Boomkin Druid DPS: Need Help

[Zertsius 0]

Hello all,

I am a balance druid looking for help increasing my DPS for raiding as well as help understanding the druid "opener"

• I am iLvl 497 (armory link will be provided at bottom of email.)
• Currently pulling around 45-60k on raiding test dummy

A few notes on my rotation:

• Attempt to maintain sunfire & moonfire at all times
• Re-cast sunfire/moonfire when I enter each spells corresponding eclipse
• Re-cast sunfire/moonfire as the second to last spell right before I leave the solar/lunar eclipse (in order to buff the DoT with the bonus from being in eclipse)
• Cast starsurge whenever off cooldown (I do not use a stopcast macro, however, meaning I usually wait to finish casting whatever spell i'm in the middle of when the starsurge procs)
• Cast starfall whenever off cooldown
• Never really use the mushrooms

     Cooldown Usage

• Use macro to cast Incarnation, Nature's Vigil, and my Trinket all at the same time
• Once those buffs hit 15s left, I cast Celestial Alignment
• Use a macro to cast Nature's Swiftness & Healing Touch at the same time (hardly ever use).

     Questions about the Boomkin "opener"

The more I read online, the more I see things about an "opener" for boss fights. It seems to be very important. I understand that I should Astral Communion until I'm 1 wrath away from going into Lunar Eclipse just so I'll be able to get multiple starfalls. I understand that part, but from then on I get lost. That being said, my questions are as follows:

• What is the basic idea of the Boomkin opener?
• What order of spells should I actually be using?
• Do I use sunfire & moonfire at all during my opener?
• Do I pop my cooldowns right before I cast the first starfall?

 

Any and all help will be received gratefully and highly appreciated. I will try to upload some actual video footage of me DPSing the test dummy to provide some first person viewpoints on what I'm doing.

 

Important Links

• Armory: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/blades-edge/Zertsius/simple
• Immerseus WoL: http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/rt-iptj1gyl2w28a6jr/
• The Fallen Protectors WoL: http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/rt-iptj1gyl2w28a6jr/
• Sha of Pride WoL: http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/rt-iptj1gyl2w28a6jr/
• Malkorok WoL: http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/rt-iptj1gyl2w28a6jr/
• Iron Juggernaut WoL: http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/rt-gety9vmxjpnextho/
• Video of DPS on Test Dummy:

 

Thanks to all who take the time to read this,

Zertsius

 

 

P.S. This is my first time posting here so I apologize in advance if I did anything wrong.

Edited October 22, 2013 by Zertsius

[Tarazet 144]

Hi Zert,

 

As I said in the PM you should get a log from SoO LFR and post it up so that we can take a look and see how well your idea of the rotation is serving you. The basic idea with the opener is that you want to use Starfall several times in a row, as soon as the previous one expires, by quickly pushing through the eclipse cycle.

 

Make sure to throw an enchant on your weapon, preferably Jade Spirit if you want to show that you are committed to optimizing yourself but Windsong is OK too.

[Zertsius 0]

Just uploaded some World of Logs charts, let me know what you think and if there's anything else you need.

[Grimlirx 1]

Okay so, I skipped a lot of the text and went on to the video and then read some of the text. Your opener should look like this:

1. Astral Communion until 1 Wrath away from Lunar Eclipse.

2. Cast Starfall

3. Cast Wrath

4. Cast Incarnation/Potions/Trinkets (usually macro'd together). I don't recommend using Nature's Vigil as your talent, I recommend Heart of the Wild. It's a bigger dps increase and easier to deal with, considering it's passive

5. Cast sunfire then moonfire (in the order)

6. Starsurge

7. Starfire until 0 eclipse (use any Starsurge procs you get along the way) (also, when your first Starfall (from step 2) falls off, use your 2nd one))

8. At 0 eclipse, cast Celestial Alignment (if you're a troll, this is where you would cast Berserk as well, macro'd together of course)

9. Refresh your dots (Only use one, because of Celestial Alignment it will apply both)

10. Starfire and use Starsurge/Starsurge procs on cooldown until celestial alignment finishes.

11. Carry on with normal rotation.

A somewhat decent guide of Zoomkins (a boomkin from Blood Legion) can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9hH7uGHqA4

As for your armory, I looked at your gemming and whatnot and I would advice just using askmrrobot.com if you aren't already until you're comfortable with what to do.

If you have any more questions feel free to contant me ingame @ Grimlir#1301

Best regards,

Grimlirx

[DougEFresh 1]

- I was glancing at ur WoL parses and noticed ur up-times on Moonfire and Sunfire are very low, especially on the single target fights like Iron jug and Malkorok u should be able to keep those 2 debuffs on the target 95-100% of the time regardless of gear score.

 

- Ill link u a parse of mine from Malkorok http://worldoflogs.com/reports/rt-vrv5x9pm46gzhvul/sum/damageDone/?s=742&e=1039#Stardustt

 

- My gear score is much higher than yours but look at the basics like debuff uptimes etc. Boomkins have a really strong opener even at lower ilvls once u figure it out you'll have wayyy stronger burst. 

- definetly lose the Nature's Vigil talent and try lvling some professions.

- good luck

Edited October 23, 2013 by DougEFresh

[Zertsius 0]

Hey guys thanks for all the feedback. I'm going to try to change some things and get some new gear pieces and then post some more logs for a secondary evaluation if possible. Thanks again.

[Zertsius 0]

Alright everyone, I got some better gear and tried to take in everyone's advice.

Below is the wowlogs for a Korkon Dark Shaman fight in Flex Raid with my guild. I believe this was one of my better fights, my DoT uptime was both over 90%. What else can do i to improve?

http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/rt-t7ofdxetztrtj6f4/dashboard/?s=1214&e=1608

I believe I pulled around 89k this fight while the other boomkin pulled about 200k+

Once again here is a link to my armory: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/blades-edge/Zertsius/simple

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

EDIT* Here is the general nazgrim fight we did afterward. We wiped both times but I still got logs from it. My DoT uptime is not as good as it should be but is there any other comments you guys can make?
http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/rt-t7ofdxetztrtj6f4/dashboard/?s=3095&e=3485

Edited October 30, 2013 by Zertsius

[Tarazet 144]

The other moonkin vastly outgears you. He's in full SoO normal gear with the legendary cape and meta. You're not going to match that. Even played equally well - and your uptime on both the DoTs and Starfall was better than his - you will get far fewer Shooting Stars procs with lower haste and crit chance.