Specs, Part 1

The aforementioned "post" from my previous entry was a post on my guild forums about specs in PVP for people who choose to shoot members of the opposite faction with lasers.

Looking for CURRENT PVP specs for balance druids seems to be an arduous affair, so I am hoping to do some of that work for you, oh aspiring PVPing laserchicken comrade.

We had a patch yesterday, patch 3.3.3, hereafter refered to as The Great Starfall/Typhoon Buff of 2010. To be a bit more specific while remaining not very specific at all, here is what the patch notes had to say about balance druids:

* Starfall: The damage done by this spell has been significantly increased.
* Typhoon: Mana cost reduced to 25%, down from 32%.
* Glyph of Focus: Now increases the damage done by Starfall by 10%, down from 20%.
* Nature's Grasp: Now has 3 charges, up from 1.

Yes, this still makes me smile. Now, as a PVPing moonkin, you won't WANT glyph of focus, but that doesn't matter as much as the other changes.

Taking these changes into account, let's examine some of the possibilities for specs for balance PVPers.

51/0/20 is the spec that comes up the most frequently when looking for PVP specs, which is apparently updated as far as 3.2. With the buffs to starfall and typhoon (I call a mana cost reduction as hefty as 7% to be a buff, in my opinion), I see this becoming essentially THE spec with which to PVP.

There is clearly some flux to this spec. The imp rejuv is clearly a talent which is there for personal survival, or just in case you end up in a WSG as the only possible healing class (again). If you wanted to add some customizability to this spec, you could move points out of imp rejuv and put them into some combination of balance of power and celestial focus. I choose those two talents as the first provides a bit of extra durability against spells, and the second increases your haste and helps in the pushback department. Your mileage may vary.

Before I go into my next section on spec experimentation, I should say that I personally believe the glyphs listed there are pretty much the most essential glyphs in moonkin PVP, particularly since the patch. For simplicity, I will list them here:

Glyph of Monsoon
Glyph of Starfall
Glyph of Barkskin

The minors seem to be straightforward enough. Whatever you do, don't get Glyph of Typhoon. Trust me, the satisfaction you'll get from knocking someone off a flag or off the world itself is all you'll need. Not to mention that the knockback is about THE reason why these specs even have typhoon in the first place.

Now, I listed one spec. Here is the part where I begin to hypothesize about other "potential" PVP specs. I might try these out, or I might leave them here as food for thought for others who decide to PVP. The choice is yours. (The glyphs are left blank since I would simply use the same glyphs as listed in the first spec, unless otherwise noted.)

Panzertank: 51/8/12

Since I got into PVP, I've wanted to see for myself if thick hide could help with survivability, particularly in WSG or arenas. This spec also dumps some points into Feral Aggression, which is vaguely useless...but if you have to switch into bear form to carry a flag in WSG, dumping your rage on demoralizing roar might be a worthy investment before switching into moonkin to typhoon your enemies away. Combined with balance of power and brambles, you could theoretically take this spec into a BG and commandeer flag retrieval or base defense, providing you have enough resil to back it up.

Oh dear god she's nuking from the bushes: 56/0/15

This spec is 90% of the first mentioned spec, with a couple notable differences. First of all, there's eclipse, which is not listed in the first spec, as well as celestial focus. I would personally think about using this spec if I were to be in a large group PVP situation (such as WG, AV or to a lesser extent, EotS), and perhaps I would change out glyph of monsoon for glyph of starfire. Note: the theory behind this spec relies on the idea that you might not be necessarily targeted if you stand far enough away (or remain altogether hidden, like in a set of bushes - hence the name), so engaging a group of the opposite faction from behind an invading group of your own forces would be encouraged. I would personally switch out the glyph in favour of starfire for this reason, since you would not need to cast moonfire nearly as often.

That's all I have for now. Like I said, the bottom two specs here are just examples of my own unfounded postulation of what "might be interesting to try", and breaks from the "norm" of the first spec. Odds seem pretty high that 51/0/20 is just the way to go, but it's fun to experiment at any rate.

On that note, if you have tried either of the bottom two experimental specs (or the first spec for that matter) and have some feedback you'd like to shoot my way, leave a comment!

See you in Battlegrounds!