Balance Druid Leveling Guide From 1 to 70 for TBC Classic

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Your first talent unlocks at Level 10.

• Levels 10 to 14 — 5 points in Starlight Wrath
• Levels 15 & 16 — 2 points in Improved Moonfire
• Levels 17 & 18 — 2 points in Focused Starlight
• Level 19 — 1 point in Nature's Grasp

Starlight Wrath, Improved Moonfire, and Focused Starlight are all fine damage increases early on in the tree. Nature's Grasp gives you a new active ability that you can use to automatically cast Entangling Roots on melee attackers, which is quite useful in emergencies.

• Level 20 — 1 point in Insect Swarm
• Levels 21 & 22 — 2 points in Nature's Reach
• Levels 23 & 24 — 2 points in Brambles
• Levels 25 to 27 — 3 points in Celestial Focus
• Levels 28 & 29 — 2 points in Vengeance

Insect Swarm is an additional damage-over-time effect you can use on your rotation, with a small damage reduction component. Nature's Reach, meanwhile, allows you to get more casts in before enemies get in melee range while Brambles is a minor damage increase. Celestial Focus allows you to get more casts in, both from Starfire stuns and less Wrath interruptions. Finally, Vengeance is a small damage increase that scales with your gear.

• Level 30 — 1 point in Nature's Grace
• Levels 31 to 33 — 3 points in Moonglow
• Level 34 — 1 point in Lunar Guidance
• Levels 35 & 36 — 2 points in Balance of Power
• Levels 37 to 39 — 3 points in Moonfury

Nature's Grace reduces your cast times whenever you critically strike and should be used on Starfire when possible, while Moonglow improves your Mana sustain and Lunar Guidance is a small damage increase. Balance of Power, then, is a significant increase to both damage and survivability; Moonfury is another small damage increase.

• Level 40 — 1 point in Moonkin Form
• Levels 41 & 42 — 2 points in Moonfury
• Levels 43 to 45 — 3 points in Vengeance
• Levels 46 to 48 — 3 points in Dreamstate
• Level 49 — 1 point in Lunar Guidance

Moonkin Form is amazing for both damage and survivability, and you can even regenerate some Mana with melee auto-attacks! Finish maximizing Moonfury and Vengeance for extra damage, get Dreamstate for additional Mana sustain, and put another point into Lunar Guidance for some extra spell damage.

• Level 50 — 1 point in Force of Nature
• Level 51 — 1 point in Lunar Guidance
• Levels 52 to 56 — 5 points in Wrath of Cenarius
• Levels 57 to 59 — 3 points in Improved Mark of the Wild

Force of Nature is a powerful DPS cooldown in solo and small-group settings. Finish maximizing Lunar Guidance and get Wrath of Cenarius for its strong multiplier to spell damage bonuses for your main spells. Improved Mark of the Wild is a small boost to your stats, which also applies to players in your group.

• Levels 60 & 61 — 2 points in Improved Mark of the Wild
• Levels 62 to 64 — 3 points in Natural Shapeshifter
• Levels 65 & 66 — 2 points in Naturalist
• Levels 67 to 69 — 3 points in Intensity
• Level 70 — 1 point in Omen of Clarity

Finish maximizing Improved Mark of the Wild and get Natural Shapeshifter, Naturalist, and Intensity in order to improve your Mana sustain. Finish your leveling build with Omen of Clarity, which will occasionally proc from your melee attacks and can be useful if you have run out of Mana unexpectedly.

Once you can put points into the Improved Faerie Fire talent, you need to judge how much you tend to join parties with melee players and Hunters. If you are frequently in groups with these classes, putting points into this talent is very beneficial to your group and should be considered; note that it only works if you spend the time to Faerie Fire all significant enemies.

1. Make sure Mark of the Wild is active on you and any party members at all times.
2. Make sure Mark of the Wild and Thorns are active on you and any party members at all times.
3. Be in Moonkin Form and keep Mark of the Wild and Thorns on yourself and any party members at all times.
4. Be in Moonkin Form and keep Mark of the Wild, Thorns, and Omen of Clarity active on yourself and any party members at all times.
5. Use Moonfire and Wrath to level up until you get Insect Swarm and Starfire at Level 20.
6. Pull enemies from maximum range with Starfire and either cast it until they die — this is slower, but more Mana-efficient — or use Moonfire, Insect Swarm, and Entangling Roots when they reach melee range and let them rot down while you pull more enemies nearby using the same method. If the enemies you are fighting have too much health to die within a single set of dots, you might want to use more Starfires to ensure you are not fighting two strong enemies at once.
7. Pull enemies from maximum range with Starfire and either cast it until they die — this is slower, but more Mana-efficient — or use Moonfire, Insect Swarm, and Entangling Roots when they reach melee range and let them rot down while you pull more enemies nearby using the same method. If the enemies you are fighting have too much health to die within a single set of dots, you might want to use more Starfires to ensure you are not fighting two strong enemies at once. Try to always use Nature's Grace procs on Starfire casts, as they will be consumed by other casts without having any effect.
8. Once Celestial Focus is maximized, spamming Wrath once enemies are in melee (or against ranged enemies) becomes a viable way to finish them off due to the added spell pushback resistance.
9. When out of Mana while enemies are low health, consider hitting them in melee for a little bit in order to gain enough Mana back through Moonkin Form to finish them off.

Buying everything is, essentially, the way to go, as spell costs are quite low and all of them have uses, even if small ones.

If you are doing a completely new character and want to save as much gold as you can for your first mount at Level 30, you can opt to buy only the recommended skills for the rotation in the section above.

By setting yourself up with an upgraded user interface and macros from the get-go, you will make your leveling process much easier. Check out our Balance Druid Macros and Addons guides in the links below for the full list.

When leveling, stay alert for weapon upgrades you might encounter, as these will improve your experience significantly. You will also need to complete various class quests in order to be able to use your animal forms.

These quests can be different for Horde and Alliance Druids, and the early quests also have differences between Horde races. To help you with both weapons and quests, we have made two dedicated guides:

Once you reach maximum level, we recommend you dive into our Balance Druid Guide, which covers everything you need to know about playing Balance in the end game.

We especially recommend reading through these pages:

• Our Balance Druid Talent builds guide contains the PvE-oriented builds for Balance Druids;
• Balance Druid Rotation guide contains details on how to play in a variety of situations, including some advanced totem management tips;
• Browse the Balance Druid Stats guide to learn about your stat priority as an Balance Druid and how they contribute to your performance at maximum level;
• The Gear guide for Balance Druids contains the best gear pieces to look for at Level 70 in order to maximize your damage;