The Moonkin Guide - Cataclysm edition

[Anathor]

So I have DMC Volcano, and I see this question up there but basically, would the alch trinket be better than the bell from atramedes and the blue gale of shadows? The straight int makes it a stable trinket. I have hit cap without hit trinkets anyways.

This was posted in EJ thread, positing it here since the results are quite clear.

http://simulationcraft.org/406-6/Dru...s_T11_359.html

Generally speaking the only blue trinket that is really worth it is the Serpent Figurine. As you see from the list only Gale and Hourglass are competitive, but still lower than most epic trinkets except Slump of Time.

Now looking at the top, DMC:V is above everything else as we knew, with the Serpent Figurine being significantly higher than the epic trinkets, who are all more or less clumped together: mirror, alchemist stone, bell and heart. I'd say which one to use depends on availability and current needs. The big plus from the stone is that it stacks an impressive amount of int (351, most of all trinkets) coupled with a ton of haste, which is still our most desirable secondary stat, and it helps reach the next haste breakpoint. The potion effect isn't that bad, although I tend to use Volcanic potions, it's nice to know that I can self-heal 30-40k in a pinch with a mystery potion (I'm not mentioning mana since running oom simply doesn't happen, short of being battle-rezzed with innerv on CD, and even then it's usually not a problem).

[Deleted]

A question for Qieth in particular, but anybody else is welcome to answer too ^^

What keybinds do you use (and why)? I'm interested in how people are using the keyboard vs mouse (potentially differently in different situations).

I can list them, but I'm not sure they help anyone but me. You would probably be best off by putting keybinds that fits your style of play, rather than those that fits my style of play First off, here's a screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/xn37H.jpg

As you can see, 1-7 is basicly just IS, SF, wrath, MF, hurricane, starsurge and cyclone. Now, I really never use cyclone, and starsurge is actually also bound to R - i never use 6 either. Main reason for this is actually that I cant reliably hit anything past 5 without looking at the keyboard. 8 is actually bound to B, which I use for my shrooms macro. 9 (innervate) is a button that I always click with the mouse - force of habit.

The last three buttons are for starfall (½ key on danish keyboards, to the left of the 1 key), Q for roots and T for my thorns macro. I sometimes swap this out for Hibernate, if I have to CC.

Second bar are heals, but I always shift + 2 to heal, ress, etc.

Third bar is more interesting. The keybinds I have here are the special bound keys. I have F for my treants, E for solar beam, < for barkskin, Z for my Loot-a-rang. R comes along for Starsurge, G for Typhoon. You will notice that these are all keys that I can reach without moving my hand away from WASD. At the bottom I have stuff like my Mammoth on J, H for my Invincible, alt + H if I want to show off Mimirons head and Æ (danish key) for making sure I have my moonkin gear equipped.

I have CTRL + R for healthstone and a mouse button bound to my BOOM macro - basicly volcanic potion + berserking. Lastly, I swap into forms with ALT + 1...6. ALT+5 is moonkin form.

This works for me - it might not for you :P

[masterprtzl]

This was posted in EJ thread, positing it here since the results are quite clear.

http://simulationcraft.org/406-6/Dru...s_T11_359.html

Generally speaking the only blue trinket that is really worth it is the Serpent Figurine. As you see from the list only Gale and Hourglass are competitive, but still lower than most epic trinkets except Slump of Time.

Now looking at the top, DMC:V is above everything else as we knew, with the Serpent Figurine being significantly higher than the epic trinkets, who are all more or less clumped together: mirror, alchemist stone, bell and heart. I'd say which one to use depends on availability and current needs. The big plus from the stone is that it stacks an impressive amount of int (351, most of all trinkets) coupled with a ton of haste, which is still our most desirable secondary stat, and it helps reach the next haste breakpoint. The potion effect isn't that bad, although I tend to use Volcanic potions, it's nice to know that I can self-heal 30-40k in a pinch with a mystery potion (I'm not mentioning mana since running oom simply doesn't happen, short of being battle-rezzed with innerv on CD, and even then it's usually not a problem).

Great, yeah thats what I assumed. I like the alch stone trinket due to just sheer int. No RNG involved on procs / proc timing, just straight int / haste. The bell is meh, crit even reforged into haste is still meh imo.

[Anathor]

I can list them, but I'm not sure they help anyone but me.

Thanks for your answer, it honestly helps me. I think the way keybinds, mousebinds are defined and generally speaking how we interact with the game, have a really strong influence on our performance during raid, be it moving around or ensuring consistent high dps.

I was mostly asking because I have noticed that there are very very few turret fights in Cataclysm, and fortunately Blizzard has been consistent in this approach by giving us (and most other dps specs across classes) some possibility to keep nuking while moving. However I have also noticed that I have what I would call some "right-hand overload" - if I use keybinds I have to move (pretty much all the time) and cast spells at the same time, and I'm finding it either increasingly difficult or affecting my dps performance.

I have tried assigning this issue by "giving work" to all the fingers, so here is an example of my set-up, wondering how to fix it:
- I move with w/s (middle finger) and strafe with q/e (index/ring), turn with mouse
- a/d for IS/MF (index/ring) and shift-a/shift-d (index/ring + small) for wrath and starfire
- shift-s for starsurge (middle + small)

I still run into issues because I like strafing + spamming MF, obviously I can't strafe to the right and spam moonfire with the same finger. I tend to strafe A LOT because it keeps my target in the area in front of me and I can keep spamming instants.

For spells I don't spam it's not so much of a problem, I use 2/3 for WM/Detonate, z for barkskin, etc.

It might sound like noobish concerns but I'm really trying to find something that is at the same time comfortable and efficient.

I have also managed to cut down drastically on keybinds by binding all the "friendly" spells to Healbot: (left / middle / right buttons)
- w/o key modifier : thorns / rebirth / innervate
- shift = healing: HT / rejuv / LB
- alt: target / tranq / decurse
- ctrl is for rarely used stuff (regrowth, nourish, ...)

[Deleted]

hey to everyone i would like to ask a lil question: is the hit always the same as spirit for treants? is it better having a bit of pure hit as melee got? and also is there a way to make them not parry? or is just a matter of position?

[Deleted]

hey to everyone i would like to ask a lil question: is the hit always the same as spirit for treants? is it better having a bit of pure hit as melee got? and also is there a way to make them not parry? or is just a matter of position?

Spirit and Hit is not the same for treants, afaik and according to Wrathcalcs it hasn't really been shown how hit works for treants. You will notice boomkins reforging to hit instead.

I got a question myself, Is there any "easier" way to find our BiS list rather than going through different gearsetups with wrathcalcs? Like Rawr did in WotLK (I used to run as cat). I know Rawr still gets updates, but how accurate is that nowdays, it was a problem before, that I know..

[Sysunia]

Well with reforeging, sharing itemization with resto druids, spirit giving hit and all that cata stuff you just got for the int lether pice with the highest ilvl, get rings/back/neck/weapons with haste and whatever other secondary stat. The only hard part realy are the trinkets but somone postes a BiS list for those like 3 posts before.

[Wooblez]

given the feedback on many BIS lists saying Relic of Eonar (Healer Valor point relic spirit / crit). Would 346 captured lightning be a better choice then that? you're only losing 18 spirit and 12 int but gaining a decent chunk of haste(28 with relic compared to 69 with captured lightning).

Thoughts?

wowhead.com/item=56372

can't post links yet

[Rdx]

given the feedback on many BIS lists saying Relic of Eonar (Healer Valor point relic spirit / crit). Would 346 captured lightning be a better choice then that? you're only losing 18 spirit and 12 int but gaining a decent chunk of haste(28 with relic compared to 69 with captured lightning).

Thoughts?

relic of norgannon is currently BiS for heroic BiS set

[Anathor]

There are 2 ilvl 359 relics that you can buy from the VP vendor, and that cater for different stats: either Eonar (with spirit and crit) or Norgannon (with crit and haste).

Given that hit is pretty equal to haste in our stat priority, one or the other shouldn't matter much. In on case you (try to) get full benefit from the hit and reforge crit to haste, or get full benefit from the haste and reforge crit to hit.

I guess the choice is made depending on what you need most at the time of buying. I went for the haste one since there's no cap on haste.

In any case both are better than Captured Lightning (in the case of the haste/crit one: +18 sta +12 int +3 haste +43 crit vs +25 hit).

[Wooblez]

reason i'm asking is because i noticed one of the top boomkins in the world using captured lightning so decided to look into it a bit.

http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...ersdw/advanced

[Thalur]

reason i'm asking is because i noticed one of the top boomkins in the world using captured lightning so decided to look into it a bit.

http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...ersdw/advanced

Looks like he forgot to buy the epic Relic. By replacing Captured Lightning with Norgannon (and reforging the ring), he would gain:
+12 Int, +3 Haste, +44 Crit, +3 Hit/Spi, -29 Mastery.

As a general rule, always prefer items with haste over other items. You can usually get enough hit from reforging.

[Wooblez]

he's one of the top druids in the world, i don't think he's forgotten to replace his relic lol. If anyone that plays on EU would like to ask him if he did, i'll be happy to retract my statement.. but im 99.99% sure there is a method to his madness.

edit: trying to get ahold of him via guild website, so hopefully i'll have the answer soon.

[Sysunia]

Dude just get the epic caster relic...

[Anathor]

he's one of the top druids in the world, i don't think he's forgotten to replace his relic lol. If anyone that plays on EU would like to ask him if he did, i'll be happy to retract my statement.. but im 99.99% sure there is a method to his madness.

edit: trying to get ahold of him via guild website, so hopefully i'll have the answer soon.

I checked for a "method to this madness" (bad pun btw as in "this specific relic gets him EXACTLY to both hit cap and next haste nreakpoint" but... no.

Maybe he spent VPs on something else, like getting OS gear, etc.

But I guess the answer will be "I have my reasons, you have yours, do what is best for you, which is probably to go and buy one of the epic relics"

[Kallume]

Just a quick question I wanted to ask here rather than start a new thread.

Trinkets:
Volcano + ? = BiS?

[anmblack1]

Volcano + Witching Hour Glass.

I'm getting a 200-300 DPS increase with Witching Hour Glass (285 INT Haste Proc) over Mirror (321 INT Mastery Proc), maybe just RNG I spent 6 minutes with each trinket on the dummy, did 4-5million damage.

14.5k dps with witching/volcano
14.1k dps with mirror/volcano

however i started both 6 minute test with 5 lunar power in eclipse mode.
my rotation was insect swarm ---> moonfire > starfall > treant > starsurge > starfire till solar

I pretty sure Haste is the best DPS stat we got, I'm thinking of staying 346 haste/spirit chest instead of the epic wormling spirit/mastery

[Deleted]

Volcano + Witching Hour Glass.

I'm getting a 200-300 DPS increase with Witching Hour Glass (285 INT Haste Proc) over Mirror (321 INT Mastery Proc), maybe just RNG I spent 6 minutes with each trinket on the dummy, did 4-5million damage.

14.5k dps with witching/volcano
14.1k dps with mirror/volcano

however i started both 6 minute test with 5 lunar power in eclipse mode.
my rotation was insect swarm ---> moonfire > starfall > treant > starsurge > starfire till solar

I pretty sure Haste is the best DPS stat we got, I'm thinking of staying 346 haste/spirit chest instead of the epic wormling spirit/mastery

What I love about mirror is the immense controllable burst you have with it. Think maloriak, you know you have the dps to kill the boss anyway, so at the start of the fight you roll to almost solar eclipse, wait for revelation (the proc) by starfiring a bit, then hit solar with revelation up just as the dark phase begins. 90 seconds with the full buff in solar, all your spells (WM, Typhoon, IS, SF) buffed, its massive.

[Thalur]

I pretty sure Haste is the best DPS stat we got, I'm thinking of staying 346 haste/spirit chest instead of the epic wormling spirit/mastery

This is a clear dps loss, and the only reason why you would not equip T11 chest over Forgetfulnes is if you are extremely low on Hit and cannot afford to reforge to haste. When you replace your blue chest with T11 (reforged to haste), you gain:
+39 Int, -83 Haste, -202 Spirit, +218 Mastery, +119 Crit.

Seeing that Int is more than twice as powerful for dps as Haste, you are sacrificing roughly the dps of 120 Crit. Not upgrading would be foolish.

EDIT: About the trinkets, my personal tests show Heart to be far ahead of the blue Witching Hourglass (EJ agrees). The burst is controllable as well and you get 2x2 full hastened DoTs per usage.

[Deleted]

Seeing that Int is more than twice as powerful for dps as Haste, you are sacrificing roughly the dps of 120 Crit. Not upgrading would be foolish.

EDIT: About the trinkets, my personal tests show Heart to be far ahead of the blue Witching Hourglass (EJ agrees). The burst is controllable as well and you get 2x2 full hastened DoTs per usage.

I find heart to be a boss dependent trinket. On something like magmaw it's awesome.