WotLK Classic Balance Druid Spec, Builds, Talents, and Glyphs
On this page, you will find out the best PvE talent choices and builds for your Balance Druid in WotLK Classic, as well as advised glyphs.
Balance Leveling Talents
If you were looking for leveling builds, please refer to our leveling guide for Druids.
Best Wrath Balance PvE Talent Build
If you are no longer using the Tier 9 2-set bonus, you should use these talents.
Mana talents are mostly avoided, but Omen of Clarity is taken to enable the
Tier 10 2-piece bonus.
Improved Moonfire
is not great but Mana issues are no longer present at Icecrown Citadel gear levels,
thus it is picked. We also recommend a point into
Nature's Reach to avoid
threat issues on lucky pulls.
We also recommend running Typhoon without the
Glyph of Typhoon,
at least in fights such as Deathbringer Saurfang where the knockback is
great against the blood beasts.
Wrath Balance with Tier 9 2-set PvE Talent Build
When using the 2-piece bonus Tier 9 set in Trial of the Crusader
Moonfire damage over time can critical strike, making it worth prioritizing
on your rotation and glyph choices. Mana is also mostly a non-issue with the added
critical strike rating and Intellect present in the higher item level gear available.
Thus, Moonglow and
Omen of Clarity (unless you are also using
2-piece Tier 10) are abandoned,
Glyph of Insect Swarm is removed in favor
of
Glyph of Moonfire and the nature of Tier 9 fights allows for swapping 1
point out of
Nature's Reach and the AoE of
Gale Winds for the added
single target burst of
Brambles.
Wrath Balance Glyphs
In Wrath you will be able to unlock Glyphs that improve your abilities and can be swapped around freely as long as you have the consumable glyph item on your bags.
As a Balance Druid in Tier 10 PvE gear you will want to be using
Glyph of Focus,
Glyph of Starfall, and
Glyph of Insect Swarm for
maximum damage, especially in AoE scenarios.
For minor glyphs, you will usually want to use Glyph of Typhoon in PvE
to lower
Typhoon's Mana cost, make it larger and remove the knockback unless
you have a specific use for it. In other situations simply pick any glyphs you like
out of
Glyph of Unburdened Rebirth,
Glyph of Dash,
Glyph of the Wild,
or
Glyph of Thorns.
Notable Balance Druids Talents
Balance Tree
The Balance Tree carries most of the power of a Balance Druid, as would be expected. It also has a lot of PvP utility, which you can learn more about in our Wrath Balance Druid PvP guide.
Nature's Grace increases your casting speed by 20% when you critically
hit with a non-periodic spell. This allows you to have a huge amount of Haste
very often, especially during
Eclipse when your
Starfire critical
chance is highly increased.
Insect Swarm is a powerful damage-over-time effect with an equally
powerful glyph option in
Glyph of Insect Swarm. When combined, they make
it worth casting in most scenarios, as explained in the Balance rotation page.
Improved Insect Swarm is not nearly as good as it reads, as it is only
a conditional 1% damage increase per point, and you will often not even be casting
Moonfire at all.
Owlkin Frenzy causes attacks against you to have a 15% chance to give
you a 10-second buff that increases your damage, removes spell pushback, and
regenerates Mana every second. While the buff is extremely strong, you will rarely
be directly attacked in PvE, making it only great for soloing and PvP.
Eclipse defines your
Wrath rotation and forces you into an alternating
cycle of Wrath and
Starfire spam in order to activate Lunar / Solar
Eclipse, respectively, at which point you swap to the opposite spell until a new
Eclipse is triggered.
Typhoon is a new spell which causes some damage and knocks back all
targets in a huge radius in front of you, also slowing them for 6 seconds. This
makes it very useful when soloing, in PvP, and also in group PvE when used with
Glyph of Typhoon.
Force of Nature creates 3 treant allies that deal significant damage
during their uptime, but also has a significant 3-minute cooldown.
Starfall causes up to 20 stars to fall on enemies around you over a
period of 10 seconds. These stars deal significant damage which splashes to nearby
enemies. Essentially, you will be doing top area damage and competitive
single-target every time you press this spell, as it is incredibly powerful!
Feral Tree
The Feral Tree provides no real benefits to Balance and should be ignored.
Restoration Tree
The Restoration Tree is mostly used for Improved Mark of the Wild,
Omen of Clarity, and some minor stat buffs.
Changelog
- 03 Oct. 2023: Updated with Phase 4 talents.
- 22 Jun. 2023: Removed PvP talent and glyph references.
- 13 Jun. 2023: Added new talents for Trial of Crusader geared players.
- 22 Jan. 2023: Added new talent options if you have moved past Tier 7 bonuses.
- 18 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Phase 2 release ahead of Ulduar raid release.
- 20 Sep. 2022: Page added.
This guide has been written by Seksi, original vanilla player and multi-class player, currently playing on Gehennas Horde. You can find him on the Classic Shaman and Druid, as well as the Icy Veins Discord.
- Hour of Twilight Arrives to Cataclysm Classic on February 18th + Raid Release Schedule
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