Balance Druid Guide — Class Guides · WoW Wrath of the Lich King

Ranged nature and arcane damage with Wrath, Starfire and Moonfire, and Moonkin Form.

A leather-wearing shapeshifter who heals in caster form, tanks in Bear Form, deals melee damage in Cat Form, and casts Balance spells. Druids can fill any role in a group. More about the druid

Class: Druid
Roles: Damage
Used for: Raids and dungeons, Player versus player
Top talent: Starfall
Popular builds: 2
Version: WoW Wrath of the Lich King

How to play

Balance in Wrath is built on Eclipse: a Starfire crit can strengthen your Wraths for a while, and a Wrath crit can strengthen your Starfires, so you alternate between the two. Starfall rains stars on nearby enemies, Earth and Moon makes the target take more spell damage, Moonkin Form raises the raid's spell crit, and Force of Nature summons treants.

Keep Insect Swarm, Moonfire and Faerie Fire up, cast Wrath or Starfire depending on which Eclipse is active, and use Starfall on packs or with trinkets.

Typhoon knocks enemies back, and Balance is strong in arenas with Cyclone and Entangling Roots.

At a glance

Single-target damage
Damage to groups
Survivability
Utility for the group
Solo play and leveling
Ease of play

Rated 1 to 5 against the other specs in WoW Wrath of the Lich King.

Rotation and priorities

1Moonkin Form; Faerie Fire on the boss.
2Insect Swarm and Moonfire kept up.
3Starfire until a Solar Eclipse, then Wrath while it lasts.
4Wrath until a Lunar Eclipse, then Starfire while it lasts.
5Starfall on packs and with trinkets.
6Force of Nature with Heroism; Innervate yourself when needed.

Strengths and weaknesses

Strengths

Earth and Moon and the Moonkin aura help the raid.
Starfall for packs.
A tough, mobile caster.

Weaknesses

Eclipse makes damage swing.
Weaker before the first Eclipse procs.
Moving costs a lot of damage.

Stats and gear

Stat priority

Most valuable first. Bars compare each stat with the best one; a cap in the note means the stat drops off once you reach it.

1
Hitto 446 rating, less Balance of Power and Improved Faerie Fire
2
Spell power
3
Haste
4
Critical striketriggers Eclipse
5
Intellect
6
Spirit

What to look for

Spell power and hit to the cap, then haste and crit.
Spell power gems.
A staff, or a mace or dagger with an off-hand.

Items worth chasing

Phylactery of the Nameless LichA trinket with a big spell power proc.
Muradin's SpyglassA trinket that stacks spell power.
Dislodged Foreign ObjectA trinket that stacks spell power.

Builds

Each bar splits the build's talent points by tree.

Balance
Feral Combat
Restoration

Balance Raider
DamagePvE
5813
58/0/13
Raid damage with 58 points in Balance, down to Starfall, and 13 in Restoration.
- Eclipse 3/3
- Typhoon 1/1
- Force of Nature 1/1
- Earth and Moon 3/3
- Starfall 1/1
Glyphs: Glyph of Focus (major), Glyph of Insect Swarm (major), Glyph of Starfall (major), Glyph of Typhoon (minor), Glyph of Unburdened Rebirth (minor), Glyph of the Wild (minor)
Open in the talent calculator Theorycrafting
Balance Gladiator
DamagePvP
5714
57/0/14
Arena and battleground damage with 57 points in Balance, down to Starfall, and 14 in Restoration.
- Eclipse 3/3
- Typhoon 1/1
- Force of Nature 1/1
- Earth and Moon 3/3
- Starfall 1/1
Open in the talent calculator Theorycrafting

Key talents

Starfall · top talent, up to 1
You summon a flurry of stars from the sky on all targets within 30 yards of the caster, each dealing 145 to 167 Arcane damage. Also causes 26 Arcane damage to all other enemies within 5 yards of the enemy target. Maximum 20 stars. Lasts 10 sec. Shapeshifting into an animal form or mounting cancels the effect. Any effect which causes you to lose control of your character will suppress the starfall effect.
Moonkin Form · tier 7, up to 1
Shapeshift into Moonkin Form. While in this form the armor contribution from items is increased by 370%, damage taken while stunned is reduced by 15%, and all party and raid members within 100 yards have their spell critical chance increased by 5%. Single target spell critical strikes in this form instantly regenerate 2% of your total mana. The Moonkin can not cast healing or resurrection spells while shapeshifted. The act of shapeshifting frees the caster of Polymorph and Movement Impairing effects.
Improved Moonkin Form · tier 7, up to 3
Your Moonkin Aura also causes affected targets to gain 3% haste and you to gain 30% of your spirit as additional spell damage.
Owlkin Frenzy · tier 8, up to 3
Attacks done to you while in Moonkin form have a 15% chance to cause you to go into a Frenzy, increasing your damage by 10%, cause you to be immune to pushback while casting Balance spells and restore 2% base mana every 2 sec. Lasts 10 sec.
Wrath of Cenarius · tier 8, up to 5
Your Starfire spell gains an additional 20% and your Wrath gains an additional 10% of your bonus damage effects.
Eclipse · tier 9, up to 3
When you critically hit with Starfire, you have a 100% chance of increasing damage done by Wrath by 40%. When you critically hit with Wrath, you have a 60% chance of increasing your critical strike chance with Starfire by 40%. Each effect lasts 15 sec and each has a separate 30 sec cooldown. Both effects cannot occur simultaneously.
Typhoon · tier 9, up to 1
You summon a violent Typhoon that does 400 Nature damage when in contact with hostile targets, knocking them back and dazing them for 6 sec.
Force of Nature · tier 9, up to 1
Summons 3 treants to attack enemy targets for 30 sec.
Gale Winds · tier 9, up to 2
Increases damage done by your Hurricane and Typhoon spells by 30%, and increases the range of your Cyclone spell by 4 yards.
Earth and Moon · tier 10, up to 3
Your Wrath and Starfire spells have a 100% chance to apply the Earth and Moon effect, which increases spell damage taken by 13% for 12 sec. Also increases your spell damage by 6%.

Balance abilities by level

When each ability arrives: trained abilities at the level a trainer first teaches them, talent abilities (gold frame) at the first level the talent can be taken.