Balance Druid DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — The War Within (11.0.5)

Balance Druid gameplay is a standard build and spend class with a predictable cadence to their rotation.

At the start of combat or with each use of Celestial Alignment / Incarnation: Chosen of Elune, you choose between either Solar or Lunar Eclipse. To enter Solar Eclipse, you must cast two Starfires, and to enter Lunar Eclipse, you need to cast two Wrath.

From there on, you build Astral Power using the appropriate filler. In Solar Eclipse, you cast Wrath to gain Astral Power and, in Lunar Eclipse, you cast Starfire. Each Eclipse lasts 15 seconds. Eclipse uptime is incredibly important, and you should aim to be inside Eclipse as often as you can.

If this page refers to using Wrath or Starfire to generate Astral Power, assume it means the appropriate Eclipse unless stated otherwise.

On single-target, you will use Starsurge, which costs 40 Astral Power. On multi-target, you want to be casting Starfall, which costs 50 Astral Power. Some spells reduce the cost of these abilities, such as Rattle the Stars and Elune's Guidance.

Keep your DoTs up on all targets to activate your Mastery bonus. Use cooldowns optimally, either on cooldown or when there is a better moment.

If you are just getting started, follow this basic priority list:

1. Apply and maintain Moonfire and Sunfire (and Stellar Flare if talented)
2. Enter Eclipse or cast Incarnation: Chosen of Elune
3. On 1 and 2 targets, use Wrath to generate Astral Power. If you are in Incarnation: Chosen of Elune, you cast Wrath on 3 targets.
4. On 3 or more targets, use Starfire to generate Astral Power. If you are in Incarnation: Chosen of Elune, you cast Starfire on 4 targets or more.
5. On single target, spend Astral Power using Starsurge. On multi-target, spend Astral Power using Starfall.
6. Use other cooldowns as they are available or when optimal. Do not lose a use.

This is the core of the Balance Druid rotation, even though it is listed as the basic priority list. Once you have down the basics, you will focus on cooldown usage and buff management and learning the best ways to maintain high uptime on the important buffs.

Balance Druid enters their Eclipse state based on target count. This means targets that you can hit with your filler spells, Wrath, and Starfire. Follow the Eclipse rules outlined below:

• On 2 or less targets, enter Solar Eclipse
• On 3 or more targets, enter Lunar Eclipse

Remember, if there are 10 targets, but you can only cleave 2 of them, you would enter Solar Eclipse to generate more Astral Power.

Warrior of Elune is used to enter Solar Eclipse quickly. You want to use 2 charges to enter Solar Eclipse and then hold the last charge for mobility or when you are inside Incarnation: Chosen of Elune. Otherwise, let the final charge expire.

Below, we will go over the Balance Druid Opening Rotation. This can also be used as a cooldown priority list. Please note that from max range, Wrath has a 4-second travel time.

Use the buttons below to select how a talent changes your basic rotation:

• Show Force of Nature
• Show Stellar Flare
• Show Wild Mushroom
• Show Convoke the Spirits
• Show New Moon
• Show Fury of Elune

1. At 4 seconds on the pull timer, start pre-casting two Wraths.
2. Apply or maintain your Moonfire and Sunfire. Reapply these DoTs when they have 30% remaining on their duration.
3. Apply or maintain Stellar Flare. Reapply this DoT when it has 30% remaining on its duration.
4. Use Celestial Alignment or Incarnation: Chosen of Elune.
5. Drink your Potion
6. Cast Force of Nature when you have less than 80 Astral Power.
7. Cast Fury of Elune.
8. Cast Convoke the Spirits if you are below 40 Astral Power.
9. Cast Starsurge on single target and Starfall on multiple targets. Do not cap Astral Power.
10. Cast New Moon when you will not cap on Astral Power. Do not cap stacks of this spell. You want to cast at least one Full Moon during Celestial Alignment or Incarnation: Chosen of Elune.
11. Cast Wrath on 3 or less targets.
12. Cast Starfire on 4 or more targets.
13. Cast Wild Mushroom.If using these to maintain Waning Twilight, stagger these casts. Use for movement on single target.

Cooldown usage should be prioritized inside other cooldowns, but the same logic applies when used outside of the most optimal scenarios.

If you have to move and do not have Astral Power to cast or other instant cooldowns to use, reapply your DoTs. Moonfire does more on-hit damage if you have to spam a spell.

Balance Druid's general priorities and rules persist through the multi-target rotation. You are still keeping your DoTs up, entering the appropriate Eclipse based on which generator you are using, and you are still using the cooldowns as they come up/are best used.

Balance Druid does not have many choices for burst Damage options, with the exception of Warrior of Elune with Starfire. Balance Druids excel at sustained multi-target due to their DoTs, Starfall, and Fury of Elune and all the various talents that affect these abilities.

Your first priority is to activate Balance Druid Mastery, which requires getting your DoT's on the target:

• Cast Sunfire if the target will live for at least 5 seconds. The more targets there are, the less time they need to live to be worth DoTing.
• Cast Moonfire if the target will live for at least 6 seconds.

You may order your use of spells depending on the position of each enemy. For spells like Sunfire or Fury of Elune, you may want to wait until all targets are gathered.

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.

Warrior of Elune can be used on single-target fights at the loss of Starfall and Aetherial Kindling. You want to use this to enter Solar Eclipse instead of hard casting Starfire. Save the leftover charges for the following Eclipse cycle.

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.

Solstice and Balance of All Things trigger their effects at the start of the Eclipse and Nature's Grace triggers at the end of each Eclipse. Here are some tips on how to play around with these talents:

• Solstice generates a good amount of Astral Power at the start of an Eclipse. Try to go into each Eclipse with between 80 to 90 Astral Power to not overcap to excess Shooting Stars procs.
• Balance of All Things does not need to be prioritized over other buffs such as Starlord.
• As you leave an Eclipse, start a cast inside Eclipse and have it end outside of Eclipse. This will progress you towards your next Eclipse without consuming Nature's Grace.

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.

Balance Druid has quite a few cooldown options in The War Within. 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.