Balance Druid PvP Guide for Mists of Pandaria Classic

Balance Druidss have very high burst damage during cooldowns, and can open from stealth, but also either require a lot of hard-casting for damage or are completely reliant on damage over time effects with no dispel protection, and are thus easy to shut down. Starfall also stops working while the Druid is crowd controlled.

They have decent control tools in Cyclone and Entangling Roots, but also a hard time using them while under pressure as both require hard-casting. Typhoon can also be a good disruptive tool, which helps particularly against melee cleaves.

Overall, the Balance Druid is a bursty caster who can easily steal wins out of nowhere with Starfall and Shooting Stars procs, has nasty casts if left unchecked and a lot of instant damage over time for split pressure on multiple targets, making it a great class to PvP with.

Strengths

• Powerful damage-over-time spells that can be applied to multiple enemies
• Resilient to interrupts as both Nature and Arcane can be used for damage purposes
• Excellent crowd control with Cyclone and the Solar Beam + root combo
• Strong cooldown in Starfall and high surprise burst damage from Shooting Stars procs

Weaknesses

• Relies on dispellable DoTs to deal the majority of damage, without any dispel protection for them
• Usually gets focused in arenas as defensive capabilities are weak and being forced to Bear Form disables most damage output
• Damage cooldowns are easy to shut down by CC chains, and Starfall is completely disabled whenever you are crowd controlled

Notably, Wild Charge when used in caster form allows you to instantly fly to an allies position up to 25 yards away on half the cooldown of Displacer Beast. Since this includes your own Wild Mushroom, you can essentially move to anywhere you have line of sight of almost instantly, including getting up or moving between pillars on arenas with vertical gameplay!

Cenarion Ward is recommended for its high healing, short cooldown, and ability to heal other people than yourself, which is especially useful when playing pure DPS compositions.

Force of Nature provides an instant way to Entangling Roots enemies on top of its damage contribution, making it a very valuable talent. We also take multiple crowd control options before picking Heart of the Wild as the final talent for emergency healing needs.

• Glyph of Cyclone — increases the range on Cyclone by 5 yards, which is very useful for crowd controlling enemy ranged players.
• Glyph of Might of Ursoc — increases the power, but also the cooldown of Might of Ursoc, making it situational but usually worthwhile.
• Glyph of Barkskin — reduces the chance you will be critically struck by 25% while Barkskin is active, which is great in PvP as critical strikes are the most dangerous form of incoming damage.
• Glyph of Fae Silence — makes Faerie Fire silence enemies for 3 seconds, but also adds a 15-second cooldown. While it forces you to go into Bear Form to use, the ranged silence can be invaluable against caster compositions.
• Glyph of Guided Stars — allows you to use Starfall without breaking crowd control such as Polymorph, and should be slotted in when playing with compositions where breakable CC is used.

None of the Minor glyphs ave any PvP combat benefits, so feel free to pick cosmetic / world utility options.

If you have not already, we recommend reading the Spells Summary page first. Knowing how each spell and ability works in detail will greatly increase your understanding of the topics discussed on this section. In PvP you will need to react and adapt to different situations, meaning you will not always follow the recommended rotation below. Aim to do whatever allows you to stick on your target the most while dealing as much damage as possible.

1. Use Shooting Stars procs for added burst damage on the kill target;
2. Use Force of Nature to burst, preferably when you have enemies under crowd control to avoid having them use their own crowd control on your Treants immediately;
3. Use Starfall to help burst even more in a similarly favourable situation or to create more split pressure if all enemies are in range and you are at no risk of being crowd controlled for the duration;
4. Cast Starsurge on cooldown;
5. Apply and refresh Sunfire followed by Moonfire;
6. If you can free cast, use your Starfire and Wrath to build towards an Eclipse, otherwise keep using Sunfire and Moonfire with Lunar Shower.

Balance Druids have multiple cooldowns, both defensive and offensive.

Use your offensive cooldown Starfall along with your teammates' cooldowns when the enemies are crowd controlled in order to create maximum pressure and possibly land a kill or at least force trinkets and defensive cooldowns.

Use your defensive cooldowns, such as Barkskin and Might of Ursoc, whenever you drop low or are facing heavy damage. Most of the time it will be enough to use a single one of these, but for extra dangerous situations you, will want to use multiple of them at once.

In addition to your main spells and cooldowns, you also have many utility spells that can be game-changing when used in the proper scenario. Make sure you understand each of the spells listed below to fully take advantage of your entire spellbook.

• Solar Beam can be used to silence the enemy healer for an extended duration alongside Entangling Roots or Force of Nature to prevent him from walking out of it;
• Typhoon to reposition enemies or mass interrupt casts;
• Stampeding Roar — can be useful to chase fleeing enemies and also to allow yourself or allies to escape danger and kite away when low on health.
• Dash — provides you with a large movement speed increase, which has similar personal benefits to Stampeding Roar.
• Cyclone — is your main form of crowd control. This will prevent a target from being able to do anything, including being healed, but will also prevent any damage to them for the duration.
• Faerie Fire — reduces enemy armor and prevents re-stealthing.
• Nature's Grasp — causes players who attack you to be hit by automatic Entangling Roots, making it easier to get away from enemy melee.

If you are looking to maximize the potential of your Balance Druid in Mists of Pandaria PvP, these are the recommended professions:

1. Blacksmithing — Gives you two additional sockets with Socket Bracer and Socket Gloves, enabling you to stack more Crit or Haste in this season.
2. Jewelcrafting — Gives you three extra powerful gems, which can boost your Crit or Haste even higher.

The list linked below includes the best possible gear setup for a Balance Druid in PvP.

When it comes to evaluating Balance Druid's place within the Arena, we have created a number of guides devoted to listing a variety of popular team compositions which you can find below.