[Feral] Thoughts on Crit being our stat attunement

[gestapo]

I don't fully understand the implications of the 'stat attunement' feature of the game yet, so perhaps someone could explain it? I hear that it's basically blizzards way of showing inexperienced players which secondary stat is most optimal.
If that is the case, does it devalue mastery for the feral druid? Would we still have the option of going the way of mastery for heavier hitting bleeds - or is that no longer optimal?

[Shardik]

No telling for sure what our main stat will be till all the tuning is done, but I find it unlikely we'll be moving away from mastery. I think the main point of us getting crit attunement is to help give the stat more weight.

[gestapo]

No telling for sure what our main stat will be till all the tuning is done, but I find it unlikely we'll be moving away from mastery. I think the main point of us getting crit attunement is to help give the stat more weight.

I see. So you think it might be more of a balancing act? I can't speak for pve-raiding, but currently in pvp players have the option of going with a mastery heavy build for beefy bleeds or crit for quick cp generation. Some swear by either. I find myself leaning slightly towards mastery, but not by much. Enough to maintain a decent crit rating. The choice in playstyle was welcome and hopefully we won't be 'forced' one way or another.

[Glurp]

It means absolutely nothing.

[Kraineth]

It really isn't going to mean much, if crit is our best stat it won't be only because of the crit attunement.

[Raugnaut]

Attunements won't be what determines what class stacks what stat. Class mechanics/talents/ect is what will determine that. For druids in particular, MS will most likey be our lowest valued stat, as it gives damage only, equivalent to hit. Haste, because its very cheap next expansion compared to now, crit, because it generates extra resources, and, of course, mastery, as it affects our main source of damage will continue to be the 3 biggest stats.

Picking up Soul of the Forest compared to Force of Nature will increase the value of Haste and Crit (more finishers you pump out, more energy return you get from SotF). Picking up Bloodtalons will increase the value of Mastery greatly, and crit/multistrike to a lesser extent, whereas Moonfire talent will devalue Mastery (less damage comes from mastery overall), but increase the value of crit, MS, and haste.

[gestapo]

It really isn't going to mean much, if crit is our best stat it won't be only because of the crit attunement.

Do we have any official statement on what the attunement really means?

- - - Updated - - -

Attunements won't be what determines what class stacks what stat. Class mechanics/talents/ect is what will determine that. For druids in particular, MS will most likey be our lowest valued stat, as it gives damage only, equivalent to hit. Haste, because its very cheap next expansion compared to now, crit, because it generates extra resources, and, of course, mastery, as it affects our main source of damage will continue to be the 3 biggest stats.

Picking up Soul of the Forest compared to Force of Nature will increase the value of Haste and Crit (more finishers you pump out, more energy return you get from SotF). Picking up Bloodtalons will increase the value of Mastery greatly, and crit/multistrike to a lesser extent, whereas Moonfire talent will devalue Mastery (less damage comes from mastery overall), but increase the value of crit, MS, and haste.

I see. So nothing will change much really (in that class mechanics/talents/etc determine the best secondary stat). That's good to know.
Yes, interested to see how much the lvl 100 talents will affect us.

[huth]

It really isn't going to mean much, if crit is our best stat it won't be only because of the crit attunement.

Celestalon even said on Twitter that stat attunements are before balancing, and their balancing goal is getting secondaries as close as possible.

So being attuned to a stat actually means it's going to be tuned slightly weaker.

[Glurp]

I have to question the point of stat attunemens existing. Isn't this whole expansion about getting rid of the massive overload of passive spells that serve no real purpose? Now we have this? I don't understand.

[Ampere]

Do we have any official statement on what the attunement really means?

I have to question the point of stat attunemens existing. Isn't this whole expansion about getting rid of the massive overload of passive spells that serve no real purpose? Now we have this? I don't understand.

It says right in the patch notes...

Secondary Stat Attunements
A new concept that we’re introducing is each specialization having an attunement to a particular secondary stat. These take the form of a passive ability that grants a 5% increase to the amount of a specific secondary stat gained. This provides a good starting point for where to focus your secondary stats. Usually, it will be your highest throughput stat (not counting Spirit for Healers, and Bonus Armor for Tanks, which is an optimal secondary stat in most cases). There are exceptions, and raw throughput may not even be the biggest concern in some situations. Treat this as a guideline, not a rule, about which secondary stat to favor.

It's basically an in-game nudge in the right direction for people who don't read up on theorycrafting at all. If a stat was picked that is traditionally "not good" for a spec, I'd say wait for the tuning pass. It's fair to argue that you don't think the Stat Attunements are a good idea, but it's super obvious why they are being added.

[Glurp]

I still don't understand it at all. I was under the impression that the removal of reforging and removal of a lot of gem sockets was going to mean that secondary stats are all going to be balanced to be a similar value. Also if the point of the stat squish was because scaling was geting out of control this seems to be following the opposite idea, giving extra power for no reason. It seems the idea of secondary stat attunements does a complete 180 in terms of design for 3 different features of the expansion (stat squish, secondary balancing and passive spells).

[Ampere]

I still don't understand it at all. I was under the impression that the removal of reforging and removal of a lot of gem sockets was going to mean that secondary stats are all going to be balanced to be a similar value. It's like the idea of secondary stat attunements does a complete 180 in terms of design for 2 different features of the expansion (stat balancing and passive spells).

From my understanding they are balancing secondary stats so that they aren't like 2:1 ratios anymore, but there will still be a best one. Similar doesn't mean 1:1, but maybe 1:0.8. I don't think they're mutually exclusive design goals.

There are occasional enchants/gems you could focus one a secondary, and more importantly you could focus your loot decisions based on it. Maybe if a Haste/Multistrike leather chest drops you'll skip it, but if a Crit/Mastery one drops you'll aim for getting that.

[Raugnaut]

In all honesty, I believe that the stat attunements will be removed, replaced with some text on the specialization pages stating which secondary stats one should aim for.

[Zstr]

It means absolutely nothing.

kinda this

[gestapo]

kinda this

Blizzard's official post seems to contradict that.

[Zstr]

crit was always close to mastery,
however every new expansion they are trying to lower it, so overcap won't be reachable
also there are overall stats squish going on which need to be adjust

I don't see rotation change even if crit will go before mastery
there no encounters out yet to check from

[Deleted]

nvm me hahaha

[Deleted]

Looking at the new set bonuses blizzard seems quite adamant about making crit our best secondary stat.

[Deleted]

Looking at the new set bonuses blizzard seems quite adamant about making crit our best secondary stat.

I do believe so as well.

And for crit being focused... Fuck that shit tbh, I'm by no means a veteran feral druid since i was active as feral in t13, t14, t15 but I do believe that relying on Crit is a bad class design especially for ferals. In the perfect world where i would be developer, crit would be the cherry on the cake not the base of it (I do hope that made sense for someone at least hahahaha)

[gestapo]

I'm a bit partial to our mastery playstyle and heavy bleeds.