Patch 4.0.3a: Lining Up with Cataclysm Design

BETA is now closed and I can say I will enjoy the experience I gathered within this period. When patch 4.0 went out a month ago, beta servers kept being updated with changes. Tomorrow's patch makes up for the differences between beta and live.

If you have followed the beta updates, nothing new in here.

- 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.

- 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%.

- Empowered Touch now procs from Healing Touch as well as Nourish.

- 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.

- Glyph of Healing Touch now reduces the cooldown on Nature's Swiftness by 10 seconds after using Healing Touch, up from 5 seconds.

The only thing you might notice is a slight drop in your mana regeneration coupled with the increased cost of Rejuvenation. On most of the bosses you won't see any difference but on some of them you might want to use Innervate on cd. A 100% uptime on Lifebloom is more than mandatory now and you should focus even more on it. But still, mana regeneration shouldn't be a problem.

If you want a spec for the last two Wotlk weeks, here is my recommendation: http://cata.wowhead.com/talent#00bZZrfzIdcbuouo