I'm sorry Quor!Follow

A little while back there was a thread about the feral/restoration spec and it was generally agreed that it was a good way to go until you reached level 50 and then you should respecc for mangle. Now i agree with this and am currently following this build, however, I can’t help but wonder about some of the talents that were taken along the way.

The build was this:
Feral
1. Ferocity 5/5
2. Brutal Impact 2/2
3. Ferala Instinct 3/3
4. Feral Charge 1/1
5. Feral Swiftness 2/2
Resto
1. Furor 5/5
2. Naturalist 5/5
3. Omen of Clarity 1/1

In that order.

Remembering that this is my first Druid so this is all theory, I just wanted to question some of the places where points were sunk and am hoping to get some responses from people who have practical experience.

Feral Instinct

Yes, it helps you tank for groups. Yes, it makes prowling easier. Now I played a rogue into his mid 40’s and I found that when it comes to stealth, with effective movement and not making stupid decisions it can be done with ease. Basically I mean that you shouldn’t stealth/prowl right infront of the monster your about to sink your daggers/claws into. Always approach from the back and you’ll be fine. When it comes to confined spaces study your targets movement and move/strike when you have the oppourtunity.
The 15% increased threat is a little harder largely due to the fact that I don’t have tanking experience. Even so, it doesn’t take WoWaclyes to know that increasing threat generation while tanking is a good thing. My only query about this one is that at say level 33 would I be tanking for groups? At higher levels this is a no brainer, if im playing tank I’ll take it.
Instead of Feral Instinct I’d like to suggest Thick Hide because it improves something that playstyle can’t. Thick Hide improves my armour by 10%. That’s hard and fast. You can’t take that away from me. Whereas with proper prowling I don’t need better prowling.

By now your probably thinking either idiot, boring or he may be onto something here. Heres hopeing for the latter.

Brutal Impact

At first I thought, easy choice, lengthen my stun, where do I sign. Only to have different thoughts seeing as im not really using Bash in bear to interupt spellcasting. If that’s all im using it for whats the difference between a 0.5 second stun and a 3 second stun? Now lengthening the pounce stun I can’t really say because I haven’t even used it, but I recall saying something about theory so I will. In precious kitty form that extra second means I aint taking damage. Fairly simple right. Where I can see an importance of lengthening bash is when I want to pop out and heal. Would I have enough time to do so?
Instead of Brutal Impact why not place 2 points into Feral aggresssion, less damage taken from demoralising roar and more damage from ferocious bite.

Feral Charge

My only issue is that if im already in combat I have to retreat 8 yards before I can even use it. For PvE you could use it when bash is on cooldown or if the spell being cast has a long cast time giving you time to retreat and charge. Maybe im missing something or its more of a PvP talent.

OK, now im not going to question feral swiftness as the increased dodge is great and the movement buff alleviates tedious travel times. If you can bear (lol bear, I swear I didn’t mean that) long travel times and want to squeeze the most out of your druid sharpened claws would be a good choice.

So by now your either sure im an idiot, not bored as you reached the end or may agree with me. It’s also worth saying that I will not question the talents chosen in the resto tree because funnily enough I like them. OMG

Ok.



It's not a matter of "I can't prowl without it" it's that it makes prowling easier. You can still use Claw without Ferocity, doesn't mean it's a good idea. You will spend lots of time prowling around, and it's worth it to get the 2-in-1 threat bonus for Bear form. Thick hide only adds 10% of your armor from items, which isn't much at early levels, and it isn't modified by Bear.



Nothing wrong with questioning the status quo in a logical, legible method, if it's done as you have :)



Yes.



Again, it's a matter of the level you're talking about. Ferocious Bite is a terrible finisher early on, and is only marginally useful at 70...I do 1k+ damage with it if I'm lucky. 15% more isn't going to help that. And Demoralizing Roar isn't going to break you, so that's not much help either.



You've got the idea. I don't use it much pve either, but it is nice when a CC'd mob breaks and chases down your healer or the mage before poly is off cooldown.



Movement speed is everything. If you're killing things in less than 20sec (which you should be), you're doing just fine; you spend more time in this game traveling back and forth than you do actually fighting, generally. Dodge is a plus.



All in all, do what you like. These are the preferred options because they give you the most benefit at these early stages.