Cataclysm Classic Balance Druid Talent Builds

Balance Druid, like most Cataclysm specs, is heavily restricted to its namesake specialization tree, Balance. You will always want to put points into this tree first and foremost, with the few leftover points after you hit the capstone talent, Starfall, being dedicated to passive damage increases in the Restoration tree.

Furor is there to give you enough Energy to instantly use Stampeding Roar or Skull Bash whenever needed, but if you absolutely do not need this utility, feel free to swap its point to Blessing of the Grove.

In this section we will go over some of the key talents you will use when you are playing a Balance Druid. Be sure to understand your most important talents as they are vital to play the build to its top strength.

• Starlight Wrath — makes Wrath and Starfire cast 0.5 seconds faster, improving your DPS drastically.

• Nature's Grace — grants 15% Spell Haste after casting Insect Swarm, Moonfire or Regrowth, and you can proc this effect again whenever you enter a new Eclipse state. This makes this talent extremely valuable, as you will always be able to use Insect Swarm to get 15% Spell Haste on your Eclipse-empowered Moonfire / Sunfire refresh and subsequent spells.

• Moonkin Form — as the primary animal form of a Balance Druid, this is an iconic talent that is synonymous with the specialization itself. It also comes with a ton of bonuses to damage dealt and reductions to damage taken, as well as a 5% Spell Haste raid buff.

• Euphoria — makes your Eclipse transitions faster by granting a 24% chance to double the Solar / Lunar energy gain of Wrath and Starfire. It will also solve most of your Mana issues by granting 16% of total Mana whenever you enter an Eclipse state.

• Shooting Stars — causes your damage over time spells to have a chance to reset the cooldown on Starsurge and make it instant, allowing for random burst damage events.

• Typhoon — pushes enemies hit away and dazes them for 6 seconds, as well as dealing minor damage. Very useful for kiting and interrupting multiple enemies.

• Solar Beam — silences enemies within its radius for 10 seconds, making it the longest-lasting effect of its kind in Cataclysm and a powerhouse of caster enemy control.

• Force of Nature — is a DPS cooldown that summons some guardian trees to attack your enemies. While mostly forgettable, the trees can do decent damage if they have full uptime for their 30 second duration.

• Sunfire — is what Moonfire becomes whenever you enter a Solar Eclipse after picking this talent. This allows it to gain full benefit from the Solar Eclipse nature damage buffs and become one of your top area damage spells of choice alongside Solar-buffed Insect Swarm and Wild Mushroom.

• Starfall — is a very powerful area damage cooldown which hits all nearby enemies you are in combat with for its duration.

Prime glyphs are new to Cataclysm, giving you a third "row" of glyphs you can use on your character. While there are a couple of different options to choose from, there are some very clear front runners for each specialization.

• Glyph of Moonfire — improves the periodic damage of Moonfire by 20%.
• Glyph of Insect Swarm — increases your Insect Swarm damage by 30%.
• Glyph of Wrath — this glyph increases your Wrath damage by 10%, making for a full set of passive damage-increasing glyphs.

Major glyphs typically offer utility-based options and can be highly situational. While there are many different options for Balance, we will list below the ones we find more useful.

• Glyph of Thorns — you will be likely to fight many enemies at once while doing solo content, making Thorns surprisingly strong for extra damage in such situations.
• Glyph of Starfall — reduces the cooldown of Starfall by 30 seconds, allowing you to do more frequent damage with it.
• Glyph of Monsoon — reduces the cooldown of Typhoon by 3 seconds.

Minor glyphs typically provide very minor benefits. Your choices will typically depend on what quality of life increase is the most meaningful for you. We give a few suggestions below.

• Glyph of Mark of the Wild — reduces the Mana cost of Mark of the Wild by 50% which makes it cheaper to cast when buffing someone recently resurrected.
• Glyph of Unburdened Rebirth — removes the reagent requirement from Rebirth, saving some gold over time.
• Glyph of Dash — reduces the cooldown of Dash by 20%, increasing your potential mobility in the process.