Jelbishi
Legend
Welcome to my comprehensive Balance Druid guide for patch 7.0.0 and beyond
Introduction
I'm looking to give balance druids a way to access information. Plain and simple. I'm going to try to stray away from giving opinions and stick to facts and math. Overall I'm hoping anyone who plays balance will be able to find something here that they may not have known previously.
Best Race
So, usually the first thing people think about when they pick a character is what race is going to do the most damage. Being that only 2 races can play druid the answer is very simple.
Trolls: Berserking
You'll get a significant haste buff that allows you to generate Astral Power much quicker. This is important because Starsurge is your hardest hitting spell. The faster you can get 40 Astral Power, the quicker you can burst into your enemy.
It's very possible to use this cooldown defensively and toss up some quick heals or roots but most people don't pick troll and use the long 3 minute cooldown in this way.
Tauren: Warstomp and Endurance (17 stamina @39)
In the 39 bracket balance druids only have 1 real form of CC Entangling Roots. The reason I, and many others, pick War Stomp is because it makes up for Balance Druids lack of "Hard" CC. Endurance isn't to be overlooked either. The stamina you gain can be multiplied by 55% while you're in Bear Form and can allow you to live through an otherwise deadly circumstance.
Gear
Gearing up is actually pretty easy these days. With the introduction of stat templates in PvP there is really only 1 way to gear up for random battlegrounds or arena. ITEM LEVEL! The highest possible item level as of (8/20/16) for balance druids is 58. After Legion launches on August 30, 2016 the best item level you'll be able to obtain is 55.
REMINDER: ROOKIE GEAR CAN BE UPGRADED TO BLUE ilvl 47
Helm: Zorbin's Water Resistant Hat
Neck: Problem Solving Pendant
Shoulder: Failed Flying Experiment
Cloak: Cloak of Coordination
Chest: Rookie's Tunic
Wrist: Rookie's Bindings
Gloves: Jangdor's Handcrafted Gloves
Belt: Bloodstained Twilight Belt
Pants: Rookie's Pants
Feet: Rookie's Boots
Rings: The Rock x2
Trinkets: Hook of the Master Angler x2
Weapon/Off-hand: Recruit's Hammer and Stratholme Lily
TOTAL ITEM LEVEL: 55.0625
TEMPORARY INFO: Felshroud gear from invasions can be item level 53. Substitute Helm, Shoulders, Chest, Wrist, Gloves, Belt, Legs, Boots and you'll be able to reach Item Level 58.5625.
Talents
Balance Druids have a bunch of very effective talents at this level and what you pick is going to change based on different situations.
Level 15: Force of Nature -----> Warrior of Elune -----> Starlord
Force of Nature: Undoubtedly the best option because the treants all hit so damn hard. It's a 1 min CD and so is Solar Beam so naturally there is going to be synergy.
Warrior of Elune: Has a time and place also. But only in Altrec Valley where your job is to join the team fight and do as much AoE damage as possible with Lunar Strike.
Level 30: Renewal ----- Displacer Beast ----- Wild Charge
This is such a nice tier of talents for us and it's unfortunate that we can only pick 1.
As all 3 of these talents can be useful, I can only describe some situations in which they would excel over the others. From there you will be able to pick what is best for you.
Renewal: One of the best talents for dueling. Also incredibly useful for any situation where you will be the target getting attacked. I'll post a macro in the section below that will help you gain more HP when using this ability.
Displacer Beast: Potentially useful for chasing people down or making a quick escape so that you can heal up and return to the fight. Also comes in handy when racing to get berserker buffs on some maps
Wild Charge: Really fun talent and also incredibly valuable for peeling people off your team mates without having to cast Entangling Roots. You can also use Wild Charge on a friendly and you'll be able to quickly fly towards them. Very helpful for some flag capturing strategies and juke moves on Blades Edge Arena.
Introduction
I'm looking to give balance druids a way to access information. Plain and simple. I'm going to try to stray away from giving opinions and stick to facts and math. Overall I'm hoping anyone who plays balance will be able to find something here that they may not have known previously.
Best Race
So, usually the first thing people think about when they pick a character is what race is going to do the most damage. Being that only 2 races can play druid the answer is very simple.
Trolls: Berserking
You'll get a significant haste buff that allows you to generate Astral Power much quicker. This is important because Starsurge is your hardest hitting spell. The faster you can get 40 Astral Power, the quicker you can burst into your enemy.
It's very possible to use this cooldown defensively and toss up some quick heals or roots but most people don't pick troll and use the long 3 minute cooldown in this way.
Tauren: Warstomp and Endurance (17 stamina @39)
In the 39 bracket balance druids only have 1 real form of CC Entangling Roots. The reason I, and many others, pick War Stomp is because it makes up for Balance Druids lack of "Hard" CC. Endurance isn't to be overlooked either. The stamina you gain can be multiplied by 55% while you're in Bear Form and can allow you to live through an otherwise deadly circumstance.
TAUREN TAUREN TAUREN. There is no way I would play anything different at this level. War Stomp is on a short cooldown and you can make some great plays with it.
Gear
Gearing up is actually pretty easy these days. With the introduction of stat templates in PvP there is really only 1 way to gear up for random battlegrounds or arena. ITEM LEVEL! The highest possible item level as of (8/20/16) for balance druids is 58. After Legion launches on August 30, 2016 the best item level you'll be able to obtain is 55.
REMINDER: ROOKIE GEAR CAN BE UPGRADED TO BLUE ilvl 47
Helm: Zorbin's Water Resistant Hat
Neck: Problem Solving Pendant
Shoulder: Failed Flying Experiment
Cloak: Cloak of Coordination
Chest: Rookie's Tunic
Wrist: Rookie's Bindings
Gloves: Jangdor's Handcrafted Gloves
Belt: Bloodstained Twilight Belt
Pants: Rookie's Pants
Feet: Rookie's Boots
Rings: The Rock x2
Trinkets: Hook of the Master Angler x2
Weapon/Off-hand: Recruit's Hammer and Stratholme Lily
TOTAL ITEM LEVEL: 55.0625
TEMPORARY INFO: Felshroud gear from invasions can be item level 53. Substitute Helm, Shoulders, Chest, Wrist, Gloves, Belt, Legs, Boots and you'll be able to reach Item Level 58.5625.
Talents
Balance Druids have a bunch of very effective talents at this level and what you pick is going to change based on different situations.
Level 15: Force of Nature -----> Warrior of Elune -----> Starlord
Force of Nature: Undoubtedly the best option because the treants all hit so damn hard. It's a 1 min CD and so is Solar Beam so naturally there is going to be synergy.
Warrior of Elune: Has a time and place also. But only in Altrec Valley where your job is to join the team fight and do as much AoE damage as possible with Lunar Strike.
I would personally never stray away from treants. The burst damage they offer is far to valuable compared to a bit of extra AoE damage on Lunar Strike.
Level 30: Renewal ----- Displacer Beast ----- Wild Charge
This is such a nice tier of talents for us and it's unfortunate that we can only pick 1.
As all 3 of these talents can be useful, I can only describe some situations in which they would excel over the others. From there you will be able to pick what is best for you.
Renewal: One of the best talents for dueling. Also incredibly useful for any situation where you will be the target getting attacked. I'll post a macro in the section below that will help you gain more HP when using this ability.
Displacer Beast: Potentially useful for chasing people down or making a quick escape so that you can heal up and return to the fight. Also comes in handy when racing to get berserker buffs on some maps
Wild Charge: Really fun talent and also incredibly valuable for peeling people off your team mates without having to cast Entangling Roots. You can also use Wild Charge on a friendly and you'll be able to quickly fly towards them. Very helpful for some flag capturing strategies and juke moves on Blades Edge Arena.
I never use Displacer Beast. Renewal is usually my favorite for arena especially if I know I'll be attacked. Wild Charge is something I LOVE to just mess around with. It ends up being a strong pick for arena also, because of how good the bear form immobilize is.
Play Style
Instead of telling you to put Moonfire and Sunfire on your bar and spam 1 and 2 I can instead give you an idea of how to more effectively do damage in certain situations.
JUST KIDDING
Press Moonfire
Press Sunfire
Press Force of Nature
Watch the target die
Keep dots on everything that eventually needs to die. They do huge amounts of damage and keep in mind Sunfire will cleave 5 yards around the original target. Look for the group of people stacked up and Sunfire them so you can save globals to get out more Moonfire.
When you have dots up and you're looking for something to cast you should Solar Wrath because it is the highest single target dps spell we have. Lunar Strike is only worth casting when you have the empowerment after casting starsurge OR if you have the Owlkin Frenzy proc from being attacked.
Macro
Here is something you can use to increase the heal from Renewal. Since it heals for 30% of max health, you should switch into Bear Form before pressing it. Mark of Tyranny is the BoA trinket that increases HP by 15%.
Addons
There is only 1 addon that I use to improve my play in PvP.
WeakAuras 2 - Link to addon page
This string will basically allow you to move the buff icon to a place where it's more convenient to see. I put mine in the middle of my screen. Given that this buff can proc so often, it's important to use it the second it's available. REMEMBER! Always! Always! Use this proc on Lunar Strike unless you're at risk of breaking CC. (Lunar Strike cleaves within 5 yards of original target).
Conclusion
In conclusion I would like to hope you all are, at the very least, satisfied with the compilation of BiS item level gear I've put together. I know most of you already know the class well enough to skip over half this stuff anyway. I guess I got bored of sitting idle during invasions and needed something to do. This was fun. I'll probably add to this and fix up the format a bit so it's easier to read or comprehend.
If there is anything you'd like to add, dispute, or criticize please do so.
Instead of telling you to put Moonfire and Sunfire on your bar and spam 1 and 2 I can instead give you an idea of how to more effectively do damage in certain situations.
JUST KIDDING
Press Moonfire
Press Sunfire
Press Force of Nature
Watch the target die
Keep dots on everything that eventually needs to die. They do huge amounts of damage and keep in mind Sunfire will cleave 5 yards around the original target. Look for the group of people stacked up and Sunfire them so you can save globals to get out more Moonfire.
When you have dots up and you're looking for something to cast you should Solar Wrath because it is the highest single target dps spell we have. Lunar Strike is only worth casting when you have the empowerment after casting starsurge OR if you have the Owlkin Frenzy proc from being attacked.
Blizzard balanced these spells fairly well in terms of Astral Power generation. However the short cast time of Solar Wrath causes it to pull ahead in single target damage. Outside of battlegrounds I went to some target dummies located in Scarlet Monastary. They're located just before the boss "Brother Korloff" and I found out both of my Astral Power generators were able to get me to 100 AP in 20 seconds. So after that I knew I had to try something else.
5 Solar Wrath = 6.2 seconds and 3000 damage
3 Lunar Strike = 6.21 seconds and 2550 damage
So as you can see, the Astral Power generated is exactly the same. However, Solar Wrath is far superior in terms of damage per second. The gap between the 2 examples only gets larger as you extend the test.
5 Solar Wrath = 6.2 seconds and 3000 damage
3 Lunar Strike = 6.21 seconds and 2550 damage
So as you can see, the Astral Power generated is exactly the same. However, Solar Wrath is far superior in terms of damage per second. The gap between the 2 examples only gets larger as you extend the test.
Macro
Here is something you can use to increase the heal from Renewal. Since it heals for 30% of max health, you should switch into Bear Form before pressing it. Mark of Tyranny is the BoA trinket that increases HP by 15%.
#showtooltip
/cast [nomod] !Bear Form
/cast [mod:shift] Inherited Mark of Tyranny
/cast [mod:shift] Renewal
I've tried making this macro into 1 button, but it seems to always use Renewal before the health from Bear Form is calculated. If anyone can help me make it a 1 button macro I would be ecstatic.
/cast [nomod] !Bear Form
/cast [mod:shift] Inherited Mark of Tyranny
/cast [mod:shift] Renewal
I've tried making this macro into 1 button, but it seems to always use Renewal before the health from Bear Form is calculated. If anyone can help me make it a 1 button macro I would be ecstatic.
Addons
There is only 1 addon that I use to improve my play in PvP.
WeakAuras 2 - Link to addon page
If you have WeakAuras and are interested in using my Owlkin Frenzy tracker you can copy this string and import it very easily.
dqtacaGEj0UOcBJknBsUjfrFdrYojv7vTBb7NIQFIKgMi9BGgQe0GPKA4iLJb4CiQfsjAPucJJkA5i8qksEk0YeXZfAIsGPcAYuLPJ6IusUkffptsUoH2Oe50sTzsz7suxMOhtWNPQ(oLYRrIPHuDskcJhrQlrrQBHiUgLQZlP(lfLoSOUnfEGHJ96jvUaUvJXXehjoaCamAm6n6nCSMQMwuYxIe7UjKRi7s3oDYKDMc4Ugj0jpMf4USes0((sctc6jxpDKjAFFjXWXq2qghUoWivBkkDWCRlridfRNNhvGzVHJCwjd8Wrdrf3dNNhfu5yC4ySd(k5ybwygtuW8OxRP1cIkUE4OHOI7HZZJezb5Wrdrf3dNNhPvMgNvYapC0quX9W55rTSa3GHHJgIkUhoppkgLMvqLJXTCKaujhoAiQ4E4888OgyGXUOC9eNJEDKMkxJCwGsC000gjK(nyawtto2cGHrbqqLhOTWwo2EJuTPO0Hrstvtlk51jj1rAAkGZkGu70DDsk7Jbrdir77ljIRdmg5SaLyHGDGhnLv6qRSyEmpCKQnfLoyU1LiKHI1RNu5c4wnpwEDa6jaZpa
dqtacaGEj0UOcBJknBsUjfrFdrYojv7vTBb7NIQFIKgMi9BGgQe0GPKA4iLJb4CiQfsjAPucJJkA5i8qksEk0YeXZfAIsGPcAYuLPJ6IusUkffptsUoH2Oe50sTzsz7suxMOhtWNPQ(oLYRrIPHuDskcJhrQlrrQBHiUgLQZlP(lfLoSOUnfEGHJ96jvUaUvJXXehjoaCamAm6n6nCSMQMwuYxIe7UjKRi7s3oDYKDMc4Ugj0jpMf4USes0((sctc6jxpDKjAFFjXWXq2qghUoWivBkkDWCRlridfRNNhvGzVHJCwjd8Wrdrf3dNNhfu5yC4ySd(k5ybwygtuW8OxRP1cIkUE4OHOI7HZZJezb5Wrdrf3dNNhPvMgNvYapC0quX9W55rTSa3GHHJgIkUhoppkgLMvqLJXTCKaujhoAiQ4E4888OgyGXUOC9eNJEDKMkxJCwGsC000gjK(nyawtto2cGHrbqqLhOTWwo2EJuTPO0Hrstvtlk51jj1rAAkGZkGu70DDsk7Jbrdir77ljIRdmg5SaLyHGDGhnLv6qRSyEmpCKQnfLoyU1LiKHI1RNu5c4wnpwEDa6jaZpa
Conclusion
In conclusion I would like to hope you all are, at the very least, satisfied with the compilation of BiS item level gear I've put together. I know most of you already know the class well enough to skip over half this stuff anyway. I guess I got bored of sitting idle during invasions and needed something to do. This was fun. I'll probably add to this and fix up the format a bit so it's easier to read or comprehend.
If there is anything you'd like to add, dispute, or criticize please do so.
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