| Kreallana | #274214 Monday December 10, 2007 at 15:14 | |
Quantum Kittie Heavenly Healz |
Weapons: Druids are not considered weapon wielders in feral form. We use our paws. Because of this, there are certain facts you need to know: a) We cannot be disarmed b) We gain nothing from weapon skill - don't worry about leveling your staff/mace skill unless it's just for fun - it will not improve your dps one iota (with the exception of weapon skill on trinkets/rings) c) The only thing our weapons are good for are their stats - maximize these at every opportunity d) Procs on weapons are a waste - they do not work for us...we aren't using our weapons, thus the weapon never makes contact with the mob - thus the proc never activates e) Weapon speed is constant for us, depending on form. The speed of the weapon you choose has no bearing on your actual swing speed while in bear or cat form. Bear form is a constant 2.5 and in cat is a constant 1.0. This can be modified by haste items; however, haste is not a primary stat consideration for druids f) Windfury does nothing for you. Grace of Air is your friend. If you are lucky, you'll wind up in a hunter & shaman group and have imp GoA up. If you wind up in a rogue/other melee and shaman group - well, hope for a totem twister. Not all shaman can do it effectively, and some fights require never letting mana get below a certain level so it just won't happen...but yeah...windfury is considered a weapon buff - ie. does us no good. However, GoA grants you ap and crit in cat form and a significant amount of dodge and a bit of armor in bear - definitely worthwhile having (particularly on fights like Morogrim) g) Latest information shows that the crit rating boost from weight stones does affect our crit. The weapon damage increase does not apply to us - for the reasons listed in point d above. However, the crit rating does. Edit: According to the notes coming in from the PTR, in 2.4 "Weightstones and Sharpening Stones: The bonus damage from these temporary enchantments now works while shapeshifted." We'll see if this actually goes into affect, but it sure will be sweet if it does. Hit cap: 142 (9%) is required to eliminate misses against boss level mobs. Note that this is chances to miss. You can still be dodged, parried and blocked even with a capped hit rating since this is strictly chance to miss that you are mitigating. Hit Rating = 0.063% hit (15.8 hit rating = 1% hit). You need 9% hit to become hit capped, so 142.2 hit rating total. Since Bliz, in their infinite wisdom, rounds down - you have to get 143 to truly hit cap. Most go to 142 and call it good enough. Expertise: 91 Expertise rating eliminates dodge against boss level NPC. As of the latest notes, parry cap is undetermined and considered variable from boss to boss. Each point of Expertise will reduce the target's chance to dodge and parry your attacks by 0.25%. It is assumed that the parry cap is higher than the dodge...this is not currently substantiated, however. Also, expertise rounds down, so 90.2 = 90, 90.8 = 90. 5.6% dodge / 0.25% = 22.4 expertise, or 23 expertise needed. 90 expertise rating gives about 22.8 expertise...thus the need for 91. Glancing blows: The rate is estimated to be 25% against boss level mobs. Yellow attacks are immune to the glancing. There is nothing druids can do to eliminate the 25% glancing - however, there has been some debate about the true level of glancing. In over 200 WWS that we've reviewed, druids do not seem to go above 23% glancing. And Kre is actually ~21% glancing. If anyone has WWS showing higher glancing than 23%, I would be interested in seeing it so I can present it to Toskk and crew for evaluation. How to figure your cat attack power: The formula is as follows: ((str*2)+(agi+(lvl*3.5))+FAP+raP)*1.1 The level*3.5 comes from Level*2 <--Cat form AP + Level*1.5 <-- Predatory Strikes AP FAP <--- items with feral attack power bonus (such as on Braxxis' Staff of Slumber) rAP <--- raw ap item bonus (such as on Chestguard of No Remorse) The 1.1 that it all gets multiplied by is the HotW talent 10% ap bonus. Haste: Our weapon speed is 1.0 in cat and 2.5 in bear (what weapon you have equipped means absolutely nothing for weapon speed, no matter what the weapon says...soon as you shift form you are locked into that form's speed. Weapon speed is only applicable to Boomkin and Caster forms). Once you get very well geared, this would start to be a stat you might want to look at...but, I would not make it a priority. 15.76 Haste Rating = 1.00% attack speed increase. So..Using the Swiftstrke Shoulders as an example...they offer 38 haste rating. Thus 38/15.76 = .0241 (2.41%). We get it easy - our base speed is 1.0. So...1.0-.02= .98 Therefore, using those shoulders, you'd go from 1.00 to .98 (ok...0.9759s). Basically, at my stats, 38 haste rating gives me ~9 more DPS. This is all estimations, of course, since I didn't figure in the loss of 23 crit. However! Keep in mind that roughly 60% of a druid's damage is done via yellow attacks, not white...so...the haste would only apply to roughly 40-45% of our attacks. In my opinion, druids would be much better suited to pursue other stats, and just take the haste if it happens to be on something that is an upgrade even without the haste on it. You can see more in depth info on it here. Armor Penetration: Armor Penetration is a bit more complex because it comes in varied amounts. If the boss with 7700 armor has just Sunder Armor x5 on it, then the effect of ArP is as follows: 100 ArP: 0.64% 200 ArP: 1.29% 300 ArP: 1.95% 400 ArP: 2.62% 500 ArP: 3.3% For a fully debuffed boss (SA x5, FF, CoR) the dps increase from ArP is: 100 ArP: 0.71% 200 ArP: 1.42% 300 ArP: 2.15% 400 ArP: 2.89% 500 ArP: 3.64% See more details on armor penetration in the post below... It is assumed that you could, theoretically, get to where your opponent is effectively at 0 armor...what your actual damage would be at that point is questionable, however. Armor cap: 35880 (75% mitigation vs a boss level NPC) *note - remember neither enchants or temporary buffs receive the bear armor bonus - this is one reason agi takes priority over most any other enchant for bears. With agi you get both armor and avoidance. Resilience: 103 (102.44) resilience = crit immunity. 39.4 rating = 1% less chance to be critically struck and 2% less damage when struck. Defense: It is assumed that a feral will have 3/3 SotF...based on this assumption, 415 defense is cap...unless paired with Resilience. The two do stack and, you can have 350 defense and 103 resilience (102.44) and be crit immune. Between the two (def+resi) you have to have 2.6% crit avoidance to be considered crit immune. Again, let me stress this - this number is taking into account 3/3 SotF. Defense does add a very small amount toward your chance of being missed, and it does add .04% chance to dodge a blow. However, agility grants greater dodge than defense. You will find as you get into your tier sets, defense becomes harder to obtain and resilience may be how you chose to compensate. 1 Def = .04% dodge + .04% physical crit avoidance + .04% chance to be missed. 25 Defense Rating = 1% dodge/crit avoidance/chance to be missed. Dodge: Entering KZ, it would behoove you to be around 28%+ dodge. Entering TK/SSC, getting up to 40% dodge is a good thing. Moroes' Pocketwatch will most likely be with you from the time you get it in KZ until you are staring down Illidan. The Badge of Tenacity is not a bad consideration. If you are ~40% dodge without the trinkets tripped...when you hit them both (they do not share a cooldown), you can get to ~70% dodge. This is a good thing, IMO. Then again, I currently do not have the Badge, and instead run with the Spyglass. It gives me +45 stam (which I need) and a tiny healing boost on top of frenzied regeneration (yes, they stack). 1 DodgeRating = 0.053% Dodge 18.924 DodgeRating = 1% Dodge (see def and agi sections for the amount of dodge gained from them) Hit points: Top end druids are running around 19k health self-buffed, easily. Kre is 15484 self-buffed. This is a little low and a constant point of irritation for me. Raid buffed I can hit 19k, but I'm still relatively low in the hit points area. I am constantly looking for ways to boost my stam without sacrificing my avoidance. This will most likely be the hardest balancing act you have to face as a bear tank. Armor should never be an issue, Blizz tends to give that to us like candy. It's the avoidance, stam and crit immunity that we have to dance around. Honestly, I like resi because it's cheaper to get and I can pile on more agi when I have it, thus giving me a lot more dodge. 1 agi gives more dodge than 1 def. Agility: Why is agility king of stats? Because it gives us so much. In bear form, we gain armor and doge. In cat form, we gain dodge, attack power and crit. If you want to read through it, Toskk gives some information on how agi plays out against strength at Toskk's Methodology. 1 Agility = 0.04% Crit + 0.068% Dodge + 1 AttackPower + 2 Armor 25 Agility = 1% Crit Chance 22.078 CritRating = 1% Crit Chance Notice...1 agi = .068% dodge + 2 armor...where 1 Def = .04% dodge + .04% crit avoidance + .04% chance to be missed. Enchants: Procs or chance on hit weapons do not work on druids. If it is inherent in your armor (like the T4 bonus or the Stormshroud set), your trinkets or idols it does. However, no procable enchants will work for us. As mentioned above in the armor section - armor enchants do not get the bear bonus. Suggested enchants are agility, + to all stats, stam...you get the idea. Gems: Agi, stam, +hit should be your priorities, pretty much in that order - though some of us swap stam and agi in our priority list...depends on your stats and where you need the umph (like my stam slacking self would need to slot more stam gems - most likely shifting nightseye to get agi/stam combined). If you need to make up for something temporarily, or to make your meta gem happy - gems with resi, defense, crit can be slotted...but it's certainly not the best option. I, currently, have an xx/resi gem slotted in my tanking shoulders just because I needed that bit of resilience to put me back at crit cap. Most of all, don't be afraid of not taking the socket bonus if it's something like +2 strength...Slot what you need, the socket bonus is not a requirement like the meta gems have. --the xx is because I can't remember what's with it. It think it's str/resi, but not sure. *grimace* Armory has me in my cat gear, right now, so I can't check. Crushing Blows: No matter how much we try, druids cannot push crushings off the table, ever. You cannot dodge crushing blows. There is always a 15% chance to be crushed. A druid, however, gets crushed for less than a warrior. So when we do take them, we are better able to soak them up - yay for mitigation. Druid Threat: There is a nice, little perk to being a cat...your threat modifier is .81 instead of a full 1.00. For Dire Bears, we get at 30% modifier that can be granted another 15% (for a total of 45%) with 3/3 Feral Instinct. Formulas - remember, threat is only generated while in combat: When damage is dealt (i.e. mangle/lacerate): threat = damage * threat mod of skill * druid threat mod When no damage is dealt (i.e. faerie fire): threat = skill threat * druid threat mod When gaining rage (i.e. Enrage) each enemies receives: threat = (rage gained * 5) / # of enemies For skill threat at a glance: Faerie Fire 127 initial threat Mangle dmg * 1.3 initial threat Lacerate 285+(dmg*0.2) initial threat Lacerate dmg*0.2 threat over time Maul dmg + 322 intial threat Bash 260 initial threat Demoralizing Roar 42 initial threat Feral Charge 150 initial threat Swipe dmg *1 initial threat Enrage 50 initial threat assuming 3/3 Intensity Enrage 10/s threat over time Dire Bear Form 50 intial threat assuming 5/5 Furor Frenzied Regeneration 125/s threat over time Additional info found here concerning rejuvenation, regrowth, etc and how they apply to threat generation. --
Nykka, Kreallana, Krea, Rwnaella - AoC Kreallana, Enheduannah, Talwien, Ghula - WoW Nykka, Kreallana, Rwnaella, Dremmavae - WAR "my defensive skills consist primarily of running and screaming for mercy.", [Michael A. Ventrella, Arch Enemies] |
|
| Kreallana edited this message on Tuesday March 11, 2008 at 10:00 | ||
| Kreallana | #274217 Monday December 10, 2007 at 15:30 | |
|
Quantum Kittie Heavenly Healz |
Kitty Scratch Scratch: Ferocious Bite is not something to really use unless you are up against a bleed immune mob. It is a burst damage finisher that is less dps than a Rip finisher would be. Idealy, you would combo to four points and rip. When you are 70 in a group/raid that combo would consist of: If without another feral: FFF as necessary. mangle, shred to 4 combo, rip. rinse and repeat. If with Boomkin with impFF: by all that's holy, beg them to keep their FF up. If with another feral: one of you mangle (they don't stack and both doing it is a waste of energy) and shred to 4, rip. Rinse and repeat. BTW, generally when I'm with another feral, one of us takes mangle and the other takes FFF unless there's a boomkin with impFF in the group. If the other feral is a bear tank - let them mangle. Actually, insist that they mangle. It's excellent threat generation for them and saves all your energy for shred and rip. More win win...the party's full of win! Never overwrite a mangle if you can avoid it and never overwrite a rip if you can avoid it. It's a waste of energy and will actually decrease your dps. Why 4 combos? If you are sitting at 4 combo points and your next shred crits - you've just wasted a combo point, and the dmg differential between a 4 and 5 point rip is nominal. Better to rip at 4, and start building combos for another rip....and if you get lucky and crit on that fourth combo - you are sitting at 5 pretty points for a rip. Win win. When soloing, I often go with pounce, shred, shred, maim, shred, mangle, mangle, ferocious bite. That should do you unless you are against larger mobs that don't die so easy. Then you want to pile on the rips. You'll be surprised at how much dmg your bleeds actually accomplish. FB is often referred to as feeble bite, btw. It's rare to see it crit for big numbers unless you are on mobs that are low on af (like a caster). Use it when your mob is nearly dead and a rip would be silly (dot vs burst), or when against bleed immune mobs. Even when against bleed immune mobs, a lot of raiding druids will forgo their finisher all together and just spam shred. It hits harder and crits bigger than FB most of the time...I think I've seen FB out crit my shred maybe a handful of times - and always against a low af opponent. Sometimes I'll use rake by mistake. Mostly when I'm fat fingering. I still have it key bound. But realistically - for a raiding kitty...shred spam and rip = win. Bear Smash Smash: For bears, it's really not hard to maintain aggro when you are with a group that is equally geared to yourself. We are given an amazing amount of aggro generation and that's just going to increase with 2.4 when our Lacerate will actually increase in dmg dependent on our attack power. Considering the attack power we can have in bear form in higher end gear, that's pretty amazing. Anyway - To do this effectively, you have to make the most use of your rage and your specials. You should absolutely always be keeping mangle up. If there is no other druid in the raid, you should be keeping feral fairy fire up. Basically, mangle and lacerate are the two specials you will use most often. If rage is not an issue, maul is excellent to use and gives you a significant TPS boost. If rage is an issue and you are constantly rage starved, using maul is a bad idea. While it gives you a TPS boost, it does not give you enough of one to make up for the time you have spent without rage at all. You might also consider switching to more dps oriented gear when rage is a problem, so long as you don't get your dodge so high that you still aren't getting hit enough to get rage. Use enrage as you feel appropriate. If you are against a lot of little guys and just not getting hit and you have no cat gear (or too much avoidance in cat gear) then sure, use it. But using it as an opening gambit against a raid boss is not something I, personally, would do. When people are getting exactly where they need to be or whatever, dropping my armor by a significant amount is not the first thing I want to be doing...my healers need time to make sure they are in range of me - particularly if I'm pulling the boss to a certain position. A bad hit on the way in is bad enough - a bad hit with 16% reduced armor? I'd rather avoid it. However, this is something that is pretty much a personal call. The best way to hold aggro on multiple mobs (at 70) is to rotate through with your mangles as you can, and to drop lacerates on each mob at least once and try to keep them up. Take your time before having the dps open up. The start of a multiple mob pull is more dangerous for your healers than your DPS, as they will most likely have to toss a heal on you pretty quickly. Do the best you can to get that TPS up there fast or your healers are going to go splat PDQ. Also, since you are bouncing targets, this means you cannot have your group using you as a MA (main assist). Assign that task to someone else and be certain they all follow that one person. It is much easier to maintain aggro on a group of four or more mobs if your dps team single target kills. Make sure your MA is moving the skull icon with them when they move from target to target so you can give the majority of your aggro focus to that target. For only three mobs, mangle, lacerate and swipe tend to hold them even through aoe, so long as you are bouncing targets and getting some serious TPS built on them. If it looks like it's going to hell in a handbasket, throw out the challenging roar...but, given its cooldown and the fact that like any taunt it only lasts so long...it's much better to have your TPS in place on every mob. Druids can effectively tank multiple mobs - it just takes a lot of work...and a lot of practice...and a group that works with you to make it happen. Idols: quote: Originally posted by Lenevi: So what Idol is better for kitty dps? Everbloom Idol or Idol of Terror? Terror = bear Everbloom = cat Especially when you are cat with a bear tank...in which case, you should never be mangling in the first place, so the Idol of Terror would be wasted. The only time I'd see potentially changing it out is if you are in a fight that you just can't manage to get behind your target. Since you can change idols during combat - If you are on a boss that constantly moves and you find you can never get a shred off, or rarely get one off - so you find yourself spamming mangle...it would probably be best to switch out idols for that fight. However - this is a huge however...do not macro idol swaps based on your special. Dagris gives a pretty good break down on page two. And I (of course) *snickers* have my 2 cents to add here...along with why idol swapping repeatedly in fights is a bad idea. This is actually a subject where I get frustrated with Toskk's calculator. He always assumes mangle is being used. When point of fact is, it's not horribly uncommon for more than one feral druid to be in a raid. There have been times there are three of us in one raid - not exactly a common thing, but it happens often enough that I feel it should be calculated. Gear Comparison Tools: Emmerald's is a good place to go (yay for updated location - the old site didn't have the 2.3 info) and gives the stats of each item as well as a hover link to the WoWHead listing for each item. YMMV on how heavily you rank things vs how he does...but it's a good list over all. It gives Bear and Cat information - Tanking, High Mitigation, Sustained DPS and Burst DPS lists are available. RAWR is one of the better options for gear comparisons of a "let me swap this out and see what happens" nature. You can use this if you have a piece and you want to see how it will affect your stats with what you currently have instead of just going for the "best" on Emmerald's lists. Particularly if your yen for stats is not equal to Emmerald's. For DPS comparisons, Toskk's is the one I prefer, though. I disagree with some of his assessments; but, that's just due to personal preference and how his calculations always assume Mangle is being used by the cat in question. I've requested he give an option for not having mangle as one of your specials being used (for those instances where you aren't the only feral, etc)...but it has still not manifested. I don't know that it ever will, but it would be nice :-) There is an in game addon called Rating Buster that is ok. Though Rating Buster is a little off since it doesn't compute bonuses correctly sometimes, etc so you need to pay attention to what it's really computing and not just look for red/green numbers ;-) Thanks to Alisia for pointing out that we needed to have some gear comparison information available. --
Nykka, Kreallana, Krea, Rwnaella - AoC Kreallana, Enheduannah, Talwien, Ghula - WoW Nykka, Kreallana, Rwnaella, Dremmavae - WAR "my defensive skills consist primarily of running and screaming for mercy.", [Michael A. Ventrella, Arch Enemies] |
|
| Kreallana edited this message on Thursday February 7, 2008 at 14:11 | ||
| Kreallana | #274228 Monday December 10, 2007 at 17:50 | |
|
Quantum Kittie Heavenly Healz |
More detailed info on armor penetration: Armor Reduction Formula for Boss NPCs: 100*(armor)/(armor-22167.5 +467.5*lvl) So when the attacker is lvl 70 = 100*(armor)/(armor-22167+467.5*73)= = 100*(armor)/(armor + 11960.5) Bosses with 7700 armor 100*(7700)/(7700+11960.5)= 39.16% damage reduction ------------- If Kre went up against one all alone (yeah yeah gimme a break - just theoretical after all)... Armor pen items = 700 FFF = 610 So... 7700-700-610 = 6390 remaining 100*(6390/(6390+11960.5))= 34.82% damage reduction This gives me a damage increase of 4.34% just with my armor and personal debuff. If you add in the standard raid buffs, etc, it goes up even more. Sunder x5 would drop it to 5100 FF drops it another 610 to 4490 CoR drops it again to 3680 Then put the 700 armor pen and it's down to 2980 Which, effectively, makes the damage reduction now 19.94% instead of the 39.16% it was earlier. This is an overall increase in damage for me of ~19.22%...if I didn't have the armor pen, all those raid debuffs would get it down to ~23.53% ...so there is a 4.31% increase to my damage on top of the standard raid debuffs, just from armor pen. So, yeah...armor pen is nice. As always - check out Elitist Jerks for more on this subject. --
Nykka, Kreallana, Krea, Rwnaella - AoC Kreallana, Enheduannah, Talwien, Ghula - WoW Nykka, Kreallana, Rwnaella, Dremmavae - WAR "my defensive skills consist primarily of running and screaming for mercy.", [Michael A. Ventrella, Arch Enemies] |
|
| Kreallana edited this message on Friday December 21, 2007 at 11:39 | ||
| Dalamaris | #274251 Tuesday December 11, 2007 at 01:30 | |
Feral Dr00d! |
All this math stuff is hurting my brain >.> I play WoW and raid but I'm not into all the math stuff yet. So if you could explain it a little simpler that would be nice.
--
Dalamaris:70 Feral Druid Tannar:32 BM Hunter (work in progress) Avinda:26 Affliction Lock (work in progress) Rasac:22 Enhancement Shaman (work in progress) ---- Watch those dps charts rogues! They hurt! http://darklegacycomics.com/39.html |
|
| Kreallana | #274255 Tuesday December 11, 2007 at 02:11 | |
|
Quantum Kittie Heavenly Healz |
quote: Originally posted by Dalamaris: All this math stuff is hurting my brain >.> I play WoW and raid but I'm not into all the math stuff yet. So if you could explain it a little simpler that would be nice. Um...use excel/a calculator/pen and paper and put your numbers where they are called for in the formulas? I can't explain it any simpler. As it is, I've simplified it from the more complex original formulas and conversations. The only two things that are not basic/static and clearly laid out as such are the equation for determining your attack power in cat form (and that's just for people who want to know the formula). Since armor pen changes depending on how much of it you have and what debuffs are up, I gave a formula where all you have to do is plug how much you have in armor pen as opposed to how much I have. If you have 350 armor pen - you would put 350 in place of the 700 that I used. I gave the general idea at the end(ie. armor pen is nice) and the math for people who want to figure out how much potential dmg increase they get with the amount they have - and then used my own stats as numbers to plug in so you could follow the potentially confusing math. I had this whole section in there just so that people wouldn't have to plug in specific numbers to get the feel for armor pen and what it brings to the table: quote: Originally posted by kreallana:Which, effectively, makes the damage reduction now 19.94% instead of the 39.16% it was earlier. This is an overall increase in damage for me of ~19.22%...if I didn't have the armor pen, all those raid debuffs would get it down to ~23.53% ...so there is a 4.31% increase to my damage on top of the standard raid debuffs, just from armor pen. So, yeah...armor pen is nice. I also gave a general chart up on the first post that did not get into the exact formula, and kept the formula as a separate post solely and completely for those who care about formulas and how I got what I got...and so they can dig deeper into the potential of armor pen given their raid setups. quote:
Originally posted by kreallana:Armor Penetration: Armor Penetration is a bit more complex because it comes in varied amounts. If the boss with 7700 armor has just Sunder Armor x5 on it, then the effect of ArP is as follows: 100 ArP: 0.64% 200 ArP: 1.29% 300 ArP: 1.95% 400 ArP: 2.62% 500 ArP: 3.3% For a fully debuffed boss (SA x5, FF, CoR) the dps increase from ArP is: 100 ArP: 0.71% 200 ArP: 1.42% 300 ArP: 2.15% 400 ArP: 2.89% 500 ArP: 3.64% --
Nykka, Kreallana, Krea, Rwnaella - AoC Kreallana, Enheduannah, Talwien, Ghula - WoW Nykka, Kreallana, Rwnaella, Dremmavae - WAR "my defensive skills consist primarily of running and screaming for mercy.", [Michael A. Ventrella, Arch Enemies] |
|
| Kreallana edited this message on Friday December 21, 2007 at 11:42 | ||
| dagris | #274274 Tuesday December 11, 2007 at 07:09 | |
Member |
quote: Originally posted by Kreallana:Why 4 combos? If you are sitting at 4 combo points and your next shred crits - you've just wasted a combo point, and the dmg differential between a 4 and 5 point rip is nominal. Better to rip at 4, and start building combos for another rip....and if you get lucky and crit on that fourth combo - you are sitting at 5 pretty points for a rip. Win win. *nodnod* yeah, I believe the damage difference between a 4-point and a 5-point rip is static, +200 or something along that lines, the multiplier for the number of combo points is the same for either type. Thanks for the haste and armor penetration calculations, I've been wondering just how tightly to value each compared to other stats and that should be enough to let me rough hash it out when comparing gear changes. Of course haste has a bit more value with the Tier 4 2-piece bonus then without, and that damn bonus is going to be the big annoyance to me to keep somehow as I continue to gear up cat :) Something else worth mentioning perhaps that people might not know about is Power Shifting. For the layman, basically power shifting is a way of taking advantage of the furor talent to generate energy at a slightly faster rate then you would without using it, translating into more yellow attacks and higher damage. With instant shifting now (/cancelform, /cast Cat form) it may even be a little more viable. I don't use it myself much as my latency tends towards 2-400 most times and the extra delay can take the edge off the benefit for me. The idea is that if you shift out and back into cat when you bottom out on energy you get 40 energy pretty well immediately back to work with. Expert power shifters also have tick timer addons to work with to perfect the timing for this. It can work, but it takes a good connection, a lot of attentiveness, and good timing and reflexes to do effectively. It is also a technique which takes good advantage of talents and items which reduce shifting costs, as the last think you want to do when power shifting is run out of the mana to shift back into cat form. |
|
| Fenrys | #274275 Tuesday December 11, 2007 at 07:25 | |
Leather Tnak |
After some experimentation with it with my latency (300-500ms on average) powershifting is useless. Especially since I have 2 piece T4. It procs quite often and fairly often in fights where I do not need to move often/at all (Morogrim/Voidreaver for example) it can quite often chain proc for a nice burst of shred damage. I wish anyone using it successfully the best. |
|
| dagris | #274282 Tuesday December 11, 2007 at 08:56 | |
|
Member |
quote: Originally posted by Fenrys: After some experimentation with it with my latency (300-500ms on average) powershifting is useless. Especially since I have 2 piece T4. It procs quite often and fairly often in fights where I do not need to move often/at all (Morogrim/Voidreaver for example) it can quite often chain proc for a nice burst of shred damage. I wish anyone using it successfully the best. That's one of the reasons I don't normally power shift too, with my latency it seems half the time I do it I just receive a t4 2-piece proc that get's lost when I shift and dump energy. Still, thought it worth mentioning, I have heard of some druids increasing their dps 50-100 using it effectively, just using it effectively is a damn fine line :) While I'm thinking of it as well, taking Kreallana's haste calculations into account, it may be worthwhile for some druids to play with easy haste boosts that are available. Drums of Battle for Leatherworker's is very nice, and generally cheap enough to craft now since the last patch removed the primal costs (50 charges to a drum). There are also Haste Potions which, when put into a macro, can be a nice little kick in the pants too. Right...Macros....macros are good :) I use a couple macros now for both bear and cat since the changes to instant shifting that I didn't use before. I can't get into WoW right now due to the maintenance, but eh, I'll edit in the more accurate versions later :) The big thing to note when using shifting macros is to make sure you are -not- in the global cooldown when you hit it, else you can get stuck out of form. Especially critical when tanking :) Bear Potting/Healthstone Macro #showtooltip Master Healthstone /cancelform /use Super Healing Potion /use Master Healthstone /cast Dire Bear Form Cat Form Haste macro #showtooltip Haste Potion /cancelform /use Haste Potion /cast Cat Form Cat Form Trinket Popper (requires some error control to save spam, edit in later, used with rip to maximize the bleed damage) #showtooltip Rip /script UIErrorsFrame:Hide() /use [harm] 13 /use [harm] 14 /stop casting /script UIErrorsFrame:Clear() /script UIErrorsFrame:Show() /cast Rip Shifting Macros (CC breakers) /cancelform /cast Dire Bear Form /cancelform /cast Cat Form |
|
| dagris edited this message on Wednesday December 12, 2007 at 00:42 | ||
| Kreallana | #274288 Tuesday December 11, 2007 at 09:46 | |
|
Quantum Kittie Heavenly Healz |
quote: Originally posted by dagris: Shifting Macros (CC breakers) /cancelform /cast Dire Bear Form /cancelform /cast Cat Form Don't have to /cancelform to shift anymore. Just put the icons from your spellbook on your hotbar. Or, if you have Trinity or something that lets you keybind them, that works too. I have my bear form keyed to 7 when in cat, and cat keyed to 7 when in bear. Just hit 7 and blam, I've shifted to another form I have my /innervate %t macro keyed to the letter I. Since you auto shift to caster form when you go to cast, you don't need /cancelform for these, anymore, either. Innervate Macro /cast innervate %t /cast Cat Form And the trinket macro you use for cats, I use for my ZOMG moments in bear... ZOMG Moment #showtooltip Frenzied Regeneration /use 13 /use 14 /cast Frenzied Regeneration quote: Originally posted by dalamaris:#showtooltip (spell name) do? From WoW Wiki: #show Pyroblast If you used the question mark icon for the macro, the button will even have the icon of Pyroblast without any extra effort on your part. The parameter to #show (in this case Pyroblast) works the same way as the /cast and /use commands. You can use a spell name, item name, item id (item:12345), inventory slot, or bag and slot numbers. Similar to #show is #showtooltip. Normally when you mouse over a macro on an action bar, your tooltip displays the name of the macro. This is not incredibly useful most of the time (especially if you use an addon like TheoryCraft to give you detailed spell information in tooltips). However, the #showtooltip command allows you to specify a spell to use in the tooltip the same way as #show. If you use #showtooltip, you do not need to use #show. If you're happy with the spell that WoW is choosing for the feedback, you can use #showtooltip without a spell to save space in your macro. WoW will still use whichever spell it was choosing before, but it will now show the tooltip info for that spell/item. Please Note: unlike slash commands, #show and #showtooltip must be written in lower case letters. [edited to answer "what does #showtooltip do"] --
Nykka, Kreallana, Krea, Rwnaella - AoC Kreallana, Enheduannah, Talwien, Ghula - WoW Nykka, Kreallana, Rwnaella, Dremmavae - WAR "my defensive skills consist primarily of running and screaming for mercy.", [Michael A. Ventrella, Arch Enemies] |
|
| Kreallana edited this message on Tuesday December 11, 2007 at 12:56 | ||
| dagris | #274289 Tuesday December 11, 2007 at 09:49 | |
|
Member |
quote: Originally posted by Kreallana:I have my bear form keyed to 7 when in cat, and cat keyed to 7 when in bear. Just hit 7 and blam, I've shifted to another form This is true, for shifting to different forms. If you want to shift instantly back into the same form however to break Crowd Control (CC Break ;)) then you need to use the /cancelform macro to drop out of form then shift back in. Also works for when you're in flight form and want to drop onto something, since it won't let you shift into cat or bear while actually off the ground without cancelform :) If you're casting something first then that's fine too, but I found the potion macros wouldn't work properly without the actual /cancelform in there last time I tried it :( Doesn't Barkskin have a global cooldown? |
|
| Kreallana | #274290 Tuesday December 11, 2007 at 09:53 | |
|
Quantum Kittie Heavenly Healz |
quote: Originally posted by dagris: If you want to shift instantly back into the same form however to break Crowd Control (CC Break ;)) then you need to use the /cancelform macro to drop out of form then shift back in. Doesn't Barkskin have a global cooldown? Ah! Yes. :-) I just shift to bear and back to cat...or vice versa cuz I'm lazy like that. Yar, Barkskin has a GCD, but if you are OTing or dpsing, it doesn't generally get you killed ;-) Just confirmed that I don't use this macro often enough *snickers* it no longer works like that in 2.3 due to the change in macro mechanics. Instead, you should be able to do /castsequence macros...I'm going to play with them and will post updated ones that I know for a fact work in the post above, concerning macros. Trying to keep all the information together and on the front page - so all updates are happening there...as well as answers to questions :-) Verified my potion macros do have /cancelform in them. None of the casts require it; but, potions/healthstones/charged crystals do. [edited for barkskin macro commentary] --
Nykka, Kreallana, Krea, Rwnaella - AoC Kreallana, Enheduannah, Talwien, Ghula - WoW Nykka, Kreallana, Rwnaella, Dremmavae - WAR "my defensive skills consist primarily of running and screaming for mercy.", [Michael A. Ventrella, Arch Enemies] |
|
| Kreallana edited this message on Friday December 21, 2007 at 11:45 | ||
| dagris | #274292 Tuesday December 11, 2007 at 09:55 | |
|
Member |
quote: Originally posted by Kreallana:Yar, but if you are OTing, it doesn't generally get you killed ;-) In fights like Najentis, where you know the pain is about to come...it's nice to be able to just hit one button and be done with it. True :) That's a macro you'd actually have to hit twice though yes? (not that we aren't all used to that anyways, just trying to be sure since I don't use it :)) |
|
| Kreallana | #274294 Tuesday December 11, 2007 at 10:01 | |
|
Quantum Kittie Heavenly Healz |
quote: Originally posted by dagris: True :) That's a macro you'd actually have to hit twice though yes? (not that we aren't all used to that anyways, just trying to be sure since I don't use it :)) Yar. Thinking I'm missing a /stopcasting...haven't been allowed on my game computer since my son arrived....the little thief. If someone wants to test them out for me and post if they work or if they need /stopcasting, I'd be forever grateful. Heh - I actually hadn't posted macros, yet, cuz...well - my son's hijacked my computer :-P I had planned to post a few once I had access again - you just beat me to it, Dagris. *grins* --
Nykka, Kreallana, Krea, Rwnaella - AoC Kreallana, Enheduannah, Talwien, Ghula - WoW Nykka, Kreallana, Rwnaella, Dremmavae - WAR "my defensive skills consist primarily of running and screaming for mercy.", [Michael A. Ventrella, Arch Enemies] |
|
| Dalamaris | #274304 Tuesday December 11, 2007 at 11:23 | |
|
Feral Dr00d! |
Ah. I'm too lazy to figure out the math then >.> lol
--
Dalamaris:70 Feral Druid Tannar:32 BM Hunter (work in progress) Avinda:26 Affliction Lock (work in progress) Rasac:22 Enhancement Shaman (work in progress) ---- Watch those dps charts rogues! They hurt! http://darklegacycomics.com/39.html |
|
| Dalamaris | #274305 Tuesday December 11, 2007 at 11:31 | |
|
Feral Dr00d! |
quote: Originally posted by Kreallana: Bear Barkskin #showtooltip Barkskin /cast Barkskin /use Super Healing Potion /use Master Healthstone /cast Dire Bear Form (can also do this for cat when dpsing) ZOMG Moment #show tooltip Frenzied Regeneration /use 13 /use 14 /cast Frenzied Regeneration [edited for clarification on barkskin macro] I'm not knowledgeable with macros and such so what does #show tooltip (spell name) do? --
Dalamaris:70 Feral Druid Tannar:32 BM Hunter (work in progress) Avinda:26 Affliction Lock (work in progress) Rasac:22 Enhancement Shaman (work in progress) ---- Watch those dps charts rogues! They hurt! http://darklegacycomics.com/39.html |
|
| Dalamaris edited this message on Tuesday December 11, 2007 at 16:33 | ||