Balance Druid DPS Ny'alotha Raid Guide — Dragonflight 10.2.5

Balance Druid continues their theme of single-target damage and priority target execution. In a raid which looks littered with multi-target fights, this can look disheartening to some, but the difficulties in each fight are generally not all enemies, but normally just a single mob out of several.

With room designs and certain mechanics, Balance Druid range and mobility are put on full showcase in Ny'alotha and proper play can reward great results.

While Vision of Perfection is the safe choice, Guardian of Azeroth can eek out ahead in certain scenarios and become usable in single target-focused fights. Fight length is the major consideration when taking Condensed Life-Force. Times such as 2:30 and 5:00 put Visions in that awkward place where your cooldown is coming up as the fight ends. This means you are relying completely on the procs of the Major when it comes down to your damage output.

We advise you to use the following essences against Wrathion, the Black Emperor.

• Major Slot
  • Vision of Perfection — Rank 3: Vision of Perfection + Strive for Perfection
• Minor Slots
  • Conflict and Strife — Rank 3: Strife
  • Breath of the Dying — Rank 3: Lethal Strikes
  • The Crucible of Flame — Rank 3: Ancient Flame

This is a classic two phase dragon boss. The first phase is a tank and spank. Stay spread and keep some distance between yourself and the boss to minimize the movement needed to avoid max Incineration damage, the fireballs cast at the end of the Gale Blast channel, and finally to find the safe spot during the Burning Cataclysm cast. Towards the end of the Gale Blast channel, reapply all DoTs, as the boss will be out of range for a moderate period of time.

After two Burning Cataclysms, the boss becomes untargetable and drops several Scales of Wrathion. If you are assigned to run the debuff through the shards, save your Dash for this phase, as it will help you greatly and it is also roughly 3-minutes between phases. Tiger Dash can be viable here, as the fight consists of many large movements. Depending on your clearing abilities, there may be some shards remaining. Starfall can also be used on this fight to clear out the stealthed adds, which spawn in the four corners of the room.

Balance Druids can shapeshift to other forms to remove the slow debuff. Depending on your raid composition, you can either cooldown the shards during the intermission, or hold for Boss dps.

For more information, please refer to our Wrathion, the Black Emperor guide.

We advise you to use the following essences against Maut.

• Major Slot
  • Vision of Perfection — Rank 3: Vision of Perfection + Strive for Perfection
• Minor Slots
  • Conflict and Strife — Rank 3: Strife
  • Breath of the Dying — Rank 3: Lethal Strikes
  • The Crucible of Flame — Rank 3: Ancient Flame

A single target-focused fight with add spawns. Not a ton of movement on this fight, but there is the Devour Magic debuff, which should be run out of the raid, as well as the Dark Manifestation pull. Wild Charge is a good answer to both of these abilities. Keep your DoTs applied to the add spawned after the black hole collapses and focus it down if instructed, but primarily focus on depleting the shield of the boss.

In phase two, stack as a raid and burn the boss while running out Drain Essence to be dispelled. As for cooldowns on this fight, unless you have a clear idea of how fast you will push the boss, just hit it on cooldown and save for Bloodlust, if you will not lose a cast.

You can decurse yourself and save you the trouble of running into the Devour Magic silence fields. Other than this the fight basically remains the same as heroic.

For more information, please refer to our Maut guide.

We advise you to use the following essences against The Prophet Skitra.

• Major Slot
  • Vision of Perfection — Rank 3: Vision of Perfection + Strive for Perfection
• Minor Slots
  • Conflict and Strife — Rank 3: Strife
  • Breath of the Dying — Rank 3: Lethal Strikes
  • The Crucible of Flame — Rank 3: Ancient Flame

The add on this fight always takes priority over the boss. Pool Astral Power for each spawn and blow it out of the water. Consider holding Arcanic Pulsar stacks for this add if you will not cap Astral Power. You will be able to Barkskin every other add spawn, so keep it on cooldown to help the healers.

On Heroic, the Prophet will occasionally cast Images of Absolution. Make sure you are talented into Mass Entanglement, as this will entirely negate this mechanic. Wait for the images to full coalesce and begin to move or the root will be resisted.

The only change on mythic is that only half the raid can see the mechanics the boss throws at you. So if you are assigned to Mass Entanglement the Images of Absolution and do not see them spawn, they are on the other side.

For more information, please refer to our The Prophet Skitra guide.

We advise you to use the following essences against Dark Inquisitor Xanesh.

• Major Slot
  • Vision of Perfection — Rank 3: Vision of Perfection + Strive for Perfection
• Minor Slots
  • Conflict and Strife — Rank 3: Strife
  • Breath of the Dying — Rank 3: Lethal Strikes
  • The Crucible of Flame — Rank 3: Ancient Flame

Position yourself towards the center of the room by Queen Azshara and rotate around the center to avoid all mechanics. Balance Druid’s tankability and increased range pays dividends on this fight, which rewards not having to play on the edge of the room.

If chosen to perform the Void Ritual mechanic, note that the ball will strike the edge of your character’s hitbox and travel in the direction that you are facing. Movement is not required to change the direction of the orb's momentum, so find an angle to thread the orb and plant your feet.

Make use of your long range Solar Beam as a back-up or a far ranged kick. Pool for and focus down the adds quickly.

For more information, please refer to our Dark Inquisitor Xanesh guide.

We advise you to use the following essences against The Hivemind.

• Major Slot
  • Vision of Perfection — Rank 3: Vision of Perfection + Strive for Perfection
• Minor Slots
  • Conflict and Strife — Rank 3: Strife
  • Breath of the Dying — Rank 3: Lethal Strikes
  • The Crucible of Flame — Rank 3: Ancient Flame

A council style fight with plentiful add spawns. This is a pretty subpar fight design for the Balance Druid from a pure damage standpoint, as there are plenty of little adds you only care to apply Sunfire to, but we do provide plenty of burst when focusing down regenerating flying mobs, as well as the Aqir Ravager.

Depending on the amount of burst multi-target damage in your raid, you may want to swap to Essence of the Focusing Iris major. Saving the cooldown for stacked Darters and occasional Drone damage. You can use Mass Entanglement at the end of the Aqir Darter's cast to prevent it from flying away and it will cast there afterwards. Otherwise just focus down priority targets and pump into the bosses.

For more information, please refer to our The Hivemind guide.

We advise you to use the following essences against Shad'har the Insatiable.

• Major Slot
  • Vision of Perfection — Rank 3: Vision of Perfection + Strive for Perfection
• Minor Slots
  • Conflict and Strife — Rank 3: Strife
  • Breath of the Dying — Rank 3: Lethal Strikes
  • The Crucible of Flame — Rank 3: Ancient Flame

A single target DPS race. Spread around the room to minimize movement, as well as reduce damage taken from Living Miasma explosions. Phase one is largely a tank and spank. Avoid circles on the ground, as well as Shad'har's breath ability.

Phase two highlights our survivability. Move to soak Entropic Buildups around the room using Barkskin or Bear Form when Living Miasma explosions are happening. You have 15-seconds to fully soak, so no need to absorb the whole thing at once.

Phase three is a pure burn. Avoid the green circles that spawn nearby players and manage your space well, as you will be forced to the edge of the room by the growing pool in the center. Use Wild Charge Cat Leap, as well as Moonkin Bounce, depending on what the situation requires. Cat Leap will always place you behind the boss, just be careful when leaping over green puddles. Save cooldowns for the Bloodlust that will most likely be used in this phase.

Another fight pretty similar to its heroic counterpart but still a bit of a damage check. Make sure to use Barkskin with a 4-stack Debilitating Spit and play carefully when the adds explode.

On mythic, Bloodlust is generally saved for the second phase. You will not have your cooldown for lust so you will just be cooldowning pull and the last phase.

For more information, please refer to our Shad'har the Insatiable guide.

We advise you to use the following essences against Drest'agath.

• Major Slot
  • Vision of Perfection — Rank 3: Vision of Perfection + Strive for Perfection
• Minor Slots
  • Conflict and Strife — Rank 3: Strife
  • Breath of the Dying — Rank 3: Lethal Strikes
  • The Crucible of Flame — Rank 3: Ancient Flame

A heavy multi-DoT fight with a bit of a twist. The only way to deal damage to the boss and end the fight is to pick up a buff from dead adds. Focus down tentacles in the order your raid assigns and run over the void pool on the ground to pick up the debuff when called for, as there is a grace period before you can pick up the debuff again.

Balance Druid DoTs are rather weak, so your main focus should be applying priority damage and spread some DoTs, as opposed to fully DoTing all adds. Use periods of movement to apply your DoTs to unafflicted enemies.

Cooldowns should generally be saved for boss damage on this fight and Barkskin can be used during Throes of Agony or when targeted by Mutterings of Insanity.

There is significantly more mechanics to dodge but they are not particularly hard to dodge. Be focusing down designated debuffed tentacles just like heroic and save cooldowns for boss damage or if you begin to be overwhelmed by adds.

For more information, please refer to our Drest'agath guide.

We advise you to use the following essences against Il'gynoth, Corruption Reborn.

• Major Slot
  • Vision of Perfection — Rank 3: Vision of Perfection + Strive for Perfection
• Minor Slots
  • Conflict and Strife — Rank 3: Strife
  • Breath of the Dying — Rank 3: Lethal Strikes
  • The Crucible of Flame — Rank 3: Ancient Flame

Another Mass Entanglement boss if your raid is planning on using a control tactic. You will primarily be spread out around the edges of the room, again making use of your kit's increased range and mobility to properly place lines from Corruptor's Gaze and maintain distance from players charmed by Touch of the Corruptor.

After reducing the bosses' Health to zero, he will recede and three doors will open revealing his hearts. Your raid will choose one to focus down and when it dies, it will continue to spawn adds for the remainder of the fight. The boss will then reemerge and phase one will resume. Careful when applying DoTs or cleave to these adds, as they cause raid damage upon their death. Switch focus to them when called.

If your raid decides, when all three heart's are dead and the boss comes back up, you can choose to swap to a control oriented strategy. Balance Druids can rotate Mass Entanglement and Entangling Roots to crowd control multiple adds. You will be able to crowd control two additional spawns on each Mass Entanglement cooldown reset as mass root overwrites regular root and you can then Entangling Root another spawn. You will not be able to get every spawn but you can get more than most other classes if not all other classes.

The mythic mechanics forces a full raid spread to avoid the mind controls from Touch of the Corruptor. It is even more important to cross over beams from Corruptor's Gaze and if you can elevate yourself on the z-axis and jump Wild Charge, you can run the permanent pools over each other without dying.

You should generally focus on single-target damage unless placed next to an early dead organ then you should DoT them up every time they spawn so they die before enraging.

For more information, please refer to our Il'gynoth, Corruption Reborn guide.

We advise you to use the following essences against Vexiona.

• Major Slot
  • Vision of Perfection — Rank 3: Vision of Perfection + Strive for Perfection
• Minor Slots
  • Conflict and Strife — Rank 3: Strife
  • Breath of the Dying — Rank 3: Lethal Strikes
  • The Crucible of Flame — Rank 3: Ancient Flame

Not a particularly strong Balance Druid fight from a pure damage perspective. As always, we provide great single target priority damage, which makes up for our lack of overall multi-target output. There is no particularly dangerous add except for the Void Ascendant, which should be focused and you should never allow the Fanatical Cultist to reach 100 energy.

Once again, use Balance Druid mobility to run Encroaching Shadows to the far edges of the room as the pools they drop are large and will eat away at space very quickly if poorly managed. Continue running even as the debuff drops as you generally cannot exit the pool before the damage ticks with ordinary speed. Wild Charge or Cat Form should be enough to avoid the first tick of damage.

In the final phase, stack together with your raid to mitigate Terrifying Presence and continue to run Encroaching Shadows out. Use Barkskin or Bear Form where necessary to soak Desolation.

On mythic, the bulk of your damage will be going into the boss and the Iron-Willed Enforcer. Play out in range to bait the grip onto you and then cast Wild Charge to negate the pull. Your first cooldown should go into the boss, your second into either the Enforcer or the boss, and you will need to save your final cooldown for the final phase with Bloodlust.

For more information, please refer to our Vexiona guide.

We advise you to use the following essences against Ra-den the Despoiled.

• Major Slot
  • Vision of Perfection — Rank 3: Vision of Perfection + Strive for Perfection
• Minor Slots
  • Conflict and Strife — Rank 3: Strife
  • Breath of the Dying — Rank 3: Lethal Strikes
  • The Crucible of Flame — Rank 3: Ancient Flame

Ra-den is back again. You will choose one of two orbs to kill on Heroic difficulty and the orb you do not kill will decide which phase you will get.

The lightning phase requires good positioning, so stay spread and avoid being in the line of the player with Unstable Vita and the furthest player. If you have the Instability Exposure debuff, mind your surroundings even more, as you are more likely to die from being hit by the Unstable Vita debuff transfer. Focus down the add quickly and continue to damage the boss until the next orb.

The shadow orb power will spawn a bouncing void zone, which must be soaked 5 times and cannot be soaked consecutive times, due to the Instability Exposure debuff. The Void add is much more important to kill, as the additional soak mechanic it adds is far more deadly than that of the lightning add. Save Barkskin for Void Collapse and use Bear Form where necessary.

The final phase is a burn, as the boss gets increasingly more powerful the longer the phase continues. Save Dash and Wild Charge when afflicted with Charged Bonds and avoid the void ground mechanics which periodically spawn throughout the phase.

On mythic, you need to deal with two orb effects simultaneously. The orbs must also be focused harder because they have significantly more health. Save Astral Power and be prepositioned to hit it immediately. Save mobility to transfer debuffs or to kite the fire from the nightmare add.

In phase two, it is more difficult to sustain yourself than on normal fights. Have all defensives ready and try to save them when targeted by Corrupted Existence. Remove HoT's and use defensives and potions to keep yourself alive.

For more information, please refer to our Ra-den the Despoiled guide.

We advise you to use the following essences against Carapace of N'Zoth.

• Major Slot
  • Vision of Perfection — Rank 3: Vision of Perfection + Strive for Perfection
• Minor Slots
  • Conflict and Strife — Rank 3: Strife
  • Breath of the Dying — Rank 3: Lethal Strikes
  • The Crucible of Flame — Rank 3: Ancient Flame

In phase one of this encounter, we will generally be directing our damage into the Gaze of Madness and adds that are buffed with Adaptive Membrane. The small adds which spawn from the Growth-Covered Tentacle should be ignored, as our damage profile is not suited to kill them. Spread DoTs to any that look as though they will live for a reasonable period of time and return back to your single-target damage.

In the second phase, the raid splits into two groups and kills Mycelial Cysts to create a path to kill the Synthesis Growth, which will heal the boss while alive. Multi-target dotting is pretty ineffectual here as well, since the cysts regenerate a small percentage of their Health every half second. Once you burn down all the growths and bring the boss down to 40%, you will exit the cave and start the final phase.

This last phase is a pretty significant burn, as you are no longer able to restore your sanity other than the orbs on the ground. A multitude of Nightmare Antigens spawn from players afflicted with Insanity Bomb. Balance Druid is not particularly well equipped with dealing with these adds, apart from spreading Sunfire and focusing down shielded mobs and then returning to boss damage. Use any movement to spread Moonfire to unafflicted adds. Starfall can be used here if the target count is high enough and you are lacking significant passive multi-target damage.

This fight is all about using cooldowns properly for Balance Druid. In Phase 1, you want to use your first cooldown on the first Gaze of Madness of the fight (middle or front). Apply DoT's to the hemorrhages on Growth-Covered Tentacle and focus down the ones at the base after clearing your Gaze of Madness. In Phase 2, use your cooldown either immediately or after the second Synthesis Growth. If done properly, you should be able to get two cooldowns in the last phase, using the first one you get after the first movement and last one with Bloodlust.

Barkskin the break of the Adaptive Membrane when trying to spawn sanity orbs as you will take the full damage and then the damage from what you broke it with. Use Wild Charge to quickly claim a spot towards the middle or edges of the room.

For more information, please refer to our Carapace of N'Zoth guide.

We advise you to use the following essences against N'Zoth the Corruptor.

• Major Slot
  • Vision of Perfection — Rank 3: Vision of Perfection + Strive for Perfection
• Minor Slots
  • Conflict and Strife — Rank 3: Strife
  • Breath of the Dying — Rank 3: Lethal Strikes
  • The Crucible of Flame — Rank 3: Ancient Flame

This boss has an even distribution of multi-target and single target focus. While in the mindgate, focus on staying ahead of the boss path and targeting down tentacles for the damage increase. There are two variations of this phase later in the fight and you will have to do one of them. The first involves a bit of dodging and the second just has a move slow. Getting caught behind the boss in any phase is a sure way to die.

You will generally use your cooldowns on N'Zoth and may even consider using Condensed Life-Force since you make little to no use of cooldown reduction on this fight. During the up-phases, fully DoT tentacles and focus down the large Basher. Afterwards focus down the Spike Tentacles that are far away.

After the second group kills their Psychus, you will lust and burn boss. This phase is pretty easy, dodge beams, burn adds, and quickly move away from the pools dropped by Evoke Anguish.

Balance Druid is a great choice to stay in the normal realm and handle adds and neurons, but they can also go in either Mindgate group. In group one, you would be with mostly melee classes. Focusing into Synapses is important because melee could be displaced by either a pool or fire. You can also use Typhoon to interrupt add casts.

In the second group, you can still target Synapses, but you may not need to hit them as hard as the melee group. Plant your feet as often as you can and make larger movements using Barkskin.

In Phase One, you should focus down Spike Tentacles and Corruptors who spawned in inconvenient places. During Mindgrasps, try to call a side to focus and burn down areas using pooled Astral Power. Typhoon and Solar Beam can be used during the grip or to help the tank. Additionally, Wild Charge human form can reverse grip you to your Paranoia partner. It can still tick Sanity loss.

In Phase Two, you want to have a good feel of the damage intake on the fight. Alternating Barkskin and Swiftmend on scary evokes will be important for survival. The key to this fight is knowing your positional limits. One life-saving tip is that you can jump and Wild Charge out of the growing Anguish puddles. This means you can hug the old pool with no real consequence of getting cut off, allowing longer periods of casting and less overall movement.

In the Chamber Phase, hug the walls and leap out to the middle during every dance. You may need to use Celestial Alignment here depending on your raid's needs. Once you leave the chamber, it is important to know that you do not want to use your cooldown again until Bloodlust and the Sanity damage buff at the end. There is a large amount of movement in these final two minutes of the fight, so just do your best to live here, as your damage will suffer.

For more information, please refer to our N'Zoth the Corruptor guide.