Moonkin Patch 3.3 Notes – Adios WiseEclipse
Updates to the 3.3 Patch notes came out yesterday via MMO-Champion. Is it just me, or does it seem Blizzard’s reaction time when it comes to nerfing us so much quicker than what it takes to buff us? Whatever, I still have faith that we will be balanced in some other way, although it seems that 4pc T10 buff is not going to balance out the loss of WiseEclipse.
Eclipse: This effect will not activate again within 15 seconds of either type of Eclipse effect firing, in addition to the existing 30-second cool-down for each type of Eclipse.
We all knew this NERF was coming. Everyone using WiseEclipse, at least, knew this day was going to come eventually. Still, it hurts. Chain proc’ing a Solar Eclipse almost always after a Lunar Eclipse was awesome, and honestly, was usually a guaranteed thing (especially if you were using 2pc T8).
Whatever. My DPS will live and continue to be competitive, for the most part. GC confirmed that the only reason Eclipse was changed was to make sure that no add-on was mandatory for raiding moonkin — which WiseEclipse definitely was. Still, if their intent really is for no add-on to be mandatory, then what Blizzard really needs are in-game DoT timer counters as well as cool-down timers. I don’t believe that any raiding moonkin can perform at his best with Squawk and Awe or a similar addon.
Druid T8 Balance 2P Bonus – Increases the bonus granted by Eclipse for Starfire and Wrath by 7%. (Down from 15%)
Funny enough, we all knew this was happening too, and honestly, I’m surprised this nerf didn’t happen as soon as they changed Eclipse back in patch 3.2, but whatever. I actually swapped to 4pc T9.245 although I didn’t blog about it. To be honest, even if they hadn’t nerfed 2pc T8, I probably would still use 4pc T9 by now, which is funny, because I had previously blogged about keeping 2pc T8 over 4pc T9. However, things change, and as I am rather ADD I got tired with 2pc T8, and the increased dependence on Eclipse.
So, while this is also another NERF, it is one we were all expecting, and one that won’t really affect me. In fact, it helps us out in the long run in terms of making sure we upgrade to T9 and eventually, T10. Which leads me to the next item of importance – 4pc T10 was BUFFED!
Druid T10 Balance 4P Bonus – Your critical strikes from Starfire and Wrath cause the target languish for an additional 7% of your spell’s damage over 4 sec. (Up from 5%)
Without even looking at math or numbers, its safe to say that I was looking forward to upgrade to T10 anyways. Interesting set bonuses are always fun – I love it when they steer away from the generic, “5% extra crit, 4% extra damage” or whatever regular set bonuses that are around. I already covered the moonkin 2pc T10 set bonus, and the 4pc sounds cool too. Since I doubt I’m going to spend any DKP on T9.258, T10.251 seems like its going to be what I’ll be upgrading to as soon as possible. Check with Graylo for math, but I’m positive that the T9 to T10 transition will be an easy one. I will miss critting Moonfires, however, maybe they will add it to our talent tree in Cataclysm.
Conclusion
At any rate, sorry for being backed up on posting – I started writing this the other day, but I keep finding less and less time each time to do anything else other than work/school (and I’m still skipping tons of classes). PLUS – they just moved my desk from my nice isolated corner to RIGHT IN FRONT of my boss’s office. Good times.
On another side note – Warpath got A Tribute to Insantiy (25 player) last week. Pretty awesome. Can’t wait for ICC now.
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This just in (from this morning, in europe)!
Eclipse now increases damage done by Wrath by 40% (up from 30%) and the critical chance of Starfire by 40% (up from 30%)
Haven't had a chance to blog about this yet, but i thought i'd let you know just in case
Where did you get that info from ?
Its up on MMO-Champion atm – time to blog about it!
This change to Eclipse will do wonders for replacing 2T8 and will make the loss of WiseEclipse much more bearable. My only concern here is the crit soft cap, but we'll be so far over the haste soft cap that it won't hurt to be over the crit soft cap either.
Well – I define a 'nerf' as any change from Blizz that negatively impacts our DPS. Although I expected this to happen, since WiseEclipse definitely increased moonkin DPS, I still consider this change, or 'fix' a nerf.
But no use arguing over the definition of a nerf, as we both agree its going to lower our damage
I honestly wish they would just buff Starfire damage constantly by 5% or something rather than give it more crit. If we were using pre-3.2 Eclipse, a Solar rotation would definitely be the way to go.
Even when we were using pre-3.2 Eclipse, the solar rotation was the way to go. 30% increased damage on our higher-DPS spell was worth more than 30% increased crit chance (about 21% increased damage) on our lower-DPS spell. The difference was in how you geared. If you geared for haste, lunar was better. If you geared for crit, solar was better. In reality, lunar was actually hampered outside of Eclipse by the stat that helped it inside of Eclipse.
That's why I went for a twisting rotation back then — because I wanted the consistency of solar and the burst/mana regen of lunar.
As I've stated elsewhere, the Eclipse change is not a "nerf", it simply breaks an addon. Since the addon was never intended to be part of the game (otherwise Blizz simply would have added the functionality), we cannot consider it a nerf. It is going to hurt our DPS slightly, but no nerf there.
I definitely share your sentiment in wanted to get to T10. 2T8 and 2T9 are fun, but 4T10 promises to be good times.
[...] — I’ll take it. Early yesterday, Blizzard decided to make up for their previous nerfs (they nerfed 2pc T8 & WiseEclipse), by buffing Eclipse. Eclipse now increases damage done by [...]
Wow, getting 2/3 of our T8 built into our Moonkin is pretty nice.
Ok quick question as for a moonkin what do i need to stack on my gear. I mean is intellect or haste or crit or hit or what here i am so confused
mark, u shouldt definitly NOT stack interlect. u shouldt be soft capped for haste, but also stack crit abit. u SHOULDT be it capped imo.
and then u shouldt just stack loads of SP