7.2 Balance Druid traits!

[Nijurez]

With 7.2 around the corner I thought I would make a post about the 7.2 traits we are getting.

Light of the Evening Star - Increases the damage of Starfall by 3% (12% max from the looks of it.)

I wondered if this damage increase would be pigeonholed into the cleave build for every fight.

Wax and Wane - Moonfire increases the direct damage of your next Moonfire by 5%. This effect stacks 5 times.

I thought this one was interesting, should help us on heavy movement fights which is welcomed. (I was curious if other boomies here thought it would be doing more damage than a base ice lance or scorch, talking out of my ass a bit because I don't know much about mage. I thought this trait looked pretty decent nonetheless.)

Circadian Invocation - Moonfire damage increases the Arcane damage you deal to the target by 1%, and Sunfire damage increases the Nature damage you deal to the target by 1%, each stacking up to 6 times.

I was wondering if this would change anything in our opener/a priority that we had. I didn't think it would, but I could be wrong.

[Zan15]

i looked at them yesterday and had to close my computer and go to bed.
so underwhelming

how long do those stacking buffs last? 5 times? how much movement will you be doing to even get anywhere near 5 cast of moonfire off?

at least the last one will work with the ticking damage.


We don't need more AOE, we need ST buffs.

will just end up padding the hell out of heroic raid, be considered good till the ramp up of gear and mythic fights come out and we will be back to square one since these same kind of buffs were given to each class. none really stick out as game changers or fixing balance at all.


not to mention what is that last placeholder on mmo calculator, is there really a vers buffing 50 point trait? i mean....vers? what the fuck.

[PowerGamez]

not to mention what is that last placeholder on mmo calculator, is there really a vers buffing 50 point trait? i mean....vers? what the fuck.

It's a 10 second proc to your primary stat for DPS/Heals. Vers for Tanks.

[MV Kaa]

ITT People complaining more about a spec they wont play at a high enough level for it to matter.

Edit: don't post if you're not going to be constructive.

[Deleted]

What do you guys think about balance druid in tomb of sargeras? i got SP and Balance but idk what to prepare for tier 20. What will be better, anyone got idea?

[Ifeanychukwu]

Boomkins are dead last on most fights. The spec is pretty fun and I love my balance druid but if you want to put out big numbers you're probably better off with the shadow priest. Boomkins can be decent but only if you're playing at a very high percentile and even then you'll be outperformed by other specs with simpler rotations, less effort and less gear. Not to mention how frustratingly reliant we are on our BiS legendaries. I still have neither of the BiS myself and I'm happy with my performance but I know I could do so much better if I had them.

[Zan15]

ITT People complaining more about a spec they wont play at a high enough level for it to matter.

It still matters even on heroic granted at this point most of the mechanics can be ignored and people are pading the shit out of every fight.

Moonkin are not even performing that well in heroic.

[Nijurez]

i looked at them yesterday and had to close my computer and go to bed.
so underwhelming

how long do those stacking buffs last? 5 times? how much movement will you be doing to even get anywhere near 5 cast of moonfire off?

at least the last one will work with the ticking damage.


We don't need more AOE, we need ST buffs.

will just end up padding the hell out of heroic raid, be considered good till the ramp up of gear and mythic fights come out and we will be back to square one since these same kind of buffs were given to each class. none really stick out as game changers or fixing balance at all.


not to mention what is that last placeholder on mmo calculator, is there really a vers buffing 50 point trait? i mean....vers? what the fuck.

As for the stacking buff I think it is pretty decent. We don't have a lot of decent tools for HEAVY movement outside of just planning it with dot refreshing and maybe two starsurges.
I think with the starfall buffs they are giving us more identity in our cleave which is fine.
Circadian invocation is a buff to our single target.

What do you guys think about balance druid in tomb of sargeras? i got SP and Balance but idk what to prepare for tier 20. What will be better, anyone got idea?

I feel like it depends on whether you are planning on going into mythic raiding. Bottom line you should play what you enjoy to play, but I don't think the fights are long enough for a shadow priest to shine in lower difficulty content. I feel balance druids are all around pretty good in both single target and aoe, depending on what you have set your talents up for.

Boomkins are dead last on most fights. The spec is pretty fun and I love my balance druid but if you want to put out big numbers you're probably better off with the shadow priest. Boomkins can be decent but only if you're playing at a very high percentile and even then you'll be outperformed by other specs with simpler rotations, less effort and less gear. Not to mention how frustratingly reliant we are on our BiS legendaries. I still have neither of the BiS myself and I'm happy with my performance but I know I could do so much better if I had them.

I felt this same way for a while, but I changed my own mind on that. I feel like all of the legendaries are pretty good, but I don't think its as bad as people make it out to be. We aren't going to beat a fury warrior, a dk, or a demon hunter on single target and thats completely okay with me. Certain specs have things they are good at and those things are going to shine on certain fights.

It still matters even on heroic granted at this point most of the mechanics can be ignored and people are pading the shit out of every fight.

Moonkin are not even performing that well in heroic.

I don't really know what you mean by moonkins aren't performing well in heroic. Kind of seems like an exaggerated statement. We have cleared through all of heroic and I feel like we are in a pretty good spot.

Overall after looking at all the new traits for other specs I don't feel like we were shafted at all. I think it is easy to jump on the complain train and I've tried to not do it myself. I think we overall perform well and with these new traits we will be in an even better spot. I really enjoy this iteration of balance druid. I've played since the end of Wotlk and I think this is the best spot we have been in at least for the overall FEEL of the spec.

[Skyepic]

I've played since the end of Wotlk and I think this is the best spot we have been in at least for the overall FEEL of the spec.

Heh i'm like the exact opposite. Been playing balance since Wrath as well and i think this is the worst we've ever been in terms of both class feel and damage output. Even though the expansion wasn't the greatest, in my opinion boomkins were at their best mechanically during Cataclysm.

But to an extent i think it's hard to really get a grasp of things when blizzard completely revamps our resource system EVERY expansion. I love balance but this expansion has been sheer disappointment from the beginning. Better luck next xpac.

[Nijurez]

Heh i'm like the exact opposite. Been playing balance since Wrath as well and i think this is the worst we've ever been in terms of both class feel and damage output. Even though the expansion wasn't the greatest, in my opinion boomkins were at their best mechanically during Cataclysm.

But to an extent i think it's hard to really get a grasp of things when blizzard completely revamps our resource system EVERY expansion. I love balance but this expansion has been sheer disappointment from the beginning. Better luck next xpac.

I always enjoyed the spec more when we have had haste as our best stat verses crit. I feel like when we use haste everything feels to flow better. A lot of my gripes were addressed, but I can see why someone would be frustrated. I'm a little burnt out with getting a somewhat new play style every expac. I do sometimes miss getting shooting stars procs and slamming starsruges into bosses, haha. I think one of my biggest complaints currently is having to choose incarn vs soul of the forest. There isn't a time when I feel good about having to drop incarn and soul of the forest's 40 cost starfall feels great. They should just baseline incarn and we would always have a strong cooldown. I enjoyed the empowerment system at first but it is starting to feel slightly confining. I like that we can always take advantage of our mastery now. In the past I don't feel that was the case.

I'm with you though. I would like them to just start tweaking our whatever our current model is and go from there, but maybe why I've played the spec so long is the change of pace every expac? Time will tell.. lol

[Mystikal]

Does anyone know how Circadian Invocation works with Astral damage? Does Astral damage benefit from both debuffs (being dual-school), or does it simply benefit from whichever stack is highest at the time of casting? If the former, then it may possibly make Stellar Flare not quite so bad in comparison to the other two talents on that row...?

[huth]

All multischool attacks benefit from the highest single school bonus unless explicitly stated otherwise.

[Mystikal]

All multischool attacks benefit from the highest single school bonus unless explicitly stated otherwise.

Noted, thank you. A shame, though.

[Zan15]

I don't really know what you mean by moonkins aren't performing well in heroic. Kind of seems like an exaggerated statement. We have cleared through all of heroic and I feel like we are in a pretty good spot.

Overall after looking at all the new traits for other specs I don't feel like we were shafted at all. I think it is easy to jump on the complain train and I've tried to not do it myself. I think we overall perform well and with these new traits we will be in an even better spot. I really enjoy this iteration of balance druid. I've played since the end of Wotlk and I think this is the best spot we have been in at least for the overall FEEL of the spec.

Its simple to see in the logs in both mythic and heroic. Mythic is really clear.

Granted i am prob bottom of the barrel when it comes to playing a moonkin, but even a amateur can see the inherent problems of this spec on many fights vs other casters.

the new traits are consistent across the board, no one really got anything "wow". It seems the new traits are a new way to hide across the board buffs instead of some raid wide debuff/buff.

[coblade14]

Its simple to see in the logs in both mythic and heroic. Mythic is really clear.

Granted i am prob bottom of the barrel when it comes to playing a moonkin, but even a amateur can see the inherent problems of this spec on many fights vs other casters.

the new traits are consistent across the board, no one really got anything "wow". It seems the new traits are a new way to hide across the board buffs instead of some raid wide debuff/buff.

At least we didn't get fked in the ass like MM hunters did. They got a new survival trait that is tied to a 3min cd. At least we got something that helps our movement dps a little bit. So I'm thankful for that.

Also, the new golden trait we got is actually quite good compared to other classes. Ours gives us a 6% flat boost to both ST and AOE, most other classes either got a AOE boost or ST boost. I hope that would close the gap somewhat.

[Argenon]

Heh i'm like the exact opposite. Been playing balance since Wrath as well and i think this is the worst we've ever been in terms of both class feel and damage output. Even though the expansion wasn't the greatest, in my opinion boomkins were at their best mechanically during Cataclysm.

But to an extent i think it's hard to really get a grasp of things when blizzard completely revamps our resource system EVERY expansion. I love balance but this expansion has been sheer disappointment from the beginning. Better luck next xpac.

Everyone is gonna have a different iteration they liked the best. IMO WotLK felt the best, though I think Legion is the best feel since then. As of right now, I would be happy with a ST buff and just accept where we are for AoE. The new traits don't sound that great to me, outside of the straight buff to Starfall. The new paragon trait, to me, is a complete lack of understanding of their player base.

[Polarthief]

Wax and Wane - Moonfire increases the direct damage of your next Moonfire by 5%. This effect stacks 5 times.

I thought this one was interesting, should help us on heavy movement fights which is welcomed. (I was curious if other boomies here thought it would be doing more damage than a base ice lance or scorch, talking out of my ass a bit because I don't know much about mage. I thought this trait looked pretty decent nonetheless.)

Short Answer: Wax and Wane is legit dog shit. Does LITERALLY NOTHING if you take NB otherwise it's a pathetically weak 25% damage increase (eventually) on Moonfire's direct portion, which is nothing.

CI is great for ST, bad for AoE (up to 6% DPS loss as you wait for the ramp up). Starfall buff is fine, but does nothing when you don't SF.

Problem with our spec is that we give up ST for AoE or vice versa, and they keep making shit traits like W&W.

[Deleted]

Short Answer: Wax and Wane is legit dog shit. Does LITERALLY NOTHING if you take NB otherwise it's a pathetically weak 25% damage increase (eventually) on Moonfire's direct portion, which is nothing.

I really think we must be missing something here...

You either get: 0% dps increase when using NB, so lets say you take Stellar Drift.

Let's say by some miracle you always have 5 stacks. So 25% increase. You refresh your moonfire every 22 seconds. Thats 25% of moonfires initial damage every 22 seconds. My moonfires deal around 80k initial damage (901 equiped ilvl). Thats around 20k extra damage every 22 seconds, or around 0.9k dps increase.

Simmed damage is around 650k ST, so in ST this gives me a whopping 0.13% damage increase. That's what? like 30 versatility? But without the heal benefit versatility grants us. Oh and thats only if you don't use Nature's Balance. And by some miracle you manage to have 5 stacks. If those stacks actually stay for less than 22 seconds, the dps increase will be 0% here too.

What am i missing here? Best case scenario this trait is worth 30 vers and average / worst case its closer to 0?


And just to put it in perspective what we are missing out on:

>Guardians get another charge on Frenzied Regen
> RDruids get 20% more healing from Efflorescence if target stays in it
>Frost Mage gets instant blizzards during frost orb
>HPala takes 15% less damage from Light of the Martyr
>Outlaw gets a flat 10% damage increase on their artifact ability
>RestoShaman gets 30% increased healing rain
>FrostDKs Sindragosa's Fury CD (yes thats that huge thing) reduced by around 50%

That list goes on and on, have yet to find something that comes even close to being 0% damage increase.

[Polarthief]

I really think we must be missing something here...

You either get: 0% dps increase when using NB, so lets say you take Stellar Drift.

Let's say by some miracle you always have 5 stacks. So 25% increase. You refresh your moonfire every 22 seconds. Thats 25% of moonfires initial damage every 22 seconds. My moonfires deal around 80k initial damage (901 equiped ilvl). Thats around 20k extra damage every 22 seconds, or around 0.9k dps increase.

Simmed damage is around 650k ST, so in ST this gives me a whopping 0.13% damage increase. That's what? like 30 versatility? But without the heal benefit versatility grants us. Oh and thats only if you don't use Nature's Balance. And by some miracle you manage to have 5 stacks. If those stacks actually stay for less than 22 seconds, the dps increase will be 0% here too.

What am i missing here? Best case scenario this trait is worth 30 vers and average / worst case its closer to 0?

They expect us to be a pack of mouthbreathers spamming Moonfire. Even then, the DPS gain is not big.

The sad thing is that literally all of our 1-point traits are absolute dogshit. Innervate one is fine (not great since its nerf), but provides US with 0 benefit, practically the same as W&W, Touch of the Moon, and an interrupt that's way too long of a cooldown the extra 15s cd removal doesn't matter. Oh and Sunblind should just be baked into the fucking spell (and be given to Lunar Strike too).

[huth]

I think that trait is meant for PvP, not PvE. Quite a few classes get that.

Still wondering whether the gold one is limited to us or global.