Balance Druid DPS (3.3.3)

This post is intended to help those not familiar with Balance Druid mechanics to get a simple overview

Spec
56/0/13 is the spec

Here's the link: http://www.wowhead.com/talent#0EMbuVIsczIVhouZbxczb:uriz

Just cut and paste it. It leaves a few points open for you to choose something extra...
***Note: The Link has Glyphs Already in there for You***

Moonglow
One of the talents to cut mana costs. You really only should need this if you're having significant mana problems.

Nature's Reach
As the only dpsers in the game without a true aggro drop... you could pick this option. Mostly, it's really a toss up about threat and hit; between this talent and Balance of Power.

Dreamstate
Again, only really necessary if you're out of mana like halfway through the fight.

Balance of Power
Since leather spell power tends to be absent of hit, and people would rather not gem for hit... the tendency is to forego this talent for hit cloth, since it's only in the higher ends of gear that hit becomes abundant enough on leather spell power or tier sets. Recently, Blizz has cut down on this kind of gear poaching (despite it really being their own fault from the beginning) by implementing a gear-specific checker on their random need/greed loot distribution, so you might want this talent until higher end content. Or, be part of a master-loot raid that doesnt mind you taking cloth gear from the other dps clothies.

Owlkin Frenzy
You shouldnt really be getting hit, so this wont help much in raids.

Typhoon
This can be fun to use in pvp. Push people off the ledge at the Lumbermill! If you choose to use this for a bit of instant damage, make sure you glyph it NOT to push-back or you only intend to use it on boss fights where you will be pushing back adds (Saurfang). Knocking away adds that a tank it trying to collect... is a sure-fire way of pissing off alot of people. =(

Gale Winds
A big boost to your AoE damage. A great talent to get if you can spare the points somewhere.

Glyphs

Glyph of Insect Swarm
It costs the raid the very interesting hit loss debuff that comes with Insect Swarm. It really isnt worth the tiny bit of dps.

Glyph of Focus
This is also a very nice damage boost for single-target encounters. If you do decide to swap in this glyph, best bet to take out Glyph of Starfall. The other two Glyphs work with each other too well to split them apart.

Minor Glyphs
It's really up to you! Typically all druids go for the Glyph of Unburdened Rebirth because it saves the reagent.

Stats

Hit: you'll need 10%, or 243 hit rating. Spell Hit cap is still 17% like any caster, but you'll get 3% up front from Improved Faerie Fire and another 4% if you choose Balance of Power.

Spell Power: most important stat

Haste: second most important stat. you want your DoTs hitting hard and fast. also contributes to faster Wrath and Starfire.

Crit: it's close, but not as good as haste. Your crits will trigger some important stuff, but you can get alot of it from Leather Spell power gear.

Spirit: surprisingly, the least important stat for you.

Intellect: only slightly better than spirit, but nothing to go out of your way for.

Armor: Leather, mostly because it has quite a bit of crit on it.

Gems

Meta: Chaotic (+21 Crit and +3% crit dmg)
Red: Runed (+23 SP) or Veiled (+12 SP and +10 hit) if you're not hit capped
Yellow: Rigid (+20 Hit), Veiled (+12 SP and +10 Hit), or Reckless (+12 SP and +10 Haste)
Blue: Purified (+12 SP and +10 Spirit), but really only two to activate the meta.

Rotation

Balance Druid is based almost entirely around one talent... Eclipse. You must watch for the particular buff that comes up and switch to that spell. Essentially, this makes for less of a priority and closer to a rotation:

1 ) Moonfire
2 ) Insect Swarm
3 ) Wrath (to proc Lunar Eclipse)
4 ) Starfire (until Solar Eclipse procs)
5 ) Moonfire (at the end of Solar Eclipse)
6 ) Wrath (until Lunar Eclipse procs)
7 ) Insect Swarm (at the end of Lunar Eclipse)
8 ) Go to 4

Application of Moonfire and Insect Swarm will work out best by applying them at the end of the two Eclipses (Insect Swarm at the end of Lunar Eclipse and Moonfire at the end of Solar Eclipse). Don't worry if you're overriding your previous DoT early.

Spirit is actually not as unimportant in Moonkin form. 30% is applied as spellpower. If you are pushing 300ish Spirit, that's 90 spellpower. But still, Moonkins don't really gem for spirit.

Mana is a concern especially in AOE fights, which seems to be coming less often, mostly trash. I personally had better results with Intensity than Dreamstate for mana.

Starfall is a good fire and forget spell, but you need situational awareness with it if crowd control is being used.

The rotation listed isn't bad, but Moonkin are situational in what to cast. You really have to pay attention to cooldown timers. If you finish an eclipse proc, you keep spamming wrath/starfire until the timer is up.

During an eclipse, nothing interupts it. DoTs get reapplied after eclipse is over.

Improved Faire Fire is more than just +hit, I consider it a no brainer must have for the additional 3% crit also.

Useful addon is Squawk and Awe

(NO, that is not a RickRoll link)

Note that, this all will change in cataclysm. Moonkins getting some nice love and class mechanics are changing.