WoW Druid Spells - Moonfire
Posted: Tuesday, February 10, 2009
by Bill Kelly
Druids in the World of Warcraft earn the Moonfire spell at level 4 and, for many, it seems thats the only spell they use from that day forward. Moonfire is an instant cast spell that deals direct damage immediately and then deals damage over time (dot) for the next 12 seconds. Its a handy spell that does some good damage, is great to open a fight with and can be used in a pinch to wack a mob while youre on the run. It's so easy to spam Moonfire that everyone falls prey to this (everyone!) once in a while so just don't make it a habit.
Reason one: Its a really inefficient use of mana for the Druid. As mentioned before Moonfire has an up front direct damage followed by 12 seconds of damage over time. That 12 seconds of damage over time actually does more damage than the direct damage (for example the spell may hit for a direct damage of 100 points and then cause an additional 200 points of damage over the next 12 seconds). When this spell is cast again on the same target, before the first spell has run its course, the damage over time component does not stack. It other words the second spell erases the remaining effect of the first spell therefore wasting the mana you used to cast it. So by spamming this spell you are wasting over half the mana on each cast.
Why would other players care about how you use your mana? Well, for one, as a hybrid class theyd rather see you conserve some mana and maybe use it to heal them. Secondly by wasting mana youll be slowing down game play when youve got to stop and drink to regenerate. And thirdly other players would simply much rather have you effectively and quickly take down the enemies. Imagine in a fight you and other players almost have an enemy killed and all it needs is a few more hits yet youre out of mana and cant get the job done. Or image that your groups main healer is in trouble, you need to keep the party alive yet youve blown half your mana spamming Moonfire. As a part of a group youre expected to handle your share of the workload.
Reason two: When a Druid accidently hits a mob that has been crowd controlled (CCd) by another player chances are they used Moonfire to do it. This really irks players to no end. As a fight is raging the groups hunter CCs a monster, usually one that is causing problems. However the next second a brilliant flash of white light hits it and that mob is back to causing havoc! This will often get you a friendly reminder such as Stop spamming moonfire noob!
There can be a few cases where spamming this spell is actually beneficial. For example if youre chasing down a runner that you must stop before they aggro another mob a couple quick Moonfires might be called for. In PvP Druids will sometimes shoot this spell off several times right before they die in an attempt to take out an enemy. Once a Druid dies and respawns they come back with a full mana pool be default.
Overall the best and most efficient use of Moonfire is to let it run its full 12 seconds course. The damage over time can be considerable and, when combined with another similar spell such as Insect Swarm, can take down an enemy surprisingly fast. Use this spell either to pull mobs or when starting out a fight. Thanks for reading!
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