Has anyone gotten this AA yet? I've had my AA path set out since I learned what they were pretty much. Animalism Carnal Mask - 3 points Seasoned Predator - 5 points Recovery Grasping Thorns - 5 points Seasoned Predator - 5 points Emergency Healing - 3 points Hinderance Elddar's Grasp - 5 points Snare - 3 points Energy Killing Swarm - 5 points Tempest - 5 points Thunderbolt - 5 points Starnova - 5 points Energy Vortex - 1 point But lately I've been thinking about taking out Root, Snare, Emergency Healing, and 2 points from Grasping Thorns and getting Animal Form as well as Energy Vortex. I'm on a PvP server but also raid 5 times a week, so losing Pact of the Cheetah isn't an option to remove for me personally and I'm mainly looking to use Animal Form in a raid situation. I love having 100% run speed and the falling damage reduction. I like the root AA as well because it makes it easier for me to land it heh. Basically just looking for opinions on animal form. Is it worth getting? Is the power and hate reduction proc any good or is it too low to be really effective? What about using it on yourself? How much DPS do you lose for using it? I'm finding myself running out of power insanely fast even with a bard because of energy vortex. Is animal form really a viable option after using vortex to get power up to maybe even use vortex again if it's a longer fight? Thanks in advance.
I have animal form. Haven't done any extensive testing but for me personally {note, I'm 4-4-8-8 in STR so that will help my melee a lot} it's pretty insane. What I did to mess around with it was went to SoS, nuked the heck out of everything until I had next to no power and cast Animal Form. My power is full up after killing the first mob and I can take out 2 more before the spell wears off. Usually faster than I can nuke something to death. I haven't tested the hate part of it because I've got a good group of people to play with...my husband won't let me have agro.
I picked it up earlier this week and have played around with it quite a bit. In groups where mages pull aggro, you can cast it on them and they will usually live. For everyone you put it on, you increase hp by 1k, 100 haste, and +42 to all attacks (so my crushing attack is over 400 with this). I stifled myself in a fight at 0% power and at the end of the fight I had about 1/2 of my power pull back (that includes my regular power regen though so haven't parsed the actual power proc from the form). Hate reduction works really well, you just gotta swing the bat to get it so your mages need to know what is going on. Mages gain approx 4K mitigation in addition to all of the bonuses listed above. I've macro'd a tell explaining to them they aren't bugged or anything and that they should melee the heck out of the mob for power/deaggro.
Got it a few days ago, it rocks. There also seems to be a damage proc component added to it as each hit I see the 50ish damage from my weapon plus a 200 damage number from each hit. Using a grizzlefazzle mace (Procs on damage spells) so it's not from that. As long as it's something I can hit as opposed to a white+ ^^^ or something it usually refills my bar before it expires. When grouped and getting low on mana, I cast group hot+hibernate right before I use it then go to town.
I've considered getting it since I have a lot of points spent in that tree, but I dunno. I never run out of mana myself, and I just don't see tossing it on a mage and hoping that they understand they need to melee to get mana back or to lose agro? So I never got it.
This is a great AA. Especially if like me you invested heavily in the KoS STR AA line. Its very versatile and truly is useful whether grouping, soloing or raiding. I have saved a few friends with it on raids (the added HP, mitigation and de-aggro when cast on a mage can help them survive where they otherwise wouldn't -- providing they know to switch on melee when it is cast on them). There is no downside to this ability. It is one of the best abilities we get. I would rank it alongside Energy Vortex. Edit: Unfortunetly, I have a sneaking gut feeling this ability will get nerfed in the future. It is borderline "too good". Message Edited by sabutterworth on 12-18-2006 12:20 PM
Question: Can you turn it off before it expires? This is important as a healer for when you really need to heal.
I just made mine into a macro that tells someone I've cast it on them and they need to go melee. I'm still loving this one. It's already saved my group on a few occasions and it's great for reducing downtime both groupwise and solo.
Depends how you like to play. Animal Form is both an offensive and defensive ability. Probably not as useful in PvP due to the fact it stifles you. Handy for recovering mana while dishing out some decent (for a priest) melee damage. If I was PvP i'd probably go Energy Vortex and that end-line Hindering ability (Kudzek?) that turns adds a 50% snare to all your offensive spells.
I have the STR line and animal form, was in a group with a dirge during a raid once and I decided to see how much damage you could do... actually made the parse on autoattack.... it was 1000 - 1100 dps. as for the power thing... its about 30s to get back all of my power (7k). And the the deagro hard to tell but it will be more noticable to mages. In all it is a great buff that if you use in 10-20s bursts keeps you at near max power, stops you gaining agro if you need ot do excessive group healing - it has a LOT of limitations but used in short bursts it can be a real help. More help soloing... burn power on mobs gain it back on the next set - group heal proc really comes into its own with this. what you loose on the swings you gain on the roundabouts.
Animal form is an amazing spell if you know how to use it and when. It does have a melee proc in it.... well, i dont know if I should use the word proc, as it hits every time.... about 200-400 damage usually. The main thing for this spell is the mana regen though. Last time I checked, it was about 80 ish per swing, when coupled with 100 haste.... yeah... that goes fast. It can help mages, but in order to help a mage, you need to educate them on how to use it, so they can get the most out of it. The whole.... use it on a mage when they get agro thing, isnt really going to do a thing for them. I mean.... a mage will be dead even with the extra hp and mit. The way to use with a mage, is when they're out of power.... aka a wizzy who just manaburned, its a nice way to let them get mana back and the deagro on it will let them go all out when they have mana..... As an example... a wizzy friend I had told me how much she hated Animal Form, because the fury in her guild sent her a tell in a raid saying "haha youre stifled, go melee" and she couldn't do anything. I don't blame her for hating a spell that stifles her when she has no clue what it does. I took her out to sinking sands and pulled a lvl 50 spectre, had her sprint to be totally out of mana, then threw it on her and had her melee it. She was sold on it. By the end of the minute, her power was full, and even though I did no damage to the mob at all, and she just meleed it to death....... the deagro on it was good enough to keep the mob on me the whole time. She did all the damage, I did nothing, yet I held agro and she was full power..... enough to convince a wizzy. Here's my idea on how to maximize its use for myself. If you're gonna be stifled, get yourself a really fast weapon..... I'm thinkin Windrazor off the gnome in DT, if it drops. 1.1 sec delay weapon, when coupled with 100% haste, would make us swing super fast. On top of that..... adorn the weapon with a mana proc.... and you have a perfect animal form weapon. Hotbar the weapon and swap it in when animal form is up, then swap your regular weapon (ideally with the +40 to heal adornment) and you have an awesome power regen.
Does anyone know if the bonuses from Animal Form are scaled to your level or if they are the same no matter what level you are? While it wouldn't be a big deal on PvE servers, I am making a level locked PvP character. Knowing I could hit in melee with an extra 200-500 damage per swing would definately change how I build my AA points=) Imagine a level 15 Fury with 21 AA hitting you that hard. It is definitely possible to achieve (I'm now barely level 12 with 9 AA). Ouch.
It will scale... how much it will however is hard to tell as its a 21 AA point investment into the EoF AAs. I was on 23 AAs when I got to 70... I know you can get AAs much easier now, but you're still looking at a very large investment so I doubt anyone will get it before 30 unless they level lock.
Oh, I definitely level lock. In fact, I don't ever advance without debt as well. I'm currently level 12 with 10 AA. I could easly see having Animal Form by level 20, if not sooner. That is why I ask if it scales. You seem to be sure that it does... how do you know? I'm guessing it does as well, but of course I'm always looking for proof. If you have proof, I'd like to know what it is.
Heh, actually I mentored to 22 a few hours ago... it does scale - was procing 50 or so a hit. The reason I weas so sure it does scale, is every other AA ability scales (such as the specific weapon attacks).
I think the proof that it scales is simply common sense. A level 20 might have like what, 800 hp at best. So if animal form can hit from 200-400, your talkin that you can run around as a lvl 20 and 2-4 shot someone with melee? If its a cloth wearer with low mit, prolly 1 shot them. Yeah, that makes sense..... Furthermore, if it wasnt scaling..... dont you think every other class would be screaming for us to be nerfed the first time a lvl 20 fury came and 2 shotted them with animal form up.
