Back On Track.

My last few blogs have had little to nothing to do with Jandrae but sadly I haven't had much time to play her since 2.4 hit us on Tuesday. I was surfing around and came across a really good Moonkin blog via Gray Matter. It's always refreshing to come across other Moonkin blogs that are still being updated. It seems that every blog I've come across hasn't been updated in months or has been cancelled altogether.

What I like most about it is that it's posted from the perspective of a player who is at similar raid progression that I'm used to on my Warlock. His blog is also full of useful information on up-and-coming Moonkin like myself and which gear to look out for.

A couple of key points that I noticed are:

Don't be afraid to wear cloth - This is something I haven't looked at too much myself. I try to wear as much leather caster gear as possible but honestly, why not choose cloth? Unless you're soloing, you shouldn't be getting hit much if at all. A lot of the cloth caster gear nowadays has stam on it anyway for heavy AOE encounters. It's also 10 times easier to find cloth over leather.

Smart Innervates - I work a lot with a Shadowpriest so usually one of us gets the Innervate. In groups I've always thought to save the Innervate for the Healers but apparently that's not always the case. I knew that it worked off Spirit-based mana regen so it wasn't ideal for Pally or Shaman healers that normally use MP5 or other ways to regen mana but I never thought to use it on myself. Innervate is on a 6 minute cooldown so if I know the fight could last longer, I should cast it on myself early on. This way the cooldown should be over when the Priest or Druid healer needs the extra mana. If your healer is a Paladin or Shaman there shouldn't be an issue casting innervate on you or a Shadowpriest over the healer.

Melee for mana? - I agree with Gray that this should be a last resort and some boss fights just aren't ideal. What I never considered was to carry around a Feral staff. "They have attack power for Moonkin for a reason" right, Gray? Not once have I thought of that. Equip the Feral staff and whack the boss for 10-20 seconds and go back to casting. Casting between whacks is stupid and ruins the 5-second rule of mana regen so avoid doing that.

Idol macros - This doesn't apply to me yet since I don't have more than 1 idol but there are macros to switch them in combat when you cast Moonfire, Wrath or Starfire. I fully credit Gray for these.

Moonfire
/cast moonfire
/equip [noequipped: Idol of the Unseen Moon] Idol of the Unseen Moon

Wrath
/cast wrath
/equip [noequipped: Idol of the Avenger] Idol of the Avenger

Starfire
/aftercast +start/equip [noequipped: Ivory Idol of the Moongoddess] Ivory Idol of the Moongoddess
/cast starfire

Also worth noting..

"There are a couple of things that make idol swapping macros difficult. 1. Equiping an Idol triggers the global cooldown (GCD). 2. Unlike a spell, an idol can be equipped during the global cooldown. 3. An spell's damage is calculated at the end of its cast.

What this all means is that if you write a macro that equips the idol after the spell cast, then you suffer only one global cooldown and still get the benefit of the idol. This even works for instant casts like moonfire."

Thanks for the help, Gray!