Introduction
This guide was written by Koltra, one of the newest additions to the Method raiding roster. Before joining Method, Koltra played in Liquid for Amirdrassil, the Dream’s Hope, and in BDG for both Vault of the Incarnates and Abberus, the Shadowed Crucible.
Balance Druid Overview
Balance Druid is a specialization that takes your classic “builder-spender” model and expands upon it through amplifying your damage through the application of your damage over time effects: Sunfire and Moonfire.
The core of Balance Druid gameplay will have players maintaining as close to 100% uptime on their Sunfire and Moonfire abilities on as many targets as possible while spending their Astral Power on Starsurge for single target, and Starfall for AoE. Furthermore, Balance Druid utilizes an eclipse system to empower the specialization’s filler abilities, Wrath and Starfire. You will want to enter Solar Eclipse to empower your Wrath on single target, and you will want to enter Lunar Eclipse to empower your Starfire on AoE.
What has changed
Balance Druid TWW Changes
On the transition to The War Within, Balance Druid received a plethora of changes to both the class tree and the specialization tree. Furthermore, the addition of Hero Talents helps supplement existing gameplay, but provides no major gameplay alterations to the fundamental core rotation.
Instead of filling the guide with the abundance of tuning changes that are still a work-in-progress, here are some of the highlights that should help catch up returning Balance Druid while also giving newer Balance Druid players an introduction of what to expect:
- Removal of the core mechanic that Balance Druid has revolved around for three expansions, Primordial Arcanic Pulsar, and reducing the duration of both Celestial Alignment and Incarnation: Chosen of Elune.
- Replacing Primordial Arcanic Pulsar with Greater Alignment to slightly revert the nerfs to Celestial Alignment and Incarnation: Chosen of Elune and provide a small buff to make the cooldown stronger.
- Introduction of new talents, such as Touch of the Cosmos, Stellar Amplification, and Umbral Inspiration.
- Introduction of the two keystone Hero Talents, Elune’s Chosen and Keeper of the Grove.
- Elune’s Chosen enhances Balance Druid gameplay through amplifying Arcane and Astral abilities, such as Starfire, Moonfire, Fury of Elune, New Moon,. Currently, this Hero Talent tree revolves around casting as many Arcane spells as possible to encourage getting more Fury of Elunes out through Lunation.
- Keeper of the Grove revolves around summoning treants through Force of Nature, which in turn provide bursts of damage through Dream Burst. Furthermore, there are a lot of passive buffs littered throughout the tree.
- A redesign of the Druid Class Tree, which sought to reduce some of the strain to take strong utility points such as Feline Swiftness or Remove Corruption.