News

Current Bugs

There are currently some bugs in mythic+ that you should be weary about.

• The first boss in the Siege of Boralus dungeon, Chopper Redhook, currently gets flagged as "in combat" when you are fighting the trash mobs inside his room. This means he will get pulled by AoE abilities like Starfallor your Force of Naturetreants spreading Moonfire.

Tier set

2-piece

Starsurgedamage increased by 10%. Starfalldamage increased by 14%.

This is a 2.6% dmg increase from having no set.

4-piece

Lunar Eclipse and Solar Eclipse each increase the Astral Power Wrathgenerates by 2 and Starfiregenerates by 5.

This is a 4.3% dmg increase from having no set.

Sim for tier set

Rotation

Precasting

Keeper of the Grove

Elune's Chosen

You want to cancel Nature's Graceif you have any stacks before pulling a raid boss. This allows you to do the following opener, and still keep any stacks of Nature's Gracerolling into your cooldowns. Alternatively you can use a macro specified in the "Macros" section.

• Use Wrath.
• Use Wrath.

You can precast 2 seconds before a boss is pulled.

Keeper Explanation: When playing Keeper of the Grove, your opener can vary depending on your distance to the target. The general rule is, you want both casts of Wrathto hit the boss before you use Force of Nature, since Wrathconsumes stacks of Dream Surgeon impact. Usually this means using a global on Moonfirebefore Force of Nature.

What is a priority list?

When reading the priority lists below, you should not think of these as steps to be followed in a specific order. At any given point in combat, you should cast the first ability on the list that you are able to cast, provided the conditions for its use are met.

Single Target Priority

Keeper of the Grove - ST

Convoke the Spirits

Control of the Dream

Starweaver

Touch the Cosmos

New Moon

Fury of Elune

Stellar Flare

Wild Mushroom

• Keep up Sunfire, refresh within pandemic (30% of base duration shown in the tooltip).
• Keep up Moonfire, refresh within pandemic (30% of base duration shown in the tooltip) unless your next GCD is Force of Nature.
• Use Force of Natureif your Solar Eclipse has more than 3 seconds left or if Celestial Alignment/Incarnation is available.
• Use Force of Natureon cooldown, or hold for up to 15 seconds to line up with Celestial Alignment/Incarnation and Convoke the Spirits.
• Keep up Stellar Flareand refresh within pandemic (30% of base duration shown in the tooltip) if you will not overcap on AP.
• Use Celestial Alignment/Incarnation if:
  • You just used Force of Nature.
  • The cooldown on Force of Natureis longer than 25 seconds.
• Cast 2 Starfireto enter Solar Eclipse. It is optimal to start casting Starfireright before your current Eclipse will end, so that you carry a stack of Nature's Graceinto your new Solar Eclipse.
• Use Convoke the Spiritswhen you are below 40 AP and:
  • CA/Incarnation will last for more than 4 seconds or your next CA/Incarnation window is more than 30s away and your Eclipse will last for more than 4s.
  • All of the following conditions are true:
    • You just used Force of Nature.
    • The cooldown on CA/Incarnation is longer than 30 seconds.
• Use Fury of Elune.
• Use Starsurgeif Starlordhas less than 3 stacks.
• Use Starsurgeif one of the following conditions is met:
  • Starlordhas less than 3 stacks.
  • You are about to overcap on AP.
  • You need to move.
  • You have a Starweaver's Weftproc.
  • You have a Touch the Cosmosproc.
• Use New-,Half- and Full Moonif all of the following conditions are met:
  • You will not overcap on AP.
  • You can finish the cast before your current Eclipse ends.
  • You are in CA/Incarnation or you're about to cap on charges and the cooldown of CA/Incarnation is longer than 10 seconds.
• Use Starsurgeif one of the following conditions is met:
  • You are about to overcap on AP.
  • You need to move.
  • You have a Starweaver's Weftproc.
  • You have a Touch the Cosmosproc.
• Use Starfallif you have a Starweaver's Warpproc.
• Use Starfallif you have a Touch the Cosmosproc.
• Use Wild Mushroomas a movement GCD.
• Use Wrath.

Elune's Chosen - ST

Lunar Calling

Warrior of Elune

Fury of Elune

Convoke the Spirits

New Moon

Touch the Cosmos

Starweaver

Stellar Flare

Wild Mushroom

Force of Nature

• Use Warrior of Elune.
• Keep up Moonfireand Sunfire, refresh within pandemic (30% of base duration shown in the tooltip).
• Keep up Stellar Flareand refresh within pandemic (30% of base duration shown in the tooltip) if you will not overcap on AP.
• Use Fury of Eluneif your next global is Celestial Alignment/Incarnation.
• Use Celestial Alignment/Incarnation.
• Use Warrior of Eluneif your eclipse has less than 7 seconds left and you will enter Solar Eclipse next.
• Use Wrathto enter Lunar Eclipse.
• Use Starfireto enter Solar Eclipse.
• Use Fury of Elune.
• Use Starfireto spend any stacks of Nature's Gracebefore using Convoke the Spirits.
• Use Convoke the Spiritsif you're below 40 AP and CA/Incarnation will last for more than 4 seconds, or your next CA/Incarnation window is more than 30s away and your Eclipse will last for more than 4s.
• Use Starsurgeif Starlordhas less than 3 stacks.
• Use Starsurgeif one of the following conditions is met:
  • Starlordhas less than 3 stacks.
  • You are about to overcap on AP.
  • You need to move.
  • You have a Starweaver's Weftproc.
  • You have a Touch the Cosmosproc.
• Use New-,Half- and Full Moonif all of the following conditions are met:
  • You will not overcap on AP.
  • You can finish the cast before your current eclipse ends.
  • You are in CA/Incarnation or you're about to cap on charges and the cooldown of CA/Incarnation is longer than 10 seconds.
• Use Starsurgeif one of the following conditions is met:
  • You are about to overcap on AP.
  • You need to move.
  • You have a Starweaver's Weftproc.
  • You have a Touch the Cosmosproc.
• Use Starfallif you have a Starweaver's Warpproc.
• Use Starfallif you have a Touch the Cosmosproc.
• Use Wild Mushroomas a movement GCD.
• Use Force of Natureif you will not overcap on AP.
• Use Starfire.
• Use Wrath.

AoE Priority (2+ targets)

Keeper of the Grove - AoE

Fury of Elune

New Moon

Stellar Flare

Touch the Cosmos

Starweaver

Convoke the Spirits

Wild Mushroom

• Use Sunfireif the target will live for at least 5.5 seconds. Subtract 0.5 seconds for each additional target beyond the first. Wait until all targets are gathered.
• Use Moonfireif the targets will live for 6 or more seconds and you will not overcap on AP. Remember Force of Naturealso spreads Moonfire
• Use Stellar Flareif all of the following conditions is met:
  • The target will live for at least 8s+1s per target that Starfirecan hit.
  • You will not overcap on AP.
• Use Starfallif you would overcap Astral Power with your next cast.
• Use Force of Natureif one of the following conditions is met:
  • Your current Eclipse has more than 3 seconds left.
  • Your next GCD is CA/Incarnation.
• Use Celestial Alignment/Incarnation if one of the following conditions is met:
  • You just used Force of Nature.
  • The cooldown on Force of Natureis longer than 25 seconds.
• Use Wrathto enter Lunar Eclipse.
• Use Fury of Elune.
• Use Starfallif:
  • Starlordis below 3 stacks.
  • You have a Starweaver's Warpproc.
  • You have a Touch the Cosmosproc.
• Use Starfireto consume any stacks of Nature's Graceand Umbral Embrace.
• Use Wild Mushroomif you will not overcap on AP and Waning Twilightis not up on your targets.
• Use Full Moonif all of the following conditions are met:
  • You will not overcap on AP.
  • You can finish the cast before your current eclipse ends.
  • You are in CA/Inc or you're about to cap on charges and the cooldown of Celestial Alignment/Incarnation is longer than 10 seconds.
• Use New Moonif you will not overcap on AP.
• Use Half Moonif you will not overcap on AP and you can finish the cast before your current eclipse ends.
• Use Convoke the Spiritsif you are fighting less than 7 targets and Umbral Embraceor Nature's Graceare not up.
• Use Starsurgeif:
  • You have a Starweaver's Weftproc.
  • You have a Touch the Cosmosproc.
• Use Starfire.

Elune's Chosen - AoE

Warrior of Elune

Fury of Elune

New Moon

Stellar Flare

Starweaver

Touch the Cosmos

Convoke the Spirits

Force of Nature

Wild Mushroom

• Use Sunfireif the target will live for at least 5.5 seconds. Subtract 0.5 seconds for each additional target beyond the first. Wait until all targets are gathered.
• Use Moonfireif the targets will live for 6 or more seconds and you will not overcap on AP.
• Use Stellar Flareif all of the following conditions is met:
  • The target will live for at least 8s+1s per target that Starfirecan hit.
  • You will not overcap on AP.
• Use Starfallif you would overcap Astral Power with your next cast.
• Use Fury of Elune.
• Use CA/Incarnation.
• Use Warrior of Eluneif available.
• Use Wrathto enter Lunar Eclipse.
• Use Wild Mushroomif you will not overcap on AP and Waning Twilightis not up on your targets.
• Use Starfallif one of the following conditions is met:
  • Starlordis below 3 stacks.
  • You have a Starweaver's Warpproc.
  • You have a Touch the Cosmosproc.
• Use Full Moonif all of the following conditions are met:
  • You will not overcap on AP.
  • You can finish the cast before your current eclipse ends.
  • You are in CA/Inc or you're about to cap on charges and the cooldown of CA/Incarnation is longer than 10 seconds.
• Use New Moonif you will not overcap on AP.
• Use Half Moonif you will not overcap on AP and you can finish the cast before your current eclipse ends.
• Use Starfireto consume any stacks of Nature's Graceand Umbral Embrace.
• Use Convoke the Spiritsif you are fighting less than 7 targets and Umbral Embraceor Nature's Graceare not up.
• Use Starsurgeif:
  • You have a Starweaver's Weftproc.
  • You have a Touch the Cosmosproc.
• Use Force of Natureif you will not overcap on AP.
• Use Starfire.

Rotational Details

Eclipses and Fillers

• On 1 target, enter Solar Eclipse and cast Wrath.
• On 2 targets and more, enter Lunar Eclipse and cast Starfire.
• If talented into Lunar Calling, enter Lunar Eclipse and cast Starfireat all times.

How to Use Warrior of Elune

Warrior of Eluneis an off-gcd ability, making your next 3 Starfireinstant for 25 seconds. The ability has a 45s cooldown that starts once you've pressed it. It should be used on cooldown while talented into Lunar Calling, or you can hold for a few seconds to line up with CA/Incarnation.

When not talented into Lunar Calling, use Warrior of Elunecharges to enter Solar Eclipse.

Control of the Dream vs. Power of the Dream

Control of the Dreamlets you hold on to either Celestial Alignment/Incarnation, Convoke the Spiritsor Force of Naturefor up to 15 seconds without losing a use, subtracting the amount of time you held the ability from its cooldown.

Depending on the timer, this talent is stronger than Power of the Dreamwhich it shares a choice node with. As always, you should research the fight you are preparing for on warcraftlogs or sim your character and make an educated guess.

How to use Owlkin Frenzy procs

Use Owlkin Frenzyprocs to enter Solar Eclipse, inside Lunar Eclipse or inside CA/Incarnation if Starfire will hit 2 or more targets. Keep in mind that Warrior of Elunecharges are consumed before Owlkin Frenzyprocs.

Talents

Raid

Mythic+

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. Do not be afraid of swapping some talents out if you think it can help your group.

Both hero trees are viable and perform very close to each other. Feel free to choose the one you prefer.

Consumables:

Potions

Tempered Potion

Food

Feast of the Midnight Masquerade or The Sushi Special

Flasks

Flask of Alchemical Chaos or Flask of Tempered Mastery

Weapon Rune

Algari Mana Oil

Gearing:

Stat Priority:

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

Gems and Enchants

Gems - 1x Elusive Blasphemite or Culminating Blasphemite mixed with whatever gems sim the highest for your character.

Weapon - Authority of the Depths for single target and raid, Stormrider's Fury for AoE and m+

Chest - Crystalline Radiance

Cloak - Chant of Winged Grace

Legs - Sunset Spellthread

Wrist - Chant of Armored Avoidance

Boots - Scout's March or Defender's March

Ring - You should always sim your own character to determine what enchant to use in this slot.

Embellishments & Crafted Items

Embellishments for this season don't offer a substantial gain, so it's important that you always sim your character using Raidbots Top Gear before making any gearing decision, but here are some guidelines:

Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension and Writhing Armor Banding

• This is a solid all-round choice for both single target and AoE. The Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension can be crafted on any weapon. If you go this route, you should aim to craft this on a two-handed weapon early, and crafting the Writhing Armor Banding on a low stat budget slot, preferably on the cloak, belt or wrist slot. Keep in mind that this embellishment only stacks during combat, making it a lot less valuable in mythic+. For later in the season when you acquire a 639 weapon, you should recraft the Ascension embellishment on an off-hand.

Elemental Focusing Lens

• This is a solid all-round choice for single target and mythic+. It's a random damage proc effect, where the type of damage is determined based on what kind of gems you are wearing. Equipping more gems or changing the type does not matter for the damage output. If you go for this choice, you should aim to craft two of them on low stat budget slots, notably the cloak, belt or wrist slots.

Duskthread Lining or Dawnthread Lining

• These are buffs that give you versatility or critical strike when you're above 80% hp. They are decent choices for mythic+, depending on the uptime you can get. They're similiar to the Blue Silken Lining embellishment from Dragonflight. If you go for this choice, you should aim to craft them on two low stat budget slots, notably the cloak, wrist or belt slots.

Remember that you will acquire an enchanted heroic crest early in the season as a quest reward, allowing you to craft a 619 item without spending any of your crests.

Trinkets

Spymaster's Web is a trinket with a passively stacking intellect buff, capping at 40 stacks and an on-use effect that gives you intellect based on the amount of stacks you've accumulated. Ideally this means you should save it for your 3rd or 2nd use of Celestial Alignment/Incarnation, depending on fight timer.

Please use Top Gear on Raidbots in order to decide what trinkets to use/farm, but the following list should give you a good idea of some of the trinkets you will want to look out for. The list is in roughly power-level order assuming the highest item level versions of the trinkets.

• Spymaster's Web
• Ara-Kara Sacbrood
• Gale of Shadows
• Treacherous Transmitter
• Candle Confidant
• Empowering Crystal of Anub'ikkaj
• Shadow-Binding Ritual Knife
• Unbound Changeling
• High Speaker's Accretion
• Ovi'nax's Mercurial Egg
• Satchel of Misbegotten Minions
• Aberrant Spellforge
• Cirral Concoctory
• Hadal's Nautilus
• Harvester's Edict
• Mad Queen's Mandate

FAQ

Why can't I enter Solar Eclipse?

• Because you are talented into Lunar Calling.

How can I proc Waning Twilightwithout Wild Mushroomor Stellar Flare?

• With Astral Smolder.

I've read the priority list and I think my rotation looks correct but I'm still doing very low damage. What could be the reason?

• Log one of your fights and check it with warcraftlogs and wowanalyzer. The main thing to check is if you're always casting: the timeline should have no downtime and, as close to zero as possible, cancelled casts. Another common issue is incorrectly planning your movement and wasting casts on dots: you should always have enough AP to cover some distance just by using spenders.

What is Astral damage?

• Astral damage is both Arcane and Nature damage. Effects that buff Nature spells also applies to Astral spells, and effects that buff Arcane spells likewise also applies to Astral spells. For example, Solar Eclipse multiplies the damage of all Nature & Astral spells by 1.15x, and Lunar Eclipse multiplies the damage of all Arcane & Astral spells by 1.15x. If you have both eclipses, Astral spells get 1.15 * 1.15 = 1.3225x multiplier, while Nature & Arcane spells get 1.15x.

• 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 schools.

Is there a target count where spreading Sunfire or Moonfire is not worth it?

• No, having your DoT effects up increases your damage done to the target. The conditions for spreading Sunfire and Moonfire are tied to how long the target will live, and not how many targets there are.

How do I sim for AoE?

• It is generally recommended that you steer away from simming unrealistic scenarios like "5 target 40 seconds" as they are likely to give skewed results. Balance Druid stats don't really change much depending on target count either, so you will be perfectly fine just using the default "1 target 5 minute patchwerk" options. If your intention is to sim for mythic+, you can use the MDT Sim WeakAura which allows you to sim dungeon routes. Please keep in mind that ST damage is still a big part of mythic+.

I'm doing really low damage in Mythic+, what am I doing wrong?

• If you double-checked your rotation and still feel like you're underperforming you could just be playing low keys, together with classes that have very bursty damage profiles. When playing a Balance Druid, mobs need to live long enough for you to actually start doing damage, which is something that doesn't really happen in keys lower than 12+. Consider focusing a bit more on ST or trying another spec, but take into account the fact that DPS isn't everything in a key.

I've seen a lot of people running build X instead of Y in Mythic+, is X better?

• Try them out and make an informed decision! Most differences between builds are based on variables like target count, comps, combat timer or utility needed.

Why are some top players running different embellishments from the ones mentioned in the Compendium

• The DPS gain provided by the embellishments can vary significantly because of many external factors such as gear, type of content and group composition. Some of the top players might also happen to use niche embellishments for the same reasons. If you don't have any specific requirements then your best option is to just sim your character and choose the embellishments that provide the highest DPS upgrade.

Do our dots snapshot?

• No, all of our periodic damage (like Moonfire, Sunfire, Stellar Flare) do 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.

Additional Resources

Macros

Orbital Strike macro:

#showtooltip
/cast [@cursor] Celestial Alignment

Force of Nature macro:

#showtooltip
/cast [@cursor] Force of Nature

Trinket macro:

If you are using an on-use trinket that should go along with your cooldowns, use the following macro (/13 for top trinket slot, and /14 for bottom trinket slot)

#showtooltip
/use 13
/use 14
/cast [@cursor] Celestial Alignment

Cancelaura Macros

Cancelling Dreamstate

This macro lets you cancel your Nature's Gracestacks while pre-casting before combat starts. This is entirely optional, but lets you skip the step of clicking away your buff.

#showtooltip
/cancelaura [nocombat] Dreamstate
/cast Wrath

Cancelling Starlord

Cancelling Starlord is entirely optional and is neither a DPS gain nor loss.

If you want to engage in this entirely optional method without incurring a DPS loss, you should aim to cancel Starlord at any point in an Eclipse window where the buff is currently at less than two seconds, and you are about to use Starsurgeto prevent overcapping.

#showtooltip
/cancelaura Starlord

Useful WeakAuras and Other Profiles

Balance WeakAura Packs

The following links lead to various Balance Druid WeakAura packs. These contain everything that's recommended to track to play at a high level. None of these are particular better or more useful than others, and which one you should use is up to your personal preference.

• Shrom's Ultimate AP Bar
• Oi Balance pack
• LuckyOneUI Druid
• Afenar The War Within
• Shrom's AP Bar - Standalone

Jundies Plater Profile

This profile for Plater is among the most used and asked about public nameplate profiles for moonkins, since it changes the color of a mobs nameplate based on what DoT effects are currently active on the target, being very helpful to more accurately spread your Sunfire and Moonfire when fighting multiple mobs at the same time.

Regrowth Tracker for Blooming Infusion

This weakaura tracks your number of casts of Regrowth before you get the Blooming Infusion buff that increases the damage of your next Wrath/Starfire and makes them instant cast, and also tracks your number of Starsurge casts before you proc an instant Regrowth.

Casts until you can cast Starfire

Starfire Alerter: See the description of the WA for more details. This is not a required WA but will make it easier to not get into situations where you are wasting a Starfire cast inside Solar Eclipse.

Item Strings for Simming

Race Sim

Current APL