Hybrid Druid (Heart of the Wild)

[Draenin]

Well, you don't need the flask for anything but what's more valuable? 3 points into another talent(s) or -9% mana cost which is pretty insignificant. It takes a little less than 90minutes to farm 100g in Maraudon. Even so, 9000 mana is more than enough for Druid so going OOM even without the flask would still be mind boggling.

Either you're using too high of a Regrowth rank or you're...like how do you OOM while using Healing Touch? Haha...

It's great seeing someone speak out their ass. Stop posting information that isn't correct, thank you

[Keftenk]

What?

[Mahtan]

This is my build.

Heart of the Wild is indeed a great talent and boosts your performance in all roles.
I dislike the instant heal on a 3 min cd for being more of a PvP talent and use Leader of the Pack - which makes Rogues and Warriors quite happy and helps with tanking as bear and cat dps.

The best thing that can happen to a hybrid druid is T2,5 from AQ40. It provides tons of stats for every role - even more due to Heart of the Wild. Until that you have to take additional item sets into your raids, I have 1 equip for bear tanking and cat dps and 1 for healing.

Cat dps is bugged on Nostalrius (or Mangos in general): You can abuse the +9 weapon damage enchant for 2-hand weapon and use a +8 weapon damage Weight Stone on it, too. Even in healing gear, you can deal solid dps with Shred if you have a weapon with these enchants. Don't forget: You can switch weapons infight, so even a healer can switch into dps if he is bored in an UBRS run

[Daedalos]

Don't you ever have trouble with aggro as a bear – without Feral instinct?

[Mirabae]

Some general thoughts:

* Heart of the Wild builds are always worse than 24/0/27 or the "full resto build" for healing. You simply miss out on too many talents. If you have Theorycraft you can see how much more mana/crit you'd get with HotW. It's not worth it.

* When it comes to the good ol' 24/0/27 vs full resto discussion, they're both viable but use different playstyles. The main advantage of full resto is Swiftmend. The increased crit of Regrowth is, together with 5 pc T2, also pretty sick. I still prefer 24/0/27.

* Regarding the "druids going oom"-discussion; you can always push yourself harder. If all you do is spam HT rank 3/4 for an entire fight, you're (probably) not reaching your full potential.

* Nature's Swiftness is not, as someone suggested, a PvP talent. It's one of the best PvE healing spells. Instant 3-5k heal is invaluable.

[Daedalos]

Some general thoughts:

* Heart of the Wild builds are always worse than 24/0/27 or the "full resto build" for healing. You simply miss out on too many talents. If you have Theorycraft you can see how much more mana/crit you'd get with HotW. It's not worth it.

* When it comes to the good ol' 24/0/27 vs full resto discussion, they're both viable but use different playstyles. The main advantage of full resto is Swiftmend. The increased crit of Regrowth is, together with 5 pc T2, also pretty sick. I still prefer 24/0/27.

* Regarding the "druids going oom"-discussion; you can always push yourself harder. If all you do is spam HT rank 3/4 for an entire fight, you're (probably) not reaching your full potential.

* Nature's Swiftness is not, as someone suggested, a PvP talent. It's one of the best PvE healing spells. Insant 3-5k heal is invaluable.

The only thing you're really missing out on, are 9% mana reduction from Moonglow, and +10% Healing from Gift of Nature. Are you telling me, that 20% more Intellect can't be weighed against those two?

[Mirabae]

The only thing you're really missing out on, are 9% mana reduction from Moonglow, and +10% Healing from Gift of Nature. Are you telling me, that 20% more Intellect can't be weighed against those two?

Yes. 10% overall healing is infinitely more useful than more mana and slightly higher crit. Like I said, try putting 5 pts into HotW in the Theorycraft addon. Even with my gear the difference isn't big enough to justify HotW.

The bigger mana pool also gets less effective per mana due to the missing moonglow.

I understand the wish to use hybrid specs - surely they're more fun than narrow specs - but if you want to perform well in raids they are inferior.

[Taladril]

The only thing you're really missing out on, are 9% mana reduction from Moonglow, and +10% Healing from Gift of Nature. Are you telling me, that 20% more Intellect can't be weighed against those two?

Yes. 10% overall healing is infinitely more useful than more mana and slightly higher crit. Like I said, try putting 5 pts into HotW in the Theorycraft addon. Even with my gear the difference isn't big enough to justify HotW.

The bigger mana pool also gets less effective per mana due to the missing moonglow.

I understand the wish to use hybrid specs - surely they're more fun than narrow specs - but if you want to perform well in raids they are inferior.

I don't think the point of that build is to try to compare against a pure heal build. The pure heal will always win. However the HotW build is truly capable of decent healing and tanking for all content, which is pretty cool. Yes it's a compromise. But it's not such a compromise that it doesn't work at all.

[Mirabae]

I don't think the point of that build is to try to compare against a pure heal build. The pure heal will always win. However the HotW build is truly capable of decent healing and tanking for all content, which is pretty cool. Yes it's a compromise. But it's not such a compromise that it doesn't work at all.

I'm sure it still functions. As you stated earlier in this thread druids have pretty bad talents overall, so the impact isn't as big as other classes' hybrid builds.

An important aspect is managing to find a raidspot with a non-optimal build if you want to do anything other than the occasional MC pug. Most serious guilds will not accept oddball specs (I'm not evaluating the fairness of this, just stating facts). I'm sure it's easier to play fun specs if you're an officer, like your signature states that you are.

The point I'm trying to get across is that HotW variations of druid builds are not recommended if you're aiming for end-game raiding (this also answers one of OP's initial questions).

[fibes88]

Super fun spec, and in the hands of a semi-competent player is completely viable for 99% of current content. With proper gear, that spec allows you to solo grind effectively, tank dungeons, off-tank in raids, and heal anything.

As a bear you miss out on nothing critical, while simultaneously gaining Nature's Swiftness. As a HT healer you miss out on Nature's Grace, which is arbitrary considering the difficulty of current content and how well HT scales. Moonglow is nice, but again, not very crucial considering you gain 20% intellect. Obviously the HotW spec won't work if you want to play swiftmend druid or cat.