11-25-2006, 04:27 AM
Finally got onto the PTR today (so a somewhat older build than the current beta - eg. I-LOTP is still 6% but Bear doesn't have the armour or health improvements). I didn't have much time so I just went Stone Guardian farming (since they're reasonably tough and I've fought them plenty before so have a good basis for comparison).
The Warrior is substantially better than in live, ending fights with a comfortable margin of safety without using cooldowns, consumables or a great deal of care (they are soloable on live for me but not so easily). Using rage defensively (shield block & revenge spam) I'd end at around half life, using offensively (shield slam) I'd end with around a quarter but after a shorter fight. Both approaches stacked sunders early then used Devastate as needed to keep the stack.
The Druid improvements are more dramatic - without leaving bear form a single SG would leave me with about 75% health. Mangle(bear) in particular is very impressive and certainly worthy of it's 41 point position. I wasn't (quite) able to take down two SG's at once in bear, but it's close - close enough that another try with a starting HOT and a brief shift to heal did the job.
Swipe is also much better than on live - in my tanking gear my Swipe does 109 to deeprun rats on live and 139 on the PTR; naked I get similar numbers to live. So the scaling is quite fast - around 10 AP per +1 unmitigated damage. Can't wait to try it out with a +Feral AP weapon.
The Warrior is substantially better than in live, ending fights with a comfortable margin of safety without using cooldowns, consumables or a great deal of care (they are soloable on live for me but not so easily). Using rage defensively (shield block & revenge spam) I'd end at around half life, using offensively (shield slam) I'd end with around a quarter but after a shorter fight. Both approaches stacked sunders early then used Devastate as needed to keep the stack.
The Druid improvements are more dramatic - without leaving bear form a single SG would leave me with about 75% health. Mangle(bear) in particular is very impressive and certainly worthy of it's 41 point position. I wasn't (quite) able to take down two SG's at once in bear, but it's close - close enough that another try with a starting HOT and a brief shift to heal did the job.
Swipe is also much better than on live - in my tanking gear my Swipe does 109 to deeprun rats on live and 139 on the PTR; naked I get similar numbers to live. So the scaling is quite fast - around 10 AP per +1 unmitigated damage. Can't wait to try it out with a +Feral AP weapon.