[Balance] boomkin and levling... wait what?

[mikoslav]

Doesn't matter. If they were fully BIS and equally skilled Feral would do more.

Simply not true.
overall spec DPS parses for 10 men HC boomkin is 8th, feral is 13th.
http://raidbots.com/dpsbot/Overall_D...14/30/default/

As for the subject of this thread, I am boomkin, leveled as boomkin, and I dont recall any troubles with leveling while being 86-89.
It s funny when I am reading that boomkin should heal himself, which is a freaking obvious thing to do.
Perhaps if someone got main pure dps char, then when he s playing boomkin - selfheals arent that obvious.
Maybe I am used to boomkin, as I played only boomkin class for last 18 months 8 hours a day on average.
Self healing is a bit like part of your rotation while you re pulling packs, or elite, or rares.

Subject suggesting there is something wrong with leveling as boomkin is obviously RIDICULOUS,
and people advocating this BS are obviously lacking basic understanding and skill of boomkin spec.

[KCguy]

As elemental, it was painful leveling up as well. Once you replaced all of your DS gear the cast speed was so ridiculously slow. Boomkins hit like trucks at 90 though, so gut it out.

[traen]

yeah so im lvling my druid atm. lvl 86. nice and nifty. some DS /questing gear so not full 372.

But you should be in full 372. All 372 gear is sold by npc for 30-50g per item. There are multiple npcs selling items in pandaria, this npc for example.
On lvl 87 you will be able to buy 393 gear. There are vendors selling 408 gear for lvl88, I think you can find them by yourself now.

Don't forget to get some free lvl400-430 blue items from dungeon quests.

With all that gear your life will be twice as easier.

Its a little bit easier to level as feral (if you know how to play it), so you can buy full feral gear set and level as feral. But its not mandatory at all.
A lot of people leveled as boomkin and did not have any problems with it. I guess you are still a little bit clumsy with your class. Read some guides, read your abilities tooltips, maybe you'll find some powerful useful abilities you did not notice before. Roots for example is powerful utility to keep melee monsters away from you.

[Deleted]

As it can be with any caster that relies on sitting still. Boomies,Mages,Warlocks etc.

Sure I have seen ferals do pretty damn well (80k+ DPS) But boomkin outshines it by MILES

Mages can cast scorch(talent), warlock got 90 talent to cast while moving so ye, not a valid argument imo.

About the standing still part as caster

[Terahertz]

Mages can cast scorch(talent), warlock got 90 talent to cast while moving so ye, not a valid argument imo.

About the standing still part as caster

Idk how bad on-the-move DPS for boomkin is yet since I'm lvl 89 atm, but if it's that bad as you people make it out to be, then Lunar Shower should be buffed IMO or we should also get some ability that allows us to cast on the move.

[parkerlynne]

It's so interesting to see different opinions on boomkin leveling. I mained a boomkin all of Cata and she was my darling. But then leveling on her freaking sucked after 87 and she was benched shortly after hitting 90. I don't know if it was the pre-MoP talent/rotation overhaul or what but ugh it ruined it for me. I play a monk now :-\

[Deleted]

I farmed the shit out of the turtles @ Vot4W from 85-88 with the occasional dungeon, and then dread wastes quests at 89 for klaxxi rep.
Fast and easy as shit, literally just spamming 1 macro and running around.

[Tinsoul]

As elemental, it was painful leveling up as well. Once you replaced all of your DS gear the cast speed was so ridiculously slow. Boomkins hit like trucks at 90 though, so gut it out.

I didn't really switch out any DS gear until Dread Wastes. Probably should have. Kinda lazy. Edit: Notable exception was the engineer trinket for cunning. Cunning was pulling a lot of stuff I didn't want pulled.

I would guess in many cases it's a gear issue if people are having trouble leveling their moonkin. I was pulling packs of 4-5 through the first 2 zones, still 2-3 in the last 3 zones. Keep rejuv tickin' on yourself, spec renewal for when things get hairy. My moonkin has been the only toon of 4 I've got to 90 w/o derping and dieing, and went significantly faster then all but my warlock.

[traen]

I farmed the shit out of the turtles @ Vot4W from 85-88 with the occasional dungeon, and then dread wastes quests at 89 for klaxxi rep.
Fast and easy as shit, literally just spamming 1 macro and running around.

I wonder what xp/hour you can get this way.

[Malcor]

Mages can cast scorch(talent), warlock got 90 talent to cast while moving so ye, not a valid argument imo.

About the standing still part as caster

Because Scorch just does so much damage right?

Damn mages, Spamming scorch and getting 70k DPS

Oh wait...

[asharia]

pull more than one thing at a time

[Deleted]

I too leveled as boomkin and it was absolutely rubbish.
So slow killing things.
Every class i have leveled since was much much faster.
The reason?
I was a rubbish boomkin.
i played my whole wow career as feral/guardian and then switched to resto in DS.
What i should have been doing was pulling more than one mob at a time.
i should have been kiting and multidotting.
i finally learned whilst doing dailies that there is barely a limit to how many mobs you can pull at once as boomkin.

Anyway my point for the OP and others having the same problem is that leveling is very slow if u kill one at a time and very fast once you learn to kill whole packs at a time. Those of us that had a frustrating time were simply doing it wrong.

[Deleted]

Because Scorch just does so much damage right?

Damn mages, Spamming scorch and getting 70k DPS

Oh wait...

If you're fire yeah, it's totally doable.

[Keilden]

Remember to use both Sunfire and Starfire since they are two diffrent spells now.

[Buu]

I played Balance with refurbished Resto gear from Cata, and saw no problems to reach Halfhill.

Remember to use both Sunfire and Starfire since they are two diffrent spells now.

Valid theory. I did that.
383 ilvl, and keeping a steady 17K of damage at 86, which is more than enough:
Image

[mikoslav]

Remember to use both Sunfire and Starfire since they are two diffrent spells now.

you mean sunfire and moonfire.

[Terahertz]

Just a heads up on my previous reply. I now fully agree boomkin lvling is SLOW AS FUCK. My dots only do 3k non eclipsed and 4-5k eclipsed. My starfire only does 40k dmg and my wrath only does 24k dmg (both eclipsed ofc). It really sucks because I can literally global the living heck out of mobs as feral :/

[Lochton]

I tested Balance for a while on my second druid, but I found it to be going more smooth as Guardian. You can just handle a bit more and the rush. But I don't see the biggest problem for the Boomkin, it has a hiccup between 86 and 88 I feel, but then it goes okay again.

[Karashote]

I got Server First Druid as balance. There's nothing wrong with it.

[Senarx]

It's harder to lvl as a boomkin than it was in wrath or cata, but not by too much. I used Rejuv like I would Power Word Shield playing a priest(as much as possible), I made good use of disorienting roar(personal preference), typhoon, wild charge, and stampeding roar(occasionally coupled with travel form to gtfo dodge). When things got too hot I just used barkskin as per usual, and Nature's Swiftness+Healing touch.