Hey, now that the leaked screenshots are confirmed not-fake ( -> http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/...well_loots.jpg) it's interesting to see that there's finally a near-perfectly itemized DPS stave coming from an endgame tier. Either the itemization team woke up, or Pillar was made terrible on purpose, similar to how Naxxramas items were so much better itemized.
I for one would like to see how it ends up modelled vs an Arena maul scaled up to S4 level.
Edit: to save a click, stats on months-old screenshot here:
+75 Str
+47 Agi
+50 Sta
1197 Feral Attack Power
350 Armor Penetration
Characters will now retain talented spell ranks so when they retalent they do not have to relearn the spells from trainers.
Lacerate: This ability now deals additional damage based on the attack power of the Druid.
Mangle (Bear) now properly triggers a 1.5 second global cooldown, increased from 1.0.
When a Druid in cat form casts Pounce it will now properly animate.
Players will no longer require an attunement quest to enter Hyjal.
Players will no longer require an attunement quest to enter the Black Temple.
Gems obtained through Heroic difficulty instances are no longer Unique-equipped.
Idol of Feral Shadows: The bonus damage to Rip has been increased.
Idol of the Raven Goddess: The bonus healing, critical strike rating, and spell critical strike rating from this item have been increased. In addition, it no longer sometimes fails to apply the healing bonus.
Idol of Ursoc: The bonus damage to Lacerate has been increased and the tooltip clarified to indicate it applies to both initial and periodic damage.
Idol of the White Stag: Duration increased.
Weightstones and Sharpening Stones: The bonus damage from these temporary enchantments now works while shapeshifted.
I'd be interested to see the new stats on the idols.
I'd like to see if theres a riad viable upgrade to everbloom in the form of Feral Shadows, doubtful but possible.
Also the heroic gems should add a small extra DPS boost.
Also the heroic gems should add a small extra DPS boost.
You'll gain 5 Str and lose 1 Agi with this change (using a second 5 Str 4 Agi Gem instead of 5 Agi 7 Stam).. I would say the DPS boost will be really small
You'll gain 5 Str and lose 1 Agi with this change (using a second 5 Str 4 Agi Gem instead of 5 Agi 7 Stam).. I would say the DPS boost will be really small
Yes, but the key is that it's a blue gem and thus can satisfy meta or socket requirements while still being a pure dps gem.
While we've been farming this encounter for a while, last night was the first time I actually tanked Gathios (usually on the Rogue). We've recently lost two protection warriors to casualitis and are down to 1 protection Warrior, 1 protection Paladin, and 1 feral Druid. Not knowing exactly what to expect, I luckily chose HP gear over avoidance (considering I can't reflect SoB and other spell damage) however I was tempted to wear my avoidance gear considering he can't crush.
Hopefully Sunwell will provide some expertise for feral tanks and possibly a new armor ring so we can finally upgrade our Karazhan/Magtheridon combination -- and possibly (yeah right) an epic armor trinket with stamina and some defense.
If you have a protection warrior, it's pretty backwards not to put him on Gathios. Spell Reflect is the crux of the Gathios pairing and increases threat by a ton as well as decreasing incoming damage by a ton. We're much better on Veras (Malande is sorta warrior-y too due to easy availability of an interrupt).
Stupid question time: Are druid claws blunt or sharp? (For the weight/sharpening stones.)
The staff or mace you will be applying the stone to is certainly blunt.
With 4800AP, 51% Crit, 9% Hit raidbuffed, the Adamantite weightstone looks like about a 21dps increase over Elemental Sharpstone, per Voldin's spreadsheet.
Now we can use 2pc t4 AND 4pc t6. Overpowered beyond compare?
I'm not really impressed with the items themselves other than the boots, which are amazing. Compared to Insidious Bands / Don Alejandro Money Belt the belt/bracer seems to be suchhh small upgrades its almost barely worth mentioning!
Also should we assume that they scaled weightstones properly in the same way weapon damage has in the past for druids (Ex: Crystalforged) ? It might be scaled down in some strange way, because it seems like a HUGE boost if not.
look at that leather chest.. and those pants! socket those bad boys with x3 10 agi.
edit2: of course there are even tons more items that are also amazing offpieces. The "furry hunter" hat seems to be amazing for tanking, too. I imagine we'll be pretty busy for the nezt little while.. PAGING TOSSK!
Must figure out best possible 2pc t4 + 4 pc t6 + 2 offpieces... rarr.... it seems once again that the rogue vs feral pieces, the rogue ones blow out the feral ones for pure DPS and the feral ones are significant tanking upgrades.
Also should we assume that they scaled weightstones properly in the same way weapon damage has in the past for druids (Ex: Crystalforged) ? It might be scaled down in some strange way, because it seems like a HUGE boost if not.
Barring testing or evidence to the contrary, is there any reason to assume otherwise? PTR testing will bear it out one way or the other. Also, 30-35 DPS is a fairly moderate increase over no temporary imbue at all (2-3% maybe). It's still nothing compared to Windfury.
Also an interesting thing to note posted on worldofraids:
Defense skill line description change:
* Old value: Higher defense makes you harder to hit and makes monsters less likely to land a crushing blow.
* New value: Higher defense improves your chance to dodge, parry, and block attacks, makes you harder to hit, and makes monsters less likely to land a critical strike against you.
Blizzard has stated in the past they wanted to reduce the randomness caused by crushing blows, maybe they have removed them entirely? This could significantly alter our burst damage taken, however this seems like a big change to not put in the official notes. Just food for thought until the US servers are live and guilds begin to raid.
Its just a clarification of an old line of text description in the game. No change to any mechanics, just a more accurate wording.
@seminarca
Defense does reduce the chance of crushings. It doesn't directly reduce it as it does crit change, but defense adds dodge and miss chance (as well as parry/block for others) and if you can get those numbers to add up high enough, you push crushings off the hit table.
Defense never reduced the chance of receiving crushing blows, this is more than likely just a tooltip correction/clarification.
You're very right, I always forget its an indirect reduction through avoidance for warriors. To say it doesn't reduce the chance of crushing blows though is somewhat off because parry/block/dodge/miss contributes to not being crushed. Through shield block or getting their avoidance high enough warriors push crushings off the table, not through defense.
I was getting myself caught up on the patch notes and read through quickly, was excited at the possibility of no crushing blows for tanking =(
I wouldn't really say that adding avoidance reduces chance to be crushed. You're looking at avoidance levels of ~86.2%+ before you start pushing crushings off the attack table. It's misleading at best, especially in context of the old defense line ("makes monsters less likely to land a crushing blow") .. to me that doesn't seem to imply "hey! if you get your avoidance high enough, you'll start pushing crushings off the table" but more like it reduces the % chance directly, which is obviously not the case.
Anyway, we are not likely to see crushing mechanic changes until WotLK, that's when they'll need to deal with the Deathknight issue.
Thought I would organize the pieces a little and breakdown their stats
All gem bonuses are met (assuming 5 str > 2 agi now that shifting tanzanite is allowed to be used more than once)
Assuming aldor, epic leg enchant, 15 agi to gloves, 6 all stats, and 34ap/16 hit enchant
Hopefully this helps a bit:
EDIT2: Personally leaning towards Druid Helm/Shoulders + Rogue Chest/Legs + T6 Gloves (4 piece), No idea, I'll let the pro's do the extensive math vs. 2pc t4 Etc.
I mean really it doesn't look that bad at all to maintain the T6 bonus which is arguably more or less the same as 2pc-t4 in the first place.... which you get to keep for the price of virtually no ap and 2% crit while also gaining +1.4% hit, 91 A-Pen (going to be nasty with the 6.5+new weapon), and much needed Expertise.
Actually looking at the sunwell loot I'm a little worried. I'm RIGHT on the hitcap at 142. None of this sunwell loot really has any hit rating on it. So in essence, you get better raw stats etc, till you factor in you'll be socketing with hitgems, not agi gems. It doesn't seem to be much of an upgrade when that factors in.
Edit: actually I take that back. even if you socket those pants with 3 +10 hit gems you're still coming out a little on top of T6, with a lot more flexability from all the sockets spread out across the pants and gloves/
My only real complaint that remains is where god is our tanking staff?
Actually looking at the sunwell loot I'm a little worried. I'm RIGHT on the hitcap at 142. None of this sunwell loot really has any hit rating on it. So in essence, you get better raw stats etc, till you factor in you'll be socketing with hitgems, not agi gems. It doesn't seem to be much of an upgrade when that factors in.
Edit: actually I take that back. even if you socket those pants with 3 +10 hit gems you're still coming out a little on top of T6, with a lot more flexability from all the sockets spread out across the pants and gloves/
My only real complaint that remains is where god is our tanking staff?
Hit rating doesnt NEED to be at 142. Its just another stat. Trading 1 hit rating for 1 Agi in any situation will likely reduce your dps.
In regards to hit, you might opt to use a few of the "rogue-oriented" pieces instead (see previous post with image). In regards to a tanking staff, there won't be one, and there is no real need for one, this is it, no more high-end BC instances, they will throw us a really nice DPS staff which makes a hell of a lot more sense.
02/08/08, 11:43 PM
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