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balance or feral to level with in cataclysmFollow

#1 May 25 2010 at 2:06 AM Rating: Default
What spec will is generally best to level with for us druids. I am wanting to prepare for cataclysm getting the right enchants and gems etc and ofc gear. We don't know everything we need to know about the new talents but going on 60-70 and 70-80 can help and what was good then.
What do we expect is going to be the best spec to level to 85 with?

Edited, May 25th 2010 4:09am by joycemiester
#2 May 25 2010 at 2:47 AM Rating: Good
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I have decent Feral gear, crap Resto gear and I think a massive 1 piece of Balance gear so for me it's rather obvious.

edit: if you're talking 1-85 I don't know. If you're talking 80-85 the spec you prefer playing and have the best gear for will be the best.

Edited, May 25th 2010 10:48am by Aethien
#3REDACTED, Posted: May 25 2010 at 11:28 AM, Rating: Sub-Default, (Expand Post) Not really the answer i was looking for.
#4 May 25 2010 at 11:43 AM Rating: Good
I always wonder why people try to figure out optimal specs / stats on an expansion that isn't even in beta yet. The thing is, until people can actually play and test the specs, they're not going to know which one is "best".

Personally, I plan on sticking with Balance for leveling, unless it becomes completely unusable. I played Balance since my druid hit 40, which was pre-BC, and thus before it was popular to level with. I've seen it come into and back out of FotM.
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#5 May 25 2010 at 11:50 AM Rating: Excellent
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Feral is considered faster for solo-leveling. You heal yourself using mana, and fight using energy/rage. Your mana regenerates while you are fighting the next mob, so there is little downtime. However once you reach outlands there are more regen stats on gear, and this distinction becomes less obvious. If you want to level quickly, tank or heals can have virtually instant queues for 5-man groups (server-dependent...). Going feral will mean you can tank 5-mans and also solo efficiently.

Most of the people who go boomkin/heals, or some hybrid of the two, do so because they prefer the ranged or healing roles; or want to play those roles at end-game and use their leveling time to learn the class. Which isn't a bad idea either. Smiley: wink

druidsock wrote:
Most people will tell you to level feral as it is faster. They are right. The killing resource is separate from your healing method. You kill heal and move on. Plus bear form can take a beating and live, it is the tank form after all. Plus for the 2 caster specs the gear in Azeroth is crappy to say the least.

Leveling as Balance or Resto the whole way would be painful. Balance becomes a stronger option after you hit Outland at level 58 as the gear will start to appear to support the build. Resto can work well if you always have a partner. As they take the hits and you heal. With the new LFG tool resto and battle ground experience gains resto and to some degree balance can be leveled the whole way a lot easier than before such tools existed.

Honestly, I would still recommend Feral as it is faster but do what YOU enjoy as that will make anything seem fast. Regardless, in each spec's section there will be a it of info on what sort of gear to grab while leveling.


As for cata, I'd speculate that things won't change a lot. Kitties will still use energy, bears will still use rage, and boomkin/resto will still use mana.

Edited, May 25th 2010 10:53am by someproteinguy
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#6 May 25 2010 at 3:23 PM Rating: Good
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I mainly bear leveled in Wrath and it worked well. Gather a big group and Swipe them down. If that wasn't an option I can still go cat and explode on mobs as burst is always easy for a cat with a full bar. I mainly expect to do the same for Cata.

If can be ***** to get Boomkin BoA gear set I may play around with it a bit since it looks cool. If I don't have full BoA caster gear then it wont happen. Either way I will probably try tank/chicken at 85 at first. As it is easy to save old bear pieces to rapidly make a cat set at the level cap.

I am hoping they have at least some need for doing heroics before you can raid as well. If not to get a key or something than at least for gear.

Is any one else hoping they let druids DW fists? I can see it happening well want but w/e. New itemization could make it work even for restox2/ele/booms.

Fist weapons look badass.
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#7 May 25 2010 at 4:57 PM Rating: Excellent
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The more gear you get for balance/resto/feral makes aoe grinding easier.

When I do tourney dailies I just do them as resto. I moonfire everything I want to kill to get it all near me. Hot up and BS/Hur.

I already have way too much mana regen as it is so I never oom myself.
#8 May 25 2010 at 4:58 PM Rating: Good
I'll be sticking with my Kitty/Tree dual-spec. Instances are easy to get into to heal - which gets me lots of badges easily and feral DPS is just what I am.

Really, the OP isn't really after what spec to level as but what spec to play as they are one and the same. The answer is the same - whichever you prefer to play. Try them both for a while with quest/dungeon gear till you get a feel for them. Once you have your answer, spend your triumph badges on the appropriate T9 and you are on your way.

#9 May 25 2010 at 8:58 PM Rating: Good
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Feral 4 Life.

Bear form if I want to round up and knock down huge groups or solo group quests. Kitty for 30% increased run speed and OH NO WHY IS ANIMALS ON MY FACE?!
#10 May 26 2010 at 7:16 PM Rating: Good
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Kat is 4 fite!

Generally speaking, the biggest problem that slows down your XP/hour is downtime between pulls. Any second that you spend drinking/eating/bandaging is time wasted not earning XP. Talents to look for are those that give you or improve your insta-heals/shield walls and any talent that improves resource management (mana/rage/energy/runic power) is golden. Also, movement and mounted speed increases are kinda nice.

AOE grinding isn't really as big an advantage as it once was. Most of the quests that required a large amount of kills (I'm looking at you Nestingwary) have been nerfed and there are very few of these type of quests in the Wrath content. A large portion of your quest XP will be serial-killing and looting or instances (as far as things stand right now). Keep that in mind when choosing a spec.

Personally, my fastest leveling toon since TBC was my rogue when I went Muti-Prep (faster Stealth, more burst) which clocked about 150% of my prot pally XP/hour (who was AOE grinding quest mobs).

Also remember that your leveling build WILL change when you hit the level cap and start raiding. So any advice/builds/etc that you read for a level-capped toon are not necessarily the best for your leveling toon.

If I were to level another druid, I'd go either Balance/Resto for purely instancing. Or feral for solo-questing with some instance tanking (mainly for quests).
#11 May 27 2010 at 3:29 PM Rating: Good
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I would have said feral but my word, starfall is powerful these days. I was playing my rather badly geared mage in eye of the storm and starfall from two overlapping boomkins easily killed me while i was fleeing and frantically mana shielding. If you are geared balance is probably nuts for the old aoe killing. Solo camps of mobs with the press of a button.

I kinda hope the cata leveling experience is littered with group quests and super powerful elites though, in which case feral would be versatile.
#12 May 27 2010 at 4:52 PM Rating: Good
Quote:
I kinda hope the cata leveling experience is littered with group quests and super powerful elites though, in which case feral would be versatile.



Definitely! Having leveled 10 toons through Northrend, I found the quests far too easy. Every now and then it would have been nice to have a few elite mobs to provide a challenge (or encourage you to group up). In Northrend, the group quests were all pretty much at the end of zones and by the time you get them you have the choice of hanging around in the zone spamming for a group or actually moving on and continuing to quest in another zone. Getting group quests at the beginning of a zone would be far better.

Feral Swiftness and Improved Leader of the Pack mean we can move faster between mobs and also get regular heals and always have plenty of mana for HoTing on the run between mobs. I'm also looking forward the the Dungeon Finding Toon. I'm currently gearing up my rogue while finishing the rest of the quests in Northrend (Hit 80 in Zul'Drak). Doing quests while queued for dungeons is fantastic and even better than instant pops when queueing as a tank (where I get burnt out from chaining instances).

#13 May 29 2010 at 8:01 PM Rating: Good
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Starfall is OP, that is all.

Running heroics, I decided to check how much of my 11k DPS on trash was from Starfall, so I popped it and nothing else. 50k damage done, 4500 DPS.

And I'm wearing healing gear, chrissakes.
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