[Guide] on Boomkin Opener. [Highmaul, still relevant]

[AStateOfTrance 0]

Edit by Krazyito: I'm some what 'hijacking' this thread as a small guide to reference.  I currently pre-pull with starsurge.

 

 

just recently switched to boomkin as my main to raid with, and was looking to see if anyone had any constructive input to better my dps. any help is appreciated.

 

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/cAJYdxKp2RGTqM6F#fight=74

[beard 2]

I am not particularly skilled at dissecting logs to every minor detail, but I can tell you what I DO see that you could do to improve some aspects of your gameplay.

 

1) You used 14 SS on butcher. You had 11 shooting star procs, which means with your 3 initial charges AND the procs...you were capped on SS's during the fight. 

 

2) Your uptime on moonfire was 92.04% With moonfires longer duration, you should be able (or aiming) to keep that at 100%. Sunfire had 97% uptime, which has a shorter duration, and would be the dot I would expect to see with a lower uptime > moonfire.

 

3) you either pre-potted OR potted at pull, in either case, you could have potted during the lust phase. Pre-potting + second pot is a noticable boost to performance.4) 

 

4) You used starfall 4 times. Its not a dps gain to use on 1 target. This may have actually been where the discrepancy was with the SS procs/usage.

 

Again, Im not super pro at tearing through logs, but these are some things I saw that you could focus to tighten up on.

Edited January 29, 2015 by beard

[Krazyito 521]

We don't have a dedicated boomkin mod at the moment.  I'll try to tell you some problems, but I'm not very proficient at looking at boomkin logs.

 

Looking at Butcher Heroic

 

Lets first start with your opener. This is what you did: (every number is a GCD)

 

1. (Pre-pull) Inc
2. (Pre-pull) Starfire
3. CA / Beserking (Note: These spells are off the GCD, but you used these and still waited about 1s. This is bad becasue you waited too long between the starfire and the next GCD-triggering spell)
4. [Each one after this is 1 GCD]

​

Starsurge -> Moonfire/Sunfire -> Starfire -> Starfire -> Starfire -> Starsurge -> Starfall -> Starfire - > Starfire -> Starfire  (CA FALLS OFF) -> Starfire.

 

Edit: Now with pictures! Here is your opener

 

 

 

This opener is all wrong. You're pushing buttons a little haphazardly and using starfall on a single target fight.  The only time you should ever use starfall on butcher, is if you get way too many procs of shooting stars, but even then just try to use another starsurge if you don't have any empowerments.

 

The correct opener should look like this. (Again remember, each number is 1 GCD)

 

1. (Pre-pull) Inc
2. (Pre-pull) Potion / Starfire (NOTE: Potion AFTER the GCD is done, not when you push incarnation.)
3. Starsurge
4. CA / Moonfire (Note: Macro this together, make sure that the GCD is done from the starsurge)
5. Beserking / Haste trinkets / Starfire
6. Starfire
7. Starsurge
8. Starfire
9. Starfire
10. Starsurge
11. Starfire
12. Starfire
13. Moonfire (Right before CA falls off)
14. Starsurge (Right before CA falls off)

Edit: Picture: here is mine.

 

That is a fluid opener. You get about 6 starfires and 3 starsurges inside the CA. The 6th starfire you might have to not do depending on your haste (I personally can do all of this with my current haste and trinkets inside the 15s window.) The biggest thing with this is to not waste GCDs and make sure you at least refresh your dots before CA falls off.

 

 

Next: Dot uptimes: on butcher, you had 97%/96%. Thats good.  you should try to make a point to only refresh your dots at the END of your lunar/solar peaks.  With Euphoria you can skip every other lunar, but still have to do every solar.

 

 

Starsurge:  I may be mistaken from logs, but what I'm seing is that you're using starsurge a lot AFTER the peaks.  You need to be using it close to the center / middle of each eclipse so you can cast empowered wraths/starfires when they reach the peak.  Once you reach the peak, you cast 1 starfire / 2 wraths, then your dot.  Don't dot right away, take that time to get some extra nukes off.

 

2nd Inc/ CA: Make sure you wait the one GCD after using Inc before popping CA. Do the same opener as above, don't waste GCDs.

 

Other than that, try not to use so much starfall on butcher.  There are plenty of other fights where you can have 2 targets up to use it on.

[Krazyito 521]

I am not particularly skilled at dissecting logs to every minor detail, but I can tell you what I DO see that you could do to improve some aspects of your gameplay.

 

1) You used 14 SS on butcher. You had 11 shooting star procs, which means with your 3 initial charges AND the procs...you were capped on SS's during the fight. 

 

2) Your uptime on moonfire was 92.04% With moonfires longer duration, you should be able (or aiming) to keep that at 100%. Surefire had 97% uptime, which has a shorter duration.

You missed his 4 starfalls.

 

3 inital + 11 SS + (138s / 30 = 4.6~) = 18 possible~ charges.

 

He used 14 starsturges + 4 starfalls, which is 18 charges.  Looks like he used them all, even though starfall is not optimal.

[beard 2]

You missed his 4 starfalls.

 

3 inital + 11 SS + (138s / 30 = 4.6~) = 18 possible~ charges.

 

He used 14 starsturges + 4 starfalls, which is 18 charges.  Looks like he used them all, even though starfall is not optimal.

 

 

I actually did catch it, but not until the end. I edited my post, maybe when you were writing yours. :)

[AStateOfTrance 0]

Thanks for both your inputs, i will be seeing where i can improve. Definitely on my opener. 

[beard 2]

Fun Fact 1: I raid with you.

 

Fun Fact 2: I wont tell you who I am ;)

[AStateOfTrance 0]

Fun Fact 1: I raid with you.

 

Fun Fact 2: I wont tell you who I am

 

I'll find out. , It's Soten. 

Edited January 31, 2015 by AStateOfTrance

[AStateOfTrance 0]

I have an updated log with my semi honed opener and better rotation management. 

 

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/FqJk1n94GKD3MgcR/#fight=2&view=events&source=11

[Krazyito 521]

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/FqJk1n94GKD3MgcR/#fight=2&source=11&type=casts&pins=0%24Separate%24%23244F4B%24auras-gained%240%240.0.0.Any%240.0.0.Any%24true%24129258667.0.0.Druid%24false%24112071^2%24Off%24%23909049%24expression%24type+%3D+"cast"&view=events - Casts filtered

Use the picture I posted in my first post with how a good opener looks like on the side to keep in mind while reading this.

Ok, you used Stellar flare instead on these attempts. With stellar flare you want to pre-cast it instead of starfire, but honestly, just use Euphoria, its easier to manage and Stellar Flare is only 'ok' with 2 or 3 targets. Just use Euphoria until you get much more comfortable with the opener.

I'm going to tell you what you did wrong with stellar flare, but really the only difference in the opener is that you precast that instead of starfire.

A Boomkins opener is pretty important to their DPS. Before WoD it was MUCH more important than most of everything else you did, but even now its still pretty important, you still need to do well during the normal rotation, but the idea there is pretty basic. The opener is the most complex part of the class. I'm just going to harp on this part a bit more, then we will try to look at the rest of your rotation in another log when you get comfortable with this.

Let me give you a basic rundown of how the opener works. CA last 15s, and you want to maximize your damage output during those precious 15s, which means you want to make every GCD count.

Since CA is off the global cooldown, you can macro it together with Moonfire

#showtooltip/use Celestial Alignment/use Moonfire

This will use your CA and moonfire together. You need to first make sure that you['re not on GCD or else the CA will go off, but not the moonfire.

Next, once the moonfire GCD is over you immediately want to use beserking and then Starfire. Beserking is also off the GCD which means you can use it then immediately start casting Starfire. To simplify the opener a little bit until you get use to it, you can add beserking to the above macro (before Moonfire). This will waste 1 second of beserking, but until you get more familiar with the rotation, you're fine to just put it with CA. If you think you can handle using Beserking before Starfire, by all means go for it.

Next, since you should use starsurge before CA, you should already have 2 starfire empowerments saved up, So after Moonfire its Starfire x2. Then starsurge, then Starfire x2. You want to keep doing this until you have about 4 seconds left on CA. At that point, ideally you want to have finished using your last empowerment buff, then Moonfire and Starsurge.

NOTE: ITS MORE ITS MORE IMPORTANT TO RECAST MOONFIRE AT THE END OF CA THAN STARSURGE. If you can fit a Starsurge in before CA falls off (assuming you have 0 empowerment buffs) then you should. Otherwise, Just make sure you get your Moonfire off before CA ends so you have full duration buffs, then continue with the normal rotation.

Kargath:


Problems: You casted Moonfire before celestial alignment. This means you probably didn't have Sunfire on your target during all of your CA. Use Starsurge here instead. Afterwards, it should be Beserking -> starfirex2 -> starsurge -> starfirex2 -> starsurge/moonfire, etc.. Always cycle through starsurge -> starfirex2 until about 4s left on CA, thats when you want to set up to use moonfire before the buff falls off.

Why did you use Starfall on kargath? Even if you keep over lapping stacks, you're better off letting it cap during the opener than casting it on a single target. Its not worth the GCD to use starfall on a single target during CA. Just follow the normal rotation of starsurge -> starfire x2.


Butcher:


You started very good, until you used stellar flare. Again, I didn't mention when to actually use that because i've been assuming Euphoria. You then used Wrath -> Starfire -> Starsurge. Overwriting one of your Starfire empowerments. Then you did it better, but missed your closing moonfire. If you didn't waste time on Wrath and stellar flare during your CA, you would have had time to put in your closing moonfire. Once you get everything between CA correct, it just feels natural and everything falls into place.

Brackenspore:

Problems:
No starfire / starsurge precast.
Moonfire before CA.
Stellar flare after CA.
Starsurge after CA
Moonfire in between starfires
Another oddly placed moonfire and random wrath.
Not a good opener at all.

Brackespore:

No precast of starfire / starsuge.
Double moonfire
StF after CA
Beserking before starsurge
1 Starfire during your entire CA


You get the general idea. You can use the link I put in this post at the top to see the other bosses and what you did.

Learn how to do this, and the rest of the rotation is easy to get under your skin.


If you're wondering, this is my CA/ beserking macro

#showtooltip/use [mod:ctrl] 14/cast [mod:ctrl] Berserking(Racial)/cast [nomod] Celestial Alignment/cast [nomod] Moonfire

Basically, I use it to pop CA / Moonfire. Then after the GCD is over you hold control, then press this button again to use Beserking and your trinket, then you start casting starfire.

[Krazyito 521]

Also, I forgot about using Solar Beam in the opener.  It helps proc trinkets. Just macro it with CA/Moonfire.

[Tarazet 144]

If you're using Stellar Flare, use it as your precast before the pull instead of Starfire. It won't fall off during the rest of the opening sequence.

[AStateOfTrance 0]

I haven't updated on this thread in a while but I have seen so much improvement with my opener and just in general. Alot of thanks to everyone who gave me input and what not. my opener has been really really nice in comparison to what i was doing at the beginning of my reintroduction of playing Boomkin for a couple years. i'll try to post some recent logs to see if i can get anymore input to get better than i feel i'm already doing.