Balance Druid PvP Information [Future Guide]

I've recently been playing boomkin and thoroughly enjoying it, hitting 6million on the damage meters, along with top kills etc. I'm not a moonkin expert, I just want to share information I've gathered.

As many of you aspiring boomkins know, there is little information of a standard moonkin build for pvp. I would like to dedicate this thread to bring all known information about boomkin pvp into one place, acting as a guide.

In my searches, I looked up high rated balance druids, searched google, looked through arenajunkies for any bits of information, along with mmo-champion forums.

Covered in this write-up:
Where to start
Haste
Stats
Glyphs
Gems
Talents
How to play effectively
Openers
Tactics



Where to start?

I personally started with thinking crit was the way to go. However, I began to notice crit was not stacking up very well, compared to a feral druid who can get 40% crit without much problem. I then thought about going mastery but I realized there is no synchronization with talents and other stats that are beneficial enough to stack mastery.

Getting right into it. The trick is haste. Why haste?

Firstly because of the talent Nature's Grace, which gives you 15% haste after you cast Moonfire, Regrowth, or Insect Swarm, lasting 15 sec. This effect has a 1 minute cooldown. When you gain Lunar or Solar Eclipse, the cooldown of Nature's Grace is instantly reset. This means, quite simply that: more haste = more Nature's Grace = more mana regen.

The next thing to synchronize with haste and Nature's Grace is the talent Shooting Starts which gives you a 4% chance when you deal damage with your Moonfire or Insect Swarm to instantly reset the cooldown of your Starsurge and reduce its cast time by 100%. Lasts 12 sec. Why does this work with haste? Because haste provides more ticks from Moonfire and Insect Swarm, plus causing Nature's Grace for extra haste, allowing Shooting Stars to proc frequently.

Finally, haste allows more Starsurges as mentioned due to increased dot ticks. Starsurge will allow you to constantly be in, out and back in an eclipse state constantly providing all of the above benefits even more.

More starsurges you say? Well they also decrease the cooldown of Starfall by 5 seconds due to the glyph.

Haste also provides faster Entangling Roots, Cyclone, heals, and most importantly damaging casts. From what I have gathered, haste is the most beneficial stat to stack at this current moment. With crit possibly being second, simply because you will be spamming Starsurge everywhere during large group encounters.

Stats:
Hit cap*>int>195 spell pen>haste>crit>mastery

*You will gain your hit from the talent Balance of Power which gives hit rating equal to your spirit.

There isn't a need to stack resiliance gems because you will get around 3.9 resi easily with all vicious gear.

Prime Glyphs:
Insect Swarm
Moonfire
Starsurge

Major Glyphs:
Solar Beam
Barskin
Starfall or Monsoon

Minor Glyphs:
Mark of the Wild
Dash
Unburdened Rebirth or Aquatic Form

Gems:
Meta
Burning Shadowspirit Diamond (+54 int & +3% crit damage)
Ember Shadow Spirit Diamond (+54 int & +2% max mana)
Red
Brilliant Inferno Ruby (+40 int)
Yellow
Reckless Ember Topaz (+20 int & +20 haste)
Potent Ember Topaz (+20 int & +20 crit)
Blue
Stormy Ocean Sapphire (+50 spell pen)
Purified Demonseye (+20 int & +20 spirit)
Vidid Dream Emerald (+20 resi & +25 spell pen)*

*Use this if you are getting your spell pen cap via 70 spell pen on cloak, 2 50 spell pen gems.

You can also just get the spell pen neck and put 40 int on cloak and 20 int & 20 spirit on blue gems.

General talent build:
http://www.wowhead.com/talent#0IfMdRGokRuzZMcz:RabrRMzcm

The 1 pt in Furor allows for a chance to get 10 rage for that Bash, letting you use the Enrage for other things. It also provides an extra 5% max mana.