Balance Druid Gearing Guide

Elune’s Chosen Balance Druid Season 3 Tier Set:

• (2) Set Bonus: Starfire damage increased by 20%. Gaining Astral Power with Starfire has a 40% chance to launch a Starsurge at a victim at 45% effectiveness.
• (4) Set Bonus: On Impact, Starsurges launched by Starfire split to up to 3 additional targets at 40% effectiveness and grant a stack of Gathering Moonlight. Casting Fury of Elune or Full Moon consumes Gathering Moonlight to increase your damage by 4% per stack for 12 sec.

Elune’s Chosen Tier Set Bonus Heavily focuses around Starfires, making Lunar Calling a must pick in every scenario. Especially the 2 set bonus, which gives us some good priority damage while doing our full AoE rotation.

Keeper of the Growth Balance Druid Season 3 Tier Set:

• (2) Set Bonus: Casting Celestial Alignment calls upon the assistance of a dryad for 10 sec that casts Starsurge at 360% and Starfall at 800% effectiveness.
• (4) Set Bonus: When your Dryad fades, your next 2 Starsurges damage for an additional amount equal to 3% of your damage done while it was active and splash 15% of their damage onto nearby enemies, reduced beyond 5 targets.

This was the tree that was changed a lot during this PTR cycle. It lets you “store” damage while the Dryad is active that gets released with 2 big Starsurges when the Dryad fades. Tuning wise Keeper of the Growth is not worth playing in its final PTR form. That being said, it fills a niche with its potential to burst on damage amplifications or priority targets, and if Blizzard makes further balance changes it could become more competitive.

You should still prioritize the gear you use by running a sim for your character, but the lists below will give you a good idea of what items are considered good for Balance Druid, and help you target the right content for each piece of loot.

• Overall
• Raiding
• Mythic+

The best trinket combination for Balance Druid in Season 3 is Astral Antenna and Araz’s Ritual Forge.

Astral Antenna spawns orbs that float towards you and provide you with Crit when reaching you. Note that these orbs can be kited if you wish to gain the buff at a later time.

Araz’s Ritual Forge has an on-use effect that increases your Intellect by a huge amount at the cost of 15% of your maximum health. Make sure to line this trinket up with Celestial Alignment.

Also, there are many other trinkets that are quite potent until you can get the best 2, for example:

• Azhiccaran Parapodia - Passive damage and stat procs.
• Diamantine Voidcore - Random Intellect procs, benefits from Shards of the Void set.
• Ara-Kara Sacbrood - Grants Flat haste with an Intellect proc.
• Empowering Crystal of Anub’ikkaj - Grants flat Intellect and procs random secondary stats.

Early on the best crafting option is Vagabond’s Bounding Baton with Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension. Paired up with Writhing Armor Binding to increase the effect. You want to craft Writhing Armor binding on Bracers.

If you happen to get a Voidglass Kris you can craft Vagabond’s Torch with Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension, of course followed up by a Writhing Armor Banding on Bracers. This is the best long-term crafting option.

Reshii Wraps

Reshii Wraps is a new Cloak released in Patch 11.2 and will be the only cloak you use (and the only one that can drop from any content in Season 3). You gain access to it via a quest chain and completing chapter 3 of the main patch storyline.

The Reshii Wraps are upgradable via Ethereal Strands and can have secondary stats of your choice added to it.

To add a secondary stat to the Reshii Wraps you use a Fiber in the Fiber Socket of the Cloak. The highest quality version of the Fibers require a work-order to a Tailor.

When picking a Fiber, I highly suggest simming what stat is the best for your current situation. If you’re not into simming and prefer to just have a reliable Reshii Fiber that always works, I suggest going for Mastery (Pure Energizing Fiber).

To find out more about the Reshii Wraps, you can read the Method Reshii Wraps Overview Guide.

Best D.I.S.C Belt & Miniature Titan Disc Effects

Season 3 Note: This Belt is quite powerful, even compared to gear from 11.2 Content. Most sims suggest replacing it with a Hero Track belt which has a socket or a Myth Track belt. Make sure to sim this for your character when you’re planning on replacing it.

Durable Information Securing Container is a new belt obtained in Overcharges Delves.

Recommended Titan Discs for Balance Druid:

• Raid: Static Charge
• Mythic+: Spark Burst

For more information about unlocking the DISC belt and the different Miniature Titan Disc effects available, check out Method's D.I.S.C Belt Guide.

Cyrce’s Circlet

Season 3 Note: This ring happens to be very powerful for Balance. If you’re still wearing it going into 11.2 you will probably replace it as soon as you get any Champion Track ring with good stats. As always I suggest simming to get the most accurate information for when to replace this ring.

With the advent of Patch 11.0.7, Blizzard is introducing Cyrce’s Circlet. This is a powerful ring similar to the Onyx Annulet from Dragonflight’s Patch 10.0.7. There are a myriad of unique effects, but for Balance Druid, you’ll want to pick the gems that give you additional Mastery and not worry about the other gems as much.

These gems are as follows:

• Fathomdweller’s Runed Citrine
• Stormbringer’s Runed Citrine
• Legendary Skipper’s Citrine

This will give you a powerful ring that scales up to 658 item level that grants you your highest primary stat, and a small amount of all other secondary stats. Cyrce’s Circlet continues to be a very strong option for Balance Druid in Patch 11.1.5, and will be your second strongest option for a ring for Raid content (only behind The Jastor’s Diamond).

In Mythic+, however, you may find that other rings provide more value, as Balance Druid scales higher with more secondary stats with Mythic+ target counts, especially to help expedite the ramp setup with more haste from a ring. Plus, the additional stamina from equipping a higher item level ring is always something to consider!