How To Improve As Balance Druid — The War Within (11.0.5)

Balance Druid DoTs are both important for the damage and Astral Power they generate as well as buffing the damage you do just by being on the target. If you feel as though your damage is low, DoT uptime is one of the first things you should check. This is even more important when running Circle of Life and Death which reduces the duration of your DoT by 25%.

Nearly every Dungeon and Raid encounter requires players to take certain actions to avoid mechanics that would otherwise damage or kill your character. Normally, moving to a safer location is the best way to handle these mechanics.

Balance Druids have several abilities they can use to handle movement. They have instant casts in Starsurge, Moonfire, and Sunfire, as well as mobility spells like Wild Charge and Dash. Knowing what to use, how to change your rotation, and how to combine these abilities can lead to maintaining your rotation seamlessly through short and medium distances of movement.

Generally, you want to predict mechanics and pool for movement to the best of your ability; a dungeon or raid addon will help highlight mechanics you need to watch out for.

Using your Cooldowns properly is the difference between doing good damage and doing great damage. In some encounters you can use your abilities as they come off cooldown and in others there are more optimal ways to use them. The only way to know the best way to use one or all of your cooldowns is to research or experience how the fight plays out.

One thing to consider is fight length. It does not matter if it is Mythic+, Raid, or PvP, you would rather be doing big damage in your cooldowns than doing nothing and holding them. If you are going to hold your cooldown it should be for a good reason:

• Holding cooldowns or Astral Power for a priority target or multi-target.
• A damage amplification phase.
• Can combine multiple cooldowns without losing a usage.
• Waiting a short time to make sure you do not get a mechanic that would make you lose damage.

Other common examples are more niche and come with cooldown usage. If you do end up going into a new fight or dungeon group and you are not sure what is going to happen, just use your cooldowns immediately until you know the fight.

One of the first things you need to look at when evaluating your play is your Astral Power usage. Are you using it on the right spells and at the right times and more importantly, are you using all of it?

Capping Astral Power is a big deal, especially throughout longer encounters. You are not always going to completely waste a Full Moon proc from Orbit Breaker but you will often find yourself capping here or there and each instance adds up.

Get an Astral Power tracker and learn the ebb and flow of the rotation. You are often going to pool to 60 or 70 Astral Power before leaving an Eclipse and then spending at the start of the following Eclipse. Leaving an Eclipse with much more Astral Power than 70 can cause you to naturally overcap through procs and your pre-Eclipse casts.

Additionally, do not lose track of your Astral Power and cooldowns. While you do not want to waste cooldown time, you also do not want to cap Astral Power. If I am using Astral Communion and it is coming off cooldown shortly, I will look to use my Astral Power when it is coming off cooldown so I can use it more quickly.