Balance Druid DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — Shadowlands 9.0.2

The following is the ideal Balance Druid single target rotation.

1. Cast two unempowered fillers ( Wrath or Starfire) to enter the appropriate Eclipse state.
2. Apply and maintain Moonfire, Sunfire, and Stellar Flare (if talented) on the target(s).
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.

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

The following rotation assumes you have Nature's Balance talented as the free 50 Astral Power on the opener is a huge quality of life benefit.

1. Precast two Wraths to enter Lunar Eclipse; if you mistimed things, cast additional Wraths until you enter it.
2. Starsurge when you get into Eclipse.
3. Apply all of your DoT's to the target ( Moonfire & Sunfire / Stellar Flare (if talented)).
4. Get to 90 Astral Power and then press Celestial Alignment / Incarnation: Chosen of Elune (if talented).
5. Unload three Starsurges and continue with a normal rotation.

Balance of All Things is a legendary power that increases our Critical Strike chance for the first 5-seconds of each Eclipse cycle, decaying 10% per second. This is a single-target legendary we are currently using and it changes your rotation a bit.

You want to aim to cast three Starsurges at the target in those first seconds that you enter Eclipse to maximize the bonus. To do this you treat it similar to Starlord, by pooling at the tail end of every Eclipse. After some practice, you will begin to see how much Astral Power you generate in a cycle. If you can fit in another Starsurge, you should cast it as soon as you are able to so you can buff your fillers but always prioritize the 90 Astral Power you want to have at the start of the next Eclipse.

Lunar is the preferred multi-target and cleave Eclipse state. You can use your cooldown when it feels optimal, but beware of losing uses especially in dungeons.

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

Multi-target and cleave work a little differently than the normal rotation as seen above. Here are a few rules about Starfall.

• When there are three targets, always cast Starfall.
• When you are talented into Soul of the Forest or Stellar Drift, you can cast Starfall on two targets.
• Starfall has an average pandemic refresh timer of about three seconds but no longer stacks.

Our DoT application rules have also changed:

• Always keep Sunfire on the target.
• When there are 3 or more targets, and you have Soul of the Forest, only apply Moonfire in Solar Eclipse.

There are some situations that change which spells we prioritize in an Eclipse:

• In Lunar Eclipse, with Soul of the Forest talented, while on six or more targets, maintain Starfall but otherwise only cast Starfire.
• In Solar Eclipse, with Soul of the Forest talented, while on eight or more targets, with all DoTs up, you can replace Wrath with Starfire.

As a Balance Druid, you only have one DPS cooldown, by default: Celestial Alignment. You should use this during periods of increased damage to the boss. In any case, it should be used as many times as possible during the encounter.

Celestial Alignment also fits into the Eclipse theme. When this cooldown ( Incarnation: Chosen of Elune as well) ends, your Eclipses reset allowing you to choose the next Eclipse. Use this to set your own path down in an encounter. If you notice on one pull you would have rather been in Lunar Eclipse but you were in Solar Eclipse at that time, think to see if it would be worth swapping which Eclipse state you started on or reset to.

While the rotations we gave in the previous sections will yield good results, there are a few subtleties that you should understand in order to truly excel at your role.

Be it your Astral Power generation is not high enough or you got messed up on mechanics, managing Eclipse buffs is not always as easy as just pooling at the end and spending at the start. Additionally, using Starsurge at the end of an Eclipse or between Eclipses is a big mistake and should always be avoided.

On single target you want to prioritize Solar Eclipse. This means that you may need to go through you Lunar cycle with maybe only one or two Starsurges instead of the optimal three. The goal needs to be getting the triple Starsurge in your optimal Eclipse state every time.

The goal on multi-target is to maximize Starfall uptime while empowering Lunar Eclipse as much as possible. Much like how you want to be fully optimzing Solar Eclipse for single target, this means you may have to sacrifice damage in Solar so you can get some beefy Starfire cleaves.

Try to line up windows of movement with instant cast spells like Moonfire, Sunfire, and Starsurge. Additionally you can delay using Warrior of Elune and save any amount of charges for movement.

If you know there is movement coming in the coming seconds, do your best to hold 30 Astral Power so you can move and cast a Starsurge. Depending on the distance being traveled, you can instead Dash, Wild Charge, or Tiger Dash to reach your destination more quickly. If you cannot reach your destination within two or three globals cooldowns, it is best to use a movement ability.

For single target, you should practice what is called "Astral Power pooling" or "Astral Power floating". This is where you purposefully do not use Starsurge until you have a large amount of Astral Power saved up. This way, when you need to move, you have enough Astral Power to cast at least two Starsurges, giving you about 2 seconds of movement without any penalty to your DPS.

This method is not as optimal for DPS anymore but can still be used to mitigate DPS loss as doing a slightly delayed Eclipse cycle with late Starsurge is more beneficial than doing nothing.