Balance Druid DPS Stat Priority — Dragonflight 10.0.7
On this page, you will find out the optimal stat priority for your Balance Druid. We first present the stat priority, before delving into more complex explanations. Our content is updated for World of Warcraft — Dragonflight 10.0.7.
If you were looking for WotLK Classic content, please refer to our WotLK Classic Balance Druid stat priority.
The Basics of Stats for Balance Druid
The stat priority for a Balance Druid is as follows:
Stat Choice for Balance Druids
You want to prioritize these stats in both single and multi target encounters:
- Intellect;
- Mastery;
- Haste;
- Critical Strike;
- Versatility.
Mastery is better than Haste but both Mastery and Haste are much better than both Critical Strike and Versatility. If an item does not have either Mastery or Haste on it, you should still sim but it is most likely not going to be a high value item.
Explaining Stat Priority
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 stat to drop it back down quickly.
Often times, 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 enchant 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.
Item Level
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.
Jewelry
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.
Sockets
There is not a hard number of item level 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 on 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.
Getting a Better Understanding of Balance Druid Stats
Statistics Priority
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 spells do to targets
afflicted by Sunfire and increases the damage Arcane spells do to
targets afflicted by
Moonfire.
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.
Changelog
- 20 Mar. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
- 24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Added jewelry and item level notes.
- 28 Nov. 2022: Reviewed for Dragonflight launch.
- 25 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
More Druid Guides
Guides from Other Classes
This was written by Borabank, a Balance Druid theorycrafter and raider in Muscle Memory. You can watch him on his Twitch channel or in the Dreamgrove Discord server.
- Vicious War Snail Mount in Patch 10.1
- Item Level of Rewards from Mythic+ and the Great Vault in Dragonflight Season 2
- Dragonflight Patch 10.0.7 Hotfixes: March 24th
- Dragonflight 10.0.7 Class Tuning: March 28th + Retribution Nerfs March 24th
- New Aberrus Unique Drops Added in Patch 10.1 Build 48661
- Aberrus the Shadowed Crucible Loading Screen in Patch 10.1
- New Potential Evoker Spells Added in Patch 10.1 Build 48661
- Dragonflight Patch 10.0.7 Hotfixes: March 23rd