No, the recent lack of activity on my part is twofold:

1) When my “About the Blogger” section says that I’m a college student, what it really means is that I’m an incoming freshman, and thus have to deal with the whole move-in, register, prepare, etc. steps in order to do so. I also have to tie up some loose ends at work and with all the people around me.

2) I’ve actually been a tad bored recently with the game. I’m trying to get back into leveling my Warlock to 70 (she’s 58 currently) and am half-heartedly grinding Netherwing rep on my Shaman and not actually doing much on Sylv. Part of this is due to part (1), but I think it’s the standard temporary burn-out, whether it’s purely due to the expansion or not, I’m not sure. I am in a less awkward position than some, due to the fact that I don’t raid anymore, I don’t have to worry too much losing all my leet purplz come Q4 (Morhaime’s expected release period). But as we probably all know, with a game which requires (well, politely asks) this level of time-commitment and the standard repetitive nature of the game mechanics, it’s very easy to get burned out and lose your enthusiasm for a while.

So, fear, not! I still poke my head into the forums and read up on WoW (actually, much more so than I play these days, isn’t that sad? yes, it is rather sad…) I am just sort of twiddling my thumbs a bit until Wrath.

Then I must throw in this disclaimer: as a new college student, I can’t even guesstimate (best unreal word ever) about my time committments come… next week. So even if I get a second wind and get back into the game a bit more and posting, I can’t say what the frequency, or, ahem, quality, of it will be. But I’ll try to work something out, because I like the online Druid community as a whole and still like this game.

One thing I will hopefully follow through on is Doomkin’s (or Lucidous’) Balance-orientated guides. He’s asked me to write some sections, and, depending of course on what kind of time I can commit, I will hopefully be joining him with that.

So, thanks to everyone who has kept looking back here for something new, and I hope to have more in the near future.

<3

/wave

-Sylv

There are not actually a lot of direct Druid changes and especially not for Balance. But scroll down a bit and you get this:

Dear Moon Chicken:

I am a level 40 moonkin and my DPS sucks! I was in an instance the other day and got out-DPS’d by a level 34 rogue and a level 34 enhancement shammy– granted, they had Windfury, but, you know. I was six levels higher than them!

Since then I have been wondering… am I doing something wrong, or is it just hard to do good DPS on moonkins at the lower levels? Is there some big secret I’m missing out on in terms of spell rotation/usage? I don’t want to be the “huntard” of moonkins (I am allowed to use the word “huntard” because I have a level 70 hunter and a level 63 hunter >.>  Any advice would be great!

Well, first, I’d like to thank you for trusting me with this question. I’ll do what I can. First of all, it’s a well-known issue that leveling as Balance is very difficult in the old world. Well, perhaps difficult is the wrong word, but maybe slow is better. This isn’t due to the talents, which are fine (if a tad bloated after the first few tiers) but rather the itemization. And this ties directly to your issue. You see, back in vanilla WoW, Moonkins weren’t exactly…endorsed, if you will…by Blizzard. Not that they came right out and said “Oi, Moonkins, go spec Resto or else” while menacingly brandishing a sharp shiv. No, rather, they implied as much through the itemization they gave Druids. The end game was dominated by Resto Druids because back then, if you could heal, you did heal. Ferals could get by on Rogue gear, but Balance Druids were left in the dust. 

And to this day Blizzard has done little to fix this. Now, although I leveled mostly as Feral, I did spend some time in the old world as Balance, and I know how you feel Pike. Your DPS will skyrocket after you hit Outland, but until then, here are some suggestions and explanations. 

First, the Shaman and Rogue were probably just better geared. This is no offense to you, it’s just that Enhancement Shamans can wear Rogue gear and be fine, and that might be what was going on. And the quality of their weapons are very important, so they might have had a good two-hander, which just gives insane burst damage. And Blizzard loves Rogues, so he probably had fine gear. And Windfury is HUGE. So don’t worry too much about that, let’s just worry about trying to improve you. 

First, let me suggest this spec (link). I don’t know what your spec is, but I personally like this one at this level. Celestial Focus is nice for soloing. Now Lunar Guidance and Dreamstate are very good to pick up. The problem is that the talents get bloated around those tiers, so some tough decisions abound until you get past level 50. Moonglow might help the most though, so I would recommend finishing that out and then going for Lunar Guidance. The problem is that you don’t really have much in the way of spell damage (if any) at this level, and that is the Moonkin’s primary damage stat. The treants will help you a lot, and Wrath of Cenarius is great once you do get some spell damage, but if you have none, fill out the other talents first, those will help you no matter what. 

Second, don’t be afraid to wear cloth. You didn’t mention your itemization, but if you are trying to wear all leather you will do less DPS. It gets better in Outland, but not much. The great thing is that you can hide the nasty looking assortment of gear everyone struggles with by hopping into Moonkin Form! Cloth is all over the place in the Old World and will have the stats you need, which are mostly Intellect, Spell Damage and Stamina. Spirit doesn’t help much until you get Intensity (which won’t be until almost level 70) but it’s not bad and comes on a lot of cloth. Now, you need to be careful not to step on the toes of other clothies you run with, but be polite and ask if you can roll Need as well. And of course, pick up cloth upgrades from quests if they exist. Your 400% armor increase will help you out if you have come cloth. And it’s cheaper to repair!

As for DPS rotations, there are a few depending on what you want to do. For most trash pulls before bosses, a good old Wrath spam will be nice. Right now Nature’s Grace limits how quickly you can chain Wraths together, but don’t worry about that. They will go down too quickly to really be worth a Moonfire or Insect Swarm, and Starfire will miss them on the last cast sometimes. So as long as your mana is OK, just go with Wrath. Now if you need to conserve mana or you are on a Boss in an instance, put up Moonfire and Insect Swarm then cast Starfire until the Moonfire DoT runs out and reapply it. You might have heard that Moonfire is inefficient, but this is a myth. It is very efficient. It is only inefficient if you don’t let the DoT do its thing by spamming Moonfire over and over again. You see, casting a new Moonfire resets the DoT and because you can cast every 1.5 seconds but the DoT takes 3 seconds to start doing damage, it never does any damage! If you do need to have both mobility and damage, cast Moonfire and then cast the second highest rank of Moonfire you have. It will do almost as much upfront damage but won’t replace the higher-ranked DoT, giving you much better mana efficiency. 

Summary: Wrath = DPS, Starfire = DPM (damage per mana). Let Moonfire’s DoT do it’s damage. And Insect Swarm is one of the most efficient spells in the game.

Another thing I might suggest is getting the AddOn Quartz, if you are familiar with AddOns. This AddOn is a special cast bar which shows you your latency in real time by creating a red bar of varying length at the end of your cast bar. When you see your cast reach that red box, it is time to press the button for your next spell. This is because latency affects what you see yourself as doing and what the server sees you as doing. But by using this sort of AddOn you will fit in many more spell casts than if you just pressed the next button when you saw that it was over, because technically it was over a fraction of a second ago. I know it might not seem like much, but it can be a huge boost to your DPS. Rogues and Enhance Shamans don’t need to worry as much because they do a lot of auto attacks. But you’ve gotta be on your game. You said you had a hunter, so if you use that AddOn which shows you your auto shot timer in order to weave in other shots correctly, it is sort of like that. 

Those are the best suggestions I have. If I left something out, I profusely apologize, and hopefully some kind soul will comment with another suggestion. Yes, Balance Druids will have a hard time topping DPS charts at your level, but they are a lot of fun as well, and it gets much better around your level. Best of luck to you and have fun!

/wave

I just had to link to this video from WoW Insider because this video is fully made of win:

  And if you’re in the mood, check out the all-Moonkin Arena team Moonfire Cannon:

Enjoy!

/wave

Well, I thought I’d try and see if there was any interest for a similar thing on this site. So this is the post where I put out requests for any sort of questions you might have regarding Balance Druids or Druids in general or the Wrath Beta or even Shamans! I like to think I’m reasonable knowledgeable but if you stump me, I’ll confess as much as well. 

Well, if you’ve got any questions you can think of, please send them to Lazerturkey@gmail.com or just post them in the comments here. Depending on what the interest level is (i.e. how many questions I get), I’ll post maybe every week, maybe more often. So go get me some questions that need answerin’. 

I think I’ll roll this into a Stump Moon Chicken post too. Think of a question you know the answer to (regarding Druids, please, or WoW in general; no sports please =/ ). Let me know that you’re trying to stump me and then when I post the answer to questions I do know about, I’ll also attempt to answer your question. If you win, congratulations! I obviously have no prizes to offer, but maybe it’ll add a smidgen of fun. 

So if you have any questions, just email them to lazerturkey@gmail.com or post them at the end of this post. I hope to hear from you!

/wave

Phaelia's Community Spotlight

Well, I’ve found some great little threads poking around the Druid forums (live and Beta) and I wanted to let you in on the news. 

First, we start with a wonderful little theorycrafting of Eclipse, and the nice Beta tester went above and beyond what I attempted earlier. He goes deeper as well, trying to work out whether more than 1 point in Eclipse is worth it mathematically. It’s an interesting read if you can follow the math (and I admit I got kind of confuzzled, yes, confuzzled, there at times). But if all you want is his answer and you trust the man, well, scroll down. The thread continues with some interesting suggestions regarding Eclipse. A good read. 

Second, we have a nice analysis of Resto talents also from the Beta forums. While this is primarily a Moonkin blog, I know lots of people switch back and forth. And really, I just love our Resto brethren. I mean, they do have the only form that can dare to compete with Moonkin Form, amirite? So check this out if you’ve been out of the loop. 

Next up we have a friendly and helpful high rated Moonkin offering some Arena advice. His advice is somewhat limited because he appears to play mostly with a Rogue, at least for 2v2, and throws in a Shaman for 3v3. But his analysis and strategy is solid, and often times applicable in other situations. If you are interested in PvP at all, and especially Arenas, I suggest you take a look. I admit my experience in the Arena is miniscule and almost always PuGed, so organized strategy escapes me. Give me a 1v1 in AV any day though, and I’ll rip you apart. Okay, well, only sort of. But I’ll try!

Also on the normal forums, a Beta tester by the name of Bighealbob (gotta love it) started up a popular thread where you can get some questions and suggestions in for the Beta testers. Because the Beta forums are only available to those with Beta access, this was a great idea. And the testers are very responsive. Lissanna has been very helpful for Balance Druids, and even was kind enough to copy and paste some of my talent bloat suggestions to the Beta forums, where, I believe, the Devs probably pay more attention. If you have any burning questions, they’ve probably been answered, or at least asked. So skim it and keep an eye out. And if you don’t find your answer, ask away! It’ll likely become to unwieldy soon, but until then it’s a great resource in this early Beta confusion. 

And last, but certainly not least, if you’ve been wondering what’s going on in the Blogosphere regarding Druids, take a look at Phaelia’s community spotlight over on Resto4Life. She was even kind enough to add me, and there are some other great additions there, for all three specs. So take a look! Don’t forget to check out her blogroll too, with even more good Druid blogs. 

Post a comment if you have found any good threads or Blog articles out there for me to highlight here. 

/wave

Now with pet bars?

This just in! A Beta tester mentions off-hand that Treants have pet bars! Here’s the link. Decide for yourself! Hurrah!

Possibilities:

1) He has tried the spell in Beta and know for sure we have pet bars

2) He read somewhere that there are pet bars and makes an off-hand comment in a forum thread.

3) Well, aren’t those the only 2 real options?

Sure would be nice if it was true. 

/wave

Mmmmm.... mana!

Okay, so this is the promised post regarding all the changes to our regeneration come Wrath. An overview:

Moonkin Form now has a chance to regenerate 2% of our total mana on a Spell Critical Strike. 

Omen of Clarity now works for spells, has a 6% proc chance, and a 10 second internal cooldown.

Intensity remains the same–30% mana regeneration while casting. 

The Moonkin Form proc chance has been guessed at, the low end, 96.6%. I will assume 95% here. Yes, this will be nerfed, but it’s all I have to work with. I might put up numbers at 50% too. 

I am borrowing some math from Phaelia over at Resto4Life regarding Omen of Clarity. For this post I will do both a 3.0 average cast speed (1.00 PPM [proc per minute] for OoC) and 1.5 (1.71 PPM), simulating both Starfire and Wrath spam. OoC and Moonkin Form will actually benefit more from Wrath spam, but the high mana cost will stamp this out, I’m sure. Let’s let the numbers tell it. 

I’m using some numbers from my own toon, who is not a high-end raider, and has mixed PvE and PvP gear, but it’s what I can work with. I will again assume 30% crit (which is only 21% crit outside of Moonkin Form–5% from form, 4% for Wrath and Starfire from talents). I’ll assume 10k mana pool (will be much higher in Wrath I’m sure, but let’s start here). And 200 Mp5 while not casting. These are slightly buffed numbers from my real toon. 

Due to things like PPM and Mp5, I will simply simulate an entire minute of said spell spam. Numbers will be averages.

So, a minute of casting max rank Starfire. 20 casts at 505 mana each = 10100 mana cost. With an average of 1 PPM from Omen of Clarity, according to Phaelia, we save the mana from 1 spell cast. 

(10100-505) = 9595 mana. 

Out of those 20 spell casts, (20 x .30) = 6 will be critical strikes. Thus we will regenerate:

(6 x .95) = number of procs from Moonkin Form = 5.7; (5.7 x .02) = .114; 11.4% of Total Mana regenerated [this is where you can use your own real mana pool]. At 10k mana, that is:

(10,000 x .114) = 1140 mana saved; (9595-1140) =  8455 mana cost for 1 minute of Starfire Spam. Add in Intensity:

(200 x .30) = 60 Mp5 while casting. 12 instances of 5 second intervals in 1 minute gets us (12 x 60) = 720 mana earned back, assumed saved. Thus (8455-720) = 7735 mana cost, on average, for 1 minute of Starfire spam. Starfire review:

(10100- 7735) = 2365 mana saved total; 1140 from Moonkin Form, 505 from Omen of Clarity and 720 from Intensity. Omen of Clarity is better with NG procs. Moonkin Form is better with more Crits ad a larger mana pool. Intensity is better with more Spirit. As you can see, Moonkin Form at 95% is wonderful. Now let’s try 50%: 

(6 crits x .50) = 3 crits to proc Moonkin Form. (3 x .02) = .06; 6% of total mana regnerated. At 10k this is (10,000 x .06) = 600 mana. (1140-600) = 540 mana per minute less than at 95%. 

Now let’s do Wrath: 40 casts in 1 minute w/o NG. At 346 mana each that is:

(40 x 346) = 13,840 mana for 1 minute of Wrath Spam. At this cast speed, we get 1.71 PPM from Omen of Clarity. 

(1.71 x 346) = 592 mana saved, on average. (13,840 – 592) = 13,248 mana now. 

30% will be crits, so (40 x .30) = 12 crits. At 95% Moonkin Form proc rate, we get:

(12 x .95) = 11.4 procs. (11.4 x .02) = .228; 22.8% of total mana regenerated. At 10k mana that is (10,000 x .228 ) = 2280 mana saved. (13,248 – 2,280) = 10,968 mana cost. And we still regenerate 720 mana; (10,968 -720) = 10,248 mana cost for 1 minute of Wrath Spam. 

We save (13840 – 10,248 ) = 3,592 mana; 2280 from Moonkin Form, 592 from Omen of Clarity and 720 still from Intensity. Still 3k more mana than Starfire, but DPM and DPS desires are left up to you. Let’s do Wrath at 50% Moonkin Form proc rate. 

(12 x .50) = 6 procs. (6 x .02) = .12; 12% mana regenerated. At 10k this is (10,000 x .12) = 1,200 mana, which is (2280 – 1200) = 1080 mana less than at 95%. 

Well, those are the numbers. Yes, Nature’s Grace makes a huge difference, but for now, I’m leaving it out. Now that it benefits Wrath, it is worth putting in. I might edit this later, but I want to get this up now. As always, feedback and corrections are much appreciated. One more recap, shall we? 

SF: From all 3 talents, 2365 mana saved; 1140 from Moonkin Form, 505 from Omen of Clarity and 720 from Intensity. Total mana cost: 7,735

W: From all 3 talents, 3592 mana saved; 2280 from Moonkin Form, 592 from Omen of Clarity and 720 from Intensity. Total mana cost: 10,248. 

Now, feel free to plug in your real numbers and your speculations, it shouldn’t be too hard. But to help:

Starfire with Omen of Clarity will cost (10,100 – 505) = 9,595 mana, on average. So if C is your crit chance, M your mana pool, F the chance for Moonkin Form to proc, and P your Mp5, your cost in 1 minute is:

{ 9,595 – ([((20 x C) x F) x .02] x M) + ((P x .30) x 12))  }

For Wrath:

{ 13,248 – ([((40 x C) x F) x .02] xM) +((P x .30) x 12))  }

Or if you feel like more specific calculations, just use Phaelia’s PPM chart and your average cast time and find your cost per minute with OoC and total casts and put those in place of the first 2 numbers respectively. 

Hope this helped.

/wave

P.S. A note: these are the same, max-rank-in-Beta spell costs from the Eclipse post.

[Edit]: If you are doing your own personal calculations and are using a spell rotation, make sure to multiply your PPM from OoC by the mana cost of whatever spell you think you would cast during the Clearcast buff. Just thought I’d throw that out there.

The sun is still eclipsed by the moon

Okay, so as you might see in Murmur’s comment on the Eclipse post (and his comments on the Druid forums) some of the math was flawed. I was also requested to expand the math from the previous calculations, I assume for clarity’s sake. Here goes. 

For starters, just to clarify, when we deal with critical strikes from our spells, due to Vengeance, they do double damage. Thus, if you have a 30% critical strike chance with a certain spell, then out of 100 spells 70 will do full damage and 30 will do double damage. If it does an average of 1000 damage per second without critting, this is equal to:

(1000×70) + (2000×30) / 100 = 1300 DPS. Thus, this can be simplified to multiplying your DPS with a given spell by (1 + C) where C is your critical strike chance with that spell as a decimal (i.e. 35.67% crit chance is .3567 as C). 

Let’s reiterate the numbers from the previous post regarding max rank Starfire and Wrath as given to us by MMO-Champion. 

Wrath: Causes 489-551 Nature damage to the target. 380 mana. Avg. 520 dmg.

Starfire: Causes 661-779 Arcane damage to the target. 555 mana. Avg. 720 dmg. 

I was also requested to use more realistic numbers (which hurt my Moonkin pride, I’m at 865 and proud of it) for spell damage. 1000 was cited as very low for raid situations and let’s do some random speculation for WotLK damage numbers at pop that up to 2000. I know some high-end Moonkins are well above 1500 raid buffed, right? Well, I think so. So let’s hope that 2000 isn’t too high considering level 80 raid buffed. Disclaimer: We actually have no idea. Level 80 isn’t even possible in Beta yet. But I bet it’s more than possible. 

I’m going to again assume Moonfury, Moonglow and Earth and Moon, as well as Master Shapeshifter (and additional 4% spell damage) which is likely in a min/max PvE build. By request a talented Curse of the Elements is being added which boosts Arcane damage an additional 13%. This is all intended for raiding mostly, and Wrath will be more on par with Starfire for PvP or soloing. 

Wrath: 67.1% coefficient. Thus (2000 x .671) = 1342 + 520 = 1862. Total 20% damage increase from debuffs. (1862 x .20) + 1862 = 2234.4 damage on average. Mana cost lowered 9% to 346 mana. Spell cast speed = 1.5 seconds talented w/o NG. Thus we arrive at 1489.6 DPS and 6.458 DPM. 

Starfire: 120% coefficient. Thus (2000 x 1.20) = 2400 + 720 = 3120. Total 20% + 13% damage increase from debuffs = 33%. (3120 x .33) +3120 = 4149.6 damage on average. Mana cost lowered 9% to 505 mana. Cast speed = 3.0 seconds talented w/o NG. Thus we arrive at 1383.2 DPS and 8.217 DPM. 

Wrath’s DPS factoring in crits, assuming a modest 30% chance for that spell, we multiply by 1.30:

(1489.6 x 1.30) = 1936.5 DPS; (6.458 x 1.30) = 8.395 DPM

If Wrath is buffed from Eclipse and has it’s damage increased an additional 10% then simply multiply it’s DPS and DPM by 110%, I believe, to get 1638.6 DPS and 7.104 DPM. A big DPS boost and DPM boost, but not approaching. If we factor in for crits (which I believe comes last in calculations) we multiply by the crit chance and get:

(1638.6 x 1.30) = 2130.2 DPS; (7.104 x 1.30) = 9.235 DPM. 

Now, let’s look at Starfire’s final DPS and DPM with and without the buff. Without, we multiply our numbers by 1.30 at 30% crit:

(1383.2 x 1.30) = 1798.2 DPS; (8.217 x 1.30) = 10.682 DPM. 

With the buff, we multiply instead by 1.40 and get:

(1383.2 x 1.40) = 1936.5 DPS; (8.217 x 1.40) = 11.504 DPM. 

Let me retype the final numbers so we can look at them all together. 

Wrath: without buff–1936.5 DPS; 8.395 DPM

with buff–2130.2 DPS; 9.235 DPM

Starfire: without buff–1798.2 DPS; 10.682 DPM

with buff–1936.5 DPS; 11.504 DPM

So, those are some preliminary numbers. At 2000 spell damage and 30% crit for Wrath and Starfire (26% on your character sheet) we see, well, those numbers. Whether or not you think Eclipse is worth it depends on how much mana you have, but obviously Wrath is better to cast before than after the buff. I won’t pretend to know whether this is good enough for raid situations or not. I’ll let you be the judge.

Some people have suggested dropping only 1 point in Eclipse because while it’s a nice buff, it’s not necessary. When it procs, use it. Otherwise you’ll be OK. I kind of like that idea, simply because there are too many good talents around that are also very nice. 

I hope that helped.

/wave

My new main?

Oh lordy, lordy, lordy. I just saw what can only be described as a sexy, sexy video of Deathknight gameplay on WoW Insider. Here take a look: 

That Unholy video was just amazing. The gameplay is so visually stunning and fast paced that it’s hard not to drool over the keyboard as I watch it (my comment there says as much). It’s hard to believe that this gameplay isn’t a little overpowered, but you must also take into account as you watch this that new Death Knights emerge from their starting quests decked out in Blues apparently, on par with Hellfire Citadel Blues. That’s a pretty big boost there, but they certainly look powerful. Maybe it’s just how truly new and unique they are. Are their roles any newer? No, of course not. They DPS and/or tank. Do their methods for fulfilling their roles differ from older ones? Hell yes, they do. The new resource system and the different spells mean not only endless DPS like Warriors and Rogues, but a delicate, intricate and complex balancing act between your 4 resources (the 3 rune types and the Runic Power). The talent trees have also thrown many people off because of the sheer lack of a “best” tanking tree. Blood is generally considered best for leveling/grinding, but as you can see, the Unholy build with some key talents in Blood does just fine, and does it very differently. 

I for one am very excited. I always have been, however. But new information just gets me going, you know? Since WoW released, I wanted to play a Death Knight character, because I had played Warcraft III and it just looked badass. Now that it’s actually on the horizon, it’s hard not to be excited about such a drastically new change. 

Oh, I do still love my Moonkin though. I don’t know what I’ll do the first day I get into Beta (like that’s ever going to happen…. /sigh) or release day–head to Northrend on Sylvanra or make my new Death Knight (whose name shall not yet be revealed, although the name is saved, is unisex, and is pure win). 

Oh, and what race and gender should my DK be? So many choices….

Oh well, there’s nothing to do until release (or Beta… come on Beta key, come on!). 

/wave