Ok, I have decided to officially start my own moonkin blog and I decided to start with one of the issues that comes up in my 25 man raids all the time. Starfall is a powerful asset in our moonkin rotation but it is something that has to be used very carefully. If not used properly, you could easily pull aggro. This is even more true with the Starfall buff in 3.3.3. With my first post for my new moonkin blog, I would like to run down the ICC fights and tell you when to Starfall and when to not starfall.
First things first, please glyph Starfall. Have it on a minute cooldown helps out tremendously and can help increase your DPS drastically. Second, as a general rule, it is preferable to use Starfall when more than one mob is up. Having at least two mobs up causes each mob to get hit with 20 stars instead of the normal 10. This is a significant DPS boost. Also, as a general rule, don't Starfall trash. There are a few exceptions. (Precious says Oh hai!) Now, lets get into the ICC bosses.
Marrowgar - I usually love to use Starfall after the first bone spikes come up. Many times, this allows me to stay on the boss and just watch the spikes fall around me. I will usually save my Starfall for bone spikes.
Deathwhisper - Depends. If this is the weekly raid quest in ICC, I never use Starfall. That is just asking for the mob you are suppose to be protecting to die. If it is not, I use it on the trash under the condition that somebody is not mind controlled. If they are mind controlled, I wait until they are out.
Gunship - Pretty much on cooldown. Our tanks are excellent at picking up adds that come on our ship. In addition, use Starfall on the edge of your boat so you can hit people on both ships with Starfall.
Saurfang - Blood Beast Phase. I also have the honor of being the typhoon person for our guild. I usually hit typhoon first, then Starfall. With timers, you usually will be able to Starfall every other Blood Beast. If you pull aggro on the Blood Beast, just run backwards until they are dead.
Rotface - Pretty much on cooldown. I usually prefer to wait just a little bit for the first big ooze to form to Starfall to get the 20 stars benefit.
Festergut - No adds in this one, so this becomes on cooldown. Great if you are moving to get to a spore.
Professor Putricide - For the first two phases, I Starfall when the Unstable Experiment ooze is up. This gives me the 20 stars benefit plus allows me to put some extra DPS on the ooze. I tend to go on the green ooze but if your rotation gets off, you can always Starfall on the orange ooze. During Phase 3, Starfall on cooldown. Another great phase to use it since you are moving constantly.
Blood Princes - While I thought that Starfall was a raid wiper in this fight, it is actually okay since the Dark Nuclei are not damaged by AoE attacks. Thanks to Qieth for the update on this fight.
Blood Queen - There is not really any adds in this fight so I would just use on cooldown. Also, as a general rule, don't expect to the first bitten. Your burst DPS is not high enough to get bitten from what I have found.
Dreamwalker - Pretty much on cooldown. I would say exercise some caution if a mob is out on your side that must be tanked like the abominations. I personally love to use them on suppressors.
Sindragosa - This is a tough fight for boomkins in general because of the unchained magic debuff. I try to Starfall at the very beginning of the fight just to get some DPS on the boss. I will hold my second and all subsequent Starfalls up until phase 3 for phase 2 with the ice blocks. This way, you at least get the 20 star benefit. You may be able to sneak an additional Starfall in there during Phase 1, but I have been saving it. In phase 3, it becomes on cooldown. Just be careful to make sure to clear your debuff. Also, I find that our healers are good enough so that I can get behind every other ice block to clear the Magic Buffet debuff.
Lich King - We are only to phase 2 of this fight so I'm sure I can add some more as we get closer to downing him. However, here is when I have been doing the first few Starfalls. I hold my first Starfall until both of the big adds in Phase 1 are being tanked and Lich King is around 73%. The raid leader has been calling for AOE on the ghouls. I will do one Hurricane and then Starfall and then Hurricane again until Lich King moves to the transition phase. Never Starfall during the transition phase. Originally, I was using Starfall after the transition phase to clear the explosive bombs. However, our hunters have been doing a great job of killing those. I am now using them on the Valkyrs during Phase 2. That way, I can hit all 3 at once and try to kill them quicker. I will expand once we get past Phase 2 for other preferred times to Starfall.
So to the boomkins of the world. Go out and melt face with Starfall. Hopefully, I will update this soon.
5 comments:
It is perfectly safe to cast Starfall during Blood Council. The dark nuclei does not get hit by starfall, typhoon, armpit sweat or any other sort of AOE repellant.
When that is said, i completely get that you are holding starfall back so you can use it during times with more targets, but if you keep doing this, you might actually lose a starfall throughout the fight - and that will be a bigger damage loss. Some damage, like popping Starfall on Rotface when the big ooze is up, only inflates your DPS. Its not real DPS, and it doesn't help your raid. It only serves to give you a bigger number.
On Lich King, pop starfall when the ghouls spawn. These should generally die from random AOE damage or Necrotic Plague - it shouldn't be nessecary to directly AOE them down. Keep them near the shambler tank, and they will fall off from splash damage and plague. You can usually get two starfalls out in phase 1, and even if you can't, it would be up for the raging spirits.
In phase 2, try to use it when the valkyrs are up. I change my stance here, because its actually critical to get them down as soon as possible, and this is where starfall is best used. In phase 3, you can use starfall on every second pack of Vile Spirits - you will enjoy doing this ;)
Welcome to moonkin blogging!
- Qieth
qieths-quips.com
@Poulsenster Thanks for being the first comment on my blog.
I will have to try Starfall on Blood Council. I was under the understanding that it could destroy Dark Nuclei which left the range tank defenseless. I'm glad to learn I'm wrong about that.
I have tried to get some extra Starfalls in as well. I really don't like inflating DPS numbers for recount/e-peen reasons. I agree with the Rotface fight for example on trying to get your first Starfall pretty quick. The more I'm looking at the mechanics of the fight, you will still have a big ooze 1 minute into the fight, so take the extra beginning Starfall. From there, it gets so quick with oozes that you will always have it on cooldown.
I use to try to save Starfll for when the first Shambler was being tanked and when the aggro was being held. What I found is that it drew unnecessary adds to the range and it kind of upset the OT who needs the ghouls for the necrotic plague to jump or it jumps to them. I use to get two Starfalls as well, but it was messing up my OTs necrotic plague flow.
This is "Poulsenster" here - it wasn't really supposed to use my google account name, but rather just my player name :P But, I can't seem to specify just a name and URL, so we'll have to go with this :P
The Dark Nucleus does not get hit by AOE affects at all. Most guilds use a death knight to tank Keleseth, so imagine a DK trying to do threat on a target with all those nuclei around if they took AOE damage. As such, starfall is perfectly safe to use, although it will hit inactive princes and kinetic bombs as well. Still, its better than not using it :)
- Qieth
qieths-quips.com
Hi,
in the rotface fights its ok to use SF @ the beginning of the fight. because the SF cd is rdy when the first big bloob is generate out of the 2 little bloobs.
In the sauerfang fight i generally use SF @ the beginning. because u can use SF all 2 add phases. So its not important to wait the 30 seconds of the first wave. This gives u the chance to use SF once more in that fight.
Sry 4 my englisch im an german player :D
@Anon
Thanks for the comment. I'm glad to know my blog has gone international.
I agree with you about trying to get that one extra Starfall on those fights. I'm finding on both of those fights that I'm doing good DPS but I have tried to improve on getting that extra Starfall in. This is where having either cooldown timers or the timers on your action bar really help so I can see the exact moment it comes up.
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