Hi fellow druids!

Have u ever been in the situation where u think about respeccing into another spec?
I love my druid sooo much but cant decide which specc i should choose.
Im resto atm and rocking healing-meters in our SSC/TK raids.
And i love it.

But recently i had a week off of raiding and went feral like in the old leveling days -> Enchanted/Gemed the gear i was collecting along the way and it was a blast as i looked at my gear^^
kittie:
33% crit, 3k AP at around 90 hitrating.
bear:
13k hp, 28k armor, 42% dodge selfbuffed
I went into Kara off-tanking and WTF OMG DAAMMMAAAGGGEEE!!!
Now im a bit overwhelmed off the output-numbers my attacks generated :grin:

I was tanking from 20-70 all instances and loved it.
So now i dont know what to do.... love healing...love tanking/dpsing.

I know it's my decision to make, but i just wanted to know if anyone has experienced the same thing like me?

Thats the beauty of a druid....you can do whatever you feel like or is needed. Once you get 70 and epic flying, and with the dailies respecing isnt all that expensive.

I know so many druids that only focused on being one type of druid and they never play the class to it's fullest.

I fully understand what you are feeling s3rgio. It's really awesome seeing those massive crits flashing across the screen - being feral you suddenly feel very....empowered.

There is no harm experimenting a bit more with it, provided your guild doesn't mind. It might be a good idea to have a chat with an officer to make sure they won't mind if you spec feral for a few days.
Whilst feral, try as many aspects of it as possible. Solo, pvp, instancing and if possible raiding. Maybe you will just become sated, and then be happy to go back to resto. You might also decide this is your true calling, and then perhaps it is time to speak to an officer again and see if they can accomodate a permanent feral.

You might also like to experiment with balance while you're at it. It is very enlightening to try all the different specs, it can teach you a lot of things about your class, and the chances are high that at the end of it even if you return to resto, you will be a better player for it. :>


-Annikk

@Annik: i specced balance too in this time. just wanted to keep my post short. 4k starfire crits are very nice too ;-D

Problem in my guild is, that only resto is really fully excepted.
The raidleaders are somekind of shortminded.... we have two ferals in the raid most of the time, but after a discussion with our nr. 1 raidleader, i found out, that thats only because those 2 have done so much for the guild and they cant push them out of the raid....
Also there is no acceptance of balance druids. A friend of mine (moonkin) joined our guild and ruled in the damage-meters over our mages but the raidleaders didnt let him participate on most of the raids, cause they think that a moonkin has no CC and goes fast OOM so he isnt useful in raids. The OOM fact isnt true i think.
I hate this fact...
My friend left the guild and has now a permanent spot in a MH/BT-raiding guild^^

Changing guild is no option cause the ppl are the nicest i ever met ingame and we are 5 RL-friends in the guild!

So if i want to participate in 25-mans i have to stay resto.
Good thing is i love healing.
It will come down to this:
TK,SSC,MH,BT = resto
kara, gruul, magh = fun with other specs^^

first time kara-maintanking was a blast!!

Dealing with narrow-minded people is difficult in any situation. The problem with entering into a debate with such people is that 99% of people who allow themselves to be drawn into a debate would not admit they were wrong or be convinced of something regardless of the evidencen presented to them. Such people will sometimes later on take this point of view if someone else narrow-minded voices their views, however in most cases it's very difficult to change someone's mind.

You have to be very clever, therefore, about how you go about convincing them. You need to make them think it was their idea in the first place to have more ferals, or balance druids. This is quite counterintuitive as most people assume that anyone presented with sufficient evidence contrary to their view would be swayed, but unfortunately that just isn't how humans work.

It's like having racist parents. A tricky situation for sure...


-Annikk

The rule I always put forth for those debates is, let me put my money where my mouth is. Let me TRY tanking and to prove you wrong. I convinced a raid leader who was sold that druids shouldn't be able to tank X boss mob that they were wrong by showing them that it could be done. I've had to do that a lot mostly because people get mind sets that just don't let them break out and see other points of view.

I'm resto, and I re-spec back to feral, often. Mostly to farm. In fact, I've discussed it with my guild, and they agree that, if nobody else wants it, I roll need on feral epics. So I am now farming Kara for my feral set. Druid talents are so different (2) sets of gear are pretty much mandatory.

I raised myself feral, and truly enjoyed the strength. Was great at soloing, but couldn't Tank my way out of a paper bag. Healing has been very rewarding for me, but I do miss the strength of Kitty. So when I switch back to feral, even if it's only for a week, I love every minute of it. It truly is a treat. Feral power just feels goooood.

If you enjoy all the Druid talent trees, and have the gear for all (or want to work on obtaining that gear) I say, go for it. Enjoy. It's actually a great way to keep the fun in the game.

As a side note - pertaining to the acceptance of druids:

We have (4) Druids in our guild.

(1) Druid Tank - Has proven his worth. There's never any issue about allowing him to MT our raids.

(2) Druid Healers - We are loved. Period.

(1) Druid Moonkin - He's good, but he's not always offered a raid spot. Personally, I like having him there, but for some reason, he pretty much has to "shake, dance and jiggle" onstage to get noticed.

I went resto all the way to 62 then decided to respec to balance just for a change. It was a surprisingly hard decision. I didn't think it should be but I have never respec'ed at all and had grown accustomed to my healing duties, solo'ing was REALLY hard compared to balance. I'm now enjoying it and will stay this way for a bit at least until I hit 70.

Yeah it can be hard to respec even if the cost isn't a factor.

Yeah feral can be really fun. I have been specced feral since release, way before feral was accepted in even 5 mans. I love off tanking better than main tanking because I can switch forms as needed. Feral rocks!

I was actually thinking of trying resto for awhile. Maybe just a week. I healed a few run on regular months ago but it was pretty weird without the right spec. On my guilds last Kara run 6 pieces of healing gear dropped the healers already had and they offered all 6 to me for my healing off set. Is +1100 healing and 88/mp5 good?

I just stay Feral. Groups are non-existant, so solo questing is all I have. If I wanted to be a caster, I'd stick with my Shadow Priest or Mage.

If I wanted to be a caster, I'd stick with my Shadow Priest or Mage.

I never thought of it that way (and I have a priest and mage as alts). I like the freedom of being able to do a little bit of everything, but (especially with leather gear) casting works the best for me. YMMV, of course.

At the Level 60 Raids, I used to off-tank.... as a healer. Yes, I fooled a lot of people in my raiding guild. Made believer's out of none believers. Back then, all I needed was feral charge and growl and I hold my target down. Now it is much easier with all our new talents in Feral.

I'm Healer spec atm, but have only raided Kara runs and Heroic. Done it as a Tank, Healer, Moonkin DPS and Cat DPS. The Versatility is endless with a druid. Now, with open minded people I play with in different guilds, my druid has been now to respec 1-2x a month so to say, but I don't mind, i just like you all.. LOVE the Druid class.

"Open mindedness" really helps. Also the size of the group. I rarely play in groups greater than three or four, so being able to "do it all" is sweet. I tell 'em up front that I'm not specc'd resto, but I can do that...distance attacks...and slip into boomkin if necessary. Don't ever see myself raiding, so specialization isn't a concern right now.

i'm one of them druids who has always been one spec and never wanted to change.

have always been full feral right from day 1 of Wow. and as such i've only paid once to respec to put a few points in some 'needed' resto stuff for raid healing in the old days of 40 mans.

love feral too much to change and dont enjoy healing as much - and i've done my fair share of healing over the years due to how ferals were never fully accepted pre-BC.

ie healed most of the time in MC and BWL and AQ40 (with a bit of time spent as kitty/bear).

but tanked all the other old 5 mans like BRS /Strat / Scholo etc.

now with BC i am continually wanted to tank - i fully believe that if i was resto i would not get as many /w to come to tank places - esp daily heroics !

only last night in the space of 30 mins i had 2 /w asking me to go off tank Kara for 2 different guilds.

and if i did ever fancy a change i reckon it would be too oomkin not resto. although i have no gear at all for oomkin but my healing set has about +1100 and reasonable mp5.

but the variety we can do is certainly such a druid strongpoint.

we've just started running heroics with 2 druids, me to tank and another to kitty dps and it seems to work well.

read through a little bit here. I just wanted to comment I. Something I saw about guild leaders being "narrow minded" I really feel that wow has pushed through the days of classes only being effective with one spec. Honestly I believe that every spec bring huge utility to a raid and all should be utilized in some way shape or form. My guild had more shadow priests than holy or disc. Ultimately the best leaders will be open minded to hear what their players have to say. Being a leader doesn't mean making the decision for everyone. I feel a leader needs to take things objectively, listen to his and take care of his or her people, and make the best decision possible. And if its the wrong one that's ok. But the point is having a set of standards, beliefs, yet also accepting things for what they are, workig g with what they have and leading and doing the best they can.

Anyway back on topic, do what's gonna make you happy bro and don't let anything take that from you. Ultimately this is your life, your fun. I learned my lesson a while back. I was unhappy heal jotting on my Druid. I love to pvp and back then Druids weren't greatly effective feral or balance. My guild said I couldn't reroll my lock. I felt trapped and unhappy. I liked my guild and didnt want to leave so I stuck to my Druid. Unfortunately I got a little bitter and it ended up ruining my game experience. Anyway I'm not saying leave your guild or anything, just sharing my own experience. =)

Good news right now in WoW is that most specs are viable. Naturally, some are still less than perfect, but can be pulled off with hard work.

Blizz has done a good job with opening up raiding viability to all classes. Though they did F&*k up 2v2 and 3v3 arenas by making 'melee train' so ridiculous with scaling weapons and armor pen out the arse. But that's off topic.

People who are skilled at their current spec, and are geared for it (not LOL i just respec'd and have mostly greens cause i dont want to heal invite to SSC plx) will get spots in groups. Druids are the most dynamic class in the game, and can dominate at anything they do, all things being equal. Have fun with your spec and class, but don't expect to get invites to strong groups if you aren't up to par with everyone else :P Kinda like in RL.

*edit: bugs me as an ex-officer pre bc to watch people gear their toon up with full epics, get really good at their class then say "ok, I don't need anything else on him, I'm gonna stop raiding / reroll / respec permanently" right when the guild / raid is about to move on to a new encounter. Then again, its their time, and they earned all the stuff they got, and can do whatever they want. Just sucks having to re-gear people to be able to get back to the point where progression is feasible.