A lot of debates have sprung up recently across druid forums, and I think it would be beneficial to take a look at the spell – there seem to be a lot of people who are unsure of how to best benefit from Typhoon.
Previously, this talent has been very lackluster for a 41-point ability. Up until Icecrown Citadel, the only fights where you would ever consider using this was A) Knockbacks on Faction Champions, and B) for AOE damage on Anub’Arak 25 heroic. But Icecrown Citadel offer us a few more places where Typhoon can be handy. Surely, it is not a major part of our class, but on those special encounters, it really does shine.
Typhoon as damage
A major reason for not using Typhoon in a regular rotation is its damage. To be completely blunt, the damage is terrible. With an average of 2.600 damage, I rarely find the motivation to use it – and this is an average considering crits and full raid buffs. This number is misleading somehow, because it is calculated by Wrath Calcs assuming full debuffs on the target. But since you would only use it for damage on several targets, it is unlikely that these targets would have full – if any – debuffs on them. But lets keep with 2.600 regardless.
Insect swarm, our very lowest damage spell these days, does a steady 8.515 damage in my gear. It also ticks very quickly, and buffs our wrath, giving it a use even at endgame raiding. But even with Insect swarm being so weak as it is, it still does more than three times the damage of Typhoon. In fact, if Insect Swarm can tick just two times, it has by itself done almost as much damage as Typhoon would do on a single target. That means that if your Insect Swarm has ticked for 6 seconds on a target, you gain more damage by clipping your dot, rather than casting Typhoon.
When you are up against several targets, you might consider using Typhoon. You may be moving around on Putricide, and be lined up in a way where you are able to hit both the Ooze and Professor. Yet this only yields you 5.200 damage, much less than if you threw a dot on either target, or stood still for a moment to cast a wrath. As above, if your Insect Swarm can tick for 10 seconds on the Ooze – which it usually can – you get more damage by putting the dot up, compared to throwing a bucket of water.
In fact, you need to be able to hit four targets before Typhoon does more damage than your dots, and there aren’t really that many occurences where you can do this. If three people in front of you are spiked on Marrowgar, and you are able to hit all three and the boss, then sure, fire away. If you are standing on the enemy gunship and are able to shoot down the line of Riflemen, fine, give them a shower. If a handful of Supressors are running towards Valithria, or if you can hit three Valkyrs and The Lich King, then by all means use it. But now, we have exhausted all the places where it may be useful to cast for its damage.
There is the argument for using it while moving. But you would always be refreshing your dots first, use starfall or treants, or pretty much every other ability before you would have a benefit from using Typhoon, and if you are moving for more than a few seconds at a time, something entirely different is wrong. I would even venture as far and say that it is better to refresh your dots again, so they are up for a longer time when you stand still and fire away wrath and starfire under eclipse, but at any rate you should generally not be moving for long distances very often. If you find that you are, consider if there are things you can change about your playstyle or tactics.
As a damage spell, Typhoon very rarely works out for us, and unless you care about your trash DPS, you should not consider it a damage spell.
Typhoon as crowd control
Say hello to my little friends: Daze and Knockback. There are few places where these come into play, but when they do, they are an absolutely wonderful tool for any raid. It is for this reason that you shouldn’t Glyph your Typhoon, for while you still retain the daze component if you use Glyph of Typhoon, you would generally want to keep the knockback anyways. You could reglyph everytime you do four or more trash mobs, but as I have stated so many times, I care little for trash and so should you.
It’s important to know how and when Typhoons crowd control components affects different targets. There are some places where you wouldn’t want to use it, because the targets could be affected by the knockback, for example on Rotworms during Dreamwalker, or the Ghouls in the first phase of the Lich King encounter. This usually knocks the targets in wild directions, and will do more harm than help. But there are other places where Typhoon’s components will be very useful.
Saurfang is a wonderful example of the prime place to use Typhoon. The spell is considered an AOE attack, so Saurfang’s Blood Beasts take little damage from it, but its ability to knock them back a good distance and daze them at the same time is worth its humidity in gold. I quickly became the knockback’er on Saurfang heroic, and coupled with a stun when they spawn, my knockback + daze takes care of most of the control on the Blood Beasts.
Valithria is another good example of an encounter where you can use Typhoon for its control component – and I’m not talking about the feeble Rotworms. As the encounter progresses, more and more mobs will swarm the room, and there is no greater feeling than slowing a pack of 3, 4, maybe 5 Supressors as they run to Dreamwalker. Its modest damage and the daze will ensure that the Supressors die faster and take longer to reach a point from where they can channel their debuff.
But there is one place where Typhoon is the most awesome spell to ever be made: The Lich King encounter. Resist the urge to want to use it during the first phase. The ghouls will usually die from incidential AOE, either cleaves, diseases or your own Starfall, or even more likely from the Necrotic Plague. DPS never have to be concentrated on the Ghouls and knocking them around could be very hazardous for the raid. Forget all notions of glyphing it for the encounter, for you will have much more use of it unglyphed later in the fight.
As you reach the second phase, the daze component comes into play. If a Valkyr runs lose, you can use Typhoon to daze it – Valkyrs does not get knocked back, but they are dimwitted enough to become slow and dull by a splash of water. It can be the difference between life and death if a stun misses or someone who was supposed to stun is grabbed. And you can still use your Typhoon for damage if you are able to hit all three Valkyrs and Arthas at the same time – even slowing them when they first grab their target gives more time for the rest of your raids DPS to spread some diseases or simply switch to them. The sooner you slow them, the closer they will be to each other, and you have more time before they separate – even if you do have them fly in the same general direction.
And then there is phase 3, where Typhoon gives you the ultimate moonkin power, control over life and death of the enemies you will be facing. As Vile Spirits swarm overhead, be ready to fire a burst of water. When you see them begin to move down towards the raid, Typhoon will not only knock them all back, but also daze them, giving your raid more time to clear them up and get them down. Use your Typhoon every single time the Vile Spirits begin to chase your friends, and you have probably given your raid another 5-10 seconds to kill the remaining spirits. And as your very soul gets pulled into Frostmourne, you no longer have to Warstomp your tauren hooves into the ground, or switch to bear form for a bash, in order to interrupt the evil spirits heal. A simple tap of Typhoon will interrupt the cast, and even keep the enemy away for a few seconds as it runs back. While people rarely gets drawn into Frostmourne more than once every few kills, Typhoon will shine when you do.
Tyhoon as a whole
I am happy that Typhoon has some sort of place on our hotbars, even if it only covers a very small niche. It has annoyed me greatly that our 41-point talents were either a 3 minute cooldown doing 25.000 damage or a weak damage spell with little viability in raids. While you wont ever need to use Typhoon on Festergut, Rotface, Blood Council and so forth, it will at the very least be very useful when you actually have a chance to use it.
It is up to you if you want to glyph Typhoon for every trash pack, but an unglyphed Typhoon is much more beneficial when there is an actual chance of using it. Don’t bother with typhoon on most fights, even for a little damage as you run, for there will rarely be times where you wouldn’t have something else to use, but be sure to send a wave of knockbacking, dazing destruction on the few encounters where you can – on these fights, it is a wonderful tool that will make your life a whole lot easier.
Interesting read. Ive been doing the Saurfang, Valithria and Val’kyr ones already, but actually hadnt thought about the spirits, so thats a new idea to me
Usually ive only removed the glyph at Saurfang and stuck a new one in afterwords, but now its more of a reason to not glyph for it al all. Typhoon isnt a totally useless spell, and i sometimes pop one on the run if there are several mobs to hit. All in all ive grown quite fond of the spell and use it on every reasonable occasion!
“I sometimes pop one on the run if there are several mobs to hit”
I put in a lot of effort to explain why this is usually not preferably DPS, you know..
There are very few fights where you hit enough targets or where you would not benefit from refreshing dots instead.
as a general rule i barely use typhoon, pretty much only on saurfang/dreamwalker and LK. i always use typhoon as the valkys pick up their targets to slow them so the raid can get their target, it helps especially if someone fucks up and gets carried in the wrong direction it gives time for the raid to react. in phase 3 i love this spell the knockback is pro it saves lives no doubt about that.
btw hope your feeling better qieth
These are some really nice pointers to when to use typhoon. I don’t play a druid in raids or anything of course, but I can see how it would really help on those encounters.
The only time typhoon annoys me (as a tank) is druids who use it at the wrong time in heroics hehe Like the fraction of a second before I hit thunderclap, tossing the mobs out of my thunderclap area and hence getting all the threat *lol* But when used correctly – I think you’re right that it can be really useful in those situations
Well, to be fair, once trash packs in ICC go below 50%, i start casting Typhoon on them, screaming “LOL TYPHOON!” over ventrilo, to mess with the tanks
As always, I very much agree with what you say. We got our first kill on LK-25 yesterday and Typhoon was shining like hell in P3. A really awesome spell here.
“if you are moving for more than a few seconds at a time, something entirely different is wrong”
I still find myself in that position every time we do Sindragosa. Running from Blistering Cold takes almost exactly 3 GCDs, so that leaves me with one instant after (or better: before) refreshing DoTs. Since Treants/Starfall are usually on CD, I like to do one jumped Typhoon here.
Yes, sure, granted, if you happen to have that extra second, go ahead. But this is more like the exception to the rule
You have a valid point though – enjoy your 5-6 Typhoons 
“I sometimes pop one on the run if there are several mobs to hit”
I put in a lot of effort to explain why this is usually not preferably DPS, you know..
There are very few fights where you hit enough targets or where you would not benefit from refreshing dots instead.
–
Beneficial, preferable, useful? Not much, but fun? Yes!
But i like doing it if i got nothing better to do! Admit it, it always looks cool with a big wave coming out of you
Silly man, we don’t play for fun!
I’d say in a given night of raiding… downing 6 bosses, I’ll use Typhoon about 10 times. On marrowgar during bonestorm after I’ve refreshed my dots, about 5 times on Saurfang, and occasionally on Rotface when I’m running back to “get in position” and my dots are pretty much refreshed.
It is fun to use, but Qieth set me straight on not using when it it’s a net damage loss
I win in the “Who can cast the least amount of Typhoons”
We did 10/12 ICC25 yesterday, 9 bosses on heroic, Rotface on normal because people needed the achievement, Putricide missing.
Across *all* of the kills we had, I did a stunning 11 Typhoons, although I did go resto for Dreamwalker, where it at least is slightly useful.
Thank you for compiling all this typhoon information in one place! We are working on P2, Lich King, where it works so well. I can’t wait to try the Spirits. And the Suppressors, great idea. I’m so used to not even thinking of it as a useful tool.
Very informative article. I’m mostly a pve-focused player and I hadn’t specced into Typhoon or given it a second thought until my guild started ICC and it was useful for Blood Beasts on Saurfang. I use it before Hurricane on trash mobs too. I have to admit though, I am guilty of using on the run if my dots are already on the target. I think I may be trying too hard to get more use out of it when it’s just not worth it. It’s a bad habit and I keep thinking “don’t clip dots!” but your post makes a lot of sense. I wonder if even casting GotW instead of Typhoon for the Omen of Doom proc would be worth more in damage, after you factor in lost time for movement.
Maybe I should just take it off my bar for fights that don’t require it, in order to break that habit.
Totally agree with you, I’m very glad typhoon actually is useful – at least for a few fights – in ICC. We finally just got to P3 for the first time on LK in my guild runs a night or two ago. As the vile spirits came swooping in, I did a spin jump to knock a whole group of them back just as a sort of habit/instinctual reaction from PvP and my raid leader saw it and shouted “Yes! That was awesome! Do that every time!” Put a big ol’ grin on my face…
I’m pretty sure Typhoon was meant to be a PvP talent, like Deep Freeze in the mage frost tree. Perhaps Blizzard will in the future do something similar to what they did for Deep Freeze and make it act differently in PvE, although they tend to shy away from such solutions.
IMO, the best use for Typhoon is knocking people off cliffs in BGs.
Good use of typhoon on putricide:
Green add reaches target, knocks a few people back. One of those people is you. Typhoon can be used while in the air. The add goes down so fast that dots don’t make sense, and typhoon is a tiny bit of extra damage.
I never bunch up on the green ooze, unless it targets someone close to me. The same goes for the rest of the ranged. We have melee, the putricide tank and pets stracking up, and thats enough even for heroic.
And if i take a hit, 6 seconds of a dot will do more damage than Typhoon