Review of the Balance Druid Changes in Patch 11.0.5 - Guide Writer Feedback

After a fairly rough start in the War Within, Balance Druids are finally getting some changes beyond simple number tuning, but is it enough to put them in prime position for the 20th Anniversary? Our Balance Druid Writer, Tettles, breaks down the changes in Patch 11.0.5 including talent changes, playstyle, and the class talent tree.

Balance Druid Guide

Our Class Writers share their expert opinions based on rigorous testing and theorycrafting in hopes of contextualizing the changes coming in future patches of the War Within. Check out all of our released editorials in our new Editorial Section.

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The 20th Anniversary patch has some changes brought to the Balance Druid specialization! This patch mostly contains spec talent tree updates to Balance Druid where a few of the 2 point nodes are being consolidated into 1 point nodes, Starfall has been made baseline, and there are a few brand new nodes as well! The spec will fundamentally be the same, so if you were hoping for a full rework of core mechanics then this will be disappointing for you. However, you were already playing Balance Druid and enjoying the spec then it is improving (kinda). This will be a common talking point below, but it seems unlikely that you will be playing any of the new and shiny talents that they added in the 11.0.5 patch.

In this article, I'll discuss some of the changes in 11.0.5, how they affect Balance, as well as some concerns and issues.

What is Changing in 11.0.5

We'll start with what was changed on the 11.0.5 patch. You can check out the notes here for a comprehensive change list. The TLDR of this article is: If you are already playing Balance Druid, and you find it fun then it will probably be a slight improvement. The Celestial Alignment changes are fantastic. If you were hoping for some sweeping overhaul, this might be a bit disheartening.

New and Changed Talents

On the patch, you will immediately notice that there is a few nodes that have been added.

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