Moonkin Glyphs
38,127 viewsWhen WoTLK hit, I briefly discussed moonkin glyphs, and which I would be taking as a raiding PvE moonkin. Now that we are way into the expantion, another post on the topic is due. Note that I am only going to mention what Glyphs I personally use, and I consider to be must-have for any PvE moonkin.
MAJOR GLYPHS
There is no excuse to not pick up this Glyph, no reason to not use it, nada, zilch, zero. Using the ideal balance moonkin spell rotation and talent spec, Moonfire should almost always be up on your targets. Couple this glyph with the right talents, and you are increasing the duration of your Moonfire DoT by a total of 12 seconds. DoTs are a great way to increase your DPS, and with Improved Insect Swarm Moonfire is also increasing your Starfire crit chance, so there is never a reason to not keep MF up. This glyph is a must-have for any aspiring raiding moonkin, and probably still if you only plan to run 5 mans.
This is another majoy glyph which I consider a must-have for PvE. I have contemplating dropping it for PvP, but that’s another post in itself. This glyph essentially makes the initial burst damage of your Moonfire hit/crit for almost nothing, but makes the DoT tick 90% stronger. The Moonfire DoT > Moonfire initial damage, and using this Glyph, and extending the duration of your Moonfire with the Glyph of Starfire is pure win. Drop this if you are trying to solo/quest, but you need this for raiding.
Insect Swarm is playing a much larger part in our rotations recently, and they are buffing the damage it does in 3.1. The description is pretty self-explanatory, 30% extra damage to your Insect Swarm spell. Its exact 3x better than the 2pc T7 balance set. With Improved Insect Swarm, you are also dealing 3% extra Wrath damage, as long as you are keeping IS up. Why not keep it up? It does decent damage, so I can’t wait till it gets bumped up to do more damage.
*Optional* Glyph of Innervate
The above 3 Glyphs are the major glyphs which I assume most people to use. However, at lower gear levels, I did use this glyph; with good reason. As a moonkin, you are usually one of the first to give up your innervate, even if you need it yourself. While 30% extra damage to your IS spell is nice, if you find yourself often running OOM, then you might want to consider this glyph. The tooltip is a bit confusing – it essentially adds 20% of the Innervate benefit to yourself (if you cast it on yourself), or gives you your out of combat mana regen for 20 seconds if you cast it on someone else. Consider using it temporarily if you are lacking the mana on longer fights.
*Honorable Mention* Glyph of Focus
The only reason I even bring this up is because I have been contemplating on possibly (!) going Moonkin PvP instead of resto for dual spec. I have simply recruited too many resto/boomkins in my new guild, that I don’t really ever see myself in a position to be short a resto druid. My PvP/AoE talent build has this Glyph, and while you want all the range possible in PvP, this is decent if you want some extra DPS on your AoE pulls, while lowering the chance of you pulling extra mobs.
MINOR GLYPHS
As you should know by know, minor glyphs are mainly convenience/vanity type items, and really don’t do much on your encounters. Below are the ones that I like/use.
16 slot bags cost almost nothing, 18 slots costs a little more, 20 slotters are less than 100g each, yet 22 slot bags run you an easy 1000g. That means, that each extra bag slot at 22 slot bags cost around 500g EACH. In BC, I used to carry 2 stacks of Rebirth reagants, so this Glyph theoretically saves me 1000g worth of bag space, plus the cost of the reagents. No reason to not get this glyph. I wish there was one of these for GoTW…
Nice minor glyph for PvP/soloing, this glyph makes our 10 minute Thorns buff into an hour long buff. Merely nice for convenience, it helps us make use of the awesomeness that is Thorns. Don’t underestimate Thorns in PvP…it’s helped me kill rogues more than once, simply because they kill themselves with it.
This minor glyph is only ever nice to use in a raid situation if you self-buff mid combat when you are Battle Rezzed. I do that sometimes, because other than that, it simply helps you waste less mana when buffing up. This is not really a must-have, IMO.
*Optional* Glyph of Typhoon
If you’ve somehow magically picked up Typhoon in your PvE/AoE talent spec, you’ll want this. Tanks and other DPS’ers hate knockback spells, so this minor glyph will remove the pushback aspect of Typhoon. Make sure you drop it for PvP, because knockback in Arena is nice (since it interrupts).
*Optional 2* Glyph of Dash
I honestly thought about picking this Glyph up over the Glyph of the Wild, simply because I find myself using dash a lot in Naxx if we wipe and are running back. This will reduce the 6 minute dash CD to a little under 5 minutes, which isn’t much, but hey, its a minor glyph.
Conclusion
For major glyphs, I strongly recommend MF/SF/IS glyphs. For minor glyphs you can go in many directions, but I personally use Unburdened Rebirth, Thorns, and MoTW glyphs.
Make sure you tailor your glyphs to your play style. If you primarily are focused on being an AoE’er, or even spec specifically for certain encounters, then definitely glyph for AoE. If you pick up the IS Glyph, make sure you actually use IS in your spell rotation, otherwise fix your rotation or grab another glyph.
Macbook
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You should probably update this, Mac. As a raid leader, you should know that Glyph of Typhoon is not optional for PvE. (And, as you mentioned, it’s bad for PvP.)
I’m going to stop inviting moonkins and elemental shamans to raid if they don’t have their Typhoons and Thunderstorms glyphed.
@ Xiera –
I see your point there. The reason I have it marked as optional is because I personally don’t pick it up for PvE. I also tell all of my moonkins and ele shammies to have their knockbacks glyphed, it is definitely a huge pain in the ass.
Typhoon is hard (IMO) to fit into a PvE spec. But yes, this Glyph is required if you somehow fit it in your build.
Macbook
With 3.1 out now, what are your thoughts on the changes to glyph of starfall? I don’t plan on removing glyph of moonfire or starfire, but that third glyph always seems pretty optional between Innervate, IS, and now making starfall a 1 min CD, seems pretty good. Raid-worthy glyph?
@ Caladon –
For max DPS, and with the changes to IS, the Glyph of Insect Swarm is really not optional.
My glyph choices have not changed as a result of 3.1.
If my 2nd spec was a moonkin AoE OR PvP spec, that’s probably where the Starfall glyph would fall into.
Macbook
I actually bought and am using the Glyph of Starfall. Even with the buff to IS, I still only use it when I’m spamming Wrath (which is during Eclipse now with my solar rotation). Starfall is a strong ability that I really like having the ability to use almost every pull. Depending on the boss fight, that’s sometimes 5 or more uses (versus 3 uses without the glyph). The IS glyph is probably more useful for single-target DPS (which, as I’ve stated elsewhere, is what we should focus on), but the Starfall one provides greater versatility.
Also, Innervate glyph is NOT the way to go now that the spell mechanics have been nerfed. If you’re having mana issues, I’d recommend looking elsewhere. (Where? I don’t know.) They really just need to fix Innervate.
@ Xiera –
I guess I see your point, but I can’t believe you only put IS up when you are spamming Wrath! I keep it up during the Eclipse CD as well, and at least on paper it seems to add significantly to our DPS.
And definitely second what you said about the Innervate glyph. If mana is an issue, turn to talents for that, not your 3rd glyph.
Macbook
You are forgetting that you loose the hit when you
glyph IS, and after doing some Uldar 10 and 25 can say,
the healers and tanks can use the IS decrease hit,
which I am sure will change as gear improves.
The knock back in Typon is pain at times agreed,
but doesn’t effect bosses anyway only trash, and
is quite effective on the little bomb trash. Inervate
is broke at the moment very true. Actually considering
the Rebirth or the Starfall, kind of a toss up at the
moment. Almost always seem to be ressing someone every
boss, so will probably go Rebirth. Yes , I know
both of these decisions will lower Moonkin dps performance, but Pve is not only dps.
@ Palmura –
Haven’t forgotten about the 3% miss from the IS glyph, but its not a dealbreaker for me in anyway. 3% chance to miss something is dismal anyways for anything thats not a tank (they will miss 1 attack every 33 times they are hit?), and its really minimal for the tanks.
Macbook
Palmura-
I’ve actually had tanks laugh at me for asking whether they want the 3% reduced chance to hit. The truth is: it just doesn’t make a difference over the course of the fight. It’d be one thing if it was 3% reduced damage, but 3% reduced chance to hit is yet another RNG-dependent mechanic. And if you’re doing Ulduar and your tanks need the extra avoidance, they probably need to spend some more time gearing up first.
If you’re using Typhoon in your spec (I dropped it from my spec), you need to have it glyphed for PvE. “But it doesn’t affect bosses, it only affects trash.” If you’re using it against bosses, you’re doing it wrong. If you’re using it against trash, the knockback frustrates the tanks and can cause a wipe (not so much in Ulduar because it’s single-target trash). It is effective in the XT fight, but if you’re building your spec around one fight, well, I would suggest against it.
As for Glyph of Rebirth, res’ing someone with full health sounds nice, but it’d be just as easy for a healer, or even you, to throw up a Regrowth after res. I’d be interested to see if sacrificing 2 seconds to cast Regrowth would cost more DPS than not getting the Glyph of Insect Swarm or the Glyph of Starfall.
Yes, PvE is more than just DPS, but with boss fights being as demanding as they are, there’s really no room to sacrifice DPS. Even Blizz has made this point by making hybrid specs obsolete.
Then again, I’m top-3 DPS in my guild, so maybe I’m just in a different position than other moonkins — I *need* to keep my DPS as high as possible.
@ Xiera and Palmura:
There’s a difference in Rebirth glyphs. Glyph of Rebirth is a major glyph that restores 100% of health. This is best suitable for a resto druid.
Glypho of Unburdened Rebirth is a minor glyph that can easily be picked up. Unless you solo or PVP a lot, I’d recommend picking up this one. Many times I’ve forgotten to glyph this and find that I cannot CR, which then costed a wipe in raid.
I think glyph of starfall is a must have..