Moonkin PvP
32,788 viewsThe current state of Moonkin PvP is, well, nonexistant. If you are like me, and enjoy playing the moonkin class so much that you are not willing to respec resto/feral to PvP, then this is the post for you. Keep in mind that I usually mean arena by PvP, and therefore the spec I use doesn’t boast much mana efficiency or healing spells in them (I run with a healer always). Patch 3.1 hasn’t hit yet, which will actually *SLIGHTLY* help PvP’ing as moonkin, and I have already discussed what I may do when 3.1 hits live, concerning PvP.
Moonkin PvP Talent Build:
WoTLK Moonkin PvP Talent Build (58/0/13)
Above is a very quick talent build I put together 30 seconds ago, but it picks up what I would usually pick up in a PvP spec. When 3.1 hits, however, I will probably go 11 into the feral tree and pick up Survival Instincts for the 30% increased life (for 20 seconds), since it will work in moonkin form.
Things to note with the above spec:
- Imp MoTW - Yes, I put 2/2 in Imp MoTW. I don’t Arena with a resto druid, so 20% increased benefit to MoTW is worth it for me. In 3.1, it will also increase all of my attributes by 2%.
- Moonglow vs. Imp MF – For PvP, I don’t use the Glyph of Moonfire. Moonfire does decent burst/finisher damage, so I value the 10% increased crit/damage over lower mana costs to effectively nuke targets.
- Nature’s Reach – While it is usually picked up for its threat reduction, 20% increased range to my damaging spells is worth picking up.
- Celestial Focus – The stun component is being removed in 3.1, and replaced with reduced pushback for certain spells (Starfire/Hurricane primarily, I believe). This talent was still worth 3 points for me, even if just for the 3% haste.
- Imp IS – I do not pick this up for PvP. I just grab regular IS, but I believe the 3% extra damage to Wrath, or crit to Starfire is too situation for Arena use, and I can benefit more with those points elsewhere.
- Balance of Power – 4% hit, and 4% for others to miss with spells. Not bad for 2 points.
- Eclipse – Many people don’t think Eclipse is worthwhile for PvP. However, in my experience, couple either Eclipse proc with Heroism, and its usually that extra amount of damage you needed to get your enemy down.
- Gale Winds/Typhoon/Starfall – All pretty good for PvP. While people want Starfall to be better, its relatively decent in both PvE and PvP. Typhoon is pretty much our own casting interrupt and push back, and Gale Winds helps it hit targets to 3k+ damage, instantly. Easiest way to kill mage clones and other low-HP adds.
- Omen of Clarity/Furor – OOC is pretty much the only mana efficiency talent I took by choice. I assume that on most arena battles will not last long enough for you to go OOM, and even if you do, you can probably innervate yourself, as innervate hardly does anything for non druids/priests. I considered putting a few points in Subtelty, but decided against it.
Moonkin PvP Glyphs:
Moonkin PvP Glyphs aren’t really that good at the moment, but below are the major glyphs I recommend for PvPing. The minor glyphs you use can probably be the same ones that I use for PvE balance glyphs.
Combine this glyph with the right talents, and you shouldn’t see any reduced cast time on your Wrath spells while getting hit. No reason to not equip this guy.
This tooltip is pretty confusing since I don’t really know exactly how much damage a target CAN take before roots breaks anyways, but this glyph apparently increases that arbitrary number by 20%, so why not take it? Its not like there are many better options.
The talent spec for Moonkin PvP listed above lacks almost all forms of mana regeneration. For lack of better options, this glyph will help aleviate that problem slightly by either increasing the innervate effect on yourself (if you self-cast it), or giving you a “mini-innervate” if you cast it on a partner. Once again, given the lack of options, I am using this for PvP.
Moonkin PvP DPS Rotation
This is where it becomes a little hazy. To clarify, I am not by any means an expert in arena (I mean, my team is at around 1650 rating), but hey, I’m trying 
. For the most part, you need to make heavy use of the few defensive abilities we have in our arsenal of spells. To wit, Barkskin, Thorns, Shapeshifting, Roots, Cyclone, Typhoon, and Shadowmeld (if Ally).
In some fights where I am getting beaten down a lot by melee, Thorns can be my largest source of damage (seriously, WTF!). Wrath, Moonfire, Insect Swarm, Typhoon and, Treants and Starfall are going to be your primary attacking spells, since you can only realistically use Starfire if you are not being targetted.
I usually open up an Arena match full force. We charge our opponents, I pop CDs in usually this order: Treants, Starfall, Typhoon. I may DoT up a target, then Wrath/Starfire the other target (depending on if I am taking damage or not). Nature’s Grasp is nice to use if you are kiting a melee class or even a pet/minion of some sort. And I usually aim to nuke a healer down ASAP, if they have one.
As a general rule of thumb, most of the time you want to take the lead and keep the pressure on the other team so they can’t think properly. Start Stealthed, yet Dash to them. I usually win a first match against another team because they underestimate me as a moonkin, but if we ever play the same team again, they usually target me the whole time and render me useless.
Make big use of the CC’s we have, don’t forget about Hibernate. If you see a healer or caster casting something that takes awhile, don’t forget to interrupt them with a Typhoon. Remember that Typhoon has a travelling time so you should plan to preemptively cast it.
All in all, moonkin PvP could use a survivability buff/talent, but its still fun to PvP as a deathchicken.
Comments/Feedback on this page are greatly appreciated, since I am by no means an expert in this area, but I still Arena.
Macbook
Loading ...
HEy brother chicken, I enjoyed read your article and I most to agreed %110 with everything that you said:
It’s incredible how unfair this game is reagarding the habilities and talents of classes. . Why boonks does not have a stun( At least one) or something similar to fear (locks), why we need to back to caster form to heal (Pallies can heal and they wear plate… and they have) a freaking bubble, how many classes you can truly innmovilize with your roots. And the cooldowns Force of teh nature 3 freaking minutes,( divine storm for pallies 10 sec )So my points is that the main strenght of a druid should be the hability to change ,but how things currently are it seens that we are just good to heal…and I am NOT healer I like my Super Laser mighty Morphym thunder chicken. So see yaa
Hi, thanks for the info and talent build on moonkin pvp. when our team (dk + me) start a fight, i go stealth till we have selected a person to burn down first. usually, in a dps + healer team, we nuke the dps first. this really works nice if the healer is a pala. i pop my starfall, treants, typhoon the healer, and dot the dps up. then just nuke the flip outta it with random wrath (mostly wrath) and starfire spam. my dk friend does some tricks to the (pala) healer, and we burn in down.
really works well =P im having great fun pvp’ing (arena) in moonkin, even more with this build..
Very nice, appreciate the information. I too agree with the above posters, we lack in allot of ways yet it is such fun having the opponents attempt to chip thru the the solid feathers of a PANZERKIN. While I’m still doing from 55k in fast fights to 450k in longer ones of damage, certain factors could improve, like the way they changed the feral druid BIG TIME. All in all though I do pretty well and never get out of Moonkin form, charging in when needed and keeping my healer always behind me…works very well. Oh and my spec is the same for PVE as my dual is restro, I just swap out different gear and take off the hit crap and unload on them with haste gear and spell damage. Again thanks for the write-up
Hi, I’m well in my way with my balance druid in PvP, and arena.
You never mentioned cyclone in your tips. Without judicious use, you will not succeed.
I also play with a resto shaman in 2s(the only bracket i play in).
I don’t start in stealth, ever. Every team underestimates me (like you said especially the first matchup) and I don’t like spending the extra GCD to shift into form when it’s time to boogie.
In my matches I’m rarely ever focused, sometimes I am, but my shaman keeps me topped, and the DPS typically quickly leaves me and goes back to my healer.
This is what I do.
typically I let teh other team charge us. I check the HP totals of the enemy players, if one of them has particularly low health, I might target them first hoping for an easier kill.
ANyway, usually i target their DPS first.
I blow treants, dot up my kill target, then cyclone the healer, and begin wrath spam. I do about 3 wraths then cyclonethe healer a second time, and do a couple more wraths on my kill target, then CYCLONE the kill target. Dot up the healer, wrath recyclone, continue spam, rinse and repeat.
My shaman does his best to add in a hex after my seond cyclone, on the healer. If we’re tight on our timing, this is a near guaranteed kill. My shaman also adds in a flameshock/lava burst combo for extra burst. This often makes the difference for us getting a kill.
This technique goes back and forth endlessly, and the tighter you are at it, the more quickly you’l get a kill.
I also want to point out that cycloning your kill target before and switching to healer, is great because the first target will be between 20-50% health, and while cycloned, will get no heals. So if the healer survives your barrage your cyclone them and your previous target is still low on health.
I agree with Apanda, i also play a bit like that and use target focus macro’s
I agree with both of you, Seriously we used to have a stun on 1 3 second cast that had a 15% chance too proc. Preists and Warlocks have fears, Warriors have charge and Whirlwind. Pallys have Hammer of Justice, and Shamans and Mages have Hex/Polymorph. Druids can sleep hunter pets *Thumbs up*! I do not always mind not having a stun, I would prefer a talent that would slightly increase Moonkin Survivability. We can take a few hits, but if we get stun locked and we don't have someone else healing us, or focuse fired, there isn't much to do. I understand Bliazzards logic, if you tihnk about it if you buffed a Boomkin any more, it would be unfair, our DPS, as long as we are kept alive, is unparalelled.
Think about it, we there are 5 Hordies in AV running at someone else on their mounts, you can knock them off with Typhoon, hit them with Treants, proc Starfall, and in my case, throw Insect Swarm and Moonfire on as many of them as I can before the turn there attention too me (which is 2, 3 if I am lucky) And if the person you caused them to ignore is a decent healer, you could solo every last one of them. We are OP, but so is every class! I would love some stuns or more survivability, but we are good where we stand, wether or not we have them.
I currently run with the "Glyph of Barkskin", with the crit reduction of resilience, it makes me pretty much crit immune for 12s. Great when warriors, DKs, Rogues, Hunters and their pets are piling up on you.
I don't care for Wrath pushback reduction, it's just 0.3s after two hits and when I Wrath spam while getting hit, the bigger problem is usually getting interrupted or people getting out of your casting direction, not having a sliiiightly longer cast.
starfire is not the worst move.
3 words. Wrath of elune
if you really really think about it starfire is better than wrath, if you are spamming wrath and you get spell locked by a priest mage dk warrior lock rogue hunter (prolly others that i forgot) your heals are locked out too. if you get counter spelled casting starfire you can heal yourself, pop cheetah and run away to safety while you are locked out of moonfire school.
bof , i will give you some information about the moonkin pvp first of all you must know how to use all your forms , on arena 2v2 you must be with skilled people ( Warlock( destruction) or Paladin (dps or heal )) : you start with the cat form , hiding if you are with warlock cyclon a dps and put instant heal like ; lifebloom , Rejuvenation and Regrowth , then sumon your treants (to defend you ) then take moonkin forme , use : starfall then nature grasp , and try to typhoon only the heal( if there is heal and dps) and if there is 2 dps typhoon both of them then focus the dps (try to focus this classe war, shamy , mage). if you are with a paladin simplie cyclone the healer , focus the dps (with paladin you can focus warior , warlock , mage ,chamy but the paladin have to heal you and dps in the same time). this start works but not with rogue or priest , with rogue you use nature grasp summon you treants and go on bear form ,( if the rogue touch you he will be seen tahn ks to treant ) first oof all use fire faire (to stop him to subs ) then start the dps cycle . vs priest you simplie cyclone him make some instant heal and start dps then