Thursday, June 18, 2009

[Druid] 3.2 patch notes

I'll probably do a much bigger in-depth post about the Paladin changes in the released 3.2 patch notes, but that's going to take a while. My short feeling is that they're a bit overpowered and will likely be toned down a bit, but they're close to being reasonable.

Druid changes, however, are a lot easier. And they're only really applicable to cats (at least feral-wise). Here are the relevant ones:
  • Mangle: Ranks 4 and 5 base points reduced by about 11%. Scaling from attack power unchanged.
  • Rake: Ranks 6 and 7 base points on initial and periodic damage reduced by about 7%. Scaling from attack power unchanged.
  • Rip: Ranks 8 and 9 base points and points per combo point reduced by about 6%. Scaling from attack power unchanged.
  • Savage Defense: The animation for gaining this buff will no longer make the bear stand upright
  • Shred: Ranks 8 and 9 base points reduced by about 10%. Scaling from attack power unchanged.
  • Swipe (Cat): Percent of weapon damage done reduced from 260% to 250%.
Now, what does this mean, the 'base points reduced by about x%" I'm not sure yet; no one is. But this is what I interpret it as: it is reducing the static coefficient in the damage formula. For example, here's mangle (rank 5

Mangle the target for 200% normal damage plus 634 and causes the target to take 30% additional damage from bleed effects for 12 sec. Awards 1 combo point.
And this is for mangle, so the damage is being reduced by 11%. The way I figure, it means that instead of the damage being 200% * (base damage) + 634, it will be 200% *(base damage) + (634*89%).

Is that a big nerf? Nope, not at all. On the EJ forums, they figure the net result for someone in pre-Ulduar BiS gear (so Naxx gear) is going to be about a 1.8% reduction in overall damage. As you increase your gear, this will only decrease.

Of course, this might not be how it works. It might be significantly more. But it's hard to interpret it any other way, especially with the 'scaling with AP is unchanged' part.

4 comments:

Derrick Whittet said...

Well, we know what Base Damage means, so I believe your explanation overall is correct. I know people will argue it (as they always argue everything) but "base damage" is the fixed coefficient.

This would serve to correct what I've always heard but been unsure if was really the case: That a poorly geared feral played well can grossly outstrip a similarly geared other dpser, but that the gap narrows later with gear.

This change will have no effect whatsoever on our scaling, just lower the base level of damage of our attacks before stats are added in.

Of all the ways they could numerically nerf us (I'd have preferred removing the situational requirement for shred as you proposed, but ah well) this has to be the way that bothers me the least. Way better than nerfing us in such a way as to reduce scaling - that's always been such an issue for ferals, it drives me nuts.

DaveP said...

Nice write up, thanks.

But bears... untouched? Calm before the storm maybe. Still, its bizarre that if they were planning bear nerfs, they're not in the notes yet.

Copey said...

I think the biggest deal in the current patch notes is that they stepping away from the different tiers of emblems that are offered, and making emblems of conquest drop from heroics and T7 10 man raids. This will be a huge boon to people that don’t or can’t run Uld 25 man because they can now purchase iLvL 226 gear and never step into Uld 25.

It’s like back in BC where you could get Black Temple level gear just by farming Kara for 22 badges a week. What are your thoughts on this?

Anonymous said...

Yeah the changes are extremely minor for cats with ulduar/naxx25 gear. idunno what they were trying to do with these changes, maybe it's a bigger difference for brand-new 80s.

the token thing is annoying only because it makes me (and others at my gear level) go back and do naxx and heroics again, where before the patch there was no reason to go.

i'm sure that was planned, and it does open up more of the game "worth playing" for many of us, but isn't it a bit of a cop out? Rather than make new high level instances, they make the old ones give tokens that you trade for higher level loot.

lazy basterds imo.