A Good Druid Build

[NiNja|]

Can anyone help me with a good Feral, balance build?

[Adinion]

I tried feral, me personally, I wouldn't suggest it. I would lean more towards Balance and Restoration.

[hellion]

restoration isn't that great imo unless you go caster druid and get nature's swiftness and take balance down pretty far.

[Scorch]

restoration isn't that great imo unless you go caster druid and get nature's swiftness and take balance down pretty far.

Restoration's the best tree right now by a pretty far margain, the only problem is the people who would rather play healer are already Priests.. I don't blame people for not liking the Restoration tree but if you can heal you need to heal, that's just the way the game is. For the original poster, if you want a feral Druid I'd do something like this build. Not exactly beginner-friendly though.

Balance Talents (8 points)

Nature's Grasp - 1/1 points
Improved Nature's Grasp - 4/4 points
Swiftshifting - 3/3 points

Feral Combat Talents (32 points)

Ferocity - 5/5 points
Sharpened Claws - 5/5 points
Blood Frenzy - 5/5 points
Predatory Strikes - 5/5 points
Faerie Fire (Cat) - 1/1 points
Feline Swiftness - 1/1 points
Improved Prowl - 5/5 points
Strength of the Wild - 4/4 points
Primal Instinct - 1/1 points

Restoration Talents (11 points)

Improved Mark of the Wild - 5/5 points
Nature's Focus - 5/5 points
Gift of Nature - 1/1 points

[alcaras]

After about 40, I've only grouped druids in instances when I was seeking a secondary healer :-/

Never really sought them out for anything else, sadly :(

Just being honest here :-/

[Scorch]

After about 40, I've only grouped druids in instances when I was seeking a secondary healer :-/

Never really sought them out for anything else, sadly :(

Just being honest here :-/

Yeah I know they're pretty worthless :(

[alcaras]

I see no reason to pick a druid over a shaman either :-/

Especially now that druids lost self-rez and shamans gained it...

Not sure if I would recommend people play the class, but I haven't personally played one -- what are you going in release, Scorch?

btw, shouldn't your sig be Cui ci sono dei mostri without the n in mostri? My italian is shaky tho :-(

[Scorch]

I see no reason to pick a druid over a shaman either :-/

I keep telling everyone that too :(


Not sure if I would recommend people play the class, but I haven't personally played one -- what are you going in release, Scorch?

Druid.

Because I'm a masochist.

(I think my sig's latin)

[hellion]

yo scorch do you feel feral is even necessary?

i have a 30 balance 21 rest build :

-------------------------------------------------------------
Balance Talents (30 points)

Nature's Grasp - 1/1 points

Improved Nature's Grasp - 4/4 points

Swiftshifting - 2/3 points

Nature's Reach - 2/2 points

Improved Moonfire - 5/5 points

Improved Starfire - 5/5 points

Improved Entangling Roots - 1/3 points

Moonfury - 4/5 points

Nature's Grace - 1/1 points

Vengeance - 5/5 points


Feral Combat Talents (0 points)

None


Restoration Talents (21 points)

Improved Mark of the Wild - 5/5 points

Improved Healing Touch - 5/5 points

Nature's Focus - 5/5 points

Gift of Nature - 1/1 points

Improved Rejuvenation - 4/5 points

Nature's Swiftness - 1/1 points
-------------------------------------------------------------

the basic goal is to be caster most of the time in pvp with some cat stuff thrown in without talents. Heals are augmented and nature's swiftness is achieved as well at 100% crits with vengeance.

I feel stupid though because I'm not putting much stock in the forms which are integral to a druid. Thoughts?

[Scorch]

yo scorch do you feel feral is even necessary?

Not really, but the guy asked for a Feral build :(

My old PvP build was basically the same as yours, except I skipped Improved Starfire and got Hurricane, finished off Swiftshifting, Improved Entangle, etc etc. People don't usually get Hurricane but it's my anti-Rogue, when they stealth I just charge them and then hit it, Entangle + Faerie Fire. That takes them out usually if they're Assassination specced. Only bad thing is no Nature's Swiftness. But now I use a Restoration build.

IMO for Restoration vs Balance , for 1v1 against someone who knows what they're doing, it comes down to this

31 Balance/20 Restoration:
Warriors - Win (outdoors)
Healers - Lose
Everyone Else - Win

20 Balance/31 Restoration:
Warriors - Win (outdoors)
Healers - Even
Everyone Else - Even mostly

So it's a trade off. If you factor in group PvP though the Restoration clearly takes the prize, that's why I'm going with that for end game.

[hellion]

31 for innervate eh? I've never tried it, but i wouldn't think it would be worth it. however, i suppose you are using it to outlast healers in the healing game.

It's a good thing pvp is an outdoor activity ... I hate that limitation on root.

[NiNja|]

ahh so ic Feral is not the way to go with a Druid.. thx for the input guys, so it would be better being more of a balance/rest type Druid? will you help me out with a decent build o wise Scorch :P

[Scorch]

ahh so ic Feral is not the way to go with a Druid.. thx for the input guys, so it would be better being more of a balance/rest type Druid? will you help me out with a decent build o wise Scorch :P

You can follow Hellion's build, it's pretty good. My recommendation for a PvP build would basically the same with the variation of Moonglow instead of Moonfury, Omen instead of Improved Starfire. In the end it's up to you, playing the class to 60 will give you way more insight than just reading builds from a forum :).

Balance Talents (30 points)

Nature's Grasp - 1/1 points
Improved Nature's Grasp - 4/4 points
Improved Moonfire - 5/5 points
Nature's Reach - 2/2 points
Swiftshifting - 3/3 points
Improved Entangling Roots - 3/3 points
Moonglow - 5/5 points
Omen of Clarity - 1/1 points
Nature's Grace - 1/1 points
Vengeance - 5/5 points

Feral Combat Talents (0 points)
None

Restoration Talents (21 points)

Improved Mark of the Wild - 5/5 points
Nature's Focus - 5/5 points
Gift of Nature - 1/1 points
Improved Healing Touch - 5/5 points
Improved Rejuvenation - 4/5 points
Nature's Swiftness - 1/1 points

[hellion]

i was wondering about omen of clarity because we all know how awsome clear casting is. i just didn't think a druid would be meleeing at all in his caster form. i suppose at the end game you even do more damage with a good staff than in bear form so it might be logical.

what justifies its use in your eyes, scorch?

[Straem]

One day Druids will be seriously beefed up by mythic and Scorch will be rewarded for his loyalty.


I gotta say after grouping with a druid for levels 20 to 40, I loved having them in the group. Their Buff with talents was just insane for me and my pet (I was a warlock at the time). I love the class, but again I am not the one playing it.

[JonChron]

Druids are more handy than they are leet.

[hellion]

so is it worth it taking range down to 33 yards instead of 36 for this omen of clarity thinger?

[VIB]

Hello, I've played a druid in the final phases of beta and Im surelly keeping it for retail. I've seen the many complaints about druid being underpowered, but... I'd love the challenge =) and from my past experiences with blizzard games (played sc/bw and war3/ft intensively) I now trust them when it comes to balancing a game. Because of this, I don't think anyone should not play a druid because they're underpowered in their current state. Just pick a class you like to play and leave the balancing to blizzard. Because, trust me, they're good at it ^^

But since I did not have enough time to try high levels, I still have some questions I wasn't able to answer myself, so I would appreciate if someone could help me here:

1- Can you use Nature swiftness to entangle instantly? If so, doesn't that makes Nature Grasp less usefull? Since entangling instantly is basically what it does? Can you use Nature Swiftness along with "Teleport: Moonglade" to instantly escape from battles?
2- Swiftshifting is said to reduce the delay before using spells up to 1.5sec after shapshifting. Is this "delay" that same cooldown you have after using each spell. Because maybe it was lag, but when I was testing my humble lv 16 druid, I didn't notice any greater cooldown after shapeshifting bear<->caster. And the contrary, I felt that I could use spells pretty fast after shaping, which would render this tallent kind of uselless. Am I missing something here?
3- If you try to rez a random dead body you see along the road, but that guy happens to be offline/afk, do you still have to wait for the cooldown? (when I was using a priest, I liked doing this ^^)
4- Is Tranquility usefull enough in group PvP to make you want to use "Improved Tranquility", if you're heading for a group PvP build? Also, if you're in a raid, does tranquility heals everyone around, or just your party members?
5- I've heard on general chat, that FIST weapons could increase the damage output of your forms. Has anyone really tested this out and could confirm it?

I would be very thankfull if someone could enlight me from any of my doubts ^^

[Hybby]

*resists comment of how no one plays druids due to their worthlessness*

[Tragedy]

Hey Scorch, how do you feel about Imp Tranquility? I was looking at your build and its very similar to the one I was using, but I never played with Imp Tranq. Worth the 2 points, even though it has a 10 min cooldown?

[Scorch]

so is it worth it taking range down to 33 yards instead of 36 for this omen of clarity thinger?

If that's what it comes down to I'd probably take Nature's Reach over Omen. The thing with Omen and meleeing is that, at higher levels grouping, the only reason why you would bother meleeing is to get a Clearcast off. If I don't have Omen I wouldn't bother meleeing. Nature's Reach is far better for PvP, you can Entangle them, then sit out of the 30 yard range of most spells and nuke them without fear.


Hey Scorch, how do you feel about Imp Tranquility? I was looking at your build and its very similar to the one I was using, but I never played with Imp Tranq. Worth the 2 points, even though it has a 10 min cooldown?

Tranquility is a pretty poorly thought out spell (Druids have a lot of those). I think the cooldown needs to be scaled back to at least 5 minutes or something. Anyway the only reason I included it in my build is after watching the Onyxia videos. Most raid mobs have huge AoE and Druids are horrible burst healers, so a well-timed Tranq might be useful. I don't know. I remember using Improved Tranq a lot during those 3 fire elemental pulls in BRD.

[Scorch]

Hello, I've played a druid in the final phases of beta and Im surelly keeping it for retail. I've seen the many complaints about druid being underpowered, but... I'd love the challenge =) and from my past experiences with blizzard games (played sc/bw and war3/ft intensively) I now trust them when it comes to balancing a game. Because of this, I don't think anyone should not play a druid because they're underpowered in their current state. Just pick a class you like to play and leave the balancing to blizzard. Because, trust me, they're good at it ^^

That's a valid view. Honestly I've been telling people 'Don't play a Druid' not because they're underpowered (that can be adjusted easily), but because the underlying basics of the class are just not working. This is a poorly designed class through and through. Stuff like, animal form dmg capping at 60 because it doesn't factor equipped weapons. Design decisions like that just make me think they don't really know what they want with the Druid. The class needed some major overhauls into how it worked, and it would have needed tons of balancing and testing to get it right, but the time for that's come and gone. Beta's over. I'm not very optimistic at this point, and I think people who like to play hybrids should take a look at Shamans and Paladins instead, they've been done right.


1- Can you use Nature swiftness to entangle instantly? If so, doesn't that makes Nature Grasp less usefull? Since entangling instantly is basically what it does? Can you use Nature Swiftness along with "Teleport: Moonglade" to instantly escape from battles?
2- Swiftshifting is said to reduce the delay before using spells up to 1.5sec after shapshifting. Is this "delay" that same cooldown you have after using each spell. Because maybe it was lag, but when I was testing my humble lv 16 druid, I didn't notice any greater cooldown after shapeshifting bear<->caster. And the contrary, I felt that I could use spells pretty fast after shaping, which would render this tallent kind of uselless. Am I missing something here?
3- If you try to rez a random dead body you see along the road, but that guy happens to be offline/afk, do you still have to wait for the cooldown? (when I was using a priest, I liked doing this ^^)
4- Is Tranquility usefull enough in group PvP to make you want to use "Improved Tranquility", if you're heading for a group PvP build? Also, if you're in a raid, does tranquility heals everyone around, or just your party members?
5- I've heard on general chat, that FIST weapons could increase the damage output of your forms. Has anyone really tested this out and could confirm it?

1. Yeah you can use Entangle + NS, I use it sometimes to snag down people almost out of range and fleeing. Both spells become instants so I never have to stop moving to cast. Nature's Grasp is for the other way around, when people are chasing you. Teleport I think is an arcane spell, NS only works with nature spells.

2. For the longest time I found Swiftshifting worthless too but when they changed shapeshifting to break snares I picked it up. 3 points in it just lets you cast instantly coming out of animal form. Also helps when you're in Cat in a group and someone needs a heal, pop out and start healing instantly. If you wait the 1.5 seconds sometimes they're already dead.

3. Druids basically got combat res as their only res. Don't blow it on random people :wink: . Costs a reagent anyway.

4. Don't use Tranq in PvP, it'll probably get you killed :(. For raids it only heals your group.

5. I don't think so, haven't tested it though. Mostly because there's like 3 fist weapons in the entire game. It wouldn't make sense if it did. Nobody on the Druid forum said anything about it, so I doubt it. The only thing that affects animal forms is +stats. Towards the end of beta I was hauling around the Fist of Omokk because it had +29 str and +12 stam. I had higher dps weapons but +str is king when it comes to animal forms.

[KJunk]

Scorch, I have some questions for you as well if you have the time :)

1. Can Omen of Clarity's effect cancel the mana cost of Hurricane or Tranquility? The ability seems like something to help druid's add some paltry melee DPS while still fulfilling their role as healer. Also, can you cast it or activate it in any way while in Cat or Bear form? It says the enchantment lasts 5 minutes, but I have no clue if it's dispelled after use or if some conditions cause it to disappear.

2. Is Improved Entangling Root really necessary with Nature's Swiftness? I realize how important the Root is in PvP, as it's a staple, but I'm just curious. If you really need the root it seems like you could just NS it... not like it's not fast casting anyhow.

3. Speaking of Swiftshifting, how much mana do you come out of the various forms with? My plan for a while was to use a prowling cat form to happen across an unsuspecting foe with a Ravage and then flip to my caster form after that little surprise... but if I pop in with low mana there doesn't seem to be a point. What's been your experience?

4. How does our healing stack up? I keep hearing of druids being a secondary healer, but can we function as a main healer in a group? Also, is that healing functional in PvP? The reason I ask is the relatively long cast time of Healing Touch.

5. How often were your nature and arcane spells resisted generally in PvP?

Thanks for any help you can offer.

[JonChron]

1. Yes, many druids will save it for their high mana cost spells, but no I have never seen it proc while I was in animal form.

2. I liked to save NS for quick heals, with improved root you have a 100% chance to not be interrupted, and without pummel, there are only a few classes that can stop you from casting root now.

3. Because you are not casting while in animal forms, your mana will regen as if you were standing still. Most often I will find myself with alot more mana than I had before I shifted if I've waited 5 seconds and am stacked with spirit gear.

4. One of the best things about Druids is stacking HoTs. But without flash heals and shielding, a priest will always be a better choice as a main healer. In mass pvp, using a Druid for backup heals is a better idea. In unison with a priest's flash heals, the mana efficiency of improved healing touch + rejuvination and an occasional regrowth can keep a good tank up for quite some time.

Take Darkshire for instance: Nurfed didn't have more than 2 groups, yet their front lines were able to hold up against 20 or so alliance with the help of Skorch's back up heals and the mage's keeping a steady dps on enemy fronts.

5. I found my spells were resisted close to 10% of the time :(
But as Skorch mentioned, if you can get OOR of all spells, it doesn't matter how much they resist as long as you keep them rooted.

[KJunk]

Thanks for the info Jon. Definitely appreciate it coming from experience, especially PvP experience.

Back when I played the druid (and only to level 20), you didn't even have a mana bar after shapeshifting.. I'm guessing they changed that? Good change for the druid.

Also, how would you rate the effeciency of the healing, all around? Being able to throw free heals every so often, with the HoT... seems pretty solid :)

Effeciency would be very important in smaller scale PvP I would think.

[Landogarner]

"playing the class to 60 will give you way more insight than just reading builds from a forum"

Single best piece of advice I have seen on these forums.

[Scorch]

1. Yes, many druids will save it for their high mana cost spells, but no I have never seen it proc while I was in animal form.

Hurricane wasn't working with Omen/Clearcast a few patches ago for whatever reason, I don't know what's the status on that as of now, though I haven't heard about it being fixed. Tranq does work though.

[JonChron]

Shapeshifting into cat or bear forms will display an energy or rage bar. You can't check your mana until after you've shifted out.

Druid heal efficiency really depends how you use them. Take into account who is hitting your group, if they're going down fast you may want to open up with Regrowth or Rejuv, and then move to some one else on the front line before tossing a healing touch as needed. You need to watch for poison and dispels too.

I would rank Druid heals in a close second behind priest's. Their HoT's pretty hot, especially when they are stacked with regen and totems and your guys are regening for close to 300 a tick.
Inbetween heals I go more offensive and spam ff
(considering I'm not the only healer)
If you are an alliance druid you may want to use a rank 1 mf on totems.
I found myself meleeing alot of the time too, trying to proc cc.

I rarely used Hurricane because It really isn't worth giving up NS. I figure it may be good to have 1 druid out of 2 use Hurricanes just to have that slight advantage over enemy zergs. CC is mostly designed for burning tranquility on.

[KJunk]

What kind of range does Hurricane have? I can't find it listed anywhere!

[JonChron]

That's because it's PBAOE or point blank area of effect.

Meaning you need to get up close to use it effectively in a radius around yourself. Usually you can get away with sneaking up to cast it on enemy front lines. But I've also noticed some times I was able to travel form past enemy melees and cast it on their casters. This would almost always make them move out of the storm, and when casters are moving, they're not casting their most important spells ;)

However, this spell is very expensive to get (talent wise) and also has high mana costs. It may not be worth giving up Nature's Swiftness and Innervate.

[Ossoi]

I played to 40 Druid in OB and went Feral Combat, on the basis that I spent most of my time solo grinding and was grouped only for guild instance raids.

My plan was to go Feral until 55+ for ease of PvE then switch to Balance/Restoration.

Or is it better from both a PvE and PvP perspective to spec balance/restoration from Level 0 ?

From my experience with talents in Feral, PvE opening with Moonfire/Root then switching to Cat left me with minimal downtime if I stuck to single/double pulls, whilst bearform was enough to handle 2-3 mob pulls.

[KJunk]

So far in retail I've been impressed with my mana regen if I just give myself a few seconds after casting to let it build up. Will that always be significant however? How much of your mana bar would you say, percentage wise, were you being fed at higher levels? I imagine for the importance of many of the skills, drinks etc, that the mana regen has to drop significantly.

[Straem]

Your Power Pool is still small.

[VIB]

Thanks for all the help =)

But hey, can hibernate be used against Onyxia? Maybe 10~15 druids could keep her busy while others are reviving, healing and drinking?

[KJunk]

Your Power Pool is still small.

I guess what you're saying here is that even though the mana regeneration and such is nice, it doesn't change the fact that the spells are still underpowered?

[Scorch]

So far in retail I've been impressed with my mana regen if I just give myself a few seconds after casting to let it build up. Will that always be significant however? How much of your mana bar would you say, percentage wise, were you being fed at higher levels? I imagine for the importance of many of the skills, drinks etc, that the mana regen has to drop significantly.

Mana regen is always ridiculously fast at low levels. High levels you do have to drink a lot.

[KJunk]

With the ability to still reset talents at trainers, could there be a possible use for the Feral talent tree? That's a use I see for it, maybe...

There seems to be little reason not to start a solo fight with a Ravage.

[Scorch]

There seems to be little reason not to start a solo fight with a Ravage.

Alternative would be Pounce + Shred, which takes a bit more skill with timing, but with talents that'll give you 3 or 4 combo points right away. With a Rake that's 1 more combo point, then you can do a 5 point finisher at the start of the fight and not waste the DoT. Starting off with Ravage just means you'll be ignoring combo points and hitting whatever attack, which isn't that bad either.

[KJunk]

Alternative would be Pounce + Shred, which takes a bit more skill with timing, but with talents that'll give you 3 or 4 combo points right away. With a Rake that's 1 more combo point, then you can do a 5 point finisher at the start of the fight and not waste the DoT. Starting off with Ravage just means you'll be ignoring combo points and hitting whatever attack, which isn't that bad either.

Ahh definitely, I hadn't thought of that. The overall damage from the combo points might outweigh the Ravage. I'll have to do the math.

Also Scorch, I PM'd ya in case you have the time to answer something more basic.

[Ossoi]

feral builds for PvE or something else?

[VIB]

But hey, can hibernate be used against Onyxia? Maybe 10~15 druids could keep her busy while others are reviving, healing and drinking?
can it? =P

[KJunk]

I would say that's highly unlikely.

[KJunk]

Druids strike me as hard to catch.

Lets say you're in caster form and they hit you with a movement impairing effect. You flip to cat form, and nail Dash, giving you a 50-60% sudden break in movement for 15 seconds, easily outpacing most other classes. At that point you can flip out to cheetah form and keep your lead.

This seems great, though something tells me this is flawed. Does Dash's cooldown require you to have been in catform for 5 minutes already before it's initially useable, or can you flip to it for that little burst of speed?

Combine this with NS and potentially instacast Entangling Roots and it seems like a druid decides when he's caught, or is brought down when he's outnumbered by multiple staggered snares. Where am I wrong?

[Shotai]

I just made this build and need some flaming/suggestions/opinions/improvements on it.

Balance Talents (15 points)


Nature's Grasp - 1/1 point
While active, any time an enemy strikes the caster, they have a 35% chance to become afflicted by Entangling Roots (Rank 1). Only usable outdoors. 1 charge. Lasts 45 seconds.


Improved Nature's Grasp - 4/4 points
Increases the chance for your Nature's Grasp to entangle an enemy by 65%.


Nature's Reach - 2/2 points
Increases the range of your Wrath, Entangling Roots, Faerie Fire (caster form only), Moonfire, and Starfire spells by 20%.


Improved Moonfire - 5/5 points
Increases the damage and critical strike chance of your Moonfire spell by 15%.


Swiftshifting - 3/3 points
Reduces the delay before using spells and abilities by 1.5 seconds after having shapeshifted.




Feral Combat Talents (21 points)


Ferocity - 5/5 points
Reduces the cost of your Maul, Swipe, Claw, and Rake abilities by 5 Rage or Energy.


Sharpened Claws - 5/5 points
Increases your critical strike chance while in Bear or Cat form by 5%.


Improved Prowl - 5/5 points
Reduces the chance enemies have to detect you while Prowling. More effective than Improved Prowl (Rank 4)..


Predatory Strikes - 5/5 points
Increases the Attack Power bonus from your Cat form ability by 20%.


Feline Swiftness - 1/1 point
Increases your movement speed by 30% while in Cat form. Only active outdoors.




Restoration Talents (15 points)


Improved Mark of the Wild - 5/5 points
Increases the effects of your Mark of the Wild spell by 35%.


Nature's Focus - 5/5 points
Gives you a 60% chance to avoid interruption caused by damage while casting the Healing Touch or Regrowth spells.


Intensity - 5/5 points
Gives you a 100% chance to gain 40 Energy when you shapeshift into Cat form.

I havn't played a druid very long, don't even have cat form yet, so I don't know how good/bad feral is for solo/duo for pvp.

[KJunk]

With the emphasis on Improved Moonfire and then Intensity, I can only assume you plan to start a fight with a DoT and then flip to cat form... or maybe spend all your Energy in cat form with an ambush, then dot, then flip back?

I think it'd be better for you to give an idea of what you want to do or what you'd like to be strong at, that way we could better help ya out in reaching that :)

[Shotai]

If I'm solo I would most likely be in cat form then switch to night elf form when Im at half hp or so and heal myself while using moonfire, then probably melee to finish or switch back to cat and dash if they run, or use entangling roots... too many options. :)

[KJunk]

Alright, big question for the old level 60 druids from CB! How exactly does Innervate function and what kind of returns, mana wise, were you noticing from it? Does it's mana cost stay at a static 9 mana or does that change much how forms do? Can it be dispelled?

Thanks!

[Scorch]

Alright, big question for the old level 60 druids from CB! How exactly does Innervate function and what kind of returns, mana wise, were you noticing from it? Does it's mana cost stay at a static 9 mana or does that change much how forms do? Can it be dispelled?

Thanks!

Innervate now is a targetted Evocation basically. It's a buff-type spell instead of channeling. I don't remember the mana cost or the dispelling.

I didn't have a chance to use the 'new' Innervate in a combat situation, mostly because the change came so late. But I tried draining my mana and testing it out, it recovered about 90-95% of my mana within the 20 seconds. Bear in mind though I had top end gear with very high spirit at that point, which makes a difference. It's not something you'd bother casting on Warlocks or Mages with their lower spirit stats.

I haven't gotten it in retail yet but it hasn't changed, so.