Balance Druid DPS Easy Mode — Shadowlands Pre-Patch 9.0.1

This page is intended for players who are new to the game or class, have no intentions of raiding Mythic difficulty, or simply want a more straightforward way to play their specialization without being overwhelmed by the numerous subtleties and active abilities that need to be taken into consideration for optimal play.

Balance Druid is a caster specialization that deals good single and multi-target DPS, but has a slightly difficult/demanding rotation which when optimized requires both reactive gameplay and pre-planning to master.

Your main goal for maximum DPS is Astral Power management. The difference between having Astral Power for Starfall and not or not being able to frontload Starsurges is large one.

For more information about your spells and their interactions, please refer to our spell summary page.

The following talent choices are effectively best in all situations but some niche situations.

• Level 15: Nature's Balance
• Level 25: Wild Charge
• Level 30: Restoration Affinity
• Level 35: Mighty Bash
• Level 40: Starlord (single target) Soul of the Forest (multiple targets)
• Level 45: Stellar Drift (multiple-targets) or Stellar Flare (one and two targets)
• Level 50: Solstice

If you are looking for a more detailed analysis of each talent and the situations in which it could be taken, check out the full talents page below.

Currently, you will want to prioritize stats as follows:

1. Intellect;
2. Mastery;
3. Haste;
4. Critical Strike;
5. Versatility.

Stats for Balance Druid are generally pretty straightforward but for more details on how each stat interacts with the kit and how stat weights can change, head to the full stats page on the link below.

The general Balance Druid rotation is based on the following priority list. This is the priority for single target. Solar is the prefered single target Eclipse state.

1. Apply and maintain Moonfire, Sunfire, and Stellar Flare (if talented) on the target(s).
2. Cast two unempowered fillers ( Wrath or Starfire) to enter the appropriate Eclipse state.
3. Cast Starsurge when available. This stacks up damage for your filler.
4. Cast any remaining short Cooldowns such as Fury of Elune, Warrior of Elune, or Force of Nature.
5. Cast the Eclipse appropriate filler to try to fill up your Astral Power for the next Eclipse.
6. Repeat the process steps 2, 3, and 5.

At all times, you should avoid generating Astral Power when you are at maximum capacity.

Lunar is the prefered multi-target and cleave Eclipse state.

1. Maintain Starfall to consume Astral Power.
2. Apply and maintain Moonfire, Sunfire on all targets if they will live longer than 8-seconds.
3. Keep Fury of Elune (if talented) on cooldown.
4. Cast two unempowered fillers ( Wrath or Starfire) to enter the appropriate Eclipse state.
5. Cast Starsurge when available. Try to keep enough Astral Power for Starfall when its low duration.
6. Cast the Eclipse appropriate filler to try to fill up your Astral Power for the next Eclipse.

For some more nuanced tricks, head over to our full Rotation page below.

Arcanic Pulsar is a strong trait that increases Starsurge damage. When paired with Vision of Perfection, it makes for high cooldown uptime and stacking them leads to major league Starsurges.

Streaking Stars is most likely going to be strong going forward as well. It will be worse given the increase in priority over Mastery but still easily viable.

Secondary stats are still very usable. Heart of Darkness, Tradewinds, Swirling Sands among others will be viable in all content.

Azerite Gear in the Shadowlands pre-patch could still have some interesting interactions with the kit depending on how certain things are scaled down by Blizzard. For more explanations on what is good, head to our Azerite Trait page.

We receive some major power boosts in the form of Azerite Essences. Each Essence has a Major and Minor effect. Below are some of the strong Essence effects for Balance Druid:

There are three over performing Major Essences for the pre-patch:

• Vision of Perfection is still a great choice in raids. While we have leaned away from Streaking Stars a bit in pre-patch, our cooldown still remains strong with what we have.
• Worldvein Resonance is our go-to Mythic+ Essence especially if you can convince another to use it as well. The cooldown can be used once a pack in higher keys and every other in low keys, the burst of Intellect helps facilitate a high burst window.
• Guardian of Azeroth is comaprable to Visions. This Essence can be better with fight durations not suiting Visions, as well as if you drop any Streaking Stars traits.

The minors have also changed a bit, here are the best Minor Essences of the prepatch:

• Strife still gives enough Versatility to be good in all situations.
• Ancient Flame is out-performing Reaping Flames on overall damage output and since we no longer need the Corruption resistance, can be swapped into its place in most situations.
• Lethal Strikes is still a high single target DPS output minor and is used on most single target dominant fights in raids.
• Blood-Soaked is the Mythic+ and overall multi-target choice with its stack gain faster on multi-target with DoT and Starfall ticks.

See the Balance Druid Azerite Essences page for a full ranking of each Essence.

Your only cooldown is Celestial Alignment (or Incarnation: Chosen of Elune if you talent it). You should aim to use these cooldowns as many times as possible throughout an encounter. Ideally, you can also time it so that it is active if a boss takes increased damage.