Thorns dies, no ravage fix and other changes

[:1]In case you didn't see - these are the druid changes (below).

The main change I see is that thorns goes back to its rather marginal status (which we knew) - damage lowered but cool-down maintained. From a feral point of view, I like the survival instincts change, and am pleased to see damage was not nerfed.

My main disappointment is to see that the pounce ravage bug is not fixed. Does this mean that blizzard actually wants stampede to lower our ravage damage? (Which was not as advertised, and significantly reduces the value of that talent.)
.................



Bear Form now provides 10% bonus health, down from 20%.
Nourish no longer consumes Omen of Clarity.
Rejuvenation has had its mana cost increased by 30%.
Soothe now has a 1.5-second cast time.
Swipe (Cat Form) can now be used even if the druid does not have a primary target selected.
Thorns: beginner tooltip revised to no longer imply the spell could be kept up at all times. In addition, Thorns damage has been reduced by 60%.

Balance
PvP set bonus redesigned. While not in an Eclipse state, critical attacks against the druid restore 5 Solar or 7 Lunar energy, whichever is more beneficial. This effect can only occur once every 6 seconds.

Feral
Brutal Impact now increases the mana cost of spells on the victim by 5/10% for 10 seconds, down from 15/30%.
Leader of the Pack now heals for 4%, down from 8%.
Survival Instincts now provides 50% damage reduction, down from 60%, and its cooldown has been lowered from 5 minutes to 3 minutes.
Swipe (Bear Form) damage has been reduced by 20%.
Vengeance is no longer cleared on exiting Bear Form, and instead is cleared upon entering Cat Form.

Restoration
Empowered Touch now procs from Healing Touch as well as Nourish.
Heart of the Wild: the Bear Form Stamina bonus from this talent is now 2/4/6%, down from 3/7/10%.
Malfurion's Gift no longer has Fury of Stormrage as a prerequisite talent.
Natural Shapeshifter now also increases Tree of Life duration by 5/10 seconds.
Revitalize is now a 2-point talent, down from 3. It provides a 20% chance to return 1/2% of the druid's total mana on periodic heals from Lifebloom or Rejuvenation. This effect cannot occur more than once every 12 seconds.
Swift Rejuvenation is now a 1-point talent, down from 2. The global cooldown reduction this talent provides to Rejuvenation remains 0.5 seconds.
Symbiosis: heal-over-time spells (Rejuvenation, Regrowth, Lifebloom) can no longer benefit from this Mastery merely by refreshing themselves. A different heal-over-time spell must be present.

Glyphs
Glyph of Healing Touch now reduces the cooldown on Nature's Swiftness by 10 seconds after using Healing Touch, up from 5 seconds.
Glyph of the Treant (new) allows druids to keep the original treant Tree of Life look... if they must. Must they?

Bug Fixes
Blood in the Water now refreshes Rip to the correct value.
Flight Form now properly appears in the trainer window before Expert Riding is learned.
I actually just started a thread about the Balance PvP set bonus, but I'll edit it to point here since this post is more comprehensive.
I don't know what they want me to do with Resto? They tell me they want me to cast nourish, they increase the cost of all my HoTs and make them horrible on mana and then they give us the dumbest mastery that works off the HoTs I'm not really supposed to use anymore?

Can we please get a real Mastery? This one is almost as worthless as the last idea for a Mastery.

/sigh, I think I'm watching my favorite class/spec go down the toilet. Time to level my shammy...
Interesting to see the natural shapeshifter change.

I guess that at 85 the mana cost component of that talent might be more significant, but right now it seemed pretty unnecessary to me. As a feral, I am finding it hard to justify it - although it would be nice to get the master shapeshifter.

Adding the tree duration is clearly excellent for resto.
No, the mana cost component is still complete garbage
I'm already lamenting the mana change.
I hope Stampede ravage gets fixed. It cannot be macroed, it does significantly less dmg than regular ravage. Not sure why Blizzard is lingering on the fix. I mean, we do spend talents points to make it count.

Overall, i am OK with the changes, especially the 3 min Survival Instincts. Other change address more PVE issues than PVP. I guess there can never be a perfect balance between PVE and PVP.

Thorns: beginner tooltip revised to no longer imply the spell could be kept up at all times. In addition, Thorns damage has been reduced by 60%.

It sounds like we can take it off the toolbar again?

My feeling is that, if Blizzard doesn't want druids to ever use the ability, they should simply remove it from the game. I don't see the purpose in leaving in useless rubbish.
Why are you complaining about the "ravage bug". You know it does less damage but also allows you to cast it unstealthed and from anywhere not just behind the target AND be free. You think just because you get points to boost it that much that it shouldn't take a damage hit? Why not try what I do....charge---->pounce bleed--->free ravage--->reg rotation
I actually think that's a little silly to make it do the same damage to be honest....it's already free and doesn't require stealth or location...not saying I won't use it on my druid just saying it's a little silly that it's buffed that much lol

Why are you complaining about the "ravage bug". You know it does less damage but also allows you to cast it unstealthed and from anywhere not just behind the target AND be free. You think just because you get points to boost it that much that it shouldn't take a damage hit? Why not try what I do....charge---->pounce bleed--->free ravage--->reg rotation

I personally still use the bugged version anyways , due to the fact that it is energy free. My biggest concern is the macro part. I've been etching to consolidate ravage/shred into one button via macros. Less buttons to press - better response time.

Also, this might be just a hoax but I've read on old forums blue is going to bring the stealthed ravage dmg down a notch and bring the stampede ravage up a bit. Again, how true this is, i am not sure. The point is, the "fixed" ravage might not be any better than the "bugged" one. I hope not.

my thorns is hitting for around 3k currently.

40% of that is ~1200. that's still very significant, at least in pvp.

It wont be when we all have 100k+ health in pvp. Our current thorns was balanced around that now it is useless and no point in wasting a GCD.

my thorns is hitting for around 3k currently.

40% of that is ~1200. that's still very significant, at least in pvp.

It wont be when we all have 100k+ health in pvp. Our current thorns was balanced around that now it is useless and no point in wasting a GCD.

Except it scales with SP and AP, so the power of it now will increase just like health will.

I actually think that's a little silly to make it do the same damage to be honest....it's already free and doesn't require stealth or location...not saying I won't use it on my druid just saying it's a little silly that it's buffed that much lol

It's silly that rime procced howling blasts do normal damage. I mean, they don't use any runes, so why should they get to do equal damage?

What an inane argument. The talents says it makes ravage useable out of stealth, not that it allows you to ravage for half damage out of stealth.
According to Wowhead, Thorns will only scale with SP. Is this incorrect?

Thorns Level 80
36% of base mana 30 yd range
Instant cast 45 sec cooldown

Thorns sprout from the friendly target causing (400 + ($SP * .421)) Nature damage to attackers when hit. Lasts 20 sec.