So it's time. There has been little to no response from Blue on the Beta forums when it comes to Balance Druid mechanics. I'm not worried that Blue doesn't care, because I think they do. I think they've got some cards up their sleeve that might be changing what we complain about. Slowly but surely, they are trying to patch Eclipse till it "works" for us. Maybe we don't need a patch. Maybe we need a full reset.

Eclipse - The Theory

I think it's important to be very clear about what we want Eclipse to do for our rotation. Currently in Beta, it feels like Eclipse acts as a switch. When Eclipse procs, I switch nukes. I'm offered a damage incentive to perform this switch. I might or might not want to cast DoTs depending on their DPET under their respective Eclipse. Given the latest verbiage from Blizzard, I will likely want to cast Starsurge after I reach the midpoint of the Balance Bar to help proc the next spell switch. This interaction is rather boring and although I can't break it down to a static rotation due to crit, I can come pretty darn close.

While I agree that Eclipse should entice me to change what I am doing, I'd like to see a more involved method for interaction. Why must it be just a flat damage boost? I believe that Eclipse ought to fundamentally change my spells. I think at some level, Blizzard agrees with this as well. They want Eclipse to act as an incentive for changing spells. While their solution (having it buff damage) is clearly the simplest solution, it's also not that interesting. So how do we spice up this mundane ability?

Eclipse the Mechanism

As stated, the current Eclipse mechanism is rather uneventful. Perhaps it could offer DoT extension, drastically increasing the DPET of my DoTs and therefore making them an integral part of my rotation. Perhaps it could add a DoT to my nukes, not unlike what Languish (4T10) already does. Perhaps it could allow me to place charges that will explode when Eclipse expires. Or maybe these charges could trigger some Savage Roar type buff that will increase my damage, thereby making it my goal to swing from Eclipse to Eclipse as rapidly as possible to maintain this buff. There are many options (and I'm not saying any of these is particularly compelling or even the best way to go).

The point here is that there are many options for changing the feel of Eclipse that don't involve a flat damage booster. If anything I would suggest that Moonkin form (if it becomes a cooldown: finger's crossed) be the ability that offers a static damage increase and Eclipse provide the more interesting rotational modification.

What We've Got So Far

So I suppose I should point out that while it seems like some of the Balance community is unhappy with the modifications to Eclipse, we have received some improvements. First and foremost is the extension of the Eclipse buff to 45 seconds, allowing us some leeway for movement without "losing" Eclipse uptime. That alone helps pacify our movement penalty, allowing us to pick up our rotation right where it left off.

Eclipse is now buffable through the mastery stat. I think it should continue to be buffable through that stat as it allows our Eclipse some extra scalability outside of just proccing faster (through crit and haste). This new model seems like it will always have roughly the same uptime for Eclipse due to the fact that it cancels at 0 power. Will that make mastery more valuable than either haste or crit? We'll have to do some number crunching, but it certainly won't hurt. Personally I'd like to see Eclipse last 15 seconds or till the halfway point, whichever comes later.

We've gained a smidgen of control over Eclipse procs thanks to the Balance Bar (although this also adds some rigidity to our rotation). No longer are we waiting for that special Wrath crit or suffering the agonizingly slow Starfire cast praying for that crit at last. We have a visual marker and a set progression rate that will allow us to control when we proc Eclipse. Double-edged sword imo, but it's better than no control at all.

What We Want

We = Me, myself, and I. The three of us have conferred and we'd like to see more dynamic introduced. It's a poorly kept secret that I am a fan of complex rotations with situational aspects. I like the feral rotation. If my guild didn't have a kick-@$$ feral druid, I'd try to slip into that position. But I'm also attached to my Balance Druid for sentimental reasons. We asked ourselves if Eclipse really introduced complication into the rotation. We came to the conclusion that Eclipse is like a switch. Throw it up and you cast Arcane spells. Throw it down and you cast Nature spells. You throw the switch by reaching the end of an Eclipse bar. Lights on . . . lights off. Not very fascinating. Now while I am grateful for the additional control, I still would like more.

A lunar and solar eclipse should feel different. They should do different things. I should want to make a choice between the two. Is it better to push a Lunar Eclipse now, or a Solar? And the situation ought to determine that. Mana efficiency has been mentioned a few times. Perhaps one buff should scale well with haste while the other emphasizes crit. This would allow for a meaningful choice during heroism. Again, possibilities here are only limited by balancing the damage output. Whatever changes come, I seriously hope we promote more spell synergy and less "Cast A till proc, then cast B. Repeat"

I initially wasn't going to post my thoughts yet due to the massive talent system changes that are en-route. But then I figured, what the heck!? I'm bored so let's do it!

While I'm glad to hear GC acknowledge that the current version of Eclipse is not working well, I'd like to throw in my 2 cents about what I'm seeing this build.

Starsurge:

Currently, I feel that Starsurge is not nearly as integrated as I had hoped. It is unaffected by talents such as Nature's Reach. It does not proc Nature's Grace when it crits. It does not increase the "balance bar" favorably. Instead, it always adds Solar Power. Because of this, it lacks a certain synergy with Eclipse.

While I enjoy Starsurge against leveling mobs, I was trying to integrate it into a rotation against dummies and in the new instances. It did not feel like it was fitting in with the rest of the rotation. I'll say the same for DoTs later when I talk about them.

Eclipse:

I am hoping for some changes here, and it sounds like I'll get to see them thanks to a comment by GC. But I'll go ahead and share my current thoughts on Eclipse. I feel like a bar watcher. I'm zoning on the bar and forgetting all else. This is neither exciting nor productive for me as a raider. I feel like this is much less of a reactionary rotation and is much more anticipatory. I can essentially control my proc to within two casts. While I can see how this would be useful, I find it to be the equivalent of pressing a button at the right time. If it is equivalent, then I would much rather prefer the button to press. Less on the fly math (or addon to do it for me, which there will be).

I also find Eclipse to be rather unusable while leveling till 82. Either there aren't enough mobs to get enough power or there are too many mobs to make using anything but hurricane a bad decision. The decay is extremely rapid. While I understand not wanting to allow moonkins to carry over Eclipse power from fight to fight, it decays so quickly getting from one mob to the next usually sets you at zero. Maybe the decay should be something other than linear so that at high levels it decays quickly, but it is much slower around the +25 energy level, allowing a leveling player to carry over a small chunk of power yet preventing the raiding player from starting fights "fully charged".

DoTs:

I'm really just not feeling them. They don't boost my other spells. This means that they need to do the equivalent DPET of my nukes or they probably aren't worth using. Currently, that's where I sit. I use them to gather a lot of mobs to AoE down. I never use them in a single target rotation unless I'm moving.

The boosts to Moonfire's DD simply didn't do enough. I unglyphed my Moonfire and was incredibly underimpressed by the crit damage of my Moonfire. I was expecting much more. And after spamming it, I still felt like it was lacking. I think it's trying to be a nuke and a DoT at the same time and consequently, it is neither. Fortunately, I think a simple solution is available. Switch all of the DD Moonfire talents to DoT increasing talents. Since the DoT scales with both haste and crit, I feel that this will allow the boosts to ride out longer than a DD boost would. It would also place the spell on the DoT side of things. With the movement bonus from Wrath of Cenarius, this would still encourage us to spam moonfire while moving (at least three times). All suggestions aside, I really don't feel like this spell is going to fit into a rotation unless it decides whether it is a DoT or a DD spell (primarily).

EDIT: These posts are gonna be like my way of talking about relationships. I probably will forget to mention the 100 cool things while telling you about the 1 or 2 bad things. It's a character flaw, but that's the way it is. Anyway, let me assure you that there are plenty of cool quests and quest lines available. Most graphics are pretty impressive. Landscapes look good. Outside of the little Balance bubble, things are lookin pretty sharp. Can't speak for other classes though, I'm strictly druid here.