What the heck is this talent tree?!? I’ve been having a blast with other classes so far and love the new talent trees for a lot of other specs. There’s flexibility to tweak each build in fun and different ways for many classes… and then there’s the druid talents. The druid talent trees don’t seem to offer enough quality of life improvements or small tweaks to rotations for slightly different play styles like a lot of other classes have. Too much feels absolutely required, like in the druid class tree because baseline defenses are low and so you have builds skipping AoE Sunfire application just so they can survive encounters or balance tree builds which fully skip starfall. Why is starfall a skippable talent for balance druids? That ability seems so iconic it’s tragic that it’s a tool worth skipping in major builds.
I love the balance aesthetic more than any other class but the rotation feels like it’s stuck back a few expansions ago and the talent tree does very little to make it fun and engaging, at least when compared to the designs that seemingly every other dps spec has now. Going to shelve the druid for another expansion from the look of it 
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Tettles latest YouTube vid explains a lot. 
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This. Balance is in a horrible state
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Its a bit crazy, even after the rework balance has a LIST of problems. Its not like one or 2 small issues its a ton of issues with the spec. Terrible rework, so bad that most of the balance druid creators are quitting the dam spec lol
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No interesting procs or abilities,
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spamming one button in eclipse,
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pure dps specs out healing balance druid passively,
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Defensive form takes you away from DPS and isnt even better than other specs defensives they can use while dpsing
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Takes too long to start doing damage with double dot and eclipse.
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Class tree forces you to pick stuff you dont need.
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Moonfire and sunfire interact with nothing and are 2 boring maintaince dots that are annoying to use because they are so weak and dont interact with anything.
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Spenders (star surge and starfall) do less damage than generators.
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All hero talents are boring/lack interesting design and force you into specific optional treant talent.
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I’m highly concerned about balance’s defensive ability (or lack thereof). I’ll probably level my druid fourth of my main classes (after mage, paladin, and shaman) because I am not feeling like I’ll have a great time. Maybe it’s time to switch to Guardian or Restoration full time.
The irony is sitting here watching Growl (who is one of the higher live key running healers playing with Dorki and Yoda) run 12 and 13 keys on the beta with a boomie keeping up with the other dps.
Ignore the forums and play what you enjoy, dps balance comes and goes.
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Full time mplus players doing well in premade mplus. NO WAY! SHOCKER!
Also most of the posts here are discussing design not dps. I dont care about damage meter my issue is with its boring design which is why people like growl think balance druids rework was bad.
I enjoy slamming BIG DAM starfires every 15 seconds or every trash pack, really fun for me. Starfire also feels really fun to hit.
I want cata boomy back if they were to make any iteration, mop was way too rng till full crit and wod onwards dots did nothing.
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Well you are in the minority because most people dont like the balance rework, considering people are complaining spenders do less damage than generators i wouldnt be surprised if your starfire gets nerfed.
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It’s beta, and they were literally pugging dps. Touch grass.
You still dont understand the difference between dps numbers and design, people are not happy with its design, numbers can be fixed easily. No need to be toxic, dont be upset if you missed the point.
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Definitely an unpopular opinion here but I enjoy the simplicity behind balance druid and the elunes chosen node lunar calling is my favorite change to the class. I despised having to go back and forth between lunar and solar eclipse, now I don’t.
There is no arguing however, that the class tree is designed terribly and that our tuning is off.
Who knows when/if they fix the talent tree but a simple buff to starsurge/Starfall would go a long way in balancing and making our spenders more impactful at the same time.
Beyond that, making the spec more fun is subjective. If I were dev for a day ide give fury of elune and force of nature more uptime… More ways to proc it’s effect/reset it’s cool down. Also, ide find a way to make starweaver more accessible while making it a DPS gain in both single target and AOE. This would add a little complexity and fun to the rotation.
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I want either the Solar opposite to Lunar Calling, or my refined version of BfA boomkin.
Boomkins need a redesign, if they are redesigned – I’m hoping the simplicity doesn’t change. I don’t DPS very often, typically tank or heal. So having a spec that is easy to pick up and I don’t need put a lot of effort into minmaxing is nice.
I know asking for a redesign and saying hoping for the simplicity to not change is an oxymoron. Just don’t want boomkin to lose its roots.
Hehe… roots… because. Nature.
While I agree boomy could use some love. Feral is feeling pretty good at least. Slower certainly but the deliberate nature of the spec, its rhythm, is really nice.
Hopefully balance can find its own equilibrium.
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More Resto Nerfs, removed Adaptive Swarm and Moonkin Form for Resto, Balance is a mess, Class Tree is ridiculously in need of a rework and better pathing and Hero Specs barely have any noticeable visuals or new shapeshifting forms.
If Blizzard is trying to take away the excitement being a Druid from me they’ve done a 10/10 job 
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I can’t wait 
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This whole post.
Balance has only lost. They’ve lost points on the talent tree, lost pulsar, lost even remotely competitive DPS and are still a clunky mess. Elune’s Chosen is a neat-ish class fantasy but Keeper of the Grove is utterly forgettable. With so many specs getting such cool things for the expansion, it feels really bad to be a Balance druid right now.
To compound the problem of our design, the tuning is just not there. In single target we’re racing the tanks at the bottom. Our AoE can be okayish in beta Mythics, but we’re WAY behind the meta specs. Even if I have enough globals to get DoTs out, ramp up stacks etc, I’m doing 4-5mil DPS on a huge pull. My Elemental shaman is doing 10mil. My buddy is playing Unholy DK and he hit 18.1mil one a huge beta pull earlier. I’m not expecting Balance to be the best DPS in the game, but god damn. I literally feel like we’re doing HALF the damage we should be.
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I’ll probably be fine on bear, but this will be the third expansion I don’t main resto because of the mastery completely controlling the spec tuning. It was kinda fun in legion but after playing the classics, I just have no interest in playing finger gymnastics just to get my rejuv to slightly move a health bar
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The design is awful and plays awfully but i wouldnt be surprised if blizzard keeps our dps competitive during tuning phase before launch
