balance druid rightly named at one time Balancedruid, Influenza, and now Fsu.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=8765641062&sid=1
^ my thoughts on balance tree in WotLK


2v2: Covering the basics of strategies for most comps you will face as Moonkin/Rogue.

Shadowstep is a must for this comp, there are too many match ups where you train the druid to not have it.

Many fights will come down to splitting dps. It's a simple tactic yet extremely effective when used well.

Cooldown management for your rogue is also important. They have to know when they should be prevanishing as well as when they should be blinding. Help them out by paying attention to when an opponent trinkets. This prevents an ideal opportunity for them to blind then vanish sap to keep them out of combat for long durations.

Warrior teams:

War/Druid: Most common team, slightly difficult to beat but if played correctly it is pretty simple. You start on the warrior, doing as much damage to him as possible. Rogue stays in stealth and waits for druid to come out (similar to shadowpriest / rogue combo). Once druid comes out to heal the warrior you put treants + dots on the druid, and help do any damage you can. It is a good idea to cyclone the warrior at this point, forcing either a trinket or a period where he does not receive any heals while their druid is dying. In an ideal world you root / cyclone the warrior when he tries to peel your rogue...but at the same time you continue to dps him. You add dmg to the druid whenever possible, normally the druid will die first, but I've had many games where I kill the warrior while my rogue partner is locking down the druid.

War/Shaman: Train warrior hard, doing as much damage as possible. Cyclone at certain times to stop heals, cc the shaman at points as well. If the warrior gets low and the shaman is on cyclone DR have your rogue switch to him and lock him down while you finish the warrior. Another comp where splitting dps is viable if necessary.

War/Pally: Same as shaman/war really, train the warrior hard while ccing pally, once shield goes up cyclone the warrior 3x to stop heals, have your rogue get on the pally afterwards while you finish warrior or switch to pally if the warrior gets healed.

Rogue Comps:

Priest/Rogue: Definitely a harder match up, but we manage to still win about 80% of these match ups. We normally sap the priest, I line up a starfire and then train the priest. I like this strategy the best, since I can control the rogue and the priest is not able to spam dispels since he is being focused. We also have won games where we train the rogue, but it is very important to cyclone the priest so you can heal your rogue partner; otherwise the priest will dispel your HoTs and abolish poison and make it impossible to keep your rogue up. Cyclones when the rogue or priest gets pain suppression are always a good idea, and cycloning the rogue when cheat death pops is also a very good maneuver.

Shadowpriest / Rogue: I think the best option in this strategy is training the priest; he isn't discipline so if he spams dispel he will go oom faster, and if your rogue is on the priest you will kill him extremely fast. Treants early to force a fear while you are out of range, control rogue. If they are on your rogue you heal while dpsing and ccing the rogue, if they are on you another option is to stay out of LoS of the priest and solo the rogue. Your rogue should be able to solo the shadowpriest, and if you are out of LoS from the priest you should be able to kill a rogue solo...or at least live long enough until the spriest is dead. This second strategy is not recommended if you do not have good gear or are not good at faking kicks, as both of those are very important to beating a rogue 1v1.

Warlock / Rogue: Slightly more difficult comp, fortunately don't see it as much these days. Your rogue is best off pretending you're a healer, and starting on the warlock but training the rogue if he gets on you. If the rogue stays on your partner you heal / cc the rogue while killing the lock. It's pretty simple strategically, but obviously much more difficult to pull off due to spell locks / deathcoil / fears / etc.


Druid/Rogue: Another slightly difficult comp...most of the time the druid will be dreamstate hybrid which is beneficial to your comp. Start on rogue. If it becomes a rogue training fight you should be able to win with more damage capabilities. Sometimes it's still better to get on their druid though, using cc to control the rogue while you kill the hybrid healer. Many times a good strategy is to start on the rogue, force a trinket on the kidney, and the blind him -> sap him while you switch to the druid. If your partner is able to find the druid it is sometimes best to just start on him, as your damage is extremely high and you may be able to get a quick kill.

Mage/Rogue: Basically best bet is to play this like a healer. If your rogue can find their rogue it is ideal. Sap their rogue, train their mage. They will almost always train you, and it is in your best interest to avoid LoS of the mage. If they are alliance always assume the rogue is human, and start on the mage right away to avoid saps. Your rogue has to play this match up well, as if it is a rogue vs mage and rogue vs druid match up your rogue should be able to to lock down the mage while you put dots out and treants, meanwhile staying out of LoS. The worst thing you can do in this match up is to get shattered, but hopefully you will be able to live longer then the mage :).

Other comps:

Druid/Warlock: Sap warlock, start on the pet. If you find the druid start on him instead...rogue is not as easily peeled in this match up as compared to a warrior, so it is easier to train the druid and kill him extremely quickly. If you do not find the druid, the point of starting on the pet is to force the druid to come out right away. At this point you hopefully either kill the pet or switch to the druid, but our best strategy is training the druid. Training the lock is too mana intensive and has not worked out consistently for us.

Warlock/Pally: Not a very fun match up, sapping the warlock and starting on the pally seems ideal though. TBH haven't fought many of these, but a general strategy is to just kill the pally as they can't live forever with good pressure applied to them. Is possible to sap the pally and start on the lock, allowing you to cc the pally and forcing an early shield. More consistent strategy then starting on pally, and once shield is down you switch and kill.

Just in case you trolls forgot, this is Balancedruid / Influenza, highest rated balance druid season 2s and 3s, 2500+ 5s, 2300+ 2s as balance, 2450+ as resto in 3s, although this season I plan to do all brackets as balance...this is made possible to my great resto shaman, Hopesfall. Also shout out to Realz, best shadowpriest ever and a decent rogue (Real)!

Rogue/Rogue: Honestly this match up is not really fair for your team, especially if the other team is alliance. However, if they are alliance and you know this you're best bet is to go bear form and wait for them to open on you. Your rogue partner needs to stay away from you to avoid being sapped, as if he is sapped the game is basically over for you. Most likely these rogues will open on you if they find you in stealth, and 2 rogues on a cat form druid is over before it even starts. Basically this game lies in your rogue hands, and they have to lock down one of the other rogues to allow you to help dps as well as not get killed extremely fast. It's not a very fun match up, but fortunately for us it is also one that does not get very high rated often, keeping them from being too much of a bother. Also, if they happen to be idiots and train your rogue you should easily win, trinket the first blind, heal your partner and keep abolish up as your partner evasions and help dps the rogues. If they train your rogue it should honestly be an automatic win :).

Druid/Hunter: This is not a fun match up at all. The hunter (who is assumed to be marks) can interrupt your damage very well if you're on him with feign deaths, silence shots, and constant viper stinging. You're best bet is to sap the hunter and open on the pet, since once you kill it you can at least drink when you need to. I think the best strategy for this comp is to kill the druid, although this is obviously hard when the hunter is peeling your rogue. You basically have to CC the hunter while your partner stays on the druid, as well as help your rogue to kill the druid whenever he lands long stuns (think 5 second kidneys). Honestly I've only played 2 hunter/rogues this season so I can't give the best strategy yet, but once I face it more I will probably clarify this strategy. For now, the best bet imo is to kill the druid while ccing the hunter, but starting off on the pet if not to waste their druid's mana then to kill it and allow yourself the ability to drink freely.

Priest/Lock: An easy match up, especially if your rogue is undead (mine is :) ). Sap warlock, train priest. It's pretty simple, you put cc on the lock when you can, but basically your rogue is going to go to town on the priest without much assistance from the lock if you play well. Your rogue, even if not undead, should be able to stay on the priest a long time if he or she manages their cooldowns well (CoS, vanish, trinket, etc).

Shadowpriest / Lock: Play like a healer. Your partner should most likely train the Shadowpriest as he is the source of the burst dmg against you. Stay out of LoS for most of the game, only coming into LoS for a second or two at a time to get HoTs on your rogue. Toss treants out early to force a fear away from you, try to keep your rogue and yourself topped and add DoTs to the shadowpriest if you're able to. Should be a relatively easy matchup as long as you don't get caught out of LoS.

Hunter/Priest: Easier match up then druid/hunter, best bet imo is to train the priest all game. Open with a sap on the hunter, then go to town on the priest. DoTs, Treants, any damage you can do you should be doing. CC the hunter to allow your rogue time to stay on the priest uninterrupted and it should be a quick fight.

3v3: The basics of 3v3 as a Moonkin and the various comps you can succeed with.

As a Moonkin, it is important to be able to recognize your strengths and weaknesses. One great strength of a Moonkin is our extremely high spell damage capabilities. Couple this with Bloodlust and you have made yourself into one extremely power and threatening caster. With that in mind, playing with a shaman is beneficial to you, and if you ever look at my teams you may begin to realize that one of the patterns in many of them (3v3 and 5v5 that is) is that I am receiving bloodlust from some source, whether it be an Elemental, Resto, or Enhancement shaman.

On the other hand, one of the greatest weaknesses of Moonkin is our inability to keep a target still. To counter this, playing with a rogue is one of the greatest things you can do to keep your targets in LoS. A warrior can do this to a lesser degree, but a warrior also requires more baby sitting, something most healers cannot commit to, especially the Resto shaman, since he does not have dispel. This brings us to our first (and imo, one of the strongest if not the strongest) comp.

Moonkin / Resto Shaman / Rogue:

This comp gives you all the tools you need to be successful. A resto shaman to provide you with bloodlust and mana tide, allowing you to cast to your heart's content. A rogue to provide you with stun locks and an MS effect via poisons. All you have to do is provide the damage and cc and you suddenly have a very formidable comp on your hands.

The keys to this comp are simple and at the same time require very good execution from all of your party members. The resto shaman's ability to interrupt CC is extremely important, and without a good resto shaman your chances of succeeding with this comp are greatly hindered.

Since there are so many more match ups you can face in 3v3 I will not be covering every possible match up, but instead two of the main ones: PMR and Druid healer comps. These are two of the most popular comps, and as a result if you expect to have any success in 3v3 you must be able to beat them.

Priest/Mage/Rogue: Vs PMR, you will often times find yourself being focused. This is something that is a normal trait in 3v3, as many teams do not underestimate a Moonkin's damage capabilities and therefore do a good job of stopping the damage by focusing you (in WotLK we will be able to add starfall and typhoon to our arsenal while being focused, then perhaps they will think twice before targetting us ;) ).

PMR is no exception to this rule, and to counter it depends on how they play. If they focus you, which is most likely, your best bet is to kill the priest. Your rogue will be uninterrupted for the most part (your shaman should be shocking polymorphs and you should be cycloning the mage when possible) on the priest, doing a massive amount of damage and taking advantage of your control over their peels. You should be dotting the priest when you can, and putting treants on him after his first fear (in general this is a good rule vs any priest; never cast your treants until after a fear, as otherwise you lose out on about 10 seconds of their dmg or more, depending on how far they run away from the priest).

If you are unable to stay on the priest, which is very likely since you will have a mage and rogue on you, your next option is to keep dots on the mage and rogue, keeping pressure on the priest to heal his teammates, as well as ccing them both whenever possible. The point of this strategy is to keep as much pressure on their priest as possible, while stopping pressure put on your shaman. Good cc chains on the mage and rogue can help your shaman get heals off, as well as abolishing yourself when you have the rogue in CC.

This strategy is pretty simple in terms of what is expected and what you should be doing, and there's not much more to it then executing it properly, which can take time to do. It is frustrating to be focused all game and kicked and stunned (and even csed sometimes), but you just have to stay positive and keep in mind one simple thing: always be doing something. Don't let the frustration of interrupts get to your mind, and as long as you are doing anything, whether it be dotting, ccing, or sitting in a stun lock, you're most likely going to win.

Comps with Druids as Healers: Due to the strength of resto druids in arena, these comps are seen very often and fortunately for us, are very good match ups for us. The key to this match up is that you are almost always going to be killing the druid, whether that be pressure on his teammates forcing him into bad positions, or by blinding him and forcing a trinket, then killing him later (this is known as the blind strat).

Most times you will have to start on a different target, often times a warrior or perhaps hunter. The goal of your damage on this target is not to necessarily kill it, but to do enough damage to force the druid out of stealth early on. If you can do this your rogue can start on him and you already get into a good position to win the game.

To accomplish good pressure on your target, you will be doing what is known as the starfire cyclone combo. This is normally done by starfiring a target, then cycloning, then timing a starfire to land right as the cyclone ends, then cycloning, and then a final starfire. When done correctly this combo can kill someone outright from 50%, and it puts an extreme amount of pressure on the healer (in this case, the druid) to blow NS since his HoTs have not been ticking while cyclone is up. Obviously with the druid having to use NS on the other target it makes killing him that much easier, as now if they are dreamstate they have no "oh @@*@" cooldowns left, and if they are resto, they only have swiftmend, which, btw, with full wound on the druid, will not be helping too much.

Once your rogue is on the druid hard you can help with DoTs and treants. If you are able to get spell casts off (with lust this is a great possiblity) then you will most likely kill the druid. If he gets out of your LoS just switch back to the other target. Chances are it's not fully healed up anyways and you can put enough pressure on the druid that he will have to come back. One of the targets will most likely die, and even if they don't die right away, you're most likely already at a huge mana advantage for the rest of the game.
This covers it for now for 3v3 as Moonkin/Rogue/Resto shaman, I'll be adding some other comps I have been successful with later to the guide.

reserved trifecta

Wow, lots of good info here. One question though. What is this "training" you speak of?

rogue / rogue
druid / hunter
priest / lock
shadow priest / lock
rogue / lock
hunter / priest

would cover everything more or less.

plz explain the meaning of the word "train"


every guide i read its said as if i already know how to do this and do it well....


EDIT: ah , this also explains why nothing came up when i armoried balancedruid, at least noone pvp spec'd

also, what do you see as the reasons and drawbacks of stacking haste in S4?


i was thinking about it and will be getting the haste neck/cloak/vind ring/trinket to try it out but i figured it wouldnt help much and would just run me oom faster whithout adding much to damage.


atm im holding on to the S1 chest/head to socket for Haste to use with the haste items ill pick up after i finish guardians...

i guess ill just have to figure out what works for me..

my 1st set is going to be socketed for crit/dam with a staff and 12crit 1% reflect meta
while my 2nd set is going to be haste oriented w/ MH+OH and since ill prolly try out that meta ur using w/ it.

Before I respond to anything else, just to clarify: training means sticking to one target, for example, versus warrior/druid teams, my rogue trains the druid.

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Q u o t e:
rogue / rogue
druid / hunter
priest / lock
shadow priest / lock
rogue / lock
hunter / priest

would cover everything more or less.

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thanks, going to add these ones in when I get some time, just quoting to remind myself as well :)

How much hit/pen would me and my spriest partner have to stack to be able to gib a felhunter before a druid realizes what's going on?

It makes me feel good to know that my completely uninformed decision to stack haste is something that successful arena moonkin are doing, as well :)

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Q u o t e:
It makes me feel good to know that my completely uninformed decision to stack haste is something that successful arena moonkin are doing, as well :)

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i was thinking of trying stacking haste this season but i didnt want to waste my time

balancedruid, why on earth did you change your name

love it! needs rogue/rogue for sure

ive only heard bad things about haste for boomkins, wat is ure thoughts on it oh gladiator :D

Tagged for later.

I'm honestly a horrible moonkin in arena. I think I'll stick to 34/0/27 but we'll see. Depends how many Warrior / Druids we get (as opposed to Warlock / Rogue, lollers).

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Q u o t e:


i was thinking of trying stacking haste this season but i didnt want to waste my time

balancedruid, why on earth did you change your name

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I apologize sincerely! My college and hometown team are the FSU Seminoles, and when my friend Realz told me this name was available I felt obliged to take it. Perhaps Balancedruid or Influenza will make a return...some day.

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Q u o t e:
How much hit/pen would me and my spriest partner have to stack to be able to gib a felhunter before a druid realizes what's going on?

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Probably too much, although with close to 70 spell pen I can hit it for a decent amount (and this is fairly attainable...Battle Staff + ring + cloak enchant)

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Q u o t e:
ive only heard bad things about haste for boomkins, wat is ure thoughts on it oh gladiator :D

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The only downside to haste I've encountered so far is that it messes up my starfire -> cyclone -> starfire -> cyclone -> starfire chains, which is somewhat annoying. But I'm sure I'll figure out the new times eventually. Other then that, it's very nice for cyclone and roots, makes them very easy to get off against warriors and even rogues now. In general spell haste can only help, the way I look at it sometimes is it can make the difference in situations where I might have missed a clutch cyclone because of lag.