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WoW - Twisting your arm in innovative ways
Twisting your arm in innovative ways (since the release).
I have been playing lots of WoW over the last couple of weeks (and when I say lots, it really means that almost all of my available free time got rerouted into WoW, which boils down to 3-4hrs every other day).
My class of choice is Druid, druids have been revamped since old school WoW thus transformed to the least viable class to a mediocre class. Unfortunately Blizzard once again decided to weaken the class and "balance" it to be the least viable in all 3 of its roles.
The spec. most affected by recent nerfs was feral tank, which lost (in t7) 10000armor and 5000-ish health, recent math shows that after the next patch druid tanks will be 20% behind DKs - damage mitigation-wise.
20% may or may not be much, depends on your point of view, 20% may not be crucial for 5 and 10 man instances, but in 25 man instances both the DPSers and healers will STRONGLY prefer a better tank. Simply put, the gaming experience for them is much more enjoyable with better, more efficient tanks.
I have already had situations in which my tanking druid performed really really lousy when compared to pally or a DK, for an example this happens when tanking HoS dwarf encounter with lots of incoming adds, I simply cannot "catch" them with swipe, whereas all other tanking classes can. In addition to Halls of Stone I also have problems Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle has another multiple mob sequence where my druid underperforms (The Gauntlet). Same thing also happens in Heroic Gun'drak (snake adds, 1st boss). Of course, you have to notice that its not damage mitigation that the issue here, its the ability to keep AoE aggro.
One time, after tanking one instance we went to HoStone where I was unable to tank the adds, so the leader asked me whether I was the same Greyclaw from before or was someone else playing. Yes, its THAT obvious that druids fail at 3+ mob tanking, especially with AOE-ers doing their thing. With a druid tank, AoEing is a no go in the first 10s of a new pull sequence. AoE-ers therefore should manage their aggro, but WHY should they when they can simply have someone else tank the encounter?
On the public test realms druids are a no-go tanking wise, and this in itself is a huge impact to the druid tanks image in WoW. The information that druids arent good enough for tanking has entered the collective consciousness of the WoW population, and its gonna be hard to get rid of the bad rep even if we do get fixed to be equivalently good tanks with other classes.
First couple of times in a new instance, people may be content with occasional wipes but as soon as people start farming instances, they want to simply be done with it with the least effort invested into the game. Again we can blame Blizzard for insisting on VERTICAL content upgrades instead of on HORIZONTAL content.
All old school instances are completely obsolete, even 5 man instances in WotLK become obsolete after a month or two. Such is the pitfall of vertical content upgrades.
Heart of the Wild nerf in 3.1
In order to keep our goal of having all 4 tank classes capable of handling Ulduar, we need to get tank health pools a little closer together.
While I won’t hide that this is a nerf for bears, we also don’t want to get to the point of having a “mana sponge” tank, now that we are making mana more of an issue for healers.
If druids slip behind as a result of lack of mitigation, avoidance or cooldowns, we will buff them. (Source)
In order to keep our goal of having all 4 tank classes capable of handling Ulduar, we need to get tank health pools a little closer together.
While I won’t hide that this is a nerf for bears, we also don’t want to get to the point of having a “mana sponge” tank, now that we are making mana more of an issue for healers.
If druids slip behind as a result of lack of mitigation, avoidance or cooldowns, we will buff them. (Source)
UNBUFFED LIVE BEAR
33,853 armor (68.97% physical damage reduction before Protector of the Pack)
36.45% dodge
4854 attack power
35.06% crit
35,237 HP
UNBUFFED PTR BEAR
27,910 armor (64.69% physical damage reduction before Protector of the Pack)
36.74% dodge
4867 attack power
35.26% crit
33,427 HP
Of course, druids and DKs were slightly advantaged on a couple of boss fights (Sartharion) due to their health and this had to be balanced, but now we lost both health and armor, to make things worse, originally we were designed to BE mana sponges, we were predestined to have less mitigation but more health and armor. Once you equalize our health and armor with other tanks, all that will be left is our lack of mitigation.
Our avoidance is going to stay the lowest of all four tanks no matter what, and that necessarily bleeds into the total mana consumption of our heal teams. Our armor is going to be comparable to a decently-geared Death Knight in Frost Presence without their avoidance or cooldowns: our health is going to be comparable to a Blood-specced Death Knight without their avoidance or cooldowns: our physical damage mitigation is going to be comparable to a decently-geared Warrior or Paladin without their avoidance or, in the Warrior's case, their cooldowns: and our magic damage mitigation will continue to be worse than a Death Knight or Warrior's. On top of that, there's no buff or nerf (outside of the new Glyph of Berserk) that's aimed at addressing Bears' relatively weak capacity for burst or AoE threat.
Without additional cooldowns or tweaked talents, Bears are in kind of an iffy spot entering Tier 8 as things stand right now. Healers can afford to spam you with whatever they've got on current content, but when mana management becomes an issue, I'm somewhat concerned that the tank who is still designed to gobble most of it is going to be a significantly less attractive choice on top of providing less margin for healer error with a reduced health pool.
Source
Without additional cooldowns or tweaked talents, Bears are in kind of an iffy spot entering Tier 8 as things stand right now. Healers can afford to spam you with whatever they've got on current content, but when mana management becomes an issue, I'm somewhat concerned that the tank who is still designed to gobble most of it is going to be a significantly less attractive choice on top of providing less margin for healer error with a reduced health pool.
Source
Single target Savage Defense math
Here is some math on why, as far as I can calculate, savage defense will be a big nerf..
Assume raidbuffed, you have 6000 AP and 40% crit. This is not too bad numbers anyways. Yours may vary, but you can always redo my calculations with your own numbers. Just because I've calculated my own armor mitigation numbers, I'll use mine. These are 34928 raid buffed in 3.0.9 and will become 29013 in 3.1.0 if they go ahead with nerfing SotF from 66% to 33%.
Mitigation factor with PotP and my armor in 3.0.9 = 0.323 * 0.88 = 0.28424
Mitigation factor with PotP and my armor in 3.1.0 = 0.364 * 0.88 = 0.32032
Extra damage taken in 3.1.0 due to lower mitigation: (0.32032 / 0.28424 - 1) * 100% = 12.69 %
Since Savage Defense don't scale with incoming damage, we need to know boss DPS and attack speed in order to calculate how much damage we mitigate with the shield. I ignore avoidance, and calculate as if all attacks hit. My calculations follow:
Savage Defense Factor = (Boss damage per attack - Average damage blocked by Savage Defense) / Boss damage per attack
Boss damage per attack = Boss DPS * Boss attack speed
Average damage blocked by Savage Defense = Damage blocked by Savage Defense * Chance of critting between boss attacks
Damage blocked by Savage Defense = Attack Power / (4 * Mitigation factor)
Chance of critting between boss attacks = 1 - (1 - Crit chance) ^ Average number of hits between boss attacks
Average number of hits between boss attacks = Boss attack speed / Druid auto attack speed + Boss attack speed / Global cooldown
Here are the average damage mitigated by savage defense been calculated from various test boss damage scenarios:
Boss DPS 70000, 1s attack speed: 2.81 % reduced damage (Patchwerk)
Boss DPS 40000, 2s attack speed: 4.27 %
Boss DPS 20000, 2s attack speed: 8.53 %
Boss DPS 10000, 2s attack speed: 17.1 %
And retried with 100% chance of shield being up:
Boss DPS 70000, 1s attack speed: 6.68 % (Patchwerk)
Boss DPS 40000, 2s attack speed: 5.85 %
Boss DPS 20000, 2s attack speed: 11.69 %
Boss DPS 10000, 2s attack speed: 23.39 %
We need a boss with less than 20000 DPS for this to not be a nerf (More than the 12.69% mitigation lost in armor). Even if we assume the shield is always up. Isn't that an easy encounter anyways? Doesn't sound like an encounter where healing is an issue. On top of this, not only is the shield crap unless you're taking very little damage, but it's unreliable avoidance instead of reliable mitigation too.
According to my calculations, based on a TTL rating of stats (World of Warcraft - Evaluating druid tank gear), even, assuming 10000 boss DPS, 1 AGI is worth more than 10 AP or 5 crit rating with my current gear level. At patchwerk levels, 1 AGI is like 75 AP or 25 crit rating with my current (but not awesome) gear level.
This makes AP and crit really bad stats for survival purposes, compared to their item budget values.
Here is some math on why, as far as I can calculate, savage defense will be a big nerf..
Assume raidbuffed, you have 6000 AP and 40% crit. This is not too bad numbers anyways. Yours may vary, but you can always redo my calculations with your own numbers. Just because I've calculated my own armor mitigation numbers, I'll use mine. These are 34928 raid buffed in 3.0.9 and will become 29013 in 3.1.0 if they go ahead with nerfing SotF from 66% to 33%.
Mitigation factor with PotP and my armor in 3.0.9 = 0.323 * 0.88 = 0.28424
Mitigation factor with PotP and my armor in 3.1.0 = 0.364 * 0.88 = 0.32032
Extra damage taken in 3.1.0 due to lower mitigation: (0.32032 / 0.28424 - 1) * 100% = 12.69 %
Since Savage Defense don't scale with incoming damage, we need to know boss DPS and attack speed in order to calculate how much damage we mitigate with the shield. I ignore avoidance, and calculate as if all attacks hit. My calculations follow:
Savage Defense Factor = (Boss damage per attack - Average damage blocked by Savage Defense) / Boss damage per attack
Boss damage per attack = Boss DPS * Boss attack speed
Average damage blocked by Savage Defense = Damage blocked by Savage Defense * Chance of critting between boss attacks
Damage blocked by Savage Defense = Attack Power / (4 * Mitigation factor)
Chance of critting between boss attacks = 1 - (1 - Crit chance) ^ Average number of hits between boss attacks
Average number of hits between boss attacks = Boss attack speed / Druid auto attack speed + Boss attack speed / Global cooldown
Here are the average damage mitigated by savage defense been calculated from various test boss damage scenarios:
Boss DPS 70000, 1s attack speed: 2.81 % reduced damage (Patchwerk)
Boss DPS 40000, 2s attack speed: 4.27 %
Boss DPS 20000, 2s attack speed: 8.53 %
Boss DPS 10000, 2s attack speed: 17.1 %
And retried with 100% chance of shield being up:
Boss DPS 70000, 1s attack speed: 6.68 % (Patchwerk)
Boss DPS 40000, 2s attack speed: 5.85 %
Boss DPS 20000, 2s attack speed: 11.69 %
Boss DPS 10000, 2s attack speed: 23.39 %
We need a boss with less than 20000 DPS for this to not be a nerf (More than the 12.69% mitigation lost in armor). Even if we assume the shield is always up. Isn't that an easy encounter anyways? Doesn't sound like an encounter where healing is an issue. On top of this, not only is the shield crap unless you're taking very little damage, but it's unreliable avoidance instead of reliable mitigation too.
According to my calculations, based on a TTL rating of stats (World of Warcraft - Evaluating druid tank gear), even, assuming 10000 boss DPS, 1 AGI is worth more than 10 AP or 5 crit rating with my current gear level. At patchwerk levels, 1 AGI is like 75 AP or 25 crit rating with my current (but not awesome) gear level.
This makes AP and crit really bad stats for survival purposes, compared to their item budget values.
Therefore it would seem that we will become subpar tank, with 20% lack in damage mitigation, thus bringing absolutely nothing unique to the table, why then would anyone use druid tanks?
Furthermore, why would they let druids have tanking gear, when its better used elsewhere (logically, players greed comes into play here, all those DKs, Wars and Pallys will undoubtedly benefit from propagating the idea that all tanking gear is rightfully theirs).
Too many druids?
It is an assumption on my part that Blizzard noticed that druids may become quite advantaged once dual spec hits the live realms (could fill any role, anytime) so they decided to simply annulate one option because they dont want druid population to go above 9-12% (a rule that does not apply to paladin and DK population, we seem to want as many of those as possible). The annulated option is tanking. With the addition of one additional (superior) tanking class (DKs), the game does not need more tanks, especially not ones that require fixing.
Fixing druid tanking at this moment could even make them viable in PvP, and we wouldn't want any class to be overly represented in arenas (except for Pally and DKs which amount to 60% of all top team members) so Blizzard doesn't want to break the ages old cycle.
Why nerf the most powerful classes when that way one could lose many subscriptions, why not instead nerf those classes that are not really represented in arenas, no real harm done that way, right?
The ages old cycle - due to bad scaling of druids, we always seem to go thru the same basic cycle; new exp. hits the shelves and druids are pretty much ok because most of their strength comes from talents, then after a while others start getting top tier epics and due to lousy scaling with equipment druids end up being last and are consequently forced to fill the least represented role - which is healing. When a new expansion comes we are all "go tank go!¨, but some 4-8 months later we are back to "we don't need you, please spec resto and heal".
But, back to dual speccing. So, with the newest set of nerfs hitting bears, the only available options are doing dps (attack power and crit chance also scale well with the new defensive passive ability explained above) and healing, so most druids will dual spec. into those 2 roles.
Because of the lack of healers in the game, what do you think, how much time will they be spending in each of those specs?
99% of time in healing spec?
The same old cycle of "innovative" arm bending. Never gets old it seems.
So what are we to do?
Spec. into kitty dps and dual spec into resto.
Heres what Nightcrowler from Runetotem has to say about this;
The simulation is a DIRECT simulation (putted inside stats, combat table, a random number generator and a decisional algoritm).
STATS (best in slot or near it, regemmed for agility instead of str), fully raid buffed with all the buffs avaiable, flasked and food:
Cat (crit% vs. a boss (-4.8% added)): 51.96%
Cat (AP): 10745
Expertise: 26
Hit: 7%+1%(draneo)
Armor Penetration: 11.17%
Haste (from equipment): 8.2%
+weapon damage: 0
Boss base Armor (before penetration and debuff): 11900
Boss modified Armor (after penetration and debuff): 7928
Boss Damage Reduction (after debuff and penetration): 34.2%
Weapon Speed Reduction % (Total without Bloodlust but with Improved Windfury totem): 25%
Missed % (Total): 0%
Dodged %: 0%
--------------
Stats value (hit and expertise are computed subtracting hit and expertise because I'm at the cap):
Hit 42.0
Expertise 42.0
Agility 25.8
Armor Pen 24.3
Feral AP 12.0
Strengh 23.8
AP 10.0
Crit 19.8
Haste 14.3
Basically hit, expertise>>agi,Armor Pen,str,ap,crit>>>haste.
STATS (best in slot or near it, regemmed for agility instead of str), fully raid buffed with all the buffs avaiable, flasked and food:
Cat (crit% vs. a boss (-4.8% added)): 51.96%
Cat (AP): 10745
Expertise: 26
Hit: 7%+1%(draneo)
Armor Penetration: 11.17%
Haste (from equipment): 8.2%
+weapon damage: 0
Boss base Armor (before penetration and debuff): 11900
Boss modified Armor (after penetration and debuff): 7928
Boss Damage Reduction (after debuff and penetration): 34.2%
Weapon Speed Reduction % (Total without Bloodlust but with Improved Windfury totem): 25%
Missed % (Total): 0%
Dodged %: 0%
--------------
Stats value (hit and expertise are computed subtracting hit and expertise because I'm at the cap):
Hit 42.0
Expertise 42.0
Agility 25.8
Armor Pen 24.3
Feral AP 12.0
Strengh 23.8
AP 10.0
Crit 19.8
Haste 14.3
Basically hit, expertise>>agi,Armor Pen,str,ap,crit>>>haste.
So, after the incoming patch hits the live realms, you will want to get as much agility and crit rating as humanly possible. Strength might also be a good option (attack power scaling and the new feral shield).
Nightcrowler also reports:
With all avaiable buffs and best in slot (or near it) gear (no inspiration but-3% damage for buffs), no boss AP debuff.
Spec:
http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?drui...0&version=9626
Glyphs: Berserk, maul, Frenzied. (on a side note, Barskin glyph could be cool in thodir fight -200 def for 15 sec...)
Barskin is not taken into account for the simulation
-----
Rotation:
Always maul
keep 5 lacerate up
mangle when not in cd
swipe in meantime
berserk when not in cd
enrage when not in cd
------------------
boss melee: 62k (pre-mitigation)
boss swing: 2 sec
--------------------
Bear (crit% vs. a boss (-4.8% added)): 34.2232%
Bear (AP): 6831
Expertise: 56
Hit: 3.72065%
Armor Penetration: 1.94865%
Haste (from equipment): 3.01921%
Shield value = 1707
Boss base Armor (before penetration and debuff): 11900
Boss modified Armor (after penetration and debuff): 8751.08
Boss Damage Reduction (after debuff and penetration): 36.4878%
Weapon Speed Reduction % (Total without Bloodlust): 21%
Missed % (Total): 3.27935%
Dodged %: 0%
Not normalized attacks parried by the boss: 0%
----------------
DPS: 2963.71, TPS: 6420.46
Mangle bear: 17.3%, Average Damage: 2164, Maul: 62.8%, Average Damage: 3738, Lacerate: 15.5%, Average Damage: 5998, Swipe: 4.4% Average Damage: 452
Boss crit: 0%, Boss hit: 46.1%, Boss miss: 53.97%, Boss white dps: 3908, Boss average weapon speed: 2 sec., Boss average parried attacks x sec: 0%, Average Boss White DPS increase due to parry: 0%
Chance to die: 4.9% without heals in 5 seconds
----------------
Bear armor: 31610
Physical Damage Reduction Bear: 70.6%
Defense: 420
Chance to be critical hit: 0%
Dodge (bear): 44.3%
Total Avoidance (bear): 53.8%
Total HP (bear): 45414
HP soft cap (bear): 45620.1
Shielded hits: 76%
Tank Points (hp equivalent with 0% avoidance, 0% Damage Reduction and without parry from the boss) (bear): 358889
------------------
Stats value
Stats TP DPS TPS
AP 3 10 10
Feral AP 5 12 12
Agility 137 9 10
Strengh 11 24 24
Crit 5 15 15
Haste 2 17 20
Hit 5 26 30
Expertise (26-) 53 52 60
Expertise (26+) 48 26 30
Expertise (26+ no pg) 5 26 30
Expertise (26- no pg) 10 252 60
Armor Pen 0 39 42
Defense 78 0 0
Dodge 102 0 0
Armor 45 0 0
Bonus Armor 6 0 0
Stamina 100 0 0
Health 6 0 0
Spec:
http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?drui...0&version=9626
Glyphs: Berserk, maul, Frenzied. (on a side note, Barskin glyph could be cool in thodir fight -200 def for 15 sec...)
Barskin is not taken into account for the simulation
-----
Rotation:
Always maul
keep 5 lacerate up
mangle when not in cd
swipe in meantime
berserk when not in cd
enrage when not in cd
------------------
boss melee: 62k (pre-mitigation)
boss swing: 2 sec
--------------------
Bear (crit% vs. a boss (-4.8% added)): 34.2232%
Bear (AP): 6831
Expertise: 56
Hit: 3.72065%
Armor Penetration: 1.94865%
Haste (from equipment): 3.01921%
Shield value = 1707
Boss base Armor (before penetration and debuff): 11900
Boss modified Armor (after penetration and debuff): 8751.08
Boss Damage Reduction (after debuff and penetration): 36.4878%
Weapon Speed Reduction % (Total without Bloodlust): 21%
Missed % (Total): 3.27935%
Dodged %: 0%
Not normalized attacks parried by the boss: 0%
----------------
DPS: 2963.71, TPS: 6420.46
Mangle bear: 17.3%, Average Damage: 2164, Maul: 62.8%, Average Damage: 3738, Lacerate: 15.5%, Average Damage: 5998, Swipe: 4.4% Average Damage: 452
Boss crit: 0%, Boss hit: 46.1%, Boss miss: 53.97%, Boss white dps: 3908, Boss average weapon speed: 2 sec., Boss average parried attacks x sec: 0%, Average Boss White DPS increase due to parry: 0%
Chance to die: 4.9% without heals in 5 seconds
----------------
Bear armor: 31610
Physical Damage Reduction Bear: 70.6%
Defense: 420
Chance to be critical hit: 0%
Dodge (bear): 44.3%
Total Avoidance (bear): 53.8%
Total HP (bear): 45414
HP soft cap (bear): 45620.1
Shielded hits: 76%
Tank Points (hp equivalent with 0% avoidance, 0% Damage Reduction and without parry from the boss) (bear): 358889
------------------
Stats value
Stats TP DPS TPS
AP 3 10 10
Feral AP 5 12 12
Agility 137 9 10
Strengh 11 24 24
Crit 5 15 15
Haste 2 17 20
Hit 5 26 30
Expertise (26-) 53 52 60
Expertise (26+) 48 26 30
Expertise (26+ no pg) 5 26 30
Expertise (26- no pg) 10 252 60
Armor Pen 0 39 42
Defense 78 0 0
Dodge 102 0 0
Armor 45 0 0
Bonus Armor 6 0 0
Stamina 100 0 0
Health 6 0 0
So, how to gear for the new changes DPS-wise?
Best in slot items with those new values:
Best in slot dps (exp, hit):
chest: chestguard of the reclusive (83,0)
boots: dawnwalker (0,50)
Hands: frosted androit (0, 58)
head: Valorous Dreamwalker Headguard
legs: Sarth 2d (0,66)
shoulder: Valorous Dreamwalker Shoulderpads
belt: Belt of the tortured (0,50)
bracers: Sinner's Bindings
cloak: Drape of the Deadly Foe
ring1: Strong-Handed Ring (0,28)
ring2: Ruthlessness (32,0)
neck: Favor of the Dragon Queen
83+32 = 115 exp. (24 expertise = 16+8 = 24 = 1 gemma con 16 expertise (Precise Scarlet Ruby
) con 8exp/12 stam (Guardian's Twilight Opal)
50+58+66+50+28 =252 hit (11hit = 12 hit / Icewalker sugli stivali)
Altre gemme: + 1 gemma con 8str/8crit per averne una gialla (Inscribed Monarch Topaz ) + XXX x Delicate Scarlet Ruby (16 agi)
Cibo: 40agi/40stam (Blackened Dragonfin)
Enchant:
chest: powerful stats (+10 all)
boots: icewalker (12 hit/12 crit)
Hands: 20agi / Scroll of Enchant Gloves - Major Agility
head: reputazione Ebon Blade / Arcanum of Torment
legs: patch epico / Icescale Leg Armor
shoulder: reputazione Son's of hodir / Greater Inscription of the Axe
bracers: Sinner's Bindings / greater assault
cloak: (22 agi) / Scroll of Enchant Cloak - Major Agility
weapon: berserking.
Best in slot dps (exp, hit):
chest: chestguard of the reclusive (83,0)
boots: dawnwalker (0,50)
Hands: frosted androit (0, 58)
head: Valorous Dreamwalker Headguard
legs: Sarth 2d (0,66)
shoulder: Valorous Dreamwalker Shoulderpads
belt: Belt of the tortured (0,50)
bracers: Sinner's Bindings
cloak: Drape of the Deadly Foe
ring1: Strong-Handed Ring (0,28)
ring2: Ruthlessness (32,0)
neck: Favor of the Dragon Queen
83+32 = 115 exp. (24 expertise = 16+8 = 24 = 1 gemma con 16 expertise (Precise Scarlet Ruby
) con 8exp/12 stam (Guardian's Twilight Opal)
50+58+66+50+28 =252 hit (11hit = 12 hit / Icewalker sugli stivali)
Altre gemme: + 1 gemma con 8str/8crit per averne una gialla (Inscribed Monarch Topaz ) + XXX x Delicate Scarlet Ruby (16 agi)
Cibo: 40agi/40stam (Blackened Dragonfin)
Enchant:
chest: powerful stats (+10 all)
boots: icewalker (12 hit/12 crit)
Hands: 20agi / Scroll of Enchant Gloves - Major Agility
head: reputazione Ebon Blade / Arcanum of Torment
legs: patch epico / Icescale Leg Armor
shoulder: reputazione Son's of hodir / Greater Inscription of the Axe
bracers: Sinner's Bindings / greater assault
cloak: (22 agi) / Scroll of Enchant Cloak - Major Agility
weapon: berserking.
Post je objavljen 08.03.2009. u 19:30 sati.