From gear to Reputation grinds to non-combat pet collections, Blizzard seems keen to make players feel like they’re making progress. Unlike many competitors, however, they have yet to add the most significant, non-combat progression path: player housing.
Last night Community Manager Eyonix responded to questions about playing as a Moonkin, including a question posed by Solur of Skullcrusher, “So how many pieces of cloth does your Moonkin wear?” (The answer was 3.) Eyonix goes on to defend Burning Crusade’s lack of leather armor with spell damage by saying:
I’m disappointed that you wouldn’t treat armor the same as any other statistic. As a caster, you really do owe it to yourself to prioritize your gear so that caster stats have priority over defensive stats. You have chosen to play your character as a caster afterall. Armor is a defensive statistic, and while it can be useful, you really should be focusing on the items that benefit you as a caster the most. I think people forget that the armor bonus on the Moonkin ability was mostly a flavor bonus.
Mmmmm!
Tastes like turkey!I can’t really say that I agree with Eyonix’ assessment of the 400% armor bonus afforded to our Moonkin form as “flavor.” After all, Moonkin are encouraged to regenerate mana by meleeing (albeit, this dynamic is widely regarded as both silly and broken). Balance’s clearcasting ability, Omen of Clarity, also requires that Moonkin be in melee range since it cannot proc through spellcasting like the clearcasting abilities of the Shaman, Priest, and Mage. If the armor bonus really is just “flavor,” why not also award it to the Tree of Life? This would certainly increase the viability of a deep Restoration-spec in Arenas. Which, of course, only points out that an armor bonus — on any of our forms — is certainly more than just “flavor.”
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*hugs* .-= Softi´s last blog ..Dum di dum di dum =-.
The high armor from moonkin doesn’t much matter unless you pvp, in which case you’d want to get as much pvp gear as possible where it’s all high armor leather.
In pve you can take caster cloth that the mages/warlocks don’t want, along with set pieces and do okay.
Thanks for your comments!
From a PvE raiding and grouping standpoint — the armor bonus to Moonkin doesn’t necessarily factor in. However, when soloing (Balance is a popular build for Restos that want to farm) and in PvP, it is important. The extra damage mitigation helps compensate for the loss of access to our healing spells. It’s the same reason that Priest Shadowform receives the enormously useful damage reduction. I think it’s there to help reduce the need for shifting in and out just to be able to heal.
I think the concept of Moonkin is a flawed one. There is too much emphasis on melee for a form which often uses root and nuke techniques (because no damage taken is superior to some damage taken). I agree, however, that there is little reason NOT to wear cloth in PvE 5-man and raids.
Tree of Life 400% armor bonus…tree tanks! =P
Omen of Clarity is in the Resto tree, not the Balance tree, and doesn’t seem to be very useful in instances. As much as I love it, I don’t think I’m going to include it next time I re-spec.
On the other hand, when farming in Azeroth, and when combined with a big fat hammer, it pretty much eliminates the need to stop and drink.
(L70 Tauren Balance Druid on Anvilmar)
Coupla quick points:
– I thought Omen of Clarity quit proc’ing for moonkin with 2.1:
Omen of Clarity: This spell is no longer castable in Tree of Life Form or Moonkin Form.
– Moonkin are, it would appear to me, to be the perfect off-tank. I’m eventually going to push the math and see how ‘kins stack up against bears for building aggro, but to me, the armor comes in handy for…
1.) Off-tanking in instances. When you wrath-spam, you will pull from the tank, and, if planned, to good effect for healing and tank.
2.) For some PvE. I notice that I get good, sustainable PvE soloing in Moonkin form with what’s essentially feral dmg mitigation gear. With Elune’s Touch, I’ve been able to grind Scryer rep pretty easily without any mana to start with Braxxis and dmg mit gear.
For PvE above my level or, now, with multiple mobs, I still tend to root/wrath-spam in balance gear which, for me from about 62 until 69, is nonstop “of nature’s wrath” leather.
So quickly, to sum, Panzerkin gear is perfect in 5-man instances, as it allows you to blast the crap out of mobs, pulling aggro *on purpose*, upping your total DPS while helping out your tank and healer.
Thanks for the correction, Rufbo. I actually never noticed that Omen of Clarity can no longer proc in Tree or Moonkin forms. That seems ridiculous to me. Tree of Life and Moonkin already suffer some pretty hefty limitations. That leaves just kitty, bear, and caster forms to can take advantage of the ability. Combined with the fact that OOC was moved into the Restoration tree, it seems silly not to at least allow Tree to use it (although, we have a bunch of Healing Touch oriented talents which are also invalidated by switching into our 41-point form).
I would LOVE to see a Moonkin tank; I admit I’ve only heard rumors about them… Do you find that you have issues with snap aggro?
OoC will procc in ToL and Moonkin (still proccing in ToL for me, if my memory doesn’t fail me), only reason I know of for the change is so that the tooltip of the forms are correct.
-Muda
In my experience, even a moonkin with several pieces of cloth gear will have more armor than arms/fury warriors and rogues, and will have more melee damage reduction than a shadow priest. Cloth armor with a 400% armor bonus basically equates to mail armor, which is plenty suitable for engaging in melee range combat. Cloth armor lacks other defensive stats (agi for dodge, etc.) but then again, so does balance leather.
Also, OOC will proc in any form — you just can’t *cast* OOC on yourself unless you are in caster form. You can’t cast it in Moonkin because it’s no longer a balance spell, you can’t cast it in feral because you can’t cast any non-feral abilities in those forms, and you can’t cast it in Tree of Life because it isn’t on the list of spells that Trees are allowed to cast.
muda: I’m an idiot. Why, oh why did I read “cast” as “proc” in the notes? I respec’d my talents and dropped OoC from the misread. All of those free casts, down the drain, and I coulda used ‘em too.
It’s back in there now. Thanks again, and apologies for my idiocy.
Been Balance 10 – 70 and would not have it any other way. To tell you the truth, I’ve never used anything but leather. To me, Balance means exactly what it says – “Balance”. We can nuke, tank, and heal, and in most cases we can do these just as well as a Feral or Resto (but not in the big instances). And we can smash skulls with our nasty sticks. Too much intelligence, and a Moonkin will drop fast due to lack of stamina and armor. I had my crit up to 5000, but a loose mob will make you pay dearly. I was dieing way too quick, and a dead moonkin will never top the DPS charts. I play’d with stats and have found a good balance (no pun intended), and now still deliver a nasty punch, but with staying power taboot. I may not be #1 on the DPS meter, but I am not a distant #2.
To me, a moonkin should never be a main tank. We are more the goalies for the healers. Blast from a distance and pick-up the loose mobs that stray. If you absolutely must primary tank, drop down into bear and start roaring your hearts out.
Pesce
Special Forces (Druid only Guild)
Alexstraza
I do not wear any CLOTH…I refuse, out of principle. I have both
+damage and healing in the late 700’s to the early 800’s and I proc up to 900+ with trinkets. I only wear leather.
My Character’s name is Asgaroth, Im on the Muradin server…look me up on armory if you are interested in what I have….make sure that you substitute the displayed helm with the Circlet of Starlight.