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
Rasche Heilung,
Wucherwurzeln,
Sonnenstrahl,
Besänftigen,
Überwintern,
Naturgewalt, and
Taifun will take practice, but it is important to master to provide the most that you possibly can to your group.
- Rasche Heilung 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 Rasche Heilung, for example if you are fighting a highly bolstered enemy, or kill a large number of enemies at once on a Platzend week, or to save yourself from a big boss ability on a Bebend week.
- Wucherwurzeln 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 Wucherwurzeln is used, like on Wimmelnd weeks mobs that are not usually in particular packs will be present. However, it is important to remember that on Explosiv weeks, enemies that are in combat with you or your party will still spawn Explosives while rooted.
- Sonnenstrahl 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 Besänftigen the most during Wütend weeks, or what mobs enrage in the first place can save your group from a lot of damage.
- Überwintern is possibly the least used ability in your toolkit, unless your group lacks crowd control, but it still has its purposes. Überwintern 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 Überwintern itself has a cast time you are better off using Taifun or Sonnenstrahl whenever possible.
- Naturgewalt 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 Naturgewalt to make the Treants 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 Blutig weeks. Lastly, if you need to use Naturgewalt but do not want the Treants to taunt, you need to place the Treants a distance away to prevent them from taunting when they spawn
- Taifun is used as an interrupt and displacement ability, timing is also critical when using this ability. Due to the long cooldown on Sonnenstrahl, having Taifun 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 (
Mondfeuer and
Sonnenfeuer) 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.