Beneficial Balance Builds

Everyone's favorite bear has been posting over at WoW Insider on the weekly druid column, Shifting Perspectives. Last week, he covered talent choices for leveling from the perspective of a feral druid.

Feral, I think, really is the most efficient way to level. As much as I love my Moonkin, it's hard to pass up the almost zero downtime that comes with the feral style of playing. Pop into cat form, kill kill kill, pop back to caster form to heal back up (hey look, a nice full mana bar!), back to cat form. Repeat until the end of time. No eating. No drinking. It's awesome.

This continues to be the case once you enter Outland, but if you're going to make the jump to Balance, this is the time to do it. You'll be replacing all your gear anyway within the first couple levels, and it can be easier to step into a healing role if needed when you're already geared and specced as a caster (though keeping a true healing set on hand for those situations makes it much easier).

The following is a Balance spec for level 58*, suitable for someone just entering Outland. You get general damage output, a few utility talents, including 3 talents specifically to help with the mana issues you'll soon be facing.

Balance (37)
5/5 Starlight Wrath
3/3 Control of Nature
2/2 Focused Starlight
2/2 Improved Moonfire
3/3 Brambles
1/1 Insect Swarm
2/2 Nature's Reach
3/3 Celestial Focus
3/3 Lunar Guidance
1/1 Nature's Grace
3/3 Moonglow
5/5 Moonfury
3/3 Dreamstate
1/1 Moonkin Form

Restoration (12)
5/5 Improved Mark of the Wild
5/5 Naturalist (or Nature's Focus)
2/3 Intensity

(Click here if you're more of a visual person.)

*EDIT: Of course you can start questing in Hellfire at 58, which is why I started the build here. However, especially with the recent changes to Azeroth leveling, I know more and more players not bringing their alts to Outland until they hit 60 and get that epic mount, and then they just breeze through all the initial quests much more easily.

Cdin brings up the point that, if you do want to jump right in at 58, you'll be lower level than everything around you, making Balance of Power a talent you'll want from the beginning. I'd suggest this as a possible modification to the build listed above. This will obviously affect how you spend your points for the next 12 levels, but let your own preferences guide you. There are always choices to be made.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled blog entry.

Personally I prefer Control of Nature to Nature's Grasp and improvements, but they serve very similar functions.

I passed up Vengeance because, at first, your gear probably won't have much spell crit rating, so those 5 points are better spent in Moonfury, for a consistant damage increase.

Second tier in the Resto tree you could really go with Naturalist or Nature's Focus. I prefer the first, but it's really just a way to get down to Intensity. And now that you're using your mana to fight and to heal yourself, you're going to want Intensity.

At level 59, I'd put that last point in Intensity, making it 3/3. After that, you have some choices for the rest of your journey to 70. Basically it comes down to the following question: how viable do you want to be for healing? If you have a great guild that will help you run instances as you level, or you don't care about running instances, just keep putting talents in the Balance tree to increase your DPS. However, if you're going to be LFG quite a bit, it can be much easier to find a spot as a healer than as a dime-a-dozen DPS (and one with very limited CC at that).

To Heal . . .
While you can certainly heal with an off-spec, having points invested in Restoration will help you do that job more efficiently. A druid specializes in healing over time. Regrowth, Rejuvenation, and (when you get it at 64) Lifebloom are your friends. However, there are times where Healing Touch is necessary as well, so make sure you have Naturalist to reduce that cast time. Other talents that will be of use to you are:

5/5 Subtlety - Pulling threat is generally considered a bad thing, whether you're DPS or healer. If you're DPS, you get to stop what you're doing so the tank can get the mob back off you. If you're the healer, you don't really have that option, so reducing your threat output is that much more important.

3/3 Improved Rejuvenation - Since this is a spell you'll use a lot, getting more healing for your mana is always a good choice.

1/1 Nature's Swiftness - It's good to macro this with Healing Touch . . . just in case. It has a 3-minute cooldown, so use it wisely, but it can literally mean the difference between life and death in some cases.

For the last two points, I would suggest 2/5 in Gift of Nature, giving all your healing a little extra power; however, Nature's Focus, Tranquil Spirit, and Improved Tranquility are other options. Or you can go back over to the Balance tree and put them there, but these Resto talents will give you a little bit of an edge if you're called upon to heal.

. . . or Not To Heal?
If healing really isn't your thing, there are plenty of places in the Balance tree you can add points to just keep pumping out the damage. I would suggest:

5/5 Wrath of Cenarius - Again, I'm choosing to go with a constant increase to your damage output, rather than improving your criticals. Once you level up a bit and start getting more crit gear, then jump back up to . . .

5/5 Vengeance - Spell criticals usually hit for 1.5x regular damage; maxing out this talent increases that to 2x regular damage. Now your crits give you the damage of two spells for the price of one. You could choose to get this sooner, but it really shines when you're critting more often.

Only one point left, what do we do?!?! If still you plan to do a lot of soloing at 70, this build should serve you well, and you can really put that last point wherever you want it. 1/1 in Force of Nature or 1/2 in Balance of Power are two of the better choices.

But, if you plan to do mostly group content (5-mans or raiding), it's time to respec. Some of the talents that served you well while leveling lose their magic in a group setting.

Brambles - Lose it. You should always cast Thorns on the tank to help him build threat, but it's not a primary source of damage, and you'll almost never use Entangling Roots (there's very few places you actually can), so these points are better spent elsewhere.

Celestial Focus - This one is debatable. The stun chance on Starfire isn't necessary (and on many mobs you'll get an "Immune" message that makes you wonder for a sec how he can be immune to arcane damage if you cast Moonfire without a problem). The chance to avoid interruption to Wrath can be nice in fights where everyone's taking damage, but you may decide the points are better spent elsewhere.

Force of Nature - This can be a fun little talent while leveling. However, if you had it before, now is the time to say goodbye to your tree friends. Extra damage is nice (extra damage that doesn't put threat on you is even nicer) but with no pet bar these guys can be unpredictable at times, and I personally don't trust them in instances. Again, can be useful, but the point is better spent elsewhere.

You're probably noticing a trend. The thing is, there are so many great talents in the Balance tree that you just can't get them all. So, it's almost never a case of, "this talent sucks," but more of, "it'd be nice, but other things are more important."

So what is more important?

Balance of Power - Maxing out this talent means you have the minimum 1% chance to be resisted by level 70 or 71 mobs. You'll have a 2% chance to be resisted by level 72 mobs. And while you'll still be resisted by raid bosses more frequently, it reduces the amount of spell hit you need on your gear. (See this recent post for more info on spell hit.)

Improved Faerie Fire - This talent, unfortunately, does nothing for you. You don't have a ranged attack weapon, and you almost never use melee attacks. However, it means that the melee and hunters in your group will be more likely to see their attacks hit, and less of your tank's crucial abilities will miss. This talent can give more casual groups (including PUGs) a better chance to succeed, and can give high-end raiding groups an extra edge. But it's your decision if you want to spend 3 points on a talent that doesn't directly benefit you.

Subtlety - Yes, our old friend back in the Restoration tree. If you have a threat meter, it can be frustrating to see yourself climbing and having to hold back on damage so you don't pull threat. If you don't have a threat meter, it can be even more frustrating to see yourself die. It depends on the kinds of groups you'll be running with, but it can be a safety precaution for casuals and PUGs where everyone may not have a threat meter, and it can help raiders do their max damage without holding back.

Not enough points for everything, unfortunately, which means that once again, you have choices to make. Most of it depends on what you're going to do with your druid. As an example, my main is currently running Kara on a weekly basis with a fairly consistant group, and getting into regular 5-mans and heroics when she can. This is the spec that I currently use, and I'm quite happy with it.

Do you do more soloing, or more group events? Do you just DPS, or are you often a backup healer? Do you run pugs all the time or do you have a group of players you know and trust? Do you PvP? (If that's the case, I can't help you, but WoWWiki can.)

These are all questions that you should ask yourself when choosing a level 70 talent build. Plan it out, try it out, and you can always respec if you decide you'd like to move some points around.

EDIT: It seems that great minds think alike. Check out Phaelia's article on Resto4Life, Leveling Restoration/Balance. Takes you all the way through 10-70, without a single point spent in the feral tree!