10.1 Balance druid

Are they addressing the problem with eclipses in 10.1? Right now you use Lunar eclipse for single target and every situation unless popping CD’s then you use Solar… Which feels bad and doeesnt make sense, are they fixing that or will it still be a Lunar only eclipse spec.

This was the fix.

Players complained they couldn’t choose which Eclipse they wanted to be in, and it felt bad entering Solar in an AoE scenario.

Well, when the game is 85% AoE then you spend 85% of your time in Lunar.

Players got what they asked for. You can now choose. And now that you get to choose, you choose to be in only one the entire time and are now complaining about not using the other eclipses.

This is where proper feedback comes into play.

HOW would you suggest they go about changing eclipses so they’re “better received”

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ohhh i wasnt aware people were complaining so much about that. I visit balance druid only ever so often. Its alot of fun, but currently staying in lunar eclipse can feel pretty lackluster. I figured if they reworked the mastery and how it interacts with eclipse then they could fix it.

Not only that but if they got rid of CD on switching forms, and made eclipses into forms rather than eclipses. Then it would be an easy fix.

Want to do better AOE, toggle into Lunar eclipse form… Better single target…toggle into solar eclipse form.
No more of that casting opposite of what you want to cast to get where you want to be…honestly would be the best fix imo.

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There was a technical reason for this in SL. You always wanted to be in an eclipse. To be in Solar you needed to cast Starfire.

So you entered Lunar, and went nuts casting Starfire for the bonus to Starfire in Lunar Eclipse. Then to transfer from Lunar to Solar, you had to cart 2x Starfire.

So on a fundamental level, if you kept casting your “buffed” spell (which was opposite of what was needed for that eclipse), it would quickly and naturally transition you over into your next Eclipse without thinking.

Solar eclipse: Wrath Wrath Wrath Wrath Wrath suddenly transitioned into Lunar Eclipse without thinking

Lunar eclipse: SF SF SF SF SF SF suddenly in Solar Eclipse without thinking

It was for the smooth transition from one eclipse to the other. Only part it felt wrong in, was entering your initial eclipse you wanted. But during fights it made things smooth and easy

Eclipse either just needs to go away or maybe be a toggle. It adds way too much ramp up as it is.

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Man, that’s a pretty excellent point, and speaks at least in part as to why the balance rotation feels so clunky these days.

The more I see people talking about it, the more I feel like a toggle would be the way to go. I know there are some talents that would have to be reexamined, things that proc on entering eclipse, or leaving eclipse, but with the change to the set bonuses it seems doable.

That being said, after two (at least?) balance reworks this expansion, it seems like they’re gonna wanna settle it and just make minor tweaks sooner or later, so looking for a big change like this might me a bit of misdirected energy.

Okay to be fair. You are supposed to use lunar for AOE and solar for ST. HOWEVER, it is currently a DPS increase to use solar wrath for ST regardless is what eclipse you are in. So yes it is broken because the concept of eclipse is that you cast the opposite spell school to get the buff. Which it’s a dps loss to cast 2 Starfire’s to get into solar eclipse. Therefore 90% of the time our wraths are not buffed. I know they changed some things with 10.1 but I’m not sure if they addressed this specifically yet.

Generally yes, that’s the idea. But depending on situations, it’s more about AP generation.

I explained why this is. In SL it made sense since you stuck with your eclipse empowered spell. And since you were casting it to build AP, it would naturally bring you right into the next eclipse without changing spells.

I haven’t tried Balance in DF so I’m not sure how much of that still stands. But by your statement, it doesn’t lol. But I think it was still their design to swap (which it would do naturally). But it doesn’t really work out now with spending all your time in Lunar

The reason people stay in Lunar is simply because casting two Wraths is faster than casting two Starfires, and the gain of being in Solar for the Wraths you cast in that non-CA/Incarn window isn’t worth the extra cast time on the casts of Starfire. We have a lot of things in our talent tree (along with our outrageously strong 4pc) which incentivizes maximizing entering an Eclipse (any of them: Lunar/Solar/CA/Incarn). You get a free spender that hits harder every time you successfully enter one, so it is all about doing that as often as you can.

Empowered Wrath is still definitely better in ST, which is why you use it in CA/Incarn, and why you enter Solar using Warrior of Elune if you happen to be talented into it, as you can be on-the-move as you enter your next Eclipse phase and not have to wait 4 years for those two Starfires to finish casting.

As for 10,1, even though they’re gutting our 10.0 4pc on day 1 of the patch, I suspect entering Solar will still be niche like it is now. IMO this is a “be careful what you wish for” situation, as I loathe casting two SFs to enter Solar, so I’m fine with this weird degenerate play. As others have said in this thread, it probably is time to retire Eclipse’s mechanic how it is now and replace it with something else, but unfortunately the whole kit revolves around entering it, leaving it, being in a specific one, etc.

We’re already getting the best wish, which is the choice node to not have to cast Stellar Flare anymore. I hope the buffs they made to our normal builders/spenders feel good and we basically can keep a similar vibe to what we have now, but without SF. I’d take that all day over them simply attempting to resurrect Solar Eclipse because “we want it” only for us to be super miserable casting SF to enter it.