View Full Forums : More Moonkin Questions


lorath
04-19-2006, 12:20 PM
Ok, Ive read all the other million moonkin posts and have fooled around with the spec a few times but never really put any serious effort into making it a final build. Ive gathered every great piece of gear for my feral spec pre-MC/BWL and still havent gotten the effect I wanted. Sure, Im fighting tier 2 people but I cant ever really kill someone. (This is with 10k AC in bear, 1k AP/30% crit in cat) I can 2 shot casters but if I dont, they 1 shot me...really annoying. Im sure Ill try the spec out again once I get all epic gear but until then I want to try moonkin. /endofstory

Im looking at 2 different builds for Moonkin:
A. Spell damage gear w/ spell crit chance trying to maximize ranged dps.
B. Shaman, w/o rerolling shaman lol :shuffle:

A)
I havent ever farmed for dmg/heal gear nor do I know of any good leather +dmg gear in the game. I guess I could live with cloth gear for the extra +dmg and have the moonkin armor make up for the reduced armor per piece. Can a moonkin gather enough gear to break +300 dmg? I easily break +500 healing and 1k AP in feral cat but what about spell dmg?

B)
While fooling around, I had an idea about playing a moonkin more like a Shaman. I would obviously have an OOC build mixed with some feral for the thick hide bonus. I wouldnt be using as much mana so the 15% mana regen would be pointless, hence I wouldnt put any points in resto. I have a few pieces now that have nice +str, +sta, +int on them and figured if I could gather enough of those pieces to do decent dmg with a weapon. Im really interested in this build.

Some ideas I would need help with. I currently have The Unstoppable Force with a +25 agi enchant on it, was using it for feral cat. The weapon has a nice dmg range, 3.25% melee crit, and chance to stun the target. I was critting for about 500 with straight resto gear on. I also have Finkles Skinner which has nice dagger dps and quick speed. (Which would proc OCC more compared to the dmg output) Now, for the armor I would focus on str, sta, int and make sacrafices for melee/spell crit pieces where I could. I have most of the Feralheart set excluding the chest/head which has nice all around stats but no real crit bonuses so I was also thinking it may be better to play mix'n'match with my armor.

Some examples of equipment I would be using:
Weapons:
The Unstoppable Force - Mace 2h - 3.25% crit, Chance to Stun
Finkle's Skinner - 1h Dagger - 1.3 atk spd (for OOC/Maelstrom procs)

Trinkets:
Maelstrom - Chance on hit of doing 200-300 Nature Damage (this can crit for upwards of 600 dmg)
Blue Dragon - Chance on spellcast of regening mana at 100% during combat
Blackhands Breadth - 2% melee crit

Rings:
Band of Rumination: 1% spell crit, 5mana/5sec
Don Julios: 1% melee crit, +10 sta, +26 AP

Shoulders/Chest:
Blood Tiger Breastplate - +17 sta, +17 str, +16 int, +15 spr
Blood Tiger Shoulders - +16 sta, +16 str, +14 int, +13 spr
Set Bonus: 1% melee and spell crit

etc, etc......

I want to know if going the str, sta, int route combined with higher crit rates would be feasible as a moonkin. I would wait for OOC procs, Natures Grace, Blue Dragon procs to do most of my spell damage and rely on my weapon and Maelstrom procs to do decent melee dps. Id really appreciate serious comments and suggestions.

gwmort
04-19-2006, 02:47 PM
okay, here we go again.

The answer is yes, yes to all of it. Yes there is good +dmg leather gear, yes you should make the weapon damage a serious component of your play, yes those are nice weapons and awesome trinkets for Moonkin. Yes you should get good hybrid gear.

Yes, yes, yes...

Now my personal experience.
There is lots of good dmg gear, and its probably the best to focus on for your overall dps. Most of it has great int and spirit on it (Yes you need spirit). I find the challenge is the strength gear that fits in to my playstyle. I can tell you right now if you're just experimenting and don't load up on tons of int you will be unhappy with your mana pool. Once you learn the moonkin ways you can swap out for some other stats.

I wouldn't worry too much about the crit items ironically, since you will pretty much be critting enough anyway (do you think you will tell the difference between 33% chance to crit MF and 34%), use those slots to work on stats or +dmg or +mana/5. Moonkin is the single most hybrid playstyle there is and you simply need everything.

Think of your playstyle as your mode A nuker for the first 5-10 seconds, then your mode B melee mage the rest against a single mob solo.

gwmort
04-19-2006, 04:03 PM
Gear suggestions:
If you get full feralheart you're already at +92 dmg without any rings, trinkets, cloak, or weapons, and considering the hybrid stats its probably a good place to start (looking forward to finishing mine).

For weapons it doesn't get much better than the Ironbark staff from exalted in AB (armor, +dmg, +crit, and stats), that puppy with a spell power enchant puts you at +71 by itself. if you wanted to go speed route there are better caster daggers than finkles and some decent 1h maces for speed. (A Sageclaw and spirit of Aquementas combo for example)

For cloaks theres the one from AV with +14 on it, or easier to get is the Crystalline threaded cape http://www.thottbot.com/?i=52152 at +20 dmg

For rings theres almost too many to list, but you should have no trouble grabbing a couple blues with a dozen or so each, and if you go epics +20-30 is not out of the question along with other bonuses like crit or regen for each. Let's assume you get yourself about +35 on the rings.

For the neck Orb of the Darkmoon gives you +22 dmg and some stats, and isn't that hard to get.

For trinkets obviously the ZHC and ToEP rule the epic world, but you could grab a Burst of knowledge and Briarwood Reed without too much trouble to give yourself +41 and a nice mana saving effect.

As you can see with just the easier items listed and the feralheart set (and there is way better stuff out there) you're already at +281 to spells.

lorath
04-19-2006, 04:43 PM
Thanks for the detailed post. Dont you think you would be sacraficing alot of dmg with your weapon if you went with all that +dmg gear? If we go by what you said, meleeing plays a pretty large role in moonkin playstyle so just gimping strenth doesnt seem right.

And does +300 damage really make a big difference in your damage? It doesnt seem noticable but I could be wrong.

gwmort
04-19-2006, 06:21 PM
With that feralheart set you'll have pretty hybrid stats, so your strength won't be totally gimped, but also keep in mind that you don't get the same 2 to 1 ratio from strength to AP in caster/ moonkin that you do in feral forms.

The best source of scaling up your weapon damage is by scaling up your weapon. This is another change of mindset for most druids. You're used to focusing on how the stats boost AP, but now you need to switch to looking at the actual damage itself.

For example, right now I use a Warden staff with the spell power enchant on it. It raises my AC tons which helps with the melee, I get +30 to my damage spells, and it has an attack speed of 2.4, which is pretty good for a staff. I hit for around 100 damge melee and have critted for upwards of 200 (my current crit rate is 8%). As I am approaching 60 I am looking to upgrade to something that hits harder, maybe a 2h mace. (I am trying to get the ironbark staff, but its a long grind at the moment).

Its about being hybrid, in the purest sense of the word. You can't completely neglect casting to focus on your weapon or neglect your melee to focus on your casting. I have found for me that increasing my strength by putting on my feral gear gave me very little return in terms of weapon dps in moonkin form, so I decided to focus on increasing melee damage through means other than stats. Let us know what you discover.

swearword
04-20-2006, 09:28 AM
http://www.thottbot.com/?i=21012

I think this would be a dream moonkin weapon. Getting it to drop on the other hand not so sure on chances of that. Anyone have this that can say how often it procs or how useful it is for them???

lorath
04-20-2006, 09:39 AM
Im stuck at work right now and cant see the loot. Could you please post the info in the forums.

For moonkin, Ill be trying out the spec soon. Its difficult to try specs out when you have an end game raid practically every night that you need to be a healbot in. I dont mind it as much because I can gear up pretty quickly.

Focusing on feral so much, I totally forgot that str doesnt equal 2 ap while in moonkin so I guess I would focus more on int, sta and spell damage with some strength to back it up. Ill stick with my unstoppable force until I can upgrade to high damage caster weapon. I dont be getting the ironbark staff anytime soon, havent even hit honored.

swearword
04-20-2006, 09:41 AM
Here you go.

Hand of Edward the Odd
Binds when equipped
Unique
One-Hand Mace
50 - 94 Damage Speed 1.60
(45.0 damage per second)
+13 Intellect
+10 Spirit
Durability 105 / 105
Requires Level 57
Chance on hit: Next spell cast within 4 sec will cast instantly.
Sells for 7 Gold 5 Silver 54 Copper to vendors
Item Level 62
Source: Drop

I've seen it on the AH once for 1200G

gwmort
04-20-2006, 10:18 AM
The Hand is defintely my dream Moonkin weapon, but it sells for over 1500g on my server. I don't know the droprate, but I see one being sold about once a month.

Most casters don't go for it, so I don't really understand the high price. A mage won't be meleeing his target to get the proc, and a priest, even if it did do some melee would have to switch to a healing target and cast the spell mighty quick (I hear theres a lag issue with the proc as well that really shortens your time to 3 seconds).

For us though we would just need to write a macro to detect the proc buff and cast SF on target, can you say +2000 dmg on proc with chance to stun! Plus its only 1h so you get the option of experimenting with some of the off-hands that are out there.

swearword
04-20-2006, 03:32 PM
Can you imagine be some miracle of probabilities that proc and OOC fring at the same time. FREE INSTANT starfire FTW!!!!

:) :) :)

gwmort
04-20-2006, 04:10 PM
That would be sweet, but its not like SF is that expensive a cast anyway comparatively. My favorite is getting the OoC proc as I am about to cast hurricane anyway - free 1100 mana FTW!!!