Shifting Perspectives: DoTs, a different direction, Page 2
by Tyler Caraway 
Apr 2nd 2010 at 2:00PM
Step 2: New spells -- what are you talking about?
Love it or hate it, Nourish has been a very good addition to the restoration toolkit. Though there are difficulties in balancing out spell HPS that I won't go into, the theory behind the spell is very solid: a direct application ability that is dependent upon over time effects on the target. While there have been balancing issues with spells such as Lava Burst and Mind Blast, a short cooldown spell can actually be a very good thing, and it would be the addition to the balance toolkit that we are currently missing.
Let's face it, balance druids want a new spell. We feel like we've been stuck with the same things since release. To an extent, we have been. The only real new additional spells that balance has seen in each expansion has been another long-cooldown spell that's nice but not really part of our rotation. Adding in another nuke, however, is really out of the question for us. What purpose would it serve? We already have a short cast-time nuke and a longer cast-time nuke, both with fairly similar DPS levels, so what could another new nuke really do for our rotation if it were spammable? The only other option is a new DoT, which would be cool and all, but we aren't so much a DoT class and it isn't a position we should be pushed into. To that end, any new spell that we get which is going to be part of our rotation is either going to have to be a buff style spell à la Savage Roar or it is going to have to be a nuke with a short cooldown attached to it, similar to Mind Blast. In face of those choices, I beg for the latter. There are, though, two directions in which such a spell could, or at least should in my opinion, take.
The Nourish look-alike A spell that deals its damage dependent upon the DoTs that are on the target, similar to the way that Nourish functions, is one viable method of adding in a new ability. The theory behind the spell is quite simple. It would be a mid-range "burst" ability that is higher DPS than both Wrath and Starfire, yet limited by a short, 8-second or so cooldown. Essentially, the spell would be a Mind Blast clone. For those who are keeping current with shadow priests, this may seem like a bad choice, considering that many shadow priests are completely dropping Mind Blast from their rotations at this point. However, this is a flaw that is more so unique to shadow priests and is not inherent within the design of the spell itself.
As a quick vision for the spell, I would have it something akin to this. First, it would have either a 2-second or 2.5-second base cast time, which is reduced by .5 seconds via Starlight Wrath. The spell would also have to benefit equally from talents which affect both Wrath and Starfire, possibly barring Improved Insect Swarm. Those would be talents such as Vengeance, Moonfury, Wrath of Cenarius and Nature's Majesty. On the topic of Wrath of Cenarius, the actual spellpower coefficient should probably end up being slightly higher than that of Wrath; what I mean is, the spellpower-per-second gain of the spell should be slightly higher. Talented, Wrath gains approximately 44.76% spellpower per second, while Starfire gains approximately 40%. If the spell has the same 2-second base cast time as Wrath, then it would mirror Wrath exactly, and the bonus from Wrath of Cenarius should probably be adjusted upwards by 5%, giving the spell approximately 48% spellpower per second. With a base cast time of 2.5, a 10% bonus from Wrath of Cenarius would mean the spell gains 40.71% spellpower per second, while a 15% bonus would be 43.12%. In the case of a 2.5 base cast time, the spell would need to gain 20% spellpower like Starfire does, which would be 45.71% spell power per second. The reasoning for having a slightly higher spellpower coefficient is to ensure the spell's scaling remains intact, as it would have a limited DPS increase via haste due to the nature of having a cooldown.
The damage bonus from DoTs would really be a function of a few different things: base damage, expected damage and the importance the DoTs should play. It would be entirely possible for the spell to have a base damage range of 200 - 210 yet gain something akin to 100% additional damage for each DoT on the target. It would be silly to balance the spell in such a manner, but it could be done. I would venture to guess that a 10% bonus per DoT would be a reasonably expected figure. To that end, the base damage would probably need to be closer to that of Wrath's, maybe slightly higher such as 700s-800s range, for the spell to work as expected. In actuality though, this is the trickiest part of the spell. The spell would need to have a higher damage per cast time than Wrath and Starfire while under the effects of Eclipse, otherwise the spell is virtually useless. Since we know Eclipse is changing but not how, pinning down more exact numbers is complicated.
The Swiftmend look-alike The other option for a spell which functions off of Moonfire and/or Insect Swarm is one that has also been brought up several times before. This version would function similar to Swiftmend, in that it causes either Moonfire or Insect Swarm to be instantly "consumed" into a burst of damage equal to a set time frame of the spell. Although I might not be as excited by this concept, it would certainly be a large benefit for balance PvP in allowing for specific periods of burst. The one flaw about this spell, though, is that it directly correlates to the damage of our DoT effects.
In reality, this isn't such a terrible thing at first glance. For example, a Glyphed Insect Swarm at 4,000 spellpower would deal around 11,500 damage over the course of its duration. What is at issue is that this new spell clearly could not be based off of the full duration of our DoTs. Otherwise, it could very easily become far too powerful in PvP. Yet from a PvE standpoint, 11,500 damage from an instant spell is not that high. Remember, an Eclipsed Wrath at the same level would deal around 6,500 damage non-crit, so a gain of 5,000 damage on a spell with a moderate cooldown would not be a big deal. With a 10-second cooldown, this would account for an increase of around 500 DPS, which is significant, but not overtly so. It's around a 5% increase.
Another slight technicality is that the spell has no true scaling of its own. It would only scale off the spellpower of our DoTs and from crit. That isn't really a negative thing, though, especially considering that our DoTs have some pretty solid spellpower scaling (or at least Insect Swarm does).
How strong the spell hits for and the impact it would hold on our overall DPS is largely a factor of the cooldown on the ability. If the cooldown is short enough that it could be used twice per DoT application, then it should probably only deal half the damage of the DoT itself. This would also bring up the issue of whether or not the spell would actually consume the DoT, or if it would not consume it baseline, or if there would be a talent or Glyph to have it not consume the DoT. All of that would also determine how the spell would fit within our rotation.
Step 3: Durations, refreshes and bears, oh my!
Okay, so it really doesn't have anything to do with Bear Form, but no one can resist the Wizard of Oz reference. It's no secret (or maybe it is) that DoTs fail or succeed largely based upon of their durations. It is because of this principle that Nature's Splendor and the Starfire Glyph are so potent. Longer DoTs don't just mean more damage per cast on the DoT itself, but they also mean that you get to cast more spells before needing to refresh the DoTs themselves. Normally, the latter wouldn't matter all too much, but with Improved Insect Swarm (the aforementioned other talent to also boost our nukes' interactions with DoTs), it does matter. Nature's Splendor is a very strong talent, and I wouldn't want to change that nor make it any stronger, but that doesn't mean that our DoTs couldn't stand to see a duration boost in some other form or another.
The first form would be to bake the Glyph of Starfire into a talent or to add in a similar talent/Glyph for Insect Swarm. The reasoning is this: Our DoTs are currently tied to their respective nuke rather nicely. Wrath pairs with Insect Swarm, Starfire with Moonfire. Also, balance druids rotate between both Wrath and Starfire within their standard rotation. To this end, you would want each respective DoT up during the time in which you are using its paired nuke; however, the current durations do not really allow for this. Moonfire, with the Starfire Glyph, currently works all right at it, generally lasting throughout a Lunar Eclipse and long enough to proc a Solar Eclipse. The same is not true for Insect Swarm, which will generally fall off around the time a Solar Eclipse ends.
Moonfire and Insect Swarm need to have durations that last long enough to pair up with the rotation of our nukes within a reasonable expectation of RNG. As I said, Moonfire is nearly there, although an additional three to six seconds would not hurt. It is Insect Swarm that needs a bit of work. Insect Swarm needs a talent/glyph similar to the one for Starfire that allows Wrath to extend its duration (probably around five ticks, which would yield a 24-second duration). Although this would somewhat "dumb down" the balance rotation to a degree, it is much better than the alternative into which we are now forced. Currently, a balance druid has to think on the fly and instinctively know whether it would be a DPS increase or loss in order to refresh Insect Swarm during a period of Wrath casting. Due to the RNG nature of Eclipse, this isn't a positive position. Again, the changes coming to Eclipse may fix this situation somewhat, but we cannot be sure.
Every week, Shifting Perspectives treks across Azeroth in pursuit of truth, beauty, and insight concerning the druid class. Sometimes it finds the latter, or something good enough for government work. Whether you're a Bear, Cat, Moonkin, Tree, or stuck in caster form, we've got the skinny on druid changes in patch 3.3, a look at the disappearance of the bear tank, and thoughts on why you should be playing the class (or why not).
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Lissanna Apr 2nd 2010 2:41PM
Great suggestions as usual!
Enkylanos Apr 2nd 2010 2:45PM
Caveat: I don't play druid, and this idea is probably the result of taking too many hits to the head while tanking.
Reading your article, I started to wonder - what about the idea of DoT(s) stacking for Druid? If Moonfire, for example, were able to stack to 3 (?) ...
It wouldn't have too big of burst potential in PVP (3 GCDs, cleansable), but in PVE it would help with damage. You could also roll it together with your Swiftmend idea (cast a spell, consumes all stacks) - if balanced right, it would be a DPS increase to stack to three, let them tick, and remove them just before they fall off.
Anyway, just throwing it out there, but to my non-druid self, it seems like an interesting idea and I'm curious about people's thoughts. Obviously it's a big change, and one that would have to come in an expansion or something.
Neirin Apr 2nd 2010 5:31PM
While the idea is basically decent, I could see some problems w/ clipping dot ticks causing larger dps losses than they really should. Also, allowing the dot to fall off would be severely punished (think rolling LBs during BC, but w/o the finisher burst) and even a bit of lag could potentially cost us 4-5 secs as we try to set back up. The combination of these 2 things would also necessitate an addon even more than eclipse does. To maximize the full potential of this system we'd have to refresh the dot between it's 2nd to last tick and its final tick, which isn't displayed anywhere on the default UI. It's true that we could just remember that we need to refresh MF once it has less than 3 secs to go and IS once it has less than 2, but that doesn't seem like a particularly player-friendly decision for blizz to make.
Ctmcstomperq Apr 2nd 2010 2:49PM
The spell you described is in a lot of ways very similar to "Conflagrate" a talented spell for destro warlocks that hits very hard once every 8 seconds and gives a set of 3 charges to make the next 3 fire spells go off faster, but consumes the "Immolate" or "Shadowflame" effects in the process, unless Glyphed.
At least it used to, these days it hits about as hard as a shadowbolt and applies a secondary DOT for what would have been the remainder of the damage. The real reason for the spell has always been the 3 rapid fire "Incinerate" casts.
Something like this would be cool, no glyph tho, the glyph for conflag is attractive because of Immolate's cast time. Since MF and IS are instant you don't lose cast time.
Tyler Caraway Apr 2nd 2010 3:42PM
It is indeed a Conflag clone, though I had resto druids on the brain while writing and didn't think of it at the time. Plus, who likes Warlocks?
However, it is worth noting that the haste effect is a product of the Backdraft talent and not Conflag in of itself, though it is certainly a very nice perk to have.
The key part of using a Conflag comparison is to show how easy it is for such a spell to become excessively powerful as burst in a PvP environment. Most instant spells, such as say Ice Lance, do not have a very high spellpower coefficient due to being balanced around being a direct damage spell. However, DoTs scale different and have their coefficients based upon duration instead of cast time, essentially this leaves Conflag, and the new spell, as an instant spell that has similar spell power scaling as most casted abilities.
Balancing such an effect is slightly difficult, as we saw with Conflag, so it may not entirely be possible for such a spell to exist wherein it is useful in both PvP and PvE. At least, not without other supporting talents such as Backdraft.
Eregos ftw! Apr 2nd 2010 2:58PM
For a new spell, you might want to check out my thread on the suggestions forum :)
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=23094129538&sid=1
(swiftmend look alike)
cui_h_1999 Apr 2nd 2010 3:04PM
Glyph of Eclipse?
Your Starfire ability increases the duration of your Moonfire effect on the target by 3 sec, up to a maximum of 9 additional seconds. Your Wrath ability increases the duration of Insect Swarm on the target by 3 sec, up to a maximum of 9 additional seconds.
Also, what about modifying MF/IS so that each application of Starfire/Wrath increases the dmg coefficient of the next DOT tick by 1%/2%/3%?
cui_h_1999 Apr 2nd 2010 3:16PM
Also w/ the resto-theme...
How about a dot called Deathbloom? 3x stacking like lifebloom, with the end burst as a percentage of other dot damage.
Vogie Apr 2nd 2010 3:47PM
I like Deathbloom.
Add that to an -ate spell (obliterate, conflagrate), and you have a nice range of damage similar to an arcane mage. Do you let Deathbloom stack to 3 for the best DPS, Burn all dots for burst damage, or some hybrid of the two?
Tyler Caraway Apr 2nd 2010 3:52PM
Such a Glyph would be possible, though probably too strong for a single Glyph by Blizzard's standards. Essentially, though, that is the effect that balance really needs for their current DoTs.
Having a Haunt type effect attached to Wrath and/or Starfire is also viable to a degree, though it would end up being a slightly tricky one to balance. Such an effect would also make us more rooted and less mobile since we would be pressed to stack it as much as possible before the DoT ticked off.
And, finally, the Deathbloom spell that has cropped up many times. Yes, that would certainly be a viable new spell that balance druids could use, however, it is also nothing more than another DoT. I have nothing against DoTs per say, and if we did have to get a new DoT, then this would be one that I would like to see, I'm just not entirely sure it is the 'right' direction to push balance druids. Arcane/Frost has 0 DoTs, Elemental/Fire has 1 DoT, Destruction has 2 (I think,) and Demonology/Affliction/Shadow use 3. Right now, we're with Destruction in using 2 and in a 'balanced' stated between nukes and DoTs. Giving us a new DoT pushes us closer towards the 'DoT specs' in terms of the number of effects that we use, yet our DoTs would be so much weaker.
pablo Apr 2nd 2010 3:15PM
I play an ele shaman and it seems to me as time goes by that Blizz's idea for balance druids is to make them into ele shamans. More burst....less dot dmg. It's just a feeling I have had....goes with the homogenization of the classes Blizz seems to be aiming for.
Tyler Caraway Apr 2nd 2010 3:56PM
Ehh, kind of sort of. Balance druids are in a nice mixture right now between DoTs and nukes, just the DoTs have fallen a little bit lower than they should be. If our damage spread was akin to 10% Moonfire, 10% Insect Swarm, ~30% Wrath, ~30% Starfire, and everything else making up the rest, then we'd be fine. We wouldn't be DoT heavy and we wouldn't be nuke heavy. We'd be a nice mixture of everything.
Awwjwah Apr 2nd 2010 3:30PM
Three ideas I have for Balance.
1) A talent in the tree that provides a haste rating for the balance druid based on the number of dot's applied to the target, to decrease the overall cast time of wrath and Starfall. Like a priests vampiric embrace which is now limited to only the damage caused to the priests target, it only affects casting spells on the target affected by the dots. (This can also be rolled into the new passive mechanics they are creating for the talent tree's in cataclysm instead of a straight talent)
2) New spell - Eruption - The ground at the targets feet erupts in a geyser like flow of mud and water causing x damage to the target, Y% damage to targets within a 5 yard radius and slowing the movement and attacks of all affected by 50% for 5 seconds. (damages and yardage up for debate) 2.5 sec cast before haste bonus. Eruptions is also the new target for the Earth Proc of Earth and moon instead of wrath.
3) Earth and moon changed to x% chance on cast of wrath to proc either earth,or moon. When proc'd the earth or moon buff bonus gives the corresponding spell a 50% chance to crit and makes it instant cast for one cast, buff duration 15 seconds, consumed once the appropriate spell is cast.
Robert Apr 2nd 2010 3:33PM
What about a chimaira shot lookalike spell?
Something like a spell that does slightly less damage than wrath, but is instant-cast; does 20% more damage for each dot currently on the target; and refreshes the duration of all dots on the target? I'd say a 15 second cooldown would be about right. (Though I'm currently debating whether 18 seconds might not be better.)
It wouldn't add burst, unfortunately, but it would add some complication to the balance rotation, as you could with starfire glyph keep moonfire on the target infinitely if timed right, but not insect swarm.
awwjwah Apr 2nd 2010 3:34PM
Three ideas I have for Balance.
1) A talent in the tree that provides a haste rating for the balance druid based on the number of dot's applied to the target, to decrease the overall cast time of wrath and Starfall. Like a priests vampiric embrace which is now limited to only the damage caused to the priests target, it only affects casting spells on the target affected by the dots. (This can also be rolled into the new passive mechanics they are creating for the talent tree's in cataclysm instead of a straight talent)
2) New spell - Eruption - The ground at the targets feet erupts in a geyser like flow of mud and water causing x damage to the target, Y% damage to targets within a 5 yard radius and slowing the movement and attacks of all affected by 50% for 5 seconds. (damages and yardage up for debate) 2.5 sec cast before haste bonus. Eruptions is also the new target for the Earth Proc of Earth and moon instead of wrath.
3) Earth and moon changed to x% chance on cast of wrath to proc either earth,or moon. When proc'd the earth or moon buff bonus gives the corresponding spell a 50% chance to crit and makes it instant cast for one cast, buff duration 15 seconds, consumed once the appropriate spell is cast.
Matthew Apr 2nd 2010 3:57PM
have you submitted your application to Blizzard yet? :D
RussGreene Apr 2nd 2010 4:06PM
I certainly agree 100% that balance druids need a new spell. While what we have is great (barring some inconsistencies...*cough*), there's indeed something lacking from our repertoire.
One thing that I've noticed on my 10ICC geared balance druid is that there's almost an anti-Execute / Killshot range. Once a trash mob gets to about 15%-ish (give or take a few percents based on the relative DPS of your group), then there's actually not much a boomkin can do. By the time you're going to get off a Starfire, and sometimes even a Wrath, the mob will be dead; but if you throw on Moonfire and Insect Swarm, they tick so pathetically that you might not have even thrown them in the first place.
Personally, I want something along the lines of a mage's Fire Blast: instant cast, tolerable damage, a long-ish cooldown. Whether or not it functions as Swiftmend's Evil Twin or some other utility (Robert's Chimera Shot clone appeals to me for one) is up to Blizzard. I think that this would go a long way towards making Balance more appealing for PvP, give Balance some great utility, and provide us with a fairly potent you-die-NOW spell.
As to the actual content of your post, I think you're pretty solidly on the money overall. I actually don't look at my DoTs as DoTs anymore: Thanks to Improved Insect Swarm, I see them more along the lines of debuffs like Faerie Fire. The Nourish clone idea could work, depending as you said, on how they tinker it and make it scale with spellpower (sorry, intellect), as could the Swiftmend model. Overall, something should be done about boomkin flexibility in Cataclysm, and there's a lot of good ideas here and on the druid forums about how this could be addressed. I hope the dev team is paying attention!
Hollow Leviathan Apr 2nd 2010 4:19PM
I thought the original point behind DoTs not critting was to encourage dot-heavy classes to avoid crit and thus create diversity among what stats different classes wanted to pursue. I guess that's not really the case anymore with the homogenization of gear, just meaning that some classes scale weirdly with the only stats available to them.
Neirin Apr 2nd 2010 5:51PM
When spells completely ignore crit (and haste for that matter) they become significantly less useful, particularly at the ends of expansions where everyone's going to have large amounts of crit/haste even if they aren't particularly gearing for it. They don't need to scale well necessarily, but they should at least give a minor boost. I'm thinking of haste for dps warriors - it's absolutely horrible and no one stacks it, but if you have haste on your gear at least it's not COMPLETELY useless.
Rob Apr 2nd 2010 5:04PM
Pretty good ideas herein. I think the boomkins do need a real instant cast non-dot. I think they are on the only spellcaster that does have one? (everyone else can use wands at least). Boomkins can be fine, but coupled w/ all the other forms they are just a two trick pony. The starfire/ecclipse state we are in now is just silly; we need an actual rotation other than makes sure MF is up, cast either SF/W depending on proc. We do have tons of utility in terms of gift, brez, tank/heal on the fly, but this goes out the window in 10s/25s. Either they need to think of new raid models or give the existing classes/roles like boomkin more interesting 'buttons' as GC would say.