There's a widespread change happening to the way pushback talents work. We already know about the change to continued spell pushback; while casting a regular spell (Frostbolt, Arcane Blast), the first two hits against you will increase the spell's cast time by 0.5 seconds. However, after the second hit, every other hit after that will be pushback-free for the remainder of the cast.
While channeling a spell (Blizzard, Arcane Missiles), damaging attacks will cut the total time channeled by 25% (that would be 2 seconds per hit while channeling Blizzard, and 1.25 seconds off your Arcane Missiles, effectively removing one missile from your spell). Like regular spellcasting, you will only suffer pushback twice while channeling a spell.
Now, another change has been made to talents that offer[ed] pushback resistance. Pretty much every caster class has talents that increase your chance to resist spell pushback; many of these spells give you a 70% resist chance. Obviously these talents are very useful, especially in PvP. However, all of these talents have been changed; instead of giving you x% chance to fully resist pushback, instead they reduce the amount of pushback suffered by x%. I suppose that means if normally an attack would increase a spell's duration by 0.5 sec (for a total of 1 extra second of cast time), 70% less pushback would mean only 0.15 sec added to the cast time (for a total of 0.3 sec).
Talents affected by this change include:
Nature's Focus for Balance/Resto Druids
Improved Barrage for Marks Hunters
Arcane Stability for Arcane Mages and Burning Soul for Fire Mages; note that because Arcane Stability is 100% anyway, there's no real change to how the talent works when maxed out.
Spiritual Focus for Holy Paladins
Healing Focus for Holy Priests and Improved Shadowform for Shadow Priests
Eye of the Storm for Ele Shaman and Healing Focus for Resto Shaman; note that EotS didn't offer pushback resistance in Burning Crusade.
Fel Concentration for Affliction Locks and Intensity for Destro Locks
When I first heard about the changes to spell/channeling pushback, my intial thoughts were this: if you're casting a fast spell, it won't matter because you won't get to three hits anyway, and if you're casting a slightly slower spell, it won't matter because by the time you reach pushback immunity at three hits, whatever melee class is beating on you is going to find a way to interrupt your spell or otherwise screw you.
I'm sure the changes to pushback talents exsist because Blizzard is hesitant to grant casters nearly complete pushback immunity: with a 70% chance to fully resist pushback, and only two chances to be pushed back per cast, that's a really good chance to experience no pushback on most of your spells. So instead, with talents you only get 0.15 seconds per hit on your spells, which really doesn't sound bad.
I have a caster Druid with Nature's Focus, and I have a Mage I could spec back into the Fire tree and Burning Soul. I need to get on the PTR and do some random soloing and try this out. Theoretically I'm against the change to pushback talents, but maybe I'll find it doesn't actually mean much anyway.
But before I can do that, I need a new card. Account expired on Friday. Gotta see that Brewfest! I let my account expire during Children's Week, which made me sad :( No mini Elekk for me.
Showing posts with label hunters. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hunters. Show all posts
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Friday, September 19, 2008
Build 8962 notes
Problem: I have the first article in a series of articles about my Balance Druid talent tree, but there's been probably 4 or 5 builds worth of changes to that tree, many things I'd like to stick in mine. So I might as well just throw out that post, update my tree (with my new ideas and what Blizz has done), and start over. THAT will sure be fun.
Let's talk Boomkins, and then anything else that catches my interest. All of this comes from MMO-Champion.
Druid: Balance
Earth and Moon (Tier 10) changed so your Wrath and Starfire spells have a 100% chance to apply the Earth and Moon effect. It now also increases your spell damage by 1/2/3/4/5%. (Previously had a 20/40/60/80/100% chance to apply the Earth and Moon Effect)
We like more spell damage, but the spell damage was probably added to incentivize going 5/5 in the talent; previously most people probably would have saved 2 talent points by going 3/5 for a 60% proc rate.
Eclipse (Tier 9) changed so when you critically hit with Starfire, you have a 33/66/100% chance of increasing damage done by Wrath by 10%. (Previously 20/40/60% chance)
Eclipse still sucks, and that's all. I might give this talent its own post, because I have ideas for how to make it better.
Improved Moonkin Aura (Tier 7) gives 3% spell haste for all ranks and now you gain 5/10/15% of your spirit as additional spell damage.
I was hoping for Spirit to Spell Crit, but a blue post on the Druid boards says that they think that's too much crit, dangit. But only fifteen percent? If Druids have 400 Spirit, that's only 60 spell damage. Maybe they'll have more than that, but give them 100 more Spirit and the damage increase still isn't much.
Improved Faerie Fire (Tier 7) increases your critical strike chance against targets afflicted with Faerie Fire by 1/2/3%.
We like crit, but I'll leave it to the theorycrafters to determine if the mana and global cooldown lost on keeping FF up will justify the additional crit. And is it your personal crit chance or is it the crit chance for the whole raid? They should clarify the tooltip.
Nature's Splendor (Tier 3) changed to - When you cast Moonfire, Insect Swarm, Rejuvenation, Regrowth or Lifebloom you have a 33/66/100% chance to increase it's duration by 3 sec.
Makes more sense than the old way, considering most periodic spells tick every 3 seconds, except Lifebloom.
Druid: Restoration
Gift of the Wild now affects the whole raid.
We like this; less reagents when buffing the raid. Not that uh, I've ever been in a group larger than five people.
Lifebloom healing reduced. Mana cost increased. (Check Skill list for details)
Oh noes! More nerfs to Lifebloom. Yet Another Blue Post I may need to talk about is the one about the shift Blizz wants to make in Druid healing. They want it to be less reliant on Lifebloom; they want to get Druids out of the "roll LB + place HoTs in between" thing. Also, apparently the healing coefficients on Lifebloom when BC launched were too high. So it's a total accident that Druids are good healers, basically.
Flourish renamed Wild Growth.
Whhhaaat? That's my sweet Herbalism heal. That I can use in Moonkin Form.
Wild Growth renamed Lifeblood. Lame! That's a name that is dumb I think.
Druid: Feral
Glyph of Swipe has been removed.
IIRC (and hey, who checks facts these days?), Glyph of Swipe upped the number of targets hit by a Swipe from 3 to 4, which sounds really good. Instead, we get this...
Glyph of Maul has been added - Your Maul ability now hits 1 additional target.
I don't get it. I haven't Bear tanked on my Druid since Zul'Farak, but I'm pretty sure I spammed Swipe most of the time. Which, you know, may or may not be how you "AoE tank," but it worked good enough for me. So why are they giving the Bear tanks two methods of hitting more than one dude? Like I said, maybe I'm out of my mind, but I would think most Ferals would rather have a 4-target swipe than a 2-target Maul.
Mage: Arcane
Arcane Blast changed. Each time you cast Arcane Blast, the damage is increased by 15% and mana cost is increased by 300%. (Previously 25% damage increase and 75% mana increase, but the 300% is most likely a typo and should be 30%)
Ha ha. I wonder if that typo reflects in-game? Probably not, but I would like to see the numbers for that.
Mage: Fire
Flamestrike mana cost reduced and is now a 2 sec cast. (Previously 3 sec cast)
This might make the Firestarter talent more attractive.
Mage: Frost
Frozen Core (Tier 5) now reduces damage taken by all spells. (Previously only affected fire and frost)
This seemed like a useless talent before, when it only mitigated Fire and Frost damage.
Shatter (Tier 4) is now 3 ranks. It increases the critical strike chance of all your spells against frozen targets by 17/34/50%. (Previously 5 ranks and increased by 10/20/30/40/50%)
Ice Shards (Tier 2) is now 3 ranks. It increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Frost spells by 33/66/100%. (Previously 5 ranks and increased by 20/40/60/80/100%)
We like the condensing of talents, especially the "necessary" talents that Blizzard is trying to cut down on. Simply cutting down on the point cost works great.
Paladin: Glyphs
Glyph of Turn Evil now Reduces the casting time of your Turn Evil spell by 100%. (Old - Reduces the cooldown on Turn Evil by 5 sec.)
Chain-fear those dang Metamorphisizeded Warlocks!
Priest: Shadow
Dispersion (Tier 11) changed to - You disperse into pure Shadow energy, reducing all damage taken by 90%. You are unable to attack or cast spells, but you regenerate 6% mana every 1 sec for 6 sec. Dispersion can be cast while stunned, feared or silenced. If Dispersion runs its full duration, and you are not the victim of any damage or harmful effects during its duration, your spells gain 25% damage for 1 min.
So it's like Barkskin now, but way better in terms of damage reduction. And the spell damage will make it better for grouping, since 6 sec. without damage is probably 6 sec. too much for a lot of people.
Rogue: Assassination
Ambush damage increased. (Check skill list for details)
Rogues rejoice!
Focused Attacks (Tier 8) gives your melee critical strikes 100% chance to generate 1/2/3 Energy. (Previously 30% chance)
Still doesn't sound good; it should be at least 10 energy. Rather, 10 energy with a low proc rate.
Rogue: Combat
Backstab damage increased. (Check skill list for details)
Rogues continue to rejoice...
Shaman: Enhancement
*New Talent* Earthen Power (Tier 9) - Your Earthbind Totem has a 50/100% chance to also remove all snare effects from you and nearby friendly targets when it pulses.
That's pretty neat.
Warlock: Glyphs
Glyph of Unending Breath - Increases the swim speed of targets affected by your Unending Breath spell by 20%.
Why do Shaman still have to spend a reagent for the same effect?
Warrior: Fury
*New Talent* Heroic Fury (Tier 9) - Removes any Immobilization effects and refreshes the cooldown of your Intercept ability. (45 Sec Cooldown)
This makes casters sad, but it's something PVP Warriors have really needed.
Warrior: Protection
Tactical Mastery has been moved to Tier 2 Arms.
Makes more sense there.
Well, that's all I see that's interesting. Because, you know, I just kinda skimmed it.
WHAT'S THIS?!
*New Skill* Freezing Arrow (Level 80) - Fire a freezing arrow that places a Freezing Trap at the target location, freezing the first enemy that approaches, preventing all action for up to 20 sec. Any damage caused will break the ice. Trap will exist for . Only one trap can be active at a time. (3% of base mana, 40 yd range, Instant cast, 30 sec cooldown)
That's pretty neat. That's really neat. Based on some forum browsin', the only problem is you have to use the target cirlce. And as we all know, aiming a targeting circle in PVP is usually coupled with fail, as you're either standing still while you aim it or your running backwards useless or something like that. I'm sure they won't make it a direct target; that would be too easy.
Let's talk Boomkins, and then anything else that catches my interest. All of this comes from MMO-Champion.
Druid: Balance
Earth and Moon (Tier 10) changed so your Wrath and Starfire spells have a 100% chance to apply the Earth and Moon effect. It now also increases your spell damage by 1/2/3/4/5%. (Previously had a 20/40/60/80/100% chance to apply the Earth and Moon Effect)
We like more spell damage, but the spell damage was probably added to incentivize going 5/5 in the talent; previously most people probably would have saved 2 talent points by going 3/5 for a 60% proc rate.
Eclipse (Tier 9) changed so when you critically hit with Starfire, you have a 33/66/100% chance of increasing damage done by Wrath by 10%. (Previously 20/40/60% chance)
Eclipse still sucks, and that's all. I might give this talent its own post, because I have ideas for how to make it better.
Improved Moonkin Aura (Tier 7) gives 3% spell haste for all ranks and now you gain 5/10/15% of your spirit as additional spell damage.
I was hoping for Spirit to Spell Crit, but a blue post on the Druid boards says that they think that's too much crit, dangit. But only fifteen percent? If Druids have 400 Spirit, that's only 60 spell damage. Maybe they'll have more than that, but give them 100 more Spirit and the damage increase still isn't much.
Improved Faerie Fire (Tier 7) increases your critical strike chance against targets afflicted with Faerie Fire by 1/2/3%.
We like crit, but I'll leave it to the theorycrafters to determine if the mana and global cooldown lost on keeping FF up will justify the additional crit. And is it your personal crit chance or is it the crit chance for the whole raid? They should clarify the tooltip.
Nature's Splendor (Tier 3) changed to - When you cast Moonfire, Insect Swarm, Rejuvenation, Regrowth or Lifebloom you have a 33/66/100% chance to increase it's duration by 3 sec.
Makes more sense than the old way, considering most periodic spells tick every 3 seconds, except Lifebloom.
Druid: Restoration
Gift of the Wild now affects the whole raid.
We like this; less reagents when buffing the raid. Not that uh, I've ever been in a group larger than five people.
Lifebloom healing reduced. Mana cost increased. (Check Skill list for details)
Oh noes! More nerfs to Lifebloom. Yet Another Blue Post I may need to talk about is the one about the shift Blizz wants to make in Druid healing. They want it to be less reliant on Lifebloom; they want to get Druids out of the "roll LB + place HoTs in between" thing. Also, apparently the healing coefficients on Lifebloom when BC launched were too high. So it's a total accident that Druids are good healers, basically.
Flourish renamed Wild Growth.
Whhhaaat? That's my sweet Herbalism heal. That I can use in Moonkin Form.
Wild Growth renamed Lifeblood. Lame! That's a name that is dumb I think.
Druid: Feral
Glyph of Swipe has been removed.
IIRC (and hey, who checks facts these days?), Glyph of Swipe upped the number of targets hit by a Swipe from 3 to 4, which sounds really good. Instead, we get this...
Glyph of Maul has been added - Your Maul ability now hits 1 additional target.
I don't get it. I haven't Bear tanked on my Druid since Zul'Farak, but I'm pretty sure I spammed Swipe most of the time. Which, you know, may or may not be how you "AoE tank," but it worked good enough for me. So why are they giving the Bear tanks two methods of hitting more than one dude? Like I said, maybe I'm out of my mind, but I would think most Ferals would rather have a 4-target swipe than a 2-target Maul.
Mage: Arcane
Arcane Blast changed. Each time you cast Arcane Blast, the damage is increased by 15% and mana cost is increased by 300%. (Previously 25% damage increase and 75% mana increase, but the 300% is most likely a typo and should be 30%)
Ha ha. I wonder if that typo reflects in-game? Probably not, but I would like to see the numbers for that.
Mage: Fire
Flamestrike mana cost reduced and is now a 2 sec cast. (Previously 3 sec cast)
This might make the Firestarter talent more attractive.
Mage: Frost
Frozen Core (Tier 5) now reduces damage taken by all spells. (Previously only affected fire and frost)
This seemed like a useless talent before, when it only mitigated Fire and Frost damage.
Shatter (Tier 4) is now 3 ranks. It increases the critical strike chance of all your spells against frozen targets by 17/34/50%. (Previously 5 ranks and increased by 10/20/30/40/50%)
Ice Shards (Tier 2) is now 3 ranks. It increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Frost spells by 33/66/100%. (Previously 5 ranks and increased by 20/40/60/80/100%)
We like the condensing of talents, especially the "necessary" talents that Blizzard is trying to cut down on. Simply cutting down on the point cost works great.
Paladin: Glyphs
Glyph of Turn Evil now Reduces the casting time of your Turn Evil spell by 100%. (Old - Reduces the cooldown on Turn Evil by 5 sec.)
Chain-fear those dang Metamorphisizeded Warlocks!
Priest: Shadow
Dispersion (Tier 11) changed to - You disperse into pure Shadow energy, reducing all damage taken by 90%. You are unable to attack or cast spells, but you regenerate 6% mana every 1 sec for 6 sec. Dispersion can be cast while stunned, feared or silenced. If Dispersion runs its full duration, and you are not the victim of any damage or harmful effects during its duration, your spells gain 25% damage for 1 min.
So it's like Barkskin now, but way better in terms of damage reduction. And the spell damage will make it better for grouping, since 6 sec. without damage is probably 6 sec. too much for a lot of people.
Rogue: Assassination
Ambush damage increased. (Check skill list for details)
Rogues rejoice!
Focused Attacks (Tier 8) gives your melee critical strikes 100% chance to generate 1/2/3 Energy. (Previously 30% chance)
Still doesn't sound good; it should be at least 10 energy. Rather, 10 energy with a low proc rate.
Rogue: Combat
Backstab damage increased. (Check skill list for details)
Rogues continue to rejoice...
Shaman: Enhancement
*New Talent* Earthen Power (Tier 9) - Your Earthbind Totem has a 50/100% chance to also remove all snare effects from you and nearby friendly targets when it pulses.
That's pretty neat.
Warlock: Glyphs
Glyph of Unending Breath - Increases the swim speed of targets affected by your Unending Breath spell by 20%.
Why do Shaman still have to spend a reagent for the same effect?
Warrior: Fury
*New Talent* Heroic Fury (Tier 9) - Removes any Immobilization effects and refreshes the cooldown of your Intercept ability. (45 Sec Cooldown)
This makes casters sad, but it's something PVP Warriors have really needed.
Warrior: Protection
Tactical Mastery has been moved to Tier 2 Arms.
Makes more sense there.
Well, that's all I see that's interesting. Because, you know, I just kinda skimmed it.
WHAT'S THIS?!
*New Skill* Freezing Arrow (Level 80) - Fire a freezing arrow that places a Freezing Trap at the target location, freezing the first enemy that approaches, preventing all action for up to 20 sec. Any damage caused will break the ice. Trap will exist for . Only one trap can be active at a time. (3% of base mana, 40 yd range, Instant cast, 30 sec cooldown)
That's pretty neat. That's really neat. Based on some forum browsin', the only problem is you have to use the target cirlce. And as we all know, aiming a targeting circle in PVP is usually coupled with fail, as you're either standing still while you aim it or your running backwards useless or something like that. I'm sure they won't make it a direct target; that would be too easy.
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