Guide to Moonkin PvP in Cataclysm

[Kawakazi]

Table of Contents
I. Disclaimer
II. The new and the old and improved
II.i. Mana and Eclipse
II.ii. Starsurge
II.iii. Magic Mushroom
II.iv. Solar Beam
II.v. Thorns
II.vi. Moonfire
II.vii. Glyphs
III. Breakdown
III.i. Overall Damage
III.ii. Overall Healing
III.iii. Overall Survivability
IV. Misc changes
V. Thank You!
I. Disclaimer: This guide will be updated with time and changes. EVERYTHING is subject to change. Will update when needed. We all know damage and health isn't scaled yet. We all know next season's pvp gear isn't implemented yet. We all know there are still many mechanics to change, weather it is during the Beta, after Beta and before release, or post release in a patch. WE ALL KNOW . Please do not reply with anything along the lines of "this may change" unless you have something meaningful to add to it, like why it is going to change, or why it should. Any mistakes made please comment below. Thank you.

II. The new and the old and improved:

Mana and Eclipse
NOTE: I put both Mana and Eclipse together in order to emphasize how well Eclipse compliments Mana regen. SP -> INT is a fantastic mechanic. Before this change we really went oom FAST, even with innervate on ourselves. Now it is almost impossible to OOM in pvp as long as you are proccing your eclipses, although it is a bit hard to get a Solar Eclipse if someone is focus interrupting you, as long as you Starsurge and use moonfire instead of wrath as filler, you will get it. The Eclipse bar acts sort of like a rage bar, scales with gear and doubles the amount gained on crits. Eclipse itself is a 45% (Modified by mastery rating) Damage buff to EVERY spell in it's respective Eclipse. Just like now, spam Wrath and Starsurge to get a Lunar Eclipse. Lunar Eclipse will increase the damage of Moonfire, Starfire, Starfall, and Starsurge. Spam Starfire and Starsurge in order to gain a Solar Eclipse. Solar Eclipse increases the damage done by Wrath, Insect Swarm, Starsurge, Thorns, Entangling Roots, and (Not yet confirmed) Force of Nature. Currently, the buff lasts 45 seconds or until you reach 1 on the opposite side of your Eclipse bar. The Eclipse bar currently decays VERY fast out of combat, a rate of about 5 a second.

Starsurge
Speaking on Starsurge, this thing is fantastic for peeling. Hits like Optimus Prime holding a copy of himself as a tractor trailer, forcing the healer to stop fearing / burning / cycloning and what have you, and making him heal, while also knocking down whoever you were attacking.It is unblinkable, will stun an unstunable DK, doesn't share DR with most other stuns (Shares DR with Warrior knockdown stun) and will give you half of your eclipse bar on a crit. This spell is a little tricky to use, and you get your choices on how to use it. You can use it on cooldown and let fate decide how it works, or you can think for a moment on when to use it. During Ecliplse, it hits 45% harder, but it will also drain your Eclipse bar to the other side faster than Wrath or Starfire. You can use it to build up your Eclipse bar when you don't have the buff yet. Or you can use it for both. If you use Starsurge anywhere from -4 - 1 on the Eclipse bar, you get most of it's benefit + 45% more damage. That's what we call a win-win.

Magic Mushroom (This one is a bit long)
This spell is fantastic. Easy to place, much like trees without the annoying "No path available" error. Low cost of mana, near instant cast, and three placable at a time. Now for the best part. While not that good for feral or resto, other then an attempt to break someones stealth, for Moonkins, it will 70% slow anyone that gets hit by the explosion or anyone who goes into the lingering cloud for 10 seconds. That means even if you leave the cloud, you are still slowed for 10 seconds, if you enter the cloud at 5 seconds remaining and then leave, you will get the debuff for 5 seconds. The clouds seem to ignore line of sight slightly. Useful places in arena are the Tomb in Ruins, any pillar in Nagrand, covers most of the bridge in Blades Edge, notably if placed behind them while pillaring, you can separate them quite easily with clever use of typhoon as well, can be placed behind three of the four pillars in RoV (will cover the entire thing if placed on the top of the pillar, including the surrounding ground around the pillar, even when up), and around boxes in Dalaran, two will cover the entire area around boxes, while one will cover just enough for the entire back part of the boxes and a bit of the front, and all sides.
The cloud is huge. Even though the tooltip says 8 yards, it is much, much bigger. It feels much like desecration if you have ever played a Death Knight.
The main point of this ability is, yes, it has amazing peeling capabilities, it can throw people out of position so fast it will make their heads spin (will stop out of LoS drinking and slow them behind a pillar). But it gives us stopping power. With this ability you can't just run LoS of a moonkin in say, 2s, because he has no slows other than typhoon, which, more often than not, will toss them closer to their LoS. Once they finally hit LoS after their constant barage of wraths and starsurges to heal / get healed, you use this time to reposition your mushrooms. Note that the slow obviously doesn't break on damage like roots does.
The spell also has an amazing potential in BGs. Cover an entire hill up to LM in slow, or really any choke point at any battleground, it is invaluable, especially the tunnel in warsong gulch if you are running with the flag.
Also when your trees die, weather from actually dying or their duration running out. (The latter is bugged and doesn't work every time)
Whew, that as a long one.

Solar Beam
Solar Beam can either be the worst nightmare for a caster, or something that can be shrugged off. Currently, Solar Beam is basically a void zone that silences you. I believe it is intended to no longer silence once you leave the beam's range, but the silence lingers for a few seconds. The spell is targeted, meaning you must have a target to use it, you can't place it anywhere you want like Hurricane or Force of Nature. The range to use the spell is 30 yards, and the silence area is about 6 yards. The effect is undispellible and has a one minute cooldown. Prevent escape with use of Starsurge stun (so they don't move anywhere during latency on roots) into Entangling Roots into Solar Beam.

Thorns
Many of you know, Thorns got one of it's first mechanic changes since the release of World of Warcraft. It's damage has been increased by 1400% and the Duration is 20 seconds. Cooldown is 45 seconds. Costs a minuscule amount of mana. You can place it on any friendly target you like. Thorns has no delay per attack, like Retribution Aura, unlike all Shaman elemental shields. Deals about 3000 damage per attack. Most likely to be toned down a bit, but who knows, Cataclysm will be all about wearing your target down without burst, and this is just that.

Moonfire
Remember the days of Moonfire spam? We would be OOM at the end of it, but that Warrior, rogue, Mage, or whatever else would be dead by the end of it most of the time. Well, those days are back, and with a vengeance. Lunar Shower (http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/33603/) now increases damage by 45% and reduces mana cost by 30% per stack, which after the first Moonfire, stacks by itself as long as you keep moving. This is your new filler ability while attempting to get your Eclipse while Starsurge is down, so you don't start reseting your bar with Wraths. It's mana cost at three stacks is completely negligible, with your base Spirit (which now increases MP5) you will regen more mana then spent during your Moonfire spam.

Glyphs (the changed ones) Will add more later when I have access to the beta, current internet cannot access non browser based internet functions.
Glyph of Wrath: Increases damage done by Wrath by 10% if the target is afflicted with Insect Swarm
Glyph of Thorns: Reduces the cooldown on Thorns by 20 seconds (5 second downtime if used on cooldown)
Glyph of Entangling Roots: Instant cast. Great in combination with Solar Beam.
Glyph of Solar Beam: Duration increased by 5 seconds.

III. Breakdown

Overall Damage
I repeat, as said in the disclaimer: Yes, we all know damage and health isn't scaled yet. We all know next season's pvp gear isn't implemented yet. We all know there are still many mechanics to change, weather it is during the Beta, after Beta and before release, or post release in a patch. WE ALL KNOW .
Currently, Moonkin is a top contender in duels and Battlegrounds. You do unhealable damage which is pretty consistant during Wrath and Starfire spam, with some burst with Starsurge, and insane damage during Starfall + Force of Nature + Solar Beam and the like. Most duels VS Melee you can Thorns, pop all Cooldowns, trinket a stun, and win with Typhoon Starsurge.

Overall Healing
Healing is a bit weird now. No longer will you Nourish...ever. Healing Touch is your spell to use when behind a pillar with no chance of interruption to save mana. It heals you for as much as Nourish (Nourish does a lot more healing now) and has a .5 second shorter cast time. Unlike Nourish, it costs very little mana. Rejuvination and Lifebloom are still your goto HoTs. They now scale with haste and crit. Lifebloom costs very little mana again and now has a 10 second duration base. Regrowth is your new Nourish. Costs a bit of mana, nothing too serious for Moonkins however, and the HoT now has a six second duration, also scaling with haste and crit. The main weird thing to get used to is, HoTs and DoTs no longer clip. Meaning, if you were to spam Rejuvination, you would still get ticks from it every 3 (modified by haste) seconds even though you are reseting the duration. So spamming Regrowth still gives you it's HoT ticks. The total healing now rivals and even exceeds once fully HoTted that of Shadow Priests and Ele Shamans.

Overall Survivability
Hard to judge. Our health, and armor (out of form) are higher. For reference, in my old arena gear, which stacked stam, spell power, and resil, I had about 34k health self buffed. Still not as much as a Warrior stacking ARP. At 80, once in Beta, I had well over 40000 health, nearing 45k. Once replacing all the stam stacking for INT stacking, I had about 5% lower health than a warrior, which was about 39000 health. This just gives you an idea of how much extra stam we, the non plate wearers, have. Armor has gone up in caster form, and down in Moonkin form. Before I had more than Plate, but less than Plate with shield. Now it is Less than Plate, but more than Mail with shield. We no longer take 15% less damage while in Moonkin form. Barkskin is 20% damage reduction. To sum it up, Moonkin feels very sturdy both in and out of form.

IV. Misc Changes

Misc Changes (VERY unfinished, will get to this at a later time today)
Moonkin form now increases armor by 120%, gives an aura for 5% crit, and increases all Arcane and Nature damage by 10%.
Nature's Grace Now increases your haste by 1/2/3%.
Wrath cast time has been increased by 1 second.
Cyclones cast time has been increased by .5 seconds.
Cyclone now has a 24 yard range if specced into Gale Winds.
Entangling Roots cast time has been increased by .5 seconds.
Most specs will get Furor because of its 15% max mana increase. You will now be able to Bear Bash without using Enrage.
Balance of Power no longer increases Hit chance by a percentage, it now increases total damage done and increases hit based on 100% of your spirit for two talent points.
Crits no longer refunds mana.
Moonkin Frenzy no longer returns mana.
Innervate is now 20% of YOUR maximum mana, not the targets. Unneeded in the current state of Moonkin Mana regen. Save for your healer.

V. Thank you!
Please leave questions, comments and feedback in the replies, I'll get to them as soon as I can, and thanks in advance for them.
I will continue to update this as new information becomes available. Once it becomes relevant I will update with a guide for each class, gemming, gearing, tips, and comps once Cata ships .

[halpfultroll]

Great guide, is the Mushroom slow actually a magical debuff?

[Kawakazi]

Great guide, is the Mushroom slow actually a magical debuff?

No, it is currently undispellible.

[dmx87212]

"Cyclone now has a 34 yard range if specced into Gale Winds."

Is this true? I'm pretty sure its still at pitiful 24 yard range.

Otherwise very nice posts. Very positive and optimistic. Will we be taken over a shadow priest/ele shaman/mage/ warlock?

[wingcommander]

Thanks for posting the information, it was very informative.

I'm liking the idea of mushrooms sounds great. Can't wait to try it out and think of other uses for them. I like it .. a lot!!!

Would the mushrooms cloud and silence void affect us. We shouldn't be in it, but it might have it uses.

Cheers!!

[Kawakazi]

"Cyclone now has a 34 yard range if specced into Gale Winds."

Is this true? I'm pretty sure its still at pitiful 24 yard range.

Otherwise very nice posts. Very positive and optimistic. Will we be taken over a shadow priest/ele shaman/mage/ warlock?

Sorry, that was a typeo, I did mean to say 24 yards.

Right now, Moonkin feels like a Destruction Warlock mixed in with Mobility and slowing, and toss in some fantastic healing and Innervate. Innervate can almost always be used on your healer. If you really need mana, you can fall back on moonfire spam for pressure while waiting for your eclipse bar to reset so you can Starfire back to Solar Eclipse, it is the Eclipse that takes less mana to get to, and you spend about 3% of your mana getting there, and it refunds 12%.

So to answer, no, I don't think we will be overshadowed by Priests, Shamans, Mages, or Warlocks. Some will be better in different comps, while we will be better in others.

Thanks for posting the information, it was very informative.

I'm liking the idea of mushrooms sounds great. Can't wait to try it out and think of other uses for them. I like it .. a lot!!!

Would the mushrooms cloud and silence void affect us. We shouldn't be in it, but it might have it uses.

Cheers!!

We don't get slowed by our own mushrooms, and we don't get silenced by our own Solar Beam. Most of the time I will back myself to a wall while fighting a DK, Solar Beam right on top of us, and freecast because he can't interrupt or silence or antimagic zone/shell while silenced.

[Rudy]

is some1 lookin for a sticky?

nice post btw, a little of optimism in a game where every1 says 'i hate that, that isn't good, my class sucks' etc

[dmx87212]

Are the mushroom instant cast? And I can only imagine the kiting capabilities with Fungal Growth and the instant ER glyph.

Moonkins are in a kinda nice position if you look at it this way. We still lack some awesome procs/interesting tree, but if its working thats good.

How is proccing eclipse for you in battlegrounds/arena?

[Kawakazi]

Are the mushroom instant cast? And I can only imagine the kiting capabilities with Fungal Growth and the instant ER glyph.

Moonkins are in a kinda nice position if you look at it this way. We still lack some awesome procs/interesting tree, but if its working thats good.

How is proccing eclipse for you in battlegrounds/arena?

Throwing the mushroom down is a .5 second cast, detonating them is instant.
Really the only thing I ever complained about as a Moonkin during Wrath was lack of staying power, solved by mushrooms, and lack of mana regen, solved by the new Eclipse.
Can't do arenas right now, donno why. In BGs, Eclipse is extremely easy to proc if you aren't getting focus shocked by a Shaman or getting chain stunned. Obviously when you are getting chain stunned you aren't generating and lunar or solar power, but while getting shocked you can juke most of them. Takes about an extra 30-40% time to hit a new Eclipse, which is about 4 or 5 seconds more generally.

Pretty much the only thing I am hoping for is a new 4 set bonus. The current one works well now because 1 Starfall can proc an Eclipse if it crits. It will be near useless for proccing Eclipses in the xpac. Hopefully they give us something along the lines of reducing both Starfires cast time and damage, or allowing Moonfire to generate Solar energy.

is some1 lookin for a sticky?

nice post btw, a little of optimism in a game where every1 says 'i hate that, that isn't good, my class sucks' etc

Thanks