PvE vs. PvP Moonkin Rotations - Yes, There is a Difference

I just recently got promoted to a rated BG leader in my guild, Conquest. (Yes, usual disclaimer.  We are recruiting for both our PvP division and PvE division.) Another BG leader and myself were talking after rated BGs last night and we were talking about DPS and how to increase it in a BG setting.  When you hear DPS rotations, you mostly think about PvE enviroments where you stand, cast spells in a certain order, and then accomadate movement.  However, when it comes to PvP enviroments, there may or may not be rotations based on the situation.  There are some things that are similar, but there are a lot different.  Here are just a few things that I thought of that are different between a PvE and PvP rotation for moonkins.

1) Most DPS Does Not Come From Nukes - In rated BGs, you don't have the luxury of standing there and just endlessly casting your usual moonkin rotation.  That is why good DPS in PvE are around 15k DPS, but good DPS in PvP are usually around 3-5k.  There are several factors behind this.  One of the biggest is resilience lessens any damage that occurs anyway.  However, the second is that no opposing player is going to let you stand there while you cast away killing their teammates.  We also shouldn't be standing in stuff like Death and Decay, Consecration, Ring of Frost, etc. while PvPing.  This means being able to do DPS while mobile is more important.  While I haven't done in depth analysis, I'm almost certain most of my DPS in BGs come from 4 spells.  Those spells are Moonfire/Sunfire, Insect Swarm, Starfall, and Starsurge on Shooting Star procs.  Now don't get me wrong.  If the opposing team is cool with me just standing there and casting my usual moonkin rotation to kill their players, I will do it all day long until they stop me.

2) Wild Mushrooms Are Much More Useful - Since I haven't done any PvE after patch 4.0.6, I don't know how reliable they have become in PvE, however, in PvP they are useful.  However, it is not necessarily for damage.  It is more useful if you have Fungal Growth and can slow their players down.

3) Thorns: The Silent Killer - I cannot tell you how many times I have seen rogues, warriors, and DKs kill themselves because I popped Thorns on myself.  It is incredible to see them just continue to hit you and whack at you while you are not dying but they are slowly losing health. 

4) Typhoon is Not for Damage - Typhoon has never been meant to do enough damage to kill a player.  It is meant to either keep players off of flags or get melee off of you so you can root them and kill them.  In addition, if you see an enemy Efforvescence or Healing Rain or Healing Circle, you can use Typhoon to knock them out of it so you can kill them as well.  Of course, if you can knock players off of ledges with Typhoon, it is kind of fun.

5) Treants: A Minor Annoyance - Treants should be used on cooldown, but for two different reasons than in PvE.  One, they are affected by Fungal Growth, which will still slow people down.  Second, they are almost like a gnat.  They won't hurt anything, (unless you use them during a Solar Eclipse) but they will be annoying as hell.  Also, it is just additional damage they may help take something down.

6) Our 4S9 Bonus - Yes, I'm trying to set up a new nomenclature to match PvE's 4T11.  Our 4 piece bonus for Season 9 is almost necessary for moonkins.  While 400 more resilience would be great for PvP by doing 2 piece balance, 2 piece resto, the ability to gain Solar and Lunar Energy from people attacking us is incredible.  This also plays a role if we actually get to do our moonkin rotation because it determines which nuke to actually cast. 

7) Moonfire/Sunfire Do More Damage When Moving - This is the major reason why it is in my top 4 damage causing spells in PvP.  If I have to move, they will do more damage if they are on a target or if I'm spamming it while moving.   Plus, having that and Insect Swarm increases the chances for Shooting Stars.  If it is in an Eclipse, even better since its damage is increased by Eclipse.

8) PvP Rotation - Although technically a misnomer, I do have a certain rotation I like to use when going against opponents in PvP.  Usually, if there is a caster, I will try to roots and solar beam them, especially if they are the kill target.  Why?  Because other casters can be controlled by Cyclone better.  With the new 8 second duration, we can kill a healer while a caster is just watching us.  If it is melee, typhoon then roots.  Also, if my Solar Beam is on cooldown, I will try to DoT up anybody in the area.  The main reason is that if the healer is focused on healing everybody else, he might just forget to heal himself which will lead to his death.  Starfall does a very similar process.  Starfall alone won't kill anybody, but it will hit everybody and put them in a panic.  If Shooting Stars procs, use the instant Starsurge on the kill target.  If everybody is controlled or left with just a few targets, I will start my PvE moonkin rotation. (DoTs, Starsurge, move towards the closest Eclipse with Wrath or Starfire, re-DoT, move back towards the other eclipse.)

9)  Reasons and  Counters for Why You Are Not DPSing - There are just a few reasons why you shouldn't be DPSing targets and there is a counter for each of them.  The most obvious is that you are silenced.  If you are in  Solar Beam, move out of it.  If it is a spell, ask for a cleanse.  Also, you may be locked downed with CC.  You may want to invest in the trinket for your faction to help you get out of movement impairing effects.  Also, cleanses may work as well depending on what it is.  Snares can be shapeshifted out of because you are a moonkin.  The only other reason you shouldn't be on a kill target is you are CCing something.  This is where having good timer mods comes in handy.  I personally recommend Forte Exorcist because you can set it up to list the player's name and tells you how long you have left on the cyclone.  That way, you can DPS the kill target and keep him CCed.  Using some sort of focus frames helps a lot with this too so you can switch targets quickly.  Set your focus on your kill target and switch to the CC target when CC is up.  Also, when you hit diminishing returns, call for another CC unless your CC target is now the kill target.

10) Remember Your Goal - Your goal is to win the BG.  If you are DPSing when you should be protecting a node or carrying a flag, then you are failing.  There is a time to DPS, but it is not all the time.  Sometimes, it is just a matter of keeping people off of a flag carrier so they can get to your base and be protected or even cap it. 

While all of these tips are more moonkin specific, there are things for every DPS that can help improve your DPS in BGs.  You just have to find the differences between how you play your class in PvP and PvE.  The best way to do that is to do some random BGs to get used to your PvP rotation in a setting where it won't hurt your rated team.

An Auction House Failure Story - A Personal Experience

I'm sure you have heard the phrase, "The best laid plans of mice and men."  Yeah, I thought my plan to make buttloads of gold was genius.  Let me tell you how this little escapade cost me about 3k gold.

It was the Tuesday of 4.0.6.  I was personally excited because the Chaotic Shadowspirit Diamond was finally being fixed to make it actually usable. What I thought would occur is that the demand for this meta would be initially high, at least until the new meta gem recipes hit the market.  I decided on the day that the patch hit as soon as the servers opened up, I would get on my remote AH app on my phone, buy out all the Chaotics and relist them for about 10x their initial price.  When I bought them, there were about 15 for about 120 gold a piece.  I bought all of them and relisted them for approximately 1000 gold a piece. 

No sooner than 15 minutes after reposting all these gems, someone comes in and puts 3 up for 400 gold a piece.  It amazed me that I was undercut that quickly.  So I did the only reasonable thing, I bought him out.  I thought I still would make 600 gold profit and there is no way he could have anymore.

So help me God, no more than 5 minutes later, the same player posted 3 more at the same price.  In addition, someone had already came in and undercut him even further.  At this point, I decided to pull about 5 of my original auctions to try to undercut them.  I thought with all the Chaotics I bought at 120 gold, I still would make triple profit off of them.

Again, no more than 5 minutes from there, somebody undercut me again. (I did sell one of them though before I was undercut again.)  At this point, I decided that I would leave my gems up until they expired.  The way I thought it would work out would be that as players logged on, they would be changing their metas out to the Chaotics and I would still make profit at the rate people bought them.  However, here is the catch.  A lot of people preferred to hold on to their current meta gems until the new pattern dropped.  Why spend 350 gold to just turn around and buy one of the new meta gems when they become available?

So, where am I today?  Starting off, I have 3k gold less on my bank character, though I have made some of it back from other sales.  I also have approximately 25 Chaotic meta gems that I don't know if they are going to sell or not.  Also, the lowest prices for Chaotics on my server are back to the 120 gold per gem, so even if they sell, I will be making even money back. 

So let this be a lesson.  Never overestimate a market after a patch, especially if there is going to be something that will replace what you are trying to control anyway.  If I would have posted them for about 300 gold a piece, I would have turned a profit and likely have had less loss.  Also, be careful when trying to predict player's expectations.  They may not be thinking the way you are thinking. 

Sharing the Love - WoW Style

With today being Valentine's Day, I thought about the things that we could do as players to share the love to our guildmates and other players on this day of love. (And I don't mean doing the stupid holiday stuff)  Here are a few things that I have thought of that would be great ways to share the love. 

1) Help a Lower Level Alt - If you have a player that you know or who is within a reasonable level of your main or alt, help get them through a dungeon or two to get some gear or help them level up.  This would especially help level 82-85 players since they need gear to be able to do heroics.  Also, this could include helping a lower level player who is getting ganked.  Go there and kick some ass for them.

2) Buy Some Extra  Consumables For Your Raid - Maybe get a couple extra consumables for players in your raid and help them save some gold for other things, like enchants or gems.

3) Farm Mats for Guild Items - If you need food for raid or herbs, just take an hour or two and go farm some mats to help your guild bank out a little bit.

4) Help Level Professions - If you know somebody who is a lower level jewelcrafter and you don't need your uncut green quality gems, send the items to them to help them level up.  You can do something like this with any profession in the game.

5)  Offer Chaos Orbs for Free - Since only a certain number of professions can even roll on them right now, go ahead and hit trade chat and say you are willing to make some gear using your chaos orbs for free or at the very least, a very reduced price.  I have seen people saying they will use their chaos orbs for 500 gold + per orb. 

6) /Hug a Gnome - Gnomes need love too.  Besides, we all know that short people got nobody.

7) Don't Be a Douche in LFG - You have 364 other days to be a douche to PUGs in LFG.  Just take today off. 

8) Comfort a Night Elf Druid - Just because they are now the minority doesn't mean they are bad, they are just different. 

9) Donate Gold to a Level 1 - Yes, even the beggers.  Then give them a /hug and say today only.

10) Give a Friend a Non-Combat Companion - I mean something cheap, like a cat.  Not a $10 pet store pet.     

Meta Druid Gemming in a 4.0.6 World

With all the new meta gems that are out, you may be asking yourself which gems should I use for which situation.   This is especially true of druids since there are so many roles they can take.  Let me go through different roles and tell you what I feel is the best meta for each.

Feral Bear Tank - If you are a feral druid tank, your meta gem did not change in the patch.  You will still be using the Austere Shadowspirit Diamond as your preferred meta gem.  Since your tank set should be different from a feral kitty DPS set, there should be no sharing options due to the increased armor percentage.

Feral Kitty DPS - You get a new meta gem with 4.0.6, which is the Agile Shadowspirit Diamond, which gives Agility and a Critical Damage Increase.  Unfotunately, it may not have dropped yet for anybody on your server.  If that is the case, you can go with the Relentless Earthsiege Diamond until the new one drops.

PvP Feral Druid - This is gonna be a tough call and usually will be personal choice, but I would stick with the metas you use for PvE for PvP.  The point of feral bears in PvP is to be unkillable so you will need more armor and health.  For PvP kitties, you will want to do as much damage as quickly as possible.

PvE Moonkin without a Healing Offspec - The one you will ultimately want is the Burning Shadowspirit Diamond, which is Intellect plus Critical Strike Damage.  Until then, you will want to use the newly redesigned Chaotic Shadowspirit Diamond.

PvE Resto without a Balance Offspec - The one thing with restoration druids is that if you don't run out of mana, you can heal people.  That is why the preferred meta gem for restoration druids is the Ember Shadowspirit Diamond. (Intellect + 2% More Mana)

PvE Moonkin/Resto with a Healing/Balance Offspec But Different Helms - If you are not using the same helm for both balance and restoration, then you just follow the normal PvE guidelines for moonkins and resto druids.

PvE Moonkin/Resto with a Healing/Balance Offspec and Shared Helm - If you are using the same helm for both healing and balance, you will want the meta gem with the most bang for the buck.  In this case, I prefer the Ember Shadowspirit Diamond.  The Ember Shadowspirit Diamond.  This will give you what you need in both specs.

PvP Caster (Balance or Resto)  - This is probably the toughest call of all of them.  A lot of them have things that can help in PvP, between reduced snares to reduced silences.  As a caster, I chose to go with the one thing I cannot shapeshift out of, silences.  I went with the Forlorn Shadowspirit Diamond, which is spellpower plus reduces silence duration.

Hopefully, this guide will help you in deciding what meta gems you would like.  You are probably wondering why I covered restoration druids when I have never covered restoration druids on this blog.  I just recently have changed my offspec from feral tank to restoration druid.  Since I have a set of gear for moonkin, I thought it would be great to try out doing some restoration healing.  I really only had to replace a ring and a trinket with hit on it.  The most I can say so far is that I'm learning.  Not perfect by any means, but learning.

The Best Parts of 4.0.6

Every blog out there is going to take a fine tooth comb to the patch notes.  While I may do that in my  own time, I'm not gonna bore you with that.  Let me tell you the things I'm most excited about for in this patch.

1) More than any spell, change, or anything else, the biggest thing I'm personally excited for is the moonkin can mount normally now.  It has been annoying since patch 4.0.1 that I have not been able to mount correctly.  I have to either shift out of form and then mount or I have to move and then mount to get flight form.  Speaking of flight form...

2) Worgens get their own swift flight form to differentiate us from those dirty, dirty night elfs.

3) Moonkins have become the primary druid flag carriers in PvP.  We can break roots and snares by shapeshifting in and out of moonkin form.  It will primarily go druid travel form, snared or rooted, moonkin form, back to druid travel form, continue running.

4) This is huge for PvE, but Starfall only affects targets that are in combat.  This means I can use Starfall all the time on trash, bosses, anytime. 

5) All our CC last longer now, up to 8 seconds.  This should make our CC more viable in dungeons, but it will really shine in PvP when trying to control a melee or caster.  I also get to laugh at resto druids having to get out of caster form to break roots while they are stuck in a Solar Beam.

6) Moonkins get a 15% damage reduction automatically.  Good luck trying to kill us if we have a healer on us.  This is more valuable than armor.

7) Wild Mushroom is usable finally.  Instant cast, which means we can cast it on the move.  It also has more damage behind it and a wider range.  Add in the buffs to Fungal Growth and it makes it incredible.

8) Our other spells we used on the move cost less mana.  If we are running from something, our Typhoon and Moonfire/Sunfire are significantly less mana.  This is good since the one thing that seems to deplete my mana faster than anything is Moonfire/Sunfire spam while on the move.

9) Our 4 piece PvP bonus got a buff.  I love the 4 piece PvP bonus in the first place because it moves you towards one of the Eclipses when you don't have an Eclipse.  Considering our three main nukes normally have cast times, this helps us to hit Eclipses quicker and then maximize our PvP damage.

10) Chaotic Shadowspirit Diamond is finally fixed.  Not that it will be our BiS for either PvP or PvE, but the fact that it is correct is much better.

No More 15 vs. 15 Rated BGs - My Rant...I Mean, Opinion

WTF Blizzard?  Seriously...you wanted to start this great thing with finally making battlegrounds matter in Cataclysm and then you go and pull this shit.  10 vs. 10 rated BGs is just another frickin arena bracket at this point with Twin Peaks, Warsong Gulch, and Battle of Gilneas as the arenas.  It is basically objective based arenas.

On top of that, your explanation as to why you are doing this is shit.  "People don't play 15 vs. 15 brackets."  Yeah, it is the same reason why most guilds don't run 25 man PvE content anymore.  What's the point of it?  You get the same rewards for running 10 mans so whats the point.  If you were smart, you could do 10 vs. 10 or 15 vs. 15 rated battlegrounds every week.  It will be just like some guilds that prefer to run 25 man PvE content.  Some rated BGs groups will run 15 vs. 15 all the time if given the chance.  However, you just took that chance away.  Hell, throw 25 vs. 25 back in the mix and give us some Alterac Valley and Isle of Conquest rated BGs.   I know my guild would do it in a heartbeat.

This has pretty much destroyed any desire to do rated BGs anymore.  Yes, they are going to modify Alterac Valley, Eye of the Storm, and Strands of the Ancients to fit 10 mans.  I will continue doing it to improve my rating, but I just want to let you know that this is bullshit.  And every major content patch in Cataclysm better include a new BG.  I personally wouldn't mind an underwater BG in Vashj'ir.  It would be an interesting mechanic at least. 

But for the love of God, open up 15 vs. 15 to an every week option.  That way, on nights were we are having trouble getting 15 people on to run rated, we can run 10's, just like the PvE raiders can do now.  I thought when the announcements for Cataclysm came across, they were finally taking PvP seriously.  Unfotunately, right now, I see that is not the case at all. 

Header Contest Results - Better Late Than Never

The winner has been posted on the site for a while now, but I wanted to make sure that I formally announced the winner.  Thanks to everybody who voted.  When the voting closed, we had 103 votes, which was a great turnout for the voting.  And now, the formal results.

Grand Prize Winner

Prize - Header for Redhawk's Gaze for Full Length of Cataclysm, Sidebar Credit to Site, Two 3-Month Game Cards and Two Vanity Pets (No mounts or plushies) of your choice. ($80 value)

Kevin (I'm not giving out full names here.)

Second Place Winner

Prize - One 3-Month Game Card and One Vanity Pet (No mounts or plushies) of your choice ($40 value)

Jason from the WoWPhiles Podcast

Third Place Winner

Prize - The Shattering Novel and One Vanity Pet (No Mounts or Plushies) of your choice ($25 value)

Matthew (Again, No Last Names)

Congrats to the winners.  You will be contacted soon at the e-mails you provided in order to get your prizes.  And thanks for all the entries and the votes given during this contest.  I'm sure I will be doing another contest in the near future again so keep coming back to the site.