WotLK Classic Balance Druid Guide

Druids are the only class in the game capable of fulling all four roles: tank, healer, ranged DPS, and melee DPS.

Balance Druids, also known as Boomkins, bring average single-target DPS tied to the Eclipse cycle, excellent burst area damage with Starfall and Hurricane, and powerful support abilities such as Innervate, Improved Faerie Fire, and Cyclone.

They are not the best specialization to stack in Raids, but perform quite well at filling ranged spots, especially as they are the only Caster Leather users who can make good use of Spirit gear, which often goes to waste in a raid optimized purely for damage.

In PvP, Balance is a powerhouse when Starfall and Force of Nature are active and very weak outside, especially as they need to cast for most of their damage. This makes them a strong spec in lower brackets but weak when opponents can coordinate defensives and crowd control on the Druid, which disables Starfall while the Druid is CC'd.

If you would like to see where Balance Druids fall in the overall rankings among DPS specs for both PvE and PvP in Wrath Classic, we have created pages dedicated to explaining what classes and specializations are the best of the best through multiple factors. However, ultimately, you should not let these lists dissuade you from playing what you enjoy.

Strengths

• Very high burst area damage with Starfall and Hurricane.
• Simple rotation allows for more attention to be paid to the encounters themselves.
• Excellent support with Moonkin Form, Improved Moonkin Form, Improved Mark of the Wild, Improved Faerie Fire, and many other buffs, debuffs, and abilities.

Weaknesses

• Poor scaling with gear when compared to the top caster specializations.
• While Balance brings a ton of utility, none of it is unique and can be brought by other classes.
• Mobility is very weak as damage requires near-constant casting and multiple Eclipse periods where any movement heavily lowers damage.

Unlike other classes, Druids do not have a choice when it comes to race. If you want to go Alliance, you must be Night Elf. If you want to go Horde, you must be Tauren. Thus, your only choice is which faction you want to choose, which you should make based on your guild, friends, or cosmetic and lore preferences.

• Nature Resistance reduces the chance you are hit with Nature spells by 2%.
• Quickness reduces the chance you are hit by melee and ranged attacks by 2%.
• Shadowmeld is an ability that allows you to become stealthed while standing still when used, on a 2-minute cooldown. It can be used in combat.
• Wisp Spirit causes you to transform into a wisp upon death, increasing your movement speed by 75% while dead.

Shadowmeld is a powerful ability which allow you to instantly drop threat (temporarily) in PvE or cancel enemy casts on you in PvP. Nature Resistance and Quickness are also very useful defensively.

• Cultivation increases your Herbalism skill by 15.
• Endurance increases your total health by 5%.
• Nature Resistance reduces the chance you are hit with Nature spells by 2%.
• War Stomp is a 2-minute cooldown that stuns up to 5 enemies within 8 yards for 2 seconds, with a 0.5-second cast time.

War Stomp is quite reliable in PvP, often allowing for a surprise Cyclone cast, but has little PvE uses. The 5% increased health from Endurance is minor, but often useful, as is Nature Resistance.

While all professions have their unique benefits, we would recommend PvE-focused players to level Tailoring for the Lightweave Embroidery cloak enchant, which provides a lot of burst Spell Damage which can be useful when used alongside your cooldowns and combat potion.

Engineering should be your second profession to unlock the Hyperspeed Accelerators tinker, which gives 340 Haste for 12 seconds every minute. When used at the start of a fight this bonus should be active with your cooldowns, Lightweave Embroidery, and combat potion, allowing you to do huge burst damage!

Engineering also provides multiple explosives for extra damage and Nitro Boosts for a burst of speed.

Using macros and addons makes your life significantly easier when playing Wrath Classic, and they can improve your experience a lot, depending on how skilled you are at customizing them.

If you are interested in learning more about addons and macros suited to Balance Druids, check out our guides below: