Balance Druid Gearing Guide

Patch 10.2.5 Last Updated: 23rd Jan, 2024

Gear

Tier Sets

  • (2) Set Bonus: When Eclipse ends or when you enter combat, enter a Dreamstate, reducing the cast time of your next two Starfires or Wraths by 40% and increasing their damage by 100%.
  • (4) Set Bonus: Starsurge or Starfall increase your current Eclipse’s Arcane or Nature damage bonus by an additional 2%, up to 10%.

The new 2-set bonus makes it so we cast our filler spells (Wrath and Starfire) faster and makes them do more damage. Because of how the tier set reads there is a small min-max that you can do if you are a night elf. When you are fighting trash in m+ you can use your Shadowmeld to gain the stacks of the tier set.

Our new 4-set is pretty simple, making our spenders increase our damage when we are in eclipse. This makes it even more important to never spend astral power when outside of eclipse.

Balance Druid Best in Slot Gear

You should still prioritise the gear you use by running a sim for your character, but the lists below will give you a good idea of what items are considered good for Balance Druid, and help you target the right content for each piece of loot.

Overall Best Gear for Balance Druid

Slot Item Source
Head Benevolent Embersage's Casque Catalyst or Tindral Sageswift
Neck Eye of the Rising Flame Tindral Sageswift
Shoulders Strigine Epaulets Council of Dreams
Cloak Drape of the Loyal Vassal Atal'Dazar
Chest Benevolent Embersage's Robe Catalyst or Nymue
Wrist Life-Bound Bindings with Toxified Armor Patch Crafted
Gloves Benevolent Embersage's Talons Catalyst or Igira the Cruel
Belt Benevolent Embersage's Sagacious Sash or Eternal Sentinel’s Cord Catalyst or Nymue
Legs Benevolent Embersage's Leggings Catalyst or Larodar, Keeper of the Flame
Boots Toxic Thorn Footwraps Crafted
Ring Signet of Titanic Insight Crafted
Ring Arch-Druid's Tainted Seal Darkheart Thicket
Trinket Pip's Emerald Friendship Badge Council of Dreams
Trinket Mirror of Fractured Tomorrows Dawn of the Infinite (Murozond's Rise)
Main Hand Vakash, the Shadowed Inferno Fyrakk
Off Hand Trickster's Captivating Chime Council of Dreams

Note: The Fyrakk mace and Council of Dreams off-hand combo is best, but good alternatives are the staff from Nymue (Dreambinder, Loom of the Great Cycle), followed by the Tindral Staff (Eternal Kindler’s Greatstaff).

Best Gear from the Raid

Slot Item Source
Head Benevolent Embersage's Casque Catalyst or Tindral Sageswift
Neck Eye of the Rising Flame Tindral Sageswift
Shoulders Strigine Epaulets Council of Dreams
Cloak Mantle of Blazing Sacrifice Smolderon
Chest Benevolent Embersage's Robe Catalyst or Nymue
Wrist Verdant Sanctuary Bands Council of Dreams
Gloves Flamewaker's Grips Volcoross
Belt Benevolent Embersage's Sagacious Sash or Eternal Sentinel’s Cord Catalyst or Nymue
Legs Benevolent Embersage's Leggings Catalyst or Larodar, Keeper of the Flame
Boots Twisted Blossom Stompers Gnarlroot
Ring Band of Burning Thorns Larodar, Keeper of the Flame
Ring Signet of the Last Elder Igira the Cruel
Trinket Pip's Emerald Friendship Badge Council of Dreams
Trinket Belor'relos, the Suncaller Tindral Sageswift
Main Hand Vakash, the Shadowed Inferno Fyrakk
Off Hand Trickster's Captivating Chime Council of Dreams
Staff Dreambinder, Loom of the Great Cycle or Eternal Kindler’s Greatstaff Nymue or Tindral Sageswift

Best Gear from Mythic+

Slot Item Source
Head Benevolent Embersage's Casque Catalyst
Neck Chain of the Green Flight Darkheart Thicket
Shoulders Leafmender’s Mantle The Everbloom
Cloak Drape of the Loyal Vassal Atal'Dazar
Chest Benevolent Embersage's Robe Catalyst
Wrist Thermal Bindings Darkheart Thicket
Gloves Benevolent Embersage's Talons Catalyst
Belt Benevolent Embersage's Sagacious Sash Catalyst
Legs Benevolent Embersage's Leggings Catalyst
Boots Tooled Rivermoor Boots Black Rook Hold
Ring Band of Twisted Bark Darkheart Thicket
Ring Arch-Druid's Tainted Seal Darkheart Thicket
Trinket Coagulated Genesaur Blood The Everbloom
Trinket Mirror of Fractured Tomorrows Dawn of the Infinite (Murozond's Rise)
Main Hand Morchie's Distorted Spellblade Dawn of the Infinite (Murozond's Rise)
Off Hand Interloper's Mossy Skull The Everbloom
Staff Iridal, the Earth's Master Dawn of the Infinite (Galakrond's Fall)

Trinkets

The strongest trinkets are Pip’s Emerald Friendship Badge and Mirror of Fractured Tomorrows.

Some other good options are:

  1. Balefire Branch
  2. Belor'relos, the Suncaller
  3. Nymue's Unraveling Spindle

Pip’s Emerald Friendship Badge is a stat stick (rotating stats) and the best passive trinket for most casters.

Mirror of Fractured Tomorrows is also great because its cooldown lines up with Incarnation: Chosen of Elune.

Balefire Branch is also a valid trinket, its 1.5 minute cooldown means you can get a use of the trinket between your Incarn cooldown. However, it's not quite as good as Mirror for consistency, as taking damage decays the intellect buff you receive quicker.

Embellishments

Currently the best simming embellishments are Toxic Thorn Footwraps and the Toxified Armor Patch (applied to a crafted leather item) to empower the boots further.

This embellishment combination is the best for single target, simply because it does the most damage.

For Mythic+, the Toxic Thorn Footwraps and Toxified Armor Patch isn't too much lower than the more AoE beneficial alternatives; however, if you want to build your gear out specifically for Mythic+, I would recommend using a Verdant conduit and Shadowflame-Tempered Armor Patch combination. You can also swap either the Shadowflame Patch or the Verdant Conduit for Elemental Lariat when you have the maximum number of sockets on your gear.