Squawk! Squerk! Squark! Or, to put it another way, “Why yes, Boomkin are indeed imba. Would you pass the birdseed?”. With amazing AOE and pretty darn good single-target DPS, Balance druids are looking good as we battle dragons, elementals and, erm, another damn airship in Patch 4.3 – so, to get your Laz0rs firing as quickly as possible, here’s a guide to talent specs, glyphs, gemming, reforging, enchants, stats and your rotation in the latest patch.
Updated 29th November 2011, for Patch 4.3
Balance Druids in Patch 4.3
Not a lot has changed for us in this patch. We’ve got a new graphic for Hurricane and Wrath – whee! But other than that, we lazor as we lazored before. There are no major play or gearing changes in 4.3.
Our T13 set bonuses don’t change our gameplay either.
Balance Rotation / Priorities
Like most DPS classes in Cataclysm, boomkin don’t have a fixed rotation any more. Instead, we have a priority system – use whichever ability is highest-priority and available.
Broadly, a Boomkin’s DPS depends on two things: keeping Damage Over Time spells up on all targets at all times, and getting from Eclipse to Eclipse as fast as possible.
Keep DoTs up, use Starsurge whenever possible, and otherwise either use the appropriate talent for your Eclipse or the direction your Eclipse meter is going.
- Top Priority: Cast Insect Swarm and Moonfire on the target if they aren’t up already.
- Second Priority: Cast Starsurge if it’s off cooldown for any reason.
- Thiry Priority: If you have the Solar Eclipse buff active, cast Wrath. If you have Lunar Eclipse, cast Starfire.
- Fourth Priority: If your eclipse gauge is heading for Solar, cast Starfire. If it’s heading for Lunar, cast Wrath.
Cooldowns: Use Force of Nature whilst it’s up, or save it for Bloodlust if that will be in a few seconds’ time. Use Innervate on yourself when you get below half mana if your group doesn’t require it on a healer – 4.2 nerfed it but it may still be used on healers sometimes. Use Starfall on any add phase.
AOE: Place Insect Swarm and Moonfire on any targets likely to survive most of their duration, and detonate Wild Mushrooms under the targets when the tank has finished moving them.
Want to stay up to date?
Want to stay up to date with what's happening in the world of WoW and other MMOs?
Subscribe to the Melting Pot on Twitter or by a feedreader (Google Reader or others) to learn about everything that's going on in the MMORPG world, before it goes mainstream.
Balance Talent Spec
This is a good standard Balance talent spec for 4.3
You may wish to drop points in Furor (Tier 1, Feral) or Moonglow (Tier 2, Balance) for Fungal Growth (Tier 6, Balance) if you’re on an add fight. In addition, if you find you’re never running out of mana, those talents can also be dropped for a minor survivability increase through Perseverance (Tier 2, Restoration).
Stats, reforging and gemming for Balance
Intelligence is the most important stat for Balance. After that, it’s Hit or Spirit to the cap (1742), then Haste, then Mastery. Crit is the least useful stat for Boomkin.
Reforging: Reforge to Spirit to the hit cap, then reforge to Haste. Reforge from hit above the cap first, if you have any, then Mastery and Crit.
Gems: Use a Brilliant Inferno Ruby in all sockets. unless the socket has a per-socket bonus of 20 Int or better. In blue or yellow sockets where the bonus is 20 Int or better, use Purified Demonseye (Int/Spirit) or Reckless Ember Topaz (Int/Haste).
Balance Druid Enchants
Remember, your professions may offer better enchants than these general-purpose options!
| Head | Arcanum of Hyjal |
| Shoulders | Greater Inscription of Charged Lodestone |
| Back | Enchant Cloak – Greater Intellect |
| Chest | Enchant Chest – Peerless Stats |
| Wrist | Enchant Bracer – Mighty Intellect |
| Hands | Enchant Gloves – Haste |
| Belt | Ebonsteel Belt Buckle |
| Legs | Powerful Ghostly Spellthread |
| Feet | Enchant Boots – Lavawalker (the run speed is very useful) |
| Weapon | Enchant Weapon – Power Torrent |
| Off-Hand Weapon | Enchant Weapon – Superior Intellect |
Glyphs
- Prime: Insect Swarm, Moonfire, Wrath. Swap Wrath for Starsurge on high movement fights.
- Major: Starfall, Rebirth and one other of your choice.
- Minor: Entirely your choice.
Links
- Official Forums Moonkin Guide – Yes, I’m recommending you go to the official forums. Breathe. This is a really, really good guide, with particular attention to massaging your rotation for maximum DPS.
- MMO Champion Balance guide – Lengthy guide including an excellent pictoral explanation of Eclipse. Not up to 4.2 yet, but still worth a look.
- Elitist Jerks Balance Druid Guide – as usual, an excellent resource, with more details on Eclipse amongst other things. Updated for 4.3.
You also might find the rest of MMO Melting Pot interesting – we look for the best articles about WoW and other MMOs and deliver them straight to you. Check out the latest articles .
If you’ve found this post useful, please consider sharing it! You can find buttons for Twitter, Facebook and Google+ below.
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
There is a tiny mistake in “Gems” section, Reckless Ember Topaz is Int/Haste, not Haste/spirit as you wrote.
Ah, thanks – I’ve fixed it (or will have done in about 2 min).
Thanks for the correction!
ok i am confused i have been running back and forth and been asking boomkins all over the server what is more important crit or mastery ? and which increases dps more?
@kuluga – Neither is very important, but Mastery is better.
You want int-hitcap(spirit1742)-haste-mastery-crit
@Herpes – Agreed, and edited. Seems to have been a typo.
When did I miss the “Boomkins don’t use crit” boat. I haven’t played a whole lot since cata, but I thought crit was big for boomers.
Not any more. Whilst you might think boomkin big hits would benefit from crit, the large amounts of crit rating you need make it a pretty bad stat for lazorchickens.
Sorry if this is an utterly stupid question but I do not main a druid: Why is Lunar shower not taken? I am not at that level yet, but I just would like to know: does Only moonfire trigger lunar shower? So sunfire does not get it?
Also is it better to save Starfall as a damage cfooldown for when you are in a Lunar eclipse state, or should you just use it on cooldown, full stop?
To quote the guide we link on the official forums – “My official advice about Lunar Shower is just don’t take it for raiding. It has the possibility of providing minimal DPS gains at high opportunity costs. The majority of the fights in Dragon Soul that have high-movement phases also require you to manage your eclipses in a way that becomes difficult if you have LS. “
Oh so its not necessarily a bad talent then, just a horribly difficult one to take advantage of. . . thanks for the information on that, it should help me when my druid is hig henough level to think about priority.
That’s a pretty fail talent spec. I raid as a balance druid, and the only fights I come even close to going oom is are the ones I spam aoe spells. And even then, I can keep my mana up high enough WHILST GIVING INNERVATE TO A HEALER, using no mana pots. All you have to do is hit eclipse… BAM! Mana is back. For single target dps fights my mana rarely drops below 80%.
Specing in increased mana and mana cost reducing talents is a waste of dps. Lunar shower may only be a slight dps increase and very situational, but nonetheless its a dps increase. Increasing mana when you don’t go oom is no net dps increase! Plus it offers no extra survivability as say Perserverance would. Better to spend points there instead!
Thanks for wasting people’s time!
I’d be interested to hear more about your suggestions for changes to the spec – it’s hard to argue specifics or improve anything from a general “this spec sucks” post.
Lunar Shower, in particular, is a rather more complicated proposition than just a “slight DPS increase”. Both EJ and Moonfarespam are on record as advising against taking it, and for good reason – it makes Eclipse management harder unless you’re just spamming Moonfire, and also screws up “Solar Cleave” AoE.
However, you have a fair point – I should include some suggestions for those boomkin (not all) who don’t have mana problems. I’ll do that just now – thanks for the suggestion!
would it be at all possible for you to elaborate more on starfall? It seems to me like it hits quite hard, especially during lunar eclipse, and the bonus of not having to channel it or anything is great. It seems to me like I would want to use this every chance I get while I’m in lunar eclipse. However, you only mention it in regards to add phases, which is confusing for me considering you even say it’s good to take two glyphs that revolve around starfall.
i pull 50k now
{ 2 trackbacks }