DISCLAIMER: This guide is oriented at general PvP - namely battlegrounds. I am not focusing on arena, which some believe is the ultimate PvP environment. You can still use the advice for arena, of course, but just keep in mind that I am not writing this for that specific environment.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
- Introduction
- Strengths & weaknesses
- Talent build
-- Glyphs- Gear
-- Enchants
-- Gems
-- Gear list- Professions
- Techniques & strategies
-- General tips
-- Death Knight
-- Druid
-- Hunter
-- Mage
-- Paladin
-- Priest
-- Rogue
-- Shaman
-- Warlock
-- Warrior- Conclusion
1 - Introduction
Welcome to my guide and thanks for reading! :)
Are you new to Moonkins or unsure whether you want to play one in PvP? Watch this video - if that doesn't have you convinced to try, I don't know what will.
Now, a bit of information about me:
I am a very enthusiastic Moonkin PvPer. I reached a 1800 3v3 rating and 2200 2v2 rating even though I didn't play arena all that often, accumulated more than 50k honorable kills, solo-captured over 230 Warsong flags, and won about 70% of the hundreds of duels I participated in. In battlegrounds, there was no one the Horde dreaded to see more than my Moonkin.
In this guide, I hope to help new and old players alike to get a better grasp of Moonkin PvP. Please keep in mind that I will not cover things like keybindings, interface configuration, or description of basic Druid abilities - I consider these things to fall under your responsibility (or, in any case, not mine :p) Also, please do not expect to become a PvP god after reading this guide - I am merely giving information and tips based on my perspective of the player vs. player environment as a Balance Druid. I highly encourage you to make your own decisions about your talents, gear, and playstyle. You will be a better player for it.
If you've talked to me before, you may already know that I like to QQ about Moonkin PvP viability. Most people will agree with me that Moonkins tend to be free honorable kills. That said, I firmly believe that Moonkin PvP is fun and viable with the proper amount of practice and know-how.
2 - Strengths & weaknesses
Before you PvP seriously with any class/spec, it's important to know your strengths and weaknesses.
Weaknesses:
- Lack of effective defensive cooldown
- HoTs can be dispelled or spellstolen
- It can be difficult to burst
- No silence/stun/effective self-peel
- High visibility
Strengths:
- Good kiting ability
- Strong heals for a DPS spec
- Potential for quick burst
- Great AoE capability
Survivability is probably our main weakness. Blizzard intended us to soak up damage through our armor, and to counter what damage was coming through with our HoTs. Unfortunately, healing requires us to drop that 30% armor, which sometimes ends up being counterproductive, especially when our heals are made ineffective through Mortal Strike effects.
Furthermore, our magic-damage mitigation is extremely poor. Our armor is useless against casters, and in fact only half-useful against melees, who will ignore our armor through the use of bleeds, poisons, holy damage, diseases, and a whole f*ckton of armor penetration. Our only defensive cooldown is Barkskin - 20% damage mitigation for 12 seconds. Most players ignore it and nuke us anyways, and it can't even be used while silenced.
We also have no talents to reduce the duration of any sort of crowd-control effect (nor can we dispel them, obviously).
Another problem is control. We can never stun or silence our target. We have no button we can push to incapacitate our targets while DPSing them down. Entangling Roots break very fast, and are mainly used to help kite our melee opponents. Furthermore, it has a cast time, which makes the spell vulnerable to interrupts. Cyclone also has a cast time and will be used mainly as a form of defense when pressured or to disable someone while focusing on another target. We have no instant get-out-of-my-face button, except for Typhoon, which can be difficult to use properly against a melee that is training us, and which always behaves very unreliably.
Our burst damage is very RNG-dependent. Wrath and Starfire, our main nukes, are weak outside of Eclipse, and their cast times beg for interrupts. Our DoTs are weak, and our other instants - Starfall and Treants - are only situational. Quick burst is possible if you have both a Lunar Eclipse and a Wrath of Elune proc, or if you manage to enter a Solar Eclipse and have room to chaincast Wraths.
On the other hand, we are Druids, and our mobility is excellent. Shapeshifting will break all roots and snares, allowing us to effectively kite or run away from almost any class (save perhaps for Frost Mages and Unholy Death Knights). Shifting away from our melee opponents while keeping up HoTs on ourselves is key to staying alive. You can also gain a bit of distance and smack a Typhoon in your melee adversary's face, followed by roots.
3 - Talent build
This is what I consider to be the cookie cutter build. It has two floater points:
Druid (56/0/13)
The only other alternative build I would consider is the following, for sustain-oriented arena fights:
Druid (57/0/14)
Your choices are fairly limited. I avoid Imp. Insect Swarm, Imp. Faerie Fire, and Genesis, as they are all very minor (and in the case of the first two, situational) damage talents.
Your choices for floater points are Brambles, Furor, Subtlety, or Moonglow. In some cases you may want to consider Dreamstate if you are fully geared and absolutely need the mana regeneration.
I would recommend against Furor for a few reasons:
- The intellect portion of it is useless. When you shift, your mana bar extends but doesn't fill, and because you shift so often in PvP you will never gain any mana advantage from this talent. You get some extra crit and mana back (from crits) while in Moonkin Form thanks to Furor, but the difference is so tiny in a PvP setting as to be insignificant.
- The free rage is the appeal of this talent, but the only way to have it guaranteed is to max it out, which is a waste of points. You should still be able to Dire Bear Form > Enrage > Bash without any issues.
I have always found Subtlety to be extremely weak. 30% dispel resistance is mediocre at best, and you will have 20% anyways just to get to the next row of talents. Getting spam dispelled is very annoying but another 10% won't change anything.
Brambles is an interesting talent and I personally spent the last 2 points there. The extra Thorns damage is a bonus versus melees (particularly Rogues), and the daze effect can come in very handy. For the time being, however, I would only partially recommend it as the Treant part of the talent is not working on Molten.
Moonglow is a talent I would only recommend for arena (mana is not an issue in battlegrounds). Mana-burning teams or outlasting comps will hurt your mana bar and this talent may help. However, the way I see it, if you're facing one of those teams, you're going OOM anyways and spec-ing into a tiny bit of extra mana isn't the change you need to make.
Must-have PvP talents are Nature's Focus and Gale Winds. You may want to consider dropping Owlkin Frenzy as the proc goes away upon shifting, which means that it often goes unused - however, it can be devastating in the right circumstances and greatly contributes to that glorious feeling of being a laser chicken of doom when playing a Moonkin.
Glyphs
Other than the Glyph of Starfall, there are no best-in-slot Moonkin glyphs. The following are all viable PvP glyphs, the first three being my prefered choices.
- Glyph of Starfall. Essential for damage.
- Glyph of Insect Swarm. This is also important for damage. DoTs are a main source of damage in PvP and this helps tremendously.
- Glyph of Monsoon. I use Typhoon almost the moment it is off cooldown. It's a great ability against casters and melees alike.
- Glyph of Barkskin. This is good against melees for survivability.
- Glyph of Moonfire. You can't Moonfire spam people to death, but the DoT part will actually do decent damage. Part of the reason why I don't pick up this glyph is because I tend to refresh Moonfire early in anticipation of being unable to do it later, so I benefit from the instant-damage portion of the spell more than I would without clipping.
4 - Gear
I have spent a very long time calculating, pondering, and raging over Moonkin PvP gear. That said, I have finally arrived at something I can say I am satisfied with and enjoy using.
There are two paths to choose as far as Moonkin gearing is concerned. The first is what I simply regard as standard caster gearing: power gems and enchants. However, if you are new to Moonkin PvP or play high-rated arena, this sort of gearing will leave you feeling extremely squishy, and I would recommend itemizing for stamina and resilience to compensate for our lack of natural survivability. You can also try to find a middle ground. It all depends on how comfortable you are with staying alive in your most common PvP setting.
That being said, you should still know about the following stats:
Hit rating. Your chance to miss an equal-level player is exactly 4%, which Balance of Power covers. Most players will gain some extra avoidance through racials or talents, which is why you should generally aim for 6-8% hit. Wearing the Ashen Band of Endless Destruction will bring you very close to 6%, and depending on how much hit you're aiming for, you'll need to gem or wear a hit item for a little more. If you absolutely don't want to miss anybody, you'll need at least 10% hit because of those nasty Blood Elf Paladins.
Spell penetration. I used not to care too much for this stat until I realized how important it was. If your target has any sort of spell resistance, spell penetration will be more beneficial than even spellpower. Furthermore, spell penetration affects binary spells - spells that have double effects, such as Entangling Roots which both root and deal damage, and that are either fully resisted or not resisted at all (no partial resists). Even if you are hit-capped, some spells may not land if you're not properly penetrating your target's spell resistance. The minimum amount of spell penetration you should obtain is 75 (to counter Mark of the Wild), but you'll need at least 130 against Mages or Shamans.
Next is spellpower. Just get tons of it wherever you can. Moonkin heals and nukes scale very well with spellpower. Do not be disconcerted if you find that other players always have more spellpower than you do. This is just part of Blizzard's design and does not mean your spells are weaker. I recommend having at least 3000 spellpower.
Haste comes next, and sadly, in rather meager quantities. Haste quickens your global cooldown and cast times, so it is ideal to have lots of it, but unfortunately, leather items do not come with haste as cloth items do. That means Moonkins inherently have 204 less haste than Mages, Priests, and Warlocks, and that doesn't even take the wand into account. Depending on how you gear, you may find yourself with extremely low quantities of haste. There isn't really any right amount of it for PvP, as the soft cap relies on Nature's Grace procs, which is nerfed by resilience and the fact that you can't usually hardcast your spells without interruptions. Just get the necessary stats first and then try to get as much haste as possible from there on.
You'll have a fair amount of crit rating thanks to your talents, Moonkin Form, and leather gear. Resilience nerfs crit substantially, so it's not something you should itemize for - that being said, it certainly doesn't hurt to have it, especially against low-resilience targets.
Enchants
On the left side are the DPS enchants or those that are unquestionably best-in-slot. On the right side are the survivability enchants, which I sometimes use to be a super tanky flag-carrying Panzerchicken.
- Head: Arcanum of Dominance | Arcanum of the Savage Gladiator
- Shoulders: Inscription of Dominance | Greater Inscription of the Gladiator
- Back: Greater Speed
- Chest: Exceptional Resilience
- Wrists: Superior Spellpower | Major Stamina
- Hands: Exceptional Spellpower
- Legs: Sapphire Spellthread | Earthen Leg Armor
- Feet: Tuskarr's Vitality
- 1H weapon: Mighty Spellpower
- Staff: Greater Spellpower
Gems
Again, left side is DPS gems. Right side is survivability.
- Red sockets: Runed Cardinal Ruby
- Yellow sockets: Quick King's Amber | Mystic King's Amber
- Blue sockets: Stormy Majestic Zircon | Solid Majestic Zircon
- Meta socket: Chaotic Skyflare Diamond | Effulgent Skyflare Diamond
Please keep in mind that the above two lists show extremes. You should try to mix-and-match to find your preferred balance between power and survivability (for example, I use 2x Shattered Eye of Zul in my gear).
Gear list
Here is the gear you should aim to have.
- Head: Wrathful Gladiator's Wyrmhide Helm
- Neck: Wrathful Gladiator's Pendant of Subjugation
- Shoulders: Sanctified Lasherweave Mantle | Wrathful Gladiator's Wyrmhide Spaulders for more resilience
- Back: Wrathful Gladiator's Cloak of Subjugation
- Chest: Wrathful Gladiator's Wyrmhide Robes
- Wrists: Wrathful Gladiator's Armwraps of Dominance
- Hands: Wrathful Gladiator's Wyrmhide Gloves
- Waist: Wrathful Gladiator's Belt of Dominance
- Legs: Wrathful Gladiator's Wyrmhide Legguards
- Feet: Wrathful Gladiator's Boots of Dominance
- Ring1: Wrathful Gladiator's Band of Dominance
- Ring2: Ashen Band of Endless Destruction
- Trinket1: Dislodged Foreign Object | Corroded Skeleton Key for pure survivability | Battlemaster's Ruination for a nice balance | Charred Twilight Scale if you donate
- Trinket2: Medallion of the Alliance
- Main hand: Wrathful Gladiator's Blade of Alacrity | Wrathful Gladiator's Blade of Celerity if you can get it
- Off hand: Wrathful Gladiator's Compendium | Wrathful Gladiator's Grimoire if you didn't gem for spell penetration
- Idol: Wrathful Gladiator's Idol of Steadfastness
5 - Professions
There is really no right or wrong profession. Most professions just end up giving us a spellpower benefit, which is exactly what we want. Jewelcrafting and Blacksmithing are probably the best two professions if you're looking for something that will give you many options.
I personally prefer Engineering for PvP. The Hand-Mounted Pyro Rocket is an extra 1k-2k damage every 45s, off the GCD. You also get a parachute which has its uses in world PvP and Arathi Basin, and invaluable Nitro Boosts in battlegrounds. Powershifting followed by Nitro Boosts is the closest to an oh-f*ck button you'll ever have.
If you love to battleground, get Engineering.
6 - Techniques & strategies
This part of the guide will go over some strategies you may want to adopt while facing specific classes/specs. Credit goes to Lynea for the idea (make sure you check out her Paladin guides!) as she helped me figure out how to handle this section. First, however, I will list general tips that may be helpful versus any player.
The following tips are just general ideas of what you can do in PvP and against specific classes/specs. Some things are not set in stone and I encourage you to adapt techniques based on your playstyle. I also won't be telling you things like when to trinket or Barkskin - that is an assessment only you can make based on the situation. If you can't make an assessment like that on your own, then I'm afraid PvP is not for you.
General tips
- Reduce your visibility. Moonkin Form is a big PvP taunt and you will see your survivability drastically increase simply by keeping your distance or using a size-reducing consumable like Noggenfogger Elixir.
- Keep HoTs on yourself as much as you can. In addition to healing you, they also increase Nourish's potency. Though you might be wasting your mana against dispellers, Rejuvenation and 3 stacks of Lifebloom will make you very annoying to kill for most classes.
- Try to maintain a 100% DoT uptime on your target. Because movement and CCs will prevent you from casting, your DoTs will be an important part of your damage.
- Starfall is your major nuke and will tip the balance of power in most fights. It is absolutely crucial that you time it properly. Do not use it when you know you will be CCed (unless your trinket is up). Try to use it after your opponent has used his defensive cooldowns, and ideally when you have a spellpower proc. Pick up a few Free Action Potions and own it up in battlegrounds.
- Use Shadowmeld to interrupt major spells (e.g. Lava Burst, Chaos Bolt, Fear). If you're a Tauren - roll Night Elf. You'll be prettier anyways.
- Powershift. Always. Make a macro for it. (/cast !Moonkin Form). Powershifting is your #1 escaping tool. Once you master kiting you will find your survivability increasing enormously. However, do keep in mind that it isn't always necessary to get rid of slows, and that shifting will cancel Owlkin Frenzy.
- Don't be afraid to make heavy use of Entangling Roots and Cyclone. Some players will hate you for it because it's annoying and "not manly." Tell them to stop sucking.
- Fakecast. Start casting something and then use a /stopcasting macro. Make players use their interrupts on a fakecast and you give yourself a lot more freedom to actually cast spells.
- Keep up Earth & Moon to allow your DoTs and Starfall to do more damage.
- Use Barkskin frequently. It's on a short cooldown - abuse it.
- Use your Feral forms. Travel Form is great for kiting. Prowl, Dash, Pounce, Bash, and Frenzied Regeneration all have their place in PvP.
Death Knight
- Powershifting over Desecration is pointless, so don't waste the GCD or mana.
- Anti-Magic Shell is a good time to cast Force of Nature, seeing as you can't do much else for damage anyways. Also make sure you don't waste Nature's Grasp while AMS is up.
- Try to Bash during Strangulate, but keep in mind that Death Knights have a lot of parry, so don't be surprised if it doesn't land. Also remember that Icebound Fortitude makes them immune to stuns.
- Wait for Death Grip to be on cooldown before you use Typhoon or Entangling Roots.
- Unholy Death Knights can apply a lot of pressure just through their pets. Killing the Ghoul is useless as they can summon it instantly, but try to kill the Gargoyle if you can manage it. Root the Ghoul.
- Starfall after Anti-Magic Shell and ideally after Icebound Fortitude. Death Knights take lots of damage from Starfall because they receive splash damage from their pet.
Druid
- If he's Restoration and you don't have backup, just give up. You can't kill any healer that's got half a brain and resilience.
- If you can pressure a Feral Druid he'll likely use his instant Nature spell on Healing Touch rather than Cyclone, which he'd normally do to restealth. Blow him up fast to avoid being CCed.
- Remember that you can use Hibernate vs. Druids in any Feral form (including Travel Form) and that they can't shift out of it. Force the trinket and then catch them in that 10s CC - it'll give you a lot of breathing room and they'll hate you for it.
- Feral Druids are incredibly hard to kite but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try - those few seconds spent at range while they powershift your roots or Typhoon can save your life.
- Cyclone spam or LoS Moonkins when they Starfall. Use your trinket, Typhoon, and Shadowmeld to avoid being CCed while you use your own. If he does the same - tough luck, maybe he also read this guide.
Hunter
- Hibernate the pet.
- Stay close to the Hunter. If he can't shoot you, he can't hurt you. An effective way to get in control is to Cyclone, walk on top of him, and then Entangling Roots as Cyclone falls off.
- Keep your DoTs up so that you're still doing damage during Deterrence.
- Use Abolish Poison on their stings. If you keep up Abolish Poison you might even be able to cleanse a Wyvern Sting.
- Don't forget Nature's Grasp to keep the pets off you.
- Burst fast and early. Any damage you do to them is damage they cannot heal. If they pop Deterrence it just gives you time to heal yourself.
Mage
- Prepare to QQ and break a few keyboards.
- Fakecast Counterspell. If you don't, you're as good as dead. If you can get close, Bash the Mage during Improved Counterspell. You may want to pop Barkskin just before you attempt to fakecast.
- Be careful about using HoTs (and Innervate) as they will get spellstolen. Use Nourish when they can't Counterspell you.
- Force of Nature after Frost Nova.
- Ideally you want to Starfall once they can't Ice Block, but it's unlikely you can pressure enough without it. If they do Ice Block, use the time to heal.
- Be ready to Cyclone or Typhoon Evocation.
- Don't spend too much time powershifting against Frost Mages unless you are rooted. You can't do anything about being slowed and it will just make you go OOM that much faster.
Paladin
- He's Holy? Yeah, give up.
- Protection? Kind of naggy, but not too difficult to deal with. The damage is just not enough to give you trouble.
- Retribution has ridiculous burst thanks to all of their passive abilities. Thankfully, they don't have any healcuts or interrupts, so you can make the most of your healing.
- Casting Barkskin during Avenging Wrath is mostly useless because of their Sanctified Wrath talent. Bash them and follow it up with Cyclone spam. Or die if the Paladin is named Lynea. Or tell her how pretty she looks!
- Trinket Hammer of Justice. The only reason not to is if the Paladin has to catch up to you for some reason, and can't DPS you for the full duration.
- Despite having Cleanse and Hand of Freedom, Paladins are still easily kiteable due to lack of gap closers. Use Cyclone and Typhoon to gain distance and DPS them - eventually they will Repentance you. After that you're free to Starfall. If they bubble Starfall, just heal up and start again. It should be fairly easy to outheal Paladin DPS.
- Good Paladins will put Judgement of Justice on you, which is undispellable, so don't bother with Travel Form.
Priest
- Discipline? Cry yourself to sleep.
- Holy? Good one! Smack that dummy.
- Force of Nature after Psychic Scream.
- Shadowmeld or Typhoon Vampiric Touch.
- Bash during Silence.
- Priests will always be trying to get close to you to fear. If you can kite them around, you will seriously annoy them and avoid being CCed.
- Starfall as soon as their bubble is down.
- Play aggressively if you don't want them dispelling your HoTs. You will never win against a Shadow Priest if you play defensively.
- You can Cyclone Dispersion to block the mana regen.
Rogue
- Do not go out of Moonkin Form while near them, unless you're absolutely sure you won't be CCed.
- Keeping up Abolish Poison and HoTs will go a long way toward keeping you alive.
- Keep a full DoT uptime on them and make sure Faerie Fire is up. DoTs are usually long enough to keep them from re-stealthing, but on occasion a Rogue might be able to CC you well enough to be able to restealth if you didn't Faerie Fire him.
- If he uses Cloak of Shadows without Vanishing, pop Force of Nature.
- Only Starfall if he can't CC you anymore or if your trinket is up. And of course, don't Starfall if he is cloaked.
Shaman
- If he's Restoration, come back with a friend.
- The #1 thing to be aware of against Shamans is Wind Shear. Its cooldown is far too short to be able to fakecast it every time. Make them use it on Starfire and then switch to Wrath. You can stand at range to avoid it, but that also means you're too far to Cyclone.
- Grounding Totem will be almost impossible to counter if they time it well. If you do spot it, burn it with a Moonfire.
- Barkskin when he casts Lava Burst. You should also try to Shadowmeld or Typhoon it.
- Keep the pressure on so that he doesn't feel comfortable enough to Purge your HoTs.
Warlock
- You are immune to Seduction while in Feral Forms. This alone has won me several arena matches in the past.
- Warlocks have quite a lot of burst but they are not very mobile. It's fairly easy to run out of range and heal. This will make the difference between a win and a loss.
- Kill the pet. It's just too good not to do it. Their pet is a major source of utility and survivability. Put up your DoTs on it and it'll usually die in the Starfall, or close.
- Affliction Warlocks are the hardest Warlocks to defeat. Do everything you can to keep them from casting Haunt or Unstable Affliction. Do everything you can to avoid going below 25% HP.
- Dispel their Curse.
Warrior
- Protection Warriors are incredibly naggy, but still kiteable through the use of Entangling Roots. Just wear them down while safely relying on their lack of healcut.
- Arms Warriors are also very vulnerable to your roots.
- Burst like hell when they pop Recklessness.
- Barkskin Bladestorm and stay in Moonkin Form. You can't run out of it unless you were already at a certain range. One thing you can do is shift into Bear Form, pop Frenzied Regeneration, then prepare to Bash as soon as Bladestorm falls off. Follow up with a Cyclone and heal up. Mortal Strike might even be down at that point.
- At the beginning of a fight you can try to get close enough to avoid being Charged while still remaining out of melee range. This will allow you to get your DoTs up before he inevitably manages to Charge you.
Although you may have different playing styles, you will generally have to play defensively. In arena, you can be aggressive if you have a partner with good control. However, if you have to rely on your own tools, you may not be able to control opponents well enough to DPS them at will.
The general idea is that you need to kite/heal in order to stay alive through your opponent's burst. It is difficult as a Moonkin to be the first to put pressure. You will mostly be naggy, thanks to DoTs, the occasional Wrath, and the mobility. You have to wait for a window of opportunity, and then finally burst with the help of Starfall.
7 - Conclusion
Moonkin PvP can be very fun if played properly. It is lacking in many regards, especially in the survivability department, but it is still perfectly possible to do well when speccing Balance. As with any toon, practice makes all the difference.
Good luck!
