I had a post almost ready for this week about my reason for creating a new alt, but did post because I’d really want it to have 10 reason, and I got only 8 for now. So I was looking for these 2 missing reasons when I found out this post on MMO Melting Pot. So, instead of giving my impressions on a much too long comment, I decided to blog about it instead.

Since 4.0.1 I had the opportunity to raid three times on my shaman (I was pretty lucky this week, Choupinette finaly got to sleep early !), and to test a little bit my level 80 toons. Here is how I was doing:

Resto shaman

Well, I found that resto shaman is pretty much the same as it was before the patch.

• Mana was a non-issue, so the new Healing Wave wasn’t nothing else than a I’m-bored-so-I-spam-it spell.
• I spec into the dps talents of the healing tree because I like to push the dps button when I’m bored. Focus insight didn’t change much to my healing style. I tried to use it by choosing carefully the spell I cast after a Flame Shock. But without a way to monitor the buff (it is very short, considering that when I cast a Shock generally every body is at full health) and much testing done (does it work with Earth Shield ?), I didn’t find it very useful. I found Telluric Currents more useful, especially on fights like XT-002, when I often found myself going oom after dpsing during the heart phase. For now it really gives a lot of mana back and could be used to regen mana.
• The higher mana cost from Healing Surge didn’t affect me so much, because I wasn’t really a Lesser Healing Wave spammer recently. I suppose this is linked to my TBC experience, when mana really was an issue and Lesser Healing Wave was used precociously. That plus the fact I really love hasted (Greater) Healing Wave bomb. Who wouldn’t love a 30k + heal with a 1 second cast ?

Combat rogue

Being a poor geared combat rogue, I really love the 4.0.1 changes. My enrergy goes up much faster, meaning more button pushed, thus more fun. Fan of knive now cost 35 energy instead of 60 : again, more fun ! The new Sinister Strike glyph (20% chance to grant a 2nd combo point, instead of a 50% chance on a critical hit) is great when you don’t have a lot of critical strike rating. More combo points = more Evicerate = more fun too ! Reforging allowed me to got near the hit and expertise cap, which is great.

All in all, my dps didn’t really increased, but it’s a lot more fun.

BM hunter

Here I’m a bit less enthousiastic. Since 4.0.1 my dps dropped (almost by a half!)

Before 4.0.1, I played mainly Markmanship and a bit of Survival, this mean I have to completely learn the BM mechanisms. Plus the focus mechanism is a big change. I don’t think I’m on top of the learning curve yet, so I suppose it’ll get less worse with a bit of practice.

Concerning the BM spec, well it’s absolutely not a great dungeon spec. Your signature spell requires your pet to be in melee range to be cast. That means you have to wait before being able to cast it. During this time, you can shot things, but focus drop really fast, and you need to keep 40 of it for when your pet finally get in range.

After a few (very long) seconds, your pet finally reach 5 enrage stacks, and you can hit Focus Fire, only to see that it remains only one mob alive in this pack and that this mob is at 20% hp. (By the way, I don’t completely understand this enrage stuf for now, I still need to figure out how my pet is supposed to get these enrage stacks)

But there still are fun parts in the new 4.0.1 BM Hunter. First I love the 31-point talent : my hubby took me to Molten Core to get a core hound, and I love having more talent points for my pet. Secondly, with the new focus mechanism, you’re always casting something. I mean, I’ll be always casting something when I’ll get used to my new 4.0.1 spec!

Resto Druid

I also did a bit a testing on my level 73 resto druid. Here the spec is pretty different from what it was pre-4.0.1.

Lifebloom is back on my action bar. Well it wasn’t completely gone before 4.0.1, but it was mainly there for the cases when the tank took heavy damage and most often I just let it bloom. Now lifebloom is my main spell in low level instances when there isn’t much to heal (Why the hell does the LFD still put me in the Nexus at level 73 ? And with a level 80 tank ? Come on!)

Like my hunter, I’m still on the learning curve. I must learn to use the aoe part of Swiftmend, or not to cast an instant cast spell when Omen of Clarity pop (I used to cast Wild Growth or Hurrican, bad !).

I need to learn how to use the new Tree of Life too. I’m not a great nostalgic for the constant tree form (well I don’t like the cataclysm skin of the Tree, but that’s another story), as I used to stay out of it to throw the occasionnal moonfire. But I need to learn when I need to pop the Tree Form, and how it changes my Healing. You maybe know (or maybe not), but the tree form change many spells mechanisms (you can have 2 people with Lifebloom, insta Regrowth, hasted Wrath, etc.), and I really need to know all that when I pop my tree if you want to get full benefit of it.

As you can see the new Tree Form seems very powerful, but I’m a bit sad it’s on a 3 minute CD. 3 minute CD are evil for healers, as you tend to keep them for when you really need it, but in the end you never use it : in case of emergency, do you think I have the time to look for my tree binding (I never use it, so I don’t know the binding, logical) ? And then to read the tooltips to see what are the new stuffs I can do. How am I suppose to learn a spell I never use ? Well, I’d really like the tree to become something like a 1 minute or 1.5 minute cd (with a shorter duration of course). So you can use it almost each time it’s up.

Here what I tested since 4.0.1. I still have to try my enhancement spec, and a off spec for my hunt. And if I’m bored I could try mage, disc priest (smite healing seems fun!) and maybe DK (if I’m really bored and am brave enough to tank!)

And you, what are your impressions of 4.0.1 with your favourite toons?