Balance Druid Battleground Blitz Guide — The War Within (Season 1)

Balance Druid are the most versatile specialization in battleground blitz. Your primary goal is to maximize your damage output, but there are maps that you are expected to flag carry. If you are not doing damage or flag carrying, you are trying to ninja cap bases on other maps. Balance Druid is one of the best specializations to invest time in learning and mastering because of how powerful they are.

Here is the talent build you will be using to maximize your damage output:

• Moonkin Aura
• Star Burst
• Owlkin Adept
• Tireless Pursuit

There are 3 PvP talent slots and 4 strong choices to choose between. Moonkin Aura makes Starsurge grant 2% spell critical strike change to 8 allies within 40 yards, stacking up to 3 times. This is great for increasing your entire team's damage output. Star Burst also increases your damage output by causing Starfall to call down collapsing stars. These stars deal AoE damage and knock up any enemies when you come into contact with them. Owlkin Adept should be chosen on maps that do not have nodes, such as Warsong Gulch or Twin Peaks. Tireless Pursuit should be chosen on any maps that you have to peel to help with nodes or if you are flag-carrying.

For an in-depth guide to Balance Druid talents, read here:

In Battleground Blitz, without the Arena Dampening effect, healers, when left alone, are able to sustain against many players with relative ease. The way to counter the high throughput of healers in Battleground Blitz is with the effective use of crowd control.

Balance Druid has many tools in its kit to aid with this:

• Cyclone
• Mighty Bash
• Typhoon
• Mass Entanglement
• Rake
• Entangling Roots

Bear Form is your primary defensive ability Druids have. When you see incoming damage on you, it is a good idea to use Bear Form. This is best used when the enemy has used their cooldowns, and your team is trying to stabilize your health.

Barkskin reduces all damage dealt to you by 20%. It is important to note that this can be used while stunned and in any of your forms. This should primarily be used if you are stuck in a stun and are not in Bear Form.

Renewal is a great instant heal that can be used in any form. Use this if you are being focused and you cannot cast. This is a talent, and you will not have access to it at every arena match.

Cyclone is one of your team's best defensives if you are not being focused. Rotating Cyclone on the enemy DPS when a teammate is in trouble is crucial for extending the game long enough to get a kill.

Regrowth is a strong heal that should be used when your healer is stuck in crowd control. This is strong if the enemy team is focusing on your teammate, and you can cast without being interrupted.

Entangling Roots is a great ability when playing against melee. You can use this to help you or your teammates get distance between them and an enemy.

Balance Druid mobility also helps with survivability. Dash and Stampeding Roar can be used when running after enemies or when you are in trouble. If you are not slowed or rooted, this is effective for kiting enemies.

1. Intellect;
2. Versatility;
3. Haste;
4. Mastery;
5. Critical Strike.

The stat priority for Balance Druid is the same in Battleground Blitz and Arena. If you want an explanation and suggestions on gear, read our gearing section here:

If you get either Warsong Gulch or Twin Peaks as a map, you will likely be flag-carrying. This means it is your job to get the enemy team's flag and bring it back to your base. At the start of these maps, you should do the following:

• Identify which player will be carrying the flag. This can be either you or a Mistweaver Monk.
• Coordinate with your healers who will be healing offense or defense. The defensive healer should be the one helping you stay alive once you have the flag.

Before you get the flag, utilize Prowl to get their safely. Once you have gotten the flag, you want to use some tools to quickly get back to your base. Here are some ways to make it there safely:

• The enemy team will have a team of players trying to kill you. Use Dash, Stampeding Roar, and Bear Form to stay alive.
• If you get stunned, make sure to use Barkskin and slow enemies with Mass Entanglement once you leave the stun. You can also slow them with Typhoon.

On resource race maps, your primary goal is to deal damage at whichever base is decided to be fought over. However, you also have the opportunity to capture nodes if there is only one person there. You can do this by doing the following:

• Enter Cat Form and Prowl.
• Use Rake/ Mighty Bash on the target to stun them.
• Immediately start casting Cyclone.
• Start capturing the node.

Ideally, you force the enemy player to use their Trinket. Enter Prowl again and wait until you can get another full stun/cyclone combination. Once you can, do the above rotation, and you should be able to cap the node. For an in-depth guide to Balance Druid damage rotations, read here:

Similar to resource race maps, your goal is to maximize your damage output and slow enemies who might be trying to help if they are falling behind. The goal on this map, unlike normal Rated Battlegrounds, is to team fight at one node and try to cap both bases. This results in long 7v7 team fights, and the winner will more than likely pull ahead quickly. Trade your defensives when you get low ( Barkskin, Bear Form, etc.) and get value out of Cycloneing enemy players.

Note: Capping the flag will make the inactive bases active, and both teams will have to recap the nodes. Use this tactic if your team is falling behind on points or lost the team fight.

Ranged DPS specializations will always be the best orb carriers on Temple of Kotmogu, so you should be one of the first players to get an Orb if there is one available. The most important part about this map is to win the initial team fight and quickly gain momentum by grabbing 3 orbs and standing in the middle of the map. When the enemy team starts to resurrect, leave middle and kite around the center. Here are some tips for this map:

• Players take more damage the longer they hold the orb. This means that, eventually, the Orb carriers will die. Ideally, your team will only hold 2-3 orbs at a time so that you do not easily wipe when you have high stacks.
• Make sure you die on the correct side of the map! You and your team will resurrect depending on where you died. If you die on purple side, you will resurrect on blue side and vise versa. Ensuring you and your team resurrect together is crucial, this will allow you to regroup faster and quickly wipe the enemy team that will be weak.