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Balance Druid DPS Starter Guide - Shadowlands 9.0.5
By tettles
Last updated
2021/03/09 at 12:58 AM
View Changelog
Table of Contents
Quick Facts
Table of Contents
Guide Navigation
Welcome to our Balance Druid starter guide, which covers everything you need to start playing a new character in Shadowlands. While our other guide pages go into more individual detail, this simple starter guide covers all the basics in one place, whether you're a new Balance Druid, a returning player to Shadowlands, hardcore, or casual alike, it's the best place to get a beginners overview on the class. Included are basic talent builds, simplified rotations, stats, legendary recommendations, and more to get you started as quickly as possible.
Please keep in mind that this page is meant to get players started quickly as an introduction, and does not contain much in the way of detailed explanations, mechanics, competitive options, gearing, simulation comparisons, or nuance. For more in-depth information, including all those optimizations and more, check out the complete Balance Druid Guide pages linked in the navigation on the left-hand side of the page, and if you're leveling up in Shadowlands, you can take a look at our
leveling tips
.
Overview
NEW
NEW Best Covenant
Gear
Talent Builds
NEW Legendaries
NEW Twisting Corridors
NEW Conduits
NEW Kyrian
NEW Necrolord
NEW Night Fae
NEW Venthyr
Pre-Patch
Starter Guide
Rotation, Priority, and Abilities
Advanced Concepts
Stats
Consumables
Macros & Addons
WeakAuras
Common Terms
NEW Castle Nathria Tips
NEW Mythic+
Common Questions
NEW Simulations
About the Author
Hello, my name is
Tettles
, and I am currently a Balance Expert in the
Dreamgrove
. I am a top Mythic+ player, competed in MDI #2, and am a raider in one of the top NA guilds, Might - Zul'Jin - Horde - NA. You can find me in the
Dreamgrove Discord
, on
Youtube
, or on my
Twitch
.
Watch live video from Tettles on www.twitch.tv
Best Balance Druid Covenant
Each covenant excels in a different area of gameplay and has different strengths and weaknesses. By far the most popular option for Balance Druid is Night Fae. If you are looking for an answer as to what to play and you do not feel inclined to select another covenant based on other factors than Night Fae is certainly my recommendation.
Best Raid Covenants
Covenants
Rating
Best Soulbind
Kyrian
Situationally Good
Pelagos
Necrolord
Poor
Emeni
Night Fae
Best
Niya
Venthyr
Okay
Nadjia
Best Mythic+ Covenants
Covenants
Rating
Best Soulbind
Kyrian
Low Keys
: Good
High Keys
: Great
Pelagos
Necrolord
Poor
Emeni
Night Fae
Low Keys
: Good
High Keys
: Situationally strong
Niya
Venthyr
Low Keys
: Great
High Keys
: Good
Nadjia
Best Balance Druid Covenant
Kyrian Balance Druid GuideNecrolord Balance Druid Guide
Night Fae Balance Druid GuideVenthyr Balance Druid Guide
Best Balance Druid Legendaries
For Legendaries, Balance Druids have one main option and then a few secondary options for other content.
Balance of All Things
is our bread and butter. It is incredibly powerful for Single Target and priority damage. It also has incredible synergy with
Convoke the Spirits
so if you are night fae you can almost certainly get away with only playing this legendary.
Balance of All Things
for Raiding.
Primordial Arcanic Pulsar
for non Night Fae Mythic+.
Take a look at our
crafting guide
to find all the materials you need to craft your legendaries!
Balance Druid Legendaries Guide
Best Balance Druid Talents
Balance Druid has a few flexible rows in regards to its talents. This talent build is primarily focused on AOE / Dungeons for players getting started with end game activities, but our
Balance Druid Talent Guide
goes into more detail for each talent, as well as providing specific builds for questing, Mythic+, and Raids.
Balance Druid Talents Guide
Balance Druid Stat Priority
Unlike previous expansions, primary stats such as Intellect are much more important than they used to be, and secondary stats are close enough together that item level is usually more important factor when it comes to choosing gear. You can find out more about how stats work, including sample stat weights and scaling plots in the
Stats Guide
, or get an overview of the best-in-slot gear to look for from dungeons and raids in the
Balance Druid Gear Guide
.
If you are playing
Balance of All Things
then crit is your worst stat normally.
Intellect > Mastery > Haste = Crit = Versatility
Critical Strike
: Grants a chance to deal double damage on all spells.
Haste
: Reduces spell cast time and increases how fast your dots tick. Also gives GCD reduction as well. Very strong on AOE generally while being pretty serviceable on single target.
Mastery
: Increases the damage of your spells while in
Eclipse
. Our best stat more often than not currently.
Versatility
: Increases damage and healing and reduces damage taken.
BalanceDruid Stats Guide
Balance Druid Enchants and Consumables
Cloak
: Increase stamina and tertiary bonuses, which are largely interchangeable. When in doubt, choose extra stamina or avoidance.
Enchant Cloak - Fortified Avoidance
,
Enchant Cloak - Fortified Leech
,
Enchant Cloak - Fortified Speed
,
Enchant Cloak - Soul Vitality
Chest
: Intellect -
Enchant Chest - Eternal Stats
Wrists
: Gives Intellect -
Enchant Bracers - Eternal Intellect
Rings
: Increases Mastery
Enchant Ring - Tenet of Mastery
Weapon
: Stats -
Enchant Weapon - Celestial Guidance
Balance Druid Enchants Guide
Best Balance Druid Rotation
Spend Astral Power - don’t let it cap. Use
Starsurge
on 1 Target or when you have excess Astral Power on AOE and
Starfall
on 2+ Targets.
Maintain dot uptime - Don’t let
Sunfire
or
Moonfire
fall off your target.
Get into eclipse ASAP - Cast
Starfire
and
Wrath
to alleviate this while being aware of
Eclipse
.
Always be casting - Plant your feet and cast, don't move unless you have to.
In general, try to keep these tips in mind when performing the rotation.
DoTs can pandemic, so they can be refreshed with up to 30% of the duration remaining without loss. This means up to 7.2 seconds for Stellar Flare, 6.6 seconds for Moonfire, and 5.4 seconds for Sunfire.
Don’t hold your cooldowns,
Celestial Alignment
and
Fury of Elune
, for too long. Losing overall uses will lower your damage.
Be economical with movement and try to pool Astral Power beforehand. This will increase your uptime overall and allow you to do more damage.
Balance Druid Rotation Guide
Back to Top
Our Balance Druid guides are always updated with the latest information from in-game experience, simulations, and logs; make sure to check our changelog to this page, by clicking on
View Changelog
at the top of the page. If you are interested in more in-depth Balance Druid guides for , make sure to browse the
Navigation Bar
below, and our list of
Related Guides
just beneath the
Table of Contents
.
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