nobbie,Oct 10 2005, 01:50 PM Wrote:Interesting .. I have to look deeper into that :) Being a more powerful (single-target) "Mage" in unshifted "Caster" form (DPS-wise) might be the trade-off for getting a robust "Mage in Mail armor". Makes sense.
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my druid's a L40 Moonkin now.
for ordinary grinding, one same-level mob at a time, might as well stay in normal form. You get hit harder by melee but with a Rejuv always ticking, you end up less damaged than the Moonkin does (and Moonkin shift, untalented, seems to cost about the same as a Rejuv or two.)
The Moonkin is a great "oh crap" form though. Multiple +1 mobs on you? Cast Regrowth, go to Moonkin, keep Moonfire ticking on all of them, get some additional DPS in with Imp Thorns and a good dagger.
edit: naturally Moonkin would be dumb for fighting mages at range!
I was doing mixed healing/DPS in Scarlet Monastery and got an add on me. Instead of waiting for someone to take it off me, I switched into Moonkin and tanked it with dagger + Moonfire DoT, while keeping an eye on the health of my group members so I could switch out and heal them if necessary.
so you might consider Moonkin to be much like Bear but with more/different tricks (Hibernate, Roots) and maybe higher DPS. (And much better armor than normal Bear at lvl 40!! - more like Dire Bear.)
By the way, my Moonkin armor with mostly leather & a little cloth, and MoTW etc, is ~2800. At 40, that is 40-45% damage reduction. I'll be at about 45% when I'm all leather. All armor buffs (kits, potions, MoTW) are added AFTER your basic armor is multiplied by moonkin bonus.
I use a dagger and offhand because I need a quick weapon because apparently casting anything on my target (Moonfire, Faery Fire) resets my weapon swing, and I don't want to wait 3 seconds for my staff or 2H mace to come down again. And of course I want Omen of Clarity to proc as often as possible; I believe that happens more often if you swing more often. Looking forward to OOC.
I'm contemplating a Spi/Str/Sta build for grinding. Unfortunately from my trips to the AH it seems that Spi/Sta or Spi/Str gear is not that common.