Balance Changes - Build 26707

[huth]

Might just be a tooltip error but fury of elune is no longer included in the mastery either.

Not a tooltip error. Given that none of the talents on that tier are, though, i doubt that's going to be as much of an issue as it was in Legion.

[Cadaaga]

Not a tooltip error. Given that none of the talents on that tier are, though, i doubt that's going to be as much of an issue as it was in Legion.

Yea I suppose it's not competing with anything that does scale with mastery and that row is more about how you want your extra AP

[huth]

Yea I suppose it's not competing with anything that does scale with mastery and that row is more about how you want your extra AP

Having one talent on the row scale significantly different from the rest tends to create issues anyway.

[Bugg]

Do we know anything about new 'looks' / glyph or anything else for BfA?

[Deleted]

I would like to see the maths on this. Starfall lost Stellar Empowerment but it also had a lot of buffs in relation to its competitors. Its base damage was buffed 20%. Dot ticking damage was nerfed 10%. Stellar Flare was removed as a competitor spender. Starfall now scales with mastery at double the rate of Starsurge.

Base damage was buffed but its mastery scaling was nerfed from what I can see. Adding the loss of stellar empowerment and the fact that both LS/SW are aoe when empowered by starsurge now it does really seem like you'd need a lot of targets for Starfall to be used.
But that's just from looking at the numbers, we do need proper math for it.

[huth]

Base damage was buffed but its mastery scaling was nerfed from what I can see. Adding the loss of stellar empowerment and the fact that both LS/SW are aoe when empowered by starsurge now it does really seem like you'd need a lot of targets for Starfall to be used.
But that's just from looking at the numbers, we do need proper math for it.

Mastery scaling in general was reduced, not Starfall in specific. Starsurge scales significantly worse than Starfall.

[Keltas]

Base damage was buffed but its mastery scaling was nerfed from what I can see. Adding the loss of stellar empowerment and the fact that both LS/SW are aoe when empowered by starsurge now it does really seem like you'd need a lot of targets for Starfall to be used.
But that's just from looking at the numbers, we do need proper math for it.

They usually aim for 3+ targets for AoE to overtake single target, so I'd expect it to end up around there when tunings over.

[huerohueroxxx]

How is atm in beta? Good ST/AoE? Fun rotation? or seems like in legion

[nlc]

They usually aim for 3+ targets for AoE to overtake single target, so I'd expect it to end up around there when tunings over.

Yes indeed. It's hard to quantify the damage from empowerments without sims but for a single Starsurge I ballpark it around 110% of SP on 3 targets and 70% of SP on 2 targets (@ 20% mastery with SotF taken). Not sure if Solar Wrath splash damage also applies to the primary target but if it does those numbers will be a little higher. But either way it means Starfall ought to be ahead on 3 targets, and also on 2 targets if Stellar Drift is taken. We shall have to see though!

[huth]

Wrath splash hits everything in an 8y radius around the target. Main point of the change was making it have some value in AoE since we now get Empowerments from LS.

[Ibanism]

How is atm in beta? Good ST/AoE? Fun rotation? or seems like in legion

Somehow I enjoy the ST rotation before the recent build where Stellar Flare hit much harder and was a spender instead of the builder, now playing with SF feels like I’m always riding on the edge of capping my empowerments. AoE rotation is okay but the main problem for me is having such low haste at the start of the expansion makes it hard to have 100% uptime on starfall while not letting your dots fall off, I think taking shooting stars might help solve the AP problem but Fury of Elune is just too good and fun to ignore, and it also helps with ST damage while not taking moon talent in dungeon.

Currently I like Incarn more than starlord and feel like I get more DPS out of it (on ST situation), the 30 sec window of +40% haste just feel so good, Starlord is kind of weird for me since they buffed it to 20 seconds, there will be a period where your 3 stacks Starlord is about to fall of so you want to save your AP and instantly 2 Starsurge after it fall off, but my AP always hit 100 2-3 seconds before old Starlord drops so It forces me to choose between wasting AP or having less Starlord uptime which makes me really uncomfortable, maybe it is me who hasn’t figured out how to play with it yet.

[Lunardark]

100% uptime on Starfall doesn't matter as much anymore since they removed stellar empowerment. Starlord is definitely lackluster, and I've experienced the same issue where I need to overcap AP at the last 1-2 seconds or waste a SS. Increasing the stack cap to 4 would solve that issue. It's pretty noticeable. I'd prefer to use Starlord over yet another expansion of Incarn but the design/tuning just isn't there.

[huth]

Keep in mind that the overcap issue is strongly haste dependent. Tuning phase is not yet finished, if they've even started on it.

[slickwilly]

Probably going to be benched for hard progression bosses.

[Mystikal]

One change that will appeal to me (and a few others who were posting re Feral Affinity earlier in the thread) is the removal of Killer Instinct. Your Feral abilities now deal the same amount of damage, regardless of which form you're in. This gives Feral Affinity a real PvP niche, because you can now stack DoTs on your opponents (if you play well enough), and your Rake and Rip won't suddenly become impotent when shifting out of Cat or Bear form.

It also has the side effect of fixing the Bear -> Cat form Killer Instinct bug, and is a minor, minor buff to Restokitty "bearweaving".

I know that, in the grand scheme, a lot of people won't be particularly bothered about this change, but this is a change I suggested and it has made me - as a fan of Mooncatting - very happy indeed.

[Polarthief]

One change that will appeal to me (and a few others who were posting re Feral Affinity earlier in the thread) is the removal of Killer Instinct. Your Feral abilities now deal the same amount of damage, regardless of which form you're in. This gives Feral Affinity a real PvP niche, because you can now stack DoTs on your opponents (if you play well enough), and your Rake and Rip won't suddenly become impotent when shifting out of Cat or Bear form.

It also has the side effect of fixing the Bear -> Cat form Killer Instinct bug, and is a minor, minor buff to Restokitty "bearweaving".

I know that, in the grand scheme, a lot of people won't be particularly bothered about this change, but this is a change I suggested and it has made me - as a fan of Mooncatting - very happy indeed.

What? You mean actually shapeshifting to maximize your potential?

Yeah, New Blizz would never go for that.

[Mystikal]

I think I may have worded my post badly above, with that errant "will appeal" - the change is already on beta, and I, personally, am loving it. I guess time will tell if it's here to stay or not.

[elynos]

It seems a lot of people are worried about class/spec pruning and oversimplified rotations. I personally don't feel like we (balance druids) lost anything really. I also believe our rotation will be quite a bit more engaging and difficult in bfa? Anyone else agree?

[Polarthief]

It seems a lot of people are worried about class/spec pruning and oversimplified rotations. I personally don't feel like we (balance druids) lost anything really. I also believe our rotation will be quite a bit more engaging and difficult in bfa? Anyone else agree?

Short Answer: Yes.

Long Answer: More empowerments (20% proc from SW) means Lunar Strike will be cast more often, plus it's now a good AoE filler over SW. DoTs are still here and Starfall is no longer mandatory for good DoT or StFl damage. We definitely didn't lose anything in our main rotation outside of Moon spells which were a dumb bandage spell anyway.

As for difficulty... eh. I guess you could argue it's ever-so-slightly harder (like Dad Spec is over the intended single-target rotation on live), but that's kind of a moot point really. It won't be that much harder and Balance should still be relatively easy as it has been through all of Legion.

[elynos]

Short Answer: Yes.

Long Answer: More empowerments (20% proc from SW) means Lunar Strike will be cast more often, plus it's now a good AoE filler over SW. DoTs are still here and Starfall is no longer mandatory for good DoT or StFl damage. We definitely didn't lose anything in our main rotation outside of Moon spells which were a dumb bandage spell anyway.

As for difficulty... eh. I guess you could argue it's ever-so-slightly harder (like Dad Spec is over the intended single-target rotation on live), but that's kind of a moot point really. It won't be that much harder and Balance should still be relatively easy as it has been through all of Legion.

3 dots to keep up instead of 2 on st. Empowerment management could be difficult as it is easy to overcap on them, but also you don't want to overcap on ap either. I feel like it will still be kind of easy to play but harder to master than legion.