Balance druid

WoW Classic WoW Classic General Discussion
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Will i be able to play balance druid in classic and not want to smash my head into a wall due to lack of killing things? Will i be able to heal 5 man content from 15-60 with some +healing gear?

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Yes (likely).

Yes.

:cocktail:

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Balance Druid is quite capable solo and in 5-mans. And for extra style points, when you kill someone in PvP with Moonfire spam, they are gonna get really pissed.

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nature’s grace/moonglow spec is a valid healing spec.
You can kill things with a moonkin but they will be slower to kill. Depends on how well you can handle roots and nukes.

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I didn’t play a druid in vanilla but I assume that balance was called an oomkin for a reason. Someone with vanilla druid experience should be able to say if that was all the time or just for raiding.

Going out of mana a lot can be pretty annoying in my opinion. But if it was raiding only, it wouldn’t be an issue since you mentioned healing.

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Moonkins have a time to OoM of about 3-5 minutes (at 60) so solo you should never encounter it unless you’re entering the fight OoM or are fighting something way too strong.

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I didnt play druid in vanilla but was innervate ever castable on self?

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yes it is self castable

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As some one who leveled a druid mostly balance before the talent rework… You’ll have it very easy, just stack int gear, and you can easily heal without +healing pre-60

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Another side question since druid is an option for me …

Did you find the lack of a real Rez a problem in dungeons?

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Nah. Just don’t run with bad DPS that die all the time… or run with a DPS pally/priest/shaman

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Based on spirit back then though so if you aren’t stacking it you aren’t going to feel much of the effect.

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It’s a factor, if it’s a long dungeon with a. Long grave run, def get a secondary. But short run backs/dungeons it doesn’t matter.

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Bad tanks will make you hate your life. Bring a ret pally or prot pally to rez

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I healed dungeons as balance specced in BC while leveling through Classic. I duoed with a hunter and didn’t find open world any more difficult than a priest (who leveled with a warlock).

Meditation (priest talent) was buffed in BC. Maybe the druid equivalent was as well. I had the points into resto for that talent at the time and kept some +spirit in my bags for dungeons. I had been leveling as a cat but got irritated with trying to stay in melee range to hit stuff when the hunter’s pet growled and decided to go balance and take up drinking.

I generally took the opportunity to lecture dps about the awesomeness of health potions and bandages while they ran back. :wink: However, I’m that kind of person. I tried to be nice about it.

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Every class/spec does perfectly well in 5 mans. The later near level-cap dungeons might prove difficult to heal when not specialized for it, but it can be done decently enough.

If you get kicked from 5 mans for being a certain spec, that means said players have a stick up their rear and weren’t worth playing with in the first place.

1 Like
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I want to play Balance in Classic too. It might even be my first, and main. That said, helps to know what Balance lacks, that all other casters have:

  1. No wand to give your mana time to regen, via the 5-second rule. You can hit with your melee weapon, or shift to bear/cat, but shifting will take more mana, and you’ll need to stack some strength for melee weapon.

  2. No clear casting while spell casting. Your clear casting comes from a melee proc, and takes 6 talent points to get.

  3. No +hit in talents. So you’ll have the standard 6% resist rate, for mobs of same level.

  4. +damage and reduced-mana-cost talents are fairly deep in the tree. So you won’t get these additions to casting until your 30s.

  5. Insect swarm (additional dot) is 11 points into Resto tree, and cannot be cast while in Moonkin form. So you’ll either postpone Balance talents, to get I.S. early, or wait until nearly level 60.

  6. Some of these issues can be “balanced” by spending a whopping 9 points to get clear casting (Omen of Clarity), and Natural Shapeshifter. That way you can shift to bear or cat to melee, or apply I.S., and then shift to Moonkin, as you’ll have a 30% mana cost reduction for shifting; plus, you’ll have an additional 10% melee damage from Natural Weapons. But that requires 9 points: You’ll either have to drop something else you wanted from Balance, or not take I.S.

Therefore, Balance is not easy, or the path of least resistance. For endgame, you’ll be average dps in raids (at best), but a holy terror in pvp. Still, you could have a lot of fun, as you level, learning to use the Druid’s whole toolkit to your advantage, while focusing on Balance.

And you’ll be a singular rarity. Is it worth it? I don’t know. But I want to find out. I hope this gave you some food for thought.

3 Likes
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Yeah, but it will be a challenge, especially with an unskilled group that takes more damage than necessary.

Nonetheless, be brave and do it!

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I would also throw out there that if you get charge and can close with people, don’t be afraidnto go melee stuff as a bear, cat, or boomkin. It’s not too shabby and Nature’s Grasp punishes them when they hit back.

I always found the people who.stayednin Moonkin form too often in PvP to be the weakest. The ones who used all their forms well were much scarier.

Also the downside of raiding moonkin is that you use all your mana in long fights and then you have to either innervate yourself or go cat, so not quite as kuch longevity with mana as feral. 3% spell crit buff is nice though.

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PvE wise, in full Naxx BiS gear a balance druid does roughly 20% less damage than other casters, but brings some utility like innervate and battle rez. The tryhard guilds are never going to have one, but some casual guilds that are more open to offspecs might. I’ve seen guilds advertising this kind of thing.