Karthis, from Of Teeth and Claws, has been an anchor of realism, championing the recent druid changes as being good for us and not the axis of malevolence that some of us are guilty of assuming (Who? Me?). I am ready for these changes, though I still do not welcome them with open arms. I at least get the reason for why these changes have occurred.
We all know by now that the reason for the change is to increase our itemization palette. I still have badge of tenacity. My bear paws grip it with a fury and a tightness the world has never seen! So, when I say goodbye to my beloved badge, I will make another choice in my gear itemization, replacing my current staff with another I've picked up along the way. On Friday I snagged Enraged Feral Staff from the final boss in heroic Utgarde Keep.
Let's take a moment to revel in its beauty:
700 Armor
This stat makes this staff damned near ungodly. Provided you have three points in Thick Hide (which you should), then this 700 armor becomes:
700 x 3.7 x 1.1 = 2849
From this blue staff we get a very, very large amount of armor. Why would I want anything more? But wait! This staff has more than armor on it.
52 Strength
This gives us an additional 104 attack power. That is pretty good in its own right, too. More AP equals more damage which equals more threat. I am not complaining here.
78 Agility
Of course diminishing returns is going to determine what kind of mileage we got out of this number, but I'm never one to look an agility horse in the mouth. As bears we love agility and the fact that we get 78 agility out of this staff is icing on the cake.
117 Stamina
Now, provided my theory-crafting is correct (if not, please correct me!), then we get the following:
117 x 1.25 x 1.2 x = 175 stamina, or 1750 health, for Night Elves
117 x 1.25 x 1.2 x 1.05 = 184 stamina, or 1840 health, for Taurens
Nothing like some good old fashioned health to soak up the attacks!
Attack Power
1602 AP in feral forms. As if we needed anything else on this staff.
Of course this is all going to change when the next big patch hits. As for now? This staff rocks. It rocks me on the water. So hard does this staff rock that I have not replaced it with Staff of Trickery, which I received from the final boss in Heroic Violet Hold. And this is why I get it. Keep with me here, I'm getting to the point soon.
Let's disseminate this staff's stats, too!
90 Strength
This gives us an additional 180 attack power. 76 more AP than what we get on Enraged.
89 Agility
Here we don't see a big jump. And with diminishing returns, this may not be the deciding factor for you.
133 Stamina
133 x 1.25 x 1.2 = 199 stamina, or 1990 health, for Night Elves
133 x 1.25 x 1.2 x 1.05 = 209 stamina, or 2090 health, for Taurens
Attack Power
1845 AP in feral forms. Wow!
These are all amazing stats in their own right. Remember how I said I'd get to the point? Here it is.
Why would I lose 2849 armor to gain 250 health (190 for Night Elves)? I don't remember the exact number, but choosing Enraged over Trickery netted me around an additional 4% physical damage mitigation. At a 10,000 HP hit would become 9600 HP with that mitigation. The additional health only, in theory, nets us 9750/9820 HP (assuming all we did was increase health and not mitigation). 'Cause Lord knows we'd gain HP at the cost of losing mitigation in this scenario.
"What about magic, Lushious? That's not affected by armor," you might say. And you'd be right. Though I state my case again. I find the additional 250/190 health not worth the upgrade, considering how much the armor mitigates the rest of the damage you'll face. The AP is a non-factor, if you ask me. Threat isn't an issue for us now and should we even care about our DPS? Nah, leave that to the ones that do it best. As for the agility? It's too small of an increase that I am broken hearted over choosing Enrage over Trickery.
And this is exactly the type of behavior I feel Blizzard is trying to avoid. For now I stick with the blue. In the future I go with the purple. And if I was a kitty, I'd probably sleep a lot.
Until the next Faerie Fire pull...
-Lushious
Tired of rambling about being a Druid Bear to his friends, Lushious has now focused on boring the internet to tears with his World of Warcraft exploits.
2 comments:
Your reasoning is all very solid, with one exception: it looks like they are going to remove the armor multiplier from weapons. So instead of 2849 armor from the enraged feral staff, it will be only 700.
It's still a close call, but I would lean slightly towards the slight dps and stamina of the staff of trickery, rather than the slight mitigation of the enraged feral staff.
Thanks for the comment, Joel. You are correct; Blizzard has stated that they are reworking the way armor works as a druid, particularly in terms of itemization.
Now, of course, this patch will be released whenever Blizzard decides to, but I wanted to showcase just how chaotic gearing will be until then. Here I am choosing a blue item, which is clearly inferior to the purple in terms of item level, simply because of one stat.
So, for now I'm keeping the feral staff. The staff of trickery shall rest cozily in my bank until later.
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