Druid Changes Patch 3.1 - Page 29

nightcrowler · 03/06/09, 1:19 AM

Originally Posted by Scyfur

With agi (at this stage) being the stat to go for for feral dps, is there any concern with diminishing returns on crit?
Unbuffed I currently sit at 46% crit, regemming/reenchanting agi pushes me up to 48.5% crit, is there a point where it would be better to gem str over agi again?

Not in this life, tested up to 70% crit.

Muck · 03/06/09, 3:11 PM

Balance

* Eclipse now gives you a 33% chance of increasing damage done by Wrath by 30% (up from 20%) when you critically hit with Starfire.
* Owlkin Frenzy now affects all attacks. (Old - Physical melee and ranged attacks only)
* Nature's Grace now increasing your spell casting speed by 20% for 3 sec. (Old - Reduced the casting time of your next spell by 0.5 sec.)

I'm wondering if Owlkin Frenzy would be usefull at fights like Sapphiron now.

Hjalte · 03/06/09, 3:26 PM

Owlkin Frenzy is "all attacks" on live.

Also:

Balance

* Starfall cooldown has been lowered from 3 min to 1.5 min.
* Celestial Focus now reduces the pushback suffered from damaging attacks while casting Starfire, Hibernate and Cyclone by 23/46/70% and increases your total spell haste by 1/2/3%.

Glyph:

* Glyph of Starfall: Reduces the cooldown of Starfall by 30 seconds.

Feral

* Faerie Fire and Faerie Fire (Feral) now reduces the armor of the target for 5 min. (Up from 40 sec)
Note: 5 min PvE. 40 sec in PvP.

Restoration

* Tree of Life mana cost has been changed from 28% of base mana to 13% of base mana.

Copied from MMO-Champion.

Nice buff to Moonkins.

*Edit: Added Glyph of Starfall and PvP FF duration.

foxglove · 03/06/09, 3:34 PM

Originally Posted by Hjalte

Feral
Faerie Fire and Faerie Fire (Feral) now reduces the armor of the target for 5 min. (Up from 40 sec)

While this sounds like a nice change overall, it seems like it would worsen the "Boomkin Annoyance" (not being able to cast Bear Form FFF on a target when a Balance druid's Improved FF is on the target.) If FFF could apply its damage and threat without overwriting the debuff, it wouldn't be a problem. I'm going to submit that feedback on the PTR.

Mijae · 03/06/09, 3:52 PM

I'm more concerned about this in PvP. While it's great for my FF to last longer, it will be ridiculous to be on the receiving end in BGs. 2 minute Hunter's Mark is bad enough.

spencerthomas · 03/06/09, 3:57 PM

I expect them to change the FF change to a PvE duration of 5m with a PvP duration being much less. But atleast its going in the right direction.

The New NG: Has anyone been on to the PTR to test this? Now you should get a 20% reduction on 2 starfires per NG proc. Now it should not put Wrath under 1s but I do not feel that it stregthens a wrath rotation but rather increases SF. Can't wait to get home and load the new PTR.

Hjalte · 03/06/09, 4:00 PM

As it seems to have avoided the attention of some, here's a quote from GC:

Originally Posted by Ghostcrawler

5 min PvE. 40 sec in PvP.

I know these variable durations are getting pretty common. We just discussed trying to modify the tooltips so that they display both durations.

Erdluf · 03/06/09, 4:22 PM

Originally Posted by spencerthomas

The New NG: Has anyone been on to the PTR to test this? Now you should get a 20% reduction on 2 starfires per NG proc. Now it should not put Wrath under 1s but I do not feel that it stregthens a wrath rotation but rather increases SF. Can't wait to get home and load the new PTR.

Since haste effects are normally applied when you start casting, Nature's Grace might apply to

2 SF's (or Regrowths)
3 Wraths (or Nourishes)
2 Wr + SF
Regrowth+Nourish+Regrowth

and possibly:

Entire Hurricane or Tranquility.

That is a significant boost to Moonkin PvE DPS, where geared Moonkin will have very high Nature's Grace uptime (and 100% during Starfall).

I'm not sure about PvP. Crits come from MF (GCD wastes half of your 3s), and you only get 0.25s off of your next Wrath/Hibernate/Cyclone which needs to be cast immediately to get that much benefit.

Pzychotix · 03/06/09, 7:26 PM

Originally Posted by foxglove

While this sounds like a nice change overall, it seems like it would worsen the "Boomkin Annoyance" (not being able to cast Bear Form FFF on a target when a Balance druid's Improved FF is on the target.) If FFF could apply its damage and threat without overwriting the debuff, it wouldn't be a problem. I'm going to submit that feedback on the PTR.

Don't forget a Shadow Priest's Misery prevents you from refreshing FFF as well.

Crucial288 · 03/06/09, 7:49 PM

Eclipse now gives you a 33% chance of increasing damage done by Wrath by 30% (up from 20%) when you critically hit with Starfire.

Hm, with this and the Nature's Grace change, would wrath eclipse be possibly better?
And if not, any idea by how much is the increase, and how much has the DPS gap gotten smaller by?

coinflip · 03/06/09, 8:02 PM

This is a post for the feral crowd, you may find this interesting: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...60&pageNo=2#36

It is in this build I believe. If not, then it is: Armor Penetration Rating: All classes now receive 25% more benefit from Armor Penetration Rating.

Posted today. Don't gem for Agility just yet?

Moonkin Kai · 03/06/09, 8:03 PM

It may end up that on high movement fights, Wrath Eclipse would be better, however, on "nuke" fights, I'd imagine SF Eclipse would still win.

seminarca · 03/06/09, 8:09 PM

Savage Defense is implemented in this push:

Bear Form only. Time to go do some testing.

edit1: The buff you get lasts for 10 seconds after it procs. Buff text: "Absorbs physical damage equal to 25% of your attack power for 1 hit."

• Adoriele · 03/06/09, 8:09 PM

Originally Posted by Moonkin Kai

It may end up that on high movement fights, Wrath Eclipse would be better, however, on "nuke" fights, I'd imagine SF Eclipse would still win.

Nope. Preliminary (though fairly extensive) changes to WC show that pretty much the entire situation got fucked with these changes. Past a certain amount of haste, the current rotation is still correct. Before that point, however, the entire rotation flips. You prefer Solar eclipses, and you should Wrath during the ICD. The break point is the amount of haste necessary to drop NG'd Wrath below 1s again, and is very reachable in current gear.

Thaeryn · 03/06/09, 8:42 PM

Did a quick run into HoL while the servers were going down to get a feel for Savage Defense. I was at 5400 AP and about 42% crit in my tanking gear. Didn't get a chance to dig into the combat log for specifics, but the ability definitely has a good feel to it. I saw it up almost constantly, and did several pulls without needing a heal from my healer. Granted, the instance was on normal and I definitely outgear the instance at this point, but the ability has a good feel to it so far.

I'd like to get some more information on how it performs when being hit by a large number of mobs... see if it has a "window" and can absorb several small hits or not. Otherwise, it will be substantially weaker than shield block when tanking a large number of small hitting mobs.