Synopsis
Sorry for the Dutch title. Translated it means "Don't talk shit". It is funny in Dutch because it is not usual word usage. The sentence in itself is a direct translation, word for word, from English to dutch.
Anyway it refers to Blizzard PTR patchnotes. It is talking shit.
What the hell does this mean: Ranks 4 and 5 base points reduced by about 11%. Scaling from attack power unchanged.
??? Any idea anyone?
I think it might refer to a system like items. An item has x points to spread. Some in agility, some in stamina etc. If I am correct it means that in case of mangle, mangle is reduced by 11%.
If so I did a bit of calculation.
Instead of 5.9k dps on General Vezax I would do about 5.5k. The value was really close to 5% dps loss. One thing though, this os on a fight where you can non stop use the boss as a target dummy. Other fights, like Yogg where you mangle more then Shred and Rip, you will see more dps lost.
Still only guessing. Tell me if someone at Blizzard grew some brains and tried to explain to us how the internal point value of abilities is used. Bogus patchnotes imo.
Here is the (Dutch) "song" by Dingetje. I think I was 10 at the time this was a "hit". Prolly 20 years ago.
Showing posts with label PTR. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PTR. Show all posts
Friday, June 19, 2009
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Rotation study (Blogsourcing)
Synopsis
Since I had so much trouble with the 12 second mangle rotation I tried some more and this is what I found.
I started out dpssing, again on a lvl 80 dummy, and not berserking ever. Berserk will screw up whatever you are able to call a "rotation".
This is the DPS is did over a LONG time (calculated form white damage hits it is 45 minutes).
At the start I was at 3450, that then got to 3650. It went a bit down after some screwups in rotation, but it is a good average. 3.1 PTR servers are in America. Meaning that I did suffer a bit from latency. Renewing Rip and Rake had to be calculated. Do it at 0.5 seconds left, not too soon or the last tick won't get through, not too late or there is a too long period without Rake/Rip.
Below I will tell you what rules I tried to dps by which resulted in this. I ask you the same, if you are possible and willing. Tell me what you found on ptr (not using Mangle glyph). Don't Berserk and upload a screenshot (or post it on you own blog) and link it in as a comment. Judging from white hit damage there is a good comparison to what your total dps to mine would be. If yours is higher i'll try to find out why.
The rules I tried to live by:
Ability strategy:
PS, this is not a strategy I did when testing on live (3.0.8) servers. So applying this strategy on live servers can not be compared to my previously posted live dps test.
Since I had so much trouble with the 12 second mangle rotation I tried some more and this is what I found.
I started out dpssing, again on a lvl 80 dummy, and not berserking ever. Berserk will screw up whatever you are able to call a "rotation".
This is the DPS is did over a LONG time (calculated form white damage hits it is 45 minutes).
At the start I was at 3450, that then got to 3650. It went a bit down after some screwups in rotation, but it is a good average. 3.1 PTR servers are in America. Meaning that I did suffer a bit from latency. Renewing Rip and Rake had to be calculated. Do it at 0.5 seconds left, not too soon or the last tick won't get through, not too late or there is a too long period without Rake/Rip.
Below I will tell you what rules I tried to dps by which resulted in this. I ask you the same, if you are possible and willing. Tell me what you found on ptr (not using Mangle glyph). Don't Berserk and upload a screenshot (or post it on you own blog) and link it in as a comment. Judging from white hit damage there is a good comparison to what your total dps to mine would be. If yours is higher i'll try to find out why.
The rules I tried to live by:
Ability strategy:
- SR always up. If it is down and have no CP get 1 CP SR up at least. Then depending on Rip uptime do a 4/5 CP SR.
- Mangle over Rake. Rake does nice damage but Rip does a lot more. Mangle increases that with 30%. Mangle doesn't always have to drop before renewing.
- FB is overrated. It doesn't always crit. Rather keep the 5 CP to keep up SR and Rip then to let one of those drp.
- SR > Rip > Mangle > Rake
- WAIT! If SR, Rip, Mangle and Rake are up you have all the time of the world. Stock up on energy. Don't let it get too high because OoC procs a lot now. You should spend as little time as possible at 100 energy. (I'd like to be rogue and have 110 or 120 energy to have more time.)
- Don't get to 5 CP asap. Wait to see what happens. If Mangle and Rake need a refresh soon, stop at 2/3/4 CP, get engery refresh en and then wait for SR or Rip to drop to renew it.
- Try to go for 3CP SR. It is about the same time Rip takes. That is a way to go for a normalisation in Rotation. It will not always hold up and you are seldom able to do it, but it if the choise it is available do that. You will have max time to be ready to renew Rip (where a 2CP SR could have the SR needing refreshing before Rip. Als a 3CP SR gives you that little extra time to build a new 3CP SR after you have renewed Rip.
- The 3 ways to spend CP are SR, Rip and FB. FB should be avoided as much as possible. Saving up on energy and Mangle + Rake to get to 5CP might leave you with a lot of energy (having OoC).
- When to FB? Only when you have plenty of time left on Rip and SR. I find that to be about 12-14 seconds. It will not ensure having SR and Rip up 100% of the time, but the alternatives are worse. (As you see in 45 minutes I only did FB 33 times vs the 4 per 3 minutes I did before, not counting the extra FB I did after a Berserk).
- When not to FB: 1: Less then 12-14 seconds on SR only. Wait till the last moment (is having 100 energy) and refresh SR. If Mangle and Rake both drop, do it earlier. so Mangle and Rake are not of or at least not a long time. It is worth it to wait for 70 energy to be able to SR + Mangle + Rake immediately as a combo.
- When not to FB: 2: Less then 12-14 seconds on Rip only. The same as above. Try to avoid this situation. With high time left on Rip (10 sec) you should get the last of the 5 CP's from Mangle and Rake so you dont have them down or are forced to do an early Rip to refresh Mangle + Rake
- When not to FB: 3: Less then 12-14 seconds left on both, Rip to expire before SR. Wait till rip is expired and refresh. 1CP SR (or more if possible) right after.
- When not to FB: 4: Less then 12-14 seconds left on both, SR Expires before Rip. Depends on how long the difference is. If the difference is up 3 seconds you can refresh Rip just before SR drops. (Then 1CPSR after). If the difference is higher, refresh SR immediately (overwriting 10 seconds or so) and use the remaining seconds to get 5CP Rip asap.
PS, this is not a strategy I did when testing on live (3.0.8) servers. So applying this strategy on live servers can not be compared to my previously posted live dps test.
Monday, April 6, 2009
DPS test
Synopsis
This is a little dps test with about the same gear on 3.0.8 and 3.1. Lvl 80 dummy.
I promised this a while back and now did it finally. A dps test. Now I am not the best dpsser there is. I lack experience. Though I did ok I think. I dpssed on a lvl 80 dummy (not 83 boss) because they were mostly occupied.
Both test were done over about 6 minutes (2 berserks).
So first in 3.0.8:
Glyphs:
All cycles ended a few seconds after berserk was of the 2nd cooldown. So this dps is the dps I did over that period. It was easy keeping the cycles up and didn't let any buff/debuff go off for too long. So it is pretty accurate and ok dps I think.
I did Ferocious bite 6 times. That is every time I berserk and 2-ce in the rest of the 3 minutes, done when Tigers fury gave me energy and Rip and SR had a long uptime already.
Now for 3.1.0 (PTR):
Glyphs:
Since I had no Glyph of Mangle this was a hard test. After a few tries I got the hang of the cycle. The DPS meter shows 3884, but should be more like 3950 cause after the 6 minutes rip ticked on a bit. The real dps should have been higher too because I did a misclick and hit SR when it was up at 25 seconds left and Rip was off. Having no SR for extra energy then and unlucky crits made rip not tick for about 10 seconds.
It was easy keeping Faerie Fire up though. 5 minute cooldown is nice. Though it is bugged on TellMeWhen (and maybe all timers) since it didn't show uptime left.
The DPS is not as high as it promised to be a while ago, even though I have Glyph of Savage Roar now. One reason for it is that FB doesn't always crit now. (Only 25% extra from Rend and Tear).
Now the comparison:
You can see I had trouble with the cycles. Rip and Rake ticked a lot more in 3.0.8 then in 3.1.0. Though they did a lot more damage (due to Crits). Main reason for this was Rip being up longer. I was also able to get more total mangle + shred. The main reason for this was that Rip was up a lot longer.
To be continued...
This is a little dps test with about the same gear on 3.0.8 and 3.1. Lvl 80 dummy.
I promised this a while back and now did it finally. A dps test. Now I am not the best dpsser there is. I lack experience. Though I did ok I think. I dpssed on a lvl 80 dummy (not 83 boss) because they were mostly occupied.
Both test were done over about 6 minutes (2 berserks).
So first in 3.0.8:
Glyphs:
- Glyph of Mangle
- Glyph of Rip
- Glyph of Rake (though this does nothing dps wise)
All cycles ended a few seconds after berserk was of the 2nd cooldown. So this dps is the dps I did over that period. It was easy keeping the cycles up and didn't let any buff/debuff go off for too long. So it is pretty accurate and ok dps I think.
I did Ferocious bite 6 times. That is every time I berserk and 2-ce in the rest of the 3 minutes, done when Tigers fury gave me energy and Rip and SR had a long uptime already.
Now for 3.1.0 (PTR):
Glyphs:
- Glyph of Savage roar (3% extra damage when SR is up)
- Glyph of Shred (2 seconds extra Rip time, maximum iof 6)
- Glyph of Rip
Since I had no Glyph of Mangle this was a hard test. After a few tries I got the hang of the cycle. The DPS meter shows 3884, but should be more like 3950 cause after the 6 minutes rip ticked on a bit. The real dps should have been higher too because I did a misclick and hit SR when it was up at 25 seconds left and Rip was off. Having no SR for extra energy then and unlucky crits made rip not tick for about 10 seconds.It was easy keeping Faerie Fire up though. 5 minute cooldown is nice. Though it is bugged on TellMeWhen (and maybe all timers) since it didn't show uptime left.
The DPS is not as high as it promised to be a while ago, even though I have Glyph of Savage Roar now. One reason for it is that FB doesn't always crit now. (Only 25% extra from Rend and Tear).
Now the comparison:
- White damage: is about the same. 373k damage vs 372k damage. That did not change much, or at all.
- Ferocious bite: in 3.1.0 I had the opportunity to do a LOT more FB then in 3.0.8. One FB every Berserk and 4 in between Rips. Main reason for this is the 26 seconds Rip takes. When having 5 CP and more then 10 seconds left on both SR and Rip you are "forced" to do FB. Also, not all FB were crits anymore. Total FB is up but average damage is down.
- Rake and Rip: In 3.1 I had trouble with the rotation, though they did a lot more damage. Rip did 84 % more damage per tick though Rake did only 10% more per tick.
- Mangle and Shred: I did more mangle (only 12 seconds debuff vs 18 seconds), though the total number of shreds and Manlge is up. The reason is that you get more energy to spend on those hits because Rip takes less damage. It was a bit hard to always get 3 shreds in before rip was down though.
You can see I had trouble with the cycles. Rip and Rake ticked a lot more in 3.0.8 then in 3.1.0. Though they did a lot more damage (due to Crits). Main reason for this was Rip being up longer. I was also able to get more total mangle + shred. The main reason for this was that Rip was up a lot longer.
To be continued...
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Get your flasks while you can
Synopsis
The crafting materials of flask of endless rage is changed. So craft em before 3.1 if you have the mats lying around.
New PTR changes:
Blue post on the flask of stoneblood changes:
We felt the current amount of health from the stoneblood was just ridiculous at how low it was, especially considering the damage from bosses in Ulduar so we buffed it a bit. Just keep in mind that we don't really like the idea of every new flask/upgrade being something with the same stats and just higher numbers every time. As an example it's possible the next tanking flask would have the same or lower health but extra mitigation stats like armor or defense on it.
I sure as hell don't hope it will be defense. Talking about making all tanks the same this will be a nerf to us druids since we can't use the parry rating it gives. The stamina one there is now might be better then still and blizzard pushes us druids back towards stamina again. If anything they would want druids to 100% always go for the flask that has less stamina.
As to the Flask of Endless Rage; all Flasks are getting changed. There won't be 2 hour flasks anymore, they will last 1 hour. But with the same materials alchemists can now craft 2 flasks. Conclusion, general flask usage is down from this. If you raid for 3 hours you will only consume 3 1h flasks vs 2 2h flasks now. This results in you saving 1 1h flask for an other time.
Other good thing about it, they now stack up to 20! I wish they did that for potions too.
If you have 2h flasks at the time patch 3.1 hits you would be able to trade them. Not knowing what this meant I did not craft the flasks yet. Last time I was on PTR I saw my 2h flasks had been transformed into an item that was usable. Using it created 2 1h flasks. Pretty easy. Knowing this it is safe to let the flasks be crafted now. But with the reagent change to Flask of Endless Rage it is important that you let em be crafted now, if, like me, you saved up and got mats lying around.
Back to the fact that defense on a flask would suck and would nerf that flask for druids. If you think about it, the Flask of endless rage already is nerfed for us druids. Hunters and rogues out there go around with 4k AP (something like that?) Where I myself have 6.7k AP. A flask that gives 180 AP is not as much an improvement for druids then it is for other classes (which in my opinion is one of the reasons that druids can't keep up in dps with other classes compared to the dps they did when everybody was badly geared).
The crafting materials of flask of endless rage is changed. So craft em before 3.1 if you have the mats lying around.
New PTR changes:
- Flask of Stoneblood now increases the player's maximum health by 1300. (Up from 750)
- Flask of Endless Rage - Now requires 3xGoldclover instead of 3xFire Leaf
Blue post on the flask of stoneblood changes:
We felt the current amount of health from the stoneblood was just ridiculous at how low it was, especially considering the damage from bosses in Ulduar so we buffed it a bit. Just keep in mind that we don't really like the idea of every new flask/upgrade being something with the same stats and just higher numbers every time. As an example it's possible the next tanking flask would have the same or lower health but extra mitigation stats like armor or defense on it.
I sure as hell don't hope it will be defense. Talking about making all tanks the same this will be a nerf to us druids since we can't use the parry rating it gives. The stamina one there is now might be better then still and blizzard pushes us druids back towards stamina again. If anything they would want druids to 100% always go for the flask that has less stamina.
As to the Flask of Endless Rage; all Flasks are getting changed. There won't be 2 hour flasks anymore, they will last 1 hour. But with the same materials alchemists can now craft 2 flasks. Conclusion, general flask usage is down from this. If you raid for 3 hours you will only consume 3 1h flasks vs 2 2h flasks now. This results in you saving 1 1h flask for an other time.
Other good thing about it, they now stack up to 20! I wish they did that for potions too.
If you have 2h flasks at the time patch 3.1 hits you would be able to trade them. Not knowing what this meant I did not craft the flasks yet. Last time I was on PTR I saw my 2h flasks had been transformed into an item that was usable. Using it created 2 1h flasks. Pretty easy. Knowing this it is safe to let the flasks be crafted now. But with the reagent change to Flask of Endless Rage it is important that you let em be crafted now, if, like me, you saved up and got mats lying around.
Back to the fact that defense on a flask would suck and would nerf that flask for druids. If you think about it, the Flask of endless rage already is nerfed for us druids. Hunters and rogues out there go around with 4k AP (something like that?) Where I myself have 6.7k AP. A flask that gives 180 AP is not as much an improvement for druids then it is for other classes (which in my opinion is one of the reasons that druids can't keep up in dps with other classes compared to the dps they did when everybody was badly geared).
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Maim my ass off... (Blogsourcing)
Synopsis
With not much melee around there is a good chance you will be maiming in Ulduar.
Last night I was in PTR in Ulduar, testing General Vezax. There was no thrash this time, but compared to last time we only had 1 rogue. The people that could interrupt were that rogue, 1 DK, me and an other druid in catform. I never was in a raid as feral, so I don't even know if Maim could interrupt spellcasts on bosses before 3.0.
Anyway it sucks! For kick a rogue only needs 25 energy. For maim we need to have Combopoints and it costs us 35 energy. A major DPS nerf. When it is your time to interrupt you want to be able to do that immediately. And you have to be ready!. That meant that it sometimes took 20 seconds of waiting time. 20 seconds of keeping GCD ready, 20 seconds of seeing your energy being full, 20 seconds in which you see Rip, SR, Mangle and Rake all drop off from your target... So fair to say my DPS was not optimal. That plus there was a dps nerf about 700 dps for cats on that boss. Well I think it would be about 700 dps even if I didn't interupt.
Also TellMeWhen still isn't fixed and instead of only showing my debuffs it shows debuffs casted by others too, though mine has priority, meaning it will show my rip with 2 seconds left before the other druid's rip with 16 seconds left. But after my Rip is gone it will show the other druid's Rip.
My dps could have been higher but the bossfight itself is totally unreliable too. We were playing from Europe and the server is in the US. That meant we had a .325 latency. Meaning I see the spellcast when it is already going and the boss knows I maimed him somewhat later too. So I had to keep GCD ready.
But it is my thought the boss is bugged. Because of a special shirt GM's provided us for this fight we were all hitcapped and my maim did always hit. The split second I saw the spell being cast I maimed but often the boss kept on casting his spell anyway. He also has the tendency to, after having a cast go through, cast 2 more after that, without others being ready for that. So that was a definite wipe every time.
Now the blogsourcing part of the post; I have a question for you on why maim doesn't always work.
Also I checked combat log and I wonder how that works too. My combat log showed me casting maim and doing x damage. 2 lines below that I saw the General Vezax his spell hit me. The thing I want to know on how that works is: Is the combat log local or server side? For instance, chat is server side. When you type a message and there is a lag you will not see the message. The message has to be processed by the server first and then will be given back to you (and whomever it may concern) and only then the message can be read. Does the combat log work the same? If you maim does the server have to process it and then you will see the maim in your combat log or will the combat log show it the second you cast it, not considering whether the server has received the maim?
PS in this case it could have been that the cast was ready before I maimed and that during those 2 lines I mentioned earlier the spell was traveling from him towards me. Still the change for that is really small, because since I was in melee range the spell (aoe) would have to hit me immediately.
With not much melee around there is a good chance you will be maiming in Ulduar.
Last night I was in PTR in Ulduar, testing General Vezax. There was no thrash this time, but compared to last time we only had 1 rogue. The people that could interrupt were that rogue, 1 DK, me and an other druid in catform. I never was in a raid as feral, so I don't even know if Maim could interrupt spellcasts on bosses before 3.0.
Anyway it sucks! For kick a rogue only needs 25 energy. For maim we need to have Combopoints and it costs us 35 energy. A major DPS nerf. When it is your time to interrupt you want to be able to do that immediately. And you have to be ready!. That meant that it sometimes took 20 seconds of waiting time. 20 seconds of keeping GCD ready, 20 seconds of seeing your energy being full, 20 seconds in which you see Rip, SR, Mangle and Rake all drop off from your target... So fair to say my DPS was not optimal. That plus there was a dps nerf about 700 dps for cats on that boss. Well I think it would be about 700 dps even if I didn't interupt.
Also TellMeWhen still isn't fixed and instead of only showing my debuffs it shows debuffs casted by others too, though mine has priority, meaning it will show my rip with 2 seconds left before the other druid's rip with 16 seconds left. But after my Rip is gone it will show the other druid's Rip.
My dps could have been higher but the bossfight itself is totally unreliable too. We were playing from Europe and the server is in the US. That meant we had a .325 latency. Meaning I see the spellcast when it is already going and the boss knows I maimed him somewhat later too. So I had to keep GCD ready.
But it is my thought the boss is bugged. Because of a special shirt GM's provided us for this fight we were all hitcapped and my maim did always hit. The split second I saw the spell being cast I maimed but often the boss kept on casting his spell anyway. He also has the tendency to, after having a cast go through, cast 2 more after that, without others being ready for that. So that was a definite wipe every time.
Now the blogsourcing part of the post; I have a question for you on why maim doesn't always work.
Also I checked combat log and I wonder how that works too. My combat log showed me casting maim and doing x damage. 2 lines below that I saw the General Vezax his spell hit me. The thing I want to know on how that works is: Is the combat log local or server side? For instance, chat is server side. When you type a message and there is a lag you will not see the message. The message has to be processed by the server first and then will be given back to you (and whomever it may concern) and only then the message can be read. Does the combat log work the same? If you maim does the server have to process it and then you will see the maim in your combat log or will the combat log show it the second you cast it, not considering whether the server has received the maim?
PS in this case it could have been that the cast was ready before I maimed and that during those 2 lines I mentioned earlier the spell was traveling from him towards me. Still the change for that is really small, because since I was in melee range the spell (aoe) would have to hit me immediately.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Some more talent changes
Synopsis
Latest PTR patchnotes include some more changes for feral druids.
Also with dual speccing Rend and Tear in catform might not be worth it anymore. I don't have the time to do the math though, but we might look at spending those 5 talentpoints somewhere else (if there is such a place). Then again I suspect us being able to do a lot more FB during a bossfight then we do now with the new glyphs and the new 4t8 bonus. That would increase the value of Rend and Tear.
On a somewhat positive note, for PVE that is, there is no longer the odd choice to take 3 talent points in Primal Tenacity when tanking. Those few fights in which you could be stunned you won't be asked to respec and take those 3 talents (in case of progress raiding). It is now purely PVP.
Latest PTR patchnotes include some more changes for feral druids.
- Rend and Tear now increases the critical strike chance of your Ferocious Bite ability on bleeding targets by 5/10/15/20/25%. (Down from 10/20/30/40/50%)
- Primal Tenacity now reduces fear effects duration and damage taken while stunned while in Cat Form only.
Also with dual speccing Rend and Tear in catform might not be worth it anymore. I don't have the time to do the math though, but we might look at spending those 5 talentpoints somewhere else (if there is such a place). Then again I suspect us being able to do a lot more FB during a bossfight then we do now with the new glyphs and the new 4t8 bonus. That would increase the value of Rend and Tear.
On a somewhat positive note, for PVE that is, there is no longer the odd choice to take 3 talent points in Primal Tenacity when tanking. Those few fights in which you could be stunned you won't be asked to respec and take those 3 talents (in case of progress raiding). It is now purely PVP.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Ulduar testing - General Vezax
Synopsis
Ulduar is fun!
2 days ago I went to Ulduar on PTR to test General Vezax. Finally there was hard trash!
It was really fun to do a boss/trash of which you know virtually nothing.
First of all there are no glyphs in PTR testing. They disappear when you zone. So there was no glyph of maul. If you have that glyph (and you should, there is a good chance you are tanking 2 mobs, like I did), you need to make sure you don't hit a cc-ed target. Yes you hear it. You need to cc trash!
In the rest of the post you will find some description of the fight, a bit on tactics and how druids are good with that. Also at the end there is some remark of awesome druid dps.
The trash before the boss consists of 4 packs. They are all level 82 (heroic 5-man boss level). The pack consists of about 9 or 10 mobs. You have to work with corner pulls and MD to tanks so the mobs will come closer before you attack. You need 2 tanks minimum, but with the great thing called dual spec you can have a couple of melee dps convert to tank for the trash if you want. You'll need to cc 4 or 5 mobs. Some mobs fear, others stun. Fear will wipe you if you run into a second group.
So tactics is back. Now we are finally getting a buff to swipe we might not even want it because you have to be away from cc-ed mobs instead of standing with your ass to them.
After killing 2 of the 4 groups (in our case the 1st and 3rd group) a sort of miniboss (hard mob) is set loose. It will patrol and you will agro it. You need to pick it up and tank. It will shoot out some kind or shadow thing which you can easily walk away from if you watch for it. At 25% intervals there will be an add spawning and the boss will become immune untill the add is down.
We did the trash with 3 tanks, me being one of them, tanking 2 melee adds. I felt safer using cooldowns on them once in a while. That is how hard they are. I have no real testing information on the tanking though.
I didn't get too much info on the boss. After 5 tries Ulduar shut down. Some things I know of, the boss itself hits very hard and there is no mana regen for mana users. Max int gear is needed. You need to stand in green stuff to regen mana, but for each mana regenerated you loose life. So melee; never go into it! The boss needs to be kited. I myself am thinking of a tactic where the MT healers are constantly in the green shit and a couple of raidhealers that heal the healers and rest of the raid.
A few more tips:
Also I finally had some other (decent/good geared) cats with me in the raid. I did more dps then they did, so that is some sort of confirmation that I don't totally suck on dps.
Found out that TellMeWhen is a bit bugged on PTR (I think). Whenever my Rake was finished, I then saw it up again with 2 seconds left or so, which was probably the rake cast by someone else. That was very confusing making me not as efficient in dps as I could be. Also a note for self; don't change the setup of TellMeWhen on PTR compared to live. It confuses!
Ulduar is fun!
2 days ago I went to Ulduar on PTR to test General Vezax. Finally there was hard trash!
It was really fun to do a boss/trash of which you know virtually nothing.
First of all there are no glyphs in PTR testing. They disappear when you zone. So there was no glyph of maul. If you have that glyph (and you should, there is a good chance you are tanking 2 mobs, like I did), you need to make sure you don't hit a cc-ed target. Yes you hear it. You need to cc trash!
In the rest of the post you will find some description of the fight, a bit on tactics and how druids are good with that. Also at the end there is some remark of awesome druid dps.
The trash before the boss consists of 4 packs. They are all level 82 (heroic 5-man boss level). The pack consists of about 9 or 10 mobs. You have to work with corner pulls and MD to tanks so the mobs will come closer before you attack. You need 2 tanks minimum, but with the great thing called dual spec you can have a couple of melee dps convert to tank for the trash if you want. You'll need to cc 4 or 5 mobs. Some mobs fear, others stun. Fear will wipe you if you run into a second group.
So tactics is back. Now we are finally getting a buff to swipe we might not even want it because you have to be away from cc-ed mobs instead of standing with your ass to them.
After killing 2 of the 4 groups (in our case the 1st and 3rd group) a sort of miniboss (hard mob) is set loose. It will patrol and you will agro it. You need to pick it up and tank. It will shoot out some kind or shadow thing which you can easily walk away from if you watch for it. At 25% intervals there will be an add spawning and the boss will become immune untill the add is down.
We did the trash with 3 tanks, me being one of them, tanking 2 melee adds. I felt safer using cooldowns on them once in a while. That is how hard they are. I have no real testing information on the tanking though.
I didn't get too much info on the boss. After 5 tries Ulduar shut down. Some things I know of, the boss itself hits very hard and there is no mana regen for mana users. Max int gear is needed. You need to stand in green stuff to regen mana, but for each mana regenerated you loose life. So melee; never go into it! The boss needs to be kited. I myself am thinking of a tactic where the MT healers are constantly in the green shit and a couple of raidhealers that heal the healers and rest of the raid.
A few more tips:
- Everyone should be down from the platforms when you enter the room. If not the raid gets massive damage.
- When you wipe on the patrolling add, stay away from the edge of the platform. It will deathgrip people from the platform and kill them instantly.
Also I finally had some other (decent/good geared) cats with me in the raid. I did more dps then they did, so that is some sort of confirmation that I don't totally suck on dps.
Found out that TellMeWhen is a bit bugged on PTR (I think). Whenever my Rake was finished, I then saw it up again with 2 seconds left or so, which was probably the rake cast by someone else. That was very confusing making me not as efficient in dps as I could be. Also a note for self; don't change the setup of TellMeWhen on PTR compared to live. It confuses!
Saturday, March 14, 2009
PTR news: Swipe roundhouse kick
Synopsis
On the previous posts I discussed Swipe. Some new news is out on that.
Quick update: Swipe (bear) now goes 360 degrees. There is a bug that its range is reduced and it no longer chains to targets up to 10 yards away. If it indeed is a bug, once fixed swipe has become in my opinion the best aoe tanking ability of all tanks. We'll get other classes complaining about that!
[edit]
The rage of swipe will be 8 yards. So similar to other tanking aoe effects.
[/edit]
On the previous posts I discussed Swipe. Some new news is out on that.
Quick update: Swipe (bear) now goes 360 degrees. There is a bug that its range is reduced and it no longer chains to targets up to 10 yards away. If it indeed is a bug, once fixed swipe has become in my opinion the best aoe tanking ability of all tanks. We'll get other classes complaining about that!
[edit]
The rage of swipe will be 8 yards. So similar to other tanking aoe effects.
[/edit]
Recap on blizzard brain malfunction.
Synopsis
My thoughts on PTR proposed nerfs. Or rather... why Blizzard doesn't know what it is doing.
This is a little bit old, but still valid I think. It happened before I had my blog and posted it in other places. So here it is.
Most of you know Ghostcrawler. I am talking about the Blizzard Blue poster. I always liked him and his insights on druid mechanics and his affords to do whatever they did in the past. It has only come to me recently that the poor chap obviously has no brain or is either telling flat out lies: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=15443285411&pageNo=12#228
The post he did was on the stamina nerf druids are getting in PTR.
Quote:
"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."
I can understand their goal to make us all have about equal health so not one class is preferred over any other for tanking. Having a lot of health to compensate for the fewer mitigation of druids will indeed lead to mana sponging. The thing that makes me angry is the part where a flat out stamina nerf without anything in return is considered to make druid tanks easier on the healers. If anything we will now require a lot more healing (and mana).
Instead he should have said they think we are currently OP. That could be debated and would have been a valid reason. Don't tell me to a nerf is good for the healers.
Sorry about the nagging ;)
My thoughts on PTR proposed nerfs. Or rather... why Blizzard doesn't know what it is doing.
This is a little bit old, but still valid I think. It happened before I had my blog and posted it in other places. So here it is.
Most of you know Ghostcrawler. I am talking about the Blizzard Blue poster. I always liked him and his insights on druid mechanics and his affords to do whatever they did in the past. It has only come to me recently that the poor chap obviously has no brain or is either telling flat out lies: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=15443285411&pageNo=12#228
The post he did was on the stamina nerf druids are getting in PTR.
Quote:
"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."
I can understand their goal to make us all have about equal health so not one class is preferred over any other for tanking. Having a lot of health to compensate for the fewer mitigation of druids will indeed lead to mana sponging. The thing that makes me angry is the part where a flat out stamina nerf without anything in return is considered to make druid tanks easier on the healers. If anything we will now require a lot more healing (and mana).
- Take 2 tanks. Both druid, both have 40% dodge and 30k armor. One has 45k health, the other has 35k health. Since the one with 35k health is closer to death you will have to heal him harder to make sure spike damage will not kill him. That means more overhealing. So less health is more mana needed, thus lowering stamina will make us require more healer mana.
- Druids that have the Essence of Gossamer, like me, will see that once they are fully raidbuffed, the stamina boost has lost a lot of its value. Rawr shows unbuffed it is the nr2 trinket, while fully buffed it has dropped to the 4th place. The Valor Medal of the First War is way more valuable. Now we will see a stamina nerf making all items that have stamina on them have more value. Also coinciding with an armor nerf we will see items that have armor on them becoming a lot more worth in value too. This means more stamina and armor items then agility/dodge items. So we get hit a lot more because this is indirectly a dodge nerf. More hits is more healing required. More healing required means a more healer mana consumed.
Instead he should have said they think we are currently OP. That could be debated and would have been a valid reason. Don't tell me to a nerf is good for the healers.
Sorry about the nagging ;)
Friday, March 13, 2009
New PTR Patch
Synopsis
New things on the PTR's latest patch; t8 bonus calculations and enchant.
Warning if you are weak on math, don't break your head over this, just assume the numbers are true!
As posted by Karthis there is a new PTR patch available at the moment (mmo champion)
Before joining in on the tier 8 bonus I'd like to make 2 remarks on other things in the patch.
However, depending on the exact workings of this enchant it could be really good when you have 2 weapons!
Start of the fight you equip the Blood Draining (BD) and you get the buff. Once you have it press a macro and switch to the Mongoose Weapon. As soon as the buff is gone (this can either be that you dropped below 35% or the buff timer is done) re-equip BD again till you have to buff.
2 ways this would not work, would maybe work, but would be too much of a hassle to do.
On a side note, I am also still unable to research new glyphs. I now even get a message I have no target (probably a placeholder message to not waste research materials when you research while nothing is available).
So, now to the tier 8 bonus sets as they are currently (everything can change on PTR) available.
Now Cat get a huge boost from the 2t8 bonus. No question about that. The real thing we have to look at here is: does 4t8 outweigh 2t7 buff.
With the new shred glyph Rip would last 22 seconds instead of 26. It has to be up at 5CP always (preferably). 100% uptime means no loss in DPS, it only means that you have 4 seconds less to gather 5 CP to renew Rip.
As can be seen from the calculations below (**) you can see to need 5 CP you need an average of 3.5625 CP generating abilitities. I take an average of energy needed for one ability of 40 (some are a bit above, others are below).
Thus to do Rip you need 3.6525 * 40 + 30 (Rip itself) = 172.5 energy.
Loosing 4 seconds on Rip we would need now 172.5 * (26/22) = 203.86 energy to keep Rip up the same time.
That is an energy loss per second of (203.86 - 172.5) / 26 = 1.21 energy lost per second.
Now the 4t8 bonus would give 8 seconds on SR. At the moment most people use a 4 CP SR (see below *) rotation. A 1 CP SR rotation would last to short to safely do a Rip. With the 8 seconds longer SR I'll take a look at both.
A few things up front: (wee below **).
The average CP generating abilities needed to do 1 CP SR = 1. With a proc chance of 50% it will eaither be 1 CP SR or 2 CP SR. It will thus last an average time of (0.5 * 14 + 0.5 * 19 =) 16.5 seconds (not counting 4t8).
The average CP generating abilities needed todo 4 CP SP = 2.875. With a proc chance of 50% it will be either 4 CP SR (68.75%) or 5 CP SR (31.25%). It will thus last an average of time of (0.6875 * 29 + 0.3125 * 34 =) 30.56 seconds (not counting 4t8).
Using no 4t8, below we see that 1 CP SR is more energy efficient then 4 CP SR.
1 CP SR = 16.5 sec / (40 * 1 + 25 energy) = 16.5/65 = 0.254 sec uptime per energy.
4 CP SR = 30.56 sec / (40 * 2.875 + 25 energy) = 30.56 / 140 = 0.218 sec uptime per energy.
The ratio is 0.254 / 0.218 = 1.164 = 16.4% more efficient.
However as said 1 CP Sr can't be used reliably.
Using new 4t8 we can add 8 seconds to the duration.
1 CP SR = 16.5 + 8 sec / 65 energy 24.5/65 = 0.377 sec uptime per energy.
4 CP SR = 30.56 + 8 sec / 140 energy = 38.56 / 140 = 0.275 sec uptime per energy.
The ratio is 0.377 / 0.275 = 1.369 = 36.9% more efficient.
Now not having unreliable 1 CP SR uptime and a efficientce of nearly 37% vs 4 CP SR you would be stupid not stay using 4 CP SR.
But now what does that mean for engergy save vs the energy lost.
4 CP SR costs 140 energy (see above). 4t8 gives a 38.56 sec duration vs 30.56 duration.
Without 4t8 it would cost 140 / 30.56 = 4.58 energy per second.
With 4t8 it would cost 140 / 38.56 = 3.63 energy per second.
4.58 - 3.63 = 0.95 energy per second gain.
This does not weigh up to the 1.21 energy per second lost on rip.
Since we are gonna use 1 CP SR let's see how that does;
Without 4t8 it would cost 65 / 16.5 = 3.94 energy per second.
With 4t8 it would cost 65 / 24.5 = 2.65 energy per second.
3.94 - 2.65 = 1.28 energy per second gain.
This does weigh up to the 1.21 energy per second lost on rip.
So this proves the 4t8 bonus next to the better stats is already better for people who were using (for me) unreliable 1 CP SR.
But if you were using 4 CP SR the bonus is huge!
4.58 - 2.65 = 1.93 energy per second gain.
This completely obliterates the 1.21 energy per second lost on rip.
In conclusion this makes me say definitely go for 4t8! It makes the rotation so much easier ( I suspect it does, it will be months before it is thoroughly tested) and more energy efficient!
Any input on this is welcome.
* Why 4 CP and not 5? If you go for a 5CP SR you have the chance of critting while you are at 4 CP. Meaning it is a wasted crit! You only get 1 CP anyway. Therefore when you are at 4 CP, use SR, don't go for a 5th. If you are at 3 and you crit you might be at 5 CP anyway, but at least you did not waste a crit!
** The ways to get to 4 CP are:
Situation => Chance on situation => Sum of moves
Hit + hit + hit + (hit/crit) => (50%^3) = 12.5% => 4
Hit + hit + crit => (50%^3) = 12.5% => 3
Hit + crit + (hit/crit) => (50%^2) = 25% => 3
Crit + hit + (hit/crit) => (50%^2) = 25% => 3
Crit + crit => (50%^2) = 25% => 2
Sum percentages = 100%
Average finishing moves needed = 2.875
Percentage of 5 combopoints: (12.5% + 25% + 25%) / 2 = 31.25%
The ways to get to 5 CP are:
Situation => Chance on situation => Sum of moves
Hit + hit + hit + hit + (hit/crit) => (50%^4) = 6.25% => 5
Hit + hit + hit + crit => (50%^4) = 6.25% => 4
Hit + hit + crit + (hit/crit) => (50%^3) = 12.5% => 4
Hit + crit + hit + (hit/crit) => (50%^3) = 12.5% => 4
Crit + hit + hit + (hit/crit) => (50%^3) = 12.5% => 4
Crit + hit + crit => (50%^3) = 12.5% => 3
Hit + crit + crit => (50%^3) = 12.5% => 3
Crit + crit + (hit/crit) => (50%^2) = 25% => 3
Sum percentages = 100%
Average finishing moves needed = 3.5625
New things on the PTR's latest patch; t8 bonus calculations and enchant.
Warning if you are weak on math, don't break your head over this, just assume the numbers are true!
As posted by Karthis there is a new PTR patch available at the moment (mmo champion)
Before joining in on the tier 8 bonus I'd like to make 2 remarks on other things in the patch.
- Faerie Fire (Feral) now deals [15% of AP + 1] damage. (Up from [5% of AP + 1])
- Enchant Weapon - Blood Draining *New* - Permanently enchants your weapon to sometimes grant Blood Reserve when striking an enemy or inflicting damage with bleed attacks. When you fall below 35% health, Blood Reserve restores 1750 to 2250 health. This enchantment requires the wielder is at least level 75.
However, depending on the exact workings of this enchant it could be really good when you have 2 weapons!
Start of the fight you equip the Blood Draining (BD) and you get the buff. Once you have it press a macro and switch to the Mongoose Weapon. As soon as the buff is gone (this can either be that you dropped below 35% or the buff timer is done) re-equip BD again till you have to buff.
2 ways this would not work, would maybe work, but would be too much of a hassle to do.
- The buff is removed when you have no weapon with BD equipped.
- The buff only lasts a couple of seconds (10 or so). This would mean too much switching.
On a side note, I am also still unable to research new glyphs. I now even get a message I have no target (probably a placeholder message to not waste research materials when you research while nothing is available).
So, now to the tier 8 bonus sets as they are currently (everything can change on PTR) available.
- 2t8: The periodic damage dealt by your Rake, Rip, and Lacerate abilities has a chance to cause you to enter a Clearcasting state.
- 4t8: Increases the duration of Savage Roar and Survival Instinct by 8 sec.
Now Cat get a huge boost from the 2t8 bonus. No question about that. The real thing we have to look at here is: does 4t8 outweigh 2t7 buff.
With the new shred glyph Rip would last 22 seconds instead of 26. It has to be up at 5CP always (preferably). 100% uptime means no loss in DPS, it only means that you have 4 seconds less to gather 5 CP to renew Rip.
As can be seen from the calculations below (**) you can see to need 5 CP you need an average of 3.5625 CP generating abilitities. I take an average of energy needed for one ability of 40 (some are a bit above, others are below).
Thus to do Rip you need 3.6525 * 40 + 30 (Rip itself) = 172.5 energy.
Loosing 4 seconds on Rip we would need now 172.5 * (26/22) = 203.86 energy to keep Rip up the same time.
That is an energy loss per second of (203.86 - 172.5) / 26 = 1.21 energy lost per second.
Now the 4t8 bonus would give 8 seconds on SR. At the moment most people use a 4 CP SR (see below *) rotation. A 1 CP SR rotation would last to short to safely do a Rip. With the 8 seconds longer SR I'll take a look at both.
A few things up front: (wee below **).
The average CP generating abilities needed to do 1 CP SR = 1. With a proc chance of 50% it will eaither be 1 CP SR or 2 CP SR. It will thus last an average time of (0.5 * 14 + 0.5 * 19 =) 16.5 seconds (not counting 4t8).
The average CP generating abilities needed todo 4 CP SP = 2.875. With a proc chance of 50% it will be either 4 CP SR (68.75%) or 5 CP SR (31.25%). It will thus last an average of time of (0.6875 * 29 + 0.3125 * 34 =) 30.56 seconds (not counting 4t8).
Using no 4t8, below we see that 1 CP SR is more energy efficient then 4 CP SR.
1 CP SR = 16.5 sec / (40 * 1 + 25 energy) = 16.5/65 = 0.254 sec uptime per energy.
4 CP SR = 30.56 sec / (40 * 2.875 + 25 energy) = 30.56 / 140 = 0.218 sec uptime per energy.
The ratio is 0.254 / 0.218 = 1.164 = 16.4% more efficient.
However as said 1 CP Sr can't be used reliably.
Using new 4t8 we can add 8 seconds to the duration.
1 CP SR = 16.5 + 8 sec / 65 energy 24.5/65 = 0.377 sec uptime per energy.
4 CP SR = 30.56 + 8 sec / 140 energy = 38.56 / 140 = 0.275 sec uptime per energy.
The ratio is 0.377 / 0.275 = 1.369 = 36.9% more efficient.
Now not having unreliable 1 CP SR uptime and a efficientce of nearly 37% vs 4 CP SR you would be stupid not stay using 4 CP SR.
But now what does that mean for engergy save vs the energy lost.
4 CP SR costs 140 energy (see above). 4t8 gives a 38.56 sec duration vs 30.56 duration.
Without 4t8 it would cost 140 / 30.56 = 4.58 energy per second.
With 4t8 it would cost 140 / 38.56 = 3.63 energy per second.
4.58 - 3.63 = 0.95 energy per second gain.
This does not weigh up to the 1.21 energy per second lost on rip.
Since we are gonna use 1 CP SR let's see how that does;
Without 4t8 it would cost 65 / 16.5 = 3.94 energy per second.
With 4t8 it would cost 65 / 24.5 = 2.65 energy per second.
3.94 - 2.65 = 1.28 energy per second gain.
This does weigh up to the 1.21 energy per second lost on rip.
So this proves the 4t8 bonus next to the better stats is already better for people who were using (for me) unreliable 1 CP SR.
But if you were using 4 CP SR the bonus is huge!
4.58 - 2.65 = 1.93 energy per second gain.
This completely obliterates the 1.21 energy per second lost on rip.
In conclusion this makes me say definitely go for 4t8! It makes the rotation so much easier ( I suspect it does, it will be months before it is thoroughly tested) and more energy efficient!
Any input on this is welcome.
* Why 4 CP and not 5? If you go for a 5CP SR you have the chance of critting while you are at 4 CP. Meaning it is a wasted crit! You only get 1 CP anyway. Therefore when you are at 4 CP, use SR, don't go for a 5th. If you are at 3 and you crit you might be at 5 CP anyway, but at least you did not waste a crit!
** The ways to get to 4 CP are:
Situation => Chance on situation => Sum of moves
Hit + hit + hit + (hit/crit) => (50%^3) = 12.5% => 4
Hit + hit + crit => (50%^3) = 12.5% => 3
Hit + crit + (hit/crit) => (50%^2) = 25% => 3
Crit + hit + (hit/crit) => (50%^2) = 25% => 3
Crit + crit => (50%^2) = 25% => 2
Sum percentages = 100%
Average finishing moves needed = 2.875
Percentage of 5 combopoints: (12.5% + 25% + 25%) / 2 = 31.25%
The ways to get to 5 CP are:
Situation => Chance on situation => Sum of moves
Hit + hit + hit + hit + (hit/crit) => (50%^4) = 6.25% => 5
Hit + hit + hit + crit => (50%^4) = 6.25% => 4
Hit + hit + crit + (hit/crit) => (50%^3) = 12.5% => 4
Hit + crit + hit + (hit/crit) => (50%^3) = 12.5% => 4
Crit + hit + hit + (hit/crit) => (50%^3) = 12.5% => 4
Crit + hit + crit => (50%^3) = 12.5% => 3
Hit + crit + crit => (50%^3) = 12.5% => 3
Crit + crit + (hit/crit) => (50%^2) = 25% => 3
Sum percentages = 100%
Average finishing moves needed = 3.5625
Friday, March 6, 2009
Tell Me When
Synopsis
For cat DPS I use the addon TellMeWhen to have a good visual of buffs and debuffs. This is on how to set it up and my experiences with it.
When I started this blog a few days ago I had a lot of thoughts about what I could write here. Karthis and I seem to inspire each other. He made a post on his user layout which I also had in mind. Since he is on that subject I'll add to that and tell you what I find so great about the addon TellMeWhen. Btw, credits on this go to a poster on Elitist Jerks who first introduced me to TellMeWhen.
First of all a screenshot.
This is the setup screen. Don't mind the things in the bottom. They are part of my own fully customised UI. The only thing important is what is above my unitframe Orange bar Monedula, which is if you must know ag_unitframes mod. It is pretty much in the center, maybe a bit too much in the center for some, but at least it is obviously there and can't be missed.
First of all it is made up out of 4 different bars. In the standard game inteface > addons > TellMeWhen you can set those up. Either enable or disable them, how many columns they have and how many rows. You can easily resize them (right bottom corner) to make them bigger or smaller.
For each button you can set the following:
I myself have it setup as follows:
4 bars:
3 columns:
You can track other peoples debuffs on target so you don't need to apply them (Mangle).
You can add any debuff you got so you can be carefull if needed.
Compared to a bar system each icon has its own place. If an icon is missing you know which one it is!
Important icons can be HUGE!
In action it would look like this:
You can see the clock timers active on the icons (for instance Savage Roar here is a 14 second buff that has 13 seconds left till it is gone). I also installed OmniCC which displays the seconds. In PTR this will become really important if you have TellMeWhen. Why I will explain later.
To continue, here you can see both Tigers Fury and Berserk are ready and I have all my debuffs active on the target. A huge Clearcasting proc int he middle (kinda over my character, but that is ok, I don't want to miss my free shred!)
As you can (not) see, there is no lacerate (to the right of berserk) active ont he target. Something that is not active will not be shown.
One more thing, some spells (as can be seen int he first screenshot) are depicted by a watch. This is a default Icon for when the icon is not available (yet). For instance Faerie Fire (Feral) is a spell you don't have in normal form and is not available. Also TellMeWhen does not know what Clearcasting looks like. However after combat it does know these things and when going back to the configuration display you will see those spells have the correct icon now.
One last thing I promised on why OmniCC will become important.
The new Glyph of Shred in PTR will add 2 seconds to mangle every time you do shred (max 3 times). So max 26 seconds. Currently if you are not using OmniCC you will see a clock timer on Rip that will have made a complete circle in 20 seconds. When you look at the buff and see it is half way you know it will take 10 seconds before it is finished.
Now the way Shred increasing Rip is implemented on PTR is this.
You do Rip. Rip lasts 20 seconds:
For cat DPS I use the addon TellMeWhen to have a good visual of buffs and debuffs. This is on how to set it up and my experiences with it.
When I started this blog a few days ago I had a lot of thoughts about what I could write here. Karthis and I seem to inspire each other. He made a post on his user layout which I also had in mind. Since he is on that subject I'll add to that and tell you what I find so great about the addon TellMeWhen. Btw, credits on this go to a poster on Elitist Jerks who first introduced me to TellMeWhen.
First of all a screenshot.
This is the setup screen. Don't mind the things in the bottom. They are part of my own fully customised UI. The only thing important is what is above my unitframe Orange bar Monedula, which is if you must know ag_unitframes mod. It is pretty much in the center, maybe a bit too much in the center for some, but at least it is obviously there and can't be missed.
First of all it is made up out of 4 different bars. In the standard game inteface > addons > TellMeWhen you can set those up. Either enable or disable them, how many columns they have and how many rows. You can easily resize them (right bottom corner) to make them bigger or smaller.
For each button you can set the following:
- The name of the spell. Note: It must be the full name (i.e. Mangle - Cat, not just mangle)
- The type of the Icon. I only use cooldown or buff/debuff.
I myself have it setup as follows:
4 bars:
3 columns:
- Tiger's Fury (cooldown: show if ready)
- Berserk (cooldown: show if ready)
- Lacerate (debuff on target, for when I tank. It shows stacks also + clock timer)
- Clearcasting (buff active on me + clock timer). This one is huge, I don't want to miss it
- Twilight Torment (debuff active on me). Also huge, I don't want to hit and stress healers unless necessary on the sarth 3d fight.
- Savage Roar (buff active on me + clock timer)
- Rake (debuff active on target + clock timer)
- Rip (debuff on target + clock timer)
- Faerie Fire (Feral) (debuff on target + clock timer, done by anyone)
- Faerie Fire (debuff on target + clock, done by anyone)
- Trauma (debuff on target, done by anyone)
- Mangle - Cat (debuff on target + clock timer, done by anyone)
- Mangle - Bear (debuff on target + clock timer, done by anyone)
You can track other peoples debuffs on target so you don't need to apply them (Mangle).
You can add any debuff you got so you can be carefull if needed.
Compared to a bar system each icon has its own place. If an icon is missing you know which one it is!
Important icons can be HUGE!
In action it would look like this:
You can see the clock timers active on the icons (for instance Savage Roar here is a 14 second buff that has 13 seconds left till it is gone). I also installed OmniCC which displays the seconds. In PTR this will become really important if you have TellMeWhen. Why I will explain later.To continue, here you can see both Tigers Fury and Berserk are ready and I have all my debuffs active on the target. A huge Clearcasting proc int he middle (kinda over my character, but that is ok, I don't want to miss my free shred!)
As you can (not) see, there is no lacerate (to the right of berserk) active ont he target. Something that is not active will not be shown.
One more thing, some spells (as can be seen int he first screenshot) are depicted by a watch. This is a default Icon for when the icon is not available (yet). For instance Faerie Fire (Feral) is a spell you don't have in normal form and is not available. Also TellMeWhen does not know what Clearcasting looks like. However after combat it does know these things and when going back to the configuration display you will see those spells have the correct icon now.
One last thing I promised on why OmniCC will become important.The new Glyph of Shred in PTR will add 2 seconds to mangle every time you do shred (max 3 times). So max 26 seconds. Currently if you are not using OmniCC you will see a clock timer on Rip that will have made a complete circle in 20 seconds. When you look at the buff and see it is half way you know it will take 10 seconds before it is finished.
Now the way Shred increasing Rip is implemented on PTR is this.
You do Rip. Rip lasts 20 seconds:
- Rip debuff 20 seconds, time left 20 seconds.
- Rip debuff 22 seconds, time left 10 seconds. <- this is not the way it works!
- Rip debuff 10 seconds, time left 10 seconds.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
First view of emblem loot
Synopsys
There are some new PTR emblem items that would easy be best in slot for any feral druid and the blizzard policy of introducing new emblems with increasing raid difficulty.
With Ulduar there are going to be new emblems called Emblem of Conquest. I really like this. No more TBC affairs where you could buy items better then Tier 5 while farming for badges in Heroics and Karazhan. If you don't progress further then current 10 mans or heroics you will be stuck at emblem of heroism items. This way you will get recognition for raiding on a high level rather then seeing someone in blues with the same belt as you.
The items as they are now on PTR seem to be better then any item for the same slot that is in the game now. They have a lot of agility and a lot of stamina. They are 100% rogue but have no armor penetration which for druids is as far as I know the worst stat. [edit] This is goes for tanks only. From a multiple usability perspective they have no wasted stats for neither cat nor tank. [/edit] There is hit, expertise, haste and crit which, with the likely introduction of SD will be valuable for catform and bearform. Because of the leg enchant you probably need different pants for tanking and dps, but you can gem them with agility which is already the stat for tanking and will become a lot more valuable for cat dps (possibly more then strength).
So here they are; keep in mind this is early PTR and some stuff will probably change.
PS. There are also new necks available, but I don't know what to think of them. The agility one is clearly for cat, but for tanks it is comparing apples and oranges. They are good, but I have no idea which one would be better.
Tanking neck
Agility neck
Strenght neck
PS2. As of current PTR I did a quick test and saw mangle is no longer bugged. A hit gives now one CP and a crit gives 2. This means it is now possible to do a real DPS test. Stay tuned.
There are some new PTR emblem items that would easy be best in slot for any feral druid and the blizzard policy of introducing new emblems with increasing raid difficulty.
With Ulduar there are going to be new emblems called Emblem of Conquest. I really like this. No more TBC affairs where you could buy items better then Tier 5 while farming for badges in Heroics and Karazhan. If you don't progress further then current 10 mans or heroics you will be stuck at emblem of heroism items. This way you will get recognition for raiding on a high level rather then seeing someone in blues with the same belt as you.
The items as they are now on PTR seem to be better then any item for the same slot that is in the game now. They have a lot of agility and a lot of stamina. They are 100% rogue but have no armor penetration which for druids is as far as I know the worst stat. [edit] This is goes for tanks only. From a multiple usability perspective they have no wasted stats for neither cat nor tank. [/edit] There is hit, expertise, haste and crit which, with the likely introduction of SD will be valuable for catform and bearform. Because of the leg enchant you probably need different pants for tanking and dps, but you can gem them with agility which is already the stat for tanking and will become a lot more valuable for cat dps (possibly more then strength).
So here they are; keep in mind this is early PTR and some stuff will probably change.
PS. There are also new necks available, but I don't know what to think of them. The agility one is clearly for cat, but for tanks it is comparing apples and oranges. They are good, but I have no idea which one would be better.
Tanking neck
Agility neck
Strenght neck
PS2. As of current PTR I did a quick test and saw mangle is no longer bugged. A hit gives now one CP and a crit gives 2. This means it is now possible to do a real DPS test. Stay tuned.
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