Moonkin single target rotation 16 comments
updated 24th of Mar 2010
posted 30th of Jan 2010
by Aeiedil
WoW v.3.3.3
Moonkin single-target rotation is fundamentally simple, but there are a few points to keep in mind. Below I have put together a flow-chart detailing a Moonkin spell rotation that fits most situations. This is based off personal experience, not theorycrafting alone.
Starting the rotation (the pull)
The pull may last for just a few seconds, however it is the point at which you set up your buffs for the fight to come. The casting order here is not important, however I cast in the order shown for specific reasons.
Force of Nature is cast just before the pull. Most fights will last longer than the cooldown of Force of Nature. I find it wastes a little bit of time positioning the trees and so the most efficient way of getting them out fast, in my experience, is to position the spawn point before the boss is pulled. As soon as the boss is pulled, click your trees into action.
Faerie Fire is second up because it increases the spell hit rating by 3%. That may not sound like much, but I have now and again missed even this initial Faerie Fire. This ensures that all the rest of your spells will hit, as well as the spells of everyone else that relies on your hit bonus from Improved Faerie Fire.
Wrath sneaks in third for a few reasons. Firstly, it may proc Lunar Eclipse. Due to the transportation time of Wrath, by the time it actually hits (and so can potentially proc Eclipse) you will have finished your pull. Secondly it gets Earth and Moon up for the raid. Thirdly if it crits you get a small bonus from Languish. All in all, this is a nice place to sneak in a Wrath.
Insect Swarm is fourth for 2 reasons. Firstly because Wrath will be the first spell you cast when you start casting your main rotation and so Improved Insect Swarm will improve your damage. Secondly becuase it ticks once every 2 seconds. If you have your tier 10 idol this will help ramp up your crit rating faster.
Moonfire is next so that it too can start ticking increasing your crit rating once every 3 seconds. It should also be able to extend it (using glyphed Starfire) so that it doesn't need refreshing until after your first lunar eclipse.
Starfall is last. This assumes that it is safe to do so. This shouldn't really be done on Faction Champions usually or the Blood Princes. Any fight where there is anything with loose aggro or crowd control floating around is a no-go for Starfall. All being well Starfall will bring Natures Grace up for your main rotation.
Main rotation
I won't break this down too much. The idea here is to maximise the amount of time you are casting whilst in appropriate eclipses whilst minimising any DPS loss caused by clipping the GCD.
The important thing to remember that if you hesitate, that is lost DPS time. It doesn't matter if you cast the sub-optimal spell just so long as you cast something.
If you are in a fight where you are needing to move a lot then it is sometimes best to throw out a Wrath at a bad time (because it can complete before something like Tear Gas interrupts you). Another point about throwing out the wrong spell is that you can prevent Eclipse coming up during a transition phase.
The prefered eclipse to have is Lunar (Starfire crit) simply because Starfire does not sink below the GCD. In an ideal world you will be alternating Lunar, Solar, Lunar, Solar pretty much as soon as each Eclipse expires.
DoT check
DoTs keep the damage rolling while you are busy doing other things. It is good to keep as many as possible running for this reason. Improved Insect Swarm also increases the damage you get through Wrath and Starfire either directly or by increasing your crit rating.
It is also a good idea to keep Insect Swarm up (when unglyphed) because it does provide that little bit extra survivability to the tanks. 3% less chance to hit may not sound like much, but it may be that 1 hit that kills the tank that ends up missing.
In an ideal world, you should not clip your DoTs short. In a real world you will often find yourself clipping them short by a tick or so maybe. Around the last second or two of Eclipse you will need to make judgement calls. If you can squeeze out 1 more eclipse Starfire then that is probably more important than refreshing Insect Swarm, for example.
It is a good idea to always refresh DoTs while moving, becuase there's not a lot else you can do. Just as long as it doesn't distract you from staying alive that is.
Updates
edit 17th Feb 2010 : Following further tests and following feedback from other readers I have adjusted the chart a little bit. I am still not happy with it, and will do a series of posts that will break down the rotation into finer detail. Once they are done I will update this post to link + use the new charts. Changes to the chart, 1 : addition of Wrath to the pull spell order in order to proc Eclipse. 2 : Correction of error when checking to see whether to cast Force of Nature. 3 : Correction of error that indicated that DoTs should be clipped. Do not clip DoTs, it's not worth it.
Moonkin Single-Target Spell Rotation Flow Chart
As always I would love to hear any feedback, comments, or suggestions about this. I have tried my best to document the process I go through while raiding to decide which spell to cast next. Ultimately I am not saying that this is the one and only rotation to use, I am saying that this is what works well for me and fits most situations.
Some fights have mechanics that will shift the spell rotation further in favour of Starfire. Hodir and Vezax for example both have mechanics that increase casting speed significantly. In these situations it is not uncommon to see Wrath dip below 1 second in normal casting, let alone with Heroism up. At the end of the day, don't be afraid to deviate from the norm if something else works for a given situation.
Comments
You might also consider throwing in one wrath at the start before dots etc. to put Earth & Moon up.
It is a 13% dps increase for the raid as well as a 6% buff for the Boomkin since 3.2.2.
If that single wrath procs a lunar eclipse then so much the better! If not, carry on with the pre-wrath dot application, starfall then back to wrath until eclipse...
For the DoT CHECK flow chart, im presuming that clipping is bad?
With your indication of 'seconds left til renew' you might want to additionaly state that clipping your dots with 0.2 secs left is a bad idea!
Otherwise good job! Impressed.
Great flow charts, the only thing I realy do different on the pull is after casting FF is sneak in a wrath to get Earth and Moon proc. to benifit the rest of the raid and then roll into my dots.
Clipping DoTs is terrible for DPS. You only want to cast a DoT if the previous iteration has already fallen off.
Rightio, a lot of comments for this one.
Genaro and Baldius, I have certainly found myself starting to do that more but on merit of hopefully getting a Lunar Eclipse up earlier due to the transit time on Wrath. I will probably adjust my flow chart accordingly. The 13% spell damage buff is also provided by Unholy DK so if you run with one or two of them then it's not worth worrying as much about Earth and Moon.
HalpImOOM, clipping is bad and as with the previous poster I will adjust my flow chart slightly to clarify. With the current flow chart I was trying to document my own thought processes. If a DoT is about to drop off then it's time to start thinking about re-applying. Whether or not you wait to reapply is a different matter - I will update the flow-chart to reflect what you should be doing rather than what you should be thinking. This goes in with what Valr has said, with exception that when in motion or when you are about to hit an Eclipse then it can be marginally better to reapply or clip. It depends largely on the situation.
At the end of the day there is no hard and fast rule, this is meant as a guide to help players get closer to an optimal rotation :) If I was to include every minor exception then it would become unreadable :)
Even as an experienced moonkin, that flowchart is more confusing than helpful.
I am continuing to work at it, I'm honestly still not 100% happy with either the presentation or the accuracy.
If there is anything in particular that stands out as confusing then I'd love to hear any criticism.
I agree that the main rotation is hard to read/understand, though I'm not very experienced. :)
Tip for cleaning up flowchart of main rotation: From chart: Wrath if Heroism is active, unless Lunar is on CD. From chart: Wrath if Heroism is NOT active, unless (Lunar is on CD AND your not in Solar).
So, according to the chart, Heroism has got very little to do with what you choose. You're most likely going to Wrath anyhow! The only time you will not be Wrathing is:
1) You are in Lunar Eclipse OR 2) You are NOT in Solar Eclipse and Lunar Eclipse cannot be procced
Put another way:
Wrath until Eclipse -> Starfire until you either Eclipse or until Lunar Eclipse gets off cooldown -> Start over.
I'm (almost) confident that this is logically equivalent with your chart. Not as intriguing but conveys the same information. Bottom line, Heroism does not change your rotation? (If I'm wrong, please do give an example when you do something you otherwise wouldn't have, based on that status of heroism.)
Finally (sorry to hog up your blog), just to be annoying... Should I /sleep or /dance when Force of Nature is off cooldown but Heroism is not about to be cast? Or should I cast Force of Nature anyway? ;)
I'm a fan of /sleep personally
On a more serious note that is a bit of a major error. There is supposed to be a red arrow heading down to the "Is Lunar Eclipse Active?" box.
Regarding the casting of Wrath. The only times you will be casting wrath are when ....
Lunar Eclipse is off cooldown (Wrath can proc eclipse) OR Solar Eclipse is active and Heroism is not
During heroism realistically you should probably be Starfiring due to the GCD with the exception of a few Wraths if you can get Eclipse up.
I'm partway through modifying a version of this flow chart, so will have this post updated soon to hopefully be clearer.
My rotation:
Pull Force of Nature (unless the fight is shorter then 6 minutes.) I keep my Force of Nature if the fight is shorter then 6 minutes, because you'll have a Heroism. Pop out your Treants just before the Heroism (mostly at a certain percentage of boss health). The little trees will gain the Heroism buff hitting 30% faster thus increasing your dps.
FF
Moonfire + Insectswarm
I pop them both from start. Moonfire stays one second longer (global cooldown) on your target. So both dots are ticking at same lenght of time.
Then I start casting wrath, untill my Lunar Eclipse pops out. When it does, Moonfire is still on my target, so I gain one more second of casting Starfire during my Lunar Eclipse because I don't need to refresh it just before. I keep spamming Starfire untill the Lunar eclipse is gone. I don't refresh Insectswarm or Moonfire. With the glyph of starfire, moonfire will tick 3x3seconds longer, almost the full duration of a Lunar Eclipse, and If you are lucky with the proc, you'll have still a moonfire ticking when the Lunar Eclipse ends.
Refresh Insect swarm (and moonfire), keep casting Starfire, till Solar Proc. Then keep casting wrath. Only difference with the Lunar Eclispe is that I keep refreshing my insectswarm and Moonfire during a Solar Eclipse when they run out. I mostly try to use my starfall during a solar eclipse because you'll have your nature's grace proc up all the time, making every wrath a one second cast. (because all of the crits Starfall gives).
But using starfall whenever it's up, unless maybe during a Lunar eclipse is wise.
On a side note:
Heroism: if Announced pop out treants just before. You have 30seconds to set up your dots and eclipse. This means, you'll need Moonfire on target and a lunar eclipse once in those 30seconds. The moment you hit a lunar eclipse, pop a potion of speed. Major dps boost. My Starfire goes for 1.85 with nature's grace. During heroism and potion of speed, it drops to a 1.2 second cast.
I am open to suggestions in how to improve this rotation.
Thanks for this - using roughly this rotation, I got my first > 3k DPS for overall in an HC :D May not seem much, but for a relative newcomer, and fighting that hellforsaken bowling ball in PoS, it put a spring in my step :)
Gotta hate the bowling ball. Regarding HCs, 3k isn't bad. I can struggle to top 5-6k at times which considering my level of gear is certainly a bit low.
Most heroics esp with the level of overgearing now it is difficult for a Moonkin to actually get up to full speed :)
I like your chart, is usefull, can y do something about PVP ?
I can't really at present because I haven't got sufficient PvP experience.
I'm not sure a rotation would apply anyway. Perhaps some kind of "this counters this" chart, which would be a bit sparse.
Hello from Germany,
nice description of the rotation @Maeseyck! That´s what I´ve been doing so far and I prefer it that way!
By the way! Thx to Aeiedil for this site!
i actualy do faerie fire first, then Force of nature 2nd, wrath twice that way the extra 13% dot increased dmg increases your dots, insect swarm, moon fire, then continue where you are