past 60.
- The energy gained from "Renataki's Charm of Trickery" now decreases
with levels past 60.
- "Renataki's Charm of Beasts" no longer resets the cooldown on Arcane
Shot.
- "Wushoolay's Charm of Nature" now provides haste rating instead of
reducing "Healing Touch" cast time.
- "Wushoolay's Charm of Spirits" now increases "Lightning Shield"
damage by a flat amount instead of a percentage.
- "Hazza'rah's Charm of Destruction" now increases spell crit rating
instead of spell crit percent.
- "Hazza'rah's Charm of Magic" now increases Arcane spell damage
instead of providing a spell crit bonus.
- "Tidal Charm" Now has a chance of failure against targets over level
60.
- "The Black Book" now provides a flat amount of spell power, attack
power, and armor to your pet, instead of by a percentage.
- "Rune of Metamorphosis" now reduces mana cost of shape****ing by a
flat amount, instead of by a percentage.
- "Lifegiving Gem" now provides 1500 healing and bonus max health
instead of a percentage of your max health.
- "Venomous Totem" now increases damage dealt by "Instant Poison" and
"Deadly Poison" instead of increasing poison land chance.
- "Natural Alignment Crystal" now increases Nature spell damage by a
flat amount instead of by a percentage.
- "Pristine South Seas Kelp" now provides spell crit rating instead
of spell crit chance.
- "Devilsaur Tooth" now grants your pet crit rating instead of a
guaranteed crit.
- "Wail of the Banshee" now has a chance of failure against targets
over level 60.
- The threat reduction from Fetish of the Sand Reaver now decreases
with levels past 60.
- The threat reduction from "Eye of Diminution" now decreases with
levels past 60.
- "Stygian Buckler" now has a chance of failure against targets over
level 60.
- "Horned Viking Helmet" now has a chance of failure against targets
over level 60.
- "Gnomish Mind Control Cap" now has a greater chance of failure
against targets over level 60.
- "Goblin Rocket Helmet" now has a chance of failure against targets
over level 60.
- "Clutch of Foresight" now has a chance of failure against targets
over level 60.
- "Flash Bomb" now has a chance of failure against targets over level
60.
- The "Green Dragon Mail" Set +15% mana regenerationhas been replaced
with 20 mana per 5 sec.
- The "Vestments of Transcendence" Set +15% mana regeneration has been
replaced with 20 mana per 5 sec.
- The "Stormrage Raiment Set" +15% mana regeneration has been replaced
with 20 mana per 5 sec.
- The Thunderclap set bonus for "Conqueror's Battlegear" is no longer
cumulative with the "Thunderclap" talent.
- The reduction in cooldown on Rapid Fire from the "Striker's Garb"
Set bonus is no longer cumulative with the "Rapid Killing" talent.
- The Paladin abilities Flash of Light and Holy Light will again
correctly use charges from the "Zandalarian Hero Charim".
- The Paladin abilities Flash of Light and Holy Light will again
correctly activate charges from the "Talisman of Ascendence".
- Collector's Edition pets are now be blue items.

Professions
- Enchantments
- The Crusader Enchantment now decreases in potency for wielders above
level 60.
- The Icy Chill Enchantment now decreases in potency for wielders above
level 60.
- The Lifestealing Enchantment now decreases in potency for wielders
above level 60.
- Blacksmithing/Leatherworking specialization has changed with
specialization providing recipes to make powerful items that only
you can wear. You can now unlearn a blacksmithing or leatherworking
specialization and learn a different one by finding the appropriate
NPC, paying the fee to unlearn your old specialization, and then
find the new specialist to learn a new one. Also, all of the old
blacksmithing/leatherworking recipes that required specialization no
longer require it and can be learned by any blacksmith/leatherworker.
- Silver/Golden/Mystic/Runic Spellthread have been increased in power.

User Interface
- The Auction House will now sort items first by buyout price then by
current price.
- Added a new option to the Looking for Group and Looking for More
panel to choose Heroic Mode Dungeons.
- Players will now be able to pull out a pet window to see all the
pets in the raid.
- Added Ranged and Spell stats as a display option for the G15
keyboard.
- Updated the Sound Options menu to include a checkbox for Hardware
Acceleration and a slider for Sound Channels.
PC default is "Hardware Acceleration = ON" and "Sound Channels = LOW".
Players that experience poor system performance can set "Hardware
Acceleration=OFF" which may improve performance but will disable any
EAX (reverberation) effects supported by their sound card.
Players with more powerful systems can raise the "Sound Channels"
slider to increase the number of simultaneous sounds in the game,
providing a more immersive soundscape.
Mac users will not have a checkbox or slider available due to the
Mac's default setting of "Hardware Acceleration = OFF" and the
"Sound Channels = HIGH".
- Updated the Sound Options menu to include a checkbox for Hardware
Sound.
- API Changes
NEW: Dismount()
NEW: equippable = IsEquippableItem(item)
NEW: link = GetInboxItemLink(index)
NEW: button = GetMouseButtonClicked() -- Returns the name of the
button that triggered a mouse down/up/click/doubleclick event.
NEW: hasMacro = CursorHasMacro()
NEW: "item", itemID, link = GetCursorInfo() OR "spell", slot,
"spell" or "pet" = GetCursorInfo() OR "macro", index =
GetCursorInfo() OR "money", amount = GetCursorInfo()
- Macro Features
NEW: /dismount
/castsequence will equip items if they need to be equipped, and use
them otherwise.
The following commands now support the [target=unit] macro option
syntax: /startattack, /petattack, /target, /assist, /focus
If you add a #showtooltip line to your macro, it will show the
tooltip of the item or spell in addition to the normal visual
feedback.
A unit's name can be used anywhere a unit token can be used. e.g.
if you had the player Desmondia in your party, /cast
[target=Desmondia]Flash Heal, would cast Flash Heal on her.
This will only work for the player, pet, party members and pets,
and raid members and pets. You can use "-target" or "-pet" to
indicate the target or pet of the named unit, e.g. /cast
[target=Desmondia-target,harm] Shadow Word: Pain
- Key Bindings
Holding down ctrl, alt, shift, x will check keybindings in the
following order: ALT-CTRL-SHIFT-X, CTRL-SHIFT-X, ALT-SHIFT-X,
ALT-CTRL-X, SHIFT-X, CTRL-X, ALT-X, X
Key bindings that directly cast spells or use items now respect the
self-cast modifier.
- Frame Methods
UPDATED: protected, explicit = Frame:IsProtected() -- New 'explicit'
return value
- Tooltip Methods
NEW: isUnit = Tooltip:IsUnit("unit")
NEW: name = Tooltip:GetUnit()
NEW: name, link = Tooltip:GetItem()
NEW: name, rank = Tooltip:GetSpell()
Added several script handlers which are called when the tooltip is
set to a unit, item, or spell: OnTooltipSetUnit, OnTooltipSetItem,
OnTooltipSetSpell
- Cooldown Indicators
There's a new cooldown indicator frame that replaces the previous
model file. The old syntax: <Model
inherits="CooldownFrameTemplate"/> should be replaced by
<Cooldown inherits="CooldownFrameTemplate"/>
- Secure Templates
Added an action type "attribute" to secure action buttons which
sets an arbitrary attribute on an arbitrary frame.
Added support for state header resizing and re-parenting on state
changes.
- Saved Variables
Arrays that are stored as saved variables are now saved using lua's
array initializer syntax for optimal memory usage and performance on
load.
- Bug Fixes
Unit frames will respond to modified clicks by default.
Action buttons no longer use shift-click to pick up actions, but
instead use shift-drag. This frees up the shift modifier for use
in macros or as a self-cast modifier.
MovePad will work again.
Fixed taint issues with the unit menus (dueling, dismissing pets,
etc.)
Fixed taint issues with CloseLoot()
Fixed taint issues with PickupContainerItem()
Fixed taint issue with raid UI not showing in combat (buttons in main
raid UI are no longer secure unit buttons)
Fixed /reply in macros
Fixed a bug where /petattack would target the nearest unit, not the
nearest live enemy unit.
The macro "button:N" conditional will work with either the real
button clicked or the state-header-remapped button that launched the
macro.
/click now works with secure action buttons
Fixed issue whereby creating Textures/FontStrings from a template
used the template name instead of the specified region name.

Mac
- The "Enable sound in background" option is now implemented, default
on Mac is "on" as before.
- Fixed an issue with SetBindingItem, SetBindingSpell, SetBindingMacro
LUA functions.
- Addressed a graphics issue where changing the WorldFrame's
coordinates would show a field of the fog color in the area outside
of the world view instead of black, on NVIDIA GPU's, when indoors,
with Full Screen Glow enabled.
- Addressed a graphics issue affecting NVIDIA GeForce3 and GeForce 4Ti
GPU's when certain particle effects were visible on screen such as
Naxxramas loot.
- Music looping is now fixed.

Bug Fixes
- Characters on your friends list that are deleted will now properly
be removed from the friends list.
- Players will now be put back into the cross-realm battleground raid
group after relogging from a force quit.
- You will now be able to remove players from other realms from your
ignore list after leaving the battleground.
- Players who return from a disconnect in an Arena battle will now be
correctly credited as being alive by the scoreboard.
- When you craft an item with a random property, it will now display it
has random properties in the crafting UI.
- Characters will no longer be rooted in place until logout when being
force-quit during the opening cinematic.
- Pet statistics will now appear in green when being buffed by an
outside source.
- You should now get the mail indicator when your inventory is too
full after leaving a battleground.
- Spell penetration should now properly update on the character sheet.
- Certain throwing weapons will no longer be consumed when used as a
throwing weapon.
- Certain throwing weapons have had a damage range added to their
tooltip.
- Reduced the cost of some battleground rewards.
- The druid Restoration Talent "Tree of Life" healing buff is no
longer being removed from the Druid if afflicted by a "Banish" spell.
- "Moonkin Form" and "Tree of Life" form now have a casting animation
for "Warstomp".
- The druid talent skill "Tree of Life" now has a swimming animation.
- Adjusted the tooltip for Barkskin to reflect the proper functionality.
- "Insect Swarm" Rank 6 will now benefit from the clearcasting effect
from "Omen of Clarity".
- The hunter spell "Volley" has had its tooltip updated to reflect
that it is channeled.
- The hunter spell "Flare" will now properly reveal Mages that used
"Invisibility".
- The tooltip for the crit bonus granted to feral druid from the
talent "Predatory Instincts" will now reflect the proper amount.
- The hunter Marksmanship ability "Silencing Shot" is now triggering
the "Auto-Shot" ability after using the ability.
- "Misdirection" will now redirect the threat from "Distracting Shot".
- "Serpent Sting's" initial, non-threatening application no longer
consumes a charge of Misdirection.
- "Disengage" now reduces threat on the misdirected target and also
consumes one charge of "Misdirection".
- Hunter Survival talent "Wyvern Sting" at Rank 4 will now cause the
correct amount of damage as indicated in the tooltip.
- The hunter Survival Talent "Readiness" will now finish the cooldown
of the ability "Wyvern Sting".
- Mages using "Molten Armor" on themselves and being hit while casting
"Arcane Missiles" or "Blizzard" will no longer cancel the spells.
- The mage spell "Ice Armor" will now be affected by the talent "Frost
Warding".
- "Spellsteal" and "Detect Magic" now benefit from the mage talent
Arcane Focus.
- The mage spell "Arcane Blast" will now receive the mana reduction
benefits from "Clearcasting".
- The mage spell "Fire Ward" rank 6 will now properly overwrite
previous ranks of "Fire Ward".
- "Ice block" will now make a mage immune to "Avenger's shield".
- "Blazing Speed" will now remove movement impairing effects when it
procs.
- Casting "Ice Lance" will no longer consume the mage's talent
"Presence of Mind" buff.
- "Arcane Missiles" will no longer continue to channel after the
target is dead.
- "Ice Lance", "Frost Armor", and "Ice Armor" will now receive the
benefits from the mage talent Elemental Precision.
- The mage Fire talent "Critical Mass" will now properly update on
the character sheet UI.
- The paladin holy talent "Holy Guidance" will now effect damage from
"Seal of Righteousness".
- "Benediction" will now decrease the mana cost of "Seal of Blood".
- "Shadow Word Death" will no longer do damage to the casting priest
when resisted.
- "Holy Fire" (rank 9) cast time has been adjusted for consistency with
all other ranks of "Holy Fire" to 3.5 seconds.
- The priest Discipline talent "Reflective Shield" will no longer
cause the recipient of the shield to perform a cast animation every
time the shield reflects damage.
- "Prayer of Mending" no longer procs the heal when all damage is
absorbed.
- Priests backlash effect of "Shadow Word: Death" will now properly
be applied and can no longer be resisted.
- The visual effect of "Shadowform" will no longer persist if disabled
while mounted.
- Updated the tooltip on "Cloak of Shadows" with the additional line,
"Does not remove effects that prevent you from using Cloak of Shadows."
- The rogue Assassination Talent "Quick Recovery" will no longer
refunding energy back to the Rogue if a finishing move is partially blocked.
- A "Vanished" rogue will no longer be taken out of their
"vanished state" when they resist a spell.
- The rogue Assasination talent "Find Weakness" will now work properly
with the finishing move "Deadly Throw".
- Using the rogue ability "Mutilate" when not behind your target will
no longer initiate combat.
- The rogue ability "Slice and Dice" will no longer be reported twice
in floating combat text when used.
- "Mind-Numbing Poison" will no longer stack with both
"Curse of Tongues" and "Slow".
- The shaman talent "Totemic Mastery" will now increase
"Wrath of Air Totem's" radius.
- The shaman talents "Elemental Mastery","Shamanistic Rage" and the
troll racial "Berserking" can no longer be used in "Ghost Wolf"
form.
- The shaman "Greater Fire Elemental" and "Greater Earth Elemental"
will now spawn in with full health.
- The shaman abilities "Water Shield" and "Earth Shield" can no longer
be over written by lower ranks.
- The shaman talent "Mental Quickness" will now properly reduce the
casting cost of "Bloodlust" and "Heroism".
- The damage dealt from "Greater Fire Elemental" and "Greater Earth
Elemental" is now displayed in the combat log.
- The shaman Restoration talent "Totemic Focus" will now be applied to
"Earth Elemental Totem" and "Fire Elemental Totem".
- The warlock talent "Demonic Resilience" does will now properly
reduce the amount of damage pets are taking.
- "Unstable Affliction" is now improved by the talent "Shadow Mastery".
- Pyroclasm will now properly function with all ranks of "Soul Fire"
and "Hellfire" rank 4.
- The warlock Demonology talent "Fel Intellect" (all ranks) will now
properly affect Felhunter intellect.
- Crit chance of the spell "Incinerate" is now being affected by the
2nd rank of the Warlock Destruction talent "Devastation".
- Warlock pet "Felguard" will now use the appropriate sounds.
- Using a grimoire to teach your demon pet a spell while it is under
the effects of "Banish" will no longer consume the grimoire, but the
pet is immune and will not learn the spell.
- Warriors with full "Weapon Mastery" talent will now be shown to have
immunity towards disarm.
- The "Shield Bash" rank 4 daze effect will now properly slow the
target and has had its tooltip updated.
- Warriors will no longer being re-entered into a combat state if the
character switches stances after killing a mob.
- "Second Wind" will no longer improperly proc off of a mob's daze.

All druids around the globe are shouting:



SUPER NERF!!

Once again ... I am a sad sad panda :(

I personally think this will be an interesting patch. I probably won't get to try it out too much until the weekend. I hear many druid tanks not so pleased.

My personaly opinion is neutral. Not sure if it'll be good or bad...yet.

All druids around the globe are shouting:



SUPER NERF!!

Once again ... I am a sad sad panda :(

Why so sad?

From my perspective as a feral tank, the only nerf I'm suffering is the ILotP rank 3 talent. I'm not QQing though because it frees up a talent point that I can put into the newly improved Feral Swiftness that now increases my dodge. Plus I get a huge increase to my health and armour. I'm a happy tank. :)

I'm curious what other druids feel about the patch and why they're happy / unhappy with it.

I am a feral tank and am somewhat dissapointed. I use swipe alot, mainly because I tend to gather up mobs and hold them for my party. I also saw a reduction in my health...about 1000hp (I can start farming for more sta though). The biggest insult is bear tank was decreased in threat and warriors got an increase in threat (hmm, and I thought Blizz was going to make us viable in the new raids. I agree with a post on another link, Tanking was one thing we did almost as good a a core toon (xcept healing of course). But now it seems we are right back to healbots again, and only restos will be getting the mass invites to raids. I for one was getting excited until the threat issue, otherwise I like the other aspects of the patch. Yah! for Restos, boo for anything else!!!

Hmmm... I hadn't picked up on the threat nerfs.

I'll have to reserve judgement until I actually get to play with it. I'm on EU servers and we got the patch today. I'm at work, but it's almost home time!

So I don't like the idea that maul/swipe do a static amount of threat... plus the idols got nerfed, so they take more rage than before.

The question I have for you ferals out there... how is tanking? Static might mean still big threat... it just went from a multiplier based on the damage you did, to a static amount.

How much threat does mangle do? It has a 6s cooldown, so you can throw a maul/swipe in between.

We do get our main tanking ability come a few levels... lacerate. I am sure that'll replace maul/swipe/mangle as our main threat generation. We just need to be high enough level to get it.

I'm wondering how the tree of life change will affect things. Instead of giving healers in your group a +healing buff, you give a healing buff to people in your group being healed. This means instead of puting your tree in a group of healers, you'll put your tree in a group of tanks. ... kinda like a blessing of light in aura form.

This now means every healer in the the raid will give big fat heals to the tanks... just not everyone else.

I see this as an optimizing for when the healers greatly outnumber the of people needing healing. In a 40man tank and spank instance like MC, this is beautiful.

In a 25 man raid, you're going to have fewer healers... and it's much more strategy based fights. I suspect the ratio of healers to people needing healing will go up. You'll have few healers which could all fit within a group with a tree.

I didn't instance in the beta, so I really don't know. If you always have a few people being hurt the most and more than 4 healers in a raid, this new aura is better.

Bhroam, now our maul only does as much threat as a warrior's heroic strike..not much. Also, mangle does almost no threat besides the standard threat you get for the damage you do.

I haven't been able to test anything out yet, I'm gonna hopefully run ZG today with my guild (don't worry, we don't overgear the place completely, but close), I'll ask to tank just to test out the threat differences I notice. Although I have a feeling this will effect bear tanks that are more geared than lesser-geared ones, which may make it hard to test.

Mangle was a nice bonus damage to throw in while tanking, but it was by no means a great threat tool, it just doesn't compare to how maul used to work, but we'll use it more now, we'll have to, lol.

And yeah... they're really pushing our tank mechanics in the direction of warriors now (they upped our avoidance, they upped our mitigation, they lowered our threat by using warrior skills as bases), which I think is a bad move, because the great thing about bear tanks was our increased threat. I was asked to tank on Ony the night before the patch despite having 80+ less FR than our warriors simply because of my increased threat, and let's face it, that doesn't happen often, but I was stoked of course. In having different ways of warriors, druids, and pallies tanking, you produce ways in which to utilitize all 3 tanks ("hey we're at so-and-so, I heard pallies are great tanking all those adds, can we try it with our prot pally?"), and ways for everyone to get used to all 3 classes tanking in general. Well, on the bright side pallies are still looking really awesome for multi-tanking, but it's hard to say with druids right now. We were great on bosses that were aggro sensitive (we were all hoping they'd add some of those in BC), and now we might not be, we're just like the warriors, except with less mitigation probably and far far less "oh ****" buttons, which in conclusion, makes us the inferior tank. We still might be best on physical damage only fights, but few raid leaders see that now, I don't foresee that changing. :(

Maybe it's really a good thing though, and it'll balance out nicely once we get lacerate. I hope so. Time will tell.

Im very happy with this patch.. I'm feral (ofc) and the new shreds are doing some really really good damage, the new pounce is excellent... I actually get about 150ish +healing in my feral gear wich is awesome...
Buffed in a raid I have about 15.7K armor and the new dodge is excellent.... Barkskin can be used while stunned (EXCELLENT against rogues)...


Whats there to be sad about? I'm a happy camper


Love
Brek

Bhroam, now our maul only does as much threat as a warrior's heroic strike..not much. Also, mangle does almost no threat besides the standard threat you get for the damage you do.
But if Mangle does as much damage as everyone says, that can't really be bad, can it? I'm just in theory here, as I don't have a 60 druid yet, but aren't we (as bears) doing more damage than prot tanks? we can only spec 'tank' - not 'prot'/'fury', so we have to end somewhere in between; we can't deal damage and get truckloads of threat at the same time.

I'm not that worried about the use of druid tanks in the future; it's the full prot tanks that risk becoming extinct but for 70-pro raids maybe (and no-one will miss them :P)

Alright, so I was able to test it out today, tanked for a full ZG run with my guild (we've cleared MC like 10 times, so we're not exactly in all blues still), and honestly I've gotta say I'm not noticing a huge huge difference, which I'm very happy about. I know it's just ZG, but considering an epic pvp geared out fury warrior and lock couldn't pull aggro off me, I think that's a good sign.

Single boss tanking was still fast and easy, lemme get a couple solid mauls in and it's all mine. Rage generation is noticably different from before, but that's because of the idol nerf. I never ran out of rage for demo shout/maul/mangle as needed, but I didn't really have endless rage like I honestly used to, but that's okay really. Crit mauls are still the way to go, I was critting for 1200+ or so, which is very nice damage for me, with uhh 28% crit and 26% or so dodge. The dodge difference is very noticable, Hakkar didn't even hit me for what seemed like forever cause I kept dodging.

I also decided to start using my DPS weapon (bonecrusher, a blue) instead of the warden staff on all the bosses/trash mobs, simply because I had 15k armor with the bonecrusher, 16k+ (18kish w/inspiration) with the warden staff, and well, 15k is enough for ZG, may as well attack a little harder. I have 2k more than I did before the patch. It worked well. I can only imagine what kind of AP I'd have with an epic DPS weapon. I had 7.2k HP without imp buff, which was all I needed, instead they put the lock with the moonkin so he could DPS to all hell.

The difference in multi-mob tanking is more noticable than boss tanking, I sometimes had trouble having the rage to keep swipe spamming because everything wasn't focused on me or would lose focus, but I think that's partially because 15k+ armor makes it so mobs aren't hitting very hard >_> I would just use enrage whenever it was up (I didn't actually use enrage much before, didn't need to) and try to get in as many swipes as I could before the raid aoe'd, and it worked out well enough. Our full prot pally did hold better aggro on aoe mobs than me, however, but I think that's expected, and honestly I'm fine with it. :)

Oh, swipe was critting for almost 300 a pop with the idol, which isn't terrible really, considering you get rage for every crit still.

I also tested how a prot warrior (MC geared) and me held up against each other, we took turns MTing and helped each other build aggro on bosses so I could tell, and honestly it seems pretty much like before. I could still easily steal aggro from him with a few crits. I told him about the bear aggro nerf and he was like "what?? your aggro's still insane!" He did note that he wasn't noticing a huge difference in the way they changed devestate so far, so maybe that will become more prominent once we start leveling again, I'm not sure.

Cat damage is very nice now... on Hakkar I started out DPSing as cat, in cat gear (which still has 5 blues or so), because our raid leader just prefers warriors tanking on that fight for simplicity, and was doing close to 2k crit shreds w/mangle debuff, which is pretty awesome (again, for me, I'm not geared out I realize lol). When one of the tanks went down, I simply switched to bear and took aggro, since I was right under the tanks on KTM anyways (even with salv and a few cowers). A couple mauls later he was on me, and that was even with salv (forgot to click it off). Overall I was 4th on damage meters, under the fury warrior, lock, a rogue, and a fire spec mage, which isn't bad at all considering I was in bear 98% of the time and sat the spider boss fight out because I was playing fetch for the warrior.

So... I dunno. The rage gen difference takes some getting used to, but other than that... I'm actually pretty happy right now. I'm pretty excited about having the ability to use a different weapon for tanking other than warden staff because of the armor bonus, cause that means I'll do more damage too. :) Cat dps looks really great now as well.

Tomorrow we're doing another Ony run, and hopefully I'll be able to tank her, see if things are any different there.

- Druids now need substantially less agility per dodge.

Does anyone know or have calculated how much agi/dodge u need now?

But if Mangle does as much damage as everyone says, that can't really be bad, can it? I'm just in theory here, as I don't have a 60 druid yet, but aren't we (as bears) doing more damage than prot tanks? we can only spec 'tank' - not 'prot'/'fury', so we have to end somewhere in between; we can't deal damage and get truckloads of threat at the same time.

I'm not that worried about the use of druid tanks in the future; it's the full prot tanks that risk becoming extinct but for 70-pro raids maybe (and no-one will miss them :P)

This all depends on your personal playstyle. Personally, at least pre-patch, I had done almost no damage, even with mangle. My dps was only like 100 and I rarely used mangle in bear form unless I was pvping. But i still kept aggro very well. Imo, warriors will always be able to out-dps us, though they may have to spec fury if we are built for dps. Why? Because they have berserker stance and can dual wield.

To answer the last question first, by my calculation, it's now 11.9 agi to 1% dodge... convert that to rating, I suppose, for future scaling.

This change least effects full ferals doing raid tanking. Mangle as the primary attack, weaving maul in does excellent aggro still, if you have sufficient rage, which you do when raid tanking. You're not usually trying to Swipe, so that nerf's pretty irrelevant.

For a full feral doing 5-mans, the simultaneous hit to Swipe aggro and the Idol of Brutality makes things tougher. Your group will have to focus fire or offtank, watch their aggro more carefully... and it's dicey with more than 3. In other words... kind of like a Warrior. It's rougher, but not insurmountable.

If you're not Feral, you took a pretty big hit. You don't have Mangle to make up the aggro difference, and you're probably not doing enough damage with Swipe to hold multiples. You can still offtank singles fairly effectively, but you've taken a big hit under pretty much every other situation.

I haven't noticed a big difference myself. But I do think that in Bear Form Blizzard needs to give Druids way more power as you are in BEAR Form......

What about my Tauren form? I should be pretty buff in that form too. =) Oh well, guess they're trying to tell us lions and panthers has sharper claws and teeth.

I haven't noticed a big difference myself. But I do think that in Bear Form Blizzard needs to give Druids way more power as you are in BEAR Form......

I haven't noticed a huge decrease in bear form aggro, so I'm still pretty happy with the changes.

It feels like I'm getting aggro a lot easier in cat form tho', does anyone else feel that way?

Standing by the Dark Portal with all those demons pouring out, they always come straight for me, even though there were several other people of various classes standing closer to them. I had to run away several times to disengage the 5 or more mobs that were attacking me without me even touching them. Weird.

I think it's just the fact that we're doing more damage in cat form now, the inate threat reduction in the form itself still seems to be there, but when we start mangling then shredding, we can get some pretty high crits off, which might start pulling aggro. I've pulled aggro a few times in cat form since the patch when I'm just not paying enough attention to the threat meter, which is so bizarre because I'm so not used to that being a problem lol.

I thinks thats the reason too. My white damage as well as my crit output has risen since mangle and shred combo became viable. I never understood when some of the uber geared rogues kept saying "ya, im #3 on the dps list but I have to hold back or I'll aggro and we'll wipe". Ya, well, I started pulling aggro alot starting with an initial run in Strat and quickly found out I have to hold back on dps...strange that before I could zap all my energy and still feel like I was trying to claw my way ot of a wet paper bag. Now, I feel I offer REAL dps, alot of time right under mages (damn aoe):)

I have been tanking ZG/AQ20 and all lower instances before the patch and was really worried about the aggro-nerf.
Before the nerf I generated an insane amount of threat. For example, once while MT-ing Hakkar I died 3 minutes into the fight, was b-rezzed and after less than a minute I'd cought up with the other tanks again.

A week ago I was once again MT in ZG and tanking is still possible. It is not as easy to keep aggro as before, especially with mob-groups. When I lost aggro I got into real rage trouble and spamming swipe is no longer possible unless the damage dealers give you a few seconds before starting AoE (yeah, the never do *g*). But single-mob aggro is still very good, and better than most warriors.

What is great is the push in armour and health, because it allows for more AP. At that ZG run, with all buffs that increase AP, stamina and armour I had 9,2k health, 15,5k armour and 1100 AP. My swipes crit up to 500, my mauls up to 1400. I was 4th in damage being the MT and wearing my tanking-gear the whole time. And the group was in T1/T2 or better.
So, I'd say we can be very happy. Cat and bear do more damage and bear form damage mitigation got a lot better.

... alot of time right under mages (damn aoe)
As DD, I have found that going to bearform and swiping a lot really pushes your damage while all the others do AoE. Also it sticks a few mobs to you which helps keeping that mages alive :)

Hmmm... I hadn't picked up on the threat nerfs.