Hybrid Druid (Heart of the Wild)

[Daedalos]

Hello Nostalrius,

It's been a while since I had the time to come online. There has been some changes to progression, so I believe the topic is relevant again – at least for me.



A hybrid druid.

A flexible specced druid build around the talent Heart of the Wild. Not only does it improve your feral forms significantly, it also boosts your intellect with 20%. Instead of re-speccing every now and then, I find the hybrid path extremely interesting.

Obviously being half-decent in multiple fields, minimizes the option of doing great in either field.

Is anyone rolling this type of hybrid in hightier endgame?
Is anyone 55+ rolling this type for leveling/dungeons?

Mock me and poke me with a stick.
Any feedback is appreciated.

[St0rfan]

My personal thoughts on hybrids are: Why be sort-of bad at two things, when you can be good on atleast one thing? You're missing out on alot of great talents in resto tree, and most guilds wont bring a feral tank anyways, especially not a hybrid one.

[Daedalos]

My personal thoughts on hybrids are: Why be sort-of bad at two things, when you can be good on atleast one thing? You're missing out on alot of great talents in resto tree, and most guilds wont bring a feral tank anyways, especially not a hybrid one.

How about if we think about supportive roles in, let's say, Molten Core? A few of those encounters required a lot of de-cursing. Obviously 20% Intellect is the ultimate talent for just that – is it not?

I'm saying this is bomb. But it's worth considering isn't it? In a 5/10 man run, having an extra character being able to assist with damage, or even take over tanking could mean resisting a wipe.

I could be wrong about everything, but the idea of not having a strict role turns me on.

[Brion]

It's a great pvp build and can be a great asset in blue dungeons. You can handle MC in either a healer or tank role, though no LotP gimps your use as a dps. The talents are virtually the same as full feral for tanking, aside from LotP and full Feral Instinct, so tanking will likely see the same issues that full feral has. Your healing doesn't suffer too badly, but you do miss an oh crap button with Swiftmend. It's what I am shooting for as I don't care about raiding, and want to be versatile once I start getting some BiS blues.

Something like this, though a couple of the points in feral tree can float depending on how much time I spend in cat form (particulary moving the Blood Frenzy points to Feral Instinct.
http://db.vanillagaming.org/?talent#0ZxoxscrdxVgc0xo

[Daedalos]

Aren't you afraid of your generated threat while healing, without having it reduced with Subtlety – and in bear without Feral Instinct?

[Brion]

Tank threat isn't really an issue in 5/10 mans as the dps doesn't have the gear to put out heavy dps. Subtlety would be nice as full resto, but the amount of threat that 2 points could drop is pretty negligible. If I'm pulling healing aggro, something else is wrong--the tank is either taking way too much damage or adds are running around unchecked. 8% less threat is not going to be better than potential protection from spell pushback on a long cast time.

[Daedalos]

Tank threat isn't really an issue in 5/10 mans as the dps doesn't have the gear to put out heavy dps. Subtlety would be nice as full resto, but the amount of threat that 2 points could drop is pretty negligible. If I'm pulling healing aggro, something else is wrong--the tank is either taking way too much damage or adds are running around unchecked. 8% less threat is not going to be better than potential protection from spell pushback on a long cast time.

Noted.

[Taladril]

I ran very close to this spec for months. I tanked MC with it, including Rag and the next week would throw on healing gear. Usually I was healing. It's not a spec that will wow anyone with numbers but it is entirely viable if you just stick mostly to healing touch and rejuvs. The resto tree really doesn't have a ton of amazing talents. They are nice, sure but they don't dramatically change your results. Same with what you miss in feral.
That build definitely is not capable of doing decent dps anywhere. It misses almost all of the important feral dps talents. But for tanking it hits pretty much everything. I have not felt like I am a stronger tank now that I am full feral. However my threat is better, so that's the real plus, I'd say.

[Daedalos]

I ran very close to this spec for months. I tanked MC with it, including Rag and the next week would throw on healing gear. Usually I was healing. It's not a spec that will wow anyone with numbers but it is entirely viable if you just stick mostly to healing touch and rejuvs. The resto tree really doesn't have a ton of amazing talents. They are nice, sure but they don't dramatically change your results. Same with what you miss in feral.
That build definitely is not capable of doing decent dps anywhere. It misses almost all of the important feral dps talents. But for tanking it hits pretty much everything. I have not felt like I am a stronger tank now that I am full feral. However my threat is better, so that's the real plus, I'd say.

This is exactly what I was thinking. Hauling numbers isn't really a druid thing anyways, so why would I bother? How did you find the +20% Intellect when healing raids? Did you spec Feral Instinct and Subtlety?

[Draenin]

This is the build I'm rocking, honestly I believe it's better than full-resto for healing. Less mana costs, I use improved rejuvenation for world PVP mostly, but stacking up rejuvs in raid was better than going off and topping off DPS with a quick healing-touch.

Also makes me not useless in the world, I can farm better and actually do damage in PVP and improved thorns in Balance is godly for tanks.