Gray Matter

Blizzard Hates Moonkin

2009-11-05T20:03:00.002-06:00

Clearly, Blizzard hates Moonkin.

Ulduar Meta: Complete

2009-11-03T00:09:00.003-06:00

I know that it's not quite as significant as if we had done it before ToC was released. I know that the gear we've obtained from ToC has made the achievements easier to some extend. However, I am still very proud and happy that it is now complete.

The fact of the matter is that Yogg +1 is not an easy fight. Neither is Firefighter, Freya +3 and several other Ulduar hard modes. For most guilds these are not fights that you can walk in and watch them fall down. Completing this acheivement was the result of a lot of hard work and trying to squeeze Ulduar time into our ToC schedule.

Grats to everyone that got drakes, and thank you to everyone that helped me get mine.

Moonkin Basics: Talents

2009-11-02T09:30:00.001-06:00

I'm starting a new series called Moonkin Basics. The purposes of these posts will be to answer the basic questions a new raider or offspec raider would ask. My intention is to keep them up to date as things change in the game and have links to them on the right side of my blog. Obviously, most of what I say in these posts will be common knowledge to experienced Moonkin raiders. Please feel free to comment if you have a difference of opinion.

To some extent these posts are inspired by or stolen from Hamlet's Moonkin guide in the Elitist Jerk's Think Tank (link). It is the best "How-to-Moonkin" guide I have ever read. I think that anyone raiding a mookin should read it. You may also want to check out the Moonkin Sticky on the official forums that has been compiled by Wisprunner.

Some of you may be asking: "If Hamlet wrote such a good guide, and you could get similar information from the Moonkin Sticky, why do you need to post anything?"

Very good question. I'm doing for several reasons.

This will be something I control. In the history of WoW, many guides have come and gone, and many are dead before people realize it. I won't maintain it forever, but as long as I'm blogging and playing WoW I will try and keep it up to date. I can't make the same commitment for the other guides if I point people to them.

I regularly get asked basic questions about Moonkin DPS. I love it when people ask me questions, but to be honest, I am pretty bad about answering my mail. These posts should give the answers more exposure so that people can find them on their own. It will also give me a quick place to point to if I have already answered the question.

Finally, I don't always agree with the answers provided by other guides. The differences aren't huge generally, but they are common enough that I think it is helpful to the readers.

Now, on with the guide.

The Core Talent Build: (Link)

This is what I consider to be the core talent build of almost every raiding moonkin for a majority of encounters. I did leave two points unspent, because how you use those points really depends on your raiding situation. If you have mana issues you'll probably put them in Intensity. If you focus more on single target DPS Brambles is probably the better choice. Gale Winds is a good choice if you have to do significant amounts of AoE.

In addition, to the two points I left unspent, you may want to consider a couple of variations to the core spec I've provided.

Moonglow vs Imp MF - Tier 2 of the balance tree doesn't have a lot of good options. Moonglow is the worst mana "regen" talent we have. Improved Moonfire has very little impact if you also use the Glyph of Moonfire. Unfortunately you have to spend three talent points in these two talents to move on to the 3rd tier of the tree.

I chose Moonglow in the Core build because it is a simple way to get some Mana regen without really hurting your DPS. The one exception I would make to policy is if you have the 2T9 set bonus. If your Moonfire ticks can Crit then the talent improves significantly.

Imp IS for Mana - The core build ignores almost all of the Mana Regen talents. Most Moonkin I've talked to don't have any problems with mana regen as long as they have replenishment. If they do have issues then Innervate fixes them easily. Therefore, I expect that most moonkin don't have mana issues.

However, I'm sure this isn't true for everyone. If your looking to pick up more regen from your talent build, I suggest you skip Improved Insect Swarm. It is a decent DPS boost, but probably the smallest one we can reasonably get rid of.

Resto Tier 1 - Currently, there isn't a lot of debate about this tier of the tree, but that may change at some point. Improved Mark of the Wild and Furor are currently favored because they provide a little extra DPS and regen. However, it is really pretty minor. In a heavy damage situation pushback resistance can be a big DPS boost. Since most guilds have Imp MotW covered by a Resto or Feral Druid, don't be surprised if you see many Moonkin taking points out of Imp MotW or Furor to put a few in Nature's Focus, if the situation calls for it.

Talents: A Quick Look

Starlight Wrath - A straight DPS boost. A must have talent.
Genesis - A horrible Moonkin talent. It is really a way for restos to start the balance tree.
Moonglow - Our worst "regen" talent, but relatively cheap. Many moonkin have 1 or 3 points here.
Nature's Majesty - Straight DPS boost for our two main spells. Also plays well with Eclipse.
Improved Moonfire - Very poor talent when combined with Glyph of Moonfire, but is revived with the 2T9 set bonus.
Brambles - Minor talent. Small single target DPS boost, but primarily for PVP.
Nature's Grace - Must have talent. One of the keys to moonkin DPS.
Nature's Splendor - Straight DPS boost.
Nature's Reach - Extra range and threat reduction are to very nice things to have as a raider.
Vengence - Boosts critical strike damage. It works very well with the Chaotic Skyflare Diamond.
Celestial Focus - Pushback resistance is an often overlooked asset. Combine that with haste and this a great talent.
Lunar Guidance - Spell Power for Int. It buffs an unavoidable stat.
Insect Swarm - A high DPET spell when glyphed.
Improved Insect Swarm - Buffs our two nukes but relies on high DoT uptime.
Dreamstate - Good regen stat for leveling, but last one picked for raiding.
Moonfury - Straight DPS Boost
Balance of Power - The extra Hit chance is critical, but don't over look the damage reduction.
Moonkin Form - The key to the whole tree.
Improved Moonkin Form - Raid wide haste + spell power from spirit = great talent
Improved Fairie Fire - Provides a static 3% crit chance to the moonkin and hit for the raid.
Owlkin Frenzy - A PvP talent, but may find a place in very high level raiding.
Wrath of Cenarius - Straight DPS Boost
Eclipse - Love it or hate it, it is the final key to moonkin DPS.
Typhoon - Primarily a PvP spell, but has limited uses in PvE
Force of Nature - Better known as trents. A great single target DPS Spell.
Gale Winds - Only useful for a AoE heavy fight or if you have no need for regen.
Earth and Moon - Straight DPS boost, and provides an essential raid buff.
Starfall - Provides a solid DPS boost in both AoE and single target situations.

Improved MotW - A minor boost to DPS and survivability
Nature's Focus - Provides push back resistance for Wrath and heals.
Furor - Minor DPS and regen boost.
Natural Shapeshifter - Needed for Master Shapeshifter, but would pass if possible.
Master Shapeshifter - Straight DPS boost
Omen of Clarity - Best Moonkin "regen" talent.
Intensity - Great regen talent when fully raid buffed.

Blue Post: Need Before Greed and Other Things

2009-10-29T08:52:00.006-05:00

This slipped my radar at first, but thanks to Lissanna's excellent post on Restokin.com it came to my attention.

The Blue Posts:

The Need Before Greed loot system will be the unalterable default looting system for pick-up groups in the Dungeon System and has been updated.

Need Before Greed will now recognize gear appropriate for a class in three ways: the class must be able to equip the item, pure melee will be unable to roll on spell power items, and classes are limited to their dominant armor type (ex. paladins for plate). All items will still be available via Greed rolls as well as the new Disenchant option should no member be able to use the item.

Group Disenchanting Option: In addition to rolling “Need” or “Greed” on items, players now have the option to elect for an item to be disenchanted. “Disenchant” works exactly like “Greed” except if a player wins the “Greed” roll, they will receive the disenchanted materials instead. Players who choose “Need” will always win the item and will always beat those that choose “Greed” or “Disenchant.”

A lot has already been said about these changes on the forums, and I want to try and cut through the hysteria.

The Actual Impact:

In a literal sense this change means that Moonkin will not be able to "Need" cloth when using the random group feature coming out in 3.3. A moonkin can "Greed" on cloth using the tool, but their rolls are grouped with everyone that just wants the item for enchanting mats or vendor gold.

In actual play this change will probably have very little impact. Who is running instances for gear any more? Most of the people using this too will be doing so to get emblems, get rep, or get achievements. The only really problem I have with the actual system is that it treats "Greed" and "DE" on the same level. Therefore an item that is a real upgrade for a new moonkin may get automatically DEed so that another player can have a shard in the bank. Other then that, the impact will only be felt by people who are leveling.

The Symbolic Impact:

The reason I have a problem with this change is the symbolic impact. Whether Blizzard means to or not, this change will be interpreted as a big flashing sign that says: "MOONKIN SHOULDN'T WEAR CLOTH!!!"

I am trying to look at it optimistically. First, this will probably have little or no impact right away. Thoughtful guilds like mine will still realize that there are valid reasons for Moonkin to wear cloth in some situations. Thoughtful Moonkin will pick their battles wisely and try not to rock the boat to much. Guilds that currently prevent moonkin from rolling on cloth will continue to do so. The status quo will be maintained.

Another reason to be optimistic is that there are massive changed coming to gear itemization in the next expansion. Moonkin shouldn't have to worry about Spirit any more and hopefully Blizzard will be better about providing gear with the necessary stats like Hit Rating. I may be dreaming but we may actually get to a place where spell leather is equal to cloth. If that happens then the leather vs cloth debate will change quite a bit.

That said, the pessimist in me is worried. Blizzard has gotten a lot better about providing quality spell leather, but there are a couple of facts that make me think that spell leather will never equal cloth.

If you exclude Ele Shaman, there is one spec that will want to use DPS spell leather. There are 3 classes that are restricted to cloth.

Most raids will run with only one Moonkin. Two at the most. On the flip side, most raids will have 6 or more cloth DPSers.

In WotLK, cloth drops are twice as frequent as spell leather drops.

Blizzard has said many times that they don't like seeing items useful to only one class getting sharded week after week when there are possible upgrades for other classes. This is why they don't like to have idols drop from bosses. This means that there will always be better cloth options because there will always be more cloth options. If you only have one non-tier leather piece with Hit Rating you might be forced to use it, because you don't have other options. Moonkin will be back to the same cookie cutter gear we had in TBC.

A Failure of Logic:

Blizzard has acknowledged that this change was likely to be controversial, but they feel it is necessary to protect people against ninja's because it will be harder for players to protect themselves with cross-realm LFG. I understand the reasoning, but I question its logic. Blizzard explained it this way:

Ultimately, our logic went like this: If a Holy paladin loses a great non-plate upgrade to another player, one out of five players might feel bad. If a Holy paladin rolls Need on every type of armor that drops, then four out of five players might have a bad experience. The jerk potential seemed worse than the lost-an-upgrade potential as far as whether or not players buy into using the new dungeon tool.

On the surface the logic seems reasonable. Upsetting 1 person is better then upsetting 4, but I want to ask one question. How big of a problem are Jerks/Ninjas?

I've played WoW for a long time and I've done a lot of pugs. I've met my fair share of assholes, but I would say the vast majority players are reasonable and aren't going to "Need" every single drop.

For arguments sake, lets say that in 1 out of 10 instantance runs there is a jerk that decides ninja loot. Then lets say that in 5 out of 10 instance runs there is a Druid, Shaman or Pally that loses a legitimate upgrade, because they couldn't roll need or another player wanted a shard. Who knows what the actual rate for these to events will be, but I think everyone can see how the 1 vs 4 argument is misleading.

To use Blizzard's example, only the Holy Pally will be upset that he can't roll on the non-plate item, but he may be upset every time he runs that instance because there will usually be someone that hits the DE button without checking to see if it's an upgrade for someone that can't roll need.

I think we would all agree that ninja's suck, but someone getting screwed out of a legitimate upgrade is going to be much more common.

Other Things:

Nature's Grace:

I agree Nature's Grace is a big part of the problem here. We changed Gift of the Earth Mother for pretty similar reasons. However, Nature's Grace is a Really Big Deal. We honestly keep talking about changing it, but we're also paranoid about screwing it up because Balance dps is dependent on it. NG is probably an overbudget talent, but in this case if we nerfed it, we'd have to mess with Balance in a lot of other areas to compensate. We'll almost certainly do it at some point, but I worry about messing with it for 3.3.

Translation: "Nature's Grace is getting nerfed in 4.0."

After reading all of the discussion, I agree with Ghostcrawler's comment quite a bit. If Nature's Grace wasn't so powerful we wouldn't be clipping the GCD, but it's such a powerful talent that nerfing it is more difficult then it sounds. Given that we are so close to an expansion it is probably a lot easier to alter the talent and the spec as they are making the massive changes that come with every expansion.

Twisted Nether Blogcast:

In case you missed it, my appearance on the Twisted Nether Blogcast round table is now available. You can find it here. I am also told it is available on Itunes.

Moonkin Tools: SimCraft

2009-10-28T07:55:00.004-05:00

SimulationCraft

What: SimCraft is a simulation based executable program. I think it was orignally created by Dedmonwakeen on the EJ forums and is not a dedicated Moonkin tool. It currently supports most of the classes in game and Starfox is the current Moonkin developer for the project.

Where: The project's home is in Google Code which you can find here. This is where you would find the downloads, source code, and issue logs. Most of the discussion regarding SimCraft can be found on the EJ forums. The general discussion can be found here. The druid specific discussion can be found here.

How to Use: The developers are working on a GUI interface, but it still in alpha at this point. Therefore, I recommend that you stick with using the text files and such. For the record, I am a Windows user. I don't have a clue as to if or how this would work for any other platform. Here are some basic instructions on how I got it to work.

First, down load the files and put them in their own directory on your computer. There are two files you want to look at first. They are the READ_ME_FIRST.txt and the Examples.txt files. These are probably the best sources of documentation you will find right of the bat.

I assume you will want to download your toon from the Armory or WoWhead. To do that you need to create a text file. You can do this using Notepad. To download from the armory you text file needs to have one line that looks like this:

armory=Region,Server,Player save=Player_Version.simc

For graylo I created one that looked like this:

armory=us,garona,graylo save=graylo_base.simc

When you drag the file you created over the SIMC.BAT file it will download your profile and save it to a simcraft file that can be modified for future runs. Then drag the .simc file you just created over the SIMC.BAT to get the DPS calculation. You can also drag that same file over the SCALE_FACTORS.BAT file to get stat weights as well as the DPS information.

There are several variations to this process. For example you could download your information from a WoWhead profile instead of the armory. You can review the Example.txt file to see more of the possibilities.

Pros:

Fewer Assumptions: Formulation tools like Rawr and WrathCalcs have to make a lot of assumptions to get results. For example, they calculate what the average Eclipse uptime will be. They calculate average cast times. They also make assumptions like DoTs are always up so that you benefit from Imp IS. These are not bad assumptions, and the tools are not bad for making them, but you can see that they might skew the results a little.

Simulations make fewer assumptions. They model DPS by setting up a spell priority and and giving the rotation a time limit. DPS is then calculated based upon the the random procs that occur and the actual buffs and Debuffs you receive. If Fairie Fire is not on the target you do not get the 3% crit chance. I think this results in more realistic numbers when it comes to total DPS questions.

Alt Friendly: Like Rawr, SimCraft covers most of the classes and specs in the game. If you get comfortable using it on your moonkin, you can transfer your knowledge to try and use it to evaluate your alts as well..

Cons:

Statistics: The big problem with simulations is that you will never get the same results twice. Therefore you have to run them multiple times and use averages. Simcraft for example will run you simulation 20,000 times by default to come up with your spec's DPS. When you do the Scale Factors it runs it 20,000 for each stat. Therefore, it runs the simulation about 140,000 times

That sounds like a lot, but it actually happens pretty quickly. The issue is in the variance. SimCraft is great at measuring large changes like what happens if I change my rotation or which set bonus is better. It is bad at measuring small changes like what happens if I add one more Spell Power or Crit Rating. As a result, to provide the stat weights SimCraft has to make large changes in stats. This brings up diminishing returns issues. It's also not good at evaluating minor gear changes.
Unuser Friendly: The project has some decent documentation, but lets face it. Creating text files and doing drag and drops will be intimidating for some users. Also, making changes in the simulation is not easy. If you want to try a different rotation you have to figure out what the triggers are and modify the text files. You can change your gear manually, but it's probably easier to download a new profile. The program also assumes you use all available raid buffs. If you want to turn one off, you have to turn them all off and then turn the rest back on. Hopefully, when they get the GUI interface running this will eliminate most of these issues.

Black Box: Again, unless you understand C++ SimCraft is a just a Black Box that you put numbers in and have numbers spit back out to you. If you're like me you like to know how it got from point A to point B, but that is not possible unless you understand the language.

This isn't a huge issue, because a lot of smart people are reviewing these tools, but I like to be able to research an issue when the results seem strange to me. SimCraft does not allow me personally to do that easily.

TL:DR

SimCraft is great because it provides a view of your DPS that the other tools can't provide. It lets random events occur as random events, and impact your DPS as they would in an actual raid situation. This makes it a great tool for evaluating spell rotations, idol procs, and set bonuses. However, due to the very nature of statistics it can't provide exact results that are consistent every time you run the simulation. It is not necessarily the best tool for evaluating small gear or stat changes.

SimCraft also has some very big issues with how users will interact with it. Unless you are computer savvy it may be very intimidating to create the files necessary to use the tool.

A Return to the Twisted Nether Blogcast

2009-10-20T15:54:00.003-05:00

Fimlys and Nibuca over at the Twisted Nether Blogcast have asked me to participate in a round table discussion this Friday. The primary topic of discussion will be patch 3.3 and how it affects us, but I'm sure the conversation will drift some. The round table will feature myself, Matt from World of Matticus, Stoneybaby from BigHitBox, Pike from Aspect of the Hare, and possibly Honor from Honor's Code.

You may remember that I was featured on TNB back in April as the blogger of the week. I had a lot of fun and it seemed like the people in the chat room enjoyed themselves as well. I'm sure this time will be a lot of fun as well. I just have to remember to let other people talk.

Anyway, the taping will be this Friday 10/23/2009, at 10 pm CST. Click Here, if you would like to find details on how to participate in the live taping. Don't worry, if your unable to attend the taping. They will post the recorded show sometime next week and I will link it when it is available.

Blue Post: Haste and the GCD

2009-10-20T10:42:00.002-05:00

In case you missed it Murmurs, started another really good thread regarding Haste and the Global Cooldown. You can find it here.

Since Blizzard is looking at haste a little more closely in patch 3.3 with the possibility of having DoTs affected by haste, Murmurs has taken this opportunity to summarize the Moonkin issues with haste rating.

I'm sure the issue is well known to most of you. Moonkin's have two primary nukes. After Starlight Wrath, Starfire has a base cast time of 3.0 seconds, Wrath has a base cast time of 1.5 seconds, and as always the minimum GCD is 1.0 second. After you account for Celestial Focus, Improved Moonkin Form, Wrath of Air, and Nature's Grace, a moonkin only needs 400 haste rating to cap the affective Wrath cast time at 1 second.

This ends up causing a problem with how we scale. Moonkin are is the only spec that has a nuke with a 1.5 second base cast time and is a core part of the rotation. This causes an inequity when Blizzard tries to balance us against other classes. In WotLK we balance very well in the Tier 7 content, but seemed to have slipped some as we progress to higher tiers. I can't blame this all on haste, Wrath, and the GCD, but it is definately a contributing factor. Since we don't scale as well with Haste rating as Mages, Shaman, and Destro Locks do, it creates and opportunity for us to fall behind in DPS.

That's the issue as I see it and I think this is what Murmur's was trying to point out.

The Blue Post:

Ghostcrawler stopped by the thread and posted these comments.

So in theoretical-space, how much do think these problems go away if haste doesn't bump into the global cooldown for some of these spells?

I know it's cumbersome to explore why that would be the case, because I don't want to stipulate that haste rating just gets cut in half or whatever. I also think it complicates things when you start talking about all the added benefits of spells becoming instant (such as being able to move and not being interruptable).

I'm trying to get at whether it is the way different spells behave under haste or whether it's the GCD that's the problem.

I'll be honest, I'm not completely sure what Ghostcrawler is trying to get at here, and I'm a little confused by his response. I think he is trying to address the solutions that are being suggested. So, I'm going to take that approach from here on out. The two basic suggestions I've see are to lower the GCD or increase the cast time of Wrath.

Lower the GCD:

Currently the minimum GCD you can have is 1 second. Some people are suggesting that this should be lowered even further or possibly eliminated.

Personally, I don't like this possibility for a couple of reasons. Vontre explained it best on post #146 on the thread.

It's the gcd, except the gcd cap is fine where it's at because 1 second is about as low as you want to go for the human brain to process action -> button press -> server command -> return to client -> evaluate result. Problem is Wrath is too fast for a primary nuke.

Lowering the GCD is not a clean solution. When you consider the latency and the human factor, you realize that you can cast only so fast. While we would technically scale better, the practical aspects of the game would limit the impact of the change.

Increase Wrath's Cast Time:

There are multiple ways to do this. Some have suggested increasing Wrath's Cast time using a Glyph. Others have suggested that some of the buffs that reduce Wrath's cast time be changed or eliminated. Let me look at these possibilities separately.

Glyph: The suggestion is that blizzard add a glyph that increases Wrath's cast time by 0.5 seconds and the damage by 33%. This would not change the DPS of the spell at zero haste, but would allow it to scale with haste more appropriately. I like this suggestion but I see two issues with it.
1. The first issue is how this impacts Eclipse. A lot of people complain about how Wrath procs Lunar Eclipse on only 60% of crits but it's done for a practical reason. It makes Solar and Lunar Eclipse proc at a similar rate. If you increase Wrath's cast time without increasing the proc rate of Eclipse you throw off that balance.
2. The second issue is what type of Glyph would it be? If it's a major glyph then your losing DPS by not having one of your other glyphs. Making it a minor glyph wouldn't have this problem since most of the minor glyphs we currently use have little impact, but it would increase our DPS indirectly and my not qualify as a minor glyph.

Lowering Talent Haste: This suggestion is that Blizzard either nerf or eliminate some of our haste providing abilities. If we have lower haste then we will brush up against the GCD less and eliminate the scaling issue.

The problem with this suggestion is that it is a straight nerf to our DPS. The affect would be moderated by the increased usefulness of haste rating, but in total the affect would be a nerf. Therefore this doesn't fix the problem unless they buff Moonkin in other ways as well.

The Third Option:

The third option is that they fix moonkin scaling in some other way without touching Haste or Wrath's cast time at all. This has been alluded to by several people, but not out right said. Blizzard could fix our scaling issues by making us scale with another stat at a higher rate then most class do.

For instance, what if Crit Rating not only increased your Crit Chance, but also increased the amount of damage your critical strikes did. Any change like this would take a lot of balancing, but my point is that Haste is not the only stat that could be used to make us scale better. The best option maybe to leave Wrath, the GCD and all of our haste the way it is and tweak moonkin DPS in some other way.

In some ways, I think this is the best option, but it's probably the most difficult to implement.

2T8 vs 4T9: A Different Perspective

2009-10-16T11:29:00.002-05:00

Looking around the internet I came upon this discussion on the Moonkin Repository. None of the sentiments expressed in the thread are new, but I've grown frustrated with some of the conclusions that have been drawn over time. It seems to me that some people have an unrealistic expectation of what set bonuses should be. Please let me use the 2T8 vs 4T9 debate as an example.

A History of 2T8

The first version of 2T8 was a 6% increase to your Eclipse buffs when the eclipse buffs were mutually exclusive. Math that I and a couple of other people did showed that it was extremely inferior to 4T7 and suggested that Blizzard buff it to 15% to make it competitive. When Blizzard buffed it as we suggested it became a good set bonus that increased Moonkin DPS by about 3% give or take. In patch 3.2 Eclipse was buffed so that the two Eclipse buffs were no longer mutually exclusive, and you could proc one while the other was on cooldown. Not only was this a significant buff to Eclipse, but it was also a significant buff to 2T8. This increased the value of 2T8 so that the set bonus provided about a 6% DPS increase. This is much larger then most other Set Bonuses in the history of the game and many theorycrafters including myself expected 2T8 to be nerfed. It was not.

2T8 vs 4T9: A different perspective

I have seen several comments that said something to the affect of "4T9 sucks. Blizzard is screwing us." I completely disagree.

4T9 is not a bad set bonus. My calculations value it at about a 2.5% DPS increase. Looking at prior moonkin set bonuses and the set bonuses of other classes, set bonuses tend to be worth somewhere between 2% and 4%. 4T9 is on the lower end of that scale, but a 2.5% DPS increase is not something to brush off. It's much more significant than most people think.

2T8, on the other hand, is a bad set bonus. Try and understand what I'm saying before you flame me. 2T8 is obviously a very strong set bonus, but it is an outlier. The reason we don't move from 2T8 to 4T9 isn't because 4T9 is weak, but because 2T8 is strong.

The reality of the situation is that Blizzard is not going to increase the value of set bonuses with each tier of content. It would be an unsustainable cycle. If they did that, at some point only the set bonuses would matter. The trick is to try and maintain the value of set bonuses from tier to tier to make for an easy transition, without making the other factors of our DPS meaningless.

Therefore, every time you say "4T9 is weak" or "buff 4T9", what blizzard probably hears is "2T8 is too strong" or "Nerf 2T8."

Myth: 2T8 was made to Make Moonkin Competitive

It seems to be a popular opinion that Blizzard purposely used 2T8 to make Moonkin competitive with other classes in terms of DPS. Personally I think the suggestion is ludicrous. Why would Blizzard balance any class using a temporary set bonus? It doesn't make sense. To maintain the buff they would have to continue giving that class over powered set bonuses. This would in turn create expectations of what a set bonus should be worth, and the other classes would get up set that one classes set bonuses were always significantly better then their own.

If Blizzard feels the need to balance a class they are going to do so with more permanent changes like having Spirit provide Spell Power, or changing Eclipse so that the buffs are not mutually exclusive.

TL:DR

Like everyone, I would love it if 4T9 was better. I would love it if all moonkin bonuses and abilities were better. I would love it if Moonkin were OP for once in their lives, but that is not good game design. No one likes to hear it but 4T9 is probably closer to what a set bonuses should be then 2T8. If you keep asking for a change to be made, don't be surprised when that change happens on the opposite side of the equation.

Patch 3.3: Relics

2009-10-14T08:19:00.003-05:00

This will be a short post, but after looking at the latest info MMO-Champion there are a couple of things I want to comment on.

T10 Balance Druid Relic - The periodic damage from your Insect Swarm and Moonfire spells grants 44 critical strike rating for 15 sec. Stacks up to 5 times.

At first glance I was pretty unimpressed due to it's similarity to the T9 idol. Lets take a quick look at it for comparison.

[Idol of Lunar Fury] - Each time your Moonfire spell deals periodic damage, you have a chance to gain 200 critical strike rating for 12 sec.

The two idols buff your crit chance by a similar amount and both are based upon a DoT you put up. So, my first reaction was "Don't I already have this idol?" My second reaction a little more honest. While these two idols are very similar it is important to note the differences.

The first difference is obvious. The T9 idol grants 200 Crit Rating. The T10 idol grants 220 Crit Rating when fully stacked. If you assume a 100% uptime of both idols then this is a 10% buff to the idol slot. That's not that bad of a buff going from one tier to the next.

The second difference is something a lot of people will ignore.The T10 idol will have a higher buff uptime. The T9 idol buff has a 70%-90% proc chance and a 12 second duration. It's so high that most players and theorycrafters assume that it has 100% uptime. That's not a bad assumption, but in real life the idol's uptime will be less.

Since the buff is proc based there is always the possibility that bad luck will strike and it doesn't proc for an extended period of time. Also, there are times when casting DoTs is not in your best interest. At these times your giving the buff an opportunity to slip off.

The T10 idol on other hand is not proc based and has a 15 second duration. If you cast both DoTs the buff should be fully stacked within 8 seconds. Since Moonfire has at least a 15 second duration, as long as your cast a DoT every 27 seconds the stack will be maintained.

TL:DR - The T10 idol is not sexy and it isn't something your going to see a bunch of moonkin going nuts over. However, the buff is a little bit bigger then the T9 idol and it will be easier to maintain the buff. Therefore, this is a clear upgrade, despite my first reaction.

Rebirth: The cooldown on this spell has been lowered from 20 minutes down to 10 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas.

Great chance. If you've read my blog for along time you may remember that I thought that the Rebirth cooldown should have been reduced to 15minutes instead of 20 back in the early days of BC. Reducing it to 10 minutes is even better then my suggestion.

The big problem with the 20 minute cooldown is that if you use it in one attempt you don't have it for the next 2 or 3. Hopefully, with this change it will now be up for almost every attempt. This does make me wonder about soul stone though. They should reduce it's cooldown also.

UI Change: Any party member may mark raid targets.

Oh god, please don't let this go through. I can see the advantages for this change. The leader of the party is not always the best person to mark targets. This is especially true in 5mans when you can't make someone an assistant. I see the issue, but I also see the headache this could cause.

First, Addons like DBM and Big Wiggs like to use the icons to mark people that get buffs or debuffs. Most of the time that is fine and it doesn't matter that 25 different mods are trying to mark those people. However, there have been times in my raids were those marks were distracting and we want to turn them off. If you've ever tried to get 25 people to PvP flag in an instance, I think you'll understand how hard it will be to get 25 people to turn off a part of DBM so that the targets aren't marked.

Second, you always have to worry about people getting silly and changing the marks as a joke or on accident. There are some responsibilities that should be left up to the leader of a group. I think this is one of them.

Moonkin Tools: Rawr

2009-10-13T08:39:00.002-05:00

Rawr

What: Rawr is a formulation based executable application that models several classes and rolls. The project was originally started by Astrylian as a Feral Druid tool, but many developers have been added to expand the tool to other classes. Dopefish is the current Moonkin developer on the project.

Where: You can download the tool from Rawr's website here. They also maintain a thread on the Elitist Jerks forums to document changes and handle questions. You can find it here.

How to Use: I'm not going to go in depth here for two reasons. First, Rawr is a little more complicated then can be easily explained here quickly. Second, they already have very good documentation on their web. The two main things you will want to look at are the Rawr Video and the Rawr Help section. If you have additional questions I suggest you go to the Discussions site. You can search the topics. If you don't find your answer, you can post the question yourself.

Pros:

Documentation: A tool is useless if potential users can't figure out how to use it. I do think that the current documentation can be expanded and improved, but what they have is great. At the very least it is much better then the documentation for WrathCalcs and Simcraft. I posted several links in the How to Use section. What I like most is the discussions site. It's nice to be able to ask a question if you don't understand something or search the questions that other people have already asked.

User Friendly: Rawr is the most user friendly tool I've seen out there. Since it has a GUI interface, even people that are not that computer savvy should be able to use it effectively. On top of that, it allows you to download your profile from the Armory to get started quickly.
Functionality: Rawr has some neat little functions that you won't find on other tools. The Optimizer is a particularly cool feature. If you select the gear pieces you have available to you, clicking the Optimizer will tell you what is the best set of gear possible. You can also swap pieces of gear in and out to see how they will impact your DPS. You can also change up your gems and enchants to see what affect that will have.
Alt-Friendly: If your like me and have a couple of alts one of the nice things about Rawr is that you can use it to evaluate several classes and specs. The tool doesn't cover all specs, and I don't know the quality of the other modules, but Rawr is a good place to start if you want to evaluate your Alt without downloading another spreadsheet.

Cons:

Black Box: Unless you understand C# Rawr is a just a Black Box that you put numbers in and have numbers spit back out to you. Since I am not a programmer I don't understand the guts of the program, and I don't like the fact that I don't know how it got from point A to point B.

The reason I don't like it is because every tool makes assumptions and has limitations. If you don't understand those assumptions and limitations it is impossible to account for them in your choices. I know this won't be a big deal for some users, but I like to know whats going on behind the curtain.
Calculation Questions: I am not saying they are wrong, and according to Dopefish, with the exception of trinkets, the calcs in Rawr are the same as the calcs in WrathCalcs. However, I have experienced unusual results when using Rawr. For example, this was a couple of upgrades ago, but when I first put my profile into Rawr it recommended a MF/SF rotation with no IS.

Obviously this goes against the conventional wisdom and raises some questions about the tool. However, Dopefish says that Rawr.Moonkin has been reviewed and fact-checked by third party reviewers. At this time they are unable to find what is causing the differences between the tools.

Out of Date UI: The big question I had when I first looked at Rawr was if it was updated for the 3.2 version of Eclipse? The current UI doesn't give a good indication that it is, and the current UI shows DPS results by Rotation. However, Dopefish says the current version of Eclipse is fully integrated into the tool.

TL:DR

Rawr is a very nice tool for evaluating upgrades and the different gear options. The documentation provided and the User Friendliness of the tool sets it apart from the other options.

That said, I do have some small concerns about the calculations. I think they are probably directionally correct and can accurately predict most gear upgrades. However, some of the results provided are confusing.

The Scotty Principle

2009-10-08T21:38:00.004-05:00

I am not a big Star Trek fan but there is one episode of The Next Generation that has always stuck out for me. It is the episode called Relics where the crew finds an old Federation ship wrecked and abandoned. When they examine the ship they find that the teleporters are still active and holding an aged Scotty from the original Star Trek in stasis.

To be honest, I had to look most of that up on Wikipedia to remember what happened, but there is one scene in the episode that has always made me laugh. As usual there is sort of problem that needs solving and Geordi La Forge has an idea of how to fix it, and tells the captain it will take 2 or 3 hours. When Geordi and Scotty get back to Engineering, Scotty asks Geordi, "How long will it really take you?" Geordi says, "2 or 3 hours."

Scotty's response is shock and he says "You told him how long it would actually take you? How do you expect to be considered a Miracle worker if you tell them how long it will really take."

The moral of this story is that, if you lower expectations, it's much easier to please your audience.

This may seem like a random story, but I wonder if Blizzard is trying to use this process to manage their player's reactions. Lets face it, the only way they could make a majority of the player base happy in one shot would be to make bonuses and buffs that are so clearly awesome that everyone loves them immediately. That may sound nice to players but it is a slippery slope. Players will always expect the new bonus to be better than the last one. If you give into that desire then you run into issues with stat inflation.

So, how do you keep the players happy, prevent inflation, and still provide interesting buffs that provide a decent buff? You lower expectations.

With a set bonus you give them something you know is worse than what you intend. That way when they complain you buff it to what you really intended. The players still may not be completely happy with it but it's better than what you originally showed them, and you give off the illusion of taking player concern into account.

I'm not saying Blizzard does this, but it makes me wonder when I see a set bonus so clearly bad like the original version of 4T10 and then a quick buff within 24 hours.

The New Set Bonuses:

2 Piece Tier 10: When you gain Clearcasting from your Omen of Clarity talent, you deal 15% additional Nature and Arcane damage for 6 seconds. (Changed from 10%)

There were a lot of different valuations thrown around yesterday regarding this set bonus. Most of them valued it as about a 2%-2.5% dps increase. I think those estimates are a little optimistic, but let's assume they are in the ball park. A 50% increase to the buff would make the estimated DPS increase 3%-3.75%.

I still think these estimations are a little high, but they are definitely in the ball park of what I think a set bonus should provide. I still don't like the fact that it is another random proc that we must rely on for DPS, but that doesn't look like it is going to change. In short, I am happy with this buff at the moment.

4 Piece Tier 10: Your critical strikes from Starfire and Wrath cause the target languish for an additional 5% of your spell's damage over 4 seconds.

This is much better than the original set bonus, but there are some questions about how it will impact our DPS.

How will the extra damage be applied and how often? We know that is applied over 4 seconds, but is it every second? Every 2 seconds? This is important because we cast spells faster than every 4 seconds. We can cast Wrath almost every second, and it is quite possible to have two crits in a row. Does the second crit over write the first? What if the first crit was a Starfire crit with more damage than the second crit which was from Wrath?

These are very important questions when trying to determine the value of this buff. Especially when it comes to Lunar Eclipse where some people will have close to 85% - 90% crit chance. Will this set bonus be useless in that situation?

I have done some napkin math to try and put a value on it. Assuming that the dots don't overwrite each other, a Chaotic Skyflare Diamond is equipped, and the caster has a very high crit chance around 45%-55%, this buff would increase the damage of Starfire and Wrath between 3% and 3.5%. Assuming that these two nukes make up about 80% of our DPS , this set bonus would increase Moonkin DPS by 2.5%-3%.

There are some other considerations that I've excluded to make the math easier, but I think this is a good estimate of the value, and probably a little optimistic. If my napkin valuation is correct then it is a little lower than I would like. I thing the set bonus should be worth between 3.5%-4%, but that is just my opinion. One thing, that can't be argued is that it is a whole lot better than the original 4T10, and that may have been Blizzard's goal all along.

(Edited by Flamedor)

Patch 3.3: Tier 10 Set Bonuses

2009-10-08T07:51:00.005-05:00

/sigh... Here we go again.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, MMO-Champion has pulled apart the latest PTR build and found the Tier 10 set bonuses. You can find them here.

One of the themes for Moonkin in WotLK has been to fight against sub par Set Bonuses. The tier 7 bonuses were satisfactory for the most part, and everyone loves 2T9. However, it has been a bumpy road other than that. The 2 piece T8 use to buff Eclipse by 6% instead of the 15% it is now. The 4T8 set bonus was bugged and we had to fight to get it fixed. The 4T9 set bonus bordered on insultingly bad as just a 3% increase to crit chance for Wrath and Starfire, but was upgraded to a 4% damage buff for both spells. Given this history, I guess it is fitting that we have issues with the Tier 10 set bonus. The good news is that Blizzard has reviewed our bonuses in the past and made changes. Hopefully, Tier 10 won't be different.

One last thing. It is important to remember that data mined information is data mined. While much of it is usually correct, there are plenty of examples where the data mined info included out of date info or info that is just plain wrong. It is quite possible that Blizzard has something else planned but is not currently included in the patch build.

4 Piece Tier 10: Reduces the cooldown on your Eclipse talent by 6000.

I'm talking about this one first because it is the most troubling. Obviously, we can't take the number 6000 seriously because you can't reduce Eclipse by 6000. That said, it is still an obviously bad set bonus. The set bonus could be that Eclipse has no cooldown and it would still be obviously bad.

To highlight the issue I have to ask only one question. Since 3.2, when has the Eclipse cooldown ever been a limiting issue?

Sure, with the use of WiseEclipse the Eclipse cooldown can be slighly limiting, and it would probably be benifical to cancel Solar Eclipse to reproc Lunar Eclipse during Bloodlust/Heroism. However, those are either rare or very minor situations.

The reason this is a bad set bonus is obvious once you consider some facts.

The Eclipse buff lasts 15 seconds. The Eclipse cooldown is 30 seconds. Even if you chain proc the Eclipse buffs, the two buffs combined would eat up the 30 second cooldown. This isn't entirely true if you use an addon like WiseEclipse, but I have a hard time believing that Blizzard would build a set bonus around an addon that most users think is a little shady.
Math that I and many others have done shows that the two Eclipse buffs are very similar in value a majority of the time. Therefore there is no real value in using one over the other in most situation.

If there is no reason for you to force one Eclipse to proc over the other, and there is no way you would proc Eclipse more quickly naturally, then it is obviously not a buff.

I haven't done any math on it but the best way to modifiy this buff in my opinion is to have it extend the Eclipse buff rather than reduce the cooldown. I'm pulling numbers off the top of my head, but if it extended Eclipse's length to 20 or 25 seconds instead of 15, then it would increase the uptime of the buff and it would work better with other buffs like Heroism and on use trinkets.

2 Piece Tier 10: When you gain Clearcasting from your Omen of Clarity talent, you deal 10% additional Nature and Arcane damage for 6 sec.

To be honest, I'm not 100% sure how Omen of Clarity works. Historically, it has had a speed based proc chance that may or may not be impacted by haste. The proc rate is reportedly based around 2 procs per minute. WoWWiki has a report that says it has about a 6% proc rate. To find out the real impact I will have to look at some logs but let's assume for a second that it procs 2 times per minute. Let's also assume that the procs don't over lap.

If these two assumptions are true then the buff would be up for 12 seconds per minute or 20% of the time. Therefore, if fully utilized then this set bonus would buff your Arcane and Nature Damage by 2% on average (10%*20%). In actuality it will be less than that, because part of the buff will not be effective since damage is calculated at the end of the cast .

Another big question is how this buff would be applied? Is it additive or multiplicative?

Historically, buffs that affect specific spells, like Moonfury, are additive. Global buffs, like Earth and Moon, are multiplicative. It's hard to tell which one this buff will be since it specifies schools of damage, but it covers everything we could cast.

It's important to ask, because it will have an impact on the value of the buff. A multiplicative buff of 10% is a 10% buff to damage. An additive buff of 10% will be worth less due to the way it combines with other buffs. Improved Moonfire is a great example of where a 10% buff can get completely lost and overshadowed by a larger buff.

I can't make a firm statement on this set bonus yet, because I don't understand all of the parts completely. However, I will say this. It does not give me a warm fuzzy feeling. I don't like the fact that it is based upon a talent that we don't necessarily need since there are some moonkin dropping OoC. I don't like the fact that it is another random proc for a spec that is already swimming in random procs. I don't like that the buff is only 6 seconds and could easily get swallowed up by movement or a delay in fight mechanics. It could be great, but it doesn't feel right.

Tier 10 Art:

I don't usually comment on the art of the game, but take a look at this picture.

I haven't decided if I like it, but it is definitely interesting. It's kind of like a demonic tree. This image was taken from MMO-Champion.

(Edited by Flamedor)

Patch 3.3 & Firefighter

2009-10-02T08:27:00.004-05:00

Patch 3.3:

As you probably know Patch 3.3 has hit the PTR, and we have a new set of patch notes and undocumented changes to look over. It's not surprising to me that the patch notes are fairly brief. Reportedly Patch 3.3 is the final chapter in Wrath of the Lich King and I would hope that they have the classes pretty much where they want them by now. That said there are a couple of things to discuss.

Icecrown Citadel - Obviously the new raid instance and 5man dungeon are the primary features of the new patch. Not much is known about the raid, but Blizzard has released some information regarding the 5man. You can find it here.

It sounds pretty cool from the limited information provided, but I do have one question. I really want to know how the fight against Arthas will play out at the end of Halls of Reflection. Obviously we can't kill him because that will be done in the raid, but I hope they have a better explanation than, "HoR was just a set back," like they did with Kael.

That said, I don't have a problem with them recycling bosses in this way as long as it fits the story, and provides a play opportunity that wasn't widely available before. To illustrate the difference, lets look at two examples.

Kael'thas is an example of good recycling. The Tempest Keep version of Kael is a very fun and difficult fight that few players saw let alone complete. Making a 5 man version of the fight made sense from a lore perspective because you made a strong boss weaker and therefore vulnerable to a 5man group. Plus, it allowed the majority of players that couldn't see him in the raid to get a taste of one of the best TBC fights. This one made sense from a lot of angles.

Anub'arak is an example of bad recycling. They took a heroic boss that a majority of raiders had already seen, scaled him up a bit and made him a raid boss with little explanation. This move didn't expose players to content they hadn't seen before because Anub'arak was already widely available, and from a lore perspective it feels like Blizzard thought, "We need someone to end the raid with. How about Anub?"

Hopefully the two versions of Arthas will be more like Kael and less like Anub.

Pet Avoidance - Now reduces the damage your pets take from area-of-effect damage by 90%, but no longer applies to area-of-effect damage caused by other players. - Sounds like a PvE buff and PvP nerf. It makes sense to me. Raid Boss AoE hits a lot harder than player AoE. You want the pets to survive in raid, but to be killable by players. Its not that big of a deal but nice for us.

Nature's Grace - now procs from non-periodic spell criticals. (Old - All spell criticals) - I'm a little confused at what this means. When I first read it I thought it was a tool tip change so Blizzard won't get a lot of complaints about Moonfire DoT crits not procing Nature's Grace. Allison Roberts over at WoW.com thinks it will also prevent Hurricane and Starfall from procing Nature's Grace. (source MMO-Champion)

We will have to test it on the PTR, but I still think my original interpretation was correct. I just don't see why Hurricane and Starfall procing Nature's Grace would be a big deal. However, if Allison is correct its not a big deal. Nature's Grace will still be up 75-90% of the time.

EDIT: Erdluf, and the EJ forums make some good points I had forgotten. Hurricane doesn't proc Nature's Grace currently. The damage from Starfall has two pieces. The splash damage is AoE damage and does not currently proc NG. The damage from the stars is direct damage and should still be able to proc NG. Of course it will need to be tested to be 100% sure, but this is very likely just a tooltip change.

Genesis - now increases the damage and healing done by your periodic spell damage and healing effects. (Old - All periodic damage) - This really is a just tooltip change to clarify that this talent won't buff Feral DPS.

FireFighter:

Mimiron hard mode is done.

I don't normally report on individual boss kills anymore, but this is one of the special ones that is likely to stand out for me. I love the fight but LoE's attempts on him were very frustrating. First off, we lost a lot of our core raiders right as we started doing him. This forced us to take a bit of a step back and not put as much time on him as I would like. It even lead to a misunderstanding that caused me to cuss out one of my guild leaders (sorry Sev). After we finally started to put some serious work into it our attempts always seemed to be one step forward and 2 steps back. Countless times we would have 5-10% enrage wipes and then not be able to get to phase 4 for 3 or 4 attempts in a row. It was very frustrating to constantly see such progress followed by such failure.

It really all goes back to my post about the Illusion of Success. Though we were getting to phase 4 every 4 or 5 attempts we were still having big issues with phase 3 and killing it fast enough. It took all of those failures to figure out how best to coordinate when and were to drop the head. In the end we killed him with only 30 minutes left in our raid, and it gave me that warm tingly feeling that only a few bosses can give.

Great job guys.

(Edited by Flamedor)

My Goals: 10/01/2009

2009-10-01T09:30:00.006-05:00

Lets take a quick look at where we are. Wrath of the Lich King was released a little over 11 months ago. The first two big content patches have been released. Cataclysm, the next expansion, was announced a little over a month ago. The third, and reportedly final, content patch is likely to hit the PTR very soon, and Blizzard has said several times they would like to release expansions more quickly then they have in the past.

Patch 3.1 was released 5 months after release. Patch 3.2 was released 4 months after patch 3.1. At this pace we could see the expansion in early to mid summer 2010 or late summer to early fall if you give it a little padding. Of course, these are just slightly educated guesses, and could be very far from the truth. However, I think it is reasonable to assume that WotLK is at least in its midlife and could be well on its way to retirement. With that in mind I would like to lay out some goals for the time we have left in WotLK.

Raiding:
These are pretty easy to guess.

Goal: Kill everything on the on the hardest mode possible before a 3.0 style of nerf. I really like that I killed everything in TBC before WotLK was released, but a good portion of the kills were not progression kills, and we didn't get anything down in Sunwell before the big nerf. I would like to improve upon that in WotLK.
Probability: Very Good. Times have been a little rough lately, but the guild was very stable from when I joined last year in September to May of this year. If we can repeat that stability again then we should kill everything. If not, it will be difficult.

Goal: Get all e-peen enhancers. This goes right along with "kill everything," but I want to emphasise it. Basically, I want all of the 310% drakes and all of the titles that mean anything. I would love to get the server first titles, but I know that's not going to happen. Everything else though is up for grabs.
Probability: Good. My biggest worry here is the Ulduar Meta. We are very close to killing Mimiron hard mode. Vezax and Crazy Cat Lady should go down fairly easily once we focus on them. The big obstacles are Yogg+1 and time. We have at least 30 days to get this all done, and I think we can do it in that time if we focus on it, but you never know. Luckily we probably have a little more time then that. My new guess is that they will remove toe drakes with patch 3.3.

Alts:
My Warlock and my Priest are already level 80. I am doing some raiding with the Warlock, but I don't have any big hopes for either of them. I wouldn't mind completing all of the phasing for them but that is unlikely to happen.

Goal: Level Grayvik the Mage to 80.I know I can buy the herbs of the AH with out much problem, but I don't like not having gatherers incase I need to farm a little bit. My mage is entirely a gatherer with Herbilism and Skinning as his two professions. This may not seem like a big deal, but I like the peace of mind and it will support some of my other goals.
Probability: Almost guaranteed. he's level 72 at the moment. Its really just a matter of time.

Goal: Level Graybel the Shaman to Northrend.I would love to get him to 80, but that is not my primary concern. He is a skinner/leatherworker, and I want to get him to a point where he can max out his professions.
Probability: 50/50. He is currently level 23 and has a long way to go. In the past it has taken me about 8 or 9 months to get to max level. Grayvik is taking a little longer, but that is understandable given the expansion and the time I took to level my 3 level 80s. I think I can do it. I just depends on when the expansion hits and how well my other goals go.

Goal: Level Graydeth the Death Knight to Northrend.You haven't heard about this guy before. I started him to see the Death Knight starting area, I haven't played him much. However, I think he would be a good choice to level up a Blacksmith. A this point I would level him up purely for the professions.
Probability: Doubtful. Again, time is the big issue. This goal is pretty far down the list and I doubt I will get to it by the time the next expansion is released if I'm honest with myself.

Professions:
On my three 80's I have Alchemy, Inscriptions, Tailoring, Enchanting, Jewelcrafting, and Mining maxed out or within a few points of being maxed out. Skinning and Herbilism aren't far behind on my mage.

Goal: Max out Fishing.I hate fishing. I don't like it, but there are some advantages to being able to fish. I would like to have it maxed out to take advantage of those benefits just in case I need them.
Probability: 50/50. Thank god for the changes they made to Fishing during WotLK. At the end of TBC I was about 50 points away from Max skill, and I couldn't bring myself to level it. Now, I knock out a little at a time doing fishing dailys or just to kill some time in Dalaran. I think I will get there but who knows.

Goal: Max out Leatherworking on Graybel.I would be nice to have a leather worker to back up Graylo since he can wear leather. Plus, there are other opportunities I would like to be able to take advantage of.
Probability: 50/50. If I get him to Northrend, he will max out leather working. I've used the skins farmed by my mage to level his leather working and his skill is well beyond his current level. The only thing currently holding back is skill is his own level.

Goal: Max out Blacksmithing on Graydeth.I want this purely to make gold.
Probability: Doubtful. I think if I level him it won't be hard to max out his professions, but I doubt I have time to get him there.

Goblinish Goals:
As you can probably tell, a lot of my goals have been leading up to this one.

Goal: Have 100k gold when the expansion is released.If you want to make a lot of gold in WoW you have to find the imperfections in the market and beat them to death. Since everything in WoW is available to every player, these imperfections are usually the result of a lack of knowledge. Consumers don't realize that they could buy the herbs for that glyph for just a couple of gold and buy the glyph for 20g instead. Producers don't realize they can make 1000% profit on an item so they don't enter the market. So the people who see the opportunities make a killing. However, even if you see these opportunities you need the capital to take advantage of them. That is why I want 100k gold.
Probability: Iffy. You may have read the report about the MMO-Champion guy making 125k gold in 7 weeks. That makes my goal sound easy, but lets face the facts for a second.

First of all he makes his living off of WoW. He is probably very knowledgeable about the different tricks, and can have a computer open next to him at all times to take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves. I don't know how he did it for sure, but I would be surprised if he wasn't camping the AH to some extent. Most people just don't have that kind of time.

Second, not all servers are the same. Some are very undeveloped, with few competitors. In such a situation your able to sell your goods at a fairly high price for a lot of profit. Other servers will have a tighter market. Take mine for example. According the the MMO-Champion guides you should sell your glyphs for a minimum of 4 or 5 gold, buy eternal earth and eternal shadow for around 10g or less, and buy green gems for around a gold apiece. On my server, 4 or 5 gold is often the market price for Glyphs, good luck trying to sell them for more. The market price for eternal earth and shadow are around 15g and rarely goes lower then 10. Green Quality Gems go for 2g or more.

Over time, imperfections will be worked out of the market as more people discover the opportunity, thus the market will be come less profitable. My point is that my server is pretty far along that curve. I can easily see several sellers that I am competing with and that getting to 100k is going to take a while if it happens at all.

Moonkin Tools: Wrathcalcs

2009-09-29T10:15:00.012-05:00

I'm starting a new series to take a look at a few of the Moonkin Tools available around the internet. I get a lot of questions asking for advice. I can't use cloth gear, what is my BiS list? Should I pick up this talent? Can I drop my mana regen? These questions are very difficult to answer without knowing the player's situation. Luckily there are several tools available that can help you with these questions if you know how to use them.

This post will take a look at Wrathcalcs. Future posts will take a look at Rawr and SimCraft. These are the primary tools that I know about. If you have suggestions for other tools I should look at post them in the comments.

Wrathcalcs

What: Wrathcalcs is a formulation based Excel spreadsheet that models Moonkin DPS. It was originally created by Adoriele to be the successor to Efejel's very popular TBC Moonkin spreadsheet. It doesn't have all the functionality of the original Moonkin Spreadsheet, but the guts of the calculations are still there and have been improved upon. The spreadsheet is now being maintained and updated by Hamlet.

Where: The best place to pick it up is from the Moonkin PvE Think Tank post on the EJ forums. It is at the bottom of the post. You can find it here.

How to Use: The novice user only needs to worry about two tabs in the spreadsheet, but both tabs provide both input sections and results outputs.

Character Sheet (Inputs): This is the primary input section of the spreadsheet. There are multiple sections you need to fill out.

Current Stats: Input your stats as you would view them on the Armory. These are your base stats without buffs and not in moonkin form.
Gear: Allows you to select set bonuses and idols. Make sure you don't select more than two set bonuses.
Other Sections: They are fairly self explanatory. Select the talents, buffs, and debuffs you use in a raid

Character Sheet (Outputs): The Character Sheet also displays the Marginal values of Stats, Buffs, Talents, and Glyphs. This can be very handing when making quick gear choices.
Rotations and DPS (Outputs): This is the output section of the spreadsheet. It gives you the expected DPET of each spell as well as the DPS and DPM of several sample rotations. It also gives you the marginal value of each stat for each spell available to you.
Rotations and DPS (Inputs): There aren't many input fields on this tab, but two of them are very important. The "Eclipse Rotation Type:" is set to Lunar Truncation. This means you are using WiseEclipse or are canceling Lunar Eclipse in a similar method manually. The "Moonfire (Eclipse):" is also set to refresh MF during Eclipse. If you don't do this then you will want to change it.

Pros:

Constancy: The big advantage of formulated results is that given the same inputs the out puts will always be the same. Therefore it is very easy to see how changing those inputs can impact the results.

Want to know how much of an improvement a new piece of gear would be? By changing the stat section you can get a quick estimation on how it will affect your DPS.

Availability: The other tools available require you to download executable files and such. This can be a little confusing for some people and will cause some to worry about viruses and keyloggers. The nice thing about Wrathcalcs is that it comes in a format that a lot of people are familiar with. Also, it is very easy to find and start using.

Open source: All of the calculations are open to be viewed by the user. Assuming you have a basic knowledge of Excel, you can follow the cell references and figure out how the calculations are done. This makes it easier for you to understand and modify the results if you so desire.

Cons:

Documentation: Other than the original forum thread there is very little documentation in or about Wrathcalcs. Most of it is self explanatory if you have an understanding of Excel, but I would like to see a better explanation of the spreadsheet from the authors. I don't think it needs to be extensive, but a quick guide on how to get started would be helpful. I would also like to see some explanation of the output fields on the Character Sheet tab.
Unuser Friendly: Making changes in the spreadsheet is not quick and simple. Trying to evaluate several pieces of gear requires you to do the math personally and then modify the stats accordingly. This can get complicated if you're making several changes and this will increase the probability of mistakes.

Formulated Results: Formulated results are great, but they are not the most accurate results available. Formulated results are based averages and expected behaviour, but have a hard time measuring actual behaviour with the inclusion of random events.

For example, we don't know when Eclipse is going to proc. We can determine how long it will take us to proc it on average, but actual results are going to vary. That variance will average out on its own, but our spells and abilities don't operate in a vacuum. There will be times when we have we won't extend Moonfire to 24 seconds because we couldn't cast Starfire while trying to proc Eclipse. The precasting phase of an Eclipse rotation will be extended because you have to refresh DoTs. The buff phase of Eclipse will be limited at other times because you have to refresh DoTs or go with out the buff they provide.

We over come these obstacles by making assumptions, but those assumptions are not correct 100% of the time and affect the results.

TL:DR

Wrathcalcs is a great tool for giving you a ballpark figure when evaluating high level DPS questions. It is also great at giving you definitive and directionally correct answers to those questions. If it says a change is a DPS increase or decrease you can be reasonably confident in the results, and it is widely available on a platform that is well known to many players. As long as you have some experience with Excel you shouldn't have any big issues with using it.

That said it is not the most user friendly method of evaluating more specific questions like which piece of gear is better, and you can find more accurate information on stat valuation using SimCraft.

(edited by Flamedor)

The Illusion of Success

2009-09-25T08:26:00.003-05:00

Let me know if this situation sounds a little familiar.

Your guild is working on a difficult boss that you have not downed before. You put a few attempts in, discover a few issues, and refine your strategy to correct for the issues. You're making good attempts and doing better than you expected. It feels like you're very close to downing the boss.

Then your progress stalls. You had an attempt where you got to the final phase of the fight very cleanly, but now you can't get there at all. Your raid ends in frustration because you were so close, but your progress backslid in the end.

I've been thinking a lot lately about guild progression. What makes a guild progress, and what prevents a guild from progressing? The situation above is something I've experienced many times over the past 2 years of raiding, and it can derail your guild's progression if you don't look at it from the right perspective.

Why Attempts Fail:

In my experience there are two factors that cause raid attempts to fail.

Lack of Focus and Execution: I think we all know what I'm talking about here. Your raid knows what to do, but they're just not doing it. Your attempt fails because half the DPS stand in the fire or a boss ability is not interrupted.

These types of wipes are very frustrating and how you address them really depends on the personality of your guild. However, the solution is always the same. Your raiders have to play better.

Lack of Knowledge and Experience: I am a firm believer that you have to make attempts to learn a boss. Reading strats and watching videos are a great way to prepare you for the general mechanics of the fight, but they will never be able to prepare you for every nuance of the fight. You have to do the actual fight to figure that out.

For example, when my guild was working on IC hard mode, some of our early attempts wiped because we hadn't worked out where the tank should die with Meltdown. The tanks needed to find the balance of being far enough away not to damage the raid, but close enough so that they can be rezzed quickly. It may take a couple of attempts to figure out but those attempts are not failures. They are valuable learning experiences that will help you in the future.

The Illusion of Success:

It is not uncommon for an attempt failure to be blamed on RNG, but it is rarely credited for your successes. It stands to reason that if you can have bad RNG that makes your attempt harder then you can also have good RNG that makes your attempt easier. Therefore not all of your successes are due to a full understanding of the situation or proper execution. Sometimes you get lucky and do better than you should.

Now, go back and look at the scenario I started this post with from this perspective. After you've had a couple of very successful attempts, it's easy to think that you've got the fight in the bag. Then when you don't kill the boss or even match your progress in later attempts it can be very frustrating. That is completely understandable, but I also think it is important to step back and ask yourself a question. Did your later attempts backslide or did your earlier attempt overachieve?

The answer doesn't really change how you prepare for the next attempt, but I think it is very important when dealing with personal and guild morale. It is important to try and keep your guild morale level in the face of both successes and failures. If your guild over values its successes the impact of your failures will be more significant and hurt your progress. Therefore, I think your best attempt is the one where you learn something to make your next attempt more successful.

(Edited by Flamedor)

Haste Rating Is Better Than I Thought

2009-09-21T09:19:00.008-05:00

Edit: I changed to wording in my Gemming section a little bit, to better indicate my meaning.

Ok, I messed up.

When I recently redid my gear list I used a valuation for Haste Rating that I came up with several months ago, without redoing the analysis. I was lazy. I felt confident in the number, because logically lag should devalue Haste Rating a little more significantly then the other stats. Also, my numbers were a little more extreme then those found by SimCraft, but they agreed to an extent. So, I ran with it.

Well, because of reader questions, I decided to take another look at SimCraft and rerun my model to see how things went.

My New Valuation:

Here are my new values:

Stat	12.5% Haste With Lag	10.5% Haste With Lag
Hit Rating	1.821	1.721
Spell Power	1	1
Haste Rating	0.816	1.034
Crit Rating	0.782	0.795

When I ran the SimCraft numbers, the results were very similar. So, I feel very confident in this valuation. However, I do want make one exception.

WiseEclipse - I haven't modified my model to include this addon, but logically it should devalue Haste Rating. Lets think about what WiseEclipse does. Basically it makes it a lot easier to proc Solar Eclipse with Starfire. If your proccing Solar Eclipse quicker then you will be casting Starfire less often and Wrath More often. Since Haste has a more significant impact on Starfire then it does Wrath, one can conclude that anything that reduces your Starfire usage has the potential to reduce your value of haste. How much I don't know.

Why Was I So Wrong?

In short, I don't know for sure.

It has been a while since I made significant modifications to the guts of my model, but it is possible that I made some changes a couple of months ago that I don't remember now. If I had criting Moonfire ticks procing Natures Grace that might have had an impact, but that seems a little extreme.

One thing I know I did change is the starting stats in the model. In my first run I was using 14% Haste from gear, about 3300 Spell Power, and a little less crit chance. When I ran it a second time I matched it more closely to my in game experience. I upped my Spell Power to 3450. The crit chance was increased about 1%, and the haste from gear was lowered to 12.5%.

I didn't think this would affect the valuation that much, but it could have. Haste is a very sensitive stat when it comes to scaling. If you have to much of it then the value of your other stats will shoot up. If you have to little of it the value of Haste Rating will shoot up. If I had to guess that is what happened here.

The Gear Guides:

I have updated both of the gear guides to compensate for this change. I apologize to everyone that made a choice based upon my recommendations that now turns out to be less then optimal. I guess one good thing is that My best in slot choices stayed relatively unchanged.

Gemming:

First things first, Spell Power is still the primary thing you should gem for. I know that my numbers say that Haste is a little better then Spell Power if you're below the haste cap, but don't read to much into that number. It assumes a level of Spell Power with a lot of Spell Power gems your gear. If you replaced some of that Spell Power with Haste rating it would throw off the balance, and probably make Spell Power more valuable. Also, my values are not absolute. When two values are close it means that the two stats are close in value. It does not necessarily mean that one is better then the other.

That said, I know one question will come up at some point. "Should I Gem for Crit Rating or Haste Rating?

To be completely honest I'm not sure at this point. It could really go either way. Haste generally scales better then Crit Rating, but it is very important to not go to extremes with either stat. As I mentioned before WiseEclipse probably devalues it a little since it limits the amount of Starfire casting you will do. I also think that the 2T8 set bonus devalues Crit Rating a little, but that is in dispute.

I'm going to be very vague and suggest that you try and keep the two in balance. If you think your Crit Chance is a bit low and you Haste a bit high then focus more on Crit Rating. If the reverse is true then focus more on Haste Rating.

What I really need to do is figure out how to make SimCraft use my stats and post a tutorial on the blog so that you can find out what your own valuations are.

September Blues

2009-09-18T08:06:00.004-05:00

Without fail, August/September always seems to be a bad time for raiding guilds. My first raiding guild, Full of Crit, broke up in August. I then joined Wandering Alliance who was also having issues, but we worked them out. I ended up leaving them in August of last year in part do to attendance issues. I then joined Lastt Standd and it survived little more then a month. I can't really fault the timing for that one because Lastt Standd was full of fail in the leadership department, but I'm sure it didn't help. Then I joined Lords of Eternity almost exactly a year ago.

Once again, a key factor in me joining LoE was the September Blues. I originally applied in August, but was turned down due them already having a moonkin and not needing a lot of people. Less then a month later they lost a few people including a GM and another officer and drama ensues. So, in September they had a spot for me.

What I find most spectacular about the situation is that LoE has been a very stable guild for the year that I've played with them. Much more stable then my other guilds. We lost people here and there but the core remained strong and we never needed to recruit more then a couple of people at a time. However, in the last 2 months we've lost 9 core raiders for various reasons. The September Blues strike again and our progression slows.

The Systemic Problems:

September is like the Monday of the year. We are just coming out of the Summer (the weekend) and it is time to buckle down and do the normal things in life. Kids have to go back to school. Work generally slows down a little in the Summer, and now it is picking back up. Not to mention all of the other distractions that come back into play, like new TV shows and sporting events.

This is a time of year when people reevaluate there lives and reset their priorities. Therefore, I think it is somewhat unavoidable that guilds go through a rough patch at this time of year. You can't fault someone for rededicating themselves to the things I think we all feel are more important then WoW: Family, School, Work.

However, is it all Systemic?

Blizzard's Part:

Last night our raid was very frustrating, at least for me. Due to a series of player and technical issues we had a little more down time then usual. During one of those down times our Raid Leader decided to make a mini State of the Guild Address. He talked about a couple of different things but I thought one of them was very insightful.

Most of our recent losses aren't people leaving the guild, but people leaving the game. A couple have expressed their dissatisfaction with the game in general, but most of them have sited personal reasons for the departure like work and family. Once again, I won't fault them for those reasons, but I think most of us have personal reasons why we could leave the game. The point was that some of those personal reasons while important and real, are to some extent being used to cover up some level of dissatisfaction with the game, and that if the game was more compelling that some of those people may not be stepping away.

Let's look at the current state of raiding. Honestly, Tier 7 was a joke when it was released. Ulduar was fun and exciting when released, but it has lost its luster like all instance due after repeated clears. The Ulduar Hard Modes still hold some interest for me due to the Achievements, but the once uber gear is now just so so, compared to the better gear you can get from the Loot Pinata that is ToC normal. I don't think Loot is the main reason any of us play, but it is extremely dissatisfying to know that Firefighter is one of the hardest achievements in game, but has lesser rewards then a boss like Northrend Beasts that we could one shot without ever seeing before and reading half formulated strats.

The Quality of ToC:

ToC is the most bipolar instance ever created. First look at ToC normal mode. My guild one shot or two shot every boss in there the first time we saw it. In the 6 or 7 weeks that it has been available 10,055 guilds have cleared it according to WoWProgress.com. By comparison, in the 5 MONTHS Ulduar has been available 8,017 guilds have cleared it on normal after several nerfs. Sorry, but numbers don't lie. Either ToC normal is to easy or Ulduar normal is to hard. I think ToC is to easy, and the fact that you can get 245 ilevel gear for basically just showing up makes it really hard to get motivated for wiping in Ulduar on hard modes.

Heroic, ToC on the other hand is very tough. Only 13 guilds have cleared the instance which is to be expected only a couple of weeks after the instance is available. About 1500 guilds have killed Heroic Beasts. That doesn't seem that out of wack (though I would have thought it would be higher) for what I think hard modes should be, but I have other issues with the instance.

My guilds experience may be exceptional, but judging from the forums and such it isn't that unusual. One of the main problems we've had with Northrend Beasts heroic has been technical issues. Last night, one of our Tanks would DC every time the Snobolds would spawn, making the tank transitions impossible. Other guildies had similar DC issues, and just for the record, there were no commonalities between them. They had different ISPs, lived in different parts of the country, there hardware was different, and none of them have severe DC issues in other instances. I hate to blame the DCs on the instance, but at some point it becomes to much to be a coincidence.

The most frustrating aspect of the Northrend Beasts encounter is despawns. You don't know how many times we've started to make a good transition from Gormok to the Wyrms with everyone alive to have the wyrms freaken despawn. It makes me want to punch babies.

Again, I hate to blame our lack of progress on ToC heroic on technical issues, but how can we work the kinks out of our strategy if technical issues prevent us from playing normally?

My Thoughts:

I think several of Blizzard experiments have failed miserably.

Having 4 versions of the same instance is way to much. I sometimes forget which version I'm in. When we did Beasts on Wednesday I started to get excited by how well it was going after wiping on it all Monday and the previous Thursday, then I remembered "oh yea, this is the normal version." On top of that I have been running both the 10man versions as well.

Emblems for Tier Loot: I liked how I could complete my tier set with badges in Naxx and Ulduar if I got unlucky with drops, but the new system in ToC completely sucks. If your looking to build a set of T9.245 it will take you a minimum of 5 raid lockouts to complete it, and that assumes that your clearing all 4 versions of ToC every week and doing the Heroic daily every day.

Lets look at it from a more realistic point of view. Currently I'm clearing both versions of normal ToC each week, and kill 3 bosses in the heroic version of the 10man. I also do the daily about 3 times a week for 45 Emblems a week. At this pace it will take me 7 raid lockouts to complete my Tier set. That may not sound that bad, but remember that requires me to run the same instance at least 3 times a week and to do 3 5mans that aren't a challenge either.

What if I can't or don't want to run 10mans? All of a sudden I'm down to 20 or 30 Emblems per week and it takes me 10-12 weeks to complete a set, and this is without picking up any of the other Emblem loot you might want like the Idols.

The new Tier loot system encourages you to do busy work and instance below your level that have no value to you other then the emblems. Blizzard has sold the concepts of 10man vs 25man and normal vs heroic by saying it gives players options to play the way they want to play and see content. Well this system takes those options away by rewarding Quantity of play rather then quality of play.

I think Blizzard has put together a strong system for inducing burnout. ToC was released to quick before most players were ready to leave Ulduar. The normal version is to easy, devalues the Ulduar experience, and makes guild management more challenging. Heroic ToC seems to have several technical issues and is probably a little hard for being the first boss in an instance.

So players are now put in a strange situation. We have Ulduar which is well designed and balanced, but the rewards for your accomplishments are minimal now. We then have Normal ToC which is a cake walk with great rewards but can be cleared in under an hour easy. Finally we have Heroic ToC which is a little buggy and a little hard, but has great rewards. Basically we are being encouraged to clear a set of bosses in under an hour and then wipe on the same set of bosses for the next 8 hours, while ignoring a good instance because of its lesser rewards.

Recruitment:

I don't really want to use my blog for guild recruitment, but a small blurb won't hurt. We run highly focused raids 3 times a week for a total of 9 hours, but have success similar to guilds that raid twice as much as we do. We are currently looking for Ranged DPS and Healers but will consider applicants in other rolls as well. If you want more info you can find our recruitment forum here. Our application is here.

Addon: WiseEclipse

2009-09-16T19:58:00.006-05:00

Have you ever been dpsing a boss and thought to yourself, "I wish my last Starfire cast during Lunar Eclipse could proc Solar Eclipse?" This may sound a little cheesy but I actually have.

We've all been on those long runs where we cast a spell for what seems like 1000 tries and Eclipse never procs. During those tries I often wish I had the 90% crit chance that Lunar Eclipse provides.

Well, my wish has come true with this helpful little addon called WiseEclipse. It was created by Kurohoshi (EU-Minahonda), and based on the macros by Hamlet (US-Mal'Ganis). You can download it from WoWInterface here.

Why You Want It:

This addon increases your Eclipse uptime by allowing your last buffed spell cast to proc Eclipse. Obviously this is really nice when transitioning from Lunar Eclipse to Solar Eclipse because you will have a 75% - 90% chance to proc Solar Eclipse. You may be amazed that this is even possible, but it is. I tried it out on a target dummy and tested it in raid last night. It worked as I expected in both situations.

What the Addon does is compare the time remaining on your Eclipse buff to the cast time of your next spell. If your cast time is longer then the Eclipse buff the addon will cancel your Eclipse buff to allow the opposite Eclipse to proc.

I don't understand all of the technical details to fully explain why this addon works, but I will do my best. The addon works because of Lag. As you play the game some things are done on your computer (the client), and other things are done on the server. If I understand the process correctly the server determines your damage and if the spell crits, but the client determines cooldowns and if the buff can proc or not.

For example lets say you cast Starfire with Lunar Eclipse. When it hits you only 1.5 seconds left on your Lunar Eclipse, and your cast time is 2.4 seconds. Obviously your not going to be able to get another buffed Starfire off. So, WiseEclipse cancels the Lunar Eclipse right as the spell hits. At the same time the server calculates the damage of this spell and is likely a crit due to your 75%-90% crit chance. So, the server sends a message back to the client saying that the Starfire cast was a crit. Because of Lag the client has already cancelled the Lunar Eclipse when it receives this message. Since Solar is not on cooldown and Lunar Eclipse is not up the conditions are met for the critical hit to proc Solar Eclipse, thus giving you back to back Eclipse procs with very high frequency.

The addon has some other functionality as well, like allowing you to automatically cancel Solar Eclipse during Bloodlust/Heroism if the shaman buff has more then 15 seconds and Lunar Eclipse is not on cooldown. I think it is also possible for the last cast of your Solar Eclipse to proc Lunar Eclipse, but it is unlikely due to the way the buffs work.

The Ethics of this Addon:

I think it is safe to say that this addon drops in to a grey area (no pun intended). In my opinion it is not an exploit that severely compromises the integrity of the game, like the old Void Reaver/Mindcontrol trick or the Sarth Reflective Shield trick. However, it is obviously outside the intended design of the talent.

In my opinion it falls into the "Creative Use of Game Mechanics" category. Hamlet compares the functionality and design to the Shatter Combos Frost Mages use, which are fine according to some Blizzard quotes. While I see the similarities I think WiseEclipse is more like the old Idol Swapping macros, where you could get the [Idol of the Unseen Moon] buff as well as increased spell damage from the [Ivory Idol of the Moongoddess]. In that situation you could macro the Moonfire spell and Idol together so that the Idol was equipped right after the spell was cast so that the two GCD's over lapped, but due to lag the the MF cast could proc the Idol even though the idol was equipped after the cast.

In patch 2.4.3, Blizzard killed the Moonkin Idol swapping macros by making it so that swapping a weapon/idol would cancel you current cast. Blizzards explanation wasn't directly targeted at Idols, saying the change was made to prevent PvP casters from swapping high haste and high spell power weapons in and out so that they could get the benefits of the haste and the spell power. However, Blizzard is taking it a step further in 3.2.2. In the up coming patch, unequiping an idol will cancel the buff it provides. This is being done to prevent Feral tanks from having multiple Idol buffs up at the same time.

So, I wouldn't be surprised if Blizzard did something that eliminated the utility of this addon. Cancelling the Eclipse buffs in time probably impossible to do by hand and requires the use of an addon or macro. Since, Blizzard doesn't want any macro or addon to be a mandatory part of the game, it is unlikely that Blizzard will look on this addon favorable. However, even though Blizzard probably won't like the addon, that doesn't mean that they have the time or ability to prevent its functionality. Lets face it, Blizzard has a lot of stuff on its plate, and preventing this functionality might not be quick and easy. So, I could also see Blizzard ignoring the issue for quite a while because the impact is small enough, and the solution is complicated.

What I'm trying to say is that I think this addon is safe to use, but don't get extremely attached to it. I would be very surprised if anyone got banned for using it, since it is very similar to other practices already in game. However, if Blizzard can break it, they probably will eventually.

The "Too Public" Issue:

There have been a couple of comments posted around the web saying that users are worried that this addon will become "too public." The basic theory is that if we can limit the usage of WiseEclipse by the community then Blizzard won't take steps to prevent its functionality. I understand the concern, but it is already to late in my opinion.

First off all, while it is possible that by publishing this post, I am bringing the addon to Blizzards attention, I find it highly unlike. Blizzard has confirmed that they read the EJ forums where this addon first came up. So they probably already know about it.

Second, I realize that by not posting this article I would probably slow its growth and may delay any fix that may or may not come. However, this information is already available from several other sources. I doubt my silence would have much affect.

Moonkin's Weakest Link

2009-09-14T10:41:00.003-05:00

Lissanna over at Restokin posted an interesting post today. With the changes to the talent system coming up, it is clear that our talent trees will be changing dramatically. Obviously, there we have no clue as to what is in store for any of the trees, but this is an opportunity to review each of the trees and see what is wrong and possibly how it could be fixed.

So, Lissanna asks us a question. “If you could change one talent in any of the druid talent trees, what would it be?" Here is my response.

My Perspective:

Before I look at the talents I want to give you a little perspective on how I view this question. First off, I am only looking at the talents and only considering their quality as talents. I am not considering Moonkin performance as a whole. For example, I would say something like "Moonfury is a bad talent because it doesn't buff our DPS enough." I will not say "Moonkin DPS needs to be buffed therefore Moonfury should give 20%." I hope you see the difference. The first quote is a comment on the individual talent. The second is a comment on the build as a whole. (For the record Moonfury is a great talent.)

Second, when Blizzard builds the talent trees, I think their design should agree with three rules:

Every talent should be useful to someone, but all the talents don't have to be useful to everyone. I am completely fine with some talents being only useful for PvP or to resto druids. As long as informed players see it has some type of value then I am OK with the talent being on my tree.

Tier advancement should be easy in everyone's main talent tree. Meaning, a balance druid should be able to advance to the top of the balance tree without using talent point on talents seen as useless for their chosen play style. The old TBC Balance tree is the best example of this rule being violated. In the first three tiers you could only spend 13 points in a useful manner for a raiding moonkin. Therefore you had to waste two points on Nature's Grasp, Control of Nature, or Brambles.
If you’re going to put key talents outside of the main talent tree then there should be a clear path for picking them up. Once again, TBC is a good example of this issue. Tier 3 of the Resto tree had Subtlety and Intensity. These were two key talents for a raiding moonkin. Yet, tier 2 of the Resto tree had no valuable talents for a balance druid.

My Thoughts:

If you understand my perspective, you understand why I won't be including some very unpopular talents in my comments. Genesis, for example, is a horrible talent for moonkin, but it is a great talent for resto. Since there is a good alternative to advance up the balance tree I have no problem with Genesis, but there are some situations in the talent trees that violate my rules.

Improved Moonfire: This is my biggest issue with the Druid talent trees. Imp Moonfire was once a good talent but was completely destroyed by the introduction of Glyph of Moonfire. The glyph is a solid one two punch. Since the direct damage portion of the talent reduced by 90% the bonus crit chance has very little impact. On the other side, the 10% increase in damage gets lost in the 75% increase to periodic damage provided by the glyph. The result is a talent that only increases damage by 0.25-0.5% per talent point.

Improved Moonfire has seen a bit of a revival lately with the introduction of Criting DoTs with the 2T9 set bonus, but that will last only for the current gear tier. However, it does give a good indication of how the talent could be fixed. If it allowed your moonfire DoT to crit it would become a viable talent again.

Resto Tier 2: The early resto talents are much better for moonkin then they used to be, but I still don't like the second tier. Tier 3 of the of the Resto tree has Intensity, Omen of Clarity, and Master Shapeshifter. All of them are very good talents for moonkin. Tier 2 of the Resto tree has Naturalist, Subtlety, and Natural Shapeshifter. Naturalist is only good for feral druids. Subtlety has some use for PvP moonkin, but I don't know if it is important. Natural Shapeshifter saves you some mana, but ideally you shouldn't be shifting. On top of that Natual Shapeshifter is a prereq for putting points in Master Shapeshifter.

Blizzard has talked about making shifting a bigger part of how you play a druid, which could make Natural Shapeshifter more important. However, I would correct the problem by removing Natural Shapeshifter as a prereq for Master Shapeshifter. Tier 1 of the Resto Tree is surprisingly good for moonkin. The extra 10% Int from Furor is very nice. Imp MotW is nice both in terms of the better buff and the 2% additional stats. On top of that Nature's Focus is now a really good talent to avoid pushback on Wrath. I would happily take the three points I have invested in Tier 2 of the Resto tree and put them in Tier 1, but I can’t due to the prereq on Master Shapeshifter.

Off Topic Comments:

I wanted to make a couple of other comments that aren't related to the subject of the post.

Haste Valuation: I'm starting to doubt my haste valuation. I think haste rating is better than I'm giving it credit for. The numbers produced by Simcraft rate Crit rating and Haste rating at a very similar level. I need to take a look at my model, but you may not want to avoid Haste as much as I've indicated in the past.
New Blog: Randomsmo has started a new blog. If you don't know Randomsmo, he is a moonkin that has regularly posted on the official forums and Moonkin Repository. He raids at a fairly high level, and is usually a pretty good source of information. He currently only has 3 posts up but I thought they were fairly interesting. If you would like to check his blog out you can find it here.

(Edited by Flamedor)

General Update: 9/8/2009

2009-09-08T08:51:00.006-05:00

Edit: Randomsmo has started a blog and posted on the 2T8 vs 4T9 debate I talk a little bit about below. Since I already gave him credit for sparking idea, I think it is a good idea that I link to his post. You can find it here.

It’s been a little while since I wrote a real post. Since I don't have anything specific I am ready to post on, it is time for a new General Update.

Raid Progress:

Well, Anub'arak became available and everyone marched into the loot piñata that is ToC. Once again, the normal mode boss was pretty much a push over in my opinion. We got him down in two shots, and the first was a 2% enrage wipe. If we had been a little more comfortable with the fight mechanics it would have easily been a one shot.

Granted, one of our 10man groups did get in there on Tuesday and had a little bit of trouble. However, that was primarily due to a flawed strategy that they took from the PTR. Once they figured out it wouldn't work they downed him easily.

So with Anub'arak down, we moved onto Heroic ToC. I will admit my expectations were pretty low for the Heroic version of ToC. Given how easy normal was, I thought we would walk in there and down a couple of bosses. Boy was I wrong. Heroic ToC is pretty darn tough. We had a couple of issues with Group Composition given that some of our regular raiders weren't available, but we couldn't get out of phase 2 cleanly on the 25man version. My 10man group didn't even attempt it because we are trying to finish up the Ulduar Meta for a couple of people, but the other group did get in there and downed the first 3 bosses on heroic.

Heroic ToC is definitely doable, but it will take some practice. Unfortunately this poses another problem. We still have some fights left to finish up in Ulduar. We still want to get the meta achievement in there which means we need to pick up Firefighter, Vezax hard, and 1 light in the darkness. Since we have only a 9 hour schedule it will be a little difficult to work on both the ToC and Ulduar hard modes. Luckily they haven't announced the removal of the Drakes yet so we have at least 30 days to finish it up.

BiS Lists:

In some of my comments and emails, I've had a couple of questions about my BiS choices. I would like to address what I think are a couple of misunderstandings. First off, everyone needs to understand that a BiS list is just a Christmas wish list. Ninety nine percent of players in the game are unlikely to be able to get everything they want before a new tier becomes available. So, basing all of your gearing choices on a BiS list is pretty unrealistic.

Second, I never intended anyone to make loot choices based entirely off of my BiS list or the larger gear list. The list is a tool to help you see how things relate. It also organizes all of the options in one convenient place. What I expect players to do is to take a look at what is available and come up with a gear plan. What choices are best for you given the gear you already have and what is likely to be available.

For example, my back is pretty old. I picked up the [Shroud of Luminosity] from Naxx and have been rocking it for a long time. There haven't been a lot of good upgrades since then, and what there has been hasn't really dropped for us. [Jaina's Radiance] is BiS for me, but let’s be honest. I am nowhere close to being able to complete a ToC 25man tribute run. I can't hold how for that item. On top of that, most of the best items are from ToC tribute runs, so I need to realize that picking one up might take a while. On the flip side, [Shawl of the Refreshing Winds] is number 11 on my list, but it is an upgrade and drops off of Normal Beasts. The next time it drops I will probably invest a significant amount of DKP into it, despite it not being on my BiS list.

Tier 9 vs Tier 8:

I've commented on this before, but I want to take a look at it again, since I've heard some interesting new ideas, and continue to get questions about it.

4T8 vs 2T9: The 2 piece T9 set bonus is better. My math from several months ago showed that instant Starfires were worth about 2.5% DPS while critting Moonfires were worth about 4.0%. When you consider the additional stats from T9 the 2T9 set bonus is an easy winner.

Which 2 pieces of T9: This really depends on what items you have and what you can pick up, but let’s assume you have full T8. If that is the case then I would pick up the T9 Chest and Helm. You're giving up 2 pieces of Spirit for two pieces without. Also, you wouldn't be making any big shifts regarding the hit cap by replacing your T8 gear in this way. Your T8 chest doesn't have hit on it and neither does the T9 chest. The T8 helm has hit on it and so does the T9. This makes for a very easy transition.

2T8 vs 4T9: Mathematically, 2T8 is a clear winner unless you’re able to build a full set of T9.258. However, I read an interesting point on the WoW forums recently. (Randomsmo posted his point on his new blog here.) The point was that while 2T8 is better than 4T9 mathematically, 4T9 is a lot more consistent. Every Starfire and Wrath you cast will benefit from 4T9, while you can get screwed by RNG with 2T8. When you combine that with the stat advances you get from the T9.245 gear you can make a good argument for the upgrade. I will have to plug it into the model to be sure but I don't think it is a big DPS sacrifice.

Toon Update:

I haven't done much with the Lock or the Priest lately, because Grayvik my mage has been getting all of my alt attention. He is currently level 69 and I am trying to get him to Northrend as quickly as possible. (I know I could take him now, but I want him to be 70 first. It just makes it easier to use the guide that way.) He has been advancing pretty quickly for a couple of reasons. First, Outland is much more fun to level in than Azeroth is. The quest lines are easy to follow and you can do a lot of quests at once. Also, since I can fly, it's a lot easier to complete some of the quests. Second, I need a herber in Northrend. Since I dropped Herbalism on Graylo, I am at the mercy of the Auction House for my herbs. That's not a big deal if you plan ahead, but I don't like not being able to farm if the prices are unusually high.

Overall his levelling has gone well without issue. I did find one very surprising thing, however. The quests in Nagrand have been nerfed quite a bit. I think I remember seeing a note saying that the animal slaughter quests were nerfed, but it doesn't stop there. My guide lists what it thinks the quest requirements are and what the actual quest requirements are. For almost every quest where I had to "kill X number of this" or "collect X number of that," the number of items or kills needed had been reduced, by between 33 - 66%. That is huge. It has made the zone go a little quicker but to be honest I am a little disappointed. I was looking forward to skinning all of the beasts. Anyway, I am about half way through 69 and should ding 70 in the beginnings of Blades Edge Mountains.

One Quick note: Thank you Myraxa and Tigeris. I was doing the bird quest in Shattrath and couldn't seem to solo it. I was getting through the 3 add rushes with no problem, but the last bird did too much damage and had too much health for me to kill on my own. So I asked for help from the guild. Myraxa and Tigeris helped out, and wanted to be mentioned on the blog.

Goblin Activity:

I am continuing with my AH activities. I've had my ups and downs, but overall I think it is going pretty well. A guildie of mine, Nosismyhero, walked me through Auctioneer and explained a little bit of the functionality that I didn't understand. It has made playing the AH a lot easier.

My bag business has been tough lately. The cost of mats has gone up quite a bit. I used to find a lot of the mats around 4 gold and below, but lately a lot of it has been above that. In addition to that, the price of bags has gone down quite a bit, with prices being between 7g and 7.5g. There is still money to be made but it's not a lot. The flask business seems to be on the rebound. The flask prices have gone back up, but the price of Frost Lotus has gone up as well.

Also, I have a lot more respect for people like Gevlon who have been able to make a lot of money from Inscription. Since picking up the profession, I have tried to make money from it a couple of times, but haven't been able to find the right glyphs yet. I may not have discovered the right glyphs yet, but most of what I make has sat on the AH with little profit. It's definitely not as simple as some of the other professions. With Alchemy and Tailoring there are really only a few things you can sell for a profit so it is easy to figure out. Since there are literally hundreds of glyphs it is much tougher to learn for Inscription.

The bright spot in my Goblinish Activity is that I think I've found a good market to play in. It is the Armor Vellum III market. The volume is high, and the competition seems relatively low on my server. I sold several hundred over the weekend for 100% - 150% profit. On top of that, there is no deposit cost for listing them, so the market has very little risk. If this past weekend is any indication I might be able to make 1k gold a week off of just this item.

If anyone reading this is experienced in the glyph market and has any suggestions, please pass them on.

(Edited by Flamedor)

Gray Matter Survives Another Year

2009-09-06T08:00:00.005-05:00

Gray Matter is officially 2 years old today. WOOT!!

It has been a pretty big year for the blog. This time last year I had a small but loyal following. We were all trying to figure out what the new expansion would mean for us, and I was writing a lot of posts each month (a lot for me anyway). Little did I know that this expansion would be a huge boost for my blog.

This past year has been a bit surreal. Moonkin have gone from being the butt of many jokes to being an accepted and viable class in high-end raiding. With that my readership has grown significantly. On top of that two blue posters have made comments about my blog and said that it has had some impact on decisions made. I can't think of a prouder moment I've had about the blog. (Though, as unlikely as it is, to get something named after me would be the awesome. Maybe it could be called "[Graylo's Idol of Eternal Spell Check].")

An Invitation:

So, where is the blog going from here?

It's probably going to be a lot of the same. I'm not planning on doing anything really differently, but I will put one thing out there.

I've gotten several offers to write for, edit, or help with the blog in some general way. All of the offers are awesome, but I'm not really sure how I feel about bringing in someone in an official way. Gray Matter has been my baby and my voice. So, I am a little protective of it, and I don't know what it would be like to share it with someone else. As scary as that is I could probably use a little help if I want to grow the blog. So, here is what I'm proposing:

If you would like to write for the blog please feel free to e-mail me an article. If I like it and think it fits in well with the blog, I'll post it as a guest post. Articles that focus on topics I am unlikely to cover like Moonkin PvP are more likely to get posted then topics I regularly post on. Also, you’re more likely to be published if you can demonstrate your command of the subject matter with Arena ratings and/or achievements. Obviously, if you submit something to me you are giving me permission to post the article.

Does reading my blog leave you itching for a red pen so you can fix all of the spelling and punctuation mistakes? Well, here is your opportunity. Please feel free to copy my posts into an email and point out all of the mistakes. If someone does it consistently, I may give them rights to fix the issues themselves.

Finally, if you do submit a post and I do not use it, please know I appreciate the time and effort it took you to do that. I hope you look at it as an opportunity to start your own blog.

Thank you to all of my readers and everyone who has promoted my blog over the past two years. It is cliché to say it, but my blog wouldn't be where it is today without you guys.

(Edited by Flamedor)

ToC Horde Gear and other Updates

2009-09-02T15:18:00.002-05:00

Ok, it appears that having only the Alliance names is a big deal. Granted after looking at the list again the names weren't as close as I first thought they were. So, I've created two versions of the list. There are links to the Horde version in the Alliance version and vice versa. Hopefully this will stop the e-mail that say "Item X is not on your list" and "Including only the Alliance names sucks."

Links:
Alliance - Part 1 & Part 2
Horde - Part 1 & Part 2

I've also updated a couple of the items. There was an issue with one of the crafted bracers where it didn't include the gem socket correctly. I also updated the Trinkets to make the BiS trinket rank properly. If you find any other issues please let me know.

Finally, I've gotten a couple of comments that say my "DPS numbers look low." The numbers next to the names are NOT DPS numbers. They are relative rankings based upon the stats on the item. I can't remember the exact number right now, but if you wanted to convert them to DPS number you have to multiply them by something similar to 1.35.

Update to the Gear Lists

2009-08-31T14:00:00.006-05:00

Thank You for all the great comments and error corrections. I've think I've fixed all of the ones I've noticed and all of the ones you guys pointed out. The table is now sorted correctly and I don't think there are any Heroic versions ranked lower then the Normal versions. There are a couple of things I want to address though.

Part 1 & Part 2

Two New Columns: I didn't want to do it but I felt I had to. I added two new columns. The Blue column represents the items value if your below 400 haste rating. The Green column represents the items value if your below 400 haste and minus the Hit rating.

I did this because I didn't want people to undervalue an item because it has haste on it. Haste is still an important stat, and you need to try and get really close to 400 Haste rating.

Horde Names: I originally intended to include the Horde Names in the list, but I couldn't think of a good way to do it that wouldn't grow the list dramatically. If I included them in the list as their own items it would have been confusing for some and make the list a lot longer. If I added the names to the relevant records, it grows the record quite a bit and forces the table to scroll. Ultimately I didn't like the way it looked so I scrapped it.

I realize this is a little inconvenient for the Horde Moonkin out there and I apologize. I just think it is the best solution since most of the names are very similar between the horde and alliance items. I realize there are a few exceptions but I think we can work around it.
Links: Not all of the new links work yet because the items are not in WoWhead yet. Once the rest of the ToC bosses start dying those links will start to work.

Best in Slot: I did start a best in slot list. I've indicated my choices by putting an asterisk (*) next to the name. I hope to include the comments shortly.

A Look at Hard Modes

2009-08-31T08:14:00.003-05:00

I've been thinking a lot about hard modes lately. At a macro level I love the concept. I agree that all players should be able to see the content with a reasonable amount of effort. At the same time I think there needs to be very challenging encounters that keep the more "hard core" players interested in the game. So, as a concept I love it, but there are times when the implementation has been lacking. In this post I want to talk about my two key issues with hard modes, and what I think makes a good hard mode.

(Some of this post may come off as elitist, but I don't intend it to be. I have written this post from my view point of a relatively hardcore raider. I don't think anything I am going to say is offensive, but if you take offense I apologize.)

Issue #1 - Easy Normal Mode:

To say that normal mode Trial of the Crusader has been a disappointment would be an understatement. In my opinion it is the most under tuned instance I have ever played.

Some of you may be thinking: "Wait. This is normal mode. It isn't intended to be hard." I disagree. In my opinion Normal Mode should not equal Easy Mode. Just because the Hard Mode is meant to be more challenging doesn't mean that the Normal mode shouldn't present some challenge as well.

I know some of you disagree on this point, but there has been nothing challenging about ToC. Here is what my experience has been so far: Northrend Beasts = 0ne shot, Lord Jaraxxus = one shot, Faction Champions = two shot, Twin Val'kyr = one shot. When I talk to my friends in other guilds, they say they have had a similar experience and not all of them are very progressed.

I don't think any of these fights should be guild killers on normal mode, but they should take a couple of attempts to figure out. I know one guild that hasn't had any issues with ToC but can't get Yogg Normal Mode down. If this is what the Ardent Crusade is using to test players for the assault on Icecrown Citadel then Arthis is a wimp or we are in a lot of trouble.

Issue #2 - Static Hard Modes:

In my opinion, increasing the Health and Damage on a Normal Mode does not make for good Hard Mode. Hard Modes should be different, and have more going for them than just increased stats.

Hodir is the perfect example of a bad Hard Mode in my opinion. What separates Hodir Normal from Hodir Hard? Nothing! Hard Mode brings absolutely nothing to the fight. He has all the same abilities and buffs. He has the same Health. He has the same damage out put. The only thing different is that you have to DPS a lot harder.

I'm not saying Hodir Hard Mode is a cake walk, but if you know how to do normal mode you pretty much know how to Hard Mode. Doing the Hard Mode is just doing the Normal Mode better, and that is no fun.

Another Hard Mode that I find disappointing is oddly enough Yogg. I'm not saying it is a easy fight because it's not, but compare Yogg +4 to Yogg +1. They are pretty much the same fight. You have to worry about your Sanity more, and you don't' have Hodir to save your butt if you do something stupid, but Yogg doesn't gain any abilities. There is nothing extra to the fight other then you have less health, do less damage and the tentacles have shorter cast times. If you've seen Yogg on normal mode you've pretty much seen it on hard mode to. Hard Mode is just doing Normal Mode better.

Good Hard Modes:

Good Hard Modes add something to the fight that wasn't there before. Most Hard Modes have something new in some degree. Flame Leviathan has new abilities based upon which towers you leave up. XT has the life sparks and the void zones. Iron Council has new abilities with each mob you kill, but the best of the best are Mimiron and Freya.

In my opinion these hard modes are so well designed that they almost don't resemble the Normal Mode of the fight. Having to deal with Ground Tremor, Unstable Energy and Iron Roots makes Freya so much more difficult that you can't fight the add pacts the way you did in the Normal Mode. You have to worry about getting interrupted and getting rooted near the Snaplasher.

Mimiron is a whole nother story. It is regularly regarded as the best fight in Ulduar for both hard mode and normal mode and I have to agree. What is so good about the hard mode is that it completely changes the fight. When my guild does normal mode we assign different groups to different areas. There is a lot of things to worry about, but as long as you spread out and pay attention then you don't have many issues. In Hard Mode the fires completely throw that out the window. First you have to worry about the fires completely engulfing your section and not giving you a good place to stand. Then you have to worry about the fire suppressant that can silence and kill you. While Mimiron Normal Mode gives you a little preparation for the Hard Mode version, it isn't much. That is what makes it a great hard mode.