Hey there, I am wondering if anybody else is finding that as Boomkin in PvP the damage is great. cc is good etc, but when I am targeted (especially without a healer) there is NOTHING I can do to get back in then fight once my hp dips down which is often in the opener against many classes. For context I am a 2.4xp player and I’m finding this to be very frustrating as I don’t remember Boomkin being this squishy EVER in DF. My regrowth does nothing, frenzied regen sucks now, so my only option is to run… that’s it… run. If anyone has tips those would be greatly appreciated because I love my Boomkin but it’s just not fun when I am running away from people forever if I can’t out dps them at the start of a fight.
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The best strategy for survivability as a Boomkin is to draw as much attention to yourself as possible and encourage DPS to focus on you specifically. This is accomplished by the following:
- Make sure not to glyph into Glyph of Stars so that you look as absurd as possible. Everyone loves fried chicken, so make sure they know it’s on the menu.
- Never stand near a pillar, even when doing so would be advantageous to LOS enemies. Make sure you are always in the middle of a wide open area. Dotting and Starfalling everything is more important than LOSing. The best defense is a good offense, and while some people may disagree, you actually do have the tankiness of a Warlock or Shadow Priest to pull this off.
- Limit your movements to primarily when it is UNnecessary. You may be accustomed to seeing that other casters, like locks, priests, or mages, only move when targeted or to get in a better position to target others. You are beyond them. You must embrace…nay, become the saying “running around like a chicken with its head cut off.” Even (and especially!) when you are not targeted by anyone, the correct course of action is always to run around in a circle over and over and over and over again, audaciously flapping your wings while casting spells that are so flashy they require photosensitivity/seizure warnings.
Doing so will cause the DPS to immediately focus on you - but ah, they will be immediately bewildered at the spectacle and falter at the sight of your chickeny godness.
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I see now…
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Atm there’s no hope for us defensive wise to the point it’s sometimes even useless to go into bear form, I find 1 of the main reasons most play KotG is because of the free regrowth that just gaslights us into thinking it’s doing something because we don’t have to cast it, both our hero talents are meh: keeper has the Cd burst window but brings nothing else and EC somehow ended up just being a modifier to starfire and fury (because new moon really is useless) and even then it’s just plain boring. Our class tree is as useless as spec tree and hero talents defensive wise even if it looks like it isn’t. At the end we are just praying it gets fixed but just way too much when we get compared to the defensiveness of other casters because even shadow priests are way tankier than us
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One thing that would help is if Blizzard had the philosophy that if something is a talent its worth using. Our class tree is full of abilities that are so weak as an off spec they arent worth putting on your bar. But what if rejuv was actually worth pressing? What if wild growth was worth pressing?
Really the answer is rework the spec, the class tree and build in some decent self defensive’s. Having seen Blizzard re work and re re work the same few classes over and over while leaving the druid tree class tree where its at and making minimal changes to the specs (mostly taking more away) I have no faith they can do anything big for Druids. So if they would even just take the time to make the abilities they gave us worth using, that would be a major step forward.
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This is the worst balance druid has ever been and i played them since 3.3.5. Either we are super duper squishy or everyone else is just doing waaaaaaaaay too much damage. Star surge hits like a wet noodle.
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More like everybody else can take some hits while we just cry to Malorne for a healer to save us, dmg wise it’s weird as hell since starfall is a lot of dmg but it’s insignificant dmg it’s gaslighting at its finest making ppl think we actually do dmg with it and starsurge (I’ve been playing starsurge the most out of the 2 builds) sometimes hits for nothing and other times it does a hell lot of dmg when all the modifiers align and you just spam 4-5 of them, the biggest problem we have outside of dying to everything is that we need to use 4 spells to even be able to start doing real damage it’s insane (2 for eclipse and 2 to have full mastery activated)
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I support this thread. Make Boomy more durable, with better recovery (At least not bugged in PvP, and hopefully not as nullified by dampening and every effect in the game). Reduce our ramp-up, and increase the power of hard-casting and spending resources. We also don’t need that much AP generation, just make the spells hit harder. Do the same for off-healing - larger Regrowths, that cost more mana again (revert the DF hybrid numbers change). I had more fun with Boomy in BfA due to it being slower, with more agency over the rotation and since other classes didn’t have as many disruption tools as they do now. Pre-cog is a bad band-aid, we need better solutions moving forward and long-term.
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Moonkin self sustain and defense is garbage.
Rejuvenation heals for less than nothing and isn’t worth taking.
Regrowth heals for about 5% of your health and needs to be chain casted.
Bear form is still decent against pure physical dps, but frenzied regeneration heals for next to nothing.
The little shield on Barkskin is a joke, I prefer the 15% Hp and armor after shifting bear.
Natures Vigil is nerfed and also can’t be taken unless you give up crucial other abilities like bash or oak skin.
Basically as boomie right now you can’t 1v1 anything and should stay near your healers. Still a great BG spec just not very good at roaming to take nodes or defending nodes. Not nearly as good of a flag carrier as in the past either.
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Survival has been rough in arenas even while using LOS. Damage is good, but clunky for a rotation. Having to track a laundry list of modifiers for optimal damage should not be a thing, I can understand 1 or 2 of them but when our spec talent tree is littered with a multitude of modifiers, it makes playing not feel worth while. They could replace 2 or 3 modifiers with anything to help us at this point, something to make breaking roots apply damage, a shield wall specifically for boomies, a heal that is worth while to keep us up that can only be cast in ourselves similar to renewal.
And can Force of Nature just be a cast and the trees spawn at the target rather than a toggle?? Would make the rotation of everything so much easier. Resto just have to click once for every tree to get free heals, why can’t we get the same treatment, or he’ll, go back to the MoP version of FoN with them rooting and casting wrath. We can do whatever we want when it’s sitting still and not training us down in arenas.
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That’s a good point. Instead of making rejuvenation do no healing when you’re a non-resto spec, they should make it do great healing, but have it be limited by mana. Make it cost like 60-80% of your mana pool. You’d still be paying the non-healer tax, but at least it’s a button worth pressing now. But you’ll never be able to be a healer with it.
That would have the added benefit of maybe making innervate worth casting on yourself too.
Wild growth could be similar but just give it like a 30 second cooldown for non healer specs. I’d rather be encouraged to press it twice a minute than never at all.
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These are all poignant observations and excellent solutions! We’re not asking to break the class here or make it OP, but rather – simply to give us better self sustain and QoL in getting to our damage.
But try telling that to the PvP forums lol
No matter how many times or how plainly I try to explain tuning is a trade of “X goes up, Y goes down”, or that Boomy’s state makes NO sense from a historical archetype balancing standpoint… I just get trolls instead of real comments.
I HIGHLY suspect those forums are mostly newer players who’ve had a very easy time on FoTM specs, comps or counters, and who are just afraid that certain specs might be able to put up a better fight if the game were balanced.
Also a great point! Indeed, I think that was the point of Regrowth in BfA and SL… But now it’s just barely worth using. I’m using the 8% talent above Vigil, but considering dropping that for 1 pt in Killer Instinct LOL even same for Hell Honed…
My build is really weird, but I think it works, esp in BGB. It’s much more ‘selfish’, but I like NOT having GCDs I don’t need. For PvP, my measure now is “is this GCD going to have significant guaranteed outcome over the course of the game in the near future, and is it the best ability to use now” – at least, that’s the ideal mindset to have as one improves their reaction time… (I play with regional lag of 200ms and always have) So, I just DROPPED those “Extra” Abilities. I have only two actions bars again, like in BfA, and I LOVE it. Idc if it’s not the optimal build, as I’m not playing for the top levels. Shenanigans can always work if one puts in enough training. And, if anything, the freer your GCD windows are, the more brain-power you can invest into observing and strategizing, positioning etc… While doing the best DPS and control you can. Esp since Eclipse is a clunk in the middle of our gameplay… I think this approach is making me a better player, and helping me enjoy the game by taking the foot off the stress pedal, and just playing to learn the core game better.
Hopefully I can become a 2400+ rating player this xpak (maybe easier cuz we relatively “own it up” in BGB 
**though I’ve played and lead RBGs for a decade, and am lowkey burnt out at this point, and would much rather improve in Arena. That’s why I’m advocating for more durability and single-target sustain, so I can play and learn without flopping to regular DPS & Micro-CC so much. I’ve argued since mid-SL that specs feel like they’re bursting all the time, and IMO DF gameplay pacing and the CC changes were HORRIBLE for the game. For context, I’ve been playing since Mid Cata.
My core argument for PvP = It should have better, intentional design rather than eating the fallout of Mythic+ designing!)
Yes, boomy is horrible and unfun to play at the moment imo. I got Legend multiple times last expansion as boomy and decided to play feral and evoker instead of boomy this expansion so far.
You basically need to stack max haste, get precog, and get good at juking so that you can get cyclones off to live. This squishy “cyclone bot and dot” playstyle has become extremely tedious playstyle for me as of late which is why I’ve moved on.
Hopefully they can do something to enable a more tanky playstyle (buff frenzied regen, or something like you can get soul leech but instead cyclone is now a 15s cd) because until they do I have no interest in playing this spec.
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I made a similar post a week ago. Last expansion if I got targeted I could go into bear form and feel like it was mitigating things, and could help shed damage and keep myself alive. This expansion? I refuse to base sit as my boomy because I know any rogue, hunter, or really any melee spec will just body me before help can arrive. I’ve literally died in a pally bubble using barkskin, heart of the wild, and camping bear form.
The damage is excellent. We don’t do the most single target but get us in a team fight and we’re melting things. We absolutely don’t need a damage buff. But we desperately need defensive help. We are the squishiest spec in the game currently by a decent margin. Blizzard should give us the kind of love defensively they gave shamans. Within one expansion they got a strong shield defensive and an immunity.
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Balance druid has some of the worst defensives and mobility in the game right now, i cant think of any dps class that has worst survivability/mobility.
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This is all true. Nerf Starfall and buff our durability.
I literally only go into Bear Form to get the benefits from UV + FR to buff Renewal. After 4 sec (which is also too long tbh, and the fact it takes 3-4 GCDs is hilariously outdated), get back to Boomy form. Our heals are outdated as well - dampening/MS should by NO means nullify our entire defensive kit. IMO Barkskin should be replaced with Celestial Bulwark for Boomy. A big absorption shield that eats up AP to buff itself, or leeches off our damage passively. At least it could be a PvP talent… but at minimum, buff Celestial Guardian or add Ironfur Armor back.
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After watching today’s AWC EU, balance needs some sort of defensive buff or you will never see them again in a tournament. Great damage, but lacks defense, utility (other than our saving grace Cyclone) and a mortal wounds/killshot.
Roots break for everyone, bear form for balance druids is very subpar compared to feral, healing is a joke, barkskin for some reason seems like it’s shadow nurfed (not actually preventing 30% damage), mobility is overshadowed by every other class.
Something has got to give at this point. Either give us stronger roots, or roots that slow when broken or end. A bump to healing cause the moment dampening starts, out healing is gone I.e. regrowth buff (still the weakest heal in the game) frenzy buff. I’d say a talent that gives balance Druid a second bark skin in the balance tree, OR some defensive in our tree at all. (I don’t understand why we have sooo many micro modifiers. Stack some of those together and give us some defensive telent choices)
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Im fully PvP geared with about 1/2 epics. Not the best gear available if I no lifed it but not awful. I feel like Im going into PvP with PvE gear on. Its awful. A warrior or rogue gets on me and its basically over.
Im just going to stick to epic BGs when I play balance…
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I feel those so much. I play resto on one druid and balance on another and it feels horrible for both. At least with resto you get a mastery stack. I have over 7 million hp and rejuv is ticking for 23k.
That is TWELVE SECONDS of rejuvination to heal myself for 1.7% of my health. TWELVE SECONDS TO HEAL FOR ONE POINT SEVER PERCENT OF MY HEALTH. Some has to be high thinking that deserves a talent position.
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Yup the AWC just convinced me I’m right. Nerf Feral ST burst (Boomy AoE maybe too), and Buff Boomy survivability.
It’s so easy, yet I feel like it will be a month or two before we’re addressed again.
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