Boomkin - Questing difficulties

[Sunfyre]

I've tried almost every DPS spec in the game. Balance was, by far, the worst one for leveling, soloing and dailies. Stuff doesn't seem to die as quickly unless you keep using your cooldowns, and you have to use a lot more CC than other classes. It was frustrating me so much that I changed my druid to Guardian / Resto and never looked back.
I really wish that Blizzard would take some actions to improve the boomkin soloing experience. I love the rotation, and would really like to be able to play it again without being so frustrated whenever I'm not in a dungeon/raid.

It sounds like you weren't doing things right then, unless "cooldowns" meant things like typhoon, ursol's vortex, nature's grasp, etc.

[Deleted]

As balance you are able to handle more mobs for shorter time as in feral very simply.. Just keep in mind you have rejuvenation which you can roll 100% of time and typhoon to vortex in case you need a space to breath.

[wonderlust]

It sounds like you weren't doing things right then, unless "cooldowns" meant things like typhoon, ursol's vortex, nature's grasp, etc.

Yes, that's exactly what I mean. On every other class and spec, I rarely have to use abilities of that kind just to level or do dailies. On my boomkin, I had to use them pretty often. I had to be extra careful with typhoon and especially Starfall, or I'd risk pulling extra mobs, and I'd have to pop barkskin or nature's grasp and heal myself. My interrupt had a pretty long cooldown. It was a bunch of small things that, together, started to become pretty annoying to me.
Then I'd log onto my monk, my priest or my warlock, and have a much easier time doing the exact same quests... after about two months, playing my boomkin became pretty tiring.

Which was a real shame, because I love the boomkin rotation, and really enjoy them in PvP as well. But I can't bring myself to dedicate much time to the spec, when doing any kind of non-instanced content with it is so annoying to me.

[crunk]

Yes, that's exactly what I mean. On every other class and spec, I rarely have to use abilities of that kind just to level or do dailies. On my boomkin, I had to use them pretty often. I had to be extra careful with typhoon and especially Starfall, or I'd risk pulling extra mobs, and I'd have to pop barkskin or nature's grasp and heal myself. My interrupt had a pretty long cooldown. It was a bunch of small things that, together, started to become pretty annoying to me.
Then I'd log onto my monk, my priest or my warlock, and have a much easier time doing the exact same quests... after about two months, playing my boomkin became pretty tiring.

Which was a real shame, because I love the boomkin rotation, and really enjoy them in PvP as well. But I can't bring myself to dedicate much time to the spec, when doing any kind of non-instanced content with it is so annoying to me.

you find it less boring to simply spam dps buttons and win than using all of your class abilities? huh....

[Sunfyre]

Yes, that's exactly what I mean. On every other class and spec, I rarely have to use abilities of that kind just to level or do dailies. On my boomkin, I had to use them pretty often. I had to be extra careful with typhoon and especially Starfall, or I'd risk pulling extra mobs, and I'd have to pop barkskin or nature's grasp and heal myself. My interrupt had a pretty long cooldown. It was a bunch of small things that, together, started to become pretty annoying to me.
Then I'd log onto my monk, my priest or my warlock, and have a much easier time doing the exact same quests... after about two months, playing my boomkin became pretty tiring.

Which was a real shame, because I love the boomkin rotation, and really enjoy them in PvP as well. But I can't bring myself to dedicate much time to the spec, when doing any kind of non-instanced content with it is so annoying to me.

So basically you don't want to actually utilize the class, you want to mindlessly spam one button and win content? Sorry that moonkin can't provide that to you, but I don't exactly think the problem lies with the moonkin design.

[earthwormjim]

This is my toon

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...C3%AA/advanced

I will always queue as resto and my gear progression will always be in that role.

But in order to do dailies I needed a dps spec and naturally balance was the daily spec.

But I feel it takes forever to kill a 590khp Golden Lotus mob and I am losing a lot of health while killing it.

So my questions are

a) Is my problem with dailies/quest mobs is because of my gear ?.I should also point out that I have always been feral till 90 as my leveling spec.I am choosing balance as my dps spec as I can share gear with my main resto spec.

b) Do you guys keep Boomkin as your daily spec ? or Feral ?

Thanks for your time

Change your talents, get Nature's Vigil and Incarnation. You have the absolute worst talents for questing. As said earlier, nature's swiftness is better too.

For 30 seconds when NV and Incarnation are up, you will be godly, able to pull limitless mobs and they will all die very fast with those CDs rolling. You don't even need to kite when Nature's Vigil and Incarnation are up, you heal yourself completely with the passive from Nature's Vigil.

Make use of the class, and pull lots of stuff at all times. It might take you awhile to kill 1 mob, but nearly within that same time frame, you could kill 2-3 (or even more) mobs by multi-dotting and kiting.

Your gear is not the issue, when I hit 90 I was around 420 ilevel equipped. I had no issues pulling lots of stuff.

Boomies are pretty ideal for dailies. Very few classes (besides tanks) can pull anywhere near as many mobs as we can.

[Deleted]

Look guys you have a choice as boomkin. You can pull one quest mob at a time and have it take ages (until u get decent gear) or you can use your class skills and pull as many as you want. Quests now take less time and are more fun.
When you gear up dailes will become a mindless chore that takes seconds. I satill regret that i didn't understand this leveling as boomking from 85-90 (previously i played feral, guardian and resto) killing stuff one by one took ages and was dull. Oddly it was those damn goats that taught me to pull everything as the first few days the only way to tag ANY goats was to preplace shrooms and be on a hair trigger to detonate when they spawned. Then you had the whole pack to cope with.
After i did that a few times i thought wtf was i doing lvling like that and dailies that 1st couple of weeks started going a lot faster.
If kiting and multidotting aren't for you then luckily u haven't picked the wrong class......just the wrong spec .

[wonderlust]

you find it less boring to simply spam dps buttons and win than using all of your class abilities? huh....

There is a huge space between "spam Arcane Blast and top the meters" and "juggle 9 different abilities in order to complete a simple daily quest, then repeat that for your other 17 daily quests. Every day." I don't want either of those ends.

So basically you don't want to actually utilize the class, you want to mindlessly spam one button and win content? Sorry that moonkin can't provide that to you, but I don't exactly think the problem lies with the moonkin design.

How did you get THAT from my post. Reading comprehension FTW.

Is every other DPS spec in the game "spam one button and win"? Look at my sig; would I still be playing that many different classes and specs if I just wanted to find the "easy mode" one and "win"?

Sounds like you're taking personal offense to the fact that I didn't enjoy soloing on my moonkin, while you obviously enjoy it on yours. Which is, well, kinda crazy. I merely criticized the way that Blizzard designed the moonkin soloing experience, when compared to the soloing experiences of every other DPS spec that I've tried. None of them are "spam one button and win," but none of them are "be very, very careful, or you might end up attracting extra mobs and having to use lots of CC just to finish that daily" either.

What I want is for Blizzard to make the moonkin soloing experience more comparable to the others; more enjoyable, or less frustrating (not "mindlessly easy"). It is clear that I'm not the only one who thinks so (just read this topic, or similar topics in forums elsewhere). I would love to go back to playing my Druid as Balance, but looking at the bigger picture, it has certain flaws that make questing on it less enjoyable than on other specs, to me, at the moment. If Blizzard did something about those flaws - making the moonkin less reliant on CC, having more on-demand burst outside of big cooldowns, etc. - I'd be more than happy to get back on board.

If you disagree, that's awesome, but don't try to reduce my opinion to "this guy just wants to play easy mode, he doesn't want to put any effort," because that's just misinterpretation and exaggeration in order to "defend" the spec that you love (when, in fact, by shutting down those who criticize it and point out what could be improved, you're actually doing that spec a great disservice).

[Senarx]

Keep rejuv up at all times, barkskin when you're taking big hits, Nature's Swfitness+Healing touch is your oh shit button. It will only get any easier with gear. Also I'm a big fan of disorienting roar for when you pull too much and are about to die. Just pop it, stampeding roar+travel form+wild charge. I know the disorient only lasts 3 seconds but it hits everyone within your immediate vicinity, and you dont have to aoe-plant it.

[clevin]

Sunfyre... I know you can pull out the stops, kite expertly, avoid mobs and win (I'm still skeptical that you only dotted and used SS procs at 450... our crit at that level blows). However, I just don't see most people a) doing that at 450 and b) wanting to put that much effort into dailies. It's one thing to pull out a short CD ability like Starfall, but having to pop UV, etc. just to quest at a reasonable rate is just annoying. I got GL and Klaxxi to revered as Balance and sure, I kited stuff, used the toolkit etc but in some dailies (esp the first set of GL dailies) it's just tiresome. Sometimes, people do dailies as a light, somewhat relaxing thing and don't want to have to play at their best just to do them.

[Sunfyre]

Sunfyre... I know you can pull out the stops, kite expertly, avoid mobs and win (I'm still skeptical that you only dotted and used SS procs at 450... our crit at that level blows). However, I just don't see most people a) doing that at 450 and b) wanting to put that much effort into dailies. It's one thing to pull out a short CD ability like Starfall, but having to pop UV, etc. just to quest at a reasonable rate is just annoying. I got GL and Klaxxi to revered as Balance and sure, I kited stuff, used the toolkit etc but in some dailies (esp the first set of GL dailies) it's just tiresome. Sometimes, people do dailies as a light, somewhat relaxing thing and don't want to have to play at their best just to do them.

Listen, all I can tell you is I had absolutely no problem doing it as soon as I hit 90, on a PVP server, when I was having to quest and fend off Horde at the same time. Never did I think "God this is hard". Druids of any feather should not be complaining about questing. Half of your daily quests you can ez-mode in Flight Form. The other ones are simple kill quests, which you can either pull 2-3 with dots, starsurge when necessary, knockback when necessary, or you can put yourself down in an ideal area with flight form and pull one at a time.

Daily questing will still take you less time because you can GG flight form half of the quests.

---------- Post added 2013-02-10 at 08:27 PM ----------

How did you get THAT from my post. Reading comprehension FTW.

I got that from you complaining about needing to use Typhoon, Faerie Swarm, Ursol's Vortex, or any of our other abilities. You complain about 18 daily quests. A large chunk can be done in flight form.

So, clarify what your problem IS. If it's just the fact that you have to use crowd control to kill things, I'm not sure how you can really defend that. If that's NOT your problem, what is?

[Pascal]

Balance is only really good when you are gearing for it on purpose and have gear and stuff. I have zero problem with dailies, grinding, farming, etc., anything at all, but I've been balance for years and years and it's my main specc. The beginning of the expansion was a little rocky, but the inadequacies I felt were solved pretty instantly with more gear. Your gear is pretty, um, lackluster in general. Nothing wrong with using feral as your secondary specc, but until you get gear for it, that department will be problematic as well for its own reasons. The only other obvious problem is bagspace, but I've carried two sets of gear (and sometimes more) in my bags pretty much constantly since Vanilla.

I tried different aoe styles, but at this point in the game, I pretty much dot up three or four mobs, then single target each one down while keeping them dotting while they're wailing on me without needing much more than one rejuv, and typhooning them away once just to save on some damage taken. With your gear, I wouldn't recommend that, but all these posts about balance having no survivability and being horrible etc. - gear solves everything.

[clevin]

Listen, all I can tell you is I had absolutely no problem doing it as soon as I hit 90, on a PVP server, when I was having to quest and fend off Horde at the same time. Never did I think "God this is hard". Druids of any feather should not be complaining about questing. Half of your daily quests you can ez-mode in Flight Form. The other ones are simple kill quests, which you can either pull 2-3 with dots, starsurge when necessary, knockback when necessary, or you can put yourself down in an ideal area with flight form and pull one at a time.

Daily questing will still take you less time because you can GG flight form half of the quests.

Sorry, but I flat out do not believe you were pulling 4-5 mobs, fighting Horde at the same time as a new 90 and were doing just fine just dotting and SS proccing. Not unless the Horde were incompetent idiots.

Single target moonkin DPS at 450 or so is about 20k. That's crap when the mob has 590k. Yes, multidotting etc increases your DPS but you're also having to kill more targets (higher dps, yes, but need to burn down 2m or more in HP to kill all of the mobs).

And yes, FF makes some of the quests easy. We're mostly talking about the starter GL quests and other kill quests, esp those where mobs are tightly packed. The Klaxxi quests were much easier due to what was generally looser spacing.

Again, you seemed to like having to pull out most of our tools to do dailies. What you seem unwilling to see is that some people don't want to HAVE to do that, especially not all the damn time. I'm in the middle - but one reason I hate the first set of GL dailies is that they were a pain in the ass as a new moonkin.

[Sunfyre]

Single target moonkin DPS at 450 or so is about 20k. That's crap when the mob has 590k. Yes, multidotting etc increases your DPS but you're also having to kill more targets (higher dps, yes, but need to burn down 2m or more in HP to kill all of the mobs).

Again, you seemed to like having to pull out most of our tools to do dailies. What you seem unwilling to see is that some people don't want to HAVE to do that, especially not all the damn time. I'm in the middle - but one reason I hate the first set of GL dailies is that they were a pain in the ass as a new moonkin.

I can't ever recall dying doing daily quests except for ganks.

If your single target DPS is 20k at ilvl 450, you're doing it wrong.

If you don't want to use your class toolkit to play your class, that's not a defect in the class, that's a personal problem you have. I don't think you can justify that a class needs to be fixed because you can't be bothered to use the toolkit provided.

[Principe]

I can't ever recall dying doing daily quests except for ganks.

If your single target DPS is 20k at ilvl 450, you're doing it wrong.

If you don't want to use your class toolkit to play your class, that's not a defect in the class, that's a personal problem you have. I don't think you can justify that a class needs to be fixed because you can't be bothered to use the toolkit provided.

This pretty much.


Kiting mobs really isn't hard either, Travel form, dash, stampeding roar, ursols vortex, typhoon, entangling roots, displacer beast all on relatively short cooldowns.
The fact you can aoe multiple mobs down with mutlidotting and starfall along with starsurge procs shouldn't be an issue. Questing as a boomkin is really easy imo. If you pvp at all you should also already know how to do all this.

[Sunfyre]

This pretty much.


Kiting mobs really isn't hard either, Travel form, dash, stampeding roar, ursols vortex, typhoon, entangling roots, displacer beast all on relatively short cooldowns.
The fact you can aoe multiple mobs down with mutlidotting and starfall along with starsurge procs shouldn't be an issue. Questing as a boomkin is really easy imo. If you pvp at all you should also already know how to do all this.

I'm pretty sure I didn't hard cast much at all during dailies. Multi-dot in an Eclipse, Starsurge on proc, kite, rejuv, profit.

[Dandruid]

Honestly, I had no problems doing dailies. Throw rejuv on myself, dot everything under the sun, starsurge on proc, profit.

^^ Pritty much this, If you stand still and pull one mob at a time, your playing boomkin wrong. As Sunfyre says here, dot everything and finish with starsurge procs, standing still is just not what we do.

[wonderlust]

I got that from you complaining about needing to use Typhoon, Faerie Swarm, Ursol's Vortex, or any of our other abilities. You complain about 18 daily quests. A large chunk can be done in flight form.

So, clarify what your problem IS. If it's just the fact that you have to use crowd control to kill things, I'm not sure how you can really defend that. If that's NOT your problem, what is?

As explained in my last post, my problem is not that I don't want to use crowd control to kill things. I simply came to the conclusion, like many other people, that the mere act of killing a few mobs as a balance druid requires far more effort, or knowledge of the spec, than doing the same thing as any other DPS spec. If I were talking about heroic raiding, or high level PvP, or extreme soloing, that would be absolutely okay. But I'm simply talking about leveling to 90, and then doing quests (especially while you're still undergeared).

This is probably something that veteran balance druids, who have been playing the spec for years and years, might not even notice anymore. They're probably very used to the spec. But ask someone who is used to playing a mage, or a warlock, or a shadow priest, or an elemental shaman, and has never played a balance druid before, to try the spec, on a freshly created character. It requires an amount of effort that is unnecessary, when compared against the effort that pretty much any other spec in the game requires.

A mage might have to use his frost nova or polymorph and blink away every three or four pulls. That seems reasonable. When you ask someone who is used to doing just that to play a balance druid, and he suddenly has to use starfall, typhoon, ursol's vortex, nature's grasp and barkskin on almost every pull, and rely on cooldowns like Incarnation and Nature's Vigil to have any amount of burst, I guarantee you that the experience will be more frustrating than enjoyable.

Also, veteran balance druids cannot seriously expect that any person who is picking up the spec for the first time will be a master of kiting while multi-doting. Once you learn that, then yes, leveling and questing as a balance druid will probably become much easier. But is that a realistic thing to expect? Aren't good games supposed to be "easy to learn, hard to master"? In their current form, balance druids are hard to learn, hard to master. Veteran players of the spec don't notice that because they're already at the "mastery" stage.

[Sunfyre]

I'm sorry that you have to actually understand the class to play it to any sort of level. I still do not see how you claim this to be a defect in the class.

[Dandruid]

I have noticed a few of the people new to druid take a little while longer to get used to this class than others, but its just because it works a lot differently to other classes. Harder? no. Different? Yes, get used to it :P