Balance Druids – The Moonkin Guide

[Rightclick]

Again on crit/haste, using my stats in Wrathcalcs (251-264 gear, no hard modes):
<realised i hadn't backed up my prefference of haste over crit with real numbers>

DPS increase for choosing 100 haste over 100 crit:
crit cap, 400 haste: +40 DPS
crit cap, 700 haste: +13 DPS
crit cap, 1000 haste: +11 DPS
For me anyway, only at 1500 haste is it worth to get crit instead of haste.

But as i said above and as you can see here, these differences are so minimal that by choosing 5T10 and the crit+haste gear available, you won't care what you gem, crit or haste.

[Deleted]

Again on crit/haste, using my stats in Wrathcalcs (251-264 gear, no hard modes):
<realised i hadn't backed up my prefference of haste over crit with real numbers>

DPS increase for choosing 100 haste over 100 crit:
crit cap, 400 haste: +40 DPS
crit cap, 700 haste: +13 DPS
crit cap, 1000 haste: +11 DPS
For me anyway, only at 1500 haste is it worth to get crit instead of haste.

But as i said above and as you can see here, these differences are so minimal that by choosing 5T10 and the crit+haste gear available, you won't care what you gem, crit or haste.

Why wouldn't you care ? Adding in something like that is rather pointless and silly Fact is you SHOULD care , otherwise doing wrathcalcs or arguing something is pointless... You should WANT to maximise your DPS , sure why bother using epic gems ?? Use blue ones .. you wont care about the +6DPS you get .. in fact don't bother with 10 stats on chest get 8 ... see my point ? Don't make excuses for being lazy. The fact is while 100 haste for 100 crit might not be a HUGE difference it still is a difference and at high levels of gear if I can get 100 more haste over 100 crit I'm definitly going to do that. Not doing so would be stupid

*edit*

If it makes you feel any better I was a crit fan untill shown hard evidence , altho that was before I was crit cap'd :P

[Deleted]

Hey, I can attest to that as well. I was a crit advocate too, when ICC came out, until Hamlet pointed me towards thinking about Nature's Grace and its ~80% uptime

[Rightclick]

don't get me wrong, i'm a fan of haste aswell: http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sh...The+High+Order

i was just poiting out that by choosing the right gear there's very little you can do to screw it up by choosing orange crit over haste gems.

also, what's with the hostility?

[Deleted]

Why are you using Purified Lunar Dust and a PvP cloak? Surely you can find another trinket than that.. Reign, Eye of the Broodmother, Illustration and so on. All viable trinkets, rather easy to farm, might be difficult to reach but shouldn't be too terrible.

As for your cloak, the emblem cloak is much more to be preferred over that PvP cloak. Trade 60 haste and 9 spell power for 52 crit, 60 spi (~20 spell power), 23 int (~3 spell power) and a socket, just by getting Volde's Cloak of the Night Sky.

[Rightclick]

Why are you using Purified Lunar Dust and a PvP cloak? Surely you can find another trinket than that.. Reign, Eye of the Broodmother, Illustration and so on. All viable trinkets, rather easy to farm, might be difficult to reach but shouldn't be too terrible.

As for your cloak, the emblem cloak is much more to be preferred over that PvP cloak. Trade 60 haste and 9 spell power for 52 crit, 60 spi (~20 spell power), 23 int (~3 spell power) and a socket, just by getting Volde's Cloak of the Night Sky.

Trinket:
Guild had a hard time filling the resto spots, so i was asked to heal from time to time. That's what made me get the resto trinket in the first place.
If you can believe it, i've never ever seen the IotDS drop in any raid i was in, and only saw Reign 2-3 times, never won it.

As for Eye: it comes to 87 crit over 54 SP, and Wrathcalcs favors the resto trinket with a 7 DPS difference . Also considering that every time I've seen it drop someone else actually needed it, I preffered to stick with PLD.

Cloak:
By the time I had enough EoT to buy it (other items had prio, including some resto tier) I gathered enough dkp to get the crit+haste cloak from Valithria 25. So I'm just waiting for it to drop, and keep buying resto tier gear.

[Jamara]

I switched my specc to http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?drui...z,SUefOH,11723 and this should give me more dps if I am correct. Now do anyone have something to complain on, something that could improve my dps even further speccwise.

Thanks for replies

[Rightclick]

I switched my specc to http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?drui...z,SUefOH,11723 and this should give me more dps if I am correct. Now do anyone have something to complain on, something that could improve my dps even further speccwise.

Thanks for replies

Drop 4 points from genesis and get: 2x Nature's Reach, 1x Nature's Splendor, 1x Omen of Clarity (from resto)

Also, depending on how much hit you got, drop Owlkin frenzy and invest in Balance of power (doubt you're hit capped with 0 points in BoP)

Combination of glyphs is funky aswell. But i'd rather not comment as some people support this combination. My moonkin works better with Starfall/Starfire/Moonfire

[Jamara]

Drop 4 points from genesis and get: 2x Nature's Reach, 1x Nature's Splendor, 1x Omen of Clarity (from resto)

Also, depending on how much hit you got, drop Owlkin frenzy and invest in Balance of power (doubt you're hit capped with 0 points in BoP)

Combination of glyphs is funky aswell. But i'd rather not comment as some people support this combination. My moonkin works better with Starfall/Starfire/Moonfire

I can defend some of my choices made, first of all I am hit capped even without imp ff on target I am even a bit overcapped sjekk my char (http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sh...ream&cn=Jamara).

Natures reach only increases the range of my spells so I don't see that help that much (tho I don't know if it is good for any spesific fights), omen of clarity i don't think help that much... ok its a free spell, but nothing else except the set bonus you get, but I don't have that bonus and nature's splendor can't help that much? isen't 1% more dmg worth more in the lenght of the fight, if you refresh you have a 90-100% dot uptime in the end that 1% would be worth more than 1 more tick as you will get it of as you have a full uptime anyways

[Garnik]

There is so much going on here, so many things to comment on, i can barely comprehend...

OoC: I would still use it even if i didn't have the 2 piece. The proc is decent, and i can imagin its very good at lower gear levels, where you mana pool is alot smaller, and alot less crit.
BoP: Even if i had the Hit to remove it completely, i wouldn't. The 6% less Spell Damage taken is very good in any raid.
Nature's Reach: 30% less threat... i know i get very close to overaggro alot, even with it, i can't imagine how it would be without it...
Nature's Splendor: I'm gonna let other people do the math, i will just get it wrong...

There is also several things with you gear 'n gems

[Jamara]

The gems i know, too many crit gems, but i will not replace them until i got 245 in that slot (waiting to replace those pieces)
but please give me some pointers on my gear aswell

[Rightclick]

The 1% you mention from Genesis applies only to DoTs, not every spell.

OoC: you should try to get the tier bonus, and it gets you rid of all the mana problems (should you have any). Indeed, if you really want, you can not take it untill you get the tier bonus.

Nature's splendor: point per point it's more DPS than Genesis. Can't back it up with math atm, only my Wrathcalc feedback. For me, Splendor is 100 DPS increase, each point of genesis gives 4 DPS.

Nature's Reach: threat reduction is good but I understand you might not feel the need for it if you never pulled aggro from your tank. The range however is very usefull. You have to move a lot in ICC fights and as the Tuskar feet enchant makes you run faster so you can resume nuking the boss, this talent makes you not have to always run that much. On Saurfang, which is a stand and nuke fight, you want the range to have more space while dpsing the blood beasts.

You got way too much hit on gear, and you mentioned you're over cap without IFF. Drop IFF and put points in the talents above. Once you start getting rid of hit, start putting points in IFF to maintain the cap.

On gems: the good thing is that you have the correct meta. All other gems you should have on you are: SP, SP+crit, SP+haste, SP+spirit. No nightmare tear, no pure crit or haste gems, and only go for the socket bonus if it's SP.

[Jamara]

i got iff for the 3% more crit thats why, i will not regem my current gear as some of it is 232 ilvl, tuskarr feet enchant i can change to, but doesn't crit do more (i don't know how much 12 crit rating is tho) and i rarely overaggro my tank as he is good geared and manage to keep the threat quite good

[Deleted]

I can defend some of my choices made, first of all I am hit capped even without imp ff on target I am even a bit overcapped sjekk my char (http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sh...ream&cn=Jamara).

Natures reach only increases the range of my spells so I don't see that help that much (tho I don't know if it is good for any spesific fights), omen of clarity i don't think help that much... ok its a free spell, but nothing else except the set bonus you get, but I don't have that bonus and nature's splendor can't help that much? isen't 1% more dmg worth more in the lenght of the fight, if you refresh you have a 90-100% dot uptime in the end that 1% would be worth more than 1 more tick as you will get it of as you have a full uptime anyways

Sure, you can take points out of balance of power. Or you could reduce your hit and gain stats elsewhere. 4% hit for two talent points is a MAJOR tradeoff, and you could get rid of your hit and get a handfull of crit and haste instead. This would be much preferable to what other choices you have:

Genesis gives you about 0,2% DPS increase per point, so those five point spent is giving you a whooping 1% damage increase. Thats "total DPS increase". Your dots are only 5-15% of your total damage, so 1% more of 15% of your damage is a very weak damage increase.

But you don't even have Nature's Splendor, so your Genesis is even weaker than that. Nature's Spendor is an awesome talent, which means you have to refresh dots less, and you can be sure it will be up for longer during eclipse. Nature's Reach is a must have talent; The more range you have, the more mobility you are offered. Not only that, but moonkins have NO threat reduction at all, except for the 30% from that talent. If you any bit serious about your moonkin, you need this talent.

Owlkin Frenzy is fine as a filler talent, but its terrible for anything else. In a raid, its ~0,5% DPS increase per point, which is poor, but better than genesis. Lastly, you don't have Omen of Clarity. You may not have mana problems, and your armory doesn't show your balance gear, but eventually you will pick up 2pt10, where you will definately want OoC.

All in all, you are missing important, core talents, and instead taking weak increases. You are making it very difficult for yourself, and you would do yourself a favor by speccing correctly, dropping some hit, and get yourself sorted.

While you are at it, you need to fix your glyphs as well. IS/Starfall/Focus is not a very strong setup. Focus limits you even more alongside with your lack of Nature's Reach, and Glyph of IS is not really a glyph anyone should consider. Starfire/Starfall/Moonfire will yield your the biggest DPS increase.

All in all, it is a terrible setup.

EDIT: I just looked you up on WoW-heroes, where I found a cached version of your moonkin gear. So lets go through that as well:

Dont ever, ever, ever, ever, ever gem pure crit gems. Use ametrines; SP/haste if you are below the soft haste cap, SP/crit if you are below the soft crit cap (and you are), and then SP/haste gems again for yellow sockets. Your Nightmare Tear in your pants is terrible. It hardly adds any benefit to you; About 3 spell power is all you gain - you should be using SP/spirit gems in two blue slots, never a Tear.

You are also using Talisman of Resurgance, which is a very poor trinket. Sundial of the Exiled would be a bigger increase. Oh, and look, Maghia's Misguided Quill with 152 hit rating on it. I wonder what would happen with your hit if you were to switch to that - well, it would be at a bit more managable 318 hit rating, with more room to throw out some of that useless hit gear, and get your talents set straight.

[Jamara]

First I need to ask on what server you play, cus obviouly gs don't excist there, on emerald dream it seems like gs is all, so i use those trinkets to get it higher or i will not get into raids and stuff.

And Rightclick said "Combination of glyphs is funky aswell. But i'd rather not comment as some people support this combination." I was recommended this and that the IS glyph was a MUST for balance druids.

And how can Nature's reach be a must when the range i got now usually works fine for me in raids and the tanks don't have problems with my aggro?

Owlkin frenzy I think is a quite good talent, since in icc you usually get taken by some aoe dmg which almost give it a promised proc chance.

I'll probably respecc back into ooc as i currently got 1 piece of the 251 set.

But genesis must be better than moonglow, as said in this thread before, moonglow is one of the worst mana efficient talents.

[Rightclick]

For GS stuff: keep your higher ilvl trinkets, but swap to what Qieth suggested at the beginning of the fight. The higher score will get you in a pug, but the better trinkets will do more dps
I have seen people use your combo of glyphs, but it does not work well, for me anyway. I didn't want to bang my hand on the table, but the elitist jerks theorycrafters also suport Starfall/SF/MF
You don't have aggro problems now, but by increasing your dps through the suggested changes you'll deffinetly start getting more threat then usual. You'll also always want to be at max range on standing bosses, and you'll have to move a lot on moving bosses, movement that can be reduced by this talent.
There are fewer boss spells that trigger OF than you might think. Trying to find a list to put here.
Indeed if you don't need the mana, get genesis instead of moonglow, but only 1 point to advance to the next tier.

[Thalur]

You don't need to worry about GS when you're raiding with your guild or raid alliance. They judge you by your performance, not item levels.
If you need to push your GS, just buy two 245 trinkets and switch them out after invite.

I also strongly suggest Starfall/SF/MF. I have more than once seen Moonkins with Focus who didn't use Starfall on Saurfang because they have to stand out of range, or who insist on being positioned on the front end of the circle on BQL (where we usually position our healers). Also, Starfall/SF/MF gives more dps except for trash and Dreamwalker.
Everything else was explained in detail by Qieth.

[Garnik]

I have been playing a little around with the new Cata Balance Tree, and got this build out of it...
http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?drui...BY,,1192711927
It caps at 80, so there would still be additional 5 points to spend somewhere, which i probaly would spend in Celestial Focus and/or Nature's Focus.

One of the most exiting new thing here, is Starsurge, imo.
Starsurge
11% of base mana 30 yard
2 sec cast 15 sec cooldown
You fuse the power of the moon and sun, launching a devastating blast of energy at the target. Causes 1025 - 1027 Spellstorm damage to the target and knocking them down.

and works in conjuction with...
Lunar Guidance
Increases the radius of your Solar Beam by 6 yards, and your Starsurge instantly generates 15 Lunar or Solar energy, depending on which is greater.

So it will probaly be an important spell in our rotation. Much like the Detro Warlocks Conflagrate.

edit:
also, there is alot of PvP related changes, but i'm not very in to Moonkins in PvP, so i wont touch that

[Khad]

About the best thing at the moment is that i feel that i have more points than i need... which leaves me to do optional choises...

One thing thou, as we lost our managain from moonkinform we might need to spec more to mana regen. Lets see how many "free" points we have then.

Khad

[Garnik]

Seems wierd, the only thing Moonkin Form does is to provide 370% armor. Rather boring...

I hope they make some more out of Moonkin Form.