[Guide] Balance druid | In depth encounter mechanics guide
http://i.imgur.com/x3ij8Mp.png
What is this?
This guide gives you a hint on how to play each of the encounters in Icecrown Citadel. Some of you might know everything already, some might know nothing. I will show you how to contribute the most to the raid by playing every encounter flawlessly. It can help you during progress or if you want to log high on that recount meter. This guide will bring up everything(hopefully) that other guides misses.
I will not go through character optimization or any rotation other than what is specified in the encounters.
Note: This is NOT only for maximum dps output, some tips will be to increase the damage where it's needed rather than high dps numbers.
Feel free to write questions and I'll answer them and insert in the post.
Who am I?
I began playing moonkin in wotlk and have been stuck ever since, progressing high end content through the expansions quitting in 6.2(WoD). I have several rank1 logs and I've always played in top 50w guilds.
I wrote a similar guide for 4.3.4 on Elitistjerks on how to play the Dragon Soul raid for those of you who have read it.
How do I do most possible damage?
- Getting as many casts as possible per encounter
- Doing the most damage per cast
- God RNG with procs
- Good group, the faster you kill the boss the more % uptime on damage increases you have.
- the better gear, the more damage. NOTE: Better, not higher GearScore
- Addons
- Minimizing movement
- Good use of Starfall
General tips:
- Line up your cooldowns and learn to time your proccs. U rather have ICC ring proc during bloodlust than 10s afterwards.
- When adds are up, use barkskin before you use Starfall+ hurricane as you probably will get aggro on atleast one mob and it'll reduce both damage and pushback effect on hurricane.
- If you use hurricane without it being affected by NG, refresh it as fast as NG procs.
- If you know the fight will be below 3 min, use treants whenever bloodlust is popped. If the fight is longer than 3 min (25H) use treants on pull and when they're ready again.
- Track your eclipses ICD, this is HUGE - Use WeakAuras2 imo
- Have a disc priest cast Power Infusion on you when in lunar eclipse, make sure he casts it when you're about to finish a cast so you don't miss out on 0.6s
- Rebuff your Mark of the Wild when combatressing
Shortings
NG=- Nature's Grace
MF = Moonfire
IS = Insect Swarm
LE = Lunar Eclipse
SE = Solar Eclipse
Lord Marrowgar:
- Use wrath if a bonespike is close to you, use starfire if they are far away. This is because you don't want to risk losing a full cast thanks to wrath's travel time.
- Use barkskin on bonestorm to reduce damage taken and you can cast without being pushbacked.
- Put up MF + IS when bonestorm is approaching, as you will have limited casts during movement.
- On heroic mode, there's absolutely no shame in leaving moonkin form and throwing out some HoTs
- On heroic mode, surviving is the most important part, directly after Marrowgar charges a player during bonestorm he will have a cooldown on it, use tranquility here.
10 | Use Starfallon cooldown throughout the encounter
25 | Use Starfall on pull and on every bonespike arrival and pray to god you don't get spiked.
Lady Deathwisper:
- Refresh IS + MF on the boss when your bossmod addons tells you it's around 5s left until add spawn.
- On normal mode adds spawn every 60s which is perfect for yourStarfall, place yourself in a good position and make sureStarfallhits all adds + boss.
- On heroic mode, hold your Starfall until first add phase and afterwards use it on-cooldown.
- Use hurricane on the pack with 4 adds
- Cyclone players who are mindcontrolled.
- You know bloodlust is coming when shield drops. If there's 4-5s left until it drops and you know you're going to proc lunar eclipse, cast 2x starfire so you dont get the Lunar Eclipse proc to early and miss out on it during BL. If it's Solar eclipse inc, you want to get rid of it as fast as possible :D
- 45s ICD trinkets and Tailoring cloak are good on this boss, as they will proc on pull and on BL(normal)
Gunship:
- Not much to say here, jump and do damage.
- during mage downtime, just dot everything and Starfall.
Deathbringer Saurfang:
- Use Starfall on 1st add spawn and on-cd after that for 100% proc on your 2p T10.
- DONT. EVER. HURRICANE.
Festergut:
- On normal, soak only 2 debuffs and use barkskin on pungent blight.
- On heroic, watch out for the debuff - it is the major dps loss on this encounter.
Rotface:
- Stand in the middle, it minimizes your movement
- Refresh DoTs when you have to run with slime, dont override BL+2P dots tho.
- on normal, the pools don't deal that much damage, if you have 3s left on lunar it'll be worth using barkskin to get that extra starfire
- You can shapeshift the root on heroic mode
Professor Putricide:
- Use Starfall on every green ooze, use it so it hits the boss aswell.
- Make sure not to proc your eclipse before tear gas, if you see a proc is incoming, use the wrong dps spell(wrath, starfire). Having a Eclipse Running during Tear gas is major DPS loss.
- if you're a night elf, shadowmelding the Tear Gas gives incredible damage increase.
- Targeted by orange ooze? Put IS+MF on boss and ooze and keep running.
- The fight might be longer than 3 min, but boss damage is really irrelevant other than controlling ooze spawns, so using Treants on pull is only adviced if your group is low geared. If not, use it with bloodlust in P3.
- Make sure Lunar Eclipse isn't on cooldown when entering P3.
- Dodge the debuff, its worth taking damage for it, especially if you have bloodlust up.
- 45s ICD trinkets and Tailoring cloak are good on this boss, as they will proc on pull and on BL phase(normal)
Blood Prince Council:
- Use starfall on pull and be VERY careful with using it again(rather not use it).
- Moonfire's are super for kinetic bombs.
- You can pick up Keleseth with Moonfire(preferably without the glyph) and bear form + taunt
- On heroic mode, place yourself on top of the stairs. Now you reach all bosses and 50% of the room without having to move.
- On heroic mode, The enchant "Tuskar's Vitality" have great impact.
Blood-queen Lana'thel:
- You're a caster DPS, if you get chained take responsibility and run towards your target.
- When you get the flame debuff, start back in the room and run in a direction towards the boss and put the fire along the wall. This will make you end up in-range of the boss rather than the opposite.
- Bite a player near you if none's assigned, this minimizes your movement=increase DPS
- Pay attention, healers might need innervate
- Take a good spot in air phase, use barkskin and pop tranquility
Valithria Dreamwalker:
- Starfall on cooldown
- Barkskin + Hurricane on small worms
- Off-heal the boss with 3x Lifebloom, rejuv and regrowth.
- Give innervate to the healer not going in portals.
- On heroic mode, put 3x lifebloom on one of the healers who take stacks and don't have beacon.
-Nibelung gives a pretty good DPS increase on this fight
- Typhoon has value on this fight, so has 2 points in Gale Winds aswell however, I usually play Typhoon
Sindragosa:
- Tuskar's Vitality enchant have big impact on this encounter
- Starfall and DoTs only give 1 stack of unchained magic each application.
- If you have any eclipse up when you get Unchained magic, DPS it to 5 stacks and refresh DoTs.
- If you don't have any eclipse, then refresh DoTs and let the debuff fall off.
- Unchained magic has to run out before you begin casting a new spell(important)
- Begin casting Starfire on the last Ice Tomb so your spell lands and kills the tomb after the missile has detonated,
10| In Air phase, target "Ice Tomb target 1" and cast Lifebloom -> Rejuv. Then target "Ice Tomb 2" and put Lifebloom -> Rejuv -> Lifebloom2. Then if you have a global put Lifebloom2 on "Ice tomb 1"
10| Dont put DoTs on Ice Tombs, use SF/wrath.
25| Co-work with your other druids, you put lifebloom and they put rejuv or something like that.
25| Make sure to have Starfall ready for every air phase.
- On heroic mode, standing a bit spread so you dont have to run as far with unchained magic improves your uptime on the boss.
The Lich king:
Here you have to switch talents. Put one point in Typhoon and at least one in Dreamstate. Grab them from Gale Winds or Balance of Power if you have to much hit. Dont put points in Dreamstate if you're a Night Elf, then you can shadowmeld and drink when no adds are up and you're not taking damage.
- Use Starfall on pull along with Treants.
- Save Starfall+barkskin and use it for p1.5 (maximizes 2P T10)
- Use innervate on a healer in p1.5, this way you can use one later aswell.
- You can typhoon adds to your tank in transition phases, but beware it might do more harm than good.
- Always have DoTs on LK when valkyrs are approaching, knock them to apply the daze effect.
- Use Treants in P3
- Use Typhoon to knock Vile Spirits in P3.
- On heroic mode, dont walk longer than necessary from shadowtraps, moving=dps loss.
- On heroic mode, save your Starfall in p2.5 for Frostmourne(this depends on your group and overall dps)
25| Use Starfall on valkyr's rather than on-cd during phases
Q & A
Q - On my druid I do low single target damage, why?
A - Get more crit, higher uptime on NG(+ dmg increase) > pure haste. Crit also increases your damage while moving, which haste doesnt)
Q "sorry but any boomkin blowing starfall on LDW when MC is out is not a good idea blowing up your teammates using it off every cd even after waiting for first adds puts starfall in direct contact with said MCd players."
A - Druid's cyclone put one into stasis, immuning all incoming damage effects
Good luck and happy raiding!!
