Umm How Do I DPS As A Chciken?

[Skaterjoec55]

I was wondering what my damage rotations should be on single bosses such as Festergut and Lord Marrowgar, I know how to DPS on the trash pulls I usually do my starfall/hurricane combo and it usually works on pretty good. But if you have any other suggestions please post them I would be more than happy to give them a try thanks!!! Also don't mind to post what stats I should go for as a Chicken. THANK YOU!

[Cholerabob]

If you want it real easy to start , easiest is to get an addon like Faceroller with the Boomkin pack. It will show what to cast , when. But i would not stick with it for long, cause your DPS will be mediocre because as much as it helps you , sowing you what to cast, it cannot anticipate different situations. The basic is Fairie, Moon, Insect, spam starfire or wrath until you get eclipse. Depnding on wich one you get, switch to that particular spell to get major boost in DPS.

[Quinafoi]

As for rotation, I'll just save some time and quote myself from elsewhere.

Balance druid DPS is a phased cycle where priorities shift depending on the point in the cycle. For all intensive purposes, there are only two real phases, however because of the common mistakes people tend to make I explain four separate phases to point out those mistakes. For single target rotation it looks something like this when properly executed.

No-Eclipse Phase
Pre-Eclipse Phase
Eclipse Phase
Post-Eclipse Phase



The No-Eclipse Phase is just that, no Eclipse buff is active. During this phase is when you would execute the following:

1. Critical raid cooldowns of Rebirth or Innervate or rebuffing after Rebirth.
2. Raid debuff application if not present, Improved Faerie Fire.
3. DPET cooldown priorities. Starfall is higher priority than Force of Nature even against a single target, however if there is less than half the cooldown time of Starfall until multiple targets will be available (less than 30 seconds to an event like adds spawning), Starfall should be saved for when multiple targets are present as it will double or more the damage.
4. DoT renewals depending on WrathCalc optimal renewals. In two piece tier 9, Moonfire may be renewed each No-Eclipse phase, otherwise it is generally ideal to only renew the DoT which will buff your next Eclipse. If both DoTs are being renewed, the one which benefits the next Eclipse should be the one cast last (i.e. going into a Solar Eclipse you would cast Moonfire and then Insect Swarm) in order to assure it overlaps with the Eclipse as much as possible.
5. Starfire or Wrath depending on which eclipse you are entering next.

The Pre-Eclipse phase is any spells at the start of an Eclipse that you would choose to cast instead of the buffed spell. Many balance druids will make the mistake of renewing DoTs at the start of an Eclipse. This is proven to be a DPS loss however. The Pre-Eclipse or start of Eclipse should be treated identically to the Eclipse phase. By making the mistake of casting other spells at the start of an Eclipse you effectively push spell casts that could have been buffed off the end of the Eclipse.

The Eclipse phase is simply the phase of your cycle where you do nothing but spam the buffed spell. Solar Eclipse you spam Wrath. Lunar Eclipse you spam Starfire. Simple as that. Casting anything else is a DPS loss.

The Post-Eclipse phase is the end of the Eclipse buff where the buff will expire before your next cast completes. Since you have to finish your cast in order for the buff to have its effect, casting an additional Wrath or Starfire at this point is the same as casting it without the buff because you will finish after the buff expires. Experienced balance druids will treat this phase identical to the No-Eclipse phase. This phase is basically only one spell cast, though in the case of a Lunar Eclipse it could be two instant casts (it is any time between 0 and the cast time of your buffed spell, i.e. if Starfire has a 1.8 second cast, it is between 0 and 1.8 seconds for a Lunar Eclipse). This is the ideal time for falling back on your No-Eclipse priorities such as cooldowns and DoT renewals. This also reduces the likelihood of you reentering an Eclipse immediately without getting these casts off.

General Rules
Starfall and Force of Nature should be used on cooldown at the first No-Eclipse/Post-Eclipse phase unless Starfall is being saved for an add spawn event within 30 seconds.
Moonfire can typically be renewed between any Eclipse because you will cast at least two Starfires when entering a Solar Eclipse (2/3 of your glyph benefit) because the first cast could enter Eclipse and the second cast was already in queue.
Only time when DoT clipping is acceptable is when an encounter mechanic will incapacitate you, such as Putricide's phase change on normal. If you know movement will be required soon, it is better to delay your DoT renewal until you move than to cast it at the normal time and again during the movement. If DoTs are already active consider renewing Improved Faerie Fire if the fight will last long or casting Typhoon while moving.

Some general exceptions to the rules.
When pre-potioning a fight, your pre-potion of choice is Potion of Wild Magic. You would take your potion, pop Starfall, Faerie Fire, Moonfire, and begin casting Starfire to enter a Solar Eclipse first since a Lunar Eclipse will not benefit from a Potion of Wild Magic. You take Potion of Wild Magic because it greatly improves your initial Starfall used. Potion of Speed will have significantly less benefit in a pre-potioning scenario. Under normal circumstances you would choose to enter a Lunar Eclipse first. Additionally in a not pre-potioning condition you may choose to open with Force of Nature given the targeting nature of the spell it is sometimes easier to cast it first.

As for everything else. You have a lot to learn it looks like and rather than sorting through a laundry list I'd recommend you read Arawethion's (Hamlet) guide over at EJ.
http://elitistjerks.com/f47/t66856-d...dated_3_3_5_a/

[Quinafoi]

If you want it real easy to start , easiest is to get an addon like Faceroller with the Boomkin pack. It will show what to cast , when. But i would not stick with it for long, cause your DPS will be mediocre because as much as it helps you , sowing you what to cast, it cannot anticipate different situations. The basic is Fairie, Moon, Insect, spam starfire or wrath until you get eclipse. Depnding on wich one you get, switch to that particular spell to get major boost in DPS.

Faceroller for Balance DPS is terrible. If you are using it, you're DPSing wrong. Faceroller considers present state, it does not consider state at end of cast. State when cast completes determines your priority. This is a fundamental difference between melee (instant based) and caster dps. If you've been using that then I'm sorry to say you've learned wrong. The developer of the addon, or more specifically the plug in to it, does not give proper consideration to how the balance rotation functions.

The recomendations of the "Faceroller - Moonkin" addon are incorrect and result in sub-optimal DPS.

[Skaterjoec55]

Oh wow...uhhh talk about a lot to take in...and I thought Insect swarm was pointless...I wonder if someone could create a Boomkin DPS guide on here. Well I will check out that guide u posted above. I have a few more questions...what about stats, what should I focus on majorly, sorry I am new to DPS because I can't do it for my life thats why I am a healer lol. Also what glyphs (as well as minor glyphs) help me the most for my DPS?

[Quinafoi]

Stat priorities vary depending on your level of gear. Quoting Arawethion.

Stat priority for DPS will almost always run in the following order:
Hit rating (to cap) >> Haste rating (below GCD cap) = Spellpower > Crit rating (below Lunar cap) > Haste rating (above GCD cap) >= Crit rating (above Lunar cap) >> Intellect > Spirit.

For exact numerical comparisons, plug your setup into Wrathcalcs.

For balance, the top three glyphs are Starfall, Starfire and Moonfire. In some extreme cases, WrathCalcs may indicate that Focus overtakes Moonfire in value but because of the nature of how and when you use Starfall it would still be advised to take Moonfire instead since you may choose to delay Starfall usage in certain encounter situations. These three glyphs have been the top three since the 3.3.3 buff to Starfall's damage, making Starfall the highest DPET ability even against a single target. Insect Swarm used to be used prior to the buff to Starfall but not anymore as it has fallen in standing from before being the number one glyph except with the tier nine Moonfire bonus.

As for minor glyphs, generally speaking the only one which basically all druids take regardless of spec is Unburdened Rebirth. If you were to specialize in AoE DPS you would want Glyph of Typhoon to remove the knockback on Typhoon. In an AoE setting, Typhoon can be used between Hurricane channels to try and forcibly proc Nature's Grace, increasing the casting speed of your next Hurricane by 20%. Generally speaking however you shouldn't take this glyph because Typhoon's knockback and subsequent daze serve as both a useful survival ability under certain circumstances like Deathbringer Saurfang's blood beasts. Glyph of the Wild is useful to some degree because you can use Gift of the Wild in combat to attempt to force proc Omen of Clarity, this again largely comes down to an AoE setting. Since Gift of the Wild when glyphed costs less mana than Hurricane, you can try to proc Omen of Clarity to make your Hurricane free (in a 25 man raid with pets this a Gift of the Wild has around a 95% chance of procing Omen of Clarity). Not entirely useful in a single target fight and also not essential at the end game since balance druids can generate mana faster than any other class (Recount fails to show it because of "over" regeneration not being counted, Warlocks lifetapping and Protection Paladins will show higher on Recount because they actually drop lower on mana, you have to spend mana to gain it). I generally lean towards mobility buffs like Glyph of Dash but that's partly cause I PvP once in a while. Other than Unburdened Rebirth it's up to you really.

[Cholerabob]

That's why i said also

But i would not stick with it for long, cause your DPS will be mediocre because as much as it helps you , sowing you what to cast, it cannot anticipate

[Quinafoi]

I wonder if someone could create a Boomkin DPS guide on here.

Could, but what's the point at this time in the expansion? Beta is well underway for the next expansion and the 4.0 patch is already on the PTRs. Everything will change as a result of 4.0, and while many of the basic concepts will remain, there is a significant amount of changes to balance. At this point it wouldn't be worth while writing a guide that will undergo major revisions in the near future.

That's why i said also

I try to avoid advice like "I know this is wrong, but you can go ahead and do it." I'm not saying you were wrong in your assessment, I'm saying you should have never mentioned it in the first place since it was faulty advice and you already knew that. That's my two cents. If you know something leads to bad techniques (like the TauntMaster addon), you should never advice using it.

[Skaterjoec55]

In your oppinion what is easier and the more efficient to a raid group in DPS. Moonkin or Cat? I am just wondering because I want to learn how to DPS because I am noticing a lot of raid leaders are frequently looking for healers with a DPS off spec.

[Quinafoi]

Feral DPS will tend to overtake Balance DPS in the highest level gear because of how low the soft caps on stats are for Balance and how far over them they reach in the highest levels. In mostly 264s, I sit around 13% over Crit soft cap and 19% over the Haste soft cap.

Balance DPS has the advantage of being caster DPS which effectively means they can DPS regardless of their position. If you need people to collapse, they can be collapsed and DPS. If you need people to spread out, they can DPS spread out. You would also have the advantage of potentially uses the same pieces of gear in both Restoration and Balance gear sets, however your gemming and enchanting priorites may be different and you'd have to decide which to take. Pieces that would work well in either are typically Crit/Haste/Spellpower pieces which are ideal for Balance and ok for Restoration (Restoration would prefer Spirit/Haste/Spellpower, though they will have some Crit regardless).

Which would benefit the raid more depends on the raid though. If the raid is caster heavy, a Balance Druid because of the raid debuff and aura would be more benefitial. If the raid is physical heavy, buffs and debuffs of a feral druid would be more benefitial.

Which is more efficient to learn? Both require a bit of a learning curve. Feral probably slightly more than Balance since you are already used to casting mechanics in general from being restoration, however you may be lacking concepts of DPS in general.

Which is more efficient in combat? Well Feral druids don't exactly have much variation in efficiency. If you have energy, you use it following your priority system. The rate of energy gain in general remains relatively constant. Balance druids in earlier progression have some concerns for efficiency however in the end game they become the most efficient caster as far as mana is concerned, nothing generates more mana.

[Treybor]

Also a resto converted to boomkin at 80 to get gear up. Boss fights, cast IFF. Cast Force of Nature, as needed. Cast a single Wrath to proc eclipses. Cast moon and Fairie (increased crit chance, which procs eclipses). Cast Starfall (SF procs Natures Grace, 20% speed boost), THEN spam starfire or wrath until you get eclipse.

On Boss fights, this puts me near or at top of the dps. Personally, I spam starfire first while starfall is active and I get the 20% speed boost, then switch to wrath when lunar eclipse procs.

Single or small group trash mobs, just cast wrath, moon, then spam wrath until eclipse procs.

Large trash mobs, I spam hurricane as I have no mana problems. If I know my starfall won't pull aggro, on a tough mob, like the last group before the tunnel in Pit of Souron, using starfall, then hurricane produced 11k dps.

This was enough to keep the group happy with my dps while I accumulated resto gear. But above all else, know the fights........

[Quinafoi]

Huh?

Also a resto converted to boomkin at 80 to get gear up. Boss fights, cast IFF. Cast Force of Nature, as needed. Cast a single Wrath to proc eclipses. Cast moon and Fairie (increased crit chance, which procs eclipses). Cast Starfall (SF procs Natures Grace, 20% speed boost), THEN spam starfire or wrath until you get eclipse.

First off, no one casts a "single Wrath" to proc eclipse and if you do that you're doing it wrong. In fact there is only one condition where this would occur normally and that is if you renewed an instant cast (Faerie Fire, Moonfire, Insect Swarm), cast a single cast and during that single cast time another debuff was ready for renewal and you did another instant cast. That second instant cast could result in you procing an eclipse on the spell between and doing so with a "single" cast. 90% of the time however because of spell queuing, if you are executing your rotation correctly you will never cast fewer than two of a spell because the first will proc Eclipse but you already began casting the second before the buff proced.

In the 3.3.5 rotation, you should not be renewing Moonfire during an Eclipse, ever. Starfall and Force of Nature should be used on cooldown outside of Eclipse, however Starfall can be saved for up to half the cooldown duration if there will be adds spawning soon since multiple targets increases the damage output by over double.

On Boss fights, this puts me near or at top of the dps. Personally, I spam starfire first while starfall is active and I get the 20% speed boost, then switch to wrath when lunar eclipse procs.

Also, you have your Eclipses mixed up. Starfire procs Solar Eclipse which buffs Wrath's damage. Lunar Eclipse buffs Starfire's crit chance and is proced by Wrath.

Single or small group trash mobs, just cast wrath, moon, then spam wrath until eclipse procs.

Actually this is a very bad method. On smaller trash with lower health pool, faster casts win. So you want to use Starfire first to proc Solar Eclipse so you can burn through them with the faster cast time of Wrath. If the mob dies in 6 seconds, and you have a choice between casting 2 big spells or 5 smaller spells, the 5 smaller faster casts will win. Only when the targets have sufficient health pool to survive a full Lunar Eclipse is procing Lunar Eclipse more valuable. Otherwise you would prefer Solar Eclipse on trash (provided it isn't on cooldown).

Large trash mobs, I spam hurricane as I have no mana problems. If I know my starfall won't pull aggro, on a tough mob, like the last group before the tunnel in Pit of Souron, using starfall, then hurricane produced 11k dps.

This was enough to keep the group happy with my dps while I accumulated resto gear. But above all else, know the fights........

Starfall always wins in AoE, no one else has an ability that can compete with it in AoE circumstances. Starfall is the single highest DPET ability in the game if there are multiple targets, period.