Fake??? Patch notes.

The few weeks before the release of new patch notes is always very interesting. Everyone has changes that they would like made to their class or another class. Some players deside to make ultimates like "Nerf Warlocks or else" and "Buff Moonkin or else." Quite a few who play Alternate Specs like me get their hopes up hoping that significant changes will be made to their class so that they are suddenly more viable. They see a spec like Shadow Priest go from laughing stock to raiding necessity and hope that things can change that quickly for their charicter. However, they are usually disappointed even when their spec did get significant buffs.

Another interesting aspect of new patches are "Unreleased/Fake" patch notes. Theres are either hopeful suggestions or supposidly from some secret source inside blizzard, but almost always are far from the actual patch notes. However, some sources are better than others and they can provide some interesting talking points. Here is a list of some of the "leaked" patch notes. I think the original post was on Elitist Jerks but I found them on MMO Champion.

Chances are these are fake, but I have to admit that they are not out of the realm of possiblity. I am also only going to look at Druid section because I don't know much about the other classes.

• Cyclone range reduced to 20 yards, down from 30. - This is would primarly be PvP nerf for resto druids but I doubt it would happen.
• Lifebloom healing coefficient reduced by $ - I really don't like this. Resto may need a nerf in PvP, but I don't PvP much so I don't know. I do know that Resto does not need a nerf in PvE and this would result in a big PvE nerf.
• Natural Perfection now reduces damage by 2/3/4% down from 1/3/5% - More PvP nerf.
• Tree of Life: You may now cast any Restoration spell in this form. - This would be a good change. There is no reason why tree's should be able to cast healing touch.
• Improved Tranquility: Now also reduces the mana cost of Tranquility by 10/20%. - From what I understand Tranquility is a very situational spell, but any buff is nice.
• Nurturing Instinct: Increases your healing spells by up to 50/100% of your Agility, and increases healing done to you by 25/50% of your Attack Power. - The healing done buff is possible and probably intended for PvP, but the healing recieved can't possibly be true. I am not an expert on feral or healing but that would be huge.

Ok, Now to the two "notes" that matter to me most.

• Moonkin Form no longer gains 150% attack power or mana returned from melee hits, but now refunds 2% of your total mana every time you critically hit with a spell.

I wouldn't be at all supprised if this was something that Blizz was playing around with. The Melee for Mana is widely regarded as useless and Blizzard has even admitted that it was a failed experement. Many people have been asking for it to be replaced with something that involves getting mana back when you crit. So it wouldn't supprise me if Blizzard was thinking about it.

However I would be a little supprised if it happened exactly as listed above. I did some quick calculations. My raid buffed mana pull is a little over 10k. My raid buffed base crit rate is above 21%. So, if I use the standard rotation of MF, IS, SFx3, my MF will have a crit rate of 31% and my SF will have a crit rate of 25%. Each crit would return 200 mana. I won't bore you with all the math but this change would result in about 95 Mp5 in ideal conditions. Even if you add two more seconds to the casting rotation for errors and delays then you still get 80 Mp5 from this change.

This sounds awesome, and I would love to see it implemented. However, I would expect to see some thing more modest from Blizzard. They would probably either reduce the amount of mana returned or would putt in some cooldown on how often mana can be returned, just like in improved Leader of the Pack. I would like to see it include party members also, I doubt it will happen but it would be a signifficant increase to a moonkin's raid viability.

• Force of Nature: Treants now have a 15% chance to proc Entangling Roots on the target.

This would primarily be a PvP buff and probably not all that great of one. Most good PvP players I know can get away from the trees fairly easily.

Guild Update:
I am still with WA. I talked with some people from Legacy and it basically came down that they really liked my app but didn't know if they could use me. I am supposed to talk to them again soon to see what they deside. WA is taking baby steps. We downed HKM last night with a lot of new people, I had to leave after the first attempt on Gruul so I don't know if they got him down or not.

Toon Update:
Graylo - Without any high level raiding he has been on the back burner. He has mainly done some farming and helped other guildies with stuff that they need.
Graypal - WOOT!!!! He dinged 70 the other day but as most of you know there is still a lot of work to do. Here is a list.

1. Work on my professions - My tailoring was already 375 but I need to finish making the Frozen Shadoweave set. Plus I need to get the mats togeather for the Spell Strike set. I still have a lot to do on enchanting but it is less important. His enchanting was at 353 when he dinged, but with a little work I got it to 360. I also did a little farming for some of the enchants that I need and got pretty lucky. I got the [Formula: Enchant Bracer - Spellpower] in about 10 kills and the [Enchant Weapon - Major Spellpower] in about 20 kills. According to Wowhead the drop rates for both patterns is about 0.7% or 0.8%. Since only Enchanters can see it drop the actual drop rate must be a little higher, but on the other hand, pattern farmers are probably he main people who kill these guys. So, the drop rate probably isn't all that much higher. Anyway, I feel very lucky. I have heard may stories of people having hundreds of kills without a pattern. I know how they feel. It took me hundreds of kills to get the Arcane protection potion in Nagrand, so I am glad I didn't have to experiance that again.
2. Work on Kara key - I have the first key fragment, but still need to run SV, Arc, and then BM to get the key. This should be that hard once I get some time on a weekend.
3. Work on Epic Flying Mount - I have been debating getting Graypal an Epic flyer for a while. I am fairly impatient and would like to have access to the Netherwing daily quests with him, but at the same time 5000g is a lot of gold for an alt. I may change my mind but I think I am going to get him the epic flyer. As soon as I dinged 70 a bought him is regular flyer. While it is nice to be able to avoid mobs and such by flying, I had forgotten how slow they are and it really bugs me. Luckilly I dinged 70 before I hit Netherstorm or SMV, doing all of those quests should net me some pretty good cash. Plus, I have a lot group quests left in all of he zones. Those will be a good source of cash also as well as enchanting mats.
4. Work on my Reps - I am not revered with anything yet and most of the good enchanting patters rep rewards require you to be at least revered. The good news is that I am honored with most of them so I can possibly do heroics.

Public Service Announcement:
I had heard of this scam before but unfortunately one of WA very trusting officers had not. Someone posing as an alt for WA's GM asked one of WA's officers for a guild invite and then asked to be promoted up to Class Assist so that he could see officer chat. He then went to the guild bank, took all of the gold (+2000) and all of the valuable mats and such. He then must have mailed them to another charicter and deleted the toon. We opened a ticket and they are investigating it, so we might get some of it back. Anyway, I just wanted to warn you guys in case you get a similar whisper. Confirm an alts identity over vent or something before you give it access to the guild bank.