Boomkins FTW
Hi guys,
I have read the forums here for ages but only now decided to join to add my 2 cents.
First of all a bit of my WoW history, I have been playing WoW for around 2 years now with some long breaks in between. I have played a Druid and only a Druid that entire time, 0-40 I was feral and the second I could get Moonkin form I got it and have been a Boomkin ever since. Pre TBC I raided MC, AQ20, AQ40 and Ony. In TBC I have done Gruul, Maggy, SSC (6/6) TK (4/4) altho the Kael kill is recent and just got my MH and BT attunement to head there. I have the advantage of being the only Boomkin in one of the better Alliance raiding guilds on my server (Bladefist EU - Fairly low pop).
Now to the post. In 25 man raids I have topped the damage meters before on trash even though my gear is not as good as some in the guild (and almost always in the top 5), I have some T4 and the rest are badge epics, some craftable epics (I am LW and Engineer) and Kara/TK/SSC epics while a lot of them have T5. I personally can get up to 1700 +spell dmg (with procs) but my base is only around 1000-1100 depending on gear while a decent raiding mage/lock has +1500. For any boomkin the most important thing to know is:
Spell hit > Spell dmg > Spell Crit > Spell Penetration. You will need 152 +spell hit (the hit cap) before you even think about that great new +dmg enchant or +crit. You will need at least (rep wise) Aldor/Scryers exalted for the shoulder enchant (altho that applies for most classes afaik) and Sha'tar revered for the head slot enchant.
On bosses, however, it is extremely difficult for a boomkin to top the dmg meters for 2 simple reasons:
1) In most boss fights (unless ofc they are on farm status) ppl make silly mistakes and it is your job to CR the 1 person who's death could cause a wipe, running around to res and getting back into position are usually enough to put you out of the top 10.
2) If you have enough mp5 and use your mana pots wisely you should often have an innervate handy for healers which you will be asked to use which often involves running all over the map to find them, this also takes time off your dps and you will drop down the metes too.
Of course living in SA doesnt help with our dodgy internet causing us to lose even more precious time between casts.
A lot of good guilds see the value in a boomkin and will take 1 along to raids, but as someone above quite rightly suggested, they will never take more then 1. Your value is also in the extra +crit you give to the casters and as stated above a well-timed tranq when you are in the aoe group can be vital to a raid success (or hurricane helps up your dps too
).
Being a druid in a raid in general has other advantages too, I get to roll on so many offspec items per evening raiding it is frightening, I almost always get at least 1 epic per raid and have got up to 5 in one night before. Even tho I have the best tanking staff and belt in game amongst plenty of epics for resto, feral dps and bear tank I still love being a boomkin for its all around fun.
Another thing that no-one has mentioned is the Panzerkin build which is essentially a moonkin caster tank spec and can have crit immunity and 27k armor in moonkin form while still dpsing a fair amount, I am working on this atm and have tanked some bosses in Kara but think it is a fair way off before I can tank anything higher then that. But essentially the boomkin is a tanking mage (I have 16k armor in my pve gear and 18k in my pvp gear), which is why I avoid cloth items at all costs, leather +spell dmg are not as frequently found but you can put together a decent enough set.
I would suggest giving it a try if you have only ever played feral or resto but my suggestion: gear up for boomkin before you change spec, nothing is more frustrating then being the best tank around and trying boomkin and being very average and will force you to quickly change back. Anyway I think I am just rambling now but hopefully I have given some useful info.
