Some people are "Wrathful" at the nerfs. Oh that was a bad one.
There has been a lot of stuff going on with the new Beta, and I’ve been almost embarrassingly busy looking up and responding to all sorts of information. There’s a lot going on that I hadn’t noticed before and some interesting notes other responders have given, so I’m going to go ahead and talk about some of these things here today.
First, there’s an awful lot of contention over the new talents. While I was pretty giddy over what we getting in the expansion, I guess a lot of people were a little less…enthused. They do bring up some valid concerns. I’ll list a few here you can mull over.
- Starfall’s damage is too low for it’s 51 pt talent status and 3 minute cooldown. You see, the problem is that with a maximum of 20 stars, the damage actually will decrease when more targets are added, which is unlike all other AoE effects out there.
- Typhoon is situational at best. Well, sure, I say, but it’s pretty powerful.
- Talent bloat exists. This is typical at this stage, but might also be intentional to break up cookie-cutter builds.
- Eclipse is confusing and annoying. My earlier post showed it was pretty worth it, but yes, it’s a little convoluted right now. Some people suggest having Starfire buff Starfire and Wrath the same, or have Insect Swarm buff Wrath and Moonfire buff Starfire. I bet the former won’t even be considered for spell synergy. The latter I like.
- Earth and Moon is underwhelming. For 5 points, yes it is. If it was 3, then it would be good. If it stacked 5 times, then it would be good. Currently it is just too many talents.
- The Moonkin Form change is actually bad. I vehemently disagree, because the old mechanic was situational at best. But it did return a lot of mana. As long as it is appropriately balanced, I believe it is better this way.
That’s a brief overview. Now, I was looking around the Beta forums and normal Druid forums and saw some preliminary data suggesting that the Moonkin Form proc is around 60%. This isn’t bad at all. But I’ll relegate the math to another post.
Starfall is actually the biggest disappointment right now. There’s a lot of confusion going on regarding some missing ranks and it’s scaling or lack there of. You see, it was nerfed considerably from Alpha to Beta. And right now, it’s just not really appropriate as a 51 point talent.
As for talent bloat, I think that Blizzard could reduce a lot of 5 point talent dumps to 3 pointers. Deep Balance is pretty awful in terms of talent bloat. But even if it isn’t intentional for release, it is apparently just how it was in Beta for The Burning Crusade. I’m not too worried, but it’d be too bad if they just did away with some talents instead of rolling some together or reducing the talent investment.
I’m excited about the Moonkin Form and Omen of Clarity change though. I’m guessing that both will allow us to not need to spec Intensity. Unfortunately, Omen of Clarity is on the same tier as Intensity, and I wish it would be moved to tier 2. This would help keep a lot of talent in Balance, where I personally want them.
Here’s a link to a video of Typhoon and Starfall in action, posted by a Beta tester on the Druid forums. The Typhoon animation looks like it’s supposed to be a wave, but I hope they clean that up. Starfall looks amazing. http://www.veoh.com/videos/v15129741Rd5QBWcA
I don’t know what else to bring up now. I left a lot of questions on some thread in the official forums and I will post back with any relevant information I garner. Until then.
/wave
The videos of Starfall and Typhoon at your link on vimeo.com appear to no longer exist, unfortunately.
Yes, Vimeo fell through for some reason. Here is the original poster’s newer video with sound on a different host and I’ll edit the post.
http://www.veoh.com/videos/v15129741Rd5QBWcA
That link certainly worked!
I’m not terribly excited over the Typhoon animation, lol. Id like to see more of a spiral emanating from the boomkin than a wave. Starfall is great, the stars just need to be bigger and flashier, haha.
-Here’s hoping Starfall’s damage goes back up and that the four letter “n” word of doom doesn’t happen D: -
/dance
Yes, I admit it surprised me. Based on the wording and the icon, I figured it’d be more of a, well, a Typhoon. This is more like a Tsunami. I like the idea, I just hope they clean it up. The actual implementation surprised me, it’s just a frontal cone attack like Cone of Cold, but with a bigger radius, I believe.
From what I have seen, Starfall’s ranks beyond Rank 1 have yet to be implemented, and the low scaling might be due to a downranking penalty. So hopefully the level 70 and eventually level 80 spell will do more appreciable damage. It’s still odd that the damage actually goes down after 2 targets, but that does mean it is actually useful as a big damage boost against only 2 targets, unlike any other AoE. I forget how mana efficient, or lack thereof, it is. But it’s also unique in it’s instant cast and movable ability.
The problem is, apparently, it can be dispelled or spellstolen, because it applies a buff to your character. I hope they make it like most proc buffs, which I believe aren’t magic effects. Because that is pretty lame.
Early, early Beta, things’ll be worked out. Unfortunately it won’t always be in the make-Moonkin-OP direction, but oh well!