Balance Druid PvE

[Jazrinn 0]

First of all, thanks for the nice guide. It helped me get started on Balance early on in this patch!

I have something to add to the stat priority section or maybe the BiS gear section:

Mastery is indeed the best, with haste being 2nd and then versa and crit etc. We all know this. We also know versa is a bit better for convoke, since haste does nothing. What I want to add is that when people are using the VERY popular Quantum Device, they should know that it gives you one of your TWO highest secondary stats. With a lot of balance druids stacking haste after mastery this becomes a problem, as half of the time you are getting a fat haste buff for your convoke, which is useless.

Somewhere you could mention that QD results in a stat distribution favoring mastery and then you'd want to pump haste, but never let it exceed versa and keep crit low-ish (never neglect a stat completely). Or to put it in numbers: Mastery ~600-700, Versa ~400-500, Haste ~399-499, Crit ~200-300

Of course the numbers are not set in stone, but I think people should at least be aware of this intricate interaction!

[Manbearpig 28]

Something is wrong in the Night Fae opener here.

Edited April 20, 2021 by Manbearpig

[Bora 8]

Whats wrong with it?

[Guest Usy | Janni]

Hey, first thanks for your great content extremely important for so many people. You do highest dps rate here. 😉

But I didnt understand this pre cast thing properly, why cast starfire after the 2 wrath? The Goal is that both wrath reach the boss directly after the fight starts, so that you have directly over 50 astral power and eclipse right?

I am new on lv 60, so lets say I cast the 2 wrath at the start of the boss fight, to make it easier.

Would this be a correct order then or what would you change?

Wrath, Wrath, Moonfire, Sunfire, Starsurge, Starsurge, (to empty astral before convoke), celestial alignment, convoke, 2-3 Starsurge, x times Wrath, if eclipse ends 2 Starfire, then Starsurge and do on.

The question is, why we dont cast Starsurge to empty Astral Power before entering Convoke.

Did I understand mukti target right here?:

Sunfire, Starfall, Wrath, Wrath (for lunar eclipse), Starsurge/Starfire while always maintaining Starfall, then on solar eclipse cast Moonfire on all targets, 2 starsurge, Wrath as filler while everytime maintaining Starfall and Sunfire.

Is it right to use always the filler whichvis empowered by eclipse or for example is starfire > wrath at 5+ targets?

It is all a bit complicated for me at the beginning. Hope you can help me.

Thank you very much!

Best wishes,

Janni

 

[Bora 8]

On 5/25/2021 at 10:08 AM, Guest Usy | Janni said:

Hey, first thanks for your great content extremely important for so many people. You do highest dps rate here. 😉

But I didnt understand this pre cast thing properly, why cast starfire after the 2 wrath? The Goal is that both wrath reach the boss directly after the fight starts, so that you have directly over 50 astral power and eclipse right?

I am new on lv 60, so lets say I cast the 2 wrath at the start of the boss fight, to make it easier.

Would this be a correct order then or what would you change?

Wrath, Wrath, Moonfire, Sunfire, Starsurge, Starsurge, (to empty astral before convoke), celestial alignment, convoke, 2-3 Starsurge, x times Wrath, if eclipse ends 2 Starfire, then Starsurge and do on.

The question is, why we dont cast Starsurge to empty Astral Power before entering Convoke.

Did I understand mukti target right here?:

Sunfire, Starfall, Wrath, Wrath (for lunar eclipse), Starsurge/Starfire while always maintaining Starfall, then on solar eclipse cast Moonfire on all targets, 2 starsurge, Wrath as filler while everytime maintaining Starfall and Sunfire.

Is it right to use always the filler whichvis empowered by eclipse or for example is starfire > wrath at 5+ targets?

It is all a bit complicated for me at the beginning. Hope you can help me.

Thank you very much!

Best wishes,

Janni

 

You want to send out as many damaging spells as you can before combat starts so generally you;

Wrath > Wrath > Surge OR Wrath > Wrath > Starfire (if youre worried about prepulling)

As far as convoke, you normally empty to 30 or lower as mentioned in the guide.

Multi-target is just keeping your dots rolling and keeping starfall up at this time. There are rules involved with dot applications that depend on targets and which eclipse your in as does which filler but unless there are a bunch of targets just work on keeping your starfall up and always be casting. Take some times to feel it out and youll get  the hang of it.

[Bogdanov89 0]

Thanks for the guide.

I think the green checkmarks for the tier 6 talents on Builds and Talents page are mistaken.

You mention Twin Moons is not that great compared to other talents but its icon is marked with the green checkmark icon as if it is a great choice, while the Stellar Drift is marked with the yellow  question mark as if it is situational while your text declares it very good.

[Bora 8]

14 hours ago, Bogdanov89 said:

Thanks for the guide.

I think the green checkmarks for the tier 6 talents on Builds and Talents page are mistaken.

You mention Twin Moons is not that great compared to other talents but its icon is marked with the green checkmark icon as if it is a great choice, while the Stellar Drift is marked with the yellow  question mark as if it is situational while your text declares it very good.

They did swap this patch, ill get an update out tonight / tomorrow. Thank you for the catch!

[Guest Full Moon?]

In the rotation guide there is no mention at all of where Full Moon fits into the rotation or priority but it is recommended?

[Bora 8]

Full moon is part of the basic rotation when talented and does not require any specific timing. It is actually mentioned up at the top to just do not cap on your charges of full moon and it also mentions it is only suggested for Night Fae. Unlike Venthyr where Fury of Elune must be used a very particular way, full moon does not need to be.

[Guest Springtotem]

I'm a little concerned that you're claiming Venthyr as our top pick for boomkin, even if you hedge it with the caveat that it's a higher skill requirement to get the most of out it.  But like... world first competitors are the epitome of high skill, so you think they'd agree that Venthyr is best?  Over 25% of the DPS on Sylvannas' world first kill were boomkin – four out of fourteen members, more than any other spec – and all four chose Niya of the Night Fae.

A lot of people put significant stock in Icy-Veins' guides, and with good reason.  You've got the history as being the experts here.  So please, before more people make the very costly choice to change covenants and legendaries, at least consider reversing your suggestion.

[Bora 8]

All 4 moonkin in limit were venthyr, 2 moonkin in pieces were venthyr of the 4, 3 of the 4 moonkins in BDGG were venthyr, and all 4 moonkin in method were venthyr as well. So out of the top 5 guilds we had 20 or so moonkin where 13 of those were venthyr moonkin and rest were Night Fae (5 of those being in the same guild).

It is really nice to have 2 covenant choices where no other class has that sort of choice. Night Fae comes with ease of use and consistent damage and venthyr deletes mechanics. On slyvanas, the places where venthyr uses their cooldowns at most import is during the p1 intermission and on the 2nd add platform which is one of the most dangerous parts of the fight and a Venthyr moonkin has to do things which do not let them get full value and they still top the next 2 people on damage combined for those damage windows. Night Fae gets 3 Convokes off in P3 sylvanas making them slightly better for boss damage but even given all of that the Venthyr moonkins were all within a hair of the Night Fae ones in every available log.

if you check warcraftlogs.com, the majority of players are playing venthyr and performing incredibly well. I have also spoken to many high end raiders who think that Venthyr is still the better covenant. I will be keeping my recommendation for now but thank you for your input.

[Guest Avengerx]

First of all thank you for the nice guide. Just leveled to 60 with a druid and am starting to learn the rotations, so sorry if this is a silly question. If on single target Solar is the preffered state, why are we starting in the other one? Or there's not that much of a difference on ST between the 2 eclipses and Lunar is just quicket to set up with Wraths?

[Bora 8]

13 hours ago, Guest Avengerx said:

First of all thank you for the nice guide. Just leveled to 60 with a druid and am starting to learn the rotations, so sorry if this is a silly question. If on single target Solar is the preffered state, why are we starting in the other one? Or there's not that much of a difference on ST between the 2 eclipses and Lunar is just quicket to set up with Wraths?

Wrathing is to generate Astral Power and Celestial Alignment / Incarnation: Chosen to Elune grants you solar and lunar eclipse simultaneously 

[Guest Thruster]

In light of the recommended Covenant change from Venythr to Night Fae for Balance Druids a few things on this page seem out of date, such as:

2. Best Overall Legendary for Balance Druid

If you are going Venthyr, the absolute best overall Legendary is  Sinful Hysteria. This Legendary is mandatory in enabling Venthyr Balance Druids in most PvE content. For a secondary option or for most other Covenanents,  Primordial Arcanic Pulsar is a safe choice and is also the choice for the second-best Covenanent, Night Fae.

 

To the commenters who are jerks, "Dude, don't be a *filtered*." Constructive criticism is helpful. Condescending and insulting the writers is not helpful. You're getting all this helpful info for free. Have a little freakin' gratitude, jerks.

 

Wheaton's Law

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/wheatons-law

[Bora 8]

On 8/29/2021 at 4:07 PM, Guest Thruster said:

In light of the recommended Covenant change from Venythr to Night Fae for Balance Druids a few things on this page seem out of date, such as:

2. Best Overall Legendary for Balance Druid

If you are going Venthyr, the absolute best overall Legendary is  Sinful Hysteria. This Legendary is mandatory in enabling Venthyr Balance Druids in most PvE content. For a secondary option or for most other Covenanents,  Primordial Arcanic Pulsar is a safe choice and is also the choice for the second-best Covenanent, Night Fae.

 

To the commenters who are jerks, "Dude, don't be a *filtered*." Constructive criticism is helpful. Condescending and insulting the writers is not helpful. You're getting all this helpful info for free. Have a little freakin' gratitude, jerks.

 

Wheaton's Law

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/wheatons-law

Hey we actually still  recommend the Venthyr covenant for those who want to push their best in raid but Night Fae is still great and easily usable. Thank you for the kind words as well!

[Guest Gialania]

Legs

Skyterror's Stonehide Leggings

De Other Side

 

these legs are from Halls of Atonement not De Other Side

[Bora 8]

On 3/19/2022 at 1:23 PM, Guest Gialania said:

Legs

Skyterror's Stonehide Leggings

De Other Side

 

these legs are from Halls of Atonement not De Other Side

hey sorry about the mislabel, ill get it fixed

[Guest Stargazer777]

The guide says that the recommended covenants for Balance Druids have changed effective with Patch 9.1. However, I can't tell which covenant is recommended for what purpose. There is a problem on this page https://www.icy-veins.com/wow/balance-druid-best-covenants-soulbinds-and-conduits with item 3, Summary of the Best Covenants, Soulbinds and Conduits, The first column says "Focus," but then it says the different soulbinds. Shouldn't the Focus be Raiding, Mythic+, and Torghast? That's how it's broken down on similar pages for other classes. I want to focus on raiding first, and mythic+ second, but I'm not sure which covenant is best at this time. Thanks!

[Bora 8]

10 hours ago, Guest Stargazer777 said:

The guide says that the recommended covenants for Balance Druids have changed effective with Patch 9.1. However, I can't tell which covenant is recommended for what purpose. There is a problem on this page https://www.icy-veins.com/wow/balance-druid-best-covenants-soulbinds-and-conduits with item 3, Summary of the Best Covenants, Soulbinds and Conduits, The first column says "Focus," but then it says the different soulbinds. Shouldn't the Focus be Raiding, Mythic+, and Torghast? That's how it's broken down on similar pages for other classes. I want to focus on raiding first, and mythic+ second, but I'm not sure which covenant is best at this time. Thanks!

Balance druid has two fully fleshed out usable covenants that perform very well. There is not necessarily a raid versus mythic plus as both are played at the highest level with much success. Night Fae is a more laxed spec where you play more with the flow of the fight and Venthyr is better when you know you can make use of the powerful CD. We do go into much more explanation below the graph on the utilizations of both covenants and is SPECIFICALLY do not recommend one of the two as they are both not only viable but outright competitive.

Regarding soulbinds, these stay very similar regardless of the content done. I can label them as such to avoid confusion.

I would say new players should learn night fae but once you have some mastery over the class, try venthyr and see which one you like better. As someone who progressed mythic content, I can say that the two specs are interchangeable on every fight with the exception of Anduin.

[TreizeEU 0]

Hello Bora.

I just noticed there's an error in the covenants page for balance druids. The Focus-column in the "3. Summary of the Best Covenants, Soulbinds, and Conduits" section doesn't mention which covenant&soulbind combo is for raiding/mythic+, etc. Instead it say the covenant & soulbind a second time?

[Guest Spotshot]

Soulshape does not cost a global to return to  Moonkin Form either as you can cast a Balance spell to shift back instantly.

I just recently picked up balance, and am having trouble replicating this behavior in game. I find it always takes me out of moonkin form no matter what I do to come out of soulshape.

[Guest Signex]

Hello, easy mode's talent tree is out of date when importing.

[Abstract 0]

On 11/24/2022 at 7:53 AM, Guest Signex said:

Hello, easy mode's talent tree is out of date when importing.

I also noticed this also and when I put in all the talents manually I was given this code:

BYGAYhlYdy9RJ6ROrphOEi69vCAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAoAQSiIQChkEkIgWCJJRaSgDEIlkWEE0AIA

Hopefully this helps.

[Bora 8]

This should be updated now.

[Juliadeer 0]

There is an error in the Balance Druid tree I noticed that the picture shows rattle the stars as but when you copy and paste in the code it enabled starweaver. Not sure which is the correct one the picture or the code but I thought I would mention it. (this is for the multitarget balance druid talent tree, right side of the tree).