Druids, less DD spells than even 'Holy' Priests

[Zarathustra]

I have to agree with my esteemed coleague, Roland.

I am playing a Balance Druid. Now, what does that mean to me? It means I can dish out more damage while casting offensive spells than a Druid specced otherwise. It does not mean I am incapable of healing and shapeshifting. Additionally, counting DD spells at a Priest's Disposal outside the Holy tree is akin to counting attack skills outside the Druid's Balance tree. It all works out in the end.

The class is meant to be versatile, and if you limit yourself to only one aspect, you are lessening your effectiveness.

[Brista]

Most people I see playing Balance Druids are people who want to be able to get kills in pvp

I've done a fair bit of pvping with my (currently feral specced) druid. Catform is really hard to get kills in - 2 seconds of stun, weak damage, no snares as a cat means that it's fine for starting a fight with an advantage but won't kill anyone unless all they are interested in doing is running away. You have to open with cat then use spells or bear/heal if it's an endurance match. Generally you're aiming to reduce them to a point at which you can kill them by moonfire spam

Balance talents helps to great ranged attacks like Moonfire and Roots. Since Moonfire is our primary way of getting a kill then it makes sense for an aggressive pvper to spec Balance. (Of course it doesn't make much sense for an aggressive pvper to choose Druid but that's a different matter). Equally one could argue that a Druid is more suited to being a healer and decurser in pvp and while that would undeniably be true, not everyone wants to play that way all the time

I did try out a Balance spec for pve. I was killing a little slower than as a feral-specced cat and with significant downtime. I concluded that Balance was unusable for pve grinding, even with a supply of mage water. Completely hopeless without water. I tested this at about level 42. In battlegrounds however there are powerups to restore mana as well as easier access to mages so it's more viable