Saturday, July 10, 2010

Intial Beta Thoughts (12319)

I initially wasn't going to post my thoughts yet due to the massive talent system changes that are en-route. But then I figured, what the heck!? I'm bored so let's do it!

While I'm glad to hear GC acknowledge that the current version of Eclipse is not working well, I'd like to throw in my 2 cents about what I'm seeing this build.

Starsurge:

Currently, I feel that Starsurge is not nearly as integrated as I had hoped. It is unaffected by talents such as Nature's Reach. It does not proc Nature's Grace when it crits. It does not increase the "balance bar" favorably. Instead, it always adds Solar Power. Because of this, it lacks a certain synergy with Eclipse.

While I enjoy Starsurge against leveling mobs, I was trying to integrate it into a rotation against dummies and in the new instances. It did not feel like it was fitting in with the rest of the rotation. I'll say the same for DoTs later when I talk about them.

Eclipse:

I am hoping for some changes here, and it sounds like I'll get to see them thanks to a comment by GC. But I'll go ahead and share my current thoughts on Eclipse. I feel like a bar watcher. I'm zoning on the bar and forgetting all else. This is neither exciting nor productive for me as a raider. I feel like this is much less of a reactionary rotation and is much more anticipatory. I can essentially control my proc to within two casts. While I can see how this would be useful, I find it to be the equivalent of pressing a button at the right time. If it is equivalent, then I would much rather prefer the button to press. Less on the fly math (or addon to do it for me, which there will be).

I also find Eclipse to be rather unusable while leveling till 82. Either there aren't enough mobs to get enough power or there are too many mobs to make using anything but hurricane a bad decision. The decay is extremely rapid. While I understand not wanting to allow moonkins to carry over Eclipse power from fight to fight, it decays so quickly getting from one mob to the next usually sets you at zero. Maybe the decay should be something other than linear so that at high levels it decays quickly, but it is much slower around the +25 energy level, allowing a leveling player to carry over a small chunk of power yet preventing the raiding player from starting fights "fully charged".

DoTs:

I'm really just not feeling them. They don't boost my other spells. This means that they need to do the equivalent DPET of my nukes or they probably aren't worth using. Currently, that's where I sit. I use them to gather a lot of mobs to AoE down. I never use them in a single target rotation unless I'm moving.

The boosts to Moonfire's DD simply didn't do enough. I unglyphed my Moonfire and was incredibly underimpressed by the crit damage of my Moonfire. I was expecting much more. And after spamming it, I still felt like it was lacking. I think it's trying to be a nuke and a DoT at the same time and consequently, it is neither. Fortunately, I think a simple solution is available. Switch all of the DD Moonfire talents to DoT increasing talents. Since the DoT scales with both haste and crit, I feel that this will allow the boosts to ride out longer than a DD boost would. It would also place the spell on the DoT side of things. With the movement bonus from Wrath of Cenarius, this would still encourage us to spam moonfire while moving (at least three times). All suggestions aside, I really don't feel like this spell is going to fit into a rotation unless it decides whether it is a DoT or a DD spell (primarily).

EDIT: These posts are gonna be like my way of talking about relationships. I probably will forget to mention the 100 cool things while telling you about the 1 or 2 bad things. It's a character flaw, but that's the way it is. Anyway, let me assure you that there are plenty of cool quests and quest lines available. Most graphics are pretty impressive. Landscapes look good. Outside of the little Balance bubble, things are lookin pretty sharp. Can't speak for other classes though, I'm strictly druid here.

3 comments:

lissanna said...

those are pretty much things I've been QQ'ing about since the start of Alpha. I'm hoping the next build with the new talent trees do more to make things feel cohesive.

Maestro said...

I've been thinking that myself. However, I came to the conclusion that this next build probably won't feel overly cohesive. The problem is not with the talents so much as it is a functionality design with moonkin. Should they be DoT based or DD based? At upper levels, we need a reason to cast a spell that is not the highest DPET. What reasons do we have in cataclysm? None. I have no compelling reason aside from damage to cast my DoTs (unless I am moving and therefore cannot cast my nukes anyway). They will either have to outdamage my nukes (in which case I believe that the nukes will feel weak) or compliment my rotation in some other way.

Eclipse falls right in the center of this mess, leaving us with what essentially amounts to a charge based system on a timer. You have 15 seconds. At 2 Seconds a Starfire, that means getting 7 Starfires off. That's like having 7 charges. And those charges are relatively weak. I lose some charges just by not casting. Hefty penalty. I'd much rather see 3-4 charges that were not on a timer, allowing rotational flexibility.

Neyuna said...

For once I'm glad I don't have beta access this early because it sounds like we still need a lot of work. :P

GC did say that the talent revamp would be "soon" in a couple weeks, so hopefully there are many more changes along with it.

Regarding the hasted, crit-capable dots... how much more of a role do you think they will have in our overall damage? I think combined they are 10% or much less on live, for most people.

Also, it'd be nice if dots gained benefit from Vengeance (if it's still around in some form.) It sounds like they need a lot of support in order to be a meaningful part of our 'rotation'. They seem to hate that word now. :P