World of Warcraft has a very ambitious plan and with the upcoming release of The War Within, the team at Blizzard has introduced a brand new Hero Talents system for the expansion.
Ultimately, this will shift things up in retail as many players have been wishing for more flavor to their classes and Blizzard is looking to deliver with these new Hero Talent Trees.
We will be taking a close look at one of the three Hero Talent trees for Druids and examining just how powerful we can expect the talents to be.
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WoW The War Within: Elune's Chosen Druid Hero Talent Tree
Since there is a lot to cover in the initial Hero Talent tree, we will be separately examining all of the nodes so we can get a better understanding of the core concepts.
Elune's Chosen Keystone
- Fury of Elune (Balance and Guardian) now ends with a flash of energy, blasting nearby enemies for Astral damage.
- Full Moon (Balance) calls down 2 Minor Moons that deal Astral damage and generate 3 Astral Power.
- Lunar Beam (Guardian) now causes you to leech life equal to 10% of all damage dealt to enemies within the beam
Elune's Chosen Row 1
Moon Guardian: (Balance) Moonfire and Starfire generate 2 additional Astral Power. (Guardian) Free automatic Moonfire from Galactic Guardian generate 5 Rage.
Lunar Insight: Moonfire deals 10% additional damage.
Glistening Fur: Bear Form and Moonkin Form reduce Arcane damage taken by 6% and all other magic damage taken by 3%.
Elune's Chosen Row 2
Lunar Amplification: Each non-Arcane damaging ability you use increases the damage of your next Arcane damaging ability by 3%, stacking up to 3 times.
Atmospheric Exposure: Enemies damaged by Full Moon, Fury of Elune, or Lunar Beam take 4% increased damage from you for 6 seconds.
Choice Node:
- Moondust: Enemies affected by Moonfire are slowed by 30%.
- Elune’s Grace: Using Wild Charge in Bear Form or Moonkin Form incurs a 3 second shorter cooldown.
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Elune's Chosen Row 3
Choice Node:
- Stellar Command Increases the damage of Full Moon by 15% (Balance). Increases the damage of Lunar Beam by 30% (Guardian.) Increases the damage of Fury of Elune by 15% (Balance/Guardian.)
- Lunar Calling: Starfire deals 40% increased damage to its primary target, but no longer triggers Solar Eclipse. Thrash now deals Arcane damage, and its damage is increased by 12%.
Choice Node:
- The Light of Elune: Moonfire damage has a chance to call down Fury of Elune to follow your target for 3 seconds and generates 18 Astral Power or Rage over its duration.
- Astral Insight: Incarnation: Chosen of Elune and Incarnation: Guardian of Ursoc increase Arcane damage from spells and abilities by 10% while active. Convoke the Spirits duration and number of spells cast increased by 25%.
Choice Node:
- Arcane Affinity: All Arcane damage from your spells and abilities is increased by 3%.
- Lunation: Your Arcane abilities reduce the cooldown of Fury of Elune by 2 seconds and the cooldown of New Moon, Half Moon, and Full Moon by 1 second. Your Arcane abilities reduce the cooldown of Lunar Beam by 3 seconds.
Elune's Chosen Capstone
The Eternal Moon: Increases the power of Boundless Moonlight:
- Fury of Elune (Balance and Guardian): The flash of energy now generates 6 Astral Power or 6 Rage and its damage is increased by 50%.
- Full Moon (Balance): New Moon and Half Moon now also call down 1 Minor Moon.
- Lunar Beam (Guardian): Lunar Beam increases Mastery by an additional 8%, deals 30% increased damage, and lasts 3 seconds longer
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Summary
Overall, these are some very interesting design choices behind making Balance and Guardian Druids more viable allowing for more shapeshifting mixed in with Astral damage for more utility and DPS.
As more is being revealed regarding the newest World of Warcraft Expansion: The War Within, we are slowly starting to see just how much the scales have changed for Retail WoW. Here is the entire Hero Talent Tree as presented in the most recent blue post.
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