Big Boomkin PVE Guide Balance Druid 3 3 5
Big Boomkin PVE Guide Balance Druid 3 3 5
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| Ultimate Boomkin PVE Guide |
NOTE: This guide is entirely made by "Clovis", our "columnist" from "The Owlkin Frenzy" blog. I take no credit whatsoever for this guide ...yet (I AM going to at least try to improve it).
Please go check out Clovis blog and his authentic guides:
-http://owlkinfrenzywow.blogspot.com/
-http://forum.molten-wow.com/showthread.php?t=58719 ([Big] Moonkin PVP guide)
-http://forum.molten-wow.com/showthread.php?t=66055 ([Big] Moonkin PVE guide)
About 95% below is made by Clovis:
Hi guys, and welcome to my Moonkin PvE guide.
Ive been wanting to write this guide for a while. I hope itll help new and experienced Moonkins alike. I will be writing this guide in the same format as my Moonkin PvP guide.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
- Introduction
- Strengths & weaknesses
- Talent build
-- Glyphs - Itemization
-- Stat priorities
-- Enchants
-- Gems - Professions
- Rotation
- Best-in-slot list
- Conclusion
1 - Introduction
For those who dont know me, I think its important to establish that I am actually qualified to write a Moonkin PvE guide. What would be the use of reading a guide written by some new Battle Bird whos still figuring out his rotation and pulling 5k DPS in ICC?
That said, its difficult to establish my credibility in PvE. Its not like PvP where one can simply show his arena rating and let it speak for itself. Ive been playing WoW for about 2 years now, and have always been a Moonkin (I double-spec Moonkin). In our guild ICC25s, I am now usually pulling over 13k DPS on all fights, and with the right buffs I can sometimes reach 17k. This is excellent DPS for a Moonkin (Ill also point out I have no donation gear).
I am the Guild Master of Mutual Hatred on Frostwolf, and we kill The Lich King in 25-man mode each week. Here is my armory link, if you care to look:
Clov | Molten Armory
Please keep in mind that this guide will not explain simple things like "What is Starfire?" I assume that you have at least half a brain or that you know how to read tooltips.
2 - Strengths & weaknesses
Moonkins have never been known for their exceptional DPS. Its not terribly low, but in a group where everybody has about equal gear and skill, you will likely find yourself in about the 10th DPS position.
Here are our main strengths and weaknesses:
Weaknesses:
- Eclipse & movement (details below)
Strengths:
- Huge arsenal of raid buffs
- Powerful burst AoE
Eclipse is our main weakness because it is also our main damage buff. In a raid setting, and depending on your gear, Eclipse uptime may be anywhere between 60% and 80% (I am using World of Logs to check this). The problem with Eclipse is that it is so powerful: whenever we are not buffed by it, our DPS drops. We need Eclipse for our DPS to be on par with the other classes, but not only will we often be unable to use it because of movement, we will actually lose the buff during movement as well, forcing us to spend more time attempting to proc it. We also have nothing to do while moving except to refresh DoTs.
At times, you may even find yourself spamming Wrath for an entire 10 seconds, unable to proc Eclipse simply out of sheer bad luck. This is a huge DPS loss. RNG influences our damage more than it does most DPSers.
On the other hand, we provide great raid buffs. Heres a list, and yes, its big:
- +3% spell hit (Imp. Faerie Fire)
- +3% haste (Imp. Moonkin Form)
- +5% spell crit (Moonkin Aura)
- +13% spell damage (Earth & Moon)
- +3% avoidance (Insect Swarm)
- +5% armor reduction (Faerie Fire)
- Off-heals (good ones, because we stack spellpower)
- Rebirth
- Innervate (7866 mana to anybody in the raid)
- Gift of the Wild
Tell that to any raid youre trying to join, because theyd be crazy not to bring you!
We also have amazing (i.e. the best) burst AoE damage. Starfall + Hurricane is ridiculous burst thanks to Natures Grace.
3 - Talent build
The nice thing about PvE guides, as opposed to PvP guides, is that there is really no room for opinion. There is one top DPS spec. Its not subject to playstyle, your playstyle has to be a certain way if you want to maximize your DPS in raids (but of course, only the cool Moonkins jump when they cast instants).
Here is the ideal #1 DPS build. I will discuss the more controversial talents below. I highly recommend that you work on a build of your own based on what you raid and your preferences.
Moonkin PvE build: 58/0/13
Alternate builds:
- Starter build (mana build for low gear)
- Pushback build (w/o Imp. MotW)
- Pushback build (w/ Imp. MotW)
- Typhoon build
- Gale Winds / Typhoon -hater build (that I might use if I didnt love AoE)
Mana talents:
We have a lot of mana talents. This is a list in order of efficiency, from highest to lowest:
- Moonkin Form
- Omen of Clarity
- Intensity
- Dreamstate
- Moonglow
As you get better gear, your intellect goes up and your spirit goes down, and Dreamstate becomes more powerful than Intensity. However, at that point you should be far from having mana problems. Because we receive 2% of our total mana back each time we crit while in Moonkin Form (and we crit a lot), so our mana efficiency is excellent. We never need Innervate for ourselves.
You should never spec into mana talents unless you have pre-Ulduar-level gear. If mana is an issue, take points out of Imp. Insect Swarmand put them into Intensity.
Also, do not neglect Omen of Clarity. Its a great mana talent for only 1 point and it procs our T10 2p bonus.
Genesis:
Dont waste points there. There is absolutely no reason to go 5/5 into this for "more DPS." Buffing our DoTs by 5% is a terrible choice, because they are only 10-15% of our total damage. Even in a best-case scenario, Genesis is only a 0.15% DPS increase per point. I currently have Genesis 1/5, but only because I need to spend a point somewhere to get to the next tier of talents, and the only alternative is Moonglow, which is an unnecessary mana talent.
Natures Focus:
Natures Focus is not often needed, but there are exceptions. The reason for this is that most of the time, you wont have any pushback unless you are standing somewhere you shouldnt.
Abilities like Bone Storm will cause constant pushback, but you can simply cast Barkskin and avoid most of it.
The exceptions are fights like Festergut and Blood Queen LanaThel, during which there is so much pushback that all of your Wrath casts will be delayed by 1s even with Concentration Aura. Pain and Suffering also causes a lot of pushback. Id recommend putting at least two points in Natures Focus if you raid ICC frequently.
Natures Reach:
Many people will disregard this talent because it is assumed that tanks never have threat problems in high-tier gear, and a 6-yard range increase does not seem like a clear DPS gain. However, more range is more DPS. Most fights require you to move or to switch targets (Bone Spikes, LDW adds, Volatile Oozes, etc). The DPS gained from longer range is far greater than if you dropped this talent and went into Genesis instead (the only other alternative).
