3.1 Balance Druid Gear

Baroo

OG
I've been having fun with a balance druid and I'm trying to finish up my gearset.

I'd like to get 180-200 sp dmg, 10% crit, and as much stam/int as possible.

I was wondering if anyone with balance experience could comment:



[item]Green Lens[/item] of healing

[item]Glowing Eye of Mordresh[/item]

[item]Revelosh's Spaulders[/item] of the eagle

[item]Battle Healer's Cloak[/item] +20 spell pen

[item]Robes of the Lich[/item] +150hp

[item]Tracker's Wristguards[/item] of the eagle +15sp

[item]Revelosh's Gloves[/item] of the eagle +20sp

[item]Deathmage Sash[/item]

[item]Necromancer Leggings[/item]

[item]Encarmine Boots[/item] +10crit/hit

[item]Underworld Band[/item] x2

[item]Staff of Jordan[/item] +40sp



Any items I'm missing? Or should rotate in and out? (I can't get BOAs)

My current spec is 27/0/3, with glyphs of healing touch/rejuv/dash.

I'm considering 22/0/8 for instant bash....but not yet convinced.
 
Looks pretty solid to me, also looks like I'll have to be getting a pair of necromancer leggings for my shaman with this patch change. :( I suppose if you wanted a little more spell power at the sacrifice of stamina you could go for Robes of the Magi instead of Lich, but unlike a shaman you don't have a shield to back your ass up for the loss of stam. :p Might also consider revelosh's gloves of healing for a more spell power intensive set, Pulsating Crystalline Shard has nice stats/spell power as well and is a quest reward from the Princess Trapped questline in Arathi Highlands.
 
Maerduk said:
I suppose if you wanted a little more spell power at the sacrifice of stamina you could go for Robes of the Magi instead of Lich, but unlike a shaman you don't have a shield to back your ass up for the loss of stam.
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I've considered it, but I feel like I need the crit from the Lich robes.



Maerduk said:
Pulsating Crystalline Shard has nice stats/spell power as well and is a quest reward from the Princess Trapped questline in Arathi Highlands.
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I have this item as well, but again I'm trying to get my crit rating up.

Is 10% good enough? I don't have enough play time to say for sure.
 
I'll be honest with you on my oppinion with the crit rating/chance in lower level bracket bgs and that would be that I don't place much value in it when I've been making spell caster builds. My friend had a 39 frost mage twink with around 400 frost damage if I remember correctly, and even without a high crit chance (because all his gear was frost damage based) he still dropped people in 1-2 hits. The amount of damage you're putting out based solely on the increase to your spells' overall damage makes up for the lack of crit IMO.



Spell power also increases the amount of healing you do to yourself, and lets face it, you're going to be using rejuv/regrowth quite a bit and relying on the hots from it, which will gain quite a noticeable increase in the amount they heal, with more spell power. This also affects my gift of the naaru on my shaman and when that's ticking for like 200 a tick it's pretty disgusting, I can only imagine the hots on a balance drood with more spell power.



In the end I'd say test both builds out and see which one you find to be more enjoyable/viable to your tastes. Since that's really what it's about in the long run. I just prefer more spell power. My shaman is sitting at +285 nature damage atm (more with my nature damage set ~365 would be more if I had gotten all the gears) with only a 5.63% chance to crit, but if I remember correctly I was getting lightning bolt crits upward of 1.1k no zerker, no blood lust, none of that garbage. More spell damage IMO, but that's just my oppinion ;)
 
I agree with Maerduk. Especially in the 39 bracket, crit should not be one of your main focuses. Most of the time, getting the preferred gear pieces ( e.g. ap/stam pieces for rogues) will give you a healthy amount of crit.

Especially with 3.1 the fights arent going to be very long, so getting a solid base damage and hp base should be your main focus.
 
Maerduk said:
I'll be honest with you on my oppinion with the crit rating/chance in lower level bracket bgs and that would be that I don't place much value in it when I've been making spell caster builds. My friend had a 39 frost mage twink with around 400 frost damage if I remember correctly, and even without a high crit chance (because all his gear was frost damage based) he still dropped people in 1-2 hits. The amount of damage you're putting out based solely on the increase to your spells' overall damage makes up for the lack of crit IMO.
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You do realise that frost mages get 50% crit when they attack a target stuck in Frost Nova / Frostbite right? A frost mage has no reason to stack crit at all!



-X
 
Most of your damage will be from insect swarm which will tick for around 100-110 per 2 seconds. It's incredibly cheap for the damage output with the IS glyph. I find with balance your more so moving around HoT/DoT so crit won't be such a huge factor. That being said you gear looks great, the only item I would possibly change would be your neck for the Pulsating Crystalline Shard, or the JC neck.



For spec I would either go full balance or 21/9 for the 30% dispel resist and 10% Shapeshifting cost. IMO I would go with HT glyph and IS glpyh.
 
druids should not go for crit since most of their spells are hots and dots. wrath and starfire are situational casts.



also glyph of moonfire+glyph of insect swarm looks sexy as hell. i would consider those two.
 
Xailter said:
You do realise that frost mages get 50% crit when they attack a target stuck in Frost Nova / Frostbite right? A frost mage has no reason to stack crit at all!



-X
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Yes I understand that, but that's circumstantial only, I'm talking about even without utilizing shatter combo... I would see him casting 2 frostbolts and people would drop
 
I'm going to try out dropping the rejuv glyph for insect swarm.

Also seems like boar's speed or fortitude is the way to go for the boot enchant, rather than surefooted.

Thanks for the replies, very helpful.
 
Baroo said:
I'm going to try out dropping the rejuv glyph for insect swarm.

Also seems like boar's speed or fortitude is the way to go for the boot enchant, rather than surefooted.

Thanks for the replies, very helpful.
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You're welcome.
 
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