I've had a comment on the post (I still haven't got the comment displaying code live yet) pointing out a major error in that I listed Blessing of Salvation, where of course what I meant was Hand of Salvation.

The commenter also mentions that 3 and 4 do not reduce aggro, so I added a note to clarify that. Also he can't believe number 5 (the suicide approach) so I felt adding a note to clarify that option 5 is not intended to be taken seriously should maybe be added.

I only just saw that Shrouding Potion is a Sporregar Exalted recipe. Time to get farming I guess

Of the talents you've listed Brambles has always been the best single target DPS increase. The fact that trents should survive a little longer won't change that, however, brambles is a pretty minor DPS upgrade and will probably remain so with improved trents.

The real question is which you value more? Brambles is best for a single target. Gale Winds is best for AoE. Owlkin Frenzy has very little impact in PvE, but could be useful if you PvP a lot. Typhoon is situationally useful in PvE but not something a lot of moonkin use regularly.

Which is best will depend on personal preference and the situation.

If I am reading this correctly, this is just to prevent the eclipse chaining achieved through macros and wise eclipse mod?

* Item - Druid T8 Balance 2P Bonus - Increases the bonus granted by Eclipse for Starfire and Wrath by 7%. (Down from 15%)

At least tier 10 will actually be an upgrade now.

Hmm, what about the new 2T8+2T9 -vs- 4T9(245). With the gated system in ICC and high badge count for the T10 it might be a few weeks/month before you can pick up 2T10. Would the 4T9 be better for that period of time?


R.I.P Wise Eclipse

AUGH--

The complaint isn't that they took an anti-WiseEclipse measure. It was very likely they would do so, especially in light of the anti-PoisonSwapper measures they already took. It was a poor mechanic and one that should have been done away with. The complaint is that this is precisely the change I've said in multiple places that I was concerned they would go with, and it's not well thought through.

Lunar-Solar chaining happened before WiseEclipse. That's how we got the idea in the first place. It happened randomly, when your Starfire happened to hit at the right time, with some variance due to lag. Now that canceling the buff won't work, the only way to make it happen is to get really good at the timing, to land a Starfire right as Lunar completes.

A serious raiding Moonkin who reads this change should immediately go to a target dummy and start practicing casting so that you can reliably land a Starfire precisely when Lunar fades naturally. It's ugly, it's twitchy, it's unreliable, and it will the correct way to optimze DPS if this change goes in.

So I should get two more trophies to get to 4pc t9 to wear when the patch hits right?

I love this change too by bliz.

Item - Druid T8 Balance 2P Bonus - Increases the bonus granted by Eclipse for Starfire and Wrath by 7%. (Down from 15%)

But no buff to t9 or t10 atm *sigh*

Does this mean we should grab t10 asap in 3.3?

Yeah, as I posted above, this isn't a big deal, since the advantage of 2T8 over 2T10 or 4T10 was little to none. Now you'll take a small hit when 3.3 hits until T10 is available, but you'll want to move into T10 quickly (or at least into 2T9/2T10).

I do wish that these changes, which are improvements to coherency (or would be, if the WiseEclipse-killing change were done right) would come with some DPS compensation. Would be nice to be assured of maintaining a solidly average raid DPS position through the final tier.

The T8 is obvious change that needed to happen, almost glad because means can upgrade to 245 stuff, but at same time they are not giving us anything else to offset it and doubling up with eclipse nerf.

The eclipse change it starts to hurt if you don't get a quick proc of either eclipse, I know i've definetely had periods of 10-15 seconds with no eclipse proc, rare but does happen. It wasn't so bad since could click off the buff to get back to solar as soon as possible.

I'm guessing now there will be a cutoff period where its not worth trying to proc lunar because then you are stuck with it for the full 15 seconds.

Quick spreadsheet update for people who want to play with the 3.3 changes. Changed 2T8 and 4T10, and disabled WiseEclipse (just an option on the second page). Will probably use it as a chance to update the guide over the break.

Hard to summarize coherently the net effect of the changes because they all interact. 4T10 is better when you crit more, so it was better with WE; 2T8 was also far stronger with WE. And the 4T10 vs. 2T8 tradeoff depends on your current gear options, so the effect of nerfing one and buffing the other varies widely. In brief, expect a net DPS loss (a few hundred) immediately from losing 2T8/WE, with around 100 DPS of that recovered when you get 4T10.

e: fixed this to account for nerf to Solar as well.