Originally Posted by thedopefishlives
Trees are a not-insignificant source of DPS at level 80, if you can keep them alive for their entire duration and cast them on cooldown. The main trouble with them seems to be in the former, however, so I suppose if you think you can squeeze ~5% dps by putting that talent point elsewhere, do so.
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On Force of Nature:
I don't have too much trouble keeping the trees alive so far in Naxx-10. Razuvious is the worst offender, but their increased health allows them to take the first shout without dying. Judgement of Light can actually allow for self-healing enough to survive multiple aoes too. Best results I've had are using them very early before many of the aoe mechanics start; this also increases the chance for a second activation. There's no way you'll do more total damage without FoN as long as they stay alive for about 6 or 7 seconds, though your personal 'DPS' may be higher.
Placement is key, you want to place them so they'll run straight at the back of the boss for their pathing instead of running through for potential cleaves/breaths. On dragons you cast them about three yards from his flank and they'll stay there safely.
Once you hit 25 mans with all raid buffs you'll see how fast and hard they hit. Brambles is also about equal to improved moonfire if they're pushing 9-11% of your total damage (Most fights they were 7-9% of mine in the 10-man) and that's ignoring the benefit to thorns damage. Part of maximizing trees is having them out for bloodlust; our Enh. Shaman raid leader calls out 5 seconds before so Trees/Elementals/Wolves can get full benefit. Having spell power trinkets/procs/consumables up during that time isn't a bad decision either, so that those benefits are applying to as much of your DPS as possible. Practice, timing, and knowledge are necessary to use this talent. There's also the very real potential of a future set bonus, idol, or trinket that significantly buffs their damage output.
One nice thing: if your tank moves soon enough Treants will do the Safety Dance, likely better than half your raid the first few times!
On Tr33hugger:
Range is extremely valuable as those extra seconds are lost total damage that most people don't notice because it won't change your "DPS" number. Threat is very important on aggro wipe encounters and to give aoe tanks more breathing room for pickup on boss fights. I don't know why you would drop Typhoon for the marginal 3rd point in Eclipse, when it's a significant snap aoe on some boss fights as well as usable on the move for ST bosses (Which don't get knockedback). That third point in eclipse is one of the least valuable pure DPS points we can spend. You'd also benefit more from a SF-W-SF (Starfire, wrath on eclipse, Starfire till proc) rotation if you're mana strapped. If your mana is really that poor just drop wrath/eclipse altogether.
How are you having so much mana trouble as to need 3/3 DS and Intensity? Are you running with replenishment and at least one Paladin? Remind them that Blessing of wisdom is better than Kings for you if there's only one paladin. Ten-mans were designed for at least one replenishment giver in the raid, if not then you want to regear heavily for spirit and drop the IS glyph for the innervate one. You are self-innervating correct? Do you have spirit on any of your gear as well?
Crit is still our least valuable rating point for point, especially in a Starfire heavy rotation. Once hit capped you want Spell Power and Haste. Spirit is only best when you're running out of mana, so finding the right value for you is important. Having gear switches for different bosses is a future min-max technique we'll want to employ in addition to spec changes.
EDIT: Removed as this is the raid thread, so lets keep away from discussing five-man viability.