We all know that doing a hard champion rotation so your damage makes you shine like a diamond, shine bright like a diamond. Ok. This character rotation is not one of the most easy to establish. Why?
People usually tend to simply abuse of their main spells leaving the less important aside, and by the times, which is usually an add-on that will help you like hell. I’d simply coopt for no add-on at all, simply making me more reliant on the basic and focus entirely on the cooldowns and spells.
Druid, as a making has been run though all kinds of changes, most important being the challenge that brings the solar and lunar stances. Being a player from the vanilla, without anything flashie and simply reliant on the main spells and movement, maining the druid since then, I must be honest, I fell in love with the capacities this class has, tank, heal, spells, animals, all sort of them made it the most phun class to play.
Try him and you won’t regret. Honestly. With feral is entirely a new gameplay in which you may come to find the incapacity to do what a rogue does for example, bursting the hell outta anyone, doesn’t count if it’s a plater or a cloth wearing scumbag. And I love wearing leather in real life as well. I fell in love with the rogue as well but we’ll leave it for another day to discuss about.
The most underestimated is the balance root, cause nobody seems to get hold onto that, so I will make you a little guide to run you through your musts and don’ts.
6. Single target rotation
When put in this posture you must have the basics of your spells at least, putting Moonfire and Sunfire on the primordial place that it deserves. Since Sunfire last considerably less than the Moonfire you should consider refreshing it right before entering in the Lunar phase.
Cast the Starsurge whenever it’s available, being your most potent spell that your druid has available, not only it crits hard, it cast time is almost as fast as wrath. (consider taking lotsa haste in your gear, having it needed to totally improve your damage outcome)-we’ll get back to that soon enough have a clear view of what you should consider on having most, even though you need balance in balance. Tihee. Thanks to Shooting Stars you can always get a free charge of Starsurge.
Even though Faerie Fire does not involve damage in it or DoT, it considerably increases the damage of the teams needing’s, even though you are in a competition for the first place for damage. Nobody is gonna prize you for that only for you ego.
Or that you wanna prove you worth in the guild and not be expelled for low damage. In Cataclysm the druids damage was outrageously low, donno how many stayed on balance due its lack of damage.
Cast Wrath during the Solar Eclipse and Starfire during the Lunar, it’s that simple for that.
5. Opening Rotation
- Considering that you need your best outcome you should consider starting with Incarnation: Chosen of Elune like 2-3 seconds before the pull.
- Prepare to cast you Starsurge 1.5 seconds before the pull but if you are closer to the boss, 1 second.
- Cast Celestial Alignment and Moonfire, keeping both you DoTs up for the intermediate damage.
- Cast two of you of you Starfire spells to trigger your Lunar Empowerment and prepare you opening act for balancing the hell outta the boss you are facing and cast again Starsurge to trigger the same damn effect.
Repeat your last paragraph till you hit the Solar phase. Remember that you have other spells as well and the best choice, and only in this case is to shoot out the Starfall right in between step 2 and 3.
4. Multiple targets Rotation
Always keep in mind that you have the big AoE advantage when it comes to hit multiple targets. Ideally woud be to cast Starfall against multiple targets and the most important aspect is not to cast it in the solar Eclipse at all, only if you have no other choice. Aside from this consider casting mostly single target spells to maintain the damage up high.
Remember that Sunfire applies itself for the targets in 5 yards away from the main target and will DoT as well so apply it and refresh it for a single target.
If you wanna try Hurricane I will tell you from the start: DON’T. It has a low damage outcome and should never be used, and applying DoTs on the targets is more efficient than that crap.
You could use the mushies if you have trouble getting that agro, usually doing that with Starfall and slow down their incursions towards you, dealing AoE damage as well, and pretty good I’d may say. And there is nothing else to add to this.
3. Cooldown Usage
As the balance druid you are you should consider having Celestial Alignment at every time possible, being your one and only DPS cooldown stacking with other cooldowns as well, like Incarnation: Chosen of Elune when it is possible.
You should keep in mind that Celestial Alignment pauses all your Lunar and Solar benefit from the eclipses bonus. While this spell is active, your damage is increased by 1/5 and your Moonfire applies Sunfire as well automatically, and the other way as well, lasting for 15 seconds and has 3 minutes cooldown.
To be clear you need 2 charges of Starsurge before casting Celestial Alignment to continue the fight and not at the start as well as during the Lunar Eclipse, cause your Starfire causes more damage than Wrath while in the trance. The exception counts in you are under the Solar Eclipse in the fight that will end before you have the time to cast it again, losing a cast of Celestial Alignment, therefore damage.
Before exiting the trance it is recommended to refresh your DoTs keeping their boost as the spell fades away. As well you should consider to time in such a way that is stacks with other cooldowns like in trinkets, procs of fight mechanics that will boost your damage considerably.
2. Rotation in Detail
Reading all this so far you should have to have a good understanding of the mechanics of the Balance Energy works, you should be able to understand the start of the guide even clearer. But let’s get into details.
Firstly you have to understand the difference between Starfire and Wrath. Their picking should be based in the state of your Balance Energy is. Simply explained, Lunar-Left, Solar-Right.(Bar) And when the Lunar eclipse is on spam Starfire and Moonfire, Starsurge completing the direction in which you are heading with the most energy potent that you have.
Since these spells have cooldowns you should consider pre-casting the opposite spell when you are about to exist a state from one eclipse to another. Par example. You are 1 second from changing between Lunar an solar eclipse, you should pre-cast Wrath since by the time the spell lands, you will already be in the Solar state.
Having the DoTs in perspective, which I already discussed, you should consider applying them whenever they are their respective peaks refreshing them at the start and the end of the Eclipse you have at hand.
Always keep in mind that the DoTs may proc with the Shooting Stars granting you an extra charge of Starsurge, sometimes back-to-back, quickly must be shot or you will lack in damage, so if you must go back or front to interrupt and cast that instant spell in their face.
Secondly, casting Starsurge will grand you one of two buffs in coordination with which eclipse you are in. The Lunar one will grand Lunar Empowerment granting your next two Starfires damage buff by 30%, as well as the Solar Empowerment that grants that buff for the next 3 Wraths, both buffs having a duration of 30 seconds.
Other important thing is the timing of Starsurge with the Empowerment buffs, having the ideal time of casting in the area of 20 Energy away from your peak, benefiting from the respective buff when you are at the peak, having the biggest damage around that period.
The only low point is that after 6.0.2 + patches the eclipses don’t really have your implication in their positioning and more self reliant, going on around like they have a personality of their own. Didn’t minding what I’ve said before, your most important and most seen word in the article is Starsurge, cause it’s the no1. Spell in the druid, at least for single targets and has the most implication in the personality of the eclipse. Why? Cause Blizzard and cause Kinder Surprise.
Below is the most damage output when it comes to bursting-enhancing talents that I selected for this guide.
- Incarnation: Chosen of Elune is the best burst damage steroid usually in combination with Celestial Alignment
- Hearth of the Wild should be used as needed when it comes to secondary roles and outcomes-one of your healers passed or lacks mana or you just need a healing hand to help, improving your healing burst.
- Euphoria is a passive having no involvement in your rotation whatsoever.
1. Detalied Cooldown Usage
In this specific area I will denounce the parts that Celestial Alignment is a total douchebag and makes your Eclipses rendered useless, it eclipses them, while giving you a 20% boost for all your damage abilities and gives you hand free when using Moonfire, applying Sunfire as well and the other way around.
To be understood, when you cast Celestial Alignment(and not at the start of the fight), you need to be considering so that your damage outcome will come in front, so take a good peak when your Starsurge is at hand, needing at least 2 of them to make your burst noticeable or else your damage will be just as in the Eclipse state, with nothing really special.
The other thing about it is that is should be used during the Lunar Eclipse, having your Starfire more potent than your Wrath, even though is cast a little bit slower(see point 6), it still has the chance to crit and therefore totally worth it.
The only exception when you can use your Celestial Alignment is that when your fight is at its end and you don’t have the time to coordinate those two constants, then you should consider giving all your best so that those figures will pop out in that chart of damage and weee, you are no.1.
No, sincerely I haven’t saw so much balance druids getting their head upfront so, if you want damage you should better consider Feral, I changed myself when I saw that there are lotsa classes more potent than balance. I will make one about the Feral as well.
A little note, when you exit the Celestial Alignment remember to refresh out your DoTs, keeping up the buff a little extra seconds that will make a little difference, little, but there will be a difference.
Another thing you should be keeping an eye for is that you could do a great job if you coordinate your Celestial Alignment with another proc, like trinkets or Owlkin Frenzy.
The other thing is that when you are in a fight and your boss makes you need movement, grab onto Displacer Beast most important, even if you see that extra 15%, it won’t make you a damn difference if and AoE spell is cast underneath you and you are on the verge of dying.
Keep in mind it has a considerably low CD of 30 seconds, but if you really need, your Dash will always, well not always, sometimes will come to your aid and dizzy the enemy or the instance boss in such a way they will need multiple pair of glasses. Keep in mind that this ability has a pretty high cooldown, of 3 minutes, so don’t start to jump all around or you’ll get tired… and eventually dead.