Balance Druid PvP Talents and Builds — The War Within (Season 1)
Choosing the right PvP and PvE talents is a prerequisite to proper performance in PvP. This guide goes through the various talent choices available to you as a Balance Druid and gives you the best combinations you can take.
This page is part of our Balance Druid PvP Guide.
Talent Choices for Balance Druids
Below is the best build you can run if your goal is to deal spread damage to the entire time:
Talents Summary
While the above table provides a generally accurate overview of the viability of talents, some finer points are discussed in the sections that follow, and we recommend you read those for a deeper understanding.
Druid Talent Tree Highlights
Some important spells to note in the Druid talent tree:
- Nature's Vigil is one of the last talents you can take that increases all your single-target damage and will heal for a percentage of the damage you deal. This is a very strong cooldown that increases both your damage and survivability.
- Cyclone is an iconic Druid spell and the best crowd control in the game. This makes the target affected by it immune to damage and healing.
- Oakskin, Matted Fur, Ironfur, and Verdant Heart are all talents that help increase your survivability.
Balance Druid Talent Tree Highlights
Some important spells to note in the Balance Druid Talent tree:
- Incarnation: Chosen of Elune/ Elune's Guidance. Incarnation is your primary burst cooldown, and Elunes Guidance makes it even stronger. The combination of these two talents will make your damage very scary and will force cooldowns.
- Denizen of the Dream makes your Moonfire and Sunfire have a chance to summon a Dragon. This dragon will deal nature damage to your targets.
- Nature's Balance gives you a passive way to generate Astral Power, which results in an increase in your sustained damage.
- Solstice is the best choice in this tier. Because you will be entering Eclipses often, this is a significant increase to your sustained damage and Astral Power generation.
PvP Talents for Balance Druids
You can choose 3 of the following PvP talents. Each of them has its uses, but some are better for certain strategies than others. The top three choices are the most useful but can be replaced with other PvP talents, depending on your team's goal.
Mandatory PvP Talents
Moonkin Aura affects Starsurge so that when you use it, your teammates have their spell Critical Strike chance increased. This is perfect for increasing your and your teammates' sustained damage.
Owlkin Adept makes it so Owlkin Frenzy stacks to 2 times and reduces the cast time of your next Cyclone or Entangling Roots by 50%. This is another great talent to have versus teams that will be focusing on you, as the near-instant Cyclones will help with negating damage.
Situational PvP Talents
High Winds makes enemies do less damage once they leave your Cyclone. This should be used if you will not be the target for the enemy team or they have caster DPS on it.
Star Burst makes it so Starfall summons stars that last 15 seconds. Enemies that run into them will take damage and get knocked in the air. If an ally runs into them, they can pick up the star and run into enemies. This is a must-have talent if your goal is to deal spread pressure with specializations like Elemental Shaman, Affliction Warlock, or Shadow Priest.
Dying Stars makes it so when your Sunfire or Moonfire get dispelled, the target will take increased damage. This is great if your DoTs constantly keep getting dispelled or you are playing with another caster with DoT protection.
Thorns should be placed on you or a teammate, and any melee strikes will deal Nature damage to the attacker. This will deal a large amount of damage if the melee DPS does not swap off of you. This should be used if the enemy team has 2 melee DPS on it.
Celestial Guardian reduces spell damage you take and increases healing received while in Bear Form. This talent is crucial versus teams with heavy spell damage. While enemy casters are using burst cooldowns, you can stay in Bear Form and drastically reduce the amount of spell damage you are taking.
Changelog
- 22 Nov. 2024: Updated recommended talents.
- Updated talent descriptions.
- 21 Oct. 2024: Updated for Patch 11.0.5.
- Updated Recommended Talents.
- 12 Sep. 2024: Updated Recommended Talents.
- 09 Sep. 2024: Reviewed for The War Within Season 1.
- 21 Aug. 2024: Updated for The War Within.
- 26 Jul. 2024: Updated Recommended Talents.
- 23 Jul. 2024: Updated for The War Within Pre-Patch.
- 23 Jun. 2024: Updated Recommended Talents.
- 19 May 2024: Updated Recommended Talents.
- 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
- 22 Apr. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.6
- 15 Jan. 2024: Updated for Patch 10.2.5.
- Updated Recommended Talents.
- 06 Nov. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.2.
- Updated Recommended Talents.
- 04 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7.
- 10 Jul. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.5
- 16 Jun. 2023: Several changes made.
- Updated Single-target damage talent tree.
- Added AoE-damage talent tree.
- Updated PvP Talents.
- 03 May 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1.
- Updated Recommended Talents.
- Updated PvP Talents.
- 21 Mar. 2023: Updated Talent Tree for Patch 10.0.7.
- 30 Jan. 2023: Updated Talent Tree for Patch 10.0.5.
- 12 Dec. 2022: Updated Recommended Talents.
- Updated PvP Talents.
- 22 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 29 Sep. 2022: Updated Talent Table.
- 01 Aug. 2022: Reviewed for Shadowlands Season 4.
- 31 May 2022: Reviewed for Patch 9.2.5.
- 01 Mar. 2022: Updated for Patch 9.2.
- Updated Best PvP Talents.
- 22 Nov. 2021: Reviewed for Patch 9.1.5.
- 02 Jul. 2021: Updated PvP talents.
- 08 Mar. 2021: Reviewed for Patch 9.0.5.
- 14 Oct. 2020: Updated for Shadowlands pre-patch.
Other PvP Guides
This guide has been written by Mysticall, a seasoned PvP player who has repeatedly achieved 3000 rating. You can watch his stream on Twitch, and you can also check out his YouTube channel.
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