balance-druid-dps
Latest
Shifting Perspectives: Comparing T12 boomkin gear against T11
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Shifting Perspectives for cat , bear , restoration and balance druids. Balance news comes at you every Friday -- learn how to master the forces of nature, and know what it means to be a giant laser turkey! Send questions, comments, or something you'd like to see to tyler@wowinsider.com. Last week, I allowed the unthinkable to happen: I allowed myself to be out-DPSed by an elemental shaman. It was a terrible day, one from which I don't think I shall ever recover. It happened the day that I had finally gotten my new, shiny four-piece bonus. I was eager to try it out, estatic that I finally got myself out of that god-awful dress. Then something just fell through. This week was more of a redemption, but I will still never forget losing out that one time. If anything good did come of it, at least you could say that it got me thinking. Upgrading from tier 11 to tier 12 should be a pretty big deal. The set has more and better itemization, the set bonuses are pretty spectacular -- so what could possibly be the issue? This week, we'll be talking about how tier 12 is great but not the bundle of roses that you might think it is. Depending on the encounter in question, which tier is actually better can change on you. Given that, should you ever go back to your old tier 11?
Shifting Perspectives: First look at balance druid tier 12 bonuses
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Shifting Perspectives for cat , bear , restoration and balance druids. Balance news comes at you every Friday -- learn how to master the forces of nature, and know what it means to be a giant laser turkey! Send your questions, comments, or something you'd like to see to tyler@wowinsider.com. Right then -- on the off chance that you happened to miss the massive rant that was last week's Shifting Perspectives, made in reaction to the horrible, horrible changes that Blizzard had originally planned for balance ... ,you don't quite have to read it. Actually you should read it, because the reasoning behind the change is still there and Blizzard is going to try something to make it happen, but that specific method is off the table for the time being. There's already a new attempt out, but frankly, I don't think it's worth spending every single week hammering down a new flop on the same tired design. Instead, I think it's rather a good time to take a first little glance at our newest tier set bonuses that were datamined about a week ago. Normally, I'm not a huge fan of datamined information; it's nice to look at, but it can often be incomplete or missing perspective that allows it to make sense. This is a bit different, though; it's spell data pulled straight from Wowhead, so it should be rather spot on. Doesn't mean it's final though, so do keep that in mind.
Shifting Perspectives: Balance druid gearing and stat break points
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Shifting Perspectives for cat , bear , restoration and balance druids. Balance news comes at you every Friday -- learn how to master the forces of nature, and know what it means to be a giant laser turkey! Send your questions, comments, or something you'd like to see to tyler@wowinsider.com. I think I have said it once before, but I swear I'll end up saying each and every raiding tier: I do not like gear guides, especially best in slot lists. While it is good to have a list of gear that you want and a goal to reach for, aside from Graylo's posts back in Wrath, I have never seen an actual list that is realistic. Yes, it's nice to know what you'll want to have once you've been farming a zone for months, but when you're just starting out, you take what upgrades you can get. Period. More so now with reforging, getting new gear is a huge PITA, and I've yet to see a gear guide that could actually help a player address those issues. I wouldn't ever expect it to; it's unreasonable to make a contengency plan for every single gearing combination possible. Plus, half the slots are always Get the only pair of X that drops in this raid or Get the tier gear. Duh. What I do like, however, is information on gearing. Gearing can be tricky, and it's nice to know some of the ropes so that you can make informed gearing choices. With that in mind, let's talk about gearing.
Shifting Perspectives: Raiding early Blackwing Descent as a balance druid
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Shifting Perspectives for cat , bear , restoration and balance druids. Triple moonkin! All across the sky! It can only mean one thing, that's right kiddies: It's raiding time. Strap on your big boy pants -- things are about to get serious. Seriously. OMG, OMG, OMG it's here! Yay, I actually did something that I said I would do. This is such a drastic change for me that I think I'll write a whole article on how important this momumentous event is, instead of actually writing about boss tactics and annoying things like that. No? Not feeling it? I suppose I can go ahead with the normal plan, although I think the other idea was much better. Raiding thus far has been rather hit-or-miss, in my opinion. Perhaps I'm jaded, but many of the encounters feel a tad ... simplistic, or at least far easier than they should be. Certain encounters, and especially the end encounters of all three raids this tier, are tough and fun, but the in-betweens seem a little weak at times -- but again, that's just me. For example, I spent more time wiping on the first boss of Grim Batol when it showed up as my first heroic ever than I did on Magmaw. Maybe that's just us; I don't know. Whether or not you agree, raiding is about being prepared. We've covered gearing yourself up for raids to death, so let's get on with the second part of those preparations.
Shifting Perspectives: Cataclysm heroics guide for balance druids, part 2
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Shifting Perspectives for cat , bear , restoration and balance druids. So, it may not actually be Throne of the Tides, but you don't get to ride a seahorse as a moonkin, so I think it's cooler. That, and the LFG tool did not work with me this week in my dungeon selection. Blame RNG! Seriously! Well, well, well, another week down, and it's that time again, folks. Last week, we began detailing the various ins and outs of the heroic dungeons that you'll be faced with. This week will be the second and final part of that series. Heroics can be easy or excruciatingly difficult, even now, even with quite a bit of heroic gear. Although gear certainly helps -- our guild heroic runs generally use a lot less CC now -- it is not what is going to make or break the success of a group. Completing dungeons is about strategy: knowing the fights and knowing how to cope with various mechanics. Doing this makes everything significantly easier. I know the more casual players will cringe slightly at the thought. Heroics can take a lot of time. They can take quite a lot of effort as well, and having to put forth research and energy into a hobby can seem like it saps all of the fun out of the game. To you, I say this: Don't think of guides or strats as a requirement or a chore that you have to do in order to actually play the game. Just look at it as another facet of the game as a whole. Like chess, you wouldn't just move a piece at random; you would think, plan, and have a strategy.
Shifting Perspectives: Balance post-starpocalypse
Every week, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. Today we step into the muddled love life of Murmurs and discover that he's returned with one of his exes. Starfall is back in style once again, and everyone wants to be on the winning team. If you thought that this post was going to be about the new, totally rad druid changes, then you will be completely disappointed. Such trivialities are so far beneath my station that I wouldn't even waste my time with such refuse. I kid. I'm giddy as a schoolgirl on candy laced with illegal substances right now. I am serious about this article not being about the druid changes, though. Instead, it's going to be all about the new love in my life. The apple of my eye, the yin of my yang, the Hooch of my Turner. If you're thinking about Lady GaGa right now, then stop. The court order was very specific that I'm not allowed within 50 miles of her any more. Instead I've moved on, or rather back, to my old flame Starfall. By now I am sure that there are plenty of people that have grown tired of me ranting on about my love for Starfall. To those people, I say this: Get over it! Okay, okay, seriously though, pending any new drastic shifts in the space-time continuum, this will be my last post about Starfall. I'm going to get all of my expressions of love for it out of my system in one go. Without further ado, let my mushy, gross, open-mouth tongue-kissing of Starfall begin.
Shifting Perspectives: DoTs, a different direction
Every week, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. Once again we are delving into the world of balance druid DoTs and how they fit within our rotation. How can they be improved? Can Insect Swarm and Moonfire ever really be made interesting and fun? The novelty of the newly buffed Starfall still has not worn off yet for me. Call me very easy to please, but nothing is more exciting to me than getting Omen of Doom, along with Frostforge Sage, then popping Starfall. Not that I particularly wait for this to happen, but that's usually how every pull starts for me; call it luck. Seeing upwards of 8,000 crits from an ability that I'm used to ignoring is thrilling beyond words that I could write. On the other hand, watching my DoTs tick for less than what my level 40 warlock is capable of hitting is more than slightly distressing. It's no surprise to the balance community that our DoTs have, once again, become a much more insignificant portion of our rotation. Though still worth casting within the rotation, it saddens me when my tier 10 four-piece bonus actually provides more damage than Moonfire or Insect Swarm over the course of a fight. Really, there's a part of me that just can't wrap my head around the concept. It's gotten so bad, now that I'm no longer running Glyph of Insect Swarm, that I don't want to look at my damage reports any more.
Shifting Perspectives: Changing Eclipse
Every week, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week, we're going to be looking at the most common gripe of the balance druid. That fickle little talent that every balance druid loves to hate: Eclipse. What's really wrong with it? How can we make it better? Why do we misname the procs? Every time that I visit the Damage Dealing or Druid forums, I often feel like I am back in Wrath of the Lich King beta. During that time, every day there was some thread about some balance druid issue that needed to be addressed, usually it was Eclipse. For those that currently take up an issue with Eclipse, I want to personally apologize for the state that it has come to today. Although I am not a design for WoW, nor do I have any direct influence on the design philosophy of any class, I can't help but thinking every day that I, along with several other notable figures, paved the way for Eclipse to become what it is today. For those that do not know what I am talking about, let me explain. During WotLK Beta, Eclipse was a terrible talent. By terrible, I don't mean that it was on par with Genesis. No, it was worse than Genesis. Eclipse was so bad during the early stages of Beta that there was more than several incarnations of the talent where it was a DPS loss to spend any talent points into it. Eclipse started out where you could only gain one proc every minute and the proc was either 10% increased damage to Wrath or 10% increased crit chance to Starfire. I shouldn't say it was all Eclipse's fault that it sucked, at the time the Glyph of Starfire had no extension limitation which certainly complicated the matter as well. Even without that, though, Eclipse simply wasn't worth it. There was no point in proccing Eclipse to buff Starfire at that point because 10% was too at the mercy of RNG to have a noticeable effect, and Wrath did not play well enough with Nature's Grace at the time to make its Eclipse proc viable.
Pimp My Profile: Elasmind, balance druid
Welcome to Pimp My Profile, the column in which the WoW.com staff turns zeroes into heroes. Don't think you're performing where you should be? Not sure how your class/spec is supposed to be gearing up? E-mail us with your Armory link, and you might be next to receive our help! Please pimp my druid. I can put out decent DPS in 5 mans if the conditions are right but I want to do more. I'm unsure about some of my talent choices and hope you can put me on the right track to ICC. - Elasmind Like a genie in a bottle, your wish is my command. With minimal tweaks, we can certainly get your toon ready to raid in style. When I say style, I mean style, you'll be the talk of Fountain Square. Get your whisper blocking add-on ready, because after we turn you from a moonkin to a doomkin, every balance druid in Dalaran is going to want to know your secret.
Shifting Perspectives: Are DoTs worth it?
Every week, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week, we are going to explore the issues surrounding the use of damage over time effects in a balance druid's rotation, as we figure out if they are pewpew worthy, or just plain peew. If you are like me and have played a balance druid since before people knew that druids had a spec that wasn't restoration, then this question isn't a new one to you. The sad truth of the balance spec is that a vast majority of our damage potential is tied up into our main nukes; Starfire and Wrath. Moonfire and especially Insect Swarm have, for the most part, always been at the bottom rung of our damage potential. Back in The Burning Crusade, when balance was first considered to be 'viable' by the mainstream, Insect Swarm was never used in a raid setting due to its poor damage. Although Moonfire held strong, by the Sunwell level, balance druids were able to get so much haste and crit that even our staple of staple spells was left in the dust. Swing around to Wrath of the Lich King, and there have been some major strides to fix this issue. When the expansion first came out, there were two key talents, Nature's Splendor and Improved Insect Swarm, added to boost our DoT damage. Even then, Insect Swarm was falling too far behind by the time players were in Naxx level gear, but this time around there was some quick work on the part of the development team to remedy the situation. Insect Swarm had its scaling and base damage increased to be viable once again. Not to mention that our three standard issue PvE glyphs have all centered around our DoTs. However, we are no longer in Naxx, we are now in Icecrown Citadel, and the issue of DoT damage is coming up once again. Are Insect Swarm and Moonfire holding up in terms of damage? Is their scaling sufficient to keep them in our rotations? Let's take a look.
Shifting Perspectives: Balance 101
Every week, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week, we're preening our feathers, practicing our dance moves, and polishing up on our slaughtering skills. There has recently been an in pouring of requests to make starter guides for all of the various classes and specs. Originally I refused such a topic on the standing that any player that wishes to play a balance druid is already 100 times more awesome than every other player out there and wouldn't possibly benefit from such a things. Then a guild mate of mine showed me the light. Balance druids themselves are quite an amazing bunch, but balance druid alts are a completely different story. In all honesty though, even the veteran balance druids cannot agree on talents from time to time. I figured, after a few threats of maiming, that a beginner's guide would actually be a really good thing; providing the caveat that some of the more controversial talents be explored more in-depth.
