Feral / resto hybrid - possible?Follow

Hello fellow druids,

I've been a feral rawr kitty from the beginning, and it's become a second nature to me. I can't seem to play any of my alts for very long because I instantly miss my druid. I have a pretty good tanking and dps set, as well as a decent healing set.

I have reached end-game now, and things are changing. I discovered that I am terrible at tanking, and that I do not enjoy it at all in instances. I am a pretty good dpser, but as we all know, druid lack the ability to crowd control, so although I am in an amazing guild where I get opportunities to join partis as dps, I feel inadequate when I know a mage or a hunter would have matched my dps while making things smoother.

Now, I haven't healed much on this character. However I know that healing is something I like - I was a white mage for a very long time in FFXI. But I solo for quests, dailies, farming etc for a good part of my time, and I do not wish to lose that ability by fully switching to resto. I spent a few days reading posts about specs, I tried different specs to the point where it's starting to be quite expensive as well.

To get to the point, I wonder if a half feral half resto build would be a good thing, or if I'd just end up being a wimpy feral kitty and unable to heal for lack of key talents. I like the +20% intellect from heart of the wild, but I'm unsure if it makes that much of a difference for a healer. I picked nurturing instinct because even the smallest boost to +healing could help me at this point, even though it would be something like +44 I think in my current healing set.

I don't mind much not cutting it for dps in raids/instances, as long as I can solo and do some PvP in feral. The important for me would be to be able to be a good healer for my guild.

So what do you think? Possible?

Thanks in advance :)

I thought of that and tried it. Balance isn't for me. The choice really is between full feral, full resto, or a hybrid of both. But thanks for the reply :)

FWIW, I'm in much the same boat as the OP, except I am not (IMHO) terrible at tanking and I actually enjoy it, :) but my guild is in need of healers as much or more than tanks, so I'm about to apprehensively test out the exact build linked here to see if I can fill either role (off tanking anyway) as necessary. Fortunately I've got solid tanking and healing sets, so I'm hoping it's viable.

Thanks for the advices, everyone.

I finally decided to try the dreamstate build and keep using my feral set when soloing. I still have over 2k AP, so I can kill stuff reliably fast. I just won't be farming really tough mobs, but I have a lv 70 slave hunter alt for that :D

I ran SV and loved it. It was a run with guildies so I could afford to goof off a bit. I managed to pull hate using exclusively Wrath on some of the weak one-mob pulls, just for fun. The build looks versatile.


Jeebar - the build that Astarin linked that you are going to try, I would personally take out Predatory Strikes and put in Thick Hide. 105 AP bonus that doesn't scale just doesn't cut it for tanking when compared with the armor bonus, in my opinion. Good luck with your respecc :)

IMO, a feral druid without mangle is a waste. Same for a resto druid without ToL. Unless you are fully pvp-specced. If so, I think this could be a good build, since you wont be healing as ToL at arena and/or BGs, although I think the dreamstate build is better.
But for raids, I think it's a waste and if I was the RL I would not pick you up to a healer spot nor a dps/tank spot.
But that's just me.

Yea, the biggest problems with middle-of-the-road builds on Hybrid classes is how it lacks enough strength to be effective on a level other than solo, and even then it can be rough. As Phoenix mentioned in the original post, they were looking for a 1/2 Restro - 1/2 Feral build. Those two trees split will leave you pretty much out of any game style, be it PvP or PvE. The lack of strength will hurt in PvP where a focused build is usually better. PvE will hurt because as a split build on a hybrid class, you won't be able to top other specified classes in any specific area.

This is why I think the Restro(ToL)/Balance build I adopted works so well. I get some nice bonuses to casting, and I already have respectable caster gear from my healing set (with a few swaps...nothing huge), and the survivability is there like Restro Arena Druids because even in a bad situation (solo) I can survive for a very long time.