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[MoP] Balance Druid Guide for 5.4.8

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1 RACES

Spoiler

- Alliance

http://forum.pandawow.ru/images/smilies/4-0.gif Night Elf: Shadowmeld , good racial talent. Being able to absorb a 250k Chaos Bolt, dodging a Cyclone, Mind Control or Fear gives this race a huge advantage in PvP.
http://forum.pandawow.ru/images/smilies/22-0.gif Worgen: Darkflight , increases your movement speed by an additional 40% for 10sec. A good choice if your enemy likes to run from you too often, and you don't have a Bash, Stamp. Roar or Displacer Beast avaible. 

- Horde

http://forum.pandawow.ru/images/smilies/8-0.gif Troll: Berserking , Increased haste by 20% for 10sec. Honestly, the best racial for horde druids. Gives extra dot ticks, can be used deffensively and offensively. Faster rejuvenation & cenarion ward ticks, faster healing touch, and faster damaging casts such as Starsurge, Wrath and Starfire. Combined with burst (Celestial Alignment + trink), it can be deadly.
http://forum.pandawow.ru/images/smilies/6-0.gif Tauren: War Stomp , a 2sec stun up to 5 people within 8yards. Who doesn't want a second Disorienting Roar? It can be used to interrupt casts or for a safe cast by you, like Cyclone and any other casting damage spell, without being scared to get silenced.
[Endurance], provides passive health increase by 5%. Wouldn't consider it a good racial for PvP, but if you're a PvE hero, it's an amazing racial.

2 ROTATION

Spoiler

Naturally, the rotation is very situational.
Before getting in fight, try atleast to be in an eclipse, Lunar eclipse is prefered, for the simple fact that you'll want to have a strong opener without any cd.
Cast Astral Communion (AC) till 75% (never to 100% before fight, since you'll waste the haste bonus)

You'll always want to start with Prowl, followed by a Pounce, and here our true rotation starts.
Start with summoning a treant, ATTENTION, a single one, not all of 3 at once.
(Here's a simple trick. If your enemy isn't attacking you at the beginning, the treant will ONLY root him, and not cast a Wrath. To fix that simple problem all you have to do is right click to enemy.)
Follow with 2x dots, Moonfire & Sunfire. (If it's a melee, prioritize a Cenarion Ward or rejuvenation before dots)

Situational (Warriors)

I'll simply represent the melee classes with a Warrior, and ranged with a Mage. I'll get in details for other classes at Strategies tab.

If you're facing a warrior, summon a 2nd treant right after your pounce ends, to complete your rotation before he Charges you. Very often the warr will Spell reflect after the pounce, so before rooting him again try to Soothe his reflect, and then summon the 2nd treant.
What i suggest you to do when you have your 2x dots, and the warr is still rooted is to apply Faerie Fire/Swarm(FF/FS) and if he is still rooted (roots shouldn't break fast here from treants and dot ticks), put Cenarion Ward(CW) and rejuvenation on you. Right after that Starfall. (Quick tip: if in any case the roots break and he starts to attack you before beginning the rotation, use starfall OVER everything, since his attacks will make you enter full 100% Lunar Eclipse and you will waste your 1st Starfall.)

Charge won't interrupt Starfall so you're okay, but in any case if he is dumb enough to waste his fear only to stop opener Starfall, you'll get a huge advantage in game, and when he is attacking you while you're feared, you'll enter full eclipse and your Starfall's CD will reset, so you can Starfall AGAIN right after his CC chain ends. Always try to keep between maximum (not too far, not too near, by the simple fact that if you stay at max. distance he will try to run.) Counter his reck & on use trinket with HotW if you can't kite his burst. If you don't need a NS + Healing Touch, you can NS + Cyclone to force his trinket (most warriors will trinket when you cyclone their burst), and again, throw a quick treant to root his trinket, fake cast Cyclone, soothe his reflect and Cyclone again. Free cast a Healing Touch, and here you're free to burst with Celestial Alignment + trinket (or eng gloves), refresh dots, full treants, starfall and yolo.

VS mages don't starfall right at the opener because the 99% of the mages will blink + Counterspell you (which is wrong but top kek) and that CS will stop Starfall.Try not to get nova'd when you're using Starfall, because you'll want to shift his nova to prevend Deep Freeze, and shifting will cancel Starfall. Burst after Ice Block, use Beam defensively, which is rooting in beam his Alter Time and try to use rejuv as rare as possible to prevend Spellsteal. For the burst, it's the same for all the enemies.

3. TALENTS & GLYPHS

Spoiler

(The talents colored in green are the most viable ones, blue for situational and red to never use, or only use in PvE)
Tier 15:

Feliness Swiftness: Useless, for PvE only.
Displacer Beast: The best talent for Balance. Gets you great mobility. Getting out of RoF without getting freezed, teleporting to the other side of doors (jk kek), getting out of hunters Binding Shot without getting cc'ed or just to blink next to a pillar (can be used offensively and deffensively) is a huge advantage, can be used to push enemies, put pressure which i think that can be game breaking.
Wild Charge: An excellent talent VS hunter comps, to eat your healers traps. A must choose talent VS KFC (Kung-Fu Cleave [warr/hunt/heal]). Can be also used in RBGS to leap a mushroom and gain distance.


Tier 30: 

 

Ysera's Gift: Useless, again, a PvE-only talent. (additional info: It's a must-pick talent if you're playing subwars and you're going last, so your teammates get an extra heal every 5sec, kinda adds a Second Wind to every class.)
Renewal: A talent you will never want to take, maybe in PvE.
Cenarion Ward: Short cooldown, heals alot, it's not a passive spell so you can use it whenever you want ON WHOEVER you want, and can be used while silenced.

 


Tier 45:

 

 

 

Faerie Swarm: A perfect talent to pick in arenas or in general, if you're getting trained alot. A must-pick talent when facing melees, the most annoying balance talent. Also a perfect choice if you're doing arenas with a class which doesn't have any slow spells.
Mass Etranglement: Good only in multiple vs multiple fights, such as RBG, BG, WPVP. Rooting multiple targets, getting some distance and controlling the game.
Typhoon: Best to pick if you're against casters or dps/healer comps where you don't need to peel with FS to stay alive. Works as a kick (use it wisely, don't forget that your target can fake cast). Maybe alot of you guys know this, most of the times you'll want to kick only CC's that last long or can be spammable. Such as Fear,Cyclone, Poly, Dominate Mind, priests Psyfiend etc.. Can be used VS ANYONE if you play on a terrain which has cliffs/hills and makes the enemy harder to reach you back after being knocked.


Tier 60: 

 

 

Soul of the Forest: Again, useless for Balance spec.
Incarnation: A 3v3 talent, combined with right cds, procs and right moment, can oneshot the enemy.
Force of Nature: Best for 2v2 or duels, optional in 3v3 bracket.
To explain the diffence between Treants and Incarnation with better words, i allow myself to citate a very good druids point of view:

"I don't like the treants, because their damage is not noticable. Their peel doesn't matter. If you have to peel your teammates, you need to cast cyclone anyway. There are so many abilities to get out of roots that make them "useless" most of the times. If you use them to peel, damage is "wasted".

During the game you might also often have only 1 charge of the treants (maybe I just waste them idk) so you have to save it for root/beam situations and can't use it for peel anyway.
The root breaks quite fast, because you + your warlock normally have dots up on everyone.

If you want to use the treantroot to peel off meeles from yourself (?), you waste damage again and it has 20 seconds cooldown (the glyphed Nature's Grasp only got 15 seconds cooldown)."
(Source : arenajunkies.com)

 


Tier 75:

 

 

 

Disorienting Roar: Never to choose in 3v3. May be choosen in 2s if you're not playing a dot comp (affli/boomy) VS dps/healer, since it's a disorient, and will break in ANY damage done. Requires communication to be able to use it on the right moment. Best for disorient and put Cyclones.
Ursol's Vortex: Usable in 2v2, WPVP and RBG/BGs. Optional in 3v3 because of the fact that it has longer cooldown compared to Bash. May be used vs double dps cleaves in 3v3 bracket, or for killing healers, especially shamans. Depends of your partner though.
Mighty Bash: If you're not playing LSD2, this is the best talent for everywhere. Yet if you play LSD2, going with Vortex would be a better choice, because it shares DR (Diminishing Return) with locks talent Shadow's fury. (Quick tip: make sure you have the melee hit cap [6%], because if you don't, most of the times you will miss the bash. Unless you're a pro and you always bash the enemy from their behind.

 


Tier 90:

 

 

 

Heart of the Wild: Provides passive stamina, health, intellect and agility. A good choice if you're doing 2s VS double dps, your partner doesn't have any self heals or when your healer will need help with heals in 3v3(most of the time when he is getting trained). It verbally transorms you into a healer. Combined with CW + Rejuvenation, you'll be invincible.
Dream of Cenarius: Not good for serious PvP, arguably for oneshot or PvE.

Nature's Vigil:

 

Good choice in 3v3. Short CD. Nothing special for you to know.MAJOR GLYPHS:

You'll always want to go with [Glyph of Barkskin].
[Glyph of Ursoc] 2v2 glyph, vs double dps comp.
[Glyph of Cyclone] A must pick talent in almost every situation.
[Glyph of Stampeding Roar] Again, citating:

"I think the main reason for this glyph (for me atleast) is to use stampeding roar without cancelling starfall while bursting when you are trying to chase someone down who's running away from you. So without the glyph it will cancel your starfall if it's active."

[Glyph of Omens] If you have difficulties getting eclipses quickly. I always pick up this glyph when i'm bored and doing BGs. Basically Starfall every 15sec lmao. And less casts ! I often hear from the people who start balance, that killing people in BGs is hard, because till you cast a spell, the target is already molested by shadow priests, locks, or warrs.

Minor Glyphs are optional. Absolutely doesn't affect the gameplay.

 

4. GEARING UP

Spoiler

 

As a starter geared, you'll always want to get Grievous weapons (main+offhand) first, because of the spellpower increase. You'll want to continue with 2x trinkets (always crit freedom trinket, never spirit or stamina) and then follow with chest,legs,shoulders,head,hands,feet,waist etc..
You'll also want to go with crit built (will explain the difference separately) because if you go with another built, at starter gear you'll rarely get any procs.
With prideful gear, again, you'll want to follow the same order as grievous one.

5. Reforge, Gem, Enchant & Professions

Spoiler

Reforging: Spell priority: crit>haste>mastery (6% hit cap to not miss any spells and Might Bashes)
Reforge everything to crit and mastery into haste. You can also choose the following spell prior: crit>mastery>haste. Me personally i am running with crit>haste one. Reason?
You get an extra dot tick when you reach 10'400 Haste (24%) as 550ilvl, and under 550ilvl, 6'200 Haste.
I'll cover Crit and Haste built.

Gem: Meta: Crit + Spell reflect 
Red: Intellect + Crit (orange gem) OR Intellect + Haste
Yellow : Pure crit (yellow) OR Pure haste 
Prismatic: Pure crit (yellow) OR Pure haste
Blue: Crit + Pvp power (green) OR Haste + Pvp power

Enchant: 
Head - /
Shoulders - [Greater Crane Wing Inscription] (Intellect + Crit)
Cloak - [Lightweave Embroidery] (Intellect)
Chest - [Enchant Chest - Glorious Stats] ( 8% stats)
Wrist - [Enchant Bracer - Mastery] (Mastery)
Hands - [Enchant Gloves - Greater Haste] (Haste)
Waist - [Living Steel Belt Buckle] (Extra prismatic socket where you can put any gem.)
Legs - [Greater Cerulean Spellthread] (Intellect + Crit)
Feet - [Enchant Boots - Pandaren's Step] (Mastery)
Main Hand - [Enchant Weapon - Jade Spirit] (Intellect)
Off-hand - [Enchant Off-Hand - Major Intellect] (Intellect)

Professions: 
Me personally am going with Tailoring for cloak enchant and Engineering, to have stronger and controlled burst with gloves tinker.
Yet there's some other cool professions that fit too.
Alchemy for 320 intellect potion in arenas;
Blacksmithing for extra 2x gem slots where you can insert 2x big fat pure crit gems.
Herbalism for Lifeblood, if you're going with haste built.

6. VIABLE ARENA COMPS

Spoiler

2v2 Bracket: 
(Green - OP / Blue - Average)

- http://forum.pandawow.ru/images/smilies/druid18x18.gif Balance - http://forum.pandawow.ru/images/smilies/warlock18x18.gif Lock = affli/boomy especially, inarguably the best comp if you're playing with a balance. DOT pressure, spammable CC's, both tank-a-like classes and tons of self heals. But however getting good with this comp isn't very easy. Without synergy you can easily block each others burst. 

- http://forum.pandawow.ru/images/smilies/druid18x18.gif Balance - http://forum.pandawow.ru/images/smilies/rogue18x18.gif Subtlety Rogue 
- http://forum.pandawow.ru/images/smilies/druid18x18.gif Balance - http://forum.pandawow.ru/images/smilies/warrior18x18.gif Arms Warrior 
- http://forum.pandawow.ru/images/smilies/druid18x18.gif Balance - http://forum.pandawow.ru/images/smilies/mage18x18.gif Frost/fire Mage
- http://forum.pandawow.ru/images/smilies/druid18x18.gif Balance - http://forum.pandawow.ru/images/smilies/shaman18x18.gif Ele Shaman
- http://forum.pandawow.ru/images/smilies/druid18x18.gif Balance - http://forum.pandawow.ru/images/smilies/paladin18x18.gif Ret Paladin
- http://forum.pandawow.ru/images/smilies/druid18x18.gif Balance - http://forum.pandawow.ru/images/smilies/monk18x18.gif WW Monk

3v3 Bracket:
- LSD2 - Lock (very often affli) + Moonkin + Resto shaman 

- Moonkin + Rogue + Healer 

- Moonkin + Deathknight + Resto shaman 

- Moonkin + WW Monk + Resto shaman 

- Moonkin + Warrior + Resto shaman 

- Moonkin + Mage + Priest

Diminishing Returns list:

Spoiler

 

- Dragon’s Breath & Disorienting Roar;
- Deep Freeze & Bash & Capacitor Totem;
- Polymorph & Ring of Frost & Hibernate;
- Frost Nova & Entangling Roots & Mass Entanglement & Earthgrasp Totem & Frozen Power;
- Bash & Kidney Shot, Cheap Shot, Roots & Paralytic poison root;
- Bash & Storm Bolt & Shockwave;
- Hands of Justice (HoJ) & Bash;
- Wyvern Sting & Disorienting Roar;

7. TRICKS

Spoiler

 

Keep in mind that, if you wanna deal high damage when you have a Starsurge proc, you should be in an eclipse. Optional: If you wanna deal 10% more (my little secret) you should wait for Owlkin Frenzy to proc (15% chance from your enemies attack to trigger it, and it gives you 10% more damage for 10sec.) and then release the proc.

Never Starfall a mage in the opener, since he'll blink + CS you in the 99% of the cases. You can Starfall him if you wanna force CD's though.

Soothe warriors reflect.

Put mushrooms near arena pillars and pop them when the enemy team starts to eat.

Bear Form + CW at the starter, when dueling a stealthie. (Rogue/Mage/Hunter)

- Rogues opener can take you from 100% to 50% hp in just one opener if you're not in Bear Form.
- Mage can Dragon's Breath into Ring of Frost you and burst you.
- Hunters can trap you and Power Shot you (most of the cases, it hits for a huge amount)

If you wanna get a Cyclone when a melee is on you, cast Starfire, and since this isn't retail they will kick your cast no matter which spell it is. After getting kicked you'll be able to cast Cyclone, because Cyclone and Starfire are from two different school of spells.
Don't waste HotW while bursting. I've often seen new druids popping it while bursting. For balance, it's nothing but a deffensive spell with 6min. of CD.
Run with Wild Charge talent VS hunters in arena. (3v3)

Common tricks:

Try staying in Moonkin form 99% of the times. It provides you haste for you and your party members. And huge armor in pvp. (Ret can do +100k on caster form, ~70k in moonkin form)

Always shift any kind of slowing effects. 

You can use Cenarion Ward when you're silenced !

Don't forget, you can shift when you're CC'd too ! If you're in a cat/bear form and you're cc'ed by a hunter, shift to caster form to prevend Scare Beast.
If the mage Dragon's Breath you and starts casting Frostjaw, shift when he is about to finish the cast.
Always Faerie Fire rogues to prevend vanish, and priests to prevend their Spectral Disguise.
ALWAYS Cyclone two times in a row. So if they trinket the 1st one, they will be cycloned right after trinket. (Do this tricks always in arenas, people always trinket the very first Cyclone if they play double dps comps.)

7.1 STRATEGIES

Spoiler
http://forum.pandawow.ru/images/smilies/rogue18x18.gif Rogue - Don't burst them if they have Cloak of Shadows on.

- Faerie Fire + Root them. This should force the 70% of the rogues in this server to cloak very early.

- Have 1x treant on him 24/7. If they Blind you and try to run, the treant will keep him in combat.

-Do not pop burst if you don't have a trinket or he has Blind/Cloak CD on.

Faerie fire 24/7, and if he cloaks, bash him. Mighty Bash is a melee and not a magic spell, so it will stun the rogue through Cloak of Shadows. When the CoS is off, faerie fire and you're free to burst him.
http://forum.pandawow.ru/images/smilies/mage18x18.gif Mage ALWAYS try to kil their pet. 2x dot it when you have time, and hard cast when the mage is cycloned.

Try to heal with Cenarion Ward most of the times, use rejuv only when you're not in his line of sigh, to prevend spellsteal. (cancel rejuv when he is in your line of sigh)

Again, when you see him bursting, displacer beast and shadowmeld, or if they're in CD, root+beam / run / sit in bear form.
http://forum.pandawow.ru/images/smilies/hunter18x18.gif Hunter Again, dot their pet. Don't try to kill his pet unless he is BM. Dotting the pet gives you more procs and little bit pressure.
http://forum.pandawow.ru/images/smilies/deathknight18x18.gifDeathknight Pay attention to their burst. Most of the times the DK will Dark Simulacrum you, since he knows you will pop a deffensive cooldown to counter his burst. Soothe it, and run from his Gargoyle. Again, dot his pet His damage will visibly reduce when he has no pet on.
http://forum.pandawow.ru/images/smilies/warlock18x18.gif Warlock In my opinion, boomys hardest counter. Winning a good lock is nearly impossible. Try to play very deffensively while hugging pillars. If no pillars around he will fear spam, into full burst chaos bolt. Imagine you dodge the 1st CB with Shadowmeld, then it's even worse. You'll wont be able to dodge his fears and next CB. Typhoon talent is prefered VS locks. Always NS + Cyclone (2x clone) their burst. It's the 2nd most deadly burst, after rogues.

- Try to stop their Dark Bargain or heals with Cyclone (2x)

- Remove corruption when their dot has 10x stack. 
http://forum.pandawow.ru/images/smilies/priest18x18.gif Priest Faerie Fire, or just Typhoon their Spectral Disguise to get them out of stealth, and prevend a 8sec fear on you.
 


Warrior: Whenever he is bursting, root him, Displacer Beast into shadowmeld. Why? 100% of the times, when you Displacer Beast, the warrior will intervene banner + Charge, or just Charge you (treants + your dots break your roots in 3-4sec). With Shadowmeld, he will lose target and it will give you more time to heal/damage yourself/him. Whenever you can, always Soothe their procs/spells.

Boomies: ALWAYS Soothe their [Owlkin Frenzy] proc to reduce damage by 10%. This proc combined with burst is deadly.

7.2 Different builts

Spoiler

Crit - Higher dot crit chance. Every time our dots tick, we have a chance for our Starsurge to proc. More dots crit, more the chance is. http://forum.pandawow.ru/images/smilies/smile.png Prefered by most of the boomies.

Haste - Faster casts, slightly low procs. Not prefered.

Mastery - This built is similar to Crit one. Our damage when we're in an eclipse is increased by the % of mastery we have. Again, if we dont have alot of procs and we're not in a eclipse, entering an eclipse will be hard. Situational.

8. Addons & Macros

Spoiler

InterruptBar2 - To track enemy CC's. Very useful addon, helps us to know when to fake cast and when to not.

ExtraCD - Shows the cooldown of your cloak/trinket/weapon procs. When you have 1 or more procs at a time, always refresh dots for higher damage.

Addons are personal preference. Every other addon is welcome. I only use these 2 (+LoseControl) because i don't like screen modifier addons.
 

Macros:

/cast [target=focus] Solar Beam

/cast Might of Ursoc
/use Healthstone
/cast Unending Resolve

/cast Celestial Alignment
/use Prideful Gladiator's Wyrmhide Gloves
/use Potion of the Jade Serpent

/cast [target=focus] Mighty Bash

/cast [target=party1] Remove Corruption

/cast [target=party2] Remove Corruption

/cast [target=party1] Rejuvenation

/cast [target=party1] Healing Touch

/cast [target=party1] Cenarion Ward

 

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