How viable is balance druids?

[Belsebob]

Greetings there, I'm a open altoholic and druid is the last class i need to get them all to 85+, I have now decided to try to level a druid to make it a main pref as a DPS most wanted is being a ranged at the moment. But i have heard quite allot that balance druids are not viable? Can someone care to answer if this is wrong or right? I think after playing this game since late vanilla the druid is the last thing that can make me still play this game, something new, something fresh.

So I ask, What make druids (balance) so special?

[Terahertz]

I wouldn't say balance druids aren't viable. But according to most balance druids they're lacking things like on the move DPS and single target DPS.

[Spectral]

I'd generally recommend against listening to people that even use the word "viable", as it really only applies to top flight raiding and 2200+ PvP. For clearing normal modes, every single spec in the game is "viable", provided the person playing it is competent. For random battlegrounds, nearly every spec in the game can contribute in a valuable fashion, providing the person playing it is competent. That aside, Balance is basically fine:

http://raidbots.com/dpsbot/

That's not to say there aren't QoL changes that they could stand to get, but if you're a good player, you'll beat 90+% of other players at DPS, regardless of their class.

[Notamonk]

Balance is a fun spec if you are willing to take the time and effort to learn how when/how to reapply dots and when it is more suitable not to reapply them. It sounds rather simple but when you do/don't apply your dots it can be the difference in 50k dps to 70k dps if you can apply them properly and keep them up with buffs, etc.

Either way; very fun class to play I really enjoyed it!

[quikbunny]

Incredibly gear dependent compared to other classes, with a decent amount of crit the spec really takes off, but before then it's pretty frustrating when equally geared DPS are roflstomping decent DPS. Cata Boomkin was far superior, R.I.P. Solar cleave

[Keiyra]

It really depends on your answer to two questions?

1. Viable for what? (pvp arena, rbgs, causual raiding, cutting edge raiding, 10 man, 25 man)
2. How do you define viable? Within 1% of top performers? 5%, 10%? judge by logs, or sims or both?

You can pull reasonable dps as boomkin raiding wise, not the greatest dps but nothing that is so god awful you shouldn't even consider it. You'll pull more on fights with 2-4 targets than with just 1. More on fights that let you stand still more. More on fights whose length ends after you get another use of your CD's. Boomkin have some amount of utility. As well as bringing a relatively rare buff (spell haste). No clue on pvp performance.

Its up to what you are looking for.

[Sunfyre]

There's plenty of threads even on the top page that discuss balance druids as well as their strengths and weaknesses. Please read through those and make your own decision whether you'd like to play one, as we can't make it for you. Closing thread.