Balance Druid Compendium
Written by: Gamz, Vinter, Dsune(Oi)
News
15th of April tuning notes
NOTE
All spell damage increased by 3%.
Starfall damage reduced by 10%.
Starsurge damage increased by 3%.
Power of Goldrinn damage increased by 3%.
Elune’s Chosen: Boundless Moonlight -
Fury of Elune final flash of Energy damage reduced by 10%. Minor Moon damage reduced by 10%.
This is around a 4% buff on ST in raid builds. For Elune's Chosen in m+ it's a small nerf to AoE, but overall a buff in mythic+ builds when including the buff to
Starsurge and the Balance spec aura.
Raid Guide
Dreamgrove has a raid guide page that is a community curated resource that anybody can submit contributions to. It should include different talent builds for each boss, general tips for how to handle some mechanics and/or links to kill videos or relevant VODs.
Tier set
2-piece
Your damaging spells have a chance to hit a Jackpot, growing a
Wild Mushroom at a nearby enemy's location at 100% effectiveness. Casting
CA/
Inc always hits a Jackpot.
This is approximately ~6% dmg increase from having no set.
4-piece
Starfall and
Starsurge damage against targets affected by your
Wild Mushroom's damage over time effect is increased by 20%.
This is approximately ~11% dmg increase from having no set.
Current Bugs
-
Control of the Dream does not give the proper CDR on the first use of the affecting spells if you wipe to a boss. You need to change talents in the choice node to fix it. You can use this weakaura to change the choice node around by pressing a button in the middle of your screen.
-
Changing talents from
Orbital Strike to
Whirling Stars can make macros using
CA/
Inc not work at all, giving you an error message and have your button be desaturated on your bars. This requires a relog to fix.
-
If you spell-queue a free spender through a
Starweaver or
Touch the Cosmos proc as your first global in an
Eclipse, you will gain no value from
Hail of Stars.
Rotation
Openers












Single Target Priority
What is a priority list?
When reading the priority lists below, you should not think of these as steps to be followed in a specific order. At any given point in combat, you should cast the first ability on the list that you are able to cast, provided the conditions for its use are met.
Keeper of the Grove - ST
- Keep up
Sunfire, refresh within pandemic (30% of base duration shown in the tooltip).
- Keep up
Moonfire, refresh within pandemic (30% of base duration shown in the tooltip).
- Keep up
Stellar Flare and refresh within pandemic (30% of base duration shown in the tooltip) if you will not overcap on AP.
- Use
Force of Nature if any of the following are true:
- The cooldown on
CA is less than a GCD and the cooldown of
Convoke the Spirits is less than 3 GCD's.
- The cooldown of
CA/
Inc is less than a GCD.
- The cooldown of
Convoke the Spirits is longer than 25 seconds.
- The cooldown of
Convoke the Spirits is longer than 10 seconds.
- The cooldown on
- Use
Celestial Alignment/
Incarnation if any of the following are true:
- You just used
Force of Nature.
- The cooldown on
Convoke the Spirits is greater than the recharge time of your next
CA.
- The fight will end before
Force of Nature is available again.
- You just used
- Cast 2
Starfire to enter Solar Eclipse. It is optimal to start casting
Starfire when the cast time of
Starfire is longer than the remaining duration of
Eclipse.
- Use
Convoke the Spirits when you are below 40 AP and both scenarios are true:
- You just used
Force of Nature.
CA/
Incarnation will last for more than 4 seconds or your next
CA/
Incarnation is more than 40 seconds away.
- You just used
- Use
Fury of Elune.
- Use
Starsurge if
Starlord has less than 3 stacks.
- Use
Starsurge if one of the following conditions is met:
Starlord has less than 3 stacks.
- You are about to overcap on AP.
- You need to move.
- You have a
Starweaver's Weft proc.
- You have a
Touch the Cosmos proc.
- Use
New-,
Half- and
Full Moon if all of the following conditions are met:
- You will not overcap on AP.
- You can finish the cast before your current Eclipse ends.
- You are in
CA/
Incarnation or you're about to cap on charges and the cooldown of
CA/
Incarnation is longer than 15 seconds.
- Use
Starsurge if one of the following conditions is met:
- You are about to overcap on AP.
- You need to move.
- You have a
Starweaver's Weft proc.
- You have a
Touch the Cosmos proc.
- Use
Starfall if you have a
Starweaver's Warp proc.
- Use
Wild Mushroom if you will not overcap on AP and
Fungal Growth is not active on your target.
- Use
Wrath.
Elune's Chosen - ST
- Use
Warrior of Elune.
- Keep up
Moonfire and
Sunfire, refresh within pandemic (30% of base duration shown in the tooltip).
- Keep up
Stellar Flare and refresh within pandemic (30% of base duration shown in the tooltip) if you will not overcap on AP.
- Use
Fury of Elune together with
Celestial Alignment/
Incarnation.
- Use
Celestial Alignment/
Incarnation.
- Use
Warrior of Elune if your eclipse has less than 7 seconds left and you will enter Solar Eclipse next.
- Use
Wrath to enter Lunar Eclipse.
- Use
Starfire to enter Solar Eclipse.
- Use
Fury of Elune.
- Use
Starfire to spend any stacks of
Nature's Grace before using
Convoke the Spirits.
- Use
Convoke the Spirits if you're below 40 AP and
CA/
Incarnation will last for more than 4 seconds, or your next
CA/
Incarnation window is more than 30s away and your Eclipse will last for more than 4s.
- Use
Starsurge if
Starlord has less than 3 stacks.
- Use
Starsurge if one of the following conditions is met:
Starlord has less than 3 stacks.
- You are about to overcap on AP.
- You need to move.
- You have a
Starweaver's Weft proc.
- You have a
Touch the Cosmos proc.
- Use
New-,
Half- and
Full Moon if all of the following conditions are met:
- You will not overcap on AP.
- You can finish the cast before your current eclipse ends.
- You are in
CA/
Incarnation or you're about to cap on charges and the cooldown of
CA/
Incarnation is longer than 15 seconds.
- Use
Starsurge if one of the following conditions is met:
- You are about to overcap on AP.
- You need to move.
- You have a
Starweaver's Weft proc.
- You have a
Touch the Cosmos proc.
- Use
Starfall if you have a
Starweaver's Warp proc.
- Use
Wild Mushroom if you will not overcap on AP and
Fungal Growth is not active on your target.
- Use
Force of Nature if you will not overcap on AP.
- Use
Starfire.
- Use
Wrath.
AoE Priority (2+ targets)
Keeper of the Grove - AoE
- Use
Sunfire if the target will live for at least 5.5 seconds. Subtract 0.5 seconds for each additional target beyond the first. Wait until all targets are gathered.
- Use
Moonfire if the targets will live for 6 or more seconds and you will not overcap on AP. Remember
Force of Nature also spreads
Moonfire
- Use
Stellar Flare if all of the following conditions is met:
- The target will live for at least 8s+1s per target that
Starfire can hit.
- You will not overcap on AP.
- The target will live for at least 8s+1s per target that
- Use
Starfall if you would overcap Astral Power with your next cast.
- Use
Force of Nature if one of the following conditions is met:
- Your current Eclipse has more than 3 seconds left.
- Your next GCD is
CA/
Incarnation.
- Use
Celestial Alignment/
Incarnation if one of the following conditions is met:
- You just used
Force of Nature.
- The cooldown on
Force of Nature is longer than 25 seconds.
- You just used
- Use
Wrath to enter Lunar Eclipse.
- Use
Fury of Elune.
- Use
Starfall if:
Starlord is below 3 stacks.
- You have a
Starweaver's Warp proc.
- You have a
Touch the Cosmos proc.
- Use
Starfire to consume any stacks of
Nature's Grace and
Umbral Embrace.
- Use
Wild Mushroom if you will not overcap on AP and
Fungal Growth is not active on your target.
- Use
Full Moon if all of the following conditions are met:
- You will not overcap on AP.
- You can finish the cast before your current eclipse ends.
- You are in CA/Inc or you're about to cap on charges and the cooldown of
Celestial Alignment/
Incarnation is longer than 10 seconds.
- Use
New Moon if you will not overcap on AP.
- Use
Half Moon if you will not overcap on AP and you can finish the cast before your current eclipse ends.
- Use
Convoke the Spirits if you are fighting less than 7 targets and
Umbral Embrace is not up.
- Use
Starsurge if you have a
Starweaver's Weft proc.
- Use
Starfire.
Elune's Chosen - AoE
- Use
Sunfire if the target will live for at least 5.5 seconds. Subtract 0.5 seconds for each additional target beyond the first. Wait until all targets are gathered.
- Use
Moonfire if the targets will live for 6 or more seconds and you will not overcap on AP. Start spreading
Moonfire while the tank is gathering mobs.
- Use
Stellar Flare if all of the following conditions is met:
- The target will live for at least 8s+1s per target that
Starfire can hit.
- You will not overcap on AP.
- The target will live for at least 8s+1s per target that
- Use
Starfall if you would overcap Astral Power with your next cast.
- Use
Fury of Elune.
- Use
CA/
Incarnation.
- Use
Warrior of Elune if available.
- Use
Wrath to enter Lunar Eclipse.
- Use
Wild Mushroom if you will not overcap on AP and
Fungal Growth is not active.
- Use
Starfall if one of the following conditions is met:
Starlord is below 3 stacks.
- You have a
Starweaver's Warp proc.
- You have a
Touch the Cosmos proc.
- Use
Full Moon if all of the following conditions are met:
- You will not overcap on AP.
- You can finish the cast before your current eclipse ends.
- You are in CA/Inc or you're about to cap on charges and the cooldown of
CA/
Incarnation is longer than 10 seconds.
- Use
New Moon if you will not overcap on AP.
- Use
Half Moon if you will not overcap on AP and you can finish the cast before your current eclipse ends.
- Use
Starfire to consume any stacks of
Nature's Grace and
Umbral Embrace.
- Use
Convoke the Spirits if you are fighting less than 7 targets and
Umbral Embrace is not up.
- Use
Starsurge if you have a
Starweaver's Weft proc.
- Use
Force of Nature if you will not overcap on AP.
- Use
Starfire.
Rotational Details
Eclipses and Fillers
- Enter
Solar Eclipse and cast
Wrath on 1 and 2 targets.
- If you enter
Lunar Eclipse by mistake on 1 target, cast
Wrath.
- If talented into
Soul of the Forest and
Umbral Intensity, enter
Lunar Eclipse on 3 targets. Otherwise, enter
Solar Eclipse and cast
Wrath.
- Enter
Lunar Eclipse on 4+ targets.
- Cast
Wrath in
CA/
Inc on 1 and 2 targets.
- Cast
Starfire in
CA/
Inc on 3+ targets.
- If talented into
Lunar Calling, enter
Lunar Eclipse and use
Starfire on all target counts.
- Use
Starsurge on 1 target.
- Use
Starfall on 2+ targets.
Warrior of Elune is an off-gcd ability, making your next 3
Starfire instant for 25 seconds. The ability has a 45s cooldown that starts once you've pressed it.
If you are playing Lunar Calling you should use your
Warrior of Elune charges when you have no stacks of
Nature's Grace.
When not talented into Lunar Calling, use Warrior of Elune with 7 seconds remaining on
Eclipse and use the charges to enter Solar Eclipse.
Use Owlkin Frenzy procs to enter Solar Eclipse, inside Lunar Eclipse or inside
CA/
Incarnation if Starfire will hit 2 or more targets. Keep in mind that
Warrior of Elune charges are consumed before
Owlkin Frenzy procs.
Whirling Stars is a talent that changes your
CA/
Incarnation cooldown to a charge system, with a 100s recharge. In Keeper of the Grove, you want to overlap these charges with
Force of Nature and
Convoke the Spirits or just
Force of Nature if your
CA/
Incarnation will recharge before
Convoke comes back off cooldown.
In a raid scenario where you pull a boss with both charges up, you want to use your 1st charge on pull, and your 2nd charge together with your 2nd or 3rd set of Force of Nature treants, and save your 3rd charge for
Convoke at 2 minutes. After this, you just aim to overlap all 3 cooldowns with the priority outlined in rotation section.
In an M+ scenario, if you're talented into Incarnation: Chosen of Elune instead of
Convoke, you want to use your
Whirling Stars charges at any time where you can overlap with
Force of Nature.
When using Elune's Chosen and not talented into
Convoke, you can use
Whirling Stars right after entering an
Eclipse that procs
Sundered Firmament, but this is not a major gain. If you're using
Elune's Chosen and you're talented into
Convoke, you want to overlap your
Whirling Stars charge with your
Convoke cooldown.
When using Nature's Grace you should make sure to start casting your
Wrath/
Starfire when the duration of your active
Eclipse is shorter than the cast time of your
Wrath/
Starfire. This will make sure that you always keep 1 stack of
Nature's Grace when entering your new
Eclipse. This can be tricky to pull off consistently when cycling between
Lunar Eclipse. Try to bank some AP for the end of
Eclipse if you need to fill a GCD to time your
Wrath cast correctly.
If you are approaching a pack in mythic+ you can cancelaura your Nature's Grace and spell-queue 2
Wrath casts while the tank is walking towards the pack before you've entered combat, this will make it so you are in
Lunar Eclipse and have 2 stacks of
Nature's Grace up for faster
Starfire casts whenever you've finished spreading your dots. This can be tricky to pull off, especially if your tank is chaining a lot of packs. Keep in mind that the moment you enter combat, spreading
Sunfire and
Moonfire becomes the highest priority.
You can use the macro below and replace your existing Wrath keybind with it to cancel
Nature's Grace when you're out of combat to help with this.
#showtooltip
/cast Wrath
/cancelaura [nocombat] dreamstate
Talents
Raid
NOTE
These builds will be updated as people are progressing the raid and builds are more solidified and figured out. For specific raid tips and builds, check out the raid page and click the "Balance" checkbox. This page will keep being updated as people are progressing bosses.
Mythic+
The following are dungeon talent builds that will always serve you well but mind that there can be some variations based on your group comp or affixes. Do not be afraid of swapping some talents out if you think it can help your group.
Both hero trees are viable and perform very close to each other. Feel free to choose the one you prefer. For additional information on what talents you can swap out for other specific talents, check the talent explanation section below.
Talent Explanations
The Druid class tree has received a rework for 11.1 with better pathing and more freedom to take useful talents. Below, you will find a graphic outlining what talents are mandatory and what talents are optional for each section of the tree, together with explanations for the options you have.


Top Section Explained
-
After taking the mandatory defensive and offensive nodes in the top section of the tree, you are required to spend 1 more point before you can progress down the tree.
Remove Corruption and
Killer Instinct are your options here.
Remove Corruption is a poison/curse dispel, and is the preferred choice in most Mythic+ content, but does not offer a lot of value in raid.
Killer Instinct increases your armor and physical damage done, which can give you a very minor damage increase if you are using
Convoke the Spirits in melee range.
Hibernate is a viable option for pathing, but the spell has no real value in any current content.
Middle Section Explained
-
In the middle of the tree, you have noticeably more options to choose from. After choosing the mandatory talents in this section, there are 4 points to spend before you can progress further down the tree.
Either
Feline Swiftness and
Well-Honed Instincts are necessary to progress down the left side of the tree.
Feline Swiftness is a good movement speed talent, while
Well-Honed Instincts gives a minor defensive every 90-120 seconds, depending on the talent below it. It is beneficial to take both options in reasonable content.
Either one of
Typhoon or the
Ursol's Vortex node are needed to progress down the right side of the tree. They are both situational utilities you can use dependent on what content you're doing. You are likely to use both in Mythic+.
Matted Fur is a very minor defensive talent that gives you a small shield when you press
Barkskin.
Light of the Sun reduces the cooldown of your
Solar Beam by 15 seconds, making your interrupt have a 45 second cooldown instead of a 60 second cooldown.
Astral Influence increases the range of your spells by 5 yards. Good talent to take if you're in a situation where you need to outrange an ability. Good point to spend if you have no better options available.
Bottom Section Explained
-
After choosing the mandatory talents in this section of the tree, you're left with 4 more points to spend on optional talents.
Improved Stampeding Roar is an often relied-upon option for progression fights where your raid can benefit from a group-wide movement speed increase. Talk to your raid leader and make the decision that's best for your group.
Nature's Vigil is a situationally helpful talent for your raid. Talk to your raid leader and healer team and make a decision that's best for your progression when considering this talent.
Forestwalk is a situationally good node, giving you increased movement speed and healing received after casting
Regrowth. This can be strong when paired with
Blooming Infusion and
Protective Growth for fights that require good defensive value.
Incapacitating Roar is a good option to make use of in Mythic+.
Ursine Vigor is a solid defensive node that increases your health and armor by 15% for the first 4 seconds of entering
Bear Form. This talent is a solid choice in general.
- For the Balance Druid spec tree there are currently a solid number of talent iterations to choose from that don't provide a meaningful increase to your damage. Talents like
Soul of the Forest,
Crashing Star,
Touch the Cosmos,
Hail of Stars,
Umbral Inspiration and
Sundered Firmament are mostly interchangeable in ST with Keeper of the Grove, which is the recommended hero talent for raid encounters. Below there will be short explanations for each talent. Keep in mind that most of these options don't provide any changes in your rotation or decision making.
Top Section
-
Stellar Flare is currently simming noticeably worse than
Wild Surges on ST and is generally untakeable outside of niche situations where you can maintain dots on targets that are far apart, like if you stand in the middle on Cauldron of Carnage or on One-Armed Bandit.
Wild Surges is the recommended choice for most content outside of the niche scenarios where
Stellar Flare can be useful.
Nature's Balance sims around 0.6% higher than
Twin Moons on pure single target, but loses out whenever there are more targets, where you can benefit from
Twin Moons spreading
Moonfire.
Aetherial Kindling is a preferred choice for any sustained AoE scenario where you can benefit from your DoT effects being extended. Very good for m+.
Middle Section
-
Sunseeker Mushroom or
Wild Mushroom are mandatory talents since they help saturate the
4-piece uptime.
Sunseeker Mushroom is by far the preferred option as the active
Wild Mushroom ability does not do a lot of damage by itself and
Sunseeker Mushroom is more than enough paired with the
2-piece to get decent enough uptime.
Stellar Amplification is recommended for ST scenarios where you cast Starsurge enough to keep good uptime on it, taken for most raid encounters.
Touch the Cosmos got a buff since 11.0 and is picked in most ST iterations. You can drop this talent for
Umbral Inspiration. In M+ with
Elune's Chosen your choice will generally be between
Touch the Cosmos or
Umbral Inspiration and the choice does not make a big difference.
Umbral Inspiration is better on AoE, while
Touch the Cosmos provides some needed movement globals.
Umbral Intensity is a very good talent for both
Keeper of the Grove and
Elune's Chosen. The best build on ST that isn't taking
Umbral Intensity is around 1% behind on ST.
Astronomical Impact is a decent talent for both ST and AoE, but requires you to route through
Umbral Intensity to reach it.
Soul of the Forest in itself is an okay talent in ST and the extra Astral Power generation can help you in dealing with spots in raid where there is a lot of movement. It is mandatory in AoE.
Crashing Star is an optional talent in ST, and is good when paired with
Soul of the Forest.
Hail of Stars is an optional talent in general for ST, but loses out on AoE because of diminishing returns on
Shooting Stars when there are more targets.
Bottom Section
-
Power of Goldrinn got a buff heading into 11.1 and is recommended for all ST encounters.
Umbral Inspiration can be swapped out on ST for another talent, but is generally recommended for all content.
Sundered Firmament is optional for
Keeper of the Grove, but mandatory for
Elune's Chosen since it helps provide uptime for
Atmospheric Exposure.
Orbit Breaker is good whenever paired with
Hail of Stars, as the increased duration on
Solstice helps saturate
Orbit Breaker procs.
Sundered Firmament and
Orbit Breaker both benefit from the damage increase from
Radiant Moonlight.
Denizen of the Dream is a strong single target node, but loses value in AoE scenarios. Recommended for all raid fights.
Fury of Elune and
Radiant Moonlight are both mandatory talents for
Elune's Chosen, but are generally not picked for
Keeper of the Grove. You can pick
Fury of Elune in
Keeper of the Grove if you can consistently line up the cooldown with add spawns.
Keeper of the Grove compliments
Convoke pretty well when you use it with the dmg increase from
Harmony of the Grove and
Celestial Alignment.
Convoke is also good for priority damage and boss fights in M+.
Incarnation: Chosen of Elune is good for AoE scenarios, or in situations where
Convoke would use spells on targets you don't want to hit.
Incarnation: Chosen of Elune also pairs well with
Whirling Stars in M+, giving you very consistent cooldowns on most packs, and allows for more flexibility in when your damage spikes, as opposed to
Convoke. If you're playing
Convoke in M+, you should use it in AoE with the conditions outlined in the "Rotation" section.
Control of the Dream lets you hold on to either
Celestial Alignment/
Incarnation,
Convoke or
Force of Nature for up to 15 seconds without losing a use, subtracting the amount of time you held the ability from its cooldown.
Depending on the fight timer, this talent is stronger than Power of the Dream which it shares a choice node with. As always, you should research the fight you are preparing for on warcraftlogs or sim your character to make an educated guess.
Gearing & Consumables
Stat Priority
WARNING
Sim yourself using Raidbots Top Gear. Do not follow any stat priorities.
Gems and Enchants
Slot | |
---|---|
Gems | 1x ![]() ![]() |
Weapon | ![]() ![]() |
Chest | ![]() |
Cloak | ![]() |
Legs | ![]() |
Wrist | ![]() |
Boots | ![]() ![]() |
Ring | You should always sim your own character to determine what enchant to use in this slot |
Consumables
Type | |
---|---|
Potions | ![]() |
Food | ![]() ![]() |
Flasks | ![]() ![]() |
Weapon Rune | ![]() |
Embellishments & Crafted Items
Embellishments for this season don't offer a substantial gain, so it's important that you always sim your character using Raidbots Top Gear before making any gearing decision, but here are some guidelines:
Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension and
Writhing Armor Banding
This is a solid all-round choice for both single target and AoE. The Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension can be crafted on any weapon. If you go this route, you should aim to craft this on a two-handed weapon early, and craft the
Writhing Armor Banding on a low stat budget slot, preferably on the cloak, belt or wrist slot. Keep in mind that this embellishment only stacks during combat, making it a lot less valuable in mythic+. This option is generally worse later in the season when you can get either of the weapons with special effects.
This is a solid all-round choice for single target and mythic+. It's a random damage proc effect, where the type of damage is determined based on what kind of gems you are wearing. Equipping more gems or changing the type does not matter for the damage output. If you go for this choice, you should aim to craft two of them on low stat budget slots, notably the cloak, belt or wrist slots.
Duskthread Lining or
Dawnthread Lining
These are buffs that give you versatility or critical strike when you're above 80% hp. They are decent choices for mythic+, depending on the uptime you can get. They're similiar to the Blue Silken Lining embellishment from Dragonflight. If you go for this choice, you should aim to craft them on two low stat budget slots, notably the cloak, wrist or belt slots.
Roiling Thunderstrike Talons and
Rook Feather Wristwraps
These are part of a set that has a chance to drop an orb close to your target, granting a haste buff for 12 seconds. This is simming closely to other options, but can be frustrating to play and is generally not recommended.
Trinkets
WARNING
Remember to always sim your character using Top Gear on Raidbots. The following list is made assuming the highest ilvl version of these trinkets.
Tier | ||
---|---|---|
S Tier | ![]() | 1:30 CD use effect trinket. Easy to line up with ![]() |
![]() | ||
![]() | Good for longer raid fights, loses value in m+. Very good for One-Armed Bandit or Mugzee prog where damage in execute phase is important. | |
A Tier | ![]() | |
![]() | Solid m+ trinket, good passive versatility effect. | |
![]() | Best trinket from delve. | |
![]() | Solid 2m on-use trinket from early in the raid. Gains value if you don't have a lot of haste. | |
B Tier | ![]() | This trinket is from last tier, but is still pretty solid early in the tier. |
![]() | Good haste proc, drops early in the raid. | |
![]() | Sims well, requires using a global or macro to kill the barrel. | |
![]() | Delve trinket, good option if you can get it. | |
![]() | ||
C Tier | ![]() | Another delve trinket option. Performs better than sim if you're close to target. |
![]() | Spawns an orb you need to pick up for a primary stat buff. | |
![]() | ||
![]() | ||
D Tier | ![]() | |
![]() | ||
![]() |
Weapons
NOTE
Season 2 offers some weapons with special effects. Generally, a 675 crafted staff performs better than heroic version of these weapons. These weapons share cooldown with trinkets, so you are not able to overlap them. You should aim to line up these weapons with your cooldowns whenever possible, but don't delay their use effect for a prolonged period of time. Remember to always sim your character.
Cyrce's Circlet
The Cyrce's Circlet ring from 11.0.7 is still very good in season 2, beating out every other alternative at 678 even after the nerf to
Legendary Skipper's. The best gems for the ring are
Stormbringer's,
Fathomdweller's and
Windsinger's.
FAQ
Q: Why can't I enter Solar Eclipse?
A: Because you are talented into Lunar Calling.
Waning Twilight without
Wild Mushroom or
Stellar Flare?
Q: How can I proc A: With Astral Smolder.
Lycara's Teachings, but the Mastery on my character panel is not showing right value, is it bugged?
Q: I am talented into A: The Mastery % displayed in your character panel shows the value of the Astral Invocation spell, which is the damage increased on targets affected by
Sunfire and
Moonfire and not the full effect of your Mastery.
Q:What is Astral damage?
A: Astral damage is both Arcane and Nature damage. Effects that buff Nature spells also applies to Astral spells, and effects that buff Arcane spells likewise also applies to Astral spells. For example, Solar Eclipse multiplies the damage of all Nature & Astral spells by 1.15x, and Lunar Eclipse multiplies the damage of all Arcane & Astral spells by 1.15x. If you have both eclipses, Astral spells get 1.15 * 1.15 = 1.3225x multiplier, while Nature & Arcane spells get 1.15x.
Keep in mind that class buffs only affect class spells so if a trinket does nature or arcane damage they are not affected by our buffs to these spell schools.
Q: Do our dots snapshot?
A: No, all of our periodic damage (like Moonfire,
Sunfire,
Stellar Flare) do NOT snapshot, everything is dynamic. This means any dots gain/lose the damage bonus upon entering/leaving the Eclipse that buffs them and whenever any other stat/damage increases are applied/expire.
Q: Is there a target count where spreading Sunfire or Moonfire is not worth it?
A: No, having your DoT effects up increases your damage done to the target. The conditions for spreading Sunfire and Moonfire are tied to how long the target will live, and not how many targets there are.
Q: How do I sim for M+?
A: It is generally recommended that you steer away from simming unrealistic scenarios like "5 target 40 seconds" as they are likely to give skewed results. Balance Druid stats don't really change much depending on target count either, so you will be perfectly fine just using the default "1 target 5 minute patchwerk" options. If your intention is to sim for mythic+, you can use the MDT Sim WeakAura which allows you to sim dungeon routes. Please keep in mind that ST damage is still a big part of mythic+.
Q: I've seen a lot of people running build X instead of Y in Mythic+, is X better?
A: Try them out and make an informed decision! Most differences between builds are based on variables like target count, comps, combat timer or utility needed.
Q: I'm doing really low damage in Mythic+, what am I doing wrong?
A: If you double-checked your rotation and still feel like you're underperforming you could just be playing low keys, together with classes that have very bursty damage profiles. When playing a Balance Druid, mobs need to live long enough for you to actually start doing damage, which is something that doesn't really happen in keys lower than 12+. Consider focusing a bit more on ST or trying another spec, but take into account the fact that DPS isn't everything in a key.
Q: I've read the priority list and I think my rotation looks correct but I'm still doing very low damage. What could be the reason?
A: Log one of your fights and check it with warcraftlogs and wowanalyzer. The main thing to check is if you're always casting: the timeline should have no downtime and, as close to zero as possible, cancelled casts. Another common issue is incorrectly planning your movement and wasting casts on dots: you should always have enough AP to cover some distance just by using spenders.
Q: I have read through the Compendium and I have some questions that are not outlined in this FAQ?
A: If you have any questions, you can go to the Dreamgrove discord server and then ask in there. This guide should cover everything you need, but there could always be some things left out or not considered. Remember, you are not guaranteed to receive the answer you would like.
Balance Druid Video Guide
For 11.1, the Balance Compendium writer decided to make a video guide in addition to the written guide. Be aware that some things can change depending on tuning, like talents or trinkets, and you should always double check the written guide. You can find the video by opening the collapsible below.
Additional Resources
Macros
Orbital Strike macro:
#showtooltip
/cast [@cursor] Celestial Alignment
Force of Nature macro:
#showtooltip
/cast [@cursor] Force of Nature
Trinket macro:
If you are using an on-use trinket that should go along with your cooldowns, use the following macro (/13 for top trinket slot, and /14 for bottom trinket slot)
#showtooltip
/use 13
/use 14
/cast [@cursor] Celestial Alignment
Synergistic Brewtaliser Macro:
This macro will target the Synergistic Brewtaliser barrel and use
Moonfire to proc the damage, and then change back to your previous target.
#showtooltip Moonfire
/cleartarget
/targetexact Backfill Barrel
/cast Moonfire
/targetlasttarget
Cancelaura Macros
Cancelling Starlord
Cancelling Starlord is entirely optional and is neither a DPS gain nor loss.
If you want to engage in this entirely optional method without incurring a DPS loss, you should aim to cancel Starlord at any point in an Eclipse window where the buff is currently at less than two seconds, and you are about to use Starsurge to prevent overcapping.
#showtooltip
/cancelaura Starlord
Cancelling Dreamstate
#showtooltip
/cast Wrath
/cancelaura [nocombat] dreamstate
Useful WeakAuras and Other Profiles
Balance WeakAura Packs
The following links lead to various Balance Druid WeakAura packs. These contain everything that's recommended to track to play at a high level. None of these are particular better or more useful than others, and which one you should use is up to your personal preference.
- Oi Balance pack
- Shrom's Ultimate AP Bar
- LuckyOneUI Druid
- Afenar The War Within
- Shrom's AP Bar - Standalone
Jundies Plater Profile
This profile for Plater is among the most used and asked about public nameplate profiles for Moonkins, having customized colors for each NPC identity.
Regrowth Tracker for Blooming Infusion
This weakaura tracks your number of casts of Regrowth before you get the Blooming Infusion buff that increases the damage of your next Wrath/Starfire and makes them instant cast, and also tracks your number of Starsurge casts before you proc an instant Regrowth.
Casts until you can cast Starfire
Starfire Alerter: See the description of the WA for more details. This is not a required WA but will make it easier to not get into situations where you are wasting a Starfire cast inside Solar Eclipse.
Synergistic Brewtaliser
This weakaura will play a sound and show a timer whenever the trinket Synergistic Brewtaliser procs. The timer shows the latest barrel spawned.