Eclipse: Part 3 - What about my DoTs?

This is Part three of my four part series looking at Eclipse. In this post I will try and answer the question, Should I refresh my DoTs during Eclipse? Part one looked at the two Eclipse buffs and showed which is the better buff. Part two looked at the value of Eclipse and tried to provide you with an idea of how it will help your DPS. Finally, Part four will summarize my findings and I will share my general thoughts about the talent.

For those of you that don't like reading math, please feel free to skip to the bottom for my TL:DR version of the post.

Should I refresh DoTs while Eclipse is up?

Please Note: Most of the assumptions I made in part one will apply to this post as well. The one exception is to my 5th assumption. For this section I am assuming that you have the [Idol of the Shooting Star] equipped when casting both Starfire and Wrath to maximize the Starfire Eclipse buff.

This is probably the most common question I hear regarding Eclipse, and I'll be honest. I've had a hard time figuring out what is the best way to tackle it, but lets give it a shot.

What do you lose by casting a DoT?

The cost of casting the DoT is the global cooldown (GCD) that could have been used to cast Starfire. The problem is know what the value of that GCD is, because it is near impossible to know if the Starfire cast will receive the Eclipse buff or not. So I will look at it both ways and take an average.

First lets look at the average cast time for Starfire with and without the buff and the global cooldown.

Global Cooldown = (1.5 / 1.17) = 1.2821 seconds
SF cast time w/ buff = ((3 - (0.5 * 0.65)) / 1.17) = 2.2863 seconds
SF cast time w/o buff = ((3 - (0.5 * 0.35)) / 1.17) = 2.4145 seconds

So we know now that the GCD is 56.07% of a buffed Starfire's cast time and53.09% of an unbuffed Starfire's cast time. Next we should look at the damage for a buffed and non buffed Starfire.

Avg SF (buffed) = ((((1285 + (2000 * 1.2)) * 1.1)*1.0712)*(1-0.65))+((((1285 + (2000 * 1.2)) * 1.1)*1.0712)*2.09 * 0.65) = 7418.49 damage

Avg SF (un buffed) = ((((1285 + (2000 * 1.2)) * 1.1)*1.0712)*(1-0.35))+(((1285 + (2000 * 1.2)) * 1.1)*1.0712)*2.09 * 0.35) = 5998.62 damage

With this information we can say that the GCD is worth 4159.55 damage for the buffed Starfire (7418.49 * 0.5607), the GCD is worth 3363.43 damage for the unbuffed Starfire (5998.62 * 0.5309). Since we have no way of knowing which value is more likely, I will assume each of them have a 50% chance of occurring. Therefore by using the GCD for a DoT, on average, you lose 3761.49 damage from Starfire.

What do you gain by casting a Insect Swarm, and is it worth it?

For Insect Swarm this is easy, because we only have to look at Insect Swarm's DPS. It can be calculated like this:

IS DPS = (((1290 + (2000 * 0.76)) * 1.3) * 1.0712) / 12 = 326.09 DPS

(This ignores Natures Splendor because it doesn't change the results.)

So, now we know we gain 326.09 DPS by casting IS. We learned above that for Insect Swarm to be worth casting, it needs to do 3761.49 damage before your next opportunity to cast IS without clipping Eclipse.

This means IS must be on the boss at least 11.5351 seconds for IS to be worth casting. Since IS has a talented duration of 14 seconds it is theoretically worth it to refresh insect swarm if Eclipse just procced. However, in reality the benefit to refreshing IS is very small and our reaction times will make it difficult to be worthwhile.

Therefore, it is my opinion that there is no need to refresh IS while you have the Starfire Eclipse buff.

What do you gain by casting a Moonfire, and is it worth it?

Moonfire is more complicated for a couple of reasons. First, we have to consider both the direct damage and the DoT. Second, we have to consider the extra damage from Starfire due to Improved Insect Swarm.

First lets look at the direct damage portion of Moonfire. Its not large due to the Glyph of Moonfire, but it does factor into the equation. Basically since it happens up front we can subtract it from the damage lost by using the GCD for Moonfire. Here is the math.

Avg MF DD = (((((441 + (2000 * 0.1487)) * .3)*1.0712)*(1-0.41))+((((441 + (2000 * 0.1487)) * 0.3)*1.0712)*2.09 * 0.41)) = 343.34 damage

If we subtract this from the GCD value that means the Moonfire DoT and extra Starfire damage only have to make up 3539.34 damage.

The DoT portion of Moonfire looks like this:

Avg MF DoT DPS= (((800 + (2000 * 0.5224)) * 1.95) * 1.0712) / 12 = 321.12 DPS

To figure out the affect of Moonfire on Starfire lets calculate Starfire with and without the 3% chance to crit.

SF w/ MF = ((((1285 + (2000 * 1.2)) * 1.1)*1.0712)*(1-0.68))+((((1285 + (2000 * 1.2)) * 1.1)*1.0712)*2.09 * 0.68) = 7560.48 damage

SF w/o MF = ((((1285 + (2000 * 1.2)) * 1.1)*1.0712)*(1-0.65))+((((1285 + (2000 * 1.2)) * 1.1)*1.0712)*2.09 * 0.65) = 7418.49 damage

So, refreshing Moonfire will increase the damage from Starfire by 141.99 per SF cast. Since a buffed SF takes 2.2735 seconds to cast on average this increases our DPS by 62.45 DPS.

Lets calculate how long moonfire must be on the boss for it to be worth the cast.

Break-even Point = (3761.49 - 321.12 ) / ( 321.12 + 62.45 ) = 8.9693 seconds

So, theoretically Moonfire must be on the boss at least 8.9693 seconds for it to be a net increase in your DPS. In reality you probably want a little more because of reaction times and such.

My recommendation is that you only refresh Moonfire if it runs out right as Eclipse procs. Otherwise the benefit is small and not worth worrying about.

TL:DR Version

One of the most common Moonkin questions is, Should I refresh my DoTs during Eclipse?

The results are mixed. It is theoretically possible to increase your DPS by refreshing both Insect Swarm and Moonfire at the very beginning of the Eclipse buff. However, reality makes this a little difficult.

The benefit of refreshing Insect Swarm during Eclipse is very small at best. Therefore I recommend that you never refresh Insect Swarm during Eclipse.

The benefit of refreshing Moonfire during Eclipse is more sizable, and can be worthwhile if you do it quickly enough. I recommend that you only refresh Moonfire during Eclipse if your are at the very beginning of the Eclipse buff.