[Moonkin] Guide :: 5.4 Edition

[Champatron]

Boomkin fix my dps thread here

[Maeen]

Great Boom guide! Thanks for the info!

[Natic]

Hi all,

first of all: Thank you for this great guide!

And now there is my quick question
Im not a super-great-endgame-moonkin so i need you to help me decide wich weapon i should choose from those:

Now im running with Jin'ya, Orb of the Waterspeaker (LFR version) and im one week from getting my Sha-gem.
The second one is Un'sok's Amber Scalpel (496) with Fan of Fiery Winds (also 496 version)

I dont have the dagger yet, but our group should get to 4th boss tonight and there is always some chance that i can get it

Stat wise its:

for stave
1626 Stam
1084 Int (+500 from gem)
755 haste
669 crit
6208 spell power

for dagger with off-hand
1745 Stam
1082 Int
657 Spirit (+160 from Misty Wild Jade)
782 Haste (+60 socket bonus)
160 crit (from Misty Wild Jade)
7007 Spell power

im confused mainly by diferences between spell power on the one side and on the other side there is legendary gem in stave. Without that gem, it would be pretty easy choice for me, but now im lost

There is my armory if it help you in any way:
eu-battle-net/wow/en/character/drakthul/Natic/simple
(im not alowed to post links yet, so please put (dot) between "eu", "battle" and "net"


Thanks guys

[Juvencus]

<words>

The main point would be, what would you have available once you get the gem.

But if you want a choice of the two, it comes down to one word: Spellpower!

[aatencio]

I am starting a druid character and have guild heirlooms, the only thing is I cant decide for sure about feral vs. boomkin. I have searched and seen all the differences, can anyone point out what the liked better and why, just so I can get a more personal look for leveling.

[mikoslav]

I am starting a druid character and have guild heirlooms, the only thing is I cant decide for sure about feral vs. boomkin. I have searched and seen all the differences, can anyone point out what the liked better and why, just so I can get a more personal look for leveling.

For me decision was simple I hate melee distance, and I cope better with ranged fighting hence - boomkin.
It also depends what spec you re going to play when you are lvl 90, because you should learn that class/spec while leveling.
Switching to different spec at 90 will make you worse player.
I have two druid chars, main leveled as boomkin, alt leveled as feral, and it was not much difference,
while leveling I was doing dungs, for faster queues I sometimes queued as resto (2nd spec for boomkin, almost the same gear), or I queued as a tank (2nd spec for my cat).
I dont see any major difference in leveling feral or boomkin, and like I mentioned - for me it s up to what spec you re going to play at 90.

[Natic]

The main point would be, what would you have available once you get the gem.

But if you want a choice of the two, it comes down to one word: Spellpower!

Thanks for your reply!

So, if i understand that correctly, dagger with OH will be always better until i get the normal version of that stave (with legendary gem), right?

[Lilija]

For me decision was simple I hate melee distance, and I cope better with ranged fighting hence - boomkin.
It also depends what spec you re going to play when you are lvl 90, because you should learn that class/spec while leveling.
Switching to different spec at 90 will make you worse player.
I have two druid chars, main leveled as boomkin, alt leveled as feral, and it was not much difference,
while leveling I was doing dungs, for faster queues I sometimes queued as resto (2nd spec for boomkin, almost the same gear), or I queued as a tank (2nd spec for my cat).
I dont see any major difference in leveling feral or boomkin, and like I mentioned - for me it s up to what spec you re going to play at 90.

I second this oppinion It's ONLY a case of what kind of playstyle you prefer - melee or ranged. There is no real difference in how effective both specs are. There was a myth that feral is faster because it doesn't use mana, but this is absolutly untrue since the major changes to mana regen mechanics to all caster dps specs long time ago. And tbh moonkin was quite vialable even before as long as one knew how to be mana efficient - but as I said that's an outdated aspect

[Deleted]

Hello everyone,

First post here, please be kind

First of all, thanks for the great guide, been a moonkin since LK, was struggling a bit at the beginning of this expansion, but this guide helped me pull my dps back up.

I'm in a more or less casual guild (we are 4/6 MV, struggling at Elegon and Zor'lok for several issues). My armory is eu.battle .net/wow/en/character/malorne/Koryus/simple (too new account to post links, sorry about that)
I reached the first haste breakpoint and going for crit, although I'm not sure if this is the best approach at 483 ilvl, since apparently I've heard/read otherwise. I can still pull enough dps in my guild, but I wonder if switching over to crit completely would be an increase.

I was also looking at next upgrades I could get, and I saw this operation:shieldwall trinket (the one one with haste and on-use int proc). It reminded me heavily of the Elegon trinket. Seeing as my guild won't kill Elegon for a while, would it be a worthwhile buy? I'm unsure which of my other 2 trinkets I should replace, but I'm guessing the LFR Essence of Terror is not the best choice. Also if I ever get Elegon LFR or normal Elegon trinket, I assume using both would be pretty bad.
Also, as for my weapon, I've been trying to get Shek'zeer's mace from LFR, without luck (it will take our guild a long time until we really kill Shek'zeer, so my only option for sha-touched weapons is LFR for now). Am I right in assuming that main hand + offhand is usually a better choice?
Would there be any other upgrade I should be looking at that I've missed? I was also thinking about upgrading my darkmoon trinket, but looking at the "low" ilvl it has, I'm very unsure about this.

Thanks for the help everyone that replies to this.

EDIT: I'm also not sure if I'm writing this in the correct place or if I should have made a new thread for this, apologies if it's wrong.

[mikoslav]

Hello everyone,


I was also looking at next upgrades I could get, and I saw this operation:shieldwall trinket (the one one with haste and on-use int proc). It reminded me heavily of the Elegon trinket. Seeing as my guild won't kill Elegon for a while, would it be a worthwhile buy? I'm unsure which of my other 2 trinkets I should replace, but I'm guessing the LFR Essence of Terror is not the best choice. Also if I ever get Elegon LFR or normal Elegon trinket, I assume using both would be pretty bad.

why not to use valor for upgrading your (LFR version) of essence of terror? if you reforge to crit, like you mention, the +1152 haste from the new trinket will be useless, on the other hand over 6k haste of terror can be indeed useful.

Also, as for my weapon, I've been trying to get Shek'zeer's mace from LFR, without luck (it will take our guild a long time until we really kill Shek'zeer, so my only option for sha-touched weapons is LFR for now). Am I right in assuming that main hand + offhand is usually a better choice?
Would there be any other upgrade I should be looking at that I've missed? I was also thinking about upgrading my darkmoon trinket, but looking at the "low" ilvl it has, I'm very unsure about this.

Thanks for the help everyone that replies to this.

EDIT: I'm also not sure if I'm writing this in the correct place or if I should have made a new thread for this, apologies if it's wrong.

I d say upgrading your DM trinket should be your top priority, since you re not going to get HC light of cosmos, nor HC essence of terror for a long, LONG time.

[hulkgor]

Hey, i have a question and i was hoping i could get some assistance here.

How important is the 2\4pc bonuses atm? I ask because i just got most pieces recently, but i would have to replace heroic pieces for the tier, one of those items being a raid finder item, losing massive stats on the process.

http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...lebot/advanced if you care to see (got helm rf, and chest\gloves\legs 496). any 'fast' answer, or should i just run sims on both situations?

[Lilija]

Hey, i have a question and i was hoping i could get some assistance here.

How important is the 2\4pc bonuses atm? I ask because i just got most pieces recently, but i would have to replace heroic pieces for the tier, one of those items being a raid finder item, losing massive stats on the process.

http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...lebot/advanced if you care to see (got helm rf, and chest\gloves\legs 496). any 'fast' answer, or should i just run sims on both situations?

Sim isn't very reliable for moonkins atm. I would advise checking WrathCalcs.

[Deleted]

why not to use valor for upgrading your (LFR version) of essence of terror? if you reforge to crit, like you mention, the +1152 haste from the new trinket will be useless, on the other hand over 6k haste of terror can be indeed useful.

I d say upgrading your DM trinket should be your top priority, since you re not going to get HC light of cosmos, nor HC essence of terror for a long, LONG time.

If I bought this trinket, I'd replace all my 320 haste gems for 320 crit (about 4 or 5 of them). However, since I'd be losing static 1k int from taking away the LFR essence of terror, I'm still not very convinced of it, plus I always seem to forget 1 min cd trinkets unless I bind them to something else.

I'll upgrade the DM trinket, thanks for the advice.

[Sabnock]

It's the synergy with Incarnation. Both have the same duration and CD and they amplify each other when used together.
From a design standpoint it would probably be better to change one to 20s/2min.
Personally i avoid them, but that's due to my horrible track record at using active CDs.

It doesn't make sense too much to me.
I understand if the reason is "you can see big numbers if you use Nv+Inc", but this combo it is not so good if you can't use NV 3 times during the fight and even in this case, if it is close to HotW that is passive, I don't see what's the point to take "another" cd (because what you get is an Empowered Incarnation). It kind of sucks even from a personal survability point of view, so I don't see why it's the base choice.

[Juvencus]

It doesn't make sense too much to me.
I understand if the reason is "you can see big numbers if you use Nv+Inc", but this combo it is not so good if you can't use NV 3 times during the fight and even in this case, if it is close to HotW that is passive, I don't see what's the point to take "another" cd (because what you get is an Empowered Incarnation). It kind of sucks even from a personal survability point of view, so I don't see why it's the base choice.

Because there are many situations where targeted talents are more beneficial than overall talents. Sure on a patchwreck/dummy fight they are about the same, but what about stacking with BL and procs, Guardians with stacks, Elegon burn phase, tight enrage timers where fast dps is more important than higher overall, Sha of Fear platforms, Sha of Fear buff from teleport and much more.
Plus the fact that they can be stacked and have timer synergies makes them that much more potent.

[huth]

It doesn't make sense too much to me.
I understand if the reason is "you can see big numbers if you use Nv+Inc", but this combo it is not so good if you can't use NV 3 times during the fight and even in this case, if it is close to HotW that is passive, I don't see what's the point to take "another" cd (because what you get is an Empowered Incarnation). It kind of sucks even from a personal survability point of view, so I don't see why it's the base choice.

You don't really take another CD. You can, for pretty much all purposes, macro the two together and forget that you even have two separate CDs.
To give the same benefit on average, HotW needs to increase your DPS by exactly 6%.

[Sabnock]

Because there are many situations where targeted talents are more beneficial than overall talents. Sure on a patchwreck/dummy fight they are about the same, but what about stacking with BL and procs, Guardians with stacks, Elegon burn phase, tight enrage timers where fast dps is more important than higher overall, Sha of Fear platforms, Sha of Fear buff from teleport and much more.
Plus the fact that they can be stacked and have timer synergies makes them that much more potent.

I understand that it makes sense in few cases, what I don't understand it's why it's the base choice in this kind of topic, without the explanation of "passive > burst in the majority of encounters, those are the encouters in which NV could be more usefull: 1) ... 2) ..." so to a new moonkin I certainly want to suggest the benefit of Hotw (over all more dps) that something like NV that has to be used more wisely.
Synergy is a great word that in this case I suppose it means bigger numbers, if it is so, it is not a valid argument to me.

You don't really take another CD. You can, for pretty much all purposes, macro the two together and forget that you even have two separate CDs.
To give the same benefit on average, HotW needs to increase your DPS by exactly 6%.

I know, it's like an Empowered Incarnation cause I've to use it with Incarnation so it's not like an extra cd; my point is that it is not a good choice for beginners (if it is equivalent on average) or as base choice at all, because you need burst dps on very few cases (sure it is good on bloodlust, but if you don't use it perfectly and wisely it is way below HotW even if you can use it less then 3 times because it is an encounter with an early bersek).

[huth]

Read that sentence again. I didn't say they are equivalent.

[Sunfyre]

I understand that it makes sense in few cases, what I don't understand it's why it's the base choice in this kind of topic, without the explanation of "passive > burst in the majority of encounters, those are the encouters in which NV could be more usefull: 1) ... 2) ..." so to a new moonkin I certainly want to suggest the benefit of Hotw (over all more dps) that something like NV that has to be used more wisely.
Synergy is a great word that in this case I suppose it means bigger numbers, if it is so, it is not a valid argument to me.


I know, it's like an Empowered Incarnation cause I've to use it with Incarnation so it's not like an extra cd; my point is that it is not a good choice for beginners (if it is equivalent on average) or as base choice at all, because you need burst dps on very few cases (sure it is good on bloodlust, but if you don't use it perfectly and wisely it is way below HotW even if you can use it less then 3 times because it is an encounter with an early bersek).

Most fights have a specific bloodlust call, even at a burn phase or at the pull, you time your cooldowns for it. With skull banner and stormlash, NV/Inc shine way ahead of HotW+SotF.

[Liax]

K, second cap is 8089. I can hit it most likely if I gem for it. Which overall would be better? couple thousand crit, or the next cap?

also, how is gemming int over crit? int gives crit and SP which is huge.