PVE Balance Druid DPS Guide (WotLK 3.3.5a)

Welcome to the Balance Druid DPS guide for World of Warcraft Wrath of the Lich King 3.3.5a. In this guide, you will learn about playing a Balance Druid in a raid. The guide includes Talents, Glyphs, Gems, Enchantments, Add-ons, Gameplay & Skill rotation tips.

Talent Tree

The first build is for new players with low gear. Involves a lot of mana-related talents

The second build is an all-around raid build, for players with better gear. You might make some tweak according to your raid needs.

Glyphs

Major Glyphs

• Glyph of Starfire
• Glyph of Moonfire
• Glyph of Starfall

Minor Glyphs

• Glyph of Unburdened Rebirth
• Glyph of the Wild
• Glyph of Thorns

Gems

Gems are situational and depend on the build and equipment. They are used to reach the required stat caps.

• Meta: Chaotic Skyflare Diamond
• Red: Runed Cardinal Ruby
• Yellow: Potent Ametrine
• Blue: Runed Cardinal Ruby or Purified Dreadstone (if good socket bonus)

Enchants

• Head – Arcanum of Burning Mysteries
• Shoulder – Greater Inscription of the Storm
• Cloak – Enchant Cloak – Greater Speed
• Chest – Enchant Chest – Powerful Stats
• Bracers – Enchant Bracers – Superior Spellpower
• Gloves – Enchant Gloves – Exceptional Spellpower
• Waist – Eternal Belt Buckle
• Legs – Brilliant Spellthread
• Boots – Enchant Boots – Tuskarr’s Vitality
• Weapon – Enchant Weapon – Mighty Spellpower or Enchant Staff – Greater Spellpower

Rotation

• Maintain Faerie Fire on the target if no other Druid is doing it.
• Cast Starfall on cooldown.
• Cast Force of Nature on cooldown.
• Spam Wrath during Eclipse (Solar), and spam Starfire during Eclipse (Lunar).
• Spam Wrath after leaving Eclipse (Solar), and spam Starfire after leaving Eclipse (Lunar), until the next Eclipse procs.

When to use DoTs

• Refresh the DoTs when out of Eclipse. If in Eclipse then use Wrath or Starfire
• If Eclipse just proc-ed and DoTs are down: refresh Insect Swarm for Solar, Moonfire for Lunar.
• If Eclipse just ended and DoTs are down: refresh Insect Swarm if you just came out of Lunar, refresh Moonfire if you just came out of Solar.

Stat Priority

Hit -> Spell Power -> Critical Strike -> Haste  -> Spirit -> Intellect

All spells require a 17% spell hit (446 rating) for a lvl 83 boss. We get 7% of our talents: Balance of Power and Improved Faerie Fire. What’s left is to get 10% (or 263 rating) from gear, gems, or other buffs.

Spell Power is the main stat for this build. Stack as much as you can. Critical strike rating cap is 45% (buffed, in Moonkin form). Stacking critical strike further is not efficient because of how much we get from our talents and debuffs, like Improved Insect Swarm, Improved Faerie Fire, Lunar Eclipse, Nature’s Majesty.

The cap for haste is 585 rating (unbuffed). The logic behind it is if we add more Haste, then the combination with Nature’s Grace would cause Wrath cooldown to be lower then the global cooldown (1 sec), which would be a waste of stats.