Recent Druid Patch Notes

Hello Skill Capped!  This is my first guide, and today we’ll begin by looking at both the 4.2 and 4.3 patch notes, and how they affected Balance Druids.

• [Entangling Roots] and the equivalent spell triggered by Nature’s Grasp no longer deal damage.
• [Earth And Moon]‘s duration has been increased to 15 seconds, up from 12.
• [Lunar Shower] has been redesigned. When casting [Moonfire], the druid gains [Lunar Shower]. [Lunar Shower] increases the direct damage done by [Moonfire] by 15/30/45%, and reduces the mana cost by 10/20/30%. This effect stacks up to 3 times and lasts 3 seconds. While under the effects of [Lunar Shower], [Moonfire] generates 8 Solar Energy, and [Sunfire] generates 8 Lunar Energy. The amount of Lunar/Solar Energy gained does not change based on the number of points spent in the talent, or stacks of [Lunar Shower]. Those druids who wish to delay transition in or out of an Eclipse state should now cast the one of their two basic attacks which will not move the Eclipse bar (either [Starfire] or [Wrath]).
• [Wild Mushroom]: Detonate can now also trigger [Earth And Moon], in addition to [Starfire] and [Wrath].
• [Cyclone] and spell, this allows the target to sit the entire duration of roots without breaking prematurely, so you can continue to cc out of it without having to worry about it breaking early.

  Earth and Moon Change

  A minor buff which just means [Earth And Moon] will last 3 seconds longer on the afflicted target, not changing a whole lot.

  Lunar Shower Change

  Most definitely, the Balance Druids largest change of patch 4.2. Prior to patch 4.2, this talent allowed Balance Druids to maintain a Solar Eclipse and continuously “spam” [Sunfire] without losing your eclipsed state. However, this new change forces the Balance Druid into the opposing eclipsed state, thus, the continuous use of [Sunfire] now shifts you out of eclipse. In addition to this, the duration of [Lunar Shower] has been reduced to 3 seconds, meaning the caster only has time for 1 global in between [Moonfire]/[Sunfire] before the buff drops.

  Cyclone and Entangling Roots Change

  Basically means you spend less time casting the Crowd Control, a positive change.

  Bear Form Change

  A positive change which benefits [Enraged Regeneration] which means you gain more health per tick with a larger health pool.

  How Should I Spec?

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  

  Balance Core Spec

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  This is the core build for a Balance Druid. There’s two points left over of which you may assign into [Furor] or [Owlkin Frenzy] depending on your personal play style. I personally assign the 2 remaining points into [Owlkin Frenzy]. If you prefer an instant [Skull Bash] or [Stampeding Roar], you can put one point into [Furor] and the last into [Owlkin Frenzy].

  What Glyphs?

  Prime Glyphs
  

  [Glyph of Starsurge]: Too good to pass up, as a Balance Druid you’ll be getting Shooting Star procs fairly often. Each Starsurge reducing the cooldown of [Starfall] by 5 seconds.

  [Glyph of Moonfire] : 20% increased damage to your [Moonfire], over long periods, it’ll be your highest dps spell.

  [Glyph of Insect Swarm]: 30% increased damage to [Insect Swarm]

  Major Glyphs
  

  [Glyph of Starfall] : 30 Seconds off the cool down of [Starfall], a huge deal as it creates immense AoE Pressure.

  [Glyph of Solar Beam]: Increased duration of [Solar Beam] effect by 5 seconds. Extremely useful in creating chokepoints or trapping classes that are affected by silences.

  [Glyph of Barkskin]: Much needed as Balance Druids have horrible survivability. 25% reduced critical strike chance on you whilst [Barkskin] is active.

  How to Gem my Gear

  Meta Gem: [Burning Shadowspirit Diamond]

  Red Socket: [Brilliant Queen's Garnet] or [Willful Lava Coral]

  Yellow Socket: [Mystic Lightstone]

  Blue Socket: [Timeless Shadow Spinel] or [Veiled Shadow Spinel]

  Gem choice solely depends on what PvE gear you have access to. Basically, you want to gem as much resilience as you can. If I’m needing to gem hit, I prefer hit over spirit as it scales my melee hit as well meaning my {spell]Bash[/spell] is less likely to miss.

  Reforging

  Intellect/Spellpower>4% Hit> Haste> Mastery> Crit

  Intellect: Your number 1 priority, Increases spell damage, Spell Critical, Mana and Mana Regeneration.

  1 int = 1.1687 SP
  1 int = 17.53  max mana
  555 int = 1% crit

  4% Hit: 1 Spirit = 1 Hit rating. Make sure you achieve the 4% hit chance as anything under will simply be a loss in damage or CC which can cost you games.

  Resilience: Overall Damage Reduction, you’ll be getting most of your resilience from gems, enchants, socket bonuses.

  Haste: Haste is our best secondary statistic, all other stats should be reforged to haste where ever possible, this is assuming you are hit capped. Decreases the cast time of spells, Global Cooldowns and increases the number of DoT ticks.

  128.05 haste rating = 1% spell haste

  Haste breakpoints where we gain extra DoT ticks (3/3 Genesis and Moonkin Form):
  11th tick – 1423
  12th tick – 2776
  13th tick – 4139
  14th tick – 5486

  Mastery: Increases damage whilst in Eclipse.

  
  

  Head:[Cataclysmic Gladiator's Wyrmhide Helm]  with [Arcanum of Vicious Intellect]

  Neck:[Cataclysmic Gladiator's Pendant of Alacrity]

  Shoulders:[Cataclysmic Gladiator's Wyrmhide Spaulders] with [Greater Inscription of Vicious Intellect]

  Cloak:[Cataclysmic Gladiator's Drape of Diffusion] with [Enchant Cloak - Greater Intellect]

  Chest:[Cataclysmic Gladiator's Wyrmhide Robes] with [Enchant Chest - Mighty Resilience]

  Bracers:[Cataclysmic Gladiator's Bindings of Meditation] with [Enchant Bracer - Mighty Intellect]

  Gloves:[Cataclysmic Gladiator's Kodohide Gloves] with [Enchant Gloves - Haste]

  Belt:[Cataclysmic Gladiator's Belt of Cruelty] with [Ebonsteel Belt Buckle]

  Leggings:[Cataclysmic Gladiator's Wyrmhide Legguards] with [Powerful Enchanted Spellthread]

  Boots:[Cataclysmic Gladiator's Footguards of Alacrity] with [Enchant Boots - Lavawalker]

  Ring 1:[Cataclysmic Gladiator's Band of Meditation]

  Ring 2:[Cataclysmic Gladiator's Band of Cruelty]

  Weapon: [Cataclysmic Gladiator's Spellblade] with [Enchant Weapon - Power Torrent]

  Off-Hand: Cataclysmic Gladiator’s End Game with [Enchant Off-Hand - Superior Intellect]

  Trinket 1: [Cataclysmic Gladiator's Medallion of Tenacity]

  Trinket 2: 1st Choice: [Cunning of the Cruel] 2nd Choice: [Variable Pulse Lightning Capacitor].

  If you do not have access to any of these, I would purchase a [Darkmoon Card: Volcano] and reforge mastery to haste.

  
  

  Why the [Cataclysmic Gladiator's Kodohide Gloves]? The Kodohide Gloves provides us with the pure haste stat, which we benefit most from.

  Have any tips?

  Spells that benefit from Eclipse:

  Eclipse (Solar) - [Wrath], [Insect Swarm], [Detonate Mushroom]

  Eclipse (Lunar): [Starfire], [Starfall], [Moonfire],

  Don’t Forget that [Entangling Roots] + [Solar Beam] can be an extremely useful Crowd Control vs Casters/Healers.

  [Typhoon does affect Death Knights that have used[Anti-Magic Shell], however, make sure [Pillar of Frost] is not active.

  Have a melee training you? Place three Wild Mushrooms down with [Thorns], wait for a [Shooting Stars] proc then Starsurge +  [Detonate Mushroom] and watch them second guess tunneling you.

  Getting Low on Mana? Have [Darkmoon Card: Volcano] or [Cataclysmic Gladiator's Badge of Dominance]? Wait till you get the intellect proc in combination with Power Torrent then innervate yourself, watch yourself get a load of mana back.

  
  

  Thanks for taking the time out to read this article. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask!

  Roiddy