Druid Builds

[Kevin]

Some Background
Some of you know my playstyle pretty well and know that I really seem to be drawn to hybrids and hybrid playstyles and that I'm very happy "filling in the gap" as any raid leader with me around knows.

Me: "I can take my druid, my warrior, or my paladin"
RL: "Yes but which do you want to play?"
Me: "Umm I don't know, aren't you lacking in some area?"
RL: "No, I could use any of them."
Me: "Umm are you sure?"
RL: "You're logged onto your XXXX, right now, that's what I'm taking."
Me: "OK"

I don't feel the need to be the best at anything with a class but I do want to be able to do it well enough to not feel I'm a detriment to the raid/group. While my warrior grew up prot, he's 31/5/15 now and it's a 15 that doesn't have full defiance, but does have some other keep me alive longer talents because aggro hasn't been the issue when I've needed to tank, survivability has been more key. My paladin grew up retribution/holy but when 1.9 made that spec impossible to recreate and in fact nerfed me on pretty much all fronts compared to 1.8 I went 31 holy / 20 protection for raid healing and to be really annoying in PvP. The paladin might get respeced again here a bit since I don't PvP with him anymore. I might pick up seal of command again to be able to deal a bit more damage and actually be a bit more hybrid. Note the theme I like to be strong, if not the strongest, at multiple roles and people seem to like me being able to do that too.

So what about the druid?
I grew up resto, was resto till 1.9 when I respec'd the paladin. Part of the reason I went full feral spec is so that I could be more hybrid though. At the time we weren't that deep in BWL (I think we had finally killed Vael), MC was still a bit of a challenge. I had and have good healing gear. I've got full Cenarion and several other of the ZG and other blue and purples that are better than Cenarion. I've got the stormrage hat. It's not the greatest druid healing gear, but it was good enough. I was definitely able to last through any of the fights in MC and heal them just fine as a feral. I didn't have any oh crap buttons and I was a pretty poor free for all healer on trash (still fine for single target healing on Trash). However since we really didn't need druids to heal on trash or even some of the bosses with 5 priests and 4 paladins (or more) on every run druids got to go play as kitties or moonkins if they wanted. Being feral spec meant I did a lot more damage when I was cat, it meant in ZG if we were short a warrior I could tank very well. It was very hybrid. Druid healing even without talents is very solid, but the caster and feral DPS isn't in my book they need talents to help them.

Recently though with the role my druid plays in raids I've wanted more healing longevity and some 'oh crap' buttons and a little more healing power. My healing isn't always feeling good enough to me. I'm getting asked to heal more and DPS less and I've been on runs that just didn't have enough healers but had I had some resto talents we might have had less isues. Resto druids now have 2 'oh crap' buttons if they go 31 deep thanks to the addition of swiftmen. I still feel I have plenty of healing oomph and more healing power really would just make 'oh craps' better or simply let me slide down another rank of healing touch, giving more longevity. So my thoughts have me leaning towards getting some points into resto. I'm also feeling that my feral gear isn't quite good enough to justify me being feral form all the time. Yes I have finished top 10 in total damage in MC when I've been feral the whole time (even for bosses) but my feral gear has not progressed as fast as other DPS classes (and even some of the other feral druids) but my healing gear is still as good or better than some of the other healers.

The builds
Current
Right now I'm 11/35/5. Omen of clarity, lots of feral talents and furor. I though about 11/33/7 to get improved enrage as well but anyway, I'm feral the talents point to damage and bear tanking.

Two leans to potential builds given all the background above. 1 would be mostly resto with some feral, likely cat focused. The other would be more feral with some resto goodies.

Mostly Feral
The Mostly Feral build is a 0 / 30 / 21 build. Basically I get deep enough in resto to get the two longevity talents, reflection and tranquil spirit, and grab that great "oh crap" button with nature's swiftness. I'll be happy to have the faster cast heals back too. I wouldn't mind natures focus but really I've only got 2 points to use for it so improved enrage is there so that bear tanking is more viable. No primal fury can be a detriment in a low rage environment. Improved enrage can help out with that some. But really I do more cat DPS than bear tanking anyway. Giving up leader of the pack gives up one of the big raid benefits of a feral druid though.

vs current build
I gain

• * Nature's Swiftness
  * Faster heals
  * Cheaper heals
  * More mana regen<>
  [st]I lose
  • * Leader of the pack
    * Primal fury - (no more swipe spam for free on 3 mobs when I crit)
    * Natural weapons
    * Omen of clarity (very under rated for what it can do for feral damage)
    * 400 - 600 armor in bear<>
    [st]
    Mostly resto
    The resto/feral build is a 0 / 20 / 31 build. It picks up swift mend and a few things to augment swiftmend as well. But it gives up more on the feral side. Feral focuses on cat damage though I took feral instinct for the extra aggro not for the prowl bonus (I'm a night elf and I rarely have issues with being seen while prowling). Swiftmend is a nice "oh crap" button. Improved rejuv is there because of how swiftmend works, I want the rejuvs stronger. I grabbed the "don't stutter me!" talent for a couple of reasons, it's nice in BWL and AQ40 in those places where you have to deal with AoE's that stutter or trash that can get loose and stutter you. There are a few variations that can happen on this build, but the questions will come later.
    
    vs current build
    I gain
    • * Nature's Swiftness
      * Swiftmend
      * Faster heals
      * Cheaper heals
      * More mana regen
      * Less interrupt while healing
      * Stronger rejuvs<>
      [st]I lose
      • * Leader of the pack
        * Heart of the wild (about 1800 mana for me I think)
        * Primal fury - (no more swipe spam for free on 3 mobs when I crit)
        * Natural weapons
        * Omen of clarity (very under rated for what it can do for feral damage)
        * 400 - 600 armor in bear
        * Savage Fury
        * Feral Fire
        * 60 AP in bear and cat<>
        [st]
        The questions
        Either build
        I'm aware I lose damage in either build and gain healing in either build but I have some general questions. I'm also aware that I don't have improved Mark of the Wild, the utility of furor in solo and even in raids (if you have to pop out and heal for a bit then pop back into to feral it allows you more DPS) is something I don't want to give up. I'll continue to carry spare reagents and I'll continue to hand them to the druids who have improved mark since they are doing my job for me.
        
        1) Leader of the pack helps make feral druids more attractive to raids, is losing that talent to get some better healing and nature's swiftness for when I do heal worth it? Does it take swifmend to make it worth it in your opinion (i.e build one doesn't offer enough)?
        
        2) Do you think based on what I posted and what you may know about me from the game that either build will be 'hybrid' enough for me? Will it still let me feel that I can do at least 2 different jobs (maybe even 3) well enough or is too much feral power given up? Do ferals need to be so heavily feral to really be able to tank or DPS well enough end game?
        
        3) Improved Enrage worth it? The points are there to help unlock stuff later in the tree, but I could grab insect swarm or put them somewhere else, thoughts?
        
        4) Which build (with tweaks) do you think I might enjoy the most?
        
        Build 1 (more damage, less healing)
        This build looks like it will give up the least feral and actually give me the most longevity that you can get if you keep feral talents. Heart of the Wild adds a lot of mana and I pick up the best talents to keep mana in the tank in resto. But there are still some questions.
        
        1) No primal fury - Is this really shutting the door on bear tanking as hard as I think? Should I re-arrange to get it and if so, how?
        
        2) Feral Fire - It's a nice talent for several things but I could put that point somewhere else.
        
        
        Build 2 (more healing, less damage)
        First off the 2nd build has some room for variation. I could drop Nature's Focus (interrupt prevention) and get Gift of Nature (10% more base healing). Gift of Nature means stronger rejuvs and renews for the 'oh crap' swiftmend. However since it only works off base healing it doesn't scale with gear. Rank 4 healing Touch doesn't get enough +heal from it to matter (why rank 4? speed of cast) and I don't think it would be enough +healing for me to shift from rank 6 to rank 5 if I want to hit someone for ~ 1000 healing so I don't think it would help longevity that much.
        
        1) I've given a slight nod to bear tanking, that is the biggest reason for feral instinct, the extra aggro in bear that I figure I'll need if I attempt to bear tank without the deeper talents. However, the build is cat damage focused, and to that end I've thought about those 5 points in feral aggresion for a stronger ferocius bite since combo points still get dumped into that. My experiments in MC have shown that bite is still better for damage than rip even given the high armor of many of the mobs even when debuff slots aren't a concern. Though I admit the tests haven't been that extensive. 15% more bite damage isn't a lot either but if I just say, I heal or do cat DPS, it seems it might be a better choice for the points.
        
        2) I don't, and won't have the best rejuvs of the druids because while I have very good healing gear I don't imagine I'll have the best healing gear or beat out a full resto with imp rejuv and gift of nature. I needed 3 more points to dig down though. The question is, should I dump that and improved enrage and just get nature's grace? I don't improve rejuv as much but I do improve regrowth and healing touch a bit. I've not been a huge fan of gift of nature but it would help the swfitmend. Dropping improved rejuv would also mean that I'm not over writing a "better" rejuv and I figure any druid with the talent will actually have a more powerful rejuv than mine. I'd be open to persuasion on improved regrowth but I'm not a huge fan of that talent either since I don't use the spell much, but it critting ~60% of the time on the front end does help with mana inefficiency.
        
        3) is this build just better for a healer with a cat focus?