Moonkin leveling 3.2 update

Okay, so with 3.2 coming out sometime this month, I’m working on updating all my guides. Today’s update is for the Balance leveling build. I played around with this on my level 50 druid for a while, and I think I’ve better streamlined the lower level talents so that it’s a little better for setting up an AOE build when you hit Northrend. I dropped Nature’s Splendor (don’t need DOTs to last longer), and dreamstate (owlkin frenzy will help restore mana, too, and at level 50 dreamstate’s mana return was minimal and unhelpful). As usual, I’m doing a blog preview to get feedback before I post it in the guide & on the forums.

Balance leveling build Version 3.2

• 10-14: Starlight Wrath 5/5 – Decreased casting time means more damage done.
• 15-17: Moonglow 3/3 – At low levels, you’ll have to stop and drink all the time, but this will give you a little more mana efficiency.
• 18-19: Nature’s Majesty 2/2  – A little crit is nice, and you have to take it to unlock later talents
• 20-22: Nature’s Grace 3/3 – gives you haste bonus (speeds up your casting) after you get a critical strike.
• 23-24: Nature’s Reach 2/2 – gives you longer range for hitting things that are far away. Also makes you have lower threat when you go in groups.
• 25-29 Vengeance 5/5 – Increases the damage your spells do when you get critical strikes
• 30: Insect Swarm 1/1 – Got a nice damage boost in the 3.1 patch. This should be worthwhile for leveling now.
• 31-33: Celestial Focus 3/3 – Gives you spell pushback protection for starfire (yay!). Also speeds up your casting times (ie. gives you haste).
• 34-36: Lunar Guidance 3/3  – Increases your spell power, based on how much intellect you have.
• 37-39: Moonfury 3/3 – Increases your damage done for starfire, moonfire, & wrath
• 40: Moonkin 1/1 – Yay! Finally moonkin form!

• 41-43: Imp Moonkin 3/3 – Gives you and your group more haste (for even faster cast times), and gives you more spell damage from spirit.
• 44: Balance of Power 1/2 – Put one point in this. It increases your chance to hit things and reduces the amount of damage you take from spells
• 45-47:  Owlkin frenzy 3/3- When things hit you and this is active, your damage increases, and your spells can’t be interrupted (no spell pushback), and you gain back mana (in patch 3.2).
• 48-49: Wrath of Cenarius 2/5 – Gives you more damage, however you won’t have a lot on your gear for it to buff yet, so we’re going to only put 2 points here for now.
• 50: Treants 1/1: When you cast this spell, it summons 3 little tree buddies as your pet that help fight for you.
• 51: Typhoon 1/1: Knocks things back and does damage to them. A good “get out of my face” AOE spell.
• 52-53 Gale Winds: Increases the damage that your AOE spells do (ie. hurricane).
• 54-56: Wrath of Cenarius 5/5: Go back and finish off this talent.
• 57-59: Earth and Moon 3/3 – Puts a debuff on your target that increases damage done to it.
• 60: Starfall 1/1 – A new AOE spell

Dipping into restoration:

• 61-65: Furor 5/5 – Increases your intellect in moonkin form.
• 66-67 – Imp Mark of the Wild 2/2 – Increases stats by 2% and also increases your MOTW buff.
• 68-70: Natural Shifter 3/3
• 71: Omen of Clarity 1/1 – When you gain this buff, your next spell cast doesn’t cost mana.
• 72-73: Master Shapeshifter 2/2: increases your damage done by 4%.
• 74-75: Intensity 2/3: Increases your mana regen. At this point, if you are doing a lot of AOE damage to packs of mobs in Nourthrend, having more mana regen may help.

Going back to balance:

• 76-78: Eclipse 3/3: When you cast starfire, you have a chance to make wrath do more damage. When you cast wrath, you have a chance for starfire to do more damage. This is a talent which is going to be important at level 80, so you should pick it up before then and get a little practice with rotating between starfire & wrath.
• 79: Balance of power 2/2: you can finish off this talent, or put that point just about anywhere you want (intensity, nature’s splendor, imp moonfire).

Your talents at 79 would look like:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#0xG0hiIocdhAuRuZbxcdb
At level 80, you should be picking up an end-game moonkin spec. This leveling spec is not designed to be good at level 80 content.