Prot PvP gear wishlist

I recently dedicated myself to Protection Warrior PvP, and so far I haven't regretted a moment of it. With the right gear, the spec can be incredibly bursty (not to mention more annoying than an itch under your shoe at a business meeting).

I am trying to find the right mix of Block Value and Armor Penetration. This is my gear wishlist:

• Head: Wrynn's Greathelm of Triumph
• Neck: Wrathful Gladiator's Pendant of Sundering
• Shoulders: Sanctified Ymirjar Lord's Pauldrons
• Back: Wrathful Gladiator's Cloak of Triumph
• Chest: Sanctified Ymirjar Lord's Breastplate
• Wrists: Wrathful Gladiator's Bracers of Triumph
• Hands: Gatecrasher's Gauntlets
• Waist: Wrathful Gladiator's Girdle of Triumph
• Legs: Wrynn's Legguards of Triumph
• Feet: Wrathful Gladiator's Greaves of Triumph
• Ring1: Wrathful Gladiator's Band of Triumph
• Ring2: Might of Blight
• Trinket1: Deathbringer's Will
• Trinket2: Death's Verdict or Lavanthor's Talisman
• Main hand: Wrathful Gladiator's Pummeler
• Shield: Icecrown Glacial Wall

I'll be trying to gem and enchant in order to have around 2500 Block Value and 30% armor penetration.

[3.3.5] Moonkin PvP [un]-talents

I often struggle to talk about Moonkin PvP without introducting at least some sort of complaint about its state. I suppose that being of French blood, I am an inherent QQer. In fact, I tend to QQ and rage in guild chat about the overpowered-ness of one class or another, while stubbornly defending the Balance Druid underpowered-ness. And despite I do not usually enjoy complaining and that I'm aware of the annoyance I may bring upon my guildmates, it is hard for me to look back at these times and think, "I was unjustified."

For example: Starfall spellpower coefficients were finally fixed on Molten-WoW - after I had been regularly asking for it for months - and it now greatly contributes to my PvP damage. Molten-WoW players, used to negligible damage, began to complain that Starfall is overpowered - and in fact, some of them believe that the current damage is bugged and are expecting a "fix." Against these people, I have been vigorously defending my stance that Starfall is NOT overpowered (I also feared that too much QQ from the community would cause the developers to revert the coefficients back to their bugged state).

How could it be overpowered? Just read the tooltip. If I mount or shift into Bear Form, Cat Form, Travel Form, Aquatic Form, or Swift Flight Form, the Starfall buff is cancelled entirely. If I am CCed, Starfall damage will be suppressed until the CC is over - but the timer will still count down for the duration. Any stun, fear, disorient, horror, or root effect will suppress Starfall - is it really overpowered that my only true DPS cooldown is so easily countered? And of course, it is limited by range and LoS just like every other spell out there, and it's not like I can keep you from using a defensive cooldown while it's up.

But this is actually deviating from the reason I wanted to write today. PvP balance in World of Warcraft can be difficult to achieve. Blizzard has to worry about 30 different specs within 10 different classes, who also need to perform a certain way in PvE. On top of that, it may be difficult to buff or nerf one spec without affecting another spec of that same class (in fact, Balance Druids often suffer from collateral damage of Restoration nerfs). Furthermore, balance shifts depending on the context - duels, world PvP, 2v2, 3v3, 5v5 arena, and battlegrounds will all make you experience PvP in a different way even while playing the same spec.

Irking Druid talents
My issue with Blizzard, however, is that there are some major discrepancies in the 3.3.5 Druid talent trees that could have been easily changed / fixed for the purpose of Moonkin PvP viability, without causing any negative / positive secondary effects on PvP / PvE for any of the Druid specs. Also, some things just don't make any sense. If you look at the Balance tree, you'll find that there are almost no utility / ease-of-life talents. Everything is a damage boost to compensate for poor baseline damage (because we are Druids).

Here are the Druid talents that really irk me:

• Improved Barkskin. 160% increased armor while in caster Form or Travel Form, 10% extra mitigation from Barkskin, and 35% increased resistance to dispels. I do not understand why this talent is so deep in the Restoration tree. Barkskin is a Balance spell that does not even appear once in the Balance tree. Moonkins would greatly benefit from this talent if they could pick it up. Instead, we have to deal with giving all melees a 30% armor penetration buff at the time that it is the least beneficial to us and the most beneficial to them - when healing / Travel Form is required.
  
  Moonkins need to drop Moonkin Form all the time and it makes no sense to me that we should be so fragile outside of it. If a melee manages to catch us in a stun while not in Moonkin Form - which is very easy to do - they almost automatically win. Nobody else can be caught "pants down" in such a blatant manner.
  
  That said, I do understand the importance of this talent for Restoration Druids, as well. It is particularly useful in 2v2 arena where most Resto Druids do not pick up Tree of Life Form and instead pick up Insect Swarm in the Balance tree. Imp. Barkskin allows them to keep much-needed survivability against melees, and even if they do have the ToL talent, they can still shift out without much consequence to their survivability, to avoid being Banished or to Travel Form.
  
  It would be optimal if this talent was placed in the 2nd or 3rd tiers of the Balance tree, so that both Restoration and Balance Druids would pick it up. Feral Druids would not as they need talents in the Restoration tree and would not be able to spare the points.
  
  
• Owlkin Frenzy. 15% chance to gain 10% damage, pushback immunity, and a tiny mp5 buff. Why? That's the last thing I want when I'm getting hit. Simply changing this talent to give Moonkins a damage reduction buff would go a long way toward their viability, and it would resemble several other talents that already exist in other trees (like Natural Perfection or Focused Will). This talent simply does not make sense to me. Blizzard doesn't seem to have evolved from this point of view in Cataclysm, either - our new PvP 4p bonus gives us Eclipse energy when other players crit on us. -.-
  
  
• Eclipse. It is utterly broken for arena. It is our biggest damage boost and is required to be on par with other classes' DPS - yet we are in Eclipse maybe ~5% of the time in arena, and usually cannot even use most of the buff. However, fixing Eclipse would require a total overhaul. I had wished that Cataclysm would change it for the better - and although it was improved for PvE, it is now probably worse in PvP. I cannot understand why Blizzard continues to make us depend on Eclipse for damage while denying us any easy opportunity to proc it in PvP. Other classes have simple, on-use damage buffs to unleash their DPS at the time of their choosing. Moonkins cannot do this because of Eclipse.
  
  
• Typhoon. Typhoon can be very fun and useful, but it is clunky and unreliable to use in serious PvP. It provides our only form of interrupt (short of Bashing in Bear Form, but good luck interrupting something immediately with that), yet has a travel time and will not interrupt instantly. Furthermore, the knockback is tiny, and it is nearly impossible to use it properly to peel off a melee turning circles around you. Finally, the damage is terrible, despite that the spell itself is very mana-costly (2.6k damage in full PvE gear for 875 mana).
  
  
• Both Feral Druids and Restoration Druids can get an instant-cast Cyclone thanks to talents. Yet Cyclone is a Balance spell and Balance Druids do not benefit from this advantage. Why not? We already lack a stun or silence or any form of instant crowd-control - why not give us an instant Cyclone like the other Druids have? We do not even have a healcut. The least Blizzard could do is give us some sort of instant CC, even if it does make our target immune to damage.
  
  
• Finally - and I have mentioned this before, and it is not related to talents - I still do not understand why haste is unavailable as a stat on PvP leather, and why leather caster socket bonuses are different (i.e. worse) than cloth socket bonuses. These are things that should be normalized, and demonstrates either inattention or stupidity on Blizzard's part. By default, caster Druids will have 204 less haste rating than cloth-wearers. We will have 204 more crit rating, but who wants that? Thanks to resilience, haste is by far the superior PvP stat - not to mention that clothies still have the choice that Druids do not. This is just pure nonsense.

Changing Improved Barkskin, Owkin Frenzy, Typhoon, and buffing Cyclone for Moonkins would have absolutely no effect on PvE, nor on Restoration or Feral PvP. The only outcome would be to buff Moonkins in PvP. So either Blizzard thinks they do not need buffs - which is silly, as they have needed buffs ever since Vanilla - or they do not care or pay enough attention.

Twink Guide: Lv. 49 Fire Mage

Twinking is something I love to do when I'm bored. I often find myself twinking a character when I have become unmotivated with leveling it. In this case - a Mage. Twice already, I had attempted leveling a Mage to 80, and twice I stopped having fun around level 40-50. Maybe it is because I had made the mistake of leveling as Frost both times.

So I twinked my Mage at level 49. He is now fully twinked, and I can take on multiple opponents at the same time in battlegrounds. That's loads of fun, so don't forget to visit the Experience Eliminator, and start twinking!

Things you should know before you twink
Twinking requires a lot of time and gold. Proper twinks will need enchants and rare items, some of which will require you to run dungeons of your level (or slightly higher). You can group up with other players, but this is hardly useful for farming and there may be competition for loot. High-level friends may volunteer to aid you, but the best method for farming dungeon loot on a twink is to have a level 80 character on a separate account.

Ideally, you would also want one on the same account so that you can send heirlooms from your main to your twink. You'll also need an escort if you plan on leveling up a gathering profession like Herbalism, as you cannot simply buy materials from the AH and skill up that way.

Finally, don't forget the Experience Eliminator, whom I mentioned above. There is one in Stormwind and one in Orgrimmar. For 10g, they will deactivate your experience gains. It would be a shame to twink your toon only to accidentally level him in the process.

Talent build
I played around with a lot of builds, and this is the one I ended up preferring. I didn't pick up Improved Fireball - I quickly realized that I never used Fireball. With the glyph, Scorch has the same DPS and a higher crit chance, and because it has a faster cast, it is less likely to get interrupted.

I tried a PoM/Pyro build, but I didn't like the limitation on the two-minute cooldown, and it felt too much like playing Arcane anyways (and I hate Arcane). I also tried a build that went as far as picking up Arcane Power (AP + PoM + Fireball is about the same damage as PoM + Pyroblast, but shorter cooldown with talents), however, I ended up finding out that PoM and AP cannot be activated simultaneously, so I gave up on it.

Gear
Gearing will require you to run a bit all over Azeroth. But that's good - because otherwise, if no effort is put into twinking, then how does it become rewarding at all?

I will list several items per item-slot. I will do this because some items can be rather difficult to acquire (or take a long time), and you might want to use another item in the meantime. For now, the list isn't complete but I will try to update it so that there are at least 2 alternative items listed per item slow.

Head

• Eye of Flame - 1% drop chance from world mobs
• Soulcatcher Halo - 0.01% drop chance from Temple of Atal'Hakkar trash

Eye of Flame is by far the best helm for a level 49 caster twink, and you can usually find it at the Auction House.

Neck

• Darkmoon Necklace - reward from Mages Deck
• Lifeblood Amulet - 30.80% drop chance from Antu'sul

The Amulet is easy to get, and you can usually find the Darkmoon necklace at the Auction House.

Shoulders

• Tattered Dreadmist Mantle - 40 Emblems of Heroism
• Exquisite Sunderseer Mantle - 200 Stone Keeper's Shards
• Mantle of Lost Hope - 20.48% drop chance from Lord Roccor

The PvP shoulder heirlooms have resilience, however you might not even need these as you will probably blow people up before they can even make you worry about your HP. However, it's not a bad buy if you have the Shards and not the Emblems.

Back

• Featherskin Cape - 31% drop chance from Shade of Hakkar
• Caretaker's Cape - 300 honor from Illiyana Moonblaze

You will need to do The God Hakkar quest before you can summon the Shade of Hakkar.
Enchant: Spell Penetration

Chest

• Tattered Dreadmist Robe - 40 Emblems of Heroism
• Nature's Embrace - 30.34% drop chance from Mesh'lok the Harvester

Enchant: Major Health, or Greater Stats

Wrist

• Dryad's Wrist Bindings - 700 honor from Illiyana Moonblaze

Enchant: Spellpower

Hands

• Gloves of the Dune - reward from Rise of the Silithid
• Dreamweave Gloves - crafted with Tailoring

Dreamwave Gloves have more spellpower, but Gloves of the Dune are better balanced.
Enchant: Major Spellpower

Waist

• Ban'thok Sash - 23.77% drop chance from Ok'thor the Breaker
• Satyrmane Sash - 25.71% drop chance from Lord Vyletongue
• Highlander's Cloth Girdle - 400 honor from Samuel Hawke

Legs

• Spellshock Leggings - 0.01% drop chance from Zul'Farrak trash
• Rainstrider Leggings - reward from Jammal'an the Prophet

Spellshock Leggings are easily the best leggings for caster twinks in this bracket. However, it also happens to be the rarest BoE item in the game. If you are lucky, you might find it at the Auction House.
Enchant: Rugged Armor Kit

Feet

• Highlander's Cloth Boots - 400 honor from Samuel Hawke
• Vinerot Sandals - 20.60% drop chance from Razorlash
• Mistwalker Boots - 0.01% drop chance from Temple of Atal'Hakkar trash

Enchant: Fortitude

Rings

• Cyclopean Band - 18.37% drop chance from Ok'thor the Breaker
• Gem Studded Band - crafted with Jewelcrafting
• Lorekeeper's Ring - 300 honor from Illiyana Moonblaze
• Mindseye Circle - 0.02% drop chance from Temple of Atal'Hakkar trash
• Golden Ring of Power - crafted with Jewelcrafting

Trinkets

• Arena Grand Master - reward from Arena Grandmaster
• Discerning Eye of the Beast - 50 Emblems of Heroism
• Swift Hand of Justice - 50 Emblems of Heroism

Weapon

• Dignified Headmaster's Charge - 65 Emblems of Heroism
• Grand Staff of Jordan - 325 Stone Keeper's Shards
• Lorekeeper's Staff - 500 honor from Illiyana Moonblaze

Enchant: Weapon - Spellpower

Wand

• Scrying Wand - reward from A Future Task
• Noxious Shooter - 17.53% drop chance from Noxxion

 Professions
You have a lot of profession choices, because at level 49 you can skill up a profession far enough to gain profession-only benefits (like spellpower enchants on your rings).

Personally, I got a bit lazy and only got gathering professions. I currently have Herbalism 375 for a 1.2k heal, and Mining 375 for +30 stamina.

Consumables
These are two must-have consumables:

• Rumsey Rum Black Label - this is obtainable a little bit everywhere, but the easiest way to get it is from Barkeep Kelly in Old Hillsbrad Foothills
• Brilliant Wizard Oil - the formula is obtainable from Rin'wosho the Trader if you are Honored with the Zandalar Tribe

Another noteworthy consumable is Juicy Bear Burger. However, it had reduced usefulness as the buff will go away upon death. This is also the case with the Black Label, but in comparison, the latter is very cheap and doesn't require any time to consume.

Playstyle
I will leave that up to you :) Enjoy twinking!

Moonkin guides

My apologies for the recent lack of posts. But I'm not gone! I've actually written two Moonkin guides, which can now be found stickied at the Molten-WoW Druid forums.

Here are the links:

• [Big] Moonkin PvE guide
• [Big] Moonkin PvP guide

Enjoy :) I might be back soon with a guide to Mage twinking at level 49.

Player types in World of Warcraft

Tobold has made some good points, and I wanted to address them. A lot of the disagreements on the Morons & Slackers discussion are emerging from miscommunication. So - I wanted to write a brief overview on some of the major player types in WoW.

Casual: This is the most common type of player. A casual player is one who plays for the sake of it. He expects nothing out of the game, except to have a simple good time. He plays for leisure. He may have short-term goals, like "get to this next level" or "do a dungeon tonight with friends," but nothing too in-depth. Casuals can be both good and bad players.

Slacker: The slacker is almost only different from the casual because of his motivations. A casual seeks nothing more than his own in-game efforts can provide. A slacker, on the other hands, expects more out of the game than he is willing to work for. Most slackers are not good players (though they could be).

Elitist: An elitist is one who sets high standards for himself (he also tends to expect everybody else to have the same standards, and may judge by them). Elitists are often the best players, and are the opposites of slackers. Note, however, that an elitist is actually not that different from a slacker - what separates them is that the elitist will actually work for the goals he has set.

Moron: Based on the definition provided by Tobold (mentally disabled, IQ below 70), then yes, there are most likely no morons playing WoW. In fact, "moron" does not fit with any of the other categories.

Take a look at the first 3 player types. They are based on behavior and expectations, and say nothing about one's intelligence. Calling somebody a "moron," however, is passing judgment on one's intelligence. But is it? Look at the context. When somebody repeatedly stands in fire and blames the healer for dying (or does not even realize it is the fire that is killing him), do we really think the person behind the computer has an IQ below 70? Do we really believe he is a drooling mental retard? I doubt it.

We are calling the behavior of the in-game character moronic. Standing in fire is stupid. There may be many different real-life factors to explain why that player stands in fire. Most likely, that player is a real-life slacker. But in the game (from an RP point-of-view, if you will), his character is a moron. And it doesn't take an IQ below 70 to be bad at a game.

So my main point is that Tobold is right (at least partially so): there are most likely no morons playing WoW. However, there are morons in WoW.

EDIT: There is also the issue of age. A 12-year old with an IQ of 140 will still have less maturity, knowledge, and common sense than a 30-year old player of average IQ.

My real thoughts on Moonkin

It occurred to me that I QQ a lot about Moonkin viability. And although some measure of QQ might sometimes be warranted, I feel that maybe I've done too much. So I decided to make a simple, short post, that sums what what I truly think about the viability of Balance Druids.

Player vs. environment
In PvE, we are fine. I've been paying close attention to my guild's meters (DPS and various others) in our latest runs, and I find myself always in the top 5 DPS of the group. I do at least 9k DPS on every fight, and that's with currently-bugged Starfall and Languish damage.

Though it is true that Moonkins suffer from movement more than most, our DPS is fine, and we bring great raid buffs. In Cataclysm, we are just fine as well, if not better.

In Heroics, we are downright amazing, as our offheals and CCs come greatly into play.

Player vs. player
In PvP, we are OK. I still think that if you wanted to do 2v2 arena, you'd be better off with a Shadow Priest, Elemental Shaman, Mage, or Warlock. However, we are still capable of doing well. Although all of these classes have better survivability, control, and burst, they will never have our excellent mobility and potent heal-over-time spells (though not very mana-friendly). There are also a few things that I do not find very fair (as explained in this post), but again, we are still decent.

In Cataclysm, we are not doing so well. To sum it up in a few words, Cata's Eclipse is worse in PvP than WotLK's, our healing is gimped, and our control still pales in comparison to other classes. Also, our DoTs, which are a much bigger part of our damage than ever before, have no dispel protection, further reducing our damage (every team has a dispeler now), and cutting us off from important Shooting Stars procs. Wrath, Starfire, and Starsurge cast times are sluggish and nearly impossible to land in movement/interrupt-heavy environments, though we depend on them to reach Total Eclipse.

So let us hope for some Cata PvP buffs!

Conclusion
So overall, we are fine (in 3.3.5). We may be slightly underpowered, but it's not the end of the world. I am generally happy with my Moonkin these days. And if you ever question what I think about our feathery selves, come to this post. Ignore the QQ that may have come before.

Cheers!

"Morons & slackers"

If you've ever read any Greedy Goblin blog post, you've probably heard of the notorious M&S - morons & slackers. This is a term Gevlon enjoys using, and that - from what I've been able to tell - is sometimes imported by other WoWers in the blogosphere.

Somewhere in the comment pages, Tobold apparently stated he did not believe there was such a thing as M&S, and so in his last post, Gevlon disagreed and explained what it meant to be an M&S.

As such, I wanted to post my say on the matter. Kinda funny, considering that neither of these people have a clue who I am.

To be, or not to be
First of all, it seems important to establish that M&S even exist. I would not have thought this explanation to be needed, but seeing as Tobold appears not to believe in them, there may be others out there who share his opinion.

Being an M&S is the demonstration of either a choice or unintelligence. To say there are no M&S is to say that there are no stupid people, and no lazy people, which is simply preposterous. In our modern society of today, we tend to sugarcoat everything. We don't criticize anymore. Everyone is "equal."

In reality, nobody is equal. Some people are utter failures. Some people are utter geniuses. Some people will show up the morning of an exam, not having spent even one second studying, and ace it. Others will have studied during the entire preceding week, and get something like a C or worse.

It's difficult to talk of this subject without sounding insulting to sensitive ears. For example: I remember, back in high school, how my Algebra class operated. The teacher would explain a new concept each day, and assign homework for the next. The homework consisted of doing multiple problems related around that concept we had just learned about. The homework was repetitive - its purpose was to help anchor the concept in the student's mind.

To me, it was dreadfully boring. I assimilated the concepts the moment the teacher presented them in class. Some other students, however, would listen to the teacher, take notes, do all the homework, read the book, and still seek aid from the teacher the next day, because they did not understand.

What is the logical conclusion, here? I am smart, and the other student is stupid. But saying this to almost anybody is bound to invoke some negative sentiments. The common reaction is to think "you're no better than him" or "you're arrogant." But I am not trying to bring down the other student, or to make myself seem important. I am stating a fact.

Funnily enough, most people react to "I am more intelligent" by interpreting it to mean "I am better." Just because I may be smarter than somebody does not mean I feel I am better than that person. For all I know, the other student could be an exceptional painter. People react like this because in our society, intelligence is often used to "rank" people, and because in reality, intelligence does tend to make you better off as a person.

We have become too caught up in not hurting each others' feelings that we avoid reality. Yes, that 300lb person is fat. Yes, that teenager who got drunk and drove at a really high speed into a wall with his 4-wheeler is an idiot. Yes, that student who cannot understand simple mathematical concepts, despite constant studying, is stupid. It is not bad to say these things. It is the truth.

But - back to the game.

M&S in WoW
In WoW, there are plenty of idiots, just like in real life. Statistically speaking, 50% of people are below average, and 50% are above. Based on standard deviation, 68% of all people have an IQ between 85 and 115. 16% have an IQ under 85, and 16% have an IQ over 115. I realize that some people think "IQ means nothing," but nonetheless, it is highly regarded as an accurate measure of general intelligence. IQ is like an average of your intelligence - there are different type of intelligences. The higher your IQ, the faster you will understand, retain, and adapt to information.

I think WoW is comprised more of slackers than of morons. A lot of players do not feel as though a video game deserves to be the recipient of too much thought. Many people just play to relax, and could not care less whether their gear was enchanted or gemmed. These people are not competitive. Video games are relatively young in this society, and we still live in a world in which "competition" is something we expect to happen in physical sports or other "meaningful" things - not video games, unless you are doing a LAN racing game party, or something.

A lot of players cannot associate the concept of fun with performance. For example, some players do not understand why they should use a DPS rotation. They feel that Wrath has the cooler graphic, hence they do not understand why they should sacrifice their fun of using it, over using an actual rotation that will benefit the group. Performance is not a goal to them. Because of their non-competitive nature, performance is not fun. To me, performance is extremely fun. Being the best that I can be - at anything - is exhilarating.

This, however, does not necessarily make one a moron or slacker. This is mostly casual. What makes one an M&S is refusing to become better while still expecting some sort of group reward from the game. If you are doing a random Heroic and you are only pulling 1k DPS, you cannot expect to be rewarded for it. You're a 71/0/0 Mage and all you want to do is spam Ice Lance? Fine - but don't count on getting any loot. You don't want to listen to my polite advice on a better build and rotation? You're a slacker.

A moron is someone who does not understand something even after repeated explanations. When my guild was still recruiting, we tried out an Elemental Shaman. On her first raid with us, we called out for Heroism, and she did nothing. After the fight, we pulled her to the side, and she told us that she did not have Heroism. I calmly explained to her what Heroism was, and where it could be found in her spellbook. Eventually, it seemed as though she had found it.

On the 2nd attempt, we called for it again. Still no Heroism. It was announced in /raid, /rw, and /guild, to no avail. Her excuse that time: she was too busy focusing on stepping out of Coldflame. What? Heroism is instant-cast, and it should require no focus at all to press the button. You can cast Lava Burst and Lightning Bolt, can't you? Nothing stops you from casting Heroism! We gave her one last shot on Lady Deathwhisper, and once again, she never cast Heroism. I'm not sure she paid any shred of attention to anything going on while DPSing. That person is a moron, and we kicked her from the guild.

Conclusion
There are plenty of morons and slackers in life and in WoW. The people who ride around on their mounts in the middle of all the PvP in WSG are morons. The level 80s running a dungeon who pull - on purpose (or out of repeated inattention) - packs of mobs while the group is already busy with another, is a moron. You've had plenty of time to understand that it is a stupid move. If you don't understand it, you are stupid. The players who refuse to go through the effort of improving their rotation, or to gem/enchant their gear, despite knowing that it will make them better players, are slackers. Especially if they still expect the same treatment as those who are actually making the effort to be good. The guildmates who constantly ask what raid to expect that day, and at what time, even though all of that information can be found in the Guild Information (and has been repeated several times), are both morons and slackers and should be kicked.

"Moron describes the guy who doesn't move from the fire because he doesn't understand that it is causing his drop in health. Stupid describes the guy who doesn't move from the fire because "it's the healer's job to keep me alive." He knows that he can improve his (and his group/raid's) performance by moving, but he refuses." -Tonus

Quoted from a commenter on Gevlon's comment page. I'm quoting it, because I feel he hit the nail right on the head.

These people exist. Both the moron and the stupid are terrible players, and it is because they are M&S in real life. To say there is no such thing as M&S is to be delusional.

The Alliance in battlegrounds, pt. 3

A few weeks ago, I posted my Random Battleground statistics, and offered common speculations as to why the Alliance performed so poorly. Later, in a second post, I explained my own theories on the issue.

Now, here is a third post, with more numbers, and confirmed theories.

New statistics
Here are my win ratios since the 1st post. I am only including matches in which I played after my original post.

Alterac Valley:
18 out of 58 (31%) games won.

Arathi Basin:
32 out of 46 (70%) games won.

Eye of the Storm:
38 out of 58 (66%) games won.

Strand of the Ancients:
21 out of 42 (50%) games won.

Warsong Gulch:
66 out of 87 (76%) games won.

Total:
124 out of 291 (60%) games won.

The numbers look a lot better than in my original post. In fact, now I am winning more battlegrounds than I am losing.

External changes
The theory in my 2nd post proposed that the issue behind the Alliance's poor performance was population. The general lower population of Alliance players on the realm meant that most battlegrounds started with an imbalance of players (particularly Alterac Valley). Furthermore, the bigger the battleground, the more difficult it is for one player to make a true difference.

What has changed?

Recently, the developers at Molten-WoW have written new scripts for the battleground system, providing much improved balance. Now, all random battlegrounds begin with a near-equal amount of players. This has greatly helped the Alliance, which suddenly doesn't find itself feeling like the 300 Spartans trying to fight off an army of Persians.

The developers also rewrote some of the script in order to lessen the frequency of Alterac Valley popups. Many players complained that they were invited to Alterac Valley matches twice more often than to any other battleground. This isn't the case anymore.

Personal changes
Additionally, my gear has much improved since then. I am now equipped with full Wrathful offset gear, a Wrathful weapon and offhand, Wrathful leggings, and 4 Relentless set items. I've almost 31k HP unbuffed, and have slightly over 1.3k resilience.

Now, I can defend Arathi Basin and Eye of the Storm bases much more effectively. I have personally carried the WSG flag 115 times, at the time of writing this. These things make a difference, particularly in the small battlegrounds. Furthermore, I avoid Alterac Valley and Strand of the Ancients, my two least favorite battlegrounds. Alterac Valley used to be, by far, my most-played battleground, and also the one with the worst win/lose ratio. Playing it less and winning it more has also helped the statistics.

Conclusion
The Alliance isn't that bad. In fact, it looks as though we may be even with the Horde. Great!

More on spec viability

First, let's define the word "viable." In the context I will be using the term, viable means having a reasonable chance of succeeding. In WoW, viability refers to a class or spec's potential to properly carry out some task. This task could be simple damage-dealing to a boss, or defeating a PvP opponent. To be PvP-viable, a spec needs to be able to successfully survive as well as control and damage opponents.

It isn't enough to simply be able to do something - it needs to be done successfully. For example, it isn't enough that Entangling Roots is on my action bar - if I cannot successfully use it (because of game mechanics), then it is a PvP-nonviable spell.

Revisiting what I said
Yesterday, I proposed that any spec should be viable if it is its class's only spec that fulfills its particular playing style. So, if a Shaman's Enhancement tree is the only tree that allows melee damage, it should be viable for the sake of those who want to be melee Shamans. Asking them to respec would not be fair, because Elemental and Restoration offer completely different playstyles.

But is that enough? What if a Mage really loves Fire, and does not want to spec Frost or Arcane for PvP? After all, even if the role of the spec is the same (dealing spell damage), the playing style isn't.

I think it is safe to say a lot of players play for their spec and not necessarily just for their class. Should Blizzard make every spec in the game both PvP and PvE viable? That would be very difficult to achieve. Today, the game is already faced with many balance issues, despite that Blizzard isn't even trying to make every spec viable. They are more concerned with class viability than with individual spec viability.

The state of things
To address the issues of balance and viability, Blizzard has, for the most part, ensured that specs are viable for at least one type of gameplay (PvP or PvE).

And this is where I begin talking about us Moonkins.

There are several specs out there who give up viability of one type in exchange for viability of another. Subtlety Rogues, for example, are almost never found in a raid setting, but are extremely PvP-viable. Elemental Shamans are very desired in 3v3 arena, but would not be wanted in raids if not for their totems and Heroism/Bloodlust. Fire Mages have some of the best PvE DPS in the game, but perform poorly in PvP.

I can only think of two specs that aren't viable for either PvP or PvE: Frost Death Knights and Balance Druids. Blood is the DK tanking spec, and Unholy easily surpasses Frost in both PvP and PvE. Balance Druids have terrible weaknesses in PvP, and suffer from a broken Eclipse mechanic in PvE.

Moonkin: effort =/= reward
I would think that in exchange for poor PvP-viability, Blizzard would have made my spec great for PvE (like Fire Mage). So is it normal that my DPS only becomes comparable in a purely standstill fight, even though I exert myself much more than the average raider to maximize my performance?

Essentially, what I'm trying to say is that it is not fair for Moonkins to have to go through so much trouble to do the same as anyone else. Mages, Warlocks, Shadow Priests, and perhaps even Elemental Shamans, are all more PvP viable, and are all capable of more raid DPS with a lot less effort (save for Demonology Warlocks, except that they are more adequately rewarded for their efforts).

Reward should be directly proportionate to effort, skill, and knowledge. On my Shadow Priest, I can be twice as successful as my Moonkin in PvP, with half the effort, skill, and knowledge. It's really saddening.

I spec Moonkin for the sake of it. I guess I find it fun to go around as a giant chicken causing eclipses and typhoons. I also get a twisted pleasure out of going against the grain. In fact, I don't like seeing other Moonkins, as they make me feel less unique. But if I were to play for the sake of viability - I would just go Restoration. There is really no reason to spec Moonkin, unless your guild needs one for the raid buffs.

Cataclysm..
In Cataclysm, Balance Druids find themselves a little better off in PvE. This is great - but Blizzard: why did it take 6 years?

Why Moonkin PvP should be viable

In patch 3.3.5, Moonkin PvP is at its most viable. Sadly, it's still not very viable anyways. Druids who want to seriously PvP as Balance have always been met with frustration at the spec's shortcomings. Some Druids have addressed our issues and made long threads about them, some QQed, and others blogged. Either way, the problems of Moonkin PvP are well-known.

However, it never seems as though Blizzard has any intention to bring us up to par. Cataclysm is well out now, and we received some new toys - like everyone else. Now we have a funky silence, funky mushrooms, and an awesome new nuke. But our survivability is still as bad as ever, and our burst damage relies on Shooting Stars procs. Our HoTs are weak and expensive, and the new Eclipse mechanic - though much improved for PvE - is even worse than the old mechanic for PvP.

Sometimes it feels as though Blizzard holds a grudge against Balance Druids. But ultimately, that is a silly notion. Blizzard is a multi-million dollar business, and it isn't in their interest to put down us lowly Moonkins. If they don't satisfy their customers, they might lose money - simple as that. So what is the reason Moonkin PvP has always been unviable?

Why we aren't better
The answer is actually simple. Ghostcrawler has repeated it several times - they do not feel that Moonkin PvP needs to be brought up to par, because Druids already have a strong PvP spec (Restoration). If a Druid wants to PvP, he can just respec or make good use of Dual Talent Specialization. Blizzard cares about class representation in arena - not spec-representation.

This logic has strengths and weaknesses, but it utterly fails with hybrid classes. If a Mage wants to PvP, he can just go Arcane or Frost. Like Balance, Fire is not PvP viable. The difference, however, is that no matter what tree a Mage chooses to specialize in, he will still be doing the same thing - casting damaging spells. A Rogue will always melee DPS, a Hunter will always do ranged damage, etc. Additionally, though Holy is not viable, Priests have another healing tree they can spec - and Discipline is perfectly fine for PvP. Every non-hybrid class in the game can do well in PvP no matter the role they choose within the possibilities of their class (with the exception of tanking specs, which are usually slightly weak).

It's not fair, Blizzard
If a Druid wants to cast damaging spells in PvP, his only choice is Balance. For that reason, I believe it should be viable. Asking us to respec Restoration is not fair - if we wanted to heal people, then that's what we'd do. Shamans have the same problem - though Elemental and Restoration are both arena-viable, Enhancement is not. Our other hybrid friend, however, is doing a little better. Retribution and Holy Paladins are great in PvP - Retribution has a few important flaws (very susceptible to snares), but it remains much more viable than Balance or Enhancement.

If the PvP role you want to play (healing, melee damage, ranged damage) is only offered by one spec within your class, that spec should be made viable.

Moonkin stats

Every so often, I realize that I don't know as much about Moonkins as I think I do. Yesterday, I realized I had misunderstood some things about our soft haste cap.

So, inspired, I decided to make a post about Moonkin stat priorities.

General stat priority

1. Hit rating (till cap)
2. Spellpower
3. Haste rating (till cap)
4. Critical strike rating
5. Spirit
6. Intellect

Hit rating
Hit rating, like for every DPS class, is the #1 damage stat until capped. It takes 26.23 hit rating to achieve 1% spell hit chance, and you have a base 17% chance to miss a ?? raid boss (+3 levels) with spells.

Balance of Power (4%) and Imp. Faerie Fire (3%) reduce your chance to miss to 10%. This means that the Moonkin hit rating cap is 10 * 26.23 = 263. With a Draenei in your group, it drops to 237.

For PvPers: you only have a 4% chance to miss equal-level players. This means that all of your hit needs are covered by Balance of Power. Some races/classes/specs have talents to reduce the chance they'll be missed, which is usually compensated for by the Ashen Verdict ring.

Spellpower
Spellpower is the bread and butter of all DPS caster classes, and will always be better than your other stats (unless not hit capped). Moonkins scale well with spellpower - get lots of it.

Haste
Haste is great and not-so-great at the same time. We don't scale very well with haste, because at 585 haste, Wrath will have a 1.00s cast time with Nature's Grace.

Any amount of haste that brings down Wrath's cast time below 1.00s is wasted, because the global cooldown cannot go below 1 second.

I used to think the soft haste cap was 401, but I was mistaken. Only yesterday did I learn that this calculation includes the Wrath of Air Totem (+5%) haste. I do not like assuming buffs other than my own, and I don't believe anyone should. So the soft cap is, in fact, 585.

Crit
Crit rating is never bad, and has a high cap. Once you have reached the soft haste cap, crit will give you more DPS than haste, point-for-point. Your soft crit cap is based on Starfire's chance to crit during a Lunar Eclipse. To calculate your soft crit cap, first add all of your buffs/talents that increases Starfire's crit chance.

• Nature's Majesty: 4%
• Imp. Insect Swarm: 3%
• Imp. Faerie Fire: 3%
• Idol of Lunar Eclipse: 4.80%
• Lunar Eclipse: 40%

That gives a total of 54.80%. This means you will reach your soft crit cap when you have 45.20% crit chance while buffed and in Moonkin Form.

Once you are over the soft crit cap, critical strike rating and haste rating have nearly the same value, with crit being slightly ahead.

Spirit
Spirit is not a terrible stat, but the other stats already mentioned easily outshine it. Imp. Moonkin Form converts 30% of our spirit into spellpower - however, this does not mean you should gear for it.

Take this example: would you rather have 100 spirit, or 100 crit rating? You can safely ignore the regen from spirit. You should choose the crit rating, because 100 of it will give you more damage than 30 spellpower.

Intellect
Some players believe intellect is the supreme Moonkin stat, because it increases our mana pool, our regen (2% of total mana back from crits), our critical strike chance, our spellpower (12% of intel converted into spellpower), and scales with Furor (+10% intel).

However, point-for-point, intellect is very weak. It buffs our stats, but only very slightly. 1 point of intellect only increases your crit chance by 0.006%, for example.

TL;DR
Get 263 hit rating and 585 haste rating, then get crit rating. And of course, never neglect spellpower.

Casting mechanics & PvP itemization

Annnnd.. here comes another comparison post. Sorry. Can't help it. I'll be comparing some aspects of my Moonkin to my SPriest.

My Priest has been level 80 for a while now and I've been playing him as both Discipline and Shadow. As Shadow, there are some things that have come to my attention that I simply do not understand.

Casting mechanics
Any Moonkin knows that it's quasi-impossible to properly cast spells at a melee that is turning around you. Wrath, Starfire, and Moonfire cannot be cast at a target behind us. Insect Swarm, on the other hand, can. Heals can as well, whether cast or instant.

On the Priest, however, it's a different story. Vampiric Touch can still be cast at targets behind me despite having a cast time. Same goes with Imp. Devouring Plague, despite that it has exactly the same casting mechanic as Moonfire (instant damage + DoT damage). So let's see.. what can't I cast to a target behind me on a Priest? Mind Blast, and Mind Flay. That said, Mind Flay is channeled and will turn automatically with the target, so it isn't much of an issue.

As minor as these things may seem, they are actually quite important. Why are Moonkins getting penalized?

PvP itemization
Moonkin PvP itemization is pretty terrible:

Gear selection
On my Moonkin, I try to get as much haste as possible. Unfortunately, that doesn't add up to be a lot of haste, largely because there are no haste items to pick up. The entire set has crit, and all leather offset items make you choose between crit, spirit, and attack power. That means that the only haste items I can buy are the cloak and the necklace.

On the other hand, my Priest has plenty of haste items to pick up (and any other cloth-wearer). Though the set is still all crit, every single offset item gives you the choice between haste, crit, and spirit. That means I can pick up haste bracers, boots, and belt - something I cannot do on my Moonkin.

Again, why should Moonkins be so penalized? Does wearing leather mean we should have limited gearing options? All cloth-wearers are either healers or spell-damage dealers. All leather-wearers are either healers, spell-damage dealers, or melee-damage dealers. Shouldn't Blizzard be adding an itemization choice instead of replacing one?

Socket bonuses
Another thing I've noticed are the PvP socket bonuses. On my Druid, one is resilience, one is spellpower, and the others are spirit. Wait.. what? Spirit? Yep, spirit. Total, I receive +6 resilience, +7 spellpower, and +16 spirit.

On my Priest, however, the PvP bonuses look much better. One resilience, two spellpower, and two stamina, for a total of +8 resilience, +12 spellpower, +15 stamina.

Why are the bonuses even different? Why is my Moonkin getting spirit while my Priest is getting spellpower and stamina? Even when the bonuses give the same stat, the value of the stat is higher on the Priest. The Moonkin's chest piece is the one that gives resilience: +6. The Priest's helm is the one that gives it: +8. Why?

Set/glove bonuses
Finally, the set and glove bonuses are also poorly designed. The Moonkin bonus gives Wrath a chance to proc Wrath of Elune - which reduces your next Starfire's cast time by 1.5 seconds. Although this can be a very powerful proc, provided it can even be used, it makes Balance Druids the only spec in the game with a chance-based PvP set bonus. Combine this with the fact that we are also the only spec in the game without a silence or stun, and how our main damage buff (the one that puts our damage on par with the other players) is totally dependent on chance, there isn't much left to .. well .. I've talked enough about this stuff already.

Everyone else has a solid, secure bonus that isn't left up to chance - usually related to reducing the cooldown of an important ability or increasing the damage of another. Priests, for example, get -2s off of their Weakened Soul debuff, allowing the use of Power Word: Shield every 13s instead of 15s.

The Balance glove bonus is not too bad - it reduces the base cast time of Cyclone by 0.1s. Unfortunately, it does not reduce the cast time after haste but before it - slightly decreasing the benefit of haste for the spell (this means that depending on your haste, Cyclone true cast time will only be reduced by 0.08-0.09s). This bonus is situational, because 0.1s is a very short period of time. Furthermore, it affects a spell that has a cast time - one of Moonkin's many vulnerabilities. Whether Cyclone has a 1.5s or 1.4s base cast time does not truly matter, because I will be counterspelled at 0.5s anyways.

On the other hand, Priests get a much nicer bonus - Psychic Scream's cooldown is reduced by 3s. For Shadow Priests, this mean the cooldown is down from 30 seconds to 23, thanks to their Improved Psychic Scream talent.

All in all..
Is there any good reason to confine Moonkins to PvP crit gear and bad PvP bonuses - while on the other hand letting Priests suffer from neither of these things, and have overpowered casting mechanics?

Sometimes I want to join the Moonkin bandwagon and tell Blizzard that they are purposely keeping us underpowered - that they don't like Moonkins. Of course, that is a silly notion (I hope), but some of our issues are so obvious that it is hard to understand why they'd let us be so terrible for so long. And we're even worse in Cataclysm now (just go read around the Druid forums and you can see for yourself).

Sigh.