Friday, February 27, 2009

Eclipse: Starfire or Wrath

So, now is the debate on Starfire versus Wrath...

Now this is a serious debate on which rotation actually outputs more dps and which deals more damage. There are many factors that come into play with these two spells.

TALENTS
Here are the talents that help both WRATH and STARFIRE:
Starlight Wrath (5/5) Reduces cast time of Wrath and Starfire
Nature's Majesty(2/2) Increases crit of both Wrath and Starfire
Vengeance(5/5) Increases crit strike damage of both Wrath and Starfire
Celestial Focus(3/3) Increases Haste and gives Starfire a stun.
Moonfury(3/3) Increases damage of both Wrath and Starfire
Improved Faerie Fire(3/3) Increases crit chance of all spells
Wrath of Cenarius(5/5) Increases Starfire damage by 20% and Wrath by 10%
Eclipse(3/3) Procs give Wrath more damage and Starfire more crit chance
Earth and Moon(3/3) Increases spell damage of all spells

Talents that only affect WRATH:
Improved Insect Swarm(3/3) Increases damage of Wrath with target affected by Insect Swarm

Talents that only affect STARFIRE:
Improved Insect Swarm(3/3) Increases crit chance of Starfire when target is affected by Moonfire
Celestial Focus(3/3) Increases Haste and gives Starfire a stun.
Yes I put this as affecting both, but it gives a stun which is helpful for soloing.


IDOLS
Idols are a very big part of a Druid's gear and depending on which idols you have... you may want to change your rotation. Idol of Steadfast Renewal is available through one of the badge vendors. Idol of the Shooting Star is a drop from Instructor Raz in 25 man Naxx. Now I have the Starfire Idol... and have not bought the wrath one yet, even though I probably will to have most of the idols in the game.

GLYPHS
Other items that can put one spell in front of the other are glyphs. There are only a few glyphs for a balance druid.
Glyph of Focus, Glyph of Starfall, and Glyph of Typhoon (even though the typhoon one is a minor glyph) - are three that I will never use because I plan on not having those talented spells.
Glyph of Insect Swarm - This will make Insect Swarm a more viable spell also with the additional crit to Starfire and extra damage to Wrath.
Glyph of Moonfire - This make the DoT portion of your Moonfire higher and reduced the initial damage.
Glyph of Starfire - This allows for your Moonfire spell to last 9 seconds longer without recasting.

So I have actually tested and will continue testing new rotations and such. But when casting Wrath until Eclipse procs and then casting Starfire, I tend to forget that it extends the DoT of Moonfire and I recast it anyway.

Now I have started casting Starfire until Eclipse procs and then casting Wrath. This has actually upped my dps to over 4k on some fights. And when I was just testing it on the dummies in IF, I was getting up to 3k, self buffs... usually hovering around 2.8k. Now with the Wrath spam I was around 2.4k dps.

But remember if you are raiding... only cast Starfire during Heroism, because at that point, I know I have enough haste that I am over the haste cap for wrath, and it doesnt affect it as much as it does with Starfire.

So I have changed my rotation because of more research and it is now.

Faerie Fire --> Moonfire --> Insect Swarm --> Starfire (Eclipse) --> Wrath
Repeat whenever Moonfire needs refreshing.

I still use the othre rotation if it is a fight where a lot of movement is needed, because of the shorter cast time of wrath. So use all of my research wisely and do some of your own, and your own testing. A lot of this also depends on gear.

So I wish everyone Phat Lootz and a Delicious Day!

P.S. Look at Resto4Life as it will be shutting down soon. Good luck Phae!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have had a very similar experience. I spammed wrath until proc like much of the material out there suggests, but was able to up the DPS to about 3K on target dummies by reversing it. I also think it makes more sense since you can minimize the chance of the eclipse dying mid-cast wrath. This little switch made the difference from being top 10 DPS to top 3 in my raid.

Anonymous said...

Just wanted to say Hi and thanks for posting another great Moonkin entry! There aren't enough laser chickens in the world! *nod*

http://justawowgirl.blogspot.com/2009/03/monday-shout-out.html

^_^

Keep up the great writing! :)

Anonymous said...

Just wanted to say one little thing that bugged me about the blog entry, and that organizing the talents as affecting one spell or the other. All of the talents you listed have an effect on both Starfire and Wrath. You listed Starlight Wrath as only affecting Wrath, but it also reduces the casting time of Starfire by .5 seconds. All of the talents could have just as easily been grouped up into one single category. Sorry if that was random, I just don't like reading things more than once lol.

Also, under current raiding conditions it's been proven that using a Wrath rotation to proc Lunar Eclipse produces much more DPS than its counterpart. Once Ulduar comes out, I believe the rotation will change to using Starfire to proc Eclipse as long as you have under 12% haste, but don't quote me on that number. Anything above the 12% haste will make the current top rotation produce the highest amount of damage.

Stephanie said...

@therramune - You are right about Starlight Wrath... I must have read it wrong, sorry.

But anyway, with just looking at some fights and some other fights, I would say that with my gear I tested it and it actually comes out with higher dps when you Starfire, but with all the movement in a lot of fights wrath is better bc you can get more off.

So yeah... It really depends on your gear and what fights you are doing. But yeah, the research is there on many different sites. But thanks for your input!