Balance Druid Rotation Guide

This section of the Balance Druid guide provides an overview of all spec abilities, as well as when and how to use them in the Balance Druid Rotation. Our whole Balance Druid rotation now revolves around building and spending Astral Power. Astral Power is generated and consumed by a handful of abilities within our toolkit. Lunar Strike and Solar Wrath generate 12 and 8 Astral Power base. Moonfire and Sunfire generate 3 Astral Power when applied. These spells can be augmented by our talents to generate more Astral Power. Starsurge and Starfall consume Astral Power, 40 and 60 respectively. These too can be augmented by our talents to cost less or do more. We also have talents that force us to spend Astral Power in different ways. Our new Artifact, Scythe of Elune, grants us a base ability, entitled “New Moon”, that generates a substantial amount of Astral Power. Similar to other energy based specs, avoid capping on Astral Power.

We'll get into some of the ways we can game Astral Power in the “Advanced” section, as well as see examples in the “Raid” section. This section will be very similar to the "Priorities" section. Understand there is no repetitive "Balance Druid Rotation." We're a priority based spec, with a lot of room for adjusting to given scenarios since we're an energy based spec. Unlike other energy based specs, our energy takes a while to build, as a result we have much more control over when we have to spend it. The majority of skill cap for Balance Druids will come from knowing when you should be pooling resources for something important (i.e. a priority add or burn phase). The main thing to take away from our single target "rotation" vs our multi-target "rotation", is the use of Starsurge vs Starfall, and the use of Lunar Strike vs Solar Wrath.

Starsurge, assuming they all need to die. If they don't all need to die, default to Starsurge to not cap on Astral Power, choosing to target the highest priority target at the time. Try to save stacks of Lunar Strike if you know a multi-target situation will arise. DoTing a new target, even with Shooting Stars, is not a single target dps gain. Try to cleave targets with Sunfire as much as possible, in an effort to save globals. Try to pool charges of New Moon and Lunar Strike if you know an AoE situation will arise. DoTing a new target, even with Shooting Stars, is not a single target dps gain. Try to cleave targets with Sunfire as much as possible, in an effort to save globals. It's not the end of the world if you waste a Lunar Empowerment or Solar Empowerment, if it means doing more damage to a priority target, but try to have some foresight. Pool New Moon spells, Half Moon and Full Moon are 2 of our hardest hitting abilities.

Get to where you want to go ahead of time! We don't have too many tools to combat movement, think ahead in your rotation, and start stutter stepping to your location as early as possible. If I repeat this maybe people will do it! Have Full Moon ready, and almost 3 charges of New Moon if you can help it. It's okay to use cooldowns on trash in both dungeons and raids! Ensure targets live for the full duration (up to 30 seconds depending on proficiency and scenario). Best used in situations where the priority add(s) in question doesn't spawn particularly often. Fury of Elune for boss damage. Taking Fury of Elune is okay when there are multiple instances of stacked priority targets. Fury of Elune is completely optional and preference, Stellar Drift is better in most scenarios, however Fury of Elune is a lot of fun and satisfying. 1 tip for players looking to improve as raiders is to practice.