Balance Druid 8.2

A Druid specializing in Balance uses Moonkin Form to maintain balance in utilizing Nature and Arcane magic. The use of solar and lunar energy makes a Balance Druid a powerful enemy from afar.

Introduction

Let’s take a closer look at the weakest and the strongest aspects of this specialization:

Advantages:

• Very potent damage dealing to an area;
• Nice multi-DoT;
• The presence of Innervate.

Disadvantages:

• Boring gameplay

Basic information on the spec:

A Balance Druid, like any other Druid, has the capacity to adopt various forms, although their main one is Moonkin Form. Many abilities are tied to the image the Druid is in. As a Moonkin, you get once key resource – Astral Power which you spend on all your key DPS abilities; and one secondary resource – Mana which you use to power various auxiliary spells. With no form on, or in their Travel Form, a Druid has Mana, and for the main resource, as a Bear there’s Rage, as a Cat, there’s Energy, and with Feral Affinity on, you also get Combo Points.

Back to top

Glossary

Back to top

Main abilities

Back to top

Talents

General information. On achieving several new levels you’ll get access to new talent ‘Tiers’. Talents may have different effect on abilities: add new features, replace old ones, modify passively different effects and spells. Talents can be changed in Sanctuaries or any recreational zones. However, if you don’t have any of those places nearby you can use the Codex of the Tranquil Mind which allows you to switch channels within a minute. You can’t change talents in combat. You can’t change a talent if the talent you’ve picked in the last Tier is on Cooldown. You’ll have to wait until it’s restored first.

Tier 1. Lvl 15

• Natures balance. While in combat you generate 2 Astral power every 3 sec. While out of combat your astral power rebalances to 50 instead of depleting to empty. The best raiding talent for constant astral power gain.
• Warrior of Elune.Your next 3 Lunar Strikes are instant cast and generate 40% additional Astral Power.. CD 45 secs, starts only once you’ve spent all 3 charges.
• Force of Nature. Summons 3 treants that provoke the enemies within the selected area and attack hem for 10 secs. Generates 20 Astral power. CD 1 min. The best talent for m+ for helping your tank on difficult packs and for generating astral power and additional damage.

Tier 2. Lvl 30

• Tiger dash. Replaces Dash. Activates Cat Form and increases movement speed by 200%, reducing gradually over 5 sec.
• Renewal. Instantly restores 30% fof your max HP stock. Can be cast from any form. CD 1.5 min.
• Wild Charge. Depending on the form, triggers one of the abilities with a 15-sec CD:
  In your regular form, it flies you to an ally’s position.
  Moonkin Form – a leap backwards.
  Bear Form – a surge towards your enemy that immobilizes them for 4 secs.
  Cat Form – a leap behind your enemy’s back dazing them for 3 secs
  Travel Form – a leap 20 m forward.
  In your Aquatic Form, your swimming speed grows by 150% for 5 secs.

* The choice is up to you, but usually it’s either Wild Charge or Tiger dash

Tier 3. Lvl 45

• Feral Affinity. Passively grants you a 15% running speed boost. Increases your Energy restoring speed, grants access to Combo Points and the following abilities in this form:
  Shred is only available in the Cat Form, demands 40 Energy; deals physical damage to a target. If the latter tagged with your bleedings, the spell deals 20% more damage. When cast from Stealth, deals 50% more damage, and doubles Crit. Generates 1 CP.
  Rake costs 35 Energy, deals physical damage and leaves a 15-sec long DoT. It also slows your target down by 50% for 12 secs. When cast from Stealth, the spell deals 100% more damage and stuns the target for 4 secs. Generates 1 CP.
  Rip – only from Cat Form – for 30 Energy, spends 1 to 5 CP and applies a bleeding effect on the target for 24 secs. The more CP spent, the heavier the damage.
  Ferocious Bite – only in Cat Form – initially costs 25 Energy and spends 1 to 5 CP; deals physical damage (the more CP spent, the heavier the damage). Spending additional 25 Energy, increases the damage by no more than 100%. If the target is left with under 25% Health, Ferocious Bite renews Rip instantly.
  Swipe, for 40 Energy, deals physical damage to all the enemies within the range of 8 m. The targets tagged with your bleeding effects receive 20%more damage. Generates 1 CP.
• Guardian Affinity. Passively reduces the incoming damage by 6%. It also grants you several abilities:
  Mangle deals physical damage to the target, generates 5 Rage. CD 6 secs.
  Ironfur costs 45 Rage, increases your Armor for 7 secs.
  Frenzied Regeneration costs 10 Rage, CD 36 secs. Within 3 secs, Restores 24% of maximum health for 3 sec
• Restoration Affinity. Passively grants you Ysera’s Gift which restores 3% of your max HP count once every 5 secs. If your Health is at 100%, the spell restores the same portion of HP to the nearest injured ally.
  Rejuvenation instantly applies an HoT on the selected ally healing them for 15 secs.
  Regrowth – a long cast that restores average amount of hp to a friendly target instantly and puts a HoT for 12 sec.
  Swiftmend instantly restores a major portion of HP to an ally. CD 25 secs.

* Restoration affinity – the best choice for raids and mythic+. Allows you to heal yourself and an ally.

Tier 4. Lvl 60

• Mighty Bash. Can be cast from any form; stuns your enemy for 5 secs. CD 50 secs.
• Mass Entanglement. Allows you to immobilize the selected target and all the enemies within the 15-m range of it for 30 secs. Any damage dealt to the entangled enemies cancels the effect.
• Typhoon. In any form, throws back all the enemies within the 15-m range in front of you and dazes them for 6 secs.

* The Tier offers you control options which means the decision is completely up to you.

Mighty Bash and Typhoon are used the most. Mass entanglement is situational, take it if you need it for the encounter.

Tier 5. Lvl 75

• Soul of the Forest. Provides an extra 30% boost to your Lunar or Solar Empowerment damage bonus as well as reduces Starfall‘s Astral Power cost by 10 units. This talent is not used anywhere.
• Starlord. Starsurge and Starfall increase your haste by 3% for 20 sec. Stacking up to 3 times. Gaining a stack does not refresh the duration. Strongest choice at current state.
• Incarnation: Chosen of Elune. Replaces Celestial Alignment. Allows you to enter the improved Moonkin Form for 30 secs. In it, your spell-inflicted damage grows by 25%. 15%. The best choice for raids

Tier 6. Lvl 90

• Stellar Drift. The area of Starfall grows by 20%, and the dealt damage – by 25%. As long as you’re within your Starfall‘s active range, you can cast spells while moving. After its nerf, it is not used anywhere.
• Twin Moons. Moonfire deals 10% increased damage and also hits another nearby enemy within 15 yds of the target. A great talent in mythic+ or if there is a constant cleave on 2 targets.
• Stellar Flare. Burns the target with astral damage for 1.5 seconds and then an additional  damage for 24 sec. Generates 8 astral power. The best single target talent.

Tier 7. Lvl 100

• Shooting Stars. Whenever your Moonfire or Sunfire deal periodical damage, there is a 10% chance that they summon a Shooting Star dealing minor Astral damage and generating 4 Astral Power. The best choice for cleave and single target.
• Fury of Elune. Calls down a beam that follows the enemy dealing astral damage over 8 sec. Generates 40 Astral power over its duration. The best choice for m+ and AOE.
• New moon. Deal arcane damage to the target that empowers New moon to become Half moon. Has 3 charges. Generates 10 Astral power. It is basically legion artefact analogue that is not used anywhere.

So, we can boil it all down to the following builds:

Single target:

1. Natures balance
   
2. Wild charge
   
3. Restoration affinity
   
4. Typhoon
   
5. Starlord / Incarnation: Chosen of Elune
6. Stellar Flare
7. Shooting Stars

AoE:

1. Force of nature
   
2. Wild charge
3. Restoration affinity
4. Typhoon
5. Starlord
6. Twin moons
7. Shooting Stars.

Back to top

Azerite traits

In BFA typical sets were removed and Azerite armor took their place. Now every chest/helmet/shoulders have a few rings for  traits.

• Arcanic pulsar  Starsurge’s damage is increased. Every 9 Starsurges, gain Celestial alignment for 6 sec. It is a great trait but you need only 1 of it.
• Streaking stars. While  “Celestial alignment” is active, your damaging spells call a Streaking star  dealing an additional damage when they are not a repeat of the previous ability. The best trait, take it  3 . It changes your rotation a little bit, making you using the same ability twice during the burst. But it is worth it because your dps will significantly increase.
• New raid trait 123 is strong too. You can have 1-2 of it.

* It is the list of the best traits only so  we recommend to use raidbots.com to see other good traits/combinations.

We recommend to use Herodamage and AzeritePowerWeight addon. Import the addon command from the site and you can easily compare your azerite in the game.

( AzeritePowerWeights:2:"herodamage.com - Stacks_1T_T24":11:102: 575=10, 200=9.97, 562=8.63, 504=6.42, 122=6.40, 82=6.33, 488=6.27, 494=6.27, 522=6.23, 479=6.20, 483=6.19, 526=6.17, 193=6.10, 157=6.03, 250=5.87, 364=5.73, 195=5.70, 478=5.58, 505=5.53, 489=5.51, 495=5.51, 485=5.49, 194=5.46, 196=5.45, 501=5.38, 482=5.35, 561=5.22, 523=5.01, 481=4.96, 192=4.62, 498=3.97, 492=3.83, 486=3.83, 30=3.70, 576=3.69, 521=3.67, 480=3.60, 156=3.27, 500=3.06, 173=3.05, 487=2.93, 493=2.93, 31=2.86, 356=2.77, 22=2.75, 499=2.38, 21=2.20, 497=2.20, 491=2.20, 459=2.11, 541=2.04, 560=2.02, 18=1.94, 461=1.93, 462=1.81, 38=1.75, 20=1.72, 496=1.55, 490=1.55, 357=-0.02: )

Back to top

Essences

Rotation

Back to top

Stats

The basic priority rating for the characteristics is as follows:

Haste > Crit = Versatility> Mastery > Intellect

The current specialization’s Mastery increases damage dealt by Starfall and Starsurge; it also enhances the effect of Lunar and Solar Empowerments.

Haste reduces the cast for spells and GCD.

All characteristics are pretty close to each other in terms of their value. That’s why is recommended, once you receive new equipment, you use Simcraft or Raidbots.com. There is no way to get a more precise answer to which stat to focus on first, but through a simulation.

Based on the aforementioned characteristics and results of your character’s own simulation results, you can draw conclusions on Gems, Chants and Raid Chemicals.

Gems:

• Leviathan’s Eye of Intellect
• Quick Sand Spinel 50 haste
• Deadly Lava Lazuli 50 crit

Chants:

• Rings: Accord of Haste, Accord of Critical Strike
• Weapon: Enchant Weapon – Torrent of Elements

Food:

• Raid feast for 131 main stat
• Baked Port Tato for Haste
• Mech-Dowel’s “Big Mech” for Crit

Flasks and Potions:

• Greater Flask of Endless Fathoms 360 intellect for 1 h
• Potion of Unbridled Fury single target
• Superior Battle Potion of Intellect AoE

Back to top

Macros

Rebirth  at cursor’s position:

/cast [target=mouseover] Rebirth

A similar macro for Innervate:

/cast [target=mouseover] Innervate

A macro for your Solar Beam

/stopcasting
/cast Solar Beam

Back to top

What’s next?

1. Leveling. If your character has been inactive since the previous expansions, the best  option to level up it is by Timewalking dungeons. You will gain a lot of experience, but there is one big disadvantage of leveling this way. Timewalks are available only for one week during a month, but Overgear is always here.
2. Equipment. At high level, the most important thing for you will become your gear. WoW is a multiplayer game, that’s why we recommend for you to play it with your friends, or to find a new friends for mythic+ runs. If you have any trouble with it – Overgear may help you to find not just friends for a run, but a complete well geared and experienced group that also will be glad to trade all the loot you need.
3. Raids. Raids are the top-tier PvE content in the game. That’s why the equipment’s base ilvl is higher than anywhere else. These dungeons require knowing all the tactics and have a good gear to kill the bosses. The possibilities of Overgear might let you skip those criteria.

Azerite. It is also not the best idea to forget about the Heart of Azeroth and not to feed it with more Azerite. Ignoring this won’t make your character stronger. The easiest way to do it – just complete all the world quests with Azerite rewards everyday. You can get extra azerite from Island Expeditions. Companions can be found at Overgear.