Balance Druid Leveling Guide from 1 to 80 — The War Within (11.1.5)

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When you are leveling, equip the highest item level gear. You will be replacing your gear often enough that you can indiscriminately equip based on item level without worrying about other stats.

When leveling in open-world or dungeons, Balance Druid is a very basic builder-spender rotation priority. The basic idea is to rotate between Eclipses, which lasts 15 seconds and takes two spells to enter the next one after the previous one expires. Apply your DoTs ( Moonfire and Sunfire) to your target and cast the Eclipse-appropriate filler ( Wrath for Solar and Starfire for Lunar). When you have enough Astral Power, you can cast a spender ( Starsurge on a single target and Starfall on multiple targets).

Here are some explanations for some of the phrases inside the guide that may help you understand it more:

• A DoT refers to Damage over Time spells such as Moonfire and Sunfire.
• Fillers refer to spells that generate your main resource, which is Astral Power. Fillers should always be cast when there is nothing else we can do. Our fillers are Wrath and Starfire.
• A spender is an ability that consumes our main resource. These are powerful abilities that a crucial to damage dealing. Starsurge is spent on single or priority targets, and Starfall on multiple targets.

Balance Druid cooldowns all come from the talent tree. Celestial Alignment is your big cooldown and provides the benefit of both Eclipse states, allowing you to cast whatever you want as well as buffing all of your spells. On a single target, you will still be casting Wrath, and on multiple targets, you will want to cast Starfire.

Tier 1 Talents are as follows:

1. Eclipse
2. Shooting Stars
3. Solstice
4. Solar Beam
5. Twin Moons
6. Nature's Grace
7. Force of Nature
8. Wild Surges

>We skip Aetherial Kindling, but you can take this talent if you are leveling through dungeons. You would swap out Force of Nature for Aetherial Kindling if leveling through Dungeons.

Throughout these levels, focus on fewer enemies, as you do not have all the tools to deal with big pulls if you are not geared. DoT up one or two enemies and focus them down using Starsurge.

Tier 2 Talents are as follows:

1. Celestial Alignment
2. Whirling Stars
3. Astral Smolder
4. Touch of the Cosmos
5. Hail of Stars
6. Sunseeker Mushroom
7. Cosmic Rapidity x2
8. Stellar Amplification
9. Umbral Embrace
10. Starlord x2

At this point, you are going to have some good utility talents to help you run away from enemies, as well as a fair amount of cleave damage.

Use Celestial Alignment and Whirling Stars liberally as they boost your damage significantly, and you can speed up the leveling process by doing big pulls to finish whole quests instantly.

Remember to keep your targets fully DoTed up to deal maximum damage.

Tier 3 Talents are as follows:

1. Rattle the Stars
2. Waning Twilight
3. Power of Goldrinn
4. Orbit Breaker
5. Umbral Inspiration
6. Convoke the Spirits
7. Balance of All Things x2
8. Harmony of the Heavens
9. Denizen of the Dream

You should have all of the tools you need to make sizeable pulls while leveling. Use Force of Nature with Celestial Alignment and Convoke the Spirits to do large pulls or kill dangerous enemies or rares.

class="balance_level_71">We recommend Keeper of the Grove for The War Within leveling as it is a fast paced rotation which focuses more on short bursts making it good for leveling. You can even take Durability of Nature to keep your treants tanking.

Due to Balance only being unlocked as a talent specialization at Level 10, you should make use of the abilities provided to you in the intro quests until you are presented with the option.

1. Enter Moonkin Form and be in this form at all times.
2. Apply Moonfire to the target.
3. Apply Sunfire to the target.
4. Cast Celestial Alignment on cooldown.
5. Enter Lunar Eclipse by casting two Wraths if Celestial Alignment is on cooldown.
6. Cast Starsurge when available on a single target and inside Eclipse.
7. Cast Starfall on more than one target.
8. Cast Wrath or Starfire as a filler to build Astral Power inside Eclipse.

When talenting any Cooldowns such as Wild Mushroom or Convoke the Spirits, you should use them as they come up. Most enemies, while leveling, will not pose much of a threat or have extended battles. Use these cooldowns to help speed things up as you level.

In this section, we will rank the PvP talents best for leveling and doing solo / small group PvE content. Below is a ranking balance of Druid-specific PvE talents.

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 as well. 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.