Dreamgrove

Balance Druid 10.0.5 Compendium

Changelog 2023-03-22
Talents updated
2023-03-15:
10.1 Update
2023-02-05:
Added explanation for how to use mushrooms
2023-01-31:
Added AoE condition - Starfall to prevent overcapping AP before entering eclipse
2023-01-29:
Added info about entering solar eclipse with 2/2 UI
2023-01-27:
Changed prio for Starweaver surge proc in AoE

10.1 Updates

Summary of the changes

10.1 is on the PTR and we are once again receiving major changes and a new tier set. You can read the Blizzard post on the changes here: https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/feedback-druids-in-embers-of-neltharion/1541376 Additionally our tier set is the following:

(2) Set Bonus: Sunfire radius increased by 3 yds. Sunfire, Moonfire and Shooting Stars damage increased by 18%.

Looking to be a 3.5-5% dps increase in most situations and adds some QoL through the increased Sunfire radius.

(4) Set Bonus: Shooting Stars has a 20% chance to instead call down a Crashing Star, dealing (72% of Spell power) Astral damage to the target and generating 5 Astral Power.

Adds 60% Shooting Stars damage and 30% Astral Power on average. This roughly makes us have the same AP gen from ShS as we have currently since we lose Stellar Flare Shooting Stars. Also looks to be a 3.5-5% dps incrase.

The changes result in a large single target buff of about 10% compared to live, including the changes to our current tier set. How it affects our AoE damage is TBD.

Analyzing the changes

Shooting Stars can no longer be triggered by Stellar Flare.

Heavy nerf to Stellar Flare which results in it becoming a dead talent with the new talent Wild Surges and Astral Smolder. Even if tuned back up again, Stellar Flare would only see play in single target or spread cleave encounters.

New Talent: Wild Surges. Your chance to critically strike with Wrath and Starfire is increased by 15% and they generate 2 additional Astral Power. This is a choice node with Stellar Flare.

This talent has a lot of synergy with other talents, namely Astral Smolder and Soul of the Forest. The crit on fillers directly synergizes with Astral Smolder and the resulting Waning Twilight uptime. Soul of the Forest multiplies the 2 extra Astral Power generated by this talent.

Wrath and Starfire generate 10 Astral Power (up from 8). Moonfire and Sunfire generate 6 Astral Power (up from 2). Stellar Flare generates 10 Astral Power (up from 8)

All of these are mostly to make up for losing the free spender casts from our current 4pc. Moonfire+Sunfire generating more Astral Power is a very welcome change so we have something to press during movement that isn’t fully useless.

Nature’s Balance generates 2 Astral Power every 3 seconds (up from 1 every 2)

A buff is a buff but this talent was already only picked for pure single target and is still unpickable anytime you want do AoE damage since it requires you to skip either Twin Moons or Aetherial Kindling.

Starsurge and Starfall damage increased by 20%.

Another buff to make up for losing our current 4pc.

Astral Smolder deals damage over 8 seconds (up from 4) and its damage is increased to 40/80% of spell damage done (up from 20/40%).

As mentioned previously this synergizes with Wild Surges and more or less fully replaces both Stellar Flare and Fungal Growth as our ways of keeping up Waning Twilight. With current tuning a must-pick in every situation.

Cosmic Rapidity increases the rate at which Moonfire, Sunfire, and Stellar Flare deal damage by 20% (down from 25%).

A minor nerf that doesn’t really change anything. Will still be must-pick.

Touch the Cosmos, the 10.0 (4) Set Armor bonus, now reduces the Astral Power cost of your first Starsurge or Starfall after entering Eclipse by 5 and increases its damage by 20% (was free and 35% increased damage).

Expected nerf since we would be wearing the set until the end of times otherwise. This makes it roughly be a 2% dps boost so it will easily be replaced by our new tier set.

Soul of the Forest now increases Starfire’s damage and AP generation during Eclipse by 30% for each target hit beyond the first, up to 90%. (Was 150% bonus to Starfire’s AOE damage)

This more than halves the damage Starfire does currently which indirectly nerfs all talents that buff Starfire’s damage(Astral Smolder, Umbral Intensity and Umbral Embrace). To make up for that, Starfire no longer generate depressing amounts of AP in AoE and will have us need to cast just 2 Starfires on average until we can cast another Starfall.

Power of Goldrinn damage increased by 75%. Denizen of the Dream: Faerie Dragon damage increased by 20%.

Both of these are welcome single target buffs which is what Balance Druid is by far the worst at currently. Both of these talents will be required to do relevant single target damage.

Friend of the Fae now increases Arcane and Nature damage by 8% for 20 seconds (was 4% for 30 seconds).

This capstone was never used again after the last changes but since it becomes a ~5% dps boost with this buff, it will see play in nearly every situation. It also has to be noted that with 10.0.7 Denizen of the Dream is getting a 100% proc rate increase which is included in the calculation.

Elune’s Guidance now reduces the cost of Starsurge by 8 and Starfall by 10 during Incarnation: Chosen of Elune (was reduces the cost of Starsurge by 5 and Starfall by 8).

Relatively minor buff compared to the other capstones so this will unlikely see play. Comes out at a 3-5% dps increase depending on situation and talent setup.

Radiant Moonlight also increases Fury of Elune’s damage by 50% and now reduces its cooldown by 20 seconds (was 15 seconds). Radiant Moonlight increases the damage dealt by New Moon, Half Moon, and Full Moon by 25%.

While it may look tame on the surface, the real power of this talent is that it always grants both benefits independent of what talent you picked. This means that it buffs all Orbit Breaker Full Moons and Sundered Firmament Fury of Elunes even when having picked the other talent beforehand. Moons have been indirectly nerfed by the buff to our generators and Radiant Moonlight isn’t helping by giving a much larger benefit to Fury of Elune so Fury of Elune is locked for every situation including single target. Radiant Moonlight is currently about a 7% dps increase on single target and 6% in AoE so it will be must pick in more or less every situation.

New builds

As discussed in the previous section we now have a lot of talents that were previously ignored and are now strong enough to be picked in all situations. Due to this we are currently looking to be using the same spec tree for most situations which looks like this: AoE Talents When we don’t need Starfall we can talent it away to gain Nature’s Balance and Warrior of Elune which is slightly outperforming Treants: ST Talents

Wild Mushrooms+Fungal Growth are hard to argue for since you have to give up a very large amount of sustained damage for the burst they give. Nonetheless if all an encounter requires is AoE burst damage, they still exist and would be used but the chances of that happening are low.

Rattle the Stars is getting an indirect buff because our spender casts are now more spread out than before which naturally benefits Rattle uptime. Starweaver is still stronger on 2 targets and whenever you want to do efficient priority damage.

A side of effect of no longer using Stellar Flare, Wild Mushrooms and the less of the current 4pc means that the spec becomes far easier to play for better or worse. AoE is simply putting up dots and then spamming Starfire until you can press Starfall.

Umbral Embrace is simply not strong enough compared to another point in Astral Smolder but the dps difference between those picks is more or less irrelevant. Another result of this is that Sundered Firmament has fallen out of favor since you would need to waste another point in the middle tree and it’s not longer better than our capstones. Umbral Intensity is a dead talent with the Starfire damage nerfs and Lunar Shrapnel, Astral Communion, Light of the Sun and Stellar Innervation stay dead.

Will we go into Solar Eclipse on single target?

Yes, with Soul of the Forest talented, which will always be the case, going into Solar Eclipse is a 1% dps gain again. Without Soul of the Forest it would still be a 1% dps loss.

Single Target priority list:

  • Keep up Moonfire, Sunfire and Stellar Flare and refresh within pandemic (30% of base duration) inside Eclipse and if they would expire otherwise outside Eclipse.
  • Use Wrath to get into Lunar Eclipse. This also applies to before cooldowns if you have T29 4PC equipped.
  • Use Starfall if you have a Touch the Cosmos(T29 4PC) proc and you will cast Celestial Alignment/Incarnation immediately afterwards.
  • Use Starsurge if you have a Touch the Cosmos(T29 4PC) proc.
  • Use Celestial Alignment or Incarnation if talented.
  • Use Starfall if you have 550 Astral Power or more towards Primordial Arcanic Pulsar and you are not in CA or Inc.
  • Use Warrior of Elune if available.
  • Use Convoke the Spirits when below 40 AP if you are inside a CA or Inc window, or if your next CA or Inc window is 30 or more seconds away.
  • Use Astral Communion if you will not overcap on AP.
  • Use Force of Nature if you will not overcap on AP.
  • Use Fury of Elune if you will not overcap on AP.
  • Use Starfall if you have a Starweaver's Warp proc.
  • Use Starsurge if Starlord has less than 3 stacks and if talented you can optimally refresh your Rattle the Stars buff.
  • Use New-, Half- and Full Moon if you will not overcap on AP.
  • Use Starsurge if one of the following conditions are true:
    • You would overcap AP with the next cast.
    • You have a Starweaver's Weft proc.
    • Solar or Lunar Eclipse will end in the next 4 seconds and you have above 70 AP.
  • Use Wild Mushroom on cooldown.
  • Use Wrath if you are in CA/ Inc.
  • Use Starfire if you have an Umbral Embrace proc and you are in only Lunar Eclipse. You can do this via:
    • Catch an Umbral Embrace proc naturally without cancelling any spells currently being cast and/or
    • Cast Starfire when you have two more stacks of the T29 2PC buff
    • You can do both or either for the same gain (0.25%-0.5%)
  • Use Wrath You should always be in Lunar Eclipse but casting Wrath is still a DPS increase.

AoE priority list:

Inside of CA/ Inc your fillers will be Wrath on Single Target and Starfire on 2 or more targets.

Why do we proc pulsar with starfall?

The reason we proc Pulsar in single target situations with Starfall (if CA/INC is not already active) is due to the buffs gained upon entering CA such as BoAT and Celestial Alignment.

The damage dealt by Starfall updates dynamically during its duration and can benefit from those buffs (with the exception of the initial tick). Starsurge on the other hand is executed before these buffs apply and will not benefit from them.

This also applies to consuming your T29 4PC with starfall if you will cast CA/INC immediately afterwards.

How do we use Wild Mushrooms and how do they work?

Wild Mushroom deals damage in an explosion and then applies a DOT called Fungal Growth(if talented). This DOT lasts for 8 seconds and deals 70% of the explosions damage over the course of its duration. Wild Mushroom has 3 charges, so if all 3 charges are used in quick succession and each apply a dot dealing 1000 damage, the total damage dealt by the DOT would be 3000 (1000 damage x 3 charges), and the duration of the DOT would be refreshed to 8 seconds.

This type of DOT is often called “Ignite” based on a Mage spell working this exact way. You dont lose/gain any damage by staggering them or pressing them all at once.

On single target, it’s best to use all 3 charges at once paired with any available buffs such as potion, trinkets, CA. Wild Mushroom is also an instant GCD, so it can be used for movement as needed.

In AoE scenarios, you can use the charges all at once for a quick burst of damage or stagger them to get Waning Twilight up.

In Mythic+, it’s best to stagger the charges to get Waning Twilight up on all mobs before you’ve managed to apply Stellar Flare.

Raid Talents

Eranog
Council
Terros sweaty build
Terros chill build
Sennarth no pad
Sennarth with pad
Dathea 1 platform
Dathea 2+ platforms
Kurog
Broodkeeper
Raszageth

Dungeon Talents

The following are dungeon talent builds that will always serve you well but mind that there can be some variations based on your group comp or affixes.


Ruby Life Pools all weeks
Weaver is especially good in this dungeon because all packs except the very first one have some kind of priority target.


The Nokhud Offensive all weeks
Most packs have a prio target that you can throw Surges into from Weaver, but Rattle is also fine.


The Azure Vault all weeks
Rattle is also fine in Fortified weeks.


Algeth’ar Academy Fortified
Algeth’ar Academy Tyrannical
Academy is the one dungeon where Weaver will usually be worse due to the sheer size of many pulls that also don’t have a singular focus target(outside Wyrms). If your pulls aren’t that big and/or you don’t have trouble with adds on the tree boss Weaver is still better here.


Halls of Valor Tyrannical
Halls of Valor Fortified
Another Rattle or Weaver actually doesn’t matter dungeon.


Court of Stars Imp pad any week
Court of Stars surely Denizen won’t pull
Mushrooms are the epitome of padding in this dungeon. All their damage will be on imps and wyrms which should not have a problem dying. The problem is that the other option is taking Denizens which can pull any patrolling trash or spawning Enforcers so take them at your own risk and always position somewhere that won’t have any mobs you don’t wanna pull.


Shadowmoon Burial Grounds any week
Weaver has a slight edge due to a lot of dungeon being bosses or 2 target pulls but Rattle is also fine.


Temple of the Jade Serpent any week
Nearly every pack in the dungeon has a target with high HP which increases the value of both Weaver and Denizens. While Mushrooms aren’t only pad in this dungeon, most of their damage will be. A full Mushrooms build will net you a fair amount more overall damage as it will in Court of Stars but little of that damage actually makes the dungeon quicker.

Dungeon Druid Tree Considerations

  • Ursine Vigor, Well-Honed Instincts and Improved Stampeding Roar are the major competing talents. Ursine Vigor should be taken if you need it to survive certain abilities. Well-Honed Instincts is always on 1 point but a 2nd can be taken if you rarely/never use Bear Form. Improved Stampeding Roar is extremely useful in indoor dungeons and in spiteful weeks.
  • Remove Corruption should always be taken in Algeth’ar Academy (Tree boss) and Temple of the Jade Serpent (later mobs curse), as we lose nothing relevant by taking it.
  • Cyclone has basically no use other than stopping Bursting and can be replaced with anything else(which also won’t have any use).
  • Hibernate has a singular real use in Court of Stars, as you can use it to stop the bat cast on the last mob before the last boss. There are some niche other “uses” like stopping the stomp from the Bulls in Halls of Valor.
  • For lower keys you can put 2 points into Feline Swiftness like this: https://www.raidbots.com/simbot/render/talents/BYGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAFASERQSkgkEJRKCtEHIJJUSCxBSSolUiQEFACAA?bgcolor=000000 This skips Ursine Vigor and Typhoon.
  • All other talents in the druid tree are more or less set.

Elemental Potion of Ultimate Power for every situation. Potion of Elemental Power is only 0.4% worse if it turns out to be far cheaper.

Grand Banquet of the Kalu’ak in every situation, but Sizzling Seafood Medley is a cheaper close contender.

ST

Pure damage wise with 100% uptime on all of the Phials and not counting in the downsides their hierarchy is as follows on ST:

AoE:

The priority is the same as it is on ST.

Howling Rune Use in all situations.

Sim yourself using Raidbots Top Gear. Do not follow any stat priorities.

Weapon - Sophic Devotion Main stat proc, use in all situations
Chest - Waking Stats Intellect
Cloak - Graceful Avoidance Avoidance + Reduced fall damage
Legs - Frozen Spellthread Intellect + Stamina
Wrist - Devotion of Avoidance Avoidance
Boots - Watchers Loam Stamina
Ring - Devotion of Mastery Mastery is our best stat but you should always sim your own character to determine what enchant to use in this slot.

ST: The best embellishments raw damage wise at full uptime are Elemental Lariat and Slimy Expulsion Boots.
Potion Absorption Inhibitor should usually be taken instead of Slimy Expulsion Boots since swapping Embellishments, at least early on, is not an option easily.
Another option is Blue Silken Lining at very high uptime, which should can be considered when you are sure you will rarely fall below 90%. In raid this is never the case and the same goes for most dungeons.

AOE: The best embellishments are Elemental Lariat and Potion Absorption Inhibitor in nearly all situations.
As for single target Blue Silken Lining is an option if it gets very high uptime but this is essentially never the case.

TLDR: Elemental Lariat (always use) > Slimy Expulsion Boots (ST) = Potion Absorption Inhibitor (AoE)

What to craft: Before you make your decision on what to craft you should clear as much of the raid as possible. All crafted pieces should be crafted with mastery/haste.
Your first craft should be Elemental Lariat, it performs really well in all situations, after that you can choose to craft either of the following depending on your gear:
Signet of Titanic Insight Ring crafted by jewelcrafting
Primal Molten Spellblade 1H dagger crafted by blacksmithing
Life-Bound Boots Boots crafted by leatherworking

Tier Set

2PC: 2% DPS ST, 2.5% AoE
4PC: 12% DPS ST, 12.5% AoE
2+4PC: 14% DPS ST, 15% AoE
TLDR: Loot or bench

How to use the 4PC procs can be found in the Rotation section. ( Starsurge ST, Starfall AoE)

Obviously, just like before please use the Top Gear or Droptimizer options in Raidbots in order to decide what trinkets to farm/use, but the following list should give you a good idea of some of the trinkets you will want to look out for.

On Single Target you will want to use Furious Ragefeather and one of the following trinkets:

Whispering Incarnate Icon - The Primal Council (Raid)
Spiteful Storm - Raszageth (Raid)
Desperate Invoker’s Codex - Raszageth (Raid), Inflicts a great amount of damage to yourself and should not be considered in a progression environment.
Conjured Chillglobe - The Primal COuncil (Raid)
Eye of Skovald - Halls of Valor
Darkmoon Deck: Inferno - Inscription / AH
Windscar Whetstone - Court of Stars, good on-use ST trinket, mind that the damage it does is shared amongst enemies hit.

On AoE you will want to use Whispering Incarnate Icon and one of the following trinkets:

Alacritous Alchemist Stone - Alchemy / AH
Infernal Writ - Court of Stars
Furious Ragefeather - Nokund Offensive
Idol of the Earth Warder - Jewelcrafting / AH !! This trinket is only good if you have a lot of sockets in your gear !!
Darkmoon Deck: Inferno - Inscription / AH
Voidmender’s Shadowgem - Shadowmoon Burial Grounds
Ruby Whelp Shell - Ruby Life Pools, can be used if no other good alternative, you would want to train the haste proc.
Emerald Coach’s Whistle - Algethar Academy, mastery buff that procs both for you and the person you link with, likely the best dps increase for your group since both players benefit from the buff(requires resto lootspec to drop, procs from all of our spells).
Iceblood Deathsnare Sennarth(Raid), good on sustained AoE

In general try to hit ilvl > mastery gear. If it has mastery it is most likely good, it does NOT need haste or anything else. For stuff that does not have mastery just sim in between dungeons.

Dungeons to Spam:

Nokhud Offensive - In general insane loot, really good trinket, a lot of mastery gear. If you are pugging keys and are able to target try to run this dungeon.
Halls of Valor - This dungeon is really heavy on mastery gear and the trinkets are also pretty good. Do not reroll this dungeon.
Algeth’Ar Academy - Good for weapon hunting, it has a low drop pool so you can get it relatively fast.
Court of Stars - Although the loot pool is diluted, Signet of Melandrus is around 400 agility for Feral if you will at all play that. Infernal Writ is also a really solid trinket.
Temple of the Jade Serpent - Although the loot pool is diluted, there are some decent pieces and a really good main hand. Do not go out of your way to spam this, but do not reroll this either.

Dungeons to Reroll:


Shadowmoon Burial Grounds - Unless the loot table gets purged a lot on live try to reroll this dungeon as you can not target most of the loot and mainstat jewelry is worse than normal ones.
Ruby Life Pools - Good for weapon if you do not have one yet, otherwise skip unless someone in your group needs this or you need score.
Azure Vault - Mostly garbage loot, skip unless someone in your group needs this or you need score.

No, all of our periodic damage (like Moonfire, Sunfire, Stellar Flare ) does NOT snapshot, everything is dynamic. That means any dots gain/lose the damage bonus upon entering/leaving the Eclipse that buffs them and whenever any other stat/damage increases are applied/expire.

When Lunar Eclipse is active use Owlkin Frenzy procs as soon as possible. When ONLY Solar Eclipse(should currently never be the case) is active, use it when fighting 3+ targets or when you need to move. Otherwise let it expire.

Astral damage is Arcane and Nature damage at the same time meaning that these spells benefit from effects that buff either spell school and get increased by both type of boosts multiplicatively. Mind that class buffs only affect class spells so if a trinket does nature or arcane damage they are not affected by our buffs to these spell classes.

Orbital Strike macro:

#showtooltip
/cast [@cursor] Celestial Alignment

Balance Druid Utility:

Innervate - The targeted healer has no mana costs for 10sec - use on yulon monk > disc > everything else (also works with Resto Aff HotW)

Barkskin - 20% DR on 60sec CD (reduced by Symbol of Hope), usable while stunned, frozen, incapacitated, feared or asleep. Also prevents your casts from being pushed back.

Typhoon - AoE Knockback on 30s CD, can be used for purely displacing, interrupting or in tandem with Ursol’s Vortex (read below). Keep in mind that knockbacks also have DR.

Cyclone - Stasis/Banish on enemy for 6sec, 25y. Can be used if an add needs to not die (bolstering)

Soothe - Enrage dispell on an enemy, 10s CD (CD incurs even if nothing is dispelled)

Remove Corruption - Curse and Poison dispell on a friendly Target, 8s CD (CD does not incur if nothing is dispelled)

Entangling Roots - 30sec root, 40y range - can affect only one target (independent of mass entanglement)

Hibernate - 40sec Sleep/Incapacitate on enemy Beasts and Dragonkins, 35y (can also be used to interrupt casts)

Stampeding Roar - Raid wide movement speed increase (60%) for 8 sec. Force shifts into Bear form if not in either Bear Form or Cat Form. Has an unhasted 1.5s gcd due to not being forgotten to be put on a certain whitelist by Blizzard.

Dash - Self 60% movement speed increase while in Cat Form 10s duration. (force shifts into cat form)

Incapacitating Roar - 3 sec AoE Incapacitate, 30s CD - mainly used to interrupt unkickable casts or channels

Ursol's Vortex - AoE 50% Slow + grips mobs inside it if they try to leave (once), 60s CD - mainly used for tank kiting, can be used in tandem with Typhoon to create a budget gorefiend’s grasp

Maim - Stun based on how many CPs you have (1sec per CP) - not used in 99.999% of cases

Mighty Bash - Melee range 4s stun usable in any form, 60s CD

Mass Entanglement - 30s Root that hits everything around your target (you can have both entangling roots and mass entangle at the same time), 30s CD

Heart of the Wild - Grants a specific buff depending on your affinity

  • Guardian - 20% stam, 2 frenzied regens, ironfur stackable - buff only while in bear form (45% stam, 220% armor total + frenzied). Extremely strong defensive cooldown.
  • Restoration - healing increased by 30% mana cost reduction by 50% - can use Innervate on yourself.
  • Feral - never use this

Regrowth - direct heal + hot, castable in Moonkin Form

Rejuvenation - hot (instant) 12s dur, force shifts into Human Form

Wild Growth - Smart heal that hits 5 targets within 30y of your current target (ramps down, ~35k healing per cast), force shifts into Human Form

Swiftmend - Big heal that consumes a HoT and force shifts into Human Form. This means it can only be used on targets that have a Regrowth, Rejuvenation or Wild Growth HoT.

Frenzied Regeneration - 24% max HP heal over time. If you leave Bear form the effect disappears.

Cat Form - Stance, 30% movement speed, going into or out of cat form removes slows and roots.

Travel Form - Stance, 40% movement speed while in combat, 100% movement speed while out of combat, going into or out of travel form removes slows and roots. Keep note which fights/areas you can use this on as it’s a flat better version of Cat Form outside Dash.

Bear Form - Stance, 25% stamina 220% armor, stamina can be used to tank mechanics since you will be losing a smaller % of hp inside it leaving you with higher hp when you go out of it. Going into or out of bear form removes slows and roots.

Flap - Slow fall effect that has to be channeled. Keeps horizontal velocity, costs 1 GCD. Can be used after Wild Charge to extend the jump and travel more distance.

Wild Charge - 15s CD, off GCD

  • Moonkin - Disengage / bound backwards away from your current location - can be extended by jumping before and/or using Flap after it.
  • Human - Fly to an ally’s position - can be used on a separate keybind with a cancelform mouseover wild charge macro.
  • Cat - Leaps behind an enemy target and slows it.
  • Bear - Charges to your target and briefly roots it.
  • Travel - leap forward (longer than moonkin form)

Force of Nature - Taunts everything in a radius near the initial placement of the trees. 60s CD. The trees will start targeting whatever your target was upon placing them.

Solar Beam - ST interrupt on main target with 5s lockout that places an AoE silence ring on the ground that lasts 8s. The silence ring does not work on some mobs but the actual interrupt does, be careful with this.