New Balance questions

[Pory]

Hi guys,

Two brief questions for Balance. Read the guides but still don't understand these two things:

• 'Refreshing dots at peak is not usually beneficial, as the buff only applies to initial damage, not the DOT effect' - not exactly sure what this means. When is the best time to refresh the dots then?
• Is it better to cast starsurge at 'peak' or just as the cycle goes into the phase (e.g. lunar to solar)?

Thank you!

[Justin-Sane]

'Refreshing dots at peak is not usually beneficial, as the buff only applies to initial damage, not the DOT effect' - not exactly sure what this means. When is the best time to refresh the dots then?

When you reach the end of an eclipse, you get a 4 second buff called lunar/solar peak that increases the initial damage of your moonfire/sunfire. Not the DoT that follows, just the damage that applies instantly when you use moonfire/sunfire. That's why it's not very beneficial to wait for peak to apply your dots. Almost all of your damage from those abilities are from the DoT, not the initial damage.

Is it better to cast starsurge at 'peak' or just as the cycle goes into the phase (e.g. lunar to solar)?

Your priority is to make sure you stay below 3 stacks of starsurge to make sure you constantly have charges rolling all while trying not to recast it while you still have the empowerment buff it gives. You should also prioritize casting it in lunar eclipse rather than solar as starfire has higher damage per execution time than wrath.


I don't main a balance druid, so I could be wrong on some things. I would suggest reading the guides on the druid forums of mmo-c and WoW as well as icy-veins if you need further help. There's more information there than I could provide.

[Juvencus]

Eclipse peak and Moon/Sunfire peak buff are different things.

You want to use the eclipse peak period for hard casts but since the dot-peak-buff lasts more than the eclipse peak itself, ideally you want to cast your dotsjust before it expires.

[Deleted]

Hi guys,

Two brief questions for Balance. Read the guides but still don't understand these two things:

• 'Refreshing dots at peak is not usually beneficial, as the buff only applies to initial damage, not the DOT effect' - not exactly sure what this means. When is the best time to refresh the dots then?
• Is it better to cast starsurge at 'peak' or just as the cycle goes into the phase (e.g. lunar to solar)?

Thank you!

1. As a rule of thumb you should aim to refresh your dots roughly one starfire/wrath cast after the peak has ended, if you aren't sure of the exact spot.

2. It's optimal to use the SS charge when climing towards a peak, in a manor that all of your empowered casts land as close to the peak as possible. You should aim to use 1 charge in solar and 1 charge in lunar. Depending of your gear, it's either unlikely or highly unlikely that pooling a SS charge for upcoming lunar is a dps increase when you are at the optimal spot to use it during solar.


P.S Don't read the balance druid guide on MMO- C forums, as it has more or less been abandoned ages ago.