moonkin-gear
Latest
Shifting Perspectives: Lunar Shower update and Celestial Alignment
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Shifting Perspectives for cat , bear , restoration and balance druids. Balance news comes at you every Friday -- learn how to master the forces of nature, and know what it means to be a giant laser turkey! Send questions, comments, or requests to tyler@wowinsider.com or @murmursofadruid. Balance druids everywhere are currently rejoicing. Why, might you ask? Well, you see, the Eclipse energy portion of Lunar Shower has finally been removed from the Mists of Pandaria talent calculator. That it took this long is something else entirely, but that isn't even really the point. First, I wish to express a slight personal issue with this revelation. When the Pandaria talent calculators were originally released, it was stated directly that Lunar Shower would be "working differently in the future." While I suppose accurate on the most technical levels, reverting a broken talent to the slightly less broken state that it was already in before it was made worse is not working differently. A bit harsh? To say that Lunar Shower is a broken talent, to suggest that it was always a broken talent? Well, I would apologize or choose better language -- however, this is the case. Lunar Shower has never truly fulfilled the function it was intended to serve, to offer balance druids a mobile DPS option. In defense that the current Lunar Shower on the live servers now is broken, I don't really think I need to put forth much evidence. After all, no one specs into it. Every single guide tells players to avoid it. And there's at least a thread a week complaining about it on the official forums. The issue speaks for itself.
Shifting Perspectives: Patch 4.3 gear list for balance druids
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Shifting Perspectives for cat , bear , restoration and balance druids. Balance news comes at you every Friday -- learn how to master the forces of nature, and know what it means to be a giant laser turkey! Send questions, comments, or requests for something you'd like to see to tyler@wowinsider.com or on Twitter @murmursofadruid. Hail, druids, and welcome to the wondrous world of a new patch! This patch didn't hold much for us in the ways of personal meat. We got a wicked-awesome new Hurricane animation and a neat new Wrath one as well, but otherwise, things trudge along as normal with our lot. That's perfectly dandy in my book. We're still going along strong as a solid DPS choice, and things are good. This week I'm dedicating to gearing ourselves up in all of that lovely new content that has just been released. Whether you're a dungeoneer or a hardcore raider, there's tons of new loot to look at, and that's exactly that we're going to do. As a side note, I do have to say that I am super-excited about having patch 4.3. The content so far has been gloriously fun, and though I'm sure I'll change my mind once I've done enough of these heroics to last a lifetime (as with the troll versions of last patch), I'm content to make do with what we have. Let's get to work, shall we?
Shifting Perspectives: Balance druid gearing and stat break points
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Shifting Perspectives for cat , bear , restoration and balance druids. Balance news comes at you every Friday -- learn how to master the forces of nature, and know what it means to be a giant laser turkey! Send your questions, comments, or something you'd like to see to tyler@wowinsider.com. I think I have said it once before, but I swear I'll end up saying each and every raiding tier: I do not like gear guides, especially best in slot lists. While it is good to have a list of gear that you want and a goal to reach for, aside from Graylo's posts back in Wrath, I have never seen an actual list that is realistic. Yes, it's nice to know what you'll want to have once you've been farming a zone for months, but when you're just starting out, you take what upgrades you can get. Period. More so now with reforging, getting new gear is a huge PITA, and I've yet to see a gear guide that could actually help a player address those issues. I wouldn't ever expect it to; it's unreasonable to make a contengency plan for every single gearing combination possible. Plus, half the slots are always Get the only pair of X that drops in this raid or Get the tier gear. Duh. What I do like, however, is information on gearing. Gearing can be tricky, and it's nice to know some of the ropes so that you can make informed gearing choices. With that in mind, let's talk about gearing.
Shifting Perspectives: PTR 4.0.6, balance and you
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Shifting Perspectives for cat , bear , restoration and balance druids.This week, I'm going picture hunting. If you happened to send any in last week, chances are I didn't get them. Our emails over here recently changed, and I can now be reached at tyler@wowinsider.com. So send your pics! Okay, okay, so I know that I had originally promised to start doing the raiding guide this week, and I was so totally going to do that, but the information that's currently up on the latest PTR is just too juicy to pass up. Like the mythical GC pony, the raid guide will come next week, I promise. The PTR doesn't hold a lot of information for balance druids overall, but what it does hold is amazingly amazing. (Props to those who know where that one comes from.) There are a few nerfs, and they come in areas where we really needed buffs instead, but there are quite a number of buffs out there as well that can certainly whet the palate. There are also some important profession and general changes that will help everyone, including balance druids. I'm normally not a fan of huge balancing patches such as these that come out so soon after an expansion is released -- rage, what good was beta, and all that -- but at least we are finally getting these changes now. And what changes are those? Oh, why, I'm so glad that you asked.
Shifting Perspectives: Balance druid pre-raid gear guide
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Shifting Perspectives for cat , bear , restoration and balance druids. If you've been like me and chain running dungeons day in and day out, there are probably a few things that you are ready to wish never existed. Don't worry, I've got a plan to get rid of all those pesky rogues ... Another week, another week. It seems that every week is another week, which I suppose it is. It's all philosophy, of course, which is a topic that I happen to enjoy just about as much as theorycrafting. That is why I also want to start today off with a little bit of both, but in a very light sense. Now that most players have their mains up to level 85, the next grind is for gear in order to enter raids. Gearing is an essential part of the game; in fact, I'd say that half the battle for downing a boss starts before you even make that first pull. As during every new tier of gear released, everyone and their mother makes a best in slot list. I hate BiS lists. Best in slot is highly debatable terminology, and there aren't many cases wherein any one particular item actually fits into that category -- even more so now, with the introduction of mastery and reforging. Generally speaking, an item is only going to be the universal best if it falls into one of two categories. Either that particular item is over-itemized in comparison to similar choices -- it's usually trinkets that fall here -- or there simply aren't any other choice at that item level. When you build a gear set, there really is more than one way to skin the proverbial cat. That is why I rarely ever refer to things as being BiS, and that is why I am writing a gear guide and not a BiS list. The other issue I have with BiS lists is that they are highly specific. In many cases, they are only going to work out to be the best if you have all of the items on the list, particularly in respect to hit. That simply isn't always a feasible goal, especially if you run in a 25-man raid and there are multiple items that you have to win over several other people. Philosophy and theory out of the way, let's get start on that gear list, shall we?
Shifting Perspectives: Gearing your Balance Druid at 80
Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting Druids and those who group with them. This week we start to wonder where the hell all the +hit from "Burning Crusade" went.Greetings, fellow Druids, and welcome to another installment on Wrath gear at 80, and this week it's the boomkins' turn. Next week I'm going to tackle Bear gear at 80; Dan O'Halloran will take care of our Cat colleagues. As a number of people have observed, it's tougher to get +hit-capped pre-raid in leather as opposed to cloth, so you're going to find an awful lot of cloth on the list. I realize this represents a new and exciting development in the history of moonkin itemization. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. That's French for "We're screwed."Supplementary reading: Elitist Jerks' threads on Balance trinkets, Moonkin DPS spreadsheet, general issues, and Balance talents and specs. Gray Matter on necessary stats at 80 and raiding moonkin gear. As a note here concerning the recent news on Improved Faerie Fire (in a nutshell, you'll get the 3% crit no matter whose FF is up on a target, even a feral's), Gray Matter on why the talent's worth taking, and Macbook on the raid circumstances in which it might not be. As with our previous entry on pre-raid Restoration gear at 80, these guides assume that you do not presently have access to either 10-man or 25-man raids.
Insider Trader: Leatherworking in alpha, and profession changes for patch 2.4.3
Although there is information being leaked about the upcoming expansion Wrath of the Lich King, because of the alpha testing that is currently underway, it is too soon to tell what will make it into the final copy, and what will not. Furthermore, most things will be changed, and there are details that may never be leaked until, of course, release.Still, it is a valuable experience to peer into Blizzard's process of designing, reforming, and progressing the game's professions. This week, Insider Trader will focus on analyzing the tentative progression of the leatherworking trade. In addition, we'll take a brief look at professions-related changes in the upcoming patch 2.4.3. While mounts at level 30 and Haris Pilton might be first in your mind, Blizzard isn't overlooking the trade sector this round.
New loot added to Zul'Aman timed event
One of the cool features of the 10-man instance, Zul'Aman, is the timed event. It starts with ringing a gong (and the death of not!IndianaJones). After that, the raid has 45 minutes to down 4 of the 6 bosses. Every time a boss is killed a nearby captive will open a chest of phat loot. The first chest always has an armor reward, the second a weapon, the third a ring and the fourth has just one reward: the coveted Amani War Bear. But don't expect to be riding that Bear Mount through Shattrath unless your group is BT geared.According to MMO-Champion, three items have been added to the first chest in Patch 2.3.2. which is great news for those Karazhan equipped raids. First, is the sweet Cloak of Fiends. It's health dose of Agility, Stamina and Attack Power makes it a dps drool cloth. This was seen on the PTR, but has now finally made it to the Live servers. Also previewed on the PTR is the Shadowcaster's Drape. Though it has equal parts +Healing and +Damage, it's solid Stamina and Intelligence make it a possible upgrade for dps casters not yet farming the 25-man zones (unless they picked up the Shadow-Cloak of Dalaran out of Karazhan). It's certainly a great cloak for Moonkin. Perfect to go with the next piece.The Elunite Imbued Leggings have yet to show up on the database sites, but these Moonkin pants are exactly the kind of equipment Balance Druids were promised when Blizzard said they would start itemizing for the spec. There isn't many options comparable to these leggings if a Druid wants to stick to Leather over Cloth. Short of expensive PvP rewards and 25-man raid sets, these britches will make any Moonkin do the funky chicken dance of joy.And if you are concerned with such things, MMO-Champion has screenshots of their graphical appearance.%Gallery-5517%
