Warlords Balance Changes Part 2: Talents

Hello Fellow Druids.  Today I'm going to be discussing our talent tree in relation to the huge changes coming in Warlords for our feathery kin.  Most of my thoughts will centre on the level 100 talents, but there are some significant changes coming to some of our earlier talents that bear mentioning as well.

Let's get started, shall we?

Now the first three tiers of talents bear minimal changes.  They are shared across all the specs, and any changes they've received are purely numerical as rebalancing numbers begin to take place.

our level 60 tier is where some of the meat begins to set in.

Soul of the forest has seen a huge revamp for balance druids.  In it's live version, this talent seems almost out of place.  While it's sister talents deal primarily with boosting our damage in some way, SotF works as a booster to Astral Communion.  It has been primarily seen as a weaker choice with extremely situational utility, often being overlooked for the more obvious dps-boosting talents.

In Warlords it's finally coming into its own.

Soul of the Forest (Balance) now increases the damage bonus from Lunar and Solar Empowerment by an additional 30%

Now, as we already discussed in Part 1, our Empowerments increase the damage of either our next three Wraths or next two Starfires by 30%, depending on our location on the balance bar.  This talent will now increase that damage by another 30%, for a 60% total damage increase to Empowered damage.  This is not a small thing, especially if regular Starsurge uses are part of your rotation (which, if you are balance, should be).  This will give us a huge boost to our damage output during our rotation, though I'm not quite sure if it's enough to counter the benefits of Incarnation or Force of Nature.  Regardless, this change finally makes this talent a real contender (finally).

Now, Incarnation hasn't received any changes yet, but given that it works in live only when eclipse is active, I believe some minor alterations may be necessary for its role in Warlords.  My most preferred outcome would be just to have it apply it's damage boost whenever I choose to cast it; however, I can appreciate a potential nerf to it's damage boost if that were the case.  On the other hand, as the balance bar naturally regulates the damage bonuses received, I believe that poorly planned Incarnations casts in or near the middle of the cycle would be a sufficient skill cap on it's own that a damage nerf wouldn't really be needed.  Fingers crossed.

As an aside, I'm still waiting on my full-time moonkin armour pieces, Blizz :)

Force of Nature hasn't received any changes, and I don't really expect anything more than a balance pass.  Since the treants don't benefit from eclipse bonuses anyway, the changes to the balance bar won't really affect this talent in any meaningful way.  It'll still be a great choice for any druid.

The level 75 talents haven't changed, though I'm still not a fan of Mighty Bash.  A melee talent just feels so antithetical to the balance kit.

Oh boy!  the level 90 tier.  The one everyone lovess because it makes us do a better job at everything but our job.  The big changes here is that in Warlords, all these talents are losing their on-spec boosts; so it's basically just a choice between how you want to not do your role.  Yay!

Heart of the Wild has really been put through the ringer in Mists.  At it's core, it is about assuming the role of any and all of our other specs.  It still makes us better bears, cats and trees, but it has dropped the passive stat boost, making it a much more situational choice.  Now there may be times when putting out extra healing or temporarily covering for a downed tank is extremely useful, but unless your tanks and healers are dropping like flies and you are the only thing standing in the way of a wipe, this may not be the most useful talent choice in Warlords.  Take if you want, but don't expect to use it much, unless you find yourself in "that" raid.  Then I can only offer my sincerest condolences.

Dream of Cenarius is in need of updating.  It currently adds 20% to our healing touch and rejuvenation spells, but also still has eclipse requirements and synergy with starsurge cooldowns.  I'm wondering if we'll be tied closer with the Feral version that makes us heal ourselves when we heal others, or if there will still continue to be some interaction with our balance bar and starsurge charges.  Seeing as they are trying to purge this tier of on-spec utility, I'm leaning towards something akin to the feral changes.

It doesn't seem like Nature's Vigil has changed much.  It still throws a punch at someone when you heal, and still throws a heal at someone when attacking.  Depending on how the numbers balance out, it may be the most useful on-spec talent in the tier, which is why I may be expecting a nerf somewhere.  It pretty much depends on how Dream of Cenarius ends up.

Oh, the new hotness.  Our level 100 talents have gone through a complete overhaul since Warlords was announced, in conjunction with the huge changes coming to balance.  On reflection, it seems like this tier is going to fundamentally affect our rotation and playstyle in the end-game.  It's pretty exciting.

Euphoria, we hardly knew thee, especially since you just keep coming back in some new and interesting way.  Having lost this spec passive at the end of Mists, it is being returned to us (again) as a completely new talent.  I guess the devs just really like the name.

• Euphoria grants the Druid a deeper connection to the stars, causing Balance Energy to cycle 50% faster. Additionally, Starsurge also grants 20% Haste for 6 seconds.

Datamining via MMO-Champion 

Additionally, your Lunar and Solar Empowerments also reduce the cast time of the affected spells by 20%

So our balance cycle speeds along faster, and our Empowered spells' cast times are reduced by 20%.  This is what I'll dub the Pro Talent.  Since the balance bar will flow faster, timing becomes more important.  It may have a seeming benefit of getting from one side to the other faster, but overall you'll be flowing at a faster pace between ends, forcing you to better time your spells.  On top of that, it makes Starsurge's Solar/Lunar Empowerment drop the cast-time of their respective spells by 20%.  This is real good as it will make the now 2.4 sec starfire and 1.4 second wrath much easier to juggle in the shorter solar/lunar cycles.

If you're wanting a bit faster flow in your battles, this is definitely the talent to choose, just make sure to stay on top of the faster cycles.  This talent also has some good synergy with the new version of Soul of the Forest.  More damage + faster cast times = good times for you.

Stellar Flare, you stole Insect Swarm from me!  But that's okay, you're still awesome.

• Stellar Flare is a powerful spell benefitting from both Lunar and Solar Eclipse, dealing the most damage when they are equal. Burns the target for Spellstorm damage and cause additional damage over 15 seconds. The ability has a cast time of 1.5 seconds.

This is a very interesting spell.  Whereas the goal for us is to try casting our spells as close to the ends of the balance bar as possible, we want to be casting this one as close to the centre as we can.  This gives us a useful tool, and a powerful dot to add to our arsenal of dots.  This definitely is an addition to our rotational, adding some interest to the middle.  Depending on how tuning works out, this may prove to be a powerful option.  I, personally can't wait to try this spell and see how it works in my rotation.

Balance of Power plays more into our dots.

• Balance of Power causes Wrath to extend the duration of Sunfire by 4 seconds and Starfire to extend the duration of Moonfire by 6 seconds.

Datamining via MMO-Champion

Also increases the periodic damage of your Moonfire and Sunfire by 10%

I like this talent.  It has the potential of indefinitely extending our dots, dependent on how quickly we cycle through the balance bar.  Plus it increases the damage of our dots to make extending them a little more worthwhile.  Choosing this may put a little more emphasis on Starfire and Wrath.  I see this as an easier talent of the three, since it changes our rotation the least, at the most just delaying when we refresh our dots, giving us more global cooldowns to focus on our direct damage spells (like Wrath and Starfire).

There are still a few unknowns regarding some of our talents that have yet to be updated into the new Balance paradigm, but I'm pretty excited about all the changes so far, especially the new lvl 100 tier.  Having the opportunity to seriously adjust our playstyle in three very different ways is very appealing and has the potential of adding some much needed longevity to the balance spec.

Next time, I'll be going over a few of the miscellaneous changes to the balance class that are coming up in the patch notes and datamines.  Until then, enjoy being the best class in WoW :)

Warlords Balance Changes Part 1: Core Rotation

So for those who weren't aware, Blizzard just released their latest patch notes update for Warlords.  It was heavy with changes to the Balance spec, completely revamping the play experience from the ground up.  The reason given for the change is that Balance currently has a hard to learn, easy to master kit.  I totally agree with this, given the headache new players go through trying to manage the current balance bar, going from solar to lunar and deciding which spells to cast when.  It can be quite daunting.  However, once you get a handle on the rotation (Wrath until lunar, Starfire until solar, keeping Sun/Moonfire up and Starsurge on Cooldown, rinse repeat) there really isn't much to it.  Sure there's the mess with aoe (whether to explode your shrooms, hurricane, or dot spreading), but there really isn't much depth to it.  This can have the tendency of making Balance frustrating to learn, but then boring to play.

I'm going to go over the big core changes in this post, and then touch on some of the remaining changes, including the new talents and changes to some of our existing spells in future posts.

Blizzard decided to change it, and they started by blowing the whole thing up and starting over.  The first thing they did is change how the balance bar works.  Instead of cycling along based on the spells you cast, the bar cycles through sun and moon on its own over a 30 second rotation.  At the solar end, nature spell damage is buffed by 30% (before mastery), and at the lunar end arcane damage is buffed by 30% (before mastery.  An interesting note is that in the centre of the bar, both solar and lunar damage are buffed by 15% (before mastery).  By this method, we are always in an eclipse state, with our damage buff flowing along with our balance bar.  This is extremely good news for balance druids, as being outside of eclipse is no longer the dark, dreary hell that it's been.  Blizzard has already been pushing to keep us in eclipse for as long as possible, this change is just the next step along that line of thinking.  The challenge, and depth, provided in this is that we are now required to time our spells so that we get the most out of them.  Our nature spells are most powerful nearest the solar peak, and our arcane spells nearest the lunar peak.  We are now asked to be more mindful of when we cast our spells so we get the biggest bang for our buck.

With this in mind, it becomes more important for us to be mindful of the balance bar and cast the appropriate spells at the right time.  Wrath should be our go-to spell in the solar side, and Starfire in the lunar side, managing our dots from Sunfire and Moonfire respectively.

Speaking of the -fire spells.  These guys have been really overhauled.  In efforts to make them more compelling and unique, not just mirrors of each other, a few large changes have taken place:

• Moonfire now has a 16 second base duration (up from 14 seconds), but is no longer extended by Starfire and Starsurge critical strikes.
• Sunfire now has a 16 second duration (up from 14 seconds), but is no longer extended by Wrath and Starsurge critical strikes. Additionally, Sunfire is no longer its own spell. Sunfirereplaces Moonfire on the action bar whenever Balance Energy is on the Solar side. Enemies may still suffer from both Moonfire and Sunfire’s periodic damage components simultaneously.

They have effectively merged sunfire and moonfire into the same button.  For those who don't remember, when sunfire was initially introduced back in , it was as a morph of moonfire when in solar eclipse, a spell to complement Wrath.  This was done away in Mists when Sunfire and Moonfire were made their own spells, to be cast whenever.

They seem to be bringing it back to it's roots, where these spells can only be cast in their respective cycles, but with both dot portions being able to persist into the next eclipse.  I like this change because it gives us back a button slot and gives more depth on how we manage our dots.  we want to cast these spells as close to their balance peaks as possible, while trying to let them interact with each other.

Then Blizz amped up their game

• Lunar Shower has been redesigned and renamed Astral Showers.
• Astral Showers calls upon greater Lunar and Solar energy to permanently empower the Druid's Moonfire and Sunfire spells.
• Moonfire initial damage is increased by 100%, and the duration of its periodic damage effect is increased by 100%.
• Sunfire initial damage is increased by 100%, and its periodic damage effect is now applied to all enemies within 5 yards of the target.

So now, Moonfire and Sunfire are completely different spells.  Moonfire's extended dot duration (a total of 32 seconds) guarantees that it will be able to interact with Sunfire's dots for greater chances of Starsurge procs and more sustained damage against enemies.  At the same time, Sunfire's dot effect becomes a 5 yard aoe, instantly applying to all enemies within range of the target.  This creates huge opportunities for stacked groups of enemies and lessens our burden of having to spam dot, giving us more choice in spells and abilities.  I love the freedom and choice these changes make to these bread and butter spells.  By making them act so differently, it adds a depth of choice and flavour that was lacking between the two eclipse states, while giving us more tools to effectively aoe, especially when hurricane isn't always the most cost, or time-efficient option.

The last changes I will discuss in this post deal with Starsurge and Starfall.  Why would I be talking about these two together, you might ask?  Lets find out.

• Starsurge now has 3 charges and a 30 second recharge time (instead of a 15 second cooldown). Starsurge now also grants Lunar or Solar Empowerment.
  
  • Lunar Empowerment causes the next 2 Starfire to deal 30% more damage.
  • Solar Empowerment causes the next 3 Wrath to deal 30% more damage.
• Starfall now shares charges with Starsurge, and has no cooldown of its own. It also now hits all nearby enemies (up from 2 nearby enemies).

So Starsurge and Starfall now share a cooldown with each other, stacking up to 3 charges.  This makes the choice of which one to use very powerful and important.  Do I need to burn this enemy down or spread some damage around?  Starsurge no longer becomes the button-mashing spam spell it's been most of Mists because now we need to make sure we're using it, and it's associated buff to Starfire and Wrath wisely.  It also means we don't always have to spam Starfall on cooldown even if it's just for one mob.

Now the challenge to this, something Celestalon has already discussed, is that Starfall may or may not hit enemies that aren't in combat with you.  This would serve as a reversion to an earlier version that found some people frustrated with Starfall, with it's associated risk of accidentally pulling more mobs than they could handle.  Whatever is ultimately decided, Celestalon assured that an optional glyph would be available.  So don't panic.

Now this brings us to the last interesting change to our core rotation, Shooting Stars.

• Shooting Stars now adds 1 full charge of Starsurge and Starfall when it triggers, and now has a 2.5% chance to trigger on Moonfire and Sunfire periodic damage. This chance is doubled on critical strikes.

Instead of giving us a free, instant Starsurge, Shooting Stars now supplies us with an additional charge to use on Starsurge or Starfall.  I must say I've pretty mixed feeling on this, because I enjoy my instant Starsurge, but the gameplay value in having faster starfall procs I feel is a good balance to this, since we lose the instant refresh of starfall from Nature's Grace, which is going away.  I think, overall, this change will be very good for these spells.

As an aside; as I noted, we will be losing Nature's Grace, which currently is our primary mana regen mechanic.  As it is incompatible with the changes being made to the balance bar, an new method will need to be devised to provide us with the mana we need.  Celestalon has stated that they are working on a solution and will let us know.  I know the big challenge is to make sure we can't use our heals indefinitely, so I'm thinking some sort of buff when we use our damage spells or debuff when we heal may be the most direct solution.

Overall, these changes to the core rotation are very exciting.  They add so much more flavour and choice and depth by making the solar and lunar play out quite differently as seen by the changes.  The choices in what spells to use when, depending on our place on the balance bar I'm sure will also make for some interesting theorycrafting.  I'm looking forward to getting in the beta and trying out this brand new class I'm being given, and hope to report my findings.

Introductions are in order

Hello all!

I thought it would be good to introduce myself.  I am Mystfire, Alliance Druid of Spirestone.  I have played this character since I started WoW around 2005, just before Burning Crusades came out.  So while technically I'm a vanilla baby, I didn't get to experience the end-game until BC.  I leveled as a feral druid, and pvp'd throughout BC.  When Wrath came out, I joined TORMENT switched my main spec to Balance and started raiding.  I am a Normal raider, as I haven't had much experience in Heroic/Mythic (Pre-WoD) with a few exceptions.  I am NOT a theorycrafter, so you won't be getting much number-crunching from me, but I am very passionate about druids.  I have knowledge in current end-game with Balance, Guardian and Resto, though I prefer to main in Balance, as I enjoy the kit, even if the over-reliance on gear is annoying at lower ilvls.

Hopefully as I can be of some assistance, or at least amusement, as we begin this journey in druidism, warcraft style.  As this is my first public blog, I very much appreciate and feedback you may have.

Thanks again for the visit!