Druid Builds

[Kevin]

I am thinking about trying this 25 balance, 26 resto build out now. I like druid alot, and have done the resto thing early on, and had fun with full feral, and more recently dabbled in the 40/11 oomkin build.

Rarely in group situations am I called upon to DPS. Most of the time there is someone else who is better geared to DPS, and they want buffs and healing. For PvP they want things rooted, or they want me to run.

My problem with feral builds is the gear you need to wear to make them work is not gear that works for healing, and you tend to have a small mana pool which means you are SOL when you must heal.

WIth my oomkin build I discovered how cool the +healing and damage stuff is. It works both on your wrath and your healing. The problem with the oomkin style though is if you are in a situation where you are taking advantage of your AC from oomkin, odds are your lower than bear HP total is going to make you need to heal, and if you cant root, you take a pounding when you deform. Or you are in a situation where other people have to heal the druid. I think it is better then to approach it from the standpoint that bear is a bail out move, and you should be slippery, avoiding close combat.

So the 25/26 spec would give me solid wrath spam and moonfire, but also reasonable healing ability.

A spec like that is what I mentioned might be the longest lasting healing spec any druid could have. 19% cost reduction on your heals is pretty impressive.

You still have to answer the wrath vs Nature's grasp question based on how you play, and I've seen the build go for even better rooting and if the person raids a lot improved thorns (yes improved thorns, especially with the 3 piece Cenarion bonus does make a difference in aggro generation for a tank 18 vs 38.5 damage returned). But in a battle of which druid can heal the longest, you're build should win over any other since you'll have the same regen and the cheapest heals with nearly the same healing power as a swiftmend druid will have so you'll be able to rank hop just the same. I'm not sure if it's the 30 feral 21 resto will out last a deep resto because the heals will be slightly weaker without the two talents that boost the healing so in theory that build will have to cast more heals but will also have a significantly larger mana pool.

I didn't really consider the spec you mentioned because what I end up doing is very different from what you end up doing. But I want some more longevity on my healing, I'm just not sure how much feral power I'm willing to give up for it yet. :)