I am new to the game as is my BF who got me into it. Also, he is a Warrior and can't answer all my Druid questions. I am wondering about the talent tree and how they correlate with the spells. I have decided I want to be a balance Druid. Should I still also put a few points into the ferel and restoration trees? Of course I don't have many points yet, and have them all in balance, but I am curious about others opinions. Should I still learn all the spells that are available to me? Or can I skip spending the money if I am going to stick with primarily balance? I was thinking I still want to stick some into ferel also, cause I really dig my bear form and ripping things apart. LOL Thanks in advance for any advice!!
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Saori-Kael'Thas Region

Oops, didn't mean to put this in quest forums. Sorry.

Hey its not a big deal. We all misfire them occassionally.

Lets start with the big, I DON'T WANT TO HEAR THAT, answer..... it depends on what you want to do as to where you put your points.

Lets say first and foremost Welcome to the club. We have all the answers to your 1million questions. This is an exciting and challenging class to play capable of fulfilling all four major roles..... DPS (ranged), DPS (melee), Tank and Healer.

The trees roughly equate to this:
1. Balance = Spell casting/nuke capability. Top spells will be Wrath, Starfire and other spells such as Entangling Roots.
2. Feral = In your face gonna chew it off. You get special abilities amped that affect your feral forms such as Cat and Bear form. So in the long run if you go hard core feral you'd get Mangle with is a god like ability for Ferals. However you have to be hard core feral to get it... (41 pt talent)
3. Resto = Healing, plus amp for other two trees. There are abilities in this tree that amp healing, but also augment your other talent trees such as reducing agro from your spells, increasing your feral damage etc.

Talent distribution is typically recommended to go down one tree first and then try to branch out. Feral is one of the easiest to level with. Balance is certainly viable, but a lot harder as it takes a lot of finesse at lower levels. Once you get Moonkin form and some other abilities it gets a lot easier. I'm doing a balance druid only because 1. I don't want to respec my feral druid again..... and 2. It is a nice compliment to my wife's druid. and finally 3. Its easier to do in a group.

Personlly I say find a style that fits you and pick one tree to start with.

I would agree with Allahanastar, I am Balance as well, for a few reasons.

I was feral during level up to 40 when I respecced and tried balance as moonkin, and found it much easier to work in a group. As feral I was always off tank, almost never main, and when i tried to spec healing it bored the hell out of me.

I like bear and tanking, but I have found on my trek from 40 - 70 and with the gear in Outlands, that balance is now a very viable spec. the oinly problem is trying to get 70 instance groups as moonkin, without being told to respec, not an easy thing to do, as most do not understand a moonkin spec. But that is another story.

As he stated above, it all depends on what you like and what you decide to do. I would suggest to try each spec at least for a few levels before your decide on one specifically and read through websites like this forum, and wowwiki, and tentonhammer, and learn the trade.

It gives more incite on what each type of spec is good for and how to use it.

Hope this helps somewhat...

One other thing to add. Most of the druid specs don't come into their own until lvl 20 or above. Feral doesn't really shine for leveling until you get to lvl 20 and get cat form. I'm not sure when Moonkin starts to shine. It might be lvl 30 or above.

...though if you are going to level as a pair, spec really doesn't matter. You'll crush anything in your way regardless of spec.

If I knew I was going to level every day with a warrior (any spec), I'd spec Balance or Feral. Either gives you plenty of DPS and enough healing abilities to keep the warrior going against tougher quest mobs (group[3+] type quests).

Restro might be a good choice once you reach lvl 70, but until then stick to Balance or Feral. Just make sure you start collecting +healing type gear while leveling (probably once you reach the Outlands).

Hello new druid :>


You can unlearn your talents for a nominal amount of gold, so for now just pick the talents you think sound useful or interesting. Think about what spells/abilities you use often, and get talents that make those abilities more powerful.


The name "Balance" is misleading. When I first saw it, I assumed a Balance druid would be Balanced between all different kinds of roles. This is not the case. If you get lots of Balance talents you will spend most of your time casting damaging spells on your enemies from a distance.


Feral is the tree for you, if you like the idea of being a tuff bear, or a scratchy cat. My personal preference (and most of my knowledge) is on Feral.

Restoration is all about healing. It took me a very long time to understand why people find healing so fun, but now I think of it as like a master of some attack dogs. The dogs run around, tearing things apart, and follow you everywhere protecting you. Sometimes an attack dog gets injured in battle, but you can save his life by casting your healing spells on him.
If that idea appeals to you then maybe try healing :>



To answer one of your initial questions; yes, there are (for example) talents in the Restoration Tree that are of great benefit to Feral druids.
There are talents in all the trees that are useful for a druid that doesn't specialise in that tree.

The catch here is that you only have a total of 61 points to spend (once you are level 70). This means that if you get to get the really awesome talents at the very top of one talent tree, you will only be able to spend a few points in the other talent trees.



When I'm trying to work out what my spec should be, I often use a Talent Calculator.

Blizzard has one of these on their website. Here is the link:
http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/druid/talents.html

If you use the calculator to show us what you have spent points in already, we will be better able to assist you in choosing what to get next :>


-Annikk

Balance or "BOOMKIN!" as it is known may not be the fastest talent for leveling but it most certainly is the most fun to play.Id suggest starting in the Balance tree for a few points then move onto the resto tree for some healing power to act as a healer in lower level instances if needed.This will also help your BF if you guys are leveling together.

Enjoy!

Not to start a flamewar here, but I've leveled one Druid Feral, the other (mostly) Balance. And IMHO Feral is more fun to play.
But, to each his own.

Let me put it this way. Ive been 1 year Resto and 1 Year Feral (come February) so I am really enjoying the bits where I play balance.

It's all depending on the play style. I, personally, enjoy being Moonkin more than feral. However, I do have a rogue alt (use-to-be-main) also 70. If I want to melee (seriously ^_^), I would play him.

Thanks for all the great advice. As you can see, I am at lvl 20 now, so I got my pretty kitty. HEHE Just to clarify, my BF and I are not lvling together. He is a lvl 50 Tauren Warrior, so I would have major catching up to do. He does run me through instances though, kinda cool that all I have to do is loot. LOL Anyhow, I am definately going to stick with balance. I ran Warsong most of the weekend, and I just had too much fun throwing my spells at them. I was proud cause I went druid for druid with one guy and I beat him. I am going to work on macros tomorrow to make things even quicker! LOL I don't mind doing ferel once in a while too. I was having fun with my cat today, pulling monsters out and then wailing on them. I am totally addicted to this game!!!

Personally I have points in balance and resto trees. It pretty much is half and half actually. This way I can do good amount of damage if we need dps but also if we just need a healer I can main heal. being this spec i have main healed heroics with out other healers there, well besides my husband's pally tank but he doesn't count. But I have also went into heroics as a back up healer. The spec I am works out well and I have used it since BC came out and had no problem lvling by myself. but to each their own. I know many people on my server are feral but I tried it and honestly just really don't like it. Well that is my 2 cents, anyway.

ok as a response to balance/feral here is my 2 copper.........

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=0tLrzicoxuVoxMhoZVb

this is a balance/feral build 41/11/7 now im not saying this is the ONLY build but 1 of many options. this is also close to a PVP balance spec

its full balance to the bottom. this allows you to cast the 3 treant spell and gives you all the boomkin goodness

the pts in feral allow you to pop into bear ..charge or stun run back swift form to moonkin and root again and charge starfire. you also get the + to armor buff of thick hide.

the 7 pts in resto is for Furor and naturalist which is needed. you need the instant rage to perform bash w/o having to build rage

as for gear dont mix feral/balance gear. then you wont be very good at either. now i am saying this if you plan on being moonkin all the time. also as you go along you will get many blues from quest turn ins and this is a 1 shot deal that you will have to get balance gear thats not all that available. you will come across MANY feral drops greens/blues but the quest reward will make up most of you 60+ gear till you hit Karazan

Hope this helps even if its been a while since you posted this =)

Here is my current tree (http://www.wowarmory.com/character-talents.xml?r=Kael%27thas&n=Saori). Please bear in mind that I began all of this without a true understanding of the tree. I know that I should spread a few more things out, but I wonder if I should respec now, or should I just start spreading the points I will get from here on out. Also here is my current gear (http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Kael%27thas&n=Saori). Any opinions or suggestions are still greatly appreciated!

Looks fine to me so far :>
I don't think you need to respec at this stage. I would suggest not putting any more points into Improved Nature's Grasp for now, though. The other talents will prove more useful for levelling, imho :>


-Annikk