Note: While part of me wants to continue about the firestorm that is RealID and another part of me wants to discuss the change to 31 point talent trees, I'm doing neither. For RealID, what has been said has been said. It will either sway Blizzard or not. For the 31 point talent trees, I want to see an actual moonkin talent tree before I comment.
A lot of people who do not understand moonkins say that the moonkin rotation is very simple. You probably hear people say it is just alternating between two buttons like 1112222222222222222221111111. Nothing could be further from the truth. There is a little more complexity to the moonkin rotation than that.
Now, everybody is going to have a slightly different rotation, but here is my rotation for my current situation. Note that this rotation is for a fight with no adds, little movement, and no mechanic to limit casting, like normal Festergut or normal/hard Blood Queen. In some fights, you may want to wait just a second more for Starfall or not use it all depending on the situation. Also, if you are moving a lot in a fight, you might want to apply DoTs just a second before they fall off, especially if you can use Gift of the Wild to proc your 2T10 bonus.
Treants > Faerie Fire > Wrath > Insect Swarm > Moonfire > Wrath until Lunar Eclipse procs or Spyglass proc is up to 10 > Starfall when Spyglass proc is up to 10 > Starfire until Solar Eclipse procs > Reapply DoTs and use Starfall/Treants on cooldown in between procs > Keep alternating between Lunar and Solar Eclipses
Here are some of my particulars in my rotation. One, I open with Treants because I want to start getting damage on the boss as soon as the tank touches him. All my other spells have the potential to pull aggro off the tanks except for treants. That is why I open with that. However, opening with treants means they come to you first unless you give them some direction. That is one of the jobs of Faerie Fire. It directs the treants where to go in addition to apply Faerie Fire. Unless the fight is an incredibly long fight like LK, you should only have to apply Faerie Fire once. If you do have to reapply, I considering it a DoT to reapply. I cast Wrath next before the DoTs (Insect Swarm and Moonfire) because I want Earth and Moon on the target to make it easier to start getting Eclipse procs. Plus, it provides a damage buff to the DoTs. After my DoTs are on the target, I just start casting Wrath. I will only pause casting Wrath for two reasons. One, if I get a Lunar Eclipse proc, I will start casting Starfire. Second, I have the Muradin's Spyglass, which stacks up to 10 increases in spellpower. If I hit my stack of 10 with the Spyglass, I will go ahead and cast Starfall for maximum damage with Starfall, which is based on spellpower. After that, it is just alternating Lunar and Solar Eclipses while reapply DoTs and using my Treants and Starfall on cooldown until we have a dead boss.
As I said, this is my current rotation for what is essentially a tank and spank fight. I can see where a few changes might occur before Cataclysm though. For example, I would like to get Dislodged Foreign Object and Phylactery of the Nameless Lich. This means that I would likely use Starfall sooner in my rotation versus where I use it now. We also don't know what will come in Patch 4.0 that will change this rotation. I'm not foreseeing anything in 3.3.9 that will affect it though.
When it gets to Cataclysm, I think our rotation will begin to change drastically depending on the new Eclipse mechanic and the new spells that will grant Lunar or Solar power. Who knows what it is going to be (especially with the news of the new 31 point talent trees), but I'm almost certain you are going to see faster changing between Wrath and Starfire and a lot less dependency on random chance for Eclipse procs. In addition, the new spells that give either Lunar or Solar power will almost certainly be added into the rotation somewhere, likely at the beginning and maybe even replacing Wrath to proc our Earth and Moon. Whatever happens, I think it will add more complexity to the moonkin DPS rotation.
Just a reminder, the Christmas in July Contest is still going on. Please check it out so that you can win some great prizes. I'm gonna sound like a broken record, but I really want people to enter and then get the word out about this blog.
2 comments:
This rotation is NOT optimal. Heck, with just one press if a button, you are losing a good 200+ DPS. This might be "your" rotation, but it is lacking, and thus shouldn't be passed on to others.
Refreshing both DOTs is not a DPS increase. Dots are only worth having up with their corresponding nuke. An "unmatched" dot is some 3-4000 DPET than, say, a wrath, and when you do that every 15 seconds, it becomes quite significant.
- Qieth
For the sake of simplification, I forgot to state that fact. I was just saying reapply DoTs, but you are correct in the way they should be reapplied. Moonfire should correspond with a Lunar Eclipse while Insect Swarm should correspond with a Solar Eclipse. Moonfire is also extended by Starfire during a Lunar Eclipse as well. It is a priority to get the corresponding one on as soon as possible during an eclipse.
Of course in Cataclysm, it sounds like anytime we move, we are going to be spamming Moonfire.
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