I'm gonna respec tonight for leveling from 70-80 (I'm going to be in Vegas for the next week), it is my understanding that a "cat spec'd" Feral Druid will be able to tank regular 5-mans. So, I plan to focus initially on solo Cat talents and pick-up bear talents as I reach 80. And re-spec to a hybrid at 80.

Here's what I think I'm going to start with at lvl 70...

0/50/11 (http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=0ZxGMcfrzceo0IuhZbA0z)

I'll pickup Berserk next and then RnT and PotP. So, my tanking will improve as I level. Not sure about Thick Hide??? I guess I could drop PI (or IW) for TH if I find I need it. Thoughts?

I know that 2/2 iMotW doesn't make sense until you reach lvl 80, but I want to "get use" to not having the extra rage when I shift to bear. As I know my lvl 80 build will have 2/2 iMotW and 3/5 Furor.

What's your strategy for leveling Feral?

Well, I intend to be stay with a tank build, at least for now. According to scouting reports from beta T4+ gear will be good into mid to upper 70's, so to start I have a solid Kitty set that should easily out gear monsters. (although to be fair, I took alot of DPS talents in my bear spec: http://www.wowarmory.com/character-talents.xml?r=Cenarion+Circle&n=Solarflash) I may drop PI for KotJ though.

Also, knowing my guild, I can't imagine soloing just about anything. There will be such a push to level, that we will group up and quest quite a bit.

So, now to get to the point...I tend to stear clear of the resto tree altogether. I know some of you old school druids like to shapeshift like its going out of style, but I just don't do it enough to matter. When I DPS, I am in Kitty, when I am tanking, I am Bear and when I heal, obviously I am caster. I would much rather see those points in + damage roll rather than a -mana or +rage (minimal rage).

In a group I am always waiting for others, so my bear rage goes byby or my kitty energy caps itself. Furur FTL.

I'm currently running with 0/46/15 (http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=0ZxGGcfbd0GRhrdZ0Ec0b)... yea, there are a couple screw ups there, but im way too cheap to respec (i've paid for TWO respecs, one by accident, being a noob trying to unlearn Blacksmithing way back when, the rest have all been free)... here's my plan:

at 71 pick up OoC
at 72-75 RnT
at 76 last point in SotF
at 77 finish off RnT
at 78 pick up Berzerk
at 79 finish off Predatory Instincts
at 80 finish off Infected Wounds

My reasoning is probably pretty off, but i figure that between the defense and resilience on my current gear, I'll be uncrittable for tanking for a while yet, and i've already started "training" my guild towards me dps'ing more than tanking anyway...

if the dual spec system is implemented, then i'll probably go for a purer "tanky" build because old habits die hard (for both my guild and myself) :P

I know some of you old school druids like to shapeshift like its going out of style, but I just don't do it enough to matter. When I DPS, I am in Kitty, when I am tanking, I am Bear and when I heal, obviously I am caster.I've never understood this either. I have a co-worker that talks about shifting all the time while solo questing with a glint in his eye. The whole time I keep thinking, WTF?!?!In a group I am always waiting for others, so my bear rage goes byby or my kitty energy caps itself. Furur FTL.I see Furor as a really nice solo kitty talent.

The ability to shift into cat have a nearly full bar is really nice. From flight form, your mount, travel form, angry sausage form, etc. You only need 3/5 or 4/5 to gain the benefits as you will pick up an additional 15E during the GCD after you shift to cat.

From 70-77 I see myself using travel form quite a bit as I hate waiting for the 3s cast to summon my mount (been spoiled by SFF!). So for short runs between packs of mobs, etc. I'll use travel over my mount. So, combined with Furor I can zip from one pack to the next starting each fight with a nearly full energy bar.

um... we're gonna be sharing our gear with rogues, so remember: NO INT :( until blizz implements something to further reduce the costs of our shifts, those that are shift-happy are going to find themselves OOM before they know it... I picked up furor and Natural Shapeshifter to get to Master Shapeshifter. I LOVE being at over 50% chance to crit, and when RnT is maxed out, i SHOULD be at over 100% chance to crit with an FB on a bleeding player... lolresilience

um... we're gonna be sharing our gear with rogues, so remember: NO INT

A key to remember is PVP > PvE gear when leveling in almost all of TBC. This may change, but I doubt it. End result = +int. And I think the solid majority of the Druid population has gear with int that will be held until mid 70's at least.

Also rather than Furor, why not got KotJ and just pop Tiger's Fury for your uber energy boost? Its only 3 talent points and you are likely to be using the TF talent anyway, and its gaurenteed energy, not a 60% chance or whatever you get from 3/5 in Furor.

Also Base mana for a druid with 0 int gear is like 4k-ish at lvl 70 (don't quote me on that number, but its close). Even with full cost shifts (850mp-950ish mp for combat forms) you have several shifts at your disposal.

IMHO, int isn't a feral stat. Its nice to have, but I would much rather use itemization points in true feral stats like Agi/Crit/AP.

old school druids

We used to be quite weak, and have to heal after 1-2 mobs. Kill, shift regrowth rejuv, shift move on. Or to take on a group of two or three we'd have to pre-hot, shift to bear head in and swipe / maul away. Feral back in the day was ugly. Also, I believe I remember a time when we couldn't gather herbs in forms. Had to shift out for that.

Really nice now to be able to shift directly into forms, i.e. cat -> bear rather than cat ->caster->bear.

Only reason to shift much now is to go into travel / flight form, or if you run into a mob that roots / nets, or if you come across a mage :P Or if you are being a FLYING BEAR OF DOOM and shift from travel form into SFF, skyrocket up a ways, then shift to bear and feral charge some unsuspecting hunter out of the sky, hit him with a bash then back to kitty to claw his fase. muahahhaha.

Also rather than Furor, why not got KotJ and just pop Tiger's Fury for your uber energy boost? Its only 3 talent points and you are likely to be using the TF talent anyway, and its gaurenteed energy, not a 60% chance or whatever you get from 3/5 in Furor. I have both. As I see KotJ as a nice multimob cat DPS talent. 3/5 Furor gives you 60E (really 75E) assuming you have been out of cat form long enough to have generated the 60E. The % portion of Furor is for Rage.

Regarding RnT, while it is really nice kitty group PvE and PvP talent, it is overkill for solo cat DPS. By the time you get 3-4 CP, you don't need a FB crit to kill the mob, as either a normal FB or another mangle will do the trick. Don't forget that FB still eats all your remaining energy, which increases downtime slightly. That said, I'll have 5/5 RnT by lvl 76 as it is a really nice tanking talent. The kitty portion is a bonus that doesn't hit its prime until we SR at lvl 75 and need to use FB as a means to "waste" CPs if Rip and SR are still ticking away.

Frankly, other than 5/2 MS, which is worthless for all but a pure cat, I have all the cat DPS talents in my above build. I guess I could take 2/2 BI like I did when I leveled to 70, but I've seen the light and no longer depend on that means of leveling.

I will say that if you have 2T4, OoC is entire optional until 75+ when the 2T4 proc drops. I have 2T4 and OoC right now and I have a tough time using my energy on some fights as OoC procs like crazy now. And with KotJ, you almost don't need OoC to level. I'd probably pick up PotP and/or TH before RnT if I were to give up OoC and Naturalist.

Maybe this 0/58/3 (http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=0ZxGMcfrzceocIuAZ0h) build would be a nice starting point for leveling. I'd get Berserk and then work my way down to OoC??? Though I'm not sure I could wait until lvl 79 to get OoC, by then my 2T4 will be worthless. Maybe a 0/55/5 build? So, I can get OoC at 76? Too many choices!!!!!!!

I like to go for this (http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=0ZxGMcfrd0eR0hzAZ0E0z) 0/50/11 build. It provides very nice solo DPS, with good group capability. As soon as I hit level 71, I'm picking up Berserk.

Last night I did my re-spec (http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=0ZxGMcfrzceo0IuhZbA0z) and I picked up the shred glyph....

The pounce-->Mangle-->shred move is really nice and I don't have RnT (I don't think I can wait until lvl 75 to get OoC). It is defiantly an option worth using while leveling.

If I find I'd wish I had RnT and OoC at the same time, I can re-spec...its cheap.

What's going on in here?

Got some pretty interesting setup's here...I'm still unsure what I'll do for my go to 80.

What's going on in here?

Got some pretty interesting setup's here...I'm still unsure what I'll do for my go to 80.

OMG! Trixtaa!! *hugs*

Game has changed quite a bit in a mere 9 months :X

at this point I have a basic spec similar to what you guys posted in here and I think I'll just freestyle my spec and pump points into whatever I think'll help me most.

btw beserk looks pretty fun :)

btw beserk looks pretty fun :)

it is...... it really is :grin:

yeah beserk is quite fun.

have to say i like the little flowers than animate around you when i use the new lifeblood (?) that came along cos i am a herbalist !

and i find i use barkskin so often now !

@Kheldar
U are sooo right. Barkskin is always on CD. Especially if im doing BGs.
And lifeblood rocks! I can only imagine the faces of 2 rogues ganking me when i activate lifeblood and frenzied reg. and pawn them into the ground :grin:

Game has changed quite a bit in a mere 9 months :X

at this point I have a basic spec similar to what you guys posted in here and I think I'll just freestyle my spec and pump points into whatever I think'll help me most.

btw beserk looks pretty fun :)

Hey trixx, I was on my lock the other night and saw ya on.

WB to BR ^^ Login Q times are getting bad again ><

Really? The only queue I was in was about 300-400ish and took about 15minutes. I remember when I first started when I would get home, decide to play WoW, log in and wait in queue, do other stuff and probably eat dinner, and get back to computer and hopefully be logged in :P

yeah S3R - barkskin is now on my main feral bar not a sub one and i'm always popping it !

Trixx - its def not as bad as old BR...

The other day I logged on and it was at ~800. I got spoiled the past 4 or so months cause a lot of people took time off, and there were almost never BR q's, lots of ppl comin back now.

You gonna start levelin on Thurs?