The Balance Druid in WoW
Posted: Friday, February 06, 2009
by Bill Kelly
Why in the world would you waste your time running a Balance Druid? Why not just roll a mage? I was asked one day while waiting for an Alterac Valley Battleground to begin. This was not the first time Id been asked this question and I'm sure it wont be the last. These folks simply dont know enough about the class to understand, and thats just fine by me. The first Druid I ever made I built as a Feral, of course, and eventually after many re-specs he ended up as an almost pure Balance build. Once I got the hang of this Druid build Ive never looked back. The whole Mage vs Balance Druid discussion usually boils down to this: The mage can hit harder and fasterand in many cases this is true. However, in my opinion, the Balance Druid is far more fun to play and, as a whole, a more advantageous class to have around.
As a Balance Druid youve got a couple of staple spells youll use a great deal. Wrath is your bread and butter. Starfire may be a nice big nuke but a steady stream of glowing green wrath can cut down even the toughest enemy. Anything you can do to lower the cast time and extend the range of this go-to spell, including talent points and certain gear, is critical. As you rise in level and gain advanced Balance Tree talents this handy little spell can really do some massive damage. Youll have many other damage spells in your book but Wrath is going to be one of the most used.
Your root and crowd control spells are going to get a lot of use as well. Either solo hunting or running in a group the ability to slow, stop or control the enemy is priceless. Learn the strengths and weaknesses of each of these spells and be prepared to use the correct spell at the proper time!
Once you have invested enough of your Talent Points in the Balance Tree of the Druid build you will be able to assume Moonkin Form. This is when your Balance Druid gets really fun! The Moonkin looks like a large, angry, fat bear, with a beak and some dreadlocks on its shoulders. There are several nice benefits to the Moonkin Form including vastly increased armor (and spells to increase it further), increased spell damage and critical spell strike percentage and Moonkin Aura. The Moonkin Aura gives additional benefits to those around you. You deal more damage, your group deals more damage and everyone is happy!
A few more benefits of Moonkin Form is the ability to use and benefit from your weapons and use potions while in the form. The only other form where this is possible is the Tree of Life form from the Restoration Talent Tree.
The Moonkin, like so many other things in the World of Warcraft, has its own set of nicknamessome good and some bad. The term Boomkin generally refers to a higher level Balance Druid that can deal a lot of damage with their offensive spells. The increase in availability of solid tanking gear the has spawned the terms Panzerkin and Shermkin have come into play when discussing a Moonkin that can tank exceptionally well (Panzer and Sherman are names of tanks from World War II). On the negative side weve got Oomkin for a Druid will poor mana regeneration skills (oom is short hand for out of mana) and Noobkin when talking about an inexperienced or newly minted Moonkin.
Long story short: Leveling and playing a Balance Druid is hard to learn and very hard to master but its well worth the challenge. At the higher levels, if you stick with the Balance Tree and learn to play it well, you will be a force to be reckoned with. Dont quit, keep at it and join the ranks of the Moonkin!
This Article has been viewed 2,567 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
No comments yet.We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.