Thursday, December 10, 2009

Moving Past Squawk and Awe - Power Auras Classic

EDIT: There is a new version of the export posted below. Please replace your old import with this. I have changed the lunar proc color to be more inline with what Blizzard uses. I tinkered with the FF aura to show out of combat as well, since its typically the first spell cast. I fixed the references for the innervate auras, which should eliminate some of the ghost auras that folks have seen. Standardized font on all of the timers. Each aura will be available individually as well.

Squawk and Awe has been a great mod for Moonkins. A staple of the raiding Moonkin's arsenal. However, Adoriele, the developer, no longer plays WoW. Mass panic struck the Moonkin community when the Eclipse change seemed to break SAA. So I'm going to offer an alternative that is based off of a video I saw not too long ago. I am no longer using SAA, but now I use Power Auras Classic. The following is an export of all of my Moonkin related auras.

I have the following auras:
  • Faerie Fire - This aura displays a little pink symbol to the right of my character if it detects the absence of my Faerie Fire on the target.

  • Nature's Grace - The Nature's Grace aura displays white sidebars around my character for the duration of the buff. I find this useful for both timing Hurricanes and simply as a heads up while casting normal nukes. There is no timer or animation with this aura.

  • Insect Swarm - This aura detects my Insect Swarm on an enemy target and provides a visual marker along with a timer that counts down. This is located towards the bottom left of my character.

  • Moonfire - Much like the Insect Swarm aura, this aura detect my Moonfire on an enemy target. It does adjust to the proper time if you are using the Glyph of Starfire. This aura also provides a timer and is located adjacent to the Insect Swarm aura.

  • Eclipse - There are actually two Eclipse auras, a bluish one for a Lunar Eclipse and an orange one for a Solar Eclipse. They appear as a halo around my characters head and have a timer in the middle counting down till the end of Eclipse.


  • Innervate - My Innervate aura is composed of two auras working together conditionally. The first aura checks the cooldown of Innervate. The second aura checks my mana. If my mana is below 56% and my Innervate is available, a blue arrow appears in the middle of my character telling me that I can (and should) Innervate. If either condition is not met, this aura does not show. It is important to make sure that each aura references the other. In the import, they are auras 1 and 2. If you imported the auras individually, mouse over each aura to find the aura ID and type it in the reference box across from the Exact Name checkbox.



Easy Mass Install

  1. Copy the following code and then open Power Auras in WoW by typing /powa.
  2. Click Import Set.
  3. Paste the code into the box that appears and click Accept.
  4. Congratulations! You're now set up. Right click on any aura in Power Auras to adjust the settings, position, or graphic.

Here's a screenshot of what it looks like with a Lunar Eclipse, Nature's Grace, and both DoTs up (click to enlarge).
Posted by Maestro at 6:17 PM 16 comments
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Friday, December 4, 2009

Patch 3.3 - Ups and Downs

Patch Notes:
Force of Nature: Health on the treants has been increased.

Avoidance (passive): Now reduces the damage your pets take from area-of-effect damage by 90%, but no longer applies to area-of-effect damage caused by other players.

Eclipse now increases damage done by Wrath by 40% (up from 30%) and the critical chance of Starfire by 40% (up from 30%)

Eclipse: This effect will not activate again within 15 seconds of either type of Eclipse effect firing, in addition to the existing 30-second cool-down for each type of Eclipse.

Druid T8 Balance 2P Bonus – Increases the bonus granted by Eclipse for Starfire and Wrath by 7%. (Down from 15%)

Druid T10 Balance 4P Bonus – Your critical strikes from Starfire and Wrath cause the target languish for an additional 7% of your spell’s damage over 4 sec. (Up from 5%)
So there's a nice buff to our treant survivability. The first Eclipse change breaks WiseEclipse so the community as a whole tends to view this as a nerf. The second Eclipse change is supposed to compensate for this "loss". Lastly the 4T10 bonus got buffed, which I feel is appropriate and brings it more in line with other set bonuses in strength.

The Eclipse changes have put the community in a bit of an uproar and so I decided that I would copy over Murmurs's work since he finished it before me (why reinvent the wheel?)
There has been a lot of whining lately over the changes that Balance Druids have seen. In this thread, I am going to present the math related to all of those concerns. I am doing this in a separate thread in order to keep the main post less cluttered and shorter. If you have questions concerning the validity of the math, please post them here and I will do my best to address them. If you have questions or comments about the general conclusion of the topic, then please post them in the other thread. I will do my best to monitor both.

2T9/T8 compared to 4T9.

It was requested that I do these comparisons based on actual gearing numbers and not based upon theoretical values that these gearing sets might have. I agree that this is an important factor, and so I went and built item sets for each one. Each set will use no item with a higher ilevel than 245 though some of which might be from ToGC 10. I did my best to find as optimal a gear set up for each one as a possibly could, but I won't say that they are exactly perfect. For instance, I know that both are slightly over the hit cap. I did try and switch one of the Hit items and gem for Hit instead, but I found that the overall loss of stats seen by doing this simply wasn't worth it. In general, the set would gain far less Haste than it would lose in Crit to do this while Spell Power would remain approximately unchanged. The professions I used were Enchanting and Inscription. They are arguably not the best, but all professions are approximately the same in value, and these are easy to configure. For gemming, I ignored socket bonuses if I felt they weren't an on-par gain, I only used 2 Purple gems for the Meta and choose the best socket bonus for doing so. I also chose to gem yellow sockets for SP/Crit, you could argue for SP/Haste, but that's a different topic really, and since both are pretty much the same in terms of yellow gems, it doesn't really matter.

Again, please note, I am not saying that these are BiS lists for these gear sets, you can argue different gearing set ups for lots of things, but these are really good ones.

Also note, WoWhead automatically calculates the gains from talents such as Improved Moonkin Form, so the only difference in stats from those talents is due to raid buffs which alter stats. I will also be using ToW values even those Demonic Pact is actually better, this is because it is a set value and not a theoretical one that could be different. Oh, and since Intellect does increase Crit values, I added in 1% Crit to adjust the values for raid buffs which increase Intellect, the actual value is just slightly over that, since the 0.XX% additional Crit won't effect scaling too much, I don't care to figure out the exact value.

Glyphs will be the standard Starfire, Moonfire, Insect Swarm.


2T9/T8 Gearing


Stats once raid buffed:
Intellect: 1386
Spirit: 648
Spell Power: 3428
Crit: 44.68 (47.68 for Starfire, 54.68 for Moonfire)
Haste: 14.52% (Raid buffs effecting Haste are embedded into the calculations.
Celestial Focus removed from base value displayed as it is not additive(Stupid WoWhead))

Insect Swarm:
(215 + (3428 * 0.2)) * (1.03) * (1.04) * (1.13) * (1.03) * (1.3) = 1459.69301 per tick

(1.5 / 1.11400) / (1 + (14.52 / 100)) = 1.1757

Moonfire: Direct Damage ignored due to insignificance
(200 + (3428 * .13)) * (1.85) * (1.03) * (1.04) * (1.13) * (1.03) * (1 + ((.5468 * 1.09) * 1)) = 2376.75569 per tick

(1.5 / 1.11400) / (1 + (14.52 / 100)) = 1.1757

Wrath (nonEclipse):
(592 + (3428 * .671)) * 1.1 * 1.03 * 1.04 * (1 + ((.4468 * 1.09) * 1)) * 1.13 * 1.03 * 1.03 = 6075.15181

((1.5 / 1.114) / ((1 + (14.52 / 100))) = 1.1757

(1 -(1-.4468)^3)) = 0.830704071

(1 * 0.8307) + (1.1757 * 0.1693) = 1.0297

Wrath (Eclipse):
(592 + (3428 * .671)) * 1.55 * 1.03 * 1.04 * (1 + ((.4468 * 1.09) * 1)) * 1.13 * 1.03 * 1.03 = 8560.44119

Starfire (nonEclipse):
(1130 + (3428 * 1.2)) * 1.1 * 1.03 * 1.04 * (1 + ((.4768 * 1.09) * 1)) * 1.13 * 1.03 = 10928.7317

((3 / 1.114) / ((1 + (14.52 / 100))) / (1 + (.2 * (1 -(1-.4768)^2)) = 2.0533

Starfire(Eclipse):
(1130 + (3428 * 1.2)) * 1.1 * 1.03 * 1.04 * (1 + ((.9268 * 1.09) * 1)) * 1.13 * 1.03 = 14456.073

((3 / 1.114) / ((1 + (14.52 / 100))) / (1 + (.2 * (1 -(1-.9268)^2)) = 1.9613

Each Wrath cast has a 26.808% chance to proc Eclipse. On average, it should take 5 Wrath casts to proc Eclipse. An additional Wrath cast is added for reaction time. Lunar Eclipse lasts for 13.9703 and allows for 7 Starfire casts. Insect Swarm will not be refreshed during Lunar Eclipse, Moonfire will unless there is minimal time remaining. On average, it should take 3 Starfire casts to proc Eclipse. An additional Stafire cast is added for reaction time. Solar Eclipse lasts for 13.0404 seconds and allows for 12 Wrath casts. Insect Swarm and Moonfire will be refreshed during Solar Eclipse.

IS - 14 (IS)
MF - 12.8243 (IS) 15 (MF)
Wrathx6 - 6.6461 (IS) 8.8218 (MF)
Starfire(E)x7 - Both DoTs drop (IS half way, MF during last SF cast.)
IS - 14
MF - 12.8243 (IS) 15( MF)
Starfirex3 - 6.6644 (IS) 17.8401(MF)
Wrath(E)x6 - 11.6619 (MF) 6.8622 (E)
IS - 10.4862 (MF) 5.6865(E)
Wrath(E)x5 - 8.8515 (IS) 5.3377 (MF)
Wrathx6
Starfire(E) x2

Normally I would have ended the rotation after the last Wrathx6 to proc Eclipse since this should represent when the damage gained from Eclipse has balanced back to the standard average, but adding in the last two Starfires would allow for IS to fall off while Moonfire fell off just after the last Wrath cast. In total, the rotation has 2 Insect Swarms, 2 Moonfires, 12 Wraths, 11 Wraths(E), 3 Starfires, and 9 Starfires(E) and takes 52.1975 seconds to complete.

(1459.69301 * 14) + (2376.75569 * 16) + (6075.15181 * 12) + (8560.44119 * 11) + (10928.7317 * 3) + (14456.073 * 9) = 388421.32

388421.32 / 52.1975 = 7441.37784 DPS

4T9 Gearing>


Stats once raid buffed:
Intellect: 1430
Spirit: 645
Spell Power: 3505
Crit: 45.66 (48.66 for Starfire, 55.66 for Moonfire)
Haste: 14.39% (Raid buffs effecting Haste are embedded into the calculations.
Celestial Focus removed from base value displayed as it is not additive(Stupid WoWhead))

Insect Swarm
(215 + (3505 * 0.2)) * (1.03) * (1.04) * (1.13) * (1.03) * (1.3) = 1484.65333 per tick

(1.5 / 1.11400) / (1 + (14.39 / 100)) = 1.1771

Moonfire
(200 + (3505 * .13)) * (1.85) * (1.03) * (1.04) * (1.13) * (1.03) * (1 + ((.5566 * 1.09) * 1)) = 2429.75899

(1.5 / 1.11400) / (1 + (14.39 / 100)) = 1.1771

Wrath (nonEclipse):
(592 + (3505 * .671)) * 1.14 * 1.03 * 1.04 * (1 + ((.4566 * 1.09) * 1)) * 1.13 * 1.03 * 1.03 = 6454.5774

((1.5 / 1.114) / ((1 + (14.39 / 100))) = 1.1771

(1 -(1-.4566)^3)) = 0.839542913

(1 * 0.8395) + (1.1771 * 0.1605) = 1.0284

Wrath (Eclipse):
(592 + (3505 * .671)) * 1.44 * 1.03 * 1.04 * (1 + ((.4566 * 1.09) * 1)) * 1.13 * 1.03 * 1.03 = 8153.1504

Starfire (nonEclipse):
(1130 + (3505 * 1.2)) * 1.14 * 1.03 * 1.04 * (1 + ((.4866 * 1.09) * 1)) * 1.13 * 1.03 = 11606.7374

((3 / 1.114) / ((1 + (14.39 / 100))) / (1 + (.2 * (1 -(1-.4866)^2)) = 2.0519

Starfire (Eclipse):
(1130 + (3505 * 1.2)) * 1.14 * 1.03 * 1.04 * (1 + ((.7866 * 1.09) * 1)) * 1.13 * 1.03 = 14086.7544

((3 / 1.114) / ((1 + (14.39 / 100))) / (1 + (.2 * (1 -(1-.7866)^2)) = 1.9768

Each Wrath cast has a 27.40% chance to proc Eclipse. On average, it should take 5 Wrath's to proc Eclipse. An additional Wrath cast is added for reaction time. Lunar Eclipse lasts for 13.9716 and allows for 7 Starfire casts. Insect Swarm will not be refreshed during Lunar Eclipse, Moonfire will unless there is minimal time remaining. On average, it should take 3 Starfire casts to proc Eclipse. An additional Stafire cast is added for reaction time. Solar Eclipse lasts for 13.0404 seconds and allows for 12 Wrath casts. Insect Swarm and Moonfire will be refreshed during Solar Eclipse.

IS - 14 (IS)
MF - 12.8243 (IS) 15 (MF)
Wrathx6 - 6.6461 (IS) 8.8218 (MF)
Starfire(E)x7 - Both DoTs drop (IS half way, MF during last SF cast.)
IS - 14
MF - 12.8243 (IS) 15( MF)
Starfirex3 - 6.6644 (IS) 17.8401(MF)
Wrath(E)x6 - 11.6619 (MF) 6.8622 (E)
IS - 10.4862 (MF) 5.6865(E)
Wrath(E)x5 - 8.8515 (IS) 5.3377 (MF)
Wrathx6
Starfire(E) x2


Although there are slight cast time differences between the two sets, none of them were significant enough to alter the rotation. In total the rotation has 2 Insect Swarms, 2 Moonfires, 12 Wraths, 11 Wraths(E), 3 Starfires, and 9 Starfires(E) and takes 52.3085 seconds to complete.

(14 * 1484.65333) + (16 * 2429.75899) + (12 * 6454.5774) + (11 * 8153.1504) + (3 * 11606.7374) + (9 * 14086.7544) = 388401.875

388401.875 / 52.3085 = 7425.21531

2T9/T8 7441.37784 DPS

4T9 7425.21531


The Change to Eclipse

Eclipse has recently been buffed to 40% increases instead of 30%. Since we will now be using 4T9 without question due to the 2T8 nerf, here is how this change would impact the DPS of the above T9 rotation

Wrath (Eclipse):
(592 + (3505 * .671)) * 1.54 * 1.03 * 1.04 * (1 + ((.4566 * 1.09) * 1)) * 1.13 * 1.03 * 1.03 = 8719.3414

Starfire (Eclipse):
(1130 + (3505 * 1.2)) * 1.14 * 1.03 * 1.04 * (1 + ((.8866 * 1.09) * 1)) * 1.13 * 1.03 = 14913.4267

((3 / 1.114) / ((1 + (14.39 / 100))) / (1 + (.2 * (1 -(1-.8866)^2)) = 1.9660

The slight reduction in Starfire's cast time would reduce the total time of the rotation by 0.0756 seconds, not really significant, but it shouldn't have been expected to be, but still a slight change. This brings the total time down to 52.2329

(14 * 1484.65333) + (16 * 2429.75899) + (12 * 6454.5774) + (11 * 8719.3414) + (3 * 11606.7374) + (9 * 14913.4267) = 402070.027

402070.027 / 52.2329 = 7697.63936

7697.63936 - 7425.21531 = 272.42405

(272.42405 / 7425.21531) * 100 = 3.6689% gain
Now note, Graylo found that the loss of Wise Eclipse was a 2.6% to 3.1% DPS loss, so we see this buff offering ~ 1% DPS increase. Sounds nice to me. So soothe those ruffled feathers, strap on the 4T10 and get back to blasting!

As a side note, I think people should begin to accept the fact that Blizzard likes the Eclipse mechanic because it makes Balance play unique. This increase to the power of the Eclipse talent only makes it a more crucial part of the Moonkin build. As GC stated, they are not looking to encourage an Eclipse-less Balance spec. Also, don't look for any major overhauls between now and Cataclysm. Yes, I know this all seems major, but its really just a crutch to keep us viable for the current time.
Posted by Maestro at 8:14 AM 0 comments
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Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Possible 4T10 Mechanic

EDIT: The set bonus has been changed to 7% but the example was designed to illuminate the function of the set bonus, not the actual damage done. I will not be reworking my numbers to accommodate the change as they will still lead me to the same conclusion.

This speculation is based upon the Mage mechanism for Ignite as well as some semi-obscure shaman set bonus and Blizzard's affinity for reusing mechanics. So the basis for this comes from Xiera's research and the WoW Mage Guide where Xiera found the mechanic.
It works the same way as Ignite. From what I understand, it works like this:

You crit. 5% of that damage add to a "bank". After 2 seconds, half the damage in the "bank" is removed and applied to the victim of the debuff. After another 2 seconds, the second half of the damage in the "bank" is removed and applied to the victim of the debuff.

Here's the start of a rotation:

TIMESPELL & DMGLANGUISH BANK
0IFF 
1.5MF (crits for 400)20
3IS20
3.5Languish ticks for 10 damage10
4.5Wrath Cast10
5.5Languish ticks for 10 damage0
6Critical Wrath Cast; Eclipse procs0
7.5Wrath crits for 7k; Languish Applied; Starfire Cast350
9.5Languish ticks for 175; Starfire crits for 15k;Starfire cast925
11.5Languish ticks for 462; Starfire crits for 15k; Starfire Cast925 - 462 + 750 = 1213
13.5Languish ticks for 606; Starfire crits for 15k; Starfire Cast1213 - 606 + 750 = 1357
15.5Languish ticks for 678; Starfire crits for 15k; Starfire Cast1357 - 678 + 750 = 1429
17.5Languish ticks for 714; Starfire crits for 15k; Starfire Cast1429 - 714 + 750 = 1465
19.5Languish ticks for 732; Starfire crits for 15k; you have to move 20m to avoid fire1465 - 732 + 750 = 1483
21.5Languish ticks for 741742
23.5Languish ticks for 742, Languish fades0

Your total damage from crits without Languish = 97400
Your expected damage after Languish = 102270
Your damage from Languish = 4870
Your actual damage = 102270

Basically, it adds 5% additional damage to your crits. That means your crits do roughly 5% more damage. Of course, the full damage is only realised if the target is alive for Languish to naturally expire.

Interestingly enough, this mechanic has a cap. In a perfect world of chain casting 2 second 15k Starfire crits, Languish would never tick for more than 750. There is a cap on what Languish can tick for regardless of cast time. This cap is a function of haste and spell power, and if I find the time, I will try to get a "plug in your haste and spell power and see your cap and number of chain crit casts to reach the tick cap" formula. Obviously your crit rate has a large effect on your Languish uptime.

Frankly, this seems like a decent bonus that will amount to less than 5% * (your crit rate) increased damage. Any time the Languish bank goes empty, you're losing a little of the 5% increased damage. Occasionally the Languish bank will go empty, but that is to be expected with any crit rate less than 100%. Expect this to happen while attempting to proc a Lunar Eclipse. Expect this to happen in the middle of a Solar Eclipse. I don't know if we will be attempting to hold a particularly high uptime on Languish or just take it as it happens. The value of the 4T10 mechanic has been over-valued here as I assumed a string of crit Starfires one would expect from a player wearing 2T8. Maybe crit values will raise high enough in ICC to reach ~100% crit rate during a Lunar Eclipse, but that remains to be seen.
Posted by Maestro at 1:38 PM 5 comments
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Thursday, November 12, 2009

T10 Datamined

The new tier 10 sets were datamined recently so I will provide a link to mmo so that you can check em out!

Tier 10 Druid!

I couldn't be happier with the itemization of the pieces. Notice the distinct lack of spirit on the gear. Since, in the world of itemization, spirit was taking up the place of a better offensive stat, we are looking at gear that is better tuned to our unique dietary gear needs. It's like moonkin baby formula! Two of the pieces contain hit and I'm guessing that given the solid nature of the three non-hit pieces, we may just pick up a fourth (or fifth) piece for the set bonuses. I'm not prepared to offer an analysis of the set bonuses yet, but I will say that I currently feel that the 4 piece is relatively weak, but that may be part of a progressive nerf to set bonuses as a whole (which I think is needed).

Did I mention the sockets? All red sockets except for two yellow. I must say, I'd be infinitely happier if the two yellows were both blues, single handedly offering us our metagem activation and the socket bonus, but I dream big dreams. Oh, and on the topic of socket bonuses, these are not that great. Most are the outdated 5 SP socket bonus, which was decent when we had blue gems, but now that we are in Epic gems, 5 SP for a socket bonus is a joke. Luckily, those are all red sockets so we will get them regardless. The two double socket pieces offer +7, making it possible to consider putting in something other than a Runed Cardinal Ruby.

Food for thought, no?


I'd also like to give a shout out to Smo, who posted a great little tidbit on how to set up PowerAuras for the Anub fight, but even more than that, how to create logic statements and multiple conditionals through it. Godd job Smo, and keep it up!
Posted by Maestro at 8:45 AM 0 comments
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Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Foray!

I finally managed to get into a PuG for ToC 10 that didn't bail after Icehowl killed the raid. I saw all the way to the Twin Valkyries and have a whole lot of new loot to show for it! Oh. . . wait, no . . . all I got were these lousy emblems.

But I must say that I had not played WoW in a few weeks (life's been friggin ballistic here) and logging back on to raid Ony 10 (see the new ring!) and run a few other things was a good feeling. I'm looking forward to trying to steal into another ToC 10 this week. Hopefully one that actually clears it all!
Posted by Maestro at 9:53 AM 0 comments
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