So with yet another tip of my horns to Murmurs, I'm gonna take a look at eclipse, the RNG, and some of the proposed changes. The original discussion can be found
here.
Current Eclipse
The current eclipse mechanism is very RNG dependent. For a lunar cycle, there is a 60% chance that a critical strike Wrath will proc eclipse. Right there are two instances of RNG. Even a solar cycle, which is 100% chance on a Starfire crit, still requires an RNG dependent event.
It is very easy to appear anti-RNG when talking about Eclipse and its current mechanics. Let me be clear that I am NOT anti-RNG. I think that one of the only ways to prove skill within WoW is to show how you react to dynamic situations and RNG dependent buffs/debuffs provide an excellent way to separate the great from the good.
Now that we have that little soapbox behind us, let's continue looking at eclipse. A 30% increase in critical strike chance to Starfire spells or a 30% increase to Wrath damage is the net result of the proc. Now assuming that Starfire and Wrath were doing comparable DPS, then 30% crit ~ 30% damage (with the point going to crit if the RNG loves you or increased damage if the RNG doesn't). So what is wrong with eclipse?
Eclipse provides 15 seconds of this bonus. In a "Stand and Deliver" fashion, this is pretty solid, but it breaks down in high movement situations because the buff doesn't stop ticking down just because we aren't casting. It's not unusual to spam away and once eclipse procs be forced to move in some manner.
So gandering, yes sir,
gandering at Murmurs post on the WoW forums, we have the following recommendations:
- 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%.
-Allows for a higher opportunity to benefit from Eclipse procs
-Still completely RNG based and does not promote any true form of skill
Mathematically speaking, this eclipse would be centered around finding the highest
probable DPS without doing a 5xStarfire>5xWrath and repeat ad nauseum. This becomes a very standard rotation and I can see the
SquawkHard showing a big starfire picture with a number inside of it to count the number of Starfires cast. My brain begins to freeze over a little bit and a small puddle of drool collects around my keyboard as I raid and continually count from 1 to 5 and occasionally refresh my DoTs.
- Every Starfire cast increases Crit chance by 1%, every Wrath cast increase Haste by 1%. Both effects stack and have a duration of 10 to 15 seconds.
-Very simplistic and removes all concept of RNG and gives a flat, predictable bonus instead
-Does not create a very interesting or skilled rotation. Only one 'off choice' spell needs to be cast every 10 to 15 seconds.
This idea turns eclipse from a proc into a ramping DPS talent. First you lay on your haste effect and then you lay on your crit effect and you cast your spell of choice (likely Starfire since you'll reap both a haste benefit and a crit benefit while wrath might do some GCD clipping) with one of the other spell every 8 or so seconds to refresh your stack. I agree that the idea is a solid and dependable solution to the perceived RNG problem but it removes all need for skill. Thus is another place where an addon like SquawkHard would rule your rotation. I find this to be vastly different than the feral druid priority that requires keeping up buffs and debuffs that all have different cooldowns/requirements. Their rotation is a balancing act and the good players are easily separated from the bad players. I think a change of this style would only create a plateau of Balance druids.
The only hope that I see for this change is making it
impossible to maintain both stacks completely thereby forcing people to choose between running sub optimal stacks or picking one stack over the other.
- Change Eclipse to be based on 'charges' instead of a timed debuff allotting a specific number of casts to be effected by the proc.
-Increases the opportunity to benefit from Eclipse
-Does little to remove the major RNG factor of Eclipse, though it does lessen it
-Removes Haste scaling from Eclipse
-Would still have to have some form of time limit to prevent 'chaining' Eclipse or buffing pre-fight
Believe it or not, I really like the idea because it gives the player control. Gone would be the days of a movement wrecked Eclipse proc. It also preserves the unpredictability of the moonkin rotation. I agree with the thought that there needs to be a time limit on this buff and that it should be in excess of the time needed to cast the spell. There is always the option of starting the cooldown when the buff is either used up or expires. This will encourage druids to use it immediately but not penalize them for having to succumb to fight mechanics.
- Change Wrath's portion of Eclipse to be 100% chance on Crit instead of 60%.
-Removes the larger portion of Eclipse's RNG
-Still does little to help with mobility to making use of Eclipse
I hate to be the naysayer here, but the reason that the Wrath chance is 60% is because a Wrath cast time is less than a Starfire cast time. Now, ignoring the first cast proc, this means that you would have more chances to crit with Wrath than you would with Starfire. This would tip the scales back in the direction of the Lunar cycle and you'd see every Moonkin doing exactly the same thing. Blizzard has made it clear that they don't want to encourage this type of blind dopplegangering within a class/spec.
- Change Eclipse to be two separate 'on use' abilities that share a 30 second cooldown with each other
-Removes the concept of 'spell twisting'
-Allows for the best use of Eclipse buffs
So while this provides the most "user control" it again eliminates any randomness from the druid rotation. In fact, we become uni-dimensional. Pick your spell and subsequent DoT(s). Cast said spell repeatedly. Pop eclipse when most approriate. Replace keyboard from having hit 3 or 4 so many times that they no longer work.
-Change Eclipse to work like Arcane Blast and/or Missle Barage.
Ok, this is backed by Foofy (if I'm reading that correctly). Before I do a review of this I am going to need to see a little more information on it.
- Change Eclipse to add a stackable buff to Starfire and Wrath - such as each Wrath Crit increases Starfire's chance to Crit by X%. The effects don't have a shared cooldown, thus the two are theoretically chained together
- Allows for better use of Eclipse procs
- Less RNG dependent
- Promotes spell twisting
- Has the possibility to be abused in un-intended ways (although I don't think this is a major concern)
Ok, so this was my baby and I'm pretty biased to it, but lets just pretend I'm not and that I am taking as objective a stance as I can. I suggested this adaptation because it still contains the RNG factor based on your crit. It would be 100% on crit for application and in this case, you needn't worry that wrath casts faster than starfire because you'll want to have
both buffs rolling. Here's the catch: You may not be able to do that all the time. In terms of gearing, I feel that this also encourages the best balance of crit/haste because you will be using both spells copiously. I agree with the un-intended abuse as it might be possible to stack crit high enough to run both buffs all the time. I feel that doing so would cause you to sacrifice so many other stats that even with both buffs rolling, your dps would be sub-par.
In the end, I feel like we've had some good ideas thrown forth by the community and I hope that GC continues reading past the silly banter people feel the need to throw into constructive threads. If you have an idea but are afraid of GC and the megalithic WoW forums, feel free to leave a comment and I'll post it over there for you.
On an unrelated gear note, I have updated my BiS spreadsheet with some new stuff and a nifty new set of dropdowns on the BiS page to make gear changes easier!
