Shaking table tests of a 1∶20 scale model of a 3 MW wind turbine tower were carried out under the excitation of near-fault ground motion with fling step. Rolling-ball vibration absorbers were designed to mitigate the tower's dynamic response. A record with fling step from 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake at TCU052 station was chosen and the record without fling step was obtained by filtering the former record through a 4th order Butterworth filter. The nonlinear dynamic responses of the model without absorber were studied and compared with the results from finite element analysis. Then, the effectiveness of one-ball vibration absorber and multi-ball vibration absorber with the same total weight was examined under the excitation of the record with fling step. The results show that the near-fault ground motion with fling step greatly magnifies the tower's responses. It should be noted that this effect cannot be neglected when a wind turbine tower is designed and constructed in seismic zones. The ball vibration absorbers can reduce the standard deviations of dynamic responses to about 60%～70% of those without absorber. The performance of the multi-ball vibration absorber is superior to that of one-ball vibration absorber.