so recently i’ve been testing out other casters, as my main is a lock, i’ve tried out frost mage, and now balance druid…i’ve been reading balance druid is a top pick (even over mages), but how could this be? my boomkin is only level 26 (ok its very low and all the good stuffs are at around level 35 or so), heck i havent even get starfall yet…but with current state i don’t think i can even level him higher as it feels so bad playing him…
its nice to have all the mobility from forms… im even ok with chicken looks…but the initial feel of playing boomkin is so so messy… you got to maintain up dots (it gets better at higher level as sunfire applies aoe, and longer dots too), you can’t choose which eclipse you want to get between starfire and wrath (you have to take the next eclipse in order regardless if you have a ST or aoe target)…and the playstyle is so dead standing to hard cast nukes to maintain eclipse as you lose DPS if you do something else like heal during the eclipse moment…starsurge has some insane burst though, and i believe starfull eventually will smoothen up the gameplay… but if i compare it with mages (fire or frost), its buttery smooth, gameplay is comfortable and nice, i.e frost if you get brain freeze, you can literally run around throwing out procs with ice lances etc…
maybe boomkin playstyle is not for me? idk… i’d like to hear your thoughts…
well i got him up to 40 now, although not maxed level, but i’ve pretty much unlocked all the important skills… still doesnt change what i felt about boomkin…still the same besides some better qol… mechanism still clunky and messy, while other casters just feel buttery smooth with same damage output (or slightly lower)…
well although its true, but im just speaking of same level casters…at least for me i know i wont be leveling this guy to max, so there wont be a chance to see its potential… it needs to be rework imo, this spec is just uncomfortable to play, so many things are wrong for a caster… but again thats just my opinion…
anyway just wanted to hear from other caster players out there feel the same or its just me? or boomkin playstyle is just not for me coz they are people who actually enjoy the mechanics?
I like how boomy operates. I’m not sure how to comment though because well… it’s all just a matter of opinion. I understand why people don’t like being able to choose which eclipse to go into however if we could perpetually choose it, the spec would seem redundant to me. I enjoy having to change how I play frequently despite the situation. Keeps things fresh.
Really bugs me when people comment on the state of how good or not a spec is before they even hit 60 lol… like what do you expect when you’re missing a bunch of abilities, talents and stats???
And probably haven’t had a chance to do a full rotation lol yes the spec feels clunky when you kill whatever it is you’re fighting in the first 2 seconds of an Eclipse and then have to enter another eclipse on your next world mob.
The spec really does come together and flows smoothly once you’re able to transition through 3-4-5 eclipses back to back
I’ve always leaned towards melee, but the only caster I ever truly enjoyed was Shadow Priest.
Balance doesn’t interest me, even though the eclipse system on paper seems like it could be fun. I found that when I messed around with balance, I had very few buttons that actually mattered. Keep up your DoTs, hit wrath or starfall depending on the eclipse, hit starsurge with enough AP - or Starfall if it’s AoE.
Optimizing obviously has additional intricacy - but honestly it just isn’t complex in terms of toolkit.
It’s never been particularly complex rotation wise as Boomkin comes loaded with a literal ton of utility. If the spec was incredibly complicated rotation wise finding the free GCD’s to utilize our utility would force people to make a really weird choice.
You’re not the only one, I preferred Legion/BFA empowerment style Boomkin. Really all they had to do to “fix” boomkin at that point was give us old Starfall back, and make it worth casting damage wise. Going back to the eclipse system was not necessary, although at least this version is better than the WOD version that was completely on rails.
Except boomies utility actually matters. Trees alone puts us in top tier of M+ and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
Stampeding roar, Innervate, Rebirth, all raid required cooldowns. As feral is competing with melee who bring actual debuffs and no one clamoring for Resto Druid or Bears this tier, this all came from Boomkins, and likely still will.
No one’s saying other specs don’t have utility, and I conceded that boomkin rotation isn’t particularly complicated. It’s funny you bring up 6 buttton though, just comparing my shaman and boomkin without talents.
Dirty truth is most specs only rock about 5-6 core abilities outside of talents, so this notion that boomkin is somehow an aberration in its simplicity is misleading. Boomkin is simpler because there’s no procs and the rotation is basically static, that’s the biggest difference.
Pretty sure in 9.0, a lot of those talents were never taken though - am I correct? Except for PvP.
Whenever I was switching to Boomy, almost all of the passives were better takes.
To clarify - I never said anything about talents not being apart of my consideration, and when I had to play it - most of the talents were passives that didn’t actually change much in terms of gameplay. Where as Shadow priest, ele sham, and warlock all had buttons that you actually needed to use that made the specs fun to play.
Maybe in 9.1 that’ll change some, but I doubt it’ll make the spec more involved than the ones I mentioned in terms of doing damage.
Warrior of Elune is taken on Mythic Sire for Phase 1 add cleave, Treants for Mythic Plus, and Nature’s Balance for most other fights.
Stellar Flare is taken on any pure ST fight, so Shriekwing, Hungering Destroyer, and Sludgefist. Stellar Drift is getting nerfed so Twin Moons will likely be back in the rotation (though both are passive).
New Moon and Fury of Elune weren’t taken much this tier, but with the nerfs to Solstice and buffs to new Moon it’s likely they will come back into the rotation.
The issue isn’t that boomkin doesn’t have more buttons to hit through talents, it’s that the passive talents were just better, but that’s a problem of balancing, not complexity.
No I was the one who did a comparison without talents, to prove a point, almost all specs only have a core rotation of 5-6 buttons until talents and covenant abilities put more stuff on the pile. Boomkin’s issue is the rotation is boring because there is no procs or things to change up the rotation, it’s completely static.
I think that’s the point though, the spec has been designed to be better with passives that don’t really change your playstyle or add depth to the rotation. Where as most other casters seem to have multiple abilities / talents that do just that. Aka in terms of just doing damage as a caster, the others are more fun in my opinion.
I agree with this:
The same issue is present for ferals - our talents as druids in general are just bad for the specific specs. A lot of dead talents, and too much emphasis on things that should be baseline (ie. the entire affinity row should just go away imo/more moved to baseline abilities to a lesser extent).
I know a lot of people like the affinity row because it feels druid-like, but the reality is that the game isn’t designed for specs to be multi-rolls within any endgame content. Sure some off heals are great but aside from that, the entire design in that row is garbage for gameplay.
Yeah we’re not in disagreement that other specs are more fun, I adore playing Elemental Shaman as opposed to my Boomkin just cause Elemental feels much more interesting and dynamic, especially AOE with the Legendary and running Aftershock for more earthquakes. The only point I take disagreement with is the idea that Boomkin has so many less buttons to press is inaccurate, it presses the same 5-6 buttons like most specs it just has nothing to spice up the rotation.
