Koko's AoM Warden Guide

With AA healstorm (and photosynthesis) have 2.5% DR and 5% mit boost. I fail to see how they are not good tools to help mitigate damage. Brainstorm 'only' has 2% DR, and that is clearly worth keeping up. Even if the heal portion isn't needed, those make players tougher and effectively make wards (druidism, PI, any shaman wards, etc) 'thicker' because less damage is hitting those wards. Those two spells are not just heals any more. If you spec for it, they're powerful tools to prevent damage on the group, even though it doesn't show up directly on any heal parse.
Also with the warden myth buff, the ticks on healstorm and photosynthesis get BIGGER with each tick. Also people don't (usually) die if you fail to maintain HoTs, but they do spike harder and stay yellow (or red) longer. There is no need to maintain HoTs on easier fights but the difference in group health can be seen easily in the raid window on the harder fights when comparing druids who maintain HoTs and those that don't.
I haven't tried PI this expansion because I don't want to dump the extra 20 pts in my heroic tree and I like to maintain Howling for it's stun break ability, if nothing else. I didn't bother with it last expac because 90%+ of the damage was on the tank so there was no need for PI since the group took so little damage.

So does DR and Mit now intercept damge before a ward? I don't think so ... Hence no effect on ward.
And it would prove to make hots less efficient , plus a reactive or a direct heal.
Adding the DR/Mit enhancement while those hots are ticking is taking away their efficiency. I remember back at launch they had all these diff hots adding stuff like that ... but they got rid of them in favor of streamlining.
I guess you forgot how the enhancement counteracts the hots efficiency? But not a bad tack on for AA enhancements these days... great for solo heal... but more healers not so much.
Stone skin is the better tack on enhancement any day.

Hots getting bigger per tick is interesting ... but not really a valid argument in the discussion.

Are you seriously saying that PREVENTING damage with DR and Mit makes a HoT worse? That preventing damage is inferior to healing it?
And, yes, mitigation DOES happen before wards (that's why resists (which are just mit vs magic) are so important this expansion. It's also why tanks take less damage from the same hits.. more mit) and I'm pretty sure DR does as well.

By definition, HoTs are the least efficient heals.. they always have been and always will be.. that's no reason not to use them.

Of course preventing damage to the health pool can make a heal to the health pool less efficient.
Simply because there is an upper limit to the health pool. Its not rocket science ... I'm just pointing out the inconvenient truth.

And NO ... A ward absorbs damage before mitigation is considered. Its a magical barrier having its own health pool before the damage then continues to the player which is first checked by mitigation (a filter of damage)
I would guess DR is after mitigation , that is if DR is to be the most efficient. Its really just another check valve of incoming damage before the health pool.
Then when damage decreases the health pool ... a heal can replenish the damage ... be it reactive/direct/Hot
They are all really the same thing with replenishing the health pool.

So hence if your hot is ticking for said damage to replenish over the given time. Reducing the negative to the health pool will just make your hot more likely to have some of its portion be wasted.
But of course not a problem when said group members need it. But why I said stone skin is the better enhance.

And to expand on that ... Ill explain the damage path with my understanding.

Damage is dealt >>> (ward {intercept (stoneskin (armour/mit ( DR >>> {Health Pool} <<< reactive <<< Direct Heal <<< Hots ...

The reactive of course will probably replenish first , but the hot ticks can beat the direct with timing ... who knows maybe it could beat the reactive if the timing ended up just right ... but I doubt it ... guessing the engine won't break it down that miniscule and always give presidence to the reactionary trigger.

I'm well aware that wards are counted first, then reactives, then direct heals and then HoTs. I'm not sure why that implies that druids should ignore their HoTs though. I also fail to see why putting a buff on the HoTs so they're make people sturdier is a reason NOT to use the HoTs.. it's not about the heal parse, it's about keeping your group alive and stable...

Also if mitigation was AFTER wards, having people increase their resists and mitigation would not have any effect on how fast wards are used up. Checking damage specific wards, different people are being warded for different amounts for the same tick.. the people with higher resists have a smaller ward. That's a pretty clear indication that mitigation is BEFORE wards.
I'm also sure shaman will tell you that a tank with good mit uses up wards much slower the a tank with crappy mit.

There is no tick on a ward ... just a pool of proxy health pts to be absorbed. And different people being warded for different amounts is not a clear cut decision of when what gets applied in the dmg path. There is avoidance of course. However you bring up some interesting pts ... but needs definitive proof imo.
I guess it just doesn't make sense with my D&D old school logic.

But still ... anything to slow down the damage to the health pool ... will make the health replenishing less efficient , especially with Hots. Not trying to say you shouldn't ... but it is an inconvenient truth ... so in your argument of its use with what Koko was saying. Its value is of diminishing returns.

If it offends your sense of.. efficiency.. to cast a HoT with buffs that make it so you need less healing, then cast a buff that prevents damage on the group that has an HoT attached to heal any that might get past the DR.

HoTs aren't about being 'efficient', they're about being effective. It isn't possible to be efficient with HoTs because you are ALWAYS going to have part of at least one tick that is wasted.. that is the nature of HoTs.

@ Mermut ... said " then cast a buff that prevents damage on the group that has an HoT attached to heal any that might get past the DR."

Is there a buff like this? news to me ... But now your getting the point ... The DR/Mit buff is attached to the hot duration.
Therefore not letting you separate them for efficiency. Its not really a big deal ... and I think its a good AA heal enhance.
Although not as good as stone skin.

But we are splitting hairs in this discussion.

On a side note ... when did they add DR ? It would seem if its counted in the damage path right next to Mit ... it would just be redundant. Why not just add more mit? So maybe it has atleast a few other factors inbetween it and Mit.

If Mit is before wards ... then maybe DR is next to the Health pool. But maybe its like I said with mit being your armour next to your skin ... and DR is out infront of the ward. Which would make it like a beneficial sided debuff.

IDK ... just theories ... which I like discussing this kind of shism.

I'd like to hear how you feel about this neck on a warden: http://u.eq2wire.com/item/index/3275693315

This is an interesting question, thank you for asking!

I initially ask the question "does this necklace do more damage than another necklace?", and the question that follows is "how much flurry do I have...?". I assumed 60% for the second question, which is obtained with t1 raid cloak/belt and reforge choices in page 1. Another "easy simplification" is that 100% flurry ~ 2x auto attack damage, assuming single target, 200 MA, and 100% hit rate.

With necklace:

1.3 (AA multiplier) * 2 (flurry) ~ 2.6

Without necklace

1.375 (AA multiplier) * 1.6 (flurry) ~ 2.2 + glacial assault proc + combat art* + stats** + battle prowess***

Where combat art* represents the damage gained if a combat art was cast instead of a heal spell and stats** represent that damage gained from an alternative necklace. Assuming that the small damage proc, combat art loss, and stats are negligible the warden will gain 18% auto attack damage from wild divine, or a EncDPS increase of 4-7% for 20-40% AA EncDPS encounters respectively.

How "good" this is compared to other options depends drastically on

1. What stats the other necklaces provide relative to the base stats

2. How good the negligible assumptions were

For example, consider an alternative necklace that "boosted" 70 CB over wild divine

If the warden has 1.3k CB, there would be an EncDPS increase of 5.2%

However if the warden had 2k CB, there would be an EncDPS increase of 3.4%

The alternative necklace (3.4~5.2%) is close to the value calculated for wild divine (4~7%). I expect a more detailed calculation, which includes glacial assault proc/CA and battle prowess damage loss, to have the options closer still. I prefer a camaraderie variant necklace over wild divine, as the restriction is inherent in other warden skills (e.g. tshell, windblade) rather than a new restriction entirely (i.e. must cast heal spell every AA rotation) for it to function.

A great question! I hope my approach is applicable to you.

tl;dr version:
losing all the weapon damage bonus from being in heal stance isn't better than the flurry. you already have so much flurry anyways from stacking haste for the conversion so it would probably be over kill on that part anyway.

I took a few points out of str line to get infusion, Tshell, and rebirth to test recently and I am liking it. Melee still procs heals( 28% instead of 40) but still no issue with solo healing and rebirth is handy in a bad PUG lol or when I don't pay attention and my lifeburn charm kills me lol

But the necklace removes the heal stance penalties ...

Hey that's great to know ... I'm gona spec for rebirth , infusion too. Think I'm gona scrap the whole agi line though. Tortise is great for the standard group ... but I don't often find myself in that situation ... so not finding it useful.

you don't get the weapon damage bonus from offensive stance zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

The zzzzz's is a nice touch and telling of your mental state.

You qualified your assumption of KoKo's post with saying it was to long to read (tldr)
So its reasonable to assume you might have missed the removal of healing stance penalties.

Plus its not really clear cut of the difference between flurry and WDB ... you have 2 subjective number outcomes that your just tossing assumptions on.

In short we can appreciate KoKo's effort at a detailed analysis.
Your attempt to diminish and gloss over it , not so much.

stop.

Hammy time ...

Decided to stream some stuff, I received a few PMs stating that it would be helpful. New to streaming, so not really A+ at playing w/ explanations.

PUG Heroic Ethereal Farm 8/15/15, fighter shield drop hype (0/3 so far, /sigh).
Also a great example of what not to do in Thresh Den and still complete the zone in under 20 minutes.

Not tank the named against a wall and get bounced all over

Waste U.Retribution randomly out of combat

Fail to cure curse on cooldown because I'm easily distracted

Fighter runs out of arcane pots and I get swarmed twice

Fail to kill cocoons and preemptive group DP way too early

and many more!

Be sure to check out my commentary where I cannot enunciate the difference between 80 and 800k elemental hits, my disdain towards enchanters, and many other amusing blunders!