Posts Tagged ‘balance druid’

WoW Balance Druid – The Cataclysm WoW Balance Druid

A WoW balance druid is one of the game’s primary casters – a damage specialization designed to deal death at range rather than in melee, and with sharply limited tanking abilities.

At level 29, balance druids in World of Warcraft gain the ability to shapeshift into Moonkin form, which that of a large, portly owlbear with a tiny head sporting elaborate antlers and a gaping beak. Besides being remarkably hideous, this form also grants 10% extra arcane and nature spell damage, as well as 15% damage reduction and 5% spell haste to all characters in your party or raid group.

Starsurge, the signature move of the WoW balance druid, is a powerful offensive spell gained at level 10, which automatically scales up in power as your character increases in level. The spell does a tremendous amount of damage if your druid is properly specced and equipped, and can be deadly in both lower level instances and battlegrounds.


A favorite tactic of some balance druids is to lurk in cat form until a suitable target approaches, then use Starsurge and Moonfire to kill them in a few seconds. The spell also grants solar or lunar power as appropriate.

The damage over time, or DoT, spells of a balance druid have become much more potent than they were of old. Moonfire and Insect Swarm should be maintained at all times while your character is fighting. The DoT spells can be renewed at the last moment, before the previous DoT has expired, or if you prefer, you can wait for expiration to place the DoTs again.

As usual with spellcasters, you should maintain a constant barrage of spells as well. Any gap in your rotation will take a chunk out of your character’s damage per second (DPS), so you must arrange it in such a way that your druid can cast spells constantly.

Statistic priority for a WoW balance druid at the endgame has changed immensely since the release of Cataclysm and the reworking of the classes that it entailed. Critical Strike Rating, once vital to the spec, is now basically useless. You can dispense with it entirely unless you run out of other stats to stack first, or are stuck with a piece of Crit gear for a time because of a lack of anything better.

Intellect is now the main stat to pursue for a balance druid, much like all other spellcasters.

Spellpower is now second to Intellect and is found on much less gear than formerly. Hit and Spirit are interchangeable for a WoW balance druid, at least when specced into Balance of Power.

Hit is capped at 1,742, so you do not need to stack beyond this. Instead, you can turn to Haste, then Mastery, and Critical Strike Rating last of all.

A good WoW Leveling Addon is the best way to level you WoW Balance Druid.