C Tier - Balance Druid

Classes Druid
1

Like it or not, there is a reason Balance is sitting near the bottom of the Mythic+ ladder. I’m hoping to start a discussion around what we think the spec needs in order to be considered “viable.” I say viable loosely, because yes, you can absolutely time keys as Balance, but the reality is groups simply don’t like or want us compared to other specs.

So let’s talk about why.

The biggest issue is not just damage. It’s what other classes bring that Balance doesn’t. A lot of specs bring frequent interrupts, strong stops, Bloodlust/Hero, immunities, group defensives, priority damage, or utility that solves specific dungeon problems.

Just to name a few:

Shamans have a short cooldown Wind Shear and Lust.
Mages bring Lust, immunity, decurse, spellsteal, and strong control.
Rogues bring short kicks, stuns, shroud, cheat tools, and tons of control.
Death Knights bring grips, AMZ, a normal interrupt, and strong enemy control.
Evokers bring Lust, Rescue, Zephyr, knockups, and major group support.

Balance does bring useful tools like Mark of the Wild, Battle Rez, Soothe, Typhoon, Ursol’s Vortex, Remove Corruption, and Solar Beam, but most of that either isn’t unique to the spec or doesn’t solve the same problems other classes solve. Battle Rez is nice, but now that other classes bring this, it is not enough to make groups want a Balance Druid over specs that bring more frequent control, stronger defensive value, or required utility like Lust.

One of my biggest examples is our interrupt. Solar Beam is the longest cooldown interrupt in the game, and while an AoE silence sounds powerful on paper, it doesn’t line up with how Mythic+ is played today. Modern dungeons demand frequent, reliable interrupts on dangerous casts every 15–20 seconds, not a single silence every minute. In practice, Beam often feels like we’re paying a premium for utility we don’t actually need, while lacking the basic, reliable kick that almost every other DPS spec brings.

That is why Balance feels bad in group building. It’s not just “our damage is low,” and, I’d really like to avoid the damage discussion, I want to focus on utility.

The problem I see is when a group leader looks at Balance, they don’t see a spec that “fixes” the dungeon for them. They see lack luster utility, certainly not enough required utility to justify the slot over classes that bring Lust, shorter interrupts, stronger control, better defensives, or more reliable priority damage.

My very first suggestion, to get the ball rolling, I think we need a choice node between a 15 second solar beam interrupt with no silence on one, and the minute silence on the other.

Actual Community Feedback:

Interrupt:
Note: Giving us a shorter cd interrupt would not make us Overpowered, it would make us average.
–Make Solarbeam a choice node; one 15 second interrupt vs one 1 minute interrupt/silence.
–Give Solarbeam 2 charges on a 30 second cd.

Buffs:
–Give us Moonkin Aura back - 3% crit or spell crit. We need something unique since Blizzard took our brez away.

Defensives:
–We need something other than Barkskin/Bear form, we want our Moonkin tank boy back. Maybe a choice node that makes us choose between having bear form and full armor/healing utility vs 25-50% more armor and health added to the Moonkin form, allowing our rotation/defensives to flow a bit better.
–Fluid form should be ALL the spells in each of the forms should shift you, not just the builders. Right now it still breaks the “rotation”.

3 Likes
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I thought SB updating to a 30 second CD, or having two charges.

3 Likes
3

Fully agree, aside from my idea of just making SB a choice node, I’d also love 2 charges on a 30s cd, it would allow us the option to interrupt a missed cast in the “interrupt rotation.”

I actually would also love to see our Moonkin Aura Crit buff return, it wouldn’t just help us, I believe it would have the potential to create a new Mythic+ spell cleave meta.

1 Like
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When I’m forming an m+, balance is pretty much a last resort. The worst interrupts in game by far, with mid throughput and weak cc. They have a bres, but so do specs with good interrupts and DPS. And sure they bring MotW, but so do all the other Druid specs, who are all better options, especially Guardian. They’re an “if no one else signs up” choice.

A ~15 second interrupt would immediately make them average.

3 Likes
5

That is certainly what it feels like, I’m not “the best druid in the world,” but I feel like I shouldn’t be declined for a 10 at 283 ilvl, and yet I’m declined many many times before I’m accepted. I normally just run with guildies but it would be nice to farm crests and not take 20-40 minutes just to have a group begrudgingly accept me. I agree even a 15 second interrupt wouldn’t make us overpowered, it would simply make us an average enough DPS class. Now if they gave us Moonkin Aura back or another type of buff that no other class can bring, that would probably shoot us to the A tier.

1 Like
6

It is not just m+ last expansion i was at least able to do some spike damage at the start of a boss before the classes that were not gimped all passed me. This expansion i was fighting tanks for damage. i had to switch to feral just to not be a complete embarrassment for damage in raids. will the new changes allow me to go back to balance or am i stuck with feral till they kill the game for wow 2.0?

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I just want Hurricane back, it was such a uselessly fun spell to use at random.

3 Likes
8

Wouldn’t mind seeing balance get a bit more defensive. Moonkin form with an armor buff or something. I do understand Bear form is always there, but Fluid form talent isnt always selected and even so its still a two-three GCD slog.

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Beam is a PvP silence used on healers when they dont have trinket or a metric ton of ways to get out of roots now. Havent played boomie or wow in about 2 months. My main (mainly pvp but enjoy pve) feels like a bunch of small things that add up to nothing compared to other classes. Boomkin is no longer. Too many IF/THAN and Has a Chance abilities that dot feel enjoyable. Either have Starfall or shooting stars, not both. That kind of thing. you could prune all the little dot and things that happen because of our dots pruned and put into our core abilities as damage increases and i think boomie would fell better. (also, make Beam a 30 sec CD and remove 3/4 the amount of get out of root free abilities)

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Root Beam is basically only usable against Monks as far as Im aware all other healers have a way out of it in their base kit without using their trinket CD.

Im right there with you dude, Boomkin has been that spec that I feel like I have to force myself to enjoy each expansion as I watch Blizzard just make it worse and worse.

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I most enjoyed BfA S1 Boomkin. It was simple yet versatile. I agree on the need to move to more impactful passive bonuses, improve utility choices and make the core spec more interesting. Myself and many others have written up elaborate suggestions building from the Empowerments mechanic as opposed to Eclipse, for more deterministic yet variable decisions in the rotation. The alternative, keeping the current design, would be closer to TWW S1.

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Couldnt agree more, most if not all other classes press 1 button for defensives, moonkin have to stop damage fully to defend outside of bark skin. Its neat class fantasy, but in practice it feels broken, maybe give us a choice node that allows 25-50% of that bear armor/health to be added to Moonkin form and not allow us to swap to bear? IDK, spit balling.

Yep, the rotation needs a ton of work still, the new way of entering eclipse I’m used to by this point, but yea it still feels clunky.

Yea, eclipse is so meh, doesn’t feel impactful. I don’t want to get too in the weeds on rotation/damage but I admit that can play a big factor in utility.

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I’m sure something could be done to beef up the Moonkin form a bit. I know Bear form is always there but it is a clunk and just drop in damage where other classes just hit a button and keep going. Or are naturally tanker.

Fluid form I think was made to help with this but idk that even still feels a bit off.

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Yea I think the fact that it still shifts you, and you still have to shift back to not break your rotation, if it was like “every spell” in each of the forms shifts you, that may make the difference.

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Maybe its me, but I find I’m faster than the talent. I know something is coming in, I’ll bear take the hit and be back in Moonkin form faster than a wrath cast could auto swap me via the talent.

It just seems like a good idea, but not done well in game.

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I was about to open a new post earlier and suddenly I found this. I don’t play PvE, but PvP has the same problem Balance Druid has it, almost every healer can break Root Beam (root/incapacitate effect), AoE Silence has become very outdated, and I agree there should be a Talent choice that has AoE (with a minute cooldown) and Single-target interrupt (with a 25-second cooldown).

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I was going to ask if Balance druid is really a DPS spec?

All the casts are sooooo loooong, even an instant of movement is a massive loss.

And, for example, with mage, long casts equal big damage, but for Balance long casts just equate to normal damage. Its like Balance druids have to work like crazy just to get what other RDPS classes can get messing around.

Now, maybe there is some kind of hybrid tax going on. Because I can turn into a bird who can pick flowers and cast a single healing spell as a parrotbear, I have to give up fully half the damage that other classes get. Maybe that’s a thing.

Or maybe the damage is waiting somewhere in the very highest levels.

I dunno. But picking up and playing a balance druid is both amazing in all the many things it can do and frustrating in the very, very critical things that it cannot seem to do.

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95% of Balances toolkit is instant cast

1 Like
19

Yes shamans are so great with their Wind Shear and Lust that no other class has

Lmao

Balance does not need any more utility.

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Hmm, well lets see…

Moonfire and sunfire are instant casts, but then you just wait for them to do their thing.

Starfire has 2.1 second cast and wrath has a 1.4 second cast, they both build ancestral power

Starsurge takes 40 ancestral power and Starfall takes 50 ancestral power

So most of the time you are just stuck in place, waving your hands around, waiting on normal damage.

And if you have to move, for any reason, you have to start that hand-waving all over.

And if the mob is punching you in the face, you will need to weave some 1.4 cast time regrowths in there to stay alive, oh and you can’t move while you do that either or else you have to start THAT process all over as well.

What’s that you say? Rejuvenation is instant? Why, yes it is… if you want to drop your moonkin form and then have to recast that at the cost of a whole gcd doing nothing else.

Balance druid spends a whole lot of time doing absolutely nothing, waiting for their dance moves to pay off, and hoping they do not have to take a step to the left and then a jump to the right.