tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3232240169123589462.post8976172603997725344..comments2023-12-13T05:38:56.001-06:00Comments on Gray Matter: The Unofficial Ghostcrawler Q&AGraylohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12928540421337175942noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3232240169123589462.post-85092131231890346842012-06-26T04:44:43.009-05:002012-06-26T04:44:43.009-05:00GC postet more on the Balance Rotation:
Here are ...GC postet more on the Balance Rotation:<br /><br />Here are some more incoming changes relevant to Balance Druid theorycrafters. <br /><br />We are experimenting with some changes to the rotation. No promises that these changes will stay, but we definitely look forward to your feedback (both in terms of theorycrafting and how fun it is). Shooting Stars should occur much more frequently, and Starsurge should be a more important (read: high damage) button. Additionally, we’re adding a new passive that has some interesting implications. Should you choose to ignore it, your DPS will likely be only a few percentage behind someone who uses it optimally, but it should hopefully provide some more varied gameplay. To use some game designer jargon, we’re happy with Moonkins’ macro level rotational gameplay, but think they needs some more mirco-level decisions. <br /><br />•Shooting Stars chance increased from 20% to 50%.<br />•Starsurge damage increased by 30%.<br />•Fae Empowerment: New passive for Balance Druids. When you cast Faerie Fire, you gain Lunar Empowerment and Solar Empowerment.<br />•Lunar Empowerment: Increases the damage of your next 3 Starfires within 15 sec by 15%.<br />•Solar Empowerment: Increases the damage of your next 3 Wraths within 15 sec by 20%.<br /><br /> Please note that these changes are straight DPS buffs, and we don’t think Moonkin need a buff right now, so we need to reduce overall damage (probably across the board) so that overall DPS stays the same. These nerfs may take a few builds, because we need to evaluate if these rotation changes are worth doing. However, don't be surprised when you see them, and help spread the word when you see the inevitable "I can't believe we were nerfed!" posts.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3232240169123589462.post-52472678596038320942012-06-25T12:12:26.468-05:002012-06-25T12:12:26.468-05:00I'd just like to point out Graylo that the neg...I'd just like to point out Graylo that the negative feelings towards the MoP Balance rotation aren't because it's simple, and thus boring.<br /><br />Simple != Boring<br /><br />MoP Arcane mages have still have relatively few buttons to press, and from that point of view simple, but still offers enough depth and are very good due to the mechanics. <br /><br />MoP Balance is just borderline mind numbing in the opinion of myself and many others. We hit eclipse, hit a dot, and spend the next 20ish seconds spamming the same spell to the other side of Eclipse, rinse and repeat except we now spam a different spell which could technically be macroed onto Spell#1 and just be one button. <br /><br />That's what's wrong. We have next to nothing to do. Starsurge CD is long, and procs are next to non-existent. DoTs don't need managing. I'd rather MF > SFx4 at this point and I'm quite serious in that regard. <br /><br />I don't fall in the camp of players that like Cata's eclipse design, and the whole requirement to have a whole minute's worth of foresight in a fight to use Eclipse and the counter-intuitive nature of DoT refreshes, but I sure like it better than MoP's version. At first I thought MoP changes were good when Beta first launched but overtime, those feelings have turned for the worse.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3232240169123589462.post-18571138161957297682012-06-25T10:17:00.504-05:002012-06-25T10:17:00.504-05:00It's going to take some pretty fine balancing ...It's going to take some pretty fine balancing on Blizz's part to make this work.<br />Err one way, and the type of eclipse is irrelevant. Err the other, and we are back where we are at present, where you get to solar and sit there for minutes at a time (ie., Blackhorn).<br />I guess I'd prefer the former. I find solar camping removes all elegance from what we do.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3232240169123589462.post-74877668968054604152012-06-22T23:28:42.699-05:002012-06-22T23:28:42.699-05:00"This means that Hurricane and Starfire will ..."This means that Hurricane and Starfire will be about 22% stronger then their counterparts and that fells a little to large for me. I would prefer to see a difference in the 10% - 15% range."<br /><br />I actually think the difference will tend to be bigger in Lunar and smaller in Solar than is betrayed by the simple Wrath:Starfire and Hurricane:Astral Storm comparisons. <br /><br />Part of the issue is the strength of Starfall and its always being available in every eclipse cycle.<br /><br />For example, at 15k SP, 60% Mastery, 10% haste from gear, (I think these are all fairly close to entry raiding numbers), and 10 seconds AoE Duration, over all the combinations of having Nature's Grace and Shrooms Available, Solar ends up being 13% stronger on average over a range of 7-13 targets (the most common range of target # 10man raids, I'd say), and 17% stronger on average over a range of 9-17 targets. As you scale the stats up, these start moving closer to 20%. <br /><br />Of course, in the absolute best case for Solar of being able to use Shrooms and NG, the differences are even larger in favor of Solar (upwards of 30% if you have 19 targets). <br /><br />I popped a google spreadsheet on the official forums in the big moonkin thread if you'd like to have a look . You can vary AoE length, mastery, haste, and spell power. The spreadsheet will do all the comparisons for you across a range of target counts. It does ignore damage cap, which hurts Solar more than Lunar since more of Lunar's damage come from Starfall, which isn't subject to that cap. It also will tell you at what target count Starfall is worth using.<br /><br />As for single target, If you don't bother to save Starfall for Solar (i.e. you don't save it when you know you'll be in solar for the important burn), the total lunar cycle is worth 20% more than the total solar cycle (again, it's under the starfire:wrath ratio because the cycles share starsurge and DoT damage). If you just tie Starfall to Lunar? Well, then the single target difference in favor of Lunar jumps up to 35%!<br /><br />These discrepancies may be mitigated to some degree by the frequency with which aoe/single target burns are necessary. If they're infrequent enough to tie to Celestial Alignment, then we don't have much to worry about it at all.<br /><br />In the end I think they should take one of two design directions:<br />Either make the Eclipses more or less equivalent and have the important game play mechanic to be IN SOME eclipse, rather than in a non-eclipsed phase, and maybe have very small differences on the order of 10% or so<br />Or<br />Make the eclipses as different as they are now and make the important game play mechanic to be in the RIGHT eclipse state. This would involve dumping the 'uneclipsed'/pre-solar/pre-lunar phases (and obviously appropriately adjusting overall numbers).<br /><br />Muddling these can make for some very frustrating play of holding just short of the right eclipse doing absolutely terrible damage, just to make sure you're in the right state (of 4 eclipse states, rather than 2).Hercdeiselnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3232240169123589462.post-17698096899899359672012-06-22T16:45:30.440-05:002012-06-22T16:45:30.440-05:00I can see eclipse working like an unholy DK's ...I can see eclipse working like an unholy DK's runic power. Unholy runes mean huge dps, but there are frost and blood runes at your disposal for utility or to help the primary (unholy) runes work better. If you run out of unholy runes, there is the ability to convert a "utility" rune into a powerul dps rune via blood tap. So, why can't Boomkins have an ability (maybe I.S.) that gives you eclipsed damage, while you are out of the eclipse phase? Maybe I.S. allows the next cast to benefit from eclipse and is on a 10s cooldown. The way it stands now, you have your powerful dps phase, then nothing. There should be a filler during the non-eclipse phase that helps our eclipsed spells in some way.Mikenoreply@blogger.com