Selecting Talents for the Druid

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Selecting Talents for the Druid

One of the major drawbacks of World of Warcraft, for me, has always been the fact that despite a couple of minor details we all look the same. With no armor customization or dyes, few variances in item models and none of the body type or facial customization some other MMOGs offer, running around a city in WoW makes you feel like you’re in a bad George Lucas movie.

One aspect of the game, however, that does allow you to make your character unique is your talent specifications. Staring at level 10 you gain one talent point per level. You can spend these talents in one of three talent schools that allow you to upgrade your characters stats, talents and abilities or add new abilities. The WoW Druid has its talent schools split into Feral, Balance and Restoration. The feral tree is for both those that want to tank and those that want to DPS, melee based. The balance school lends itself to the 'layzor firing pew pewers' that long for ranged caster DPS. The Restoration tree lends itself to well….being a tree. Restoration is for those that want to heal their comrades and annoy their opponents by being nearly impossible to kill.

Let’s take a closer look at each talent tree.

Feral
Feral Build

Feral Talents by Level Suggestion
Level	Talent	Rank
10	Furor	1
11	Furor	2
12	Furor	3
13	Furor	4
14	Furor	5
15	Feral Aggression	1
16	Feral Aggression	2
17	Feral Aggression	3
18	Feral Aggression	4
19	Feral Aggression	5
20	Ferocity	1
21	Ferocity	2
22	Ferocity	3
23	Ferocity	4
24	Ferocity	5
25	Savage Fury	1
26	Savage Fury	2
27	Sharpened Claws	1
28	Sharpened Claws	2
29	Sharpened Claws	3
30	Feral Swiftness	1
31	Feral Swiftness	2
32	Survival Instincts	1
33	Primal Fury	1
34	Primal Fury	2
35	Primal Precision	1
36	Primal Precision	2
37	Predatory Strikes	1
38	Predatory Strikes	2
39	Predatory Strikes	3
40	Feral Charge	1
41	Heart of the Wild	1
42	Heart of the Wild	2
43	Heart of the Wild	3
44	Heart of the Wild	4
45	Heart of the Wild	5
46	Survival of the Fittest	1
47	Survival of the Fittest	2
48	Survival of the Fittest	3
49	Leader of the Pack	1
50	Imp. Leader of the Pack	1
51	Imp. Leader of the Pack	2
52	Predatory Instincts	1
53	Predatory Instincts	2
54	Predatory Instincts	3
55	Infected Wounds	1
56	Infected Wounds	2
57	Infected Wounds	3
58	Mangle	1
59	Improved Mangle	1
60	Improved Mangle	2
61	Improved Mangle	3
62	Rend and Tear	1
63	Rend and Tear	2
64	Rend and Tear	3
65	Rend and Tear	4
66	Rend and Tear	5
67	Primal Gore	1
68	Berserk	1
69	Natural Shapeshifter	1
70	Natural Shapeshifter	2
71	Natural Shapeshifter	3
72	Naturalist	1
73	Naturalist	2
74	Naturalist	3
75	Naturalist	4
76	Naturalist	5
77	Master Shapeshifter	1
78	Master Shapeshifter	2
79	Master Shapeshifter	3
80	Omen Of Clarity	1

The Feral Combat school is used primarily for tanking and melee DPS. Some other specs may use a couple of early talents to finish off their builds here as well. This tree will primarily fortify your armor, increase your damage done and reduce the amount and types of damage taken. This talent spec is currently the most popular one used by players as they level up in the game as it provides the best balance between fast DPS and survivability.

There are many talents in this tree that are highly desirable for the feral druid. I will, however, focus on three that have universal benefit to bears and kitties as well as being useful for PvE and PvP. The first talent that has very good point for point benefit to a feral druid is actually in the Restoration tree.

Furor - Furor at 5 points grants you 10 rage in bear form and allows you to keep 100% of your energy in cat form when you shapeshift into these forms. This talent almost seems out of place in the restoration school, however there are many feral builds that spend 14-16 points in restoration and this is an excellent starter.

Predatory Strikes - This is a three point max talent that increases your melee attack power by 50/100/150% in cat and bear forms and increases your attack power by 7/14/20% from your weapon. Its benefits are clear in cat form and as a bear tank it is highly desirable as your threat generation is increased with the damage you put out.

Berserk - This is the 51 point talent in the tree, the last hurrah for a deep feral build. It is an activated ability on a three minute timer that allows, in bear form, your mangle ability to hit up to three targets and eliminates its cooldown, and in cat form it reduces all energy costs by 50%. Berserk also clears any fear effect and renders you immune to fear for its duration. The ability lasts fifteen seconds. As a tank, it is excellent for any situation when you are offtanking multiple adds and need to regain threat quickly. As DPS in a raid situation it stacks amazingly well when abilities such as bloodlust are used to help max out your burst DPS. The fear component would have been excellent as a tank in pre expansion WoW as it was Blizzards standby ability for boss fights, but its utility in PvP will never falter.

Balance
Balance Build

Balance Talents by Level Suggestion
Level	Talent	Rank
10	Starlight Wrath	1
11	Starlight Wrath	2
12	Starlight Wrath	3
13	Starlight Wrath	4
14	Starlight Wrath	5
15	Nature's Majesty	1
16	Nature's Majesty	2
17	Improved Moonfire	1
18	Improved Moonfire	2
19	Moonglow	1
20	Moonglow	2
21	Moonglow	3
22	Nature's Grace	1
23	Nature's Grace	2
24	Nature's Grace	3
25	Vengance	1
26	Vengance	2
27	Vengance	3
28	Vengance	4
29	Vengance	5
30	Insect Swarm	1
31	Imp. Insect Swarm	1
32	Imp. Insect Swarm	2
33	Imp. Insect Swarm	3
34	Nature's Splendor	1
35	Lunar Guidance	1
36	Lunar Guidance	2
37	Lunar Guidance	3
38	Dreamstate	1
39	Dreamstate	2
40	Dreamstate	3
41	Moonkin Form	1
42	Furor	1
43	Furor	2
44	Furor	3
45	Furor	4
46	Furor	5
47	Natural Shapeshifter	1
48	Natural Shapeshifter	2
49	Natural Shapeshifter	3
50	Nature's Focus	1
51	Nature's Focus	2
52	Master Shapeshifter	1
53	Master Shapeshifter	2
54	Omen of Clarity	1
55	Imp Moonkin Form	1
56	Imp Moonkin Form	2
57	Imp Moonkin Form	3
58	Owlkin Frenzy	1
59	Owlkin Frenzy	2
60	Owlkin Frenzy	3
61	Moonfury	1
62	Moonfury	2
63	Moonfury	3
64	Typhoon	1
65	Eclipse	1
66	Eclipse	2
67	Eclipse	3
68	Force of Nature	1
69	Wrath of Cenarius	1
70	Wrath of Cenarius	2
71	Wrath of Cenarius	3
72	Wrath of Cenarius	4
73	Wrath of Cenarius	5
74	Earth and Moon	1
75	Earth and Moon	2
76	Earth and Moon	3
77	Starfall	1
78	Intensity	1
79	Intensity	2
80	Intensity	3

The Balance tree is the specialty of caster DPS and home of the Boomchicken. Balance talents focus on ranged spells and abilities, reduction of threat, increases to spell range and increases to damage. This school also offers some nice enhancements to restoration druids and they may finish spending their points here in many builds. Recent improvements to itemization and some reworking of the class by Blizzard have made this spec very viable in all WoW situations. The balance druid is a very fun build to play.

Nature’s majesty - Nature’s Majesty increases the damage of your Wrath, Starfire and Starfall abilities by 2% per point spent, max of two points. This is point for point one of the best talents you can have as a moonkin and it's positioned well for early advancement through the tree. This is a must have spell for all balance builds.

Moonkin Form - Moonkin form is a shapeshift that gives you some great abilities and effects and is the cornerstone talent in the school. Moonkin form increases armor you are wearing by 370%, increases raid spell crit by 5% (45 yard range) and gives your spell critical strikes the chance of instantly regenerating 2% of your total mana. You may only cast balance spells or decurses in this form. It, like all other druid shapeshift forms, frees you from polymorph effects. The upsides to this talent are huge. The armor increase essentially will bridge the gap in any cloth you are wearing bringing it on par with leather items, a welcome addition to PvP fans. The increase in raid DPS will make you popular among your caster friends, at least until you beat them on the damage meters. The mana refunds, especially when coupled with raid wide mana regens from other classes, will ensure you are never OOM.

Eclipse - This is a 3 point talent that at full value has some excellent returns. The ability allows a critical hit with Starfire to have a 100% chance of increasing damage done by Wrath by 20%. When you critically hit with Wrath, you have a 60% chance of increasing your critical strike chance with Starfire by 30%. This ability has a 30 second cooldown with a 15 second effect timer. I know this talent won’t be selected by many of the non raiding druids, but its power is too great to leave out of my assessment of this talent tree.

Restoration
Restoration Build

Restoration Talents by Level Suggestion
Level	Talent	Rank
10	Genesis	1
11	Genesis	2
12	Genesis	3
13	Genesis	4
14	Genesis	5
15	Nature's Focus	1
16	Nature's Focus	2
17	Nature's Focus	3
18	Imp. Mark of the Wild	1
19	Imp. Mark of the Wild	2
20	Natural Shapeshifter	1
21	Natural Shapeshifter	2
22	Natural Shapeshifter	3
23	Subtlety	1
24	Subtlety	2
25	Omen of Clarity	1
26	Intensity	1
27	Intensity	2
28	Intensity	3
29	Mater Shapeshifter	1
30	Mater Shapeshifter	2
31	Tranquil Spirit	1
32	Tranquil Spirit	2
33	Tranquil Spirit	3
34	Tranquil Spirit	4
35	Tranquil Spirit	5
36	Nature's Swiftness	1
37	Gift of Nature	1
38	Gift of Nature	2
39	Gift of Nature	3
40	Gift of Nature	4
41	Gift of Nature	5
42	Imp. Rejuventaion	1
43	Imp. Rejuventaion	2
44	Imp. Rejuventaion	3
45	Nature's Bounty	1
46	Nature's Bounty	2
47	Nature's Bounty	3
48	Nature's Bounty	4
49	Nature's Bounty	5
50	Swiftmend	1
51	Gift of Nature	1
52	Gift of Nature	2
53	Gift of Nature	3
54	Gift of Nature	4
55	Gift of Nature	5
56	Tree of Life	1
57	Imp. Tree of Life	1
58	Imp. Tree of Life	2
59	Imp. Tree of Life	3
60	Living Spirit	1
61	Living Spirit	2
62	Living Spirit	3
63	Gift of the Earthmother	1
64	Gift of the Earthmother	2
65	Gift of the Earthmother	3
66	Gift of the Earthmother	4
67	Gift of the Earthmother	5
68	Wild Growth	1
69	Living Seed	1
70	Living Seed	2
71	Living Seed	3
72	Moonglow	1
73	Moonglow	2
74	Moonglow	3
75	Nature's Majesty	1
76	Nature's Majesty	2
77	Nature's Grace	1
78	Nature's Grace	2
79	Nature's Grace	3
80	Nature's Splendor	1

Restoration is the primary tree of the healer archetype of druid. It allows for reduction in mana costs, increases in heal effectiveness, greater duration of heal over time spells and a dedicated healing form among its many talents. If you enjoy the challenge of keeping your raid, group, and friends alive then you will enjoy the “resto” druid. You should also probably invest in some therapy; you’re going to need it. The restoration tree also houses a couple of abilities that every spec seems to find their way into. While most players do not choose to level as restoration, it is possible to do so, and many druids find that healing is their true calling and can never imagine playing as anything else. As I stated before, these are troubled individuals that need your support. : )

Intensity - Intensity is a three point talent that allows 10/20/30 % of your mana to regenerate while casting. All healers are mana dependent and the druid is certainly no exception. While dreamstate builds are top for mana regen, a deep resto build will always want to include this talent. This talent is also a prerequisite for Nature’s Swiftness which makes it a must have just from that standpoint.

Improved Rejuvenation - This is a 3 point talent that increases your rejuvenation spell by 5/10/15 %. This is an essential talent with the assumption that you will be selecting the next talent I’m going to talk about: Tree of life, this will be your bread and butter spell and the 15% increase is amazing. On its own, it is a formidable ability, and when you factor in that it is the prerequisite for Improved Regrowth it becomes 100% essential.

Tree of Life - Tree of Life is the crown jewel of the restoration tree; notice how I use the word "tree?" Well it’s because with this talent you are what you spec, an uprooted tree with leaves and all. Tree of life is a shapeshift form that increases healing received by party members by 6% and reduces the mana costs of your Heal Over Time spells by 20%. You are restricted to cast healing, cleansing and innervate spells in this form. There used to be the downside of a movement speed reduction and the inability to cast healing touch, however recent patches have removed both of these issues. This is the must have spell for a deep restoration build and for those that like to role play shrubbery.

Stay Away!

We have covered the three talent trees and looked at a sample of the best talents from each, now lets check out a couple of talents that, much like boxcars on a craps table, are sucker bets.

Improved Faerie Fire - This talent looks great on the surface, but hey so does Anna Kournikova until you take off the makeup. This talent increases the chance to hit the target by all members of the raid. But by now most players should be hit capped. It also increases the crit chance of your spells on the target, but this deep into the tree there are points much better spent.

Empowered Touch - Empowered touch is a two point talent that increases your Healing Touch by 20/40%. 40% sounds like an incredible buff, and I suppose it is, but have you seen those ads for useless crap that promise: “You will save 80% if you act now?” Well save 100% and don’t act at all. If you're this deep into the resto tree, you will be a tree, and most of your healing will be done through HoTs, rendering these two points better spent somewhere else. One day the gear progression and whatnot may make this a viable way to heal, but in the current game it has no use for a deep resto druid.

How you choose to spend your talent points is ultimately up to you, unless you’re in a raiding guild, and in that case you will want to look at the optimum builds current for your class. Talents are a great canvas to paint your characters unique portrait. Have fun with them and explore them to find the build that suits you best. Until next time, happy WoWing and be safe.

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Selecting Talents for the Druid