Hi all,

I was wondering what the chance to proc OoC was, and how viable soloing in casterform is. I'm currently lev22 and have some points in feral/restoration and usually fight in catform. I could respec and go the casterform way but I'm concerned about the downtime to regain mana.

i had OoC all the way up to 60 and loved it the whole time; i respecced out of it only recently to try out feral charge because i never had used charge before :). OoC procs once or twice a fight on average when soloing, allowing you a free regrowth/HT/moonfire as you see fit. it is worth it because it cuts your downtime down to practically nothing, assuming you're comfortable beating a mob to death with your staff/mace for a decent amount of time to conserve mana.

OoC really shines when you're in a nearly out of control situation and are oom. those times that OoC procs to give you a free tranquility, thus saving the group and turning a bad pull into a glorious battle, are definitely worth a talent point.

Next to useless in high end instances (where you have to stay away fromAE and cleave effects), I wish I'd gotten OoC long before I did (around lev 52-55). The poster above is correct, it reduces downtime significantly while soloing.

The proc rate is certainly above 5 percent, and below 20 percent. Where it falls in there exactly I can't say, cause I don't really know how to parse combat logs in WoW.

Even at 60, I love this talent for solo questing/farming. Note that weapon speed is key here - something less than 3 second delay, with less than 2.5 second being ideal.

It all depends on how you are specced:

Feral specced - solo in feral forms - great for grinding

Resto/balance specced - solo in caster form, ooc makes grinding much more efficient.

However, feral is much better at solo/grinding than resto/balanced. But for those of us that need to also be the main healer in an instance, resto spec is the only option. So I added ooc to make solo more viable while still being able to main heal.

I've leveled both ways, feral/restoration and restoration/balance, and both are about the same speed wise. Even with restoration you use feral forms as needed (ie bear for multiples) the only real difference between the two forms of leveling is that you have to retrain yourself around level 50 as feral when cat becomes less viable. Both OOC and feral/shift heal have little to no downtime, but feral irritated me more because I had to waste the mana and time to shift and heal between fights, whereas with restoration balance I always just healed myself while fighting so I didn't notice it much.

Thanks for your input folks! I've decided to respec to balance/restore to see how that works for me. How do you usually pull? Moonfire, melee, heal, next? And moonfire when OoC procs?

For me it depends on the mob. If it's a even or elite beast I tend to wear it down with starfire/hibernate then moonfire and melee. If its not a beast I'll starfire, wrath, moonfire, then melee. I try to keep rejuv up on myself at all times but I don't waste OOC for that. I use my OOC proc to either moonfire or to regrowth if healing is called for. If you get a late procing ooc that you don't need you can use it for a free thorns rebuff.

I still have ooc 3 months after hitting 60 for farming purposes. It's rarely useful in instances or on raids but I do click it on for those rare occasions that I'm not primary healer.

I am only level 36 right now, but I rarely get a chance to use OoC.
Soloing for me goes like this, which would not use OoC:
Starfire, Faire Fire, Moonfire, bearform melee. Starfire is big damage but is a 3 second cast, so is only usable as your starting attack/pull.
When grinding mobs of one level above and lower, and room to roam permitting, I almost always fight two at a time. I starfire, Faire fire, moonfire, then faire fire and moonfire a second mob, all that time moving away from the first mob, then into bear form to melee them. I focus on one till death, then the second. The second one is usually near half health from the moonfire by the time I start beating on it. When rage is ready for use, I cast a roar to reduce the mobs damage ouput (two are beating on me so I see this as necessary), then use the rage for the attacks.
I never melee in castor form unless I expect to cast a heal.

Wrath and Moonfire cause relatively the same damage, but Wrath takes 1 1/2 seconds to cast. So I rarely use Wrath as well.

IMHO i think OoC is a waste of 6 talent points

In my early 30s I tried using OOC to level but it just wasn't worth it to me. I think it's a personality based thing and for me, waiting on something to proc is frustration, others might not mind it.

I found investing in bear and cat form a lot more productive in levelling fast.

I never had OoC before, but I grabbed it on test while playing about with the 1.8 changes.

I found it didn't proc enough for my liking. I could go 2-3 fights and only see 1 proc. Maybe I was just killing to fast. Also I'm using a big ol' slow 2 handed mace, that may have had an impact. If it wasn't only 1 point after Natural Weapons (Which I want for my feral build anyway) I wouldn't spec for it, but for only 1 point its worth it.

I don't know how much it would help a balance or restoration build, but its a nice cheap extra for my feral build.

I never consider myself waiting for OOC to proc. When it procs I use it and because it procs once or twice every fight it reduces any downtime I might possibly have had. But I don't think Druids have much downtime no matter the playstyle. I haven't had a need to sit and drink while solo farming for .. umm.. well .. for almost ever.