PvE Balance Druid Rotations & Cooldowns

PvE Balance Druid

Stat Priority

Best Professions

Talents & Builds

Rotation & Cooldowns

Pre-Raid & Best in Slot (BiS)

Enchants & Consumables

In WoW Classic, Balance Druids have one of the most simple rotations in the game for PvE encounters, with only a few damage abilities that they have to use. The rest of their kit is much more situational and support-oriented, depending on the encounter.

In this section of the guide, we will go over Balance Druid’s Single-Target and AoE/Cleave rotations, along with any utility spells that they may be required to use.

Single-Target Rotation

1. Pre-cast Moonkin Form (Upkeep it)
2. Cast Faerie Fire
   • Upkeep Faerie Fire!
3. Cast Moonfire once at the beginning of the encounter
   • Cast Moonfire (Reapply once DoT expires if you don’t run OoM)
   • Don’t spam Moonfire!
4. Cast Insect Swarm (If not OoM or close to reaching OoM state)
   • Reapply only if you have enough Mana
   • Use Insect Swarm only if you have Raw Spell Power
   • Avoid using Insect Swarm if you have Arcane Damage Spell Power gear
5. Cast Starfire (Main Spell)
6. Cast Wrath only on targets that are vulnerable to Nature Damage!

The Single-Target rotation of Balance Druids has often been called one of the easiest experiences when it comes to general difficulty, as most of their rotation is defined by one-button spam, Starfire. While this stands true, even in this version of WoW Classic, some things have changed allowing Balance Druids to experience a bit more excitement, provided they don’t run themselves OoM (Out of Mana) by accident.

The biggest change in this version of WoW Classic is that the debuff limit is a thing of the past! This now allows Balance Druids to safely use both Moonfire and Insect Swarm without fearing they may consume a vital debuff from the raid. However, even while their rotation allows them to incorporate the two spells and refresh them once their DoT duration ends, the problem remains the huge Mana costs of their spells. As such, Balance Druids will find themselves continuing to spam Starfire and weave in a few casts of Moonfire and Insect Swarm as long as their mana pool doesn’t disintegrate in under 30 seconds.

Wrath should only be used on specific mobs that have Nature Resistance as its overall Cost versus Damage Output simply doesn’t justify its use when compared to Starfire. In many cases, Insect Swarm can be considered the same, however, the critical strikes that can result from the ability through the use of Moonkin Form make up for the Mana Cost most of the time.

AoE/Cleave Rotation

1. Pre-cast Moonkin Form (Upkeep it)
2. Cast Moonfire on multiple targets (AoE & Cleave)
3. Cast Insect Swarm on multiple targets (AoE & Cleave)
4. Cast Hurricane on cooldown (Main AoE Spell)

The AoE rotation for Balance Druids can feel lackluster since it mostly depends on Multi-Dotting and one big cooldown, Hurricane. Unlike other classes, Balance Druids are stuck with Multi-Dotting by using Moonfire and Insect Swarm on as many targets as possible while relying on the 1-minute Hurricane cooldown.

If the pack you are about to AoE is considerable enough in size but doesn’t have high HP, you will want to directly Hurricane since the channel lasts 10 seconds. However, you will only want to do this once the tanks grab enough Threat, as Hurricane generates an insane amount of Aggro. For any packs that have high HP, you will want to initially start with a Moonfire & Insect Swarm, as long as you don’t run into an OoM state by the time you can safely cast Hurricane.

Utility

1. Upkeep Moonkin Form for Moonkin Aura at all times
2. Gift of the Wild/Mark of the Wild (Upkeep it)
3. Upkeep Faerie Fire
4. Innervate (On high-priority targets)
5. Rebirth (Only on targets called out by the Raid Leader)
6. Thorns (Always upkeep on Tanks)
7. Entangling Roots (If the area allows it)

In terms of Utility, Balance Druids actually shine when compared to their low-end DPS output. While the design in WoW Classic is highly unfavorable for Balance Druids when it comes to their overall Damage Output, they have been blessed with quite a few interesting and extremely useful utility spells.

By far, the strongest and most desired ones are Rebirth and Innervate! The former is the only Battle Ressurection spell in the entire game while the latter is the best Mana Regeneration tool. Ideally, you will only use both of them according to the calls of your Raid Leader, prioritizing the most important targets. However, if your raid is stacked, you may consider using Innervate on yourself to deal with all the huge mana issues that Balance Druids encounter.

Moonkin Form should be kept at all times, just like in any Single-Target or AoE scenario while Gift of the Wild/Mark of the Wild should have a 100% uptime. Thorns should only be used on tanks since the Threat Generation the spell brings is actually surprisingly high while Faerie Fire should always have a 100% uptime in any Physical Damage-oriented group. Even if your raid group is not made up mostly of Physical DPS classes and it’s Caster-oriented, Faerie Fire should be used for the Tanks and any other Physical DPS in the group.

Sadly, while Entangling Roots can be a great Crowd Control tool, it is limited by the terrain type you find yourself in, meaning that it won’t be useful in most Raids or Dungeons since it requires you to be “Outside” to cast it. In case you can cast it, make sure to use it since it can be a great CC tool.