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Balance is "viable" now.
But by no means on par with everyone else.
In the past, balance was a flat out black hole. You were marginally better then an empty raid spot.
Now adays, you can function as a raid member.
But if the question is, Are other classes better? The answer is yes.
The two most direct comparisons are elemental shaman and shadowpreist.
In a 1to1 damage comparison, the balance druid "should" beat both of those hands down.
Better damage coeffiecents, and gain more from class synergy buffs. "vamptouch/curse of shadows, etc"
But at the same time, those classes buff everyoen else far more then the balance druid. 5% crit aura is nice, but doesnt remotely compare to vamp touch or wrath of air/manaspring/totem of wrath.
The druids innervate is for himself. He will need it. The only real secondary utilty the balance druid has is offhealing, and rebirth. both of which come at a massive cost to damage however.
1 rebirth is an estimated 17000 damage lost in mana cost, nevermind time spent casting or the mana for shifting back into moonkin.
Mana constraints are a HUGE issue for balance still. A shadowpreist is almost required to function.
The good news here is mana burn is mostly constant, so as the druid gets better gear, this need dimishes.
By 4pc T5, and as they start collecting t6, the spriest partner isnt needed, wisdom/kings, and possibly just a mana spring is enough to last with the basic, starfire/IS rotation. Moonfire rotation might still needt hat extra mana.
If the druid knows what hes doing, he can perform in that role. you need to allow him to collect the right gear though. This means cloth in nonset slots. Glvoes, belt, boots, wrists. As well as neck, rings, trinkets.
They will never replace mages, as they have very poor aoe. Nor provide the debuffs to compensate for lock curses.
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