So...I'm not on the PTR so maybe someone else knows if this is possible? If it is this is a major advance for pvp and pve druids.

"This means that you can shift from one form to another in one action."

As I read it you can have bash as a hot key and whenever you are in a bad situation...in any form...you can hit the hot key go directly to bear form and perform bash for a stun (provided you have 5/5 Furor).
I know the sentence right before this one states: "If you are in a shapeshift form and try to use an ability that may only be used in caster form, you will leave the form and use that ability." But, the sentence I extracted above leads me to beleive that now we have access to any ability or spell (not just my example of bash) simply having it hot keyed...WOW this is huge since I have macros now that help me do this...but this is gonna make alot of people hate druids all over again ...lol.
Please correct me if I am mistaken, "I think I just felt a little pee come out"

There's a few things with the patch that changed how forms and stances work.

First, shifting out of a form happens instantly, with no gcd, just like dismount works now.

Shifting INTO a form will still trigger the GCD and you can only use multiple items in a macro that do not trigger the gcd.

So in tanking we could now make a macro that would shift out, use a health pot, a health stone and shift back to bear nearly instantly. The Developers are ok with this for 2 reasons: loss of rage and spending of mana to shift back.

The changes will not automatically shift you into a form to use an ability, like in your example of bash. It is just an auto unshift, not an auto shift to.

Didn't shifting out of a form not activate the GCD before this patch too? There was a thread on the Druid forums which I thought was HUGE BUSINESS for all bear tanks.

A macro to pot in bear, while tanking - Pantone (Mal'Ganis-US) (http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=104545751&postId=1042398664&sid=1#0)

TL;DR version: Basically some druid made a macro to pot in bear while tanking (shifts you in and out instantly to pop a potion and a healthstone.

I believe deshifting did indeed trigger the GCD at one point. But for a long time now deshifting hasn't triggered it.


-Annikk

Yes, but also before this patch de-shifting was not instant and had to be recognized by the server before it would happen, where now it is done immediately on the client-side.

I heard you can't instant shift out of flight form into another form, anyone confirm this?

You can instantly shift out of flight form if your flight form is on the ground. (ie, if you're cruising at ground level, so that if you shift into caster you don't fall).

You can instantly shift TO flightform at any time.

So, if you wanted to be an a-hole ganker you'll need to double shift. Or actually land first. Too bad there isn't a "land" button like there is a take-off and fly straight up button (space).

You can't instant shift out of flight form while in the air.

If you are on the ground however, it works perfectly. That is actually a pretty nice safeguard.

edit: dilalamer beat me ^^. tlbj: there is a land button. 'x' is to fly straight down and land. you can even sit when in flight form (just press x when on the ground)

Yes, but also before this patch de-shifting was not instant and had to be recognized by the server before it would happen, where now it is done immediately on the client-side.

I have read about this change and that it means big things for pot-in-bear macros. Is potion drinking, and shifting INTO a form, also performed at client side?

If so, shifting out and drinking a potion then shifting back could be done extremely quickly - in a matter of milliseconds - as it would not be delayed by the latency of the connection from your computer to blizzard's server..


-Annikk

Yeah, when I was tanking last night in SSC, I set up my macro to drink a potion and use a health stone at the same time. the result was so fast, i never saw caster form, there was just a cloud around my character (from shapeshifting) and i had 4k more health.

/cancelform
/use Super Healing Potion
/cast Dire Bear Form

(that's for just the healing potion)

/cancelform
/use Super Healing Potion
/stopcast
/use Greater Healthstone
/cast Dire Bear Form

Can someone helpme remember the middle line? It's a stop cast macro. I don't have access to my wow account to see what it is, exactly. But yeah, I used it in raid last night and it was awesome. Best part was I had two different health stones (the 2k and the 2.5k) and was able to use the same macro to use both stones, two minutes apart (it used the big one first. I am pretty sure that is because of where it was in my bag, but not 100% on that).

Dila,

I'm not sure you even need /cancelform since trying to use an item or cast a spell not available in that form will shift you out ( ie shadow priest casting fear ward ).

As far as I recall you should just need:

/use Super Healing Potion
/stopcasting
/use Greater Healthstone
/cast Dire Bear Form

Why the /stopcasting? I thought the primary change in this release was that /stopcasting macros were no longer needed.

The /stopcasting is probably not needed, I was simply copying and pasting the above really >.<

I am not sure if the /cancelform and /stopcasting are needed or not, it's what I was told to put, and the macro is still instantanious.

I was dpsing (and later tanking) naga's during vashj last night, and this macro saved my butt a few times. Also worked great while tanking Void Reaver later in the evening.

You can't instant shift out of flight form while in the air.
Oh, I assure you that you can as I've done it a couple times, on accident too. Good thing it's instant cast (after 1.5 CD due to the spell I accidentally hit).

It's actually a different toggle, which you can turn off. Something like auto-dismount when casting a spell. It affected flight form as well as normal mounts.

Strange.

I do dismount automatically from my Tiger when using an ability, but I do not shift out of Flight Form while in the air. Only on the ground.

Can you switch out of flight form using /cancelform while in the air?

Yes of course.
This allows for nice things like "bear bombing". Shift out of Flight Form, into Bear Form and use Feral Charge on a nearby enemy the moment you hit the ground. If you time it right, you take no fall damage and REALLY surprise your opponent *g*

But back to topic. I was referring to the new feature that came with patch 2.3. While in the air, you do not automatically leave your form when you use an ability (like Lifebloom, or Cat Form, or Moonfire). When on the ground, you do.

You need to go into UI options and there's a checkbox that needs to be selected (or de-selected) to alllow you to auto-shift from flight form while in the air.