Hello all, it's Aquien again. I'm going to keep this rather short. I'm really excited about what the summer holds. With time to spare I might actually be able to sit back and write what I want to write... or get hit over the head by Kag until I finally write something.
I, being but a simple druid who has almost no understanding of how things work (like Tigor and Kag), have decided to reflect back on some of the funny mishaps that had occurred during our time together. I remember, all those months ago, when I sat down in the chair at the computer, completely and utterly bored to tears. I really wanted to play WoW, but I didn't want to play alone. Luckily, after some brief persuading, I finally talked them into making characters so we could play together. The next issue at hand was the classes/races we would be playing. Because I had no experience with any of the classes other than druid, I voted for that. Kag and Tigor agreed to make druids as well, and that's how it really started.
Next came character creation. Because we were all going to be Tauren, we simply just selected a random server, Cenarius, and opened up a blank character sheet. After several rounds of the Random Name button, we came up with three names; Aquen, Kaggra, and Tigorasou. After some brief modifications to the names, we were all set... now we just had to select our pelt colors and all the other necessities of a Tauren. I went with the black pelt, with no piercings/facial hair, red eyes, and black horns--with one of them snapped off. Why? Because I got to accuse Kagrra of pushing me into a well when we were calves.
I never really thought we'd play these characters to levelcap at all. I honestly thought we'd give up, because of school getting in the way. But, in the end, we made it... although I do miss playing with them. I wish we'd have a chance to play more... maybe even start new lives as new characters... that's just me though. I'm not a raider, or a PvPer, I just don't enjoy it.
Look at me ramble on and on and on... this post is getting too wordy for me. Have a wonderful stay in the land of Azeroth.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Catching Up: Pre-Naxx Restoration Gear
The other day I received an email from Feralhoof of Eonar asking about heroic 5-man gear. This got me thinking about how it may be hard to catch up from hitting level 80 to getting into Ulduar. There's also difficulty in selected gear for your off-spec when you've be playing and thinking about your main spec all this time. Therefore, I present to you Kagrra's picks for Heroic 5-man pre-Naxx gear!
Note: The selected gear is, of course, not considered the "best" gear in all cases. These pieces were selected for their ability to get you into 10 or 25 Naxx to finish gearing up for Ulduar. These pieces were chosen based on how easy they are to obtain and the likelihood of getting a group for said instance.
If you insist, there's these as well:
As I said before in the note that I'm sure many of you will conveniently forget to read, this list is merely my personal favourites for easily obtainable gear. This list is only for those who want to quickly catch up and start raiding as a Restoration Druid.
By no means are these pieces optimal but they're pretty damn good and available to any player (unless, somehow, there aren't enough people on your server to run a heroic). Keep in mind that there are also the options of profession BoE pieces and world drops but I think using my gear list would be more fun (even if slightly slower). I hope some of you are able to use this list to further your progress into Naxx and Ulduar. Good luck!
Note: The selected gear is, of course, not considered the "best" gear in all cases. These pieces were selected for their ability to get you into 10 or 25 Naxx to finish gearing up for Ulduar. These pieces were chosen based on how easy they are to obtain and the likelihood of getting a group for said instance.
Head
- Helm of Anomalus
21% from Anomalus of Heroic Nexus
Neck
- Necromancer's Amulet
22% from Salramm the Fleshcrafter of Heroic Culling of Stratholme - Lattice Choker of Light
25 Emblems of Heroism
Shoulders
- Silent Spectator Shoulderpads
22% from Svala Sorrowgrave of Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle
Back
- Ancient Dragon Spirit Cape
14% from Cache of Eregos of Heroic Oculus - Shroud of Moorabi
21% from Moorabi of Heroic Gundrak
Chest
- Drakewing Raiments
22% from Drakos the Interrogator of Heroic Oculus - Insect Vestments
20% from Anub'arak of Heroic Azjol-Nerub
Wrists
- Cuffs of Winged Levitation
14% from Cache of Eregos of Heroic Oculus - Handler's Arm Strap
21% from King Dred of Heroic Drak'Tharon Keep
Hands
- Gloves of Glistening Runes
19% from Keristrasza of Heroic Nexus
Waist
- Sash of Phantasmal Images
18% from Mage-Lord Urom of Heroic Oculus - Elegant Temple Gardens' Girdle
40 Emblems of Heroism
If you insist, there's these as well:
- Girdle of Bane
19% from King Ymiron of Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle - Sash of Blood Removal
19% from Gal'darah of Heroic Gundrak
Legs
- Breeches of the Caller
19% from Ingvar the Plunderer of Heroic Utgarde Keep
Feet
- Boots of Transformation
20% from Gal'darah of Heroic Gundrak - Footwraps of Teleportation
29% from Xevozz of Heroic Violet Hold
Rings
This is a list of my favourites so select the two that best suit you.- Inscribed Loop of the Kirin Tor
1250 Gold and Loop of the Kirin Tor - Loop of the Kirin Tor
8500 Gold - Spectral Seal of the Prophet
20% from The Prophet Tharon'ja of Heroic Drak'Tharon Keep - Band of Guile
10% from Dark Runed Chest of Heroic Culling of Stratholme - Annhylde's Ring
18% from Ingvar the Plunderer of Heroic Utgarde Keep - Band of Enchanted Growth
20% from Mage-Lord Urom of Heroic Oculus
Trinkets
This is another list of favourites. Pick what suits you.- The Egg of Mortal Essence
40 Emblems of Heroism - Forge Ember
18% from Sjonnir The Ironshaper of Heroic Halls of Stone - Talisman of Troll Divinity
21% from The Prophet Tharon'ja of Heroic Drak'Tharon Keep
Weapons
I'm only going to list two-handed weapons since you only need to work on a single drop and you can worry about optimal gear later on.- Staff of Draconic Combat
13% from Cache of Eregos of Heroic Oculus - Staff of Wayward Principles
21% from Skadi the Ruthless of Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle
As I said before in the note that I'm sure many of you will conveniently forget to read, this list is merely my personal favourites for easily obtainable gear. This list is only for those who want to quickly catch up and start raiding as a Restoration Druid.
By no means are these pieces optimal but they're pretty damn good and available to any player (unless, somehow, there aren't enough people on your server to run a heroic). Keep in mind that there are also the options of profession BoE pieces and world drops but I think using my gear list would be more fun (even if slightly slower). I hope some of you are able to use this list to further your progress into Naxx and Ulduar. Good luck!
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Balance Dreams
Recently I wrote about a thread started on the WoW forums that had some really good ideas about how to change Balance. The thread was visited by Ghostcrawler and he shared in the brain storming. Many great ideas were proposed: critical DoTs, changing the way Eclipse works, re-itemization of gear and maybe some new spells to spice up the Moonkin rotation. I think that adding new spells to the Moonkin arsenal would be an awesome way to add more flavor. I have been pondering what kind of spells would be cool to see added and have worked out some rough ideas for you all to enjoy.
NOTE: these are NOT from Blizzard. These are spells that I came up with and have no relation or bearing on the game what-so-ever. The purpose of this post is to get a creative spark going and I encourage other Moonkin to come up with their own ideas as well. Maybe one will catch Blizzard's eye and become something we see in-game one day.
First up is a pretty simple Direct Damage spell; it's called Starburst.
One of the things that plagues Moonkin in Ulduar is movement. I wanted something that would give a nice kick but wouldn't be tied to Eclipse. So no risk of wasting an Eclipse proc with this, you can use it as you like. It deals a nice amount of damage and has a 6 second cooldown. It's not quite spamable but should provide a nice DPS increase for just a GCD and some mana.
Assuming the spell power coefficient is the standard for instant-cast direct damage spells and a Druid with 2500 spell power we have this:
We can see that the damage output of this spell is fairly good. A non-critting DPS of 587.8 when using Starburst every time it's off cooldown is a great (and much needed) addition to improve Balance DPS.
This next one is a doozy. It came to me as I was walking home from the college the other day. It was like a wave of awesome hit me in the face! I rushed home and quickly wrote the idea down so I wouldn't forget. The original idea was WAY OP, so it went through about 3 or 4 changes before Kagrra and I settled on this more balanced version.
This is a sexy hybrid spell (damage+DoT). Let's look at its damage after spell power, again assuming 2500:
This would imply that the DoT portion of this spell is the primary damage provider. However, the Nova can stack up to 5 times with the introduction of direct Arcane damage (Moonfire DD, Starfire, Arcane Barrage, Arcane Shot, etc). Let's look at the Nova's explosion possibilities:
Wow... not bad, right? What about if the explosion is a crit? Let's assume it's the standard 150% damage.
That sort of DPS increase could very well bring Balance Druids up to the DPS levels of Hunters and Mages.
I really wanted a spell that would have a major impact on the health of a boss. This is a DoT that does a pretty decent amount of damage over its somewhat long duration. The real gem here is the stacking damage multiplier on the finishing blow. Any Arcane spell would count toward the stack so Mages and Hunters could help you get that stack up there fast; then watch the fireworks.
These are merely dreams, though. I would love to see these along with Criting DoTs, and maybe a change to Eclipse and better Itemization on T8 (pretty please).
Well these are my ideas, what can you come up with? If you are a blogger, write a post and share your ideas. If you are just a reader, feel free to leave a comment or e-mail me if you are the shy type. Let's see what the Chicken Roost can cook up!
NOTE: these are NOT from Blizzard. These are spells that I came up with and have no relation or bearing on the game what-so-ever. The purpose of this post is to get a creative spark going and I encourage other Moonkin to come up with their own ideas as well. Maybe one will catch Blizzard's eye and become something we see in-game one day.
First up is a pretty simple Direct Damage spell; it's called Starburst.
 |
| ||||||||
One of the things that plagues Moonkin in Ulduar is movement. I wanted something that would give a nice kick but wouldn't be tied to Eclipse. So no risk of wasting an Eclipse proc with this, you can use it as you like. It deals a nice amount of damage and has a 6 second cooldown. It's not quite spamable but should provide a nice DPS increase for just a GCD and some mana.
Assuming the spell power coefficient is the standard for instant-cast direct damage spells and a Druid with 2500 spell power we have this:
Damagelow = 2194 + ( 0.4286 * 2500 ) = 3265.5
Damagehigh = 2726 + ( 0.4286 * 2500 ) = 3797.5
DPSavg = [ ( 3266 + 3798 ) / 2 ] / 6 = 587.8
We can see that the damage output of this spell is fairly good. A non-critting DPS of 587.8 when using Starburst every time it's off cooldown is a great (and much needed) addition to improve Balance DPS.
This next one is a doozy. It came to me as I was walking home from the college the other day. It was like a wave of awesome hit me in the face! I rushed home and quickly wrote the idea down so I wouldn't forget. The original idea was WAY OP, so it went through about 3 or 4 changes before Kagrra and I settled on this more balanced version.
 |
| ||||||||
This is a sexy hybrid spell (damage+DoT). Let's look at its damage after spell power, again assuming 2500:
SpellPowerDoT = 1.33332 / ( 1.3333 + 0.4286 )
= 1.7778 / 1.7619
= 100.9% (10.09% per tick)
SpellPowerDD = 0.42862 / ( 1.3333 + 0.4286 )
= 0.1837 / 1.7619
= 10.43%
DamageDoT = 2911 + ( 1.009 * 2500 ) = 5433.5 (543.4 per tick)
DamageDD = 3043 + ( 0.1043 * 2500 ) = 3303.8
This would imply that the DoT portion of this spell is the primary damage provider. However, the Nova can stack up to 5 times with the introduction of direct Arcane damage (Moonfire DD, Starfire, Arcane Barrage, Arcane Shot, etc). Let's look at the Nova's explosion possibilities:
Damage1 stack = 3303.8
Damage2 stack = 6607.6
Damage3 stack = 9911.4
Damage4 stack = 13215.2
Damage5 stack = 16519
DPS5 stack = 16519 / 20 = 825.95
Wow... not bad, right? What about if the explosion is a crit? Let's assume it's the standard 150% damage.
Crit5 stack = 16519 * 1.5 = 24778.5
DPS5 stack = 24778.5 / 20 = 1238.9
That sort of DPS increase could very well bring Balance Druids up to the DPS levels of Hunters and Mages.
I really wanted a spell that would have a major impact on the health of a boss. This is a DoT that does a pretty decent amount of damage over its somewhat long duration. The real gem here is the stacking damage multiplier on the finishing blow. Any Arcane spell would count toward the stack so Mages and Hunters could help you get that stack up there fast; then watch the fireworks.
These are merely dreams, though. I would love to see these along with Criting DoTs, and maybe a change to Eclipse and better Itemization on T8 (pretty please).
Well these are my ideas, what can you come up with? If you are a blogger, write a post and share your ideas. If you are just a reader, feel free to leave a comment or e-mail me if you are the shy type. Let's see what the Chicken Roost can cook up!
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Changing Things Up A Bit
In case you may not have noticed, TDT has a new theme! For a little bit we are honoring our fine feathered friends, The Moonkin. Kagrra went through and made us a whole new theme with a more Lunar feel to it.
If you are reading this from your RSS reader I recommend you take the time to check out our page to see the changes first hand. I think it looks awesome.
Feel free to leave a comment on what you think of the new design!
If you are reading this from your RSS reader I recommend you take the time to check out our page to see the changes first hand. I think it looks awesome.
Feel free to leave a comment on what you think of the new design!
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Druids And Ghostcrawler
Murmurs from over on the Garona server started an awesome thread about moonkin yesterday.
Link here: A Moonkin's Plea
The post was essentially about what's wrong with the Balance spec as a whole. Everything was covered from itemization to talents and more. There is a gold mine of information here, especially on the first page. The first page has a lot of moonkin posting WWS data and a few more posts after that we get a visit from Ghostcrawler.
GC actually gave us some ideas about how he would fix things to address some of the concerns brought up in the thread.
I think the sharing of an off-the-top-of-the-head idea was really cool; props to GC for that. The thread is a really good read, moonkin and even non-moonkin/raid leaders should read it to better understand the plight that we face in the new content.
Link here: A Moonkin's Plea
The post was essentially about what's wrong with the Balance spec as a whole. Everything was covered from itemization to talents and more. There is a gold mine of information here, especially on the first page. The first page has a lot of moonkin posting WWS data and a few more posts after that we get a visit from Ghostcrawler.
GC actually gave us some ideas about how he would fix things to address some of the concerns brought up in the thread.
I'm in total hand-waving, brainstorm mode here. This is not a design we have cooking that we're all ready to implement, but imagine Eclipse worked something like this: Every Starfire you cast has a 20% cumulative chance of making your next Wrath do 30% more damage. So after SF1, the chance is 20%, but after SF5 the chance is 100%. That encourages you to swap spells somewhat randomly, but less random than the system we have now. The goal is to have something where you sometimes switch after SF 3 and sometimes after SF 5. Good druids would always switch at the right time and those who are still trying to maximize their potential could get better about switching at the right time. You could also have a system where every SF has a chance of making Wrath slightly better, with a stack on that effect, so that at some point it's the right time to switch. Don't feel the need to point out how you could game this system -- I spent all of 2 minutes coming up with it. If and when we decide to change it, we'd put far more work into the design.
I think the sharing of an off-the-top-of-the-head idea was really cool; props to GC for that. The thread is a really good read, moonkin and even non-moonkin/raid leaders should read it to better understand the plight that we face in the new content.
Friday, May 8, 2009
Automatic VS Manual Healing
This post idea comes from the lovely Sylly of Rolling Hots.
The short answer to the first question would be: yes. In the past moreso than currently but the answer is yes regardless.
Prior to the Lifebloom change of patch 3.1 I would just mindlessly roll Lifebloom as my "autopilot" healing style. When it came time to think about what I was doing, however, I was throwing around Lifeblooms, Rejuvenations, Regrowths, Nourishes, Swiftmends and Wild Growths based on what the situation called for.
Since Lifebloom can't be efficiently rolled in the same manner as it had in the past I'm no longer able to reliably use it for my autopilot mode. More often I find myself using Wild Growth for my "I don't care to look at who to heal right now" autopilot and Lifeblooms/Rejuvenations with the occasional Nourish for my "they're not taking much damage anyway" autopilot.
During times (such as bosses) where I do have to think about who I'm healing and in what manner I find myself selecting a unique set of heals depending on the encounter. During encounters with a good amount of splash damage I keep Wild Growth going while spothealing with Rejuv and talk healing with Regrowth, Lifebloom, and Nourish. Fights including more heavy damage on tanks with little raid damage I'll use Regrowth, Lifebloom, Rejuvenation and Nourish all on just the tank(s) but often won't heal others much at all. It's all very situational.
I've noticed that when I'm not really thinking about how I heal, I stick to only one or two spells. During fights involving neurons I try to use all of my heals (except HT since mine blows). What does this say about me as a healer? Probably that I appreciate all of my heals for what they provide to my spell arsenal but also don't want to throw them around like they're not important tomy mana pool me.
But now I have to wonder if this isn't the way other Trees handle their "thinking" and "autopilot" modes. Are yours truly different or relatively the same? If you've never given it much though, perhaps try to evaluate why you heal the way you heal. Does it make it more fun? Do you only heal your way to provide the highest HPS or HPM? Leave a comment and let me know!
Do you have a "thinking" healing style and an "autopilot" healing style? What changes?
The short answer to the first question would be: yes. In the past moreso than currently but the answer is yes regardless.
Prior to the Lifebloom change of patch 3.1 I would just mindlessly roll Lifebloom as my "autopilot" healing style. When it came time to think about what I was doing, however, I was throwing around Lifeblooms, Rejuvenations, Regrowths, Nourishes, Swiftmends and Wild Growths based on what the situation called for.
Since Lifebloom can't be efficiently rolled in the same manner as it had in the past I'm no longer able to reliably use it for my autopilot mode. More often I find myself using Wild Growth for my "I don't care to look at who to heal right now" autopilot and Lifeblooms/Rejuvenations with the occasional Nourish for my "they're not taking much damage anyway" autopilot.
During times (such as bosses) where I do have to think about who I'm healing and in what manner I find myself selecting a unique set of heals depending on the encounter. During encounters with a good amount of splash damage I keep Wild Growth going while spothealing with Rejuv and talk healing with Regrowth, Lifebloom, and Nourish. Fights including more heavy damage on tanks with little raid damage I'll use Regrowth, Lifebloom, Rejuvenation and Nourish all on just the tank(s) but often won't heal others much at all. It's all very situational.
I've noticed that when I'm not really thinking about how I heal, I stick to only one or two spells. During fights involving neurons I try to use all of my heals (except HT since mine blows). What does this say about me as a healer? Probably that I appreciate all of my heals for what they provide to my spell arsenal but also don't want to throw them around like they're not important to
But now I have to wonder if this isn't the way other Trees handle their "thinking" and "autopilot" modes. Are yours truly different or relatively the same? If you've never given it much though, perhaps try to evaluate why you heal the way you heal. Does it make it more fun? Do you only heal your way to provide the highest HPS or HPM? Leave a comment and let me know!
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Query Response: Moonkin Rotations
We've been getting a lot of hits from Google lately from people looking for the best Balance rotation. First, let's break down the different options we have and then compare them to each other.
All of the rotations are going to start off the same: you cast your DoTs to open. Moonfire, Insect Swarm and Faerie Fire. You can change these around into any order to suit your personal preferences. Once your DoTs are up, you must constantly refresh them to make sure they are on the target as often as possible.
So now you are probably wondering which one is best. Well, I packed up my Balance gear and took a trip to good ol' Thunderbluff to do some testing. For each test I had the same gear and buffs. Combat lasted from having a full mana bar until I went OOM. Each test included an Innervate. I did 5 rounds with both the Lunar and Solar rotations.
I followed the rotations hitting the Heroic dummy like it was a real boss. When all the dust settled, I compared the results and I found something I didn't expect... the Lunar and Solar rotations were pretty much the same. The spam rotations were considerably less effective than the Eclipse rotations are should not be considered for actual gameplay.
Now we are both left wondering, if they are the same, which one should you use? We can see from the tests that the average DPS is very similar. Lets look at some other aspects and see if we can find a perk. Is one more mana efficient than the other?
As we can see on this graph, the amount of time before OOM was nearly identical, about 2 seconds difference on average.
Well now lets break down the rotations themselves and see what they look like.
When we look at Wrath and Starfire casts notice that in a lunar eclipse your Wrath casts will be much higher than your Starfire casts. This is the missing 40% proc chance in action. Due to Wrath's fast cast time you would usually end up running OOM faster than if you were casting Starfire, but with the mana return from crits, it appears that it levels out.
The Final Decision
So after all these tests we know that the difference between Solar and Lunar Eclipses is nil, but there was one big difference I found while testing that I couldn't show in a graph. That was the difficulty keeping Moonfire and Insect Swarm up on the target. When you use the Glyph of Starfire, it increases the duration of your Moonfire by 3 seconds per cast. When using the Solar rotation your main source of damage is going to be Starfire, therefor you will cast Moonfire less often. The downside to this is that instead of both DoTs ending at approximately the same time (depending on whether you proc Lunar eclipse or not) you will be refreshing them at different, odd times, which makes the Solar rotation a bit more complicated, in my opinion.
TL;DR
Tests show that the Lunar rotation and Solar rotation are about equal in DPS. My recommendation is that you use the Lunar rotation; the simplified DoT applications make it much easier to manage than Solar.
EDIT: This post (and its research) is not meant to be taken as gospel. Had it been written with only raiders in mind, it would be titled Raiding Moonkin Rotations. These are findings to help new moonkin and are written in a general context.
All of the rotations are going to start off the same: you cast your DoTs to open. Moonfire, Insect Swarm and Faerie Fire. You can change these around into any order to suit your personal preferences. Once your DoTs are up, you must constantly refresh them to make sure they are on the target as often as possible.
Lunar Rotation
This is the one I currently use. Open combat with your DoTs and then begin casting Wrath. Eclipse has a 60% chance to proc when Wrath casting so not every crit will trigger the buff. When Eclipse does proc, cast Starfire until the buff ends. At that point, return to casting Wrath.Solar Rotation
Open with your DoTs and cast Starfire until Eclipse procs. With this rotation you have a 100% chance to proc Eclipse when you crit with Starfire. When Eclipse procs you begin casting Wrath until the buff ends and you return to casting Starfire.Wrath/Starfire Spam
This one is pretty straightforward. Put up your DoTs and just spam the heck out of either Wrath or Starfire.So now you are probably wondering which one is best. Well, I packed up my Balance gear and took a trip to good ol' Thunderbluff to do some testing. For each test I had the same gear and buffs. Combat lasted from having a full mana bar until I went OOM. Each test included an Innervate. I did 5 rounds with both the Lunar and Solar rotations.
I followed the rotations hitting the Heroic dummy like it was a real boss. When all the dust settled, I compared the results and I found something I didn't expect... the Lunar and Solar rotations were pretty much the same. The spam rotations were considerably less effective than the Eclipse rotations are should not be considered for actual gameplay.
Now we are both left wondering, if they are the same, which one should you use? We can see from the tests that the average DPS is very similar. Lets look at some other aspects and see if we can find a perk. Is one more mana efficient than the other?
As we can see on this graph, the amount of time before OOM was nearly identical, about 2 seconds difference on average.
Well now lets break down the rotations themselves and see what they look like.
When we look at Wrath and Starfire casts notice that in a lunar eclipse your Wrath casts will be much higher than your Starfire casts. This is the missing 40% proc chance in action. Due to Wrath's fast cast time you would usually end up running OOM faster than if you were casting Starfire, but with the mana return from crits, it appears that it levels out.
The Final Decision
So after all these tests we know that the difference between Solar and Lunar Eclipses is nil, but there was one big difference I found while testing that I couldn't show in a graph. That was the difficulty keeping Moonfire and Insect Swarm up on the target. When you use the Glyph of Starfire, it increases the duration of your Moonfire by 3 seconds per cast. When using the Solar rotation your main source of damage is going to be Starfire, therefor you will cast Moonfire less often. The downside to this is that instead of both DoTs ending at approximately the same time (depending on whether you proc Lunar eclipse or not) you will be refreshing them at different, odd times, which makes the Solar rotation a bit more complicated, in my opinion.
TL;DR
Tests show that the Lunar rotation and Solar rotation are about equal in DPS. My recommendation is that you use the Lunar rotation; the simplified DoT applications make it much easier to manage than Solar.
EDIT: This post (and its research) is not meant to be taken as gospel. Had it been written with only raiders in mind, it would be titled Raiding Moonkin Rotations. These are findings to help new moonkin and are written in a general context.
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