09-28-2005, 06:01 PM
Innervate and nature's swiftness are emergency measures, to be sure - but on the recent ZG runs I've been doing, we've been seeing those emergencies come up quite often.
Innervate restores about 3 to 4k mana for me given my current spirit, or can be cast on a priest or mage for a handy pick-me-up, i.e. a priest has just been OOC-rezzed, but won't be doing us any good until she's back up to speed. A feral build with Heart of the Wild simply gives me almost 1k extra mana. From the raid standpoint, innervate is a bigger win.
On the other hand... I worked out the +damage from the feral talents. It's about 40% beyond what I have now with my restoration/feral build. I already hit 115 base dps in my cat gear, probably 180 after counting skills. Given that, feral cats will probably be able to compete with rogues head-on in damage, plus they can back off and turn into backup healers/battle-rezzers when needed. (they'd have to since bandaging in form is a no-sell)
So, this is a tough decision. A skillful, well equipped druid is going to be a match for the character class that she's emulating - but she has to specialize her talents that way. And restoration druids are going to be better prepared with wipe-savers. Neither balance nor feral druids will have that. But, both will make the raid perform better.
I was set to go feral when I saw the new talents, but now, not so sure.
Innervate restores about 3 to 4k mana for me given my current spirit, or can be cast on a priest or mage for a handy pick-me-up, i.e. a priest has just been OOC-rezzed, but won't be doing us any good until she's back up to speed. A feral build with Heart of the Wild simply gives me almost 1k extra mana. From the raid standpoint, innervate is a bigger win.
On the other hand... I worked out the +damage from the feral talents. It's about 40% beyond what I have now with my restoration/feral build. I already hit 115 base dps in my cat gear, probably 180 after counting skills. Given that, feral cats will probably be able to compete with rogues head-on in damage, plus they can back off and turn into backup healers/battle-rezzers when needed. (they'd have to since bandaging in form is a no-sell)
So, this is a tough decision. A skillful, well equipped druid is going to be a match for the character class that she's emulating - but she has to specialize her talents that way. And restoration druids are going to be better prepared with wipe-savers. Neither balance nor feral druids will have that. But, both will make the raid perform better.
I was set to go feral when I saw the new talents, but now, not so sure.