Ghostcrawler commented recently about wanting to give balance druids more burst damage for PVP, and admitted it might spill over into PvE as well.  He also mentions they don’t plan on changing Tranquility to raid wide.  Sorry restos.

“The patch notes are not done. While, frankly, Tranquility is not something we’re going to mess with, we do want to add more burst to Balance for PvP purposes. If some of that spills over into PvE for more damage overall, I don’t think many druids would complain.“

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I originally wrote this as a comment to Qieth’s post over at Qieth’s Quips, but I thought I’d share it here.  This is using World of Logs, looking at the top DPS of each encounter, and the top moonkin.  I think it’s pretty self explanatory in that Moonkin are broken.

Northrend Beasts:

Top DPS: 8994
Top Moonkin: 7550
Moonkin was at 83.9% of max DPS

Lord Jaraxxus:

Top DPS: 15542, huge delta, second was 12183
Top Moonkin: 9067
Moonkin was at 74.5% / 58% of max DPS

Faction Champions (Alliance)
Top DPS: 18432
Top Moonkin: 7137
Moonkin was at 38% of max DPS

Faction Champions (Horde)
Top DPS: 15742
Top Moonkin: 7134
Moonkin was at 45% of max DPS

Twin Val’kyrs:
Top DPS: 18129
Top Moonkin: 12945
Moonkin was at 71.4% of max DPS

Anub’arak:
Top DPS: 12672
Top Moonkin: 8602
Moonkin was at 67.8% of max DPS

And just for giggles..

Algalon
Top DPS: 11301
Top Moonkin: 7665
Moonkin was at 67.8% of max DPS

I think that a 20% on average difference in DPS is a bit steep for a “hybrid tax”.

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I just had a reader email me with some questions regarding TotC/TotGC, and I’d like to take the time to answer them and help him and possibly others out.  These are just my opinions and I’m betting others can give their input as well.

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The loot gods smiled at me tonight in Trial of the Crusader, and I was able to pick up [Barb of Tarasque], and then by virtue of being the only druid in the raid, I picked up [Bindings of the Autumn Willow].  I think this puts me at 9 slots BiS towards my T8/T9 BiS list.  I’m hoping for [Belt of Pale Thorns] next.  The non-leather pieces, (ring, cloak, trinkets) are going to be the hardest to pick up.

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Not much more to update on Anub'arak.  Still struggling in phase 3, or more recently, even getting to phase 3.  After looking at our own parses and other guilds parses who’ve killed him, this just doesn’t seem to be a good fight for moonkin dps.  I think our best option is to stay on Anub’arak, and only AoE when adds are up right after he burrows, but that still keeps me in the bottom quartile.

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I’ve drafted a moonkin guide for ToC BiS, but I really would like your input into it.    It’s done from a Horde point of view, and includes a few different gear combinations.   The BiS guide is available to the right under “Moonkin Guides”, or you can click here.

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I’ve always been curious to see my DPS on Patchwerk.  When I was at the end of raiding Naxx25, my best DPS output was about 5800 DPS (with [Power Infusion] and [Potion of Speed]).  I took the chance today to join a pug and do Naxx25 today, and I was surprised by the result.  I knew my DPS had obviously increased with the gear I have now, but as fights continuously get harder (and more mobile), there’s no real decent metric in our current content to compare against Patchwerk.  I didn’t have PI, nor did I pop potions for this kill.

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Forceful Entry decided to PUG Malygos 25.  We sort of stacked ranged, and blew bloodlust with two sparks.  Killed him in 5:11 with 4 PUGs doing less damage then the tank.

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So far after our first week of attempts, we were able to get Anub’arak solidly to phase 3.

We haven’t perfected our strategy yet, so I don’t want to really comment a whole lot on the strategy until we actually get it down to a science.  I will however mention that [Gale Winds] is pretty vital for this fight to deal with the Nerubian Burrowers, and also to rant about how my dps is a slave to [Clearcasting] proc’s, which dictates whether I can chain [Hurricane] when the burrowers are up, or whether I have to stop and direct DPS Anub’arak while I wait for mana to regen.

Anub'arak Phase 3

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Forceful Entry killed Heroic Val’kyr twins today. I really can’t comment much about a balance druid perspective, as I spec resto for it to help heal, but it’s a fun fight.

Heroic Val’kyr twins is like a giant dodgeball match.  We tanked twins slightly off-center near a white portal, with all of our DPS and three healers dark in the center.  Our ranged and healers played dodgeball, with ranged DPS picking up stray black orbs from hitting healers, and healers absorbed white orbs that would hit melee.  The specials rotate between the two twins, ping-ponging back and forth.  They seem to be like Freya HM’s specials, in that they will cycle through all before they repeat.  Melee held [Dark Essence] unless Fjola Lightbane casted [Light Vortex] , and they switched to [Light Essence] briefly.  If Eydis Darkbane used [Dark Vortex] special, the melee would swap to [Light Essence] she cast her  next special, knowing it would be [Twin's Pact] next.  The key to this fight is maximizing DPS during the pacts, and near flawless dodgeball execution.  Having one clear voice call out what’s incoming and what color to be helps to clear confusion.

Heroic Val'kyr Twins down

Paragon has a great video of their Heroic Twins kill:

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