Unlike the other healers, Restoration druids will not be receiving any new spells. They have plenty to work with already, and our challenge instead is to make sure all of them have a well-defined niche. A druid should be able to tank-heal with stacks of Lifebloom, spot-heal a group with Nourish and Regrowth, and top off lightly wounded targets with Rejuvenation.

Really?  Come on Bliz…  I’ve been waiting all day for that.  After being wowed and amazed that priests would get something as cool as a life-grip (cooler than death-grip, saver of the stupid!) and that shaman would get an AOE hot that lasted 10 seconds and had a 10 second CD… after that, I find I’m getting… drumroll please… nothing.

All heal-over-time spells (HoTs) will benefit from crit and haste innately in Cataclysm. Hasted HoTs do not reduce their duration, but instead add additional HoT ticks. Haste will also benefit Energy generation while in cat form.

Yeah, okay this is a general change to mechanics (not just a druid change), but I admit it will favor us the most.  And yeah, it takes what we love about rapid rejuvenation, and gets rid of what we hate… I really have no complaints about that.  Actually I think it will be rather powerful.  Makes me even more smug about my hots.  Yes, I approve.

Tree of Life is changing from a passive talent to a cooldown-based talent, similar to Metamorphosis. Mechanically, it feels unfair for a druid to have to give up so much offense and utility in order to be just as good at healing as the other classes who are not asked to make that trade. We are exploring the exact benefit the druid gets from Tree of Life. It could strictly be better healing, or it could be that each heal behaves slightly different. You also will not be able to be banished in Tree of Life form (this will probably be true of Metamorphosis as well). Additionally, we would like to update the Tree of Life model so that it feels more exciting when you do decide to go into that form. Our feeling is that druids rarely actually get to show off their armor, so it would be nice to have at least one spec that looked like a night elf or tauren (and soon troll or worgen) for most of the time.

Tree of Life is ugly, and I don’t like it.  So the idea of being less hideous… thats seems good.  But does this mean we will no longer give a healing buff to the raid?  What about the armor buff we got with improved tree?  And the spirit to spell power boost?  So may questions, so little answers.

Restoration druids will have a new talent called Efflorescence, which causes a bed of healing flora to sprout beneath targets that are critically healed by Regrowth.

Um… K.  What do the pretty flowers do? Heal the target?  Heal everyone standing on them?  Increase my healing on people standing within them?  I mean… I’m okay with a “bed of healing flora” but I’d love more specifics.  Makes me wonder…

Barkskin will be innately undispellable.

I don’t really PvP enough to care… sorry.

Druids will lose Abolish Poison with the dispel mechanics change, but Restoration druids will gain Dispel Magic (on friendly targets) as a talent. All druids can still remove poisons with Cure Poison and remove curses with Remove Curse.

Yep… okay… dispelling magic on friendly targets… useful.  Though as far as poison was concerned abolish > cure so… oh well.

Restoration

• Healing
• Meditation
• HoT Scale Healing

HoT Scale Healing: HoTs will do increased healing on more wounded targets. The mechanic is similar to that of the Restoration shaman, but with HoTs instead of direct heals. In Cataclysm, we anticipate druids using a greater variety of their spells so there is a distinction between healing and HoT healing.

Well… okay.  Better HoTs on the dyeing… except HoTs don’t really thrive on saving the low in health do they.  I mean, we’re better at sustaining health high, then ninja-saving people with low health.  Ugh I just don’t know… I hope I’m wrong and these changes are more exciting that they seem at first glance.

• Things will be released over time, like with ToC, it won’t all come out at once.
• You must clear regular before you can unlock heroic.
• You have to clear all the sub-sections in order to kill the Lich King
• The number of attempts per week is limited (like in TotGC) but there is no reward for 0-wipes or 0-deaths like in TotGC.  
• In time you will get more attempts and more assistance, so I guess if you wait long enough even lesser guilds will have a chance to clear this content.  

And if you want to read it all…fresh from the land of the blue posts:

Icecrown Citadel testing has been progressing very well over the last few weeks, and this has been a huge help to the encounter design team. I want to thank everyone who has logged onto the PTR and tried the encounters there. 

As we’re now getting closer to the release of 3.3.0, I wanted to talk about our plans for access progression within Icecrown Citadel. Icecrown Citadel is going to be broken up into four distinct sections: The Lower Spire, Plagueworks, Crimson Hall, and Frostwing Halls. We plan on releasing these four sections of Icecrown Citadel over time and not all immediately when patch 3.3.0 goes live. At this point I can’t give precise dates for these release dates as they are determined by when patch 3.3.0 goes live. Once dates are known with more certainty, I’ll update the community so they can plan appropriately. 

The first section that opens will include the Lord Marrowgar, Lady Deathwhisper, Icecrown Gunship Battle, and Deathbringer Saurfang encounters. Progress beyond that point will be prevented for several weeks. Then the Plagueworks will open with Rotface, Festergut, and Professor Putricide becoming available. After another period of time, the Crimson Hall will open and you can then fight the Blood Princes and Blood-Queen Lana’thel. The final Frostwing Halls unlock then occurs after that, making Valithria Dreamwalker, Sindragosa, and the Lich King available. We believe a staggered release of the content will allow players to experience Icecrown Citadel at a sustainable, measured, and ultimately more enjoyable pace. 

There are other elements that gate access along the way. Players may not attempt any Heroic versions of 10 player encounters until they have defeated the Lich King in a 10 player raid. Similarly, players must defeat the Lich King in a 25 player raid before they can attempt a Heroic 25 player encounter. So players must master every normal difficulty encounter in Icecrown Citadel before attempting Heroic difficulty. 

The Lich King may not be attempted until Professor Putricide, Blood-Queen Lana’thel, and Sindragosa are defeated. Furthermore, the Heroic difficulty of The Lich King encounter may not be attempted in any week unless the three aforementioned encounters have been defeated in Heroic difficulty that week. 

The Ashen Verdict provides reinforcements and material for players to assault Icecrown Citadel, but this support is not endless. Raids will have a limited number of attempts total each week to defeat the four most difficult encounters in Icecrown Citadel: Professor Putricide, Blood-Queen Lana’thel, Sindragosa, and the Lich King. As these boss encounters are unlocked, the number of attempts available per week will increase. The initial number of attempts provided for defeating Professor Putricide is only five. When Blood-Queen Lana’thel unlocks, the amount of total attempts remaining will increase to 10. Then when Sindragosa and the Lich King unlock, 15 total attempts will be available to defeat all four bosses. After a raid has exhausted their attempts for the week, the Ashen Verdict must withdraw their support and the four most difficult bosses all despawn and become unavailable for the week. The limited attempt system is a feature of both Normal and Heroic difficulty. 

There will be no explicit rewards for defeating the Lich King with a specific number of attempts remaining as there was with Trial of the Grand Crusader. There will also not be an achievement to complete Icecrown Citadel without being defeated by a boss encounter, or letting a raid member die. (i.e. A Tribute to Insanity). 

In the weeks and months after all twelve encounters are unlocked, additional attempts against the final four boss encounters become available. This represents the Ashen Verdict growing more powerful and gaining a stronger foothold in Icecrown Citadel. To further help raids, Varian Wrynn and Garrosh Hellscream will begin to provide assistance by inspiring the armies attacking Icecrown Citadel. This is represented as an additional zone wide spell effect applied to all players that will increase their hit points, damage dealt, and healing done. This effect will also increase in effectiveness over time. Players may opt out of the spell’s effect if they so wish.

Restoration – Gift of the Earthmother now increases your total spell haste by 2/4/6/8/10%

Glyphs -Glyph of Rapid Rejuvenation – Your haste now reduces the time between the periodic healing ticks of your Rejuvenation spell.

Item – Druid T10 Restoration Relic (Rejuvenation) – The periodic healing from your Rejuvenation spell grants 32 spell power for 15 sec. Stacks up to 8 times.

Rebirth- The cooldown on this spell has been lowered from 20 minutes down to 10 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas

So at first glance it looks to me like, while stacking crit seems like a good plan in tier 9, stacking haste will be the way to go in tier 10, if we want to keep our nice short global cooldown we have form the current “Gift of the Earthmother”.

The new glyph is interesting. If rejuv still runs for the same duration, and just clicks more, then it’s a definite must have. If it shortens the duration, I might have to give it some more thought.  But if it’s jumping around with the t10 set bonus, maybe a slight reduction in duration wouldn’t be a huge deal.  

The idol is basically 256 free spell power, up from the 234 from the t9 idol.  

And reduced rebirth CD, well that will come in handy I’m sure

Item – Druid T10 Restoration 2P Bonus - The healing granted by your Wild Growth spell reduces 0% less over time.
Item – Druid T10 Restoration 4P Bonus (Rejuvenation) - Each time your Rejuvenation spell heals a target, it has a 2% chance to jump to a new target at full duration

Sounds interesting!   If you want to know more, or you are interested in other class/spec bonues, check out MMO directly

First I’ll start with the news… The benefits that someone receives form their professions are changing.  Here is a quick rundown of the changes:

Alchemy 
* The Mixology benefits from Northrend elixirs and flasks have been increased 
* Added a new pattern for Flask of the North, usable by players with a high alchemy skill. The recipe is purchased from the honor potion vendor. The Flask of the North increases your spell power, attack power, or Strength for 1 hour, and is usable in arenas. It is not consumed when used. 
* Endless Healing Potion and Endless Mana Potion no longer usable in arenas. Amount of health and mana has been increased, and the cooldown reduced. They are still usable everywhere else. 

Blacksmithing 
* No changes will be made to this profession; it will continue to have the 2 additional prismatic sockets (which can hold the new epic gems) 

Enchanting 
* Values on Northrend ring enchants increased 

Engineering 
* Increased benefits from Hyperspeed Accelerators, Hand-Mounted Pyro Rocket, and Reticulated Armor Webbing glove modifications 

Herbalism 
* Increased healing from Lifeblood (Rank 6) 
* Lifeblood now scales slightly with maximum health 
* Lifeblood no longer affected by global cooldown 

Inscription 
* Master’s Inscriptions increased 

Jewelcrafting 
* Dragon’s Eye gems stat bonuses increased 

Leatherworking 
* Fur Lining values increased 

Mining 
* Toughness (Rank 6) provides more Stamina 

Skinning 
* Master of Anatomy (Rank 6) provides more critical strike rating 

Tailoring 
* Embroideries improved 

Heirloom Chests?

Next, if you’re thinking about leveling an alt, you may have considered getting the heirloom shoulders that give you an extra 10% XP.  I know when I leveled my shammy up I got a pair.  Well they will in introducing heirloom chests with offer 10% to XP as well, and these two item DO stack.  Between this and getting your mount at 20 leveling should be a breeze!   

Finally, I got my Teldrassil Sproutling!  

Every tree needs a mini-me  He occasionally falls asleep when I’m standing around in Dalaran, I guess he craves action!  Poor little guy!  The next challenge is deciding what I want to buy next.  I guess I better keep doing those dailies!

An Upgraded Squire: As any good squire should, this upgraded squire now has a mount and can be called forth every eight hours for three minutes of duty. The upgrade cost is 150 Champion Seals and your squire will also offer one of three services: bank, mail, or vendor access.

Bank, mail and vendor access??  Well that is certainly worth doing my dailies to get!  I had planed on spending my seals on a sproutling (LoL every tree needs one!) but now I’m thinking I’ll wait till I have 150 banked up before I do any spending!

In druiding news this also means that travel form will be trainable at level 16, flight form at 60, and swift flight form at 70.  

I’m not sure how I feel about it.  Honestly, I’m fairly indifferent.  I know that I felt a sense of achievement when my very first toon hit 40 and got my slow mount… way back when.  But you know, back then 60 was the goal, now the goal is 80.  If I was just buying WoW right now for the first time, 80 might seem a very long way off.  I’m not saying leveling up should be a piece of cake, but if people think its not achievable then they won’t play.  

All and all not something that is really going to make much difference to end-gamers, other than slightly speeding up leveling of any alts they may have.