Balance druid is a not so hard class for dueling. Boomie has a small number of spells but you will need to master kiting, which makes this spec capable of surviving other classes since the class doesn’t have any stun/silence.
Balance druid has a really nice burst potential if timed well, has really nice healing for DPS spec and it’s really a mobile class. The weaknesses are that barkskin and its heals over time can be easily dispelled/purged. Also, in 1v1's, it can be really hard to burst since every class has some CC like silence/stun/fear which make them freely cast their spells unlike boomies.
So the next stop is GEAR. This is an important thing for balance druids because you will need to adjust resilience for each enemy to increase DPS or survivability.
[1:27 GEAR]
So like I mentioned last time, you will need a couple of PVP and PVE items so you can switch them for each class. One type of gear should have extremely high resilience, second one should be ‘balanced gear’ with around 1150-1200 resilience and third set could be extremely low resilience if you want to have fun in battlegrounds.
BIS:
Main set: ⅗ crit, ⅖ spirit wrath
Shoulders (DPS): Sanctified Lasherweave Mantle
Necklace: Wrathful Gladiator’s Pendant of Subjugation
Back: Wrathful Gladiator’s Cloak of Subjugation
Wrist: Wrathful Gladiator’s Armwraps of Dominance
Waist: Wrathful Gladiator’s Belt of Dominance
Feet: Wrathful Gladiator’s Boots of Dominance
Weapon: Wrathful Gladiator’s Blade of Celerity
Idol: Idol of the Lunar Eclipse
Rings: Ashen Band of Endless Destruction, Wrathful Gladiator’s Band of Dominance, Ring of Rapid Ascent or Valanar’s Other Signet Ring
Trinket 1: Medallion of the Alliance/Horde
Trinket 2: Charred Twilight Scale, Dislodged Foreign Object or Corroded Skeleton Key
I forgot to mention that you will have loads of fun on battlegrounds because you will usually be on the top of damage dealt chart. So if someone is looking for that stat, pick balance druid. You won’t regret it.
This build is the ‘balanced gear’. I use it for BGs and against some casters.
I chose this headpiece because of the hit rating stat. Actually, I keep my hit rating pretty low because of the talent that gives me 4% more chance to hit with all spells and I rarely miss.
Also, there is an argument if you should use items with spirit stats because of Improved Moonkin Form talent or rush pure crit stat items.
My personal opinion is to rush ⅗ crit and ⅖ spirit on main set to trigger +100 resilience. When it comes to offset, you can choose. Spirit build isn’t bad at all, 30% isn’t a small thing but I prefer having more crit. If you hate getting OOM, you can even rush full spirit build.
For hands, I chose Hyperspeed Accelerators enchant instead of the rocket, but you can switch to your liking.
[3:33]
So take a look at my resilience. I use this 1450 res build for dueling almost always. With 1150 resilience, I’m getting wrecked from rogues and warriors’ bladestorm in a couple of seconds.
STATS:
Hit rating: Try to rush 3%. If you feel that you’re missing a lot, go for more.
Resilience: 1200 or more I would say for all around (but it’s highly adjustable).
Haste: 400+
Spell penetration: 130
Talents and Glyphs
Later, you will have to choose between 3-4 talents to spend 2-3 more points. I will explain.
Improved Insect Swarm is not worth it. It’s a minor change for 3 points.
We build our hit rating around this talent (Balance of Power). It’s totally worth it.
I have seen some build without this talent (Improved Moonkin Form), which I personally think it’s really stupid. Go 3/3.
Owlkin Frenzy talent looks great but actually, you can go even ⅓ here because you lose this buff every time you switch stance, which you do all the time.
Gale Winds is a really good talent. You can push for 2/2 here (decrease Owlkin Frenzy). Cyclone is almost your only CC spell to keep you alive.
Don’t take this talent (Furor) because you won’t spend much time in bear form and you can use a macro for instant stun. This talent is absolutely unnecessary.
You must take ⅔ of Subtlety to progress with the talent tree. It’s up to you if you want to go 3/3 here or not. Personally, 30% is nothing special but when someone is dispelling your DoTs all the time, it becomes frustrating.
Now you can choose if you want to spend your 2-3 talent points on Moonglow, Brambles, Genesis or Furor talents.
I think Furor is the most useless one there. Genesis also gives you a minor improvement. I chose Brambles because that daze effect can be really nice against melee classes.
You can also use Glyph of Moonfire or Glyph of Monsoon.
Macros
Bash Macro
/cast Enrage
/cast Bash(Rank 3)
Like I mentioned earlier, I didn’t choose Furor talent so we have to use the Enrage spell to gain starting rage so we can use bash.
Force of Nature macro:
/cast Force of Nature
/petattack
If you press two times, spawned trees will attack your target instead of clicking pet attack manually.
Hibernate macro:
/cast [target=mouseover] Hibernate(Rank 3)
Mouseover hibernate for hunter pets.
Rejuv macro:
/cast [target=mouseover] Rejuvenation(Rank 15)
Mouseover rejuvenation for arena & battlegrounds.
Cyclone macro:
/cast [mod:shift, @focus] Cyclone
/cast [nomod] Cyclone
[7:32 GAMEPLAY]
[7:36 Unholy DK]
You can always open with Pounce cat stun followed by Cyclone and then put all HoTs on you and start the fight. Always keep your DoTs up and kite as much as you can.
Sometimes, it’s risky to be near the target so I cast Cyclone from a distance without stun.
Since DK has only one stun and you can’t trinket their silences, I find it worthwhile to instantly trinket their pet stun and open fight in a proper way.
Start Shapeshifting his Chains of Ice. While under Strangulate, you can still Shapeshift and go Bear Form and try to Bash him.
While you are still in Bear Form, do Demoralizing Roar to decrease his attack power.
Use it to root him and his pet to make space.
Best time to use Starfall is actually when he calls his Gargoyle. Always try to keep Gargoyle in CC or try to interrupt it.
Just pay attention to the Daze effect from Brambles talent. When you use FoN, he is dazed like all the time. Absolutely worth it.
[9:28 FROST MAGE]
Against mages, the ideal time for Starfall would be after Ice Block but it’s not always that easy. Keep in mind that you cannot be Polymorphed in forms.
If you are under a lot of pressure, Starfall will make him use Ice Block, so you can heal yourself. Also, don’t buff yourself before the duel, it will be stolen. When it comes to healing, try to force his Counterspell with fake casts and heal with Nourish.
Actually, Regrowth+Rejuv isn’t a good way to open. Both heals could be stolen at once. He is wasting a global CD, that’s the only good thing about it. You can cast a couple of spells in that time.
You MUST do fake casts. If he hits you with Counterspell, it’s most likely you will end up with 10% HP. Also, the time between Counterspells is enough for you to cast some Wraths for extra damage.
When he is under Ice Block, you can only heal yourself. Also, you can rebuff yourself. He will need like 3-4 seconds to dispel all your heals and buffs from you if he tries to. Save your Typhoon for Evocation.
[11:09 SUB ROGUE]
Use full tank build against rogues. Also, I recommend you to use Barkskin glyph if you are frustrated dueling against rogues.
You must be fast while Shapeshifting because you must stay in Moonkin Form all the time. You receive 15% less damage while stunned (and you’re stunned like always against rogues).
When we consider all that, we can see that boomies can tank pretty well against rogues. I love to use Barkskin always on start because both trinkets procced on him. If you use Barkskin, don’t trinket, wait for Shadow Dance.
Use every second you have to put HoT on your + Abolish Poison but get back into the form fast. You can try to use Typhoon to reveal him since that spell has an enormous hit box. I was triggered by playing against boomies.
I had to pause here to explain what I’m trying to do. My Barkskin is on CD and he used his SD, so I have to trinket first. If I trinket, I can get blinded so I try to cast Force of Nature to keep him in combat and also out of stealth.
When he uses Garrote on you, quickly change stance and try to Bash him. We did a couple of duels and he noticed that and he used Evasion.
Here we can see that I put my DoTs and Shadowmelded. He lost target and I had just enough time to cast Regrowth without being kicked.
[12:48 FERAL DRUID]
Wait for him to open and try to Hibernate him. He will most likely Shapeshift or Shadowmeld to avoid it. Use Cyclone if there’s no time for Hibernate.
Just spam Cyclone as much as you can and keep healing. If he doesn’t kill you with Berserk, he will never kill you. Use Nature’s Grasp. It’s not useless, he will lose a lot of DPS in trying to Shapeshift the root.
Wait for him to Feral Charge and then use Typhoon to bounce him back.
[14:05 DESTRO LOCK]
Good thing against warlocks is that you cannot be charmed, so that idiot tactic doesn’t work against boomies.
I always trinket the first fear to try not to allow the destro lock to make his deadly rotation. Try to use Typhoon on his Chaos Bolt. I was silenced instantly so I couldn’t use anything.
Use Shadowmeld to avoid Chaos Bolt, Incinerate or Fear. Shut him up with Bash followed by Cyclone and heal. Every second you survive is an advantage for you.
He gave up and wrote, “ok good player”.
[15:12 ARMS WARRIOR]
You can try to wait for him to use Shield Wall and then use your Starfall but I think that gives the warrior so much space to DPS.
In worst case scenarios, you will have your CDs for 1 minute, both Barkskin and SF. Don’t forget the Faerie Fire so your trees can hit harder.
When you use Typhoon, follow him to keep space. Just enough so he can’t Charge back.
Should have fake casted but I was like “Nevermind, I will make it”. So instant Bear Form -> Bash.
[16:23 RET PALADIN]
Rush DPS build against Ret. You will not be able to kill him with a high resilience build. You will run OOM in a few minutes and he will win.
When he pops Wings, you can Cyclone him while it lasts. Also, you have Barkskin. Don’t use Starfall if you don’t have your trinket ready to remove stun.
[17:13 SOME TIPS FOR OTHER CLASSES]
Against hunters, use a high amount of resilience. Try to Hibernate their pet. Shapeshift all traps, run in Travel Form to get closer every time. When you are out of range with less than 60% HP, use Barkskin. When a hunter uses Deterrence, heal yourself near him. Also use Nature’s Grasp to root their pet.
Against warlocks, you can also DoT their pet and they will most likely die in SF. Dispel affliction warlocks’ curses (you don’t have to change stances).
Against an elemental shaman, avoid his Lavaburst with Shadowmeld and Typhoon. That way, you can burst him pretty efficiently. AVOID his Wind Shear silence with fake casts and then burst with full power. Be careful with Grounding Totem. If you spot it, destroy it with Moonfire.
Against a shadow priest, play aggressively with normal resilience. You can Cyclone him in Dispersion. Use FoN after Psychic Scream so you can avoid fear on your trees. Typhoon and Shadowmeld on his Vampiric Touch. Try to kite them so they can’t get close to you to fear you.
[17:39-19:38 RANDOM BG]
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