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Here are some updates. First, what's been published:
Starfall-- Looks like the damage of Starfall's main stars is going UP, but the AoE splash component is going away. Too soon to tell what kind of impact this will have, but it might very well be a wash. Probably makes Starfall more useful vs. groups of 3-4 people and less dominating for large groups of 8-10.
Solar Beam-- New spell, we can officially talk about it now. Instant cast, 1min cooldown, ranged interrupt+AoE silence that's left at a location (10yd radius). Looks pretty dominating. One could imagine an instant-cast rotation involving moonfire/insect swarm and a Solar Beam going off every 12-15 sec or so. I also see huge potential to use this on any melee target, giving yourself a little "safe zone" so PBAoE fearbombers, mages, warlocks using hellfire, etc can't do much in your face.
Starsurge-- Another new spell. 2sec nuke with Knockdown Component! 15sec cooldown. Typhoon+Starsurge followup looks great. May also just combine this in a Wrath-based rotation so that one character is throwing out a Starsurge every 3-4 sec.
Wrath of Cenarius-- Extra damage on moonfire while moving, which you tend to do a lot in PvP. Win!
New Eclipse Mechanics-- Will be interesting to see how this plays out. I think it will be better for PvE groups with boomkin, less micro-managing Eclipse procs. For PvP, I don't think it matters much. Other than the very occasional Starfire opening salvo, I am not using anything but instants+Wrath spam in PvP.
On the whole, looks like the Balance druid BG team will continue to show a lot of promise. Devs has said some pretty good things about Starfall, leaving me optimistic that it won't be nerfed to oblivion (e.g. "it's supposed to be strong, because it can be countered",).
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Play update:
Sure, I'm not 80 yet, but I thought I would give a little bit of an update about my L68 druids. They have basically all the same abilities they'd have at L80, so I think the playstyle will be similar.
In contrast to Shamans who are basically reasonably stationary + defensive + ranged attackers, and the DK+Pally melee blender that is mobile + offensive + non-mana-constrained, I find the Boomkins to a mix of mobile + ranged + defensive/crafty. What I mean by "defensive/crafty" is the combination of being able to stealth, use travel-form to haul tail when needed, cast heals while on the run, pop typhoon on people closing, barkskin, etc. Not surprisingly, multi druids plays a lot like solo druids.
I have been playing a lot of EotS and AB, since they've been the dailies lately. This team shines in that kind of BG. I typically keep my head on a swivel and try to understand where the enemy is on the battlefield. If I'm faced with 1-3 opponents/defenders, I will pick a first target which gets Insect Swarm, Moonfire, then a Typhoon to push it (and everyone near it) away. Then I'll repeat for other targets and let DoTs run rampant. Often times I will haul tail away in travel mode and not even bother with Wrath/Starfire. The idea is to be quick and never stop moving.
If faced with more, I will stealth if I can and let people clump up nicely, then go in with Starfalls blazing and typhoon anyone nearby. At this point, at L68 with non-pvp geared folks, this is just comical. I'm only running 4 druids, too, since my main is 80 and just waiting for them to catchup. With the glyph, the big Starfall combo is available once/minute, which is awesome.
If I'm wandering up to a fight where I know I'll have the cast time, I'll let a Starfire combo rip, but I usually don't use starfire much. Wrath is pretty effective if I have the chance to cast a little bit, and I try to stay mobile as much as possible. I will flee if needed, taking great care to not let PBAoE fear bombs hit the group.
I am struggling a little bit with mana issues, since MF/IS spam can quickly drain the ole blue bars, but it's easy enough to Innervate and take a break. Again, stealth is huge here!
Obviously, I have no idea how things will scale to 80, but I can see how this could work quite nicely. I think if you play it like a shammy team, you'll be disappointed. In many ways, it's more like the DK+Pallies where you have to keep moving in order to be most effective.
I haven't really PvEd at all with the team, other than dragging them on /follow behind a tank that I've been playing to clear instances. Instant flight form + northrend questing should be efficient for leveling. I will probably start doing more instances around L72-74 just so that I have a feel for the team and get all my macros worked out-- at some point I'll need to do heroics with them and I don't want to put that off for too long.
I'd love to hear more from anyone who's running 80s in BGs now or anyone who has better info on the new Starfall performance.
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