Tuesday (8 Feb) - Patch 4.0.6 Has Arrived

Tuesday (8 Feb) - Patch 4.0.6 Has Arrived

The latest patch for Cata hit the download queue Tuesday morning. Around a 100MB, it was a pretty fast load. Included in the patch are a lot of adjustments to character classes as well as tuning (ie, slightly nerfing) the dungeons and raids.

For Wild and other druids in the family, there are a number of adjustments. Two healing spells have been swapped for each other. Healing Touch is a big, long cast spell that druids received very early in life. Nourish was a recently added spell in the last expansion that druids got very late in life. With the patch that has been reversed. So Sista, who had Healing Touch before the patch, will find that Healing Touch is now gone, replaced by Nourish. Sista won't get Healing Touch back until level 78. The overall affect of the change is probably minimal.

Of biggest importance to Wild is what has been done to the rejuvenation spell. Rejuv is an instant cast heal over time (HoT) spell that in wrath was spammed constantly on anyone and everyone in the raid. In Cata the mana cost of rejuv was significantly increased to the point that it's use was very situational. Coupled with the mana cost increase of another HoT, regrowth, and a change to our third HoT, lifebloom, so that it could only be used on one target at a time, and HoT healing (the druid's forte) was severely gimped.

Without admitting it, I think Blizz realized they had made a mistake. Druid healing had been turned into something that looked a whole lot like priest healing, and those wonderful HoT spells that were the signature heals of a druid had been forced to the back of the healing priority.

So, the changes - the mana cost of rejuv has been reduced to 20% of base mana (from 26%). The reduction was larger than that in the beta, but alas they tinkered with it some more and 20% is where it wound up. Wild will be able to use it a bit more; how much yet will have to be tested. In addition, Wild's AoE HoT, Wild Growth, has had it's healing increased by 30% and it's cooldown shortened so it can be cast more often. This will definitely help in the many situations where raid/group damage is hitting multiple players. A third change is even more interesting. Blizzard redesigned a talent called Nature's Bounty. This is a nice talent that increases the crit healing of regrowth. It used to also affect swiftmend, but that effect was removed in the patch. Replacing that effect is a link between rejuv and nourish. Now, Blizz is encouraging druid healers to cast rejuv on up to three targets, because doing that reduces the cast time of Nourish, which is our most mana efficient spell and one we use a lot. So, Blizz is making rejuv an important spell again, and in general is speeding up druid spell casting. All of this is good news for Wild. But it all still depends on how it addects mana usage.

Wild's off-hand enchant was nerfed from +100 int to +40 int. It was great while it lasted, but that significantly lowered Wild's mana pool. That all by itself could negate a lot of the changes made to our HoTs.

Here's one I missed. The Tailoring pattern, Illusionary Bag, is a 24 slot bag. As of the patch it's a 26 slot bag! Sis, this one bag has more slots than all four of your bags combined! :P Of course, the mats to make that bag cost over 3,000 gold (64 bolts of emberstrike and 240 volatiles) and take five days of crafting to make.

What Sis and Lao should be very interested in, though, are the level 85 BOE i359 belt and pants that Wild will be able to make. Both pieces can be crafted for 10 dreamcloth. Wild can craft up to 5 dreamcloth per week, but it costs a crap load of bolts of emberstrike and 30 each of all five volatiles. Wild can afford to buy the recipes, but would need help crafting all the dreamcloth needed. Dreamcloth is souldbound, too, so it can't be bought on the AH.

As for Sista and her feral form, they nerfed us. There are a number of pvp based changes reducing the duration of many spells such as infected wounds. Other damage spells have had their damage reduced, including pulverize, maul, rip, and rake. Ferals do get a damage increase on many spells - at level 80, but not before.

For those who want to farm normal dungeons for justice points, now is your time! JPs for the first random dungeon of the day has been doubled, from 70 to 140 JPs. In addition, every boss in the three level 85 dungeons now award 30 additional JPs when killed (it was zero prior to patch). Take HOO, for example, that has seven bosses. A full clear on the first run of the day would award 350 JPs, instead of just 70 prior to the patch. You can use JPs to buy ilevel 346 gear.

On the Clan front, our horde and alliance guilds can earn guild level points if at least three of five players from the guild are in the run. Hurray for three person guilds!

Ahh, and finally, in the worst kind of humiliation, I learned that Chromaggus can be tamed as a pet. Chromaggus is the final challenge before facing the end game boss, Nefarion, in Blackwing Lair. Killing Chromaggus was a HUGE accomplishment back in the day - now hunters can tame him as a pet. I just want to cry.