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.

Moonkin / Mage / Priest

No, that isn't a 3v3 arena team. Though it could work decently, I guess. It'd be better if we got a Rogue or a Hunter to replace the.. um.. well, the Moonkin.

I've been working on leveling two of my least favorite classes to PvP against - a Frost Mage, and a Shadow Priest. So here are my current impressions:

Frost Mage
Frost Mages are gods of control. No one gets close to them, thanks to a permanent uptime of chills and the frequent freezes. What makes them quite overpowered, however, is not just the control - it's that controlling their target goes hand in hand with bursting them down, thanks to talents like Shatter and Fingers of Frost.

Survivability is also amazing. Blink, Ice Barrier, Ice Block, and Mana Shield guarantee that it will be a while before I die, so long as I have mana. My Mage is a Gnome, so I have extra mana, and a racial to make me even harder to catch.

Shadow Priest
Shadow Priests are a bit less about control, and more about melting faces. I kill mobs my level simply by applying DoTs and wanding, and there are still a few seconds to go on both SW:P and Devouring Plague when the mob dies. 1v1 PvP is ridiculously easy - keep PW:S up, apply DoTs, cast Psychic Scream, cast Mind Blast, spam Mind Flay. You dead yet? Yeah you are.

Mana was an issue at the lower levels - I'd have to drink every 1-2 pulls, despite Spirit Tap. Attacking two mobs at the same time meant almost certain OOM-induced death. Now, however, my mana is much better thanks to the Replenishment effect. Health is never an issue - Improved Vampiric Embrace is way overpowered.

Versus Moonkin
The gameplay is quite different, that's for sure. My Moonkin's PvE control is fine, mostly thanks to Typhoon and Entangling Roots. However, my PvP control with the Mage or Priest is much, much higher. It feels so good to Counterspell / Silence some poor fellow trying to heal.

That being said, it all does feel a bit awkward - mostly because I am so used to playing as a Moonkin. When my health is plummeting, my reflex is to shapeshift the hell out of there while spamming HoTs on myself. When I am getting close to dying on either of my alts, I feel a rising sense of panic - usually, I've no idea what the hell to do.

Not being able to heal on my Mage feels dangerous, as I haven't yet been accustomed to their way of surviving: controlling their opponent to death, mainly.

I can heal on the Priest, yet the style is different and also feels bizarre. If Psychic Scream and my bubble are gone and on cooldown, I feel at a loss. There is some strange force that makes me hate dropping out of Shadowform to Renew or Flash Heal - definitely not a problem I have on my Druid. But we will see how it turns out at end game, when I have more survivability talents and Dispersion.

All in all, I still stay true to what I've said before. Mages and Priests are overpowered. They might not be downright facerolling classes, but they are very, very complete classes. They have all of the tools they need to melt faces, and more.

The Alliance in battlegrounds, pt. 2

Part 1 is here.

A few weeks ago I wrote about the terrible state of Alliance PvP. I described it purely from the point of view of Random Battlegrounds - no premades included. The conclusion was that the Alliance performed dreadfully in RBGs. I explored some reasons as to why that might be, but arrived to no certain explanation.

But, as it turns out, there's a very simple reason.

Population outside the battleground
There are more Hordes on my server than Allies. In fact, it seems this may be true of most existing servers. This causes Hordes to have longer (sometimes much longer) queue times for RBGs. Getting into a battleground on the Alliance side is a matter of clicking the queue button - the invitation is almost always instant. My guildmate, on the other hand, tells me that he must sometimes wait 30 minutes to get into a battleground on his Horde alt.

This difference causes Hordes to perform better than Allies. If an Ally loses, he knows he can just re-queue and immediately try again. A Horde, on the other hand, has to make it count. They will try harder - simply because they don't get as many attempts. They've already waited 30 minutes to get into the damn battleground, so they're not about to let Allies win so easily.

Population inside the battleground
The population outside the battleground also affects the population inside it. More Hordes outside means more Hordes inside - there's always a full queue of Hordes ready to go, but not necessarily so for Allies. Furthermore, Allies are more prone to ignoring the battleground invite, seeing as they might have started something new and figure they'll just queue again in a few minutes. Hordes won't do this as much, because they are subject to the whims of the queue.

Population inside the battleground can mean different things, the first of which is total imbalance. Too bad I deleted my screenshot of an Alterac Valley with only 6 Alliance players versus 40 Hordes, because it would have been perfect here. Though that particular example might be a little extreme, other numbers such as 20 v. 40 are actually quite common on my realm. This sort of imbalance obviously impairs the Alliance side - by the time more players stream in, Hordes are already defending all our towers and camping us at our base.

On the other hand, this phenomenon only happens in high-population battlegrounds - namely, Alterac Valley. Although 10 v. 15 Arathi Basins or Eyes of the Storm might also occur from time to time, smaller battlegrounds are usually full, which puts Allies back on a more level ground.

Population inside the battleground implies something else, as well. This time, however, I am not talking about the total amount of players that happen to be in the group, but the maximum amount. More players mean that it is easy for the small amount of good players to get lost in the cacophony of the poorer players. In small BGs, however, it takes just 1 or 2 good players to turn the tide of the entire game. I consider myself a good player, and because lately I've taken the habit of queuing with a few other players (usually 1-3), we've ended up winning about 80% of every battleground that is not Alterac Valley.

Call to Arms: Warsong Gulch
For three days, the Call to Arms battleground was WSG. During that period of time, I earned an insane amount of honor - everyone queued for WSG, including myself and friends, and we only lost maybe 1 match out of every 10 we played.

It didn't really matter whether the rest of our team was good - of course, it helped, but it wasn't as necessary as in bigger battlegrounds. I usually ran the flag - for all my talk about how Moonkin survivability is sh*t, I still like to carry the flag. I have 30.8k health unbuffed, 1300 resilience, and unless you put me against a Death Knight or a Frost Mage, I am very good at kiting/escaping (aren't all Druids?), so it works out alright - especially when I have a Disci Priest friend on my back and a MM Hunter keeping everyone off my back.

The only times we would lose was when a low-geared player would try to carry the Horde flag while the rest of our group would ignore our own flag being easily carried to the enemy base. (By the way, I have nothing against players with low-level gear, but if you're one of those players you should be playing support).

Conclusion
Anyways, all this to say that the main problem of Alliance battlegrounds is population. The players themselves aren't really that bad - not worse than Horde players, anyway. They just have the disadvantage of less people (or the advantage, whichever way you want to see it (faster queues)).

Twinking at level 1

Level 1 twinks have been intriguing me ever since I saw Roskmeg's LevelOneTwink's channel on YouTube, advertising his guild for level 1 twinks only.

I made a Human Rogue (might change to Night Elf Rogue for the +5 extra agility). High agility at level 1 gives ridiculous crit chance and dodge. Here's my wishlist:

Head: Ruby Shades.
Neck: Voice Amplification Modulator.
Shoulder: Stained Shadowcraft Spaulder.
Back: Wispy Cloak. Enchant: Lesser Agility.
Chest: Stained Shadowcraft Tunic Enchant: Greater Stats.
Wrist: Cracked Leather Bracers. Enchant: Superior Stamina.
Hands: Cracked Leather Gloves Enchant: Superior Agility.
Waist: Squealer's Belt.
Legs: Haliscan Pantaloons. Enchant: Rugged Armor Kit.
Feet: Cracked Leather Boots. Enchant: Lesser Accuracy.
Trinket: 2x Arena Grand Master.
Main hand: Venerable Dal'Rend's Sacred Charge. Enchant: Lifestealing or Unholy Weapon.
Off hand: Sharpened Scarlet Kris. Enchant: Agility.
Ranged: Charmed Ancient Bone Bow. Enchant: Standard Scope.

Professions:
Herbalism 150 for Lifeblood, and Skinning 150 for Master of Anatomy. And, of course, First Aid for the Mageweave Bandages.

Consumables:
Rumsey's Rum Black Label.
Rough Sharpening Stone.
Elixir of Lion's Strength.
Weak Troll's Blood Elixir.
Scroll of Agility.

Because stats are calculated so differently at level 1, the enchants make my Rogue a very formidable opponent, considering the level. In full Agility gear, I can already reach 50% physical damage mitigation (and that's without the shoulder heirlooms), 77% dodge, and 50% critical strike chance. In full Stamina gear, I'm currently close to 500 health, without the Gurubashi trinkets (which would give +240 HP).

In my "compromise" gear, which is the one sacrificing a bit of stamina and agility for hit rating, I have +6 hit rating, which at level 1 is the equivalent of a little over 15% hit chance.

I've dueled some players and so far I have beaten several level 10-15s, as well as a level 20 Warrior. Too bad there's no battleground bracket for 1-9!

Moonkin PvP: Shooting Stars

There is one change I am excited about in Cataclysm, in regards to Moonkin PvP. As of 3.3.5, as is made clear by my earlier posts, the state of Moonkin PvP is terrible, and it doesn't look as though Cataclysm will bring us up to par.

My one excitement rests with Starsurge and the Shooting Stars proc. Considering I keep my DoTs up nearly all the time in PvP, I imagine that Shooting Stars will proc frequently enough to keep my enemies on their toes. The reason I'm really excited about it is simple: it's instant. For the first time, Moonkins will have the possibility of having an instant nuke. Uninterruptible and powerful - two words that before Cataclysm could never have been used together when speaking of Moonkin PvP. For the first time, we may even have controlled burst.

And damage isn't just damage in PvP - it's pressure. If I am able to pressure my opponent in PvP, the balance tips in my favor. He is forced in the defensive, and I don't have to worry about keeping myself alive as much, which is one of our main problems in 3.3.5. It has been for so long too easy to put the pressure on us - but that was not just a result of our poor control and survivability. It was also because it was very difficult putting the pressure on them.

Shooting Stars is my Moonkin PvP silver lining.

Engineering

On my first Moonkin, my two professions were Enchanting and Herbalism. I'd picked both of these up before I really understood the world of professions. I never regretted Enchanting - once I hit 80, it has positively, erm, enchanted me. Hehe. I loved the ring enchants for both PvE and PvP reasons. Furthermore, any serious player needs enchants on their gear - having the profession saved me the hassle of finding and paying an Enchanter every time I had a new piece of gear. Herbalism had Lifeblood, but the utility was nowhere near as good as those provided by main professions.

On my 2nd Moonkin, I picked up Enchanting again, but this time chose Jewelcrafting as my secondary profession. The prismatic gems were very appealing. However, due to an epic case of laziness, I never got it past Journeyman. My Warrior alt is a miner, and I figured I would obtain the required materials through him, but never really got to it.

Three days ago, I decided - screw Jewelcrafting, go Engineering. And then I think I set a small record: I unlearned Jewelcrafting, trained Engineering, and skilled it up from 0 to 450 in about three hours. I concede, however, that I was greatly helped by my alt, who not only had a bank full of bars (until the Mithril level), but also an entire, unused guild vault at his disposition.

Oh, crap. I forgot to explain that one bit. Long story short: I was guild master of The Lightbringers. The guild was small and most of the members were inactive. I was invited to a somewhat serious raiding guild named Mutual Hatred. I brought along my active members and disbanded Lightbringers, leaving only my alt as the guild master. As a result, I inherited 800g and four guild tabs of materials.

So after three hours, 3k gold spent, and many, many relogs between my main and my alt, my Engineering was 450. And so far, I'm loving it. Here are some of the perks that come with the profession:

• Handed-Mounted Pyro Rockets
• Hyperspeed Accelerators
• Frag Belt
• Nitro Boosts
• Springy Arachnoweave
• Wormhole Generator: Northrend
• Jeeves (took me a while to get everything together for that guy)

 I think that's it for this post. Cheers :)

The Alliance in battlegrounds

As I continue to rack up the honorable kills in battlegrounds, it has occurred to me the terrible state of Alliance PvP. While I still played at Spermik, I had already noticed that the Alliance faction lost much more often than the Horde. This is something that has carried over at Molten. However, up until recently, I never really gave it any particular attention - at the back of my mind, I simply attributed the losses to poor luck, bad team composition, 1-2 very bad players, etc, and assumed that I probably wasn't losing as often as it appeared.

But although those factors may be included, there is something larger at hand here. Just type "Hordes terrible at PvP" in Google - the first search result is a link to a thread titled "Alliance so terrible in pvp." In fact, there are countless threads complaining about the terrible performance of the Alliance in battlegrounds, but only few about that of the Horde's.

So I looked at my in-game statistics and found that the numbers were absolutely dreadful. Here they are:

Alterac Valley:
34 out of 155 (22%) games won.

Arathi Basin:
25 out of 76 (33%) games won.

Eye of the Storm:
26 out of 79 (33%) games won.

Strand of the Ancients:
9 out of 22 (41%) games won.

Warsong Gulch:
30 out of 60 (50%) games won.

Total:
124 out of 392 (32%) games won.

That is pretty damn terrible.

Why?
I've done some online browsing in order to find out what could be the cause behind the Alliance's poor performance in battlegrounds, which, at this point, I believe is not just a product of chance.

There are many suggestions out there, but none of which are very convincing:

• Children / females are more likely to choose an Alliance race. This argument makes the assumption that children / females perform less than male players, which I just can't agree with. There are many outstanding female players out there. In fact, I believe females are more inclined to favor cooperative play. Perhaps children, depending on their age, would cause a team to underperform, but there is nothing indicating that there are more children on the Alliance side than on the Horde side. Amusingly, however, demographics show that females are more likely to roll an Alliance character (Night Elves, Draeneis, and Gnomes are among their favorite races).
• Hordes are better-geared. Although at this point, I can only agree with that, it has to be considered that the only reason Hordes are better-geared is because they started winning in the first place. These days, Hordes easily make 2-3x as much honor in a day as Alliance players - the better gear from all this honor most likely helps, but what started it?
• Horde races have more PvP-oriented racials. This is an interesting one. The way I see it, Alliance racials are more focused on defense or escape, while Horde racials generally focus on control and damage. However, as it is, all of these attributes are important for PvP, and I don't assume racials are really what make the game.
• Mature players are more likely to roll Horde. I have seen the argument that Horde races are less appealing (i.e. they are ugly) than Alliance races. "Mature" players are apparently more inclined to choosing the rougher-looking Hordes. But why? For the racials? There's really no reason. Besides, children (the "less mature") are just as likely to choose Blood Elves for their looks or Trolls for their coolness as they are to roll Night Elves or Dwarves for the same reasons.

To be totally honest, I have no real idea why Hordes dominate Alliance in battlegrounds so much. There are a few more possibilities to which I have given more thought.

What personality-type would be more inclined to roll Horde? In my experience, I have found that Alliance players are more interested in the social aspect of World of Warcraft, whereas Hordes are more goal-oriented. In other words, Hordes get down to business. Of course, this is a gross generalization and probably not very accurate - that said, it does seem to be slightly balanced that way, nonetheless.

Another thing I have noticed (ironically, when compared to my above paragraph), is the high level of hostility present in Alliance battlegroups. Players never listen to each other. Everyone is always playing on his own, doing whatever he wants, either insulting the person giving directions or ignoring him. There are always arguments about tactics or players' individual performances. From what I've seen, however, Hordes are less inclined to start internal feuds and they just get it over with. Like I said - they get down to business.

That is not to say that Hordes always know what to do. I have seen them, countless times and just as Allies, assault the Lumber Mill and leave it undefended before it has been captured, allowing me to just sneak in and defend it without trouble. Ah, how I love the Lumber Mill, my fellow Moonkins.

Anyways - there is very poor leadership in Alliance battlegroups. In fact, when a good leader comes along, we either win or come close.  I have a joke with a Rogue named Arcea - each time he joins Alterac Valley with me, I cheer and say that we have an increased 10% chance of victory. What he does is simple: he knows what to do, and encourages others to do the same. He gives simple directions, and shares Deadly Boss Mod updates for those who don't use the addon. Many people don't realize that destroying towers is a 75-point loss for Hordes - hell, I didn't know when I started playing in AV. So he explains it, and our chances to win significantly improve.

Looking at the numbers
Looking at the statistics I wrote above, I see a pattern. The Alliance loses the most when lots of players are involved, and the least when only a small amount of players participate. I've only won AV a mere 22% of the time - that is a horrible number. On the other hand, I've won WSG a solid 50% of the time, and the remaining 15-player battlegrounds are in the middle.

Why is that? Do the greater numbers cause less cooperation?

Before I wrap up this post, there is one final thing I want to bring attention to. Each time I join a Random Battleground, the Hordes always outnumber the Allies. Sometimes it's as bad as 15 vs. 40 Alterac Valley games. This is caused by Alliance players queuing and not entering when they are invited. Why would so many of them do that? By the time the numbers equalize, the Hordes will already have the upper ground.

There is also the issue of AFKers, though I don't know if they are more prevalent on either faction. Regardless, I think I might make a post about them in the future.

In the meantime, take care.

Moonkin PvP: Upon Cataclysm

I've been making a lot of Moonkin PvP posts lately. I suppose this is due to some sort of snowball effect - I started writing about classes that trumped me in PvP, which led me to talk about our PvP issues, and which has now brought me to this post: what is PvP going to look like in Cataclysm?

Granted, there are a lot of unanswered questions out there, and the next expansion is still subject to change. But the bulk of the Moonkin changes have been made now. We got new/modified spells and talents, including a totally new Eclipse mechanic, which was much-needed.

However, many problems remain. Although, in regard to the history of WoW, I am a fairly new Moonkin, I've done enough reading to grasp that many old Moonkins out there have grown frustrated and pessimistic about the state of their spec in PvP. As it turns out, Moonkin PvP has been broken from the start, and despite all of the amazing feedback, the detailed, comprehensive posts, and the constructive suggestions that were made on the topic, and which you can find all over the internet, Blizzard has never showed any sign to bring us up to par. In fact, Blizz nerfed us a few times.

In their defense, I would gauge that balancing Moonkin PvP is a delicate matter. The way I see it, Moonkins have a huge potential to be overpowered, and it would only take a few, minor buffs in order for us to trump every other class out there.

Still, Blizzard has many tools to tweak the classes they have created, and as I have mentioned previously, many Moonkins have made constructive, reasonable posts in order to salvage Moonkin PvP. It shouldn't be that difficult to make us viable after three expansions, yet we are still behind. Cataclysm offers us some changes - let's look at how they'll impact us.

New abilities
Three new spells are tossed our way. They are:

• Starsurge
• Solar Beam
• Wild Mushroom

Starsurge is a welcome change. In earlier Beta builds, it used to have a knockback, and I was sad to see it go - but I suppose having a knockback passively attached to a big nuke might be overpowered. It's nice having a new nuke. It does a lot of damage, and we will be able to use it for our burst. My only question about it, though: because it causes "Spellstorm" damage, which is both Arcane and Nature, do I get locked out of both schools of magic if I am Counterspelled as I am casting it?

Solar Beam, at first, was exciting. Finally a silence. But - it's not really. I don't understand what it is about Blizzard not being able to give us the simple tools we need - just give us a damn silence! Solar Beam is unique from other silences in a few ways - first, it's an AoE silence, the only one in the game. Second, it's a full, 10 second duration, which is quite long. Third, it's on a 1 minute cooldown, which is also very long.

In other words, Solar Beam is poor. There are so many things wrong with it. You know what? I'll list them:

1. 5 yard radius. Because the silence is only active when the target is beneath it, it would only require one simple sidestep to be un-silenced, effectively making Solar Beam the shortest silence in the game. It would really only be an interrupt. Also, it's unlikely that I'd be able to silence more than one person.
2. AoE reticle. This makes the spell very clunky to use. How easy is it going to be placing the reticle around your moving target as you are moving yourself? Probably not very easy at all. Even if you'd become good at it, you're still losing time because you have to manually target.
3. To make Solar Beam viable, it would have to be used in conjunction with Entangling Roots. This would make it the only silence that requires two global cooldowns to be effective.

Though Solar Beam may have its utility in PvE, I find its PvP use to be very limited in most situations. It might be fun in cloistered environments like Alterac Valley, but it will be difficult to find its place in smaller fights.

Wild Mushroom is a new ability at which I can't help but laugh. Qieth from Qieth's Quips has already established that taking the time to cast Wild Mushrooms is a DPS loss in PvE, and I really don't see myself using them in PvP. Though the detonation hits hard, the radius is tiny (3 yards, smaller than melee range), and would require meticulous placing in order to be able to hurt anyone with them. Furthermore, the cast time, albeit short, prevents us from casting it on the move.

Additionally, the Mushrooms won't detonate unless I command them to - in other words, a Horde Warrior might be furiously coming after me, stepping on my Mushrooms, but they won't explode until I press the button. Hell, he could sit on top of them and be safe if I don't notice it.

Finally, the Mushrooms are also targetable and have very low health, so they are easily one-shotted.

Though all of these new abilities are welcome (it's always nice to have new tools in the toolbox), with the exception of Starsurge, they are weak.

Changed abilities
We've received some modifications to our current abilities, as well. And to be honest, I don't like most of them. Here are some:

• Moonkin Form. Armor contribution reduced to 120%, down from 370%. 15% damage reduction while stunned was removed. Mana return from crits was also removed.
• Eclipse. Eclipse was totally changed - it's not RNG-dependent anymore. Rather, you build up your Solar or Lunar energy until you reach 100 energy of either type, and enter Eclipse, which buffs either your Arcane or Nature spells until the meter has dropped back down to 0.
• Healing spells. Nourish isn't a flash heal anymore - Regrowth is.
• Lunar Shower. A welcome talent that buffs Moonfire.
• Starfall damage reduced.
• Wrath cast time and damage increased.
• DoTs and HoTs scale with crit and haste.

Let's look at them more in detail, now.

The Moonkin Form changes are, at this point, a little confusing. As I understand it, armor levels are normalized in Cataclysm, so that cloth-wearers are much closer to plate-wearers than ever before. That said, 120% seems like a rather small modifier. Coupled with the removal of the 15% damage reduction while stunned, it looks like we have lost some survivability, which is currently one of our biggest problems in PvP.

The Eclipse changes, though welcome in regards to PvE, are a little difficult to gauge in a PvP environment. Regardless, one thing I really love about the new Eclipse is how we will not lose the buff until we actually use it - so if I gain Eclipse, and then I am stunned or forced to move, I will still be able to benefit from it later. My worry with the current Eclipse is with how difficult it might be to achieve it. I have to build up to it - how easy will that be in PvP? Will I ever be able to reach 100 on the Lunar or Solar power meter?

Our healing spells have been changed. No more using Nourish as a flash heal - instead, Regrowth has taken its place. I don't know how effective that will be. Regrowth costs a lot more mana than Nourish. This change will also limit the amount of healing spells I use - Nourish now being a 3-second cast, I will never use it in PvP anymore. Using Regrowth as a flash heal seems awkward - but I suppose we will see how that turns out. I'm really not sure what to think about this, yet.

Lunar Shower is definitely a nice addition to our talents, albeit not a very stylish one. Promoting Moonfire spam, it will allow us to actually do some measure of damage while we are moving.

Wrath, our fast nuke, had its cast time increased to 2 seconds. This was a predictable change, because the previous, very short cast caused issues in PvE, as the spell stopped benefiting from haste very quickly. Though now this problem is gone, it does make me worry about how fast I am going to be able to output damage in PvP. Starfire is still a long spell and hardly viable without the Wrath of Elune proc. How am I going to be able to dish out quick damage? Moonfire spam? I guess we'll have to see.

DoTs and HoTs scaling with crit and haste is a really nice change. It will improve our damage a bit, as well as our healing (survivability). That said, Shadow Priests already had scaling DoTs in Wrath of the Lich King, and Warlocks already had the crit benefit. So Moonkins are going to be the ones benefiting from this change the most.

Conclusion
It's been said several times before, and I will say it myself. We're always an expansion behind. The new Moonkin changes, though welcome (Glyph of Entangling Roots is nice, for example), would hardly be enough to make us viable even in 3.3.5. The main three points of PvP, as outlined in my last post, are these:

• Survivability. With the Cataclysm changes, our survivability doesn't seem to have improved. Our armor is almost gone and there is no more damage-reduction while stunned. On the other hand, our HoTs are more powerful. I'd be inclined to say we have lost survivability.
• Control. Not many changes here. We are meant to gain control through Solar Beam, the Glyph of Entangling Roots, and Fungal Growth. Unfortunately, Solar Beam is very weak, and because Wild Mushrooms are so difficult to use efficiently, I'm going to assume that the benefit from Fungal Growth is also very reduced (our Treants are on a 3 minute cooldown and we never decide where they die, so I hardly believe we could use them to proc Fungal Growth either).
• Damage. Our damage looks better, thanks to Starsurge, Lunar Shower, and Shooting Stars. In fact, I really love the Shooting Star talent. Although 4% isn't a very high chance to proc, our DoTs should be ticking often. That said, we'll have to see how our damage compares to the other classes, and how Eclipse works out in PvP.

Even though in Wrath of the Lich King we are poor in each of these three categories, the buffs we have received will only provide the improvements necessary (maybe) that we needed to be viable in 3.3.5 PvP. In Cataclysm, the other classes are also receiving new toys - we'll have to see how it turns out.

Moonkin PvP: The problems

Let's do this.

I'm excited. I've wanted to make this post for a few months now, since long before I even began this blog. Ever since I started PvP with my Moonkin, I knew that at some point in the future, I would write this. As a serious Moonkin who happens to love writing, it's inevitable. Over the last many months, I have done a lot of research - I've read countless threads and blogs about both Moonkin PvE and PvP, the QQ rants, the oh-my-gosh-Starfall-is-buffed posts, the guides, etc. I read Qieths' Quips, Gray Matter, Restokin, and Shifting Perspectives - and if you're also a serious Moonkin, chances are you've come across any of these blogs at least once.

Now, before I get started, I should give a brief overview. This post is not going to be a guide - I will simply explain, to the best of my ability, all of the Moonkin issues in PvP as of patch 3.3.5, and hopefully convince you - if you don't already know it - that it is the most difficult PvP spec in the game. Granted, retail just patched to 4.0.1, and this seems like quite a redundant activity. However, like I said, I've always wanted to write this, and although it may even be outdated - I simply don't care. At the very least, this will have satisfied my writing pleasure, and may even serve as good reading for others. Maybe you will read this in several years, after two new expansions have been released, as a way to reflect on what Moonkin had once been (which would qualify you as an uber-nerd, such as I am).  One thing though - my apologies for the links.. please keep in mind that the tooltips in this post will most likely be inaccurate due to showing Cataclysm tooltips.

And hell, I might even add a section to include my thoughts on our Cataclysm changes. We'll see.

All right, let's get this started. Moonkin PvP. The problems. May I suggest a little music?

Introduction
What? A second introduction?

No, silly! What I wrote above was an introduction to this post. Now I am writing the introduction to Moonkin PvP.

Let's look at what makes PvP what it is - its essential components. These are:

• Survivability
• Control
• Burst damage (damage-on-demand)

You could argue against burst damage by saying that slow, over-time damage (while kiting, for example) works well enough against classes that cannot heal, like Rogues or Mages. But most classes have some way to regenerate health, even those that are considered non-healer classes, such as Destruction Warlocks and Blood Death Knights. Furthermore, if you can take down your opponent with slow damage, that's great! But what's being done to you meanwhile? It won't be very effective if you are being nuked at the same time. Essentially, you still want to be able to blow up the other player faster than he can.

Survivability is, of course, a must. Some classes find survivability in being able to control their opponents very well. Others absorb damage, and others simply heal through. Control is important in that it allows you to either reduce the amount of damage you take, or set up your burst.

Moonkins are good at none of these three things. Well - it's not that we're bad at it, but rather that we lack the proper tools to be as good as the other classes.

Survivability
For the sake of not mixing survivability and control (seeing as crowd-control abilities can provide survivability), I will keep this section to abilities that provide damage mitigation, healing, avoidance, etc. The following are our survivability tools:

• Barkskin (-20% damage taken)
• Moonkin Form (+370% armor, -15% damage taken while stunned)
• Travel Form (+40% speed)
• Shapeshifting (breaks movement-impairing effects)
• Restoration spells
• Healing Touch (long heal, not PvP viable)
• Nourish (flash heal, benefits from HoTs)
• Regrowth (medium heal with a HoT portion)
• Rejuvenation (HoT)
• Lifebloom (short HoT with a bloom - blooms when dispelled)
• Tranquility (channeled heal, not PvP viable)
• Abolish Poison (tries to remove 1 poison every 3 secs for 12 secs)
• Remove Curse (removes a curse)
• Balance of Power (-6% spell damage taken)
• Endurance (+5% stamina, for Taurens)
• Quickness (-2% chance to be hit, for Night Elves)

As you can see, save for our healing spells, we only have two buttons we can push to help our survivability - Barkskin and Moonkin Form (though Moonkin Form only helps against melees, and can't be cast while incapacitated).  There are no "oh-fuck" buttons. However, considering our arsenal of healing abilities, it may seem as though they aren't needed.

Nonetheless, none of these abilities make us resilient.  It is apparent that Blizzard intended us to be able to remain alive through healing, but it is ineffective. Our health plummets at absurdly fast rates, and our heals are not potent enough to keep us alive through it, especially if there are Mortal Strike, Permafrost, or Wound Poison effects on us. Furthermore, healing forces us to be defensive, and it is impossible for us to effectively keep our opponent from damaging us while we heal - this results in a situation in which our enemy is pounding on us as we struggle to remain alive, only to eventually die without even having put a dent in him. This problem is related to burst damage, which I will explain in greater detail later.

Another problem with our healing is that it costs a lot of mana, which is not a resource we have in great quantities in PvP. In PvE, Moonkins are exceptional at mana-efficiency because of the mana return on crits - with enough critical strike rating and intellect, it is impossible for a Moonkin to go OOM. Unfortunately, in PvP, both crit and intellect are low, and resilience makes crit even lower - in fact, you could see resilience as a straight Moonkin mana nerf. We go OOM exceptionally fast, and it hurts even more when Innervate it dispelled.

Additionally, other classes have tools to reduce the capability of our HoT healing and Barkskin, with abilities such as Dispel Magic, Purge, Spellsteal, Shield Slam, and Devour Magic.

And furthermore, there is the issue of dropping all of our armor to heal. Dropping Moonkin Form to heal near a melee is like giving him a huge armor penetration buff, complete with a taunt. You can only pray you won't get stunned in caster form.

All in all, Moonkin survivability is nothing short of terrible. The only button we can push if we are in trouble is Barkskin. In the past, I've found that running away from melees in Travel Form and then casting Rejuvenation on myself, followed by three stacks of Lifebloom, has been moderately effective - but once the melee catches up to me, he will usually be able to do enough damage that my health will not be going up.

Control
Druids are often cited for their amazing crowd-control tools. Here's the list:

• Entangling Roots (roots the target)
• Nature's Grasp (roots the target upon melee hit)
• Hibernate (puts a Beast-type target to sleep)
• Cyclone (makes the target immune to everything for 6 seconds)

Moonkins also have Typhoon, which is .. sort of .. a CC. Its damage is extremely poor considering the mana cost, and because the knockback has a travel time, it hardly works as a spell interrupt. Typhoon works primarily as a peel, and the daze effect can be useful against melees.

There are some huge problems with these tools.  First of all, none of them are stuns, silences, or interrupts (with the exception of Typhoon if you are lucky). Nature's Grasp requires you to be hit to proc, and more often than not, this causes situations in which the melee I have just rooted is standing right next to me, killing me as he keeps me stunned (Rogues and Warriors come to mind, especially).

The other CCs require a cast time, which seriously hinders their efficiency. Hibernate is only usable against Feral Druids, Hunter pets, and Shamans in Ghost Wolf form, which is already limited, and will break upon damage. Entangling Roots is almost never useful against casters, and it is rare that I can keep a melee rooted very long - they can usually remove them somehow, or my own damage will break them, or they will break on their own. Roots are extremely unpredictable.

Finally, Cyclone. Cyclone is often considered the best crowd-control in the game, as it renders the target totally immune, and the only way to get out of it is by using a PvP trinket or with Ice Block. Unfortunately, in PvP, Cyclone is really just a double-edged sword with harsh diminishing returns. The immunity prevents me from damaging the target, and Cyclone doesn't work well as a button I push when I really need to get the pressure off me to heal. Because it is my only incapacitating tool, the first application is usually when my opponent will trinket - after which I can only cast Cyclone again twice, for a 3 second duration, and then a 1.5 second duration, which is hardly enough time to do anything.

Furthermore, all of these CCs (and all of my heals) are of the Nature school of magic. If I get locked out of Nature spells, my ability to do - well.. anything - is seriously reduced.

Burst damage
Moonkins are sometimes affectionately known as "crit chickens." This is because in a PvE setting, we are able to chaincast back-to-back Starfire crits while Lunar Eclipse is up. This is not the case in PvP. Let's look at our damaging spells:

• Wrath. A fast nuke, with low damage.
• Starfire. A slow nuke, with medium damage.
• Moonfire. Does initial and DoT damage, but both are weak, and the spell itself is mana-costly.
• Insect Swarm. This is actually a good DoT when glyphed, on par with a Shadow Priest's Shadow Word: Pain (except that it can't crit, of course). It is also extremely mana-efficient.
• Typhoon. As discussed above, Typhoon is only used for the knockback and daze effect - I hardly ever use it as a way to deal more damage.
• Force of Nature. Situational, and on a 3-minute cooldown. The treants can be great against non-plate wearers, and if they are able to remain alive, or near the target. Their damage is good, and they are useful to cause spellcasting pushback. Never to use against Warriors.
• Starfall. Can be quite amazing. Unfortunately, it will break every snare, and will not take effect the moment we are incapacitated - which is quite often.

Let's look at these in a PvE context. In a raid setting, Wrath and Starfire are our primary nukes, together comprising around 70-75% of our total damage. This is thanks to Eclipse, which we try to proc as often as possible, and which buffs both Wrath and Starfire. I cannot link Eclipse in this post because it has been totally changed for Cataclysm. In 3.3.5, this is what Eclipse does:

• When you crit with Wrath, you have a 60% chance to proc Lunar Eclipse. Under the Lunar Eclipse effect, your critical strike chance with Starfire is increased by 40%. Lasts 15 seconds. 30 second internal cooldown.
• When you crit with Starfire, you have a 100% chance to proc Solar Eclipse. Under the Solar Eclipse effect, your damage with Wrath is increased by 40%. Lasts 15 seconds. 30 second internal cooldown.
• Both effects are separate, meaning you cannot proc one type of Eclipse while you are already benefiting from the other.

The problem with this mechanic is that we require it to be on par with the DPS of other classes, and that it is totally dependent on RNG (random-number generation, i.e. chance). In PvP, Eclipse procs are much, much more rare than in PvE - in fact, some Moonkin PvPers don't even bother picking it up in our talent tree.

Additionally, because PvP is such a movement-intensive environment, even if we do manage to proc Eclipse, it is likely that we will not be able to benefit from most of the buff.

In PvP, our DoTs play a much bigger role than in PvE, as we are often forced to kite our opponents, or prevented from casting Wrath or Starfire - neither of which hit very hard if not Eclipsed. Unfortunately, we aren't a DoT class like Shadow Priests or Affliction Warlocks, and although Insect Swarm does good damage when glyphed (and so does Moonfire, but the Glyph of Moonfire is undesirable in PvP because we still want to be able to finish off targets on the run), neither of our DoTs crit or benefit from haste. This leaves us with our other instant casts, all 3 of which are on a cooldown, and which will not necessarily be enough anyways.

We end up unable to do much damage, as our main damage buff - Eclipse, which we need to do as much damage as the other classes - suffers from both movement and the reduced critical strike chance found in PvP.

TL-DR
Player vs. player is about three things: survivability, control, and damage. Moonkins are good at none of these.

Our survivability is solely invested in our armor buff from Moonkin Form and our healing - neither of which are efficient, in part because the two are mutually exclusive, and because our healing is weak and mana-expensive. We also lack any sort of "oh-fuck" button to push when we are in trouble.

Furthermore, our control is very poor. We are not equipped with any stun, silence, or interrupt. Roots break too easily, Nature's Grasp requires us to be hit, and Cyclone has harsh diminishing returns, on top of that it doesn't allow us to damage our opponent.

Our on-demand damage is nerfed by resilience and movement. We need Eclipse to be on par with the damage of the other classes, but it rarely ever procs in a PvP setting. We have few buttons to push to increase our damage (Starfall, Force of Nature (situational)), and we cannot burst anyone down faster than they can kill us.

Moonkin PvP is broken in 3.3.5. I will make a post about Cataclysm later :)