PTR Patch 2.0.10

[Bob]

Check out this link for the patch notes for the 2.0.10 patch on the US PTR!

This is what is says for druids:

• 
  
  • When the duration of "Cyclone" ends, area buffs such as "Leader of the Pack", "Tree of Life", and "Moonkin" will now be correctly resumed.
  • "Bear Form" now grants 25% increased stamina instead of 25% increased health.
  • "Dire Bear Form" now grants 25% increased stamina instead of 25% increased health. In addition, the armor bonus has been reduced from 450% to 400%.
  • The multiplier on base weapon damage for "Mangle (Bear)" ability has been changed from 130% to 100%. In addition, the bonus damage has been reduced by the same ratio.
  • "Savage Fury" no longer affects "Mangle (Bear)".
  • "Savage Fury" no longer applies to "Maul" or "Swipe".
  • The critical damage bonus on "Predatory Instincts" reduced from 3/6/9/12/15% to 2/4/6/8/10%.
  • "Improved Leader of the Pack" can no longer get critical heals.
  • The armor bonus from "Moonkin Form" has been increased from 360% to 400% (to match Dire Bear Form).
  • The rage normalization equation has been adjusted to grant more rage.[/SIZE][/FONT]

Anyone of you number crunchers got any special opinions on what this will mean in practice for us?

[Bastet]

20%-30% less threath on specials, bringing us down to warrior like levels, and making sure we are unable to crit over 2,5k in bear form. Not too thrilled, but not a big loss, agro never was, or is a problem.
 
Cat remains nearly same, few % dmg loss on crits if you have the talent.
 
On my own druid unbuffed i lose 600-900 hp depending on how its calculated and 2k armor. Nothing too bad for current gear, but prevents reaching armor cap on higher tier gears.
 
All over, not a terribly big nerf, and a justified one, but combined with warrior changes makes warriors slightly more intresting as MT's. Druid will still be able to hold its own on trash and minor bosses (adds boss fight, less intensive bosses). Makes Savage Fury kinda useless though.

[Sandrion]

I'm not too worried about most of the nerfs, I'd rather call the armor and HP changes tunes instead of nerfs. We'll die like 10% faster overall, mitigation will be about 6-7% less; which still means we'll still take the least damage on melee bosses, but the gap with warriors is a bit smaller now.
 
Threat wise not much will change either. The damage of bear specials will be reduced, but Maul also has a static threat component so the overall drop will not be that much. Besides we get 15-20% more rage generation in exchange. What is going to hurt a bit is the Swipe idol nerf (+50dmg to +10dmg), but again this is also somewhat compensated by the rage generation increase.
 
The Predatory Instincts nerf is also acceptable. It will result in about a 3% decrease in DPS overall.
 
On the other hand the bear Mangle nerf is totally unacceptable and even goes against Blizzards own logic :blink: . Bear Mangle is suppost to be like Mortal Strike and is 'normalized' to a (2.5 * 130%) 3.25 speed weapon (Blizzards own words). I can live with the savage fury nerf, but just don't understand this. It will now do barely more damage then a white hit; it has essentially become sort of stormstrike like, an extra hit with a debuff. Additionally bear mangle was our 'big boom' thread skill, like shield slam, but it does only half the damage now. Either they need to drop the rage cost, lower the cooldown or add a threat component, otherwise it will largely lose it's appeal as tanking skill. It's an ultimate talent dammit, it is supposted to be usefull!
 
Btw, the warrior changes look good. All much needed changes there :thumbup: .

[Bob]

Additionally bear mangle was our 'big boom' thread skill, like shield slam, but it does only half the damage now.

I dinged 66 a couple of days ago, and thus I learnt Lacerate - an I was of the impression that this was the really big threat generating ability... Not correct?

[Sandrion]

I dinged 66 a couple of days ago, and thus I learnt Lacerate - an I was of the impression that this was the really big threat generating ability... Not correct?

It does generate threat, but in a different way. It's about 200 threat on application + DoT damage. You really need to let it stack a few times before it becomes worthwhile. Once you get 5 stacks up, keep refreshing it before it fades away. It's only usefull on bosses really, since it doesn't give enough instant threat; even swipe versus a single target gives more instant threat at the same rage cost.
 
I can live with the mangle damage nerf as long as they give it different threat mechanincs as compensation.

[Bastet]

I dinged 66 a couple of days ago, and thus I learnt Lacerate - an I was of the impression that this was the really big threat generating ability... Not correct?

In karazhan, not so, since almost all mobs are undead, and thus bleed immune.

[Gorion]

The threat generated from the spell effect on "Thunderfury" has been substantially reduced.

bah! its near to useless now, the only thing worth it is the debuff :/

[Jorgen]

The debuff is imba! Threat can be gained in other ways