[Balance] WoD Beta Boomkin Testing Thread

[Kazistrasz 216]

Hi everyone! Your friendly neighborhood warlock boomkin warlock boomkin really confused warlock that's still a druid moderator that is doing a lot of work to test boomkin here! (Blame Zagam).

 

This thread is specifically for notes and brainstorming with regards to testing the Balance druid specialization in the Warlords of Draenor beta. Contributions and feedback are welcome and encouraged, but ,"I'm pulling X DPS in the beta; is that good?," posts and posts asking for help on live do not belong in this thread.

 

 

A lot of what I post here will be notes as I go while testing boomkin. Some of it will be summary/analysis of what I've figured out. Some of it will simply be "here's what I'm doing as I test." Some of it will be logs on target dummies or in LFR as wings are available to test in moderate raid environments. Some of it will be short to-do lists. Anything you can contribute will help, and all of this will culminate in a fantastic boomkin guide for 6.0.

 

Please note and bear with me (HA! bear with me... I kill myself...) here: these notes will not have an abundance of organization.

 

Here's where I am right now:

 

General DPS Numbers

 

First, I'm generally consistent in how much DPS I pull over any lengthy test, regardless of RNG with SS procs/crits/trinkets/etc.  On the PvE server (greens, a blue weapon, and heroic Tier 17 5pc), I am around 13k DPS on target dummies, single target, with only Mark of the Wild. With full raid buffs, flask, and food I am right about 16.4k-16.6k on the target dummies in Shattrath. On the PvP server (full 660 purples, CD and proc trinkets, and heroic Tier 17 5p), I am about 18.5k DPS with only Mark of the Wild. With full raid buffs in Shattrath, I am about 24.-26k. DPS.

 

Cycle Timing

 

Without Euphoria, energy stops at approximately 8.03 seconds into the cycle, and remains at 100 for just shy of 4 seconds (until approximately 11.97 seconds into the cycle).  With Euphoria, energy reaches 100 approximately 4.01 seconds into the cycle, and pauses for just just shy of 2 seconds (until approximately 5.99 seconds into the cycle).

 

There is enough time during the peak to fit an entire Starfire cast (though during Euphoria this requires a small amount of haste and 2p).

 

Cast Times

 

The way cast time reductions from Euphoria and T17 2p stack:

 

Starfire cast time = (3.000 * 0.88 * 0.80) / (1 + haste)

Wrath cast time = (2.000 * 0.88 * 0.80) / (1 + haste )

 

Stellar Flare

 

The increase in Stellar Flare damage from 100 of either energy to perfectly balanced 0 energy is about 15%-17%.  Both the DoT and initial damage behave this way.

 

T17 4p + Incarnation

 

At haste levels between 5% and 8%, as a troll, I'm finding that even with the "unpredictable" reduced CD on Celestial Alignment, it lines up within 10-15 seconds of Incarnation every single time in my tests. Usually, CA comes off cooldown in the last few seconds of a lunar cycle, and Berserking/Incarnation come up around the next solar peak.

 

Damage Breakdowns

 

I've found consistently that Stellar Flare, regardless of T4 talent, is approximately 7-8% of my damage any time I use it. Starfire is ALWAYS my top source, usually between 34-38% of my DPS with Stellar Flare, and anywhere from 39-43% of my DPS using Euphoria.

 

With Euphoria, both DoTs are usually dead even in DPS for me, while Sunfire often gets gimped with Stellar Flare due to cooldowns stopping the energy cycle. When I refresh it right as I exit solar and go into lunar, knowing I'm going to use CA, I usually have 28-30 seconds remaining on it, so I often have 5-10 seconds where Sunfire falls off during lunar. I'm not convinced that reapplying DoTs during CA instead of using Starsurge and empowered Starfire is worth it to cover that gap in uptime.

 

Wrath and Starsurge are usually fairly close together, and the #2/#3 slot may vary depending on RNG.

 

Talent Testing

 

I'm currently doing some more tests with talents before I start working with SimC, just to be able to compare some results with what I see vs. what it gives.

 

Where I'm standing right this moment:

 

Euphoria with no T4 talent selected, in full raid buffs (cauldron) on a dummy in Shatt on an 8-minute fight is about 23.5k, though RNG can swing up to 24.5k (see logs below).

 

Euphoria with Soul of the Forest, under the same settings over 8 minutes, is somewhere around 25.5k, with RNG swinging between down below 25k and up above 26k.

 

Euphoria with Force of Nature, with buffs and all for 8 minutes, is in the low 24k range. Treants benefit from your highest Eclipse bonus, but do not benefit from the extra 20% damage bonus of Celestial Alignment, making it better to simply use them all when trinkets proc. Trying to prioritize CA results in DPS numbers barely above not having any talent selected at all.

 

Euphoria with Incarnation, the same way for 8 minutes, is in the lower 25k range, but very consistent.

 

Stellar Flare performs considerably far behind Euphoria in every spec, enough so that minimal testing is required.

 

Balance of Power is definitely the lowest of our three choices for a level 100 talent. This is more of the nooby "I can't handle refreshing my DoTs" talent than it is for anyone reading this guide.

 

Opener

 

My current opener

 

Pre-cast Starfire > All CDs > Moonfire > alternate Starsurge then 2x Starfire > regular rotation (requires a little bit of haste to fit a 6th Starfire in that opening 15 seconds if you don't have lust.

 

For Incarnation, simply pre-cast it before you begin the pre-cast Starfire.

 

For Stellar Flare, replace the pre-cast Starfire with Stellar Flare.

 

For Force of Nature, try to wait just long enough to get your trinkets to proc them dump all three.

 

Rotational Notes

 

With Euphoria, you generally have less flexibility in when you use SS for Starsurge. Unless my first Starfire ends very close to 0, I don't cast another Starfire before using Starsurge and 2x Starfire when I enter lunar.

 

If I'm going to use Starsurge in a cycle, I don't try to refresh DoTs near the peak for the damage buff. In fact, it's not worth doing unless your DoT is close enough to running out that you're in that 30% "Pandemic" range.

 

Only use Starsurge on Wrath if you cap out on 3 and you're not about to go into lunar with CA ready.

 

If SS procs and caps you at 3 charges late in a lunar peak, you can still fire one off and the buff lasts long enough to empower your first two Starfire casts when you re-enter lunar.

[Kazistrasz 216]

Current to do list:

 

More tests with logs on the PvP realm with the higher item level gear.

 

Work with Eein and SimC to get more accurate comparisons between a few rotational nuances and talents.

[Kazistrasz 216]

Here are a few logs from testing Euphoria with no T4 talent:

 

8:07 fight, 23,433.8 DPS

8:06 fight, 23,370.8 DPS

8:07 fight, 23.341.4 DPS

7:58 fight, 24,428.2 DPS

8:12 fight, 23,684.1 DPS

 

The difference in that 24.4k fight seems to mostly stem from Starsurge doing more damage than in the other three - 12 crits compared to 2-4 in the other three logs. Everything else is relatively comparable.

[Kazistrasz 216]

Euphoria with Soul of the Forest:

 

8:12 fight, 24,597.1 DPS

7:58 fight, 25,262.6 DPS

8:05 fight, 26,148.3 DPS

8:00 fight, 25,633.1 DPS

 

I'll look later at what caused the swing down to 24.5k, and what brought it up to 26.1k

[Kazistrasz 216]

Euphoria with Force of Nature:

 

8:13 fight, 24,260.4 DPS

7:54 fight, 24,871.1 DPS

8:06 fight, 24,075.4 DPS

 

Consistently worse than Soul of the Forest. Had one more I didn't have combat log turned on for that was about 24.4k DPS on the same 8 minutes.

[Kazistrasz 216]

Euphoria with Incarnation:

 

8:06 fight, 25,357.0 DPS

8:03 fight, 25,142.9 DPS

7:58 fight, 25,133.6 DPS

7:58 fight, 25,585.7 DPS

 

Results are consistent using Euphoria and Inc.  The important part is delaying every other CA the 10-20 seconds it takes for Inc to come up. Playing with slightly less haste would line then up a little bit more.

[Kazistrasz 216]

Small sample sizes of logs are not an exact science when testing, but when you analyze the differences in RNG between logs and get consistent numbers, you can still make judgement calls.

 

Important Note: Dependence on procs has been significantly reduced, which leads to more reliable and consistent boomkin DPS. Using 25k as a starting point, a 1k swing in either direction is a 4% change. On live, if you're doing 450k a 4% swing would be 18k. With RNG affecting us less, a 1k swing in WoD DPS could easily equate to a 40k swing on live.

 

So far, with Euphoria testing out of the way, it's pretty clear you shouldn't use Force of Nature.

 

Incarnation has the heaviest opener and the biggest spikes around CD usage, while Soul of the Forest seems to be the most varying in terms of numbers, from early testing.

 

If you chop down those logs down to just the first four minutes, we see 25.1k, 25.8k, 26.6k, and 25.0k for Soul of the Forest with 26.8k, 25.6k, 25.4k, and 26.2k DPS for Incarnation.

 

The difference between using Soul of the Forest and Incarnation with Euphoria is borderline negligible.

[Kazistrasz 216]

Takes almost no testing to quickly see Stellar Flare is behind Euphoria for all specs with the 4pc.

 

Before 4pc, they'll be more or less even, but once you have the 4pc you just can't beat the extra Celestial Alignments in any given window, plus how much stronger each CA is when you're fitting that many more spells in the 15 second window thanks to Euphoria's cast time reduction.

 

CA also creates rotational sadtimes with Stellar Flare, forcing you to have to use at least part of your CA at the end to refresh DoTs regardless of the duration you have left on Moonfire, or just let Sunfire drop. After using CA, you're generally going to have to refresh Stellar Flare, which can often be pushed to happening at Lunar Peak to avoid it falling off, instead of pushing out the spells that do the fun damage.

 

Stellar Flare DPS is more consistent in terms of numbers, but also consistently about 1k behind the average of any Euphoria spec.

 

Long story short: Euphoria for life.