Balance Druid The War Within 11.1.5 Guide

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. If you play with Elune’s Chosen, however, you will enter Lunar Eclipse in every situation.

April 15th Balance Druid Changes

Towards the end of Patch 11.1 but slightly before Patch 11.1.5, Blizzard sought to adjust Balance Druid further by shifting some of their damage away from their AoE spender, Starfall, and put it back into Starsurge and other abilities through a blanket aura nerf and buff.

• All spell damage increased by 3%.
• Starfall damage reduced by 10%.
• Starsurge damage increased by 3%.
• Power of Goldrinn damage increased by 3%.
• Elune’s Chosen: Boundless Moonlight - Fury of Elune final flash of Energy damage reduced by 10%. Minor Moon damage reduced by 10%.

These changes seek to reduce Balance Druid’s dominance in Mythic+ and make them more viable in Raid content by offering solid single target increases.

March 24th Balance Druid Changes

During the mid-point of Patch 11.1 (Mar 24th), Balance Druid got solid buffs to help their lacking Single Target throughput. This shifts some of the damage into your builders, Wrath and Starfire (only when playing Elune’s Chosen), and buffs Starsurge, our top damage on Single Target, by 5%.

• Wrath damage increased by 30%.
• Starsurge damage increased by 5%.
• Elune’s Chosen: Lunar Calling increases Starfire’s damage to its primary target by 160% (was 100%).

Patch 11.1 Changes

There are not too many changes with specifically Balance Druid coming in Patch 11.1.0 aside from the addition of the Liberation of Undermine tierset and a few tuning passes. However, Druids in general received an updated version of their Class Tree, allowing for a more streamlined tree that allows you to more reliably pick up talents without feeling like you’re paying too much of a “hybrid tax” -- putting points in talents that effectively do nothing for your specialization just to get to something else you want.

Below is a full list of all of the Druid class tree changes: Many talents have changed position in the talent tree.

• New Talent: Grievous Wounds – Rake, Rip, and Thrash damage increased by 10%.
• New Talent: Gale Winds – Increases Typhoon’s radius by 20% and its range by 5 yards.
• New Talent: Incessant Tempest – Reduces the cooldown of Typhoon by 5 seconds.
• New Talent: Circle of the Wild – Physical damage dealt by your abilities increased by 5% (25% for Restoration Druids).
• New Talent: Circle of the Heavens – Magical damage dealt by your spells increased by 5% (25% for Restoration Druids).
• New Talent: Lycara’s Meditation – You retain Lycara’s Teachings’ bonus from your most recent form for 5 seconds after shifting out of it.
• New Talent: Symbiotic Relationship – Form a bond with an ally. Your self-healing also heals your bonded ally for 10% of the amount healed. Your healing to your bonded ally also heals you for 8% of the amount healed.
• New Talent: Aessina’s Renewal – When a hit deals more than 12% of your maximum health, instantly heal for 10% of your health. This effect cannot occur more than once every 30 seconds.
• New Talent: Perfectly-Honed Instincts – Well-Honed Instincts can trigger up to once every 90 seconds.
• Ursoc’s Spirit has been updated – Stamina increased by 4%. Stamina in Bear Form is increased by an additional 5%.
• Light of the Sun replaces Skull Bash for Balance Druids only – The remaining cooldown of Solar Beam is reduced by 15 seconds when it interrupts its primary target.
• Improved Rejuvenation has been changed to Lingering Healing – Rejuvenation’s duration is increased by 3 seconds. Regrowth’s duration is increased by 3 seconds when cast on yourself.
• Instincts of the Claw is now a 1-point talent (was 2) and has been updated – Ferocious Bite and Maul damage increased by 8%.
• Lore of the Grove is now a 1-point talent (was 2) and has been updated – Moonfire and Sunfire damage increased by 10%.
• Fluid Form has been updated – Skull Bash can now be used in any form and shifts you into Cat Form if necessary.
• Rejuvenation healing increased by 5%.
• Wild Growth healing increased by 5%.
• Rip damage reduced by 9%.
• Shred damage increased by 10%.
• Swipe damage increased by 10%.
• Ferocious Bite damage reduced by 8%.
• Cyclone duration is now 5 seconds (was 6 seconds).
• Disorienting Roar now breaks based on a small damage threshold instead of any damage.
• Rising Light, Falling Night has been removed.
• Moonkin Form has been added to the Class talent tree in Sunfire’s previous position.
• Sunfire moved to Improved Sunfire’s position. Improved Sunfire’s effect is now included in Sunfire.
• Fluid Form causes Wrath and Starfire to transform you into Moonkin Form at the end of their casts, instead of at their starts.
• Lycara’s Meditation now only retains bonuses from your shapeshift forms. The Haste bonus from humanoid form is not retained.

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.