Balance Druid DPS Stat Priority — The War Within (11.1.5)

The stat priority for a Balance Druid is as follows:

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

You want to prioritize these stats in both single and multi-target encounters:

Mastery is better than the other secondary stats. The only exception to this is Haste can overtake Mastery when playing Elune's Chosen but sim yourself before spending the gold on new Gems and Enchants.

The Stat Priority is a fluid entity. Every piece of gear you equip, socket you roll on your loot, and every piece you swap affects your stat priority. If you neglect a stat too much, its priority will rise higher and higher until it overtakes other stats. If the stat is lower on the above general priority, it will generally not take too much of the state to drop it back down quickly.

Often, you may sim your gear and see Mastery is low or Critical Strike is high or any other stat for that matter. You change one or two pieces or even an enchantment and may see wildly different results. Use Top Gear on Raidbots to get a more accurate depiction of how upgrades will fit into your gear.

Intellect is strong enough to make item level a good indicator of an upgrade. If you have two pieces of gear at the same item level, and one has Mastery and the other does not, you can make an informed decision that the piece is at least pretty good. You can still quickly and easily sim yourself for the most accurate results.

This means less for rings and necks as they do not have Intellect. Lower item-level jewelry can be much better than a higher item-level piece just by having better stats.

There is not a hard number of item levels that can be assigned to a socket on a piece of gear, as it depends on the type of gear and type of gem you are using in that slot. When picking between similar items of different item levels and one has a socket, it is best to sim the answer than to approximate.

You can take a closer look at how it affects gearing on our Gear and Enchants pages.

These statistics have been obtained by combining common sense, in-game testing, and simulations using SimulationCraft.

Intellect is your primary stat. You should look for this stat in all of your upgrades. It provides you with Spell Power, which increases the damage of your spells.

Mastery increases the damage your Nature and Arcane spells do to targets. This is further increased when afflicted by Sunfire or Moonfire respectively.

Haste increases your casting speed and your Astral Power generation (as a result of you being able to cast more spells).

Critical Strike increases your chance to critically hit with all spells and abilities. This stat has an element of randomness, meaning that it may not always be as effective as other stats or may be more effective than other stats on a fight-by-fight basis.

Versatility increases all your damage and healing done and decreases all damage taken. This stat can be undervalued while doing more difficult content, as the damage reduction is not factored into most decisions. When doing raid progression, high Mythic+, or any other hard-hitting content, consider valuing Versatility higher.