For those that want some actual Druid information today, check out BBB’s latest massive article on Wow Insider here.  He takes a look at the upcoming patch and how it will affect bear tanks in terms of skills, gear and more. 

Thanks!

Knurd at Death from a Distance  wrote about the upcoming patch in a post titled “The End of the World or Not“.

In it, he takes a look at the idea of new Talents and game balance changes going live prior to the actual expansion release, from the point of view of raiders like himself.

He breaks down very nicely his thoughts on how changing the game before releasing new content, without making corresponding changes to existing raid content, will in his opinion spell the end of raiding until such time as the rest of the expansion comes out.

I thought it was a very good article, and he’s got a lot of great points there.  

I don’t really raid, obviously, and I play fairly casually. If one type of gameplay isn’t available at the time, whether from a lack of other players online, or a lack of a particular class, or simply because it is a quiet day (or even week), I have no problem shifting to doing daily quests, or doing some small thing related to reputation, or level a Profession, or go try to farm a particular drop or recipe, or play an alt. I can always play an alt.

So for me, the prospect of a couple of weeks, even a month, of no raiding after a massive revamp of the gameplay wouldn’t be the end of my gaming fun.

But Knurd makes a damn good point. For some folks, taking on the raiding challenge IS what is fun for them in the game, and all else that they do in the game goes to support that endeavor. And a week or two or four with no raiding to be done is a very, very long time in that kind of focused commitment.

For other folks, PvP is the lifeblood of fun, and I would think massive changes or unfinished skills for one class while another would be released in the patch more polished, or any other type of real class imbalance, would also be a big pain in the butt. (Intentionally Understated to annoy Megan.)

I’ll offer my sympathy now to folks that really do enjoy raiding or PvP for the challenge, and are worried that when the patch comes they will find the heart of what makes WoW fun put on hold for them until the rest of the expansion is released.

I may not be in your position, but I do know how I would feel if someone told me that PvP content was being released in the expansion, but the leveling and new quests and the entire new area would not be ready for a while. I’d feel glad that they were getting all new stuff… but I was promised my stuff would be ready too, and now I want it. And I don’t really like PvP, so doing their thing while I wait really isn’t all that appealing to me. But thanks for the suggestion.

I know that for some folks, the idea of raiding is silly when an expansion is so close and there will be ten new levels of correspondingly more powerful loot drops available… but it really isn’t about the gear for a lot of people. It’s about the fun and the challenge and conquering the obstacles before you. And if the core gameplay is going to be changed, and the class balance issues in Talent trees might not be quite finished and all polished up like a shiny new apple yet, then sure. I’m gonna be worried.

MAYBE there is no cause whatsoever for concern. Every week it seems brings new, massive changes in the builds. Who knows what awesomeness Hunters will get tomorrow?

Not that I would ever suggest Hunters are getting ALL the brand new awesome toys.

By the way, did you see the SIZE of the new Rhino pet? Didja? If anything in the world could ever bring my buddy Manny back into the game, it would be seenig that freaking huge awesome baddass Rhino pet for Hunters. After all, Manny does have a level 60 Hunter he could come back and play. Sorry, I digress.

Anyway, as I was saying, just because things may turn out all right, that doesn’t stop people from fretting. Are you kidding? Few things drive people nuts with worry quite like fear of the unknown and change.

Historically, and I’m sure I’ll be corrected, but I think I remember that when the new Talent changes went live in the pre-BC patch, similar concerns were raised… except, I think classes at that time found the new Talent tree changes made them MORE powerful than before, not less, so the existing content was a bit easier to handle before the expansion itself came out.

Or maybe I just remember my feral Druid OP-ness with a warm, rosy glow.

Either way, the concern and worry felt is quite real, and I hope that when the patch comes, you are not disappointed by the end result. I really do.

Eyonix posted in the Official WoW Forums yesterday that they intend to release a lot of new content in a patch prior to the WotLK going live.

We’ve speculated about this before, since before Burning Crusade went live we got to play with new stuffs also.

Here is the quote from Eyonix;

With the release of Wrath of the Lich King approaching, we wanted to provide you with some important information. In preparation for the expansion, we will be issuing a new content patch in the coming weeks. Much like the patch made available shortly before The Burning Crusade’s release, this content patch is designed to bridge current game content with that of the expansion and will contain some exciting changes and additions.

We have outlined some of the larger features scheduled to release with the patch below:

New class spells and talents
Stormwind Harbor
Barbershops in capital cities
Zeppelin towers outside of Orgrimmar and Tirisfal Glades
Two brand-new Arenas featuring challenging new layouts, terrain hazards, and moving obstacles
Guild calendar
Hunter pet skill revamp
New profession: Inscription

As mentioned above, this is not a comprehensive list, just some of the major highlights.

We’ll post the full patch notes as soon as they’re available.

Regarding Inscription, please note that all Burning Crusade players will be able to select Inscription as one of their two professions and level up to a skill level of 375 with it. Upon the release of Wrath of the Lich King, players who purchase and install the expansion will be able to continue leveling in Inscription and the other professions beyond 375.

I think, of course, that the biggest thing here is that he says “In the coming weeks”… which could easily mean October, so don’t go be getting your panties all in a wad just yet. Could be earlier, sure, just don’t go planning on leveling Inscription to 375 next week.

I personally am hoping that there will be some new quests or playable content thrown in, just as a teaser. Not the Northrend stuff, no, not new areas. Just some of the cute fun stuff like the quest they added in Heroic Old Hillsbrad to fight an optional boss to get a new hat, for example…. we have Brewfest coming, and Halloween, so there will be seasonal fun stuff to do soon, but I can hope. I love these special little things they add. I really do.

Still, good news to everyone that it won’t all be one crazy rush to simultaneously try out new Talents for a respec at the same time as you go out to level. We’ll get some time to adjust to our new gameplay balance.

And we can play and level Inscription to 375 if we want to. Very cool. As I remember, you couldn’t even GET Jewelcrafting without buying the BC expansion, so this marks a new direction I appreciate.

Woot!

By the way, I should have known that WoW Insider was all over this, they posted about it late last night. Well, in my defense, at the time this was hitting the forums, all the way through when WoW Insider posted about it, I was in BRD… these attunements are kicking my butt.

I hate Marshall Windsor. That boy needs to wear roller skates. Pick up the pace, damnit!

Yeah, that’s right.

This is mostly for my peeps whose work prevents them from getting other news sites.

And as usual, here are the items that I think are the most interesting on the patch notes list (which are shown in full on MMO-Champion)…

Equipping an item will now cancel any spell cast currently in progress. Of course, for Druids, this makes macros using Idol swapping a bit more problematic… but more of a heads up, really. And weapon swapping, etc. If you never used this, then no worries, but if you were used to easily swapping items for optimum Idol and Weapon combos with different attack types, then it will require some adjustments.

When a stun wears off, the creature that was stunned will prefer the last target with the highest threat, versus the current target. All this is telling me, is if I was applying proper threat before a Stun, then I should be able to count on the mob coming after me when Stun breaks. Win!

Barkskin: The cost of this spell is now reduced by Tree of Life Form. Barksin cast by trees, and cheaper! Woot!

Magister’s Terrace

• The Stun component to the Sunblade Mage Guard Glaive Throw has been removed and the Bounce range reduced.
• Vexallus and Kael’thas are now tauntable in Heroic mode.
• Vexallus’ damage caused by Pure Energy has been decreased.
• Kael’thas’ Arcane Sphere has had its visual size increased. His Arcane Sphere attack has had its range decreased and the damage/second of Phase two on Normal mode has been decreased. (Heroic mode remains unchanged.)
• Sunblade Warlocks have had their damage reduced slightly.
• Fel Crystals in the Selin Fireheart encounter have had their health reduced slightly.
  Warlord Salaris and Kagani Nightstrike have had their damage output reduced slightly.

Having recently done this a few times, I can safely say… YAY!!!!

And yes, I am glad we did it on normal successfully a few times before the nerf. I’ll take the nerf, but I now know exactly why I am happy with this…

Clockwork Robot Bots fight amongst themselves again…without attacking people in the arena. Well… they’ll blow up other Bots in the arena, but you know what we mean. Well, hell… time to whip out the bots again… for guild meetings. Other than that, I’ll stick to my froggie and my bunny.

Shattered Sun Pendant of Acumen: The triggered effect from this Item can now occur on periodic damage ticks. I guess it’s time for me to grind that SSO rep from revered to exalted on Windburn now.

Time Management features have been implemented! These features include an alarm clock, stopwatch and viewing your computer’s local time.
The new stopwatch feature can be accessed via the /stopwatch, /sw, or /timer slash commands. Inputting a time into the slash command will make the stopwatch count down. For example, /stopwatch 1:0:0 will make the stopwatch count down from an hour, /stopwatch 1:30 will make it count down from 1 minute, 30 seconds and /stopwatch 30 will make it count down from 30 seconds. Who exactly was asking for this?

Nightbane will no longer become unresponsive and unkillable during his air phase. Cool… I understand he is targetable now in the air, too!

Fixed an issue where players could have two minimap tracking types active at the same time. I was hearing that people in the guild were delighted that Mining and Herbing showed up at the same time. No dual farming for you! Denied!

Among other things not in patch notes, the loot cards from the Trading Card Game “The Hunt for Illidan” can now be used. And there is a bear mount in the game for the next expansion of the Trading Card Game that’s not out yet… yeah, I will no longer be spending a dime on The Hunt for Illidan. Screw the Etherial, I’m saving money now so I can buy cards until Windshadow has a bear mount when the next TCG expansion is released.

Have fun!

Okay, so I know there is a lot of news coming out, and as we are still a LONG way away from Wrath being released, I am not going to try to analyze stuff… yet.

But just in case you haven’t seen it yet, and so you know it’s out there so you can go look for more info, here are some of the things said at the Blizzard World Wide Invitationaal about Feral Druids…

First, there WILL be a brand new Dire Cat form with a new model, AND there will be a new model for Dire Bear form.

A panelist said that, when asked about changing the appearance of the skins for Druid forms, that they are thinking maybe, but they are afraid of community outcry, after the unanticipated rage they experienced over changes they made to Rogue Stealth animations in previous patches.

So, MAYBE they are thinking of changing the forms to a more beautiful appearance like Andriges’ work, but maybe not.

Shaman’s Windfury Totem WILL affect Druids in forms… AND will coexist with weapon buffs such as Weightstones, because Windfury Totem will be a player buff rather than a weapon buff.

That is a massive change, as far as Feral Druids go. Matt Rossi on the podcast mentioned it first, damn him, but I was gonna say it too… being the main tank as a Bear and having Windfury active? OMIGOD!!!!

Oh, and… Shaman Totems will affect the entire raid, NOT just the 5 man segment of the raid they happen to be in. Hey, that’s what they said. So, not only do you get Windfury Totem as Bear tank (or Kitty), but you also get Strength of Earth and Grace of Air.. oh, and did I mention they are COMBINING Strength of Earth and Grace of Air into one totem? And that is even if the Shaman is NOT in your 5 man segment of teh raid.

So yeah.. Shamans are going to be MASSIVELY buffing Feral Druids with Windfury… I love it.

And they said that they are working on the Feral Druid range bug, and they MAY have it fixed by the time Warthof the Lich King is released. LOL.

They are NOT removing Diminishing Returns from Cyclone as they had discussed. Instead, they are making Entangling Roots work indoors AND out! Viable Druid CC! Without long cast times! Yay!

So…. that’s what we got so far… and as Wrath is playable at the WWI, I bet we are going to get tons of hands on impressions.

I hope that this encourages you to go seek out more info… I know that WoW Insider has been doing a great job at covering everything. While I pugged Kara last night with Cassieann and Doodlebug until 1:00 AM, WoW Insider were up all night long freaking out and transcribing and going nuts.

So now that I’ve whet your curiosity.. go! Have fun!

Oh, and just cause I can’t help myself… Hunter’s PETS get their own talent trees, three trees, Utility, DPS and Tanking. God, that is gonna be fun to play with.  AND, there will be new pet classes… AND some pet classes will have unique abilities in their trees! Expect BRK and Mania to go nuts… I wish I could see the look on Mania’s face right about now. OMIGOD TALENT TREES, GREAT… BUT, (here it comes…) when asked about new Pet Stable Slots.. a single word answer from the panel… NO.

WTF?!?