Moonkin critical strike rating 10 comments
updated 10th of Dec 2009
posted 18th of Nov 2009
by Aeiedil
WoW v.3.3.0
I have read some posts where a critical strike cap for Moonkin is mentioned, and this set me thinking. My critical strike chance in Recount never matches the critical strike chance on my character sheet, and so I decided to pull together in a simple post the information to show where the differences come from.
The intended use of these is to allow players to tell how much of that fantastic DPS run is down to fantastic luck, and how much is down to playing well.
What is included in your character sheet?
Aside from the bonuses to crit conferred by critical strike rating and intellect on your gear, the following also increase your base critical strike bonuses by up to 11.8%. Any stat that increases your intellect will also marginally increase your crit but this will show up on your character sheet. For this reason I will round up the bonuses here to be approximately 12%.
- 5% [Moonkin Form]
- 3.8% [Idol of Lunar Fury] should be up most of the time while casting
- 3% [Focus Magic] from an Arcane Mage. They usually keep this to themselves.
Raid bonuses
In addition to the above, the following also increase your critical strike bonuses by up to a further 8% in a raid situation
- 5% [Improved Scorch] from a Fire Mage, [Winter's Chill] from a Frost Mage, [Improved Shadow Bolt] from an Affliction or Metamorphosis Warlock.
- 3% [Heart of the Crusader] from a Retribution paladin, [Master Poisoner] from an Assasination Rogue, or [Totem of Wrath] from an Elemental Shaman.
Bonus to Starfire only
The total additional bonus to [Starfire] is 10%, 50% during [Eclipse], or 57% if you have 2 piece tier 8 during [Eclipse]. This is made up of the following bonuses.
- 40% [Eclipse] effect
- 7% 2 piece tier 8, applicable during [Eclipse] only
- 4% [Nature's Majesty]
- 3% [Improved Faerie Fire]
- 3% [Improved Insect Swarm], applicable to targets with [Moonfire]
Bonus to Wrath only
The total additional bonus to [Wrath] is 7%
Conclusion, the Moonkin critical strike caps
In total raid buffs and talents add a total of almost 19% critical strike rating to Wrath and Starfire. This rises to about 22% if you are lucky enough to have Focus Magic. This excludes the 5% from Moonkin aura. The caps below are defined as the value on your character sheet, when unbuffed, in Moonkin form. They will assume you have Focus Magic, if you do not then just add 3% on to the numbers.
I would define the soft critical strike cap for a Moonkin without 2 piece tier 8 (so current tier) as being approximately 35%. With 2 piece tier 8 this soft cap will lower to 28%. You will still gain benefit past this point as this soft cap is only in affect while Eclipse is active for your Starfire casts. If you do still have 2 piece tier 8, due to the changes in 3.3, it is now less desirable than tier 9 and 10, so drop that 2 piece tier 8 bonus in favour of a higher tier.
The hard critical strike cap for a Moonkin, going on the same assumptions, sits at 78% critical strike rating. At this point your Wrath casts should have a 100% crit rate.
I don't suggest aiming for these caps however it would indicate that past the soft cap the value of critical strike per-point may swing to be less than that of haste. This is a point that will need discussion later on though. Personally I am sat at about the 27-28% mark in caster form which means in Moonkin form I am approaching the soft cap. All this means from a personal point is that I am now looking more at haste past the soft cap.
Comments
Just a couple of quick comment, semantics: 3% [Heart of the Crusader] from a Retribution paladin - This could quite viably be taken by a prot pally too, you would certainly hope to have one of the two in your raid!
I honestly don't know all that much about most other specs, It's good to know that Prot pallys will have that (possibly) also. I guess though it is still viable to have neither, though unlikely in a 25man. In a 10man it's more likely.
Yeah, agreed, certainly possible in 10 man. My main is a prot pally and the cookie cutter spec for prots will likely include this to cover the absence of a ret in a 10 man raid for example, just though I'd mention it :)
im really struggeling with these numbers, i got 25% in caster form atm, i do have 610 haste just from my gear but to get me up to 30% critrating i will have to do alot of raiding still. i consider myself semi-hardcore,should i be happy with what i have? Bahamutth, Bloodhoof
25% in caster form is by no means a bad amount. The important number for "soft cap" of crit is the fact you will have 19% crit from raid buffs and talents, 40% crit from the Lunar Eclipse. This gives 59% total leaving 41% to find.
Of that 41%, 3% can be found from focus magic, 5%(ish) can come from Idol of the Lunar Eclipse. This leaves 33% (in Moonkin form) for the soft cap.
It may be worth changing any Reckless Ametrines for Potent Ametrines, but really you have your stats at a nice level so it's not a big deal. Maybe shift about 100 haste over to crit by some means.
im sitting at 29.93% crit in caster - lets call it 30 - and 35.74 in moonkin, with just motw. i also have 3054 sp and 897 haste. im wondering which gems i should take. i have no desire to socket potent, and never have. currently i have runed in red sockets, reckless in all else, and 2 purifieds (used in blue sockets - abrakadaver, and meteor chasers chest). i was also wondering on whether its better to keep using reckless or switch to pure runed. or when to use reckless for socket bonus (+7 sp > ?)...for example ladys brittle bracers. yellow socket, only 5 sp bonus. is it worth it for me to use my current reckless or switch to a runed. same for boots, cloak. maxdps says to keep using reckless, and i usually trust maxdps; but it appears they are overvaluing haste, at least imo. and the site isnt even that well updated....just look at idol choice or feral druid in general and you'll see why i might question it.
i know its long, but hoping you can sort through it
I tend to stick with Reckless and the like, because Haste is still valuable up until the point where Starfire is under 1 second, which is quite a long way off.
Semantics:Mages CANNOT cast Focus Magic on themselves. At all. Only their pet, if Frost, and other people. If your Mage isn't giving it to you, he's a baddie. Also, Improved Shadowbolt is LEAST likely to be seen on an affliction Lock, because unless specifically glyphed for it, their DoTs don't crit. This is a Destruction Talent, therefore, most likely to be seen on a Destruction Lock.
That being said, thanks for putting this post together. It is helpful, for those on their toes.
Mages cannot cast focus magic on themselves, they can cast it on each other. In a 25m you will see most mages set up a FM rotation to ensure they all have FM, greedy gits.
If there is only 1 mage in a raid, then yes you are quite likely able to get FM :)
gold u say that improved shadowbolt is least likely on an affliction warlock and seen on destro. u need to recheck that since destro doesnt use shadowbolt at all in their rotation and for affliction there are no glyphs that make dots crit, its done via talents and it makes 2/3 dots crit which is significant