Balance Druid DPS Spec, Builds, and Talents — Dragonflight 10.0.7
On this page, you will find out the best talents for each tier for your Balance Druid in World of Warcraft — Dragonflight 10.0.7. We also have default talent lists for various types of content, such as raiding or Mythic+. If you play with Warmode on, we have your PvP talents covered as well.
If you were looking for WotLK Classic content, please refer to our WotLK Classic Balance Druid talents.
Talent Cheat Sheet for Balance Druids
Balance Druids have two main ways to play the class in PvE content. Single-target focused and multi-target focused. Try to understand which one a fight or dungeon might require, as the DPS differences will be considerable.
Single-target — Raiding
When there are single-target bosses or even bosses with only one main target you want to focus on, the following Talents are often best.
Use the 'Copy Export String' button in our calculator below to import it ingame!
Multi-target — Multi-target Bosses, Dungeons, Leveling, & World Quests
These Talents are an excellent all-around build for most multiple targets encounters while not sacrificing everything for that damage type:
Use the 'Copy Export String' button in our calculator below to import it ingame!
For pure multiple-target encounters, try this:
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Specialization Talents for Balance Druid
In the Dragonflight, the Talent system received a rework which transformed the basic Talent system into a Talent tree. Many areas can be branched off or disregarded in some extreme situations. Still, we will discuss the standard ways the Talents are set up.
The first Tier requires 8 points, the second Tier requires 12 points, and as we are only level 60 still, the third Tier can only have 5 points.
Tier 1 Talents for Balance Druids
Much of the first Tier is extremely rigid. Five of your eight points will be going into:
These are all required for pathing purposes later on, and most are also strong
in their own right. Shooting Stars and
Solstice help increase
Astral Power generation throughout a fight now also affects
Stellar Flare, which is a good source of damage per global spent and
synergizes with another Talent later on.
On pure single target, you would then path down into Force of Nature,
Nature's Balance, and
Solar Beam to wrap up this Tier. Force of
Nature can be taken in dungeons as well when needed.
Warrior of Elune
is still not relevant in most situations unless some burst cleave is
needed.
Normally, you are doing some form of cleaving and will want or need to take
Starfall. When you go down this way, you will hit
Solar Beam
and
Aetherial Kindling while using this connection to grab
Twin Moons.
Light of the Sun will only be taken if made relevant
by timing on a fight.
Tier 2 Talents for Balance Druids
These Talents are all required in all content and take up 10-points:
Waning Twilight
Celestial Alignment
Primordial Arcanic Pulsar
Nature's Grace
Cosmic Rapidity
Umbral Embrace
Soul of the Forest
There are only 2 points left after you get all the mandatory talent points. Given the strength of some of this Tier's talents, you may see yourself doubling back later on.
You are going down the middle into Celestial Alignment, giving you a
cooldown. Then you will go into
Primordial Arcanic Pulsar in most
situations as it helps to enable Eclipse rotating playstyle.
Orbital Strike could be good in open-world content or low-difficulty
content to help lower cooldowns and add some reliable burst to your build.
Waning Twilight is a significant buff on a single target and often has uses in
multi-target as well if targets live long enough or if you have other activators.
Soul of the Forest increases Astral Power generation of
Wrath
when we are in cooldowns on single target and is a serious cleave damage multiplier on multi-target.
Nature's Grace is a solid node that gives some free Haste at the
end of each Eclipse. You often want to carry as much Haste into your next
Eclipse as possible by pre-casting a
Wrath as the previous Eclipse is about to
end.
Cosmic Rapidity buffs damage and Astral Power generation and
Umbral Embrace turns your filler into Astral damage and buffs its base
damage as well.
Now that the mandatory talents are taken, you generally path down into
Power of Goldrinn for to connect down into that rows tier-3 talents.
On multiple targets, you go into Umbral Intensity for the extra
Starfire cleave multiplier, and if you do not need any single target at
all, you can go into
Astral Smolder, which can also activate
Waning Twilight.
Stellar Innervation and
Lunar Shrapnel are too undertuned to be
taken compared to other options.
Tier 3 Talents for Balance Druids
You will often find with current tuning that you need to utilize all of your final points into this last Tier. Often, doubling back for some quality of life, utility, or a more cost-effective earlier node is better than going all in on this final Tier. That does not mean that these talents are not good; they just are not exceptional. You will be taking these talents in all situations:
Orbit Breaker
Starlord
Incarnation: Chosen of Elune (multi-target) or
Convoke the Spirits (single target)
Fury of Elune (multi-target) or
New Moon (single target)
Starlord is a powerful buff that you need to maintain for your more
Astral Power and damage. This also takes you down into your cooldown choice
node of
Incarnation: Chosen of Elune and
Convoke the Spirits. You
will normally be taking Incarnation as it is more flexible.
Orbit Breaker is a great all-around talent that does great damage and
feeds into many other aspects of the rotation.
From Power of Goldrinn, you can head down into
Rattle the Stars
or
Starweaver. Rattle is better on pure multi-target or pure single-target, but when you have mixed cleave, Starweaver pulls ahead. This then brings
you down to the last mandatory Talent of the row, which is the choice between
Fury of Elune and
New Moon, which is the choice between
a single target and a multi-target build.
At this point, we would take Balance of All Things and
Sundered Firmament, which are viable in all content. This is where you
would start pulling points from if you needed to invest more into tier 2.
Balance of All Things can be classified as a "value point" talent where
the second point only increases the power of those nodes by 50% instead of
doubling that value like other nodes. You normally want one
point in for the Critical Strike injection to synergize with the Eclipse
cycling.
Denizen of the Dream is good on single target encounters, and this is
where the point investment would end.
Wild Mushroom and
Fungal Growth are not as strong as the
Starfire spam builds but can potentially be taken on some burst cleave
or multi-target situations.
Friend of the Fae,
Elune's Guidance,
Radiant Moonlight,
and
Astral Communion are either poorly placed or do less damage than the
leftover tier-2 points.
Druid Talent Tree
The Druid Talent Tree can be flexed based on encounter and player preference. Some players like to be tanky and play safely, while others like to help keep others alive. There are selfish and selfless builds and a few "wrong" Talent options.
Tier 1
As Balance Druid. You put your first 8-points into the following talents:
Sunfire
Moonkin Form
Nurturing Instinct
Frenzied Regeneration
Improved Barkskin
Verdant Heart
Ironfur
These 8 points go through the first Tier's entirety. We will be coming
back later if there is no needed utility option. Remove Corruption should
be taken if needed.
Tier 2
You come down and grab Thick Hide,
Wild Charge, and
Astral Influence. While all of these are required for pathing purposes,
they are all powerful talents for mobility and survivability.
Then you grab Matted Fur to buff your
Barkskin,
Soothe
for pathing, and
Improved Sunfire for pathing and utility as well.
Stampeding Roar can also be taken as a good talent to get down into
the last Tier.
You have 3 points to spend before you can get into the final row.
Typhoon and
Cyclone can be taken if needed as utility.
Normally, you will just grab Typhoon,
Rejuvenation, and
Swiftmend for point requirement. You can also path down and take a
point in
Feline Swiftness if you do not see yourself healing or using
Typhoon.
Tier 3
Lycara's Teachings is a damage boost on the class side of Talents, so
this should default.
The right path gives Innervate for healers and
Nature's Vigil, which allows you to heal while doing damage. To get here,
you need to Talent
Ursol's Vortex or
Mass Entanglement, and
that choice is most likely irrelevant. If you are not using these
spells regularly, you should reallocate those points to more defensive
options.
The left path can give a multi-target crowd control with
Incapacitating Roar or stun with
Mighty Bash. One point in
Well-Honed Instincts can be a nice auto-proc defensive. If you can use
the second point, that can help.
For group play, you should reduce the cooldown of Stampeding Roar by
Talenting
Improved Stampeding Roar.
Renewal can now be taken
without sacrificing mobility and grants healing like a reusable Health
Potion.
Talents like Improved Rejuvenation and
Protector of the Pack
are unlikely to be used.
Heart of the Wild is a niche option that is not
a regularly used ability. Good for fights where you can pump out healing and do
not need to DPS for a time.
Ursine Vigorcan be used to stay healthier
on bosses that have you shift into
Bear Form often.
PvP Talents (War Mode)
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.
Changelog
- 20 Mar. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
- 24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed and updated for Patch 10.0.5.
- 21 Dec. 2022: Updated Starweaver versus Rattle the Stars.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Updated broken talent links.
- 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 15 Nov. 2022: Updated talent recommendations.
- 25 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
More Druid Guides
Guides from Other Classes
This was written by Borabank, a Balance Druid theorycrafter and raider in Muscle Memory. You can watch him on his Twitch channel or in the Dreamgrove Discord server.
- PvP Play with the Blues on the 10.1 PTR: March 31st
- Aberrus Raid Testing Schedule: March 30 - April 28
- Dragonflight Patch 10.0.7 Hotfixes, March 28th
- Upcoming 10.1 PTR Changes to Class Tier Sets: March 28th
- Dragonflight 10.1, Season 2 New and Removed Mythic+ Affixes
- Dragonflight Patch 10.1 PTR Development Notes, March 28th: Old Mythic+ Affixes Removed, New Ones Added
- Riders of Azeroth Spotted in Zaralek Cavern in Patch 10.1
- A Preview of the Druid Crucible Raid Tier Set in Patch 10.1