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The Best Balance Druid PvE DPS build

The Best Balance Druid PvE DPS build

Balance Druid build for Raiding and PvE. Top Tier DPS class in WoW BfA 8.2

Balance Druid PvE DPS Build
Odealo's Pocket Guide
Updated for Patch 8.2.0

You can find all our Pocket Guides for other World of Warcraft classes right here: Best WoW Builds

Spec Overview

Balance Druid is a very mobile ranged damage dealer. It excels in dynamic Multi-Target engagements, where its ability to Multi-Dot really shines. Balance has high sustained damage output, but cooldowns are a bit mediocre, which somewhat limits its Burst Damage potential. Just like other Druid Specs, Balance has a lot of staying power, and survivability, thanks to powerful defensive cooldowns, and shape-shift ability.

 Pros  Cons
 Good Single-target and AoE Damage  Somewhat weak cooldowns
 Strong, small radius Cleave Damage  Cleave Damage has a really small radius (8yd)
 Very tough, and hard to kill  Mismanagement of Empowerment charges is punishing
 Great mobility  Mediocre Burst Damage potential
Many useful utility spells  Talent Tree is not that impactful when it comes to DPS


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Statistics Priority

  1. Intellect - Increases your Spell Power, which in turn provides a damage and healing boost to your spells. This is Balance Druid's primary statistic.
  1. Haste - Reduces Global Cooldowns and Increases your Casting Speed.
  1. Mastery - Balance Druid's Mastery: Starlight gives a damage bonus to Starfall,  Starsurge, Moonfire, and Sunfire, while also increasing effects of Solar Empowerment and Lunar Empowerment.
  1. Critical Strike - Gives your spells and abilities a chance to do increased (critical) damage or healing.
  1. Versatility -  Increases your absorption, healing, and damage done, while also protecting you by decreasing your damage received. (This stat might be of higher value when progressing through Mythic+, because of its damage reduction)

 

The Best Talent Choices


Level 15: Recommended choice - Nature's Balance
Nature's Balance - A passive that generates 2 Astral Power every 3s, and keeps your Astral Power at 50 when out of combat. This is the default choice as it gives a nice boost to DPS, and works well with Mastery: Starlight.
Warrior of Elune can be useful when a boost to AoE burst damage is needed, and the Force of Nature is viable for Mythic+ progression as it helps to deal with Skittish and Necrotic affixes, and gives a slight boost to Balance's Burst Damage potential.

Level 30: Recommended choice - Wild Charge
Wild Charge - Off global cooldown ability with a 15s CD, which effect changes depending on your Shapeshift form. The effects are as follows: a Forward Leap in Travel Form, Backward Leap in Moonkin Form, Charge with a 4 second immobilize in a Bear Form, Leap to the back of an enemy with a 3s Daze effect in a Cat Form, and 150% Swim Speed boost for 5s in the Aquatic Form. 
Other choices at this level are more situational. The healing provided by the Renewal is generally less useful than extra mobility, and the Tiger Dash (+200% movement speed bonus that decays over 5s) can't be used to its full potential in most situations.

Level 45: Recommended choice - Restoration Affinity
Restoration Affinity - Gives you access to Restoration-Specific spells: Rejuvenation, Swiftmend, and Wild Growth while also granting you with the Ysera's Gift passive which heals you, or a nearby wounded friendly character (if your HP is full) for 3% of maximum HP every 5s. This is the recommended choice, as it gives you a lot of extra Healing potential that cannot be overlooked.
Guardian Affinity grants you a sizable damage reduction and should be considered if you desperately need more survivability, while Feral Affinity can be used if you don't need ANY extra Healing/Survivability, as all it really does is, it increases your movement speed slightly.

Level 60: Recommended choice - Typhoon

Typhoon -  Knocks back and Dazes (for 6s) all Targets up to 15yd in front of You, 30s Cooldown, usable in all Shapeshift forms. Talents in this row have close to no impact on your DPS, so the choice is largely up to one's preference, but we recommend the Typhoon as it is the most versatile.
Mighty Bash gives you a 5s Stun on a 50s cooldown, it might be useful if you need extra hard Crowd Control CD.
Mass Entanglement provides you with a nice 30s AoE Root effect on a 30s Cooldown, which could be useful for kiting groups of adds around. Both of these talents can be used in all shapeshift forms.

Level 75: Recommended choice - Incarnation: Chosen of Elune
Incarnation: Chosen of Elune - Grants you 15% bonus Haste and 25% bonus Damage for 30 seconds; It replaces Celestial Alignment and has a 3m cooldown. We recommend Incarnation: Chosen of Elune over the Starlord, as it gives a much-needed boost to Burst Damage, and its usage is much less complicated.  If you know that you can use Starlord to its full potential, and you don't need extra Burst Damage, you can choose it over Incarnation.
Starlord  Gives you stackable (up to 3 stacks, gaining stack does not refresh the duration) 3% Haste bonus that lasts for 20 seconds, whenever you cast Starfall or Starsurge, as mentioned before, this is a good option if you can manage stacks properly. The Soul of the Forest is a situational choice recommended only for AoE heavy encounters, as it increases damage bonus from Solar Empowerment and Lunar Empowerment while also reducing the Star Power cost of your Starfall by 10.

Level 90: Recommended choice - Stellar Flare
Stellar Flare - Damage over Time ability that lasts for 24s and generates 8 Astral Power. Stellar Flare is the best choice for Single target engagements because it gives the highest DPS boost, but it can be replaced by Twin Moons for AoE heavy fights.

Twin Moons allows your Moonfire to spread on an additional target and it increases Moonfire's damage by 10%; it works best in AoE encounters. Stellar Drift improves your Starfall ability (+20% radius, +25% damage) and gives you some extra mobility while casting it; it is currently a very niche talent and should not be considered.

Level 100: Recommended choice - Shooting Stars
Shooting Stars - A passive that gives your Sunfire and Moonfire dot procs a 10% chance to call down a Shooting Star on your target, dealing minor damage and granting you 4 Astral Power. This is the best choice for one to two-target engagements, as it suffers from diminishing returns when DoTs are applied to too many targets (proc rate lowers drastically).
Fury of Elune is a better choice for AoE heavy encounters.
Fury of Elune is an active ability on a 1min cooldown, that deals Damage Over Time to your Target and other Enemies within the 8yd radius, it lasts for 8s and you generate 40 Astral Power during the uptime. The New Moon might be chosen for single target damage, but it is slightly worse and less flexible than Shooting Stars.

 

The Basic Rotation

Your 1 to 3 target rotation should be based on the following Priority List:

  1. Sunfire, Stellar Flare, and Moonfire should be applied and maintained at all times
  +  + 
  1. Starsurge for dumping Astral Porer
  1. Lunar Strike (only with Lunar Empowerment up)
  1. Solar Wrath (only with Solar Empowerment up)
  1. Solar Wrath without Solar Empowerment up, cast as Astral Power generator
Please remember that using Starsurge gives you stacks of Solar Empowerment and Lunar Empowerment, that are capped at 3; you should avoid over-capping those.
AoE rotation for Balance Druid looks as follows:
  1. Starfall for dumping Astral Power
  1. Sunfire, Stellar Flare, and Moonfire should be applied and maintained on all Targets (unless they are about to die)
  +  + 
  1. Lunar Strike for Astral Power generation
  1. Solar Wrath if there is 1 Target left

 

Tips and Tricks for Improving your Gameplay

  1. NEVER generate Astral Power when you are at max capacity.
  1. Try to maintain your rotation during movement (by casting Moonfire, Sunfire, and Starsurge)
  1. Always analyze and try to improve your performance


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END NOTE

This is an early version of our guide, we plan to upgrade upon it, and add further sections. So please leave your suggestions in the comments section below. We would also like to state that this is meant as a pocket guide and therefore we will not go into too much detail (please visit more specialized sites for a much more in-depth build/stat/gear/rotation analyses).

Pictures used in this article are the intellectual property of Blizzard Entertainment Inc.

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