man you deserve so much more views. You are bloody awesome. I have been having a lot of trouble in picking what class suits me the most on my druid. Balance druid is bloody brutal.
Another great guide, Preach. I immensely enjoy playing my boomkin for exactly the reasons you describe and I am looking forward to figuring out how to best make it work for me throughout the rest of this expansion and on into the next.
That;s actually the appeal for me, trying to play it well means so much decision making when you aren't being 'carried' by a steady stream of SS procs, it's something that will make you better on every class.
I like that your videos are so good quality that I watch them regardless whether I am interested in the topic or not. I never played a druid past level 20, I still watch those guides because I am also interested in what the other players in flex/pvp do and how to react. bit off-topic: a cool series at the end of MoP would be to show what you would like in the next expansion for each class. rotation change/spell changes/mechanics wise/etc.
It's a question of control, with quartz latency and judging cast times you can benefit greatly from a stopcast, this is entirely dependent on how you play however. Some people will suffer from it.
It goes by the actual dot, not the targets. Sunfire and moonfire are tracked separately also. In horridon, I usually Eclipse dot the small adds but then double dot the main adds at each door. And also try to keep 100% uptime on horridon if possible. Channel the SS procs into the adds that need to die. But you are right, the proc chance reduces after a certain number of targets is dotted, and they are tracked separately. I usually use the rule of double dotting at most 3-4 depending on the fight
I am a H progression Balance druid and the ability to hit hard and heal in a tight spot really makes this class one of the best if not the best dps spec to play right now I also would like to make a suggestion about the opener is that u pop celestial right as u go into your first soler so that after celestial is up u are right back into lunar with another starfall
Preach, Great video!! I have been struggling massively with my moonkin in MoP, to the point that a class I've enjoyed for 7+ years is frustrating me to the point that I almost hate to play it any more. Your video gives me hope!!
This sounds quite similar to the Elemental Shaman in that when I Multi-Flame Shock all the bosses on say The Fallen Protectors, I'm not doing it for Flame Shock's damage (though it is certainly nice to have!) - I'm doing it for Lava Surge procs. I'm in really low gear and can compete with some of the best DPSers in my guild by doing this. I've just rolled a Druid to try Balance out, well done Preach, this video convinced me to try it!
I stand corrected then. According to my own World of Logs, the average, max and minimum damage was higher on my starfire than my Starsurge during my entire SoO normal and heroic progression. but I've just checked live, and it is as you say.
I've wanted to make this spec my main for a while but find it hard to stick with. Without having high crit rating for those constant starsurge procs and only being able to hit the first haste breakpoint, it's hard to assess if you're playing well or not (for me anyways). Very fun and interesting spec, I just wonder if the time invested in it will be worth it.
Playing boomking myself! I too agree its maybe ( ofc my own opinion ) one of the most interesting dps classes I have played. Looking forward of the guide :)
The reason its wrath first and not starsurge is due to how starsurge scales off both arcane(lunar) and nature(solar) damage, so holding off on the starsurge till your in lunar eclispe you get the bonus damage.
Starfire now has higher single target damage than a starsurge, so you have to consider at what point you're in the starfire cast and whether it is worth cancelling it. For example, you are right at the start of a slow cast without any haste procs, it is worth cancelling for a proc. If you are at a higher gear level, you actually want to weave in your starsurges in your lunar eclipse cycle (when you have haste procs up), rather than cancel casts for them, since your SF cast will be fast anyways.
Hey mr.Preach. so I was just making a request, if you are indeed going to play this more and gear it up etc. I would really like sort of like an update, because I really like this spec and think this video is very interesting! Just a suggestion! :)
doesn't the chance for your dot crits to give a starsurge proc reduce depending on the amount of targets you've dotted ? in which case it might be better to double dot less targets then singly dot more targets
So does starsurge take priority over your Wrath/Starfire for the most part? Im at about 34% crit and I often miss multiple procs because of the "dont stop casting" rule. I might stop casting a starfire if it's below mid cast, however. But im wondering if just using a SC macro would be more beneficial..
Preach, i have your UI but i cant see the extra bars on fight like lei shen because of the grid, is there anyway to move the bar? i know i could move grid but i like it where it is
Depending on the situation. If the adds die too quick for dots to tick on them, it may be better to hurricane them if they are stacked, or simply ignore them if there's not enough of them, and let the rest of your raid deal with them.
The class is really picked up once you get up in ILVL i'm a 560 boomie and boy is it fun. I cast wrath/starfire like 20% of the time I literally am machine gunning star surges back to back to back to back especially with this four set. I rarely refresh my dots out of their eclipse state. Really fun now.
Preach you are gonna absolutely die for this class when u hit the 10289 haste cap, it really comes into its own. BTW fallen protectors is my absolute favorite fight as a boomkin. No one even comes close to touching my deeps on that fight.
Few pointers on your video preach. Since 5.4, you can no longer double dip from having the same dot on multiple targets to feed you starsurges. It'll still increase your proc rate, but only marginally, as it scales down drastically. So instead you want to keep both your sunfire and moonfire up on the priority target or target that'll stay alive the longest and only apply your eclipsed dot to the others, applying the uneclipsed dot from 4 targets onwards are wasted GCDs
I have played feral and balance. I was a 530 feral 5.1-5.3 and Have become a balance 550 for 5.4. And I have to say balance is easy mode compared to feral in a raiding scene. Once you get your second haste cap it becomes spam starsurge and keeping dots.
Just to add on to the pain, starsurge is the strongest ability of a boomie, so good that it was given a cooldown. Even IF it was there in vanilla, a 2k crit from the strongest boomie ability...is kinda sad and depressing considering people had atleast 6k health...
the lunar opener is....start 1 cast away from lunar....starfall, wrath (or SS), INC (if u took it), sunfire, moonfire, starfall once first starfall runs out, spam starfire until lunar eclipse runs out, Pop CA once, apply dots, starfall when the previous runs out, starfire until solar. There is a solar opener to, but it is really only viable when you have your meta.
I tried moonkin earlier in the expansion but I just didn't enjoy it, I just felt like played a less interesting warlock (my main is a warlock and I enjoy all 3 of the specs) maybe it had to do with gear, was like 460-70 in the first tier, but at that ilvl I didn't really enjoy the druid. I think a lot of it was that I had to put down another filler spell depending on whether I was in ecplise or lunar and that I love the warlock tools and that you have 3 specs that are viable
Not bad :) you are using your cds a little improperly, you want to use incarnation right after you enter a new eclipse, preferably lunar, then starfire/starsurge your way to 0, then use celestial alignment, re apply dots, starfall etc. It's because incarnation's effects ONLY apply while in an eclipse, and it lasts 15 seconds longer than celestial alignment. Hope this comment helps maybe not you, but someone else. keep up the good work :D
I kinda miss the old ecplise where it provided a different feel for each spell, machine gun wrath vs like-a-truck starfire in ulduar up to icc, shame about the scaling issues that brought, just a shame they couldn't fix the stat issues (crit and haste) and kept the feel of it instead of making wrath and starfire feel like basically the same spell.
actually it's not a good idea to use a stop casting macro to get the surge of. Whats better is actually a cancelqueued spell macro where the next cast you will do is always a surge. If you need to stop casting just sidestep etc. like in the first 25% of a starfire cast
Yeah he does. In an update video a little bit ago he said that he really wants to get back into hard core raiding but cannot at this time due to his new born son and that playing casually isn't really his style. When Preach plays WoW, he wants to play hard like the Baller that he is ;D
Actually, Starsurge hits harder (Tested on live, with no procs Starfire hits 105k-110k noneclipsed, Starsurge ~115k, eclipsed ~155k Starfire, 170-175k Starsurge). It was true in parts of cataclysm though. It is worth canceling SF for SS though, I think the roughly estimate with 10289 haste and 40% crit is about 0,6 seconds into the cast with NG, I could be wrong though. Any longer, and it's more beneficial to let the SF cast complete.
It's still moonkin form they just added a glyph that's optional which makes you look like your normal self but with stars falling around your character. I personally prefer being a boomchicken lol.
Starsurge takes way high priority over no matter what gear level. starsurge HAS TO BE ON CD it gives you lunar/solar power anyways you can probably be casting starsurge then get a proc and then another proc again.
I get the machine gun wrath and like a truck starfire feel now. With all my procs up wrath has a cast that is almost as fast as the gcd and starfire hits in the millions. So yeah XD.
I cant make up my mind if i wanna level up a warlock for warlords or boomkin :S / why warlock worrys me is pet dependent, why boomkin worrys me is have never been top dps and abit clumpsy :S
boomies are in my opinion a whole lot more fun. They're not that horrible in dps (although if they're moving around they literarily do no dps) but they bring sooo much more to the raid. A good example would be heart of the wild, which basically makes you a emergency healer that doesn't use mana for 45 seconds (healing touch heals over 150k non crit) and things like silence, sunder armor instant 3 stacks, stuns, group speed boost, haste aura, a brez, etc. warlocks are just...meh, top the charts, omg I'm healing myself, wait wut you died? sry I can't help ya.
Mike Wang Um.. Druids are actually at the top of the dps meters, atleast when you get past flex/normals and into heroics. From what I've seen and from what I've gathered from my raid is: Warlock>>>>>>>>>>>>>>mage/hunter/druid.
"Never stop casting for starsurge" I disagree. Depending on which fight you're doing. For single target sure it would be a loss in dps to stop casting. For any other fight with more than one target(95% of the fights in SoO) I would definitely stop casting for starsurge. My dps goes up from like 300k to 350k when i stop casting on aoe fights. This matter also depends on if you have your 4 set or not. You will be machine gunning star surges with the four set. So many would go to waste.
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SS has several benefits over the wrath/starfire, not least of which if it crits it extends both dots so there is more than flat damage to consider.
man you deserve so much more views. You are bloody awesome. I have been having a lot of trouble in picking what class suits me the most on my druid. Balance druid is bloody brutal.
Another great guide, Preach. I immensely enjoy playing my boomkin for exactly the reasons you describe and I am looking forward to figuring out how to best make it work for me throughout the rest of this expansion and on into the next.
That;s actually the appeal for me, trying to play it well means so much decision making when you aren't being 'carried' by a steady stream of SS procs, it's something that will make you better on every class.
I like that your videos are so good quality that I watch them regardless whether I am interested in the topic or not. I never played a druid past level 20, I still watch those guides because I am also interested in what the other players in flex/pvp do and how to react.
bit off-topic: a cool series at the end of MoP would be to show what you would like in the next expansion for each class. rotation change/spell changes/mechanics wise/etc.
It's a question of control, with quartz latency and judging cast times you can benefit greatly from a stopcast, this is entirely dependent on how you play however. Some people will suffer from it.
The fact that Jalak was down when the fourth door was just opening I think really says it all!
Looking forward to the guide on this. Feral just doesn't cut it for me these days, even with some nice gear to up my damage.
It goes by the actual dot, not the targets. Sunfire and moonfire are tracked separately also. In horridon, I usually Eclipse dot the small adds but then double dot the main adds at each door. And also try to keep 100% uptime on horridon if possible. Channel the SS procs into the adds that need to die. But you are right, the proc chance reduces after a certain number of targets is dotted, and they are tracked separately. I usually use the rule of double dotting at most 3-4 depending on the fight
The guide corrupted, will be up shortly.
I am a H progression Balance druid and the ability to hit hard and heal in a tight spot really makes this class one of the best if not the best dps spec to play right now I also would like to make a suggestion about the opener is that u pop celestial right as u go into your first soler so that after celestial is up u are right back into lunar with another starfall
Preach, Great video!! I have been struggling massively with my moonkin in MoP, to the point that a class I've enjoyed for 7+ years is frustrating me to the point that I almost hate to play it any more. Your video gives me hope!!
This sounds quite similar to the Elemental Shaman in that when I Multi-Flame Shock all the bosses on say The Fallen Protectors, I'm not doing it for Flame Shock's damage (though it is certainly nice to have!) - I'm doing it for Lava Surge procs. I'm in really low gear and can compete with some of the best DPSers in my guild by doing this. I've just rolled a Druid to try Balance out, well done Preach, this video convinced me to try it!
I stand corrected then. According to my own World of Logs, the average, max and minimum damage was higher on my starfire than my Starsurge during my entire SoO normal and heroic progression. but I've just checked live, and it is as you say.
Hey Preach, what is your UI setup? Sorry if you posted elsewhere, but new sub here :).
Hey mike! Are you planing by any chance on doing a The Legacy Of Druid video? Boy would I love to see that! :)
I've wanted to make this spec my main for a while but find it hard to stick with. Without having high crit rating for those constant starsurge procs and only being able to hit the first haste breakpoint, it's hard to assess if you're playing well or not (for me anyways).
Very fun and interesting spec, I just wonder if the time invested in it will be worth it.
I really want to try Moonkin now, would love to see more gameplay on them! Awesome vid :D
Boomkins become unstoppable death cannons with the t15 piece and the legendary meta gem
Playing boomking myself! I too agree its maybe ( ofc my own opinion ) one of the most interesting dps classes I have played. Looking forward of the guide :)
The reason its wrath first and not starsurge is due to how starsurge scales off both arcane(lunar) and nature(solar) damage, so holding off on the starsurge till your in lunar eclispe you get the bonus damage.
Hey preach what do you think about the state of SP in 5,4... As far as i know they have the lowest dps of all the dps specs.
Starfire now has higher single target damage than a starsurge, so you have to consider at what point you're in the starfire cast and whether it is worth cancelling it. For example, you are right at the start of a slow cast without any haste procs, it is worth cancelling for a proc. If you are at a higher gear level, you actually want to weave in your starsurges in your lunar eclipse cycle (when you have haste procs up), rather than cancel casts for them, since your SF cast will be fast anyways.
Hey mr.Preach. so I was just making a request, if you are indeed going to play this more and gear it up etc. I would really like sort of like an update, because I really like this spec and think this video is very interesting! Just a suggestion! :)
doesn't the chance for your dot crits to give a starsurge proc reduce depending on the amount of targets you've dotted ? in which case it might be better to double dot less targets then singly dot more targets
So does starsurge take priority over your Wrath/Starfire for the most part? Im at about 34% crit and I often miss multiple procs because of the "dont stop casting" rule. I might stop casting a starfire if it's below mid cast, however. But im wondering if just using a SC macro would be more beneficial..
Preach, i have your UI but i cant see the extra bars on fight like lei shen because of the grid, is there anyway to move the bar? i know i could move grid but i like it where it is
Depending on the situation. If the adds die too quick for dots to tick on them, it may be better to hurricane them if they are stacked, or simply ignore them if there's not enough of them, and let the rest of your raid deal with them.
The class is really picked up once you get up in ILVL i'm a 560 boomie and boy is it fun. I cast wrath/starfire like 20% of the time I literally am machine gunning star surges back to back to back to back especially with this four set. I rarely refresh my dots out of their eclipse state. Really fun now.
Preach, do you ever miss Heroic raiding or being a raid leader?
why would any balance druid not multi dot whenever possible?
I'm a balance druid and I love this! You really can't describe how to play one lol
Preach you are gonna absolutely die for this class when u hit the 10289 haste cap, it really comes into its own. BTW fallen protectors is my absolute favorite fight as a boomkin. No one even comes close to touching my deeps on that fight.
Few pointers on your video preach. Since 5.4, you can no longer double dip from having the same dot on multiple targets to feed you starsurges. It'll still increase your proc rate, but only marginally, as it scales down drastically. So instead you want to keep both your sunfire and moonfire up on the priority target or target that'll stay alive the longest and only apply your eclipsed dot to the others, applying the uneclipsed dot from 4 targets onwards are wasted GCDs
I have played feral and balance. I was a 530 feral 5.1-5.3 and Have become a balance 550 for 5.4. And I have to say balance is easy mode compared to feral in a raiding scene. Once you get your second haste cap it becomes spam starsurge and keeping dots.
They are a ranged dps which can multidot. The balance isn't that far off; they're fine.
Hey Preach, what's that health/mana bar you use?
the damage font addon please?
Ahh I see, was more referring/inferring to council fights and horridon type fights where adds stay up longer, but forgot to mention it on my comment.
what are your talents and glyphs?
A question for the opener, isnt it starfall -> Starsurge and not Starfall -> Wrath? Or am I just the noob? :)
someone please tell me what addon that is he has for the hits?
Any ETA on the video?
Still looking forward to the guide ^_^
i remember the days in vanilla when you used to crit like 2k with starsurge
That's pretty intense considering starsurge wasn't introduced until Cata.
atheybee you destroyed his hopes and dreams.
Just to add on to the pain, starsurge is the strongest ability of a boomie, so good that it was given a cooldown. Even IF it was there in vanilla, a 2k crit from the strongest boomie ability...is kinda sad and depressing considering people had atleast 6k health...
the lunar opener is....start 1 cast away from lunar....starfall, wrath (or SS), INC (if u took it), sunfire, moonfire, starfall once first starfall runs out, spam starfire until lunar eclipse runs out, Pop CA once, apply dots, starfall when the previous runs out, starfire until solar.
There is a solar opener to, but it is really only viable when you have your meta.
Grrrr preach! Now I really want to play my druid which I normally just use for making my toons flasks. :P
Can anyone tell me whats the addon he uses to track his sunfire/moonire?
Maybe Thrall flying through the screen after being punched by Garrosh?
What is that incessant dinging?!?!?!?!?!?
So no more being in moonkin form?
cant wait for the guide
"Round about TBC time in Ulduar." Nice one Preach! xD
Lol love it at about 6:00 "In TBC around Ulduar doing heroic progression."
I tried moonkin earlier in the expansion but I just didn't enjoy it, I just felt like played a less interesting warlock (my main is a warlock and I enjoy all 3 of the specs) maybe it had to do with gear, was like 460-70 in the first tier, but at that ilvl I didn't really enjoy the druid.
I think a lot of it was that I had to put down another filler spell depending on whether I was in ecplise or lunar and that I love the warlock tools and that you have 3 specs that are viable
Rogue update soon :(?
For PvE starters: choose balance. You'll learn a lot from this spec and what you learn becomes really useful for other classes.
Not bad :) you are using your cds a little improperly, you want to use incarnation right after you enter a new eclipse, preferably lunar, then starfire/starsurge your way to 0, then use celestial alignment, re apply dots, starfall etc. It's because incarnation's effects ONLY apply while in an eclipse, and it lasts 15 seconds longer than celestial alignment. Hope this comment helps maybe not you, but someone else. keep up the good work :D
You should defiantly make the moonkin your main in Warlords! Such an interesting spec
*sees Horridon get pulled way too soon* "Aaaand...I think I'm gonna leave this raid."
I kinda miss the old ecplise where it provided a different feel for each spell, machine gun wrath vs like-a-truck starfire in ulduar up to icc, shame about the scaling issues that brought, just a shame they couldn't fix the stat issues (crit and haste) and kept the feel of it instead of making wrath and starfire feel like basically the same spell.
hunters next? :)
you didnt talk about talent glyph and stuff D:
actually it's not a good idea to use a stop casting macro to get the surge of.
Whats better is actually a cancelqueued spell macro where the next cast you will do is always a surge.
If you need to stop casting just sidestep etc. like in the first 25% of a starfire cast
''Right around ulduar, around ulduar progress'' :P
Do you ever PvP?
Yeah he does. In an update video a little bit ago he said that he really wants to get back into hard core raiding but cannot at this time due to his new born son and that playing casually isn't really his style. When Preach plays WoW, he wants to play hard like the Baller that he is ;D
Please do Death Knights next! I know how much you love them :D
Please make a Arms warrior guide :) I turned off recount in shame
hes also on horridon and multidotting
Actually, Starsurge hits harder (Tested on live, with no procs Starfire hits 105k-110k noneclipsed, Starsurge ~115k, eclipsed ~155k Starfire, 170-175k Starsurge). It was true in parts of cataclysm though. It is worth canceling SF for SS though, I think the roughly estimate with 10289 haste and 40% crit is about 0,6 seconds into the cast with NG, I could be wrong though. Any longer, and it's more beneficial to let the SF cast complete.
It's still moonkin form they just added a glyph that's optional which makes you look like your normal self but with stars falling around your character. I personally prefer being a boomchicken lol.
Starsurge takes way high priority over no matter what gear level. starsurge HAS TO BE ON CD it gives you lunar/solar power anyways you can probably be casting starsurge then get a proc and then another proc again.
While I love the video, I do believe a guide beforehand would be nice, too. XD I figure it's just an upload issue.
I get the machine gun wrath and like a truck starfire feel now. With all my procs up wrath has a cast that is almost as fast as the gcd and starfire hits in the millions. So yeah XD.
Why aren't you in moonkin form?
Well, he is, but he is using a glyph that makes it different visually.
It isn't anything like it anymore since the recent changes. Now you dot for their damage and only marginal increase to SS procs.
I cant make up my mind if i wanna level up a warlock for warlords or boomkin :S / why warlock worrys me is pet dependent, why boomkin worrys me is have never been top dps and abit clumpsy :S
boomies are in my opinion a whole lot more fun. They're not that horrible in dps (although if they're moving around they literarily do no dps) but they bring sooo much more to the raid. A good example would be heart of the wild, which basically makes you a emergency healer that doesn't use mana for 45 seconds (healing touch heals over 150k non crit) and things like silence, sunder armor instant 3 stacks, stuns, group speed boost, haste aura, a brez, etc. warlocks are just...meh, top the charts, omg I'm healing myself, wait wut you died? sry I can't help ya.
Mike Wang Thank you
Mike Wang Um.. Druids are actually at the top of the dps meters, atleast when you get past flex/normals and into heroics. From what I've seen and from what I've gathered from my raid is: Warlock>>>>>>>>>>>>>>mage/hunter/druid.
If you are still wondering, might I suggest trying both on the PTR to get a feel for the class and make a decision later?
good point
Its pitbull, but setup properly
love the vids
It's his channel. And I
Please do destro lock
Soo that's why I had a hard time leveling up as a moonkin after 3years of not playing my druid ...
Make a legacy of the druid video please
I play a balance druid ant i love iT. Best class ever
Sooo... ummm... Maybe Holy Priest next?
So Preach drops 125k dps with 505ilvl. I do 90k at best with 515ilvl. Time to gear the warlock... :(
"Never stop casting for starsurge" I disagree. Depending on which fight you're doing. For single target sure it would be a loss in dps to stop casting. For any other fight with more than one target(95% of the fights in SoO) I would definitely stop casting for starsurge. My dps goes up from like 300k to 350k when i stop casting on aoe fights. This matter also depends on if you have your 4 set or not. You will be machine gunning star surges with the four set. So many would go to waste.
If they remove test of valor for the legendary cloak I'll gladly pick up a moon kin in keep leaving all of my alts in obscurity.
New moonkin is cool and all but there is no beating 4.3 moonkin. Give cata moonkin celestial alignment and the spec would be perfect.(for me)
BOOOOM
Says the arcane mage below me
Woho
Never actually failed horridon
Holy shiit HOOK INSANE DPS PREACH, you are playing that class completey wrong, so many mecancis you forgot to say!
Priest next please! Like so he can se
My main is actually a moonkin, but I fucking suck at it. :D It's a great spec, though. Nothing to complain.
Hope little preach and the wife r oks hows that diaper changing no guides to tach u that waiting for full guid for balance miss ur streaming m8
you need more rest mate, you can hear it in your voice, babies make for long nights hehe.
Holla soppy bolllocks o/