This is incredible, and I think these changes (or something like them) can further improve upon this and thus finally make the spec whole:
An Eclipse, while reducing the cast time of the spell appropriate to its type (Solar - Wrath, Lunar -Starfire), would increase the damage of the OPPOSITE Damage-over-time effect (Solar - Moonfire, Lunar - Sunfire) by a portion of Mastery.
Starsurge also applies Empowerment based on your activated Eclipse (perhaps that could be a Talent option with Starlord?), increasing the damage of your appropriate builder/filler (Wrath/Starfire).
Starfall causes damage-over-time effects to burn, accelerating their damage and AP generation.
IMO Starsurge should always cost 40 AP, and Starfall maybe 50 if this change is applied. Their damage can be buffed accordingly.
Im glad we agree on that. At the end of the day we all want to have fun playing our druids!
Kinda similar to what i had suggested, i thinks its up in here and few other threads as well. But i brought up the idea of Eclipse Power. Pretty much like you have it, but “spenders” increase your EP and push you deeper into eclipse making the damage boost bigger.
The only thing i disagree with you on is simplly casting the opposite filler to swap freely. I think there should be some cost to swapping eclipse. It could be a 10 sec CD or something. Or as i brought up, repurpose astral communion to swap at an EP cost. I agree with 100% i sopuld be able to swap when i need to, but i dont think we want eclipse dancing.
I should really put together a post with all my ideas instead of spreading between 5 different threads.
Insane damage - it’s your AoE spender. Otherwise you’d use Starfall once, and spam Starsurge in AoE until you needed to refresh Starfall which would feel bad
The purpose of my suggestion is to make Eclipse more passive and less convoluted, while still existing in the spec for flavor. I think what our disagreement comes down to is that you want Eclipse to take on a more active and prominent role while removing or reducing the builder/spender aspect, whereas I am the exact opposite of you.
You would be casting the same spell school not the opposite. Wrath to enter Solar Eclipse; Starfire to enter Lunar Eclipse. 1 cast to enter the Eclipse state. (Unless you’re saying “opposite filler” in the sense that you are already in an Eclipse state, and you are casting the “opposite filler” of the current Eclipse school to switch states. confusing lol) I disagree that there should be a cost. This adds unnecessary complexity which I desire to trim from the spec. Also, being stuck in a 10 second cooldown per Eclipse change means we are trapped in “single target” or “AoE” spell rotations, which takes away control and would feel terrible.
We already have Eclipse dancing, right now. We just have it on a 15 second time limit— and Eclipse is entered in a long ramping, backwards manner.
My goal here is to keep Eclipse’s buffs, (Solar and Lunar respectively) intact as they are now, while removing the maintenance portion (the 15 second time limit) and smoothing out the awkwardness.
If we disagree on this that’s okay. I just want to make sure I’m as clear as possible.
What i mean about eclipse dancing is we dont want to be forced to cylce back and forth to keep 100% uptime on buffs like BoaT. Thats why there has to be a cost of some kind to swapping. We should be able swap when we need to. But if we have the ability to swap back and forth constantly, itll become the “correct” way to play. Then were right back to the forced cycling that we didnt like in the past.
Eclipse shouldnt be maintainence, but you want want a static buff, where as id rather have the buff have interaction with our abilities. Spenders boosting that buff i think is in line with the way the spec has played for last decade and change. The more starsures and starfalls you cast the more your eclipse is buffed. If i had my way youd never have to refresh eclipse, unless you have significant downtime ofc, then one cast and youre back.
You’re not wrong about talents like Balance of All Things. But in my mind, I would just change the way this talent is activated (and any others like it) in order to simplify Eclipse as a mechanic. I feel like this would be beneficial in the long term rather than sticking with what we have, just so a handful of talents can keep functioning the way they do now. Assuming the Eclipse ‘buffs’ remain the way they are now.
Who knows though. Maybe they will blow our minds with an Eclipse rework no one has even considered yet on the forums. Anything would be better than what we have now. At this point, I’m willing to try anything just to be free of the current way Eclipse functions.
If your first spell cast is Wrath, you begin in Solar Eclipse. If the first spell cast is Starfire, you begin in Lunar Eclipse.
Solar Eclipse has 3 phases: Morning, Midday, Evening. Every 5 seconds the Eclipse buff shifts.
Morning +5% Mastery, Crit, and Haste
Midday +10 Mastery, Crit, and Haste
Evening +5 Mastery, Crit, and Haste
Then there is 15 seconds of Twilight phase
Twilight +25% resource generation
Then you enter Lunar Eclipse. Lunar Eclipse has 4 phases at 5 seconds each: Waxing Moon, Full Moon, Waning Moon, Hidden Moon
Waxing Moon +25% Dot damage
Full Moon +50% Dot Damage
Waning Moon +25% Dot Damage
Hidden Moon - Casting any Dot casts all Dots on a single target, while casting Wrath or Starfire will also cast the other at 100% power
Respectfully this sounds like a major headache to try and min/max in an already high ramp and extremely tight and timed rotation. I applaud the creativity, but this is simply too much for me.
i don’t know if it would work, and i dunno if i’d be booed out of town lol. but i’ve long thought a “balance druid” should do the opposite of singularly casting one spell ad infinitum while in an eclipse. especially in a ST situation, when you cast two starfires and go back to wrath lol. there’s no balance.
I think it should play similarly to ww monk, with incentives to not cast astral / solar spells in a row. the balance would be using solar, then lunar, then solar, then lunar, etc.
and i can picture the eclipse bar being a la cata, except instead of pushing it to the one side or the other, you’re trying to keep it in the center.
of course then there wouldn’t be a literal “eclipse” moment or visual haha. but it could be changed to balance bar or something. unlike WW you wouldn’t lose a stacking buff for casting solar x2, you’d just push it a little closer to the solar side (with some negative effect), and then cast astral to get it back.
i’m just spitballing, i’m not a game designer lol. but my point is, i agree that eclipse is the unique mechanic, and i don’t want to see it gone entirely. but it can definitely be retooled