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Balance Druid Guide for WoW Forever

Balance Druid in WoW Forever: a root-and-nuke build to level 30, the Eclipse Moonkin raid build at 60, and the Wrath and Starfire rotation.

DruidBalanceLevelingPvEPvPRaidsDungeonsDPSAoE

By stillsixty staffUpdated

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Variants

Overview

Balance is the caster Druid, and in WoW Forever it finally has a rotation instead of one button. Improved Wrath turns Wrath into a fast, half-price filler, and Eclipse turns every Wrath into a faster Starfire. You weave the two spells, keep Moonfire and Insect Swarm ticking, and Vengeance makes every crit deal double damage.

At level 30 you level as a root-and-nuke caster: Entangling Roots holds a mob at range while Wrath and your damage over time spells kill it. At 60 you raid in Moonkin Form, the form that raises the whole party's critical strike chance by 3% and doubles your Omen of Clarity procs. Forever's Balance talents also make Moonkin mana-efficient: Moonglow cuts the cost of every damage spell by 25%.

Strengths

  • A real rotation: Wrath charges Eclipse, Eclipse speeds up Starfire, and both feed Nature's Grace.
  • Big crits. Vengeance gives Arcane and Nature crits a +100% damage bonus, so your crits deal double damage.
  • Raid utility: Moonkin Aura, Faerie Fire, Innervate, Rebirth in combat and Gift of the Wild for the whole raid.
  • Cheap damage. Moonglow and Improved Wrath together cut Wrath's cost by more than 60%.
  • You still heal. Out of Moonkin Form you have the full Druid healing kit for emergencies and between pulls.

Weaknesses

  • Few threat tools. Night Elf Shadowmeld is the only ability that sheds threat, and Subtlety costs you damage talents, so watch your meter on the pull.
  • Starfire is a long cast. Without Eclipse charges it sits at 3 seconds even with talents, and interrupts hurt.
  • Moonkin Form can't cast healing spells. Shifting out to heal costs mana and a global cooldown.
  • Before 40 you have no Moonkin Form and no Hurricane, so the leveling build is single-target only.
  • Hurricane is expensive. AoE is a tool for big packs, not your farming engine.

What's new in Forever

New in Forever
  • Eclipse (tier 5, 3 ranks): each Wrath takes 0.5 seconds off your next two Starfires. The buff stores up to 4 charges and lasts 15 seconds.
  • Genesis (tier 1, 5 ranks): +5% periodic damage and healing from all your spells and abilities.
  • Nature's Majesty (tier 2, 2 ranks): +4% critical strike chance with spells and melee attacks.
  • Nature's Splendor (tier 3, requires Nature's Majesty): Moonfire and Rejuvenation last 3 seconds longer, Regrowth 6 seconds longer and Insect Swarm 2 seconds longer.
  • Improved Wrath now also cuts Wrath's mana cost by 50%, and Moonglow cuts the cost of all damage spells by 25% (heals no longer count).
  • Improved Moonfire gives +10% damage and critical strike chance to Moonfire, Nature's Reach adds 4% hit on top of its range, and Vengeance covers every Arcane and Nature spell.
  • Nature's Grace now fires on non-periodic spell crits and gives 10% casting speed and a 10% shorter global cooldown for 3 seconds.
  • Overgrowth lets you root two extra targets. Entangling Roots is limited to one target without it.
  • Moonkin Form raises party crit chance by 3% (it does not stack with Leader of the Pack), doubles Omen of Clarity procs and blocks only healing spells.
  • Omen of Clarity is baseline at 20 and procs from spells. Wrath never consumes it, so it always lands on something expensive. Nature's Grasp is trained at 10.
  • Mark of the Wild and Gift of the Wild last an hour, include Improved Mark of the Wild for free, and Gift of the Wild covers the whole raid.

Talents

The leveling build. Improved Wrath makes Wrath your fast, cheap nuke, Moonglow keeps you out of the water break, and Improved Entangling Roots lets a rooted mob soak your damage without breaking free. From 30, with Vengeance at 5/5, your crits deal double damage.

Split 21/0/0 · 21 points at level 30 · Open in calculator

Balance

21 points

Feral Combat

0 points

Restoration

0 points

Talent order

  1. Levels 10–14: 5/5 Improved Wrath. Wrath drops from a 2-second to a 1.5-second cast and costs half as much. It is the spell you'll cast most from 10 to 60.
  2. Levels 15–17: 3/3 Moonglow. 25% cheaper Wrath, Moonfire, Starfire and Roots. Fewer drinks means faster levels.
  3. Levels 18–19: 2/2 Improved Moonfire. +10% damage and crit chance on Moonfire, your opener and your finisher on the move.
  4. Levels 20–21: 2/2 Nature's Majesty. +4% crit chance. Every crit matters more once Vengeance arrives.
  5. Levels 22–24: 3/3 Improved Entangling Roots. Roots deal 75% more damage, and a rooted mob takes up to 75% more damage before the root breaks. That is the whole leveling loop: root, back off, nuke.
  6. Level 25: 1/1 Insect Swarm. A second damage over time spell that also cuts the target's chance to hit by 2%.
  7. Levels 26–30: 5/5 Vengeance. +100% crit damage bonus on Arcane and Nature spells. Your Wrath and Moonfire crits now deal double damage.

Flexible points

  • Fighting a lot of higher-level mobs? Take 2/2 Nature's Reach at 20–21 instead of Nature's Majesty for 4% hit and 20% more range. The rest of the order stays the same.
  • Leveling with a partner who tanks? Skip Improved Entangling Roots and put those three points into Genesis for more Moonfire and Insect Swarm damage.

Races

Best races

Alliance: Night Elf. Elune's Light gives +10% critical strike chance with spells for 15 seconds every 3 minutes. With Vengeance doubling your crit damage, that is 15 seconds of your hardest-hitting spells every 3 minutes. Shadowmeld now works in combat: it discourages enemies from attacking you, with a 2-minute cooldown. No other racial or spell a Moonkin has sheds threat.

Horde: Tauren. Endurance gives 5% more health and +1% hit, and hit is the first stat you gear for. War Stomp stuns up to five enemies within 8 yards for 2 seconds, which gives you time to root, run or get off a Hurricane.

Skyborne on either faction. They need a Heroic or higher Forever pack. Wind Blessed gives 1% Haste and Elemental Insight adds 5% damage against Elementals. It's a fine pick if you prefer the look, but Elune's Light and Endurance are both worth more.

All playable races

  • Night Elf: Elune's Light, Shadowmeld, Quickness (+1% dodge and 2% movement speed), Wisp Spirit.
  • High Order Skyborne (Alliance, new): Wind Blessed, Elemental Insight, Read Ley Line to double your health and mana regeneration, and Walk on Air to glide for 10 seconds.
  • Tauren: Endurance, War Stomp, Cultivation to grow a duplicate of an herb once per herb, and Plainsrunning for up to 30% more movement speed while you keep moving.
  • Windshaper Skyborne (Horde, new): Wind Blessed, Elemental Insight, Walk on Air and Skysight for 10% more movement and mounted speed.

Rotation

Single-target pull

  1. Open with Starfire from 30 yards. It is your biggest hit, and the mob needs a few seconds to reach you.
  2. Cast Moonfire and Insect Swarm while it runs in. Both tick for the whole fight.
  3. When the mob is 10 yards away, cast Entangling Roots. Step back to maximum range.
  4. Cast Wrath until the mob dies. Improved Entangling Roots keeps the root in place through most of that damage.
  5. If the root breaks early, reroot and keep casting. Finish a mob that's almost dead with an instant Moonfire instead of starting another cast.

Two mobs

Root the mob that hits harder and kill the other one in melee range with Wrath. You can only have one target rooted before Overgrowth, and Nature's Grasp applies Entangling Roots too, so use one or the other: cast Nature's Grasp before the pull when you expect two mobs, let it root the first one that swings at you, and don't hard-cast Roots until that root breaks.

Mana and downtime

  • Keep Mark of the Wild and Thorns on yourself. Thorns damages every mob that hits you (11 Nature damage per hit at rank 3).
  • Omen of Clarity procs from your spells. Spend the free cast on Starfire or Moonfire, never on healing you don't need.
  • Heal with Rejuvenation between pulls and drink only when you're below half mana.
  • At 30 you learn Travel Form. Use it between every quest objective.

Stat priority

Leveling

  1. Spell Power
  2. Intellect
  3. Stamina
  4. Spirit

Spell Power adds damage to every Wrath and Moonfire tick, and at levels 10–30 even small amounts are a large share of a spell's damage. Intellect gives you mana and crit. Rooted mobs rarely hit you, but casters and runners do, so Stamina comes before Spirit.

Gear

Armor and weapons

Take any leather or cloth with Spell Power, then Intellect and Stamina. Druids wear leather and cloth, and cloth quest rewards often carry more Spell Power, so don't skip them. For your weapon, take a staff with Spell Power, or a one-handed mace or dagger with an off-hand. In Forever, caster weapons roll Spell Power on their level upgrades, so a new weapon at the right level is a real power spike.

Gear from healing items

Healing gear now also grants spell damage equal to a third of its healing value. A healing piece with nothing better in its slot is a real damage upgrade while you level.

Professions

Herbalism and Alchemy is the Balance pair. Alchemy makes your flasks, elixirs and mana potions, and Herbalism feeds it for free. Tauren can Cultivate a duplicate of an herb, once per herb, for extra herbs on top of their Herbalism.

Tailoring and Enchanting is the gear pair: Tailoring makes cloth caster gear from 1 to 60, and Enchanting disenchants the pieces you outgrow.

For gold, level with Herbalism and Skinning. Travel Form at 30 carries you between nodes 40% faster, and both materials sell at every level from 1 to 60.

Group play and dungeons

Your job in a group is damage first and support second.

  • Buff everyone. Mark of the Wild on each party member, Gift of the Wild on the raid. It lasts an hour now, so buff once per dungeon run.
  • Faerie Fire the boss. Physical damage dealers gain from the armor reduction, and it also stops the target from stealthing.
  • Hibernate a Beast or Dragonkin that the tank can't hold. Hibernate sleeps it for up to 40 seconds, and damage wakes it.
  • Roots a runner or a caster. Entangling Roots works indoors in Forever, so you can control a mob in any dungeon.
  • Remove Curse and Abolish Poison. Remove Curse removes one Curse or Bane. Abolish Poison cures a poison every 2 seconds for 8 seconds.
  • Rebirth a healer or tank who dies mid-fight. It's a 30-minute cooldown and needs a seed reagent (Ironwood Seed at 60), so pick the target that saves the pull.
  • Moonkin Aura only reaches your party, and it does not stack with Leader of the Pack. Ask for a spot in the group with the most casters.

PvP

Balance has the tools to lock one player out of a fight. Entangling Roots roots a melee target, Nature's Grasp punishes the one who reaches you, and shifting into Moonkin, Travel or Bear Form breaks every snare and Polymorph on you. In a fight, keep Moonfire and Insect Swarm on your target, root it, and land Starfires from range. Improved Starfire stuns the target 15% of the time, which often gives you a free second cast.

Tips

Wrath first, then Starfire

Never cast Starfire without an Eclipse charge in a raid. Two Wraths cost less than a single Starfire, take 3 seconds, and speed up your next four Starfires. The Wrath casts are part of your damage, not a tax on it.

Moonkin can't heal

Moonkin Form blocks every healing spell. If you need to throw a Regrowth, shift out, cast it and shift back. The shift costs 35% of base mana, so don't do it for a heal someone else can cover.

Train at every even level. Wrath, Moonfire and Starfire ranks are your damage. Levels 20, 30 and 40 bring Starfire, Insect Swarm ranks and Hurricane.

Refresh your damage over time spells when they fall off, not early. A cycle runs longer than Moonfire or Insect Swarm lasts, and Eclipse charges hold for 15 seconds, so a refresh between two Starfires costs you nothing.

Save Rebirth for the tank or the healer. Revive brings back anyone out of combat for less mana, and needs no reagent.

Cast Thorns on the tank. Every mob that hits the tank takes 22 Nature damage at rank 6.

Macros

Moonkin Form that never cancels itself by accident when you press it twice.

Moonkin Form
#showtooltip Moonkin Form
/cast [noform] Moonkin Form

Regrowth that shifts you out of any form first, on your mouseover target or your current target.

Shift and Regrowth
#showtooltip Regrowth
/cancelform [form]
/cast [@mouseover,help,nodead][] Regrowth

Innervate on your focus target, or on yourself if you have no focus. Set your healer as focus before the pull.

Focus Innervate
#showtooltip Innervate
/cast [@focus,help,nodead][@player] Innervate

Hurricane at your cursor, with no targeting circle to click.

Cursor Hurricane
#showtooltip Hurricane
/cast [@cursor] Hurricane

Rebirth on your mouseover target, so you can resurrect someone without losing your boss target.

Mouseover Rebirth
#showtooltip Rebirth
/cast [@mouseover,help,dead][] Rebirth

Changelog

  • Guide published with Level 30 and Level 60 Raid builds.

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