1. #1
    Scarab Lord Grubjuice's Avatar
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    [Balance] When do you Multi-DoT and when do you AoE?

    So i am trying to figure out when to use AoE tools (Hurricane and Wild Mushrooms) and when to use Multi-DoT (Moonfire and Sunfire)

    I know already the Solar Eclipse is strongest for AoE, and Obviously I multi DoT when the targets are moving or spread out (like the tank has not gathered the mob into a group yet), but beyond that it seems like a numbers game. I generally multi-DoT at up to three targets, and just use Hurricane at 4 or more targets. Does that sound right? How do you weave wild mushrooms into an AoE rotation?

    are there any other useful AoE/multi-target tips for Balance? This point is never discussed in guides which always seem focused entirely on raid boss single-target rotations

  2. #2
    Zookeeper Sunfyre's Avatar
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    If we're talking a trash pack of 3-5 mobs, I generally multi dot, starsurge on cooldown/proc, and use my rotation besides that.

    If we're talking obvious AoE trash (like before the first boss in heart of fear), or the adds on shield phase for heroic feng, then I mushroom/hurricane. It's not feasible to get dots on all of them and they'll die before you get full duration ticks off on them.
    Sunfyre | @FoGSunfyre

  3. #3
    What do you do with Mel'jarak?
    Multidotting or AoE?

  4. #4
    Zookeeper Sunfyre's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Aoshi View Post
    What do you do with Mel'jarak?
    Multidotting or AoE?
    Multidot. And if it's not LFR you need to be vewwy vewwy careful where you stand for Starfall, if you're a spear bitch, you might want to take starfall off your bars before you start popping CC and upsetting a lot of people.
    Sunfyre | @FoGSunfyre

  5. #5
    The Lightbringer
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sunfyre View Post
    Multidot. And if it's not LFR you need to be vewwy vewwy careful where you stand for Starfall, if you're a spear bitch, you might want to take starfall off your bars before you start popping CC and upsetting a lot of people.
    Actually if the adds are Speared then Starfall will not break them. The problem is after they break because a pack dies, Polymorph is much more effective for getting them CCed again as soon as possible, due to the travel time on the Spear. Then usually Mages will just leave them sheeped instead of wasting another global using the spear. Starfall will obviously break sheeps so you will have to watch out for that.

    If you can manage to do the fight using Spears the entire time then you can freely cast Starfall without having to worry about your proximity, if Sheeps are being used and you aren't responsible for a CC target then you should have no problem outranging them while being in range of the killed targets, if Sheeps are being used and you are responsible for a CC then you are probably just screwed and will have to wait til your CC target dies and can move away.

    OT: Pretty much what Sunfyre said. First off you will never want to use mushrooms really unless the pack is large and you are moving or preplanting. The damage just isn't worth the opportunity cost of Hurricaning. Dotting and Starsurging is the way to go for most everything there is to do right now, and making sure everything has the eclipsed dot first is priority. Once they all have Eclipsed Dots you can start applying the non Eclipsed while weaving in SS procs that should be coming furiously. If everything is comfortably dotted and you have no SS procs, then you can channel a Hurricane/AS for a couple ticks or so (assuming they are grouped up) breaking it if you need to reapply eclipsed dots and to cast SS. The idea is to move back and forth between Eclipses somewhat fast to keep Starfall coming and to keep NG up, so you should only be applying 1 round of uneclipsed dots and by the end of the Eclipse you will likely be losing your first round of Eclipsed dots so you can refresh those before heading to the next eclipse.

    I'm still waiting to see how/if this strategy can be successful using 4pc bonus and DoC. Using HT after every 2 dots seems like it would be chunk up the rotation an awful lot, but perhaps the 50% increase damage will make up for it. Somebody with 4pc bonus should head to a group of training dummies and test this dot strategy the normal way with INC/NV and using HT aftever 2 dots with INC/DoC and post results. I would be interested to see.
    Last edited by Stommped; 2012-12-10 at 07:30 PM.

  6. #6
    Zookeeper Sunfyre's Avatar
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    I've had spears break on heroic wind lord with starfall. Right after someone said "starfall doesn't break the cc".
    Sunfyre | @FoGSunfyre

  7. #7
    Same. I've read in multiple places that Starfall doesn't break the CC. I tried it, and...Starfall broke my spear CC.

  8. #8
    Atm starfall breaks spears only on heroic mode^

  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by Sunfyre View Post
    If we're talking a trash pack of 3-5 mobs, I generally multi dot, starsurge on cooldown/proc, and use my rotation besides that.

    If we're talking obvious AoE trash (like before the first boss in heart of fear), or the adds on shield phase for heroic feng, then I mushroom/hurricane. It's not feasible to get dots on all of them and they'll die before you get full duration ticks off on them.
    I had no idea that for a dungeon trash pull you were supposed to multidot. I know for me I only multidot if it's 2 mobs, and for 3 or more it's hurricane. Am I losing some deeps?

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by Karnudge View Post
    I had no idea that for a dungeon trash pull you were supposed to multidot. I know for me I only multidot if it's 2 mobs, and for 3 or more it's hurricane. Am I losing some deeps?
    you are losing alot of dps if you starts hurricane at 3 mobs. multidot unless there are to many targets to keep them going (like 4 to 6 mobs) els just hurricane. the only place i have found in 5 mans so far is the first thrash in shadopan monastary hurricane can tick for some lovely 200k and then some other packs where they die to quick to get advantage of your dots.

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by Karnudge View Post
    I had no idea that for a dungeon trash pull you were supposed to multidot. I know for me I only multidot if it's 2 mobs, and for 3 or more it's hurricane. Am I losing some deeps?
    check on dummies, multidot 3 of them, filling in with SS procs, if still time to cast use starfire/wrath, then do the same with hurricane on 3 of them, you will see for yourself.
    hurricane does less dmg on 3, probably also less dmg on 4, I personally do not ever hurricane if I have less than 5, and even with 5 I tend to multidot. Hurricane/astral storm is obvious for really big packs, like trash before Zorlok.

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sunfyre View Post
    I've had spears break on heroic wind lord with starfall. Right after someone said "starfall doesn't break the cc".
    The amount of hunter tears I've caused with this is hilarious.. Even had one of our guys who is normally very calm and gathered swear at me for breaking the CC haha.

  13. #13
    Some of the top parsing balance druids on windlord have used hurricane as a main source of damage. I've done quite a bit of burst using hurricane on the pull. However I'm looking to see if it'd be better to just multidot and blow starsurge procs. Any input for this?

  14. #14
    Scarab Lord Grubjuice's Avatar
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    over the last two days i have gotten into the following habit:

    i have been using Hurricane on as few as 4 or more mobs if and only if i am in Solar Eclipse
    If i am pre-lunar i use Starfall > Wrath > Multi-dot> Starfall on as many as 6 or 7 mobs.
    if i am in lunar i just use Starfall > Multi-dot

    I basically never ever ever use Astral Storm. if i know there are going to be a bajillion mobs, i will make myself be in Solar for it.

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