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.
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.
- 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.
