This is a short guide for all interested in PVP-ing as a balance druid. It covers everything you ever wanted to know about moonkin PVP and probably also a few things you'd prefer not to hear. It's gonna be an interesting ride, so let's get started ...
INDEX
1. Moonkin Mindset
2. Gear
3. Specs
4. Playstyle
5. Conclusion
1. Moonkin Mindset
Balance is not a very popular spec, and for a good reason. It's not very strong at low gear levels, the damage is weak and it runs out of mana fast. You won't be owning anyone in blues and greens, you need gear, and to get gear you need to raid. However, the good news is that moonkins scale well, so as you gear up you'll start doing some very respectable damage.
VIDEO: The infamous moonkin crit video
You also need to understand that the best druid spec in vanilla is a restobear, a resto druid specced in Feral Charge wearing leather healing gear. It's the best flag carrier build there is, and people will assume you're playing it. They'll probably expect you to carry flags as well and may get annoyed if you refuse to - a fair warning.
You can of course still carry flags, but your primary role is damage. You are there to do damage and help your team with roots/offheals, not to carry flags.
You are playing a spec that can be incredibly strong when geared and played right, and your ability to induce tears, the main currency of vanilla PVP, is twofold: not only people will rage when they die to you, they'll also rage because they died to a moonkin.
You are The Moonkin Overlord. You rule over the unwashed masses, sheepishly following what they think conventional wisdom is, only to perish in lunar flames and flashes of green lightning.
The wrath of Elune is on your side. Use it wisely.
VIDEO: Balance druid world PVP by Atlezza
2. Gear
As a caster you want spell damage and crit, which makes PVP gear you can obtain from ranking useless. Dungeon gear won't do, to become a serious threat you'll have to raid, and there are two ways to go about it:
- Raid as resto and collect offspec gear
- Raid as balance
Raiding as resto takes a longer time, but it's a lot easier. First, you don't have to worry about getting into a quality guild, since everyone wants a good resto druid. And second, you won't have to farm as much. Moonkin PVE pretty much requires Mana Potion and Dark/Demonic Rune spam on cooldown and every other consumable you can think of.
Of course raiding as an actual balance druid will get you geared up faster. As long as you can deal with the grind and are able to find a good guild, this is the ideal way to gear up.
For more information about raiding as a moonkin visit this thread: Project: Moonkin
3. Specs
Feral charge spec
This spec is great for world PVP and duels, and works in battlegrounds as well. In my experience Feral Charge isn't that amazing in BGs, since it may make you an easier target - generally you want to hang back and do damage/CC, not charge straight under your enemies's swords. It can still be useful though, so I wouldn't write it off.
- Why no Improved Entangling Roots?
The damage in vanilla is very bursty, and when you get a melee on you, your options are to either Bash/grenade into root or use Nature's Grasp for instant root. Depending on your opponent's gear, you may not have enough time to cast a root. This may not be true at lower gear levels, but knowing you'll only get geared for PVP well after ZG release (see the moonkin PVE topic linked above), I wouldn't count on that.
- Why no Improved Starfire?
Your primary nuke in PVP is Wrath. Shorter casting time means a higher chance of getting more spells off (if you have 4.5 seconds to cast that means 3 Wraths versus 1 Starfire) and a larger chance to get a crit. More damage! You only want to cast Starfire on a rooted target that's trying to kill you, and in that case an extra 0.5 second isn't a large deal. There are some other minor reasons why having Improved Starfire would be beneficial, but overall I don't think it's worth the points.
- Why 4 points in Improved Nature's Grasp?
It makes your roots proc the first time you get hit 100% of the time, which can often save your life. However, if you really wish to give Improved Starfire a shot, this is where you can get the points for it.
Nature's Swiftness spec
This one dives deeper into the resto tree to pick up Nature's Swiftness (NS) and some other useful talents. NS is great for healing or rooting, even casting an instant Wrath. Improved healing abilities are always welcome as well, since offhealing is an important part of your utility.
- Why only 1 point in reflection?
As a balance druid you won't have a lot of out of combat regen to start off, and battles in vanilla PVP usually don't last very long. There are better ways to spend your points.
- Why no Improved Nature's Grasp?
You need to maximize your damage, that means taking all the damage talents. There simply aren't enough point's available to pick everything while also speccing into NS. You can still remove points from Moonfury if you feel like Nature's Graps doesn't proc fast enough.
PVE friendly spec
It allows you to PVE normally while also participating in PVP. Not a very exciting spec, but it works.
4. Playstyle
So. After investing all this time and effort, how do hell do I play this thing? If you haven't already, watch the video from Atlezza I linked above. Here is another video done by him:
Balance PVP by Atlezza
Note that he uses grenades like any vanilla PVP player should.
You will also notice that he never goes into Moonkin Form. There are a few reasons for that: Moonkin Form in itself does increase your armor, but a geared melee will still destroy you extremely fast - you need to CC him ASAP instead of trying to tank. Going into Moonkin Form also consumes a valuable global cooldown, which could be better use on rooting, casting Wrath or even healing. This is why Moonkin Form isn't even included in the NS spec.
However! I had some success doing the following when fighting melee, mostly warriors: cast Regrowth and Rejuvenation on self, go Moonkin Form, use Barkskin, proceed to spam Moonfire, collect victory.
You may also be able to "tank" with a healer spamming heals on you, but you can rarely count on that. Overall Moonkin Form isn't useless, but you probably won't be using it most of the time.
We can split the playstyle into two categories: offensive and defensive.
Offensive:
Start in stealth to prevent being focused by your enemies right away. Open by rooting some melee, then start casting Wrath on the target your team is focusing. Only use Moonfire if you think it can finish your target, Wrath does more damage.
If there's a mage or a lock CS-ing your Wraths, you can fakecast 1 Wrath, then use Moonfire on the target your team is focusing. In most cases that should lure the CS. If they don't CS after that, simply continue casting Wrath - it's unlikely that they expect you to juke at all, 99% of them will CS on the first juke. If you do get locked on Wrath, just use Starfire.
Spamming Moonfire on moving targets like flag carriers can be amazing. A well geared moonkin's Moonfire will crit for over 700, while one AQ40 geared owl even told me about 1K Moonfire crits (and all the furious whispers that he constantly gets for it). I can't confirm the 1K Moonfire, but in any case it's a great spell - no other caster has anything close to it.
Grenade into Starfire is amazing.
Defensive:
Your defensive gameplay consists of peeling (CCing to reduce damage your teammates take) and healing.
Your main peels are roots and bash. Feral Charge will also immobilize its target for a short time if you're specced into it. I suggest getting a nameplate addon that colors your enemies's health bars according to their class, so you always know what you're dealing with - playing against horde looks like going against a blob of zombies sometimes. Always keep an eye on your FC and healers and help them out when they're focused. Having played a healer myself, I guarantee they'll love you for it and may prioritize you when healing.
However, most of the time you are likely to play without a healer. When the enemy gets on you, first you should use Bash. Make sure to bash into their back, so they can't dodge it - even so your Bash can still miss, since you have no melee hit. After they are bashed, root them. If bash fails, use grenade, if you can't do that, use Nature's Grasp.
If all fails you can also use Limited Invulnerability potions, which make you immune to all physical damage and kicks. Careful, since rogues can still Gouge and Blind you - use Abolish Poison on yourself right after you use the potion.
As far as healing goes, your heals are fairly strong, but drain your mana fast. Healing is what you'll be using most of your NS's on (if specced into it) and should generally be reserved for yourself and very important allies like FC and healers. Never heal with a melee on you, CC them first.
5. Conclusion
This covers all the important aspects of owl PVP. It is an incredibly fun spec, and if you're willing to put enough work into it I guarantee you'll have a lot of fun.
If you have any questions or comments you are most welcome to post them ^^.
