Druid Builds Guide

Balance Builds
Full Balance

Prior to the expansion Balance had traditionally been considered underpowered due to awkward talent design and poor itemization. With the addition of Moonkin form in 1.08 it gained a certain amount of PvP viability but was still considered unsuitable for PvE raiding. With the addition of several powerful new talents to the balance tree and a significant talent re-design to improve point efficiency, balance druids have been elevated to a level of viability never before seen in the game. WoW 2.0 Moonkins can probably come close to matching the raw DPS of a Mage or Warlock but begin to fall short when it comes to mana endurance and certain types of raid utility such as threat reduction, powerful debuffs, and AoE damage dealing. In PVP, the Moonkin's combination of roots, nukes and excellent damage mitigation make them dangerous opponents for certain classes.

Below are two sample builds, one oriented towards PvE and the other towards PvP.

* PvE Moonkin - http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=MxzrdicsguAoZxxcz
o Emphasizes mana regeneration and raid utility with talents such as Dreamstate, Intensity.
* PvP Moonkin - http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=MtcrziIsgzVoZxeh
o Passes on long term mana endurance, since fights are very short in PvP. Improves ability to fight under pressure with Celestial Focus and Nature's Focus and ability shapeshift frequently to heal(or just to escape in travel form) with Natural Shapeshifter.

* Patch 2.1.0 Build (43/0/18) - http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=MxzrdicsguVZZxxcx
o In Patch 2.1.0, Subtlety will reduce threat done by all spells, instead of just healing spells. As a Balance Druid's main concern in raids is threat, subtlety will become almost required during raids.

Swift Moonkin (40/0/21)

Nature's Swiftness is a potent tool for nuking or healing-- you can even use it to instantly hibernate that pesky feral opponent. So it's only natural with the release of the expansion that a 40/0/21 build would emerge. Wrath of Cenarius and Force of Nature are the two big sacrifices, along with much-missed points from Moonglow. On the plus side, though, you get Intensity to boost your mana regen. Omen of Clarity situationally boosts your situational melee buff from Moonkin form. Natural Shapeshifter helps you drop into caster form for a quick heal, and Improved Rejuvenation and Nature's Focus make sure those heals get off. Finally, Nature's Swiftness is like a free extra life-- if your mana holds out.

It's not as potent as the 0/40/21 feral build, since your heals and DPS both come from the same mana pool, but the survivability is still very strong. One hidden benefit: your +damage and spell crit gear will benefit your heals and your nukes. While you'll still want a separate healing set, your heals will still pack quite a punch in your DPS clothing.

* http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=MtcrziIkguZZxVIzco

PVP Balance Full Hybrid

This build combines some of the most useful PvP talents while keeping a Balance build focus. Uncommon from other builds, this dips in to all three trees. It may seem odd, given that when a druid is in one form, he cannot benefit from bonuses in other forms. However, a criticism of druids in PVP is a lack of spell interrupts. The inclusion of Feral Charge and Furor gives the druid a spell interrupt that can be used almost on demand.

* http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=0turziIogzZxG0oZVxh

Feral Builds
Full Feral (1/43/17)

Before 2.0, druids wanting to maximize their Feral DPS abilities were forced to spec into an awkward 14/32/5 tri-build that lacked real versatility. The revision to druid talents and the addition of the strong Mangle ability has completely re-made the Feral druid, taking it from a quirky off-spec to a truly viable and powerful build for both PvE and PvP.

There has been some discussion as to exactly how important Mangle is to a feral druid. For druids interested in their cat form DPS, especially in raids, it is essential. Expect your DPS to nearly double with a Mangle build. Ferals focused on bear tanking will find that Lacerate is an adequate rage dump for anything short of main tanking in raids; though even then think the question through completely before skipping this potent ability.

Many feral druids will spend their extra talents points in restoration because of the talents that make feral fighting better, specifically Furor, Naturalist, Natural Shapeshifter, Intensity, and Omen of Clarity.

* http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=zzZxGGsfroxzioVxIz

Feral Mend Spec (0/30/31)

Before WoW 2.0 the 0/30/21 Feral Hybrid was arguably the single most popular non-raiding druid build. In PvP, strong mana regeneration and Nature's Swiftness allows a druid to draw a fight out almost indefinitely. In PvE, the flexibility allowed even raiding druids to offtank or heal as the occasion suited. With the advent of Mangle, druids now have a choice about DPS vs survivability and healing potential. While many have gone full over to the DPS potential of Mangle, many others still treasure the power, survivability and flexibility of the feral hybrid.

For some druids, levelling to 70 will mean the ten more points they need to get Swiftmend, a potent tool in any druid's healing arsenal. Swiftmend provides an oft-superior emergency heal option to Nature's Swiftness, especially for PvE raiding where a druid's heal over time spells are most prized. Heart of the Wild's utility is maximized in this build; for healing situations by allowing for very large mana pools to make up for decreased mana efficiency.

As always, raiding druids might be expected to exchange Furor for the vastly inferior Improved Mark of the Wild. Check with your guild before doing this; in many cases a restoration druid with this talent may offer to handle buffing duties in exchange for you bringing material components.

* http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=zZxhGscbRxZVxIzcq0Lo

Feral's Swiftness (0/40/21)

The other option for feral hybrids is to extend their feral abilities to the limit, stopping just short of Mangle to keep Nature's Swiftness. This is a game-changing decision, whichever way you go. Mangle will vastly improve your DPS. Nature's Swiftness will vastly improve your survivability. For a true feral hybrid, this survivability, plus the bonuses to healing, make the exchange worthwhile. With many of the new encounters tuned with hybrid players in mind, Blizzard seems to agree.

In PVP, druids with Mangle will quickly dispatch enemies, or be killed themselves. Hybrids play the more traditional druid game of attrition, steadily beating an opponent down while relying on escape mechanisms, fast mana regeneration and instant heals to lend a sense of futility to their opponent's attacks. In raiding, don't expect to be called on to DPS unless you have mangle (or unless another feral keeps that debuff up to boost your Shreds). However, off-tanking and healing remain quite viable.

The Feral's Swiftness build is very strong in arena play, where you can operate in feral form but still suddenly shift out to give a strong heal to a teammate (or yourself). Powers like Pounce, Bash, Entangling Roots and Cyclone (not to mention hibernate) don't care if you have Mangle or not, making you an ideal spoiler for other teams' strategies.

* http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=MZxhGsfrRxubZVxIzco

Restoration Builds
Full Restoration

Tree of Life remains a controversial talent and may still be tinkered with by the developers. The concept for it is a dedicated healbot, and it is extremely PvE oriented. Some of the major points of controversy have been the movement speed penalty and the lack of defenses available to the tree, it is basically a "sitting duck". Some have also complained of the inability to utilize abolish poison and remove curse while in tree of life form.

Tree form aura was changed just before the release of TBC from increasing the healing done by party members to increasing the healing done to party members. This makes it useful for MT-groups or other groups whose members will require extra healing.

The form is worth taking if one likes to heal with HoTs and Swiftmend. Healing Touch is not usable in this form which greatly reduces the druid's max healing per second, however the mana cost of all available healing spells is reduced by 20%, which combined with the aura greatly increases healing longevity.

It is worth noting that shifting out of this form, like all other forms, costs no mana, which allows a druid healer to shift out and begin using Healing Touch should the need arise.

Some variation remains possible, but since the focus of this build is so narrowly on raid healing it is optimal to place pretty much all of your talent points in the restoration tree, something like this:

* 1/0/60 Tree of Life - http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=0zZZxEcteqrest

Mana Mend Spec (27/0/34)

Balance has always been a good complement to Restoration. Both talent trees are spellcasting trees and there's a certain amount of gear and playstyle crossover. In the past a hybridized 27/0/24 Balance/resto build was fairly popular for raiding druids. Post expansion, level 70 druids will still enjoy the fruits of this powerful build.

The hybrid balance spec emphasizes maximizing mana efficiency of heals, particularly Healing Touch. It also has significant damage dealing ability, being more than adequate for solo farming, though it falls well short of the level necessary for dedicated DPS in a raid setting. Spirit gear is a great plus for this build, to make sure you have enough use of everything.

PvP druids with this build will greatly miss the survivability and crit bonus of the moonkin form. They might wanna prefer the talent Natural Perfection in stead of Living Spirit.

* http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=MxcrzicsZZxxcxcqRco

Restokin Spec (AKA Dreamstate) (34/0/27)

This build is based on the Healing Touch-related Restoration tree talents and the 3-point Dreamstate talent (and others from the Balance tree). It emphasizes intellect as a primary stat and is good for soloing as well as healing.

Dreamstate gives a druid 10% of their intellect in mana per 5 seconds. Lunar Guidance gives a druid 25% of their intellect in +damage/healing. A level 70 druid in pre-raid gear can achieve over 400 intellect, making for 40 extra mana per 5 seconds while casting and +100 damage/healing.

You have to like casting Healing Touch with this spec, since it is a huge heal now, low on costs. And the mana restore you got now, works best while casting. Great spec for PvP and PvE, making you very useful in 5-mans.

Even though it contains more balance talents than restoration, it is still considered a healing spec. The last talent might be wasted in Moonkin Form, and can also be stored in Gift of Nature (in resto).

(In addition, points can be traded around to get 5/5 Subtlety and 2/2 Improved tranquility if lowered threat is a desire and PVP is not in your future.)

* http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=0tcrzicsRhZZxgc0faM