Hello everyone, my name is Nagura. Today, I have a Moonkin guide for you. I know a lot of people have been waiting for a Moonkin guide, but I wanted to wait a little bit to do a more in-depth one because there are still possible changes that may happen to Moonkin, such as tuning changes, general changes to gear, and changes to tier sets. However, this guide is intended to be more of an introduction, a basic guide for people who are new to Moonkin or are unaware of the changes that occurred in Dragonfly. I just want to give a basic idea of how Moonkin works.

Alright, first of all, let's talk about the positive and negative aspects of Moonkin so you can decide if you want to play the spec or switch to something else if you don't like what you hear.

One of the positive aspects of playing a Moonkin is the class's large area of effect (AOE) potential due to the ability "Starfall."

This ability has a large radius and few other classes have the ability to produce such a widespread AOE.

Moonkins are also very versatile in their damage profile and can handle various situations, such as dealing single target, spread out, stack, or switching targets as needed.

In addition, moonkins have a good amount of utility and movement abilities, such as:

The moonkin form is also unique, as it has a cool bird form that can flap its wings, and the class has aesthetically pleasing animations and a fantasy centered on solar and lunar eclipses.

Overall, if you enjoy using AOE abilities and appreciate a class with good utility and movement options, as well as a cool look and class fantasy, moonkin might be a good choice for you.

There are a few negative points to consider when playing a Moonkin in World of Warcraft.

Firstly, we are not particularly good at burst AOE damage.

Additionally, our ramp time can be high, meaning it takes a while for our damage to ramp up, even if there are a lot of targets or just a few. This is because we don't have buttons that produce instantaneous damage like some other classes; we have to apply dots, gather astral power, and enter eclipse before we can do significant damage.

Our cooldowns are also not as strong as they used to be in Shadowlands, which can be an issue in encounters where using all of our cooldowns is important.

Lastly, the position of Solar Beam in our talent tree can be inconvenient, requiring us to invest points in talents that we may not want in order to access it. It would be great if this were changed in the future.

Let's go over basic abilities for a moment. If you don't consider talents, we have:

Sunfire and Moonfire are especially important because they are damage-over-time spells that increase our damage to the target with our new Mastery in Dragonfly.

Wrath and Starfire are our filler spells, which generate Astral Power for us.

Our resource is Astral Power, which we generate with abilities such as Wrath and Starfire, and some talents give us Astral Power generation as well.

We can spend Astral Power on Starfall and Starsurge.

Astral damage is a combination of Arcane and nature damage, so it benefits from increases to both types of damage. For example, if you have a 10% increase in nature damage and a 10% increase in Arcane damage, your Astral damage spells will do 20% more damage, while your nature damage spells will only do 10% more damage and your Arcane damage spells will only do 10% more damage.

Our basic rotation revolves around the Eclipse system. If you cast two filler spells, like Wrath or Starfire, you will enter the opposite Eclipse.

For example, if you cast two Starfires, you will enter the Solar Eclipse for 15 seconds, which increases nature damage done. If you cast two Wraths, you will enter the Lunar Eclipse for 15 seconds, which increases Arcane damage done.

Keep in mind that astral damage benefits from both nature and Arcane damage increases, so for spells like Starfall and Starburst, it doesn't matter if you are in Solar or Lunar Eclipse. However, if you are in Solar Eclipse, only your Wrath will be buffed, not your Starfire. Similarly, if you are in Lunar Eclipse, only your Starfire will be buffed, not your Wrath.

I will now quickly go over some talent builds for a basic guide. I have circled the most important talents for single targets in red in the talent spectrum. These talents give the most damage and should usually be chosen. I have also circled some talents in the class tree in red because they give damage as well. Some talents in the spectrum are circled in green and are currently the best talents for single targets, but they do not give a significant increase in damage. If you want to switch them out for something else, it is fine. Some talents in the spectrum are circled in purple and are purely for utility. These are my personal opinions on the most useful talents in any situation, but you are free to use whichever talents you want. Some talents that I did not circle in purple are less important and can be skipped depending on the situation. Remember to switch up your utility depending on what you need.

Alright, so let's go over a single Target opener for the talents I've selected. Keep in mind, this is without the four piece bonus from the tier set. First, you'll cast two Wraths on the pool timer. Wrath has a travel time, so you can cast it on max range before the pool timer hits zero. Depending on your haste levels, you can start casting around two seconds before the pull. Once the target is pulled, apply your Moonfire, Sunfire, and Stellar Flare. Then, immediately use your cooldowns, regardless of whether you're in an eclipse or not. It's not necessary to enter solar or lunar eclipse first.

To open a fight, you should first apply your dots (Sunfire, Moonfire, and Stellar Flare). Then, use your cooldowns and pop Fury of Elune. Afterwards, continue your normal rotation. Precasting your Wild Mushrooms and applying your dots should be done first, followed by using your cooldowns (including any potions or trinkets) and Fury of Elune.

To maintain your rotation, you should keep your dots applied to the target at all times. Use Astral Power to cast Starfall on single targets, and try to use it while you are within an Eclipse and preferably a double Eclipse (which can occur if you have a Stellar Alignment or Pulsar proc, causing you to be in both a Lunar and Solar Eclipse at the same time).

This is the best time to use your astral damage "Star Search" spell because it will be buffed by both eclipses. However, be careful not to exceed the astral power cap. If you are in a lunar eclipse and still have a long time until your cooldowns are ready or your pulse procs, use your "Stars" within the eclipse. It's important to maximize your eclipse uptime, which can be a bit awkward at the moment. In the past, we used solar eclipse for single target situations because our "Wrath" spell was more beneficial to cast than "Starfire," but with the new talent system, we have many talents that buff entering and exiting eclipses. For example, "Solstice," "Balance of All Things," and "Nature's Grace" all give us haste whenever we exit eclipse.

To maximize our Eclipse uptime, it is best to enter Lunar Eclipse instead of Solar Eclipse. We can enter Lunar Eclipse by casting two Wrath spells, which is faster than casting two Starfire spells to enter Solar Eclipse. Therefore, currently, if you are hitting one target, you will enter Lunar Eclipse by casting two Wrath spells. Once you are inside Lunar Eclipse, you can use Starfire as your filler spell. As soon as you exit Eclipse, cast two Wrath spells again to re-enter Lunar Eclipse.

If you don't have anything else to do and you don't need to use Star Search or apply your dots, you can cast Starfire during your lunar eclipse. If you are in a celestial alignment, pulsar prox, or incarnation, it is more beneficial to cast wrath as a filler spell on a single target when you have solar eclipse up.

It's best to go into a lunar eclipse because you want to maximize your eclipse uptime. If you are in the lunar eclipse, use Starfire. If you're in both eclipses at the same time, cast wrath on a single target. Use your fear balloon on cooldown and use your Incarnation on cooldown or whenever it makes sense for the boss fight. Additionally, you want to make sure you cast your star surges at the start of an eclipse rather than at the end of the eclipse because we have "Balance of all Things," which gives us critical strike whenever we enter an eclipse. This critical strike decreases rapidly, so it's important to stack up "Star-Lord," a 15-second buff, at the start of the eclipse. To do this, pool your Astral power, then enter the eclipse and use your Astral power to stack up "Star-Lord." Use three "Star Surges" to stack up "Star-Lord" and make use of "Balance of all Things." While it's not essential, try to keep up "Rattle the Stars," but don't focus on it if it causes confusion or if you might make a mistake. "Rattle the Stars" is just a bonus, and ignoring it won't cause a significant loss in damage.

Don't worry too much about the "Red on the Stars" talent. The basic idea of the rotation is to spend your extra power as you enter the eclipse, but don't spend too much extra power as you exit the eclipse. This will ensure that you have a lot of Astral power again when you enter your next eclipse. That's the basic idea of the rotation with these talents.

To begin a fight, first apply your damage over time abilities (Sunfire, Moonfire, and Stellar Flare). Use your cooldowns and activate Fury of Elune. Then, continue with your normal rotation. Precasting your Wild Mushrooms and applying your dots should be done before using your cooldowns (including any potions or trinkets) and Fury of Elune.

To maintain your rotation, you should keep your dots applied to the target at all times. Use Astral Power to cast Starfall on single targets, and try to use it while you are within an Eclipse and preferably a double Eclipse (which can occur if you have a Stellar Alignment or Pulsar proc, causing you to be in both a Lunar and Solar Eclipse at the same time).

Let's talk a little bit about AOE. I'm going to show you a talent build that is good for AOE. The circled talents are important for AOE. The green talents can be freely switched around because they don't provide such a big damage gain. The purple talents are utility and can also be switched around. Note that the talent circled in orange is a choice between Pulsar and Orbital Strike. Both are good for AOE in different situations. Pulsar is better for sustained AOE, while Orbital Strike is better when things die quickly and you don't have time to put Stellar Flare up. It also has a shorter cooldown of two minutes, compared to the three minutes of Incarnation. Personally, I think playing with Orbital Strike is easier, especially for those starting out with dungeons or lower level content. Once you get better at placing Moonfire and managing your dots, you can switch to Pulsar for higher level content or situations where more consistent AOE damage is needed, such as in a raid.

Alright, I'll show you an opener for an AOE situation. Typically, when there's an AOE situation, mobs are not stacked up immediately. They are gathered by the tank. That's why during the pool timer, I applied Moonfires to replicate a situation where the mobs are not gathered up immediately.

So, once the tank gathers the mobs, you should put some Moonfires on the targets as soon as they are stacked. Then, press Sunfire because it Cleaves to all targets around your main target. You don't want to spend too many global casts on Sunfire because it splashes, so if you immediately cast it even though the mobs aren't stacked yet, you'll have to cast it again later to ensure it's applied to all of them. To avoid wasting time, make sure you cast Moonfires first as the mobs are gathering. Once they are gathered, cast Sunfire to make sure you only need to cast it once. Then, use your cooldowns.

Immediately after you apply your dots (Sunfire and Moonfire), use Incarnation or Celestial Alignment (depending on which talent you have). Then, dump your Astro power into Starfall and cast Mushroom. Mushroom enables our Waning Twilight talent, which increases damage if we have three dots up and our mushrooms are active. After using Moonfire and your cooldowns, use Starfall and then Mushroom. Finally, cast Solar Flare while inside your Eclipse to maintain your Waning Twilight.

Stellar flares are not incredibly important. A lot of people may feel overwhelmed with Stellar flares, but it is important to remember that everything else you do is much more important than putting them up. Stellar flares are just an enabler for winning Twilight and they generate a little bit more astral power. Therefore, you should only start casting Stellar flares if you have nothing else to do, such as applying Moon fires or casting starfalls. Keep this in mind and only apply Stellar flares when you really have no other things you want to be doing.

So let's say there are 10 targets and you cannot put your Stellar flare up on everything instantly. You can use your mushrooms as a bridge to make sure your Twilight stays on the targets until you have your Stellar flare up. Therefore, do not cast three mushrooms in a row unless the mobs are incredibly fast and there are no more AOE attacks within the next 30 seconds or something like that. If you need to do consistent AOE damage, then you should cast one mushroom first, then apply some Stellar flares while the dot is running. Once the dot runs out from your mushroom, cast another mushroom to refresh your Twilight, and keep applying Stellar flares until you have it on all of them. Use your time to cast starfires as well.

Starfire should only be used as a last resort if you have no other options and want to refresh your Stellar Flare. If the duration of Stellar Flare is below 8 seconds, it's worth recasting it unless the enemy team is about to take an objective quickly. Otherwise, it's more beneficial to refresh Stellar Flare with a lower duration rather than casting Starfire. This will provide a greater overall gain on the map if there is still a decent amount of time left in the game.

For the rest of the mutations, make sure to keep your Sunfire and Moonfire up. This can be achieved automatically by using the Ethereal Kindling talent, which extends the duration of your Sunfire and Moonfire whenever you cast Starfall. This way, your dots should stay up consistently in the area.

To optimize your gameplay, make sure not to overcap Astral Power and consistently cast Starfall. It's important to note that Starfall stacks, meaning it does the same amount of damage regardless of how many are active. During Lunar Eclipse, use single target spells on a single target and AOE spells on multiple targets. If you are outside of an Eclipse, enter it by using your Mushroom and apply Rockbiter in a staggered way to keep Twilight rolling on your targets. Use your free Lunar Strike and cooldowns and apply Stellar Flare. If there is nothing else to do, cast Starfire.

If there is really nothing else to do, the rotation may seem complicated, but it's not as difficult as it seems. If you follow the rotation I'm using, you can use Stellar Flare as a filler spell instead of casting Starfire, as we did in Shadowlands. In Shadowlands, we did the same thing, except we didn't have mushrooms or Stellar Flare. In addition to our Shadowlands playstyle, you can use your mushrooms and Stellar Flare as a filler spell instead of Starfire. Instead of standing there and casting Starfire, look at the targets and see what needs to be done to take them down.

Alright, now let's go over the gear. First of all, I want to mention that as a disclaimer. Of course, this can change with tuning and with changes, so keep that in mind. But if there are no major tuning changes, then the stats we want are a high item level and more intellect.

Intellect is good. Our best secondary stat is Mastery, so you definitely want to go for Mastery. All the other stats are not as important as Mastery, so we don't really have to worry about them. When in doubt, always sim your character using Raid Bots and see which items are better. If you don't know how to sim your character, I actually made a video about that. It's easily explained and easy to understand, so make sure you check it out.

For your enchants, you want to go with the waking stats on your chest. You want to go with the intellect and stamina enchant on your legs, and put Mastery on your rings. You want to go with sophic devotion on your weapon.

There are several options for utility and chance that don't give you player power. It's usually best to go for avoidance in those cases, because it's very useful. Additionally, you can go for the one primary step plus Mastery Jam for gems. It's also a good idea to go for Mastery plus haste gems for the rest of your gem slots.

As for trinkets, the best option currently is the furious rage feather, which can drop with a plus and is worth farming. Upgrading it with Valor also makes sense.

Another useful trinket is the Whispering incarnate icon. This trinket is especially strong for AOE. The spiteful storm, conjured chill Globe, scovald dark moon deck, infernal, and windscar Whetstone are also good options. However, it's important to consider which trinkets are good for your specific character. There are also some trinkets that are specifically good for AOE, in addition to the ones I already mentioned. One of these is the infernal red trinket, which is also effective for single targets.

The Alchemy stone is also good for AOE, but it's important to note that the crafted items require a spark of Ingenuity, which is a rare resource. You may not want to spend it on a trinket, since it cannot be embellished. If you want to learn more about what to do with your spark of Ingenuity, I've made another video on the subject. Make sure to check it out to understand the system better.

Let's talk about the best crafted gear for moonkin. There are two items on the Slot list: the inscription staff with Mastery and haste, and the embellishment bronze grip wrappings. The jewel crafter neck with the embellishment called Elemental Lariat is also good, but only for single target encounters. The bronze grip wrappings embellishment is not effective for AOE, only single target. Keep in mind that the inscription staff is a two-hand weapon that costs two Sparks. When the raid is released, you will only have two Sparks available, so you won't be able to craft both the staff and the jewel crafting neck with the Elemental Lariat embellishment, as that would require three Sparks in total. You can either craft the jewel crafting neck with the Elemental Lariat immediately, then wait until you have a third Spark to craft the inscription staff, or you can craft the Elemental Lariat and the jewel crafting neck and use your other Spark to craft a one-hand weapon with an embellishment, then wait for two more Sparks to craft the inscription staff. It's a decision you'll have to make based on how strong you need to be at the start of the raid. If you have some time and your guild doesn't need you to be fully powered up at the start, you can wait for extra Sparks. If you can't wait, you can craft something immediately and then later on, when you have unlimited Sparks, craft the best inscription items.

When it comes to embellishments, I personally suggest using one embellishment for the jewel crafting neck, the Elemental Lariat. However, keep in mind that this recipe is not currently available in the game yet and will not be until the raid is released. As for your second item, I recommend crafting a one-hand weapon, such as a one-hand dagger or mace. It's up to you which one you choose, but make sure to put Master and Haste in it.

I personally recommend using the potion embellishment because it makes your potions last 50% longer. This embellishment doesn't have any downsides and is useful in any situation, whether you're using it on one target or ten. On the other hand, the Bronze Grip Wrappings are only effective on a single target, and the Blue Silicon Linings only work if you have more than 90% health. In progression, it's unlikely that you'll have high health for a long duration of the fight, so I would recommend against the Blue Silicon Linings. Although they may seem useful in simulations where your character is always at full health, they may not be as effective in actual gameplay.

However, in reality, you'll often drop below 90% health, so I do not recommend the Blue Silicon Linings. My personal suggestion would be to go with the Elemental Lariat and a one-hand weapon, or a jewel crafting ring with the potion embellishment. If you manage to get a weapon through a plus or through the Mythic raid early on, you can skip crafting the weapon and just craft a ring instead. Remember, I'm just offering my opinion on crafting. I've seen the numbers from theory crafters and, in my opinion, the extra gain from the other embellishments isn't worth the downsides they come with, so I recommend sticking with the potion embellishment.

While the Elemental Lariat is a good choice, ultimately, you should choose the option that you think is best for you and your current situation. I suggested the jewel crafting ring because it can be hard to replace, whereas if you craft bracers or a belt, you may end up replacing them later if you get a better item from the raid. However, if you do happen to get a really good ring from the raid, you don't have to unequip your dual crafting ring.

That's why I suggested the ring; it also comes with the best stats because you can define the stats that are on it. Additionally, if you get a belt that drops in a raid, you can't wear both at the same time, so the ring is a safer choice.

When it comes to consumables, the best potion is the Elemental Flask of Unlimited Power. This potion costs one Primal Chaos, which can be difficult to come by at the start of a raid. If you don't have access to Primal Chaos, a cheaper option is the Elemental Flask of the Hour. This flask doesn't cost Primal Chaos, but it has less stats than the Elemental Flask of Unlimited Power. For single target, the Elemental Flask of Chaos is the best choice, but the Toxic Crit Flask is also good, although it has negative effects and may not be the best choice for progression. For AOE encounters, the Vial of Glacial Fury is the best choice. When it comes to food buffs, the best option is the Intellect food, but if you don't want to spend a lot on it, the Mastery and Haste food is also a good choice.

When it comes to professions in this game, there are no direct player power gains. However, there are some indirect gains from Alchemy. It reduces the toxic effects from toxic flasks and toxic embellishments, and gives a small heal whenever you use a potion. However, this is more of a survivability gain rather than a player power gain. If you're not using toxic flasks or toxic embellishments, then you don't need Alchemy. Engineering gives you access to wormholes and an additional Tinker socket. If you're doing a lot of Mythic+ content, then you might find it useful to have an invisibility belt and an additional engineering effect. Keep in mind that you don't have to be an engineer to craft an item with a Tinker socket.

Then, let's go over racials. All the racials are pretty minor, so you don't have to play anything at all. You can play whatever you want, but the best racials for Horde would be Troll and the best ratio for Alliance would be Night Elf. If you want to choose the best racials, then these are your options. However, keep in mind that these are minor gains, so it really doesn't matter that much.

There is currently a bug that prevents you from creating a single macro that works for all of your cooldowns, regardless of which talents you have selected. As a result, you need to use two different macros - one for when you do not have the orbital strike talent and one for when you do. Simply drag the appropriate macro onto your bar based on your current talent selection. While this can be annoying, it is currently the only solution available. In some single target situations, such as the second boss in Vault of incarnates, it is best to use the convoke talent. In these cases, you can also use the macro that prevents convoke from canceling itself when you spam the button. This will ensure that the ability always goes off, regardless of how many times you press it.

I hope this guide has helped you understand the basics of playing moonkin and given you some useful information about stats and other important aspects of the spec. I hope you have fun playing moonkin in raids and dungeons, and let's hope for some moonkin buffs in the future to make the spec even better. If you agree, please leave a comment saying "Moonkin Buffs." If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments or on my stream at twitch.tv/nagura. Thanks for watching, and have a great day!