Balance Druid DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — 12.0.5

Welcome to our Rotation page for Balance Druids. On this page, you will find everything you need to know about actually playing the spec in Raiding and Mythic+ scenarios.

By selecting talents and Hero Talents below, the rotations in this guide will update accordingly.

FAQWhy Am I Not Able To Maintain Eclipse?

The new Eclipse system reduces ramp-up time at the cost of overall uptime. This is most noticeable in raids, but you will feel this downtime on any fight longer than two to three minutes. On average, you can maintain Eclipse, including cooldowns, for 65-75% of the time. What matters is having Eclipse when it is needed. Plan your downtimes based on the needs of the fight, and avoid capping charges of Eclipse to reach the highest achievable uptime. For example, if you know you want to hit a priority target in 10 seconds, just sit outside Eclipse and generate Astral Power. Last mob of a Mythic+ dungeon pack? Don't waste a charge on it.

Elune's Chosen

Single Target

AoE

Keeper of the Grove

Single Target with Incarnation: Chosen of Elune

best choice

Single Target with Convoke the Spirits

AoE

best choice

Active Talents

Passive Talents

Force of Nature

Celestial Alignment

Wild Mushroom

Sunseeker Mushroom

Incarnation: Chosen of Elune

Convoke the Spirits

Fury of Elune

New Moon

Nature's Balance

Umbral Intensity

Meteor Storm

Aetherial Kindling

Soul of the Forest

Orbital Strike

Whirling Stars

Touch the Cosmos

Meteorites

Starweaver

Rattle the Stars

Sundered Firmament

Orbit Breaker

Radiant Moonlight

Elune's Guidance

Balance Druid ExplainedSingle Target RotationSingle Target OpenerAoE RotationAoE Opener

1.1.

Basics of Balance Druid

As a Balance Druid, you will be engaging with the Eclipse system. You will choose an Eclipse state based on the last filler spell that you cast. Wrath will allow you to enter Eclipse (Solar) and Starfire will allow you to enter Eclipse (Lunar). Being inside Celestial Alignment or Incarnation: Chosen of Elune will grant you the benefits of both Eclipse states.

You will be applying DoTs to all applicable targets, building Astral Power with the Eclipse appropriate filler, and then spending that Astral Power to deal a large amount of damage. The basic priority of these actions are as follows:

1. Do not cap Astral Power. You will spend Astral Power even when not inside Eclipse if you would otherwise cap.
2. Apply Sunfire and Moonfire to your targets. DoTs are efficient damage and interact with many talents
3. Enter Eclipse (Solar) when hitting one target with your filler and Eclipse (Lunar) when hitting multiple targets.
4. Build Astral Power using Wrath when in Eclipse (Solar) and Starfire when in Eclipse (Lunar).
5. Spend Astral Power on Starsurge on one target and Starfall on multiple targets.

FAQWhy Am I Not Able To Maintain Eclipse?

The new Eclipse system reduces ramp-up time at the cost of overall uptime. This is most noticeable in raids, but you will feel this downtime on any fight longer than two to three minutes. On average, you can maintain Eclipse, including cooldowns, for 65-75% of the time. What matters is having Eclipse when it is needed. Plan your downtimes based on the needs of the fight, and avoid capping charges of Eclipse to reach the highest achievable uptime. For example, if you know you want to hit a priority target in 10 seconds, just sit outside Eclipse and generate Astral Power. Last mob of a Mythic+ dungeon pack? Don't waste a charge on it.

FAQWhy cant I enter Eclipse (Solar)?

The Elune's Chosen Hero Talent tree has a talent which disables Eclipse (Solar) called Lunar Calling. You can still cast Wrath but will no longer be able to change Eclipse types. Your primary filler when using Lunar Calling will be Starfire as it does increased damage.

1.2.

Balance Druid Single-Target Priority List

1. Do not cap Astral Power.
2. Apply and maintain Sunfire and recast before entering Celestial Alignment/ Incarnation: Chosen of Elune.
3. Apply and maintain Moonfire and recast before entering Celestial Alignment/ Incarnation: Chosen of Elune.
4. Apply and maintain Moonfire. Force of Nature will apply it for you when cast.
5. Cast Fury of Elune before entering Eclipse or casting Celestial Alignment/ Incarnation: Chosen of Elune.
6. Cast Force of Nature before entering Eclipse or casting Celestial Alignment/ Incarnation: Chosen of Elune.
7. Cast Celestial Alignment.
8. Cast Incarnation: Chosen of Elune.
9. Cast Convoke the Spirits while inside Celestial Alignment and under 40 Astral Power.
10. Enter Eclipse (Solar).
11. Cast Starfall if you have a Starweaver or Touch the Cosmos proc.
12. Cast Starsurge to spend Astral Power or have a Starweaver proc.
13. Cast Starsurge to spend Astral Power
14. Cast Wrath to generate Astral Power.
15. Before leaving any Eclipse, save Astral Power if you are going to enter Eclipse right or spend your Astral Power if you are going to be waiting outside of Eclipse for several seconds.

1.3.

Balance Druid Single-Target Opener Explained

Before combat starts, make sure you you are in Moonkin Form and have Mark of the Wild active.

1. At approximately 4-seconds on the pull timer, precast two Wrath.
2. Apply and maintain Moonfire on the target.
3. Apply and maintain Sunfire on the target.
4. Apply Sunfire to the target. You will not need to apply Moonfire as it will be applied by Force of Nature. Maintain both DoTs.
5. Cast Fury of Elune.
6. Cast Force of Nature.
7. Use your trinkets and potions and cast Celestial Alignment.
8. Use your trinkets and potions and cast Incarnation: Chosen of Elune.
9. Cast Starsurge to get below 40 Astral Power.
10. Cast Convoke the Spirits.
11. Cast Starfire to proc the instant cast Ascendant Eclipses while inside Celestial Alignment/ Incarnation: Chosen of Elune.
12. Cast Starsurge to spend Astral Power and Wrath to generate it.

1.4.

Balance Druid AoE Priority List

1. Do not cap on Astral Power.
2. Apply and maintain Moonfire and recast before entering Celestial Alignment/ Incarnation: Chosen of Elune. You will cast this as targets are being stacked.
3. Apply and maintain Moonfire. You will cast this as targets are being collected. Force of Nature will spread Moonfire to 6 unafflicted targets.
4. Apply and maintain Sunfire and recast before entering Celestial Alignment/ Incarnation: Chosen of Elune. You will want to wait until multiple targets are stacked if possible.
5. Cast Fury of Elune.
6. Cast Force of Nature before entering Eclipse or casting Celestial Alignment/ Incarnation: Chosen of Elune.
7. Cast Celestial Alignment.
8. Cast Incarnation: Chosen of Elune.
9. Cast Fury of Elune.
10. Cast Convoke the Spirits if there are less than 8 targets and you have less than 40 Astral Power.
11. Enter Eclipse (Lunar).
12. Cast Starfall to spend Astral Power or if you have a Starweaver or Touch the Cosmos proc.
13. Cast Starsurge if there are less than 8 targets and you have a Starweaver proc.
14. Cast Starfire to build Astral Power.
15. Before leaving any Eclipse, save Astral Power if you are going to enter Eclipse right or spend your Astral Power if you are going to be waiting outside of Eclipse for several seconds.

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FAQ Meteor Storm or Aetherial Kindling?

This is an interesting choice node early on in the Talent tree. Meteor Storm if best used when you are bursting down a medium to large group of enemies in a more periodic fashion. Consider this a burst option for some raid encounters. Aetherial Kindling is good for longer duration AoE fights and pulls where your DoTs would have otherwise fallen off or needed to be reapplied once before the targets died.

1.5.

Balance Druid AoE Opener Explained

Before combat starts, make sure you you are in Moonkin Form and have Mark of the Wild active.

1. At approximately 4-seconds on the pull timer, precast two Wrath.
2. Apply Moonfire to the targets as they are collected.
3. Apply Moonfire to targets. Force of Nature will spread Moonfire to 6 unafflicted targets.
4. Apply Sunfire to the targets when they are collected to reduce excess globals.
5. Cast Fury of Elune.
6. Cast Force of Nature.
7. Cast Celestial Alignment.
8. Cast Incarnation: Chosen of Elune.
9. Cast Fury of Elune.
10. Cast Starfall to spend Astral Power and Starfire to generate it.

• 2-piece Set Bonus: Shooting Stars deals 40% more Damage and generates 2-additional Astral Power outside Eclipse.

The 2-piece set bonus focuses on the Shooting Stars passive, making it deal more damage and generate more Astral Power out of the Eclipse state. Hail of Stars and Touch of the Cosmos can help reproc or extend Solstice which is the primary driver of Shooting Stars damage.

• 4-piece Set Bonus: Starfall and Starfall deal 5% more damage and have a 30% chance to proc a Shooting Stars which deals additional damage to targets around them.

The 4-set bonus also generates additional Astral Power and increases damage output. The exploding Shooting Stars does significant damage on multi-target but is still great on single target.

Balance Druid is more of a priority system rather than a hard set rotation. Making active decisions as to when you want to use each talent and what you want to focus on in each encounter can affect how you play. This section will dive into some things of note for several important talents and features.

Entering Eclipse and DoTing targets is something you do proactively. You want to understand not only the situation you are in but the situation you will be in when casting these spells.

On one and two targets is is best to cast Starsurge instead of Starfall if you do not take Aetherial Kindling. For additional damage on two targets, you can attempt to maintain Stellar Amplification on each target. This is a DPS increase over hitting just one target with Starsurge but it is minor compared to if you were to cast Starfall instead.

Currently, it is best to Starfall on three targets regardless of Hero Talent choice. This does impact the talents that are taken. If you are going to be spending the majority of your time hitting two targets, you will not want to take Nature's Balance, Power of Goldrinn, Stellar Amplification, or Convoke the Spirits. Instead, you will want to take Talents such as Incarnation: Chosen of Elune, Elune's Guidance, and even Astral Communion.

When choosing which Eclipse to enter, you want to know how many targets you will be able to hit with your filler spell. If you are able to hit 3-targets consistently with Starfire, you will want to be in Lunar Eclipse. If you are not able to, make sure you are in Solar Eclipse. If you are specced into Elune's Chosen, you will always go into Lunar Eclipse.

When DoTing targets, you need to factor in the amount of time those DoTs will be dealing damage. When a target lives through an entire DoT duration, that single global you used to apply the DoT is the most efficient global per damage you can cast. However not every target lives 15-24 seconds at a time. If a target will only live 5-6 seconds, you will want to focus on getting as much raw damage into that target as possible via your spenders and other abilities and forgo DoTing that target as it would do less damage for that global than say a Wrath or Starsurge.

Starlord is the main buff that you work your Astral Power expenditure around. You want to maintain this in two ways. First, you need to have a high overall uptime on this buff, and second, you want the bulk of your buff to be at 3-stacks. This means you should be pooling Astral Power for when your buff ends.

Since Starlord is now tied to the duration of Eclipse, you want to enter your Eclipse with 80-100 Astral Power where possible. This will allow you to cast two spender spells instantly without accidentally overcapping Astral Power between GCDs. You never want to cap on Astral Power. You would then get your 3rd stack of Starlord and build and spend as normal until the next Eclipse.

FAQShould I spend Astral Power outside of Eclipse?

Yes you should! If you are in position where you are unable to or holding off on entering Eclipse, it is important to still spend Astral Power. You will want to pool for Eclipse but you should never cap if preventable. Starlord will last 20-seconds or until the next Eclipse. This means two things. Firstly, you will still have the Haste buff outside of a normal Eclipse cycle so you are able to cast quickly. Second, you will be able to build another Starlord buff outside of Eclipse until you enter the next one. The only downside of spending Astral Power outside of Eclipse is the loss of the 15% damage bonus.

Always try to overlap Convoke the Spirits with Celestial Alignment / Incarnation: Chosen of Elune as well as the buff from Balance of All Things.

Convoke the Spirits has a 45-yard range from the center of any target's hitbox. This means for larger bosses, max range Convoke the Spirits may end up whiffing all Balance spells if you are too far away.

With Elune's Guidance talented, melee Convoke the Spirits is less consistent than ranged Convoke. Avoid being in melee if possible, or you are more likely to lose a Balance-specific catch. This is a minor point but something to avoid if possible.

If you are using Convoke the Spirits on multiple targets, cast Convoke before casting other Starfalls to raise the chance that you will cast a free Starfall.

Combat Information

Talents and Gear

Knowing how to play your rotation is only half the battle. Make sure to grab the best talent build for every situation, and check out which trinkets and other items are worth getting ASAP!

TalentsGear

Balance Druid has quite a few cooldown options in Midnight. The main cooldown that we refer to in this guide is Celestial Alignment, which can be upgraded by another talent called Incarnation: Chosen of Elune. You often want to use these immediately every time they come off cooldown as you want to get as many usages as possible.

Cooldowns should be stacked together. If you can use Celestial Alignment and other cooldowns, such as Convoke the Spirits or Fury of Elune at the same time, it will make those other cooldowns stronger as well. These buttons are supposed to do the most damage per press compared to the spells you can always cast.

Some cooldowns come in the form of charge-based spells, such as Wild Mushroom and New Moon. You should not let these cap their charges, as that is the same as another spell being off cooldown and not being used. Keep their charges rolling even if it is not the most efficient use of your time.

The new Combat Assistant is being added alongside the new One-Button rotation which comes with a minor GCD penalty. The Combat Assistant is a good learning tool and will play at a 10-15% damage loss while the One-Button rotation will be 15-20% worse than an optimally player-driven rotation.

Bora

Guide Author

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This was written by Borabank, a Balance Druid theorycrafter and raider in Country Club. You can watch him on his Twitch channel or find him in the Dreamgrove Discord server.