SiFOwned Guide To Moonkin Dps..

[shanonjackson1]

Hey... ive been leeching for over 2 years ish now.. and just decided to post my ultimite guide to Moonkin dps..
Now this guide is gona be about 3-4-5 pages long... so please listen closley if you want to maximise your dps output...
First i will explain Spell-Rotation
The Moonkin Rotation


I've been recieveing a lot of questions lately about the proper Moonkin spell rotation. Well I've got bad news for you, Moonkin don't have formal rotation. Really what we have is spell priority. In this post I hope to give you a detailed understanding of the four main moonkin spells and when to cast them.

This post is very mathy. Please feel free to skip to the bottem to get the TLR version.

My Hypothetical Moonkin:
These are the talents and stats I used to calculate the numbers. I have modeled him after how I expect to look in the beginning of Ulduar. He has 2900 Spell Power, 40% Crit Chance, 16.5% haste from gear (29.77% total), and a mana pool with 21000 mana.

This is the spec I expect to use when 3.1 comes out. It's very close to my current spec but has a little extra mana regen. I'm sure some of you may argue with some of my choices, but overall I don't think there are any reasonable arguements that would affect the calculations significantly.

Spell Queuing:
I've talked about this a little before, but it is important for me to explain it again so that you understand some of the comments I will make later in the post. The spell queuing system helps you to minimize down time by allowing you to queue your next spell cast before your current spell cast is done.

Basically the spell queuing system allows you to queue your next spell if you cast it within 0.3 seconds of your current casts end. However, this process starts to break down as your global cooldown (GCD) gets closer to GCD floor of one second, because you can't queue your next cast within the first second of your current cast. So, the game has to wait for you to physically push a button to start casting the next spell.

Since it is practically impossible cast a spell exactly when the prior spell completed, there will always be a little extra lag in the cast time due to human error.

The spell queuing system works great for longer cast spells like Starfire, but it causes big issues for spells like Wrath that can get really close to the one second GCD. Therefore this makes Wrath a little worse in actuallity then it is on paper.

The DoTs:
We don't look at DoTs form the traditional DPS point of view. Due to the long duration DoTs are obviously going to have a relatively low DPS when compared to Nukes. Therefore the best way to evaluate DoTs is with Damage per Cast Time (DPCT).

Both of our DoTs are instant casts therefore they technically don't have a cast time. However the GCD does prevent us from casting another spell for 1 to 1.5 seconds. In a PvE environment this is pretty much the same thing as having a cast time. Close enough for me anyway.

So, what is the GCD for my Hypothetical Moonkin? For this section I'm going to assume that Nature's Grace has a minimum uptime of about 67.51%. This is the uptime that NG would have with a SF spam rotation. In actual play it will probably be a little higher, but I'm trying to be a little conservative.

Therefore the GCD can be calculated like this:

GCD w/o NG = (1.5/1.2977) = 1.1559
GCD w NG = (1.5/(1.2977*1.2) = 0.9632, Therefore 1 since 0.9632 less than 1
Avg GCD = 1.1559*(1-0.6751) + (1* 0.6751) = 1.0507 Seconds

Insect Swarm:
I'm looking at it from the perspective of 3.1 assuming that the changes to it go live. I also assume that the Glyph of Insect swarm is equipped. I am not using the new Ulduar Idol that affects IS because it sucks (more on that in a future post). I am also not using the 2T7 set bonus. Here is the math:

IS Damage = ((1290 + (2900 * 1.2)) *(1.3*1.04*1.03))*(7/6)

IS Damage = ((4770) *(1.39256))*(1.1667) = 7750 Damage
IS DPCT = 7750 / 1.0507 = 7376 DPCT

Now assuming that the Spell Queuing issue causes a 0.1 second delay in casting the Insect Swarm DPCT would be:

IS DPCT w/SQ = 7750 / 1.1507 = 6735 DPCT

Moonfire:
Moonfire is a little more complicated because it has both a Direct Damage portion and a DoT portion. I will assume that the [Glyph of Moonfire] is equipped but I will ignore the [Glyph of Starfire] since it is had to tell which spell that damage belongs to. Ultimately its not going to change my conclusions.

MF DD Non-Crit = (441 + (2900 * 0.1495))*((1.1-0.9)*1.04*1.03) = 187
MF DD Crit = (441 + (2900 * 0.1495))*((1.1-0.9)*1.04*1.03)*2.09 = 392
MF DD Avg = (187 * (1-.4)) + (392 * 0.4) = 269 Damage

MF DoT = ((800 + (2900 * 0.5209)) *((1.1+0.75)*1.04*1.03))*(5/4)
MF DoT = (2311) *(1.98172)*(1.25) = 5725 Damage

MF DPCT = (269 + 5725) / 1.0507 = 5705 DPCT

MF DPCT w/SQ = (269 + 5725) / 1.1507 = 5209 DPCT

The Nukes:

Obviously Nukes are the bread and butter of our rotation. For a Nuke, DPS and DPCT are the same thing so I wills stick with DPCT in this section for consistancy.

I've detailed how to calculate these numbers several times in the past. I assume that if you care about the math you probably have looked at those prior posts. Therefore, I am going to condense the math a little more then usual this time.

Starfire:

I'm assuming that the

Idol of the Shooting Star is equipped. Once again I will ignore the Glyph of Starfire since it is had to tell which spell that damage belongs to.

</SPAN>

NG Uptime with SF = 1-(1-0.43)2 = 67.51%
SF Avg Cast Time = (3/(1+0.2977))*(1-0.6751)+(3/((1+0.2977)*1.2))*0.6751 = 2.0516 Seconds
SF Non-Crit = (1285 + (2900 * 1.2))*(1.1*1.04*1.03) = 5615
SF Crit = (1285 + (2900 * 1.2))*(1.1*1.04*1.03)*2.09 = 11735

SF DPCT = ((5615*(1-0.43))+(11735*0.43))/2.0516 = 4020 DPCT

Wrath:

I'm assuming that the [Idol of Steadfast Renewal] is equipped.
</SPAN></SPAN>

NG Uptime with SF = 1-(1-0.4)3 = 78.40%
W w/o NG Cast Time = (1.5/(1+0.2977)) = 1.1559 Seconds
W w NG Cast Time = (1.5/((1+0.2977)*1.2)) = 0.9632, Therefore 1 second since 0.9632 less than 1.
W Avg Cast Time = (1.1559*(1-0.7840)) + 0.7840 = 1.0337 seconds

W Non-Crit = (658 + (2900 * 0.6714))*(1.13*1.04*1.03) = 3153
W Crit = (658 + (2900 * 0.6714))*(1.13*1.04*1.03)*2.09 = 6590

W DPCT = ((3153*(1-0.40))+(6590*0.40))/1.0337 = 4380 DPCT

W w/ SQ DPCT = ((3153*(1-0.40))+(6590*0.40))/1.1337 = 3994 DPCT

Eclipse:

</SPAN></SPAN>The math for this is to complicated to detail it again, so I'm going to take the easy route and just give you the results.

With perfect Spell Queuing a Lunar Eclipse rotation would do about 5030 DPS on average, while a Solar Eclipse rotation would do 5302 DPS on average. As you can see, in perfect environment Solar eclipse does about 5% more damage, but we do not play in a perfect environment.

If we assume that the Spell Queuing issue adds an extra 0.1 second to the Wrath Cast time the numbers change a little bit. In this situation an average Lunar Eclipse rotation has 4887 DPS, and the average Solar Eclipse rotation has 4962 DPS. Wrath still has a 1.5% advangate in DPS, but the difference is minimal. Therefore, from a DPS perspective which Eclipse you use doesn't really matter.

Hey, What about DPM:
Mana hasn't really been a concern in WotLK so far, and that isn't really surprising given the nature of Tier 7 content. However, that doesn't mean man isn't going to be an issue in Tier 8 or beyond. In Ulduar the fights will be longer. We are lossing some of our Crit Chance with the losses of Set bonuses and the nerf to Improved Scorch. Healers are going to have less mana so we won't be getting Replenishment as often.

If you combine all of this, its easy to see how mana could be a bigger issue for Moonkin in 3.1. Therefore, it is important to consider the mana efficency of each of the spells when we choose which spells to cast.

This section is also important because the way we should think about mana in WotLK is a little different then the way we thought about it in TBC. This is due to the new Mana on Crit mechanic. Lets look at the average mana costs for the Hypothetical Moonkin.

IS Mana Cost = 3496 * 0.08 = 280
IS DPM = 7750 / 280 = 27.6786 DPM

SF Mana Cost = (3496*0.16)*0.91-((21000*0.02)*0.43) = 328
SF DPM = 8246 / 328 = 25.1402 DPM

W Mana Cost = (3496*0.11)*0.91-((21000*0.02)*0.40) = 182
W DPM = 4528 / 182 = 24.8791 DPM

MF Mana Cost = (3496*0.21)*0.91-((21000*0.02)*0.40) = 500
MF DPM = 5725 / 500 = 11.4500 DPM

As you can see the traditional mana relationships from TBC are still holding true at this point, but they are a lot closer togeather then I think most of us would have guessed. I ran some numbers as if the Hypothetical Moonkin's stats increased by 10% and the traditional way of thinking is completely blown out of the water. Wrath becomes the most mana efficent spell with 34.1881 DPM, Starfire comes in second with 31.2159 DPM, and Insect Swarm drops to third with 29.7303 DPM because it can't Crit. Moonfire is still far behind the others with 13.7453 DPM.

How we use Eclipse also has a big impact on our mana effecency. As you can probably guess Lunar Eclipse is much more mana efficent then Solar Eclipse since it adds Crit chance instead of a straight damage increase. Without the 2T8 set bonus a Lunar Eclipse rotation had an average DPM of 45.0072, while Solar had just 23.9727 DPM. That means that Lunar Eclipse has a 88% advantage over Solar Eclipse. If you add the 2T8 set bonus into the equation Lunar's advantage jumps 132%.

TLR - Tell me what spells to cast already:

The DoTs are clearly solid additions to the Moonkin Rotation. They have significantly higher DPCT results then the Nukes. Therefore, if anyone suggests to you that you can get higher DPS by spamming a nuke, they are wrong. I'm seeing that DoTs are even good on Lotheb.

From a damage perspective, Wrath and Starfire are fairly even. Wrath is a little better on paper, but is troubled by the Spell Queuing issue at higher levels of gear. This brings Wrath closer to Starfire if not below it.

This also holds true when comparing the damage of Solar Eclipse to Lunar Eclipse. Again, Solar is a little better on paper but loses most of it's advantage when the Spell Queuing issue is taken into account.

From a mana perspective the clear winner is Starfire and the Lunar Eclipse rotation. Therefore, for most fights I recommend the IS, MF, W til Eclipse, SF rotation.

However, a MF, IS, SF til Eclipse, W rotation may be better for high movement fights where your spells are more likely to get cancelled or interuptted if your mana can handle it.

Hopefully.. its not confusing so far..
i no the math can get alittle hard to read.. :S

Ok.... So thats spell rotation sorted

Please re-fer to page 2 For next bit (btw im only doing this because i have time b4 ulduar is realeased)

[shanonjackson1]

Eclipse: Part1 - Which Buff is Best?



My long time readers know that I did a couple of posts back in October on the state of Eclipse. Those posts are now very out of date and it is long past time to present the new math to you guys.

This is part 1 in a four part series looking at the Balance Talent Eclipse. In this post I look at the two Eclipse buffs and show which is the better buff. Part twowill look at the value of Eclipse and try and provide you with an idea of how it will help your DPS. Part 3 will try and answer the question, Should you reapply DoTs during Eclipse? Finally, Part four will summarize my findings and I will share my general thoughts about the talent.

For those of you that don't like reading math, please feel free to skip to the bottom for my TLR version of the post.

Which Eclipse is Better?

Eclipse: When you critically hit with Starfire, you have a (33%, 66%, 100%) chance of increasing damage done by Wrath by 20%. When you critically hit with Wrath, you have a (20%, 40%, 60%) chance of increasing your critical strike chance with Starfire by 30%. Effect lasts 15 sec and has a 30 sec cooldown.

So, obviously you can use Eclipse to buff Starfire or Wrath but not both within the same cooldown. So the question is: Which spell should I try to buff with Eclipse? To determine that we need to see how Eclipse both spells.
Assumptions:

1. I'm using fairly entry level DPS stats for a fully raid buffed Moonkin. They are 2000 Spell Power, 35% Crit chance (38% for SF), 17% haste, and 100% hit chance. On the armory this moonkin would probably have 1650 SP, 15% Crit chance, and 6% haste.

2. I assume a build very similar to this one. I realize that some of you will have more mana regen and will probably drop Imp IS or Imp FF to get there. Even if that is the case I don't think you will have a hard time getting to the 35% crit represented in the math.

3. I assume that Moonfire and insect swarm are always on the target and don't need to be reapplied. Therefore, my calculations take full advantage of improved insect swarm.
4. My calcs assume that a Chaotic Skyflare Diamond is equipped.

5. When calculating the DPS numbers for Starfire and Wrath I am assume their respective idols are equipped. Please note that I am not suggesting you do any kind of idol swapping. Idol swapping is bad. I'm just doing this to balance the numbers and be fair.

Wrath:
The average DPS for a normal Wrath Cast looks like this:

Avg Non-Crit Wrath = ((((658 + (2000 * 0.6714))) * 1.13) * 1.0712) = 2421.88
Avg Wrath Crit = (((((658 + (2000 * 0.6714))) * 1.13) * 1.0712) * 2.09) = 5061.73
Avg Wrath Cast Time = (((1.5/1.17) * (1 - 0.35)) + 0.35) = 1.1833

Therefore,

Avg Normal Wrath DPS = ((2421.88 * (1 - 0.35)) + (5061.73 * 0.35)) / 1.1833 = 2827.54 DPS

The average DPS for a Wrath Cast with Eclipse looks like this:

Avg Non-Crit Eclipsed Wrath = ((((658 + (2000 * 0.6714))) * 1.33) * 1.0712) = 2850.53
Avg Eclipsed Wrath Crit = (((((658 + (2000 * 0.6714))) * 1.33) * 1.0712) * 2.09) = 5957.61
Avg Wrath Cast Time = (((1.5/1.17) * (1 - 0.35)) + 0.35) = 1.1833

Therefore,

Avg Eclipsed Wrath DPS = ((2850.53 * (1 - 0.35)) + ( 5957.61* 0.35)) / 1.1833 = 3327.99 DPS

So, as you can see Eclipse will increase Wrath's DPS by 17.70% ( (3327.99 - 2827.54 ) / 2827.54).

Starfire:

The average DPS for a normal Starfire cast looks like this:

Avg Non-Crit SF = (((1285 + (2000 * 1.20))) * 1.1) * 1.0712 = 4342.11
Avg SF Crit = ((((1285 + (2000 * 1.20))) * 1.1) * 1.0712 ) * 2.09) = 9075.01
Avg SF Cast Time = (3 - (0.5 * 0.3) / 1.17 = 2.4017

Therefore,

Avg Normal SF DPS = ((4342.11* (1 - 0.3) + (9075.01* 0.3) / 2.4017 = 2556.78 DPS

The average DPS for a Starfire Cast with Eclipse looks like this:

Avg Non-Crit SF = (((1285 + (2000 * 1.20))) * 1.1) * 1.0712 = 4342.11
Avg SF Crit = ((((1285 + (2000 * 1.20))) * 1.1) * 1.0712 ) * 2.09) = 9075.01
Avg SF Cast Time = (3 - (0.5 * 0.6) / 1.17 = 2.2735

Therefore,

Avg Eclipse SF DPS = ((4342.11* (1 - 0.6) + (9075.01* 0.6) / 2.2735 = 3325.48 DPS

So, as you can see Eclipse will increase Starfire's DPS by 30.07% ( (3325.48 - 2556.7 / 2556.7.

How they Compare:

As you can see Starfire gets a much larger buff from Eclipse then Wrath does. In fact, Starfire with the eclipse buff does more DPS on average then Wrath does with the eclipse, but they are very close. I have run these numbers at several gear levels. The margin between Starfire and Wrath will decrease as Crit increases but it's not much and Starfire still beats Wrath in total DPS if there is a comparable increase in Haste.

On top of that it goes with out saying that Starfire with eclipse is more mana efficient and will benefit more from raid buffs like Heroism then wrath will with the eclipse buff. I think we can conclusively say that the Starfire Eclipse buff is the superior buff.

TLR Version

In terms of damage out put the two Eclipse buffs are very close with Starfire buff doing a little more DPS per spell cast. From a DPM perspective the Starfire buff is the clear winner since Starfire is the more mana efficient nuke and the buff just makes it more mana efficient.

In my opinion the Starfire Eclipse buff is clearly the superior buff. (i.e. Wrath until Eclipse and then Starfire)

Edit: There is one exception to this that I know of. My math assumes normal levels of crit. In fights that buff your Crit Chance like Loatheb, the Wrath Eclipse buff becomes better. (Thanks to Beefkin for reminding me of this.)

[shanonjackson1]

Eclipse: Part 2 - What's it Worth?


This is Part two of my four part series looking at Eclipse. In this post I will look at the value of Eclipse and try and provide you with an idea of how it will help your DPS. part 1 looked at the two Eclipse buffs and showed which is the better buff. part 3will try and answer the question, Should you reapply DoTs during Eclipse? Finally, Part four will summarize my findings and I will share my general thoughts about the talent.

For those of you that don't like reading math, please feel free to skip to the bottom for my TLR version of the post.

Ok, How will Eclipse affect my DPS?

Please Note: Most of the assumptions I made in part one will apply to this post as well. The one exception is to my 5th assumption. For this section I am assuming that you have the [Idol of the Shooting Star] equipped when casting both Starfire and Wrath to maximize the Starfire Eclipse buff.

It is difficult to assign Eclipse a concrete value. Given it's random nature it is impossible to nail down an exact DPS rotation to measure it, and when it does proc the buff might be wasted due to fight mechanics. So, the number I am presenting in this section are kind of a best case scenario.

There are 5 steps to providing a value to eclipse.

1. We need to determine how long our Precasting period will be and how much damage we will do during it. We can determine the average number of Wrath casts it is going to take to proc the Starfire Eclipse using the following formula:

# of Casts to proc = 1 / (proc rate * crit rate) or
# of Casts to proc = 1 / (0.60* 0.35) = 4.7619 Casts

Since it is highly unlikely that you will see the buff proc before your casting your next spell I will assume a 1 spell cast buffer. This will increase the number of Wrath's cast by 1 and reduce the Buff period by Wrath's casting speed.

So our Casting Time and Damage for the Precasting period looks like this:

Avg # of Wrath's = 4.7619 +1 = 5.7619
Avg Wrath Cast time = (((1.5/1.17) * (1 - 0.35)) + 0.35) = 1.1833 seconds
Avg Wrath Damage = ((((588 + (2000 * 0.6714)) * 1.13)*1.0712)*(1-0.35))+((((588 + (2000 * 0.6714)) * 1.13)*1.0712)*2.09 * 0.35) = 3228.77 damage

Precasting period cast time = 5.7619 * 1.1833 = 6.8181 seconds
Precasting period damage = 5.7619 * 3228.77 = 18603.85

2. Now we need to determine how long our Buffed period will be and how much damage we will do during it. The Duration of the eclipse buff is 15 seconds, but I am assuming that we will cast one Wrath before we recognize that we have the buff. So the buff's duration is reduced by Wrath's cast time of 1.1833 seconds. Also remember that Damage is calculated at the end of spells cast. Therefore I will ignore any partial casts and round down to the nearest number of whole Starfire casts.

So the numbers for the Buffed period look like this:

Avg SF Cast time = (3 - (0.5 * 0.6) / 1.17 = 2.2735 seconds
Avg # of Buffed SF casts = (15 - 1.1833) / 2.2735 = 6.077, rounded down to 6 casts.
Avg SF Damage = ((((1285 + (2000 * 1.2)) * 1.1)*1.0712)*(1-0.6)+((((1285 + (2000 * 1.2)) * 1.1)*1.0712)*2.09 * 0.6 = 7560.48 damage

Buffed period cast time = 6 * 2.2735 = 13.641 seconds
Buffed period damage = 6 * 7560.48= 45362.88

3. The combination of the Precasting period and the Buffed period are what I call the Eclipse Rotation. So lets combine the values from the previous two steps.

Eclipse Rotation cast time = 6.8181 + 13.641 = 20.4591 seconds
Eclipse Rotation damage = 18603.85 + 45362.88 = 63966.73 damage
Eclipse Rotation DPS = 63966.73 / 20.4591 = 3126.57 DPS

4. Now that we have the DPS of the Eclipse rotation we need to compare it to what we would be casting otherwise. Once again I am ignoring DoTs and assuming that they don't need to be refreshed. Therefore, the only other DPS options are Wrath Spam or Starfire Spam.

The average DPS of Wrath Spam can determined using information from step 1 above and the average normal Starfire DPS is also listed above.

Avg Normal Wrath DPS = 18603.85 / 6.8181 = 2728.60 DPS
Avg Normal SF DPS = 2556.78 DPS

Therefore, the Eclipse rotation increases DPS by:

Value of Eclipse Rotation (Comp w/ Wrath) = (3126.57 - 2728.60 ) / 2728.60 = 14.59% DPS increase
Value of Eclipse Rotation (Comp w/ SF) = (3126.57 - 2556.78 ) / 2556.78 = 22.29% DPS increase

5. The above numbers ignore the cooldown, so we need to determine what portion of our total casting rotation is taken up by the Eclipse rotation. We already know that the Eclipse rotation will last 20.4591 seconds on average. The total casting rotation is the sum of the precasting period minus the buffer cast, plus the 30 second cooldown.

Total Casting Rotation Duration = 30 + (4.7619 * 1.1833) = 35.6348 seconds
Eclipse Rotation "Up Time" = 20.4591 / 35.6348 = 57.41%

So,

Value of Eclipse (Comp w/ Wrath) = 14.59% * 0.5741 = 8.38% DPS increase
Value of Eclipse (Comp w/ SF) = 22.29% * 0.5741 = 12.79% DPS increase

As I said before these numbers are a best case scenario. In actuality the will be significantly smaller. This is because you will have to refresh dots and you will miss some of the buffs due to movement and such. However, even if the benefit is cut in half you're still talking about a 4% to 5% increase in DPS from 3 points in Eclipse.

Edit: Down Ranking Eclipse A couple of people have asked in the comments that I value Eclipse point for point. I won't detail the math because it is really just repeat of the math above with a change in a variable. However, please know that I have used the same approach to come up with these numbers.

In the math above I showed that an Eclipse rotation is a 12.75% DPS increase over a normal Starfire rotation and a 8.45% increase over a normal Wrath rotation if you put a full three points into Eclipse. Please remember that these numbers were calculated under ideal circumstances.

If you put just one point in Eclipse it will increase your DPS by 11.27% over Starfire and 6.42% over Wrath. With two points in Eclipse it will increase your DPS by 12.31% over Starfire and 7.83% over Wrath.

This means that mathimatically you can receive 75% to 90% of the benefit of Eclipse from just 1 point. This is because of the 30 second cooldown. It has a greater impact on determining when Eclipse procs then your Crit chance.

Personally, I will proably still put 3 points into Eclipse, eventhough those last couple of points will have a much smaller impact then the first point. I will do this for two reasons. First, there isn't a great talent to put the points into. I would love to pick up Gale Winds but It is hardly necessary. Second, I want to cut down on the randomness. Eclipse is already very dependent on the RNG and I want to reduce some of that impact.

TLR Version

The Eclipse buff is very powerful buff. In an ideal situation it can improve your DPS by up to 12%. However the ideal situation is near impossible to achieve, but even if you miss half the buff your still increasing your DPS by close to 6% for a 3 point investment.

This indicates that Eclipse is a must have talent for raiders. However, you don't have to invest a full three points into the talent. You can receive a majority of Eclipse's value by spending just one point on the talent. However, Eclipse is already a very random talent, and for that reason I recommend investing 3 points to reduce that randomness.

[shanonjackson1]

This is the final stage of eclipse to help maximise dps..
please pay close attention

Eclipse: Part 3 - What about my DoTs?


This is Part three of my four part series looking at Eclipse. In this post I will try and answer the question, Should I refresh my DoTs during Eclipse? part one looked at the two Eclipse buffs and showed which is the better buff Part 2 looked at the value of Eclipse and tried to provide you with an idea of how it will help your DPS. Finally, Part four will summarize my findings and I will share my general thoughts about the talent.

For those of you that don't like reading math, please feel free to skip to the bottom for my TLR version of the post. Should I refresh DoTs while Eclipse is up?

Please Note: Most of the assumptions I made in part one will apply to this post as well. The one exception is to my 5th assumption. For this section I am assuming that you have the [Idol of the Shooting Star] equipped when casting both Starfire and Wrath to maximize the Starfire Eclipse buff.

This is probably the most common question I hear regarding Eclipse, and I'll be honest. I've had a hard time figuring out what is the best way to tackle it, but lets give it a shot.

What do you lose by casting a DoT?

The cost of casting the DoT is the global cooldown (GCD) that could have been used to cast Starfire. The problem is know what the value of that GCD is, because it is near impossible to know if the Starfire cast will receive the Eclipse buff or not. So I will look at it both ways and take an average.

First lets look at the average cast time for Starfire with and without the buff and the global cooldown.

Global Cooldown = (1.5 / 1.17) = 1.2821 seconds
SF cast time w/ buff = ((3 - (0.5 * 0.65)) / 1.17) = 2.2863 seconds
SF cast time w/o buff = ((3 - (0.5 * 0.35)) / 1.17) = 2.4145 seconds

So we know now that the GCD is 56.07% of a buffed Starfire's cast time and53.09% of an unbuffed Starfire's cast time. Next we should look at the damage for a buffed and non buffed Starfire.

Avg SF (buffed) = ((((1285 + (2000 * 1.2)) * 1.1)*1.0712)*(1-0.65))+((((1285 + (2000 * 1.2)) * 1.1)*1.0712)*2.09 * 0.65) = 7418.49 damage

Avg SF (un buffed) = ((((1285 + (2000 * 1.2)) * 1.1)*1.0712)*(1-0.35))+(((1285 + (2000 * 1.2)) * 1.1)*1.0712)*2.09 * 0.35) = 5998.62 damage

With this information we can say that the GCD is worth 4159.55 damage for the buffed Starfire (7418.49 * 0.5607), the GCD is worth 3363.43 damage for the unbuffed Starfire (5998.62 * 0.5309). Since we have no way of knowing which value is more likely, I will assume each of them have a 50% chance of occurring.Therefore by using the GCD for a DoT, on average, you lose 3761.49 damage from Starfire.

What do you gain by casting a Insect Swarm, and is it worth it?

For Insect Swarm this is easy, because we only have to look at Insect Swarm's DPS. It can be calculated like this:

IS DPS = (((1290 + (2000 * 0.76)) * 1.3) * 1.0712) / 12 = 326.09 DPS

(This ignores Natures Splendor because it doesn't change the results.)

So, now we know we gain 326.09 DPS by casting IS. We learned above that for Insect Swarm to be worth casting, it needs to do 3761.49 damage before your next opportunity to cast IS without clipping Eclipse.

This means IS must be on the boss at least 11.5351 seconds for IS to be worth casting. Since IS has a talented duration of 14 seconds it is theoretically worth it to refresh insect swarm if Eclipse just procced. However, in reality the benefit to refreshing IS is very small and our reaction times will make it difficult to be worthwhile.

Therefore, it is my opinion that there is no need to refresh IS while you have the Starfire Eclipse buff.

What do you gain by casting a Moonfire, and is it worth it?

Moonfire is more complicated for a couple of reasons. First, we have to consider both the direct damage and the DoT. Second, we have to consider the extra damage from Starfire due to Improved Insect Swarm.

First lets look at the direct damage portion of Moonfire. Its not large due to the Glyph of Moonfire, but it does factor into the equation. Basically since it happens up front we can subtract it from the damage lost by using the GCD for Moonfire. Here is the math.

Avg MF DD = (((((441 + (2000 * 0.1487)) * .3)*1.0712)*(1-0.41))+((((441 + (2000 * 0.1487)) * 0.3)*1.0712)*2.09 * 0.41)) = 343.34 damage

If we subtract this from the GCD value that means the Moonfire DoT and extra Starfire damage only have to make up 3539.34 damage.

The DoT portion of Moonfire looks like this:

Avg MF DoT DPS= (((800 + (2000 * 0.5224)) * 1.95) * 1.0712) / 12 = 321.12 DPS

To figure out the affect of Moonfire on Starfire lets calculate Starfire with and without the 3% chance to crit.

SF w/ MF = ((((1285 + (2000 * 1.2)) * 1.1)*1.0712)*(1-0.6)+((((1285 + (2000 * 1.2)) * 1.1)*1.0712)*2.09 * 0.6 = 7560.48 damage

SF w/o MF = ((((1285 + (2000 * 1.2)) * 1.1)*1.0712)*(1-0.65))+((((1285 + (2000 * 1.2)) * 1.1)*1.0712)*2.09 * 0.65) = 7418.49 damage

So, refreshing Moonfire will increase the damage from Starfire by 141.99 per SF cast. Since a buffed SF takes 2.2735 seconds to cast on average this increases our DPS by 62.45 DPS.

Lets calculate how long moonfire must be on the boss for it to be worth the cast.

Break-even Point = (3761.49 - 321.12 ) / ( 321.12 + 62.45 ) = 8.9693 seconds

So, theoretically Moonfire must be on the boss at least 8.9693 seconds for it to be a net increase in your DPS. In reality you probably want a little more because of reaction times and such.

My recommendation is that you only refresh Moonfire if it runs out right as Eclipse procs. Otherwise the benefit is small and not worth worrying about.

TLR Version

One of the most common Moonkin questions is, Should I refresh my DoTs during Eclipse?

The results are mixed. It is theoretically possible to increase your DPS by refreshing both Insect Swarm and Moonfire at the very beginning of the Eclipse buff. However, reality makes this a little difficult.

The benefit of refreshing Insect Swarm during Eclipse is very small at best. Therefore I recommend that you never refresh Insect Swarm during Eclipse.

The benefit of refreshing Moonfire during Eclipse is more sizable, and can be worthwhile if you do it quickly enough. I recommend that you only refresh Moonfire during Eclipse if your are at the very beginning of the Eclipse buff.

[shanonjackson1]

Hope u enjoy
i shouldn't take all credit for this.. i had help from a friend whos also moonkin, and does ALOT of math.. lol (a little to much if u ask me)
and.. i looked to try find if i was re-posting and couldn't find anything
please feel free to look agin

[Vandir]

Thanks! I'm actually going Moonkin when the servers come back up. This has really helped.

+Rep

[Kyiz]

Doubt this is you =/

[Makro123]

your eclipse calculations dont take into account that 3.1 saw wrath eclipse go from 20% more damage to 30% more.

[Vandir]

Gray Matter: Eclipse: Part 3 - What about my DoTs?

My, my. What do we have here?

I really should learn to use common sense.

Edit: I couldn't be bothered to look up the rest of what he so obviously copied and pasted, but that link should provide clear enough evidence.

[Platos]

Pro tip. Next time you steal something from another site, and try to pass it off as your own, remove the links that point to the article in question from the FOURTH line. I really hate people who pass off hard workers stuff like Grey Matter as their own. Can we -rep please?