Another Twitter Dev chat, and some interesting snippets. Enjoy!


New Tree Form graphic and hints at cooldown effects

Q. Why are Restoration druids the only spec in the game not receiving a new spell?

A. Restoration druids are actually getting a fair bit. For one, Tree of Life is getting a whole new model (think Ancients of War) and will also “morph” some of your spells to do crazy things while in the form, such as cause Regrowth to be instant, or Lifebloom to apply two applications at once. Tranquility will be raid-wide. We’re also touching nearly every Restoration druid spell to make sure each has a niche and feels good. In general, playing a Restoration druid should feel a lot different (better!) in Cataclysm than it does today.

Key points:

  • Tranquility raid-wide (more like Divine Hymn?)

  • New tree model (like Ancients of War?)
  • Cooldown could change spell effects – eg instant Regrowth, double lifeblooms (examples only!)
  • Overhaul of all spells to tweak them


Hold still a minute, I’m going to HEAL YOUR FACE OFF


Finally, a fix to make Tranquility good in raids. I am very much looking forward to this.

I’m definitely excited to see what the effect of the tree cooldown is – instant Regrowths, double lifeblooms – they’re tossing ideas around and nothing is final, but it gives us a bit of an insight into what they might be thinking. Pretty cool!

I really hope that the reference to Ancients of War is more a passing reference to the cooldown graphic looking large and imposing. I like the ancients, but I don’t want to be one – I don’t want them to rehash a model that we already have in the game. I’m sure they will give us something new and shiny, though (PS – I still don’t want to lose my ability to be a tree at will).


Boosts to our tank healing capabilities?

Q. Is every healer supposed to be able to tank-heal efficiently, or will we still see specs excel in it more than others?

A. Each healer is intended to have a different niche, and different strengths. Such as Restoration druids with HoTs, or paladins at direct healing, Discipline priests at absorption/prevention, etc. That said, each healer should be able to keep up a tank and have some deeper “tank healing gameplay” as they do now.

No specific mention of any mitigation abilities, but I still have my fingers firmly crossed. This answer hints at us getting a little more tank-healing ability; I just hope it doesn’t mean we hit them with Healing Touch all day. I really would love to see us get something that we can use in an emergency (that isn’t just a heal). Something that will help during a few seconds of enrage, or if another healer dies and you need to hold it together for a few seconds, etc.

The ToL cooldown will probably do a lot to help here, depending on the effects they choose – but I still want to see a mitigation ability, it’s something I think we are sorely lacking. Perhaps not so much in a large raid environment, but in smaller raids it would be good to know that we have the cooldowns.

Even so, Tranquility going to a Divine Hymn style spell would be awesome. At the moment, a resto druid’s counter to an enrage or heightened damage phase is just – heal harder. Spam faster. I’d really like to be able to be calling out that I’m doing my awesome cooldown now, to help us get through the crazy phase. I’m terribly jealous of people who can call out “I’ve got the next sac”, “I’m hymning now”, or “I’ve got a BoP on Bob, he’s good for 8 seconds” etc. During crunch times, I want to be able to do more than just heal harder.

So I’m super excited to see the true effect of our ToL cooldown, and just what raid/tank-saving goodies we might end up with, within that ability.


Haste and channeled spells

Q: How will haste affect channeled spells. Will it be similar to DoTs and HoTs?

A: They will channel faster but their duration will remain unchanged. You will get more ticks on the same cast.

This is a pretty simple one – affecting our Tranquility (I assume, depending on how it changes in Cataclysm) and Hurricane. The current effect of high haste is to speed up the ticks, making the duration shorter but the ticks close together, BAM BAM BAM, quick healing or damage.

In Cataclysm, the duration will be (back to) normal, but inside that normal duration you will have more ticks, faster.

So for example:

  • Base spell XYZ:
    Ticks for 3000 every 3 secs
    Lasts 18 seconds
    Total: 6 ticks of 3000 = 18,000. 1000dps/hps

  • WotLK, with a tonne of haste:
    Ticks for 3000 every 2 secs (haste makes it tick faster)
    Lasts 12 seconds (haste shortens the duration)
    Total: 6 ticks of 3000 = 18,000. 1500dps/hps

  • Cataclysm, with a tonne of haste:
    Ticks for 3000 every 2 secs (haste makes it tick faster)
    Lasts 18 seconds (haste no longer shortens the duration)
    Total: 9 ticks of 3000 = 27,000. 1500dps/hps


So it lasts just as long as “normal” but packs in more ticks as your haste increases, which means more healing/dps for your cast, which is obviously more mana efficient. And, obviously, the closer your ticks, the faster you heal or damage your target – which is very nice.


Idol overhaul

Q: When you say you’re going to make relics class agnostic, does it include druids’ idols as well?

A: Druid, shaman, paladin and death knight. It’s possible we will still keep some that are very specific to certain classes and specs. Overall though we’re not happy with the current design where an ability procs a buff on you. If it’s an ability you don’t use often, then the item is terrible, so they end up feeling really passive already. At the same time, the fact that we have to offer so many prevents us from ever giving you the choice of which one to use. So we make the Resto druid or Enhance shaman version every new tier. It would be a more interesting decision if there was a crit + Intellect relic and a haste + Intellect relic, and you can choose which one to use.

By “agnostic”, they mean that they will be interchangeable between classes. Rather than relating directly to our specific spells, like Rejuvenation or Lifebloom, they might be +healing, or +crit, so that a druid and a paladin could use the same idol. Or, more importantly, you could share an idol between two specs (eg resto/balance). With the current system, every tier of gear you have to spend badges on two idols; agnostic idols would mean that we wouldn’t necessarily have to.


That’s it for now. I really can’t wait to see our next lot of sneak peaks – mostly I’d like to know more about our ToL cooldown, and how they’ve pruned and changed the talent trees. I have high hopes!



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