[Balance] Druid Guide- Warlords of Draenor Edition

[Kritkin]

EDITS IN PROGRESS. WILL REMOVE THIS DISCLAIMER WHEN THE GUIDE IS COMPLETE


Balance Druid - Warlords of Draenor PVE Guide
Updated for 6.0.3
Written by Kritkin @ Korgath-US of <Ex Inferno> (H)



Contents:

~ 1.0 Welcome (#WLCM)
~ 2.0 How to Get Help (#HTGH)
~ 3.0 What’s New in Warlords of Draenor for Balance Druids? (#NWOD)
~ 4.0 Choosing a Race (#RACE)
~ 5.0 Stats (#STAT)
~ 6.0 Stat Weights (#STWT)
~ 7.0 Gems (#GEMS)
~ 8.0 Enchants (#ENCH)
~ 9.0 Professions (#PROF)
~ 10.0 Consumables (#CONS)
~ 11.0 Talents (#TLNT)
~ 12.0 Glyphs (#GLPH)
~ 13.0 Eclipse Changes (#ECLP)
~ 14.0 Rotations (#ROTS)
~ 15.0 Useful Addons (#ADDS)
~ 16.0 Other Balance Druid Guides (#OBDG)
~ 17.0 Credits, Thanks and Feedback (#CTAF)
~ 18.0 Changelog (#LOGS)

*Search the guide with Ctrl+F using a (#TAG) to quickly find parts of the guide!*

1.0 Welcome (#WLCM)

Welcome to the Warlords of Draenor Balance PvE guide, updated for 6.0.2!

2.0 How to get help (#HTGH)

If you have a Balance Druid related question, feel free to post a reply to this topic, and I or the community will do our best to answer. However, to make it easier on yourself – and on everybody else – follow these tips first:

1. Read the guide. Most basics are covered here.
2. Identify your problem. Are you asking about gearing up, gems, enchants, rotation, addons?
3. Check the guide again – maybe you missed something that answered your question!
4. Post as much detailed, relevant information as you can; Armory link, maybe a raid log, and an explanation of what your issue is.
5. Are you sure it’s not in the guide? It goes a lot faster if you just read the guide, rather than you waiting for us to repeat what is written here.

We love to help, but many times the information is readily available, and you can save a lot of time by scrolling down to whatever area might give you problems. If that doesn’t help, or something in this guide isn’t clear, don’t hesitate to post in this topic, and we’ll help you out!

3.0 What’s New in Warlords of Draenor for Balance Druids? (#NWOD)

Many changes were made to druids in the Warlords of Draenor pre-patch. You can find patch notes here:

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/156...-13-2014#druid

Here is the selection of what applies to you as a Balance Druid (copied directly from the blog post, edited for clarity):

Ability Pruning

In Patch 6.0.2, Blizzard pruned many abilities for druid. See the Ability Pruning section of the blog post for discussion of why pruning class abilities happened. For Druids, they focused thinning out the niche and abilities that were not used often, while making sure to retain abilities for Druids to function in off-spec roles, since that flexibility is a defining characteristic of the class.

Innervate has been removed.

Owlkin Frenzy has been removed.

Symbiosis has been removed.

Tranquility is now only available to Restoration Druids.

Summary of changes to Balance:

• Balance Energy is a bar that automatically cycles back and forth between Lunar and Solar sides, like night and day. The closer to one end that the bar is, the more damage that side's spells do.
• Balance Druids now have four rotational spells.
• Starfire: Lunar direct damage spell
• Cast when the Lunar side is stronger
• Wrath: Solar direct damage spell
• Cast when the Solar side is stronger
• Moonfire: Lunar periodic damage spell. While closer to Solar, this button is replaced with Sunfire, a Solar periodic damage spell.
• Maintain both effects where possible
• Starsurge: Direct damage spell that benefits from whichever side is stronger. Has up to 3 charges, and buffs the damage of the next 3 Wraths or 2 Starfires.
• Cast when able to follow up with a few strong Wraths or Starfires.

That's the basics of the new Moonkin rotation. There’s room for improvement beyond that, learning to optimally maintain both periodic damage effects while maximizing their damage, timing Starsurges to optimize the benefit of its buff, make use of Starfall and Hurricane for area damage, and taking advantage of the strengths of each side (such as Moonfire and Sunfire having significant differences now). Full details on Balance abilities and rotations can be found later in the guide.





4.0 Choosing A Race (#RACE)


Alliance:

Worgen:

Viciousness: Increases critical strike chance by 1%.

Night Elf:

Touch of Elune: Increases your Haste by 1% during the night.Increases your Critical Strike by 1% during the day.

Horde:

Tauren:
Brawn: Critical strike bonus damage and healing increased by 2%.


Troll:
Berserking: Increases your haste by 15% for 10 sec.

Comparison
Simulated through SimCraft, these evaluate as follows at level:
Troll - 37,242 DPS
Night Elf - 37,239 DPS
Worgen - 37,181 DPS
Tauren - 37,151 DPS
*evaluated with a 0.08% margine of error

What this means is that your choice of race does not matter at all from a DPS perspective. The difference between the highest and lowest simming races is 0.24%. You should choose your race based on utility and usefulness. A few things to consider:

Night Elves have Shadowmeld, which can occasionally help recover after wipes or even provide a temporary threat dump. Additionally, Quickness can be useful if there are adds that must be tanked by DPS for any reason.
Tauren have War Stomp, which is incredibly useful for controlling and limiting adds.
Trolls have Da Voodoo Shuffle, which can be useful if content has a significant amount of movement impairing effects.
Worgen have Darkflight, which can be extremely useful in case Dash and Stampeding Roar are inadequate.

Or, you can simply pick the race that you like the looks of best. How you decide is up to you, but what race you pick doesn't actually matter.

5.0 Stats (#STAT)

With the addition of Leather Specialization in Cataclysm, you should always attempt to only use leather gear. Wearing only leather items will increase your intellect by 5%. Equipping just a single piece of cloth gear will remove this bonus, and that is a massive hit to your intellect. There is generally no gain from wearing a cloth piece that can outweigh the loss of the leather specialization bonus.

Stats used by Balance Druids in Warlords of Draenor are:

Intellect: Intellect increases spell power and is the most important stat for mana-using classes wearing any armor type in the damage-dealing (ranged spell caster) or healer role.

Haste: Haste affects the rate at which melee and ranged auto-attacks are dealt, the cast time of spells, the tick rate of damage over time, heal over time, and channeled spells, the channel time of spells (but not the duration of DoTs/HoTs), and spells' global cooldown. Additionally, haste increases the regeneration rate of energy, runes, and focus. There are no haste breakpoints, as DoTs and HoTs get a partial tick at the end, equal in damage/healing to the ratio of that time and the full tick time.

Crit: Crit changes the percentage of damaging attacks and healing spells that result in a critical strike for generally 200% of the effect in PvE. That is, if an attack on a creature normally lands for around 1,000 damage, a crit will land for 2,000 damage. While in PvP, critical hits and heals will land for 150% of the effect. There are exceptions, as various abilities can crit for more or less than the baseline.

Mastery: Mastery is an attribute that has different effects for each class specialization. Balance Druids get Mastery:Total Eclipse which increases maximum bonus damage by eclipse. Masteries are learned at level 80 for all classes and specializations, and any mastery on gear will not have an effect before that point. In WoD, Mastery was changed to be a constant benefit, instead of only in lunar and solar eclipse. This makes mastery MUCH more valuable and as shown in stat weights, our most potent secondary stat per point.

Multistrike: Multistrike gives most abilities up to two separate chances to hit their original target an additional time for 30% of the original amount in PvE. For instance, if a player has 25% multistrike, abilities have two chances at 25% probability to strike again. In PvP only one such chance is available. This chance applies to damaging attacks, either single-targeted or area of effect, and also to heals, but not to status-affecting attacks like [Polymorph] or [Fear]. Additionally, each tick of a DoT or HoT has an independent chance to land a multistrike. Multistrikes crit independently of the original attack—that is, the main attack does not have to crit for the multistrike to crit.
Multistrikes are treated as procs, not additional casts. In general, multistrikes will not proc other effects, but there are a few class abilities that depend on a multistrike landing, much like the handful of class abilities that react to crits landing.

Versatility: Versatility increases outgoing damage, healing, and absorbs and to a lesser extent, reduces incoming damage. With 5% Versatility, players do 5% more damage and healing, enlarge their absorbs by 5%, and take 2.5% less damage. The healing increase applies to self-heals as well.

6.0 Stat Weights (#STWT)

Latest WrathCalcs from ElitestJerks shows this as our Stat Prioirity
Intellect > Mastery >= Critical Strike > Haste > Multistrike > Versatility

Level 100
Here are the level 100 combat ratings for Warlords of Draenor. The following table gives you the amount of rating you need for a certain stat to increase that stat by 1% (example: 100 Haste Rating increases your Haste by 1%).

Statistic Amount of Rating for 1% Gain
Haste 100
Critical Strike 110
Mastery 109
Multistrike 66
Versatility 130

Stat Weights: Since there are not Intellect gems we equalize weights to mastery:
Stat...................Weight...........Equalized to Mastery = 1.000
Mastery................1.87......................1.000
Critical Strike........1.85......................0.989
Haste...................1.79......................0.957
Multistrike.............1.64......................0.877
Versatlity..............1.40......................0.749


7.0 Gems (#GEMS)

Gemming is MUCH different for Warlords of Draenor.

 There are no meta gems for Warlords of Draenor gear.
 There are no new gems for primary stats in Warlords of Draenor.
 There are no socket bonuses for Warlords of Draenor gear.
 There are no differently-colored gems in Warlords of Draenor. Instead, there are simply secondary-stat variations on Taladite-
 Sockets are not guaranteed to be on an item, they have a small chance to be added to raid gear.
 Socket tech is being changed so they are not hugely advantageous in content that scales down, like Proving Grounds and Challenge Modes.

Mastery is our go to Stat. Gem "Greater Mastery Taladite" in all available slots.

8.0 Enchants (#ENCH)

Enchanting was really cut down for Warlords of Draenor. The new enchants are only for cloaks, necks, rings, and weapons and are available to all characters. No more enchanter exclusive enchants.

8.1 Weapon Enchants:

We have 4 choices:

1. [Mark of the Frostwolf] - Permanently enchants a melee weapon to sometimes increases multistrike by 500 for 6 sec. Effect can stack 2 times.
2. [Mark of the Thunderlord] - Permanently enchants a melee weapon to sometimes increase your critical strike by 500 for 6 sec. While active, critical heals and attacks may extend the duration.
3. [Mark of Warsong] - Permanently enchants a melee weapon to sometimes increase haste by (100 * 10), diminishing by 10% every 2 sec.
4. [Mark of the Bleeding Hollow] - Permanently enchants a melee weapon to sometimes increase mastery by 500 for 12 sec.


[Mark of the Bleeding Hollow] will be our weapon enchant of choice




8.2 Armor Enchants:

Enchants have been made available for only 3 equipment slots in Warlords of Draenor: Rings (x2), Necks, and Cloaks

Enchants come in two variants: "Breath" and "Gift"- The difference being the reagents needed and the benefit

Breath enchants require 1 Luminous Shard, whereas Gift enchants require 4 Temporal Crystal + 3 Sorcerous elements

Enchants are also available to non-enchanters via the garrison building "Enchanters Study"

These slots can receive the following enchants:

Ring(x2) ~~~ Breath: +30 Secondary Stat / Gift: +50 Secondary Stat

Neck ~~~~~ Breath: +40 Secondary Stat / Gift: +75 Secondary Stat

Cloak ~~~~~ Breath: +100 Secondary Stat / Gift: +100 Seconary Stat & +10% movement speed

Enchant Mastery on everything

I list both Breath and Gift because the Gift enchants are much more expensive and will be even more so at the beginning of the expansion


9.0 Professions (#PROF)

All combat benefits from professions were removed with patch 6.0.2. This effectively means you can choose whatever you want!


10.0 Consumables (#CONS)

Flask: Greater Draenic Intellect Flask: Increases Intellect by 250 for 1 hour

Potion: Draenic Intellect Potion: Increases Intellect by 1000 for 25 sec. (1 min cooldown)

Food: Sleeper Surprise: Increases Mastery by 75 for 1 hour.
There are also three different feasts available:
Feast of the Waters: (10) Increases your highest secondary stat by 75 for 1 hour.
Feast of Blood: (30) Increases your highest secondary stat by 75 for 1 hour.
The best food however is not from cooking but from a garrison mission
Savage Feast: (30) Increases your highest secondary stat by 100 for 1 hour.

11.0 Talents (#TLNT)

Talents have stayed relatively the same since Mists of Pandaria, however there were a few notable changes Wowhead had a talent calculator available here:

http://www.wowhead.com/talent#zdw

I’m going to split this section in two parts: Throughput and Utility.

11.1 Throughput:

Only two tiers of talents affect throughput in Warlords of Draenor. These are the Level 60 tier (Soul of the Forest, Incarnation and Force of Nature) and the Level 100 tier (Euphoria, Stellar Flare, and Balance of Power). Throughput benefits were removed from the Level 90 tier with patch 6.0 and these talents now only provide off-spec benefits.

The level 60 tier gives a choice between Soul of the Forest, Incarnation or Force of Nature.
• Soul of the Forest (passive) Increases bonus damage from Lunar and Solar Empowerment by an additional 15%.
• Incarnation (active) Increases all spell damage by 15% (30 second duration/3 minute cooldown).
• Force of Nature (active) Summons a treant to cast wrath at your target (15 second duration/3 charges/20 second recharge).

The level 100 tier gives a choice between Euphoria, Stellar Flare, or Balance of Power.
• Euphoria (passive) Reduces Balance Energy cycle time by 50%, while also reducing the cast time of affected spells (Wrath and Starfire) by 20%
• Stellar Flare (active) A powerful spell which benefits from both Lunar and Solar Eclipses, dealing the most damage when they are balanced. Burns the target for (33.75% of Spell power) Spellstorm damage, and then an additional (112.5% of Spell power) damage over 20 sec. (1.5 second cast/ No CD).
• Balance of Power (passive) Starfire extends the duration of Moonfire by 6 sec and Wrath extends the duration of Sunfire by 4 sec. Also increases the damage over time of your Moonfire and Sunfire by 10%.

11.2 Utility:

The level 15 tier gives three mobility options:
• Feline Swiftness (passive) Increases movement speed by 15%.
• Displacer Beast (active) Teleports the druid up to 20 yards forward, activates Cat Form, and increases movement speed by 40%.
• Wild Charge (active) Grants a movement ability that varies by form:
o Non-shapeshifted: Fly to an ally
o Bear Form: Charge to an enemy, immobilizing them for 4 secs
o Cat Form: Leap behind an enemy, dazing them for 3 secs
o Travel Form: Leap forward 20 yards
o Aquatic Form: Increases swim speed by 150% for 5 secs

The level 30 tier gives three survivability options:
• Ysera’s Gift (passive) Heals you for 4% of your maximum health every 5 sec. If you are at full health, a random nearby injured ally will be healed instead.
• Renewal (active) Instantly heals the Druid for 22% of maximum health. Usable in all shapeshift forms.
• Cenarion Ward (active) Protects a friendly target for 30 sec. Any damage taken will consume the ward and heal the target for (879.9% of Spell power) over 6 sec.

The level 45 tier gives three crowd control options:
• Faerie Swarm (active) Prevents the target from activating stealth or invisibility, and reduces movement speed by 50% for 15 sec. Deals (32.5% of Attack power) damage when cast from Bear Form. Usable in all shapeshift forms, but incurs a 6 sec cooldown while in Bear Form or Cat Form.
• Mass Entanglement (Passive) Roots your target in place for 20 sec and spreads to additional nearby enemies. Damage caused may interrupt the effect. Usable in all shapeshift forms.
• Typhoon (Active) Summons a violent Typhoon that strikes targets in front of the caster within 15 yards, knocking them back and dazing them for 6 sec. Usable in all shapeshift forms.

The level 75 tier gives three crowd control options:
• Incompacitating Roar (Active) Invokes the spirit of Ursol to roar, incapacitating all enemies within 10 yards for 3 sec. Any damage caused will remove the effect. Usable in all shapeshift forms.
• Ursol’s Vortex (Active) Conjures a vortex of wind for 10 sec at the destination location that reduces the movement speed of all enemies within 8 yards by 50%. The first time an enemy attempts to leave the vortex, winds will pull that enemy back to its center. Usable in all shapeshift forms.
• Mighty Bash (Active) Invokes the spirit of Ursoc to stun the target for 5 sec. Usable in all shapeshift forms.

The level 90 tier gives three survivability options:
• Heart of the Wild (Active) When activated, dramatically improves the Druid's ability to tank, deal melee damage, and heal.
• Dream of Cenarius (Passive) Lunar Peak and Solar Peak also cause your Moonfire and Sunfire to heal an injured ally for (300% of Spell power).
• Nature’s Vigil (Active) While active, all single-target healing and damage spells and abilities also heal a nearby friendly target based on the amount done, 30% for heals, 40% for damage spells.



12.0 Glyphs (#GLPH)

While there are no through-put glyphs that directly impact your DPS, there are some very nice utility glyphs every Balance Druid should consider. Pick and choose your favorite three.
Major Glyphs:
• Glyph of Astral Communion: Your Astral Communion can now be used while moving. Great for high movement fights, ensuring you are at eclipse peak when you are able to resume hard casting.
• Glyph of Celestial Alignment: Celestial Alignment now lasts 60 seconds, or until 8 spells have been cast with it active, whichever occurs first. Ensures you get the full benefit from Celestial Alignment.
• Glyph of Guided Stars - Starfall only hits targets affected by Moonfire or Sunfire. Can prevent a lot of those "Starfall did it" moments.
• Glyph of Stampeding Roar - Increases the radius of Stampeding Roar by 30 yards and you can now cast Stampeding Roar without being in Bear Form or Cat Form. Excellent for when the whole group needs to move in a hurry.
• Glyph of Rebirth - Players resurrected by Rebirth are returned to life with 100% health. Prevents players from popping up and getting instantly hit by a spell and dying again. This glyph could be the difference between them dying again or surviving the blast.
• Glyph of Moonwarding - Moonkin Form no longer grants bonus armor, but instead grants 10% increased maximum health.

Minor Glyphs:
• Glyph of Grace: You take reduced falling damage even while not in Cat Form. Great for raid situations to reduce damage taken

Glyph choice is also situational and you mind find it beneficial to swap glyphs depending on the encounter. I recommend keeping a stack of dust in your bags for just this occasion.


13.0 Eclipse Changes (#ECLP)

Blizzard’s Official “Crash Course” for Balance Druids updated for Warlords of Draenor:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DE54...ature=youtu.be

Details of changes to Balance:

• Balance Energy system has been redesigned. Balance Energy is a bar that cycles back and forth between Lunar and Solar sides, like night and day, with a 40 second cycle time (from Lunar to Solar and back to Lunar).
1. Balance Energy is no longer generated through spells, talents, or other effects anymore.
• Eclipse has been redesigned.
• Eclipse inspires the Druid with the power of the moon and the sun, causing the damage of Lunar and Solar spells to be increased by up to 30% based on how close Balance Energy levels are to the appropriate side.
o Example: With 0 Balance Energy, the damage bonus is evenly split between Lunar and Solar, and the Druid receives a 15% increase to damage for both spell types. With 80 Solar Energy, the Druid receives a 27% damage increase to Solar spells and a 3% damage increase to Lunar spells.
• Mastery: Total Eclipse now increases the maximum damage bonus of Eclipse by 12% (increasing with Mastery).
The damage of damage-over-time effects changes dynamically as Eclipse changes.
• Astral Communion now increases the rate that Balance Energy cycles by 300% while channeled.
• Astral Storm has been removed.
• Celestial Alignment has been redesigned.
o Celestial Alignment causes the Druid to enter Celestial Alignment, a state where Balance Energy cycle is paused, all damage done is increased by 20%, and all Lunar and Solar spells benefit from the maximum Eclipse bonus. While in Celestial Alignment, Moonfire and Sunfire will also apply the other spell’s periodic damage effect. Lasts 15 seconds with a 3 minute cooldown.
• Hurricane now has a range of 35 yards (up from 30 yards), but is only available to Balance and Restoration Druids.
• Incarnation: Chosen of Elune now increases spell damage by 15% while active (was a 25% increase to Arcane and Nature damage, but only while Eclipse was active).
• Lunar Shower has been redesigned and renamed into Astral Showers.
o Astral Showers calls upon greater Lunar and Solar energy to permanently empower the Druid's Moonfire and Sunfire spells.
 Moonfire's periodic damage effect duration is increased by 100%.
 Sunfire's periodic damage effect is now applied to all enemies within 5 yards of the target.
• Moonfire now has a base duration of 20 seconds (up from 14 seconds), but is no longer extended by Starfire and Starsurge critical strikes.
• Upon reaching 100 Lunar or Solar Energy, you gain the buff Lunar Peak or Solar Peak, and the next Moonfire or Sunfire (respective to its peak buff) deals 100% additional initial damage.
• Shooting Stars now adds 1 full charge of Starsurge and Starfall when it triggers, and now has a 5% chance to trigger when the most recent Moonfire or Sunfire deals periodic damage. This chance is doubled on critical strikes.
• Soul of the Forest (Balance) has been redesigned.
o Soul of the Forest (Balance) now increases the damage bonus from Lunar Empowerment and Solar Empowerment by an additional 15%.
• Starfall now shares charges with Starsurge, and has no cooldown of its own. It also now hits all nearby enemies (up from 2 nearby enemies).
• Starfire now has a 3 second cast time (up from 2.7 seconds).
• Starsurge now has 3 charges and a 30 second recharge time (instead of a 15 second cooldown). Starsurge now also grants Lunar Empowerment or Solar Empowerment.
o Lunar Empowerment causes the next 2 casts of Starfire to deal 30% more damage.
o Solar Empowerment causes the next 3 casts of Wrath to deal 30% more damage.
• Sunfire is no longer its own spell and replaces Moonfire on the action bar whenever Balance Energy is on the Solar side. Sunfire now has a base duration of 24 seconds (up from 14 seconds), but is no longer extended by Wrath and Starsurge critical strikes. Enemies may still suffer from both Moonfire and Sunfire’s periodic damage components simultaneously. Upon reaching 100 Solar Energy, the next Sunfire deals 100% additional initial damage.
• Wild Mushroom (Balance) now begins snaring enemies immediately when summoned, lasts 20 seconds, and can no longer be detonated to deal damage.
o Wild Mushroom: Detonate has been removed.



14.0 Rotations (#ROTS)

Single Target Priority

1. Starsurge if capped on charges (3). This way a Shooting Stars proc is not wasted.
2. Keep dots applied as much as possible
3. Starsurge if no empowerment is active and and have at least 2 charges (leaving you with one when you do reach peak)
4. Starfire or Wrath respective to which side of eclipse you are on.

Opening Rotation

1. Pre-Pot
2. Incarnation (if spec'd)
3. Celestial Alignment
4. MF (also applies SF)
5. Starsurge
6. Starfire
7. Starfire
8. Starsurge
9. Starfire
10. Starfire
11. Moonfire (if duration will fall off before returning to Lunar)
12. Starfire until you swap to Solar Eclipse side
<enter solar eclipse>
13. Sunfire
14. Wrath until almost peak eclipse
15. Starsurge
16. Wrath
17. Wrath
18. Wrath
19. Sunfire (refresh before leaving Solar)

Rinse and repeat


Notes
Always strive to have both dots as close to 100% uptime as possible
Follow spell priority
Don't waste a Shooting Stars Proc meaning don't sit there maxed on charges.
Follow Starsurge with 2 Starfires or 3 Wraths repective to the side you are on
Refreshing dots at peak is not usually beneficial, as the buff only applies to initial damage, not the DOT effect




15.0 Useful Addons (#ADDS)

There are plenty of addons to choose from, and most are merely a question of preference. You don’t need all of these, but here is a list of common addons you could and should consider using:

• Quartz with Proc Module- Cast bar addon with proc/dot timers built in. Can add custom procs as well for trinket procs, enchant procs, potions, and new class abilities/procs that are not in the default list.
• Some form of balance power tracker. There are many of these available. Shadowed Unit Frames is a unit frame addon which has an integrated balance power tracker built into the unit frame in a nice clean look and is very customizable.
• DeadlyBossMods- Boss action mod.





16.0 Other Balance Druid Guides (#OBDG)

Think you have the basics down and would like some more reading? Check out the following Balance Druid Guides:



As well as these helpful Youtube videos:

Blizzard’s Official “Crash Course” for Balance Druids
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DE54...ature=youtu.be



















17.0 Credits, Thanks and Feedback (#CTAF)

This guide was written by Kritkin @ Korgath—US of <Ex Inferno> (H)

Special Thanks:

Thanks to Slippykins for providing feedback in the editing of this guide

Thanks to Sunfyre for his past Balance Druid guides we all came to love.

Formatting inspired from Sunfyre’s “Moonkin Mists of Pandaria Guide – 5.4 Edition” on MMO-Champion
Link:
http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...de-5-4-Edition

Sources:

WrathCalcs:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.co...5-6.0-Beta.xls




Feedback:

Either comment on the guide, or feel free to private message me on MMO-Champion.















18.0 Change Logs (#LOGS)


18.1 Global Change Log
10.20.2014 -- Initial Draft
10.26.2014 -- Final Draft
11.09.2014 -- Revisions based on community feedback- Corrections and Clarifications

18.2 Kritkin's Change Log

10.20.2014 -- Initial Draft
10.26.2014 -- Final Draft
11.09.2014 -- Revisions based on community feedback- Corrections and Clarifications

[mythiix]

Great guide. I was wondering if you could explain a little why your opening rotation is the way it is.
1. Why wait until lunar peak to use CA?
2. Why are you spending two charges of ss/starfall immediately upon pull and only 1 ss during CA?
3 ( continuation of #2). If we are waiting until lunar peak to use CA and not applying moonfire within those first 8 seconds, we deny ourselves any chance of benefiting from shooting stars so how could we justify spending a charge on starfall in the opener instead of another ss during CA? Esp on a single target fight? My understanding is that raw damage of starsurge > starfall given only 1 target.

Also here's Cyous' guide in case you wanted to add it to the other guides section

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/to...1003143?page=1

- - - Updated - - -

Also am I right to assume that our 4pc will bundle very nicely with Euphoria?

[Drayarr]

Could you add some formatting to each numbered section etc. Like Bigger font so it is easier to see when each section ends / begins?

[lappee]

Well...

1) Races: You're only describing the races, not giving out any information of the actual dps benefits the races have (aka numbers, or even a list of A>B>C)

2) Stat Weights: No indication whether the stat weights are for lvl 90 or lvl 100.

3)Enchants: You're missing enchants in each section. Heres Wowhead overview of enchanting changes.

4) Talents: Just talent tooltips, not even explanation of pros and cons. Not to even mention the missing numbers.

5) I definitely do not agree with your talent choices.

6) I definitely do not agree with your rotational choices.

7) Blizzard has its own OmniCC nowadays, the addon isnt as useful as it used to be.

Thats the major points with a quick glance, sure formatting etc could be better but im not gonna whine about that

edit: proper link

[Kritkin]

Plan to do this as soon as I have the time. Unfortunately the formatting proved to be one of the most time consuming parts of the guide, only to have it not cop over. I included the pdf of the guide until I can get that taken care of, which has formatting.

- - - Updated - - -

Could you add some formatting to each numbered section etc. Like Bigger font so it is easier to see when each section ends / begins?

Plan to do this as soon as I have the time. Unfortunately the formatting proved to be one of the most time consuming parts of the guide, only to have it not cop over. I included the pdf of the guide until I can get that taken care of, which has formatting.

- - - Updated - - -

Well...

1) Races: You're only describing the races, not giving out any information of the actual dps benefits the races have (aka numbers, or even a list of A>B>C)

2) Stat Weights: No indication whether the stat weights are for lvl 90 or lvl 100.

3)Enchants: You're missing enchants in each section. Heres http://www.wowhead.com/guide=2481/warlords-of-draenor-enchanting-overview of enchanting changes.

4) Talents: Just talent tooltips, not even explanation of pros and cons. Not to even mention the missing numbers.

5) I definitely do not agree with your talent choices.

6) I definitely do not agree with your rotational choices.

7) Blizzard has its own OmniCC nowadays, the addon isnt as useful as it used to be.

Thats the major points with a quick glance, sure formatting etc could be better but im not gonna whine about that

1. Was unable to find the math on the race choices, that's why its not there. If you could point me in the direction of some, it would be appreciated.

2. Stat weights are indeed for level 100, will clarify.

3. You are correct I missed some weapon enchants, in trying to only include those that applied to boomkin. Will edit to include the ones I missed.

4. There is a lot of disagreement over talent choices at the moment. Want to get some good community feedback and consensus before I put in the guide.

5. Please elaborate.

6. Again, elaborate.

7. Added this out of personal preference over the default, no one says its required, only recommended or helpful. Can remove if it's that much of an issue.

[Hildrande]

Thanks for posting this guide!

Opening Rotation
...
12. Reapply buffed Moonfire/Sunfire

Do these DoTs snapshot? Shouldn't you wait with Moonfire refreshment until just before you enter Solar?

And: All the secondary stats increase in power the higher the other stats are. The stat weight/multiplier values you present are so close that the concept of stat priority should be thrown out the window in favour of stat balancing.

Preach mentioned in his latest Balance video that whether you applied the DoTs during the Peak buffs or not didn't really matter, and the same with the timing for when to apply the Stellar Flare DoT. Do you know how large the difference is? How important is it to do the rotation the intended way?

[Kritkin]

Great guide. I was wondering if you could explain a little why your opening rotation is the way it is.
1. Why wait until lunar peak to use CA?
2. Why are you spending two charges of ss/starfall immediately upon pull and only 1 ss during CA?
3 ( continuation of #2). If we are waiting until lunar peak to use CA and not applying moonfire within those first 8 seconds, we deny ourselves any chance of benefiting from shooting stars so how could we justify spending a charge on starfall in the opener instead of another ss during CA? Esp on a single target fight? My understanding is that raw damage of starsurge > starfall given only 1 target.

Also here's Cyous' guide in case you wanted to add it to the other guides section

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/to...1003143?page=1

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Also am I right to assume that our 4pc will bundle very nicely with Euphoria?

Will be editing to correct some rotational issues.


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Plan to do this as soon as I have the time. Unfortunately the formatting proved to be one of the most time consuming parts of the guide, only to have it not cop over. I included the pdf of the guide until I can get that taken care of, which has formatting.

- - - Updated - - -



Plan to do this as soon as I have the time. Unfortunately the formatting proved to be one of the most time consuming parts of the guide, only to have it not cop over. I included the pdf of the guide until I can get that taken care of, which has formatting.

- - - Updated - - -



1. Was unable to find the math on the race choices, that's why its not there. If you could point me in the direction of some, it would be appreciated.

2. Stat weights are indeed for level 100, will clarify.

3. You are correct I missed some weapon enchants, in trying to only include those that applied to boomkin. Will edit to include the ones I missed.

4. There is a lot of disagreement over talent choices at the moment. Want to get some good community feedback and consensus before I put in the guide.

5. Please elaborate.

6. Again, elaborate.

7. Added this out of personal preference over the default, no one says its required, only recommended or helpful. Can remove if it's that much of an issue.

From IcyVeins, will edit to include in the guide.

II. Racial Perks Evaluated

For quite some time, we have complained about the imbalance of racials, and finally Blizzard has seen to fixing it. Whereas Night Elves have long had no impact on DPS and Trolls have reigned supreme, we'll now see a very minor difference from one race to another.

Alliance Perks
Night Elf: Touch of Elune = 1% haste at night and 1% crit chance during day. Yes, it seems silly, and we sort of expect them to change it before it goes live.
Worgen: Viciousness = 1% crit chance.

Horde Perks
Tauren: Brawn = 2% crit damage and healing bonus.
Troll: Berserking = 15% haste for 10 seconds on a 3-minute CD.

Comparison
Simulated through SimCraft, these evaluate as follows at level:
Troll - 37,242 DPS
Night Elf - 37,239 DPS
Worgen - 37,181 DPS
Tauren - 37,151 DPS
*evaluated with a 0.08% margine of error

What this means is that your choice of race does not matter at all from a DPS perspective. The difference between the highest and lowest simming races is 0.24%. You should choose your race based on utility and usefulness. A few things to consider:

Night Elves have Shadowmeld, which can occasionally help recover after wipes or even provide a temporary threat dump. Additionally, Quickness can be useful if there are adds that must be tanked by DPS for any reason.
Tauren have War Stomp, which is incredibly useful for controlling and limiting adds.
Trolls have Da Voodoo Shuffle, which can be useful if content has a significant amount of movement impairing effects.
Worgen have Darkflight, which can be extremely useful in case Dash and Stampeding Roar are inadequate.
Or, you can simply pick the race that you like the looks of best. How you decide is up to you, but what race you pick doesn't actually matter.

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Thanks for posting this guide!



Do these DoTs snapshot? Shouldn't you wait with Moonfire refreshment until just before you enter Solar?

And: All the secondary stats increase in power the higher the other stats are, the stat multipliers are so close that the concept of stat priority should be thrown out the window in favour of stat balancing.

Preach mentioned in his latest Balance video that whether you applied the DoTs during the Peak buffs or not didn't really matter, and the same with the timing of applying the Stellar Flare DoT. Do you know how large the difference is?

Going to be editing this. Refreshing dots at peak is showing a <1% overall benefit if done perfectly, sometimes to an actual dps loss over a hard cast.

[lappee]

1. Was unable to find the math on the race choices, that's why its not there. If you could point me in the direction of some, it would be appreciated.

You said you're using wrathcalcs. You have the numbers right there.

2. Stat weights are indeed for level 100, will clarify.

Then your statweights are based on having Tauren crit damage racial. Otherwise they're "wrong" (depending on the amount of stats)

3. You are correct I missed some weapon enchants, in trying to only include those that applied to boomkin. Will edit to include the ones I missed.

You're missing some of the better version of enchants aswell, not just weapon enchants.

4. There is a lot of disagreement over talent choices at the moment. Want to get some good community feedback and consensus before I put in the guide.

Disagreements over whats best to use in certain situations. Single target damage wise they're pretty easy to put in certain order. Also you're always free to say your own opinions of the talents as long as you're clearly stating that its your opinion.

5. Please elaborate.

Wrathcalcs values other set of talents at higher dps
Simcraft values other set of talents at higher dps
My own tests value other set of talents at higher dps

6. Again, elaborate.

There was just silly things, like casting starfall.
With your current edits, I still dont see any reason to use CA before other cd's. Aswell as it having no pre-cast what so ever.

7. Added this out of personal preference over the default, no one says its required, only recommended or helpful. Can remove if it's that much of an issue.

I just personally define "useful addons" as something that helps you deal more dps that isnt shown by the default UI. Feel free to keep them if you wish.

[Deleted]

Will be editing to correct some rotational issues.

As far as the 4 pc, it was edited in the latest build, to proc an effect called "Nature's Fury".
http://wod.wowhead.com/spell=179119

Correct that this would pair nicely with euphoria, in that it only buffs nature spells, ie solar side, so faster cycles would offer a greater benefit from the buff.

Pretty sure that's the LFR set bonus, what I think Mythiix means is this one http://wod.wowhead.com/spell=166677.
Further thinking Euphoria doesn't give you additional empowerment buffs, so not sure if it really boosts the 4-set bonus



Also I don't see the point in using CA till lunar and using starfall in our opener, that's a waste of an empowerment.

[Kritkin]

Thanks for the initial feedback. This is why I went ahead and posted the guide. There is a lot of discussion to be had. Remember to keep all feedback constructive and detailed. I'm off to bed but will be making some necessary edits in the morning.

[lappee]

As far as the 4 pc, it was edited in the latest build, to proc an effect called "Nature's Fury".
http://wod.wowhead.com/spell=179119

The 4pc you linked is only for LFR sets. The proper 4 pc is here

Also, I wouldnt copypaste things from Icy Veins. Their moonkin guides in 6.0 have been just silly.

[Kritkin]

Pretty sure that's the LFR set bonus, what I think Mythiix means is this one http://wod.wowhead.com/spell=166677.
And yes to my eyes it looks great with euphoria.

Also I don't see the point in using CA till lunar and using starfall in our opener, that's a waste of an empowerment.

ah yes. my google powers failed me. will edit to include

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The 4pc you linked is only for LFR sets. The proper 4 pc is here

I stand corrected <(^v^)>

[Hildrande]

Refreshing dots at peak is showing a <1% overall benefit if done perfectly, sometimes to an actual dps loss over a hard cast.

Wow.

I'm starting to think the target dummy difference between a not very good DPSer (like me) and a perfectly played balance druid will not be large. That the difference between good and not so good balance druids play will more be about how the toolkit is used in dynamic multi-target situations.

Which is maybe something you can mention, atleast I'm looking for information about it - what to do rotationwise (and talentwise, for that matter) when there's X number of targets. Should Moon/Sunfire application always have priority over Wrath/Starfire? How many targets do you need before Starfall does more damage than Starsurge used to buff the single target nukes?

[Kritkin]

Wow.

I'm starting to think the target dummy difference between a not very good DPSer (like me) and a perfectly played balance druid will not be large. That the difference between good and not so good balance druids play will more be about how the toolkit is used in dynamic multi-target situations.

Which is maybe something you can mention, atleast I'm looking for information about it - what to do rotationwise (and talentwise, for that matter) when there's X number of targets. Should Moon/Sunfire application always have priority over Wrath/Starfire? How many targets do you need before Starfall does more damage than Starsurge used to buff the single target nukes?

From what I'm seeing it's 3+ for using starfall

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You said you're using wrathcalcs. You have the numbers right there.

Then your statweights are based on having Tauren crit damage racial. Otherwise they're "wrong" (depending on the amount of stats)

You're missing some of the better version of enchants aswell, not just weapon enchants.

Disagreements over whats best to use in certain situations. Single target damage wise they're pretty easy to put in certain order. Also you're always free to say your own opinions of the talents as long as you're clearly stating that its your opinion.

Wrathcalcs values other set of talents at higher dps
Simcraft values other set of talents at higher dps
My own tests value other set of talents at higher dps

There was just silly things, like casting starfall.
With your current edits, I still dont see any reason to use CA before other cd's. Aswell as it having no pre-cast what so ever.

I just personally define "useful addons" as something that helps you deal more dps that isnt shown by the default UI. Feel free to keep them if you wish.

With latest WrathCalcs stat weight are changing with talent choice. Crit and Mastery dance around each other for the priority. Would you agree in a balance of thee two stats over priority would be most beneficial?

Thanks for the enchanting link. The source I had did not have them all listed. Will be adding these

After going over the WrathCalcs I'm showing SOTF + Euphoria on top. What are you showing?

[lappee]

With latest WrathCalcs stat weight are changing with talent choice. Crit and Mastery dance around each other for the priority. Would you agree in a balance of thee two stats over priority would be most beneficial?

I cant see mastery and crit dancing around in any other case than being Tauren. Mastery stays the best stat in all other cases (apart frm FoN, which in its current state is just horrible talent for PvE)

Although I did not check how each talent reacts to different amount of stats. The quick tests I did was with 600 rating in each secondary stat.

[Deleted]

Your Basic and Advanced Builds aren't very good as you don't explain what kind of encounter types they are for. What I'd recommend is explaining what to use (insert scenario here.) And when to use it.

And you state that there are no right or wrong choices when there definitely is (Incarnation being the burst/multi-target, while SotF being the sustained.) Same goes for the level 100 talents.

If I'm right you're writing this guide to help people improve and advance as a Balance Druid, So I think you shouldn't tell them to pick a talent that makes them feel happy and take a trip to fairy land.

Give them the facts, if they don't want to pick a talent that would improve their dps just because they don't feel like it, then they probably don't give a rats ass about the rest of the guide either.

EDIT:

Well you got rid of the example builds, but you still haven't covered the talents and when they should be used.

[Deleted]

Ok, a few changes i thought would be a good idea

1. Remove the entire 3.0 point as is and replace it with a short summary of What have we lost and What have we gained, then add a short description of the new eclipse system and spells, then leave a link to the Blizzard OP below for the full notes, it could look something like this:

What have we lost?:
-
-
-

This is just to clarify the list of changes, and to make this an easier read as the hole 3.0 part isn't that important (rip changes, maul removed?)

2. 4.0 Choosing a race, remove all the racial abilities that don't really matter (increased exp gain & reduced shadow damage for example) and then leave a notification to which race is better or does it matter, also fix the typo where choosing a race is marked in the text as part 5.0

3. 14.0 You should change that incarnation is before the pull in your opening rotation (and most importantly before CA) as incarnation triggers a GCD. Also your opening rotation goes on for far too long, focus more on what happens inside celestial alignment and pre pull, and less on what happens 40-60 seconds after the pull has occurred.

4. Celestial alignment is currently only worth casting in lunar eclipse, you should probably mention that. Also you should add to your single target priority: Cast sunfire when entering Solar eclipse, or something along those lines

5. Add bold's and underlining to make it easier to spot the important stuff or optionally more spacing.

Controversial stuff:

1. I thought that glyph of CA is a dps loss in PvE?

2. Isn't there a better version of all WoD enchants that consume more materials?

3. Isn't it beneficial to extend starfire cast a second ish over to solar because of the DPET?

4. Didn't they remove secondary stat based food buffs and replaced them with + int one?

[Erdluf]

I believe leather specialization doesn't give crit any more.

[mythiix]

Pretty sure that's the LFR set bonus, what I think Mythiix means is this one http://wod.wowhead.com/spell=166677.
Further thinking Euphoria doesn't give you additional empowerment buffs, so not sure if it really boosts the 4-set bonus



Also I don't see the point in using CA till lunar and using starfall in our opener, that's a waste of an empowerment.

Yes.


1. I thought that glyph of CA is a dps loss in PvE?
I don't know the math behind this but if I remember correctly the glyphed CA is good at low levels of haste and or there is heavy movement. Could be wrong though so don't criticize too much.

3. Isn't it beneficial to extend starfire cast a second ish over to solar because of the DPET?
Would love the answer to this as well.

[lappee]

3. Isn't it beneficial to extend starfire cast a second ish over to solar because of the DPET?
Would love the answer to this as well.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...Bno/edit#gid=0
That should help ya out