I'm a new resto druid, just hit 39 last night and this is my first druid higher then 16. I was just wondering if one, swift mend works with lifebloom, two even as resto does gear changes allow decent multi tasking through forms if required? Found this page through google and it seems like you all are friendly people. thanks in advance.

I believe the answer to your first question is yes, but I'll defer to a druid who actually has lifebloom to definitively answer.

Short answer to your second question, Yes. Definitely.

I've got a druid in the 40-50 range in each of the 3 talent trees at the moment, and although the playstyle is somewhat different for each, I use forms for all of them.

Feral: Kitty melee, go from mob to mob tearing them to shreds, shifting to caster to heal between when needed (or during combat), shifting to bear when the 'stuff' hits the fan. Bear tanking for a group I tend to stay bear, but always have the option of shifting out to cast heals or do more damage or stealth as kitty.

Balance: Moonkin form I'll generally cast spells until low on mana, then melee the mob if needed if the roots break and and I can't refresh the DoTs. Shift to caster to heal as needed, Bear if I pull too many and can't get away. I try to root'n'nuke as Moonkin, so rarely have had to shift to cat or bear.

Resto: I usually cast a bit to start combat, HoT myself up, and shift to Kitty if it's a low damage dealing mob, or Bear for harder hitting ones. In my limited experience, of the talent trees, pure resto relies more on shifting to all the forms during the average combat than the other specs.

Will there be differences in damage output from a feral kitty vs resto kitty or tanking ability in a feral bear vs other spec bear? Will Balance put out more raw spell damage? Will Resto heal better? You bet, and the higher level you get the more noticeable the differences are.
(As an aside, I'd argue that up to about level 20 or so it really doesn't make that much difference)

But so long as you keep your eyes out for gear for whichever you decide to do, you can have your cake and eat it too as a druid.

All of my druids have a Feral set (high Str/Agi) and a caster set (high Int / +Spell / +Heal ) and I use gear swapping on-the-fly mods like ItemRack or Closet Gnome make it that much simpler to change depending on what I anticipate happening from combat to combat - since 2.1 no mod can change gear during combat, unfortunately.

Oh, and welcome to TDG!

I've found this to be the most relaxed and still helpful place on the the web for Druid info. A wide range of regulars, from high end raiders to perpetual lowbies like myself.

Have a look around and make yourself at home. :epopcorn:

Welcome to TDG. I don't see any reason for Swiftmend not to work with Lifebloom.

I found leveling as a Restoration spec to be not as slow as I feared. You sort of rely on the other forms or abilities to get efficient leveling if you're soloing. I like to do instances and if you team up with a good tank you're set. In general I found that if I rooted then dot/nuked a mob down if root broke I'd finish off the mob in cat form.

thank you all for the advice. I am sure it will help alot. hope to see you all around on here.

Swiftmend does not work on Lifebloom.

As for your second question, it all depends on how good your off sets are. IMO it really isn't worth the gold it would cost to maintain a second set of feral gear because you can solo just fine in your resto gear with the changes to how bonus healing affects bonus damage in 2.3.

IMO it really isn't worth the gold it would cost to maintain a second set of feral gear because you can solo just fine in your resto gear

You can chance upon decent feral gear while leveling, and still remain true to your healing ways. Especially if you take your druid through Level 70 and Outlands, you will find great drops.

Whereas you are a healer, prior to running dungeons, ask the group up front if they mind if you roll on feral drops because you also need to work on your feral set. Some groups won't mind at all....some will. But at least you were polite enough to ask.

I personally think every druid, regardless of their spec, should have both a feral and healing set. A balance set too, if you are lucky enough to be able to accumulate it all. I know the thought of having to accumulate all that gear may start a migraine, but Druids are so versatile, you never know how you may want (or be required) to play the game from one minute to the next.

Plus, (and I'm Resto as well, but), have you ever tried a Feral Spec before? GRRRRRR it's a riot! It'd be awful nice to have a set all ready for use if you ever do decide to *prowl around* for a while. ;)

Especially after level 70, the amount of gold/badges you would have to sink into your feral gear for it to remain competitive with your resto/damage gear is beyond the means of anyone who has to raid and farm to support raiding IMO.

I was actually feral up to and beyond level 70 (through all of Kara) and I have a plethora of virgin kitty epics as well as 2/5 feral t4 enchanted and socketed for feral tanking sitting in the bank. But what's the point in spending hundreds of gold to enchant and socket (or re-enchant and re-socket) all of that gear just to use it with a gimped kitty form anyway? (WTB Mangle, energy discounted skills, and energy upon shapeshift for resto droods plix.)

If you are going to collect the gear on your way up to 70 because "it's 'nice' to have an off set" then that's one thing, but IMO maintaining a feral off set after 70 is simply redonkulous now that we restos can solo perfectly fine in our raiding gear. And we all know that it will be a cold day in hell when our guilds ask us to cover another role because we have too many resto druids.

If you have the time and energy to maintain feral gear ... more power to you! My suggestion would be not to bother.

:eek: Uhm, sorry?

I truly didn't mean to offend, Pookies.

:eek: Uhm, sorry?

I truly didn't mean to offend, Pookies.

Sorry, I didn't mean to come off like I was offended, lol. I think sometimes I just don't watch my tone as carefully as I should, online communication being what it is. :whistle:

I just really wanted to press the point that it is very time consuming to have off sets of gear, and that the typical player wouldn't really be able to afford to collect sets for all three talent trees. My recommendation would be to stick with the healing gear, perhaps swapping in damage pieces (when available) for soloing, instead of religiously collecting and buffing a separate feral set.

My feral comment wasn't so much a response to yours as it was a demonstration of how, even when some better off set gear is available, it may be impractical to use it! :)

Especially after level 70, the amount of gold/badges you would have to sink into your feral gear for it to remain competitive with your resto/damage gear is beyond the means of anyone who has to raid and farm to support raiding IMO.

I was actually feral up to and beyond level 70 (through all of Kara) and I have a plethora of virgin kitty epics as well as 2/5 feral t4 enchanted and socketed for feral tanking sitting in the bank. But what's the point in spending hundreds of gold to enchant and socket (or re-enchant and re-socket) all of that gear just to use it with a gimped kitty form anyway? (WTB Mangle, energy discounted skills, and energy upon shapeshift for resto droods plix.)

If you are going to collect the gear on your way up to 70 because "it's 'nice' to have an off set" then that's one thing, but IMO maintaining a feral off set after 70 is simply redonkulous now that we restos can solo perfectly fine in our raiding gear. And we all know that it will be a cold day in hell when our guilds ask us to cover another role because we have too many resto druids.

If you have the time and energy to maintain feral gear ... more power to you! My suggestion would be not to bother.

I have to agree. Although I have yet to try to get a second set for my druid, I have a priest that I have been undecisive on whether to stay shadow (1103 unbuffed about to be 1200 unbuffed) or go holy/disc as I haven't raided in awhile and am going more pvp. I have a full shadow set on him and just trying to accumulate a "decent" holy/disc set aside from the pieces previously found in instances, is a pain to say the least.

Then again, I know people that do have the time, gold, and most importantly the attention span (unlike me :bonk: ) to put forth the effort to get and maintain 2-3 full sets of gear per toon.

Well, to be fair, and after thinking about it, I raised myself feral. I had the full Heavy Clefthoof Set and several nice pieces already accumulated from Outland quests, before I even started on my healing set.

So, I honestly can't say that I've ever really tried to *solo* without already having a feral set in my bag. In fact, I've been so used to cat form, that I've never really given my Balance abilities a chance.

However, as it happens, last night I kept my healing set on while doing my BEM dailies (the demons to be exact) just to see how effective my Balance abilities could be while in my healing gear. I was amazed! What fun! I couldn't believe I hadn't tried this before.

So, I respecced just last night, taking all points out of the Feral Tree, Retaining ToL, and throwing my remaining points into the Balance Tree. I'm looking quite forward to using this spec.

Mind you, I'm still keeping my feral set. Sometimes I still feel the need to *growl* :tongue:

Ok I'll disagree on one point though.... it may not make sense for a resto to keep a feral set. However I'll be damned if I'm taking a feral into my raid without collecting a healer off set. Off healing as a feral druid isn't very difficult. I'm never as effective in healing, but for critical fights where the raid needs just that little bit of extra healing, the feral druid better have their off set healing so they can cover the gap and we don't have to haul around an extra healer or have someone swap out. DPS classes that have a healer off set are amazingly useful.

Ok I'll disagree on one point though.... it may not make sense for a resto to keep a feral set. However I'll be damned if I'm taking a feral into my raid without collecting a healer off set. Off healing as a feral druid isn't very difficult. I'm never as effective in healing, but for critical fights where the raid needs just that little bit of extra healing, the feral druid better have their off set healing so they can cover the gap and we don't have to haul around an extra healer or have someone swap out. DPS classes that have a healer off set are amazingly useful.

Are there any recommendations for a healing off set? I've been wanting to put one together but was unsure which way to go. Unfortunately I don't have time to raid right now so can't get Moonglade and still need to spend my honor/arena pts on feral gear. I was thinking perhaps I might get the new blue PvP healing set when 2.4 comes out....or is that a bad idea?

Are there any recommendations for a healing off set? I've been wanting to put one together but was unsure which way to go. Unfortunately I don't have time to raid right now so can't get Moonglade and still need to spend my honor/arena pts on feral gear. I was thinking perhaps I might get the new blue PvP healing set when 2.4 comes out....or is that a bad idea?

I don't think it is a bad idea at all, especially in this situation where it is an off set.

I think it would be easier and tbh less time consuming to get a pvp set for a secondary job (ie. feral needing a healing set) in your offtime or when you get everything you need feral wise, just keep up the honor grind (I wouldn't use your arena points on an off set), and get yourself a glad 1 healing set.

*by less time consuming I mean, for people like me, where it is hard to find a group, then hope we clear the instance, and then ontop of that hope that particular single piece drops and I get it can take forever. Atleast with pvp, your guaranteed to get the items you work for so long as you put in the extra time and effort to do so.

*hugs her feral set close to her heart and wonders...*

Am I the only Resto Druid who feels compelled to keep (and upgrade whenever possible) their feral set? :shuffle:

*hugs her feral set close to her heart and wonders...*

Am I the only Resto Druid who feels compelled to keep (and upgrade whenever possible) their feral set? :shuffle:

Absolutely not. With all my toons if a piece drops or I get more honor than needed to slowly build up or upgrade a different spec piece, I do it. I am actually working on all 3 spec sets for my druid, just because of the versatility of the druid.

Besides, you might want to respec Feral for leveling when the new expansion comes out. Having a lvl 70 Kitty set to start with isn't a big deal.

Thanks for the info, i'll take what everyone has said and roll it around abit. Though i was thinking that as my druid gets higher the less need for a whole new set, rather peices here and there to make up for the lack of damage say the cat is putting out etc. After all the druid is a jack of many trades, to limit his gear on one thing for anything other then a raid or instance is to limit what they can be capable of in my own point of view.

*hugs her feral set close to her heart and wonders...*

Am I the only Resto Druid who feels compelled to keep (and upgrade whenever possible) their feral set? :shuffle:

i absolutely feel you. i try to improve my feral set everytime i can. even in raids i spend my dkp on feral items.

Ya, I've been quite fortunate that during guild raids my guildies insist I take the good kitty drops if nobody else needs them.

*Loves her guildies* :thumbsup:

Besides, you might want to respec Feral for leveling when the new expansion comes out. Having a lvl 70 Kitty set to start with isn't a big deal.


My thoughts precisely. When the expansion comes out and it's time to level again, it would be better to start the leveling with mediocre gear than none at all.