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Old 12/02/10, 5:09 AM   #211
 Tecton
Soda Popinski
 
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Troll Druid
 
Mal'Ganis
The only thing that's popping to mind is armory import, but I'll look at that once we have the new armory working properly.

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Old 12/02/10, 5:46 AM   #212
Balancemoon
Piston Honda
 
Night Elf Druid
 
Burning Legion (EU)
I'm not sure whether this is the right place to put this, but as this is the theorycraft & spreadsheet thread for cataclysm, I have noticed something really funny with thorns maybe some of you can debunk.


I've done some extensive testing on Thorns, here is the data: IT appears thorns is not really doing what it is supposed to be doing at all.

Druid ability bug - THORNS:
on MMO: Thorns is: Thorns now lasts 20 sec, down from 10 minutes; costs 36% of base mana, up from 17%; has a 45 second cooldown, up from 0; and deals [ 42.1% of Spell Power + 446.94 ] or [ 42.1% of AP + 446.94 ] damage depending on the highest.

Data full formulae: Thorns sprout from the friendly target causing [80+(SP*.168)] Nature damage to attackers when hit. Lasts 20 sec. - might be the post 4.0.3a version. [but tha'ts just the mined info - below is actual in-game test results and observations]

Thorns is not doing the intended damage or multiplier:
1. I assume Thorns is intended to be more effective on a fully geared balance druid than it is on an equivalently geared feral druid who casts it then switches to cat form.

not the case, thorns does less damage on Moonkin Starfury who has better gear than Feral cat Saberclaw [you can armory both on Talinvarr realm [EU]]

2. I assume that spell power co-effiecint and melee attack power co-efficient are meant to multiply the damage of thorns. I also assume that either the spell power co-efficient was intended to be much higher or should be much higher than the attack power co-efficient because typically a feral in cat form has over 2.5 times as much attack power fully geared than a balance druid euqlaly geared has spell power - either that or going cat form is not supposed to alter the attack power contribution to thorns .

Either way. Spell power makes less of a contribution than attack power it would seem. And there doesn't seem to be a difference casting thorns and gettting hit in caster form, then casting thorns then going to cat form and getting hit. Furthermore, there is a slight difference between being hit in Moonkin form and being hit in caster form, thorns is increased somewhat in moonkin form. Removing all gear, thorns does much less damage.

When I cast thorns in sabercalw then shift to cat form, I reflect 1419 damage, when i cast thorns in moonkin form on Starfury, I reflect 945 damage

Here are some test results

-FURTHER TESTING RESUlTS
Tests were done with Starfury - balance druid [armory = http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...arr/starfury/] and Saberclaw feral druid [armory= http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...rr/saberclaw/]
Stormpeaks Jomunguar and Ret paladin:
Starfury had glyph of Thorns active, Saberclaw did not.
Both have 3/3 Heart of the wild talent.

MotW buff active:

Feral Druid Saberclaw:
In caster :1113 AP x SP
In cat: 7498 AP 162 SP
In caster no gear 498 AP, 149 sp:
Caster form untalented, no gear 390 AP, 133 SP
Cat form untalenteed, no gear: 542AP, 133 SP

Casting thorns in caster, pulling melee by proximity aggro, thorns do 1419
Casting thorns in caster, switching to cat, pulling melee by proximity aggro, thorns do 1419.
[when removing MotW, damage dropped to 1325]
Caster AND Cat form no gear: both 320 damage
no talent no gear caster & cat form: 281 damage

Balance Druid Starfury:
In caster : 440 AP 3572 SP
In moonkin: 440 AP 3572 SP
in Cat: 440 AP, 3572 SP
Caster & Moonkin no gear: 398 AP, 149 SP
Cat form no gear: 614 AP, 149 SP
Caster form untalented: 201.7 AP 3238 SP
Cat form untalented: 622 AP, 3238 SP
Caster form untalented, no gear 390 AP, 133 SP
Cat form untalenteed, no gear: 542AP, 133 SP

Casting thorns in caster, pulling melee by proximity aggro, thorns do 910
Casting thorns in caster, switching to Moonkin, pulling melee by proximity aggro, thorns do 1001 .
Casting thorns in caster, switching to cat, pulling melee by proximity aggro, thorns do 910 .
Caster form no gear: 345 damage [ 342 w/o MotW]
Moonkin form no gear: 380 damage [377 w/o MotW]
Cat form no gear: 346 damage
no talent caster form & cat form : 704 damage
no talent no gear caster & cat form: 281 damage


Thorns is doing the same damage regardless of whether you're in cat form or not:
More damage if you're in moonkin form than not.
More damage feral spec than not.
It is uncertain what thorns is using to calculate its damage. As it is more on a feral druid and doesn't change based on form (i.e. increasing your attack power


The caster result:
I cannot explain why thorns does more damage in moonkin form seeing that int and spell power do not change. Neither does attack power
Cat form on the balance druid does the same damage as in caster form, same with feral druid, but taelnted, the feral is doing more damage, and though it has more attack power i cannot verify whether this is the cause..

WHat is thorns using?

Conclusion: Where should thorns be? THorns should be more effective on a balance druid than it should be on a feral druid.

I think the original design intention is for thorns to only do the damage it does when you cast iit, and not be modified after wards. However, casting MotW, on the feral druid, saw an immediate jump in reflected damage from 1325 to 1419. BUt going between caster form and melee form made no difference meaning that maybe cat form is not meant to enhance the AP contribution.

I suspect thorns is using something else, my initial guess was base attack power, well attack power in caster form, which explained why the feral druid did more damage off thorns than the balance druid. comparing 1113 AP in caster form to 440, Ideally i really should be testing on the same druid swapping in between specs. But the feral druid is feral geared and the balance druid is balance geared.

The balance druid has better gear than the feral druid, so if they were supposed to do roughly the same damage equally geared, then they're not, the feral is doing more despite being worse geared. So tbh, I don't know what's going on.

Last edited by Balancemoon : 12/02/10 at 5:51 AM.

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Old 12/02/10, 6:43 AM   #213
Erdluf
Great Tiger
 
Night Elf Druid
 
Echo Isles
Wowhhead says Thorns formula at 80 is 160 + .168*SP.

Feral spec, it looks like it is using your Cat AP, even when in caster. 160+.169*7498 = 1419.7

Moonkin spec, add Moonfury, BoP and E&M
(160+.168*3572)*1.15*1.02*1.02 = 909.42

In Moonkin Form, add Moonkin Form
909.42*1.1 = 1000.38

That it explains what it is doing (in my test, resto spec, it also benefitted from MSS, in both caster and cat forms).

What should it be doing? Well ferals have a significant opportunity cost to use it (shift after cast). I'm not going to lose sleep over this one.

Edit: First post of the bear theorycraft thread, Astrylian had already noted that Thorns actually uses your Bear AP (I guess bear and cat have the same AP now). He's using an old base damage number, though.

Last edited by Erdluf : 12/02/10 at 6:48 AM. Reason: Credit bear thread.

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Old 12/02/10, 5:29 PM   #214
 Hamlet
<Druid Trainer>
 
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Tauren Druid
 
Mal'Ganis
Ok, Tree sheet with the new interface. I think I got everything hooked up right, but hopefully people can play around with it and see if I missed anything.

I added Spirit procs to all Trinkets that ignored them in the Moonkin sheet. I know Jar of Ancient Remedies has to be added still, not sure if any other trinkets are missing.

e: oh, can you add a freeze pane to the front page in the Tree one? I couldn't that feature to work in my Excel for some reason.
Attached Files
File Type: xls TreeCalcs 101202 Cataclysm Beta.xls (581.5 KB, 79 views)

Last edited by Hamlet : 12/02/10 at 5:36 PM.


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Old 12/02/10, 5:56 PM   #215
Shelendil
Piston Honda
 
Night Elf Druid
 
Lightbringer
Edit: Actually, changing any of the spell usage parameters seems to do strange things.

Last edited by Shelendil : 12/02/10 at 6:10 PM.

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Old 12/02/10, 6:26 PM   #216
 Hamlet
<Druid Trainer>
 
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Tauren Druid
 
Mal'Ganis
The error you gave your pre-edit post (changing the filler spell gives an error) is easy to fix, will do it when I get home. Other than that though, I don't notice anything wrong with the spell usage parameters.


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Old 12/02/10, 10:55 PM   #217
Balancemoon
Piston Honda
 
Night Elf Druid
 
Burning Legion (EU)
The proc buff from the talent Shooting Stars should no longer be consumed without providing its benefits if the druid is already casting Starsurge.
from Patch 4.0.3a Hotfixes - World of Warcraft

I wonder how much of a dps boost this is, not much, but it would make for some lovely burst combos when it actually does appear. I'm relieved that at least starsurge now benefits from 200% crit too

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Old 12/03/10, 5:11 AM   #218
 Tecton
Soda Popinski
 
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Troll Druid
 
Mal'Ganis
Unhid a row which shouldn't have been hidden and froze the pane.

Last edited by Tecton : 12/03/10 at 4:19 PM.

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Old 12/03/10, 3:36 PM   #219
 Hamlet
<Druid Trainer>
 
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Tauren Druid
 
Mal'Ganis
Wrong version again :P (you should delete that file, because it's an old version labeled with the current date that you somehow accidentally made). Use this one--I added the bug fix above.

I also went over the Resto trinkets again. The only one that needs to be added is Jar of Ancient Remedies. And you can remove Heart of Ignacious (I just don't want to mess with the gear list by hand since I haven't gone over the way it works in detail). It might be worth considering whether, going forward, it will be easier to have the same gear list in both sheets (for reasons of adding new items in patches, etc.). But, some trinkets will still have to be different due to damage/heal only effects.
Attached Files
File Type: xls TreeCalcs 101203 Cataclysm Beta.xls (581.5 KB, 40 views)


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Old 12/03/10, 4:35 PM   #220
 Tecton
Soda Popinski
 
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Troll Druid
 
Mal'Ganis
Augh. Laying the blame of this one at my youngest teething right now and keeping me up all night!

How do you want to represent the spirit stack and mana gain mechanic in the sheet for Jar of Ancient Remedies? I've added them both for now, at least, and removed Heart of Ignacious. Pane frozen on the front page, too.

[edit]

Quick rundown of how the item list works (enchant/gem lists are working on the same principle).

The list is sorted primarily by slot, then by Ilvl. At the top right it does a quick calculation to figure out the range for each item, and the named range points to this entry. It's only sorted by ilvl to make sure that generally the best items are at the top (and I was planning to add a dropdown that allows you to filter out lower ilvl gear to the front sheet when we get further into the expansion to reduce the size of the dropdown but retain functionality for newer characters).

If you want to add an item by hand, you can just insert a row at the appropriate place (i.e. with other items of its type) and drop the stats/name in. The spreadsheet will automatically add it to the dropdowns. Same principle with the enchants/gems (although there is some formatting in that table to remove some of them when the appropriate profession isn't selected).
Attached Files
File Type: xls TreeCalcs 101203 Cataclysm Beta.xls (592.0 KB, 114 views)

Last edited by Tecton : 12/03/10 at 4:46 PM.

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Old 12/04/10, 9:18 PM   #221
beromar
Von Kaiser
 
Human Paladin
 
Scilla
As of WrathCalc build 101201 I'm getting better results by swapping [Relic of Eonar] to the [Relic of Norgannon] (no reforge), and reforging the Mastery on the [Stormrider's Shoulderwraps] to Spirit. It's an increase of 43 haste and 4 hit (putting you slightly over the hit cap instead of 1.6 under), at the cost of 48 crit for a net gain of ~31 dps.

WrathCalc is also still showing [Witching Hourglass] ~76 dps ahead of [Theralion's Mirror]. Is this still accurate? I couldn't find anything on the actual ICDs, though it looks like they're being given an ICD of 75 seconds and 100 seconds respectively (20% uptime). Are these just conservative numbers until live testing can be done?

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Old 12/04/10, 9:31 PM   #222
 Hamlet
<Druid Trainer>
 
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Tauren Druid
 
Mal'Ganis
Yeah, the gear that's in there isn't meant to be a BIS list. It's just a bunch of good gear that Tecton put in there when we were testing the sheet. It makes perfect sense that the other relic is better, since it avoids the waste of reforging to crit on another item. Just an example of how a little reshuffling can squeeze out better stats in ways that are really hard to completely summarize in succinct rules.

Like I noted in the guide, it's saying Witching Hourglass is best, but I need to look into that more. The difference in value between haste and mastery shouldn't justify dropping that much Int.

e: Oh of course, the averaged-out haste proc is hitting a new DoT breakpoint. That's definitely a problem. For now I'll just make a note about it, but it will be something to try to find a clever solution for next time I make a big update.

e2: and to answer the other question, it's currently assuming a 1/5 uptime for all procs (this was usually the pattern, and it leads to sensible average values here as well). One there's been more of an opportunity to test them all, I might add it minor corrections for expected proc time after the ICD.

Last edited by Hamlet : 12/04/10 at 9:51 PM.


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Old 12/05/10, 1:14 AM   #223
Rahucun
Glass Joe
 
Pandaren Shaman
 
Sargeras
I am not sure if people mentioned it already i kinda lost track on those posts but i would like to know something.
Lets say i use 250 mastery rating to get my solar eclipse and i get 45% dmg from eclipse. If i change to my regular gear which has 0 mastery am i keeping the 45% because the tooltip seems to be saying that way? Or am I actually dps under a 37% basic eclipse?

Thanks for your time.

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Old 12/05/10, 3:14 AM   #224
aceofsween
Don Flamenco
 
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Troll Druid
 
Lightning's Blade
On the topic of haste procs, isn't it possible that the effect of say a trinket that procs 10% haste is greater than an increase in 10% damage for the DoTs if the duration of the proc is long enough and therefore greater than the average value of the proc?

For example, if there were a trinket whose effect duration was longer than the duration of our DoTs, you could squeeze two casts in that duration. Wouldn't this net a gain that is greater than the average value of the haste effect? I'm specifically thinking about effects in the 20 second range, which if given would allow you to cast at least one DoT (Moonfire/Sunfire or Insect Swarm) off before the effect of the trinket wears off.

I'm still thinking the effects of this out as I write this, but it should be something worth examining. The biggest problem (as far as WrathCalcs is concerned) is that this is going to be an incredibly difficult thing to model. In order for it to actually be a net-gain there would have to be several factors to consider. First of all, there's a good chance you would have to clip your DoT in order to meet the time requirement. Therefore the damage gained from the haste benefit would have to be greater than the remaining damage of your clipped DoT. That is complicated further by the effects of Eclipse.

At first, I also thought there might be a problem with delaying Nature's Grace as well, but no matter when trigger Nature's Grace, you will always get the full 15 sec. of the effect unless your half-rotation (from one Eclipse to the next) is shorter than 15 seconds.

In the end, it's probably a knot that's too big in scope for WrathCalcs to attempt to model, but it is something that we should probably consider for optimal performance during a fight.

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Old 12/05/10, 3:27 AM   #225
 Hamlet
<Druid Trainer>
 
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Tauren Druid
 
Mal'Ganis
The big issue would be having to clip to take advantage of the haste. It's generally never been worth it to clip for trinket procs, except for edge cases like clipping exactly one tick, which seem too thin to worry about. That shouldn't be too different here--these trinkets are around as strong as past trinkets. In a bit more detail: a ~2000 haste proc will give at most 2 extra ticks. So same result as before--it's only going to be worth clipping if the clip cuts off exactly one tick (i.e. you refresh between the third-last and second-last tick). Too rare and minor a benefit to realistically think about.

It's a slightly different case when we talk about use: effects. We have [Heart of Ignacious], but the principle is no different for spellpower procs (and don't forget Synapse Springs). One some other thread I briefly got into this lately--it seems like it might be optimal to wait to overlap those things with Eclipse. Slightly different issue though.


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