Having got 3/4 of my items at epic level, I was horrified to see my DPS has actually gone down. I must admit that I haven't changed spec since the enforced changes in 3.1 and had to reset my spec in a hurry on 3.1.1 when I logged on and went straight into my resto spec for a guild run. Then completely forgot to set up my balance spec until I portalled into WinterGrasp.

So my current build was based on what I could remember I had set before.

The final straw was following a cloak upgrade, to find that my DPS was 1.4K compared to 1.6K for a druid still in 200s and blues! Looking at his spec, my hit (not yet capped at 243 compared to a recommended 262) was four times as much, so that was not the issue. Likewise, I exceeded him in spellpower and haste. The main difference was crit, where his at 25% was almost double my 12.5%... Now I have quartz timers, to ensure I follow rotation and keep my DoTs up whilst maximising Eclipse procs:

• FF
• IS > MF > Wrath until Eclipse procs, refreshing IS and MF every 2
• SF until cooldown
• repeat with IS > MF > Wrath

Being so close to hit cap, and having a decent amount of haste for the gear available, this did seem to be one of the problems. In terms of gear, I am still saving my badges for the T7 Valorous, but mulling over whether to use the gloves I won in VoA 25 for my balance or resto sets, as I already have Gloves of the Dancing Bear as a momento of finally learning the Safety Dance.

Basically, it means that I only have a 1 in 8 chance of eclipse proc'ing to give me a 3 in 5 chance of increasing the chance of critting with starfire to 1 in 2. The main reason I didn't stack crit, apart from the unavailability of gear, and having focussed on SP and hit instead, is that this is what our tank (a paladin) stated he preferred. As the tank happens to be our GM, I listened, rather than following my instincts.

Apart from changing gems to stack more crit (if that is possible, given so little of the 213 gear is socketted) my only option seems to be to drop two points off eclipse (as it is not much use to me) and spend them elsewhere that will give me a consistent DPS increase. I am going to try this build instead, and see how I get on. Not too happy about losing 2 points in Intensity, as mana seems to be an issue on long fights, but I'll have to see how it goes.

Elitist Jerks also highlighted another issue. My glyphs are still the ones that were easily (and cheaply) available soon after Inscription went live. I don't have Starfire or Moonfire and these need to replace wrath and roots ASAP. I will keep innervate, as our guild healers on Naxx 10 tend to need it more than me.

As far as add-ons go, I have put decursive back in, as 3 resto druids in a PuG Noth fight caused a wipe by forgetting to decurse anyone... I'm liking the clean look of quartz, though I must take some time out to work out how to move its default position (in the middle of my chat box atm) and font size (I strain to read a 10 point font on a 19 inch screen, the perils of the middle-aged LOL).