View topic - How to Maximize Balance Druid Boomkin DPS Guide! UPDATED 8/1

Mon, 05/24/2010 - 07:57 | by Tarou

Below is an overview video and detailed walkthrough guide to maximizing Balance Druid Boomkin DPS. This Balance Druid Boomkin DPS Guide and video will cover all aspects of Balance Druid Boomkin DPS including, talents, glyphs, gear, stats, enchants, gems, professions, addons, and actual DPS application. Kaboomkins are awesome to play and definately my favorite character ever. I hope this Balance Druid Boomkin DPS guide makes you want to make one or play yours more! Please enjoy this Balance Druid Boomkin DPS Guide and if you have any questions or feedback feel free to post them on our forums.

  • Overview: How to maximize Boomkin DPS!

Maximizing Balance Druid Boomkin DPS Guide: Spec'ing properly - Talents


Maximizing Balance Druid Boomkin DPS Guide: Best Glyphs

Maximizing Balance Druid Boomkin DPS Guide: Gear Suggestions and Selection

Maximizing Balance Druid Boomkin DPS Guide: Ideal Boomkin Stats/Caps

  • Ok so, now that you know what's priority with stats on gear, it's time to look at what the caps are for each stat.
  • Hit will cap at 263 for Horde and 237 for any Alliance with a Dranei in the raid.
  • Haste will soft cap at 401 with a Wrath of Air Totem or 585 without.
  • Crit will soft cap (Lunar cap) 1575.5 - (Int[input your intellect here]/3).

    • Example: 1575.5 - (1495/3) = 1077 crit rating (Fully buffed w/ idol minus Focus Magic)
  • Basically, if I have 1077 crit rating my chance to crit will be near 100% during Lunar Eclipse.

Maximizing Balance Druid Boomkin DPS Guide: Suggested Enchants


Maximizing Balance Druid Boomkin DPS Guide: Suggested Meta/Gems


Maximizing Balance Druid Boomkin DPS Guide: Profession Choices

  • Next, you'll want to think about which professions to choose. Engineering is currently the best DPS profession a Boomkin can have in my opinion and I'm sorry for not including it earlier. Tailoring tends to provide the best average benefit and from there, Jewelcrafting, Enchanting, Leatherworking, Inscription, and Blacksmithing are all about the same. I chose Alchemy for the extra 1 hour on my Flask of the Frost Wyrm and Jewelcrafting for it's convenience. Both are also great gold makers.
  • Boomkin Profession Benefit Breakdown:

    • Engineering: Hyperspeed Accelerators/Springy Arachnoweave/Nitro Boosts
    Tailoring (Cloak Proc): Avg. +55 spellpower / +1 spirit
    Leatherworking (Bracers): +46 spellpower
    Blacksmithing (2 Sockets Bracers/Gloves): +46 spellpower
    Jewelcrafting (3 Gems): +48 spellpower
    Alchemy (Flask): +47 spellpower
    Enchanting (Rings): +46 spellpower
    Inscription: +46 spellpower
    Skinning: +40 crit
    Engineering: 45 haste / -1 spellpower

Maximizing Balance Druid Boomkin DPS Guide: Suggested Addons

  • Finally, the last thing to worry about before pulling a boss is addons. Personally I'm a minimalist and barely use any but they can be quite helpful. Standard raid addons should be something like Omen Threat Meter, Deadly Boss Mods, and Recount. For Boomkins it's good to have SquawkAndAwe and Quartz. I've included some links below and brief explanation of what each addon does.
  • Suggested Boomkin DPS Addons and Brief Explanation:

    • Standard Raiding Addons:
  • Omen Threat Meter - Provides accurate values of your group's relative threat level on individual enemies, so that you can see when you're in danger of pulling aggro (or, if you're next on the snack list if your tank bites it).
  • Deadly Boss Mods - An all in one boss mod with many options and customization.
  • Recount - A graphical damage meter with appearance settings.

    • Boomkin DPS Addons:
  • SquawkAndAwe - SquawkAndAwe provides a timer for: Trinket procs and Use: Eclipse procs, with differences based on which proc occurs Eclipse cooldown Omen of Clarity Elune's Wrath Wrath of Elune (gg Blizzard set bonus names) Moonfire (and a smaller bar for each tick) Insect Swarm (and a smaller bar for each tick) Faerie Fire Entangling Roots Hibernate Cyclone Starfall Typhoon Force of Nature Innervate Barkskin the GCD. Options exist to turn on/off each bar separately, allow text on the bars showing name and duration, whether to flash the Proc bars, tick bars for DoTs, and SquawkAndAwe integrates with SharedMedia to allow textures and fonts.
  • Quartz - The core of Quartz is lightweight implementation of a standard casting bar, with configurable size, text and icon positioning, and colors.

    • While I've never had a problem with any addon I've downloaded from Curse, it never hurts to virus scan any file you download from the internet.

Maximizing Balance Druid Boomkin DPS Guide: Before the Pull Preperation

  • Alright so you got your talents, glyphs, gear, stats, enchants, gems, professions, and addons it's finally time for the fun part. Blasting the hell out of any boss. Before the pull make sure you have all the buffs possible. Have Potion of Speed pots, eat a feast or self buff any + 46 spellpower food. Also make sure you have a Flask of the Frost Wyrm up and if there is only one mage in the group, ask for Focus Magic. Also, see if there is a shaman in the group. One of the biggest mistakes I see players make is outranging totems. After you get all that situated, to maximize your dps on any boss, you'll want to actually use your brain and think a bit of the encounter. Ask yourself a few questions. Will I be moving a lot? Will there be things to AoE? Will I take a lot of damage? Do I expect someone to die? The last one is typically yes someone will die and be screaming for a brez. As a boomkin your job to most raids is to provide a dps buff, a brez, and an innervate. It's ok, the mage thinking that is only good for FM, food, and water or the shaman who's only good for Bloodlust or Heroism. Whoa ok, back to the Boomkin dps guide.

Maximizing Balance Druid Boomkin DPS Guide: Spell Rotation/DPS Encounter Suggestions

  • As for your spell rotation, I personally believe there is no such thing as a Boomkin rotation. If you stick to thinking that then you won't ever maximize your dps potential. Sure we have a 'general' spell rotation but instead, think of your spells in a priority and situational sense. What do I do when? Every situation and boss is different but there are some easy to follow rules of thumb.
  • Start every boss encounter by casting Fearie Fire on the boss. Follow with a Moonfire, Insect Swarm (if slow to get in position), Treants, and then Wrath. As I said before though, think about the encounter. If there won't be any adds to AoE during the encounter, cast Starfall after Moonfire. If they're will be add spawns, don't cast Starfall unless the adds won't spawn for 1 minute. Otherwise cast Starfall once adds have spawned. Also, make sure you're using your Treants in such a way that they won't easily die and can come off cooldown just before Bloodlust or Heroism is popped. This'll ensure you maximize your Treants' DPS. From there, continue casting Wrath until Lunar Eclipse procs as indicated by a blue circle above your head. Once LE procs begin casting Starfire. Always pay attention to the proc's timer. If you can't squeeze another Starfire in before the end of the proc, this is a great time to rebuff Moonfire and Insect Swarm. It's likely Insect Swarm will be down but, if you still have Moonfire up at the end of LE, buff Insect Swarm first then Moonfire. This will give atleast an extra tick of Moonfire. After that, continue casting Starfire until Solar Eclipse procs which is indicated by an orange circle above your head. If it seems to be taking too much time for it to proc, switch back to Wrath and spam it until Lunar Eclipse procs. In most cases during a boss a Shaman will pop Bloodlust or Heroism. During this time you'll want to cast Wrath until Lunar Eclipse procs unless it already proc'd. After it procs, pop a Potion of Speed, and cast Starfire the remaining duration. If you time things right you can gain an extra Lunar Eclipse by watching your timers. Basically, while casting Starfire you should proc a Solar Eclipse. After the proc fades, switch over to Wrath and attempt to proc another Lunar Eclipse. This is sometimes difficult to do but worth trying. You can also save your Potion of Speed for when all your procs are up like trinket and idol procs and you're entering a Lunar Eclipse proc.
  • Next, repeat refreshing dots at the least DPS detremental times which is usually when Eclipse isn't proc'd. Another good time to refresh dots is during any movement. You won't be able to cast so rather than doing nothing, refresh dots and cast innervate on a healer or yourself if need be. You can also cast Gift of the Wild for a free Clearcast proc. If you have atleast 2 pieces of Tier 10 it will give you a buff that increases damage by 15% for 6 seconds. I also like to do what I call Global Cooldown Moving. Basically, I will move during a Global, stop and cast, then move again. From there it's a constant thought process of what will come next in the encounter. Continue casting your spells at the best times and you should be topping charts in no time. This will take some getting use to and practice but I'm sure most players can decently perfect Balance Druid Boomkin DPS!
  • Finally, have fun while playing your Boomkin. Get in a grove and your spells will just flow maximizing your DPS at the same time. Music can be a big help.
  • Well there you have it, a simple, ok kinda complex walkthrough of maximizing Balance Druid Boomkin DPS.

    • Good luck and I hope you enjoyed this Balance Druid Boomkin DPS Guide. If you have any suggestions, comments, or feedback, please make a post on our forums.

Tarou WoW Guides RSS Feed