Druid Talent Points

Balance

Its is a common misconception that as druids are a hybrid class they will only be able to approach, but not match, the pure DPS classes. Although a warlock/mage has a larger arsenal of DPS spells, a properly specced druid can match, and in some cases surpass, the DPS of warlocks/mages. Blizzard has stated they want Hybrid classes to approach the DPS of pure classes much closer in Wrath of the Lich King.

In PvP, balance druids are able to use their moonkin form to absorb large amounts of damage, and with recent talent additions suffer little knockback with many of their abilities. This has made a balance druid (specced correctly) a very exceptional class in PvP. However, due to the inability to use restoration spells in moonkin form the sometimes necessary tactic of dropping form and healing means a large mana cost and can be cumbersome.

Although druids in balance spec MAY have less DPS than a mage/warlock, druids in moonkin form have an amour value similar to that of a warrior, giving then a lot more flexibility. Mages/warlocks are highly susceptible to melee damage, and the moonkin forms high armor seriously mitigates this and gives them that little edge in raiding.

There has not yet been much detailed discussion around the "best" balance builds for level 80. These are really just some good examples to consider. In due course, the experts on the usual forums will undoubtedly do some serious theorycrafting to determine the "best" raid build to maximize DPS.

• PvE Raiding Spec w/ Starfall (55/0/16) - Overall good spec with raiding that incorporates Master Shapeshifter, Ecclipse, Omen of Clarity and many of the needed boomkin talents for raiding such as Balance of Power, Imp IS, Dreamstate, ect. Created by Zophir of Runetotem.

• PvE Maximum Balance (71/0/0) - There's a total of 4 points remaining to spend beyond 71 (not possible at level 80), so there's some scope to pull some points between talents to suite personal style and taste.

• PvE (RAID) Single Target DPS (56/0/15) - This is build focused on boss killing, with maxed single target DPS. Your DPS on trash will probably be a little lower than expected, but that is really not an issue on T7 content (and will make Patchwerk much easier).

Feral

Feral druids specialize in animal forms: cat form for damage and bear form/dire bear form for tanking. Prior to the expansion there was one main feral spec that allowed you to maximize in both DPS and tanking at the same time while leaving a little room for customization between pvp and pve. Since Wrath of the Lich King (patch 3.x), druids have lost their ability to be completely proficient in both tanking and DPS at the same time. Because of this a lot of druids choose one or the other. However a hybrid build for tanking/DPSing is still very possible. Just because you don't excel in one or the other doesn't mean you can't do both.

Bear form is the form used for tanking by druids. It's very similar to warriors in the fact that there's a rage bar present, you have high armor and high HP, and a lot of the skills/spells are similar (Maul is like Heroic Strike, Demoralizing Roar is like Demoralizing Shout, Survival Instincts is like Last Stand, etc...). Bears originally tanked by means of massive HP and extremely high armor mitigation (easily being able to hit the armor cap when geared in high end dungeon armor). Blizzard changed this with Wrath of the Lich King. Bonus armor and HP have been reduced from leather items but additional dodge and armor increase talents have been added. The HP of a bear tank can still be substantially more than that of a paladin or warrior.

Cat form is the source of physical DPS for a druid. It's very similar to rogues in the fact that there's an energy bar present and a lot of the skills/spells are similar (Shred is like Backstab, Pounce is like Cheap Shot, Rip is like Rupture, etc...). Before Wrath of the Lich King, cat DPS wasn't very desirable. A hunter or rogue was much more viable for physical DPS. However, since the expansion, cat DPS has dramatically increased. Savage Roar is the best thing that's been given to feral druids in a while. It's the equivalent of Slice and Dice for rogues in the fact that having it up increases damage by a VERY sizable amount. Because of this you want to make sure this talent is up at all times when DPSing.

As for the skill rotation used while in cat:

For an opener you have 2 options. If you open with Pounce you have a far less chance of drawing immediate agro. If you open with Ravage you'll do significantly more damage than pounce at the cost a lot more threat, especially if it crits. Use Savage Roar with the 1-2 combo points from the opener and then immediately Mangle to get that debuff up. You should be energy drained now, so pop Faerie Fire on your target. Do NOT take Faerie Fire for granted. It adds a worthy amount to your overall DPS. After using Faerie Fire, drop a Rake on the target. Your energy should be empty again. Next use Tiger's Fury (always make sure you're energy drained when you use Tiger's Fury so you don't waste the energy received from King of the Jungle) and then Savage Roar again. Next save up max energy (100). Use Berserk and go to town with Shred until you get 5 combo points. Now Rip. While Berserk is up you'll have massive combo point generation. Make sure that Savage Roar, Rip, Mangle, and Rake stay up (those are listed in priority). If all 4 are up and you have 5 combo points, feel free to pop a Ferocious Bite to dump the excess points.

• PvE Raid/Instance - Full Tank Build (0/60/11)

  • This build focuses completely on damage mitigation and maintaining threat/agro on a target in instances.
  • Passed skills and reasons why:
    • Feral Aggression - This is taken for DPS purposes only. The improvement to Demoralizing Roar is insignificant and can't be justified by 5 talent points.
    • Shredding Attacks - The -2 rage to lacerate is minimal when tanking. Rage shouldn't be an issue when your tanking.
    • Brutal Impact - Most bosses can't be stunned in end game content. If something CAN be interrupted, there's rogues, other druids, mages, and hunter to help with interrupts.
    • Predatory Instincts - This used to be a great skill, however it was nerfed in the 3.0.2 patch so that it doesn't apply to bears anymore. Thus this skill is useless to a tank.
    • King of the Jungle - This ability increases threat by a mere 15% for 15 seconds every 3 minutes at the expense of 3 talent points. Some people may want this for establishing initial agro on a mob/mobs, however I feel that 3 points is too much to justify this. Also, a good group will know to wait 3-5 seconds before engaging the mob.
    • Intensity - The automatic 10 rage could be handy in certain situations, however rage shouldn't be an issue when in an instance. Again, a good group should give you 3-5 seconds to get in there and get a couple hits in/build up rage before they start attacking.
    • Master Shapeshifter - 4% increased damage is fine but you have to invest 5 points to get it (3 into Natural Shapeshifter which is completely useless to a tank, and 2 into the actual skill). Plus you'll have to take from other more important skills to get to this.
      
  • If you feel you need one of the above skills over another, feel free to change it up. This is merely my opinion of the absolute most optimal full tank build for any situation based on my studies and experiences.

• PvE Raid/Instance - Full DPS Build (0/55/16)
  
  • This build assumes you want the maximum amount of DPS possible for raid damage.
  • Passed skills and reasons why:
    • Feral Instinct - When in an instance/raid you wont be stealthing around. This isn't needed.
    • Thick Hide - You're not tanking. Pretty self explanatory.
    • Feral Swiftness - This is for moving around fast and dodging as a tank. Not needed for pure DPS.
    • Brutal Impact - When raiding/doing instances, you wont be bashing, and that 1 extra second of pounce really doesn't do anything for you.
    • Natural Reaction - Blatant tank skill. Read it.
    • Protector of the Pack - Another obvious tank skill. Read it.
    • Primal Tenacity - While usable because of the fear redux factor, this talent is more geared towards PvP.
    • Infected Wounds - This is a GREAT ability for almost any feral spec...except for pure DPS. The attack speed redux is outstanding but your focus is dealing damage, not helping the tank take less damage.
      
  • If you feel that there's certain skills you need, swap points as you see fit. This build is strictly designed to put out the MAXIMUM amount of damage possible from the spec. The rest is based on your skill and gear.
    

• PvE Hybrid Spec - Tank and DPS Build (0/60/11)

  • All hybrid builds are arguable. What one person finds to be a good idea another may think is worthless. The best you can do is justify your build. This build is strictly my opinion of the best idea for a hybrid spec. This is the spec I use outside of raiding to grind/gather/do 5 man instances.
  • Opting out of Natural Reaction & Primal Tenacity on the tank side and Predatory Instincts & Master Shapeshifter on the DPS side allows for the druid to still tank and dps effectively, just not to the maximum potential.
  • You can tweak it as you see fit.
    

• Pure PvP Build for Feral Druids (0/57/14)

  • Let me start off by saying that as a Feral Druid in PvP you NEED a few talents that the previous build did not include, let me explain and take some time to nit pick.
    
    • Nurturing Instinct is the only effective way to heal yourself, we have limited mana now due to the new itemization Blizzard has bestowed upon us. It converts agility into the spell power that was taken away from us basically.
    • Survival of the Fittest counts as roughly 492 resilience. Which would explain why feral druid gear has much less resilience to begin with and makes this arguably one of the best talents for Feral Druids in PvP, yet again this talent was not included above.
    • Feral Swiftness, STOP! Why was this not included above? This talent makes you move 30% faster than most enemies you will face.
    • Feral Instinct is sort of debatable, but could make a difference in an arena against other Feral Druids or Rogues.
    • Master Shapeshifter is put down by a lot of people, but look at it as about 328 resilience reduction for your enemy. Crits = Win!
    • King of the Jungle - 2/3 was on purpose due to most of the time you will not need the full effect 3/3 gives you.

    Alright, I'm finished nit picking. Here's my recommended build for Feral PvP, Enjoy!

Restoration

The restoration tree empowers the druid's heal over time spells (HOTS) and their other generic healing spells. Generally thought of as a AoE damage healer or support healer, they are fully capable of main healing a tank in most scenarios. With 3.0 blizzard gave tree form the ability to use healing touch and other large cast time/amount healed spells, further allowing them to heal large quantities quickly.

In PvP resto hyrbrids were considered one of the most dominant classes in arena due to a combination of HOTS, good CC, mobility and good mana regen.

In PvE resto druids have a variety of tools for efficiently and sustainably healing a large number of targets over time and buffering tanks against spike damage. Druids as healers are most able to remain mobile while healing. They also have unmatched panic buttons with the powerful nature's swiftness + healing touch combo, swiftmend and tranquility. PvE druids can choose to specialise in HoTs for steady, sustained healing over multiple targets, in nukes for powerful single target healing, or in a combination of both for a jack-of all trades ability.

• PvE Resto (combination of HOTs and healing touch (glyph of healing touch is used) (14/0/57)

  This talent build is used in raid and heroics. With this you use HoTs (but not regrowth) and healing touch. For this talent build work successfully, you must use the glyph of healing touch (the glyph doesn't seems so good but try it and you will see). This way, with the naturalist and tranquil spirit, your healing touch is very efficient and with 1 sec cast. The combination of Healing Touch and HoTs is very good and will bring you on top of healing meters in raids.

• PvE Resto (15/0/56)

  • Focuses on HoTs and Living Seed. Takes all the improving HoTs talents, maximizes HPS by going into Balance and taking Nature's Splendor and Genesis. Also maximizes the healing of Regrowth by speccing into Living Seed. With Regrowth having a high crit chance, Living Seed is likely to proc often. For 3% more crit, points went into Natural Perfection though this can be optional. The key to this build is to stack mana regen (via int/spirit, not mp5) and spell power. You'll probably be in FSR most of the fight maintaining HoTs and Lifebloom.

• PvE Resto (11/0/60)

  Very flexible build that uses balance talents to emulate certain restoration talents to open up the Nature's Splendor talent to allow more flexibility in healing rotations, while saving talent points. Nature's Majesty replaces Natural Perfection to save one talent point with a very close effect, and Moonglow replaces Tranquil Spirit to save 2 talent points and only the Nourish skill is excluded from the reduced mana cost. Naturalist is replaced by Genesis to give more power to HoTs, but Empowered Touch still remains to make for a very powerful Nature's Swiftness->Healing Touch combination. You gain from this the additional Nature's Splendor talent, adding a tick or two to some of the best restoration HoTs, leaving you able to cast an additional spell or heal an additional target per rotation.

• PvP Resto (0/30/40)

  Pure resto PvP Survivability spec. An Ultimate must for druids looking to stay alive and still have all options available to them. Goes deep enough into feral tree for Thick Hide, Improved Stealth, Feral Charge, Survival instincts (like Battlemasters trinket), Feral swiftness for all around mobility and Brutal Impacts for longer opening stuns with pounce and a longer bash overall. We go far enough into the resto tree for all necessary healing needs. Not only do we retain the ability to use bear form for survival but offensive cc capabilities as well. There is one point to spare for users choice.

• PvP Resto (14/12/45)

  Pure resto PVP build. Points spent in feral give better survivability; improved stealth and thick hide with of course Survival Instincts. Balance points are put mainly because Nature's Grace and very strong choice for one point, Nature's Splendor. This build however sacrifices tree of life form, which can also be considered good because of the ability to cast roots and cyclone.

• PvE Resto (11/0/60)

  Fexible 5 man and raiding spec. Mana conservation with powerful HoTs and Nukes in rotation. Good for keeping your party/raid alive while still looking out for "Numero Uno"

• PvE Resto (9/0/62)

  Versatile jack of all trades spec for use of HoTs and nukes in rotation.

• PvE Resto (28/0/43)

  Druid nuke healer build- trades traditional HoT specialization and AE healing for superior mana efficiency and exceptional burst healing with nuke heals and regrowth.

• PvE Resto (14/0/57)

  Power HoT build, sacrifices nuke healing for high power and efficiency of HoTs.