Basic Damage Approach

Without worrying about dozens of modifiers, stats, and tier sets, the core of dealing optimal damage consists of 4 basic steps.

To understand how close you got to your maximum damage potential in an arena. Check your Wrath casts when playing Keeper of the Grove, or Starfire casts when playing Elunes Chosen. The greater the count, the more time you fulfilled steps 1-2-3, and the more time you spent freecasting.

Single Target Damage

Utilizing these damage modifiers will increase your damage output.

Mastery

Your mastery boosts your overall damage. More importantly, targets afflicted by Moonfire and Sunfire take significantly increased additional damage.

Eclipse

Nature or Arcane spells will deal 15% more damage. Your Astral spells deal 15% increased damage. Wrath damage increased by 60% or Starfire AoE damage increased by 60%.

Incarnation

Haste and Critical Strike increased by 10%, Solar + Lunar Eclipse are activated, and astral spells deal 30% increased damage.

Starsurge

• Moonkin Aura 2% Critical Strike to all allies, up to 3 stacks.
• Starlord 4% Haste up to 3 stacks.

AOE Rotation

Warning: To avoid confusion, I recommend skipping the AOE section for now. Simply play the Pets talent build as it has very high AOE capabilities with Starfire.The AOE rotation is similar to the single target rotation, instead of using Starsurge, you use Starfall.

Key Damage Modifiers

Utilizing these damage modifiers will increase your damage output.

Aetherial Kindling

Removes the need to refresh dots. "Casting Starfall extends the duration" of dots by 3 seconds.

Soul of the Forest

Unlike PvE, enemies will not stack. This forces Balance Druids to play around Starfall and Dots as its primary source of damage. Soul of the Forest increases Wrath's astral power generation by 60%. This synergizes heavily with Aetherial Kindling.

Telegraphing

With so many buffs and signals like the Fury of Elune, your damage can be extremely telegraphed. If people notice and pre-press defensive cooldowns, it can be hard to force an enemy trinket or major defensive. Not forcing trinkets, major defensive cooldowns, or a lot of mana can be game-losing. Wild charge and Focus/Arena 123 can help you overcome these hurdles. Wild charge closes the gap between you and your target for a bash which leaves less time for reaction. And focus/arena123 macros prevent players who use target of target to know who you are Cycloning or root beaming.

Moonfire and Sunfire

There are two main ways to use Moonfire and Sunfire. Firstly, our mastery requires dots on a target to deal extra damage. Dotting before swapping saves 2 globals. Keep at least 1 target dotted in 2s, and at least 2 targets dotted in 3s. In high-momentum scenarios this can be converted into a bash beam setup.

Secondly dot to rot a team. You shouldn't try to triple-dot everything at all times unless your dot pressure forces mana-expensive heals from the enemy healer.

Holy Paladins can heal through full dots on their teams with only Beacon (No additional mana) while restoration Druids are forced to spend additional mana on more targets. You are trying to force CDs to "Cycle" a team or force mana-expensive heals to "Dampen" a team.

Tip: Disable any addons that cover dot durations. Clear nameplates are essential for both arenas and especially RBGs.