A few changes were released as Patch 7.1.5 on the PTR on Tuesday. Among those affecting Restoration Druids:
Talents
- Displacer Beast Teleports you up to 20 yards forward, activating Cat Form and increasing your movement speed by 50% for
42 sec.- Guardian Affinity You gain: Thick Hide Reduces all damage taken by
10%6%.- Mass Entanglement Roots the target in place for
2030 sec and spreads to additional nearby enemies. Damage may interrupt the effect. Usable in all shapeshift forms.- Moment of Clarity Omen of Clarity now affects the next 3 Regrowths and increases their healing by 15%
This will be an annoying change to Displacer Beast whose trailing speed increase has never struck me as particularly overpowered and is likely intended as a reduction to PvP performance. The decreased damage reduction associated with Guardian Affinity will be painful for Restoration Druids who choose that affinity for raiding (and is also likely PvP-driven). The change to Moment of Clarity is very nice and may prompt me to forgo Flourish and Stonebark to finally give this talent a try.
And in a surprising change to one of the non-spec-specific Druid-only artifacts, our Legendary chestpiece Ekowraith, Creator of Worlds is getting a buff to the percent bonus of its effect from 50% to 75%. This will affect wearers’ primary ability and the secondary ability derived from their chosen off-spec affinity:
May the Legendary Gods smile upon you and grant you good fortune (or may you benefit from what seems like a server glitch and pick up a couple of Legendaries within the same 24-hour period like I did)!
There are many other changes affecting Guardian, Feral, and Balance specs as well as a long list of PvP-specific changes, so be sure to check out the full patch notes over at MMO Champion.
Thick Hide does not give 10% damage reduction currently nor does it on the PTR. It was nerfed in 7.1 to 6%.
So correct numbers would be
Currently:
6% (9% with Ecowraith)
PTR:
6% (10.5% with Ecowraith)
Thanks so much for the correction! I have updated the post to reflect the numbers you have given. 17.5% did seem a bit extreme(ly awesome).
Is it all designed around the Mythic Plus experience? It is much about speed and (perhaps) a 30 second entanglement would be a huge bit of utility. I know that this is their first pass at it but these changes are vital to my experience.
Maybe, and I’m not really qualified to speak to experience in Mythic+ beyond Mythic+3, but I find it hard to imagine a scenario in which Mass Entanglement would be needed (unless, of course, stuff really hit the fan) since it breaks on damage. I would much, much rather have Cyclone back in PvE! 🙂
Speaking as someone who actually runs with Mass Entanglement It’s pretty safe to say that Typhoon is the desired choice in 99% of situations. Mostly because roots can kill melee very quickly (if tank isn’t in range the mobs will hit closest).
The only reason I do run Mass Entanglement right now is because it’s a very reliable way to proc Sephuz currently (Same 30 second CD and instant cast)
I don’t have one yet, but I have to say: the passive 22.5% speed boost on Ekowraith (with Feline Swiftness) seems super tempting for two reasons: 1) it’s flat out fun to be able to zip around faster (much more fun than passive healing or damage reduction), and 2) it’s pretty easy to make an argument that moving that much faster could easily negate 9% of damage in a raid or Mythic+ setting (seeing that healer movement is always challenging). To go one step further, you might also say that being able to complete casts and *then* zipping out could even lead to more throughput, although that’s a bit touch and go.
Of course, all of this can be applied to that line of the talent tree regardless of Ekowraith, but it basically accentuates all of the strengths and weaknesses by 50% to make them more apparent. Hopefully I get to try it out.
I would agree with you if it wasn’t for Displacer Beast. I feel that in 99% of situations that ability takes care of all needed movement (Usually it’s not even needed and normal slow walking works fine)
That’s for raiding at least, for M+ Feline Swiftness is definitely what I use, but that’s mostly to get the extra DPS from Feral Affinity and not for the movement speed, although it is a nice added bonus =)