Feral Megathread - Page 5

exarkun · 10/11/07, 3:36 PM

Anyone have any idea how this new expertise skill will translate to our feral combat skill? Is shapeshifters signet going to be garbage now?

http://elitistjerks.com/f15/t16967-2_3_patch_notes/

• Expertise: We have added a new stat and associated rating called expertise and expertise rating. Expertise rating converts to expertise at the same rate that weapon skill rating formerly converted at. Each point of expertise reduces the chance for your attacks to be dodged or parried by 0.25%

• Weapon Skill: All items and abilities that granted weapon skill have been changed. In most cases, they were converted to expertise or expertise rating. Ranged attacks do not benefit from expertise, so ranged weapon skill has generally been replaced by critical strike bonuses or hit bonuses. In a few cases, talents have been changed to other effects to avoid granting players excessive amounts of expertise.

david0925 · 10/11/07, 4:38 PM

Originally Posted by exarkun

Anyone have any idea how this new expertise skill will translate to our feral combat skill? Is shapeshifters signet going to be garbage now?

http://elitistjerks.com/f15/t16967-2_3_patch_notes/

• Expertise: We have added a new stat and associated rating called expertise and expertise rating. Expertise rating converts to expertise at the same rate that weapon skill rating formerly converted at. Each point of expertise reduces the chance for your attacks to be dodged or parried by 0.25%

• Weapon Skill: All items and abilities that granted weapon skill have been changed. In most cases, they were converted to expertise or expertise rating. Ranged attacks do not benefit from expertise, so ranged weapon skill has generally been replaced by critical strike bonuses or hit bonuses. In a few cases, talents have been changed to other effects to avoid granting players excessive amounts of expertise.

Yes, that pretty much murdered the needs for any skill rating, 5 points of expertise will now reduce dodge by 1.25%, 2.5% total avoidance if you include parry.

But my concern is, feral weapon buff and HOTW change WRU =(

mandella · 10/11/07, 4:57 PM

Yea, could anyone check the numbers on weapons with FAP? I think it interests us all

Larisroth · 10/11/07, 5:07 PM

The expertise change needed to go through. It was getting ridiculous as to how much difference 5 points of weapon skill made, and the different lengths people had to go to to get it.

It's still probably worth getting some as a tank if there's anything we can get it on, but only really worth getting on dps gear if it otherwise good.

Anyone on the ptr and able to check if there's any reitemisation in light of the HotW changes?

david0925 · 10/11/07, 5:08 PM

Originally Posted by Larisroth

The expertise change needed to go through. It was getting ridiculous as to how much difference 5 points of weapon skill made, and the different lengths people had to go to to get it.

It's still probably worth getting some as a tank if there's anything we can get it on, but only really worth getting dps gear if we can.

Yes, 2.5% mitigation to total avoidance is pretty big, assuming that it is a very threat intensive fight

david0925 · 10/11/07, 5:17 PM

The FAP and HoTW changes are now up on the patch notes

dukes · 10/11/07, 5:26 PM

I've updated the feral combat skill post-2.3 section. I've assumed that it will be marginally less desirable for a hit-capped player due to not giving critical strike % any more, while for a non-hit-capped player it's a lot less desirable because of not giving any hit % any more.

The test server isn't up as far as I could see (just checked - europe though) so I can't check the weapons. If anyone does manage to get on and get decent shots of all the weapons, post it here and I'll backlink to the post to make it easy.

Kieran · 10/11/07, 6:01 PM

The PTR in the US is also not up as of now (Hortus' post), so we have to wait a while while those are being prepared.

I just wonder how much more FAP our staves (and maces) will bring.

As an aside, the Patch Notes state something about Warriors' Charge getting its pathing fixed, perhaps our Feral Charge will also be affected.

Grizlock · 10/11/07, 6:14 PM

Originally Posted by Kieran

The PTR in the US is also not up as of now (Hortus' post), so we have to wait a while while those are being prepared.

I just wonder how much more FAP our staves (and maces) will bring.

As an aside, the Patch Notes state something about Warriors' Charge getting its pathing fixed, perhaps our Feral Charge will also be affected.

Has anyone been able to download the PTR client? I keep getting "The service youre trying to access is too busy right now, please check back another time." This makes it seem like it is available, just getting too many request. They also forgot their apostrophe.

Athinira · 10/11/07, 6:31 PM

Hey Dukes.

You might probably want to include my article about Strength versus Agility in your post if you like. Its theorycrafting, but provides decent arguments to compare Strength and Agility for Raid DPS.

Given, its written pre-2.3 HotW change, but my conclusion was Agility >> Strength in terms of raid DPS for the average geared druid. Since the AP value of agility increases by 10% and the AP value of strength decreases by 1/12th, the graph should still hold true, only favoring agility even more.

You can read my article here:
The Druid Wiki » AthinirasCorner

...as well as you can read Tossk DPS gear methodology here:
The Druid Wiki » ToskksDPSGearMethod

To sum up however, the general conclusion is that because that attack power scales much faster than critical strike chance when you achieve new upgrades (Feral AP weapons etc.), as well as raid buffs, the value of agility compared to strength drastically increases in the favor of agility since druids generally take a great bunch of Attack Power in, making agility overall more valuable for DPS.

Excellent post overall, keep up the good work. Once you feel the thread is finished, ill add it to the Druid Wiki.

Reading from the information you provided, you already stated agility as the best DPS stat. But if you want to link the two articles above feel free to do so.

In addition, i would heavily recommend you introduce people to Rawr as well. Its a program for calculating the value of druid tanking items.
The Druid Wiki » Rawr

Zeln · 10/11/07, 7:14 PM

Originally Posted by Athinira

In addition, i would heavily recommend you introduce people to Rawr as well. Its a program for calculating the value of druid tanking items.
The Druid Wiki » Rawr

Someone turned me onto Rawr last night, and I have to say, its a wonderful program. It allows you to create your own profile, or just download straight from the armory. One of the greatest things is not only does it rate the gear based on just "points", but further separates those points as survival and avoidance, and updates based upon how all of your gear stacks up.

dukes · 10/11/07, 8:34 PM

I've added links to both your blog and Rawr, Athinira, thanks. Toskk's was already on there (end of the Cat DPS post) but I've added a note to say what it actually is as it was unclear before.

I'm not sure the thread will ever be 'finished' as such. It's one of those things to just keep adding to. I don't mind if you add it to the wiki when it's more fully fleshed out though.

seminarca · 10/11/07, 11:59 PM

Right, so I'm reading that PTRs are apparently available now. Is anyone in a position to log on yet?

Mainly I'm interested in:

FAP changes on Feral weapons. How much extra FAP are the common ones getting?

The /cancelform change is missing from patch notes, but usually they don't put UI/Macro related stuff in there. So, is it in the PTR build yet? Can you try powershifting using /cancelform macros?

Can you try /cancelform + potion/healthstone macros while being attacked? While being attacked by a fast hitting mob? While being attacked by multiple fast hitting mobs? Take a /combatlog so we can see if there are any hits in caster form.

Is season 3 arena gear up yet? Season 3 honor stuff (bracers, belt, boots)?

Melthar · 10/12/07, 12:36 AM

WoW Forums -> Feral Weapon Buffs Post here Supposedly has some of the changes to the FAP weapons.

From there:
Earthwarden: 712 AP
S2 Mace: 1010 AP (but not changed to agi/str)
Terestian's stranglestaff = 829 AP
Essentially they basically match an equivalent level 2H'r now

Zadnak · 10/12/07, 12:42 AM

^^ Melthar beat me to it. Please delete this post.