Shifting Perspectives: A 3.3 miscellany, part 2
Is the +haste issue impacting Balance DPS?
It's certainly not helping (more so if the player has any amount of latency). Balance hasn't done as well as expected in the latter stages of Wrath raiding; from what I've seen of statistics in ToC-10 and 25, it's consistently occupying the bottom third of the DPS ladder on most fights. I don't know whether or not these numbers are accurate, but my sense is that Balance's performance relative to other DPS has slowly declined over the course of Wrath.
Murmurs created an excellent forum thread on this issue earlier this month that addresses the matter head-on, and Gray Matter deals with some of the suggested solutions to the problem here. The bottom line is that there isn't really an easy answer here. Reading between the lines on GC's response makes me think that an overhaul to Balance in the run up to Cataclysm (or possibly during it) is something the developers are thinking about, because the issues affecting Balance DPS are either immune to quick fixes or would create ultimately more problems than they'd solve.
Why was Predator's Swiftness nerfed?
Like most Ferals, I've really been enjoying the new Predator's Swiftness buff that went live in patch 3.2.2 (side note; this makes soloing older heroics and raids absurdly fun, and I'd like to do a column on this soon), but Blizzard's nerfing the duration from 10 seconds to 5. Why? Thankfully, GC explained this the other day, and inadvertently touched on why I don't do Feral PvP, because this literally never occurred to me:
We made the change to discourage a very specific form of gameplay:
1. Get the proc, but don't use it.
2. Build up 5 more cps on the target.
3. Now Cyclone before you do another finishing move.
4. Let your energy fill to full.
5. As soon as the Cyclone ends, unleash a huge Ferocious Bite with 5 cps and full energy.
A 5-CP Ferocious Bite in arena is massive burst, and anything you do to an opponent coming out of a Cyclone is -- for them -- almost always unavoidable, so this is an understandable change. I'll miss the flexibility those 10 seconds afforded (and Predator's Swiftness is great for the Faction Champs fight), but oh well.
Hey, wait a minute. PvP shouldn't be affecting PvE!Raaaaaaaaaaage!
Are you new?
So what does Tier 10 look like?
If you read the site, you've probably already seen it, but just in case you haven't, it's the picture above (courtesy of Boubouille at MMO Champion).
Did Little Shop of Horrors come out on DVD recently or something? Because...damn. Valorous Audrey II.
Ha ha! Like Ferals are even going to look like this.
Natch. To your right is the rogue set. Recolored versions of this to be unhappily sought by Ferals everywhere.
Wow.
Yeah.
Wow. That helm...on a female Tauren...wow. Right? Allie?
(Author has /afk'd in search of a hard surface on which to knock herself into welcome unconsciousness).
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 -- for some unaccountable reason -- stuck in caster form, we've got the skinny on druid changes in patch 3.2, questions and answers on new Bear and Cat forms, and thoughts on why you should be playing the class (or why not).
