Balance Druid Guide - Talents, Rotations, Races & More

Playable Races

Alliance - Night Elf & Skyborne

Horde - Tauren & Skyborne

Alliance Skyborne has one potentially useful ability in Read Ley Line. When out in the open world "Ley Lines" can appear as blue glows or paths on the ground. If you activate this racial near one, you get this regeneration buff for 15 minutes, which is insane for open world questing. Even without the Ley Line nearby, this 15 seconds of regeneration between encounters can be very helpful to keep things moving along. Despite this being a pretty cool ability, and potentially very good for Quality of Life, it just isn't enough to recommend the race. Also know that Skyborne Druids have different appearances when they transform into Bear, Cat or Boomkin form, whether you like the new look or not, this is probably the coolest thing about this entire race.

Recommended Races

Night Elf has their new active ability Elune's Light which grants 10% Critical Chance for 15 Seconds. Quickness is also beneficial, granting you 1% increased Dodge and 2% increased run speed.

Tauren comes with War Stomp, stunning nearby enemies for 2 seconds and Endurance which increases your total health by 5% and grants 1% increased Chance to hit. They also get Cultivation which gives you extra herbs!

See our full racial abilities guide for every other race's bonuses.

The primary Skills you’ll use are Wrath, Moonfire, Entangling Roots, Insect Swarm and Starfire.

1. Open up on enemies with Wrath or Starfire. Starfire opener is more damage at the cost of more mana, your call.
2. Cast Insect Swarm and Moonfire on them to get the dots rolling, then spam Wrath.
3. Once they get close, use Entangling Roots to root them in place. You can either try to move away first if they have a lot of health still, or just stand your ground before you go back to spamming Wrath.

Take note that this rotation is going to cost a lot of mana. An alternate strategy it to literally just spam Wrath. The above rotation is going to be more effective on enemies that need a little more damage to take down than the Wrath spam strategy can provide.

Remember you have a lot of great utility as a Druid as well. You can use Entangling Roots to root an enemy that is coming for you or another helpless ally. You can put Faerie Fire up on bosses to help your melee gain a huge damage boost against them. You can remove Poisons and Curses form your allies with Abolish Poison and Remove Curse. There's Thorns that you can put on your tank and Hibernate to put a beast or dragon to sleep. A druids tool kit for utility really is incredible.

Visit your Class Trainer often to get your new skills, levels 10 & 20 specifically have some incredible new abilities and upgrades to your current ones. Every time you hit an even level go visit them to see what's available level 4, 6, 8, 10, etc.

Keep up your Mark of the Wild on your allies at all times, if someone dies don't forget to reapply it to them.

You'll need the reagent "Stranglethorn Seeds" to cast Rebirth, make sure you always have some on hand.

A Druid's Favorite Stats are Intellect and Spirit. Intellect increases your maximum Mana and increases your Spell Critical Strike Chance. Spirit increases your Health and Mana regeneration when you're out of combat. Stamina is always solid as an alternate, just avoid Strength and Agility entirely.

In a group setting you're going to want to get your Moonfire and Insect Swarm up on everyone before you start spamming Wrath on the primary target. When fighting a boss in dungeons you'll likely need to refresh your DOTs from Moonfire and Insect Swarm swarm at least 1 time before the boss dies.

Remember to get your Faerie Fire up on bosses and if things are looking grim don't hesitate to toss a Regrowth, Rejuvenation or Healing Touch on allies to keep your party in the game.

Make sure to ask a Mage for water every time you have one in your group so you can save money buying it yourself. You're going to need a lot of water!

Remember to buff your party with Mark of the Wild and use your Entangling Roots to help an ally that has a enemy coming after them.

Balance Druid while leveling is all about managing your mana, find a rotation using the skills explained in the gameplay section that works for you to not have to drink an entire manas bar worth of water after each encounter. The talent tree is going to help you out a lot with this form Improved Wrath and Moonglow but you're still going to have mana issues.

Buying cheap Mana Potions off the auction house is a great way to make your life a lot easier as a caster while leveling up. If this isn't your main character and you have some gold laying around consider keeping several stacks of Mana potions on hand and use them often to keep yourself moving through the packs of enemies.

Remove Curse and Abolish Poison are your friend, use them!

Alt Modified Moonfire / Insect Swarm

This macro allows you to use one button to cast both of your Damage over Time abilities. Simply push the button to cast one and hold ALT and push the same button to cast the other

/cast [mod:alt] Insect Swarm; Moonfire