Guide last updated on (26.12.2006) for Burning Crusade

Index

A. Why become a balance druid?
B. Overview of the balance druids spells
C. Analysis of the balance tree
D. Primary stats of a balance druid
E. Equipping your balance druid
F. Tactical tips for the balance druid

A. Why become a balance druid

The most common reason people choose to go for a balance build is to compensate for a druids weakness in spell casting. as a class our healing is allready very good with minimal points spent and both bear and cat forms are workable with a much smaller talent investment; however our offensive spellcasting capability is exceptionally poor without heavy investment into the balance tree. As such a balance druid sticks to the core principal of being a true hybrid by focusing on our weakest aspect.

The second reason is one similar to a feral druids reasoning, when in a raiding team a druids healing is not allways required and as such during that time you are effectivly wasting a raid slot as a full restoration druid. By speccing into another tree you can do your share of dps easily to help speed up raid progress, the advantage of the balance tree over the feral in this regard is that you still retain your large mana pool with your item selection and gain a hefty amount of mana regen so if required mid fight you can shift from a dps role to a healing role, re-enforcing the principle of playing the druid as a hybrid class.

With good kit you can match a mages damage output in a raid with a balance build but it does require a heavy talent investment,. Balance however suffers somewhat in a PvP setting compared to a mage as it has a lack of burst damage and spell interrupts, as such a balance druid thrives in a PvE environment where they can rely on their roots or a sturdy tank. Note however that a truly skilled balance druid can mesh ferals stun utility together with balances high sustained damage to become an exceptionally ferocious opponent.

B. Overview of the balance druids base spells

Wrath

The first nuke you get as a druid and your primary source of nature damage. Wrath provides some of the highest dps you can get on your own and scales highly favourably with both the rest of the balance tree and improvements to your kit. Due to its high dpsand resiliance to knockback effects this is also your more PvP orientated nuke however its high mana consumption rate make it less ideal for PvE.

Wrath benefits from a 57% increase to its damage from +spelldmg itemization.

Rank 10 wrath – 2s cast, Average 405dmg (203dps)
Rank 10 wrath + 200 spell damage – 2s cast, Average 519dmg (260dps)

Moonfire

An instant arcane damage nuke with a DoT portion. Its high mana cost precludes it from being used non stop but is a mana efficient source of damage if the DoT is left to conclude. Best used as an opponent reaches you or if you are trying to stay mobile in pvp for example chasing someone. Can also be utilized to finish off a target on low hitpoints. Moonfire's initial damage receives a bonus 15% from +Damage and its DoT recieves a 57% bonus from +Damage, evenly divided over its 4 ticks.

Rank 12 Moonfire – Instant cast, 331 Average damage + 150 damage every 3 seconds
Rank 12 Moonfire + 200 spell damage – Instant cast, 361 Average damage + 178 damage every 3 seconds

Starfire

Your longest cast nuke and main source of arcane damage this makes for a great high damage pulling spell but once you are under attack its long cast time precludes you against using it on uncontrolled fast hitting enemys as it will be interrupted a lot. This is your most mana efficient nuke and benefits from a warlocks curse of shadows making it your main nuke in groups and raids. Starfire benefits from 100% of spelldamage.

Rank 8 Starfire – 3.5s cast, Average 588dmg (168dps)
Rank 8 Starfire + 200 spell damage – 3.5s cast, Average 788dmg (225dps)

Entangling Roots

Our main source of crowd control, only usable outside it lasts for 27 seconds with a small DoT and a chance to break on damage, its main drawback is that your opponent can still act while rooted unlike other forms of crowd control making its use against casters limited..The mechanics for roots breaking seem to have changed to be more like for fear now in that a single large nuke is FAR more likely to break roots than the low damage of your DoTs ticking.

One thing you must b aware of is the diminishing returns of roots, that is to say that if you re-root a target before 15 seconds has passed from your last root cast on it; the spell will drop in duration by 25% untill it is immune. As such it is best to wait untill only 12 seconds of the root remain till you nuke the target as after just 2 diminishing casts you can no longer keep the target rooted long enough to reset the diminishing effect.

Faerie Fire

The armour reduction effect of this druid debuff is of fairly minimal use to a balance druid as most of our damage ignores armour, that said its worth using with force of nature. This is primarily used as a counter to a rogues stealth abilities as they can no longer vanish at all with faerie fire effecting them making rooting them a whole lot easier.

In a raid setting the extra damage a melee class gains can be very usefull. Let us say for example that reducing a bosses armour with Faerie fire increases melee damage by a humble 3%; with your tank in defensive stance and with defiance that 3% for your tank will give him more aggro to the equivielent of an extra 4-5% for every person in the raid. In short using faerie fire = more tank aggro = raid can dps harder.

Hibernate

A fantastic crowd control skill but only against 2 mob types. Unlike roots, hibernate completely neutralizes a targets actions but will break instantly on damage. This spell can help immensly when taking on groups of beasts as between rooting one mob and hibernating another you can have complete control of any adds.

One thing to watch out for is that if you have thorns cast on yourself there is a possibility that its damage can break the hibernate as it lands if the mob hits you at the same time.

Soothe Animal

A spell of little use on its own it can be used to mark a target that you will hibernate when you are in a group setting so that other casters wont waste a polymorph or similar effect on your target. Be carefull if it resists however as that will result in you pulling your target rather than marking it.

Barkskin

Barkskins use has changed drastically with the removal of its cast delay effect and is now a much more viable a spell for frequent use to protect yourself against melee attacks, with wrath having knockback resistance now though it may be worth saving this for your heals and channeled spells

Hurricane

A great supporting AoE, it may not last that long but it contributes nicely to a teams AoE damage when needed and helps protect the fragile mages from some of the returning attacks they will take. In a small group setting it is probably better to focus on healing other AoE casters but in large raids with other healers, hurricane is at a distinct advantage.

Innervate

Allows for your mana regeneration to continue a 100% rate during casting and furthermore quadruples that regeneration rate. In order to determine how effective it will be for you just mouse over your spirit stat to see your mana per second regen at full effect. Quadruple that and then multiply by 20 to get the total amount of mana you will recover with a self innervate.

Effects will vary vastly depending on your kit but generally you will be looking at a 2-3k mana gain. It is unwise however to activly seek spirit kit to boost your innervate as mp/5s provides a much greater mana return in the long run.

Cyclone

Acts as a banish effect on your target in that no heals or damage will land on a cycloned target. Perfect to prevent heals landing on a weakened target while you charge up a starfire to finish them off.

Cyclone is affected by diminishing returns so you cannot chain cyclone a target, however it does act as a great backup should your roots hit heavy diminishing returns, by carefull timing and backing off, by the time your cyclone is too heavily diminished your roots should no longer be under diminishing returns.

Comparisons to other casters

Here is a base dps listing of the main spells in the game and the druids standing within it is indicated in bold.

Smite rank 10 – 231dps
Fireball rank 13 – 216dps
Frostbolt rank 13 – 207dps
Wrath rank 10 – 203dps
Lightning bolt rank 12 – 201dps
Shadow boltrank 11 – 191dps
Mind flay rank 7 – 176dps
Starfire rank 8 – 168dps

As you can see, with no talents invested into balance starfire is the worst main nuke in the game, while wrath is up there with a mages base dps.

Now we will take a look at the effect of the balance tree on a druids nuking capability.

C. Analysis of the balance tree

Tier 1

Starlight Wrath:
Your initial large boost in dps, a full 33% increase in wrath damage output and an increase of 16.6% to starfires dps.

Rank 10 wrath – 2s cast, Average 405dmg (203dps)
Rank 10 Improved wrath – 1.5s cast, Average 405dmg (270dps)

Rank 8 Starfire – 3.5s cast, Average 588dmg (168dps)
Rank 8 Improved starfire – 3s cast, Average 588dmg (196dps)

With just 5 talent points you gain a huge improvement to your wrath cast and a significant boost to your starfire, worth every point spent especially considering how low in the tree it is.

Natures grasp:
An all or nothing talent in my opinion, but a lot of people swear by having one point invested here for pvp flag running. Improved roots is a far superior rooting talent as it is useable more than once a minuite, and since a balance druid relies heavily on its rooting capability the randomness of a low investment in natures grasp is just not worth it. On the plus side with full investment it does give you an instant root against melee classes as you need it but the cost is severe with other wonderfull talents to gather.

Tier 2

Control of nature:
Almost compulsory, as a balance druid you will find many times you live or die by your crowd control abilities. Knowing that you WILL cast that root or cyclone in 1.5s is invaluable to your survival and even more important if you are setting up a stunlock where the timing of your cyclone is essential.

Focused Starlight:
4% more crit to your main 2 spells? Yes please, with the change to crit rating any talent that gives you more crit capability is not to be passed up since you sacrifice far more trying to compensate for a low crit rating if you make up for it in equipment than the cost of 2 talent points. Add the fact that this is the pre-requisite for Vengeance and this becomes essential

Improved moonfire:
A nice solid dps boost, the higher crit rate is great for natures grace procs too. The bonus to damage will also scale with your equipment now making moonfire ticks of over 200 a very real prospect. When you factor in that utilising DoT’s as a main damage source allows you to stay mobile and the benefits start to shine. A good talent to have at little cost but if you are strictly raiding it is not essential.

Tier 3

Brambles:
Much underestimated, this talent is great for boosting a tanks aggro and even better for the moonkins speciality of AoE tanking. add thorns damage to hurricane damage with barkskin, moonkin armour, and hurricane debuff and you make a very effective AoE supporter allowing the mages to work in peace. Also the boost to roots damage gives the talent some scaling and turns roots into an effective 3rd DoT. That said there are better talents for your points out there, especially given the fact that thorns is a non-scaling spell, untill thorns scales with spell damage you are probably best leaving this alone.

Insect Swarm:

A great second DoT to place on a target after a moonfire this has received a massive boost in its dps and now is a balance spell meaning its castable in moonkin. Unlike moonfire it has no direct damage component and so benefits greatly from +dmg kit receiving 83% of its effect divided over its ticks. One thing to note is that unlike other druid spells a tick from insect swarm happens every 2 seconds rather than every 3 seconds and casting it does not reset your swing timer.. The accuracy debuff from insect swarm will stack with another druids and so a full team of druids applying insect swarm to a raid boss can cause a good drop in its damage output. Also worth noting is the use of insect swarm does not reset your swing timer making it great to accompany moonkin meleeing. Only a fool would miss this talent out.

Rank 6 Insect swarm – 792 damage over 12s – 132 damage per 2s
Rank 6 Insect swarm + 200 spell damage – 958 damage over 12s – 160 damage per 2s

Natures reach:
Another essential talent, this gives you the time to easily get 2 starfires off and maybe a wrath before a mob reaches you, increasing your damage between roots and ultimatly saving you time when grinding mobs. It’s also of much use in a raid environmen as the extra 6 yards can put you out of range for many boss abilities if you are carefull.

Tier 4

Vengeance:
The core of the balance tree here, double damage crits added to the high crit rate on moonfire alone is worth it, but when you start throwing out 2k+ wraths and 3.5k+ starfires you will be glad you took this.

Celestial Focus:
The stun alone has allways been worth it in my opinion as I have allways seen it as a 15% boost to your crit. When you have a 20-25% crit rating coupled with this talent you start seeing those stuns and natures grace procs frequently.

And now they have gone and added a knockback resist to wrath in the talent as well making this an essential talent for pvp if you want to maintain wraths increadable dps. While nice to have for a raider it can be considered optional.


Tier 5

Lunar Guidance:
While our nuking scaling now compares to most classes this is our “oddball” talent; where other classes tend to get debuffs to the target we get a straight boost to our spell power, in good kit you should expect at least 100 spelldamage from this talent increasing with buffs. But the real joy is the fact that since this is a direct spellpower boost it will scale further with all your other talents making the real value of it increase the heavier you invest into the balance tree. Infact it would not be unreasonablt to say that you gain at least 50 spell damage per point spent, a fantastic return for the heavy balance talented.

Natures Grace:
For one point you cant complain, adds a little more power to your nukes and the burst dps from wrath crits is insane, especially now that natures grace no longer makes wrath hit global cooldown, let the chaingunning commence.

It stands to reason that wrath benefits more from a natures grace proc than a starfire.

Moonglow:
Mana conservation is a big thing for a balance druid and is the main thing compromising your raid viability, remember you can be called upon to both nuke AND heal at the same time, the mana saved from this is a godsend.

Even if you only chaincast starfire this talent will be your best choice for mana conservation but there are many situations in which you depelete your mana faster, the more you cast the better choice this talent is over any other mana based talent

Tier 6

Moonfury:
Now scales with spelldamage!!! That phrase alone should make you pick it up straight away but heres some numbers as to the boost you will gain.

Rank 10 Improved wrath – 1.5s cast, Average 405dmg (270dps)
Rank 8 Improved starfire – 3s cast, Average 588dmg (196dps)

Rank 10 Improved wrath + Moonfury – 1.5s cast, Average 450dmg (300dps)
Rank 8 Improved starfire+ Moonfury – 3s cast, Average 647dmg (216dps)

So just by base damage alone you gain about 50 spelldamage, the more spellpower you have the more you gain. Although not as great a boost per point as Lunar guidance the points investment is well worth it.

Balance of Power:
Yet again with the change to a rating system, any talent that gives you raw % boosts is worth its weight in gold, especially when it comes to the rare +spellhit. Nobody likes getting a 3k starfire resisted and this coupled with just a small amount of +hit gear will stop that. If you are serious about your nuking then get this no matter what, the 4% spell resist is just a nice bonus.

Tier 7

Dreamstate:
Although not as good as Moonglow at saving you mana this is still a very powerfull talent providing you 40+ mp/5s with good equipment, An absolute wealth of mana regeneration for a spec that’s traditionally mana starved. While in PvP you likely won’t need it, if you are going to raid or be grinding this is essential.

Also coupled with Lunar Guidance this makes a balance druids primary stat well and truly intellect.

Moonkin Form:

For a one talent point investment this gives you so much, A very powerfull crit aura, high armour and an infinite mana cycle to stop you ever becoming useless in a raid. Be warned however that this is NOT a replacement for bearform any more. The lack of bonus HP hurts your survival a lot though the armour mitigation is not too different. You can offtank a loose mob or 2 in moonkin but don’t make the mistake of biting off more than you can chew.

A note on meleeing for mana, the actual amount of mana you gain per proc is 30% of your AP having nothing at all to do with the damage you do, as such a high feral attack power mace will get you the best mana returns and it would be advisable to carry one for when you go out of mana. The proc rate is 12-14 procs a minuite so with a slow 2 hander you should get a proc on most melee hits.

That said this is a wonderfull talent that truly defines the balance tree and should never be passed up.

Improved Faerie fire:

Strictly a raiding talent, this gives you too little to be worth using in pvp or solo but is a godsend to melee classes in a raid. Most naxx level raiders would tell you that the biggest problem facing a tank or a rogue is hitting the boss in the first place, 3% more to hit is a BIG thing, especially with the change to the rating system.

Tier 8

Wrath of Cenarius:
Our final boost to the scaling of our main nukes and a nice boost it is too providing a dps boost equivelent to 6.6% of your spelldamge (ie 100 +dmg make this talent worth 6.6dps) which in turn will be improved by moonfury.

The talent only really starts to shine and be worth its points when you hit the 500+ spelldamage mark and increases in worth from then on so the choice is very much dependent on your kit. If your just starting out as balance you may want to consider other talents.

Tier 9

Force of Nature:
Scaling with both your level and 10% of your spelldamage these treants can dish out hideous amount of damage if left alone making them great for PvE dps and with clever use,annihilating someone in PvP; at the very least distracting them and making them blow several cooldowns. They can also be used as a distraction when out in the world questing to tie down adds for you, and depending on the mob are quite capable of soloing a creature for you.

generally you will see your treants hitting for 120-150 damage a hit each, but while the damage output is high they are frail having only 1000hp each making them exceptionally vulnerable to AoE effects and rather redundent against mages unless your timing is good or you utilise your stuns.

It takes a while to learn their proper use but this truly is an exceptionally powerfull talent that levels the playing field for us in a way you have to see to believe. And if that doesn’t tempt you, a moonkin does need a place to perch ^^

More comparisons

Quite simply with all the scaling talents for each nuke and the varying factors abound it has become almost impossible to truly compare one classes dps to another like I previously did. That being said if you look at our base damage formulaes our scaling is exceptionally similar to a fire mages so to say a balance spec druid with full talent investment is as good as its parent class would not be much of an overstatement.

What I will be able to compare is wrath and starfire, as you saw at the start wraths’ dps significantly outstrips starfires in burning crusade and looking back at the talents the gap is only further widened with investment in the balance tree so a valid question would be “why use starfire?”

The answer to that question lies in the mana consumption rates, assuming fully talented with moonglow we get.

Rank 10 Wrath – 232 mana 1.5s, cast (155m/s)
Rank 8 Starfire- 337 mana, 3s cast (112m/s)

Making wrath consume mana at a rate equivelent to 215mp/5s faster. That is a MASSIVE difference, quite simply wrath is too mana intensive to use for PvE either grinding or raiding unless you need burst dps making it much more ideally suited for PvP.

Talent builds

shown here are a few sample talent builds for very different roles, these are meant to illustrate what can be achieved through the balance tree and to get you thinking and are by no means the be all and end all of builds. Many of these builds have countless variations

47/0/14 – Maximum Mana Moonkin
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent-bc=MxcrziIsguVoZxVcz

This build provides the best mana and nuking power output possible for a moonkin in PvE making it usefull for both solo grinding or raiding dps. With the great mana regen providded you also provide good backup healing. This should be considered the default build for an aspiring PvE moonkin.

41/11/5 + 4 – Purely PvP
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent-bc=MxcrziIogzVoxG0oZV

This build provides the most utility possible out of the balance class and is exceptionally brutal in PvP bringing all the nuking power of the balance tree and blending it with the PvP utility of the feral tree giving you longer stuns, easier access to a pounce opener and feral charge, all of which enable you to do an effective stunlock. The main drawback to the build is it is heavily mana intensive to use and has little in terms of mana regen making it less than ideal outside of a PvP setting

27/0/34 – Healer with a punch
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent-bc=MxcrziIoZZVvc0cq0Ls

Definatly more of a healing orientated build, what this lack in longevity compared to a pure balance build it more than makes up for with surviveability with the addition of natures swiftness and swiftmend. The nuking power of the build is resectable too with a decent critical output and the high crit rate of regrowth natures grace procs will be plentifull and wraths damage not to be sniffed at.

D. Primary stats of a balance druid

+dmg/healing:
This is one of THE best stats for a balance druid to aim for with our nukes scaling immensly the more we have. This is what gives us our power and without it you will not notice the difference between being balance and being resto.

A word of warning though, do not neglect your basic stats as it is far too easy to load up on +dmg gear with little stats and find yourself either getting killed too easily due to low HP or not lasting long enough in fights

+Spellcrit rating:
Spellcrits are very nice for us druids, between vengeance and natures grace our crits add alot of dps, however crits also can cause mass raid aggro and so if going for a raid dps build i advise stearing clear of this and going for pure +dmg. For pvp however a balance druid relies on its crits for its burst damage so getting some there is essential.

22.1 rating = 1% spellcrit at level 70

+Spellhit rating:
The first of the spell penetration stats, every spell has a 5% chance of resist against a target of equal level with no resists, each % of spell hit lowers that by one. the thing to bear in mind here is that most raid level monsters higher level than you and so your resist chance is much higher. a little bit of +hit can go a long way to improving your sustained dps. Grab as much as you can get for PvE while balance of power is plenty to make sure your spells land in PvP.

12.6 hit rating = 1% spellhit at 70

-spellresist on hit:
Introduced in AQ and some of the pvp items this lowers your targets resist if they have any. it can cause negative resists but note that the vulnerability damage from negative resists is no longer in game. In PvE spellhit is better. You will know however from PvP just how annoying the basic resist of just a simple mark of the wild can be so this stat can help there.

mana/5s:
NEVER EVER forget about this, if you want to last long boss fights as a nuker this stat is essential, along with +dmg this is your second most important stat in PvE, in PvP its better to focus on a greater mana pool.

Int:
Compared to a mage with arcane mind us balance druids are at a big disadvantage in the mana game, the more int you have, the better. Especially if you have a full investment in the balance tree as not only do we gain mana but also boost our primary and secondary needs of spelldamage and mp/5s. Consider this our tertiary stat.

Stamina:
Only really needed if you are going to PvP much, as a raid nuker we have the luxury of platemail, bandages and cyclone, but in PvP you will need enough health to absorb burst damage untill you can heal up. Not worth worrying too much about unless you plan to make a living in the arena.

Spirit:
Mana/5s Is far superior in the long run over spirit, but many fights last a shorter amount of time so your innervate is a more usefull mana regen tool. Not as visibly effective as other stats but good to have none the less.

E. Equipping your balance druid

There are three main principals on kitting out for a balance spec each with their own advantages and disadvantages

1, Clothfeather
Some moonkin druids have taken to wearing mage armour due to lack of leather itemization pre BC in an effort to achieve high dps however this sacrifices a huge amount of the survivability of your leather. personally i think this config is a very bad idea due to the sacrifice in surviveability

2, The hybrid (balance/feral)
This includes such sets as feralheart and the PvP set. This allows great versatility as a druid but getting the sets in the first place is a very long winded process. If they suit your playstyle though the effort is well worth it providing decent nuking power and high AP.

3, Panzerkin
An affectionate term from the clothfeathers i heard in the US boards for the leather equipped balance druid. it is the easiest way to kit for while causing the least amount of flaming and grief from other classes. Once you get past the dark portal kitting up as a true panzerkin is much much easier.

Pre 50 Itemization

While you are levelling up the main power of your spells comes from increased ranks rather than raw spell damage, therefore it tends to be preferable to work on your basic stats alone rather than seek specialist kit. A good mix of Int/Stam/Spirit will see you through levelling Into the 50-60 region.

The main exception here is a staff, there is one BoP staff that is well worth the expense. http://www.thottbot.com/?i=4704 The windweaver staff, Equally the http://www.thottbot.com/?i=4015 from Doan is a godd substitute without the expense..

50-59 Itemization

Between this level period you can actually begin to work on your spell damage kit. The first thing you should get made for you as soon as possible is your Ironfeather set.. http://www.thottbot.com/?set=144 This provides a good starting point to build around .

Next up it’s a trip to the sunken temple, here its time to collect your druid lvl 52 quest reward, the moonshadow stave. http://www.thottbot.com/?i=53203 This should last you as a solid weapon for a good amount of time so you may even want to get it enchanted. While inside ST you will hopefully come across a pair of bloodfire talons http://www.thottbot.com/?i=5086 to equip your glove slot with.

Next to accompany this you can make a quick trip to the auction house to collect your Wildheart belt, bracers http://www.thottbot.com/?set=185 . The next task gets a little harder. You need to run the higher level instances to collect 2 more items of wildheart. LBRS may be your best bet, especially as with some skill you can solo your boots from mother smolderweb.

We also need to work on our ring collection while we are at it. By far the easiest way to get good rings is to get enough honour in PvP. Then you can utilise 2 different ranks of the advisors ring at the same time. http://www.thottbot.com/?i=40658 http://www.thottbot.com/?i=40695.

As for a cloak, here you wish you are horde as only they can get http://www.thottbot.com/?i=40335 . other than that its off to alterac valley for a http://www.thottbot.com/?i=40417 .

With this equipment you should be around 100 spell damage with good mana/5s and caster stats all before hitting level 60.

60 itemization

Once you are around 60 You gain a lot more options. The first option is to ignore further instancing and focus on PvP for your superior rank set. http://www.thottbot.com/?set=539 . Although the set has some nice spell damage on it be warned that its caster stats are pretty abysmal focusing the set more towards a feral build that nukes to finish people off. Generally as a balance druid it is not worth it.

The second option is to complete your wildheart set, although the set itself initially is a pretty poor balance set once you upgrade it to the feralheart set http://www.thottbot.com/?set=513 it becomes exceptionally good. Unlike the pvp set the feralheart set has very good caster stats along with enough feral stats to cover yourself for when you are out of mana. It is a long process to collect and upgrade it but the payback is well worth it.

The third option is to completely specialize in your damage dealing role. There is a good amount of blue kit scattered throughout the top end instances to allow you to reach at least 200 spell damage.

Head slot: http://www.thottbot.com/?i=53208
The helm of the new moon drops in Stratholme scarlet side off the cannonmaster, you can also get dianas pearl necklace from him which is a decent nuking neck item.

Chest slot : http://www.thottbot.com/?i=35729
Drops from the end boss from diremaul west and is a fantastic piece of equipment, as an added bonus you may even find a libram of focus when farming for this.

Shoulders : http://www.thottbot.com/?i=36021
Reasonable stats and spell damage, nothing amazing but there is no real alternative. on the plus side it is very easy to get. you should get a pair in 2-3 tribute runs

Bracers : http://www.thottbot.com/?i=53167
Theres Is very little choice ingame when it comes to leather caster bracers, upgrading your wildheart bracers into feralheart however is very easy to do.

Gloves : http://www.thottbot.com/?i=52565
An item from the wonderful cenarion hold quests and some of the best damage gloves in game. you can get all the badges for this in 2 days of casual play. Its main drawback is its vast lack of stats

Belt : http://www.thottbot.com/?i=51674
High armour and good stats make this a half decent choice for a balance druid. Unfortunatly you don’t get a good balance belt untill you start raiding.

Legs : http://www.thottbot.com/?i=52146
Abyssal leather leggings of sorcery are the best option you have here. good stats and spell damage however trying to farm yourself a pair will take ages. you can however pick up a pair from the auction house usually for a reasonable price due to the lack of balance druids.

Boots : http://www.thottbot.com/?i=22218
Boots of the shriker make for a good sturdy pair of boots, nice stats and mediocre damage.

Neck : http://www.thottbot.com/?i=53177
You should get one of these while farming your helm of the new moon.

Trinkets : For your trinket it is best to go for something with a consistent dps boost. the best of which is http://www.thottbot.com/?i=6142 . it adds some good spell damage but more importantly when critical on mana you can turn this on for a 67mana per wrath nuking spree (assuming moonglow)

And now with burning crusade the fourth option is to proceed through the dark portal however it is HIGHLY reccomended you kit up at least a little before you do so

60 Raiding Itemization

With burning crusades release the lack of balance itemization in level 60 raiding content is no longer an issue as you can completely bypass it, however many people still have items from these instances so I have left the review of such items in.

The sets

Cenarion : http://www.thottbot.com/?set=205 The stats on this set will be a big boost to you as a balance druid, however it lacks in spell damage almost entirely. Generally its best to only grab the helm, belt and bracers.

Haruspex : http://www.thottbot.com/?set=479 With high armour, good caster stats and some spell crit this makes for a half decent set. The neck piece is especially worth it and getting it means you also have access to the 18 spell damage shoulder enchant. Again the main drawback is the lack of spell damage but as the set mainly deals with slots that suffer from poor itemization anyway it doesn’t hit you too hard.

The true highlight of the set however is the change to its trinket from only effecting healing touch to providing 400 haste rating to all spells. At level 70 that’s a 25% haste effect making it an exceptionally powerfull trinket for any caster orientated druid. Especially when you compare it to the mages mind quickening gem which only provides a 20% haste.

Unending life : http://www.thottbot.com/?set=494 A great feral hybrid set to accompany a feralheart set, the mace is especially worhwhile. Although for a pure balance build only the mace is worthwhile.

Lizardhide : http://www.thottbot.com/?set=488 A nice surviveability set for a Panzerkin with its high armour and resecatable stamina. Unfortunatly a lot of its stats are taken up with attack power allocation rather than spelldamge. Good in PvP but leave it at home for raids.

The random drops

MC – Generally the only thing a balance druid will gain out of running molten core is a sense of wasting your time, you may pick up a weapon, ring or trinket but the other instances carry better.

ZG – Here you can pick up several worthwhile items. The first to note is the zandalarian hero charm http://www.thottbot.com/?i=51326. This makes for a great burst dps trinket when the main thing a balance druid lacks is burst dps. Also from hakkar you can get the cloak of consumption one of the best caster cloaks ingame for the level http://www.thottbot.com/?i=51827. you may also pick up the ring set of zanzils concentration http://www.thottbot.com/?set=462.

AQ20 – Now here is the honey pot for balance druids, inside you will find the ever elusive balance belt and gloves with stats on them. http://www.thottbot.com/?i=52670 http://www.thottbot.com/?i=52812. Also some of the best weapons are hiding inside, ossirian himself drops a staff comparable to BWL kit and from his head you can get one of the best nuking necks in the game. http://www.thottbot.com/?i=52661 http://www.thottbot.com/?i=52747.

You will however notice that most of the items you can get from raiding are rings/trinkets/weapons etc and that the amount of actualy balance armour you can find in raiding is almost non existant. This is a trend that continues.

Top end 60 raiding

To date there are exactly 2 pieces of balance druid armour in BWL/AQ40/Naxx while every other class and spec type gets much more. Even elemental shaman are far better provided for than a balance druid here and this is where the clothfeather need came into effect, however with the dark portal opening the lack of itemization is of little consequence.

If you do ever come here as a balance druid then here are the 2 items you will be after..

Gloves of ebru - http://www.thottbot.com/?i=52901
Leggings of Immersion - http://www.thottbot.com/?i=52830

Some would argue that the genesis set http://www.thottbot.com/?set=493 is the top tier balance set however it is plagued by feral stats causing it to have low spelldmg. As such while other casters gain items with 40+ spell damage on them a balance druid is left with half that on his genesis set.

For a extreamely comprehensive listing of both cloth and leather kit ingame refer to http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=12022260&sid=1 on the US forums.

61-70 Itemization – Through the dark portal

Once you step through that portal life just got a LOT easier, many of the quests about reward you with green spelldamage leather to act as a baseline to your kit and there is a good amount of rare quality itemization to be found. Heres a listing of what rare items you should be aiming to get in order.

http://www.thotbott.com/beta?i=2125 is your first item to seek from a long questline in hellfire penninsula starting with you looking for a missing scout, at the end you get the chestpiece in reward and get sent into hellfire citadel.

Once inside hellfire citadels ramparts the second boss will drop a letter that you can hand in to get the quest for a new helm http://www.thotbott.com/beta?i=2182

So off to the blood furnace you go to complete the helm quest, on the way you will kill “the maker” who is the first boss in the blood furnace, remember him as you can get http://www.thotbott.com/beta?i=11935 to drop once you come back here in hard mode. The fight is pretty easy so you should have no problems farming him untill they drop.

From there it wont be untill you enter coilfangs underbog that you get any more rare kit however the are plenty of green items to be had in zangarmarsh, once in the underbog you can collect your first socketed items.

Hungarfen is the first boss in the underbog and can drop a wonderfull pair of http://www.thotbott.com/beta?i=3402 but be warned, hungarfen is quite a tough fight, make sure to avoid the mushrooms he spawns and when he roots himself get everyone out of melee range. The third boss in the instance can drop you a replacement chestpiece http://www.thotbott.com/beta?i=3401 and is rather easy to dispatch, kill him first then the druid add (you cannot sleep the druid).

From there its off to terrokar forest where you can pickup a couple more green items untill you are ready for auchindon mana tombs. Summon in nexus prince haramad and complete his quests before continuing on and you should find yourself the proud owner of http://www.thotbott.com/beta?i=3603

More items to be added once I gather more information

reserved for 61-70 expanded kit info

Level 70 sets

PvP set: http://www.thotbott.com/beta?set=610

This set is relativly easy to collect and packs a lot of punch for its cost, giving you great surviveabilty and mana regeneration coupled with a high armour rating. The difference between this and the epic sets available for the time is minimal making this an ideal baseline set to start your level 70 life at. It should serve you well both in PvP and PvE encounters.

Arena set : http://www.thotbott.com/beta?set=585

The benefits of this over your blue set is rather minimal for the effort you need to go to to collect this, but still if you love the arena then this ones for you.

Malorne Regalia : http://www.thotbott.com/beta?set=639

Benefits of this compared to the PvP set are a higher damage output and a stronger innervate capability leading to better mana regeneration giving this the edge in PvE encounter, you do pay a steep price in surviveability however so it truly is a case of PvE sets for PvE and PvP for PvP but either set will do you well. A majority of this set will be collected from Karhazans 10 man raid content with a few pieces scattered like wildheart was so even if you are in a small guild this should be feasable to collect.

Nordrassil Regalia : http://www.thotbott.com/beta?set=643

Little information available as of yet however it is suspected that this set is from 25 man raid encounters.

The key things to point out about all of this burning crusade itemization is not only is it plentifull but it is also powerfull, in many cases moonkin leather carries a greater spelldamage than mage cloth however mages tend to carry higher spellcrit and hit ratings. If itemization quality stays like this for future content then balance druids are well and truly in the candy shop.

F. Tactical tips for the balance druid

Listed here are some of the nifty things i have learnt in my lifetime as a moonkin and some pvp advice.

Tip 1. Getting out of combat (PvP only)
This is a great ability to know how to use in one on one PvP. If you root a player and then deselect them from your target window by pressing the escape key, when you reach a certain distance away you will get out of combat but the roots DoT will keep them in combat.

Once out of combat you can either go cat form to stealth, drink some water to regain your mana and alternativly if the odds are against you mount and disengage

Tip 2. Carry good water
It is well worth the expense of purchasing your own draenic water over using mage water in order to reduce your downtime, especially on a PvP server when getting caught on low mana means your death.

Tip 3. Utilise your racial skills
You can utilise both warstomp and shadowmeld in moonkin form. warstomp is great as a stun to finish someone off before 2 wraths and a moonfire. Unfortunatly shadowmeld will now break in 1.10 upon the start of your cast but it is still usefull for getting that first hit, it just requires some skill now. use some initiative and strike from behind.

Tip 4. Herbalism/Enchanting is your friend
With this profession ocmbination you can easily keep up a high supply of wizard oils to boost your damage output. Furthermore with the herbs you gather you can easily get your nearby friendly alchemist to make you some arcane elixers and mana potions so alchemy really is not required.

Furthermore enchanting opens up ring enchants for yourself to further boost your spell power over another class while most other proffessions items you require can still be bought off the auction house.

Tip 5. Exploit starfires 100% damage boost to nuke for longer
Your top 3 ranks of starfire will not suffer any diminishing returns on your spellpower. If you are engaging in a lengthy boss fight simply use a lower rank to keep up a steady nuking rate throughout the fight if you are having mana issues. This tactic does depend on your mana regen rate and AP however as with enough regen it can be worth meleeing for mana instead.

Tip 6. Learn how to cope with diminishing returns
The rules of diminishing returns are that if your roots are cast on a target within 15s they lose 25% of their effect untill on the fifth cast the target is immune. however if you cast after 15s has passed the timer is reset so you get full effect. as beyond the third cast your roots wont last more than 15s you really do need to make sure you dont root spam. Cyclone will allways diminish if you chain cast it.

Tip 7. You are still a druid
Dont be afraid to utilise your other forms when needed, just because you are heavy balance doesnt mean you cannot heal or use cat for stealth and bear for its stun and heal abilities.

Q&A

What are some good balance druid movies?

Vengence – A look at balance druid before and after BC
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6635398714314024110

Balance Highway – Okos’ 1st movie (pre BC)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6410143840993150437

Balance Vodoo – Okos’ 2nd movie (pre BC)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5950991950628767514

Balance Dance - Okos' 3rd movie (2.01 treant test)
http://warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=33463

Druid Onyxia – 34 druids take down onyxia (pre BC)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1137123176857793018

Acknowledgements

A big thanks to all the druid community on Al'akir, by far one of the best communities in the many MMO's i have played. who else could have done an all druid raid on onyxia and killed her <3

A thanks to everyone who found my original guide usefull giving me the motivation to rewrite it.

A final thanks to Shadowlegion, its because of gaming communities like you guys i still have the enthusiasm towards online gaming i had many a year ago.

reserved for expansion

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Q u o t e:
Rank 12 Moonfire – Instant cast, 331 Initial damage + 150 damage every 3 seconds
Rank 12 Moonfire + 200 spell damage – Instant cast, 361 Initial damage + 178 damage every 3 seconds

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This a typo, I presume? (Missing the "average" part.)

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Q u o t e:
47/0/14 – Maximum Mana Moonkin
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent-bc=MxcrziIsguVoZxVcz

This build provides the best mana and nuking power output possible for a moonkin in PvE making it usefull for both solo grinding or raiding dps. With the great mana regen providded you also provide good backup healing. This should be considered the default build for an aspiring PvE moonkin.

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One could argue whether to go with Naturalist over Nature's Focus in a PvE build, but I'd imagine TBC instances showing which will be "better", faster cast or pushback resist.
The Omen of Clarity is a joke, really. It still doesnt proc over spells, and I, seriously, doubt it'll ever have enough use to warrant it in here, over, say Nature's Grasp, or a point in Improved FF?
As it is a PvE build, I'd also ponder on changing couple more points from Control of Nature in lieu of the Improved FF.

[Personally, I consider Impr. FF to be a, but admittedly, I havent familiarized myself with TBC itemization enough to claim it's completely useful. Now, at lvl 60, though, *most* well geared rogues/warriors/shamans are able to hit the +hit cap while not gimping themselves. No need for you to, either.]

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Q u o t e:
41/11/5 + 4 – Purely PvP
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent-bc=MxcrziIogzVoxG0oZV

This build provides the most utility possible out of the balance class and is exceptionally brutal in PvP bringing all the nuking power of the balance tree and blending it with the PvP utility of the feral tree giving you longer stuns, easier access to a pounce opener and feral charge, all of which enable you to do an effective stunlock. The main drawback to the build is it is heavily mana intensive to use and has little in terms of mana regen making it less than ideal outside of a PvP setting

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A full PvP build without Nature's Grasp? I mean, seriously?
Works fine as a template for others to complete with, though. Solid build. Feral Charge <3

<<>>

Good guide, all in all.
You're again doing a great service for the hatching Moonking's ;)

A point, I recently completed my 3 part saga on Balance druids.
Not much will change, specwise, when going from 60-to-70, but ultimately your call if you wish to advertize that one.
http://warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=33463

Thanks again, good stuff.

bound to be a few typos in a guide this size, hell i expect the grammar and punctuations probably sloppy too :D

duely added the movie.

for the builds they are rough templates as ever, i included omen in the maximum mana build for the simple fact that in a raid if you need to melee mana back having omen procs can keep your dps up a chunk what with insect swarm not interrupting your swings and any casts under an omen proc dont interrupt your standard spirit regen.

sure its not a great talent but it suffices. on the matter of no natures grasp on the pvp build, put simply, im not fond of the talent, theres 4 points left over so people can grab what they see fit, i know i personally would get feral swiftness for instance but others would prefer other talents.

another great thread lith, i would love have meet you in game (i would have killed you first since i'm a pround aliance night elf), but i stoped play on beta, and noone is better to improve my skills them my boomkin master :P

thanksfor teh great thread nce again.

Thanks for your efforts in updating your guide.

Regarding weapons, I would recommend to have Earthwarden as your swap weapon when you need to regen mana, that extra armor should come in handy since you need to get close :)

and ofc the fact that its 140+ DPS in the hands of a moonkin ^^ it will be added when i expand the 61-70 kit listing