Druid Changes Patch 3.1 - Page 45

Axl · 03/21/09, 10:35 AM

In a perverse way, I'm kinda glad our moonkin T8 4 peice sucks. Now we can take the two good peices and then ditch the rest for offset. I wasn't looking forward to rolling around in all that spirit with vastly superior offset peices staring me in the face.

But then again, they did fix the 2T8 bonus, so maybe if the wheel squeeks enough, the 4 peice will get changed too

Jheusse · 03/21/09, 11:51 AM

Originally Posted by Huggme

I've just tried it and you are correct. We need some hostile target (it can be miles away, but still) for swipe to go off, otherwise we get "There's nothing to attack".
It would have been much better without the target requirement, but it's not that terrible.

Hmm, so in theory you could stand and spam it in the area where boss adds would spawn and not cost a GCD or rage, except in that case your targeting would pick up the boss elsewhere in the room, so the rage and GCD costs accrue.

I was just looking at it as potentially a band-aid to the struggles I've had picking up whelps at sarth and other places where adds sprint through me between swipes and I don't always have a great grasp of exactly timing their spawn. At least now when they run through me I'll hit them with the buttside swipe, the fartswipe I think one of our feral bloggers calls it.

edit: further to the "have to have a target", if the only critters in range are neutral (neutral mobs or your standard rat) would they satisfy the requirement, will they autotarget the critter when you hit swipe and fire it off, or say "nothing to attack"? Just trying to figure out the edge conditions on the new mechanics and how they work on mobs that only appear or become attackable after x amount of time (so many bosses unattackable until their speech is done).

Amroo · 03/21/09, 12:30 PM

Neutral mobs yes, critters no, they are usually never auto-targeted, although it seems to be bugged sometimes.

I suppose if you want to solve the targeting-problem in situations like Sartharion welps you can write a macro like

/target <your name>
/target Sartharion Twilight Welp
/cast Swipe

That way you should be able to just spam the button until the mobs phase in. When there are no mobs, you remain targeted and you should get a "Can't attack that target."-message, but not use up rage or a global CD. Once the welps are there you target them and swipe should work.

Huggme · 03/21/09, 5:53 PM

Originally Posted by Amroo

/target <your name>
/target Sartharion Twilight Welp
/cast Swipe

I've tried to target myself with some agressive mobs around (~50yards away), then hitting swipe and it targeted closest red mob and performed swipe. So I can assume your macro would behave in similar manner, not saving any rage or gcd. You would probably have to write more complex, conditional macro.

Amroo · 03/21/09, 8:25 PM

True, I was under the impression, that hostile mobs aren't automatically targeted if you target a friendly npc.

This should work, though, tested it with my hunter and Multi-Shot (since it's the only character I can log on with right now - damn you, cheap Italian internet connections!), which I'm pretty sure functions in the same way.

/tar Sartharion Twilight Welp
/cast [target=target, exists] Swipe

This macro is conditional on having something targeted, so if you have nothing targeted it doesn't get as far as casting, which is why the cast can't automatically target something.

Batguus · 03/25/09, 4:05 PM

I am not sure since which build this is, ie if this old news, but tonight I noticed Thorns was getting the bonus dmg from me, not the target. I got illustration stacks up to 10, forced a sundial proc, then cast Thorns on a DK, and it was reflecting for over 500 dmg when he was getting hit (with Brambles).

Nice little buff I reckon, certainly for PvP I presume, but don't know much about that.

Broseph · 03/25/09, 6:58 PM

Originally Posted by Batguus

I am not sure since which build this is, ie if this old news, but tonight I noticed Thorns was getting the bonus dmg from me, not the target. I got illustration stacks up to 10, forced a sundial proc, then cast Thorns on a DK, and it was reflecting for over 500 dmg when he was getting hit (with Brambles).

Nice little buff I reckon, certainly for PvP I presume, but don't know much about that.

I can't see this being intentional, mostly because of how inelegant it will be for druid tanks to ask other druids to buff them with thorns before the pull. Pallies and Prot warriors supply their own damage shields -- I couldn't see ferals having a damage shield spell but preferring to be buffed by their resto or balance counterpart in raids.

Vidandric · 03/25/09, 8:24 PM

Interesting post from GC in a thread about the Mp5 on Elemental gear:World of Warcraft - English (NA) Forums -> ELemental Shaman Itemization and the Silence

In our internal tests, Elemental shamans were running out of mana LIKE A LOT. So you're stuck with it.

KIDDING. The Elemental Worldbreaker set had its mp5 replaced, mostly with crit IIRC.

Wish they'd listen to us moonkins.

Munorion · 03/26/09, 4:43 AM

Another heads-up from GC, this time regarding treants (among other pets):

We added AE avoidance to the shadowfiend, wolves, water and fire elementals, and treants I believe.

Korhaug · 03/26/09, 5:51 AM

Originally Posted by Vidandric

Wish they'd listen to us moonkins.

I haven't seen the reasoned, eloquent post about our tier gear on the role forums. For that matter, I haven't seen the post about moonkins under utilizing spirit.

I can't post on US boards, so I hope someone made those posts and I just missed them.

Erdluf · 03/26/09, 8:17 AM

Originally Posted by Batguus

I am not sure since which build this is, ie if this old news, but tonight I noticed Thorns was getting the bonus dmg from me, not the target. I got illustration stacks up to 10, forced a sundial proc, then cast Thorns on a DK, and it was reflecting for over 500 dmg when he was getting hit (with Brambles).

Nice little buff I reckon, certainly for PvP I presume, but don't know much about that.

It would be worth getting some confirmation on that. It would make Brambles worth about 1% damage per talent point for Moonkin in PvE.

In PvP it seems excessive. Pity the poor rogue/kitty in a battleground where everyone (including graveyard guards) has a 500 point thorns.

PvE math: In PW parses I see two tanks being hit about 110 times (total). If one is a pali, his thorns currently do about 160. The other is a bear and his thorns do 71. Bump both of those numbers to 500, and total damage goes from 14k to 55k.

Almost 24k of that increase can be attributed to Brambles. The Druid's treants will do an additional 8k, or so because of Brambles, meaning the total damage from Brambles is about 32k, in a fight where the Druid currently does 900-1000k.

barrabus · 03/26/09, 11:22 AM

Originally Posted by Batguus

I am not sure since which build this is, ie if this old news, but tonight I noticed Thorns was getting the bonus dmg from me, not the target. I got illustration stacks up to 10, forced a sundial proc, then cast Thorns on a DK, and it was reflecting for over 500 dmg when he was getting hit (with Brambles).

Nice little buff I reckon, certainly for PvP I presume, but don't know much about that.

Do you know if Thorns was still doing 500 damage a hit even after your SP buffs had run out? I'm wondering if the damage done is fixed for the entire duration of the buff based on the caster's SP at time of casting. It would be useful to be able to throw on off-set resto or balance gear, cast an hour-long thorns on yourself, put feral gear back on and still get the damage increase.

Mijae · 03/26/09, 2:45 PM

I haven't seen this posted anywhere, but I noticed a change to the way Predatory Strikes is being applied to weapons on the PTR.

My [Journey's End] is enchanted with Massacre. It appears that the AP from the enchant is also getting the 1.2 weapon multiplier now. I confirmed this is not the case on live.

On live:
((2353 + 228) * 1.2 + 110 + 120) * 1.1 ~= 3660

On PTR:
((2353 + 228 + 110) * 1.2 + 120) * 1.1 ~= 3684

I don't have a weapon with Berserking right now to test if it gets the bonus, but my guess is it wouldn't since the stat is applied as a buff.

Erdluf · 03/26/09, 3:33 PM

Originally Posted by Batguus

I am not sure since which build this is, ie if this old news, but tonight I noticed Thorns was getting the bonus dmg from me, not the target. I got illustration stacks up to 10, forced a sundial proc, then cast Thorns on a DK, and it was reflecting for over 500 dmg when he was getting hit (with Brambles).

Nice little buff I reckon, certainly for PvP I presume, but don't know much about that.

Premonition PTR parses

Looking at Xav (Warrior):

- Patchwork (PTR) test on Mar 17, Thorns does 92 to 116. Retribution Aura averages 213.
- Hodir Try 17 on Mar 25, Thorns does 378-573. Retribution Aura averages 210.

The only two Druids in the raid are Feral and Resto. I suppose it is possible that a resto Druid dropped Nature's Grace and picked up Brambles. Or, with dual-spec, a druid could have cast thorns as Moonkin, and then changed spec for the fight.

Korhaug · 03/26/09, 3:48 PM

Has anyone tested to see if they switched Thorns to scale by the target's AP? That would be my guess.