Druids--the other cow meat.

[Bob the Beholder]

This seemed like a good place for posting my request (drops graphic and runs before getting torn up by the cat form build maulers).



Your comments on this build greatly appreciated. :unsure:
[right][snapback]75324[/snapback][/right]

Seeing as your build is likely to be applied to the night elf in your signature, I will have to say that it is weak and pathetic, and that you should be ashamed to produce it here.

ASHAAAAMED. *point finger+evil eye*

</horde,yo>

With that done, it seems a basically strong build. Maximises the healing, adds in some stune/minor damage increase and some clearcasting. Good stuff.

Personally, I don't know how other druid players (two specifically I have talked to) do without relying on beast form, so you'll have to take my opinion on the balance talents with a grain of salt.

[playingtokrush]

Seeing as your build is likely to be applied to the night elf in your signature, I will have to say that it is weak and pathetic, and that you should be ashamed to produce it here.

ASHAAAAMED.&nbsp; *point finger+evil eye*

</horde,yo>

With that done, it seems a basically strong build.&nbsp; Maximises the healing, adds in some stune/minor damage increase and some clearcasting.&nbsp; Good stuff.&nbsp;

Personally, I don't know how other druid players (two specifically I have talked to) do without relying on beast form, so you'll have to take my opinion on the balance talents with a grain of salt.
[right][snapback]75329[/snapback][/right]

I don't know about cat form, but I know that bear form performs just fine with no talents invested in it.

[Watto44]

Also don't know about cat form, but I know you can do just fine with nothing but caster form. As for bear form, what I do know is that a few points in it makes me purr. (If you've never seen an enormous, tatooed bear purr, you haven't lived yet.) With the restoration, have a think about subtlety because you will draw agro like a madman healing as a druid.

[Bun-Bun]

This seemed like a good place for posting my request (drops graphic and runs before getting torn up by the cat form build maulers).



Your comments on this build greatly appreciated. :unsure:
[right][snapback]75324[/snapback][/right]

This is really close to what Hykim has. Both beta-Hykim and retail-Hykim used caster form exclusively until level 50+, mainly because the feral forms felt underpowered, and the flexibility (range engagement, healing, etc.) of caster form was more comfortable for me. Now that the forms have been pumped, I find myself using them a whole lot more, and may respec some points out of Balance and into Feral.

The differences:

I picked Improved Wrath over Nature's Grasp. IW gives you a reasonably fast chain-casting damage option. I'm still on the fence over that choice, but it's worked out OK.

I used the point from Improved Starfire to get Ferocity in the Feral tree. It's a big boost for the times I go feral. If you're not doing that, the stun on your Starfire opener should pay off nicely.

Rather than go for Improved Regrowth, I picked Subtlety. I have not been entirely happy with the choice, but it's very difficult to know when Subtlety is making a difference. I am very tempted to move those points over to IR and see if the better mana efficiency is worth the healing hate.

I also picked up Swiftshifting, which is great for feral days, but pointless for caster times.

In sum, your build looks fine to me, and should have no trouble making it all the way to 60.

One of the nice things about druids is that you can use the all the forms with few or no talent points invested. There are a number of ways to make a perfectly good druid, and no way to make a perfect druid. I like that. :)

[LochnarITB]

One of the nice things about druids is that you can use the all the forms with few or no talent points invested. There are a number of ways to make a perfectly good druid, and no way to make a perfect druid. I like that. :)
[right][snapback]75386[/snapback][/right]

I like that aspect too. It does make it harder to find good guides to building but that, in turn, makes it less cookie cutter than some classes.

Thanks for the responses. I'm feeling comfortable enough to print this build out as my plan. B)

[Brista]

This seemed like a good place for posting my request (drops graphic and runs before getting torn up by the cat form build maulers).



Your comments on this build greatly appreciated. :unsure:
[right][snapback]75324[/snapback][/right]

A couple of thoughts

If you plan to do Restoration first (probably a good idea, getting you Nature's Swiftness and Innervate as soon as possible) then you only get Improved Starburst when Starburst is really rather out-moded as a damage form. You will probably Starburst, Moonfire, Faerie Fire to pull, then go bear, changing when you need a heal. A small bit of extra damage on something you only use once per pull isn't that great. I'd suggest the balance talent for uninterruptible entangling roots instead, especially if you pvp.

I very rarely use Rejuvenation. The other heals are more efficient and are so good that standing there and using a big heal will help you more than running and using Rejuvenate most of the time. If you would die before the big heal finished casting Rejuvenate wouldn't have saved you either. You could put those points into Subtlety instead although going cat and spamming Cower is a talent-free alternative, and very often going Bear will work - you can just tank the aggro. Still you will want subtlety for end game raids if you go that far - if the raid wipes because the main tank lost aggro to you saving 5 points on Subtlety it would be unfortunate.

Glad to see you turned down Swiftshifting, I think the recent fix has turned it from a talent that looks and is useless to a talent that looks good but is useless. I find if I change shape I almost never want to change very quickly and if I do (say a cat pull, followed by stomp, regrowth, bear) I'll have tons of mana left when I go to the final shape which defeats the point of mana economy from the talent. Bear needs rage anyway which means you shouldn't keep changing shape because you lose your rage when you do so. I suppose there may be a combo in the talent that gives you rage when you go bear combined with Swiftshifting and the top end feral talent that saves mana when you shift but spamming bear to get free rage seems a rather silly build. Maybe I'll try it out at 60 for a laugh :)

Good build, let us know how it plays

[Brista]

misposted, sorry

[Bun-Bun]

A couple of thoughts

If you plan to do Restoration first (probably a good idea, getting you Nature's Swiftness and Innervate as soon as possible) then you only get Improved Starburst when Starburst is really rather out-moded as a damage form. You will probably Starburst, Moonfire, Faerie Fire to pull, then go bear, changing when you need a heal. A small bit of extra damage on something you only use once per pull isn't that great. I'd suggest the balance talent for uninterruptible entangling roots instead, especially if you pvp.

The Improved Starfire talent adds a stun chance. This would give you time for a couple more Wraths on the front end. It's still not my favorite talent, but it does have some value, especially for a more caster-oriented style.

I very rarely use Rejuvenation. The other heals are more efficient and are so good that standing there and using a big heal will help you more than running and using Rejuvenate most of the time. If you would die before the big heal finished casting Rejuvenate wouldn't have saved you either. You could put those points into Subtlety instead although going cat and spamming Cower is a talent-free alternative, and very often going Bear will work - you can just tank the aggro. Still you will want subtlety for end game raids if you go that far - if the raid wipes because the main tank lost aggro to you saving 5 points on Subtlety it would be unfortunate.

I must disagree most strongly. I regard Rejuvenation as one of the staples of the Druid's arsenal. It's less mana efficient, but it's an instant HoT that can go a long way to managing the time-to-die rate on your group or yourself. It's quite useful for early fight heals when you don't want to draw aggro, but you do want to keep a decent life buffer. And sometimes it _does_ buy you the time for a bigger heal.

When healing for groups, I see Rejuvenation as the drogue chute you pop as your tank's hit points skydive. It reduces the damage rate so you can get a more efficient HT off safely.

Rejuvenation is also excellent if you're doing the caster melee style.

Glad to see you turned down Swiftshifting, I think the recent fix has turned it from a talent that looks and is useless to a talent that looks good but is useless. I find if I change shape I almost never want to change very quickly and if I do (say a cat pull, followed by stomp, regrowth, bear) I'll have tons of mana left when I go to the final shape which defeats the point of mana economy from the talent.
<snip for brevity>
[right][snapback]75649[/snapback][/right]

My personal style happens to use cat form a lot more than bear form, and I get a fair amount of utility out of Swiftshifting. I'd not go so far as calling it mandatory, but not useless. This may have something to do with me being paranoid about my mana levels, always wanting as big a buffer as possible. :)

I find myself shifting out and back into forms quickly quite a lot. It may be due to cat-form taking more damage than bear and needing a heal more often. Even in bear form, it's been handy in extended fights when soloing elites; my feral form gear just doesn't have the spirit for a massive mana regen rate.

[LochnarITB]

I very rarely use Rejuvenation.
[right][snapback]75649[/snapback][/right]

I love Rejuvenation. I especially enjoy it stacking with Regrowth. I can take quite a beating with both of them feeding HP back to me. However, I do think I am going to trade the five points in Improved Rejuvenation for five in Subtlety. That was kind of a d'oh moment. I looked at it and thought "4%? big deal!" not thinking that it was for one point and that it would be 20%(?) for all five.

[Bob the Beholder]

Rejuvenation is quite useful, but, I have found, after progressing in level somewhat, that it becomes less powerful later on. As it is now, even with Gift of Nature (which I took before I came up with the build I posted earlier) and Improved Rejuvenation, it's only healing maybe a fifth of my max hp, and only across 12 seconds. Now, 12 seconds may seem like a good length of time for you rogues and mages and hunters out there, but seeing as my fights, even still lodged firmly in the mid-levels, tend to last a good chunk of time, it wears off long before I stop taking damage.

It's a useful buffer for when I predict an especially hard fight, or an especially hard hitting foe, but not the constant-use uber-heal it once was. (And it is still quite powerful when teamed up with regrowth.)

Once I work up to Swiftshifting, this may change.

As it is now, I am no caster. I fight in beast form, shift out to heal, then go right back to beast form. (The obvious exception is healing in groups.) And the only limit on how long I live is how long my mana lasts, and against high damage targets--enemy players or elites--I have to heal often enough that the shifting alone takes up a heavy chunk of my mana. I'll likely be going for swiftshifting simply to free up more mana for straight healing.

In other news, I am now nearing 200 honorable kills. Go go druid power. (And these are REAL honorable kills, not green-player gankfests.)

And, if any of you who play a druid have some reason to skip going 21 deep into restoration for Nature's Swiftness, then you are officially insane. Now my favorite skill. And something of an aggravator in pvp. I've gone up against paladins and hunters six, seven, eight levels above me and taken them, if not out, down pretty far, simply because of my awesome insta-heal.

[Kevin]

Natures Swiftness is wonderful. I'm an innervate fan too now that I've finally had a chance to play with it. Treesh and I were in Stranglethorn fighting skullspliters today and we ended up chain fighting for what turns out to be just over 10 minutes (I had put thorns on just before it started and it went down just before it all ended). Those two talents (I used swiftness twice) saved our bacon. I was pleased with Frenzied Regeneration as well. But that was a fight where I used every form. If Treesh had aggro with her rogue I would drop into cat for more DPS. I was in caster healing, hibernating and rooting with a moonfire here or there as well. I was in bear form for the times we had too many mobs to control. Being able to run almost out of health in bear, pop a natures swiftness and then pop your biggests healing touch is just nice. Back to full health right now. Being able to innervate the mana back up was great too. I was pretty much able to keep Treesh going with rejuv and regrowth. It was fun with the timing of the patrols and spawns and the runner or two that got away because of a resist or a dodge or parry on a snare/stun. It was a great time to be a druid. :)