Cookie Cutter Feral Lvling Spec

[Lest]

Anyone know what the cookie cutter feral leveling spec is? Or maybe a link to a leveling guide with different druid specs? Thanks!

[popezaphod]

This appears to be the "cookie cutter" build:

http://www.wowprovider.com/Old.aspx?talent=11215875_11_8014c5301h505252030320015103n

Fill in Balance first and then Feral. You basically fill Nature's Grasp in order to get Natural Weapons, Natural Shapeshifter, and Omen of Clarity.

[Bezawit]

I prefer filling Feral out first to get that 30% increased catform speed at 21.

[Melvin]

This appears to be the "cookie cutter" build:

http://www.wowprovider.com/Old.aspx?talent=11215875_11_8014c5301h505252030320015103n

Fill in Balance first and then Feral. You basically fill Nature's Grasp in order to get Natural Weapons, Natural Shapeshifter, and Omen of Clarity.

I would definitely start with putting points into the Feral tree first.
Ferocity is a must have, Feline Swiftness speeds up traveling and FFF makes chain pulling so much easier while being shapeshifted.
Also: No points in Savage Fury and no maxed out Furor - are you serious?

[popezaphod]

I didn't come up with this - I found it in another post in this forum. I have no problems with putting points in Feral first nor reassigning points to make a more viable build. But remember - this is a leveling build and not a tanking nor dps build. I am sure there are more optimized builds available for those roles.

[Melvin]

I would assume that a leveling build is pretty much a DPS (+ travel speed increase) build.

[Larsen]

http://www.wowprovider.com/?talent=1121 ... 322215105n

...is pretty much the basic feral spec for anything that isn't pure tank or DPS, which a feral druid should never attempt to be. If you want to be more tank, you take 5/5 Thick Hide instead of Feral Aggression. If you don't want to tank at all, you take the points from Primal Fury and finish out Natural Shapeshifter.

You definitely don't want to waste points on Thick Hide in a leveling build, that would be beyond retarded even if you intend to tank a lot of instances. It's a weak talent overall as it doesn't stack multiplicatively with the bear form bonus, so it only gives a few hundred armor. It's only really worthwhile if you're tanking raid content.

You want to take Furor fairly early, probably in your 20s, because you have to shift out and heal yourself pretty often while soloing. If you have to regenerate a full bar of energy each time you shift back into cat form, it slows your grind down a lot. Furor is also pretty much necessary for tanking as you need to be able to start the fight with enough rage to use an ability, otherwise you're always behind on aggro.

Assuming you want your leveling spec to both grind solo and tank instances, here's a sensible progression model:

20
http://www.wowprovider.com/?talent=11215875_11_8q51p5n

30
http://www.wowprovider.com/?talent=1121 ... q55d213j5n

40
http://www.wowprovider.com/?talent=1121 ... 032221c05n

50
http://www.wowprovider.com/?talent=1121 ... 22215105m0

You take the balance stuff last because it's a gigantic investment for just +10% damage, as well as the Shred talent since that's not very useful while leveling.

[popezaphod]

I like your builds a lot. Thanks for sharing them!

[Melvin]

@ Larsen
Why would you spend any talent points in Feral Aggression, especially before you get Ferocious Bite at level 32?
But even then this talent seems just lackluster to me. Ferocious Bite is such a weak finisher when it doesn't crit - and improved demo roar might only be a nice to have if you are serious about tanking at level 60.

[Larsen]

Because it's still better than the alternatives. Until you have a bunch of endgame gear with extra armor, Thick Hide gives less defense than Feral Aggression's improved Demo Roar does. Feral druids already generate way more threat than necessary, and better stealth is mostly useless, so Feral Instict is also a weak talent. None of the choices are particularly good but you do need to put 10 points in the tree to get to the next stuff, so Feral Aggression is the best choice. It gives a little bit of DPS (after 32) and it's great for tanking dungeons.