Balance druid in bad state, Changes we want to see

Classes Druid
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Hello everyone!
I’ve come across many problems balance druids mainly have, and I would like to share and get more opinions on the matter. I see there is a thread on NA forums about balance druid but not here I would like to start a conversation about what could be changed to make balance druid more fun and comparable to other long range caster in performance.

For starters while many other classes got more options available in a single build for skills and utility in Dragonflight , druid lost some by moving Ιncapacitating Roar and mighty bash on the same talent point and also very far into feral/bear talents compared to mass entanglement / Ursol’s vortex. In SL we were able to take roar , might bash and had Ursol’s vortex baseline.

In my opinion, possible fix move this talents closer to middle as either spec uses those ones and as a utility that would make more sense.

Secondly, our new mastery while in PVE is passable, in PVP is actually so bad as it’s so easy to get rid of it. Making it useless. Starsurge is now more expensive and its damage so low compared to other skills like Lava Burst, Chaos bolt and Disintegrate, which 2 of them have instant procs and generally in a fight would be used much more often. I’m comparing these as they feel like the analogy of spenders. Yes we have dots but still it’s covering the damage gap Starsurge leaves compared to those skills for example.

I did my compares in pre-patch event gear on some of the classes while trying to understand if I do something so terribly wrong.

I’m still trying to understand what was the vision of the developer making the changes how balance druid was supposed to be played in PVP even more, am I a dot class now ? Cause getting those casts off feels impossible. Get in the right eclipse? Nice one…

Something else that bothers me is that if I precast skill to get into next eclipse just before the one I am finishes I don’t gain the effect of Nature’s Grace, and that is especially noticeable with Starfire… Probably most won’t agree but I would prefer a nerf on the damage and make it way sorter cast time.

Please people show your disappointment with the current design, just giving up on the spec won’t fix anything. It’s really disheartening that before DF release I was trying so hard to find someone playing balance druid to see how it is, how it plays compared to all the other specs. So many just say this spec is so bad ok better play something else, or straight up unsub. Why not make this spec fun too?

17 Likes
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I didn’t mind balance in previous expansions when I was required to use it (only interested in resto) but currently it just feels bad. 3 very short dots that you need to maintain and too many synergies. The synergies aren’t going to be an issue for me as I don’t need to fight long enough for them all to stack, but the dots are just an ache.

There needs to be a viable play style not using Stellar flare, and the fact that you should never use a Solar Eclipse is just embaressing.

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Ive played Balance since tbc, in pvp, mythic raids and high m+ and i dont se why eclipse hasnt been removed yet.

Its been a love hate relationship for a long time, but how the current game is it needs to go. Not only from a gameplay stand point but also for scaling and balancing. This will decrese build up, fix the spec in lower m+, improve pvp gameplay, and help on raid fights with swaps. It will also help newer players who is strugling with the spec.

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I would really like it if they scaled down the value of mastery to same lvl as other 2dary stats…or close at least.

Its ok for mastery to pull ahead in raids, where theres long st fights, but would make the game so much better in all other content if it was sclaed much much lower. (and ofc compensate with higher base value on abilities)

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What would you think if eclipse was removed altogether, buffing respective skills and stick with the current mastery?

Or would you prefer eclipse remain as of now but change mastery to something else ?

I personally find the current druid having so many globals before i can get my damage out.
Example a fire mage would just spam fireball, fireblast and instant pyros. A warrior just presses whatever skills and do chunks of damage right away. Affli just uses 2-3 globals and the dots start eating the enemy healthbar. Meanwhile balance druid , 2 globals for dots or 3 if you play stellar, 2 casting globals to get into eclipse , if they are starfire good lord that takes for ever… Ok now i have dots and eclipse now i can finally do my normal damage! Just so much build up! And it’s not like im gona delete someone after i got there…

I wish blizzard would do some quick fix and change balance druid to something more upfront as it supposed to be. If it is a dot build make dots more powerful, if its a burst type caster still make them so but without having to use 5-7 globals! In these amount of globals someone has already killed me like twice… Good lord the rotation is obnoxious and clunky.
Please…

10 Likes
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The main issue with balance atm is possition of solar beam. Playing without an interupt (or giving away a big chunk of dps) feels bad.

We have million buttons to click, but I find it ok, to have options and make decisions what to click.

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I agree with the OP on balance feeling bad in PvP. I got all my ilvl 411 PvP gear today and I still felt like my Starsurges were really weak. At the moment balance druid is only good at dealing attrition damage in large group fights, if they can stay in the back and not get ganked by melees. Wrath and Starfire take so damn long to cast, so it’s hard to get into Eclipse form. I just run around and apply DoTs and shrooms and spend astral power on Starfalls most of the time. :frowning:

In heroic dungeons warriors easily deal 2x as much damage as me because they just instantly start mowing down mobs. It’s not as bad in mythic zeros, because I have time to build up DoTs and let Starfall do its thing. Celestial Alignment with Orbital Strike is actually kinda fun to use in dungeons, and with shrooms as an instant AoE ability, I think Balance is way better than in Shadowlands. But yeah, I’m still not really happy with Eclipse forms and the slow build-up we have.

I’d be happy to see Eclipse gone. It slows us down too much and it doesn’t really feel good.

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My view aligns exactly the same with you.
4 Globals needed so starsurge does full dmg (without cds) and still hits for meh damage…

Was comparing myself to a friend while leveling together , he so happened also to be a war, we each took a 70k health mob both of us near 250ilvl , I needed 12-14 globals (without cds) to kill it meanwhile he was done in 4-5 globals maybe 6 if not lucky with a crit. So much build up and then so mediocre damage…

I would like to compare it with affliction lock, haven’t played one this expac but I remember I would slowly dot someone but after he had everything on him , his life would just drop like crazy, this is not how balance druid works.

I feel like need to be near perfect global uses so my damage actually reaches the numbers of someone smashing his head on the keyboard…

I don’t mean to say balance needs damage buff, I just don’t get why it need to be so complicated and slow compared to others and yet most of the time, for me at least, its still lacking.

I’m yet to reach max level as I’m turned off the game as the class is annoying to play.
And I feel forced to change class to enjoy the game…

EDIT: I’m level 64 don’t know why this isn’t refreshing.

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I’m not going to paragraph this so my general requests:

Solar beam be made baseline, not a choice to take it over a dps loss
Stellar drift back
Fungal growth counts as a dot
Ursols vortex or mass ent becomes baseline with the option to select the other from the tree
Leaf on the water is a talent - the one from torghast (Clearcasting and Gore trigger 100% more often, and Eclipse takes 1 fewer spell to trigger.)
Starsurge costs less

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The new Mastery is just not fun to play around at all, its almost unplayable in pvp and even in pve its just not fun.
For example if there is a big pull and you starfall but you dont have dots on every single little target your starfall is going to do less damage to all those targets, how is that fun? atleast the old mastery the power came from yourself and you had more control with all your damage in alignment or pulsar procs.
I really want another mastery or for it to just go back to how it was.

Another alternative is to utilize the new talent trees and maybe add a talent where to choose what mastery type you want to play? eclipse based or dot based then.

Also add back stellar drift.

3 Likes
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Its the same story every expansion, it genuinely feels like theyve been trying to push people away from this spec for about 5 years now.
Every expansion they complicate the spec further, drop its overall output and generally give balance players a tough time. Classes in gear thats 20 or 30 ilvls lower overall (sometimes more) can still beat output with very little trouble.

DPS output is 100% reliant on high level gear, and even then is outperformed be most other dps classes. Add to that Moonkin now seems to require 3 DoTs being maintained, one of which is a hardcast, mastery severly weakened and then a patchwork of other spells to get even remotely close to best output…when other classes can just button smash two or three spells and top meters.

It feels like Guardian and Resto are the only two really viable Druid specs, and its been moving more and more towards this with each expansion.

I dont mind the eclipse mechanic, if they were to return it to something like it was in WoTLK and get rid of all the extra spells. It needs the core of the class buffed and things like stellar flare and new moon thrown away for good. While the basic build behind it is so weak and the output so dependant on high ilvl gear and a complicated web of casting (still to only hit middle of the pack on dps…I couild understand if this was a top class dps spec that you had to get perfect to get the output) its just broken.

Its insulting that I can roll some classes and button smash two spells (literally) and wipe the floor with a class thats so heavily complicated and carries so many core issues. And it just feels like WoW have intentionally made it worse each time round.

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I gave Feral a try yesterday in M+0s and I’m already up like 25% in the damage meters over what I was able to do with Balance, and that’s with only 1 DPS trinket and a 340 ilvl weapon. And Feral is kinda hard and I’m still making mistakes, so there are still some things I can improve on as a player. :frowning:

Agreed; Stellar Flare is trash. Balance is basically a DoT class now. In terms of game-play feel: 1 instant DoT spell is fine, 2 instant DoT spells is so-so, but 3 DoTs with one of them being a hard-cast is really not fun to play.

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I don’t know man , i feel blizzard is totally disconnected with the playerbase. Does it even matter the 100+ posts on forums that balance needs changes? I don’t feel like it…

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Seems like they don’t mind it at all

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Stellar flare needs to be instant , or it needs to be way more powerful

with waning twilight it would be nice to see Stellar Buffed to feel more fluid

  • id be happy if Boomy got Swarm like resto, swarm would fix the missing DoT ramp damage
1 Like
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I think a good solution to having a billion buttons to press is decreasing astral power generation by a lot and buffing the spenders so they feel like theyre doing something. Any thoughts?

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Have an Evoker and a Druid at same ilvl (350ish)

The Evoker shreds, pulling a few enemies and never being in danger.

The Balance Druid struggled with more than 2 lvl 70 daily quest mobs with 200k health, having to use every cooldown and kite a little to selfheal.

Guardian druid has about the same dps, without me breaking my fingers to maintain 3 dots and starfall to get pitiful results, while just taking any abuse you throw at him.

Listen, I don’t need top tier changes to play with all the big boys in raid or pvp , but at least don’t make me struggle with THE DPS spec in daily content … all I want is to heal people.

So yeah boomy busted, please buff base dmg.

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I dont care if balance becomes a dot class, proc or builder spender, but right now its all of the above, and as it is in every exspansion eclipse is the core problem.

Were now in week 2 and ive seen literally 0 change,

I did 11-13 keys with both balance and feral and with little to no exp from feral gameplay i trashed my balance spec by a mile…

This state is worse than shadowlands, i right now the spec doesnt deserve to be in wow, but we have no other class with tank and ranged spec.

I will swap to feral for the first time in 14 years, still have hope they will fix it but right now the spec is dead in everything but raids and horrid to play there so RIP Balance, i hope we will meet again

3 Likes
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Napkin math comparison of moonkin and bear; both unempowered maul and mangle deal more dmg than starsurge and one swipe is very close in damage to that of a single starfall.

Gameplay is horrible, dots last too short and by the time you enter an eclipse, you waste half of the duration being forced to reapply mentioned dots because they’re about to expire. Spread aoe is the only thing going for the bird but other classes that excel at this as well seem to work better in PVP and have better tools at mitigating dmg and self sustain.

It might work better with higher levels of haste but I’ve been laughed at in mythics by players saying I suck for having less damage than a tank. Sure, everything dies so fast that I only get to utilize 30% of my dot duration and by the time I build up enough energy for a starfall, half of it gets wasted on mobs dying prematurely.

For those that enjoy massive scale pvp, you’re not actually killing anyone. Slowing effect from the mushroom might be useful but in the end you’re simply padding meters without any meaningful burst to help secure a kill. Arguably the only thing which helps so you’re not completely useless is PVP talent Star Burst as the only role that you’re good at is enemy disruption.

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Balancing class “in the long distance” it’s not the smartest decision from Devs. When other classes/specs could do better role job already then you because you didn’t got stat requirement minimum - it just to frustrating.
Boomie in SL was not the best but much much comfort to play. We had our dots but they was like an additional or at least half damage source, we still balanced on Eclipses and could do different types of damage (burst/sustain).

Now (as you mentioned) Eclipse just useless because talent tree saying you “use dot’s”. I’ve tried different combination but until I took mushrooms - I just didn’t do even half of dmg that can do with that talent. When combined it with dot’s - ta da. Why do we need Starsurge, Wrath and other casting spells? Just spam 3 dot, press Mushroom button and go f… with Eclipses.

Druid is unique class that can do different stuffs but class designers who’s responsible for him just not listening players or playing in completely other game universe.

3 Likes