Cata Build 12759 and Blue Posts

I am late on my second half to my rotation post. Real life as smacked me lately and I wanted to get a comment out about the recent beta build first.

This is another small patch as far as moonkin changes go. I was a little concerned at first because we haven't had any really changes in a while. However, after a little thought my concern went away. Here are the changes as reported by MMO Champion.

Blue Post: Moonkin Form

We've had a lot of discussions about Moonkin form, as you might guess. We know opinions range among the player base from "cut it" to "make me stay in my adorable form all the time." At first we were trying to make it more of an option, so that cuddly-hating Balance druids could choose the spec without the shapeshift. After much discussion though, we're going to go back to a Balance druid = Moonkin Form design. We'll put some more damage into the Moonkin Form.

First, of all this comment is the primary reason why my concern went away. This comment makes it sound like moonkin have been at a bit of a cross roads recently and Blizzard was debating what to do. Obviously it's going to be hard to make big changes to a class if you don't know what some of those big changes are. I expect to see more action in the next build or two.

I've largely tried to stay out of the Moonkin Form debate, because I don't really have a strong opinion one way or the other. I liked Moonkin form when I first started playing in TBC. It was new to me, and there were so few moonkin around that it was distinctive. Now that we are at the end of WotLK those comments no longer hold true. I've looked at this form for over 3 years and there are moonkin everywhere now. It's safe to say that I am bored with the form, but I don't really care what I look like as long as the spec's DPS is competitive.

That said, I do hope they update the forms. Looking at the same form for 3 years is boring, but that is not my issue. Multiple moonkin in a guild seems to becoming more likely all the time, yet I am used to being the only one. Therefore, it is a little strange to see a twin. It's not a big deal, but I would like to look different then the other moonkin in a raid (if there is one).

Soothe Animal:

Soothe Animal is now named Soothe - Soothes the target, dispelling all enrage effects.

I won't hold it against you if you forgot this spell was in your spell book. Heck, I won't hold it against you if you never even trained it before. I'm not sure I've ever cast it in my 3+ years of WoW.

This is a good change. It takes a useless spell and gives it a use. It also gives druids a little utility that they didn't have before, but I think moonkin will feel the brunt of the added utility. I'll admit that it makes me a little nervous, since I've never had to dispel a not party target before. If you are in the same boat as I am you may want to familiarize yourself with mouse over macros.

Heart of the Wild:

Heart of the Wild now increases your maximum mana by 5/10/15% instead of increasing your Intellect by 2/4/6%.

I think Heart of the Wild just fell of a lot of Cata specs. Losing the Intellect boost and therefore damage boost is a big hit from a moonkin perspective, but you may still see it on some builds.

It's hard to say if moonkin will want it or not because we don't really know what the mana situation is yet. Also, the size of our mana pool doesn't have as big of an impact on our mana regen as it did in WotLK. Replenishment is still based on the mana pool, but moonkin got most of their mana from mana on crit which is no longer in game.

Note: There is also a blue post staying that this and Furor are switching places. I don't think this affects if the talent will be picked up though.

Master Shapeshifter:

Master Shapeshifter bonus increased from 2% to 4% for all forms.

Not a huge surprise for me. This just brings it up to the current live level, and I had always questioned if it was really 2% or if that was just old text for having just one point in the talent. My big concern here is the Natural Shapeshifter requirement that has always been a part of Master Shapeshifter. Hopefully they will get rid of the requirement or at least reduce the points needed for Natural Shapeshifter.

Relics Changed to Stat Sticks:

My feelings are a little mixed on this subject. Many of the moonkin idols like [Idol of the Shooting Star] and [Idol of the Crying Wind] have been pretty weak. Then you have some awesome idols like [Idol of the Lunar Eclipse]. This change seems to be both a buff and a nerf.

Here is a picture created by MMO Champion with all of the 264 ilevel relics converted into Cataclysm Stat sticks. The converted Idol of the Lunar Eclipse has 77 stam, 51 int, 34 crit, 34 haste, and a red socket. When I compare this to a few of the 264 ilevel wands in game this conversion seems fair if not generous.

On the positive side, we shouldn't have to deal with any more completely useless idols like the Idol of the Crying Wind, they will be easy to evaluate, and we should never have to use an idol that is a tier or two down from our current ilevel. On the negative side, we will probably never have an overly good idol like the Idol of the Lunar Eclipse. Some people will also miss the uniqueness of the idols, but I thought that their affects were pretty boring most of the time.