Balance Druid Mythic+ Guide (2024)

Tier Set

• 2-Set: Starsurge and Starfall increase the damage of your next Wrath or Starfire by 50%, stacking up to 3 times.
• 4-Set: When you enter Eclipse, your next Starsurge or Starfall costs 30 less Astral Power and deals 60% increased damage.

Try your hardest to combine three stacks of your 2-Set with Nature's Grace for a massively buffed Wrath or Starfire.

Single-target

Opener Rotation

The goal of your opener is simple, enter Eclipse for your 4set proc while retaining 1 Nature's Grace charge. If you finish a Wrath or Starfire cast while not in combat you refund the Nature's Grace stack.

Make sure you are at least 40 yards away from the boss when you start casting at 4 seconds remaining on the pull-timer, wait with casting Moonfire until the boss is pulled. Pre-casting without consuming Nature's Grace is often unreliable in Mythic+.

Priority List

This is a general priority you aim to maintain throughout the fight.

1. Moonfire and Sunfire should have 100% uptime.
2. Enter Eclipse (Solar) with Starfire
3. Starsurge if:
   • You have less than 3 stacks of Starlord.
   • You have less than 3 stacks of 2set.
   • You would overcap Astral Power with your next Wrath.
   • Eclipse (Solar) ends in less than 4 seconds and you have more than 70 Astral Power. (You should have Astral Power pooled for the next Eclipse (Solar) / Starlord cycle).
4. Wrath .

Multi Target

Opener Rotation

• Below, you can see an example of how your opener looks like using the recommended Tyrannical or Fortified talent spec.

Priority List

1. Moonfire and Sunfire should have 100% uptime on all targets.
2. Enter Eclipse (Lunar) with Wrath
3. Starfall if:
   • You have less than 3 stacks of Starlord.
   • You have less than 3 stacks of 2set.
   • You would overcap Astral Power with your next Starfire.
   • Eclipse (Lunar) ends in less than 4 seconds and you have more than 70 Astral Power. (You should have Astral Power pooled for the next Eclipse (Lunar) / Starlord cycle).
4. Starfire.

Nature's Grace

Since your 2-Set enhances your generators so much, it's possible to squeeze quite a bit of damage out of this talent by ensuring you pre-cast Wrath or Starfire before your previous Eclipse is over so that you enter next Eclipse with a stack of Nature's Grace remaining, this way you can empower it further with 2-Set.

Every Eclipse looks like this if you properly pre-cast Starfire before exiting Eclipse (Solar) and pool Astral Power properly, this way you get a massively buffed Wrath:

You can gain this buff while fighting trash mobs as well by using Shadowmeld as seen in the 4+ targets opener rotation. This doesn't work if you have Denizen of the Dream up.

Starlord

With the removal of Primordial Arcanic Pulsar, syncing Starlord with your Eclipse has become quite an obvious min-max as both Starlord and Eclipse last 15 seconds.

If you want to squeeze that tiny bit extra, consider implementing a /cancelaura Starlord macro into your rotation and use it when you're forced to Starsurge/Starfall when Starlord has less than 2 seconds remaining.

Balance of All Things

Worth keeping in the back of your mind, after your first few Starsurges in Eclipse that apply Starlord are still going have this buff. Remember to use your hardest hitting spells first, but don't overcap your 2-Set to get another Starsurge in the window.

Multi Target

On multi-target fights, the opener is the biggest thing that you can min-max (Other than the basic principles mentioned in Single Target). Since multi-target fights tend to be much shorter than boss fights a larger portion of the fight is spent on setting up which makes it important to perfect.

Moonfire - Sunfire - Enter Eclipse (Lunar)

These three can be done in any order, preferably you enter Eclipse (Lunar) with pre-casts but the idea is to apply Moonfire, Sunfire and enter Eclipse (Lunar) as fast as possible, if you do it 2 or 3 globals too slow and the pull is 30 seconds long, you've just lost 10% of your globals because you're slow in the opener.

This being said you should still respect threat, Moonfire alone won't overaggro a tank if he has used any sort of damage on the mob, but many times tanks pull mobs without dealing damage to them, so it's imperative to pay attention when dotting while the tank gathers the pull. Positioning becomes essential and hovering Shadowmeld while pre-dotting is advised.

Understanding Mechanics

Rotational min-maxing is just one aspect of mastering a specialization, but there are numerous other key mechanics that influence your performance. Use the following guides to improve them.

• Pandemic
• Spell Queue Window
• Stat Diminishing Returns

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Affixes

Learn how to effectively handle various Mythic+ Affixes as a Balance Druid. Depending on the level of the Mythic+ Dungeon, you contend with up to two additional Affixes alongside Fortified and Tyrannical.

• Entangling
  • Canelaura Moonkin Form.
    • If you have Fluid Form talented you can cast Wrath or Starfire to instantly get back into Moonkin Form.
    • If you have Incarnation: Chosen of Elune ready you can use it to instantly get back into Moonkin Form. (using Incarnation: Chosen of Elune in Moonkin Form won't remove Entangling).
  • Incapacitating Roar
    • If the affix lines up with enemies casting, you can take this opportunity to kill two birds with one stone.
• Incorporeal
  • Hibernate
    • Long range, short cast time, and has no cooldown.
  • Solar Beam
    • Very useful if you are forced to cc two Incorporeal mobs or if you can't cast Hibernate because of movement.
    • Doesn't last for the full duration of the Incorporeal.
• Bolstering
  • The best way you can manage bolstering is to have the highest health target as your main target.
    • Consider spending your Astral Power on Starsurge instead of Starfall so that mobs die at the same time.
  • Cyclone
    • If a mob is in Cyclone they can't gain the bolstering buff. Extremely rarely used.
• Spiteful
  • Mass Entanglement
    • Great for when the pack is dead and you're setting up for the next pull.
  • Ursol's Vortex
    • Great for when mobs die early in a pull.
  • Entangling Roots
    • Great for when there is a single spite up and you're setting up for the next pack.
  • Typhoon
    • Great for when you have spitefuls running towards the ranged camp.
• Sanguine
  • Typhoon
    • Not only good for knocking mobs out of Sanguine, but also great for knocking mobs away before they die from larger mobs that are immune to knockbacks.
  • Growl
    • Taunting mobs that are about to run through Sanguine to change their pathing can be a massive time save in higher keys, you should always look out for this.
• Bursting
  • Renewal
    • Renewal is your first line of defense for Bursting, best used when you're one tick away from death.
  • Barkskin
    • Make sure to use Barkskin on early stacks of bursting to grant the damage reduction and also enable Verdant Heart healing taken increase.
  • Frenzied Regeneration
    • Frenzied Regeneration is your last resort, it's not as great as you might think since bursting does percentage-health damage which means it's going to be harder for your healer to heal you if you're in Bear Form. This is however offset by Verdant Heart, so only stay in Bear Form during bursting if you have Frenzied Regeneration ticking. of Burst.

Understand your secondary stat priority and the tertiary stats needed for optimal performance during Mythic+ dungeons as a Balance Druid. For more detailed information, visit the Stats and Attributes guide.

These are the stats you should roughly aim to hit at maximum item level:

• Crit: 3320~
• Haste: 6510~
• Mastery: 5990~
• Versatility: 4900~

All secondary stats are affected by diminishing returns. Click here to learn more!

Tertiary

• Avoidance - Extremely valuable, each item with Avoidance grants around 2-3% damage reduction. An item from Heroic with Avoidance is far better than an item from Mythic without Avoidance.
• Leech - Less valuable than Avoidance, especially since you have Nature's Vigil which can cover most situations where leech would be useful.
• Speed - Niche tertiary that can be very useful and has been proven useful in the past. Makes playing certain mechanics a lot easier.

Trinkets

Below you can find active and passive alternatives to the recommended trinkets. Do note that some trinkets are better than others depending on the scenario.

Active Trinket alternatives

• Ashes of the Embersoul
  • Strong 2 minute on use with a minute haste penalty after.
• Spoils of Neltharus
  • Alternates between the secondaries and the use can be delayed a bit until the preferred secondary is available.
• Belor'relos, the Suncaller
  • Decent for prio target nukes.
  • Great for totems on the last boss in Brackenhide Hollow.

Passive Trinket alternatives

• Tome of Unstable Power
  • Insanely strong trinket for AOE.
  • Subpar for boss damage.
• Neltharion's Call to Suffering
  • Has a negative effect that deals damage to you but it is negligible.
• Vessel of Searing Shadow
  • Strong single-target trinket, loses some value on AoE.
  • Better when paired with Seal of Diurna's Chosen.
• Umbrelskul's Fractured Heart
  • Strong single-target damage while still doing respectable AoE damage.
• Whispering Incarnate Icon
  • Is better or worse depending on how many people in your group are using it.
• Ominous Chromatic Essence
  • Is better or worse depending on how many people in your group are using it, potentially BiS.

Simcraft

To find the best combination of gear available to you or identify the best possible upgrades, visit our Simcraft guide to learn how to utilize Simcraft easily and effectively.

• 2x Blue Silken Lining
  • The optimal slots to craft on are Ring, Neck, Cloak, or Wrist depending on your available gear.

Remaining Sparks

• Make sure to apply Alchemical Flavor Pocket if you have an additional crafted item equipped.
  • Equipping a third crafted item can be a downgrade since crafted items are 525 item level and regular items are 528 on max item level.

Phials

1. Iced Phial of Corrupting Rage -- For maximum DPS.
2. Phial of Tepid Versatility -- For less DPS but more survivability.

Food

1. Sizzling Seafood Medley -- Haste Mastery food, usually best
2. Grand Banquet of the Kalu'ak -- Intellect feast
3. Deviously Deviled Eggs -- Same buff as Grand Banquet of the Kalu'ak but is a cheap single use item

Combat Potion

1. Elemental Potion of Ultimate Power
2. Residual Neural Channeling Agent -- Can be used while being dead if your potion is ready.

Health Potion

1. Potion of Withering Dreams -- For a big burst of healing
2. Dreamwalker's Healing Potion -- For less healing upfront but an additional small heal over time.

Weapon Rune

1. Howling Rune
2. Hissing Rune

Augment Rune

1. Dreambound Augment Rune -- Requires Reputation
2. Draconic Augment Rune

Sockets

1. Skillful Illimited Diamond or Fierce Illimited Diamond -- Unique, made by work order
2. Keen Ysemerald -- Most often BIS
   • Simulate to find which gems to use, it's usually impossible to predict which gem is best.

For min-maxing a Balance Druid in Mythic+, different racial traits can provide a tremendous benefit to your characters. If this is not your top goal, picking a race that fits your style works just as well.

• Shadowmeld -- Night Elf
  • Historically one of the most potent racials in Mythic+.
  • Use-cases:
    • Cast Shadowmeld when Forgemaster Gorek (Neltharus) targets you with Blazing Aegis, this completely negate the mechanic for you and the rest of the group.
    • Run past basically any mob and then cast Shadowmeld to make them reset. Even works on mobs that have stealth detection if you get enough distance before you Shadowmeld.
    • Can be used as an offensive cooldown to gain Nature's Grace while fighting a pack.
• Brush It Off -- Kul Tiran
  • The numerically best defensive racial and sims high.
  • Looks badass.

• War Stomp -- Tauren
  • Higher DPS than Kul Tiran, but less tanky.
  • War Stomp in combination with Incapacitating Roar and Typhoon can make you a one-man army of rotating AoE interrupts.

Recommendation

Night Elf is the overall best racial in terms of DPS and Shadowmeld has such a big impact on your Mythic+ experience that you need to use it if you're serious about pushing keys with your Balance Druid.

Discover recommended macros for Balance Druids during Mythic+ dungeons and watch a quick video guide on creating simple macros for your character.

Macro Import Guide Video

#showtooltip Celestial Alignment/cast Berserking/use 14/use Elemental Potion of Ultimate Power/cast [@cursor] Celestial Alignment

/cast [@cursor] Ursol's Vortex/cast [@mouseover,exists] [] Mass Entanglement

#showtooltip/cast [@cursor] Force of Nature

Below, you see a screenshot of the author's User Interface for their Balance Druid, outlining which addons are used and how they are utilized in Mythic+ dungeons to make your life easier.

Credits

Written By: Canexx

Reviewed By: Reviewer, Alphabetical