Transition from Mage to Boomkin

[Steve the Sloth]

Hey all, just wanted to pop in and get some general thoughts. I've mained a Mage for the past couple xpacs and we're obviously doing fine as always. I'm going to transition into maining a Balance Druid for WoD though and was curious if anyone else has done this. I love the lore/design behind Balance which influenced my decision, I'm just worried about power differences and different gameplay styles.

Any noticeable differences that you guys can point out or any pointers on how to make the transition smooth?

[Deleted]

Why dont you just try boomkin and make up your mind?

If your plan is to wait for the insta-90 that you get from purchasing WoD, I wouldnt really suggest swapping mains like that. Make it your alt, main-alt or whatever, level a boomkin and get a feel for it yourself.

That being said, I thoroughly enjoy boomkins myself. Hard to compare mage(3 specs) to boomkin in terms of gamemechanics but the added utility that boomkins bring is amazing and makes it fun to play imo.

[Lunnar]

The Eclipse Bar and Nature's Grace (15% Haste Buff you gain for 15 seconds after hitting an Eclipse) control a lot more when to reapply DOTs or not as a Boomkin. Whereas a lot of other DOT Classes (I know Mage only has one), tend to do it with just Trinket Procs. Also when moving you rely on DOT Crits (RNG) procing instant Starsurges instead of spamming like a Scorch/Ice Lance. The single target rotation otherwise isn't too complicated just going between the sun (Solar) and the moon (Lunar).

It's good to see you've picked a Boomkin as your Class of choice though, it certainly is fun and worth the effort.

[jtstormrage]

I fully agree with this. If you are going to change main, start from level 1 and spend a week running around levelling, getting used to the class and spec.

You will learn about its mobility, survivability, damage, burst, everything.

You will also build up a decent set of keybinds which you will get used to as you learn new abilities.

Also, do levelling and dungeons too to mix it up.

This is much better than waiting for a 90 boost. Much better.

As to specific changes, the main thing about Moonkin is to get a good eclipse tracker, and a good dot tracker. Keep your dots up and use your Starsurge procs. Maximise eclipse uptime and time cooldown usage because they have very powerful cooldowns but, if you waste them, you will not do great damage.

Moonkin playstyle will change (and imo be easier) in WOD when they remove dot-snapshotting, and so cooldown usage will be even more important. The level 100 talents (e.g. starfall with each eclipse) will also change playstyle.

There is actually not a huge difference between Moonkin and a Frost Mage in terms of pure dps playstyle. It is not the hardest move, but personally I find Moonkin more fun than mage, especially as you can roar and tranq and battle res and use HoW or NV to heal if needed. Mages have sick survivability and cc and can soak, but Druids have more raid utility as a whole (and you can go Resto on some fights if needed which is so valuable).

[Talisman]

It is the most fun to play for casters. It does however require a lot of preparation in fights and lots of patience. if you decide to start leveling from now, know that boomkins scale well with gear and are in fact gear dependent. You will start seeing proper DPS as of ilvl 525 and on.

Moreover, at some stages in some fights you are required to be at a certain point in your eclipse bar oriented to either lunar or solar depending on the situation. And the outcome also depends on trinket procs and SS procs and lots of factors which you have to consider.

It might sound complicated, but in fact with practice it will become natural and you will feel great satisfaction playing that class. Go for it, be patient and have a blast.

[Delekii]

I fully agree with this. If you are going to change main, start from level 1 and spend a week running around levelling, getting used to the class and spec.

You will learn about its mobility, survivability, damage, burst, everything.

You will also build up a decent set of keybinds which you will get used to as you learn new abilities.

Also, do levelling and dungeons too to mix it up.

This is much better than waiting for a 90 boost. Much better.

As to specific changes, the main thing about Moonkin is to get a good eclipse tracker, and a good dot tracker. Keep your dots up and use your Starsurge procs. Maximise eclipse uptime and time cooldown usage because they have very powerful cooldowns but, if you waste them, you will not do great damage.

Moonkin playstyle will change (and imo be easier) in WOD when they remove dot-snapshotting, and so cooldown usage will be even more important. The level 100 talents (e.g. starfall with each eclipse) will also change playstyle.

There is actually not a huge difference between Moonkin and a Frost Mage in terms of pure dps playstyle. It is not the hardest move, but personally I find Moonkin more fun than mage, especially as you can roar and tranq and battle res and use HoW or NV to heal if needed. Mages have sick survivability and cc and can soak, but Druids have more raid utility as a whole (and you can go Resto on some fights if needed which is so valuable).

I really can't rolleyes these sorts of posts enough. Leveling up as a class doesn't teach you how to play it properly at 90. There is practically zero times before 90 that you will do the "dps rotation" for longer than 3 seconds at a time. You could spend your time "learning the class" as you level up, or you could be 90, learn your class at 90, and not have to level.

There is no class in this game that is difficult to learn for someone who can actually read. Will you get better at it over time? Sure. Don't start with half your payload if you don't have to.

[The Kao]

I really can't rolleyes these sorts of posts enough. Leveling up as a class doesn't teach you how to play it properly at 90. There is practically zero times before 90 that you will do the "dps rotation" for longer than 3 seconds at a time. You could spend your time "learning the class" as you level up, or you could be 90, learn your class at 90, and not have to level.

There is no class in this game that is difficult to learn for someone who can actually read. Will you get better at it over time? Sure. Don't start with half your payload if you don't have to.

Disagree to some degree. You have to do it right if you wish to profit from the leveling phase.

I always leveled my classes after quickly flying over some guide and memorizing a few important things. Then while you level play the class consciously, not just spamming random buttons. Get an idea of how skills and passives work one by one instead of just ignoring everything. The more levels and abilities you get and weave into your knowledge of the class, the more natural things will come when you play the class, and the deeper your understanding of the fine aspects will be afterwards.

If you properly level a class the knowledge of how things work together is invaluable and so much better than downing a guide for 30 minutes at max level, where you have forgotten half of what's been said before even reaching the end. You can then of course improve on your knowledge through various guides.

[Deleted]

I fully agree with this. If you are going to change main, start from level 1 and spend a week running around levelling, getting used to the class and spec.

You will learn about its mobility, survivability, damage, burst, everything.

You will also build up a decent set of keybinds which you will get used to as you learn new abilities.

Also, do levelling and dungeons too to mix it up.

This is much better than waiting for a 90 boost. Much better.

Only if you're a slow learner. I'm pretty sure I can learn a class (I guess rogues are the only ones left for me that I'm still nooby with) to a high (better than just heroic) potential in a few hours. Spending many more hours than that leveling where you don't do any content similar to raiding... not really effective when you're a fast learner.


Especially Boomkins, you do a completely different rotation and maximizing dps isn't even remotely similar while leveling.

[land]

You should at least level from 90 to 100 on ur boomie imo... I can say that i really learned to properly play my boomie (plus some quirks of the class) by spamming dungeons form 90 to 100...

[Reveries1]

Having played a mage going to a boomkin will be much easier than going from a non caster class. Being good at boomkin and being amazing comes with time and a deeper understanding of your cool downs and soon to be gone snap shotting.

Boomkins are one of the few classes that have the majority of there normal rotation spells at a low level. All though you will likely never go from one eclipse to another while questing and very rarely do it even in on dungeon bosses.

Using a insta 90 for a boomkin isnt a horrible idea but leveling does slowly introduce you to all the different spells you "Could" use or might want to use in specific situations. I dont think it would take an experienced mage as long to figure out level 90 boomkin basics as it would for an experienced mage to level a boomkin from 1-90 without RAF.

The basic play
Boomkins have 2 dots to maintain and 1 main filler spell that changes based on what eclipse you are heading to. They also have a proc like frostfirebolt but unlike frostfirebolt we do hard cast it when we can with a higher priority then our filler. While they are hybrids I didnt find myself off healing to much in raid but that was my raid group.

In general you should have no issue being an OK boomkin fairly quickly but they are not a zero to pro class overnight.

[ponies]

my main was a mage for a few expansions, and i have a druid, balance seems very unsatisfying coming from a mage. don't misunderstand its a good spec, i rerolled druid to have a man with more than a dps option, and druid is great boomkin is great however as a previous mage, boomkin feels gimp for a mage.

[Tehterokkar]

Boomkins are one of the harder casters to play along with Aff Locks. There is SO much micromanaging going on it will be overwhelming to a lot of players.

Everyone can learn simple Eclipse rotation but I feel like the challenge comes with specific encounters like when to lay down Mushrooms mid-fight(eg. Siegecrafter Heroic mine spawns) or when to use Astral Com to quickly swap between Eclipses for AoE. Or even when there is nothing going on where you have dead time(Nazgrim Def Stance for example), you can use that time to swap to other Eclipse or be 1 cast away from triggering it so you get your haste buff after 1 cast.

[PomPyro]

The changes during the leveling process, I find, are more drastic for a druid then for a mage. I leveled up several mages. It wasn't until the 2nd mage I realized the low level spells are important skills to build upon. With a druid only half of what you do helps you later and the other half has to be forgotten or it will become a bad habit. To sum it up, and this is just my view, the most important time of development for a druid are the later levels. And the most important time of development for a mage are the early levels.

[xtramuscle]

Leveling as a boomkin is HORRIBLE. and Nothing like raiding as one. level as feral and then switch on the timeless isle.

[Steve the Sloth]

Thanks for all of the feedback guys. I do disagree with the point of leveling to learn a spec but I did in fact level it to 72 then used my free boost on it. I still main a Mage in heroic progression so the micro managing/snap-shotting aspect is pretty familiar, I just have to identify and get used to what Balance entails. I'll keep reading guides and practicing, I hope it pans out!

I've been saying this since Blizzcon, I have a strong feeling that Balance is going to be very, very strong come 6.0 and it's shaping up to look that way!

[Deleted]

Also depends on level of your raiding.. you can keep on clearing normals with keeping dots up and spamming 3 nukes, so not much difference. If you are about to attend a HC progression you will need to be micromanaging your procs and NG uptime and things gets much more complicated.

Only good answer is to boost your druid to 90 and test it in LFR, you will fall in love or not.

[Daws001]

I just used my level boost on a boomkin...lordy. My main this whole expansion has been a MW/WW monk so...it's going to take some time to get used to this moving bar thing. I watched a video of the boomkin rotation and left feeling more confused lol.

Looking forward to playing it more this weekend, though.