Balance Druid Raid Guide
Welcome to the Balance Druid Raid guide for the World of Warcraft patch 11.1.0! This guide covers everything you need to know to understand your character! Are you starting out and leveling up from 70? Check out the leveling guide!
Overview
Hero Talents
- Elune's Chosen is best for consistent AoE such as M+ while Keeper of the Grove is stronger for Single Target and short AoE burst.
Keeper of the Grove is heavily reliant on playing around Force of Nature as a minor cooldown.
Core Talents
- Dream Surge
- Force of Nature empowers your next 3-4 Wrath or Starfire to explode around your target for additional nature damage to nearby enemies and your target.
- Treants of the Moon
- Casting Force of Nature is now a great way for you to apply Moonfire to enemies quickly.
- Great for add-waves.
- Grove's Inspiration
- Empowers your Wrath and Starfire to deal 10% more damage.
- Harmony of the Grove
- Grants you an 8% damage increase per active Treant (24% total).
- Early Spring
- Reduces the cooldown of Force of Nature by 15 seconds.
- Control of the Dream
- Makes holding your cooldowns more forgiving, retaining up to 15 seconds per use.
- Grants another 10 seconds of cooldown reduction to Celestial Alignment if Whirling Stars is talented.
- Blooming Infusion
- Synergizes with Protective Growth and Forestwalk making it a strong talent.
- Works great as a filler for when there is movement and you don't have a better instant cast available.
Passive Talents
- Expansiveness
- Increases your maximum Astral Power by 20.
- Protective Growth
- While affected by your own Regrowth you take 8% less damage.
- Cenarius' Might
- Grants you 10% haste when you enter an Eclipse.
- Power of Nature
- Removes your Force of Nature ability to taunt mobs and increases their damage dealt by 200%.
Rarely Talented
- Power of the Dream
- Grants you an additional stack of Dream Surge when Force of Nature is used.
- Potent Enchantments
- Most likely meant only to be used in PvP.
- Durability of Nature
- Useful if you want your treants to taunt mobs for your tank.
- Bounteous Bloom
- Generates insane amounts of Astral Power while your Treants are active.
- Sadly anti-synergizes with Convoke the Spirits because you overcap a lot of Astral Power making it slightly worse.
- Strong for high-movement fights.
Elune's Chosen focuses gameplay around casting Starfire as much as possible and reducing the cooldown of Fury of Elune to get as many casts as possible.
Core Talents
- Boundless Moonlight
- Works with all versions of your Fury of Elune including Sundered Firmament and The Light of Elune.
- Works with all versions of your Full Moon including Orbit Breaker and the second Full Moon from Radiant Moonlight.
- Lunar Calling
- Makes your Starfire hit like a truck single-target and prevents you from entering Eclipse (Solar).
- Synergizes with Umbral Intensity, Umbral Embrace, Nature's Grace and Lunation.
- Great for fights with low movement, but can be rough to get used to on high movement fights. Sadly most hard fights in raids are high movement.
- Lunation
- Makes all your spells that deal Astral or Arcane damage reduce the cooldown of your Fury of Elune or New Moon.
- Elune's Grace
Passive Talents
- Moon Guardian
- Makes your Moonfire and Sunfire generate 2 more Astral Power.
- Lunar Insight
- Makes your Moonfire deal 20% more damage.
- Glistening Fur
- Moonkin Form and Bear Form reduces all Arcane damage taken by 6% and all other magic damage taken by 3%.
- Lunar Amplification
- Each non-Arcane damaging ability grants your next Arcane or Astral spell 3% damage increase, stacking up to 3 times.
- Atmospheric Exposure
- Enemies damaged by your Full Moon or Fury of Elune take 6% more damage from you for 6 seconds.
- The Eternal Moon
Rarely Talented
- Elune's Grace
- Mostly a raid-specific talent, not as useful as Moondust.
- Stellar Command
- Rarely talented given how strong Lunar Calling is.
- Astral Insight
- Not a viable talent if you're using Lunar Calling.
- Arcane Affinity
- Undertuned compared to Lunation.
- Moondust
- Surprisingly potent in dungeon content, making kiting slightly easier for your tank.
Talents
Gameplay Altering Talents
Discover all talents that significantly alter your gameplay within the Spec and Class Talent trees. This section gives a concise overview of these talents and their applications but for a more detailed look check out the Rotation and Deep Dive sections below.
Spec Tree
- Force of Nature
- Grants you various damage increases to your spells via your Hero Talent tree.
- Minor but strong AoE and ST DPS cooldown.
- Convoke the Spirits
- Cast a flurry of 16 spells over a 4-second channel on random targets in your range.
- Starsurges will always be shot at your target.
- Unaffected by haste.
- Major single-target DPS cooldown.
- Nature's Grace
- Reduces the cast time of your next 2 Wrath or Starfire by 40% when entering combat or exiting Eclipse.
- Whirling Stars
- Reduces the cooldown of your Celestial Alignment to 100 seconds and grants it 2 charges, but reduces it's duration by 20%
- New Moon
- A three-charge spell rotating between New Moon > Half Moon > Full Moon.
- Starlord
- Grants you 2% stacking haste buff for 15 seconds when you spend Astral Power.
- Balance of All Things
- Increases your crit chance of Nature and/or Arcane spells for 10 seconds after entering an Eclipse decaying each second.
- Double dips for Astral Damage when entering Celestial Alignment or Incarnation: Chosen of Elune
- Touch the Cosmos
- Casting Wrath in an Eclipse has a 18% chance to make your next spender free.
- Casting Starfire in an Eclipse has a 25% chance to make your next spender free.
Class Tree
- Verdant Heart
- Increases healing taken while Barkskin is active by 20%.
- Natural Recovery
- Increases healing taken by 4%
- Oakskin
- Increases the damage reduction granted by Barkskin to 30%.
- Ursoc's Spirit
- Increases your Stamina by 4% and while in Bear Form your Stamina is increased by an additional 5%.
All of these talents combined grant you strong mitigation and healing amplification, if these are not enough you need to use Bear Form too.
Core Hero Talents
- Dream Surge
- Force of Nature empowers your next 3 Wrath or Starfire to explode around your target for additional nature damage to nearby enemies and your target.
- Harmony of the Grove
- Grants you a 8% damage increase per active Treant (24% total).
When to use this Spec
Heavy AoE fights.
Gameplay Altering Talents
Discover all talents that significantly alter your gameplay within the Spec and Class Talent trees. This section gives a concise overview of these talents and their applications but for a more detailed look check out the Rotation and Deep Dive sections below.
Spec Tree
- Fury of Elune
- Minor burst cooldown that blasts your target with Astral Damage and nearby enemies for 47%~ of the damage.
- You can reduce its cooldown through Lunation, a core aspect of this talent build.
- Damage increased and base cooldown decreased through the Radiant Moonlight talent.
- Warrior of Elune
- Makes your next 3 Starfire casts instant and generate 40% more Astral Power.
- Nature's Grace
- Reduces the cast time of your next 2 Wrath or Starfire by 40% when entering combat or exiting Eclipse.
- Twin Moons
- Grants your Moonfire the ability to apply Moonfire to another nearby enemy.
- Prioritizes units without Moonfire already applied.
- Whirling Stars
- Reduces the cooldown of your Celestial Alignment to 100 seconds and grants it 2 charges, but reduces it's duration by 20%
- Starlord
- Grants you 2% stacking haste buff for 15 seconds when you spend Astral Power.
- Balance of All Things
- Increases your crit chance of Nature and/or Arcane spells for 10 seconds after entering an Eclipse decaying each second.
- Double dips for Astral Damage when entering Celestial Alignment or Incarnation: Chosen of Elune
- Sundered Firmament
- Calls down a weaker version of Fury of Elune which can also trigger effects from your hero talents.
- Touch the Cosmos
- Casting Wrath in an Eclipse has a 18% chance to make your next spender free.
- Casting Starfire in an Eclipse has a 25% chance to make your next spender free.
Class Tree
- Verdant Heart
- Increases healing taken while Barkskin is active by 20%.
- Natural Recovery
- Increases healing taken by 4%
- Oakskin
- Increases the damage reduction granted by Barkskin to 30%.
- Ursoc's Spirit
- Increases your Stamina by 4% and while in Bear Form your Stamina is increased by an additional 5%.
All of these talents combined grant you strong mitigation and healing amplification, if these are not enough you need to use Bear Form too.
Core Hero Talents
- Lunar Calling
- Makes your Starfire hit like a truck single-target and prevents you from entering Eclipse (Solar).
- Synergizes with Umbral Intensity, Umbral Embrace, Nature's Grace and Lunation.
- Lunation
- Makes all your spells that deal Astral or Arcane damage reduce the cooldown of your Fury of Elune or New Moon.
When to use this Spec
Use this spec on fights with 2+ Targets. No fights currently exist in the raid where these talents are viable, perhaps only One-Armed Bandit but you lose significant boss damage running these talents.
Rotation
Tier Set
- 2-Set: Your damaging spells have a chance to hit a Jackpot!, growing a Wild Mushroom at a nearby enemy's location at 100% effectiveness. Casting Celestial Alignment or Incarnation: Chosen of Elune always hits a Jackpot!
- 4-Set: Starfall and Starsurge damage against targets affected by your Wild Mushroom's damage over time effect is increased by 20%.
Single-Target
Opener
- If you cancelaura Nature's Grace before pre-casting you will be able to pre-cast 2x Wrath instead of only 1x and still keep 2 stacks of Nature's Grace.
- Your goal in the opener is to pre-cast 1-2x Wrath to fish for Umbral Embrace and carry 2 stacks of Nature's Grace into your Celestial Alignment and reach 3 stacks of Starlord as fast as possible.
Priority List
This is a general priority you aim to maintain throughout the fight.
- Moonfire and Sunfire if it's not on your target or in the Pandemic range.
- Force of Nature
- Should be held to be used in conjunction with Celestial Alignment, or Celestial Alignment should be held to be used in conjunction with Force of Nature.
- Celestial Alignment
- Convoke the Spirits
- Starfire if the duration of your Eclipse (Solar) is less than the cast time of Wrath.
- Starsurge if:
- You have less than 3 stacks of Starlord.
- You would overcap Astral Power with your next Wrath.
- Eclipse (Solar) ends in less than 4 seconds and you have more than 90 Astral Power. You should have Astral Power pooled for the next Eclipse (Solar) / Starlord cycle.
- Wrath
Opener
- If you cancelaura Nature's Grace before pre-casting you will be able to pre-cast 2x Wrath instead of only 1x and still keep 2 stacks of Nature's Grace.
- Your goal in the opener is to first pre-use Warrior of Elune as early as possible without losing charges, (optional) pre-casting 1-2x Wrath to fish for Umbral Embrace and carry 2 stacks of Nature's Grace into your Celestial Alignment and reach 3 stacks of Starlord as fast as possible.
- Ensure you dump your 2 Nature's Grace stacks with Starfire before using Convoke the Spirits otherwise they will be consumed by Wrath which deals less damage.
- Use your Berserking, Tempered Potion and on-use trinket in conjunction with Celestial Alignment with a macro. (See Macro section)
Priority List
This is a general priority you aim to maintain throughout the fight.
- Warrior of Elune
- Moonfire and Sunfire if it's not on your target or in the Pandemic range.
- Fury of Elune
- Celestial Alignment
- Convoke the Spirits
- Wrath if the duration of your Eclipse (Lunar) is less than the cast time of Starfire.
- Starsurge if:
- You have less than 3 stacks of Starlord.
- You would overcap Astral Power with your next Starfire.
- Eclipse (Lunar) ends in less than 4 seconds and you have more than 70 Astral Power. (You should have Astral Power pooled for the next Eclipse (Lunar) / Starlord cycle).
- Starfire
AoE
Opener
- If you cancelaura Nature's Grace before pre-casting you will be able to pre-cast 2x Wrath instead of only 1x and still keep 2 stacks of Nature's Grace.
- Your goal in the opener is to pre-cast 1-2x Wrath to fish for Umbral Embrace and carry 2 stacks of Nature's Grace into your Celestial Alignment and reach 3 stacks of Starlord as fast as possible.
Use your Berserking, Tempered Potion and on-use trinket in conjunction with Celestial Alignment with a macro. (See Macro section)
Priority List
This is a general priority you aim to maintain throughout the fight.
- Moonfire and Sunfire if it's not on your targets or in the Pandemic range and will expire otherwise.
- Force of Nature
- Should be held to be used in conjunction with Celestial Alignment, or Celestial Alignment should be held to be used in conjunction with Force of Nature.
- Celestial Alignment
- Wrath if the duration of your Eclipse (Lunar) is less than the cast time of Starfire.
- Starfall if:
- You have less than 3 stacks of Starlord.
- You would overcap Astral Power with your next Starfire.
- Eclipse (Lunar) ends in less than 4 seconds and you have more than 90 Astral Power. (You should have Astral Power pooled for the next Eclipse (Lunar) / Starlord cycle).
- Starfire
Opener
- If you cancelaura Nature's Grace before pre-casting you will be able to pre-cast 2x Wrath instead of only 1x and still keep 2 stacks of Nature's Grace.
- Your goal in the opener is to pre-use Warrior of Elune as early as possible without losing charges, (optional) pre-casting 1x Wrath to fish for Umbral Embrace and carry 2 stacks of Nature's Grace into your Celestial Alignment and reach 3 stacks of Starlord as fast as possible.
Use your Berserking, Tempered Potion and on-use trinket in conjunction with Celestial Alignment with a macro. (See Macro section)
Priority List
This is a general priority you aim to maintain throughout the fight.
- Warrior of Elune
- Moonfire and Sunfire if it's not on your targets or in the Pandemic range and will expire otherwise.
- Fury of Elune
- Celestial Alignment
- Wrath if the duration of your Eclipse (Lunar) is less than the cast time of Starfire.
- Starfall if:
- You have less than 3 stacks of Starlord.
- You would overcap Astral Power with your next Starfire.
- Eclipse (Lunar) ends in less than 4 seconds and you have more than 70 Astral Power. (You should have Astral Power pooled for the next Eclipse (Lunar) / Starlord cycle).
- Starfire
Deep Dive
Nature's Grace
Since your talents enhance your generators so much, it's possible to squeeze quite a bit of damage out of Nature's Grace by ensuring you pre-cast Wrath or Starfire before your previous Eclipse is over so that you enter next Eclipse with a stack of Nature's Grace remaining, and if you're lucky you even proc a Umbral Embrace.
Every Eclipse looks like this if you properly pre-cast Starfire before exiting Eclipse (Solar) and pool Astral Power properly, this way you get a massively buffed Wrath:
The same concept works on AOE too with Starfire.
It's also a damage gain to let your previous Eclipse expire before using Celestial Alignment since overriding an Eclipse with Celestial Alignment won't grant you the Nature's Grace buff.
Blooming Infusion
While pressing Regrowth to get more Blooming Infusion procs is not a damage increase, on challenging fights such as Ky'veza you will be forced to press Regrowth for pure survival. When this happens it can be a real DPS gain to line up a Blooming Infusion proc for your cooldowns.
This would look something like this:
Starlord
With the removal of Primordial Arcanic Pulsar, syncing Starlord with your Eclipse has become quite an obvious min-max as both Starlord and Eclipse last 15 seconds.
If you want to squeeze that tiny bit extra, consider implementing a /cancelaura Starlord macro into your rotation and use it when you're forced to Starsurge/Starfall when Starlord has less than 2 seconds remaining.
Keep in mind, the use of /cancelaura Starlord is primarily used for FIXING the mistake of desyncing your Starlord, it's not something you should need to use regularly with proper fundamentals.
Balance of All Things
Worth keeping in the back of your mind, after your first few Starsurges in Eclipse that apply Starlord are still going to have this buff. Remember to use your hardest-hitting spells first.
Multi Target
On multi-target fights, the opener is the biggest thing that you can min-max (Other than the basic principles mentioned in Single Target). Since multi-target fights tend to be much shorter than boss fights a larger portion of the fight is spent on setting up which makes it important to perfect.
Moonfire - Sunfire - Enter Eclipse (Lunar)
These three can be done in any order, preferably you enter Eclipse (Lunar) with pre-casts but the idea is to apply Moonfire, Sunfire and enter Eclipse (Lunar) as fast as possible, if you do it 2 or 3 globals too slow and the pull is 30 seconds long, you've just lost 10% of your globals because you're slow in the opener.
Understanding Mechanics
Rotational min-maxing is just one aspect of mastering a specialization, but there are numerous other key mechanics that influence your performance. Use the following guides to improve them.
Liberation of Undermine
The following tips are mainly applicable to Heroic Bosses. Mythic tips are released after our progression concludes.
← Scroll for more Bosses →
Offensive Cooldown Usage
Tune-Up timing depends on when you remove all the Protective Plating.
Boss Tips
- Use your Barkskin when you get targeted by Incendiary Fire, or Renewal if you drop too low.
- When you don't have cooldowns, feel free to jump into the bikes and crash on the boss.
- Use your Solar Beam on Pit Mechanics casting Repair.
- Try to always sync up your cooldowns with Tune-Up.
Offensive Cooldown Usage
Boss Tips
- Try dotting up both bosses but beware that you get a stacking DOT whenever you're within 60 yards of the opposing boss that is usually avoided.
Offensive Cooldown Usage
Offensive Cooldown Usage
Boss Tips
- Use Barkskin every addwave when the boss casts Incinerator.
- Use your Solar Beam on the Scrapmaster when he casts Scrap Rockets.
- Try to ensure you hit the interrupt to reduce the cooldown to 45 seconds so that you have it ready for next addwave.
Offensive Cooldown Usage
Boss Tips
- Try to always look at the intermission timer and have Stampeding Roar and Tiger Dash ready for the movement.
- If you are soaking a mine, always use Barkskin beforehand.
Feel free to try other builds, this is a theoretical cook that's good for addwaves. Alternatively swap convoke for Incarnation: Chosen of Elune.
Offensive Cooldown Usage
Boss Tips
- Make sure to position yourself next to the Pay-Line to gain High Roller!, this is especially important during your cooldowns.
- With your extra range you are a decent option for throwing coins in the back of the room.
Stat Priority
Understand your secondary stat priority and the tertiary stats needed for optimal performance during Raid boss fights as a Balance Druid. For more detailed information, visit the Stats and Attributes guide.
Higher Item level items are better in most scenarios. For an accurate representation of what item to equip you should use Simcraft! A static "Stat Priority" is just a starting point and can easily shift depending on your individual gear.
- All secondary stats are affected by diminishing returns. Click here to learn more!
Tertiary
- Avoidance - Great stat to reduce the damage intake of "Area of Effect" abilities. Amazing for Queen Ansurek.
- Leech - Provides additional healing through damage dealing.
- Speed - Probably the strongest overall tertiary stat, after the nerfs to avoidance and leech. You get around 4-5x more %Speed from this tertiary compared to Leech or Avoidance.
Gear
Slot | Item | Location |
---|---|---|
Head | Branches of Reclaiming Blight | Catalyst / Raid |
Neck | Strapped Rescue-Keg | Great Vault |
Shoulder | Jaws of Reclaiming Blight | Catalyst / Raid |
Cloak | Test Pilot's Go-Pack | Sprocketmonger Lockenstock |
Chest | Robes of Reclaiming Blight | Catalyst / Raid |
Wrist | Rune-Branded Armbands | Crafted |
Gloves | Shimmering Glimclaws | Great Vault |
Belt | Rune-Branded Waistband | Crafted |
Legs | Moccasins of Reclaiming Blight | Catalyst / Raid |
Boots | Stalwart Guardian's Boots | Great Vault |
Ring 1 | Cyrce's Circlet | Siren's Isle |
Ring 2 | The Jastor Diamond | Gallywix |
Trinket 1 | Eye of Kezan | Gallywix |
Trinket 2 | House of Cards | The One-Armed Bandit |
Main-hand | Best-in-Slots | The One-Armed Bandit |
Below you are presented with a good list of farmable alternatives that are obtainable outside of WoW’s weekly lockout system. While replaced in time as you progress, these offer immediate character power.
Slot | Item | Location |
---|---|---|
Head | High Altitude Turban | The MOTHERLODE!! |
Neck | Strapped Rescue-Keg | Cinderbrew Meadery |
Shoulder | Extravagant Epaulets | King Mechagon |
Cloak | Electrician's Siphoning Filter | Operation: Floodgate |
Chest | Jerkin of Awakened Stone | The Rookery |
Wrist | Battle-Scarred Fisticuffs | Cinderbrew Meadery |
Gloves | Shimmering Glimclaws | Darkflame Cleft |
Belt | Mekgineer's Championship Belt | Operation: Mechagon |
Legs | Flame-Seared Leggings | Operation: Mechagon |
Boots | Backbreaking Bootstrappers | Cinderbrew Meadery |
Ring 1 | Cyrce's Circlet | Siren's Isle |
Ring 2 | 85-Year Tenure Ring | Cinderbrew Meadery |
Trinket 1 | Synergistic Brewterializer | Cinderbrew Meadery |
Trinket 2 | Signet of the Priory | Priory of the Sacred Flame |
Weapon | Neural Synapse Enhancer | Operation: Mechagon |
Trinkets
Below you can find active and passive alternatives to our recommended trinkets. Do note that some trinkets are better than others depending on the raid boss.
Active Trinket alternatives
- House of Cards
- Strongest on-use trinket.
- Signet of the Priory
- Similar or stronger for the group than House of Cards depending on how many party members have it equipped.
Passive Trinket alternatives
- Eye of Kezan
- By far our best trinket if you can keep it up between pulls.
- Mug's Moxie Jug
- Suspicious Energy Drink
- Extremely strong before you can get higher ilvl trinkets, found in bountiful delves.
- Mister Lock-N-Stalk
- Carved Blazikon Wax
Embellishments
- Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension
- It is numerically strongest but can only be applied to weapons, forcing you to play with a lower item-level off-hand or primary weapon.
- Writhing Armor Banding doubles the effect of Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension, making it the best alternative for your second embellishment in combination with Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension.
- Elemental Focusing Lens
- Strong if you have a weapon such as Best-in-Slots and can't run Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension.
Remaining Sparks
- Crafted items are 675 item level and regular items are 678 on max item level, therefore, it's not beneficial to equip crafted items outside of your 2x embellishments unless you don't have access to other high item level gear on that slot.
Simcraft
To find the best combination of gear available to you or identify the best possible upgrades, visit our Simcraft guide to learn how to utilize Simcraft easily and effectively.
Consumables
- Phials
- Flask of Alchemical Chaos -- Sims highest
- Food
- Feast of the Divine Day / Feast of the Midnight Masquerade
- Beledar's Bounty
- Practically identical DPS as the feasts.
- Combat Potion
- Tempered Potion
- Health Potion
- Algari Healing Potion -- A big burst of healing
- Weapon Oil
- Algari Mana Oil -- Best
- Augment Rune
- Crystallized Augment Rune
- Sockets
- Elusive Blasphemite -- Unique, use one of each gem color to enhance your Culminating Blasphemite - simulate your character to find out if it's worth equipping subpar gems for this bonus.
- Masterful Emerald
- Quick Onyx
- Quick Ruby
- Masterful Sapphire
- Elusive Blasphemite -- Unique, use one of each gem color to enhance your Culminating Blasphemite - simulate your character to find out if it's worth equipping subpar gems for this bonus.
Enchantments
Head | S.A.D. |
Neck | Magnificent Jeweler's Setting 2x |
Cloak | Enchant Cloak - Chant of Winged Grace |
Chest | Enchant Chest - Crystalline Radiance |
Wrist | Enchant Bracer - Chant of Armored Avoidance S.A.D. |
Waist | S.A.D. |
Legs | Sunset Spellthread |
Boots | Enchant Boots - Scout's March |
Ring 1 | Enchant Ring - Radiant Mastery Magnificent Jeweler's Setting 2x |
Ring 2 | Enchant Ring - Radiant Mastery Magnificent Jeweler's Setting 2x |
Weapon | Enchant Weapon - Authority of the Depths |
You buy S.A.D. from the Great Vault Vendor to add sockets to your Helm, Wrists & Waist.
Races
For min-maxing a Balance Druid in raiding, different racial traits can provide a tremendous benefit to your character. If this is not your top goal, picking a race that fits your style works just as well.
- Brush It Off -- Kul Tiran
- The numerically best defensive and offensive racial.
- Looks badass.
- Shadowmeld -- Night Elf
- Best for Mythic+ and can possibly avoid some targeted spells in raid.
- Bull Rush -- Highmountain Tauren
- Slightly tankier than Night Elf with the 1% versatility buff, but in general a worse version of Kul Tiran.
- Berserking -- Troll
- Strong burst racial but lines up poorly with Celestial Alignment
- Reduce the duration of movement impairing effects by 20%.
- War Stomp -- Tauren
- War Stomp in combination with Incapacitating Roar and Typhoon can make you a one-man army of rotating AoE interrupts.
Recommendation
Kul Tiran is the best choice for pure raid content if you account for the defensive values that you gain through Brush It Off and 1% versatility.
Macros
Discover recommended macros for Balance Druids during Raid encounters and watch a quick video guide on creating simple macros for your character.
Incarnation: Chosen of Elune / Celestial Alignment / Orbital Strike Macro - casts Orbital Strike at your cursor, uses potion and on-use trinket. (You can also add Nature's Vigil and Innervate in here but it's not always the best).
#showtooltip Celestial Alignment
/cast Berserking
/use 14
/use [combat] 16
/use Tempered Potion
/cast [@cursor] Celestial Alignment
Cursor/Mouseover Ursol's Vortex/Mass Entanglement - Casts Ursol's Vortex at your cursor if talented and Mass Entanglement at your mouseover, if no mouseover is available it is instead cast it on your target.
/cast [@cursor] Ursol's Vortex
/cast [@mouseover,exists] [] Mass Entanglement
Force of Nature -- Casts Force of Nature without confirmation click which can save you valuable time.
#showtooltip
/cast [@cursor] Force of Nature
Mouseover Focus Macro
/focus [@mouseover]
Mouseover Remove Corruption - Casts Remove Corruption on mouseover > or target > or self.
#showtooltip
/cast [@mouseover,exists][] Remove Corruption
Mouseover Rebirth - Casts Rebirth on mouseover > or target.
/cast [@mouseover][] Rebirth
Mouseover Regrowth - Casts Regrowth on mouseover > or target > or self.
#showtooltip Regrowth
/cast [@mouseover,exists][] Regrowth
Mouseover Swiftmend - Casts Swiftmend on mouseover > or target > or self.
#showtooltip Swiftmend
/cast [@mouseover, exists] [] Swiftmend
[Mouseover Wild Growth - Casts Wild Growth on mouseover > or target > or self.
#showtooltip Wild Growth
/cast [@mouseover, exists] [] Wild Growth
[Mouseover Rejuvenation - Casts Rejuvenation on mouseover > or target > or self.
#showtooltip Rejuvenation
/cast [@mouseover, exists] [] Rejuvenation
Set Innervate Target Macro - For this macro to work you need to create another separate macro called exactly "inv s". If you press this Set Innervate Target Macro then your targeted unit is written into the "inv s" macro, meaning if you press "inv s" macro you're going to innervate that player. Quality of life macro to not have to manually edit your innervate macro.
/run T = UnitName("target")
/run if not InCombatLockdown() then EditMacro('inv s', nil, nil, '#showtooltip Innervate\n/cast [@'.. T ..',exists]Innervate', nil);print('INNERVATE_Macro_Target: ' .. T); end;
Focus Solar Beam
#showtooltip Solar Beam
/cast [@focus] Solar Beam
Cancelaura Starlord Macro - High level minmax, not important for newer players - up to 0.5% dps gain if used optimally.
/cancelaura Starlord
Cancelaura Dreamstate Macro - High level minmax, not important for newer players.
/cancelaura Dreamstate
Stopcasting Renewal Macro
/stopcasting
/cast Renewal
Stopcasting Health Potion Macro
/stopcasting
/use Potion of Withering Dreams
Augment Rune Macro -- Refreshes your augment rune whenever you enter Moonkin Form.
/cast Moonkin Form
/use Dreambound Augment Rune
Dynamic Mount Macro - Mounts dragonflying mount if flying mounts are allowed, else Swift Zulian Tiger. (feel free to change mounts)
/cast Highland Drake
/cast [flyable] Highland Drake; Swift Zulian Tiger
Starsurge after Convoke the Spirits Macro - Replaces your Starsurge key and prevents Starsurge from being cast while Convoke the Spirits is being channeled.
#showtooltip Starsurge
/startattack
/cast [nochanneling:Convoke the Spirits] Starsurge
Addons
Below, you see a screenshot of the author's User Interface for their Balance Druid, outlining which addons are used and how they are utilized in Raids to make your life easier.

- ElvUI -- Full User Interface replacement
- A user interface designed around user-friendliness with extra features that are not included in the standard UI.
- Alternatively, you can also use Shadowed Unit Frames (SUF) and an action bar addon of your choice or of course the stock UI.
- BigWigs -- Generic Boss Mod
- BigWigs is a boss encounter add-on. It consists of many individual encounter scripts, or boss modules; mini add-ons that are designed to trigger alert messages, timer bars, sounds, and so forth, for one specific Raid encounter.
- WeakAuras -- Jack of all trades
- WeakAuras is a powerful and flexible framework that allows the display of highly customizable graphics on World of Warcraft's user interface to indicate buffs, debuffs, and other relevant information. This addon was created to be a lightweight replacement for Power Auras but has since introduced more functionalities while remaining efficient and easy to use.
- Plater -- Advanced Nameplates
- Plater is a nameplate addon with an extraordinary amount of settings, out of the box debuff tracking, threat coloring, and support for scripting similar to WeakAuras and wago.io + the WeakAuras-Companion for Mod/Script/Profile updates.
- Details -- In-depth Damage Meter
- Most powerful, reliable, handsome, damage meter.
- Echo Raid Tools -- Party track addon
- Helpful addon for Raid to check the available cooldowns of your party.
Eclipse Bars
Shows your Eclipse status.

Dot timers
Shows your dots and pandemic window of them.

Changes this Patch
- New Talent: Grievous Wounds – Rake, Rip, and Thrash damage increased by 10%.
- New Talent: Gale Winds – Increases Typhoon's radius by 20% and its range by 5 yards.
- New Talent: Incessant Tempest – Reduces the cooldown of Typhoon by 5 seconds.
- New Talent: Circle of the Wild – Physical damage dealt by your abilities increased by 5% (25% for Restoration Druids).
- New Talent: Circle of the Heavens – Magical damage dealt by your spells increased by 5% (25% for Restoration Druids).
- New Talent: Lycara's Meditation – You retain Lycara's Teachings' bonus from your most recent shapeshift form for 5 seconds after shifting out of it.
- Developers’ notes: Lycara’s Meditation is meant to retain some power when you shapeshift. It is not intended as a buff you would want to always maintain, and since Druids can swap into humanoid form instantly at no cost, the humanoid form bonus is not retained. Druids must also stay in Cat Form for 2 seconds to retain the Cat Form bonus if they entered Cat Form by casting Skull Bash with Fluid Form.
- New Talent: Symbiotic Relationship – Form a bond with an ally. Your self-healing also heals your bonded ally for 10% of the amount healed. Your healing to your bonded ally also heals you for 8% of the amount healed.
- New Talent: Aessina's Renewal – When a hit deals more than 12% of your maximum health, instantly heal for 10% of your health. This effect cannot occur more than once every 30 seconds.
- New Talent: Perfectly-Honed Instincts – Well-Honed Instincts can trigger up to once every 90 seconds.
- Ursoc's Spirit has been updated – Stamina increased by 4%. Stamina in Bear Form increased by an additional 5%.
- Developers' notes: These bonuses multiply together, so Druids' health in Bear Form remains unchanged.
- Light of the Sun replaces Skull Bash for Balance Druids only – The remaining cooldown of Solar Beam is reduced by 15 seconds when it interrupts its primary target.
- Improved Rejuvenation has been changed to Lingering Healing – Rejuvenation's duration is increased by 3 seconds. Regrowth's duration is increased by 3 seconds when cast on yourself.
- Instincts of the Claw is now a 1-point talent (was 2) and has been updated – Ferocious Bite and Maul damage increased by 8%.
- Lore of the Grove is now a 1-point talent (was 2) and has been updated – Moonfire and Sunfire damage increased by 10%.
- Fluid Form has been updated – Skull Bash can now be used in any form and shifts you into Cat Form if necessary.
- Fluid Form causes Wrath and Starfire to transform you into Moonkin Form at the end of their casts, instead of at their starts.
- Developers' notes: It should always take a global cooldown to transform to a shapeshift form, either from a direct transformation or a Fluid Form ability. Starting a Wrath or Starfire cast and cancelling it allowed Druids to transform into Moonkin without a global cooldown.
- Moonkin Form has been added to the Class talent tree in Sunfire’s previous position.
- Developers' notes: Restoring Moonkin Form to the class talent tree empowers Restoration Druids to use Convoke the Spirits for magic damage, like they can currently use Cat Form for physical damage.
- Rejuvenation healing increased by 5%.
- Wild Growth healing increased by 5%.
- Rip damage reduced by 9%.
- Shred damage increased by 10%.
- Swipe damage increased by 10%.
- Ferocious Bite damage reduced by 8%.
- Cyclone duration is now 5 seconds (was 6 seconds).
- Improved Sunfire’s effect is now included in Sunfire.
- Disorienting Roar now breaks based on a small damage threshold instead of any damage.
- Many talents have changed positions in the class tree.
- Rising Light, Falling Night has been removed.
- Balance
- Balance Druids now learn Moonkin Form in the Class talent tree upon reaching level 10.
- Light of the Sun has been moved to the Class Talent Tree for Balance Druids.
- Power of Goldrinn damage increased by 100%.
- Starsurge damage increased by 5%.
- Touch the Cosmos chances increased to 18% from Wrath (was 15%) and 25% for Starfire (was 22%).
- Mark of the Wild now costs 1% base mana (was 4%).
- Adaptive Swarm's icon has been updated.
- Convoke the Spirits' icon has been updated.
- Hero Talents
- Elune's Chosen
- Arcane spells cast by Convoke the Spirits now trigger Lunation.
- Elune's Chosen
- Balance
- New Talent: Sunseeker Mushrooms – Sunfire damage has a chance to grow a magical mushroom at the target's location. After 1 second, the mushroom detonates, dealing Nature damage and then an additional Nature damage over 10 seconds. Affected targets are slowed by 50%. Generates up to 20 Astral Power based on targets hit.
- New Talent: Whirling Stars – Celestial Alignment's cooldown is reduced to 100 seconds and it now has two charges, but its duration is reduced by 20%.
- New Talent: Astronomical Impact – The critical strike damage of your Astral spells is increased by 20%.
- New Talent: Crashing Star – Shooting Stars has a 15% chance to instead call down a Crashing Star, dealing Astral damage to the target and generating 4 Astral Power.
- New Talent: Hail of Stars – Casting a free Starsurge or Starfall grants Solstice for 3 seconds. Free spells cast by Convoke the Spirits grant a 1 second version of this effect.
- Touch the Cosmos has been updated – Casting Wrath in an Eclipse has a 12% chance to make your next Starsurge or Starfall free. Casting Starfire in an Eclipse has an 18% chance to make your next Starsurge or Starfall free.
- Starfall is learned by all Balance Druids at level 15 (was a talent).
- Starfall damage increased by 10%.
- New Moon damage increased by 20%.
- Half Moon damage increased by 10%.
- Rattle the Stars increases Starsurge and Starfall damage by 10% (was 12%).
- Umbral Inspiration increases damage by 30% (was 35%).
- Wild Mushroom now generates 10 Astral Power upon hitting a single target (was 5).
- Warrior of Elune increases Astral Power generation of affected Starfires by 30% (was 40%).
- Nature's Grace no longer increases the damage of affected Wraths and Starfires.
- Umbral Intensity is now a 1-point talent that increases the damage of Solar Eclipse Wrath by 20% (was 15%), Lunar Eclipse Starfire by 15%, and the damage Starfire does to nearby enemies by 30%.
- Astral Smolder's chance to trigger is reduced to 35% (was 40%), and it deals 60% of damage dealt (was 50%).
- Orbit Breaker calls down a Full Moon every 30th Shooting Stars (was 25).
- Power of Goldrinn is now a 1-point talent (was 2) and its damage has been reduced by 35%.
- Astral Communion no longer grants Astral Power on entering an Eclipse. Instead, entering an Eclipse causes your next Starsurge or Starfall to cost 15 less Astral Power.
- Spells cast by Convoke the Spirits now trigger Starlord.
- Many talents have changed positions in the talent tree.
- Added a connection between Force of Nature/Warrior of Elune and Celestial Alignment.
- Added a connection between Umbral Intensity and Starlord.
- Cosmic Rapidity tooltip description updated for clarity and now says your periodic effects deal damage more frequently.
- The following talents have been removed:
- Greater Alignment
- Lunar Shrapnel
- Starfall (now learned at level 15)
- Elune's Chosen
- Lunar Calling increases Starfire damage by 100% (was 80%).
- Keeper of the Grove
- Potent Enchantments causes Whirling Stars to reduce the cooldown of Celestial Alignment by an additional 10 seconds.
- Control of the Dream now reads "are available to be used or at maximum charges." If the player has Whirling Stars, it reduces the cooldown of Celestial Alignment based on time spent at maximum charges.
- All spell damage increased by 6%.
- Force of Nature melee damage increased by 60%.
- Wild Mushroom damage increased by 20% and it generates up to 20 Astral Power (was 16).
- Umbral Inspiration damage bonus increased to 35% (was 30%).
- Denizen of the Dream damage reduced by 6.5%.
- Denizen of the Dream's attacks are now affected by all abilities that increase all your spell damage or critical strike chance.
- Astral Communion grants 25 Astral Power (was 20).
- Wrath or Starfire cast with Umbral Embrace are now affected by both passive bonuses from Mastery: Astral Invocation.
- Wraths cast by Convoke the Spirits can now trigger Umbral Embrace and Astral Smolder.
- If a player has a free cast available from Touch the Cosmos and Starweaver, only the bonus from Starweaver is consumed on the next cast.
- Touch the Cosmos now highlights Starfall or Starsurge when your next cast will be free.
- All talent trees have had many talents move locations or have had their pathing updated.
- New Talent: Oakskin – Survival Instincts and Barkskin reduce damage taken by an additional 10%.
- New Talent: Fluid Form – Shred and Rake can be used in any form and shifts you into Cat Form. Mangle can be used in any form and shifts you into Bear Form. Wrath and Starfire shifts you into Moonkin Form, if known.
- New Talent: Ursoc's Spirit – Stamina in Bear Form is increased by 10%.
- New Talent: Instincts of the Claw – Shred, Swipe, Rake, Mangle, and Thrash damage increased by 5/10%.
- New Talent: Lore of the Grove – Moonfire and Sunfire damage increased by 5/10%. Rejuvenation and Wild Growth healing increased by 3/5%.
- New Talent: Starlight Conduit – Wrath, Starsurge, and Starfire damage increased by 5%. For non-Balance, Starsurge's cooldown is reduced by 4 seconds and its mana cost is reduced by 50%.
- Improved Swipe has been removed from the talent tree and its benefit added to Swipe by default.
- Moonkin Form has been removed from the talent tree and is now learned at level 10 for Balance Druids.
- Swiftmend has been removed from the talent tree and is now learned at level 11 for Restoration Druids.
- Heart of the Wild now reduces the global cooldown of affected Balance cast-time spells.
- Cat Form now increases the range of auto-attacks and melee abilities by 3 yards.
- Feline Swiftness now increases movement speed by 15%. Now a 1-point talent.
- Thick Hide now reduces damage taken by 4%. Now a 1-point talent.
- Natural Recovery now increases healing received by 4% and no longer increases healing done. Now a 1-point talent.
- Astral Influence now increases the range of all your spells by 5 yards and no longer increases auto attack or melee ability range. Now a 1-point talent.
- Primal Fury now also increases critical strike damage of Mangle by 20%.
- Ursine Vigor now increases Stamina and armor in Bear Form by 15% for 4 seconds. Now a 1-point talent.
- Guardian Druid improved Bear Form Stamina bonus decreased to 10% (was 20%).
- Lycara's Teachings is now a 2-point talent that grants 3/6% of various secondary stats.
- Forestwalk now increases your movement speed and healing received by 8% for 6 seconds. Now a 1-point talent.
- Well-Honed Instincts' effect now occurs once every 120 seconds. Now a 1-point talent.
- Mass Entanglement now roots targets for 10 seconds (was 30 seconds).
- Tireless Pursuit has been removed.
- New Talent: Greater Alignment – Incarnation: Chosen of Elune/Celestial Alignment lasts 40% longer. During Incarnation: Chosen of Elune/Celestial Alignment, Solar Eclipse increases Nature damage done by an additional 8% and Lunar Eclipse increases Arcane damage done by an additional 8%.
- New Talent: Stellar Amplification – Starsurge increases the damage the target takes from your periodic effects and Shooting Stars by 20% for 5 seconds. Reapplying this effect extends its duration, up to 20 seconds.
- New Talent: Harmony of the Heavens – Starsurge or Starfall increase your current Eclipse's Arcane or Nature damage bonus by an additional 1%, up to 5%.
- New Talent: Touch the Cosmos – Casting Wrath in an Eclipse has an 12% chance to make your next Starsurge free. Casting Starfire in an Eclipse has a 15% chance to make your next Starfall free.
- New Talent: Umbral Inspiration – Consuming Umbral Embrace increases the damage of your Moonfire, Sunfire, Stellar Flare, Shooting Stars, and Starfall by 30% for 6 seconds.
- Umbral Embrace has been redesigned – Wrath and Starfire have a 20% chance to cause the next Wrath or Starfire you cast in Eclipse to become Astral and deal 75% additional damage. Now a 1-point talent.
- Astral Smolder has been redesigned – Wrath and Starfire have a 40% chance to cause their targets to languish for an additional 50% of their damage dealt over 6 seconds. Now a 1- point talent.
- Astral Communion has been redesigned – Increases maximum Astral Power by 20. Entering Eclipse grants 20 Astral Power.
- Nature's Grace has been redesigned – When Eclipse ends or when you enter combat, enter a Dreamstate, reducing the cast time of your next 2 Starfires or Wraths by 20% and increasing their damage by 50%.
- All ability damage increased by 6%.
- Wrath damage increased by 15%.
- Starfire damage increased by 15%.
- Starsurge damage increased by 15%.
- Starfall damage increased by 15%.
- Denizen of the Dream damage increased by 64%.
- Shooting Stars damage increased by 46%.
- Fury of Elune damage increased by 15%.
- Full Moon damage increased by 15%.
- Stellar Flare damage increased by 20%.
- Wild Mushrooms damage increased by 25%.
- Mastery: Astral Invocation value reduced by 17%.
- Astral Power generation reduced for the following abilities:
- Wrath: 6 (was 8)
- Starfire: 8 (was 10)
- New Moon: 10 (was 12)
- Half Moon: 20 (was 24)
- Full Moon: 40 (was 50)
- Fury of Elune: 40 / 2.5 per tick (was 48 / 3 per tick)
- Incarnation: Chosen of Elune duration reduced to 20 seconds (was 30 seconds).
- Celestial Alignment duration reduced to 15 seconds (was 20 seconds).
- Aetherial Kindling now extends during of active Sunfires and Moonfires by 3 seconds (was 4 seconds).
- Umbral Intensity now increases Starfire's damage as well as its area-of-effect damage scaling. Solar Eclipse increases the damage of Wrath by an additional 25/50%. Lunar Eclipse increases the damage of Starfire by 25/50% and the damage it deals to nearby enemies by an additional 15/30%.
- Waning Twilight now increases damage you deal to targets with 3 or more of your periodic effects by 6%. Now a 1-point talent.
- Balance of all Things now increases Critical Strike chance by 10/20%, decreasing by 1/2% every second.
- Wild Surges increases Wrath and Starfire critical strike by 10% (was 12%).
- Elune's Guidance reduces the Astral Power cost of Starsurge by 10 (was 8) and Starfall by 12 (was 10).
- Orbit Breaker calls downs a Full Moon every 25 Shooting Stars (was 30).
- Sundered Firmament calls down a Fury of Elune at 25% power (was 20%).
- Convoke the Spirits now prefer to cast Starsurge or Full Moon on your current target, if valid.
- The following talents have been removed:
- Friend of the Fae
- Primodial Arcanic Pulsar
FAQ
A: While you do have a priority and rotation, fights in this game are not target dummies and require movement. This is where the boys are separated from the men. A good Balance Druid does the proper rotation, a great Balance Druid does the proper rotation while running around doing mechanics.
Planning your movement is equally as important as doing the proper rotation. Canceling spells or using suboptimal spells decreases your damage output tremendously! Use your instant spells for movement in a smart way.
Credits
Written By: Canexx
Reviewed By: Maystine