I took the opportunity to make some much needed updates to my guide with the pending release of 4.1. There’s clearly a lot going on and I thought I’d pull out the real key features here in this blog.
I could go on about the new Troll super 5-man heroics and Call to Arms but honestly those have been covered to death. Here I’d like to talk about just what quality of life improvements you’ll have as both a healer and druid.
Please start by reading this post if you have not already: https://r4healingtouch.wordpress.com/2011/03/27/getting-prepped-for-4-1-and-a-status-update/
I have already gone super in depth to the meat and potatoes of the patch over a handful of recent articles so I’ll put up the short list here:
-Effloressence is unlinked from Living Seed. You now have three points to spend on whatever mediocre talent you so desire! BotG, Nature’s Bounty, Nature’s Cure, and Perseverance probably top the list
-Effloressence has been reworked. The ability now heals only three people at a time but for a significantly larger amount. It now scales with haste and receives a significantly larger benefit from the 2004 haste break point than it did with any regular amount of raid buffed crit you had previously. This is a size-able buff that will enhance the relevance of your Effloressence healing, as well as allow tank healers and 10 man raiders more opportunity to cash in on its full benefit.
-Tranquility is on a 3 minute cooldown. This is a much welcome change however expect some QQ from the meter whores watching you like a hawk.
-Tranquility has automatic pushback protection. You may now use barkskin freely.
-Lifebloom’s bloom has been reduced by 20%
-You may now ressurect dead players who have released simply by targetting them in your unit frames. No more hunting for bodies.
Moonkin (for those restokin’s out there)
-Starsurge’s damage has been reduced by 20%. This according to Graylo equates to roughly a 3% DPS loss which is not the end of the world and will hopefully fix a potentially problematic PvP burst issue.
All together it is a very good day for restoration druids out there. We didn’t get the big tank cooldown we thought we would but these changes will help immensely. Happy raiding and hopefully everyone’s servers stay stable!
Rank 4 Healing Touch 
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Additional things to know: Venoxis is no chump.
Heh, he’s not so bad. When we cleared ZG the other night and aside from a few bosses having some cute new tricks it was quite fun. Venoxxis’ only issue imo is the tank potentially facing the mob the wrong way and gibbing range with his spray attack
See, I was at the disadvantage of having never run this on the PTR, not having read a detailed strategy (Outside of don’t stand in the green and run away from each other) and the same was true of the rest of my random party.
Needless to say, we got demolished. Repeatedly. I’ve spent most of my downtime this morning reading up on whatever strats I can find (Unfortunately, most of my best resources are blocked at work). I am determined to kick that guy’s backside tonight.
i’m sure that you’ll get it. We didn’t ever run the fight on the PTR and paid for it some (1 ranged player getting gibbed by the breath) but after that we learned our lesson. It isn’t a super easy fight though and there are lots of things in it that can be punishing.