Putting together raid groups can be troublesome. You need to make sure your group gets as many raid buffs as possible, that you have enough healers to keep the raid alive, and that you have enough tanks to fit the encounter. And with 10 classes, 30 specs, and a mere 25 raid spots to fill, it’s not always a walk in the park.
The obvious choice, of course, is to bring the classes that can perform well, and at the same time give the group a wide range of buffs. I mean, you wouldn’t want to take a class just for its damage, right? And I’ve begun to wonder, why would anyone really bother to bring a mage? I mean, all they give the group is an intellect buff that we can get from warlocks instead, a crit buff on the target that warlocks can bring, and a personal crit buff that they usually give to each other. I mean, lets be fair, how useful are they?
Obviously, this is gibberish. And yet, I find myself cupping my face from time to time, when I see comments such as “Why bring a moonkin?”.
It seems that moonkins around the Azeroth can’t really shake the feeling that they are bad. They aren’t. In fact, current moonkins are performing quite well on the meters. Heck, I know I am at least.
The buff argument is old and tiresome by now. Why bring a moonkin when other classes bring the same buffs? Well, lets turn that argument around and ask, why bring other classes when moonkins bring all the buffs? Lets be fair, moonkins are a freaking battery of raid buffs, and while you can cover them with other classes, you need a good handful of those to get the same amount of buffs.
Fact is, ever since Blizzard’s “bring the player, not the class” concept was put into play, no class – except for maybe a paladin for Kings and a shaman for Bloodlust – has been needed. They have been nice to have, but you can usually get by just the same.
A single moonkin can give the whole raid 3% hit, 3% haste, 5% spell crit, 13% spell damage, a minor armor debuff, +stats and a hit debuff on the target. In order to get all of these buffs, you would have to bring:
A retribution paladin
An elemental shaman
A warlock forcing him to cast Curse of Weakness)
A hunter, forcing him to use Scorpid Sting
A warlock or a death knight
A shadow priest
A moonkin will cover buffs from at least six other people, just by being in the raid and attacking the target. That’s pretty damn huge. And the fact is, you can turn the table on a lot of these classes. Why bring a hunter when you can get their buffs from a druid and a death knight? Why bring a rogue when you can get misdirects from hunters? Why bring a death knight when you can get the buffs from a shaman? Why bring a mage when it doesn’t really add anything?
Do you see what I’m getting at? Buffs will usually be covered by 2-3 people in the raid, and this is good. They all provide their buffs in different ways, and you are making sure that if the raid is split up, or people die, the buffs are then replaced by those of another class. And if anything, moonkins should be ranked fairly high because of their multitude of caster buffs.
So why should you bring a moonkin? Well, for the damage, of course. Moonkins nowadays, at least those with similar gear and equal skill, are doing just fine on the meters. I know I am. Moonkins are not at the top of the meters, but neither is 24 other people in the raid group. There are usually 2-3 people – often the Shadowmourne wielding players – who are well ahead, followed by the core of the raid group, 10-12 players who are pretty close in damage. As long as you are somewhere within this range, everything is fine.
Don’t get your hair in a twist just because there are a few thousand DPS between you and the top, it doesn’t really matter. If you are pulling 13.000 DPS, who cares if a few people in your raid is managing to pull off 15.000 DPS? Enrage timers are not a problem, in fact, they have never been as long as you execute the tactics correctly, and they certainly aren’t with a 30% buff in Icecrown Citadel.
So why would you bring a moonkin? Why bring several? Because we do perfectly fine damage, and we are yet another source of the multitude of buffs you receive in a raid group. We often run with two moonkins, because we are both competent players that can pull our weight. Heck, I wouldn’t flinch if there was a 3 moonkin raid, but this would usually cause an outroar by the ignorants. Yet at the same time, nobody bothers to question the four mages in the group, despite the fact that they hardly bring anything to the group in terms of buffs, and that their damage is pretty much on par with every other caster.
Why bring a moonkin? Because you can!
Poor mages. Remember that arcane brings a 3% damage buff, frost brings another Replenishment (lol frost mage PvE) and fire brings 5% crit on target.
But I prefer moonkins. They’re easier to see and if you get hungry all you need is a cooking fire and some ‘slaw.
/clap
Very nice article Qieth. You ought to bump this over to Blog Azeroth as a Shared Topic. I think the “Why bring my class to a raid” could make for some very interesting posts. I suppose more generally, we’re talking redundancy in raid comp, but it’s still an interesting topic.
I totally agree with Moonkin competitiveness. I go to the logs at the end of the night and I take a look at my overall contribution on bosses and see that I’m in the top 5. That makes me pretty darn happy, especially knowing that I am NOT at a damage ceiling, I have gear upgrades to make. I think this is a great read for anyone leading a raid or making a group. Great job!
Recent Cataclysm patches (http://blue.mmo-champion.com/t/24702234448/mandatory-raid-buffs-and-debuffs/) seem to indicate that most of this buff versatility will be removed.
This makes me a little sad.
Oh, I love this post! Why bring a moonkin? Why not bring a moonkin!? That’s what I always say and I’ve been trying to tell my raid leader for months!
Wrote a bit about the same topic in one of my latest posts, cause I’m really tired of people telling me that moonkins are useless. They should read this!
We are losing the 5% spell crit in Cataclysm. We are also losing the 3% hit debuff, the spell damage debuff is being reduced (8% I think is the latest figure) and our haste buff is increased to 5% but to be shared with Destro Locks and Shadow Priests (and maybe Shammies too with their WOA totem too). Also the effect of our Gift of the Wild is being reduced (in that we are losing the talent).
Hopefully we get the 5% spell crit back or we will lose our spot to Ele Shammies, who at the moment are the only class providing that buff.
I think we will still be a “buff class” but less so than in WOTLK and so hopefully we will get our spot more because we dish out serious damage.
“If you are pulling 13.000 DPS, who cares if a few people in your raid is managing to pull off 15.000 DPS?”
AMEN. It’s not about comparing the size of your recount bar with your friends, it’s about maximizing your class’ abilities to deal more than enough damage to progress.
In cataclysm, they are further consolidating buffs, and they have removed multiple buffs from moonkin (no more crit aura, no more 3% hit from imp FF). So, basically, classes are going to have to be balanced on the damage they do, and you’ll just bring the best geared/most skilled players that give you a selection of ranged & melee DPS.
Noctua > Right now, if you remove all buffs from everybody and look purely on damage, moonkins are fine. So what if we’re loosing some of our buffs, and others are changed? Heck, with the Cata changes, I’d rather have haste than crit on my aura.
Did you see the post from Ghostcrawler on which classes would cover what? Or rather, which buffs are covered from what class? Its fairly clear that no class is super special when it comes to buffs – as it should be:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=24702234448&sid=2000&pageNo=9#170
Easy answer: because of water, portals, and – if they are alliance – to see these little gnomes die. The last alone makes up for the lost damage.
Besides, the arcane intellect buff provides more intellect than the felhunter’s (i.e. warlock’s puppy’s) aura. At least if I recall correctly.
I know, that this is still no reason to specifically want a mage, but whatever…choose what you want. You can also raid without priests, who cares..?
I havent used water in ages. Heck, we eat a feast before a fight, and other than that, we’re usually fine. This wasn’t the general point of this post, by the way
Oh, just doing ICC25HC atm. If there was ever any doub in the awesomeness of moonkins: http://qieths-quips.com/moonkinpower.jpg
People seem to forget that druids are HYBRIDS and can bring things to the table besides DPS and raid-buffs.
(1) Battle-rez
(2) Tranquility to save a specific group from biting it
Always remember the class’s cooldowns from ANY spec and don’t be shy to use them.
I’d say, Moonkins are the best “solo” casters. I mean… Take a mage, they do great damage, if they have enough support. But alone..
As an example: I can easily bring down Ragnaros in MC without an emerge phase as a Moonkin (solo). Try this with another class ^^… If only Golemagg wouldn’t require such a weird build/glyphs, I’d do it more often..