3.0.2 Feral Confusion?

[gojukaine]

Can any other Lurkers please help me if they can.

I'm trying to get some idea of what to expect numbers-wise in 3.0.2. I've copied my baby Hinome over to the PTR so that I could get a feel for where things shifted and it seems a bit... gimped for lack of a better word. I take about a ~5-7k armor hit (might have been more), on live right now in bear I'm floating around 29.5k+ and my straight mitigation dropped by about 4.5-6%, but with Protector of the Pack that reduces that if only I'm in the group by 2%. (Some of these numbers are a little guesstimationish as I don't have PTR access at work)

My dodge goes up by at least 6%, from the ~30% I am on live currently, partly because of talents and partly because of the switch to more DPS centric gear from the tank gear I was using, which incidentally is how i was able to get the most out of my armor overall.

My hit and expertise also made decent jumps from where they were, up to 70 and 30 respectively.

The only big hit that I find concerning is in the area of my HP, losing ~1k overall.

Does anyone else have any numbers that show this is what I should be expecting to see or am I missing something.

I can't seem to find any sort of enumeration anywhere on this and I'm just looking for some insight so that I might more appropriately plan for the coming WOTLK shenanigans.

Thanks in advance to any and all who provide insight in this.

[Mavfin]

Can any other Lurkers please help me if they can.

I'm trying to get some idea of what to expect numbers-wise in 3.0.2. I've copied my baby Hinome over to the PTR so that I could get a feel for where things shifted and it seems a bit... gimped for lack of a better word. I take about a ~5-7k armor hit (might have been more), on live right now in bear I'm floating around 29.5k+ and my straight mitigation dropped by about 4.5-6%, but with Protector of the Pack that reduces that if only I'm in the group by 2%. (Some of these numbers are a little guesstimationish as I don't have PTR access at work)

My dodge goes up by at least 6%, from the ~30% I am on live currently, partly because of talents and partly because of the switch to more DPS centric gear from the tank gear I was using, which incidentally is how i was able to get the most out of my armor overall.

My hit and expertise also made decent jumps from where they were, up to 70 and 30 respectively.

The only big hit that I find concerning is in the area of my HP, losing ~1k overall.

Does anyone else have any numbers that show this is what I should be expecting to see or am I missing something.

I can't seem to find any sort of enumeration anywhere on this and I'm just looking for some insight so that I might more appropriately plan for the coming WOTLK shenanigans.

Thanks in advance to any and all who provide insight in this.

You'll also lose extra armor on gear, like from the clefthoof set. However, no more crushes to absorb, either.

[gojukaine]

You'll also lose extra armor on gear, like from the clefthoof set. However, no more crushes to absorb, either.

I know the clefthoof set really becomes kinda crappy. It was weird that I still had extra armor on the S2 PVP pieces though and not on the t5 gloves.

[Shamago]

Can any other Lurkers please help me if they can.

I'm trying to get some idea of what to expect numbers-wise in 3.0.2. I've copied my baby Hinome over to the PTR so that I could get a feel for where things shifted and it seems a bit... gimped for lack of a better word. I take about a ~5-7k armor hit (might have been more), on live right now in bear I'm floating around 29.5k+ and my straight mitigation dropped by about 4.5-6%, but with Protector of the Pack that reduces that if only I'm in the group by 2%. (Some of these numbers are a little guesstimationish as I don't have PTR access at work)

My dodge goes up by at least 6%, from the ~30% I am on live currently, partly because of talents and partly because of the switch to more DPS centric gear from the tank gear I was using, which incidentally is how i was able to get the most out of my armor overall.

My hit and expertise also made decent jumps from where they were, up to 70 and 30 respectively.

The only big hit that I find concerning is in the area of my HP, losing ~1k overall.

Does anyone else have any numbers that show this is what I should be expecting to see or am I missing something.

I can't seem to find any sort of enumeration anywhere on this and I'm just looking for some insight so that I might more appropriately plan for the coming WOTLK shenanigans.

Thanks in advance to any and all who provide insight in this.

It definitely looks painful at first glance. There are some major major changes. What you've seen is about what I expect. A brief summary (disclaimer - this could all still change):

-Only mobs 4+ levels above you (bosses are considered 3 levels above you) will be able to crush.
(50% more damage on a normal melee hit)
-No more bonus armor on leather, it still exists on non-leather slot items. (WotLK has amulets with armor!)
Bonus armor stat points redistributed on the items but that doesn't change them much in general.
-Protector grants 12% physical and spell mitigation. (does not count yourself)
After armor, so if you had 75% armor it'd be 78% total physical mit, similar to defensive stance.
-SotF changed from 3% to 6% anti-crit, meaning you don't need any defense or resillience.
Resillience is now fairly useless and defense not much better since we can't parry or block.
-Agil->Dodge ratio nerfed (at 70), agil now scales slower. However, they gave us about +5% dodge naked/talentless, so we wouldn't see such a huge difference at 70 when the patch hits. Depending on how your current gear is you may see an increase. And then add the new dodge talent on top of that, and any gear changes as well. A similar thing happened to the Agil->Crit rating.

From what you've indicated, you adjusted your gear to take the highest armor pieces you have, resulting in the HP loss? This isn't necessarily the right way to go. First, if you still have an odd piece of leather or two with bonus armor, don't count on it keeping that armor for the patch release, last I heard they missed some pieces. Armor for the leather slots is based entirely on item level now, but lower level stuff may have better tanking stats, and the fairly small differences in armor shouldn't be enough to sway your decision, especially with the other mechanics changes. Agility and stamina are still the staples so far; you want enough stam to not die between heals and then go for dodge afterward. If you can find a piece here or there with dodge rating, it may be worth looking at. Think of the armor nerf as a counterbalance to the elimination of crushing blows - granted you may never have tanked anything that could crush, but crushing blows were basically why druids needed so much armor in the first place. We can also benefit from the healing talents that give an armor increase now. The best general advice I can give is to get Rawr, which should hopefully sometime soon implement all the 3.x patch changes. I can help out with any specifics if you see me online.

Rawr works for most specs now. I think there's only a couple that don't have modules. The most important thing is to put in all your talents/buffs/casting rotations/etc as accurately as possible.

[Watto44]

It's worth noting that on the PTR at the moment all the PvP gear (I have) has retained its armor bonus. It might be worth looking into grinding some BGs/arena to tide you over until WotLK goes live.

Personally, since my tanking gear wasn't that great anyway, I'll be swapping out a lot of my old tanking pieces for my PvP gear. It always gave me more HP, but now I get a sexy armor boost as well. (Glass half full here we come!)

[gojukaine]

It's worth noting that on the PTR at the moment all the PvP gear (I have) has retained its armor bonus. It might be worth looking into grinding some BGs/arena to tide you over until WotLK goes live.

Personally, since my tanking gear wasn't that great anyway, I'll be swapping out a lot of my old tanking pieces for my PvP gear. It always gave me more HP, but now I get a sexy armor boost as well. (Glass half full here we come!)

I noticed the same thing with the two pieces of S2 gear I'm currently sporting. I guess I'm gonna have to really inspect all the pieces I have to find what will be the most min/max type of set.

Thanks to Sham for the massive input by the way, and to the others of course.