My favorite thing to do in WoW at the moment? Rated battlegrounds!
After clearing Highmaul normal and some bosses on heroic I didn’t feel like raiding anymore, because that’s what I’ve been doing for years now and I’ve always wanted to get more into PvP and rated battlegrounds. Luckily I’m not a raider anymore so I can do whatever I want. Last time I did rated battlegrounds was in Cataclysm when rated battlegrounds were introduced to the game but back then the queues were so long and it was hard to find a team unless you had high rating from arena which I didn’t have. I’m actually not a fan of arena, it might be because I suck at it and I don’t like being focused so battlegrounds are more my thing cause I can usually hide and blast down my enemies one after one without anyone noticing.
I had already geared my druid with the Primal Combatant PvP gear you purchase for honor. Gearing up for PvP are very easy these days because you have a chance to get PvP gear in the boxes you get from winning events in Ashran and from winning Ashran by defeating the opposite faction’s leader. Plus you get honor and conquest points from completing objectives and events. So I did Ashran until I had enough conquest points to buy the Primal Gladiator weapon and I spent the honor on the Primal Combatant honor gear parts I missed.
I find rated battleground teams to join in the looking for group tool in-game. Most groups expect you to have the Primal Gladiator weapon and at least full Primal Combatant PvP gear, some might want you to have experience or rating. But there are groups for everyone. I always do at least 3 wins every week. The reason for that is that you have a chance to get a piece of Primal Gladiator gear from the 3 first wins every week.
At the moment I’m looking for groups to increase my rating which is around 1600 right now, but my highest is 1700 and I would like to find a group of good players who want to see how far we can get. I met many different kinds of players and groups. Most are very friendly, well-behaved and good players, but some are directly the opposite. When I find a group I expect them all to know their class and how the battlegrounds work. A good leader who can explain tactics like who should go where and a target caller is also needed. Besides that I expect people to stay a while and not give up just because we lose one game.
Most rated battleground teams seem to love balance druids these days. I’m not sure why, but it might be because we do pretty good damage, we can run fast and crowd control. I’m not the best PvP player but I’m not bad either because I think I’ve done well in most games I’ve played. I always try to damage the right target, CC a target that I think needs to be CCed like a healer, slow and root enemy flag carrier, knock enemies down from Lumber Mill in Arathi Basin, sneak around and try to capture bases.
I don’t have a lot of experience from moonkin PvP so I’m always looking for advice and feedback, and I check other player’s talents and glyphs on Armory. I might not know everything about why this or that talent is the best but I chose the talents I think are the best and those I feel fit my play style the best. Which talents I decide to choose also depends on which battleground we get, but most talents stay the same for all battlegrounds.
Talents I use in all battlegrounds:
Displacer Beast: I’ve finally gotten used to this after being a fan of Wild Charge (which I used in all forms) for a long time.
Ysera’s Gift: Most players I’ve seen uses this one right now so I chose to go for it as well but I might swap it if I feel it’s needed.
Ursol’s Vortex: This is my favorite because it’s ranged and I can use it with Solar Beam to interrupt healers or to slow players down. But I think you can choose whichever you feel works the best for you.
Nature’s Vigil: Most players go for this one because it makes your damaging spells heal injured team members.
Euphoria: This shortens your balance/eclipse cycle and reduces cast time on Wrath and Starfire.
Those I swap between are:
Typhoon: I see Typhoon as a must have in Arathi Basin and Eye of the Storm even though they put up walls around the middle in Eye of the Storm it’s still possible to knock someone down if they stand in the right spot. In Arathi Basin Lumber Mill is exactly the same as in a normal battleground so you can knock people off the edge and it might help your team win that base. This talent can also be useful in Silvershard Mines to knock enemies away from the cart you’re controlling.
Faerie Swarm: I choose Faerie Swarms in battleground where I need to be able to slow down targets, like enemy flag carrier in Warsong Gulch and Twin Peaks. It’s also great for preventing targets from using stealth or invisibility. But I choose it for the slowing effect. This can also be useful to slow down players in other battlegrounds.
Incarnation: Chosen of Elune: I think this talent is the best choice for increasing your damage so I use this one in most battlegrounds.
Force of Nature: I find this talent very useful in capture-the-flag battlegrounds like Warsong Gulch and Twin Peaks because it instantly roots your target, it has 40 yards range, 3 charges with a short cooldown. The damage is a bonus. This and Faerie Swarm has been very useful in many battlegrounds I’ve played but it might not be needed if you got other players in your team which are very good at slowing targets, and you still got your normal Entangling Roots, Cyclone and Incapacitating Roar/Ursol’s Vortex/Mighty Bash.
My glyphs are usually the same in all battlegrounds. These are the ones I find most useful but I like to try new ones every now and then.
Major glyphs:
Cyclone: 5 extra yards on Cyclone is a must.
Barkskin: Gives you extra survivability by reducing the chance you’ll be critically hit by 25% while Barkskin is active.
Shapemender: Heals you for 5% of your max health every time you activate a form. Not sure how good this glyph is but I’m testing it out.
Minor glyphs:
Grace: Good to reduce fall damage in all forms.
Stag: I like the stag, otherwise no good reason to use it, people rarely use me as a mount.
Stars: I love being a moonkin but sadly in PvP being a big owl makes you the target everyone wants to kill. You might also fool some mages and shamans thinking they can Polymorph and Hex you when it looks like you aren’t in any form.
So my talents and glyphs will look something like this.
The first picture shows my talents for a battlegrounds like Eye of the Storm and Arathi Basin where I want Typhoon to knock players down. The second picture shows my talents for Warsong Gulch and Twin Peaks where I want Faerie Swarm and Force of Nature for maximum slow on the enemy flag carrier.
In Battle for Gilneas and Deepwind Gorge both Faerie Swarm and Typhoon can be useful because Faerie Swarm can slow players down and Typhoon can be used to knock people away from the flag on a base when you’re trying to capture it. I think Typhoon also works to interrupt players trying to capture the base and other casts/heals. Force of Nature can also be used to slow and to interrupt other players trying to capture a base.
These talents can also be very useful to slow players down when trying to get your hands on the orbs in Temple of Kotmogu, my least favorite battleground, and in Silvershard Mines to knock players away or slowing them to prevent them from getting close to the cart you’re controlling. But Incarnation: Chosen of Elune is also a good choice if you don’t need Force of Nature to root players.
I’m always trying to become better at playing moonkin in PvP, but I don’t like practicing in normal battlegrounds because most players there don’t even know the tactics, their class or they don’t care enough to do their best and it’s hard to do good when the rest of your team don’t do their part. So I think the best way to get better is to just do more rated battlegrounds and that’s what I’ll continue to do.
Do you play rated battlegrounds?
Filed under: Moonkin, PvP Tagged: Ashran, balance, Battleground, BG, boomkin, druid, Gear, glyphs, guide, moonkin, PvP, Rated Battleground, RBG, spec, talents