I created a sort of hybrid:

5/36/10
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/druids2/talents.html?0140000000000000505051130322215105500 0000000000

Nature's Grasp is really underrated/under-utilized in PvP, the 5 points I don't spend in Balance for Natural Weapons I easily recoop with Savage Fury in Feral (20% on specials) for only 2 points. 10 points in Resto so I can still heal in groups, granted I do not have NS, but I am also not spending an additional 11 points in the tree for it either. If you want to MT, you certainly can - just move the 2 points out of Blood Frenzy and move them into Brutal Impact.

Just wanted to throw another build out there, with this one you can still heal in groups / raids - IMO the Imp HT is the biggest healing talent there is so you can spam rank 4 HT. Just load up on +healing gear and you will do fine, hell if you get the new ZG trinket you can cast HT 10's at the rate of 1.8 seconds and you will be *more* then fine.

I was actually thinking about doing this exact thing. I respecced recently to 31 / 10 (respecced at lv 45, and have been LOVING feral) I went without NF for a while, and really missed it for pve and instances, which is what I have been doing a lot trying to level. 5/5 NF really helps. I have been taking on up to 5 mobs same lvl, or 3 up to 3 lvls above me in Bear and having no problem. My question right now is what to do with my remaining 10 points. I am definitley going to get NG, as I plan on pvp'ing a lot more, but am debating filling out the feral tree or going for NW. I like the +damage, but also have a few things to fill out in the feral.

Current build:

Feral
Ferocity 4/5
Feral Agression 4/5
Feral Instinct 3/5
Brutal Impact 2/2
Feline Swiftness 2/2
Feral Charge 1/1
Sharpened Claws 3/3
Predatory Strikes 3/3
Savage fury 2/2
FF (feral) 1/1
HoTW 5/5
LoTP 1/1

Resto:
5/5 Furor
5/5 Natures Focus

I am thinking about putting 2 points into the talent that generates rage on crits in bears and 1 point into the talent that adds an addt'l combo point for cat, then dont know. I think I am going to put 1 point int insect swarm, and the last one maybe filling out feral aggression.

This is all hypothetical. I am fairly certain that at about 58/59 I'm going to respec to 0/20/31 to help my guildies in endgame (we really need more healers and yes, I like healing :O )

Anyone have any comments / ideas on what they would do if they were me?

Nature's Grasp is great in PvE as well, when I am grinding and I need to heal, I just shift to caster form, tap it, let the mob hit me, step back and cast an HT10 - I should probably create a macro to remove thorns and cast NG so I do not have to worry about it breaking on contact.

I see a lot of hype for Nature's Focus - I just don't buy it when you have barkskin which is 100% uninterruptible. The only thing that can interrupt you are kick type interrupts and I am pretty certain that NF is not going to save you there either. Just seems like a high cost (5 talent points) for something that can be replaced by a trainable skill (barkskin).

I just got barkskin so I really can't comment yet, but since I am going after NS anyways NF is the best 5 talent points I am spending to get there next to Furor.

The biggest problem I have with spending points on NG is the people I would cast it on might not be smart enough to even move away after the mob or player on them was rooted. The talent itself requires a certain awareness from the player it was cast on. In effect its an instant cast root provided you are up against a melee. There are some things I want from the balance tree but nothing that I can justify to myself to drop a 0/30/21 build for just yet, at least for leveling to that build. I want MotW maxed and NS. Natural Weapons, OoC and Natural Shapeshifter would be nice to have items to me but NG seems a bit too situational right now.

I know iMotW gets a lot of flak, but I would not overlook that unless you always have a druid in your raid with that talent fully specced

+7 resist to all is nothing to sneeze at - that enchant would cost a fortune, not to mention the pluses you get to armor and all stats.

I would be inclined to sink points into iMotW over NF, but maybe that is just me.

So you should compare it to an enchant that gives:
+100 AC
+4.2 to all stats (I assume fractionals do count, since I have been buffed by blood pact for fractional stamina)
+7 to all resists

AND does not take up an enchant slot!!!

I can see where you are coming from. The ony thing about barkskin is that, while it reduces damage taken by 20%, it increases cast time by 1sec. This may not seem like much, but can still ad up in certain situations. Barkskin is my most underutilized talent. I am going to have to make sure to use it more often.

Does Barkskin allow for channeling? If I were to cast barkskin on myself, would I be able to get off a full Hurricane? That would be pretty cool.

I can see where you are coming from. The ony thing about barkskin is that, while it reduces damage taken by 20%, it increases cast time by 1sec. This may not seem like much, but can still ad up in certain situations. Barkskin is my most underutilized talent. I am going to have to make sure to use it more often.

Does Barkskin allow for channeling? If I were to cast barkskin on myself, would I be able to get off a full Hurricane? That would be pretty cool.

yes, same with tranq - at least from what I have read

barkskin only increases cast time by 1sec on instant cast spells.

+100 AC
+4.2 to all stats (I assume fractionals do count, since I have been buffed by blood pact for fractional stamina)
+7 to all resists

If I have to choose between a 70% chance to avoid interrruption on a heal and a 35% increase to what is already an excellent buff, the 70% chance is gonna win out. Getting interrupted on a heal has a higher priority to me over 7 more resists, 100 more ac and 4.2 more stats. Now if you compared it to spending those 5 points in Improved Regrowth I am with ya. It is nothing to sneeze at but if I do sneeze at it I will make sure and have a tissue on hand =)

It does work with channeling. That was the big reason people considered imp tranq such a waste.

Nyte

People considered the talent a waste? I dont recall what the talent really does - I haven't memorized the resto tree anywhere near as well as the feral tree :)

I just got my tranq lvld up with my last ding, and I have noticed a big improvement in it. Don't remember what exactly the heal per second is, but I love it. Now that I know for sure that BS will allow for a full, uninterrupted tranq, im going to use both hurr and tranq a lot more.

Side note - does anyone play wc3? My favorite hero was the NE keeper of the grove. lv 6 talent: Tranquility :)

barkskin only increases cast time by 1sec on instant cast spells.

If I have to choose between a 70% chance to avoid interrruption on a heal and a 35% increase to what is already an excellent buff, the 70% chance is gonna win out. Getting interrupted on a heal has a higher priority to me over 7 more resists, 100 more ac and 4.2 more stats. Now if you compared it to spending those 5 points in Improved Regrowth I am with ya. It is nothing to sneeze at but if I do sneeze at it I will make sure and have a tissue on hand =)

First off - no argument, Imp Regrowth is the BEST talent we can get for PvP / PvE period.

Second off - maybe I need to understand where 70% uninterrupt is useful, I can only think of 2 scenarios:

PvE - as main healer / backup healer in a group/raid - you should not be getting hit, if you are getting hit and cannot cower out of it then there is a problem with your group.

PvP - there are too many spell interrupts to count, I think just about every class has one, and 70% chance to avoid interrupt does not do squat unless you are playing against subpar players. Does that 70% count towards, kick, blind, kidney shot? Those are the kind of interrupts I am talking about.

Sorry I didn't mean to sound condescending, I am genuinely confused where all the love is for this talent and spending 5 points into it, is it for solo-ing? Cause I find NG provides me more then ample time to get a full HT10 off. And if I get adds, I have no problem in bear form, if I need to heal I switch out, warstomp and dump a regrowth and rejuv on me, worst case I throw up a BS and HT10, right?

Nice that you have warstomp. Unfortunatley you are a cow.

I find NF incredibly helpful in instances. Often, we draw aggro from healing. Especially if a main healer. In the case that you get off a couple ht's, and are aggroed on by multiple mobs cause the warrior sucks, it becomes necessary to either cast regrowth rejuv or ht before switching into bear to take the beating before warr can regain aggro.

Assuming I don't have warstomp, having a 70% chance to heal myself without being interrupted allows me to shift to bear faster. Also, in an instance when you need to pop out of bear and heal yourself, assuming there are multiple mobs on you and you cannot use NG or Warstomp and have already bashed one, having a relativley uniterrupted heal is nice.

Does Barkskin have a cooldown? Seems to me that if it didnt, one should never not have it cast on one's self. And from what I remember it sucks a lot of mana. I may be wrong on those last two points, and you may have opened my eyes to using BS a LOT more. Still I love me some NF for being able to heal after I have drawn aggro.

Nice that you have warstomp. Unfortunatley you are a cow.

I find NF incredibly helpful in instances. Often, we draw aggro from healing. Especially if a main healer. In the case that you get off a couple ht's, and are aggroed on by multiple mobs cause the warrior sucks, it becomes necessary to either cast regrowth rejuv or ht before switching into bear to take the beating before warr can regain aggro.

Assuming I don't have warstomp, having a 70% chance to heal myself without being interrupted allows me to shift to bear faster. Also, in an instance when you need to pop out of bear and heal yourself, assuming there are multiple mobs on you and you cannot use NG or Warstomp and have already bashed one, having a relativley uniterrupted heal is nice.

Does Barkskin have a cooldown? Seems to me that if it didnt, one should never not have it cast on one's self. And from what I remember it sucks a lot of mana. I may be wrong on those last two points, and you may have opened my eyes to using BS a LOT more. Still I love me some NF for being able to heal after I have drawn aggro.

Now that makes sense, I can see from an alliance perspect - just not much need from a horde perspective I guess.

BS costs 15% of your base mana (compared to travel form which takes 20%) - so it is not that expensive, reduces physical dmg by 20% and adds 1s to the casting time of your spells (so there is a tradeoff), cooldown is ONLY 1 minute, so it should be available for you every fight (if not twice).

Barkskin has a 1min cooldown and lasts 15seconds. Mostly I solo right now so ya that is where I get the most use out of NF. I could potentially see spending the points elsewhere once I get a better feel for barkskin but I don't see it yet.

Having a paladin alt I’m inclined to point out that NF stacks with a paladins concentration aura giving you a 100% (105% technically) chance to avoid interruption from taking damage (not from true interrupts like kick or earth shock mind you). This is a strategy that paladins employ often on their own with their equivalent talent (Spiritual Focus).

Also, remember that very few mobs use true interrupts. So for the lower levels when you have no BS, NF can be exceptionally useful for soloing/duoing.

MaelstromX