Balance Druid DPS Guide for WoW Forever Level 60 Raids

Rank

#21

of 25 damage specs

DPS

701.6

± 0.7

Of the best

64.3%

Race

Night Elf

Alliance

Item level

59.6

Balance is the druid's caster spec, and you play it in Moonkin Form from before the pull to the end. Two damage-over-time spells, Insect Swarm and Moonfire, stay on the boss. Against one boss you fill the time between them with one Wrath, then two Starfires: each Wrath stores two Eclipse charges, and each charge takes half a second off a Starfire. Mana lasts against one boss and runs short on a long fight against three. On a one-minute single-boss fight the build does 701.6 DPS, 21st of 25 damage specs.

Strengths and weaknesses

Strengths

Dots on every boss. Both damage-over-time spells go on all three bosses, one global cooldown each, so Insect Swarm grows from 16.4 % of your damage on one boss to 37.8 % on a three-minute fight against three bosses. Balance ranks 16th there.
Mana to spare on one boss. You end a three-minute fight with mana still in the bar, so the 12 mana every 5 seconds of Mageblood Elixir measures 0.0 % there.
A crit aura for your group. Moonkin Aura gives every party member 3 % crit with spells and attacks, which the casters in your group feel most.

Weaknesses

Weak spells per cast. Forever cut Wrath to about a third of its Classic damage and Starfire by about 30 %. On a one-minute single-boss fight that leaves you at 64.3 % of the best spec's damage.
A long way from the hit cap. A raid boss resists 17 % of your spells before hit. Nature's Reach and this set get you to 6.0 %, so about one spell in ten still misses.
Nothing to burst with. No talent gives you a damage cooldown, so the specs that stack theirs on a one-minute fight pull away: Balance is 21st on a one-minute single-boss fight.

On every fight

Balance places best against three bosses, where its dots multiply and, on the one-minute fight, Hurricane takes over the filler. It is weakest on short single-boss fights, which reward burst cooldowns it doesn't have. Pick a fight in the table to switch the guide to it.

Rank	DPS	Of the best	Talents
#21 of 25	701.6	64.3 %	38 / 3 / 10
#18 of 25	690.5	66.1 %	41 / 0 / 10
#19 of 25	683.2	66.3 %	41 / 0 / 10
#16 of 25	918.0	59.0 %	37 / 4 / 10
#16 of 25	896.9	64.2 %	41 / 0 / 10
#16 of 25	895.7	64.5 %	41 / 0 / 10

best on 3 bosses · 1 min (#16) · weakest on 1 boss · 1 min (#21)

Races

For the Horde, Tauren is first on every fight. Endurance now adds 1 % hit to spells as well as 5 % health, and hit is near the top of your stat weights.

For the Alliance, Night Elf is first on every fight through Elune's Light: 10 % crit for 15 seconds on a three-minute cooldown, pressed on the pull. On a one-minute fight that covers a quarter of the fight, which puts the Night Elf ahead of the Tauren. On the longer fights the two sit close together.

Race	Faction	DPS	To the faction’s best	Racials worth
Night Elf	Alliance	701.6	best	–
Tauren	Horde	692.4	best	–
High Order	Alliance	668.7	−32.8	–
Windshaper	Horde	668.7	−23.6	–

each race with its own searched gear on 1 boss · 1 min

What a Druid brings to the raid

Moonkin Aura is the buff a Balance druid adds: 3 % crit for its party, which doesn't stack with a feral druid's Leader of the Pack. The table shows what it and your Innervate are worth to the damage specs that gain from them on this fight. Our benchmark puts a second Balance druid in the casters' party, so your own aura adds nothing to your own score, and Moonkin Form reads as worthless on the Talents page for that reason.

Changes

The chart re-runs this build on this fight after every simulator or game-data update. What changed each time is on the Updates page.

Date	DPS	Change	Setup
12 Oct 2026	701.6	+0.1 %	same setup
11 Oct 2026	701.2	−0.4 %	same setup
9 Oct 2026	703.8	−5.0 %	talents Tuned 38/3/10 · 1 min · rotation re-tuned
7 Oct 2026	740.9	first	talents Tuned 38/1/12 · 1 min · rotation re-tuned · race Night Elf

the benchmark’s results for this fight over time · every update

TalentsTuned 38/3/10 · 1 min38 / 3 / 10 Rotation7 priority linesStarfire: 53 % of damage Stat weightsSpell damage > Arcane damage > Nature damageper 1 %: Spell hit > Spell crit > Casting speed Pre-raid gear16 slotsitem level 59.6

Strengths and weaknesses

Strengths

Dots on every boss. Both damage-over-time spells go on all three bosses, one global cooldown each, so Insect Swarm grows from 16.4 % of your damage on one boss to 37.8 % on a three-minute fight against three bosses. Balance ranks 16th there.

Mana to spare on one boss. You end a three-minute fight with mana still in the bar, so the 12 mana every 5 seconds of

Mageblood Elixir measures 0.0 % there.

A crit aura for your group.

Moonkin Aura gives every party member 3 % crit with spells and attacks, which the casters in your group feel most.

Weaknesses

Weak spells per cast. Forever cut Wrath to about a third of its Classic damage and Starfire by about 30 %. On a one-minute single-boss fight that leaves you at 64.3 % of the best spec's damage.

A long way from the hit cap. A raid boss resists 17 % of your spells before hit.

Nature's Reach and this set get you to 6.0 %, so about one spell in ten still misses.

Nothing to burst with. No talent gives you a damage cooldown, so the specs that stack theirs on a one-minute fight pull away: Balance is 21st on a one-minute single-boss fight.

On every fight

Balance places best against three bosses, where its dots multiply and, on the one-minute fight,

Hurricane takes over the filler. It is weakest on short single-boss fights, which reward burst cooldowns it doesn't have. Pick a fight in the table to switch the guide to it.

Rank	DPS	Of the best
#21 of 25	701.6	64.3 %
#18 of 25	690.5	66.1 %
#19 of 25	683.2	66.3 %
#16 of 25	918.0	59.0 %
#16 of 25	896.9	64.2 %
#16 of 25	895.7	64.5 %

Races

For the Horde, Tauren is first on every fight. Endurance now adds 1 % hit to spells as well as 5 % health, and hit is near the top of your stat weights.

For the Alliance, Night Elf is first on every fight through

Elune's Light: 10 % crit for 15 seconds on a three-minute cooldown, pressed on the pull. On a one-minute fight that covers a quarter of the fight, which puts the Night Elf ahead of the Tauren. On the longer fights the two sit close together.

Race	Faction	DPS	To the faction’s best
Night Elf	Alliance	701.6	best
Tauren	Horde	692.4	best
High Order	Alliance	668.7	−32.8
Windshaper	Horde	668.7	−23.6

What a Druid brings to the raid

Moonkin Aura is the buff a Balance druid adds: 3 % crit for its party, which doesn't stack with a feral druid's Leader of the Pack. The table shows what it and your

Innervate are worth to the damage specs that gain from them on this fight. Our benchmark puts a second Balance druid in the casters' party, so your own aura adds nothing to your own score, and Moonkin Form reads as worthless on the Talents page for that reason.

Changes

The chart re-runs this build on this fight after every simulator or game-data update. What changed each time is on the Updates page.