im just about to hit level 10 and was wondering what a good solo talent build would be and some tips for soloing.

im a pretty casual player and will probally grind and quest until im bored to spend some extra time.

but im a bit of a efficent whore and hate to waste time :P

right now im just wrathing 2x + moonfire + melee to kill stuff but im guessing it wont be like that when im able to get new spells and the different forms.

thanks!

Low level 10+ is hard to judge a talent build yet if you haven't played all the options of a druid before. You're stuck doing a lot of casting at low level, and you can't get the feel for the feral forms for a while. I put my first talent points into the balance tree right away so I could have nature's grasp and faster wrath spells. You can run away if you run into trouble with the nature's grasp and the quicker wrath hits seemed to help a lot. Crit chance to moonfires is kinda pointless low level since your crit rate is quite low.
Once you get higher level, cat form & dire bear is the way to solo level in my opinion. It seems to be the fastest way to take down a mob with little downtime and low mana use.
I can't speak for a balance druid at the higher levels. Once I started feral I haven't really gone back to casting.
You need to find out what you enjoy best about the druid, and stick with it. However, give it 20-30 levels at least before you think about which way to go.
One thing to consider... at 21 you can fully spec into feline swiftness and get 30% speed increase in cat form. VERY handy for a low level, and gets you faster 9 levels before travel form at 40. If you're a Tauren and leveling in the Barrens area, I think this is a must to get around these huge areas. (and handy for pvp)

Have fun,

Torx of Burning Legion (49 Druid)
Chlorophyll of Garona (52 Druid)

cool, thank you!

When i got to 10 i put my first points in Ferocity, you get bear at 10 anyway so i could use it right away, i suggest you get ferocity first and furor (in the resto tree) second, they help you out a lot at low lvl as ferocity lowers your rage and energy cost for attacks and furor gives you a immensly nifty starting rage ...

After that i went on building up the feral tree, as feral is the best way to solo ...

Nature grasp is a great talent which can come in handy, but i havent seen the need for it yet, its an escape ability but the only way i die in PvE is when i get attacked by like 5 mobs at once and then nature grasp isnt gonna stop it :P ... for PvP its great for example when you get ambushed by a rogue you can stop him right away and heal up, but you wont pvp much at lower lvls so ur talents are better spend somewhere else...
About improved wrath, well i acutally stopped using wrath when i hitted lvl 10... bear form is better then casterform anyway, and the only time i use a caster attack spell is when i got someone rooted and i want to nuke him before i switch to feral mode, and starfire is much better for that...

The best way i think is to experiment a bit, look up some guides, my advise though is to go with ferocity and furor first, and then build up the feral tree as you see fit

At 10, I started putting points into both balance and restor. I think I started with IMotW, but I don't think I would do that the next time around. Basically, I concentrated on getting better offensive casting abilities, and I didn't put anything at all into feral. I had absolutely no problem going solo, with an occassional PUG to finish a specific quest. Actually, the first time I even went into an instance was Gnomeregan at about 36.

At 39, I respec'd completely into feral, right down to LotP when I hit 40, and I couldn't be happier with the choice. I'm using my points now to branch out and get the good feral bits from the other trees. No problems taking out mobs 3 or 4 levels above me on a regular basis. And I have to say that it's really nice to be able to kill a mob, switch to caster form, toss on a Rejuv and Regrowth, immediately switch back to cat form, and go on to the next mob. No downtime waiting for mana.

If you're going to go feral, and you'll hear this from everyone, carry around a separate set of feral armor when you get into the upper levels. Right now I have a caster set and a feral set that concentrates on AGI/STR/STA (in that order, since I mostly like doing DPS), it makes a huge difference, because the AGI buffs, along with everything else, get my crits up to 18% or so.

-Signe (on Staghelm)

yeah i put my first point into natures grasp but never used it :(

so i went ahead and put the rest of my points into ferocity since i was using bear form and its really fun switching!

yeah i was about to ask what i should get gear wise.. i just noticed my weapon attack speed and i think damage? have nothing to do with my damage in bear form. but i have a 1 str mace and it makes my hits stronger.

most of the stuff ive seen have been of the [BLANK] .. and those have only 2 stats, should i just get the agi/sta ones or agi/str? or agi/str?

thanks

most of the stuff ive seen have been of the [BLANK] .. and those have only 2 stats, should i just get the agi/sta ones or agi/str? or agi/str?


The feral gear question is a big debate between +agi or +str.

I personally would go with "of the bear" which gives +str +sta. I am more of a healer though, so my feral play style has been mostly defensive in nature so my stats cater mostly to bear form.

However a lot of people prefer +agi for higher mitigation and larger crits. It all depends on your play style. If you prefer a more even damage curve then go +str for higher normal damage. If burst dps is what you are about then +agi will help in cat form tremendously.

THIS THREAD (http://wow.forums.thedruidsgrove.org/showthread.php?t=9590) and THIS THREAD (http://wow.forums.thedruidsgrove.org/showthread.php?t=9565) have a good selection of feral gear and a discussion on agi vs str There are more around but I couldn't look quickly enough.

Nyte

At your current lvl, I would recommend going with what Nyte had recommended: +str, +stamina. Simple reason is that your crit chance is really low to begin with, and you won't notice as much of a difference with the relativley low +agil gear you can get as you will with the +str gear. And at this point in the game, the more stamina that you have the better. Outlasting the mob / pvp target is key.

Once you get further into the feral tree for the talent that gives you +6%chance to crit and eventually LoTP +3%crit, more agil will start to really help. I have mostly +agil +stamina gear, though a few +agil +str and a few +agil +str +stamina for my feral set. With the ability that generates 5rage for every crit in bear form, I find with high agil, LoTP, etc, the 20.86% chance to crit in bear form keeps my rage bar high (allowing me to pop a frenzied regen if needed), and damage output above par. Cat form I get more crits than regular hits it seems, and mobs go down real quick. ;P

I agree with the great suggestions on talent point spending posted earlier in this thread for the first 10 points spent:
1) Furor 5/5 (this is a must have imho)
2) Ferocity 5/5

From there, I'd spec (in order):

3) Brutal Impact 2/2
4) Feral Instinct 3/5
5) Feline swiftness 2/2
6) Feral Charge 1/1
7) Sharpened Claws 3/3

This build order will take you to lv 30, and you will be able to solo / tank almost anything within 5 lvls of you, and will be nasty should you want to pvp, or come across a random horde.

After that, this is what I would have done up to 40:

8) Natures Focus 5/5 ( I liked being able to have an uninterrupted heal - allowed me to heal myself and let the healers keep up the other people in my group. People love a self sustaining tank / dps. I may consider putting this off untill after I got Leader of the Pack though... )
9) Predatory Strikes 3/3
10) Primal Fury 2/2 ( I wanted to have my bear as nasty as possible the second that I got dire bear. You may choose to focus on cat here, depending on your love for dps, and take Improved Shred 2/2 :) )

From 40 to 50, I would fill out feral in this order:

11) Faerie Fire 1/1
12) Savage Fury 2/2
13) Improved Shred 1/2
14) Heart of the Wild 5/5
15) Leader of the Pack 1/1

After this, I am not sure about putting 10 points into balance for Natures Grasp and Natural Weapons to be nasty in PvP, or what exactly I plan on doing. I think I'm going to get insect swarm, and fill out the feral tree until about 59, then respec resto to raid.. Sorry for the long post. hope this helps some



--Claritondeus.

awesome, thanks guys

1 question about leader of the pack. .does it affect YOU +group or only your group members?

You and your group.

At lower levels, regardless of class, stamina is king.

at what levels do other stats start playing a bigger part? thanks again!

Thats tough to determine exactly, but at 40 when you get dire bear, everything changes. At 20 when you get your cat form, +str +sta gear is the way to go. As you progress lvling and get more talents that increase crit chance you can throw in some +agil gear which will help. If you go full feral from the start, you can have:

Sharpened Claws 3/3 (+6% to crit) at lv 22, though you should probably get feline swiftness first. So at lv 24 you will have a 6% bonus to crit, which should put you somewhere around 10-14% (?) crit chance. +str +agil gear will start to benefit here, as str = higher ap, which = higher crits, and agil = more crits, more armor and higher dodge chance.

However, until you have your uberbeartank at lv 40, the more stamina that you have the better you are. Its all about outlasting the other person as a druid, and without the ridiculous ac of direbear, you will want more hp. Also, pick up the gear with the highest ac you can find, and if you are a leatherworker, or know one, get armor kits from them and add armor to all your stuff.