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Balance Druid DPS Starter Guide - Shadowlands 9.2.5
By tettles
Last updated
2022/05/31 at 1:28 PM
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 Patch 9.2 Changes
Best Covenant
NEW Tier Set Bonus
Gear
Talent Builds
Legendaries
Conduits
Kyrian
Necrolord
Night Fae
Venthyr
Pre-Patch
Starter Guide
Rotation, Priority, and Abilities
Advanced Concepts
Stats
Consumables
Macros & Addons
WeakAuras
Common Terms
NEW Castle Nathria Tips
NEW Sepulcher Tips
Mythic+
Common Questions
Mage Tower
Twisting Corridors
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
For current meta situations, the choice is no longer super clear cut for Balance Druid covenants. Most people who care about top performance will recommend Venthyr due to the potency that
Ravenous Frenzy
provides for all content. Ravenous is definitely one of the best covenant abilities in the game and enhances Balance Druid's damage by a lot.
There are a lot of players who are still Night Fae and are having success in raid, but if you have desires to key in any meaningful capacity then Venthyr is a by far a better option.
Kyrian is incredibly strong in certain situations due to the
Kindred Affinity
legendary. Being able to bolster your friends power is not something to be scoffed at, and the stats provided by this legendary are very strong.
Necrolord is a bad throughput option if you care about your damage at all. I would also say that personally I think it is the least enjoyable covenant I've ever played with.
Best Balance Druid Covenants and Soulbinds for Raid
Single Legendary
Double Legendary
Venthyr
Theotar
Venthyr
Theotar
Night Fae
Niya
Night Fae
Niya
Best Balance Druid Covenants and Soulbinds for Mythic+
Single Legendary
Double Legendary
Venthyr
Theotar
Venthyr
Theotar
Kyrian
Mikanikos
Kyrian
Mikanikos
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.
Primordial Arcanic Pulsar
is our bread and butter. It is the best well rounded legendary for moonkin, but the covenant specific legendaries for moonkin are also really powerful!
Best Single Legendary for Balance Druid in Patch 9.2
Once you gain access to the 2-Set,
Celestial Pillar
,
Primordial Arcanic Pulsar
is your best legendary hands down. Prior to this results may vary and you may want different options depending on covenant and setup (AKA Venthyr with no 2-Set wants
Sinful Hysteria
). This legendary is stronger than all Covenant legendaries as a stand alone and once you gain the power of double legendary it just becomes better.
Best Single Legendaries
Raid Legendary
:
Primordial Arcanic Pulsar
Mythic+ Legendary
:
Primordial Arcanic Pulsar
Best Double Legendaries for Balance Druid in Patch 9.2
Best Double Legendaries
Raid Legendaries
:
Primordial Arcanic Pulsar
and
Sinful Hysteria
OR
Celestial Spirits
Depending on your covenant.
Mythic+ Legendaries
:
Primordial Arcanic Pulsar
and
Sinful Hysteria
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.
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.
Balance Druid 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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