Balance Druid DPS Spec, Builds, and Talents (Legion 7.3)

Table of Contents

• +Introduction
  • 1. Class Overview
  • 2. Patch 7.3 Changes
  • 3. Patch 7.2.5 Changes
  • 4. Patch 7.2 Changes
  • 5. Contents
  • 6. ChangeLog
• +Easy Mode
  • 1. The Basics
  • 2. Talent Choice
  • 3. Stat Choice
  • 4. Basic Rotation
  • 5. Cooldowns
  • 6. ChangeLog
• +Spell Summary
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. Main Resources
  • 3. Basic Abilities
  • 4. Cooldowns
  • 5. ChangeLog
• ×Builds and Talents
  • 1. Talent Choices
  • 2. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents
  • 3. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents
  • 4. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents
  • 5. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents
  • 6. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents
  • 7. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents
  • 8. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents
  • 9. ChangeLog
• +Artifact Traits and Relics
  • 1. Artifact Progression
  • 2. Relic Choice
    • 2.1. Single Target
    • 2.2. Multiple Target
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Netherlight Crucible Relic Paths
  • 1. General Optimization Advice
  • 2. Tier 2 Upgrade Priority
    • 2.1. Single Target
    • 2.2. Multiple Target
  • 3. Tier 3 Upgrade Priority
    • 3.1. Single Target
    • 3.2. Multiple Target
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities
  • 1. Single Target Rotation
    • 1.1. Opening Rotation
  • 2. Multiple Target Rotation
  • 3. Cooldown Usage
  • 4. Optional Read: Mastering Your Balance Druid
    • 4.1. Mastery: Starlight
    • 4.2. Artifact Ability
    • 4.3. Lunar, Solar, and Stellar Empowerments
    • 4.4. Mitigating Movement DPS
  • 5. ChangeLog
• +Stat Priority
  • 1. Basics
  • 2. Getting a Better Understanding
    • 2.1. Statistics Priority
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Gems, Enchants, and Consumables
  • 1. Gems
  • 2. Enchants
  • 3. Consumables
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Macros and Addons
  • 1. Macros
    • 1.1. Generic Macros for Druids
      • 1.1.1. Rebirth
      • 1.1.2. Remove Corruption
    • 1.2. Specific Macros for Balance Druids
      • 1.2.1. Starfall Cursor Macro
  • 2. Addons
    • 2.1. Generic Addons for Druids
      • 2.1.1. ElvUI
      • 2.1.2. Boss Mods: Deadly Boss Mods or Bigwigs
      • 2.1.3. GTFO
      • 2.1.4. Omen Threat Meter
      • 2.1.5. Parrot or Mik's Scrolling Battle Text
      • 2.1.6. Weak Auras
      • 2.1.7. Recount / Skada / Details!
      • 2.1.8. Grid and GridClickSets (Optional)
      • 2.1.9. TellMeWhen
    • 2.2. Specific Addons for Balance Druids
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Gear, Legendaries, and Best in Slot
  • 1. Best in Slot List
  • 2. Tier 20 Set Bonuses
  • 3. Legendary Items
  • 4. Loot Competition
  • 5. ChangeLog

General Information

On this page, we present the viable talent choices for Balance Druids in World of Warcraft Legion 7.3. We detail what each of the talents do and in which situations they should be taken.

The other pages of our Balance Druid guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

About Our Reviewer

This guide has been reviewed and approved by Slippykins, long-time Balance Druid theorycrafter and moderator at MMO-Champion and the Druid discord. You can catch him in his theorycrafting thread, or on Discord.

1. Talent Choices

Level	Choices
15	? Force of Nature	✘ Warrior of Elune	✔ Starlord
30	✘ Renewal	✔ Displacer Beast	✔ Wild Charge
45	✔ Feral Affinity	✔ Guardian Affinity	✘ Restoration Affinity
60	? Mighty Bash	? Mass Entanglement	? Typhoon
75	✔ Soul of the Forest	✔ Incarnation: Chosen of Elune	✘ Stellar Flare
90	✔ Shooting Stars	✘ Astral Communion	✔ Blessing of the Ancients
100	✘ Fury of Elune	✔ Stellar Drift	✔ Nature's Balance

Talents can be freely changed when out of combat and in a rested XP area (such as an inn or a capital city). Moreover, Tome of the Tranquil Mind and Codex of the Tranquil Mind can be used to temporarily allow players to change talents anywhere, as long as they are out of combat.

2. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents

? Force of Nature

✘ Warrior of Elune

✔ Starlord

• Force of Nature is an active ability with a 1-minute cooldown that summons 3 Treants for 10 seconds. Force of Nature is targeted in an area, and the treants will taunt and attack targets in that area while they are alive.
• Warrior of Elune is an active ability with a 45-second cooldown which causes your next 3 Lunar Strikes to be instant cast.
• Starlord passively causes your Lunar Empowerment Solar Empowerment to reduce the cast time of their affected spells ( Lunar Strike and Solar Wrath respectively) by 20%. This effect does not stack.

Starlord is the default choice in raiding and dungeon content, since it provides the higher amount of damage.

Force of Nature can be a viable choice in Mythic+ to deal with Necrotic and Skittish affixes. Warrior of Elune is not taken in raid or dungeon environments, as it is not particularly useful.

3. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents

✘ Renewal

✔ Displacer Beast

✔ Wild Charge

• Renewal is an active ability with a 90-second cooldown. It heals you for 30% of your maximum health, it is usable in all shapeshift forms, and it is off the global cooldown.
• Displacer Beast is an active ability that teleports you 20 yards forward, activates Cat Form, and grants you a 50% increase in movement speed for 2 seconds.
• Wild Charge is an active ability that is off the global cooldown and which differs based on the shapeshift form you are in, as follows:
  • No shapeshift form: you fly to an ally's location.
  • Travel Form: you jump to an ally's location.
  • Moonkin Form: you leap backwards.
  • Bear Form: you charge an enemy, immobilising them for 4 seconds.
  • Cat Form: you leap behind an enemy, dazing them for 3 seconds.
  • Aquatic Form: your swim speed is increased by 150% for 5 seconds.

Typically it is more beneficial to have an ability to help with movement than a self-heal, so Renewal should not be taken.

For movement increase, Wild Charge is usually better than Displacer Beast@, since it has a lower cooldown and allows you to keep casting while on the move, and should generally be the default choice. Displacer Beast has usefulness on certain encounters, where you may need a blink-type ability to either ignore a mechanic or for fast movement.

4. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents

✔ Feral Affinity

✔ Guardian Affinity

✘ Restoration Affinity

• Feral Affinity grants you the Feline Swiftness passive ability, which increases your movement speed by 15%. Additionally, you gain access to the Feral-spec abilities Shred, Rake, Rip, Ferocious Bite, Swipe, and your energy regeneration is increased by 35%.
• Guardian Affinity grants you the Thick Hide passive ability, which reduces all your damage taken by 6%. Additionally, you gain access to the Guardian-spec abilities Mangle, Thrash, Ironfur, and Frenzied Regeneration.
• Restoration Affinity grants you the Ysera's Gift passive ability, which heals you (or a nearby ally, if you are at full health yourself) for 3% of your maximum health every 5 seconds. Additionally, you gain access to the Restoration-spec abilities Rejuvenation, Healing Touch, Swiftmend.

As the default choice for progression, we recommend Guardian Affinity, since the Frenzied Regeneration is very useful during hard hitting mechanics. While Restoration Affinity provides you with a steady stream of healing, it is worse overall than Guardian Affinity, so should not be picked as a defensive talent.

Feral Affinity should be used whenever you can make sure survivability will not be a problem, as it provides you with a small movement buff that is, in the long run, beneficial to damage. Being non-defensive, it is not advised in high damage progression encounters.

5. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents

? Mighty Bash

? Mass Entanglement

? Typhoon

• Mighty Bash is an active ability with a 50-second cooldown, which stuns the target for 5 seconds. It is usable in all shapeshift forms.
• Mass Entanglement is an active ability with a 30-second cooldown, which roots the target and all enemies within 15 yards of them in place for 30 seconds. Damage done to rooted targets may break the effect. Mass Entanglement is usable in all shapeshift forms.
• Typhoon is an active ability with a 30-second cooldown. It knocks back all targets within 15-yards in a cone in front of you, dazing them for 6 seconds. It is usable in all shapeshift forms.

The choice in this tier is largely irrelevant in terms of DPS performance. You will simply choose the one which you prefer most, or which best suits the encounter mechanics. That said, Typhoon will probably be the most useful talent in the majority of fights. It is worth noticing that, when using Sephuz's Secret, Mass Entanglement is the best talent to proc it, even more so since the cooldowns match.

6. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents

✔ Soul of the Forest

✔ Incarnation: Chosen of Elune

✘ Stellar Flare

• Soul of the Forest increases the damage bonus from Lunar Empowerment and Solar Empowerment by an additional 20%, and reduces the cost of Starfall by 20 Astral Power.
• Incarnation: Chosen of Elune replaces Celestial Alignment. It lasts for 30 seconds (up from Celestial Alignment's 15), during which time it increases your spell damage 40% (up from 30%) and it causes your Lunar Strike and Solar Wrath to generate 50% more Astral Power (just like Celestial Alignment). It does not trigger the global cooldown.
• Stellar Flare is an active ability that places an Astral damage DoT on the target. Stellar Flare benefits from the increased damage provided by Stellar Empowerment (applied by Starfall).

The best choice in this tier is Incarnation: Chosen of Elune, in all situations except when moderate to heavy AoE damage is required, in which case you should take Soul of the Forest. Using Soul of the Forest will result in a single target DPS loss compared to using Incarnation, though, so you need to determine if it is really worth it, based on every fight style and your raid or group composition.

Stellar Flare should not be used, as its damage is not worth the cast time and Astral Power loss.

7. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents

✔ Shooting Stars

✘ Astral Communion

✔ Blessing of the Ancients

• Shooting Stars passively causes your Moonfire and Sunfire ticks to have a 10% chance to create a falling star, which deals Astral damage to the target and generates 4 Astral Power.
• Astral Communion is an active ability with an 80-second cooldown, which generates 75 Astral Power.
• Blessing of the Ancients is an active ability with a 15-second cooldown that allows you to switch between the Blessing of Elune and Blessing of An'she buffs. It is important to note that you will always have one of these buffs active if you have the Blessing of the Ancients talent.
  • Blessing of Elune increases the Astral Power generated by Solar Wrath and Lunar Strike by 25%.
  • Blessing of An'she grants you 2 Astral Power every 3 seconds.

Blessing of the Ancients is the default choice for mainly single target fights where you will be casting Solar Wrath and Lunar Strike often. When using this talent, you should always have Blessing of Elune active.

Shooting Stars is the best choice for extended multi-target cleave damage against 2+ targets for the majority of the fight. Astral Communion is not recommended, as it does not scale with Haste and therefore ends up lagging behind the other two talents.

8. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents

✘ Fury of Elune

✔ Stellar Drift

✔ Nature's Balance

• Fury of Elune is an active ability with a 1-minute cooldown. It deals Astral damage in a small radius every second, and costs 6 Astral Power to cast and 12 Astral Power per second after that, and lasting until you run out of Astral Power. You can re-cast Fury of Elune while it is active in order to change its location, free of cost.
• Stellar Drift increases the radius of Starfall by 30%, its damage by 50%, and allows you to cast while moving as long as you are inside Starfall's radius.
• Nature's Balance causes Lunar Strike to extend the duration of Moonfire by 6 seconds, and Solar Wrath to extend the duration of Sunfire by 4 seconds.

Nature's Balance is the recommended talent against a single target, while against multiple targets you should use Stellar Drift. In a heavy movement single target situation, while using Oneth's Intuition, Stellar Drift is also a viable choice. Currently, there is no situation in which you should take Fury of Elune.

9. ChangeLog

+ show all entries - show only 10 entries

• 28 Aug. 2017: Updated Mass Entanglement's description.
• 11 Jul. 2017: Updated most of the page.
• 12 Jun. 2017: Updated talent descriptions to account for Patch 7.2.5 changes.
• 22 Apr. 2017: Clarified that Wild Charge when in Travel Form causes you to jump to the location of an ally, and not to fly to them.
• 27 Mar. 2017: Made small adjustments to tier 1, 3, 5, and 6 talent evaluations.
• 19 Jan. 2017: Updated tier 5 and 7 talent evaluations (changing the recommendations somewhat).
• 12 Jan. 2017: Updated tier 3 talent section to make Feral Affinity look less bad (although it is still not recommended).
• 09 Jan. 2017: Updated talent descriptions to account for Patch 7.1.5, and slightly changed the evaluation of tier 6 talents.
• 16 Dec. 2016: Updated the description of Restoration Affinity.
• 27 Nov. 2016: Updated tier 3 and tier 7 talent recommendations, and changed the Shooting Stars recommendation to 4+ targets.
• 02 Nov. 2016: Fixed a small issue where we were still referring to Thick Hide's old 10% damage reduction (it is now 6%).
• 25 Oct. 2016: Patch 7.1 updates
  • Added a mention that Incarnation is now off the global cooldown.
  • Updated Guardian Affinity's description (Thick Hide now passively reduces damage by 6%, down from 10).
• 02 Oct. 2016: Revamped tier 1, 3, and 5 talent sections.
• 29 Aug. 2016: Updated for Legion's launch.
• 28 Jul. 2016: Revamped tier 5 and 7 talent discussions.
• 19 Jul. 2016: Corrected an error where we were recommending Astral Communion (in tier 6), whereas this talent is only viable if you can pair it with Fury of Elune (tier 7), which is not currently the case. We now correctly recommend Blessing of the Ancients.
• 18 Jul. 2016: Updated for the Legion pre-patch.