Balance Druid Raid Guide

11.0.5 - The War Within

Last Updated:October 27, 2024|Changelog|FAQ

Welcome to the Balance Druid Raid guide for the World of Warcraft patch 11.0.5! 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

Patch 11.0.5 - The War Within
Balance Druid
Balance DruidRaid
Single-Target
Average
AoE
Strong
Utility
Strong
Survivability
Average
Mobility
Weak
Balance Druid Raid Best in Slot

Hero Talents

Patch 11.0.5 - The War Within
Balance Druid
  • Elune's Chosen and Keeper of the Grove perform similarly in pure single-target with Keeper of the Grove being slightly favorable.
  • Elune's Chosen excels in cleave while there is low movement, whereas Keeper of the Grove is a more mobile and less AoE focused Hero Tree.
Keeper of the Grove
Elune's Chosen

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

Patch 11.0.5 - The War Within
Balance Druid
Keeper of the Grove Single Target
Keeper of the Grove AOE
Elune's Chosen Single Target
Elune's Chosen AOE
Keeper of the Grove Balance Druid Single Target 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.
  • Stellar Flare
    • Strong DOT that deals Astral damage.
    • Counts towards activating Waning Twilight.
  • 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

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%.

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).
Keeper of the Grove Balance Druid AoE Talents

When to use this Spec

Heavy AoE fights such as Ovinax or Silken Court.

Talent Adjustments

Listing all the changes within the Class and Spec tree compared to the Single Target build.

Spec Tree

  • Added
    • Wild Surges
    • Twin Moons
    • Aetherial Kindling
    • Soul of the Forest
    • Touch the Cosmos
    • Hail of Stars
  • Removed
    • Stellar Amplification
    • Nature's Balance
    • Convoke the Spirits
    • Denizen of the Dream
    • Stellar Flare
    • New Moon
Elune's Chosen Balance Druid Single Target 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

  • 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

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%.

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.
Elune's Chosen Balance Druid AoE Talents

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 Ovinax but you lose significant boss damage running these talents.

Talent Adjustments

Listing all the changes within the Class and Spec tree compared to the Single Target build.

Spec Tree

  • Added
    • Wild Surges
    • Soul of the Forest
    • Twin Moons
    • Aetherial Kindling
    • Umbral Inspiration
  • Removed
    • Stellar Flare
    • Nature's Balance
    • Stellar Amplification
    • Convoke the Spirits
    • Nature's Grace

Rotation

Patch 11.0.5 - The War Within
Balance Druid

Tier Set

  • 2-Set: Starsurge damage increased by 10%. Starfall damage increased by 14%.
  • 4-Set: Eclipse (Lunar) and Eclipse (Solar) each increase the Astral Power Wrath generates by 2 and Starfire generates by 5.

Single-Target

Keeper of the Grove
Elune's Chosen

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.
Keeper of the Grove Balance Druid Single-Target Opener

Priority List

This is a general priority you aim to maintain throughout the fight.

  1. Moonfire and Sunfire if it's not on your target or in the Pandemic range.
  2. 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.
  3. Celestial Alignment
  4. Convoke the Spirits
  5. Starfire if the duration of your Eclipse (Solar) is less than the cast time of Wrath.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
Elune's Chosen Balance Druid Single-Target Opener
  • 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.

  1. Warrior of Elune
  2. Moonfire and Sunfire if it's not on your target or in the Pandemic range.
  3. Fury of Elune
  4. Celestial Alignment
  5. Convoke the Spirits
  6. Wrath if the duration of your Eclipse (Lunar) is less than the cast time of Starfire.
  7. 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).
  8. Starfire

AoE

Keeper of the Grove
Elune's Chosen

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.
Keeper of the Grove Balance Druid AoE (4 Targets) opener in raid

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.

  1. Moonfire and Sunfire if it's not on your targets or in the Pandemic range and will expire otherwise.
  2. 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.
  3. Celestial Alignment
  4. Wrath if the duration of your Eclipse (Lunar) is less than the cast time of Starfire.
  5. 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).
  6. 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.
Elune's Chosen Balance Druid AoE (4 Targets) opener in raid

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.

  1. Warrior of Elune
  2. Moonfire and Sunfire if it's not on your targets or in the Pandemic range and will expire otherwise.
  3. Fury of Elune
  4. Celestial Alignment
  5. Wrath if the duration of your Eclipse (Lunar) is less than the cast time of Starfire.
  6. 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).
  7. Starfire

Deep Dive

Patch 11.0.5 - The War Within
Balance Druid

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:

Balance Druid Optimal Eclipse Opener

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:

Balance Druid Blooming Infusion on CDs Optimization

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.

Nerub-ar Palace

Patch 11.0.5 - The War Within
Balance Druid

The following tips are mainly applicable to Heroic Bosses. Mythic tips are released after our progression concludes.

← Scroll for more Bosses

Ulgrax
Bloodbound Horror
Sikran
Rasha'nan
Broodtwister
Nexus-Princess
Silken Court
Queen Ansurek
Balance Druid Ulgrax talents in Raids

Offensive Cooldown Usage

Ulgrax Balance Druid Cooldown Usage

Boss Tips

  • You can shapeshift to remove Stalker Netting on Heroic difficulty.
  • Use Stampeding Roar when the intermission ends to speed up your raid while picking up and feeding the boss to make him vulnerable to damage faster.
  • Abuse the fact that Force of Nature will apply Moonfire to most targets when they are up, so don't waste globals on Moonfire.
Balance Druid Bloodbound Horror talents in Raids

Offensive Cooldown Usage

Bloodbound Horror Balance Druid Cooldown Usage

Defensive Cooldown Usage

If you're assigned to Group 1:

If you're assigned to Group 2:

Boss Tips

  • You can outplay Goresplatter and Black Blood by using Wild Charge on the way out and then jump in combination with Flap on the way back.
Balance Druid Sikran Talents in Raids

Offensive Cooldown Usage

Sikran Balance Druid Cooldown Usage

Boss Tips

  • Rotate your personals whenever you are targeted by Decimate or Decimates are about to hit Cosmic Simulacrums.
Balance Druid Rasha'nan talents in Raids

Offensive Cooldown Usage

Rasha'nan Balance Druid Cooldown Usage

Boss Tips

  • Move out/preposition for Spinneret's Strands and use Wild Charge to get in/out effectively.
Balance Druid Broodtwister talents in Raids

Consider taking more Single-Target talents such as Power of Goldrinn and Convoke the Spirits if you don't need the AoE damage or the adds die too fast.

Offensive Cooldown Usage

Broodtwister Ovinax Balance Druid Cooldown Usage

Defensive Cooldown Usage

Boss Tips

  • Use Warrior of Elune and Fury of Elune on every add-wave.
  • Cancelaura Moonkin Form to quickly cleanse yourself from Unstable Web, and abuse Fluid Form to get back into form instantly without losing any globals.
    • Make sure to help out your team by being spread further to the back since we have 5yds more range than most casters.
  • Use Solar Beam to interrupt Poison Burst, it will be up every other add-wave.
    • You could be the first person in the history of World of Warcraft to spec into Light of the Sun to be able to interrupt on every add-wave.
  • Alternative defensive usage is to only use Barkskin if you get the break-egg debuff, slightly easier if you trust in your healers to cover the raid-damage events.
Balance Druid Nexus-Princess talents in Raids

Offensive Cooldown Usage

Nexus-Princess Balance Druid Cooldown Usage

Defensive Cooldown Usage

Use Barkskin everytime you're targeted by Twilight Massacres.

Boss Tips

  • Use Bear Form and Frenzied Regeneration as emergency buttons. For example, if you get hit by multiple Twilight Massacres.
  • The main thing to keep an eye out for on this boss is the position of each Nether Rift. Their placement dictates how much you get pulled towards them. Try to position yourself in a way that each Nether Rift is at a similar distance to you.
Balance Druid Silken Court talents in Raids

Offensive Cooldown Usage

Defensive Cooldown Usage

Boss Tips

  • Try to get some good distance from the adds that spawn from Call of the Swarm since they fixate the closest target. If that is not possible try using Typhoon early to get them away from you as they can easily kill you.
Balance Druid Queen Ansurek talents in Raids

Offensive Cooldown Usage

Defensive Cooldown Usage

Boss Tips

  • Bear Form usage will be mostly common in:
    • P1 Intermission
    • P2 When you're waiting to get dispelled.
    • P3 When carrying an essence.
    • P3 When dropping off the Royal Condemnations.
  • To dodge the blades most safely, if a blade spawns on you, wait half a second until you see the next one spawn and only then dodge. Since the blades spawn on players this will reduce the likelihood that your intended safe spot will be covered with a blade.
  • In the intermission, you're recommended to create a keybind for Starsurge in Bear Form as you will be using it during the grip if your treants are active.

Stat Priority

Patch 11.0.5 - The War Within
Balance Druid

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.

Balance Druid Raid Stat Priorities

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

Patch 11.0.5 - The War Within
Balance Druid
Best in Slot
Farmable Alternatives
SlotItemLocation
HeadWhispering MaskGreat Vault
NeckSureki Zealot's InsigniaSikran
ShoulderMaw of the GreatlynxCatalyst / Raid
CloakWings of Shattered SorrowRasha'nan
ChestHide of the GreatlynxCatalyst / Raid
WristRune-Branded ArmbandsCrafted
GlovesEviscerators of the GreatlynxCatalyst / Raid
BeltDevourer's Taut InnardsUlgrax the Devourer
LegsLeggings of the GreatlynxCatalyst / Raid
BootsChitin-Spiked JackbootsSikran
Ring 1Writhing RingwormBroodtwister Ovi'nax
Ring 2Seal of the Poisoned PactQueen Ansurek
Trinket 1Ara-Kara SacbroodAra-Kara, City of Echoes
Trinket 2Spymaster's WebSilken Court
Main-handKingslayer's FrostfangGreat Vault
Off-handVagabond's TorchCrafted
Balance Druid BiS list

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.

SlotItemLocation
HeadWhispering MaskAra-Kara, City of Echoes
Neck"Emergency Stop" KeychainThe Stonevault
ShoulderEpaulets of the Clipped WingsThe Dawnbreaker
CloakAnvilhide CapeThe Stonevault
ChestViscera-Lathered CoatCity of Threads
WristRisen Monstrosity CuffsThe Necrotic Wake
GlovesWharf Warden's GlovesSiege of Boralus
BeltSapgorger BeltMists of Tirna Scithe
LegsGauzewoven LegguardsAra-Kara, City of Echoes
BootsWhisperer's Echoing StepsCity of Threads
Ring 1Seal of the City WatchSiege of Boralus
Ring 2Stitchflesh's Misplaced SignetThe Necrotic Wake
Trinket 1Ara-Kara SacbroodAra-Kara, City of Echoes
Trinket 2Gale of ShadowsGrim Batol
WeaponMelodious Iron SongspireThe Stonevault

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

  • Spymaster's Web
    • By far our best trinket.
  • Treacherous Transmitter
    • Technically BiS in combination with Spymaster's Web but increases the difficulty of playing somewhat so it's not recommended for newer players as the gain is only +0.5% dps compared to passive trinkets.
    • Decent as a replacement for Spymaster's Web.

Passive Trinket alternatives

  1. Gale of Shadows
  2. Ara-Kara Sacbrood
  3. Unbound Changeling
  4. Ovi'nax's Mercurial Egg
  5. Candle Confidant
    1. Extremely strong before you can get 639 ilvl trinkets.

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 primarily on single-target.
  • Duskthread Lining
    • 0.1% behind Elemental Focusing Lens assuming 60% uptime and also grants defensive stats.
    • It's hard to predict uptime making it coinflip at times.

Remaining Sparks

  • Crafted items are 636 item level and regular items are 636 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

Patch 11.0.5 - The War Within
Balance Druid
  • Phials
    • Flask of Alchemical Chaos -- Sims highest
      • Best flask can vary depending on which stats you have, make sure to sim your character to find what's best for you.
  • 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
    • Oil of Deep Toxins
  • 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.
      1. Masterful Emerald
      2. Quick Onyx
      3. Quick Ruby
      4. Masterful Sapphire

Enchantments

HeadNerubian Gemweaver
NeckMagnificent Jeweler's Setting 2x
CloakEnchant Cloak - Chant of Winged Grace
ChestEnchant Chest - Crystalline Radiance
WristEnchant Bracer - Chant of Armored Avoidance
Nerubian Gemweaver
WaistNerubian Gemweaver
LegsSunset Spellthread
BootsEnchant Boots - Scout's March
Ring 1Enchant Ring - Radiant Mastery
Magnificent Jeweler's Setting 2x
Ring 2Enchant Ring - Radiant Mastery
Magnificent Jeweler's Setting 2x
WeaponEnchant Weapon - Authority of the Depths
Balance Druid Enchantments in Raid

You buy Nerubian Gemweaver from the Great Vault Vendor to add sockets to your Helm, Wrists & Waist.

Races

Patch 11.0.5 - The War Within
Balance Druid

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.

  • Shadowmeld -- Night Elf
    • Highest damage.
    • Best for Mythic+ too.
  • Brush It Off -- Kul Tiran
    • The numerically best defensive racial.
    • Looks badass.
  • 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.
Balance Druid 5min ST Race sims in Raid

Recommendation

Night Elf is the best choice if you want to maximize damage and you plan to push high m+ when you're not raiding.

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. The tradeoff is around 3% less damage taken while playing Kul Tiran while losing 1% damage in exchange.

Macros

Patch 11.0.5 - The War Within
Balance Druid

Discover recommended macros for Balance Druids during Raid encounters and watch a quick video guide on creating simple macros for your character.

Macro Import Guide Video

Cursor Macros

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 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 Macros

Utility Macros

Addons

Patch 11.0.5 - The War Within
Balance Druid

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.

Balance Druid Mythic+ User Interface
Balance Druid User Interface in Mythic+

Addons

WeakAuras

Changes this Patch

Patch 11.0.5 - The War Within
Balance Druid

Patch 11.0.5

Patch 11.0.2

Patch 11.0

FAQ

Patch 11.0.5 - The War Within
Balance Druid

Q: Why is my DPS low despite following the rotation?

Credits

Written By: Canexx

Reviewed By: Maystine

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