Balance Druid DPS Spec, Builds, and Talents — Midnight Pre-Patch (12.0)

Note that these builds are generic recommendations for various content. For more specific recommendations for the Raid and Mythic+, check out the dedicated pages below.

2.

Best Talents for Balance Druid

Single-Target Talents Multi-target & Mythic+ Talents Explained

2.1.

Best Single-Target Talents for Balance Druid

This build is optimal for pure single-target situations. You can easily tech in Twin Moons for Nature's Balance if you need the Moonfire spread.

Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!

2.2.

Best Multi-target & Mythic+ Talents for Balance Druid

This is our recommended build for AoE scenarios. This works well for AoE Fights in Raids, as well as most Mythic+.

For Delves or solo content, remove Nature's Vigil and Innervate and you can flex them into more healing, more crowd control, or more defense.

Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!

2.3.

Talents Explained for Balance Druid

Note that we do not explain every Talent in the tree on this page. We only explain Talents that are part of our optimal builds for single-target and AoE. For full details and explanations of every Talent, please visit our Spells page via the button below.

Balance Druid The War Within Spell Glossary

2.4.

Class Talents

As Druid have 4 different specializations that span over all role types including melee DPS, they have the widest talent selection of any other class. Several talents will have no effect on you and will be skipped without mention if not used for pathing.

2.4.1.

Row 1-4

As a Balance Druid, you will automatically start with points in Starfire, Starsurge, and Moonkin Form. You must select 8 total talents to continue to the 5th row.

Rake	A DoT for Feral Druids and never taken.
Frenzied Regeneration	Strong self-healing while in Bear form. This is a recommended pathing talent as well as useful on its own.
Rejuvenation	A light Heal overtime which can be cast on yourself or others. Could be useful but generally avoided.
Grievous Wounds	Feral talent, never taken.
Swipe	Feral talent, never taken.
Ursoc's Spirit	Increases our base Stamina which is further increased in Bear Form. Always recommend taking this.
Wild Growth	A multi target Heal. There are some instances where this may be used but not ordinarily taken.
Rip	Feral talent, never taken.
Verdant Heart	While using your defensives, increases your Healing taken. A good pathing talent though largely unnoticable.
Remove Corruption	A vital talent when usable. You can choose between Verdant Heart and this talent for pathing.
Maim	Feral talent, never taken.
Killer Instinct	Reduces physical damage taken. Can be a great talent against certain damaging mechanics. Generally taken if pathing this way.
Ironfur	Guardian talent, never taken.
Improved Barkskin	Improves your baseline defensive spell. Mandatory talent.
Hibernate	This can provide some additional utility though it is a bit niche in its uses.
Nurturing Instinct	Increases our damage on the Class tree and must be taken.
Sunfire	This is our second DoT effect. This interacts with many other talents and Balance Druid specific spells and should always be taken.

2.4.2.

Row 5-7

You must select 12 more talents over the first 7 rows to get access to the final talent block.

Primal Fury	Feral talent, never taken.
Thick Hide	A flat, consistent damage reduction. Always taken.
Light of the Sun	A niche talent which can reduce the cooldown of Solar Beam. This is normally skipped for other talents.
Natural Recovery	Increases all Healing taken. A good pickup and almost always talented.
Astral Influence	Increases cast range by 5-yards. This may not always be necessary but it is hard to find a talent we are not already taken which would be better.
Wild Charge/ Tiger Dash	Wild Charge provides several different movement abilities and is normally the defaulted talent. Tiger Dash could have some niche uses depending on the encounter needing high speeds more often.
Soothe	While not always necessary as a utility spell, it is one of the few sources of de-raging and a necessary pathing talent.
Aessina's Renewal	Provides some passive healing when dealt moderate damage. This is a decent talent on its own but also a required pathing talent.
Starlight Conduit	Increases Wrath, Starfire, and Starsurge damage by 5%. Always taken.
Feline Swiftness	A useful Feral inspired talent which increases our base movement speed.
Well-Honed Instincts	Heals you when you fall below 40% Health Generally always taken.
Matted Fur	Applies a small shield when using Barkskin. Generally not needed as the shield is extremely small.
Stampeding Roar	Increases group speed and is a must choose talent.
Lingering Healing	Increases the duration of your two basic HoTs. Not a talent we take as Balance Druids.
Typhoon	A utility option that knocks mobs. First point to drop if not needed.
Mass Entanglement/ Ursol's Vortex	A utility option that controls mobs. One roots and the other pulls them back to a set point.

2.4.3.

Row 8-10

Oakskin	Increases the damage reduction of Barkskin to 30%.
Perfectly-Honed Instincts	Reduces the cooldown of Well-Honed Instincts. Can sometimes be taken as a flex option.
Instincts of the Claw	Feral and Guardian talent, never taken.
Lycara's Teachings	A substantial DPS increase and is a mandatory pick.
Lore of the Grove	Increases your damage.
Gale Winds/ Incessant Tempest	Crowd Control improvements depending on your needs. Very niche depending on encounter/
Gift of the Wild	Gives you more Versatility which increases your damage and survivability.
Incapacitating Roar/ Mighty Bash	Crowd Control depending on your needs.
Ursine Vigor	Increases your Health in Bear Form when you initially swap. Good to prevent one shots.
Improved Stampeding Roar	Reduces the cooldown of Stampeding Roar. A good flex option in keys or if needed in Raid.
Circle of the Heavens	Increases your damage.
Lycara's Inspiration	Allows the effects of Lycara's Teachings to linger for 5-seconds. Good if you are swapping forms regularly.
Symbiotic Relationship	Could provide some minor healing but since it is off of your own self healing, is not a great option.
Forestwalk	Increases Movement Speed and Healing recieved when you cast Regrowth. Decent flex point with Keeper of the Grove and Blooming Infusion
Fluid Form	Can return you to Moonkin Form from any other form if you cast Wrath. Recommended if you have extra points.
Heart of the Wild	Provides you with additional bonuses when casted. This could be a good defensive or off-healing spell if needed.
Innervate	A potent healer external.

2.5.

Spec Talents

2.5.1.

Row 1-4

Eclipse	Our core spell and mandatory to progress.
Shooting Stars	Strong passive Astral Power generation that feeds into other talents later.
Solar Beam	Our AoE interrupt.
Solstice	Increases the proc rate of Shooting Stars.
Warrior of Elune/ Force of Nature	Warrior of Elune for Elune's Chosen and Force of Nature with Keeper of the Grove.
Twin Moons	Used to spread Moonfire. Useable by your Force of Nature treants when using Keeper of the Grove
Improved Eclipse	Grants an additional charge of Eclipse allowing you to have better uptime.
Nature's Balance	A passive buff that increases Astral Power generation. Taken when you do not need multi target talents.
Umbral Intensity	Buffs the generator associated with the current Eclipse. Wrath is buffed during Solar Eclipse and Starfire is buffed during Lunar Eclipse.
Aetherial Kindling/ Meteor Storm	Taken during multi target. Aetherial Kindling will focus on longer pulls where you do not want to refresh DoTs and Meteor Storm will be better on shorter pulls where burst damage is necessary.

2.5.2.

Row 5-7

Wild Surges	Increases our fillers chance to Critically Strike and increases their Astral Power generation.
Celestial Alignment	Our main cooldown. It can be further improved or adjusted later in the tree. It provides both Eclipse states which allows your spenders ( Starsurge and Starfall) as well as other abilities tagged with Astral, to get double the bonuses as they will be buffed by both the Nature and Arcane damage components of Eclipse.
Soul of the Forest	Increases Astral Power generation of our builders depending on our Eclipse.
Wild Mushroom/ Sunseeker Mushroom	Sunseeker Mushroom is a proc based multi-target spell which affects targets DoTed with Sunfire.
Nature's Grace/ Elune's Challenge	Nature's Grace increases cast speed of your next fillers after you leave Eclipse and Elune's Challenge increases your Haste outside of Eclipse as long as you leave your previous Eclipse under 40 Astral Power. Elune's Challenge is generally better as it gives you more control over how many resources your bring into each Eclipse state.
Stellar Amplification	Applies a debuff which increases DoT damage and Shooting Stars to the target when hit with Starsurge. This buff can be extended to 20-seconds.
Orbital Strike/ Whirling Stars	Reduces the cooldown of Celestial Alignment and fires a beam towards your target location that applies Stellar Flare and deals burst damage. Whirling Stars gives you two charges of your cooldown and is great for most content.
Touch of the Cosmos	Provides a chance for your generators to proc a free cast of your spenders. Viable alongside and enables the use of Hail of Stars.
Meteorites	Deals additional Astral damage to random targets each time your Starfall deals damage.
Cosmic Rapidity	A passive that increases our DoT tick rate. This affects Shooting Stars and its proc rate as well.
Celestial Fire	Increases the base damage of our DoTs and Shooting Stars.
Astral Communion	Increases your total Astral Power and provides Astral Power when entering Eclipse. Most builds do not need the Astral Power it provides.
Hail of Stars	Procs Solstice when you cast a free spender. Can be used on single target.
Starlord	Provides a stacking Haste buff. High uptime of 3-stacks is vital to maximizing DPS. Pool Astral Power at the end of each Starlord window.

2.5.3.

Row 8-10

Sculpt the Stars	Reduces the recharge time of Eclipse by 2-seconds. This increases uptime slightly. Can be taken but oftentimes there are better talents.
Balance of All Things	Increases Critical Strike Chance at the start of each Eclipse. If affects Nature and Arcane spells independently allowing this buff to double dip on spells that deal Astral Damage.
Total Eclipse	Gives upto a 20% chance to activate both Eclipse states. This functions the same as Celestial Alignment but does not have the extra haste on top.
Rattle the Stars/ Starweaver	Two strong rotation defining passives. Rattle the Stars is generally the go-to passive, which is a flat passive buff that increases damage and reduces resource costs. Starweaver can out perform Rattle the Stars on hybrid fights where you have talents that will buff both spender abilities.
Power of Goldrinn	A strong passive proc that increases our single target damage.
Sundered Firmament/ Orbit Breaker	Passives that generate Astral Power and deal damage. Used on multi target or with Elune's Chosen when you always take Sundered Firmament. More likely to be taken on multi target.
Incarnation: Chosen of Elune/ Convoke the Spirits	Improves Celestial Alignment. Adding a Critical Strike buff and increasing its duration. Convoke the Spirits casts 16 spells in rapid succession. Good for single target as it does not cast many multi-target spells
New Moon/ Fury of Elune	A additional spell cooldown for Balance Druid. New Moon is sometimes taken on single target, and Fury of Elune is taken on cleave and AoE when specced into Elune's Chosen.
Umbral Embrace	Gives a chance to turn one of your fillers into Astral damage and deal increased damage. Generally not taken.
Harmony of the Heavens	A strong stacking buff that increases your damage in the current Eclipse when you cast a spender.
Elune's Guidance	Improves Incarnation: Chosen of Elune by reducing the cost of spenders. Improves Convoke the Spirits by reducing its cooldown. Not often taken.
Denizen of the Dream	DoTs can spawn dragons to fight with you for 30-seconds.
Radiant Moonlight	Improves the damage and cooldown of New Moon and Fury of Elune.

Balance Druid gets to pick between two Hero Talent trees that fill vastly different roles. They have Keeper of the Grove and Elune's Chosen.

Keeper of the Grove is the stronger of the two options for almost all scenarios. It deals greater single target damage and has the flexibility to deal with burst and cleave much better than the other option. Force of Nature pairing with Dream Surge to provide short cooldown bursts throughout each encounter but can be easily stacked with other cooldowns for a potent combination of damaging buffs.

Elune's Chosen heavily focuses on Arcane spells and Starfire. Lunar Calling makes you chain cast Starfire at all times which can be a bit clunky given its long cast time compared to Wrath. This can be taken in some instances of sustained multi-target over the more bursty Keeper of the Grove.

There will be the option to go into "War Mode." Enabling War Mode provides the following benefits:

• PvP Talents enabled in the outdoor world.
• 10% increase in World Quest rewards at maximum level.
• 10% more experience gained while leveling.

With the benefits of enabling War Mode for leveling and PvE content, it is recommended enabling the feature to maximize your leveling and rewards at maximum level. However, you will make yourself available for open-world PvP, and the possibility of being killed while leveling or doing World Quests exists.

In this section, we will list the PvP Talents best for leveling and doing solo / small group PvE content. Note that these may not be optimal in actual PvP situations.

• Star Burst is a passive effect that calls down falling stars on enemies during Starfall. Enemies who run into this take damage and get knocked up. Allies can pick these up and run into enemies to detonate them.
• Moonkin Aura is amazing for group combat and strong for solo content. This can buff all members in your party and help finish quests and rares faster. We would recommend this for all group content.
• Thorns can provide minimal peel or damage in open-world content.
• Malorne's Swiftness will let you move at 100% Movement Speed even while in combat. Great for open-world content.