Dragonflight Balance Druid Talent Tree
EDIT: Refer to the second post in this thread for an elaborate Eclipse mechanic rework concept.
A few notes to begin:
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Balance Druid performs poorly in AoE situations, especially those that call for on-demand burst. This is most evident in M+ content, where they’ve fallen far behind. This is a fundamental issue that requires serious improvement.
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Celestial Alignment, and Incarnation by extension, is inflexible and has an unreasonably long 3-minute cooldown.
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Our DoTs don’t interact with the spec in any meaningful way, particularly because of the (unmentioned) hard target cap on Shooting Stars.
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The Eclipse mechanic is too restrictive, leading to unexciting and frustrating combat scenarios.
The talent tree in its current iteration is a bit hectic, following no distinct or logical pattern with like-spells scattered all over the tree.
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In my opinion, one side of the tree should be more single-target and builder/spender oriented, while the other side should be more AoE and DoT oriented, with the center of the tree comprising of generic utility and spells that benefit any of the various builds.
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If interrupts remain in the specialization tree, then throughput talents should not branch from them directly/solely.
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Some very important and significant throughput spells branch from others that are incredibly underwhelming and cost an unreasonably high number of talent points to complete.
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Talents that enhance one another, such as Improved Starfall enhancing Starfall, or Incarnation enhancing Celestial Alignment, should directly branch from one another. They should also end the branch if they have any significant affect on the toolkit (such as adding a cooldown to an otherwise ‘spammable’ spell).
Below is a list of suggestions I believe will greatly improve the toolkit / playstyle for Balance Druid.
TL;DR — Please read the conclusion at the end of the post.
ACTIVE TALENTS — Improvements Needed
Starfall
50 Astral Power
Instant
Calls down waves of falling stars upon enemies within 45 yds, dealing Astral damage over 8 sec.Extends the duration of active Moonfires and Sunfires by 4 sec.
Points of Discussion:
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Give this spell the Ignite treatment. This way, no damage or Astral Power goes to waste, and you give it a burst aspect. Simply add on any remaining damage from the previous cast into the most recent cast.
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Allow this spell to scale with haste. Modify the frequency at which damage is dealt by changing its duration to be hasted, like the spell Blizzard.
Note:
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Either suggestions helps us spend more Astral Power in AoE situations.
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Improved Starfall should branch from this talent, and into more AoE-style talents, and Stellar Drift should branch from Improved Starfall and END the branch (especially if it remains unchanged).
Starfire
45 yd range
2.25 sec cast
Call down a burst of energy, causing (76.5% of Spell power) Arcane damage to the target, and [ (76.5% of Spell power) * 1/2 ] Arcane damage to all other enemies within 8 yards.Generates 8 Astral Power.
Points of Discussion:
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The change here is the increase in damage to all secondary enemies. Our AoE is lacking when it comes to burst damage. This increased modifier, which changes from 33/100 to 1/2 (or 50/100), should help with its damage at a baseline level.
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The change to its area effect modifier in my ‘Soul of the Forest’ suggestion, 50% versus 150% on live, brings its overall damage gain, with the talent selected, to what it’s currently at on live.
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Optional visual enhancement to this spell, as it was in Legion, would be a nice change—in the form of a glyph, perhaps?
Note:
Below is an example of the damage breakdown
Deals 100 Arcane damage to the target and 33 damage to all other enemies.
**5 enemies in total
Live w/o SotF: 100 + 33 * 4 = 232
Concept w/o SotF: 100 + 50 * 4 = 300
Live w/ SotF: 100 + 82.5 * 4 = 430
Concept w/ SotF: 100 + 75 * 4 = 400
**SotF = Soul of the Forest
Stellar Drift
Instant / 30 sec cooldown
Increases the damage of your next Starfall by 100%, and allows you to cast while moving for its duration.Cooldown incurs after Starfall is cast.
Points of Discussion:
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This is effectively a complete rework of the existing talent.
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There are several changes here. The first is to make this spell its own cooldown so that it doesn’t change Starfall at a fundamental level (adding a cooldown). The second is to increase its damage bonus to give Starfall more of an on-demand burst effect.
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Adding a cooldown to our only AoE Astral Power spender, which is weak when compared to many other classes on-demand burst abilities, sees regressive gameplay when a cooldown is tied to it. A talent should make an ability feel better, not mandatory and punishing.
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This change guarantees the mobility we need on a reasonable cooldown, but still allows us to regularly weave it into our rotation, while also providing the burst it needs to compete with other AoE abilities. The damage modifier can easily be tuned here.
Note:
- This should branch off of the Starfall and Improved Starfall talent, and end the branch (especially if it remains unchanged).
PASSIVE TALENTS — Improvements Needed
Power of Goldrinn
Passive
Starsurge has a chance to summon the Spirit of Goldrinn, which immediately deals Arcane damage to targets of your Moonfire.Each enemy hit reduces the cost of your next Starfall by 2.
Points of Discussion:
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The change here allows the Spirit of Goldrinn to hit all enemies with a Moonfire so that it becomes an effective cleave, and then subsequently reduces the cost of Starfall so that you can focus on dumping more Starsurges.
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Among the most important of suggestions, modifying this passive in such a way gives us a compelling reason to spend Astral Power (specifically on Starsurge) in AoE situations. On live, as long as Starfall is up and with enough targets, we spam Starfire and cap on Astral Power because Starsurge simply isn’t worth a cast.
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Further emphasizes the importance of our DoTs, which currently have little interaction with out toolkit. I need a compelling reason to apply Moonfire to multiple targets, and/or choose the Twin Moons talent.
Note:
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Alongside the suggestion I made for Starfall, this has the potential to create some powerful synergy.
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Wonderful bonus visuals.
Shooting Stars
Passive
Moonfire and Sunfire critical strikes call down a falling star, dealing Astral damage and generating 2 Astral Power.
Points of Discussion:
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The change here removes an unmentioned ‘target cap’ and giving it a critical strike requirement, therefore allowing it to hit any number of targets at any one time.
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This gives us more of a reason to want to acquire critical strike chance, and thus provides increased Astral Power generation scaling as our character grows over the course of an expansion.
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The critical strike requirement (versus the hard cut-off in live) guarantees that this passive scales well with an increased number of targets, but should still keep Astral Power generation in line since mastery and haste are still very important stats.
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Further emphasizes the importance of our DoTs, which currently have little interaction with out toolkit. I need a compelling reason to apply Moonfire to multiple targets, and/or choose the Twin Moons talent.
Note:
- This should be a centralized talent since the Astral Power generation, and ultimately the damage it provides, is crucial to the ebb and flow of this spec.
Soul of the Forest
Passive
Eclipse increases Wrath’s critical strike chance by 20%, and increases Starfire’s area effect damage by 50%.Wrath and Starfire deal 20% increased critical strike damage.
Points of Discussion:
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With a plethora of options for Astral Power generation elsewhere in the talent tree, changing the benefit on Wrath improves the balance between builder/spender damage.
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This secondary effect guarantees a benefit to both spells in any combat situation, whether AoE or single target, and furthers the balance between builder/spender damage.
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To reiterate, the decrease in Starfire’s damage bonus here is to compensate for the increase to its baseline area effect damage.
Twin Moons
Passive
Moonfire deals 20% increased damage and also hits another nearby enemy within 15 yds of the target.
Points of Discussion:
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The current iteration of this spell is weak in low target counts, and only barely competitive at high target counts. Increasing the cleave damage makes it a more competitive choice.
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Add a component that increases it’s damage if only a single enemy is hit?
Orbit Breaker
Passive
Every 30th Shooting Star or Spirit of Goldrinn calls down a Full Moon upon its target.
Points of Discussion:
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If this is modified to include procs from the Power of Goldrinn passive, Orbit breaker becomes a much more competitive and desirable talent, both in damage and visual appeal.
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Scales better throughout the expansion as you’re able to cast more Starsurges, due to increased levels of haste, and therefore gaining more Goldrinn procs.
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Can be easily tuned by increasing (or decreasing!) the number of procs required.
PASSIVE TALENTS — Suggestions / Concepts
Fury of the Skies
Passive
For every Starsurge cast during Starfall, the damage of active Moonfires and Sunfires is increased by 5% for their duration.
Points of Discussion:
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The change here changes it from a simple damage modifier to a ramping damage increase that relies on proactive gameplay.
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Our periodic effects are weak and only ever saw any significant strength thanks to a tier set bonus in Legion. Emphasize our damage-over-time to make a well-rounded profile, but tune it so that they don’t take too much away from the importance of our other spells.
Note:
- potential issue with this concept is feeling required to refresh your DoTs prior to any Starfall cast. You can, instead, increase the damage of the active Starfall.
Ex:
… increases the damage of your active Starfall by 10% for its duration.
Power of the Moon
Passive
Full Moon grants Celestial Alignment [Incarnation: Chosen of Elune] for 4 [6] sec.
Points of Discussion:
- Another powerful suggestion, this emphasizes the use of passives and spells that guarantee a Full Moon. Again, competitive in both damage and visual appeal.
Note:
- Incarnation has a longer baseline duration, and so should its proc.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Which Talents Should Be Moved or Replaced?
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Fury of the Skies in its current iteration is a simple and boring damage modifier, and should be replaced by something that is more involved.
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Umbral Intensity and Stellar Inspiration are entirely passive and have zero effect on gameplay other than providing a minor damage increase. Both were ignored throughout the entirety of Shadowlands, and should be replaced by something more effective and fun, or have their point-cost reduced since there are more powerful, highly desired talents gated behind them.
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Improved Eclipse is a weak standalone talent and should be a baseline part of the Eclipse talent. With enough haste, Wrath cast time exceeds the global cooldown anyway.
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Adaptive Swarm seems out of place and underwhelming in its current form. It worked as a concept in Shadowlands because of the relationship with the Maldraxxi, but it doesn’t work as a standalone spell without further enhancements. Let it deal Nature damage and grant it a high chance to split with each jump, and it becomes a solid choice.
What Other Tweaks Should Be Considered?
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Reduce the cooldown of Celestial Alignment to 2 minutes.
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With Improved Eclipse being baked into Eclipse, another passive yet core talent should take its place.
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Light of the Sun should branch directly from Solar Beam and end the branch.
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Improved Starsurge and Power of Goldrinn should branch off each other.
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Precise Alignment should branch directly from Celestial Alignment.
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This could lead into the Incarnation and Convoke node, then Improved Incarnation/Convoke and end the branch.
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Stellar Drift, as it remains, being a requirement to take more throughput talents is a poor choice of placement solely because of how it changes Starfall at a fundamental level. I shouldn’t be forced into a cooldown on our only AoE spender in order to gain some extra damage and Astral power later in the tree.
CONCLUSION
The talent tree needs some fine tuning. Some talents need to be swapped or replaced for better pathing and builds. A handful of them need to be reworked because they are stale or underwhelming in performance.
A significant portion of our damage lies in our only major cooldown window, Celestial Alignment, which is lengthy and inflexible, and our ability to do any relevant AoE damage is short of non-existent. In addition, the Eclipse system is too restrictive and needs to be revised as it’s unexciting and frustrating, including the talents that improve upon it which are underwhelming and uninventive.
That being said, there’s an incredible amount of potential here. The concept is incredible, and I’m super stoked to see what fun and viable builds come out of it. As long as the developers and community keep up with the feedback, we should see a solid spec by the time Dragonflight releases.
Please let me know what you think. I’m eager to dive into some deeper discussion here.
