Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Dreamstate FTW?

Our 5v5 team has had a couple of good weeks - going from a 1430 rating (328 points) to a 1605 rating (471 points!). We've all managed to get some better gear, learned to play better and learned to coordinate better.

I've been going with the standard 8/11/42 resto build for these matches, but I'm thinking of changing it up to a Dreamstate build like this one (37/0/24).

I find that my role in 5v5 is to keep someone perpetually cycloned. I'll hit 1 person up for 9 seconds (6 seconds initial, 3 seconds 2nd cast). I'll switch targets for another 9 seconds of CC, then usually back to the first target. In between cyclone casts, I'm either throwing a hot or two on whatever people on our team may need some spot healing. Often, no healing is necessary (because our disc/holy priest has everything under control), and I'm not doing anything.

I feel that my 8/11/42 build is suboptimal for 5v5 - it's really more geared to 2v2's and to a lesser extent, 3v3's. In 5v5's, mobility is almost unimportant - you can get away and hide from 2 people, maybe 3. You're not hiding from 5, and you can't get away when you're the target of focus fire from 3-4 people.

So let's take a look at pros vs. cons to the Dreamstate build over 8/11/42

Pros:
- Insect swarm - 2% hit reduction and a dot? Yes please.
- Nature's reach - 20% extra range on cyclone? Yes please.
- Improved DPS through focused starlight, improved moonfire, vengeance, celestial focus.
- Improved healing and DPS through lunar guidance.
- Higher survivability through moonkin form (+400% armor) and balance of power.
- Great MP5 through dreamstate.

Cons:
- No feral charge. Not a big loss for 5v5.
- No swiftmend. A significant loss, but not so important in 5v5.
- No natural perfection. Ouch - but does 400% bonus armor make up for this?
- No empowered rejuvenation. Ouch - but does lunar guidance make up for this?
- No improved regrowth. Significant, but less so for 5v5.

Seems like almost a no brainer. Anyone had any experience with this build?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Tough call for 5v5. Imo mana is less of a concern so I wouldn't be so concerned about getting dreamstate.

Natural Perfection is great for arena - not for it's defensive properties but for the +3% spell crit for your heals.

Swiftmend is a MASSIVE loss. If you get nuked it's your only defense once you have used nature's swiftness. If you can be aggressive and fast enough as a group to control your opponents and prevent nuking then you're doing great. But I think I'd always keep swiftmend for 5v5 and 3v3 for nuking situations.

I've used the dreamstate spec for 2v2 very successfully (2000 rating) and will continue to do so. I'm not sure about 5v5 though but then again it all depends on your role.

I'll follow this post and come back if I find anything to share, good luck with your arenas :)