New Balance Druid Seeking help

[Andanas 0]

I've been playing either Feral or Guardian for the last 9 years or so, and have never played a range class in a raiding environment.  Now I'm trying Balance for the first time, simply because we have too many melee, and I am struggling big time.  My DPS is averaging under 20k.

 

http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/character/draenor/Andanas/advanced

 

My weapon is not enchanted yet, because I just got it on the last fight of the night, so it will not be in any of the logs I'll link below.  Before that, I was using the 630 crafted blue.  My other weapon was agility staff, which won't do me a lot of good as Balance.

 

I'm using Incarnation and Balance of Power to, hopefully, make the rotation easier.  I know it does less DPS than Euphoria, but isn't it still "competitive"?   Though for next week I am going to try Euphoria on Butcher, since I wont be in a group, and won't have to move.

 

Here are the logs from this weekend.

 

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/QM1rKJLcxaPh23n6

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/jnTMbQv3k6Nf8P4Z

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/6FBPxMvraTkXfQjD

 

I had no DPS on Brackenspore cause I was on flame thrower duty.  (Oh,  off topic but, flamethrower + fire kitty = a fire breathing fire kitty.  Pretty awesome.)

 

Any and all help is appreciated.  Like I said, I'm new to Balance, and range in general.  I see the benefits (like being able to see the encounter, and not the boss's butt), but I need to sort this out, soon.

[Tarazet 144]

The new weapon will make a big difference especially once it's enchanted. Raiding with a blue weapon is humbling; I have 645 item level (because I'm just a good casual player at this point), but I have been getting better numbers than that on Kargath and Butcher, partly because I know how to play the class and partly because I have the 640 caster mace. But improving your standing in the raid is still going to depend on executing the rotation a little better.

 

I think the 'common wisdom' that Euphoria isn't good on movement fights is a little overblown. If anything, I think it's better for a couple of reasons. First, there's a significant amount of time that you have reduced cast times on your nukes. It can make a big difference if you have a second to finish your cast instead of 1.5 seconds. Second, it's easier to maintain DoTs when you don't have to cast Sunfire twice per cycle to keep it from falling off - but unlike Balance of Power, you cast them enough that you can just hit your Moonfire button when you have to move and it's generally going to be a good call. Third, Stellar Flare has a cast time, reducing your mobility, and makes the rotation excessively complex and difficult to execute. I also prefer Soul of the Forest; if you're good at getting Incarnation on before the pull, then you can get a stronger opener out of it.

 

Since you've played Feral before, you should have a better grasp of how to maintain DoT damage. 70% is pretty low, and not only does it make up a fairly substantial percentage of your damage, but it also has a chance of giving you another Starsurge charge. Starsurge is not only your most damaging single-target ability, but empowering your nukes regularly is super important.

 

One of the great things about playing a ranged DoT class is that you don't have to move to keep damage rolling on targets that are spread out, like the Gorian mages on Imperator. You should get used to doing that; even if only the recent Moonfire/Sunfire application gives you Shooting Stars procs, the extra damage is still well worth the time spent targeting and casting, plus when you cast Moonfire, it gets a huge buff to the initial damage of the next Moonfire you cast for 3 seconds.

 

There's also the issue of the opener. Every thread you see about Balance covers it, because we do a huge percentage of our damage in the first 30 seconds of a fight. I use exactly the opener that the guide recommends.

[Krazyito 521]

I have a thread already going on how to do a proper opener found here

 

Basically, here is what you want to do:

 

Here is what you're doing: https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/QM1rKJLcxaPh23n6#type=casts&pins=0%24Separate%24%23244F4B%24auras-gained%240%240.0.0.Any%240.0.0.Any%24true%240.0.0.Any%24false%24112071%5E2%24Off%24%23909049%24expression%24type+%3D+%22cast%22&source=10&view=events&fight=2

 

[Krazyito 521]

Also, I forgot about using Solar Beam in the opener.  It helps proc trinkets. Just macro it with CA/Moonfire.

[Andanas 0]

Thanks for the replies.  I'm going to work on my opener, and start using Euphoria. I just have a couple questions about it.

 

Is it better matched with Incarnation or SotF?  Also, is there a point when Stellar Flare or Balance of Power pull ahead of Euphoria?  

 

Also, on just casting spells in general, I was taught when I was playing my warlock back at the start of Wrath to spam that cast button, so you get the next cast started right after the first one ends (i.e Shadow Bolt)  Is this the correct way?  While on the training dummy, doing this I'd find myself having casts that cross the eclipse bar, and sometimes I wouldn't catch myself, and cast the wrong spell because I'm spamming the button.  So is it safe to slow down a little bit?  I'm using Quartz, and the red latency bar.  I'd have to cast earlier than most to account for lag (I live in US, but play in EU).

[Tarazet 144]

Euphoria is equally well matched with either Soul of the Forest or Incarnation. The main difference is that with Incarnation, you can take advantage of periods of the fight where you benefit from Bloodlust or other significant buffs, and get more out of those periods than you can with SotF. So on shorter fights, it will perform significantly better. Over the course of a longer fight, it will even out.

 

At this point, there is no gear level where any talent performs better than Euphoria on a single target.

 

As far as spamming the button: there's a concept in World of Warcraft, for melee and ranged, called ability queueing. It's also called lag tolerance. It allows you to push the button a couple tenths before the previous cast or GCD is complete, and the server will queue up the next ability seamlessly to activate as soon as it's possible. You can manually change the lag tolerance to your liking, use mods that will dynamically adjust the tolerance to your actual latency (WoW can't do that on its own), or simply turn it off. It's a good idea to get a feel for how that queueing works, because it's the best way to effectively chain spells together and maximize the number of casts you get off in real-world raiding, where there are internet blips and even occasional lag spikes. Melee should be doing this too, but it's a different mentality. When playing a melee, you are sometimes waiting through downtime until you have regenerated enough resources to use your buttons (which invites spamming them until they work); when playing a caster, you want to do everything in your power to get as many casts off as possible, and that means stringing together casts fluidly and fluently.