Balance suffering from overbloated AoE arsenal?

[Aleksej89]

To me Balance seems to have a tad too many "AoE mechanics":

First we have the usual "multi dot" approach, with 2 DoTs that have a short duration and need to be refreshed when their Eclipse procs.

Second we have the standard Hurricane spam that can be combined with Mushrooms (nature) during Solar.

Third we have Astral Storm (arcane hurricane) that can be combined with Starfall (cooldown reset when entering Lunar).

Fourth, you can try and (skillfully) combine the "multi dot" approach with at least one of the Hurricane/AStorm rotations.


And honestly all of these separate mana burning AoE mechanics seem to produce a lower-than-average AoE DPS, at least in my experience.

Why the hell does Balance have 3(or 4) separate AoE mechanics while other specs usually have only 1 (or rarely 2) - and on top of it all the AoE damage seems lackluster while Hurricane/Astral Storm spam burns through mana very fast?


EDIT: My point is, why do we have 2 Dots + 2 AoE spam spells + Shrooms/Starfalls that feel VERY clunky to use, burn mana very fast and produce a pitiful amount of DPS - when other specs got 1 or 2 AoE spells they spam for good DPS and 100% mana...

[huth]

So we have multidotting, Hurricane in Solar, Hurricane in Lunar and multidotting and Hurricane? I don't know about you, but when i count those, i come to two, not four.

We're suffering from a somewhat weak arsenal, but certainly not a bloated one. Other classes have more AoEs than we do.

[Jibjabb]

Theres a mob in Townlong Steppes for one of the Shado Pan quests that I think does the perfect moonkin AOE ability they should give to us.

Its called Night Sky, it basically creates a void zone and anything inside it gets pelted by a ton of starfalls. Make it a CD ability not a spammable one for pretty good dmg to raise moonkin aoe to that of most other classes since currently moonkins are on the low end. It could also be increased by Lunar to make a somewhat interested trade off on which Eclipse would be better, Solar for more sustained AOE and Lunar for more burst.

http://www.wowhead.com/spell=123318

[Aleksej89]

So we have multidotting, Hurricane in Solar, Hurricane in Lunar and multidotting and Hurricane? I don't know about you, but when i count those, i come to two, not four.
We're suffering from a somewhat weak arsenal, but certainly not a bloated one. Other classes have more AoEs than we do.

I can't say i agree with you - you got 3 different ways of doing AoE (multi dot, storm-starfall, shroom-hurrric) and the option of combining "multi dot" with one of the other 2 depending on what Eclipse you are in... that counts as 4 (or at least 3) in my book.
You can't remove/ignore Shroom-spam or Starfall and consider it a realistic view...

Either way Moonkin AoE is both weak and way too complex for pretty much no benefit what so ever - it does not even look pretty

[huth]

Yes, you can. Starfall would still be used for Solar hurricane, while shroom spam isn't worth bothering with in the first place. Astral Storm is Hurricane with arcane damage, so they are not two mechanics.
Multidotting and Hurricane is not a new mechanic, it is just using both mechanics together.

We have two ways of AoE that we can combine. That's still only 2 ways.

[Aleksej89]

Yes, you can. Starfall would still be used for Solar hurricane, while shroom spam isn't worth bothering with in the first place. Astral Storm is Hurricane with arcane damage, so they are not two mechanics.
Multidotting and Hurricane is not a new mechanic, it is just using both mechanics together.

We have two ways of AoE that we can combine. That's still only 2 ways.

There are still differences between Hurricane and Astral Storm (storm does half damage and slows attack speed, for example), so i really would not count them as same - even though they are used the same way.
I like using shrooms at least for their AoE slow (if the mobs are slow-able), and during solar eclipse their DMG is not that bad - especially if u gotta move.

But that is really not the point - why do we still have so many spells to use in AoE (2dots+2aoe+shroom+starfall) while they all produce a rather bad DPS AND feel clunky+mana burn as hell.... other classes spam 1 or 2 spell and get immense DPS while staying at 100% mana.

[Drayarr]

Our AoE damage is pretty woeful in comparison to some classes just needs a buff to mushrooms and it would be a bit better

[Aleksej89]

Our AoE damage is pretty woeful in comparison to some classes just needs a buff to mushrooms and it would be a bit better

IMO:
- Make Starfall for single target only.
- Make Shrooms a lot stronger.
- Both DoTs now last ~25 seconds, like a standard DoT.

So, Astral has a CD for single target while Shrooms are in Solar for AoE - imo it is a good balance (pun).

[ati87]

Just saying the time where you could press a single button for high aeo dmg is gone

[Deleted]

It really does not sound any different from any other dot class: locks have multidotting, seed of corruption and harvest life and spriests have dots, mind sear and the lvl 90 talent.

The only difference is that you have shrooms on top of that. Then again, as far as I know they are not really worth casting, unless you can stack 'em up beforehand, and your starfall is just a press and forget mechanic, no need to maintain it in any way. Except maybe for wind lord.

[Rorschachs]

You have all these options, and most of the them are only good for an exact amount of mobs. If there are 3 mobs, dot and hurricane. If there are like 6-7 mobs just hurricane. I think the problem is running oom more than anything tho. Hurricane should generate lunar energy and astral storm should generate solar energy.

[Deleted]

How bad/good is hurricane if you use Dream of Cenarus and DoC pop hurricane?

[Deleted]

How bad/good is hurricane if you use Dream of Cenarus and DoC pop hurricane?

DoC does nothing for hurricane since it only affects Moonfire and Sunfire.
Dream of Cenarius

[Karnudge]

Honestly, if they made it so hurricane was not channeled, we could cast it and then multidot/normal cast to our heart's content.

[Deleted]

DoC does nothing for hurricane since it only affects Moonfire and Sunfire.
Dream of Cenarius

Oh right... Since i'm feral i was minded that it affected all spells lol.

[Aleksej89]

i would really like to see an increased dot duration on both our DoTs.
Currently we refresh them really often, especially if you count in the refresh when an Eclipse procs.

Also why on earth is our AoE so mana burning, it does not make any sense...

[markos82]

It makes me sad that one of the strongest AOE classes is now at the bottom of the list. Hell a good guardian can pull more then 600k dps, even healer monks can do more dps at one ponint. Thats just sad

When Blizz needs to do is to let us apply both ( MF and SF ) at the same time and some CD that will let us put all three shrooms with one button. Its just way to painfull to tab mobs apply dots.....

[Neetz]

I do feel that balance has a lot more work to put in to try and top the meters than any other class. AoE can be very strong but it requires a lot more work than spamming multi-shot or mind seer or swipe and it doesn't always put us miles ahead. Just marginally topping if we are playing with other skilled people. Still not entirely happy with balance though. I was balance, full spec and gear, I went into a dungeon and spammed swipe three times on a group of mobs in cat form (without hotw). I did 97k dps in less than a few seconds.

I don't want balance to be a 1 button hero class where aoe is concerned like feral and other classes are... but perhaps a bit more of a buff with mushrooms as an example which was one of my favourite spells.

The only mention balance has had is the nerf to starfall, the so called buffs of %damage to wrath etc (which was hardly noticable) and all we have so far for 5.2 is the 'fixing' of starfall. Still waiting to see something on the blue board that is usefull rather than a comment that moonkins aren't being ignored (back in November).

[Deleted]

they should have just never reintroduced hurricane for AoE... Shroom spam + dots was nice enough :O

[Drayarr]

Just saying the time where you could press a single button for high aeo dmg is gone

Howling Blast?
Multi-shot?
Thrash/Swipe?


The issue I have is, once cd's drop off, hurricane/dotting is sub par on comparison to other classes aoe