Balance Druid DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — 12.0.7

The new Eclipse system reduces ramp-up time at the cost of overall uptime. This is most noticeable in raids, but you will feel this downtime on any fight longer than two to three minutes.

On average, you can maintain Eclipse, including cooldowns, for 65-75% of the time. What matters is having Eclipse when it is needed. Plan your downtimes based on the needs of the fight, and avoid capping charges of Eclipse to reach the highest achievable uptime. For example, if you know you want to hit a priority target in 10 seconds, just sit outside Eclipse and generate Astral Power. If your pack in a dungeon is close to dying, save your charge.

Additionally you want to consider the types of spells you cast or actions you take while inside and outside of Eclipse. While inside Eclipse, your top priority should be to spend as much of your Astral Power as possible because it is your most effective damage. Spells such as Starsurge and Starfall will be the best spells and Wrath and Starfire are good spells to cast while inside Eclipse.

While outside of your Eclipse you want to be casting preparation or maintenance spells. Spells that last through your Eclipse state or buff your upcoming abilities. The best example is your DoTs, Moonfire and Sunfire. These will last through Eclipse and since they update with your buffs, you only lose damage on their low damage application. You should also use spells that generate Astral Power or buff you, such as Fury of Elune and Force of Nature.

When DoTing targets, you need to factor in the amount of time those DoTs will be dealing damage. When a target lives through an entire DoT duration, that single global you used to apply the DoT is the most efficient global per damage you can cast. However not every target lives the entire 15 to 24 seconds. If a target will only live 5-6 seconds, you will want to focus on getting as much raw damage into that target as possible via your spenders and other abilities, and forgo DoTing that target as it would do less damage for that global than say a Wrath or Starsurge.

When DoTing targets on AoE, you have to also consider how many globals you will be using. If your targets are spread out, you may only want to Moonfire them as it will cleave to ones much further away than Sunfire. Once the targets are grouped, you will want to Sunfire them there, as you can hit every target with one global.

When casting Sunfire you want to ensure that the targets will live at least 5-seconds. With Moonfire, you want the target to live at least 8-seconds.

On one and two targets is is best to cast Starsurge instead of Starfallif you do not take Aetherial Kindling. For additional damage on two targets, you can attempt to maintain Stellar Amplification on each target. When you are using Starweaver, you will want to rotate your Starsurges to different targets on each proc if there are few enough targets to justify using Starsurge.

Currently, it is best to Starfall on three targets regardless of Hero Talent choice. This does impact the talents that are taken. If you are going to be spending the majority of your time hitting two targets, you will not want to take Nature's Balance, Power of Goldrinn, Stellar Amplification, or Convoke the Spirits. Instead, you will want to take Talents such as Incarnation: Chosen of Elune, Elune's Guidance, and even Astral Communion.

When choosing which Eclipse to enter, you want to know how many targets you will be able to hit with your filler spell. If you are able to hit 3-targets consistently with Starfire, you will want to be in Lunar Eclipse. If you are not able to, make sure you are in Solar Eclipse and you will cast Wrath.

If you are specced into Elune's Chosen, you will always go into Lunar Eclipse. However if you outside of Eclipse, you will still cast Wrath on up to 5-targets.

With the amount of free spender procs Balance Druid has, it is important to understand when to use them and which spells to cast./

When using Starweaver, you are given a free cast of spender opposite of what procced it. Starfall procs will always be used but on 8 or more targets, you will not use Starsurge procs.

Starweaver also has differing proc rates for each spender. You are more likely to get a Starsurge proc when you cast Starfall than vice versa. So when you have a Touch the Cosmos proc while talented into Starweaver, you will always cast Starfall.

It is important to first note that Celestial Alignment and Incarnation: Chosen of Elune are both stronger Eclipse states and the rules stated in the Utilizing Eclipse section apply here as well and even more so for the types of spells you cast inside these cooldowns.

The spells themselves provide small stat buffs but the important part is that they provide both Eclipse state which gives your Astral Damage spells additional damage. This includes spenders like Starsurge, procs like Shooting Stars, and cooldowns like Fury of Elune.

You always want to be overlapping your cooldowns together. With Whirling Stars, two charges of this ability and it allows you to stagger their use to line up with other cooldowns such as Convoke the Spirits, Force of Nature, and Force of Nature. The more cooldowns you can stack the more potent they become.

Force of Nature is the primary mechanic of the Keeper of the Grove Hero Talent tree. Casting Force of Nature often and at the right times will boost your damage significantly. By itself, it grants the powerful Dream Surge buff which provides on demand burst, a flat 4% damage bonus, and applies Moonfire on up to 8-targets.

You always want to pair Force of Nature with your major cooldown, Celestial Alignment or Incarnation: Chosen of Elune. If these are on cooldown for 45-seconds (or 30-seconds with Early Spring) you will want to pair Force of Nature with your next Eclipse.

Fury of Elune can be taken with either Hero Talent choice but is more effective and plays differently with Elune's Chosen.

When playing Keeper of the Grove, you are mainly using it for its Astral Power generation. As such it is generally something paired with Celestial Alignment and Force of Nature to allow you to spend more Astral Power while inside those buff windows. You want to use it before entering Eclipse or cooldowns because it is not the primary damage driver.

When playing Fury of Elune inside Elune's Chosen, it becomes a much more potent ability as it is directly buffed by the primary and capstone Hero Talent. Additionally, it has its cooldown significantly reduced by Lunation. What changes with Elune's Chosen is that you will always want to cast it inside your Eclipse and you will want to be casting it as quickly as it comes up, unless you need to save it for a specific damage window.

Always try to overlap Convoke the Spirits with Celestial Alignment / Incarnation: Chosen of Elune as well as the buff from Balance of All Things.

Convoke the Spirits has a 45-yard range from the center of any target's hitbox. This means for larger bosses, max range Convoke the Spirits may end up whiffing all Balance spells if you are too far away.

With Elune's Guidance talented, melee Convoke the Spirits is less consistent than ranged Convoke. Avoid being in melee if possible, or you are more likely to lose a Balance-specific catch. This is a minor point but something to avoid if possible.

If you are using Convoke the Spirits on multiple targets, cast Convoke before casting other Starfalls to raise the chance that you will cast a free Starfall.