Thursday, June 10, 2010

Cataclysm Druid Changes - My Possible Moonkin Build

MMO Champion has released the previews of the druid talents for Cataclysm.  Now, I am not a theorycrafter by any stretch, but I'm going to pretend I'm one today by taking a guess as to what the end game moonkin raiding spec will be.  I will try to do one tomorrow for feral tank druids and try to come up with options.  Here is what I'm looking at right now.

It is a 63/0/13 talent build right now.  Here is my rundown of the talents:

Balance Talents

Starlight Wrath (5/5) - Reduces the cast time of Wrath and Starfire.  I think this will be a necessary talent since casting those more quickly will allow us to build lunar or solar power.

Genesis (5/5) - Increases DoT damage by 5%, which is pretty substantial for our Moonfire, Insect Swarm, and Faerie Fire.

Nature's Majesty (2/2) - Increases the critical strike damage by 4% for Starfire, Wrath, and Starfall, which will be incredibly good and important to hit whatever the new Lunar Crit Cap will be.

Improved Moonfire (2/2) - Increases the direct damage of Moonfire by 10%.  Again, more damage for one of our bigger DoT spells.  Plus, the DoT is determined by the upfront damage of the Moonfire.

Nature's Grace (3/3) - Essentially, Wrath and Starfire crits increase spell casting speed.  Very helpful, especially if you are at the Lunar Crit Cap and every spell cast is a crit.

Solar Beam (1/1) - Our first new talent ability.  However, I think this is more of a PvP talent versus a PvE talent,  but, you will need this to get one of the talents further down the tree.

Nature's Reach (2/2) - Increases our max range, which is essential for PvE fights to stay at max range.

Nature's Splendor (1/1) - Increases our main DoTs length.

Brambles (3/3) - Main thing is it increases your treants damage dealt.  Stunning probably won't do much in a PvE enviroment but that ability is there.

Starsurge (1/1) - This is my current favorite description for a talent.  "It fuses the power of the sun and moon."  Yes, it does.  We are badass like that.  This is a direct damage spell which I'm thinking will become part of our rotation.  The "knocking down" sounds again like a more PvP part of the ability, but it will have some function in PvE as a ranged stun maybe.

Vengeance (5/5) - Increases the critical strike damage bonus by 100% for our most used spells.  In other words, big crits.

Dreamstate (3/3) - Now, normally, I would say not to take any mana saving abilities in a tree since 25 mans tend to not have issues with mana.  However, I would take this talent because of the ability it leads to further down the tree, which will be necessary.

Gale Winds (2/2)  - This is where some of the variable points start.  If you are mana starved in a raid, you could move these points to Moonglow.  However, this just increases your AoE damage done with hurricane.  Since Typhoon is not a major source of damage, increasing it a little might help, but not much.

Lunar Guidance (3/3) - This is why you took Solar Beam and Starsurge to begin with.  While increasing the range of the Solar Beam may not be much use in PvE, having the 15 additional lunar or solar power while casting Starsurge is huge.  This will help us hit our Eclipses quicker as well.

Balance of Power (2/2) - This is our conversion from spirit to hit that we needed in order to use resto gear as our main gear.  100% of our spirit will be converted into hit.

Moonkin Form (1/1) - Duh, this is our crit chicken, our boomkin, our form.  Take it.

Improved Moonkin Form (3/3) - Increase all party members haste by 5%.  Pretty handy since our DoTs will be determined by our haste and crit rating.

Euphoria (2/2) - This is how we will change from Lunar Eclipse to Solar Eclipse really quickly. Starfire crits will equal 8 solar power and Wrath  crits will equal 4 lunar energy.  This makes sense since our Wrath cast are traditionally quicker than our Starfire cast.  Also, when we hit an eclipse, we get 12% of our mana back.  That is huge.

Owlkin Frenzy (3/3) - Damage increased by 10% when damage is done to you.  Not to shabby.

Wrath of Cenarius (3/3) - Increases Moonfire's DoT damage by 8% and can stack while we are moving.  This will help us not to lose as much DPS as when we are on the move since we can refresh it and allow it to stack up to 3 times.

Improved Eclipse (3/3) - Another tool to help us get to Eclipses faster by increasing the amount of Lunar and Solar energy we gain by 30%.  Plus, if we are damaged with a critical hit, we gain Lunar or Solar Energy.

Typhoon (1/1) - Our good old Typhoon spell.  Of course, you should pick it up.

Force of Nature (1/1) - Also, our good old treants.  Pick these up as well.

Earth and Moon (3/3) - Since we cast Wrath and Starfire all the time, this equates to a 8% more damage increase on the mob and a 6% increase in our spell damage that we dish out.

Fungal Growth (2/2) - This was a tough call.  Most 25 man raids have hunters who can frost trap which is essentially the same as this.  This turns our treants and Wild Mushroom into basically hunter traps.  The difference is you get three traps with the treants and can lay Wild Mushroom down pretty regularly.  Again, if you are extremely mana starved, you could probably transfer these points to Moonglow.

Starfall (1/1) - Our face melting, world ending, 51 point talent.  Take it.  You'll love it.

Feral Talents

I don't see any feral talents worth taking as a moonkin.  Just skip this tree.

Restoration Talents

Blessing of the Grove (2/2) - Increases the direct damage of your Moonfire by 6%.  Remember, higher direct damage on Moonfire = higher DoT damage.

Furor (5/5) - Increases our intellect in moonkin form by 10%.  This will directly increase our spellpower due to the new mechanics of intellect.  Plus, we will get some more mana back from Dreamstate.

Natural Shapeshifter (3/3) - Reduces mana cost for shapeshifting and opens up the Master Shapeshifter talent, which is more important.

Omen of Clarity (1/1)  - Pretty much the same use as now.  Makes your next cast free.  You probably still will be able to proc this by casting Gift of the Wild.

Master Shapeshifter (2/2) - Increases spell damage by 4%.  More damage = higher DPS, which is always win.

So this is my idea of what the basic moonkin raiding spec will be.  What are you opinions on this spec?  Do you think some of the abilities will not be as needed?  Do you think that mana management will be more of an issue than before?  I can't wait to hear your thoughts on this.

2 comments:

Natrisi said...

The first time I get in battle Grounds with Boomkins creating 12 second Caster "dead zones" I will have a few choice words for you my friend :P

Redhawks said...

@Natrii

Yeah, that talent is going to get nerfed somehow in PvP. Having huge caster dead zones is going to piss some people off. It will be great for moonkins though.