Druid Discussion on Vent with many moonkin

Edited my post to place Murmurs Summary here. He covers everything that we spoke of.

Hey again Druids!

Our first Roundtable discussion has ended and I, personally, think it was amazingly fun and successful. We talked about a wide variety of topics, some of which went off-topic at times, but all of it was in good fun. I'll use this post to highlight some of the fine points of our conversations. Keep in mind when raiding all of this that everything is purely speculation based off on some very limited information. How we think or believe a spell will function may not be accurate, and changes are that it won't be accurate at all, but it's the best that we could come up with with what we have.

Wild Mushroom:

There were many things thrown out about how this spell would function in both PvE and PvP, as well as how the spell would fit within the Balance Druid's rotation.

In PvP, the thoughts were mostly that this would be a primarily surprise or defensive based ability. By defensive, it won't exactly be the same thing as Barkskin, but rather act as more of a 'trap' spell that you have to use proactively. Using the spell overtly offensively might not work out too well since the effect will be fairly easy to avoid. To this end, players will probably have it set somewhere, like near where their healer will use lots of LoS, to set it up a clean burst. For Arena play, it adds some interesting kiting mechanics to how Balance will function. In Battlegrounds, Wild Mushroom will clearly be amazing for choke points and prevent flag caps.

In PvE, the spell holds a lot of potential. The current line of thinking is two-fold. The first thought is that Wild Mushroom will be highly useful during extended periods of movement. This is based on the thought that Wild Mushroom will be limited to a single mushroom at a time and that placing a new mushroom will cause the old one to explode. Since the spell is instant cast and has no cooldown, you could effectively spam the spell while on the move to supplement damage when you can't cast anything else. The other potential use for Wild Mushroom is as an effective 'Cleave' type skill. Generally speaking, Hurricane is only useful when there are a large number of mobs, around 4 or 5, and sometimes there is one 1 or 2 adds that need to be killed. In these situations, Wild Mushroom could provide the highest access to DPS by hitting all the targets more higher amounts of damage.

Other random thoughts on Wild Mushroom are how it could relate to our talents. GC has stated that Wild Mushroom will interact with our talents, but nothing as to how. One of the thoughts that came up with the ability to proc Earth and Moon on multiple targets. Having the 13% spell buff on multiple targets is a very big deal for add fights and AoE encounters, yet only one spec of one class can effectively provide this. Allowing Wild Mushroom to proc Earth and Moon on multiple targets would be a huge boost to group utility and allow AoE content to be easier to balance.

Nature's Torrent:

Since a lot of discussion already took place on this mechanic in the talent preview thread, not too much was talked about this spell. We all agree though that this is going to be one of the key things that can make or break Balance Druids in the next expansion. How it interacts with Eclipse and fits within our rotation is going to be a big players in Cataclysm. I'm personally really excited about it, but only time can tell how it will actually work out.

Eclipse:

Eclipse is getting a major change, yet still too little is known about the effect. We talk a little bit about possible rotations, how things could or could not work, issues that could come up, and how much more awesome it was. Here are things that we talked about.

Eclipse decay - GC has said that Eclipse is probably going to have to have some form of decay. We all agree to this point due to the fact that players really shouldn't be encouraged to go farm up Eclipse power before a pull in order to game DPS. The decay in combat is a little bit more tricky. Having some in combat might be okay, but it all depends on how it works out with movement. If the drain is too step, then it could re-enforce the current system we already have with movement.

Eclipse gain - How rapidly Eclipse is gained or lost is going to be a major factor in just about everything. Right now there are too many systems out there to guess at anything solid.

Moonkin Form:

The controversial topic. Some people hate it still, some people love it. The biggest complain is just that Moonkin Form is too flat right now and really needs to be updated. Blizzard has thankfully said that one is eventually coming, though it may end up being slightly delayed. Hope exists!

Random Talents:

From our thinking, there's going to be quite a few talents that will probably have to be removed. The biggest of these was Nature's Grace. At this point, very few people present seemed to think that a nerf would be enough for this talent and that the best option would simply be to get rid of it completely. Doing so would hurt Balance Druids a lot, obviously, but with a new expansion coming out there is plenty of opportunity to re-balance use around this change. Another talent that is up for debate is Improved Faerie Fire. We know that the +Hit portion of the this talent is going to be removed, however we don't know if anything new is going to be added to it to replace that. Right now, a lot of people seemed to think that merely +3% Crit really isn't interesting enough to keep around. It would be a DPS increase that we certainly take, but it would lose a lot of flavor. Many people would either like to see something else added on to the talent or for the talent to be removed completely.

Improved Moonkin Aura will probably become our talent which allows us to scale Spirit into Hit. Since the talent already does this with Spell Power, it seems most logical that it would be transferred this way. Talents such as Vengeance will most likely stick around, and things like Improved Insect Swarm will probably be expanded upon - even though it will upset Hamlet.



All in all, the whole thing was a lot of fun with so many people stopping by. I pretty sure I can speak for everyone when I say that we all had a great time just talking it up about all the different random things that popped into our heads. With how great this turned out, I'll definitely be continuing this when Beta starts so be on the look out for future posts!

Stay classy Druids,
Murmurs

TORGEN FTW!

(inside joke from vent)

The Pilgrim's Bounty

So, its another achievement season and another one to bitch about. Personally, everything however is easy with this achievement and no real guide needs to be given for it. Its pretty black and white with what you need to do and how you need to do it. However..

Turkinator can kiss my fat cow ass.

Do you hear me?!


My husband spent almost 2 hours trying to kill his 40 turkeys last night, during a non-peak hour time (4-5am in the morning). I dreaded trying to do this during the peak hour. So I tried to avoid it but saw I needed turkeys for another quest so I figured I'd try it. 10 minutes in to it, I was cussing every word under the son. I would 10 stacks, then never find a turkey. Get to 20 stacks, someone would cut into my path, 30 stacks (about 4 times) and someone would cut into my path again. This achievement is a pain in the ass and probably wont be done on High Population servers until near the end of its reign when less people care about it.

However, while running around and cussing every word under the son, I discovered a nice little path off to the side. Now this path is the horde area only. Alliance outnumber Horde on my server so I refused to try out E. Forest. But, when I started this path, I had no trouble what-so-ever getting my turkeys. They respawned fast as I came around in my small circle and its less of a traffic area since most people are fighting around the lake and Brill.

First, the map, where I started:

I started right infront of the Bulwark. I actually had a few turkeys behind me for this screenshot, but I ignored them. Using this as a starting point, I decided to make a small circle around. I figure the respawn time on the turkeys was around 1 minute - 1 minute and 15seconds. Because of this, you couldn't just stand and wait for the turkeys to spawn in one point. You had to keep moving to find them since you had a 30 second timer between each kill.

So, starting at the bulwark, I used this map. I made a circle, starting at the Bulwark and around along the mountain's edge and over the road, to meet myself back where I started. Now, there is something out there that will help this go alot easier. If you are a Hunter, you already have it. If not, you need a piece of food that gives you a buff.

This buff tracks beasts. So Hunters can just use their aspect while others have to get this food. My husband made this food for me so I had an easy time getting it. However, if you don't have someone to share off of, you can go to Dalaran and get Recipe: Tracker Snacks off the cooking vendor. It requires Shoveltusk Flank, Northern Spices.

As you can see, its called Tracker Snacks. It lasts 1 hour. On your minimap, the turkey appear as a neutral beast. However, so do some of the bats in the area. So sometimes my map would light up with nothing but yellow and I would have to take time to mouse-over and see what was what. This was normally found around the Lake, so I wanted to move away from there.

Around the Bulwark, I found nothing but turkey on my map, so it was easy to run over to a yellow dot without double checking. Now, you can see I did this achievement during the peak hours of the day. 3 EST, 2 CST, on a Sunday. So everyone was on. I was so happy to get this achievement done, especially since it seemed so easy when I got this area. One or two people did run by me, but I don't think they had the food buff on so they was visually looking for the turkeys. So, I hope this helps a few people, but I can't guarantee it will work for everyone.

WoW Forums and your rights!

So, I'm sure a few people know I'm now perma banned from the World of Warcraft Forums. Interesting eh? My perma ban says trolling. Which is the act of pissing people off on purpose. Of course its funny, cause the person I was pissing off was someone just spamming the druid forums out of spite anyway. But the rules are, if they report you, blizzard doesn't care if you are right or wrong, you are just reported.

So, this guy, Sacriliege, we figured his main posted a question that was on the forums already, already stickied in one of the many useful topics up at the top of the page. So, of course, people told him to read the stickies. In anger, he went around posting on every topic he could find "your foolish, you should know better than to post on the druid forums! Read the stickies"

All he would say, over and over. Myself and several others finally got to the point where we would quote him and just repeat back what he would say, of course, pushing his point back onto him. He apparently didn't like the fact he was being outplayed and thus reported us.

So, blizzard decided "Oh hey! This person just quoted this guy and is totally part of the spam! PERMA BAN" So yeah...I now use my husband's account to post on the druid forums and its sad but funny at the same time. Funny that people are like "WHY THANK YOU RANDOM LEVEL TROLL" then again, people don't see its me and I sigh cause half the time when you see a low level alt you never heard of, you think hes just there to mess with you.

Either way, I did try to appeal, but blizzard is saying they aren't reverting it due to past issues (which again, are stupid cause if you just tell someone they are stupid or wrong on the forums, blizzard will ban you...Right wisp?)

I did give them a call and talked to a CSR about the rules of the forum and he told me straight up "World of Warcraft Forums are Privately Owned. Freedom of Speech DOES NOT WORK HERE"

So, there you have it. Freedom of speech does not work on the WoW Forums. You can post anything you like, yeah, but blizzard can ban you if they don't like your grammar, the way you say it, or if someone just feels like reporting you and acts like they are offended. I actually tried this to prove a point. I had a friend post on the forums saying he enjoyed long walks on the beach and whatnot (he was looking for an arena partner) on his realm forums..I reported it, about an hour later he received a 72 hour ban for spam.

Personally, I remember back when the WoW Forums were more, fun. Been using them since March 05 when I joined. Never had any troubles until this last year with Wrath. With WoW being so popular, of course the traffic flow increases on the forums which drives Blizzard up the wall in trying to keep up with the real idiots on the forums posting keyloggers, spamming/trolling, and harassing others. So they have become Nazi's about it and if you get reported, you get banned, no matter the offense. A guy on my own realm is perma banned for his first offense from bumping a necro thread.

Thats right! Necro'ing a thread will get you banned! Joy how that works. Anyway, I figured I would just let it out on the statement that I will no longer be posting on Foofy or Foofe, but a level 1 troll on Eldre Thalas named Akissi.

The Moonkin Repository and its Contests

For those who enjoy all things moonkin, TMR usually tries to hold a contest every so often. Well, we haven't had a contest in a bit and we are currently planning our next one. However, funds are short and we are going to be limited on prizes. So, while this may seem shallow, I am going to do it anyway for the site.

Any donations available to help get prizes for TMR should please click the following link. A dollar to even 25 cents will work as what we have in mind is just out of our reach. Or if you even have something you wouldn't mind giving up for the contest, toss me an email! I'll be glad to chat about it with ya!

Another Post, Another Dime

I'm sure you all can read the time and see when I am posting this. I haven't been able to sleep and I've had a thought in my mind for awhile about a discussion on the MMO-Champ forums. This discussion is "Is blizzard redoing player models?" The thread can be found here for anyone to read, but this is what is posted inside.

The fact that everyone and their grandma (sorry for generalization) expected new haircuts and other barbershop features to be released more often (Like with every major patch)

But what if......

The reason they haven't done it yet, si ebacuse they ahte to make new haricuts for models that will be outdated soon?
It could explain why druid forms got remodeled before old races as these remodelings dont get obsolete when Cataclysm (Or some major patch) hits and old races are remodeled.

And if you think a bit further.....we haven't seen the dance studio yet, tough it was promised for WotLK.
Perhaps its because they ahte to make dances for soon to be obsolete models, or they are to busy remodeling the old races, isntead of creating new dances.

Well Blizzard, am I on the right track?
I would love it if the races would get a remodeling. It would match with the old content zones getting an upgrade.




EDIT:

Also this could explain the recycled haircuts. Blizzard didnt want to spend too much time on new haircuts for a soon to be out of date model, so they simply recycled hairstyles in preparation for the new models.
I mean even Blizzard shudve known that their would be lots aQQ about them being lazy by doing this. So thats why I think we will get remodeled old races.

Blizzard better not dissapoint me now

EDIT 2:

What if blizzard is changing the way we can customize our char, by adding options to determine, height, muscle tone, fat% etc etc etc.
Now I know this sounds crazy but bear with me.
You already read my theories on why the haircuts and dances were postponed and the "new" haircuts were recycled ones.
Now if Blizzard would actually remodel the races for Cataclysm, I'm sure they'd make a big deal out of it in the cataclysm trailer, like they did with haircuts,dances in wotlk trailer.

So why havent they then?
I'll tell you why, becasue its NOT gonna be in Cataclysm!
It's gonna be in Patch 3.3 or 3.4!!!!

That concludes the theory, if you want to get convinced and don't mind to read some more, please continue reading.

The dances are slated for WotLK, so if races get remodeled it should happen before or at the same time as the new dances are being released. Else theyd create dances for an obsolete model etc etc etc.
The reason it takes this long is because they want to add the other customization options in too (the lenght and muscle tone etc etc etc)

Recently, blizzard stated, that Ulduar was a major raid patch, Call of the Crusade was a minor raid patch and that they didnt want us to think this is a pattern. Now why would they say it (from here one,
crazy conspiracy theories are born)
They say it because they dont want us to expect a HUGE raid isntance in a patch when they are bringing updated models. They dont want the raiders to get dissapointed. So they are preparing us for a patch with not alot ot raid content or pve contenr, but with alot of models/spells/gfx upgrades (yeah I jsut threw in spells/gfx for the heck of it, I mean some effects are jsut ugly and with new models will look very UGLY)

Then the reason they released the druid forms upgrades is to see how glad we are with them and to determine if race remodeling will be development time well spent. (and new druid models are a succes)
They then proceeded telling us that they will upgrade the other forms too, so that when we get remodeled races we will be liek: "OMG WTH AMAGAWD!!!!! COOL AWESOMEEE!!!1111oneoneone"
They don't want us to expect it else the suprise will be gone! (Even cataclysm was leaked b4, so this is their last attempt at a suprise, to make us forget about AiON etc etc etc)

So this is my reason for thinking that Call of the Crusade was a minor patch so that they could work on the models, dances and hairstyles for 3.3 or perhaps 3.4.

3.2.2 is also a stalling patch because they need more time to create the models.
I mean an ONY revamp, under the disguise of 5th aniversaary, good one Blizz, but I am on to you >.>

Perhaps they had this idea for remodeling races a long time ago and this would explain why we see armor sets being recycled so often in WoTLk. Becasue the sets needed a quik look for untill the new models would be released. They didnt want to spend too much time on a items looks when it will become obsolete in that same expac.



Anyway, we need more people CLAIMING that they believe this (because we all know that even if Blizz did no such thing, they will see the peoples expectations for new models and they would have no other choice! (The customer is always right!))

So are you with me!?

That was by Vasti on MMO-Champ. He already said English was NOT his first language so please ignore the errors. However, he had a lot to say and much to think about. He has some points, but no proof. Personally, I would love to see a player update on models. Our models are terrible currently in the game with how visually it has progressed. If you don't believe me, get naked and go stand anywhere in Northrend.

Yeah, you stick out like a sore thumb don't ya? Don't even seem like the same game eh? Well, to prove a point, I think my naked cow will come into play.

As you can see, she doesn't really fit in. The graphics on the fire and smoke are 100x's better than the look of my tauren. From afar, you can see see how flat everything looks on her. You can even see her tail has a cut in it from this distance. Her jawline is jagged and the graphics around her are so smoothe and shiny. It kinda makes you wonder if its the same game.

With each expansion, blizzard is upgrading the graphics. They are completely redoing Azeroth in the next expac. Its needed an overhaul badly since they updated graphics for the first time in BC.

If you don't believe me, look at the original starting areas for the races, then look at the Draenai and Blood Elf starting area and tell me if you can see the difference. Its not hard to see something such as this. Another thing that sticks out is when you look at a tauren from behind. Two major flaws. First in the mane/braids. They are so..so..ugh, I can't even describe it. With other hair styles, you can see the flow, but with the tauren, it kinda looks like they just put lines in there to make it look like they tried to braid it. Also, their tip of their tail can poke an eye out. I swear it! We're dangerous weapons of mass destruction! The graphic of the male tauren is about the same, hell, it is the same, just wider. But lets look at another area that has me wishing for updates.

Yes folks, that is my tauren's butt. Sexy isn't it? But my point will be proven! We have had this hole in our panties for years now. YEARS! You think after all these years we could change them by now. I mean, com'on. I enjoy a free breeze every now and then, but this is just to much. Males have it too! And they always sit there and scratch themselves...lord knows I want to see the hole in their pants all the time....

You can also see my pointy tail with its broken splendor great from this angle as well. Along with how they made tauren fur. Fingers are well done as well. have you seen the hands of the new models of the blue ladies and the males? They are so well done. I was actually hoping it would be a playable race. Which reminds me, they are remaking the Goblins for the Xpac. This would be a great time to take a look at our other models players use. I'm not looking for a complete overhaul, just an update to fix our polys and make us look more smoothe and to fit in with the game more. They are already doing it with pieces of gear in the middle of this current expansion, I don't see why they couldn't do it in the future. And yes, we do have 3-D gear now. Plenty of it actually from ToC. Here is a screenshot of what I mean.

This is flat. This is actually from Vanilla Wow. Its called Stormrage. It was the Druid Teir 2 set. Its graphic has been recycled and it will be recycled again from the next patch when Onxyia comes back. (oh joy..I hear she deep breaths more).

But looking at this, you can easily pick out how flat it is (yes, that is my finkles..no touchie!). The belt looks like it was iron'd down and glued to my waste while my gloves look painted on. Along with the leaf like colors on the lower part of the pants and what I think is supposed to be a border of yellow. The moons are flat and my braids have a great view of looking like hanging testicals from my face. Oh joy. Now lets look at a piece of gear from ToC.

Now, this is a pair of pants from ToC. This is a great graphic, I was actually in awe when I noticed it was 3-D. The graphics on this are nothing compared to the rest of the gear. While the graphics on the Ulduar gear may look nice, this just cuts the cake into a pie and makes the whole world implode because these pants destroyed Chuck Norris in a thumb wrestling match.

I really don't know what else to say about it. Its just so pretty I have to stop typing and stare. But I'm sure you all get my point. So needless to say, I would love to see a model update in this coming expac. Its long over due for all races. Especially humans and their faces. Oi, you guys need some work!




TL;DR:

Model updates would be nice..CHOP CHOP!

Worgen and Goblin and the New Xpac

Above is the female Goblin, and Female Worgen taken from the new Xpac site!


I'm sure you all have read, Death Wing is coming back!




Azeroth is being torn apart, this is why we will be able to fly in old world. They are changing everything around. The elements are fighting within itself so as an idea of what I mean for those who did not see the stream:

Desolace:
Becomes a lovely lushy forest like scene

Barrens:
Rocky, lava, few palms left

Ashenvale:
Dark and broken

Now for the two new races!


Personally, I was all into the worgen, thinking it would look awesome, but after actually looking into it, I was kinda turned off and was actually really..REALLY surprised with how well they made goblins look, even the female goblin. It looks like they took their time on both new races, but I definitely will not hesitate to make a female Goblin now.

All the new race combos are confirmed, troll druids, tauren paladins, gnome priests, yada yada yada.. If race change becomes available, I may look into a troll druid. But at the time, I'm more concerned about what the forms would look like. During the preview, they had the troll go into tree form. Since Armor is always hidden in form, I am more concerned about what I look like, as well as OMG BESERKING while casting..


yum yum anyone?

Noble Garden: Lets shake your Money Maker!

Well, Noble Garden is out! It was delayed due to 3.1, so everyone is rushing to get it done and over with. You will run into the following:

1) Egg Stealers
2) Nothing but Chocolate from eggs
3) Refusal to drop dresses
4) To many Tux's
5) More Egg Stealers


Yes, people are being their normal human selves and only looking out for themselves. So here are a few tips for how to get your eggs and items fast!

1) Find yourself a spawn area.

Example: In Bloodhoof Village, sit on a set of stairs (I suggest the stairs around the kodo tent, pointing to Thunderbluff). On this set of stairs, 3-4 eggs can spawn between the cracks. You barely have to move and they take about 1 minute to spawn or less, and will chain spawn on you at times.

2) If you are going to run around and look for eggs, be sure to equip your basket and make a full circle in the area you wish to cover. The basket upon use increases your speed, so you can cover more ground

Neat Spawn areas (Horde Only..I refuse to try alliance side due to population)

1. BloodHoof- As I stated, the stairs to the kodo tent pointing towards Thunderbluff

2. Falconwing Square- The fountain practically drains these eggs out, it has about 8 spawn spots for you.

3. Razorhill- Keep around the Inn, You will find several spawn spots towards the Engineer trainer.

4. Brill- Do your best to keeping near the buildings and carts, they spawn fast and go fast

Need more help?

If you need more help, there is a guide on MMO-Champ I suggest looking at. I also heard there is a mod, but I wouldn't know since I just camped spawn areas.

Also, if you use Auto Clicker, I suggest removing it. It is a bannable offense and GM's are on the prowl. So please, play fair :)

Happy Easter and More!

Happy Easter everyone! Or however your religion may celebrate this holiday, I just wish you happiness and good fortune :)

I would like to pass around the fact that those eggs you may be dying..are moonkin eggs. Some dwarves got into our nests and stole them earlier so please...keep an eye out for our children! After all, we are already endangered, lets not make it worse!

Happy Holidays!

Foofy
------------

As for a normal post, I wanted to let everyone know that The Moonkin Repository has finally moved to a new host to get rid of the ads they had pushed on us. They changed the ad policy for 29cents per 1,000 views. Sadly, our money only held up for 2 weeks before the ads came back. With the new host, its easier to keep the ads away so yeah! Woot!

We also added more forums and switched some stuff around. Right now the Ajax chat is missing and the quick reply. However, I'm stuck in Maryland right now with my family so I can't fix it just yet, but the site is now Powered by WowHead so you can now mouseover links and see what items are!

We also added a Recruitment Forum area due to Ulduar coming out. We are sure people will be interested in looking at moonkin as raid members and incase you are looking for one for your guild or you are a moonkin looking for a guild, don't be afraid to post on the recruitment forum looking for that special chicken or trying to find your chicken a home!

So, thats all for now! Like I said, when I get home, I'll try and get the quick reply working and the chat so everyone can have their chats again! Maybe..I can convince someone to create a Moonkin Forum template for the Repository so we look different and awesome!


<3

Foofy

Moonkin Basics 101 Part 3

(link until movie is done rendering with youtube)

Well, here is number three! A bit later than I wanted to get it out, but with PTR raiding and all that, I think its out just in time. I also wanted to remind people that the Lunar Eclipse in video 2 may change to solar due to 3.1/Uludar. No idea yet how things will work out until all the number crunching is done!

However, for those who are interested in the number crunching, below is Murmurs post from the Druid forums with all the math could you want.

Balance PvE Info for 3.1 Changes--By Murmur

Moonkin Raiding Basics 101 Part 2

Part two of the Moonkin Basic's Video Series I'm doing. Always remember though, these are basics and if you wish to learn more, please visit your local Moonkin Theorycrafting sites!

I also see I am being posted on Wow Insider again. I don't really mind this, since I know the video is liked by the moonkin community as a whole due to the emails and in-game messages I have been receiving. However, those asking for dps help would visit The Moonkin Repository and myself as well as others will be glad to answer any questions you have.

Always remember though, I'm always opened for suggestions on how to make the videos better. There are only a few left that I have in mind in making for the series before I just stop making them due to the rest of the information dealing with Min/Maxing. So, if you have any comments or concerns, feel free to email me!

(A little insight to the children out there)

Yes, I know my mic is bad. I understand that. This video is just to help people. However if it hurts you head, stop watching it and go to the site and read around for the information you want. I'm not rich, nor do I own my own studio or a $100 dollar mic. So I'm happy with the results and that the Moonkin Community as a whole has been enjoying the videos. :)

Haste Chatter!

Lets Talk haste!

Since joining my new Guild Reawaken, I finally ran into a person I can chat with ingame about extensive moonkin theorycrafting. He brought up several good points which made me look at what we will be talking about today. Haste!

Moonkins love haste. Its like crack to us, but of course we like other stuff to. Its good to keep both even though (crit and Haste and not over stack one or the other). At the current point in the game, people are at 530-600 haste. Some people may not see how they do it, but others do. These people are also still dishing out some good damage. With Uldar around the corner, we need to start looking at the values again.

For those who don't know..the global cooldown for casters with no haste is 1.5 seconds. Haste can lower your global to 1 second. For Moonkin, 1 second starfires will make baby raptor jesus cry.

The basic haste forumal is as follows:

New Casting Time = (Base Casting Time)/(1 + (% Spell Haste / 100))

At level 80, we need 32.79 points of haste per 1%. A few points to keep in mind are as follows:

Moonkin have 6% haste from talents which: 32.79x6%=196.74

The Haste Cap/Global Cooldown Cap = 1639.5 (for 50%) based off Wow Wiki
----
So, lets just say Uldar gear gives us around 700 haste. If we decide to say that bloodlust can be converted into haste, then it would become 987.3 haste rating.

So we'd take that and end up with this:

700+ 983.7= 1683.7

Adding a bit more into it, we will add our hidden haste from talents which is 6%..Remember, it takes 32.79 for 1% of haste, so it comes out to 196.74. So even with bloodlust, haste, and your hidden haste; you will have 1880.44 which is 200+ haste over the cap. This will cause clipping issues. Starfire before a crit will be 1.5 seconds. Nature's grace doesn't add itself from what I know if you are already at the cap (due to clipping issues)

So, with our hidden haste, Normal Haste, Bloodlust, and speed potion you would have the following:

196.74+983.7+700+500= 2380.4

Now, that is IF Bloodlust acted like that type of mechanic, but it doesn't.

So lets go on to another part. If your desired casting time is 1.5 seconds (starfire) then:

"desired casting time" = 1.5 seconds, ((3/1.5)-1)*32.79*100

So, you'd need a 3279 haste rating to yank SF down to clip the GCD not 16**

Since the cap on 1 second is 16** from Wow Wiki..we must keep in mind that it would only lower Starfire to a 2 second cast (which we see when we just get bloodlust..and it gets lower with haste pot)

So, going off these stats, A haste pot is still good during a bloodlust. If you are curious...

So to get SF to have a cast of exactly 1 second, it would be 6558 haste, assuming WoWWiki's formula is correct.
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So thank you to all the moonkins at the Repository for sitting down and chatting with me about this math. As well as Badeggplant and Atavus.

Glyph of Focus (Patch 3.0.8)

Welcome to the buggy patch of 3.0.8! Starfail has been nerfed and everyone around the world is dropping it! New Moonfire animation! (PEWPEWZ LAZER BEAMS) and everything is buggy or just not working!

What a wonderful day of Warcraft! Wouldn't you agree? Anyway, the patch has been out for a few days now. When the patch first came out, there was an issue with Wintersgrasp crashing the server. Each time the game was won, it sent out an infinite buff to everyone, causing the server to overload and crash (every server in the game mind you)..when the servers would come back up, the game was reset and people would try to take it again.

Honor farmers enjoyed this time while people in Northrend couldn't stop dcing from the for hours on end. It was terrible. Raiders were afraid to wipe and had soulstones and everything ready at hand for wipe recovery.

Malygos learned to fart so he was killing people behind him, let alone they added a larger range to his arcane breath..which apparently was chaining off hunter pets and ghouls, causing raid wipes. He also has targeting issues in phase 2 where you couldn't target him and he'd just melee you after a vortex. There is also no more stacking of sparks to dps him from 50%-0 with a bloodlust. Sparks now have a timer which is shared with their pools when they die and give us the buff.

Anyway, to the point at hand. With this patch came a new Glyph..Glyph of Focusing! This glyph increased your Starfail damage by 20% but decreased its range by 50%. This glyph however is a major glyph and not something worth picking up. Why do you say? With the 50% decrease, you only get 18 yards to use it with. Pretty much you will need to stand on the boss and pewpew. Which is a bad thing.

Closer to the boss means more agroo, let alone if that boss has a cleave, breath, tailwhip or anything like that, you'd be screwed. Anyway..for sheer curiousity we was quick to look into the numbers it would give.

Here are the numbers given by Wisprunner after I pointed the topic out. He did a 50% increase of damage and a 20% increase.

ok 20% increase.

600 average hit. 20% of that is 120, so 720 a hit for 15 hits is 10,800

1324 average crit. 20% of that is 265 (rounded up. 264.8 is the actual number), so 1589 per average crit for a total of 7945 with the 5 crits from my parse.

combine all that to get 18,745 so it's not even a 3 dps increase if I did that conversion right (which I don't think I did, I never remember that conversion, someone correct me if I'm wrong) over what my starfall did for me on the fight.

standing on the boss for 3 dps...umm...no thanks.

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Here is the 50% increase numbers

Take the last time you used Starfail on a single target mob (patchwerk, Instructor etc.) from a wws report, and just take the average hit, take 50% of that, add it, and that's what the hit would have done. take the total number of hits you had on that mob, and do simple addition from there.

That's how much glyphed starfail would have done.

For instance, the last time I did patchwerk25 and had starfail the average hit of my starfail was ~600 (rounded up for ease of math) 50% of that is another 300. so 900 a hit. 900 a hit for 15 hits is 13,500.

average crit was 1324, 50% of that is 662, add that on and we get 1986, 1986 average crit at 5 crits total makes 9,930

Grand total 23,400 compared to the 15,541 that the parse had. That was on two uses as well since the kill was a laughable 3:27.

23,400 would still have been half of what IS (next lowest total damage ability) was. so starfall would have added roughly 30 dps to my total of 3857 (hooray 30% wrath crit) instead of the 23ish I got that night.

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Though from his personal point of few, his numbers still show what type of increase you would see. 3 or 7 dps..doesn't matter..for 1 talent point isn't going to make this talent, but break it really. You could put that talent point anywhere else you like. Even pick up IMP Moonfire..or something. Me..I dropped it. I won't lie. I picked up 2/2 Gale Winds and put 1 point in Owlkin frenzy since I really have nothing else to do with my points. I have no mana regen talents or anything and I'm never oom in fights.

If you have no issues with mana you can always make your tree to your liking..always remember that. The 55/0/16 spec is just a basic spec for raiding if you have mana issues. Anyway, enough rambling from me. I hope this post will help people still confused on the glyph if they wish to take it or not.

Starfall..Wait, I mean Starfail

Yup, that's the new name of it... Starfail! Say it with me! Starfail.....Has a nice ring to it eh? Well, this is what it has become. While people who play druids don't spec balance may not see an issue (let alone the rogues crying about it) we do. Starfall was our last real ability at getting melee away from us.

Sure, we have typhoon, that does damage and a knock back. A rogue can easily sprint back to us, shadow step, vanish and start up a very long and annoying chain stun or others. Warriors can intercept us as soon as it happens. Hunters are long range for it to happen so unless you are knocking them off cliffs..it doesn't happen much.

Then we have Death Knights who just use their silence on us when they are close for a free few hits. Let alone, if we try to cast thorns, we can get Mind Frozen as another silence to our Nature Spell section (out of 2). There are many more things that happens to us that Starfall was used for.

What is Starfall? Well, heres the tooltip of Starfall.

You summon a flurry of stars from the sky on all targets within 30 yards of the caster, each dealing 111 to 129 Arcane damage. Also causes 20 Arcane damage to all other enemies within 5 yards of the enemy target. Maximum 20 stars. Lasts 10 sec.
39% of base mana, 30 yd range, Instant cast, 3 min cooldown

Sounds all and good when you first look at it..right? You think it will be excellent to use. Both in PVE and PVP. However..this talent doesn't scale with Spelldamage. It does the same damage if you have 1500 spelldamage or 3000. Also, the splash damage only occured to mobs near the hitbox of the moonkin. Never near the stars making it a waste in that sense. (Ghostcrawler has confirmed this will be fixed)

Now, 39% base mana..its not to bad, but for a 3 minute cooldown..its terrible.

Now comes the PVP side of it, which is getting this talent nerfed! Before I go on however, lets look at what Starfall used to do!

IN PVP:

You could pop Starfall and run around as a Cat/Cheetah/Bear and keep the buff up
You could be stunned or CC'd and the spell will still occur for those 10 seconds
Random Stun proc which helped to remove melee off you for a second to cast Typhoon/roots

IN PVE:
None really..but it was good for a bit of extra damage..thats all it was


Whats going on with Starfall now?
Glad you asked! Starfall has already had some nerfs to it. Now if you get CC'd/Stuned, you keep the buff up, wasting its 10 seconds of free damage..however it doesn't go off. So its a wasted cooldown.

Random stun proc is being removed come patch. Ghostcrawler claimed that they wished to get rid of the RNG stun issue. Ok..So then that means Celestical Focus gets changed right? To what? Also, this leaves us with no stun in moonkin form (unless you are tauren)..meaning we have to waste mana..shifting into a bear to bash, then shifting again to continue on. Kinda a waste but its all we got now.

In PVE, this spell has been closely monitored by BadEggPlant over at the Moonkin Repository. She has been reporting in on it to state the damage it has been doing. She has also made several threads with suggestions on what to do with Starfall. Buffing the damage seems to be the major thing.

Here are some of the stats from Bad's findings

Starfall was 1.15% of my damage this week. I THINK I popped it on the Heroism.

Unbuffed stats for this week:
Spellpower: 1896
Crit: 18.26%
Haste: 493

PATCHWERK TOTAL DAMAGE: 857,209 (4684 DPS over 3'07")
STARFALL DAMAGE STATS:
Total done: 9,915
Crits: 5
Hits: 5

This was the first post. So..even with bloodlust Starfall was pretty much only 1% of the total damage done. Also keep in mind, if you use Starfall while you cast and pick up a crit to spark Nature's Grace...It will eat it during the final seconds of your cast. If you are a little confused, here is an explaination..

We'll go with Starfire being 3 second cast

You Cast Starfall
You begin to cast Starfire
Starfall Crits
You gain Nature's Grace
Starfire Cast finishes its normal (full 3 second cast)
You lose Nature's Grace


Yup..that is how its working right now if you want to use it in PVE. I have it for the little extra damage, but at this point with it barely even breaking 2% or being close, I figure I will drop it and pick up Typhoon so I can have some fun in Wintergrasp without respecing or finishing off my Owlkin Frenzy.

Either way, Starfall is getting nerfs and the random stun is all it had going for it in PVP. Now..it will be useless in PVE and PVP. Thoughts..Concerns? Wanting to look into more information?

If you would like to join the Moonkin Mafia in their search on Starfall answers, you are welcomed to check us out at The Moonkin Repository.com. You can also join us on the World of Warcraft forums!

IFF and FF? Wah?

I am saying the tooltip, which currently reads:

Your Faerie Fire spell also increases the chance the target will be hit by spell attacks by 3%, and increases the critical strike chance of your damage spells by 3% on targets afflicted by Faerie Fire.

Should probably read:

Your Faerie Fire and Feral Faerie Fire spells also increase the chance the target will be hit by spell attacks by 3%, and increase the critical strike chance of your damage spells by 3% on targets afflicted by your Faerie Fire or Feral Faerie Fire.

One of the issues we are currently discussing is what to do in the case where someone chooses a talent that they end up not using because someone else in the group also has the same buff of equal or greater potency. To be fair though this is not a new problem. Raids always had to manage buffs like Spirit or Kings that were talented. I think groups usually worked around that by just grouping with the same people a lot and making sure someone had the talent. We are seeing a lot more raids pugged these days, and in any case, you often still want the buff when you are soloing. It is something we're discussing.
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So what you are saying is this is definitely how you wanted it to be? I'm a tad bit confused. Feral FF increasing hit as well? Are you ok GC? I'm still slightly confused on what you are trying to say. At first, you made it sound like this was a bug. Now you are saying you want it to work out...but now you need to find a way around people not using it or having it in raids? Yeah, Paladin buffs people spec in to. Its kinda like that I suppose. Or what about me being spec'd IMP Mark and never using it when a resto druid is in raid...does that mean I get something out of it? No, its called being prepared if anything. I also didn't find going 2/5 Nature's Focus to be a problem. I'm not tanking anything so nothing should be hitting me and when I cast wrath, its maybe 1-2 casts for my Eclipse proc.

However, we are still chatting in this thread in regards to what all he is saying. Ways we could make both sides happy. Ghostcrawler originally stated that he wanted us to cast IFF. When you have an Spriest in the raid, you don't care to even look at the button to try and cast. The Spriest has the Hit buff for the raid which is automatically applied. So now, why cast it? Its a dps loss overall for us.

So far a good suggestion is that we originally cast IFF at the start, and then a feral's FF overwrites/refreshes it so it never falls off. That way both sides are happy. Feral's can keep theirs up and we get our long timer on it. What do you all think?

For those wondering, an interesting response came, which holds a lot of truth. It came from our very own Graylo, who runs the blog Graymatter!

Lets assume for a second that a moonkin does receive the 3% crit from FFF or normal FF cast by another druid, without having cast FF on the mob himself. Basically, he is getting 3% crit for free.

Is this that big of an issue?

High end raiding moonkins have been speccing into IFF for a month to get the extra 3% crit. I have looked at my own WWS reports and those of several cutting edge guilds that are in the top 10 or 20 guilds in the world. Most of them seem to have a Moonkin on their roster now (woot!), but none of them are destroying the meters relative to the other DPS classes.

It was my understanding that as a hybrid class we are supposed to be close but still a little behind the more "pure" DPS classes. In my opinion that is where we are.

IFF my not have been intended to work with the FF cast by another player, but if it does, it obviously hasn't upset the balance of the game. Therefore, in my opinion it shouldn't be "fixed".

And hes right. The 3% increase even if we don't cast isn't a major thing and doesn't upset any balance of the game. What are you thoughts?

'Time-Lost' Proto Drake

As the Title says..Time-Lost. Are you sure about that? Definitely. This game is based to much on numbers to be generated. This is where you hope and pray luck to be on your side. Is it all the time? Hell no. Sometimes yes, but never for some people. I'm one of those people. I admit, I'm a mount whore. Even though I'm a druid and I have the Shapeshifting abilities no other class has..I barely use it.

Sure, instant mounting is fun, but I enjoy seeing the other mounts out there. Staring at a bird form all day isn't my cup of tea. Personally, I've been collecting since Tauren were able to ride wolves. I was so happy when that patch came out. I grinded the rep so fast..which was hard back then. (I feel so old saying that)

Anyway..back to this. With Wrath of The Lich King out...A new mount type has been added. Proto Drakes! Hurray...right? Wrong. These things actually take work to get. Its not like Netherdrakes where you can just quest and gain rep then get one at the end of the grind. Oh no, you need to work for these babies. You can get them from achievements which requires a group of 5 or more people. So great..have to rely on people to get something. Love you blizzard. Thanks for that.

Or you can hope RNG loves you with the Mysterious Egg! Its a 7 day cooldown after getting reveered with the Oracles. You can get a mount from it which has about 3-4% drop rate. I'm personally going on my 5th egg now trying to get this thing. Then you have Heroic Utrgarde Pinnacle's rare mount drop. A Blue Proto Drake which has a chance to drop off the 3rd boss. It has a low drop rate but everyone has one! Everyone but me. I ran that thing for 4 weeks everyday and got nothing. Luck based RNG...Told ya so!

Then we have the best one yet. The Time-Lost Proto Drake! This guy's name speaks for itself. You can sit there for days and days on end..and never see a thing. Once you leave..someone else gets it. I have personally sat for over 34 hours watching for this guy. Nothing spawned. I know his spawns and his pathing. But nothing! One day for a Tuesday Maintence they decided to only do rolling restarts. Every Tuesday I usually log on to look and wait for him until I get to work or do something else.

Well, the alarm went off and I was dead tired..I decided..34 hours and I finally got some sleep..he shouldn't spawn within the next 4 hours of me catching up on rest...right? Boy was I wrong. I logged in to be laughed at by a guildie who told me he watched him spawn and get killed by someone else. In the same spot I always sit. So, after slamming my head against my desk I decided I should take a break. That only lasted a few days before I sat for another several hours on end. However it was strange this time as nothing, no Time-Lost or even his rare spawn friends. Apparently the GM's had broken it when they did the Mage Spellsteal Fix for Naxx and refused to admit to it. So I had spent another 30+hours sitting out there for nothing.

Of course this reset came around and he spawned 1 hour before I got home from work. Thats ok though, I'll get him eventually. Least I know I should feel proud riding him since I actually had to work for it. I just wish I had the luck of those guys who got it when they wasn't even looking for it.

If only...

22 days and counting!

Improved FF or Misery? Why not both?!

I decided to finally start up a blog. While I may suck at numbers, I know how to read them. Sure it takes me awhile. Sitting there, scratching my head in confusion, but it gets done. I work with Graylo, Wisp, and others when it comes to the Moonkin class.

I love the Class and enjoy the aspects of it. Since this is my first post in regards to this, I figured I would go ahead and tell you about myself. My character is Foofy, once named Grandstorm for 3 years, I decided it was time for a change (Some naked art pictures where coming up with that name...oi) I'm an 80 Tauren druid who has been playing the game since March 05. I've been mainly resto or Balance my whole game life while rerolling a paladin for a few months before deciding it wasn't something I liked. Pre Bc, I was a resto druid like pretty much everyone else. I saw from MC in to Naxx. I leveled as resto and remember having to spec into Innervate just to be able to raid.

I actually meet my Husband/Soon to be in World of Warcraft while I was gone for Basic/AIT. We leveled together (I healed..he poked stuff) our way to 70. During BC I rerolled for a paladin to try something new. I didn't like it but was stuck with it until I could convince my guildmaster to let me try out moonkin on my druid. It was there I became hooked. While I didn't know much about moonkin, I knew about the hitcap and everything like that. Just not rotations. I was horrible. Then again, I was made to cast IMP FF and IS for the raid..so my dps didn't go much over 1300.

It was then when I started moonkin theorycrafting. I found The Moonkin Repository and began my mass learning experience. Anyway, enough about me..its time for the topic at hand! I don't troll the Wow Druid forums much, but I do love to go there and mess with people. Upon stumbling onto a "Rate the Owlkin Above you" I was rated by another Moonkin who told me to spec out of IMP FF since I probably have a shadowpriest to cover it for me.

Now, I got to play in beta so I got to test stuff along with everyone else. I knew math was already done in this so I decided to post towards him. Of course he wanted a bit more. I couldn't find the exact numbers, but I did find him the main topics of dicussion with others stating what I stated already.

http://elitistjerks.com/f73/t37048-moonkin_talents_specs_discussion/p7/ --A Topic on EJ in regards to this talent. Was it worth it?

http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?topic=28312.msg480724;topicseen --A Topic on MMO-Champion in regards to the talent.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=11676578789&sid=1&pageNo=1 --Druid Forums post with the man who tested it. While he couldn't provide numbers, I came up with the near same results. Then again, RNG is RNG.

There are many more out there. So if you are curious, you can look into it. You just have to go to Google or any Search Engine of your choice and type "FFF over IMP" or any variation of it. Anyway, I thank you for reading and hope to see you again!