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[WoW]Druid Thread: Open

2

Posts

  • GrobianGrobian What's on sale? Pliers!Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
    Wrath and Starfire are only increased in 4.2 to make up for the huge nerf to T11 4piece. And that nerf is only because they don't want Moonkin to run around in T11 in the next raid tier.

    From the PTR notes:
    Balance

    Starfire damage has been increased by approximately 23%.
    Wrath damage has been increased by approximately 23%.


    Set Bonuses

    The 4-piece Balance druid tier 11 PvE set bonus, Astral Alignment, now provides a total of 15% critical strike chance with 3 charges, decreasing by 5% per charge, instead of 99% decreasing by 33% per charge. This change was made because the set bonus proved so valuable it was not possible to upgrade out of the set into tier 12. To compensate, changes have been made to Starfire and Wrath (listed at the top of the druid class section).

    Grobian on
  • tinwhiskerstinwhiskers Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
    So... can anyone explain why Starsurge damage was REDUCED in 4.1 by 21%, if they were planning on INCREASING Wrath and Starfire damage by 23% in 4.2?

    Those seem like inconsistent positions...

    Starsurge was wrecking people in rate BGs iirc. Its a fast casting nuke with a crazy SP coefficent. 100k crits and such.

    tinwhiskers on
    6ylyzxlir2dz.png
  • OptyOpty Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
    If you were lucky you'd proc an Instant Starsurge while casting a Starsurge and be able to blast off tons of damage in the span of a few seconds. I don't have Balance 4p so the buff to those spells is a pure buff to me.

    Opty on
  • Doctor DetroitDoctor Detroit Registered User regular
    Wow, no druid talk for over a month...

    :cry:

    Thinking of switching from cat/bear to cat/boomkin...I've never actually played that spec.

  • BikkstahBikkstah Registered User regular
    Moonkin is fun, and easy. Just got the last of my 371 PVP pieces to bring me over 4000 resilience. I mostly fuck with people now ;)

  • fortyforty Registered User regular
    edited July 2011
    I hate trying to make a single resto spec work for both PvP and raid healing. WTB more specs.

    forty on
  • TannerMSTannerMS "I'm confidence cause I'm zerg!" Registered User regular
    Wow, no druid talk for over a month...

    :cry:

    Thinking of switching from cat/bear to cat/boomkin...I've never actually played that spec.
    I'm cat/bear now, but I played Moonkin all through Wrath. It was "easy to learn, difficult to master" back then and it looks like the skill cap is even higher now. If I didn't have to tank every fight in my raidgroup I'd be all over it :)

  • OptyOpty Registered User regular
    edited August 2011
    Yeah it's still easy to learn and difficult to master. The basics of Eclipse are made easier with Cata's changes but to squeeze out the top dps you've got to know and execute a lot of little tricks all the time, including doing things "wrong" for a little bit for a bigger gain down the road and never ever using Hurricane.

    Edit: Actually i just heard about the Heroic Rag kill's Boomkin using Hurricane. Of course he sat and used Starfire in Solar Eclipse so it'd be there for the aoe phase where he popped Hurricane and things died in 6 seconds. He was like 10th in dps until the aoe phase and then he popped up to the top. So shitty that Boomkin AoE's locked to being in Solar Eclipse.

    Opty on
  • troublebrewingtroublebrewing Registered User regular
    It looks like I'm going to have to learn to tank Cata Heroics or lose my damn mind with these terrible pugs.

    Any good general or bear specific resources I should be looking at to help me out?

  • tinwhiskerstinwhiskers Registered User regular
    edited August 2011
    Until you have "hop on my back, I'll carry you all" levels of gear, nothing is harder than pug-tanking. You are fighting the mobs, and your "teammates".

    http://thebigbearbutt.com/ and http://theincbear.com are both pretty decent blogs.

    quick and dirty version:

    Dodge>mastery>exp(to soft cap)>crit>hit>>>>>>>>haste(its that shitty)

    gem for Agi, Tia's grace and fluid death are amazing trinkets.

    Keep demo roar up, Mangle every time its off CD, same with thrash, Keep 3 lacerates and pulverize buff up, hit Farie fire over swipe. Use swipe/maul when you have extra rage.

    e: When you get to that gear level puging heroics is mindless beyond words tho. Monday night in ZA my healer was MCing mobs during every trash pull, cause why not?

    tinwhiskers on
    6ylyzxlir2dz.png
  • troublebrewingtroublebrewing Registered User regular
    edited August 2011
    Thanks Tin, I figure I might have a healer I can drag along who I know is good so that should make things less painful.

    I have the non-heroic Tia's Grace so that's a start. That's interesting that you say gem for Agi instead of Sta.

    also any thoughts on spec and is there a spec that is decent at being hybrid-ey if I ever want to dps?

    troublebrewing on
  • fortyforty Registered User regular
    Specifically, gem for socket bonuses using bear tank stat gems, but favor agility. So agi in red sockets, agi/dodge or agi/mastery in yellow sockets, and agi/stam in blue sockets.

  • Seattle ThreadSeattle Thread Registered User regular
    I managed to snag dungeon gear with 8 sockets total during my TBC run, popped a +16 or +20 AGI gem in each.

    Now I'm reluctant to replace any of it with WLK gear...

    kofz2amsvqm3.png
  • VahraanVahraan Registered User regular
    Soo, my GM is apparently super biased against Feral Druids. I've been raiding as Resto, but as we don't have another leather wearing class, I get all the AGI leather from Firelands bosses. I'm ~365 average ilvl (with my resto wrist and weapons), but i'm missing a decent weapon (running the 3 heroics that drop it every day til i get it).

    Anyway, I'm just curious about how much health I should expect to have when I'm 'raid ready' for tanking AND if that poses any problems. As a healer I know I prefer tanks that take less dmg as opposed to tanks with a bajillion health, but I have had the unfortunate experience of tanks who just don't have enough health to soak 2 hits before dying. I don't wanna be that guy.

    PSN: Gumbotron88 3DS FC: 0018-3695-0013 (Devon)
  • fortyforty Registered User regular
    365 avg ilevel feral gear is definitely ready to tank Firelands (assuming you get the lack of weapon resolved), assuming you've reforged/gemmed/enchanted it for tanking.

  • OptyOpty Registered User regular
    If you want a Firelands ready health number I think 180k is about right. I can't remember if that's before or after raid buffs though (my gut's telling me after).

  • fortyforty Registered User regular
    edited August 2011
    180k post-buff should be an acceptable gear level, although if you're using double stam trinkets to get there, you might be pushing it.

    forty on
  • JavenJaven Registered User regular
    So, should Maul be doing so little damage? I'm only level 79, but lacerate/mangle/faerie fire all do 3k+, while Maul barely does 1/10th

  • GrobianGrobian What's on sale? Pliers!Registered User regular
    IIrc, Maul was nerfed several times. But still, it doesn't trigger the GCD and it can hit multiple targets (glyphed) so there's no reason not to press it all the time. If you pull enough mobs you can just macro it to every ability like we did in WotLK.

  • fortyforty Registered User regular
    I don't know exactly how Maul's damage compares to prot's Heroic Strike anymore, but they're supposed to serve the same role: an inefficient conversion of rage->damage that's off the GCD, so you're supposed to use it (along with your rotational GCD abilities) when you have a lot of rage and avoid using it in low rage situations.

    That said, it doesn't sound right that Maul is doing 300 damage when everything else is doing 3k+. I haven't played bear in a while, but did they really buff lacerate and FF that much to be doing 3k+ at 79? They weren't even doing that at 85 for a while.

  • VahraanVahraan Registered User regular
    Well then if I should be at 180k post raid buff, unless I'm forgetting some buffs, I'm way shy. In double stam trinkets I'm at ~168k Raid buffed. Can someone armory Startron on emerald dream and tell me what I'm missing? Or something I've done tragically wrong?

    PSN: Gumbotron88 3DS FC: 0018-3695-0013 (Devon)
  • JavenJaven Registered User regular
    forty wrote:
    I don't know exactly how Maul's damage compares to prot's Heroic Strike anymore, but they're supposed to serve the same role: an inefficient conversion of rage->damage that's off the GCD, so you're supposed to use it (along with your rotational GCD abilities) when you have a lot of rage and avoid using it in low rage situations.

    That said, it doesn't sound right that Maul is doing 300 damage when everything else is doing 3k+. I haven't played bear in a while, but did they really buff lacerate and FF that much to be doing 3k+ at 79? They weren't even doing that at 85 for a while.

    I remember feral damage was really really low earlier in the expansion, but threat generation was okay, so they buffed most of the damage on those abilities and removed the threat modifier

  • Seattle ThreadSeattle Thread Registered User regular
    Lacerate hits so hard that I don't even quest in cat form anymore.

    kofz2amsvqm3.png
  • fortyforty Registered User regular
    edited August 2011
    Sounds like bear's all fucked up (big surprise) if Maul is doing so little compared to everything else (besides Mangle, since that's bear's Shield Slam).

    Anyone with an 85 bear know what their FFF hits for pre-pull (i.e., without Vengeance)?

    forty on
  • GrobianGrobian What's on sale? Pliers!Registered User regular
    My (poorly geared) bear's FFF hits for ~4k on the dummy without any buffs. Mangle is ~7k, Maul is ~2k

  • fortyforty Registered User regular
    OK, those numbers make more sense. It's nice to see that FFF actually does some slightly respectable damage->threat again for picking up mobs at range. I know for a while there it was shitty like Icy Touch.

  • tinwhiskerstinwhiskers Registered User regular
    edited August 2011
    Vahraan wrote:
    Well then if I should be at 180k post raid buff, unless I'm forgetting some buffs, I'm way shy. In double stam trinkets I'm at ~168k Raid buffed. Can someone armory Startron on emerald dream and tell me what I'm missing? Or something I've done tragically wrong?

    First thing, reforge into Dodge not expertise. Never reforge mastery away. Dodge>mastery>exp to soft cap/crit > exp after soft cap/hit>haste.

    You should be fine from a HP perspective. I only have 177k when tanking Rag and I'm at like 373 ilvl, remember to use the AGI flask, all that dodge is way more valuable than the HP.

    You are missing a few enchants(armor to cloak, agi to bracers, windwalk when you get a decent weapon). Also the feral movespeed talent is only for cat form, so the MS boot enchants are the way to go for tanking.

    And get the last point in perseverance.

    tinwhiskers on
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  • VahraanVahraan Registered User regular
    Ok, I'll keep that in mind. I was going for the mastery/crit focused build so I could duo tank/dps. If I go to tank a raid I shall have to reforge then.
    The missing chants are because thats my off spec and I'm too cheap to spend money on them, but I will also keep that in mind in case my raids demands change. Thanks for the advice!

    PSN: Gumbotron88 3DS FC: 0018-3695-0013 (Devon)
  • WulfWulf Disciple of Tzeentch The Void... (New Jersey)Registered User regular
    Good lord. Started leveling my druid as bear, and... why was I wasting time leveling as Balance D:

    Everyone needs a little Chaos!
  • troublebrewingtroublebrewing Registered User regular
    edited September 2011
    so I'm back to raiding again. I'm healing and trying to set up a UI that isn't total shit.

    Fussing with UI mods (and spending a lot of time with them) is something I really, really, really hate so I'm trying to find a guide or UI compilation or something that is as turn-key as possible.

    All I really want is raid frames that show HoT durations. Color coding on the text would be nice. Maybe some of these new-fangled "auras" the kids are using if it's not too much trouble.

    Most of the stuff I'm finding in searches about how to set this stuff up is old. I like the setup they are describing http://treebarkjacket.com/2009/01/18/how-to-grid-hot-tracking/ <-here (is it possible to make links not suck on the new forums?) but the GridIndicatorCornerText hasn't been updated in forever.

    Thanks for any advice!

    [edit] Well it looks like Grid2 + Clique + Power Auras Classic is doing everything I need.

    Now, what are some druid-ey looking staves for when transmog goes live?

    troublebrewing on
  • NogginNoggin Registered User regular
    I saved a quest reward that looks like lok'delar, think it sprouts flowers. Forget the name of it but I can check my bank later. Might be alliance only?

    For a polearm I want to get Blackhand Doomsaw.

    Battletag: Noggin#1936
  • troublebrewingtroublebrewing Registered User regular
    edited September 2011
    yeah I'm interested to know what that one is, that is along the avenue of what I'm looking for, something planty.

    [edit] http://www.wowhead.com/item=27877 must be what you're taking about.

    [edit] hot damn, I found it http://www.wowhead.com/item=45613#.

    I think all the transmog gear I want is in Ulduar 10

    troublebrewing on
  • WulfWulf Disciple of Tzeentch The Void... (New Jersey)Registered User regular
    Don't knock some of the stuff from AQ. There is totally not an awesome staff that drops from the last boss of AQ20, and CERTAINLY not any gear that makes you look like a power-ranger >_>

    Everyone needs a little Chaos!
  • NogginNoggin Registered User regular
    Hmm, I think it might have been Staff of the Green Circle, which has the same model as Draenic Wildstaff.

    For mace I think I'll go for Lok'amir or its lookalike. Unfortunately that and a bunch of other awesome gear is on my first shaman.

    Battletag: Noggin#1936
  • WulfWulf Disciple of Tzeentch The Void... (New Jersey)Registered User regular
    I just want something that looks like the Worgen staff with the skull and rose vine for my horde druid :(

    Everyone needs a little Chaos!
  • StericaSterica Yes Registered User, Moderator mod
    Don't worry guys: Wrath is yellow now so you know it uses Solar Eclipses.

    YL9WnCY.png
  • troublebrewingtroublebrewing Registered User regular
    I always wondered what exactly wrath is. What is that ball of hurty green (yellow) energy made of?

    Can I start bitching about the WG nerf now? Seriously... It kinda sucks.

  • OptyOpty Registered User regular
    The worst thing about the nerf is the gylph nerf, cause there's no other good glyph to replace it with. Thorns? Innervate? Might as well only have two major glyphs. GC's gylph bullshit in his explanation is terrible.

  • fortyforty Registered User regular
    Yeah, I have no idea what to replace the WG glyph with. I always "liked" that there were only two useful healing-specific majors in Cata since it meant I didn't have to give up something useful to get the mandatory Rebirth glyph.

  • OptyOpty Registered User regular
    They really need to make Gylph of Thorns or Barkskin into a healing cooldown instead of what they are now and/or not be dumb about the WG Gylph. They also need to make Typhoon count as an interrupt (or have a glyph that does that in place of the knockback) so Boomkins have an interrupt with a cooldown shorter than 1 minute.

This discussion has been closed.