[Druid] WTB Moonkin Excitement in 3.1

Moonkin don't need any pressing changes in 3.1. It's not like we're broken. I don't see moonkin tears spouting like waterworks across the forums, so by that measure we're a contented bunch. When my dated comp isn't chugging on a 25-man boss fight I perform quite well, typically in the top 5, which is good living for a hybrid dps spec, which all else being equal, should be doing 5% less damage than a pure dps class.

So why do I feel left out when I don't see any changes in store for us? Last patch the highlight of my moonkin love was finally being able to cast Abolish Poison in moonkin form, which while useful, wasn't nearly as interesting as the changes to armor for our feral brethren.

I have my rotations down, I know how I want to spec and how I want to improve my spec as my mana regen dependancy decreases. While I still like raiding as a moonkin I guess I'm missing something to look forward to, a new mechanic, something that will change the way I play.

And it's not like the announced changes will not affect me even as a balance druid. After all, look at what I'll get regardless:

Savage Defense – this is a new passive ability. When a druid in Dire Bear form deals a melee critical strike, the druid gains a damage shield equal to 25% of their attack power. The next hit completely removes the shield regardless of how much damage was done.

Though this new passive ability is accompanying a nerf to the armor bonus of Survival of the Fittest, moonkin will not have that talent anyway, which means that this will be an across the board buff to the basic bear form for all specs. We won't use it often, but when we toss on feral gear to bear tank for lowbie friends or even tank Gluth we'll be better off than before. It's not moonkin love, but this could be useful.

I'm more ambivalent about it on my PvP feral because I'm not sure where the balancing point will be between Savage Defense and the nerf to Survival of the Fittest, but that will be something for the feral bloggers to ponder.

Faerie Fire (and similar debuffs) now reduces armor by 5%. See Sunder Armor in the warrior update below for additional details.

As long as Faerie Fire and Sunder Armor continue to stack this change doesn't bother me. I never cast this since we have a feral in the raid and a shadow priest for +hit. Improved Faerie Fire currently provides its crit bonus to the moonkin even if the feral is the one providing FF, and so if it stops stacking with Sunder Armor, it would be in my selfish interests to keep having the feral do FF anyway, but Sunder Armor still has multiple applications whereas FF does not, so I'm guessing they'll continue to be separate stacking debuffs.

Survival Instincts now works in Moonkin form

I've never tried a hybrid balance/feral build, though I guess it could be desirable for PvP. There's probably somebody out there who is happy with this change. I'm just not sure who that would be. I'm guessing this change is part of the same line of thinking that makes feral attack power weapons apply to moonkin even though we no longer have a melee for mana mechanic.

And that's really it for us. Maybe something else will turn up later, but for now it looks like 3.1 will be business as usual for moonkin.