I've never had a level 60 before, so I'm quite ecstatic that my level 59 druid is likely going to level to 60 today, if all goes well. However, now I've encountered a problem... gear.

The reason I bring this up:

I was questing in Eastern Plaguelands and all, and a friend of mine came along and decided to quest with me. So we were doing Defenders of Darrowmere, and then... something amazing drops. Now, I have -never- seen an epic drop before this. Even more amazing, to me, I have wanted this staff since level 48 when I learned of it (I use the Illusionary Rod (http://www.thottbot.com/?i=3228), mainly because it was free, and I hadn't found anything extraordinarily better... besides the following).

So, the first epic drop I ever see was none other than the Glowing Brightwood Staff (http://www.thottbot.com/?i=5621). This would have been a huge upgrade for me, compared to what I was using. I had never been able to buy it, as it sells for 300-400g on my server.

However, I was with a rogue... a slight friend of mine, as we've played together several occasions before and he was on my friend's list. He said greed, but I asked if he'd kill me if I needed, and I forgot what he said, but time was running out on the timer--I greeded it. He won it.

Now, he's likely to put it on the AH and forget about it, as no way can I afford 300g+ (I have 188), and he never said what he'd sell it to me for (I did get him to promise to hold onto it until I decided, however).

Now, how does this tie to endgame. Well, I'm about to hit 60 and all, and I've been worrying about what gear I should get. I came across a link (http://delilah.stormreaverclan.com/) here once before, and I have been basing my future gear on it. But now, I don't know if I should follow that, or try to buy the staff off him, or do whatever else--or even if I should take for granted what that site says on the ideal gear.

Basically, I'm stumped. I was curious if you guys would be willing to give me tips about how to go about getting geared up end game, and what I should focus on. I mainly heal in parties, but I'd love to have at least two sets: healing, and Cat DPS or gear that allows for any role I want. And also if I should bother with that staff.

As a note, regarding my guild (I have a feeling this will be asked): I will be the third 60, and we have about 10 who are level 50+. Long story short, I've helped form it and have stuck with it since level 19, and aided it in growing. I won't leave it for a better raiding guild, as I'm partial to it--we're trying to get more people and higher levels so we can raid; we're still growing. The highest I've seen any of us complete was a run I was in, and that was Sunken Temple with one other guildie and 3 random people, but we could likely do any of the other smaller high-end dungoens.

Edit: Sorry for the wall of text. x.x

That's a great staff, but if you're aiming for the endgame in a not-too-distant future, just forget about it -- it's not worth several hundred gold imo.

The weapon I used at that time, was the hammer of the grand crusader (http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?witem=18717), which is a simple drop off the boss in strat scarlet. It's more than adequate until your guild does raid instances (even ZG, the raid instance you'll be heading to first, has two healing weapons I'd take before the brightwood staff any day).

Save your money -- you'll need it when you start raiding. :)

I agree. That staff is so overrated. Only good is the +15 NR as a situational weapon when raiding AQ.

Alright. I guess I was just disappointed that such a nice upgrade from my current dropped, and the rogue got it. -.-

Now I just need to figure out where to go first... Diremaul, Strat, Scholo, Blackrock, or get Argent rep.

Thanks for the advice, though.

Dont bother with the GBS. Bummer you didn't win it. If you are going to buy an epic staff, you should get the Warden Staff. That is the best tanking weapon in the game.

Scholo has some good feral gear. I'd head there for a few runs. Most of your healer gear will come from Dire Maul. Look for items with +healing on them. Theres also some decent feral gear. Dire Maul = Druid Love. You will get Argent Dawn rep for both Scholo and UD Strat. Good luck :)

That dropped for me too while I was farming my HotW mats (luckily I was alone). The staff is good but there are tons that are better. Like goa said, GBS is very overrated. I see no point in buying one unless you have spare gold. The only use like he mentioned is the +15 NR but there are better ways to get your NR up besides the staff.

I personally sold mine on the AH for 450g (Not sure how much it is anymore) and used it towards my epic mount fund~

Picked one up while leveling my skining back to 300 the other day on my new druid.Gave it away since I didn't need it.If your looking for good healing weapons ... lookout for maces and try for one Handed maces.Also on my server the wildheart bind on equip items (gloves belt and bracers) are relatively cheap so you might want' to have a look at that.The main thing is cat dps is the least used form in raids imho since you will be asked to heal rather and on the off chance to help get aggro off a main healer (unless youre a feral druid like me :P ). I have three sets (one for each of the main forms) on my main druid. My alt (Im aiming to have a feral and a resto druid) only recently hit 60 and all I have for him is the cenarion belt and a Hide of the Wild.Both have warden staves and both have Smoking Hearts but my alt already has better healing gear than my main.Aim to get your healing gears + heal to above 200 before you start with your guilds first instance (UBRS most likely).

Hm. Okay then. I still have a few questions, though, if you guys don't mind.

Regarding AD rep. Should I just grind it out over monsters in EPL? Or should I run Scholo and Strat? I assume the latter two are more worth my time.

Also, would you suggest DM before anything else? I was looking at that website I linked before--Kiera's--and I figured I'd just assume it had some of the best listed gear (Though it didn't have the Warden Staff listed... hm, I'll have to figure out which I should get). A lot of it was from DM, I believe.

I figure I'll just try to get healing gear, and pick-up whatever Feral gear I find. I don't know which I want... But I'm really aiming for a hybrid. I love healing on ocassion, but sometimes I just want to switch between cat, bear, and caster.

And yeah, I do have the wildheart Bind on equips. Except the gloves, for a reason I forget. Well, actually, I up'd the bracers to Feralheart, but I still have the belt.

Edit: By the way, I'm curious. Is 30/21 worth losing leader of the pack, Nature's grasp, natural shapeshifter, natural weapons, and omen of clarity? Luckily, balance is being combined with resto, mostly... That'll make my resto/feral more viable, heh. I mainly ask this as I realize I need to start getting healing into my spec (assuming a feral spec isn't a viable healer?), but I also don't want to lose feral talents. :\ And one -more- question (I know, I'm sorry) will the 21 in resto be enough to make me a healer so that I don't have to worry about full resto spec'ing?

Run Scholo first, you can do just fine there around lv 57 and there's some good loot (WH helm drops off Baron, and some good feral gear, as well as the ghoulskin leggings, some nice boots and bonering helm, all good hybrid stuff), then UD Strat (WH Kilt drops, as well as animated chain neck for healing, and some other stuff). You will get AD rep the quickest by running these two instances. Grinding AD rep in EPL / WPL is tedious

DM is kinda hard to find groups for, and west is somewhat more challenging than the other 5 mans. DM East is pretty easy. The first time you go there, be sure to pick up your class book from the AH (called The Emerald Dream i think) to turn in to the library. That will give you the Royal Seal of Eldre'thelas, your class trinket with +44 healing and +10 fire resist.

If you run these three instances a lot, you will come up on some good healing and feral gear. Should have 2 or 3 complete sets in no time. Look for groups for LBRS (WH Shoudlers drop here) and UBRS (WH Chest) as well, as they are 10 mans, and some good gear drops here.

The Wildheart gear is good if you plan on upgrading it to Feralheart. non-upgraded WH is decent, but there are much better pieces in Dire Maul. Don't kill yourself trynig to get WH.

If you plan on healing a lot, you really won't miss LoTP too much. When you are in feral forms, the loss of 3% crit will be noticible, but you will still be very lethal. Losing OoC and Natural Weapons will be much more noticible. What you gain is amazing though: Natures Swiftness is a REALLY nice talent. Instant heal. Saves TONS of Oh $hit situations. And Natures Focus is one of the best druid talents IMO. 70% chance not to be interrupted when healing is NICE. 3.0 second Healing Touches are better than 3.5 too.

You can certainly still heal as a (full dps 14/32/5) feral, but having 21 points in resto will help a lot. And still having 30 points in feral will give you HoTW, and most of the other fun feral talents. 30/21 is a great build, and you will be a great main healer. But if you want to keep your dps maxed out, stay 14/32/5. You can certainly still heal, though you will have to be more proactive, cause your heals will take longer, and you dont have that insta get-out-of-trouble Natures Swiftness button.

Running strat/scholo is a good idea. On top of the potential gear, you'll also gain rep, get scourgestones, etc. Remember to save all of the stones until you're close to revered.

DM is a great place for healing gear. Cloak of the Cosmos, Breastplate of Tranquility, and other random gear.

The emperor in BRD drops a nice healing staff (+66 healing?).

Just use Thottbot or any other WoW site and search for gear. I try to see what I "need" the most and keep farming that instance until it drops (assuming a decent drop rate). Also, some of the AD quest rewards are nice. The caster necklace has some good stats.

The emperor in BRD drops a nice healing staff (+66 healing?)

The staff with +66 healing is called Redemption and drops in Live Strat. Pretty good piece to pick up.

Wow, thanks for the responses you two. I have indeed been researching all afternoon... so much to check. I sort of ruled out vendor, recipe, and quest items, and just focused on drop items (I hope I didn't make a mistake in this?).

I'll definately run Scholo and Strat first, then, to get AD up and possibly get some of the rewards (some of the healing items look pretty good, I think). Hm, as I was researching I -heard- that the guy who drops the Songbird Blouse (that looks pretty good, too) is soloable, I'll have to try that out.

Anyway, I'll keep investigating into this, but your help and tips are greatly appreciated.

By the way, and thanks for the analysis of the talents, but I'm still a little curious about it. By losing the balance talents and leader of the pack, you said my DPS would be diminished noticibly. What I'm curious about is, would a 30/21 still be able to deal a fair amount of damage (for instance, enough damage to make a difference, survive, or do well in PvP), yet still be a great healer when needed? I only ask this as I get called thusfar to heal and go cat/bear... but I know, more likely than not, I'll be called to be a healbot. But when that time comes, I'd still like to be feral enough to PvP or go feral when wanted/needed. Basically, I am asking for your opinion on if 30/21 is better than 14/31/5. I do know it depends on the druid in question, but I am merely curious.

What makes me pause in switching to 30/21 is... I've main-healed, and more recently off-healed, every instance I've visited so far. But I've been on a 14/31/5 build, and had no +healing. So I wonder if I really need to convert over. Hm. The woes of being a hybrid: talents and respec costs (and gear).

As you move forward, healing gets more difficult. The way that most full feral's make up for this is with +healing gear. +healing is really where its at. As you may or may not have picked up, a good goal to shoot for is to have enough +healing on your gear (goal should be around 400) to be able to use Healing Touch rank 4. With this amount of +heal, HT4 has a cast time of 3sec (2.5sec with imp HT) and can heal for 700 - 900 for ~166 mana. Combine this with your HoT's and you will never run oom.

30/21 will definitley do a lot of damage. A lot of really good pvp'ers use it, because of the versatility. If you need to dps, you can do that. If you need to heal, you can do that. And you have that insta 'save my @$$ heal' every 3 minutes with NS. As far as damage goes, you still have:

Sharpened claws (6% crit)
Blood frenzy (free combo point when you crit in cat)
Predatory instincts (90ap bonus)
Improved shred (reduced shred cost)
Savage fury (claw, rake, shred, maul dmg increased by 20%)
Heart of the Wild

These are all the 'core' feral talents that let you pump out damage. With decent gear and this build, you can get over 1000attack power in cat, which will do a lot of damage. The main differnece is that you will last longer healing with a 30/21 build, and healing will be a little easier due to quicker cast times, not having your heals interrupted when you get hit (remember, aoe debuffs can interrupt cast time) and having that oh so lifesaving NS. Natures swiftnes is really good for soloing too. Say you have already burned your bash to rejuv regrowth yourself, and you are about to die again. Pop out, Hit NS Healing Touch rank 10, you are instantly at full health and can pop back in right away.

I currently have a 0/15/36 build, and have 11.5k armor in my bear gear (soon to be over 12k), and occasionally tank AQ20 and ZG just fine. I don't do quite as much damage, but can still hold aggro easily. And I have plenty of power to go out and grind.

Again, its all up to what you want to do. If you see yourself as primarily dps, popping out every now and then to heal others in sticky situations, a 14/32/5 type build will be just fine. If you see yourself main healing, but still wanting to have really good killing power, and be well balanced, 30/21 is a great build. In my guild, I have a 30/21 druid, 14/32/5 druid, moonkin druid and 2 other restos healing with me in 40 man raids. Every druid has their place, which really is the beauty of the class.

Hm... That certainly helps with my decision, but now it comes down to what would benefit me and others the most. I've always considered 30/21, solely for the NS, and healing boost. Actually, at one point, I was going to go 4/11/36, but after I got HotW I don't think I could ever abandon it. >.< (Woo, BC, makes my life easier talent-wise).

What it comes down to currently is my guild. We only have 3 druids and one paladin that are past level 50... No warriors, no priests. But, then again, we can always recruit more, level up the lower players, invite friends, etc. That and, gar, I heal fine right now.

Hm... I think I'm going to go respec to 30/21, as we're short on healers, and I'd love to try the more hybrid build out.
So does this (http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=MZxGMscddxVE00xo) look about right?

Edit: Hehe, there is currently a Warden Staff up for 130g on the AH. I'm considering buying it, as there is no better from what I've seen/heard... But I only wonder if I'd tank enough to have need of it. o.o

Well ... let me tell you. BUY THE WARDEN STAFF!!!!
To itterate this.The only real feral form end-game you will use often is bear.Catform has almost no raid viability whereas bear can keep aggro just as well as any other tank.The staff is a good and safe investment and is one of the primary items every druid should have.

Edit: Im currently a 30/21 build and depending on healers I occasionally OT in ZG and MC.Also no one mentioned where the boots drop.LBRS a spider named Mother Smolderweb drops the boots and she can be soloed by any 58-60 druid.Check this forum for a guid as I am sure there was one.While your at it you might as well solo Lord Roccor in BRD for your Idol of ferocity.

Hehe, I already solo'd Roccor for the idol, thanks to the guides here. I'll look into Mother Smolderweb as well... and definately the Warden Staff. I've never bought an item over 70g, so I was just a bit hesitant to get it. But if it's an item I will use for life. o.o *goes to buy*

Thanks again for all the help. So much druid wisdom in this thread.

Druids give out sage advice. Mostly in the form of "Battleres is only used in battle ... ask the damn priest!!!" or "RUNNER!!" or "OMG Don't fear it noob!!!" but mostly we try our best with the limited resources Blizz decided to give us and come up with unique and interresting ways to execute strategies.Some one once posted on the Blizz forum that if you're a good Druid, you can create an excellent "insert class here".

Hah, I would believe it, too. I made a rogue alt for something else to do when I can't get an instance group, don't feel like rep grinding, and don't feel like PvP. Honestly, from my druid experience, I am doing killer with that rogue.

And I bought that warden staff... Shortly after I joined an instance group. Only me and a paladin could tank or heal. Guess what I ended up doing? Tanking, hah. We wiped, though. Our group couldn't take Scholo, though I didn't lose aggro. It was more or less "RUNNER!!" and the summoners that killed us.

i have also never have had a lvl 60.. i cant even get on the test servers... soo i have no clue..

But i cant wait till i get my hunter to lvl 60... then he will be the main char i can farm money on..

i think i have found a way to get 60g - 80g a day

so in a week i can make a ton of money..

Veriden - I was definately in your situation guild wise for the 1st 6th months of being 60, which was perfect for my playstyle. I'll break down my advice into sections.

1. Instances to run - DM gear is overall the best, but there is tons of good gear in all the lvl 60 instances. DM and Scarlett Strat (live side) tend to not be very popular though. I would jump on any group that is going either of those 2 places. However, you'll see plenty of runs going to Baron Strat, UBRS, LBRS and Scholo that you should go on when you don't see anyone going to DM. There's a few good items in BRD too. Scarlett strat is less important once you get your hammer of the grand crusader.

2. Spec - With your guild, unless you go with another, you probably won't be raiding any time soon. Healing spec will not matter that much. However, I'm of the opinion that if you don't have the gear for what you are doing, you can make up for it with talents. So, you might want to spec further into healing until you gear up with some nice blues and feel more comfortable with healing lvl 60 instances. If you with mostly pugs that don't know agro control, subtlety can be a big help.

3. Gear - Basically every instance at 60 has something you'll need. If there aren't any rogues in your group, your teammates may let you need on both feral and healing stuff. However, some may make you pick witch you will be rolling on before the run starts. You don't want to seem greedy, so if you want to roll on both, tell them that you will donate shards to make up for each feral blue you roll need on. Thats all the feral loot would be worth to them anyhow.

Finally, until you get geared up, you're much better off running instances instead of grinding rep. You'll get plenty of AD rep in scholo and strat. Just make sure to do all the quests in both western and eastern plaguelands too. Even if the rewards suck, you can sell them for more gold and some of quests are part of long chains that will have you going back into the instance a few more times before you finish it. If you go to DM East, make sure to pick up the quest for the key for North and West. 60 is a lot of fun, even if you don't raid until you get completely geared out. Then you'll be looking to raid and hopefully your guild will have more 60's by that point.

2 Pieces of armour I have recently discovered that work really well together (include some enchants here and there though) are the Feralheart set combined with the genesis set.They can be very potent and I think this combo could verywell have been made into a tier 2 druid armour that would have kicked some serrious ass (again Blizz please read this). This is my main set when im not on healing/tanking/dps duty since it is so versatile that it works perfectly for a hybrid druid.