Barkskin is no longer on GCD, as of the last patch. So the DPS loss would be theoretical, that somehow you weren't maximizing Barkskin's effectiveness in reducing Casting Time Lost.

I'm not sure if you are referring to wasting a GCD, but even if you aren't; using barkskin whenever it's up will almost always be better than waiting to time it perfectly with Eclipse. 25% uptime is better than 15% uptime, only during eclipses.

Speaking to the concept of binding trinkets to spells though: I did this with my trinkets this time around, and bound activation to Typhoon & Wrath, and I couldn't be happier. Now if only I could get rid of the annoying error messages and sounds...

Try using something of the form:

Eclipse is on a 30 second timer, and the majority of the time while raiding the time between procs should be <35 seconds. That gives one barkskin every 1'10'' rather than every minute, during a period where you have:
- Better damage;
- Higher number of spells cast (due to cast time gain from greater crit rate) which impacts on the 2x maximum interrupt extension rule; and
- More gain from cast time because generally you try not to re-cast dots during eclipse.

I think we need some kind of maths on this to draw any conclusion as to which is better rather than generalisations.

Ah somehow I read that change thinking of it's usefulness for feral and forgot about it, I was thinking of the wasted global cooldown. So I guess it comes down to if you want it up for hairy situations to use with your health stone health pot.....I'm thinking of something like Sarth 3d where you might get some hits from an elemental or when the vesp acolyte is up and you take damage when you do damage.

I can't really recall where this was posted. But if my memory is correct i read that Asheara said it would be wise to place dots while running on the Thaddius fight.

you sure of this? Because i think that my dots will still tick for my normal dmg after i get the buff from the charges. Might be that even though our dots tick for normal dmg it still is wise to cast while running.
Can someone confirm this?

Not a biggie ^^ but might worth thinking about.

Wow Web Stats
Wow Web Stats

Last two Thaddius kills I attended -- Comparing to other top scores : Wow meter owl scores I feel fairly confident that im doing it right.

Since this is a basic guide for Boomkin maybe adding a hit rating section with a gear suggestion to get the hit rating. Here my proposition

Pre WotLK, it's true you needed 16% hit to be hit caped, and they were a 1% that was impossible to remove. But since WotLK release we can get rid of that last 1% so out new hit cap is 17%.

Balance of Power : 4%
Misery/IFF : 3%
Drainei (allaince only): 1%

Hit cap rating for HORDE: 262
Hit cap for the ALLIANCE: 236

Gear for Horde: 260 hit rating (2 points under the cap)
Legging of the wanton Spellcaster (82 hit rating) Malygos25
Valorous Dreamwalker Cover (42 hit rating) Kel Thuzad 25
Valorous Dreamwalker Mantle (35 hit rating) Loatheb 25
Surplus limb (32 hit rating) Patchwerk 25
Signet of the Malevolent (49 hit rating) Gothik the harvester 10
Boot enchant - Icewalker (12 hit rating)
+9Sp/+8hit rating gem and you'll be 2 points under the cap. IMO +9SP is stronger then 2 hit rating (since you could change this gem for a +16 hit rating gem, to get over the cap by 6 points)

For an alliance I suggest to remove the Signet of Malevolent and you can replace it by a none hit rating ring (like the valor emblem ring) then add 25 hit rating with gems by trying to get your socket bonus (+16 hit (yellow) +9sp/+8hit (orange) or remove the +9SP/+8hit fromt he horde gear and use a second +16 hit gem (yellow) so you only use 2 gem with hit rating and free your slots for other stuff

Don't worry too much about those 2 points, Ulduar is coming out soon, so you'll get new gear and probably it will be easier to found those 2 point in those. Personnaly I prefer to be a little bit under the hit cap (260/262) and spend those itemazation point on spell power (+9SP/+8hit orange gem) rather then "wasting" 6 points to go over the hit rating and loosing 9 Spell power (by using a 16 hit ratig yellow gem instead of the +9SP/+8hit orange one)

*EDIT*
My original post was taken from the wrong point of view.

I think it would be worth noting in the original post the 10% assumes IFF or Misery on the target since Feral FF will not give the boost and depending on raid comp, this may be vital information.

Afaik iff's hit component doesn't stack with spriest misery. Therefor still need 10% from gear.

The guide is written under the assumption that people capeable of finding it has a minimum understanding of the game.


--------
On another matter I will not be updating the original post to 3.1 or future patches - The boredom of this dumbed down game finally caught up with me & I decided to focus on other stuff.

I've been thinking of doing a TTT article when I have some time (maybe spring break coming up), but at this point will probably wait until 3.1 mechanics are better nailed down.

Start reading here: Moonkin Raiding

Is the Crit chance of Starfire calculated on cast or on hit?

Or in other word: When MF and IS are down because I have to spam SF during eclipse and I have 2 seconds left of eclipse duration, shall I cast one more Starfire or renew the dots?

You have three relevant times - start casting, end casting, and when the spell hits. Starfire hits as soon as you finish casting, while wrath hits later due to travel time.

Cast time is determined when you start casting. Cast roll (miss/hit/crit) is made when you finish casting. Eclipse procs when the spell hits.

I was thinking about refresinh MF and IS during the normal rotation. But what if, either one if the 2 has about 1 seccond time before it ends. When replying a new dot than would mean it starts counting 3 new seconds again?

what i am trying to ask is, wouldn't it be better to cast a wrath instead of reapplying your dot?

It is always better to let your DoT's run their full course before re-applying. It is also not a huge DPS loss if you lose a few particles of a second every few cycles before re-applying, but don't let 3-4 seconds go by without DoT's ticking.

I am confused as to what your intent is with your post. Are you encouraging people to ignore DoTs in an effort to be lazy? Sure you did decent DPS without them, but you realize you are gimping yourself? Your DPS would be even greater even is you only used Moonfire and had proper glyphs associated with it.

For example, lets assume (for easy math) your starfire is 3 second cast, and your DoTs incur the entire 1.5 sec GCD.

Looking at your other fights where you cast a moonfire it did 1,202 initial damage and 741 damage on the DoT. With the MF GLyph this becomes 120 initial damage and a 1,296 DoT. If we now use the Starfire glyph and have your moonfire tick 7 times a single moonfire cast on patchwerk nets you ~9,192 damage for a 1.5 second cast.

For comparison your average SF was 6,031 damage and average crit was 11,780 on a 3 second cast. If we multiply the above moonfire to be equivalent to a 3 second cast it is worth ~18,384 damage. More than even your highest SF crit.

So do you have a nice lazy method of DPSing? Sure, but it is not MAX DPS which is supposed to be an end-game raiding goal. Not a lazy decent DPS spec/rotation, but the one that is going to ensure you are doing the most you possible can.

WWS shows bloodlust was cast and you even used a speed pot.

hi I was wondering about how [Extract of Necromantic Power] stacks up among trinkets.

Its good trinket also.
I`m using it and pretty fine this one.

Wearing EoNP must be key - if you low on crit in your other gear (like me, for example) and if you dont need hit rating.

For example of proc look at my last night fight with patch.

Extract of Necromantic Power deal 5 324 and it was about 1 % of total damage of 2 min fight.

I've been playing Moonkin for a few months, I still have a lot to learn and a long way to go. Reading through the post however, has helped my understanding greatly.

I still have questions about rotation. With SF/MF glyphs, is it better to use SF primarily to proc solar eclipse so that it keeps MF up longer, thus reducing re-cast time? I practice on target dummies, but I'm not sure that the rotation that's doing more DPS is accurate. I get more from SF/W/W... according to the dummies. Everything else I've read seems to point to W/SF/SF.

I saw where you said trees should be used during Heroism/Bloodlust... Do you use trees consistently w/o a shaman every time the cool down pops? Or are they just not a part of general rotation/play? I understand when to use Starfall, and Hurricane for the most part. My question is with Typhoon since it IS AE, but more tightly controlled, so in some ways more versatile. Do you use Typhoon as part of a rotation on its cool down? I guess I'm saying, do you randomly throw in your cool downs, in between your IFF/IS/MF/(Ecplise) rotations?

I read the posts above, but I'm still confused about the benefit of brambles. I do more 10 man grouping than 25 for right now. I have to spend my time doing a lot of AE so I currently spec for Gale Winds instead of brambles. Is it still better for me to use brambles and keep them up on whoever is tanking? Don't mean to sound nub, can't help it... I ams what I ams.

Thanks.

Tree's are situational and can't be a part of a static rotation, just using them whenever the cool-down pops is pointless if they are just going to die immediately, but with patch 3.1.0 "Treants have gained avoidance from area-of-effect damage similar to what warlock and hunter pets already have", so it will be interesting to see how much this helps their survivability.

Regardless, while not part of a static rotation, they should be used if available and if appropriate, even without a shamang in your group for Bloodlust.

Wait for bloodlust if you have one, otherwise time it for the most effect, such as when you know there survival chance is high and the fight has enough time remaining for your trees to be in combat for the full duration of their life.

If I understand the mechanics of trees correctly, in order for them to benefit from BloodLust they have to be out before BloodLust is cast, otherwise they do not get it, so the way to get them to benefit from it is to ask the shammie to announce it a couple seconds before he casts it.