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Introduction

This is a compendium of information on raiding as a Balance Druid. It contains everything a beginner needs to achieve basic competence at raid DPS, as well more detailed discussion for people more interested in understanding the theory or more advanced play. The article is supplemented by the attached spreadsheet. For up-to-date developments, the discussion thread for Balance in the current patch is:
[Balance] Cataclysm Release

In addition, I often post any Moonkin research/theorycraft work I do on this blog and Twitter feed:
http://elitistjerks.com/blogs/hamlet/
Hamlet (HamletEJ) on Twitter

And I upload videos of myself playing various boss encounters here:
YouTube - Arawethion's Channel

Post any comments/requests/contributions specific to this guide as a comment on this thread (please ensure it's not something already covered here).

[top]Talents, Glyphs, and Race

[top]The Spec

Any PvE Balance spec will include the following talents:
Nature's Grace, Starlight Wrath, Nature's Majesty, Genesis, Balance of Power, Euphoria, Moonkin Form, Shooting Stars, Force of Nature, Sunfire, Earth and Moon, Lunar Shower, Starfall, Natural Shapeshifter, Heart of the Wild, Master Shapeshifter.

That leaves 10 points, 6 of which must be in the Balance tree (2 in tier 4 or below), mostly up to you. Options for these talents:
1) Mana. The talent giving the most mana per point is Dreamstate. However, this requires that you Innervate yourself. If you have severe mana issues (possible in pre-raid gear or if you're AoEing heavily), you'll want to pick up Dreamstate. If your mana problems aren't so bad that you need to Innervate yourself, then Furor is the best option, followed by Moonglow. Just to reiterate, do not drop Euphoria.
2) Other utility. These are up to you, based on the encounters you're doing. Typhoon (knockback), Solar Beam (silence), and Fungal Growth (snare) can have uses at some encounters. Gale Winds is a necessity anytime you're AoEing.
3) Blessing of the Grove: generally a weak talent, but it is worth having if you often use a Sunfire spam style (see more on this below).
4) Filler. If you don't need any of the above. Owlkin Frenzy is some DPS contribution depending on encounter. Perseverance is also a fine raid talent if none of the above give you much benefit at current encounters.

So, much more than in past expansions, you have many more "optional" points where you have to use your judgment to decide what best fits the encounter you're doing. There's no generally best choice for these--I might add in some model specs later after seeing all of the encounters.

[top]Talent details

* Eclipse. The base Eclipse bonus is 25%, and the 12% from Total Eclipse stacks on top of that. The damage bonus is multiplicative. Spells provide Eclipse energy when they land. Eclipse ends after the cast that takes you to 0 energy; the last spell is still affected. If your Mastery rating changes during the Eclipse, the damage bonus changes dynamically.
* Moonfury (damage): Despite tooltip, damage increase is currently 15% for all spells except for IS and the MF DoT (where it's still 25%). Damage increase stacks additively with Glyph of Moonfire, Glyph of IS, Gale Winds, and Blessing of the Grove (check: and Genesis).
* Moonfury (crit): Due to the odd critical bonus stacking rules, the total crit bonus for affected spells if you use a Chaotic meta is 209%.
* Balance of Power: Your base Spirit is not included in the hit rating conversion, only bonus Spirit (green number in the tooltip).
* Starlight Wrath: Applies before any haste effects.
* Moonglow: Mana cost is rounded down after multiplying. Applies after [Shard of Woe]-type effects.
* Nature's Grace: This does not affect the DoT cast that procs it.
* Moonkin Form: The damage bonus is multiplicative. The spell haste buff does not stack with Wrath of Air Totem or with the Priest talent Improved Shadowform.
* Owlkin Frenzy: This can proc from physical or magical damage, but many boss abilities which hit the player frequently do not proc it.
* Force of Nature: If casting this immediately after an instant, you have to press the spell key and then click a targeting reticle in the world frame, losing a small amount of time. The Treants will attack whichever mob hates you the most, and can be easily redirected with the pet bar. They have 90% reduction against AoE damage in PvE, allowing them to survive some boss abilities. Bloodlust and Battle Shout, among other things, will particularly improve their DPS. The Treant's Attack Power is proportional to your current spellpower (i.e. it changes if your spellpower changes after casting). They are affected by any melee hit rating you have, but not by spell hit rating from Balance of Power.
* Sunfire: Identical to Moonfire in all respects except appearance and damage type. Affected by Glyph of Moonfire, Glyph of Starfire, Genesis, Lunar Shower, Nature's Grace, and Shooting Stars. Sunfire and Moonfire overwrite each other on the same target.
* Earth and Moon: The personal 2% damage stacks multiplicatively. The 8% damage debuff also stacks multiplicatively, and does not stack with the Warlock spell Curse of the Elements or the Death Knight disease Ebon Plague. As with other damage debuffs, spells check for presence of this debuff when the arrive at their target and log damage.
* Lunar Shower: If you don't have the buff, it only appears when you cast Moonfire or Sunfire. Once the buff is on you, it stacks and refreshes whenever you move. So if you are not moving and cast two consecutive Moonfires, the second will be affected by one stack of the buff, but to go higher, you need to move.
* Starfall: This will not fire stars when your character is stunned, and the buff will drop entirely if you shift into a Feral form. The worst use is against a single target, where you only get 10 stars. Against multiple targets, you will get 20 stars total. Each star checks your current spellpower at the time it is fired.
* Heart of the Wild: Stacks multiplicatively with Mark of the Wild.
* Omen of Clarity: Has a 3.5/60 = 5.83% chance to proc on spellcast [need to verify]. Does not proc from and is not consumed by shapeshifting. Note that you can no longer force procs by casting MotW in combat.
* Master Shapeshifter: The Moonkin Form bonus multiplies with all other damage bonuses.

One miscellaneous point of mechanics that people should understand: DoT's read their spellpower and haste values, and any %damage buffs, at the moment they are cast. These do not update while the DoT is ticking. Crit chance and %damage debuffs on the target, however, do update dynamically.

[top]Glyphs

[top]Prime Glyphs

The best two are is [Glyph of Insect Swarm] and [Glyph of Moonfire]. The third is usually [Glyph of Starsurge].
[Glyph of Wrath] may be better than Starsurge if you don't get to Starfall regularly during Lunar Eclipse or Starfall multiple targets. You can use some judgment here, based on your experience of when you get to cast Starfall.

[top]Major Glyphs

[Glyph of Starfall] is a solid DPS increase. [Glyph of Rebirth] is also highly recommended in any raid situation--being able to Rebirth people safely is very valuable to your raid (especially with the new system of limited Rebirths).

The others are all situational:
[Glyph of Thorns] is useful anytime Thorns is good (see below).
[Glyph of Focus] gives a little bit of DPS anytime you don't need the extra range on Starfall. Sometimes the reduced range can also help you control your Starfall targets.
[Glyph of Innervate] is handy filler anytime you don't need either of the above two (and if you're not already using Dreamstate).