In the Shadowlands alpha build, balance druids have been given the eclipse system that they used to have years ago up until Legion. Throughout Legion and BfA, they ran on the empowerment system instead - a far superior setup.
Under the empowerment system, druids could choose to either attack with Lunar Strike or Solar Wrath, depending on the situation - AOE or single target. Under the eclipse system, that choice is taken away. Instead of being able to choose how to approach the situation, the only way to get the damage empowerments for each of the two spells is to continue casting them repeatedly through each stage of the cycle. This means that if you need to obtain the Lunar Empowerment for more damage, you’ll need to cast Solar Wrath approximately five times to do so, regardless of whether you are fighting a single enemy or a small mob.
If you need to do this while fighting a group, that means that you’ll need to continuously focus on single target attacks instead of hitting them all at once. It’s either that, or you sacrifice your upcoming empowerment buff. Regardless of which of the two choices the player makes, they lose out on a significant amount of damage in the fight through no fault of their own.
Under the current empowerment system in the live game, the player controls how the combat is approached. Under the eclipse system, the combat controls the player instead. Balance druid players had to adhere to the eclipse cycle’s demands every moment of combat regardless of the situation. It felt like constantly appeasing some AI entity that dictated how you were supposed to play.
Bellular mentioned that the alpha build for balance druids “just does not feel good,” and stated that he felt they really lost what they had going on in the revamp builds. Many other players have also complained. No one was asking to bring the eclipse system back, and I haven’t seen a single player praising its return. It was removed years ago because it was believed to be too problematic and controlling.
Under the current empowerment system in the live game, balance druids get to choose what they want to cast first based on the enemies around them. Under the eclipse system, we cast according to the UI display up in the corner of the screen. We don’t get to look at the battle nearly as much and we instead are forced to pay attention to a cycle of movement just below our character frame. Of course players always need to pay attention to their health and other resources displayed in their character frame, but it shouldn’t be the foundation of the majority of the player’s attention in a fight that can make or break their success.
Please, Blizzard, remove the eclipse system in Shadowlands. Players want to choose what to cast first and choose how to approach the situations they are in, they don’t want the game to constantly make those choices for them. Players loved the introduction of the empowerment system in Legion because it gave them more room for personal choice and approach in battle. We love that sense of personal choice; that greater sense of agency and control. Implementing the eclipse system back into the game would take all of that away from us, and the class just simply wouldn’t be nearly as fun to play anymore.