Might be worth noting Insect Swarm no longer gives chance to miss, and the modified damage to me implies the glyph effect has been pushed into the spell and when we get to see the new glyphs I would wonder if the 3% chance to miss will return in that form.

Starfall doesn't do splash damage either, I have yet to receive a reasonable explanation for the change, and it seems to be doing a lot less damage than in live which means its been nerfed back. Shame, live version actually made it the spell feel like the Wc3 iconic ability it was.

Eclipse mechanism is still wonky, the bar scaling damage is not yet implemented, (if it ever will now), it would make our calculations a bitch, but the tooltip now provides accurate numbers for each spell's damage, so I'm not worried about that. I really do like the concept of eclipse bar position scaling arcane/solar damage, feels more intuitive especially when you're building lunar power or solar power, but not having this affect your damage makes it feel more gimmicky. The scaling makes the bar thing more appealing and it is important to have the eclipse 3rd mastery scale the damage of the bar position to which would mean the mastery positively affects your damage 100% of the time rather than only when an eclipse is up, unlike all other 3rd masteries. However if the intention is to have back to back eclipses at the highest echelions of gear than the bar scaling damage is pointless.

Interruption is largely unsolved in this set up too. Not only does interruptions/movement waste eclipse up time, but the time it takes to get the bar to the other side to proc the eclipse which implies a double dip affect. I still think that in addition to the mechanic they should allow you a couple of charges to consume when you have to move so you have at least a little amount of movement cover if not full movement cover because I'm not quite seeing how the new mechanic tackles the age old issue.

So, the new eclipse mechanic makes the moonkin casting dynamic only slightly more interesting, Starsurge helps, (I'm hoping Starsurge glyph will make it instant cast). I suspect Solar Beam glyph will re-introduce the disorientate effect. Moonkin casting still seems quite basic compared to Shadow priests, locks and mages, especially demo locks shadow/fire interplay. Improved insect swarm talent was removed, seems little point if dots scale with haste and crit now and masteries are providing damage and haste in the tree.

I wonder what the gear focus would be now, the talent tree has other losing alot of crit talents, imp FF gone, all the cirt bonuses gone, I wonder if now the mastery is haste, if we would value crit on gear more. Crit no longer necessary to proc eclipse, only thing that benefits is NG - if it doesn't change. Crit loss is not such a big deal, one of the benefits from a developer standpoint of masteries is the ability to tweak dps by changing its value. But we are all too aware how it is so easy to lie just outside the sweet spot and not doing badly enough to warrant a buff but not quite doing well enough. Recently we've got a bit of a sweet spot.

One thing I'm not looking forward to is moonkin form, which seems even more pointless now and even less interesting than shadow form, and this is the druid caster spec and druids are supposed to be the ones that have shapeshifting as their thing just seems wrong that demo warlocks and shadow priests have more going on with their forms than the balance druid. Maybe one day they'd make the balance druid interchange between moonkin and caster form to maximize the dps, using both forms, making shapeshifting more meaningful, and having a more exciting dynamic where it's concerned. Even better they throw in a 45 sec empower mode for it where it does some neat things wtih some balance spells, obviously this empower mode will have a long cooldown like 5 mins, something else to use the form for. And maybe throw in some utility non-damage based abilities for situational circumstances.

Ignite needs 2 seconds before it ticks, so if you crit before it ticks it adds up in damage, if you keep critting the damage can get huge.

As you can see here:

[18:31:46.110] Greatschock Ignite Deathbringer Saurfang 19889
[18:31:47.167] Deathbringer Saurfang's Ignite is refreshed by Greatschock
[18:31:47.229] Deathbringer Saurfang's Ignite is refreshed by Greatschock
[18:31:49.163] Deathbringer Saurfang's Ignite is refreshed by Greatschock
[18:31:50.385] Deathbringer Saurfang's Ignite is refreshed by Greatschock
[18:31:52.424] Deathbringer Saurfang's Ignite is refreshed by Greatschock
[18:31:52.845] Deathbringer Saurfang's Ignite is refreshed by Greatschock
[18:31:54.826] Deathbringer Saurfang's Ignite is refreshed by Greatschock
[18:31:55.996] Deathbringer Saurfang's Ignite is refreshed by Greatschock
[18:31:56.939] Deathbringer Saurfang's Ignite is refreshed by Greatschock
[18:31:58.008] Deathbringer Saurfang's Ignite is refreshed by Greatschock
[18:31:58.461] Deathbringer Saurfang's Ignite is refreshed by Greatschock
[18:32:00.426] Deathbringer Saurfang's Ignite is refreshed by Greatschock
[18:32:02.439] Deathbringer Saurfang's Ignite is refreshed by Greatschock
[18:32:02.844] Deathbringer Saurfang's Ignite is refreshed by Greatschock
[18:32:04.935] Greatschock Ignite Deathbringer Saurfang 69898 (R: 17475)
[18:32:06.900] Greatschock Ignite Deathbringer Saurfang 87373
[18:32:06.900] Deathbringer Saurfang's Ignite fades
[18:32:07.215] Deathbringer Saurfang afflicted by Ignite from Greatschock
[18:32:08.078] Deathbringer Saurfang's Ignite is refreshed by Greatschock
[18:32:09.290] Deathbringer Saurfang's Ignite is refreshed by Greatschock
[18:32:10.465] Deathbringer Saurfang's Ignite is refreshed by Greatschock
[18:32:11.315] Deathbringer Saurfang's Ignite is refreshed by Greatschock
[18:32:11.768] Deathbringer Saurfang's Ignite is refreshed by Greatschock
[18:32:13.624] Deathbringer Saurfang's Ignite is refreshed by Greatschock
[18:32:14.845] Deathbringer Saurfang's Ignite is refreshed by Greatschock
[18:32:15.699] Deathbringer Saurfang's Ignite is refreshed by Greatschock
[18:32:16.900] Deathbringer Saurfang's Ignite is refreshed by Greatschock
[18:32:16.952] Deathbringer Saurfang's Ignite is refreshed by Greatschock
[18:32:18.944] Deathbringer Saurfang's Ignite is refreshed by Greatschock
[18:32:18.959] Deathbringer Saurfang's Ignite is refreshed by Greatschock
[18:32:20.948] Greatschock Ignite Deathbringer Saurfang 118083

It would be nice if someone would update the BiS list including the 3.5.5 patch items, with heroic Ruby Sanctum trinkets and so on.

As a thought, it would also be a good idea to include some sort of 'second best' set of gear for the many players that wont have access to BiS right away. I know i found myself in that condition more then once browsing the forums and thinking 'aww i cant get X trinket, i wonder if this is comparable for non-heroic gear'. Yes you have the option of consulting a spreadsheet, and i m guessing that everyone browsing these forums is familiar with them, but a BiS list could just as well do with an hc and a non-hc list of items.

Cheers.

The main change to the BiS lists with Ruby Sanctum is that assassination rogues have very nice new wrists and combat rogues get a trinket to pair with their DBW. As far as I can tell, even the normal versions of both items will be better than other alternatives. The expertise neck might become useful if you're trying to juggle around the cap, and the heroic version of the ring might be a little better than Band of the Bone Colossus for mutilate

It would be rather problematic in the sense that you have to decide where to draw that "second best" line. You could consider only non-heroic 25 man gear, or a mix of non-heroic 25 and 10 man gear, or 25 non-hc and 10 hc with Gunship 25 heroic thrown into the mix. You'd probably end up with more than 2 possible lists, which would confuse people rather than help them. And in the end, I'd say the idea of aiming for the "second best" goes against the point of what we're discussing here.

nice post

nice post

imo heaps better then the totem itself

looks like shamans are trying to be alot like resto druids

probs roll a druid if i was to go resto though, more hots

is earthquake even really that great? i dont see how its an awesome spell people have been saying, i mean its good but ya know..

ele will most likely be the pvp spec over enhance in cata with that new spell