WTF is a boomkin?

[Limegreen]

Hey guy, rogue main here. I'm preparing to play my druid again but I do not want to play feral anymore becuz of my rogue. I'm going to go boomkin and what i want to know is, would it be more wise to stay feral and get offspec gear, or go boomkin now with trash gear from the AH. I'm asking bcuz I do not know how to play boomkin and if i go now i could possibly learn and get experience as I gain gear. Also what add ons, if any, should i pick up.

[MushroomBomb]

Just get a full-ish set of moonkin gear before going into dungeons with it, generally you can get away with 3-4 melee pieces. If I were you, I'd farm badges until you can get three or four Boomkin T9 pieces, at which point you'll probably have gathered other off-set pieces to farm a near-complete Boomkin set. You can then go do Heroics for the rest of the set as Balance while learning.

As for addons, all you really need is a way to make sure you don't miss any Eclipse procs (it's shown over you character's head by default, but if many things go on you might miss it) and a way of tracking your DoTs so that you know when Insect Swarm and Moonfire are up. In addition, most casters have great use of a 'proper' castbar that can show latency and the likes. I'd suggest Quartz of AzCastBar for this. I also use ForteXorcist for tracking DoTs (mainly because I was already using it on my Priest) and PowerAuras to show you what Eclipse proc you have/if you have Clearcasting (for AoE purposes in Heroics to avoid going OOM).

[Syph]

Offtopic; the title of this thread immediately made me think about an old wowbash quote... :P

[badge]

if your leveling your druid stay feral, much easier. if its for end game content its entirely up to you but boomkins would be one of the weaker dps'ers in the game by far, there in dire need of a rehaul imo so dont be surprised if you get all your badge gear to find you arent able to compete with other dps class's as well as you should.

[Limegreen]

Thanks for the help guys

[Dhurn]

if your leveling your druid stay feral, much easier. if its for end game content its entirely up to you but boomkins would be one of the weaker dps'ers in the game by far, there in dire need of a rehaul imo so dont be surprised if you get all your badge gear to find you arent able to compete with other dps class's as well as you should.

moonkin really aren't that bad at 80. They consistently lag slightly behind other classes as you move up in gear, but their utility is so good that they're always wanted for 10m raids, and generally bring something that's not covered to a 25.

Once you get 4 pc t10 their dps becomes pretty competetive. Sure you're never gonna beat the seasoned 6k gearscore fury warrior/rogue/feral Druid who executes their rotation perfectly but, who is?

[Xstar]

We're a lot like an ele sham in utility but bring buffs that they don't cover, like %3 chance to be missed to your tanks from scorpid sting, %3 haste from ret pallys, (where are all the raiding ICC ret pallys nowadays?) %3 hit from shadow priests and sexy %5 spell crit that your healers (and mages) love you for. Plus awesome off heals if a healer goes down in a 10m and the innervate and Brez that druids are known for. Its a wonderfully helpful thing to have a boomkin in your raid.

Fun stuff:
Sexy owl dance
Typhoon LOL
Can tank some heroics (w00 H VH, H HoS and soon to be more =P)
%15 less dmg taken during stuns
Not a lot of classes want most gear we want. (FREAKIN WIN!)
Fairly low hit needed for a caster class
Cyclone then time a starfire to land at the second that it ends for the win
Interesting rotation (dots change a lot depending on gear)
Some of the highest single ability crits I've ever seen (19k starfire in heroics lawl)
Barkskin for dmg reduction and no interrupts during casting
Starfall for ez farming (don't pull too many =P)
Thick plate dps comparable armor (even if u have a few cloth pieces)
Smart mages give u FM since u can get crit capped in readily attainable gear
When talented some of the strongest AoE around

Boo:
Tricky to play in PvP but by no means a pushover
Haste and crit soft caps are easily reachable so we don't scale well after that
Some are still not accepting of us using cloth (nuts to them!)
You'll be using your own innervate on most fights until at least a solid T9 gear level
Can be tricky to keep track of eclipse (I use Forte Xorcist)

Yea its got its downsides but so does every other spec. I think this one is the most fun of any toon or spec I've played and even better, its raid viable.

[nexttosmelly]

Some of the highest single ability crits I've ever seen (19k starfire in heroics lawl)

26k :P

[Xstar]

you got a 26k crit in a heroic? damn, link armory =P

With raid buffs I'm hitting a 22-23k sweetspot but I have no hardmode gear yet =( But as everyone knows big numbers are fun. Wrath crits are starting to get exciting too.

[Floreon]

you got a 26k crit in a heroic? damn, link armory =P

With raid buffs I'm hitting a 22-23k sweetspot but I have no hardmode gear yet =( But as everyone knows big numbers are fun. Wrath crits are starting to get exciting too.

I had a wrath crit for 21k the other day on those patting valkyr in the upper spire of ICC. It was the best.

[Cocoe]

hit a new record of 29k starfire with http://www.wowhead.com/?item=50360 active on lich king yesterday.
Think a couple of wrath creeped over 20k also. Saw several at around 18k at least...

[nexttosmelly]

my 26 k crit was on lich king 10 man with not a good setup :P

but talking about heroics i crit 21 k in vh yesterday and pulled 11k on the last boss killing it in 15 seconds

armoury link : just search nexttosmelly im at school now and they blocked it :O

[Samin]

if your leveling your druid stay feral

Yeah and frost is still the best levelling spec for mages. Welcome to WotLK.

[Lori]

Yeah and frost is still the best levelling spec for mages. Welcome to WotLK.

Frost IS the best leveling specc for mages!

btw Oomkin = Newbkin = Boomkin

[Crusoe]

what i want to know is, would it be more wise to stay feral and get offspec gear, or go boomkin now with trash gear from the AH.

Roll as feral until you get your free T9 from running heroics, or you will be made fun of, and kicked from random heroics for pulling bad dps. If people inspec you and see you have a moonkin spec and have feral gear they will kick you harder. Once you got your T9 gear you can have the confidence to run heroics without being kicked due to gear issues.

[Rooskie93]

MoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMo onfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoon fireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfi reMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfire MoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMo onfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoon fireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfi reMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfire MoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMo onfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoon fireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfi reMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfire MoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMo onfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoon fireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfi reMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfire MoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMo onfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoon fireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfi reMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfire MoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMo onfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoon fireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfi reMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfire MoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMo onfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoon fireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfi reMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfire MoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMo onfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoon fireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfi reMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfire MoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMo onfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoon fireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfireMoonfi reMoonfire!