History of Druid Moonkin Form: Lore, History, and Appearances

In this History of WoW video, we’ll be looking over the history of the Druid’s Moonkin Form. This form is associated with the Balance specialization for Druids and is sometimes called the Boomkin or Boomie by the World of Warcraft community
Video edited by Splitrift
Video managed Ateratsu
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[@TheBlaert]

I was feral from early Vanilla right through until the start of Wrath. Then my friend mentioned the guild he was in needed some more ranged dps for Naxx. I respecced, grabbed some greens from the auction house and hopped on the Zeppelin to Warsong Hold. Have been a feathery bastard to this day

[@TreesPlease42]

Moonkin provide a unique crit bonus early on!

[@roninshinobi]

You should have also mentioned how drastic the sun and moon spell rotations in the expansions. It drasticly changed in many expansions. From having to spam moon or sun spells to get a indicator moving between sun and moon phases to get access to more powerful spells. To on where you had cast and time your sun and moon spells to cast in thr right phase as the indicator moved on its own to keep damage at its highest.

[@Rare987]

Surprised you didn't talk about warcraft 3 wildkin. They used to look so beefy and tanky before wow.

[@Carl5156]

I had some great fun in TBC doing dungeons as a moonkin tank. Almost like a battlemage tank spec. The threat was the biggest issue but I'd switch to bear and growl before switching back.

[@guillermosilva3499]

In Winterspring is a scort quest that tells you the owl kin where send by elune as her champions, so there is the connection with the moon

[@jiriki1188]

Yes, I remember that quest

[@TeacupDragon33]

holy what timing, I had just watched your video about flying from 2 months ago where you mentioned you'd be doing videos about Druid forms. Clicked on your channel to see if I could find any, and low and behold, the first one had just been posted haha

[@nerdbrain396]

Fun fact about moonkin form. Night elf druids in moonkin form (without the glyph for it) gain an extra toe on each foot when activating celestial alignment / incarn. Why? idk

[@Marconius6]

"Moonkin form has been in World of Warcraft since inception..." No it has not, it was added in 1.8.0 with the Druid talent revamp. Before that, Balance druids were expected to basically never change forms, casting in their elf/tauren form.

[@deciduous_reaper]

Moonkin were the reason Balance was my favorite spec for Druids ever since Cataclysm when I main a Worgen Druid

[@Snuzzled]

Remember kids, treant form gets you closer to Elune, Trent form gets you Closer to god.

[@RomanCollapses]

True!

[@ThallanarRabidtooth]

I’m always in Trent form… My name is Trent :3

[@BatmatYT]

Can I just say how much I appreciate and enjoy your videos. I don't have time to play wow these days, but this stuff really plays into my love of the lore and learning new stuff.

[@Limrasson]

Am I remembering wrong? I don't think Moonkin was part of the game since it's start. The early balance final talent was Hurricane.

[@Mammothina]

Back in shadowlands Owlweaving was godsend not for balance druids but for bear tanks - owl convoke the spirits then bear back

[@druidbern]

seeing all the different colors of wild moonkins, there's no good reason Blizzard couldnt give us artifact moonkin forms instead of just the weapon appearances.

[@bobjones4469]

Vanilla cared more about flavor than it did about game balance and mechanics. The reason why Moonkin has such high defense is not to make up for anything, it's cuz Moonkins are very bulky creatures with thick hides, they are part bear, after all. However, BECAUSE they have high defense, they were likely nerfed in other areas.

[@ThallanarRabidtooth]

The “hybrid tax” affected more than just the Druid, but their forms as well.

[@twigy1319]

Can you make a video on the history of treant form?. i think it's such a shame that its just a cosmetic form in retail now.

[@operationmisanthropia5831]

You forgot the whole fun of the Eclipse-changes over all the years the balance druid went through. Otherwise pretty amazing video!

[@Anolaana]

I would love to see that lol, balance druids have had a wild ride through the years!

[@operationmisanthropia5831]

@@Anolaana I can only tell from my years of experience that the balance druid was my main dps (from burning crusade up to shadowlands) and the restro my main heal (burning crusade until Dragonflight). During Vanilla I used to play Kitty. And the changes to the balance druid were like: "Every Expansion we are reworking the entire spec because we cant figure out how we can make it playable" That eclipse system in Cata was absolute shit. During Panda they tried to fix it but it was still a mess. During Warlords they got rid of it and tried to replace it which worked meh. And I think with BfA they actually got it right somewhat. Or was it Shadowlands? I dont remember.

[@EpicMathTime]

@@operationmisanthropia5831 I find the spec to be an absolute delight now in DF.

[@operationmisanthropia5831]

@@EpicMathTime Yep, although I havent really played the druid in DF much. I went for warlock since I love their sustainability. I began to like simple classes that could solo most of the content. Warlock is one of them. Although I dread the 10.1.5 changes on the demonology warlock.. I will hate it without all the talents that made the demo so amazing to play

[@Draylor4269]

Moonkin was not in the game at it’s inception. It was added in during the talent revamps, Druid specifically was added in 1.8. The top talent in the balance tree prior to Moonkin was Hurricane. The main reason every single Druid was resto and didn’t bother with anything else is because up until this patch, innervate was the top talent in the resto tree and was required for raiding. Source: mained druid since 2004

[@Ursatomic]

This, also- am I crazy or did tauren and night elf moonkin have different skeletal rigs/animations when they first came out? I was tauren moonkin, so I know I had the ogre animations the whole time. But I swear I'd see night elf moonkins waddling about like actual NPC moonkins. I remember them falling forward when they died like NPC moonkins, and I would fall backwards like ogres.

[@TheBlaert]

@@Ursatomic Strangely enough that rings a bell for me too

[@randomdeliveryguy]

@@Ursatomic Wait, if you died in moonkin form in 1.8 you didn't shift out?

[@Ursatomic]

@@randomdeliveryguy Yeah I remember you didn't auto shift after death, you'd stay in whatever form you were in when you died. At some point in vanilla I believe if a druid died in bear/cat form you could go skin them too.

[@stepheninczech]

I remember this dude used to have a macro that would shout "Ima chargin' my lazor!!!!" every time he'd cast starfire.

[@TihonTheDED]

More of this!!! Awesome!!!

[@PelenFuzzlefurr]

With Legion, many of the classes' bread and butters were on the weapon's talent trees. The things that carried over to SL and onward were the things Blizz liked. There was the glyph of flap which allowed Moonkin to have a featherfall / levitate effect (channeled) I think you missed. And... you didn't mention the Moonkin dance.

[@MultiMrSomething]

Isn't moonkin dance just an ogre dance?

[@holyrs1575]

I love these videos they are so goooood!

[@rogerstalder7184]

To be fair. Vanilla Moonkin was like Shadowpriest, not ment to leave your form. Either you kill your oponent or die trying :)

[@evilsizer4428]

True, except for brezzing. So our tiny mana pool got even smaller because we always had to make sure we had enough mana left for a rez.

[@rogerstalder7184]

@@evilsizer4428 Mana whats mana? 🤣 (I played shadowpriest in Vanilla)

[@randomdeliveryguy]

You can't use innervate on moonkin form, so you had to leave it.

[@afernandez9579]

The empowered moonkin was originally a talent back in Cata called Enraged Moonkin iirc.

[@zotidragoi]

Another awesome video

[@Mexican00b]

as an boomking main in retail since lich king... i loooooooooooooooooooove this videooooooooooooooooooom

[@codywhite6337]

Loved the video

[@bisalissy3846]

Is nobody gonna talk about how Improved Moonkin Form is, in fact, not bad, but rather a talent you always max out in Wrath PvE? :D Also, WoW Classic is like "You can't have a Tauren on a Raptor! It's too big!" Meanwhile MoP: Boomie on Mechanostrider go brrr!

[@Blackshado7386]

awesome video :)

[@jasonbullis4163]

I leveled a balance/resto druid at the same time as a ferral/guardian druid till they made the specialization switch free and at any where out of combat

[@Yugelol]

Good video :)

[@francoc.8567]

Why not show appearances of how they used to look in earlier versions? Or even gameplay from earlier versions?

[@seifyk]

I dont know where you're getting "people didnt really take Improved Moonkin Form back in Wrath" What else are you putting those 3 points in? Brambles?

[@NathanStin]

Are you going to do an update video for the new laser chicken forms?

[@stevo22]

I am sad that Flap was not mentioned xD

[@LDaemontus]

Most players know of these forms as "chicken" and "the sacrificial tree".

[@Justin681]

What music do you use in your videos?

[@johnnyborbon5085]

Bear form next!

[@monsterclown4455]

I'm still dreaming for the day we get more boomkin customization

[@scarletcrusader5431]

Man I loved Draenor talents

[@chuklesty]

What they did in legion with the weapon skin was so dirty

[@kobymuessigbrodt3219]

Idk if i would associate owl BEAR, key word BEAR, with the moonkin form. I would have never associated the two or think one was taking from another. But now in dragonflight we have bear forms that are actual owlbear forms so

[@egomane9252]

How about a Video about the sad and short History of the best Tank in Wow's History: The Shaman Tank

[@adamedmister8828]

Cat Durid is 4 fyte

[@vincentcloud]

Boomkins sucked until they got the eclipse slider bar. I was the only druid allowed to go boomkin in raids. We had one feral tank and the other 3-4 were resto.

[@randomdeliveryguy]

5:02 Patch 2.5? Isn't that tbc classic? Also, that's the tier 5 set bonus ability. I don't get what he tried to say there.

[@CoolBreezeHeals]

Owlbears rock. But Moonkin Dance!!!

[@nochillkowa9493]

How did Blizzard updated warlock pets appearances first before boomy

[@theargonaught44]

rip ravenbears.

[@jamesgames4142]

I wish they looked as cool in-game as they do in artwork. In-game they look like someone in a fat suit who fell into a chicken coop.

[@angryllamacorn2142]

High mountain moonkin form is bugged. You have both Horns and Antlers.

[@unscheduled_gaming]

Would love to see a series of all classes throughout wow and how they have changed

[@pumirya]

Here comes the… boom! Yes, that was bad and no I’m not sorry. 🙂👍

[@smiledog3975]

Hiru, pls continue your lore vids like long time ago.

[@justinkong9954]

Giant killer furbys.

[@JadedWallace]

the spec having the name balance has to be some sort of joke, over the years it's either been a meme or one of the best specs in the game that you could literally stack like in cata tier 1

[@ThallanarRabidtooth]

If there’s one thing I learned from WoW players is that they don’t want balance, they want to be on the broken OP side of balance. Balance as a spec fits this perfectly, it’s never been mediocre or average, or “Balanced” it’s always been trash or god tier.

[@jasonjitsu86]

"Trent form" 🤣.... Tree-ant my guy

[@shaneduc]

BooM Chickins...

[@dreame4ter773]

I always pronounced it tree-ent

[@mattalan6618]

ive heard both ways

[@JaqenHqhar]

Fun fact: The Chinese nickname for a boomkin is 肥雞, which literally means "fat chicken."

[@vcsfxmedia]

its called an OOM-kin (Out Of Mana)

[@petterituovinem8412]

doomkin

[@kikiohearts]

The fact nothing was said about the spell Flap.... slow fall for boomies

[@Spongeyknight6491]

meanwhile me playing a feral druid: im a bear! now im a lion!

[@kobymuessigbrodt3219]

Yep that's how shape-shifting works

[@alihorda]

Ever since they introduced glyph of stars I never looked back at the fat owl

[@dukeg.rabbit368]

OMG I had an actual orgasm when I found that glyph cuz that form was so ugly.

[@oliversloth1426]

im early! :D

[@popfloydplays788]

It was based and owlbear-pilled, end of story

[@Baltr]

improved moonkin form bad/unused? delusional

[@SilentKME]

This is why it's so hard to get connected to any class in this game. It changes wildly from one week to the next. It's kind of ridiculous. For example, I LOVE how WOTLK shadow priest plays and how Legion Shadow Priest plays, but DF Shadow Priest is so fundamentally different and visually different it just feels so bad in comparison.

[@JaxWylds]

Cant watch. Too painful to remember what they put me through.

[@adamdobry5517]

Boomkin? more like Oomkin, hah!

[@InfinityInfern0]

Glyph of stars all the way

[@QwertyJew]

seriously though, why are they putting off updating/creating a new boomkin model. Its been forever and every other class is getting updates

[@Peleski]

The irony is that most moonkin NPCs in the game aren't even casters. They're melee. The choice of moonkin as a caster model was pretty meh.

[@--Dan-]

You pronounced "crit-chicken" incorrectly for the entire video. Very disappointing.

[@Dea7hWarran7]

Boomkin need to just be removed from game. The devs can’t get the DPS right on it, without completely trashing it and starting over. Dare I say, it needs the retadin treatment.

[@kobymuessigbrodt3219]

If they remove boomkin then I stop playing

[@josematos7043]

i rely hate bomking form,for duids,its reli stupid and dam

[@blargblarg-jargon9607]

pro tip playing moonkin in nilla is to downrank with ur pre-bis, did that and my damage was about a pre-bis mage level, not too bad but yeah, can't go forever, same with mage though eh?