Mastering Balance Druid in Dungeons
A critical feature to being a Balance Druid is your utility making it important to understand when something should be used and what something should be used on. Understanding when to use certain abilities like
Prompte guérison,
Sarments,
Rayon solaire,
Apaiser,
Hibernation,
Force de la nature, and
Typhon will take practice, but it is important to master to provide the most that you possibly can to your group.
- Prompte guérison is often used in emergencies or to save your party members when they are close to death. Some affixes can change when you need to use Prompte guérison, for example if you are fighting a highly bolstered enemy, or kill a large number of enemies at once on a Détonant week, or to save yourself from a big boss ability on a Sismique week.
- Sarments is most often used to crowd control infested enemies or particularly challenging enemies out of certain pulls until your group is ready to deal with them. Certain affixes can change when Sarments is used, like on Grouillant weeks mobs that are not usually in particular packs will be present. However, it is important to remember that on Explosif weeks, enemies that are in combat with you or your party will still spawn Explosives while rooted.
- Rayon solaire is a very important crowd control ability, because there are few aoe silences and stuns left in Battle for Azeroth. Understanding which enemy casts can and cannot be interrupted is an important step in deciding which casts need to be interrupted the most.
- Knowing what enemies need to be Apaiser the most during Déchaîné weeks, or what mobs enrage in the first place can save your group from a lot of damage.
- Hibernation is possibly the least used ability in your toolkit, unless your group lacks crowd control, but it still has its purposes. Hibernation is most frequently used to crowd control enemies if you need multiple forms of crowd control, however it can be used to interrupt certain enemies’ casts, but because Hibernation itself has a cast time you are better off using Typhon or Rayon solaire whenever possible.
- Force de la nature can be used to take very large amounts of damage for your tank, allowing them to save their own cooldowns. Timing is critical when using Force de la nature to make the Tréants take as much damage as possible, and to avoid keeping enemies in the wrong place at the wrong time, such as when enemies are patrolling nearby or when enemies are near dying during Sanguin weeks. Lastly, if you need to use Force de la nature but do not want the Tréants to taunt, you need to place the Tréants a distance away to prevent them from taunting when they spawn
- Typhon is used as an interrupt and displacement ability, timing is also critical when using this ability. Due to the long cooldown on Rayon solaire, having Typhon as an option to interrupt enemies is extremely useful. The ability to reposition enemies is extraordinarily useful by forcing enemies to be closer together increasing the amount that your party members can cleave, move dangerous enemies away and change their pathing.
Managing your cooldowns will take practice and most of all a consistent group, however it is extremely important for maximizing your damage and allowing your group to pull larger than before. If your cooldowns will not be up when you need them the most it is not worth using them, unless you have communicated with your group that you need extra time before a boss or big pull to allow you to have your cooldowns. Other features important to master to increase your damage are keeping your dots (
Éclat lunaire and
Éclat solaire) active as close to 100% of the time during a dungeon as possible. Avoid exceeding your astral power cap,
cap, and
cap at all times, because managing your astral power will allow you to maximize your damage output.