READ THIS FIRST: Druid 101Follow

the pvp section is coming folks, ive just had the finals crunch lately and its kept me extra busy. no time to compile thoughts and post them. expect an update in the next two weeks.

I would just like to say that as a healer I would never spec into imp tranquility or imp regrowth. Most heal bots I know spec as to get Natures Grasp, Feral Charge and then the majority of the healing improvements as well as furor. Personally I dont feel there is a high need to use Tranquility end game and therefore reducing its threat is merely a waste of talents points as for imp regrowth I dont think there is a high need for relying on crit chances and feel there are other places to better spend the points. This spec is more of a versitile one as it allows for greater effectiveness in PvP whilst maintaining a high level of effectiveness during PvE end game raiding. My current spec is 5/11/35. But in general this is the most detailed and awesome post I have seen and thankyou for taking the time out to create it! /clap

Are any of the Druid spells, Nature Damage Spells? I have a staff that adds +4 to Nature Damage Spells and not sure what class would use it.

Can we get the talents updated since there are completely new talents in the last patch and they have renamed/deleted some of the old ones?

In attempts to renew this, I'm going to take this time to update the Talents portion, if frequenC doesn't mind. If there's anything you disagree with or would like changed, just post and I will be sure to update or alter it; if there are a lot of conflicting thoughts on a subject, I'll make sure to document as such.

Talents, 2.0

Balance
The Balance tree specializes your ability to do spell damage and offers a top level talent granting you an additional form to shapeshift into, Moonkin. If you were a mage in a past life you will end up investing a lot of points here.

Level 1

• Starlight Wrath is almost the same as its predecessor, Improved Wrath, however it now includes Starfire in its cast-time reduction. Extremely useful for a Balance-specced Druid, but might not be as desired as Nature's Grasp and Improved NG for other builds.
• Nature's Grasp is very popular and will greatly increase your survivability in any outdoor situation. Useful for any build, in my opinion.
• Improved Nature's Grasp raises the chance you have to cast Entangling Roots by up to 65%. Very yes-or-no; if it suits your play-style, it could be worth four Talent points, otherwise they might be better-spent elsewhere.

Level 2

• Control of Nature is probably better-saved for Burning Crusade, when Cyclone is useable; until when, Nature's Grasp is probably a better option. (More info is requested on anyone with more than basic experience with this talent, or a different playstyle than my own.))
• Focused Starlight is the predecessor to Vengeance, and is also a handy crit-chance boost for Balance-specced druids. Very desireable for Balance-spec, but unsure on other specs.
• Improved Moonfire should be handy for any build, if you enjoy tossing off a Moonfire to tear a runner off. In any hand, if you need three more points on Level 2, this might be a better option than CoN, depending.

Level 3

• Brambles is another that is often passed up for other talents, but in PvE situations it will noticeably help a warrior or MT keep hate.
• Insect Swarm is a handy extra DoT spell, and also lowers the hit chance of your opponent by a small percent. Useful, but could be done without.
• Nature's Reach is great against casters and other ranged enemies, creating a window of distance where you are out of their range but they are still in yours.

Level 4

• Vengeance makes your critical hits with Starfire, Moonfire and Wrath very painful. Requires two ranks in Focus of Starlight, which is actually quite the dangerous combination.
• Improved Starfire adds a stun effect to Starfire, and any stun is incredibly helpful in any situation. With the cast time required for Starfire, this would be more effective in situations where you're not taking direct damage, having casting-time delayed, as a note.

Level 5

• Nature's Grace has been numbed a bit, now only reducing your cast time by 0.5 seconds after a critical spell strike. Still extremely useful if you need to squeeze a Healing Touch off, or if you're just gunning Wrath (Mixed with Starlight Wrath, your Wrath spell is a 1 second cast).
• Moonglow extends your casting ability in a long battle and helps reduces downtime. Some might argue that it makes Moonfire spam more viable, but the true strengths are in the mana/damage ratio for Wrath and Starfire as instant-damage.
• Lunar Guidance is a beautiful buff to both damage and healing, increasing your spell damage and healing by up to 25% of your Intellect. Might be a better option than Moonglow in the short-run on the road to Moonkin Form.

Level 6

• Moonfury quite simply adds raw damage to all your damage spells. Can't argue with that.
• Balance of Nature increases hit-chance with all damage spells. Level 6 seems to like the raw talents, though I would lean toward Moonfury in this Level of the Balance tree.

Level 7

• Moonkin Form. After all the boosts to Moonfire, Starfire, Wrath, and Roots along the way, Moonkin gives you a whole other form to throw your improved spells from behind the protection of plate level armor. In Moonkin form you receive the same armor bonus you do in Dire Bear Form and you can cast all your balance spells, though none of your healing spells will be available. Being in Moonkin also grants an aura to you and anyone in your party that adds 3% to your chance to score a critical hit with spells. Mages and Warlocks will love you for this. (Any information on whether or not this affects priest's heal crits, by chance?)
• Dreamstate is an amazing talent, permitting up to 10% your Intellect as mana regeneration every 5 seconds. Truly powerful in its own right.
• Improved Faerie Fire adds a chance-to-hit percent to the spell, which in itself may be quite useful. I'd lean much further to Dreamstate and Moonkin Form in this Level, though.

Level 8

• Wrath of Cenarius adds damage bonus to Wrath and Starfire; very appreciable in it's own right... and depending on your desired build, you might need this to get your treants.

Level 9

• Force of Nature is a much-discussed and controversed spell. In it's own right, it definitely holds it's strength at the very top of the Balance tree, summoning three Treants to fight with you for 30 seconds. While squishy in their own right, having the extra damage for those thirty seconds every 3 minutes, for no more than the mana spent to shift into Moonkin Form, is quite useful. (As much as I have read, I still haven't tested this and will need to save up before speccing into this; much more information is requested if possible.)

I will be working on the Feral and Restoration trees soon, but alas, I have a job that takes no breaks. Comments and criticism are so very appreciated.

Why thank you, FrequenC, I try to do my best. Apologies for not getting updated Feral and Restoration; between work, Christmas, and discussions of 5-man levelling groups for 60-70... In any stretch, I'll be working on them this week. I might have them this weekend.

Happy Druiding!

Having duoed extensively with a Balance druid (and observed her while she soloes) I can say that YES, Force of Nature is terrific. In multi-mob pulls, I've seen them kill one of the mobs and then come back to finish off the first. They're a legitimate PvP threat. They can't take too terribly much damage, but their DPS is considerable, especially for such a miniscule cooldown and mana cost.

In instances, they could concievably be used every other pull. The damage is good and you don't care if they get whacked; those are hits that aren't hitting actual party members. The only downside is that the druid cannot directly control them; they could possibly decide to attack crowd-controlled mobs. This is infrequent in my experience, though.

Edited, Feb 7th 2007 9:40pm by ChahDresh

Hi. I'm going to create a Blood Elf Druid in the near future and wondered what the possibility of all this wonderful information being incorporated into a PDF file for easier reading and also for printing as well? so that I can refer to the notes as I play/read them to give myself a heads up on what to head for when looking towards the next level.

I know my request is a long shot, but nothing asked nothing learnt.

Edited, Feb 27th 2007 9:25am by fenninarnos

awesome

Sorry for the unannounced hiatus there. I logged into wow for the first time in months last night, so I've got a good bit of catching up to do.



Not sure I would feel too comfortable with that. I don't mind you using anything I have written but there is content that is not my own included here.
I recommend making a link to the thread if anything because the content is very outdated at this point and hopefully will be brought up to speed at some point over the next month or so.



Druids typically dont care about the damage from weapons since our claws are more powerful. It is a good idea to keep all your weapon skills worked up for emergency situations but in general you want to choose whatever weapon you can find that has the best stats on it. Sometimes it will be a staff, sometimes a combo of a dagger and off-hand item, sometimes a 2hand mace.