If only our Hurricane was this powerful
With the Wrath of the Lich King Beta lurking around the corner and the recent WWI news pouring out across the internet (partially legitimizing the leaked Alpha information), we Balance Druids have a lot of juicy, meaty information to consider.
Go ahead, check them out here. When you are done drooling, come back and we’ll pick them apart.
Like what you see? Now, remember, these are subject to change and incomplete. The most important thing that these talents afford us is a peek into Blizzard’s ideas regarding how to improve Moonkins in the expansion. But that doesn’t mean we can’t jump up and down, make indistinguishable giddy noises of happiness and proceed to analyze these new talents and spells.
So, let’s start with the AoE changes as the title suggests. First I have to note that along with the new and revised talents, one important change has been announced–the removal of the cooldown on Hurricane. This means that we now have a spammable AoE spell, although this is potentially limited by the remaining cooldown on Barkskin, a great combo with Hurricane. Still, this is nothing but good news. Whether you are hiding in a bush spamming it over the Stormpike bottleneck or don’t have to worry about threat during an AoE pull, go ahead and cast Hurricane over and over again. Something to note that I’ve seen many people overlook–Hurricane has an innate secondary effect which slows the attack speed of all those affected in addition to the damage dealt, which can greatly reduce the incoming damage on your friendly neighborhood Protadin.
But as nice as that news is, it ain’t flashy, it ain’t that new and it’s not what we’re really here to talk about.
As you have surely noticed, those new talents showcase two new spells, both AoE, Typhoon and Starfall. They are both very powerful and a little confusing to understand, especially with certain conflicting data across the web. So I’ll describe the spells as I understand them.
Typhoon: Requires 40 points in Balance Talents; requires 1 point in Moonkin Form. 645 mana. 20 yard range. 20 second cooldown. You summon an violent typhoon that does 530 Nature damage while in contact with hostile targets and knocks them back 5 yards.
There are at least two separate interpretations of this text that I have seen. One claims that it is cast directly around the caster automatically, in a 20 yard range. The other interpretation argues that it is targeted much like Hurricane but is a set-and-forget-it type spell (thus the “Instant Cast” text). I personally believe the latter interpretation because of the text “20 yd range” instead of “20 yd radius”. Certainly I could be mistaken, and it’s open to interpretation. It is also unclear how the damage is applied and how long the typhoon lasts. I would guess that it causes 530 damage per second (although with the knockback, this can only happen once each time a player crosses paths with the spell) and lasts less than 20 seconds. I would guess 10.
However you look at it, it is a powerful spell. Because it is instant cast and not channeled, it can easily be cast before casting Hurricane and both AoE spells can be affecting your targets simultaneously. Be sure to grab the Gale Winds talent to boost the damage of both spells (and help with your Cyclone range to boot) and you will become a formidable AoE foe. But perhaps the secret power of this new spell lies in it’s knockback effect. Because the spell itself is not intimately understood, neither is this new mechanic of knockback. However, I am going to suggest a possible use. Whether the spell radiates from your space chicken or can be targeted, it can theoretically keep melee classes off of you. If you stand within this raging storm, anyone who approaches you should be knocked back, giving you some breathing room. This has huge implications in PvP and can perhaps help you from being interrupted while casting Hurricane. This stands to be a very powerful, useful spell indeed.
Starfall: Requires 50 points in Balance Talents. 866 mana. 30 yd range. Instant Cast. 3 min cooldown. You summon a flurry of stars on all targets within 30 yards of the caster, each doing 500 to 580 Arcane damage, and an additional 170 Arcane damage to all targets within 5 yards. Maximum 20 stars. Lasts 10 seconds.
A very complicated spell indeed. Personally I’m just excited to see the animation on this spell. From what I’ve seen of other sample animations, we might be in for a visual treat in Wrath. As for the mechanics, it is clearer what exactly should happen when you cast this than it is with Typhoon. The main point of contention is whether or not the spell follows you around if you move after casting it. The main forums on the Wrath Alpha website suggest that the falling heavens should indeed follow your feathery behind should you desire to waddle away post-cast. This means that you could potentially cast the spell and run around in Travel Form causing havoc. We will just have to see.
This is a great addition to our AoE repertoire, especially in a concentrated PvE environment. The splash damage works much like Seed of Corruption does–it will not hurt the focus of the damage, but instead all those around said target within the given range, which for this spell is 5 yards. 5 yards ain’t much, so this would work best if a pack of mobs ideally stood on top of each other. Either way, the splash just spreads the loving around. This spell also benefits from many of the lower tier talents which affect Starfire and Wrath. Of note is that Celestial Focus also gives each star a 15% chance to stun the target. If this is used on a low number of targets, you should get at least 1 stun in the 10 seconds. If used on a large number of targets, a stun or two across the group would be expected. It is as always an unreliable effect, but a nice, thick icing on the top.
The set-and-forget style of these two new talents really adds a lot of flexibility and utility to our spell rotations, and although a single-target spell rotation might not be affected by these, they vastly increase our utility in instances and PvP. No longer will a reply to “LF1M Shattered Halls, Mage” be denied and scoffed at. With indoor Roots and AoE viability, we Moonkins will have a stronger place in groups and more utility on our own.
All of this is likely to change at least a little bit, if not ditched all together. We can only hope that these spells are preserved in a recognizable form.
The Talkback