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Midnight 12.0 Tier Set

2-piece

Shooting Stars deal 40% more damage and generate 2 additional Astral Power outside Eclipse.

This is approximately ~5% dmg increase from having no set. The 40% damage buff applies permanently and not only outside Eclipse, despite the tooltip wording.

4-piece

Starfall and Starsurge damage increased by 5% and casting them has a 30% chance to strike an affected target with an exploding Shooting Star that also deals Astral damage to all nearby enemies.

This is approximately ~11% dmg increase from having no set, depending on how many targets you hit with Starfall and Starsurge. This Shooting Star also provides 1 tick of Orbit Breaker stacks.

Sim for tier set

Rotation

Openers

Keeper of the Grove

Elune's Chosen

Convoke the Spirits

Incarnation: Chosen of Elune

The core idea behind the opener is to get into Eclipse as soon as possible to get the ability on cooldown before spending your Ascendant Stars buffs and using your cooldowns. It is optimal to reapply Sunfire right before using your cooldowns to avoid having to reapply the dot during your cooldowns.

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The idea behind the Elune's Chosen opener is to get into Eclipse as soon as possible to get the ability on cooldown before spending your Ascendant Stars buffs and using your cooldowns.

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The idea behind the Elune's Chosen opener is to get into Eclipse as soon as possible to get the ability on cooldown before spending your Ascendant Stars buffs and using your cooldowns.

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The core idea behind the opener is to get into Eclipse as soon as possible to get the ability on cooldown before spending your Ascendant Stars buffs and using your cooldowns. It is optimal to reapply Sunfire right before using your cooldowns to avoid having to reapply the dot during your cooldowns.

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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

Convoke the Spirits

Control of the Dream

Starweaver

Rattle the Stars

Touch the Cosmos

New Moon

Fury of Elune

• Keep up Sunfire, refresh within pandemic (30% of base duration shown in the tooltip) or if you're about to use CA / Inc and the DoT would fall off before it expires.
• Keep up Moonfire, refresh within pandemic (30% of base duration shown in the tooltip) or if you're about to use CA / Inc and the DoT would fall off before it expires.
• Use Fury of Elune before using Force of Nature.
• Use Eclipse if you are currently sitting on 2 charges.
• Use Force of Nature if any of the following conditions is true:
  • You have 2 charges of CA/Incarnation and Ascendant Stars is down.
  • Your next cast would be Eclipse or you are currently in Eclipse and the remaining duration is more than 10 seconds.
• Use Celestial Alignment/Incarnation if your previous cast was Force of Nature.
• Use Convoke the Spirits if you are below 40 Astral Power and any of the following are true:
  • You just used CA/Incarnation.
  • Convoke the Spirits will be available before CA/Incarnation comes off cooldown.
• Enter Solar Eclipse if any of the following conditions is true:
  • You are currently not in an Eclipse and you have enough resources to spend all Ascendant Stars procs in 3 GCD's.
  • You are not in an Eclipse and you just used Force of Nature and CA/Incarnation is not available.
• Use Starfire if you have an Ascendant Fires proc and you are inside CA/Incarnation.
• Cast Starfall if you have a Starweaver's Warp proc.
• Use New-,Half- and Full Moon if all of the following conditions are true:
  • 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 any of the following conditions is true:
  • You are about to overcap on Astral Power.
  • You need to move.
  • The Ascendant Stars buff is up.
  • You have a Touch the Cosmos proc.
• Use Wrath.

Elune's Chosen - ST

New Moon

Fury of Elune

Convoke the Spirits

Touch the Cosmos

Starweaver

Rattle the Stars

• Use Sunfire if the remaining duration is less than 30% of the base duration or if you're about to use CA / Inc and the DoT would fall off before it expires.
• Use Moonfire if the remaining duration is less than 30% of the base duration or if you're about to use CA / Inc and the DoT would fall off before it expires.
• Use Celestial Alignment/Incarnation if all the following conditions are true:
  • You're not in Eclipse.
  • Fury of Elune is not on cooldown.
• Use Starfire if you have an Ascendant Fires proc.
• Use Lunar Eclipse if you are currently not in an Eclipse.
• Use Fury of Elune.
• Use Convoke the Spirits if you are below 40AP and you just pressed CA/Incarnation
• Use New-,Half- and Full Moon if all of the following conditions are true:
  • 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.
• Cast Starfall if you have a Starweaver's Warp proc.
• Use Starsurge if any of the following conditions is true:
  • You need to move.
  • You are in Eclipse.
  • The Ascendant Stars buff is up.
  • You have a Touch the Cosmos proc.
• Use Starfire inside Lunar Eclipse.
• Use Wrath if you are not currently in an Eclipse.

AoE Priority (2+ targets)

Keeper of the Grove - AoE

Fury of Elune

New Moon

Touch the Cosmos

Starweaver

Convoke the Spirits

Wild Mushroom

• 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 all of the following conditions are met. Remember Force of Nature also spreads Moonfire.
  • The target will live for at least 8s+1s per target that Starfire can hit.
  • You will not overcap on AP.
• Use Force of Nature if one of the following conditions are met:
  • Eclipse is on cooldown.
  • Your next GCD is CA/Incarnation.
  • The fight will end in less than 15 seconds.
• Use Celestial Alignment/Incarnation if one of the following conditions are met:
  • You just used Force of Nature.
  • The fight will end before Force of Nature is available again.
• Enter Solar Eclipse on less than 4 targets and Lunar Eclipse on 4 targets and more if any of the following conditions are met:
  • You are currently not in an Eclipse.
  • You just used Force of Nature and CA/Incarnation is not available.
• Use Fury of Elune.
• Use Starfall if one of the following conditions are met:
  • You are about to overcap on Astral Power.
  • You have a Starweaver's Warp proc.
  • You have a Touch the Cosmos proc.
• 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 to spend the Ascendant Fires buff or when you are in Lunar Eclipse.
• Use Wrath in Solar Eclipse.

Elune's Chosen - AoE

Fury of Elune

New Moon

Starweaver

Touch the Cosmos

Convoke the Spirits

Force of Nature

Wild Mushroom

• 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 Starfall if you would overcap Astral Power with your next cast and you're not casting CA/Incarnation next.
• Use Fury of Elune if it's available the global before CA/Incarnation.
• Use CA/Incarnation.
• Enter Lunar Eclipse if you are currently not in an Eclipse.
• Use Fury of Elune.
• Use Wild Mushroom if you will not overcap on AP and Fungal Growth is not active.
• Use Starfall if one of the following conditions are 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 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

Keeper

Elune's Chosen

• Enter Solar Eclipse on less than 4 targets.
• 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 on all target counts.
• Cast Wrath if you are outside of Eclipse.
• Use Starsurge on 1 and 2 targets.
• Use Starfall on 3+ targets.

Talents

Raid

Going into Season 1, there are multiple builds all simming close to each other, and which one you choose will mostly come down to what damage profile fits the best. The builds involving Starweaver are generally better on fights with multiple targets, and the ones with Rattle the Stars are better on single target.

Keep in mind it is still very early in the season and recommended builds will change depending on tuning. The builds below will be updated as people progress the raid and there is more data.

Keeper - Convoke the Spirits

FullClassSpecHero

Never Take

Optional

Take

Class Tree

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Hero Tree

Specialization Tree

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Copy Talent String

Keeper - Incarnation

FullClassSpecHero

Never Take

Optional

Take

Class Tree

0/2

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Hero Tree

Specialization Tree

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Elune's Chosen - Convoke

FullClassSpecHero

Never Take

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Take

Class Tree

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Hero Tree

Specialization Tree

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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.

Keeper of the Grove M+

FullClassSpecHero

Never Take

Optional

Take

Class Tree

2/2

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Hero Tree

Specialization Tree

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Elune's Chosen M+

FullClassSpecHero

Never Take

Optional

Take

Class Tree

2/2

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0/2

Hero Tree

Specialization Tree

2/2

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Interactions

Gearing & Consumables

Stat Priority

Gems and Enchants

Keep in mind that the meta gem Indecipherable Eversong Diamond does not scale with different colored gems like its predecessor in The War Within did.

Slot
Gems	1x Indecipherable Eversong Diamond mixed with whatever gems sim the best for your character.
Weapon	Acuity of the Ren'dorei
Head	Empowered Rune of Avoidance
Shoulders	Amirdrassil's Grace
Chest	Mark of the Worldsoul
Legs	Sunfire Silk Spellthread
Boots	Lynx's Dexterity
Ring	You should always sim your own character to determine what enchant to use in this slot

Consumables

Type
Potions	Light's Potential or Draught of Rampant Abandon
Food	Harandar Celebration
Flasks	Flask of the Magisters or Flask of the Shattered Sun
Weapon Rune	Thalassian Phoenix Oil

Embellishments & Crafted Items

Remember that you should always sim your character using Raidbots Top Gear before making any gearing decision, but here are some guidelines:

Darkmoon Sigil: Hunt

This embellishment is crafted onto your Weapon slot, making it a really strong option early on in the season. Weapons are the highest stat budget slot, so crafting this early on is a significant damage increase.

Generally you want to craft this on an Aln'hara Cane staff. However, if you manage to get a mythic staff early you can skip to the next craft instead.

Arcanoweave Lining

This is a buff that has a chance to increase both yours and a teammates primary stat. This embellishment is performing well in sims, even without factoring in the buff it provides to teammates.

Early on in the season you want to craft this on any slot you have open, likely to be on your off-tier slot. The Arcanoweave Lining also scales with item level so you ideally want to use Myth crests on this if possible. Later on in the season you should have this crafted on either a Belt or a Wrist slot as those have low stat budgets.

Trinkets

Tier	Trinket	Description
S Tier	Vaelgor's Final Stare	90 second on-use. Pair this with your Celestial Alignment/Incarnation: Chosen of Elune cast.
	Locus-Walker's Ribbon	Similar to Eye of Kezan from Liberation of Undermine. Stacking Intellect buff that gets stronger later in the fight.
A Tier	Gaze of the Alnseer	Mastery stat stick with a Primary Stat proc.
	Wraps of Cosmic Madness	2 minute cooldown, 2 second channel scaling with haste. Use this before entering your cooldowns to not waste GCDs inside them. Cooldown reduced by 1 minute whenever someone in your raid dies.
	Shadow of the Empyrean Requiem	Intellect stat stick with a random damage proc. Gives a Haste buff whenever it procs on someone below 35% health.
	Soulcatcher's Charm	Intellect stat stick with a random damage proc.
	Heart of Wind	Intellect stat stick. Random haste proc.
B Tier	Emberwing Feather
	Glorious Crusader's Keepsake
	Eye of the Drowning Void
	Reality Breacher
	Sealed Chaos Urn
C Tier	Ever-Collapsing Void Fissure
	Void-Reaper's Libram
	Sylvan Wakrapuku
	Lost Idol of the Hash'ey

FAQ

Q: Why can't I enter Solar Eclipse?

A: Because you are talented into Lunar Calling

Q: Why is Starlord resetting when I enter Eclipse?

A: Starlord was changed heading into Midnight to make it non-cancellable, have a 20s duration and resetting whenever you enter Eclipse.

Q: When do I enter Eclipse?

A: Enter Eclipse to overlap with minor cooldowns like Force of Nature and Fury of Elune or to prevent capping on charges. Additionally you want to make sure you enter Eclipse with as much resource as possible.

Q: What is Astral damage?

A: Astral damage is both Arcane and Nature damage. Effects that buff Nature spells also apply to Astral spells, and effects that buff Arcane spells likewise also apply 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.

Q: How do I sim for Mythic+?

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 create a route using Keystone Guru and click the "simulate" option to generate a SimC string. For a guide on how to set this up, you can look at this video from Shadarek. The video explains how to do it for Demon Hunter, but the difference to Balance Druid is only in which raid buff to choose.

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 close to zero 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. Balance Druid is a proactive spec, and you should have a plan for how you're going to deal with incoming mechanics without sacrificing uptime or being forced into suboptimal casts. You can also share your log in Balance channel in Dreamgrove and usually someone will see it and give some tips. Remember that the answer you need is not always the answer you want.

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

Useful UI Bits

Balance UI

The addon changes coming into Midnight shook up the game in a lot of ways, and there are more options than ever out there on what addon or UI to use. Instead of recommending a specific UI, there are some helpful tips to give.

There are usually 3 primary things you need to track; your Astral Power bar, your buffs and your cooldowns. The most common way to do this is with the in-game Cooldown Manager with the help of one or more addons.

The first thing you want to have available is an Astral Power bar since the default Blizzard one is not very good. Addons like Twintop's Resource Bar or SenseiClassResourceBar are both good options.

Alternatively, you can spring for some more "all-in-one" options that can enhance both the Blizzard Cooldown Manager and provide a Resource Bar. Popular choices here are AyijeCDM and BetterCooldownManager. The options here are almost endless though so just go looking and find out what works for you.

If you want to get a finished UI by someone else, then there are several options available on Wago UI Packs.

Jundies Plater Profile

This profile for Plater is one of the most commonly used Plater profiles.

Simc Code Directory

Item Strings for Simming

String to Sim Tier Set (paste in advanced below your simc addon output)

SimC String for Every Food/Flask Combination (paste in advanced below your simc addon output)

Race Sim

String to Sim Race (paste in advanced below your simc addon output)

Current APL