The new buff to Starfall seems quite nice for us druids. Unfortunately, it's so nice we need to reconsider how we glyph. For a 51 point talent, it's about time Starfall got some love to make it more than just an accessory. I think the clearest explanation was given by GC in response to a question posed by Hamlet.
Hey Hamlet, sorry for any confusion. We probably should have just waited until you guys could test it on the PTR.
I think I figured out how you all are calculating the coefficient, so maybe this will make more sense. Again, I’m not 100% sure we’re speaking the same language here. If I have time, maybe I will just log in with a moonkin and compare the before and after and post numbers.
Main star
Old coefficient: 4.8%
New coefficient: 37%
Splash damage
Old coefficient: 1.2%
New coefficient: 13%
As I said, these numbers are very generous. If Balance druids melt the world we may have to back off of them.
SRC
That's a huge jump in damage potential. Reports are pouring in from the test realm and the initial rough estimate is that we are looking at three times the current damage on our main stars. Foofy found that on average, with three targets, she was getting 67k damage over the 10 seconds without the Glyph of Focus. Yikes! Let's take a look at how this impacts Glyphing.
Glyphs
Previously, we were locked into Starfire and Moonfire glyphs. For the best DPS, the third glyph should have been IS with maximal IS uptime. Personally, I rolled out to raids with the Glyph of Starfall because, damn, it's a fun spell. Get ready for our Glyphing world to turn upside-down!
- The Glyph of Starfall will now become our first and best glyph. My irrational attachment to this glyph is now finally justified! Now, if you're running with 2T9, your other two choices should be Starfire and Moonfire because you should be maintaining max uptime on Moonfire. But, if you've moved beyond 2T9...
- The Glyph of Focus begins to look like a heavy contender. Unfortunately, it comes with a hefty price. You now must be within 21 yards of your target for Starfall to work. This may require some new positioning and you should be prepared to re-glyph should you find yourself unable to accomplish this. If you lack the funds to re-glyph on a per-fight basis, you should not take this Glyph, as it will essentially invalidate the Glyph of Starfall. As if things weren't complicated enough . . .
- The Glyph of Insect Swarm offers the best stand-alone DPS increase. However, glyphing IS causes you to lose the 3% miss debuff that is fairly unique in the game. I prefer to leave IS unglyphed until content becomes trivial. This is a clear choice for the third glyph on trivial content, but may not be the best choice for progression raiding.
- Here's where things get really nasty. If you choose not to use the Glyph of Insect Swarm, you will be choosing between the Glyph of Starfire and the Glyph of Moonfire. You should choose the Glyph of Starfire. If you are unable to make use of the Glyph of Focus, then glyph both Starfire and Moonfire.
TL:DR
I'm going to steal from Hamlet's Moonkin PvE DPS thread over at Elitist Jerks to summarize.
The result is that our Glyph choice is slightly complex. I'll break it down here:
- If you have the 2T9 bonus, Glyph Starfall/Starfire/Moonfire. If you want to apply the 3% miss debuff, cast Insect Swarm, otherwise leave it out of your rotation entirely.
- If you do not that have the 2T9 bonus (for example, if you've upgraded to 4T10):
- If you do not need the Insect Swarm debuff (you are the second Moonkin or are doing content for which it's unnecessary), Glyph Starfall/Focus/Insect Swarm, and leave Moonfire out of your rotation entirely.
- If you do need the Insect Swarm debuff, Glyph Starfall/Focus/Starfire, unless Focus causes range problems at the fight you're doing. In that case, Glyph Starfall/Starfire/Moonfire.
5 comments:
Massive Starfall buff woot!
Arewethion's advice in the EJ Think Tank thread that was linked is a pretty massive departure from our current playstyle. He is talking about ditching Insect Swarm or Moonfire from our rotations! This is a huge huge change.
Personally, I like to see some maths worked up on these sort of things. Simply running a sim doesn't satisfy my desire to understand why the heck the foremost Boomkin theorycrafter would advocating such heretical rotation changes. The thread picks up around this page:
http://elitistjerks.com/f73/t37039-moonkin_raiding/p132/
Personally, I think we are jumping the gun here, big time. Here is why:
1) The Starfall change isn't live. In fact its only on its first iteration on the PTR. It could very easily change, a LOT, before going live.
2) As it is on the PTR, its overpowered, plain and simple. I like being a little overpowered every once and a while. But Blizzard, not so much. I predict a substantial nerf before going live.
3) Moonfire is a core and defining Boomkin spell. I can't see Blizzard creating situations where we wouldn't be using it in a normal rotation. To a lesser extent, Insect Swarm, but not so much as Moonfire.
4) Improved Insect Swarm becomes quite a bit less valuable in this world where we are ignoring either Moonfire or Insect Swarm. Where do we put those 3 points? Lolkin Frenzy? Genesis? A world where Boomkins don't have a use for Improved IS seems like bad design.
5) Blizzard has said many times that they want us to make interesting choices. The current Starfall leads us down a path of cascading large-scale changes to our rotation, glyphs, maybe even more once the dust settles. Most of the choices sound less interesting and more boring; a simplification that I can't see Blizzard intending.
Now don't get me wrong, the current PTR Starfall is just drop dead sexy. I just can't see it making it to live because of all the cascading changes it will cause.
the 67k was without the glyphing of course. It increased by a good bit as soon as I glyphed it.
-Foofy
@ Druid Dude -
It's not too hard to find the math behind all of these. We've known the approximate worth of all of the glyphs for quite some time. Since the only variable changing here is the damage of Starfall, it's easy to compare the new values of the glyphs.
In counter to your point 5, I think that for the first time we would have a choice for 2 out of 3 glyphs. Currently, we are locked into Starfire and Moonfire. With the change, you would only be locked into Starfall, with the other four glyphs being situational. This presents the kind of choice I believe Blizzard wants to see.
I agree with your analysis of impIS, but I don't think this is anything new. We've known for some time that the class is poorly designed due to a serious of "band-aids" that left us with easily reachable dual caps.
I don't agree that Moonfire is a core Boomkin spell. That honor belongs to Starfall, imo. Every druid has Moonfire. Yes, it has been a vital part of our rotation for. . . ever. But that doesn't mean it should be the trump card in deciding the validity of another spell, especially a 51 point talent.
Given the fact that we would make major concessions on range in order to truly maximize this spell, I'm not sure Blizzard will nerf it. The spell is still quite counterable in PvP. As a once in a minute burst DPS, I don't see it as being overpowered to an extreme degree. I think we will see a version very similar to this.
@Foofy -
Sorry, about that. I read the thread those posts came from and consequently forgot to mention that it was without the glyph of focus. Let me ammend that now.
I likes the change... no, make that I loves the change, and I hope it goes live.
That said, I hate, hate, hate the glyph of Focus. Anything that takes away range is bad. I'm already bad at dealing with movement. Anything that makes me have to move MORE is bad.
There are very few fights where you can plant yourself carefully with a 36 yard range and never have to move for any reason. Taking away 15 yards of that makes me emo.
It's like the people who suggest dropping Nature's Reach in the balance tree because they never have threat issues... Which I do, sometimes, but even without the threat component, we always tell them that the extra range is an important part of the talent on movement fights.
And this is more than twice the difference. I just can't get enthusiastic about it.
Theoretically, I know it'd be a significant DPS increase. In practice, I'd almost never be able to take advantage of it... so I'm not going to waste the gold glyph swapping. :P
I think I am finding myself in the same boat Kiliani. I am fortunate enough to not need to utilize my offspec in raids so I actually dual spec Balance and now Glyph/spec one for AoE and the other for single target. Now, it looks like I will run with one set as Starfall/Focus/Starfire and the other as Starfall/Starfire/Moonfire. My guild is still struggling on content so I think the 3% miss debuff is important.
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