First and foremost, I do not recommend picking a Balance Druid Leveling Spec until later levels, such as level 30 or 40. The reason being, is that you will have much more down time due to mana issues. And lowbie Moonkin have a LOT of mana issues. However, around level 30, you will receive more talents and abilities that will help you with mana. But, if you are dead set on going Balance, then read on through this Balance Druid Leveling Guide to learn exactly how to get the most out of your Balance Druid leveling experience.
Balance Druid Leveling Guide Part 1: Mandatory Mana Abilities
Innervate, available at level 28, will regenerate 15% of your mana, up to 45% with Dreamstate talents (Level 51). You also want Dreamstate’s pre-requisite, Euphoria, available at level 31 and 33, to refund your mana when you enter the eclipse state. Use Innervate whenever its cooldown is up. Don’t wait until you’re almost out of mana. Just use it whenever you can. You’ll get a lot more benefit from it this way. Push your rotations to focus on eclipse so that you get that mana regeneration from Euphoria. At 65, Moonfire and Sunfire now give you additional Solar/Lunar energy, so take that into consideration.
Balance Druid Leveling Guide Part 2: Gearing Up
You want a lot of stamina and intellect. You should be in all leather gear to take advantage of the armor specialization bonus. You can equip staves, daggers, maces, and off-hand frill items. Technically you can equip more, but these are the only ones that will benefit you as a caster. Focus on weapons with spell power or caster stats like intellect or spirit.
Balance Druid Leveling Guide Part 3: Your rotations
This is a somewhat difficult area to discuss since there are a few different options you can take as a druid. At earlier levels, you will want to focus on single target DPS. It’s pretty simple, use Wrath or Starfire, depending on what state you’re in to get the bonus damage. However, once you get shooting stars, you can start AoE DoT grinding. This, is a lot of fun. The AoE strategy involves spamming moonfire/sunfire across all the mobs you can handle, gathering them up, and then casting hurricane. As soon as you finish spamming MF/SF, hit barkskin, Innervate, Starfall, and then Hurricane the mobs until they’re right up to you. Then Typhoon them to knock them back and Hurricane again if there are any mobs left.
Balance Druid Leveling Guide Part 4: Final Notes
Always remember that the bulk of the experience you earn will be coming from questing. The WoW Leveling Guide I use is one of the fastest methods to get to 85, and allows me to enjoy the different aspects of World of Warcraft. That being said remember to spec, gear, and glyph specifically for Balance Druid Leveling, and remember that some talents are better for raiding, and not for leveling. All in all, balance is a very fun class to play, but it requires some skill to master. Between the number of spells, strategies, and rotations, and not to mention the Eclipse mechanic, you have a lot of figuring out to do, and it will take some experimentation to learn what works best for you.
