Test Update 5/11/16 - Patch Notes and Discussions

I might of jumped to conclusions on the dmg/mana return of the DoT improvements. If the DoT is actually worth casting on raid fights and dishes out a decent amount of damage without killing us even more on mana then it could be alright. I'm just a little ramped up on the consistent bombardment of more and more abilities that are killing Rangers on mana sustainability. Some of the new abilities are great if you have the adps but we really need some kind of new AA to help with how hard we are getting hit on mana these days. Only rangers with bard adps can keep up and who knows if that will stay the same. I know its off topic but Rangers have been asking for Mana help for what like 5 expansions now, or more? So hearing that we were getting another mana leech got me a little fired up there. I understand the concern in the necro department and hopefully the fix that because I know that was always talked about the buff slot limit. It just never really became a problem because the other class DoTs were totally crap so we never used them. I agree they are going to need to solve this problem because we def don't want to be decreasing raid dps by filling up buff slots with DoTs and hurting necro DPS. Hopefully they come up with a solution here.

O and the idea of adding hate to the DoT lines for Rangers is little ridiculous inmo. I might be looking at this from a biased opinion because I want to stay low on aggro not gain more. I really don't care that much about being a group tank ranger, but I think adding in another ability to increase aggro is a much better idea then attaching it to a DoT or any spell we use to do damage.

The problem is you are seeing this from a Necro perspective with a billion different options for boosting DoT damage. Hybrids get none of these options and in the case of Rangers we are also absolutely bottom of the barrel when it comes to regaining (and 'saving') mana so burning the GCD on a DoT that costs over four times the mana as our most expensive nuke just isn't worth it 90% of the time.

For Rangers the 10% scenario would be something like:

- Debuff slots available
- Boss mob or mini guaranteed not to die for another 75s+
- GoM available
- DoT target far enough away from the current target to make it worth burning the GCD

Even then - on Test - I'm seeing ticks of between 20k and 55k with no front loaded damage that some other classes get so you can work out the potential DPS for yourself.

The scenario for hybrids is its a boost to your supplemental dps dots, period. Yes some classes are getting more out of it but everyone with a dot is making out a little bit in some situations when they use them. Dots are casted and then keep rolling so your free to do what ever your normal dps is be it melee, nukes, pets or some combination after casting that dot. Yes in some cases these new dots will do nothing for you still. But all dots get the same benefit from focus effects, bards, twincast, etc.

As I said you can either just keep the highest new dot in your spell lineup and only use it with GoM proc and its totally free dps. Or you can go back and use your level 80 version of the spell and chain cast it, essentially getting you back to where it was prior to any of these changes. Or you can also go somewhere in the middle and find something like the level 95 verision that does more damage then the old 105 dot before these changes but thats less costly to use on every mob then the highest version. You have tons of options on how to use them its just a matter of figuring out what works best for what you want to do.

What you don't have to do is only use the version that costs 9k mana all the time just because it says level 101 and then cry foul that you can't just chain cast it every mob or don't have the same passive boosts.

Your totally supplemental dot was just boosted 13.5 times its previous power, gained in damage to mana cost and your complaining because you haven't figured out how to use this to your benefit yet.

It actually doesn't sound that bad now honestly after I've looked it more. I hear more mana drainage and the eyes go red lol. Most raid mobs do take over 75s to drops honestly even faster fights like Grummus drop from 75s to 120s+ depending on how much dps the guild puts out. So to drop a dot once on the mob then go into our regular rotation seems more like a gain then a loss to me. I just don't want to get told I can't cast it because necro's need the debuff space.

Server is down again...any word on if it's coming back up tonight or is it give up time?

Is this under burn situations or standard casting?

I concur. Probably worth using immediately on engage or just before changing targets, who knows Beastlords and Rangers may get some of the DoT related AAs next expansion.

Not going to comment on its usefulness until I can play with it. However, as others have stated, its not how much spell damage I can pump out as the limiting factor of my dps, its having enough mana to cast more spells. I am constantly burning through mana (and I aways cast dicto with free cast).

Would kill for a way to have some mana management tools like almost ever other mana using class.

Ruven

There it is Ruven, GoM or don't cast the DoT either. It "should" be effective but as you say we'll have to play with it around our Raids.

I am such a sad Panda when we don't have all our Bards on. People see the DPS increases Rangers received this year and what many fail to realize is we are every bit as tied to he Shaman Epic click as Monks to be able to produce. Our mana bar leaks all over the ground and we chew through mana Rods like pure casters because we have to or the DPS really starts to fade. Just missing 1 Dicto spell in a fight is a major loss to damage on a parse. Thank Tunare for Bards and Beastlord MGB's!

I know that this isn't the proper forum, but there isn't any other section for bug reports or method for asking devs about changes.

Over the last week or so I have noticed on live servers (The Rathe) that my merc casters are generating a lot of push when casting nukes on mobs. They are pushing mobs over my warriors head, and around corners in tight locations where you cant move much, and it is creating a lot of issues with positioning.

I don't think player spells are doing it, my shaman's nukes do not appear to be moving mobs. I had observed a few sudden mob movements when using rogue mercs as well, possibly proc buffs that were on it at the time. So it doesn't seem to be happening all the time, but enough to be a problem. On occasion the movements are pretty big, with mobs suddenly moving dramatically forward or to the side, depending on where the merc is relative to them.

Is this intended or has a bug been introduced with the most recent round of patches on live? If so, is it possible for a dev to look into this and revert the mercs to their previous behaviour?

The Test server is currently crashing. We're looking into it and will be performing an emergency update on Test.

Thx Kethir! Tell Jchan to ignore my PM if she's there =P

If it helps... just had a guildie, who had to leave mid-DZ Saturday evening, report to me that Test has crashed twice now at the exact moment he logs back in, where his character is (I'm assuming) still camped in the DZ. Could be a coincidence, or could be Primal Brood ruining everyone's evening. Just thought I'd share that because we're trying to find out if it's something *we're* doing or something on your guys' end to help ya'll out.

Please keep us updated when you can. We went about 24 or so hours with it down and no info at all so we were left to guess what was wrong and whether a fix was incoming etc.

The Test server is up again with some updates that should improve server stability.

Test is down again. Just FYI.

I saw it up, attempted to log in, got to char select...and down again.

It's been a rough few days for us Test'ers.

Aw, I kind of liked Brew Year.

Thanks for letting us know Jchan. Hopefully you're able to find a solution and it's a good thing this was caught before it was pushed Live. I can only imagine the chaos that would have caused.