Comments on: Druid changes they are a-coming!

By: Merkat

Merkat — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 01:41:44 +0000

I have been a long time cat-raider, well since someone told me I couldn’t.

:D~

I originally leveled my druid to 70 with STR over AGIL because it seemed everywhere I looked there were bonuses to both and they both fraught with savage intent, and failed to win.

Then just before WoTLK came out I gave in and joined the Agil crowd. Now I am not sure really what to do. I’m banging my head against the wall of out of date blogs, new information that’s not confirmed and a lack of knowing these things called THE MATHS.

In the past I always took To Hit, Agil and AP, Crit. Those were my beloved stats and I stacked them as high as the deck of cards they balanced on would allow. However there’s this new Expertise all Crit all the time.

I am still trying to find information on what my new beloved stats are so I know what gear to have made, trade my soul for etc.

Some day I picture Merell sitting in a capital city when they pull the plug to the last server saying ‘Meow?’….. I truly feel like the last cat on the block these days.

By: Drayd

Drayd — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 17:29:15 +0000

For my kitty dps gear in Wrath I was planning on using +Agi gems, pretty much just like I did before Wrath. Maxdps.com and a lot of the blogs I’ve read seem to agree with this, but the newest version of RAWR (v2.1.4) is telling me to stack +Str gems over +Agi in all my sockets. Both when I optimize gear or if I just take any single piece and compare it with +Str and +Agi, Str always wins out in RAWR. So what gives? I’ve always trusted RAWR a lot in the past. So does it know something everyone else doesn’t or is it improperly putting Str over Agi?

By: Tigerfeet

Tigerfeet — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 17:58:01 +0000

@Doodle – Mangle is for kitties? Not on a 3-pull with a retadin that won’t follow targets and mages that just INSIST on starting AOE RIGHT THAT SECOND! Beserk +mangle and I see 3-4k crits x3 on each mob… ain’t NOTHIN’ getting away from me! But I did think those crits were a bit high. I’ll miss the numbers, but for the sake of balance I support this change.

@BBB’s first edit – your math looks a bit odd, are you remembering that you can’t use Tiger’s Fury while Beserk is active? Or, maybe that’s what you mean by timing it right.

Swipe for kitties is great, and I’m sure it’s going to be nice to have, but it’s just another step down that slippery slope towards homogenezation. Tigerfeet does not support this change.

By: Zeplar

Zeplar — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 18:43:27 +0000

About SI:

I took it to mean that any class or boss that has an ability that reduces your max health (for example, Netherspite), will reduce the effect of SI. I think buffs have already been increasing its effect.

By: shaubis

shaubis — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 17:56:39 +0000

BBB,

I miss your druid posts and guides. I have no idea why did u go hunter and abandon your druid progress. You said something about the upcoming changes…. The changes are visible now so please come back and give us some guides…
Naxx tanking would be awesome or gear up for naxx….

Thanks!!
Shaubis

By: Stealthfire

Stealthfire — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 06:26:20 +0000

I think that the way SI works now is that it takes whatever your maximum health is when you pop it and increases that by 30% for the duration of the effect. In most cases, your maximum health wouldn’t change during it. However, say you had two weapons, one with a ton of stam and one with more mitigation stats. You put the high stam wep on, pop SI, then switch to the high mitigation one. You’d still have the extra health from the high stam staff, even though you no longer had that staff equipped. With the new SI, it would recalculate your health based on what it would be with the mitigation weapon.

Anyway, that’s just my wild guess. I’m kinda sleepy so sorry if it doesn’t make sense. I don’t really see why this change was necessary, since when I’m popping SI it’s usually because things are going very wrong and switching weapons around is the last thing I would think of. But I guess this would apply to buffs falling on and off too…maybe if you didn’t have commanding shout to start with and the warr put it up mid-SI. Who knows.

By: Lenaiya

Lenaiya — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 00:07:06 +0000

Mooriah,

“The armor changes are a nerf if your bonus armor is >= 45% of your total armor, which a top of the line naxx druid was. If you are in full Wrath blues then it should be a buff, however if you are still using some TBC tier/PVP gear then it may very well be a nerf for you as well.”

Check the EJ thread here: http://elitistjerks.com/f73/t38785-druid_changes_patch_3_08_a/p2/

For some it’s not a nerf, for others a buff, and in the cases it is a nerf, it’s not a huge one.

By: ARA

ARA — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 22:59:52 +0000

I’m not surprised about the bug with mangle: my damage was way too high when I was able to hit beserk every 3 mins on trash pulls in raids – head and shoulders above warriors, and even a long way above pallies. I was pretty happy about it of course – but it makes sense now that it was a bug. mmo-champ says something about beserk only hitting 1 target with mangle: there is nothing in the ptr notes about this, unless I’m missing something. If not, then from me at least, I’m far from grateful to mmo-champ for reporting false information about a major nerf that does not exist.

That whole “hunter rolling on my staff” debate ??? I’m staying well clear of it.

By: Neil

Neil — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 21:57:28 +0000

@wewhoeat: They’re converting the Feral AP (which hunters don’t want) to weapon DPS (which hunter’s still don’t want), but they’re converting Strength (which hunters don’t want) to AP (which hunters do want). Imagine if http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40388 had 228 AP instead of 114 STR. I know I would definitely roll on it for my hunter.

@BBB: One more thing. You can’t use Tiger’s Fury while Berserk is up. The best bet for maximum Swiping would be two Swipes, Tiger’s Fury, Berserk, and then Swiping until Berserk ended and praying for Omen procs along the way.

@Doodle: I hadn’t even realized! That is fantastic! Now, when I am drunk and fishing and my guild summons me into a raid for one boss, I won’t even have to change out my weapon!

(This is something of a running joke in my guild … ever since I tanked half of Kara with Seth’s Graphite Fishing Pole instead of the Staff of Primal Fury … and complaining about my TPS being really low that day).

By: Shasmo

Shasmo — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 21:43:38 +0000

The thing I am wondering is where they limit the armour multiplier to cloth and leather items only. I understand that rings/trinkets/neck pieces are excluded from this, but what about cloaks? They are made by a tailor or a leatherworker, but they don’t actually have the cloth/leather description.

I am cautiously excited by these changes. I need to go download the PTR client when it comes up.