MMO Champion is reporting that two changes affecting the Restoration talents Cultivation and Prosperity were applied to the PTR this week:
Druid Talents
- Cultivation: When Rejuvenation heals a target below 60% health, it applies Cultivation to the target, healing them for [*
60%72% of Spell Power*] over 6 sec. Restoration Druid – Level 75 Talent.*(please see note below)- Prosperity: Swiftmend now has 2 charges, and its cooldown is reduced by
53 sec. Restoration Druid – Level 15 Talent.
This is actually a sizable nerf to Prosperity, one of my favorite talents to use in conjunction with Soul of the Forest. We still benefit from being able to have two charges queued up, but it’s a Swiftmend cooldown reduction decrease of only 10% rather than the current 17%. Interestingly, both the buff to Cultivation and nerf to Prosperity will steer more Restoration Druids away from Soul of the Forest.
As of today, WoWPopular is listing builds with Prosperity/Soul of the Forest as the most popular of the Restoration Druid specs, pretty much to the exclusion of everything else. No doubt this is seen as a problem by developers who want players to have interesting choices and tradeoffs.
Part of the problem is undoubtedly that Cenarion Ward is more useful in 5-man content than raids. Likewise, Cultivation is much more useful in 5-man content where it can actually do some good since your heals aren’t as likely to be sniped by another healer. Unless something is done to make these two options more attractive outside of Heroics/Mythics, I’m afraid this is just a nerf to Restoration Druids, at least for raiding content.
*Note that the percentages for Cultivation listed in the summary on MMO Champion are different than the ones listed in their PTR-datamined tooltip and would actually represent a huge nerf. I think the correct value is probably the 144% in the tooltip (which is an increase over the current value of 120% listed on WoWHead). Someone please correct me if I’m misunderstanding this, however.
I have wondered whether I would change with the buff to Cultivation, as I currently run SotF and Prosperity. It would probably be better as a PvE talent than a PvP one (because of spellstealing and purging). I will have to give it a try in 7.1 and see how it runs fro mythic +. Interestingly I don’t run Cenarion’s Ward for 5 mans, I run it in PvP with tree form. I look forward to trying it out!
I don’t PvP anymore, after a brief stint as Warrior/Druid 2v2 during Season 2, although I do have super fond memories of Alterac Valley. I wouldn’t even know where to begin with all the new battlegrounds that have been introduced. I bet Cenarion Ward is excellent in PvP, though!
Buffs I approve of and Nerfs I do not.
I find that being weakened is depressing and numbing. Especially in Healing, I think healers should all be nurtured and cared for and any nerf to balance a talent tree is misguided!