World of Warcraft: Forever Balance Druid Guide

Restoration Druids in Forever specialize in a range of heal-over-time effects, which they can supplement with big single-target healing abilities like Healing Touch and Swiftmend. For those that have played Restoration Druid in other versions of Vanilla Classic, you can look forward to the addition of a new AoE Heal-over-time effect in Wild Growth!

Balance Druids in Forever have a great rotation where Nature and Arcane direct damage and damage-over-time spells are twisted and alternated in order to deal maximize DPS. You'll also bring a massive crit chance buff to your group, and you get to play as a Moonkin - a unique-looking "bird" with some of the best emotes in the game.

As a Druid player you are a natural shapeshifter. In addition to your Moonkin Form, you can use Bear Form to tank a hit or two, Travel Form and Aquatic Form to travel quickly via land or sea and Cat Form if you need to stealth through a difficult part of a dungeon or outdoor area. Druid can also fill any of the four roles in the game which makes it very easy to fit into any team you like.

Leveling as Balance starts a little slow, but becomes easier once you get Moonfire at level 4, since that gives you an easy way to tag enemies. Rejuvenation at the same level will give you an easier way to heal yourself without requiring the long cast time of Healing Touch.

Once you hit level 6, go back to your Druid class trainer to learn Thorns. It's a buff you cast on yourself that adds quite a bit of damage for these early levels. In general in WoW, you gain new spells or new ranks of spells every two levels.

Once you get to a major city, you will be able to learn up to two professions. These are extremely flexible, but as a Druid it can be nice to combine Skinning & Leatherworking in order to craft your own gear.

Make sure you /sit at any campfires you see. They will give you a range of extremely powerful buffs!

Your major choice early on is between the cast time and cost reduction of Improved Wrath against the pushback resistance of Nature's Focus. I've picked the former because you generally end up with a better effective cast time anyway and the mana savings are very significant.

On the next row, Nature's Reach will reduce the chances your spells miss by a significant amount. The extra range will also be very helpful for grabbing enemies with Moonfire. Moonglow further reduces the amount of time you'll spend not casting spells, and then our final point (at level 20) is extremely flexible.

Here you will find some information on how to use all your spells to get the most out of your Balance Druid toolkit and spellbook.

Your rotation during Beta will be very straightforward. You'll keep Moonfire active on any targets in combat with you, then you will cast Wrath. Unfortunately we won't be learning the powerful, AoE spell Hurricane until the games full release since it is learned at level 40.

At level 10, your class trainer will offer you a quest to unlock your first form: Bear Form. At level 20, you will be able to unlock Cat Form in the same way. These quests are fairly fast and are very immersive so I highly recommend you do them. Cat Form will let you Prowl, and Bear Form will let you Bash; and you can tank for groups with it too!

Prowl is a stealth-mechanic that greatly reduces how far enemies will aggro to you. Avoid standing on top of enemies since it isn't full invisibility, but you can use it to avoid dangerous situations by avoiding mobs entirely. Remember that it can only be used out of combat! If you Prowl and a mob has an eye above them, then beware because they have "true sight" and can see you anyway!

At level 14, you will unlock a class quest to learn Cure Poison. It too is worth doing since you will often be the only person in a group that can remove poison effects.

Even during the lower levels, you should be aware of which kinds of crowd control (or CC) you have.

Entangling Roots is a single target ability that immobilizes the target. This means that they won't be able to move, and if no allies are in range they won't attack either. Rooted targets will eventually break out when they take enough damage. If you accidentally pull an extra mob, consider rooting it while you kill the first.

Bash is a single target stun ability that requires you be in Bear Form. It is a little impractical to use often since having to swap forms is slow, and it costs a little Rage which we won't have when we swap forms.

Gear has changed a lot from Classic, and itemization is significantly different.

Here's a quick brief about what each stat does. It'll be useful if you're coming to Forever from Midnight, or if you're new to the game.

• Intellect: Increases your mana pool. Increases your crit chance by a small amount. Present on a lot of gear
• Spirit: Increases your mana regeneration when you haven't been casting for five seconds. The Restoration Reflection talent will let some of this mana regeneration continue at all times though we won't have that yet at level 20.
• Spell Power: Increases how much damage your spells do.
• Critical Strike: Gives your spells (including damage-over-time effects) a chance to deal more damage.
• Haste: Reduces your spell cast times. Does not affect the damage or tick rate of your damage-over-time effects.

For Beta, focus on equipping your highest level pieces in general. Favor spell power and intellect where possible. Haste can greatly improve how responsive the spec feels while levelling but you're unlikely to find much of it on low level gear. This is not max level advice. It will change as we learn more about the game and what will be available at later levels.

Check back later for more detail on what Consumables will be available in Forever. Keep an eye out for Healing Potion since they will frequently save your life if you pull too many enemies at once.

You will also need lots of water while levelling to restore Mana out-of-combat (you don't want to be an "oomkin")! You can buy it from any Innkeeper in any city or village.

More WoW Forever Druid Guides

Restoration Druid Healer GuideFeral Druid Melee DPS and Tank Guide

More WoW Forever Guides from Other Classes

Combat Rogue Melee DPS GuideDemonology Warlock Ranged DPS GuideEnhancement Shaman Melee DPS GuideProtection Warrior Tank GuideHoly Priest Healer GuideHoly Paladin Healer Guide