As I mentioned in the comments of my previous post, I have respec’d my Druid in WoW to a mostly Feral spec’d hybrid. Was it worth it?

Absolutely.

This thing is a killer. In cat form, it now does over 85 DPS before the skills. In bear form it soaks up the damage so well, it survived a mob of 5 level 57 furbolgs and the druid is only level 53.

In PvP a level 60 shaman had to wait till I was fighting other mobs and at half health before he attacked me. The first time he tried on an even fight, he got his butt handed to him. :-)

Nick and I were questing in Felwood when a level 60 warrior decided I was an easy target. Even had a pet that attacked. By the time Nick got back to join the fight, the warrior was already half dead and looking for a way out. :-) When he res’d, he didn’t even think about fighting again. Just used his hearthstone to immediately get the hell out of dodge.

In Feral spec, my druid can now stand up to level 60s in a one on one fight and has a good chance of winning the fight. And he’s only level 53. So far the only classes he has problems with are warlocks and rogues. Hunters are not an issue, just put the pet to sleep. Mages are not an issue, just grind through them. Warriors are difficult because they’ll have better armor and health. But in bear form, I’m pretty close to having the similar statistics myself anyway.

I don’t know if it was just the lvl60 shaman that tried tonight, or if it applies in general, but that shaman was pitiful. Just an absolute loser. He’s throwing totems everywhere trying to get me off him. I’m in bear form and not watching the health, just grinding away at him. He’s calling for healing and is out of mana. The first time he tried it, he went down. The second time, if I hadn’t been at half health already and had a furbolg attacking me, he would’ve lost. He was so close to dying the only thing that saved him was me dying first. And he had full health when I switched to attacking him.

Then we look at fighting mobs or PvE… Finally, I can go in to areas and not feel like I’m going to die just by being there. Before, I was spec’d for healing so much that I dealt bugger all damage. Fights with mobs my own level I could win, but only just. Now I can take on 2 mobs a couple levels higher than me and come out the other side with around half health. More if they’re my own level. :-) Feral spec is truly the most fun a druid can have in this game.

There are a few things I wouldn’t mind tweaking on it, but I’m going to hold off on those till I get to level 60. As it is now, I’m kicking ass and loving it. Even Nick commented on how well I can deal to level 60 Horde ;-) I may not kill them often, but I give them such a pounding they’ll think about it before trying again. ;-)

So much fun. Most definitely worth doing.

But would I go feral from the start? Actually, probably not. I’d probably go through the early levels as half balance, half restore and then respec feral once I got to 40. Looking back, that would’ve been a better way for me to do things anyway. Enough of a healer to get group invites, but still able to cast some damage.

After playing a Tank in Guild Wars for so long, its nice to be playing a character in WoW that can get in and start to deal serious damage. :-) My tactics now are quite varied and all depend on how the party is made up. When its just Nick’s Hunter and I, I usually fight in Cat form because his pet is holding the agro. So I don’t need big armor. Unless we get a bad pull, then I don’t have much choice but to switch to bear form. When I’m in another group, it all depends on who/what is there. If there is a warrior, I’ll either cat form for DPS or stand back and throw spells and heals. Questing like this isn’t a problem. Throwing heals in an instance now as a primary healer would be next to impossible in my view.

Feral spec is most definitely how I prefer to play. Its truly the hybrid druids should’ve been from the start. I’m glad they fixed the feral tree to make it worth while. Part of the reason I never went feral spec in 2005 was because for much of the time I was playing then, the Feral tree was broken. Now… Now I cannot see how anyone could play a Druid toon any other way. We’ll never be as good as a Priest at healing. Never as good as a Rogue/Mage/Hunter/Warlock for DPS, and never as good as a Warrior for tanking. But if you take all three and use them together to get through the fights, you’ve got a class that kicks the butt of all the others now.

I no longer think Shamans need to be nerfed. But in saying that, the one that was attacking us in Winterspring tonight could’ve just been a really useless and pathetic example.

Oh, and its true. Horde do outnumber Alliance significantly on our server. But that doesn’t mean they’re better killers. Just bigger numbers to kill with. ;-)

So much more to say, but its 3am and I’m buggered. My monitor finally died tonight and so I’m going to have to figure out how to come up with the money I’ll need to replace it. That really annoys the hell out of me to be honest. Would’ve been nice if it survived a while longer. So many debts. :-(