hey, im a lvl 23 Druid at the moment. and i was wondering, is going str8 feral a good idea with druid. after 20 ive been useing cat alot. and even before that i always used bear when ever i was fighting. but im not sure if its ganan be a good idea. also what is is the druids usal occupation in a group. so far ive been a healer, and after being a pally tank for so long, i'm bored just healing people. so far ive put 5 talent points into improved mark of the wild, 5 into the talent that reduces the cost of bash and other feral abilities, and 4 into the crit talent. after i got 5 into there i was ganna start moving towards the swiftshifting. thanks for any help you guys gimme

Might as well go with what you enjoy while you're leveling up. If you want to do high end raiding, it sounds to me like you have to do healing talents. But you can always redo your talents when you hit that wall. If you like feral, do feral for as long as you can without getting frustrated. If you like to group you might want to focus more on healing. People might not take you at higher levels if you're not an effective healer. I've put everything into feral so far and even when I group I can keep up with heals, unless the group is just bad (ie trying to zerg the instance with 0 strategy). In which case I dont think changing talents would have helped anyways. If you like to solo than feral works fine.

I am extremely fond of me bear, but I was advised by folks here and in game to avoid a straight feral emphasis and I am glad I heeded them.

Yes you can respec but at 40 you will need to lay out almost 100 gold on your ride. At 40 you also get a bunch of new spells made available so its nice if you havent had to respec berore then like I did because some of the spells are 1g plus silver.

I have respecced three times and the last one was something like what? 10 g? It increases in cost each time you do it.

Remember to look all the way through your talent tree and read the requirements for the the various talent branches, and each time you talent think about your long term goals as they relate to your play style.

So, in pvE i like to work outside because roots is very dear to my heart, but I don't like to use the buff natures grasp. I just dont want the mobs close enough to hit me, so its not a top priority. Even though omen of clarity was nice, at my current level it hasnt been particularly useful because again I dont want the mobs near enough to hit me. Consequetnly I'm not doing much staff work. Course again this might change as RC grows up.

My choices have been very middle of the road with a few of primary principles in mind:

reducing mana cost first for healing and second for damage

maximizing my ability to stay healthy via "passive damage'", mark of the wild and thorns, and roots as well as active damage to mobs at a distance.


I am not sure if this is exactly what i have right now but this is pretty close to my talent profile right now

Class: Druid
Level: 41

courtesy of Wow vault talent calculator
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Balance Talents (10 points)


Improved Wrath - 5/5 points
Reduces the cast time of your Wrath spell by 0.5 seconds.


Improved Entangling Roots - 2/3 points
Gives you a 70% chance to avoid interruption caused by damage while casting Entangling Roots.


Improved Moonfire - 1/5 point
Increases the damage and critical strike chance of your Moonfire spell by 2%.


Nature's Reach - 1/2 point
Increases the range of your Wrath, Entangling Roots, Faerie Fire (caster form only), Moonfire, and Starfire spells by 10%.


Swiftshifting - 1/3 point
Reduces the delay before using spells and abilities by 0.5 seconds after having shapeshifted.



Feral Combat Talents (6 points)


Ferocity - 5/5 points
Reduces the cost of your Maul, Swipe, Claw, and Rake abilities by 5 Rage or Energy.


Improved Bash - 1/2 point
Increases the stun duration of your Bash ability by 0.5 seconds.



Restoration Talents (16 points)


Improved Mark of the Wild - 5/5 points
Increases the effects of your Mark of the Wild spell by 35%.


Nature's Focus - 2/5 points
Gives you a 24% chance to avoid interruption caused by damage while casting the Healing Touch or Regrowth spells.


Improved Healing Touch - 4/5 points
Reduces the mana cost of your Healing Touch spell by 12%.


Combat Endurance - 3/5 points
Allows 6% of your Health regeneration to work while in combat.


Gift of Nature - 1/1 point
Increases the effect of your Healing Touch, Rejuvenation, Regrowth, and Tranquility spells by 5%.


Reflection - 1/5 point
Allows 3% of your Mana regeneration to continue while casting.

Again, I am taking a very middle of the road approach. I like to zap them with moonfire and faerie fire, bear up with as much armor as I can get, then in bear I tank. I'm not looking for damage with the bear just "active survival." I want my thorns, roots, and attack spells to drain them while im thumping them with me paws. My primary dilemma at the moment is how to increase my taunt power and frequencey without giving too much up for rage increase....

My true love is group work vs p or e, so I also want to protect the cloth wearers and the more lightly armored rogues. And of course at my level i'm starting to have some group heal strength



Sorry went on so long. It helps me to think it through and I hope this isnt too boring for others.

Oh and one last thing. If you can get in game at a relatively quiet time (morning). Go and catch the senior druids hanging out in front of IF bank and AH. They have been unfailingly kind and encouraging to me when I approach them with the respect that they truly deserve! :)