Originally Posted by
Medium9
Well, there are some details about playing a moonkin that makes the QQ a little less qualified actually.
For once FF is up for 40 sec only, and constantly reapplying it is painful for three reasons:
1) It prevents you from DPSing for a GCD plus lag - this is 3.75% of the output if you had no lag at all. Rounded up to 4% it is a HUGE impact, and is actually less than what one would gain by the hit-buff. Yes it is raid-wide, but be assured that, just like now, every caster will take care of hit themselves, which usualy becomes possible with gear from the latest 5-man instances before going into raid content.
2) Because haste mechanics will keep your spell rotations length variable, recasting FF as late as possible w/o letting it wear out will cut your rota, adding additional DPS loss for orientation and reaction. If you manage to come up with a rota that includes FF early enough to apply it even with varying haste, look under point 1) what this will do to the DPS.
3) Currently there is just NO way at all that a raidkin could pick up imp. FF without losing a massive amount of its own damage potential. I'm quite sure that this will still be the case with release, and it would not differ much from the current situation. It hurts too bad.
From a moonkin perspective it would be far far more effective if a feral druid applies his unskilled FF, and the hit is delivered by a shadowpriest. Espacially the Priest wouldn't have to use any additional casts to give that buff, it just comes along DPSing.
Regarding Earth&Moon I actually see that a afflilock might be a little concerned. But then I don't at all! Look, if a moonkin puts up 13% dmg, and other classes are able to deliver debuffs similar to other curses, dude, you finally get to use your DPS curse and nobody will question it. As a lock I'd be all happy about that!
Combatrezz vs. SS: Yep, it is probably an equivalent ability. Though both are not bound to affliction or balance spec, and a brezzing moonkin has to use A FUCKING LOT of mana for it. (I sometimes even have to pop my Innervate in order to be able to brezz, so there goes one ability down the drain for another one.)
Lifetap vs. Innervate: You actually CAN compare it, at least on live servers. If a MK doesn't have a SP in its group (which was pretty often the case for me), you envy warlocks for tap because your Innervate plus Manapotions will be on CD anytime. You just cannot afford to throw it to someone because you'll need it yourself desperately. There are even just so few cases in which I was asked for it, that I can count it with 10 fingers since raiding in SSC (I'm in Sunwell 3. Boss atm, so I went a way long enough to tell). We'll just have to see what the mana effeciency will be with WotlK, and if it would be of use to more classes than resto druids and healing priests with the changes to spirit on some DPS casters. I get the string feeling that it will become even more obsolete then. It'll probably just be used to bump the mana of someone that just got brezzed (if I hadn't have to use it to be able to brezz in the first place ^^).
Healing vs. Healthstone: Come on. If I just switch out and heal someone for a ridiculous amount I lose so much time due to GCDs and mana because of shiftig cost, that this is only an option if you couldn't DPS anyway, or the wipe is already at hand. You just won't save anything with 200ish HoT ticks or 1.4k regrowths, because you usually tend to switch role only if something is going totally wrong already. If I could heal everyone and his mother before the fight and the heal would pop just at the time it is needed, we had a deal here. But we don't.
Crit Aura: Sweeeet, but man. Not quite unique anymore either is it?
Imp. Aura: Finally something that will really help raidkins to be desired. That was just SO neccessary, really.
Insect Swarm: Our most terrible spell. It scales just so horribly bad, that it actually tends to lower your DPS very much. I noticed differences of as much as up to 250DPS on Brutallus between using and not using it. That is just awfull. For now it does not seem, that this will change all to much in WotlK raiding, because anything else will "scale away". In addition to its low DPS it suffers from the same condition as FF: It runs just 12sec, so you'd have to break any rotation every 12sec to throw it in - meh, hate it! The 5% -hit on it are situational at best, and the glyph making its damage "okay enough" (although it still falls behind) will remove that component anyways.
MotW: It is a flat stat buff, and for that it is actually quite low. Even if you improve it by talents. It will always be worse than blessing of kings, and it will fall behind more and more with every better piece of gear your raid obtains. It is an "okay" buff, but really - would anyone REALLY miss it if it wasn't there all the time? It's actually the weakest buff in the game. It does stack however, but only the lackluster base-stat part. Any resistance will be overwritten by any other resi-buff in the game, and I haven't seen one encounter where you actually need high resistance on all schools. It is nothing but a gimmick.
And we didn't talk about summoning characters, which has been a huge time saver in many cases.
What actually is the case is, that it would be very justified if a moonkin (or elemental shaman or shadowpriest etc.) would be on par with anybody elses DPS, because even mages now got so much support abilities that they could be called "supporter" in WotlK. The fact that buffs are now mutually excluding each other in different categories is the reason why: At least in a 25-man raid, anyone would very likely bring just one buff that will not be covered by another class/spec more easily or with a better effect - if not just DPS if you happen to have two of a class/spec. This is the ultimate reason why there actually is no such thing as an "ultra-utility"-superbuffing hybrid anymore. Hybrids are actually dead for a long time - if you want to excel in your role, you HAVE to neglect other specs enough, so that you could never fill that other role even close to viably in a progressing raid.
Everyone will bring enough to a raid to count as "supporter", with just one exception: Rogues. They are the only ones that actually deserve to out-DPS anyone else for now. Just that there is someone else now that has the potential to bring a similar buff does not mean that yours is never going to be used. You still retain that ability just as much as the other one does if you cover that support. For this very reason there is just no logical deduction possible anylonger why anyone should be able to totally out-DPS someone else by design. If it is by skill and/or equippment, that is not what we talk about here.
Just get over it. There is no difference between supporters and formerly "pure" DDs anymore. Something that I'm eager to test how it works out - until now, I really like the ring to it. Sure, the affliction spec does need some love DPS-wise, but please do not point your fingers at those that were in need just yesterday, and absolutely do not demand higher DPS than that for some not-anymore-existing reason that quite some people are just too slow to get out of their minds. Further on, DPS balancing is still just announced, NOT done. And belive me, at this point in the Beta, moonkin DPS is still far behind that of mages, destrolocks and even elemental shamans, so they are not quite there just as dotlocks. You definitly picked the wrong spec to pick on.