I've been a Dreamstate build for quite awhile now. I enjoy the flexibility of nuking or healing. What is the likelihood of a hybrid Balance/Restore spec after WotLK is released? Has anyone tried it in Beta?

Good question. I am interested in this myself. I was looking at something like http://http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=0AGbzVcobZZf0Iubuxmzh

Would be interesting to maybe level with that build (going to be TONS of tanks for all instances with everyone leveling a DK), but I think I'm gonna have to go feral again.

Maybe something like this at 80: http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=0AGbzVcobZZf0Iubuxmzh

Donno, just fooling around with the trees. What does everyone think?

FYI.... having done the beta... NONE of the damned DK want to tank. They are all messing around with DPS and expect someone else to tank.

Thats good news. I loved tanking my way from 60 - 70.

Well in general xp'ing is easier as a DPS than a tank.

You get pretty good XP from running instances. When BC came out the first thing we did was organizing 5-mans and running Ramparts 4 or 5 times in a row.
As a tank you could conceivably get to 80 by running instances only.

Also, even with a full tanking spec as a feral you should do fine against mobs - especially now, that they have increased tank DPS.

Clari, I clicked on your link and it wouldn't work for me.

I, for one, will be going Dreamstate as well (at least until I start raiding again at 80).....so, if anyone has some uber Dreamstate links (with the new talents - of course) it would be much appreciated.

You get pretty good XP from running instances. When BC came out the first thing we did was organizing 5-mans and running Ramparts 4 or 5 times in a row.
As a tank you could conceivably get to 80 by running instances only.



I actually leveled my priest from 20-66 by just instancing! It was slow, becuase there weren't many groups until outland, but instance + rested XP = huge leveling potential.

Heya maggie.

I think what I linked was something like this for a dreamstate build:

Offensive: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=0xGbuVcoIzhZZf0Iubux

Healer: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=0xGbuVcohZZf0Iubuxmd

I actually just respec'd into 61 points balance yesterday after the free respec, and lolbignumbers. My boomkin gear is weak (basically all my pvp healing gear), but I was impressed. I'd like to try it out in Kara, or some instancee, but doing dailies on the Isle was a breeze.

Side note - how's your priest coming along?

I'm thinking of going Dreamstate as my dual spec option. My cat dps is amazing (not competetive, but far more than good enough) in full bear spec, so going Dreamstate should allow me access to all 4 druid roles with the two specs.

yeah i was soo tempted to respec oomkin following the free talent refund on wednesday but being in such a small guild finding another tank would be more difficult.

however i am going to try oomkin for levelling in wrath at some point althoggh i fancy trying to do some early instance running as mentioned above for xp and rep with new factions.

so the dual spel will be great when it comes and i'll be wanting a oomkin dual spec along with my tanking one.

I leveled Resto up to 60, I usually two box with a hunter so it wasn't bad. When TBC came out I went with Dreamstate and it was noticeably faster and I was still able to heal in regular instance runs. Hope to be able to repeat that when WotLK comes out.

is oomkin good for levelling ?

bearing in mind my gear is only about 700 spell damage ?

or will i be better of staying feral?

You'll have ~850 damage as oomkin if you spec it cause of the talents that make a %of your int into spellpower.

That said, I'm sure the same old thing will apply - ferals will have less downtime. Even though boomkin mana regen is really strong, you'll probably run oom / have to sit and drink more than a feral will.

And pure dps is and always has been a dime a dozen, leveling (cat) feral and still being able to tank instances just fine will be really useful.

I'm only at 850ish spell damage on my moonkin, and I'm blowing things up. Not gonna lie, it's pretty fun both for questing, pvp and instancing. But a) I dont think that I could stand looking at that big furry owl for 10 more levels, and b) I'll always be feral at heart :P

edit: the good news is that respecs are cheap, and gold is plentiful. Try it all :)

Bah... just do what I did... have two druids.. one's your caster one's your feral. I love em both.

Heya maggie. Side note - how's your priest coming along?

Thanks Clari...the links worked. Looks good. I wish I could avoid healing altogether from 70 - 80 because all out Moonkin is just a riot. :wink:

As for my Priest, OMG I love all things Shadow! Here she is:

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Misha&n=Mystralia

She's still in a couple of blues, but for a relatively new 70, I think she's doing just fine. I've yet to enchant anything because I think her gear will be replaced rather quickly in WoLTK.

However, I did just finish my FSW Robe today, and will be getting that and the shoulders enchanted this weekend.

/proud

WOW. your priest sure got geared up quick :)

Back at 60 my druid was my pve healbot, and my priest was my pvp fasemelter. I'd get on her when I was feeling mean after a long night of healing ^^

Tier 5 and up (especially Tier 6) Id suggest leveling in boomkin. My mana regen is off the charts when I go solo farming (plus 7k crits on starfire is quite impressive). Even so, if you were not a boomkin raider its safe to assume your T5 - T6 is feral or healing and thus you should level feral as no downtimje is a huge boon to leveling.

I have no "official" moonkin gear to speak of...I've always used my resto set.....but this weekend I re-specced to full-out Moonkin (to prepare for leveling) and:

O.M.G.

This is gonna be fun. :p

Boomkin gear today pretty much requires spirit. Other thank wanting more crit than your average healer, boomkin gear is leather healing gear.

lol 2 druids All !

i have zero patience for levelling alts. i have 1 70......yes you dont need glasses, i said i have 1 level 70 character after 4 yrs of playing !

my only alt of note is a 58 mage who i really should finally take to outlands but time does not permit me to do stuff on 2 characters so i still do heroics etc on my druid and the mage sits in the AH in Og :p

i will try oomkin but i was only anticipating it for 1/2 levels to see how viable it was. i will admit to having a sneaking wish to do some stuff - heroics at 80 as a dps caster as i think i would prefer that to doing dps in kitty.

however i'm still feral at heart and prefer to tank than kitty - although kitty is amazing for levelling with bear for backup ofc :)

Edit : just realised i was replying to the last posts on page 1 of this thread /ooops

Mag - i enjoyed my little dabble with a friends SP from about lvl 60 to 63. it was fun.

Kromas - yeah i will only try oomkin for a while cos i reckon i will not like the downtime compared to feral and ofc my oomkin gear is no where near as good as my feral stuff.

Given i dont raid I think you can understand that my oomkin gear is a real mixture.

ie i got some cloth epics made a month or 2 ago...Spellfire ? Hood and Pants ? plus some leather healing gear - like the epic crafted Shoulderpads of Renewed Life. And prob still a blue or 2 i kept hoarded away in the bank from levelling. I think i use the Gavel thats a rep reward for weapon and i have the offhand from being exalted with Cen Expedition.

I'm hoping to be able to find some good early drops that whilst green will improve my oomkin gear in some slots ?

if/when they ever introduce dual specs i plan to have an oomkin spec cos i will not ever go back to being a healer like i had to in the old 40 raids in BWL etc.

I unfortunately am an Altoholic.

1 x Lvl 70 Feral druid
1 x 68 Boomkin/healer druid
1 x 70 Hunter
1 x 70 Shaman (spec TBD)
1 x 66 Arcane Mage
1 x 62 Combat Rogue
1 x 55 Shadow Priest
1 x 32 Prot Warrior
(plus a soon to be DK and I might dabble with a pally)

Yes... I'm a sick sick man.... and no I don't play 40 hours a week.

I unfortunately am an Altoholic.
Yes... I'm a sick sick man.... and no I don't play 40 hours a week.

Lol! My name is Solarflash and I am an altaholic. Its been ~120 days since I rolled my last alt.

70 Mage
70 Hunter
70 Druid
67 Priest
32 Druid
21 Rogue
01 Warrior (bank alt) :nerd:

I too have a problem and do not play 40 hours a week (although secretly wish I did...silly commitments like family and mortgage always getting in the way!)

well if you dont play 40 hrs a week it must be more :p

i've love to have 2 or 3 70's as i would really love to be able to experience playing other chars in at least 5 mans/ heroics but i'll never even get my mage to 70 let alone 80.

what with having to level my druid to 80 and then kit him out and up his new faction rep.

then i'll want to try a DK - god alone knows how long it will take me to level him. i dont even plan to start trying one for a while as i have to use my limited time for levelling to 80.

hey ho, hence i'm always so keen to see what they are doing to 'my' druid and sometimes i get a bit annoyed at Blizz cos of the changes or proposed changes (like another nerf to armour incoming sometime and the supposed change to the multiplier to take account of it.....) cos I cant simply go and start doing something on another lvl 70 !

I hate to say this, but I'm an efficiency leveler. If you give me three hours I'll get 1-2 levels. I've got mapped out routes I take in various zones in my head. I know what quests in what order so that I don't waste time. Its the only way I have that many characters with a decent level.

sounds more like a job than a game All !

well if you dont play 40 hrs a week it must be more :p

Nah, I'd say on good weeks I get to log about 20-25 hours. Once you have powerleveled or efficiency leveled or whatever you want to call it once, you find you can crank out several levels at a time. Without really thinking about it.

Its funny to think how long it took me to get my first toon to 70 (probably 15 months or so) Now, I play less and can level to 70 in 6-8 weeks if I am focused on that toon.

Also, note that none of characters PvP actively. I try to do the daily on my druid when I have time to kill, but for example my priest is 67 has "3" honor kills. PvP can be fun, but huge time sink!

Also a big part of leveling fast is having a regular partner! For example: I almost always start a new alt, when someone else in guild does. So we do lots of leveling together and if your classes compliment each other, you can really plow through content and experience.

I have a 70 druid (of course) & hunter, magician & priest, warrior & shaman. I list them like that because I run two machines at once and play two accounts at the same time. Leveling is easy that way. Farming anything, gold, dailies, leather, etc... is a snap.

What do you think of this build for 80 as Dreamstate?

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=0qGfu0sshzhMZZbE0ucuxbu

I chose to avoid most of the crit based talents in favor of increasing base damage for the Balance tree unless it tied into healing spells too:

Genesis, Nature's Majesty, Nature's Grace, Nature's Splendor, Lunar Guidance and Dreamstate are dual function talents.
Starlight Wrath, Insect Swarm, Celestial Focus, Moonkin and Wrath of Cenarius to give a bit more umph to my DPS
Brambles cause I like to root & shoot when I solo and the damage shield is nice.

In the Resto tree I chose talents that boosted my healing and mana regen:
Naturalist, Intensity, Omen of Clarity, Improved Rejuv, Gift of Nature, Empowered Touch and Swiftmend

I only tood Omen of Clairty and Tranquil Spirit because I had to spend some points to get down the Swiftmend, I wouldn't take them otherwise but didn't like the alternatives any better.

Also a big part of leveling fast is having a regular partner! For example: I almost always start a new alt, when someone else in guild does. So we do lots of leveling together and if your classes compliment each other, you can really plow through content and experience.
yes that would make a big difference and i would be levelling an alt alone which to me is soul destroying.

i guess i get for about 12 hrs a week really. my time can be a bit play/afk/play so only suitable for some dailies or some pvp.

gotta be a bit more organised to commit to a 5 man.

well Wow released in the January iirc in 04 and my druid was 60 in about June/July. however in those days we had a few more in the guild and it was quite active.

a fellow druid and I dual levelled together for the majority of 1-40 and as much as we could after this.

he may even come back to the game. he left a yr or so ago. popped back 2/3 months ago for a month to take a look, left again. however yesterday he said his copy of Wrath has arrived and was installing !

so i'm trying to persuade him to come back.

I solo leveled my Alt-Priest to 60. In Outland I met up with
(4) fellow guildies (with their alts), and together we 5-manned it to 70.

Pally Tank
Resto Shaman
Warrior Dps / Tank
Elemental Shaman
Shadow Priest (me)

We are now running 10 - 25 man content, and will soon start our DK's together.

It rocks. Simply rocks.

We've had so much fun leveling our alts, we've almost forgotten how to play our mains. :rolleyes:

I have 4 70s and a 60 DK on the up. but i really forget how to play each class apart from my druid, and have to relearn everything lol

I only rolled the DK for another profession mule, but am enjoying playing it. the order i enjoy my characters the most goes

Druid Ferel
Pally Ret
Hunter BM until 80
Death Knight Frost (more tanking)
Rogue, least up time (probably due to my lack of skilz lol)

oh well, off to get my DK to 70 before i start the grind on all 5 to 80. That way i wont be racing 6 million other people for kills on the grinding quests!:assimilat

I'm leveling a DK as well, mainly for something different.

TONS of fun IMO. Try speccing into Unholy for leveling - AoE grinding is a joke. I was running around HFP last night on all those 'kill 362908 boars or birds' quests, and was pulling 4-5 of them at a time and leaving the fight with literally 100% health.

I'm kind of planning on having mine as a 'gatherer' too, though based on how fun / new the mechanics are, I wouldn't mind doin some pvp / pve on it. the 'Crusader Aura' (on a pale horse) is amazing for herbing / mining. So fast.

When I get around to leveling my Druid, I'm thinking that I'll probably go with a Dreamstate build, as healers have been kinda hard to come by in the little time that I've spent in Northrend so far.

yeah i would like to level one (although i've been meaning to level my 58 mage for a yr!) as i could really do with another higher level char for profs.

i am seriously in need of a Wrath skinner for my druids LW (dropped skinning a couple yrs ago or so to make a smoking heart of the mountain for tanking) cos borean leather is totally stoopid money :( so i am not even going to think about levelling it for now.

my mage is a skinner but the time i would need to get him from 58 to 70 for coming to BT for borean leather is too much given i need 80 on my druid.....

/sigh

They actually buffed the xp gain from quests in Outlands now. I've only played my DK a grand total of ~8 hours and I'm 1 bar away from 63. I went to Outland at 58, and just got to Zangamarsh last night. 5 levels from just HFP wasn't bad IMO.

And I've been able to solo every single elite quest so far (well, except for one that I did when I got into HFP at 58)

And DK > mage for gatherer. No Downtime, and it has a +20% increased mount speed and +15% run speed at all times ^^

I still can't decide what prof to do for my DK.... Thinking skinning and herbalism, then maybe later dropping one or the other

then i need to forget mage and level a DK as a skinner ! plus something else for making money !

facny an alcy tbh for some pot making.

unles JC has nice stuff these days and it did have some nice BOP stuff at one point ?