Like all classes, druids’ abilities are divided into three different schools. Talent points, which will be discussed later, are used to spec each druid into different schools, granting them new abilities and more utility with those spells from the school they choose to specialize in.

Balance spells include most of those which damage enemies. Druids who wish to act as ranged damage dealers will generally specialize in Balance.

Feral spells and abilities include all of the special abilities used in the various animal forms, as well as the transformation abilities themselves.

Restoration spells include all the spells which a druid uses to heal himself and his friends. Druids primarily interested in healing specialize in restoration.

Regardless of where druids choose to spend their talent points (used to customize one’s character), all druids will, upon achieving max level, have the following abilities. For simplicity’s sake only the maximum level of each ability in terms of mana cost, damage, etc. has been included.

BALANCE SPELLS

All of the following spells are cast by a druid in caster form. Druids who specialize themselves deep into the Balance talent tree will also have access to Moonkin form, which uses many of these spells.

Wrath
Causes 236 to 264 Nature Damage to Target. 2 second cast, 180 mana.

A simple direct damage spell, wrath is cheap and casts quickly. It will be the primary damaging spell a druid will use for his first few levels. Wrath is not a particularly popular spell for most druids once they reach level 60, as it simply does too little damage to be effective. A druid who specs into Balance, however, can make wrath substantially better, increasing its damage and range and lowering its casting time and mana cost significantly.

Moonfire
Burns the enemy for 189 to 221 Arcane Damage and an additional 384 Arcane Damage over 12 seconds. Instant cast, 375 mana.

Moonfire is the iconic druid spell in WoW. Moonfire does a modest amount of instant damage to the target, and applies a Damage over Time (DoT) to the target causing an additional amount of damage every 3 seconds for 12 seconds. Moonfire’s utility, however, is balanced by its high mana cast, more than double that of wrath. While it is tempting to simply spam the moonfire key to constantly cast and do damage, druids who try this will quickly run out of mana, and find that nearly every other class can still do more damage than a moonfire spamming druid.

Moonfire is a great spell when used correctly. Ideally, it should only be cast enough to keep the DoT on the target…think of the upfront damage as a bonus to the DoT that you are applying. Spamming it means you are wasting a great deal of mana by constantly reapplying the DoT, so moonfire becomes nothing more than a prohibitively expensive, low damage instant attack. That being said, when your target is low on health and you want to finish them off, 3 or 4 moonfires in a row can provide some burst damage to end the fight.

Starfire
Causes 445 to 525 Arcane Damage to the Target. 3.5 second cast, 315 mana.

Starfire is the druid’s basic, slow casting direct damage spell. It provides a nice amount of damage capability for any druid, and if specced into Balance starfire becomes significantly more attractive, doing substantially more damage and gains a quicker casting time.

Thorns
Thorns sprout from the target, causing 18 nature damage to attackers when hit. Lasts 10 minutes. 320 mana.

Thorns is a buff druids apply to themselves and their party members. 18 damage per attack is not a great deal, but in PvP it can’t hurt. In PVE, thorns increases the amount of damage a tank is doing to whatever is attacking, so its helps them to maintain a monster’s focus on them (keeping a monster’s focus on oneself is called holding aggro). Not a game changing spell by any means, but nice nonetheless.

Entangling Roots
Roots the target in place and causes 270 nature damage over 27 seconds. Damage caused may interrupt the effect. Only useable outdoors. 1.5 second cast, 125 mana.

Another signature druid spell, entangling roots has a great deal of functionality in both PvE and PvP. In PvP, rooting other players can keep them away from where they can do damage if they’re melee characters, or prevent them from escaping. In PVE, roots are used in the outdoor instanced dungeons as a form of crowd control…any monster that has no ranged attacks can effectively be rooted in place and kept away from the fight while other, more dangerous enemies are killed.

While entangling roots only works outdoors, it is important to note that this refers to where the druid is standing, not where his target is standing. This can occasionally be important in PvP: It doesn’t matter if the target is inside a building or on top of a tower, if the druid’s feet are outdoors he can root the target.

Faerie Fire
Decreases the armor of the target by 505 for 40 seconds. While affected, the target cannot stealth or turn invisible. Instant cast, 115 mana.

This spells utility is almost entirely derived from its ability to prevent a target from stealthing. This is the druid’s main anti-rogue weapon in PvP, as preventing a rogue from entering stealth prevents them from using many of their most powerful abilities. When attacking a rogue this should be the first thing cast on them in almost every circumstance. Few things are more enjoyable as a druid than Faerie Firing a rogue and watching them try to Vanish, which normally puts them into stealth automatically, and see them just running around confused that they’re still being attacked.

The armor reduction component of this spell is nice, but it’s dwarfed by other armor reducing abilities that other classes have, so it’s rarely a necessity. The exception to this is the feral version of this spell, which will be discussed later.

Teleport Moonglade
Teleports the Caster to the village of Nighthaven in Moonglade. 10 second cast, 120 mana.

Pretty self-explanatory, this spell will teleport the druid to Moonglade, which is a small druid village in a zone that otherwise can’t be reached till at least level 50 (the spell is learned at level 10). High level druids will find this spell grants easy access to top level zones of Felwood and Winterspring, and Night Elf druids will enjoy the easy access it provides to the Night Elf Capital of Darnassus.

Barkskin
Allows spell casting to not be interrupted by damage, reduces physical damage taken by 20%. Decreases melee attack speed by 20% and increases casting time of spells by 1 second. Instant Cast. Lasts 15 seconds. Mana cost is dependent on level, increases with your level.

Very useful when used in conjunction with Hurricane or Tranquility, which are both channeled spells…normally getting hit while channeling either spell reduces its duration and effectiveness. With barkskin taking damage will not affect the casting time of the spell. Typically a druid will cast this right before hurricane or tranquility.

Also useful for getting off a heal when being attacked by a monster with a very fast attack speed (especially a hunter’s pet).

Hibernate
Forces the target to sleep for 40 seconds. Any damage caused will awaken the target. Only works on Beasts and Dragonkin. 1.5 second cast. 150 mana.

A very useful spell in certain situations. A large number of PvE dungeons contain either beasts or dragonkin that can be slept to provide for crowd control.

In PvP, hunters’ pets are the natural target for this spell. Keep in mind, however, that druids who are shapeshifted and shamans in Ghost Wolf form also count as beasts and can be slept.

Soothe Beast
Soothe’s the target beast, reducing the range it will attack you by 10 yards. Only affects beasts. Lasts 15 seconds. 1.5 second cast, 100 mana.

A very situational spell. There are a small number of situations in some instanced dungeons where this can be useful to save time by skipping monsters, but otherwise its almost never necessary. Perhaps the least used spell in the druid’s inventory.

Hurricane
Create a Violent Storm in the target area, causing 134 nature damage every second for 10 seconds, and reducing the attack speed of enemies by 20%. Druid must channel to maintain this spell. 1495 mana.

The druid’s only real form of area of effect (AOE) damage. In certain situations this spell can be very effective, but in general the amount of damage it causes and the fact that it prevents the druid from doing anything else for 10 seconds makes it difficult to use effectively. Recommended for large scale PvP fights where you can catch a lot of enemies in it, or AOE situations in PvE where you are not being counted on as the main healer of the primary aoe’ers (Warlocks and especially Mages).

FERAL ABILITIES

The spells which allow a druid to shapeshift into his various forms, as well as those abilities which are used in each form, are covered here.

Shapeshifting
Shapeshifting into the various druid forms has different benefits. Shapeshifting into any form removes any slowing or immobilizing effects on the druid. Druids are therefore almost impossible to prevent from escaping, as any ability that would slow or immobilize them, such as hamstring, wing clip, or root, can be negated through a quick shapeshift. When the only goal is to escape, travel form is usually the best option, as it is substantially cheaper mana-wise to shift to travel form than to bear or cat. Shapeshifting also renders the druid immune to any type of polymorph spell. If a druid is polymorphed, he can simply shapeshift into a form to dispel it, rather than wait for it to wear off like every other class is forced to. Finally, druids in shapeshifted form are considered beasts, not humanoids, which can be a useful distinction. Many classes spells and abilities, such as a priest’s mind control, rogue’s sap, and warlock’s seduce, only work on humanoid targets. Changing to beast form renders the druid immune to these effects.

Bear form and cat form also provide some statistical bonuses when shifting. Bear form increases armor substantially, as well as physical damage and health. Cat form increases physical damage even more than bear form, although there is no armor or health bonus. Essentially, Bear and Cat form allow the druid to act as a warrior or rogue, although without much of the versatility that those classes offer. Of course, neither of those classes can heal or pump out ranged magic damage whenever they feel like it.

It’s important to remember that, like a warrior or rogue, a druid in bear or cat form is very dependent on the quality of his gear.

Bear Abilities

Growl
Taunts the target to make it attack you. Has no effect if the target is already attacking you. 0 rage cost, 10 second cooldown.

The druid equivalent to a warrior’s taunt. Useful to grab a monster’s attention when its attacking someone else, although it’s duration is shorter than the cooldown, so if the person who was being attacked doesn’t do something to reduce their aggro chances are the mob will go back to them.

Maul
Increases the druid’s next attack by 128 damage. 15 rage, no cooldown.

Pretty basic, this makes the druid’s next attack do a greater amount of damage. Extra damage is always nice as it builds more threat, making mobs more likely to focus on you. Use it if you have the rage available.

Demoralizing Roar
Decreases nearby enemies attack power by 130. Lasts 30 seconds. 10 rage, no cooldown.

Decreasing the enemies attack power reduces the damage you take, which is the point of bear form. If you have the spare rage, use it.

This also can knock rogues and druids out of stealth, so in a pinch it can be effective, as rogues out of stealth can’t use some of their most powerful opening abilities. The range is pretty short though, so it can be tough to time right.

Enrage
Generates 20 rage over 10 seconds, but reduces armor by 75%

Good for grabbing quick rage when you really need it in combat, or more effectively right before combat starts so the armor penalty doesn’t affect you.

Bash
Stuns the target for 4 seconds. 10 rage, 1 minute cooldown.

A great ability, think of this stun as a free heal. If you’re quick, 4 seconds is more than enough time to stun, shift to caster, cast a 2 second heal, and shift back to bear form. With talents this can become a 6 second stun, which is invaluable in pvp and many instances. Don’t count on it 100% of the time though, as it can be dodged/parried, etc.

Swipe
Swipe 3 nearby enemies, inflicting 84 damage. 20 rage, no cooldown.

The equivalent to a warrior’s cleave, this is a good way to try to hold more than one enemy on you, rather than on the weaker casters and rogues. It is also an instant attack that can happen between your normal swings, so it can be a small, if expensive, amount of burst damage in a pinch.

Challenging Roar
Forces all nearby enemies to focus on you for 6 seconds. 15 rage, 10 minute cooldown.

An AoE taunt, but good luck holding aggro on all those enemies after 6 seconds. OK to use in an emergency, but the 10 minute cooldown means you won’t be able to count on it most of the time.

Frenzied Regeneration
Converts 10 rage/sec to health for 10 seconds. 2 minute cooldown.

The conversion rate is 1 rage = 20 health, so if you have a full rage bar this will give you back about 2000 health (a little more because the heals can crit). A great ability, just be aware that when you shift to caster you lose all the rage you’ve built up, so if you have a good amount of rage pop this and let your rage get used before shifting out.

Cat Abilities

Prowl
Puts the druid into Stealth, reducing speed to 70% of normal.

Prowl allows a druid in cat form to enter stealth, just like a rogue. In stealth you move slower than normal but cannot be normally seen by other players unless you get too close. The two druid opening abilities for combat available in cat form, pounce and ravage, can only be used when stealthed. Barring talent points or gear, a druid is slightly more easily seen in stealth than a rogue.

Claw
Claw the enemy , causing 115 additional damage, adds a combo point. 45 energy.

An instant attack that causes a good amount of damage, and builds a combo point. This ability is the bread and butter of what you will be using in cat form to build up combo points.

Rake
Rake the target for 58 damage and an additional 96 damage over 9 seconds. Adds a combo point. 40 energy.

Slightly cheaper than claw, but it also does slightly less damage. Another good way to add a combo point, and the DoT (damage over time), prevents a rogue you hit from it from going into stealth for 9 seconds, as the damage will break them out of stealth.

Shred
Shred the target, causing 225% normal attack damage + 180 additional damage to the target. Must be behind the target. Adds a combo point. 60 energy.

Does significantly more damage to a target, but you must be behind and it is more expensive than claw and rake, so you will build combo points more slowly. Great if the target is focused on something else, more difficult to use if your target is focused on you (still possible if you’re fighting a player as you can just run in circles around them, but almost impossible w/ a monster, who will turn to always follow you).

Ferocious Bite
Deals damage based on the number of combo points on the target. 35 energy to use…any additional energy is converted to extra damage.

The first of two finishing abilities to use the combo points you build up, Ferocious bite does direct damage. It is mitigated by the enemies armor, so its best used on lightly armored targets like casters.

Rip
Deals damage over time based on how many combo points on target. 30 energy.

Similar to Ferocious Bite, but the damage comes over 12 seconds rather than all at once. This is the other finishing move available to druids to use the combo points they build up on targets. This damage is not mitigated by the enemies armor, so rip is superior on warriors and other heavy armor wearers.

Pounce
Stuns the target for 2 seconds and delivers a small DoT (150 damage total) over a long period of time. Must be stealthed and behind the target. Adds a combo point. 50 energy.

One of two abilities that a stealthed druid can use to open combat. The DoT is quite valuable if you are attacking a rogue, as it will prevent him from entering stealth. In general, pounce is more useful when fighting other players rather than mobs.

Ravage
Ravage the target, causing 350% damage + 343 to the target. Must be stealthed and behind the target. Adds a combo point. 60 energy.

The druid’s other opening move from stealth, ravage can do a significant amount of damage if a druid is geared appropriately. Superior to pounce for fighting monsters and often superior for PvP, especially on lightly armored enemies.

Feline Grace
Lessens fall damage.

This is a passive ability that lets druids in cat form take less fall damage than other classes. Very useful in many situations, if you ever find yourself falling from a great height, be sure to shift to cat, it can save you where anyone else would die.

Tiger’s Fury
Increases damage caused by 40 for six seconds. 30 energy.

This will increase the damage caused by all attacks in cat form for 6 seconds. However, since it uses energy, the damage increase is offset by the energy that isn’t being used to claw, shred, or rake. This is a good ability to activate prior to ravaging an enemy out of stealth, as you can afford to wait 2-3 seconds and let your energy regen to full, nullifying the energy loss.

Dash
Increases movement speed by 50% for 15 seconds. Does not break stealth.

Good for getting in position for an attack or escaping an enemy. Useful in PvP to catch up to enemies that try to kite you, as it’s far more mana efficient to dash than shift to caster, root them, and re-shift to cat. It does stack w/ armor and talents that increase movement speed as well.

Track Humanoids
Reveals the position and names of nearby humanoids on the mini-map.

A great ability for druids in both PvP and PvE. In PvE, track humanoids can be used to help you find specific enemies needed for quests, or rare-spawns who can drop better than average loot. In PvP, track humanoids truly shines. Being able to be in stealth and instantly see if any enemies are hiding out of line of sight is invaluable. On a PvP server, get used to using the /who command to query names you see on the minimap when you have tracking up…if it returns that no player is found, its someone from the enemy faction.

Cower
Cower, causing no damage but lowering your threat by a small amount, making the enemy less likely to attack you. 20 energy.

This ability is only useful in PvE, where it will lower your position on the mob’s threat list. Cower is occasionally useful for a full feral druid, who may do enough damage in cat form to pull a mob off the warrior tanking it…for a casting or healing druid, however, its almost always better to shift to bear when you gain aggro and mitigate the damage you take until a warrior can pull the mob off you.

RESTORATION SPELLS

In general, these spells are focused on healing. They are used in caster forms.

Mark of the Wild
Increases the target’s armor by 285, attributes by 12, and resistances by 20.

Arguably the best buff in the game. Keep this on yourself at all times, and whenever in a group you will be expected to buff everyone in the group. It lasts for 30 minutes or until death, so it doesn’t need to be constantly recast. At high levels a spell called "Gift of the Wild" becomes available which, at the cost of a reagent, will buff an entire 5 man group for an hour.

Healing Touch
Heals a friendly target for 1890 to 2230. 790 mana. 3.5 second cast.

The druid’s standard, slow casting, big heal. Useable in many situations, although in PvP and high end PvE it is often too slow casting to be reliable. Druids speccing into restoration will reduce the casting time to 3 seconds, which makes it slightly more manageable. A very important part of a druid’s healing arsenal, but only in combination with regrowth and rejuvenation.

Regrowth
Heals a friendly target for 1003 to 1109 and another 1064 over 21 seconds. 880 mana. 2 second cast.

Regrowth casts significantly faster than healing touch, and adds a Heal over Time (HoT) in addition to the direct heal. A druid highly specced in restoration will find this spell’s crit rate up in the 65-70% range, meaning in general it will heal for as much as a normal healing touch and also apply the HoT. The spell is more mana intensive than healing touch, as you will be casting it more often due to the shorter casting time. In general, regrowth is great to use on a target that is going to continue taking damage, such as a tank. If used just to bring someone back to full health, it isn’t very efficient, as the HoT will be wasted. When healing a main tank, a combination of regrowth and healing touch is effective; special emphasis should be made to cast regrowth at least every 21 seconds to ensure the HoT effect is always on the tank.

In PvP, regrowth will be your primary healing spell, as in most situations healing touch simply takes too long to cast.

Rejuvenation
Heals the target for 756 over 12 seconds. 335 mana. Instant cast.

Completing the druid’s healing circle, rejuvenation (rejuve) is a pure HoT. On its own, it won’t heal enough to keep someone who is taking damage up. It is great, however, in complement to the druid’s other abilities. Rejuve should always be kept on the main tank in any party, and come top off anyone else who takes some periodic damage.

Rebirth
Returns the spirit to the body, restoring a dead target to life w/ 2200 health and 2800 mana. 2 second cast. 30 minute cooldown.

Commonly known as "Battle Rez", this spell resurrects a player. Unlike every other classes’ resurrection spell, this one can be used during combat, making it very valuable for some dungeons. Unfortunately, it has a 30 minute cooldown, meaning a druid isn’t capable of rezzing up a group after a wipe. The spell uses a reagent, with the cheapest reagent using the least powerful version of the spell (rezzes target w/ very little mana and health), while the most expensive reagent rezzes the target with a significant amount of health and mana. For efficiencies sake, it’s a good idea to carry around some of the cheapest reagent (maple seeds, 2 silver) to use when doing out of combat rezzes, or rezzing a priest/shaman/paladin after a wipe, and save the expensive reagents (ironwood seeds, 18 silver) for using your most powerful rez in the middle of combat, when the person rezzed needs mana and health immediately.

Cure/Abolish Poison
Cures a target of poison. Mana cost dependent on level.

These spells are essentially the same. Cure poison removes one poison effect on a target, while abolish poison will put a buff on the target curing them of a couple of poison effects over 8 seconds. They are the same mana cost. Useful for certain mobs and bosses during raids. In PvP, this is most important when fighting rogues or hunters, especially in order to keep crippling poison off so you can kite rogues, and viper sting off so hunters can’t drain your mana.

Remove Curse
Removes one curse from a target. Mana cost dependent on level.

Removes a curse from the target. Useful in many PvE encounters in the end game, and also good for PvP against warlocks.

Tranquility
Regenerates all party members health by 294 every 2 seconds for 10 seconds. 1235 mana. Channeled spell. 10 minute cooldown.

This spell is the druid’s group heal. It’s highly situational. While there are occasions where it is useful, in general the cooldown is too long and the spell is too susceptible to being interrupted to make it worthwhile. In the rare instances it is useful, it is highly suggested that you cast barkskin first so it doesn’t get interrupted by any random small amount of damage you might take.

Upon reaching level 10, all characters in WoW begin to receive 1 talent point per level up, to spend in their talent trees in order to customize their characters. Upon reaching level 60, druids will have 51 talent points available. Like their spells and abilities, druid’s talent trees are divided into three groups: balance, feral, and restoration. In general, druids focused on ranged magic damage will put points in the balance tree, those focused on feral combat will naturally gravitate to the feral tree, and healers will stay in the restoration tree. There are, however, complementary abilities in all trees that help different playstyles. As with all talent trees in WoW, you can’t simply place points wherever you like….all talent’s but the first tier have a requisite number of points that must already be spent in the tree to use them…in order to get the most powerful abilities, such as innervate or leader of the pack, you need to spend up to 30 points in other parts of the talent tree.

The following is a discussion of the various talent’s available to druids and their relative utility.

Improved Wrath
Decreases the casting time of Wrath by .1 seconds per point. 5 point limit.

A balance druid who plans to invest heavily in the balance tree will find this useful, as talents further down the tree make wrath hit for more damage and potentially cast even faster. If you intend to go heavily into the balance tree and cast ranged damage spells primarily, this is a very useful talent. For druids with little interest in balance, its not particularly useful.

Nature’s Grasp
While active, any enemy that strikes the caster has a 35% chance of being afflicted by entangling roots. 1 talent point.

Improved Nature’s Grasp
Increases the chance of Nature’s Grasp activating by 15/30/45/65%. 4 talent points total.

Investing one point in this ability grants you a new spell called nature’s grasp, which can be cast once a minute. Once cast, for the next 45 seconds anything that strikes you in melee combat has a chance to be rooted just as if you cast entangling roots on them. This root will consume the spell, so anyone striking you after the first attacker is rooted suffers no ill effects. Placing 5 points in it means that 100% of the time, the first thing to strike you will be rooted.

This spell is only marginally useful in PvE…it only works outdoors so its useless in most dungeons, and in any group situation if you are doing things correctly you as a druid will never be getting hit. The spell really shines in PvP, where it provides an effective way for a druid to get some distance between himself and an enemy that’s attacking him. Rooting an enemy can, if you’re lucky and the root doesn’t break early, give you enough time to heal and then either escape or get some distance and start up a nice slow casting damaging spell. In group PvP, rooting a warrior or rogue can render them largely ineffective, as they are left to plink away with their ranged weapons and can’t close with the enemy. When you’re jumped by a warrior or especially a rogue you’ll almost never be able to get off a root spell w/ him beating on you, but casting this is instant and let’s his attacks do the rooting for you.

If you are speccing primarily in restoration or feral, but want this ability, anymore than 2 points isn’t really necessary. At the speed a rogue, warrior, or hunter pet is hitting you, a 50% chance to root them means they will almost certainly be rooted after 2 or 3 swings anyway. A feral druid aiming for the feral abilities in the next level of the balance tree will probably find putting the necessary 5 points into this more valuable than going into improved wrath.

Improved Entangling Roots – Requires 5 points in Balance Tree
Gives you a 40/70/100% chance to avoid interruption caused by damage when casting entangling roots. 3 point limit.

If you choose improved wrath over Nature’s grasp this can be a useful ability. If you have nature’s grasp, however, it is somewhat superfluous, as instead of casting entangling roots, which, even with this spell can still be stopped by a counterspell, kick, stun, gouge, etc, you can cast the instant nature’s grasp spell and let your opponent’s attacks trigger the root while you do something else. There are generally better choices for your talent points than this ability, although a pure balance druid would get more use out of it than most.

Improved Moonfire – Requires 5 points in Balance Tree
Increases the damage and critical strike chance of your moonfire spell by 2/4/6/8/10%. 5 talent point limit. Prerequisite for vengeance.

This spell makes one of your primary damaging spells, moonfire, significantly better. It is also a prerequisite for the Vengeance ability, which is a necessity if you are speccing as a ranged damage dealing balance druid. This talent is almost a requirement for a balance druid, but there are better places for a feral or restoration druid to spend their points.

Natural Weapons – Requires 5 points in Balance Tree
Increases melee damage in all forms by 2/4/6/8/10%. 5 point limit. Prerequisite for Omen of Clarity.

In and of itself, this ability is primarily aimed at feral druids, as at high levels a 10% damage increase is very significant. Druids interested primarily in focusing purely on feral will spec far enough into balance to get this ability, while balance and restoration druids will only likely be interested in it because it leads to Omen of Clarity. In their caster form, a druid’s melee attack doesn’t do enough damage to make this worthwile.

Natural Shapeshifter – Requires 5 points in Balance Tree
Decreases the cost of shapeshifting spells by 10/20/30%. 3 point limit.

A very useful ability for feral druids who want to be able to shapeshift a lot, as the nature of their gear means they have far smaller mana pools than balance or restoration druids. Balance druids who spec very far into the tree to get Moonkin form will also find this ability useful, although it is not a necessity for them.

Improved Thorns – Requires 10 points in Balance Tree
Increases the damage caused by your thorns by 25/50/75%. 3 point limit.

Not particularly useful in most situations. Ideally, a druid is never being hit anyway, if they are playing well, except during solo content, where the extra damage isn’t that great anyway. Can be useful to feral druids to help them hold aggro better, but there are more valuable abilities to spend points on. There are certainly places and situations this talent could be useful, but they are few and far between.

Omen of Clarity – Requires 10 points in Balance Tree, and 5 in Natural Weapons.
When active, any melee attack has a chance to cause the caster to enter a clearcasting state, decreasing the mana/rage/energy of your next damage or healing spell or ability by 100%. Last 5 minutes when cast. 1 talent point.

In simple terms, this gives you a new spell that you can cast on yourself. While the spell is active (5 minutes), every time you swing your weapon or attack in feral forms you have a chance to activate (proc) a clearcasting state. When you are in this state, your next spell or ability will be free.

This spell is incredibly useful when you are leveling up your druid. Being able to throw down a free heal during a fight or a free moonfire greatly decreases the amount of time you need to spend regenerating mana and health while you are grinding for xp, leading directly for leveling faster. In feral forms, this can let you put out even more damage, as it can proc and let you use an ability that would normally cost energy or rage for free. The energy and rage you save can then immediately be used to activate the ability again, effectively doubling the damage.

In the end game, this ability is slightly less effective. In PvE, any monster you are fighting where mana conservation is a real concern means you, in general, aren’t going to be meleeing it. In PvP, for most druids, meleeing a target isn’t the best strategy, and some classes (priests and shamans) will use their abilities to remove the omen from you anyway. It can be very useful in feral forms, but it doesn’t proc nearly as often in cat form as you would like, so the damage increase isn’t that significant. It can be a very useful ability, but it definitely is not required to be an effective druid. Balance and Restoration druids should keep in mind that, while this ability only costs 1 talent point, it effectively costs 6, as you are forced to put 5 points into natural weapons, which isn’t really useful for a balance or restoration druid.

Nature’s Reach – Requires 10 points in Balance tree.
Increases the range of your wrath, starfire, hurricane, moonfire, faerie fire, and entangling roots spells by 10/20%. 2 point limit.

Very useful for PvP for any druid, and especially useful for a balance druid in both PvE and PvP. A good choice for any druid who wants to use ranged magic primarily.

Vengeance – Requires 15 points in Balance tree and 5 points in improved moonfire.
Increases the critical strike damage of your Starfire, moonfire, and wrath spells by 20% per point. 5 point limit.

Makes a druid’s ranged damage spells deal significantly more damage when they crit. Almost a required talent for a balance specced druid, too high in the tree to be attainable for anyone else. If you are speccing balance, get this.

Improved Starfire – Requires 15 points in Balance tree.
Reduces the casting time of starfire by .1 sec per point and gives a 3% chance to stun for 3 seconds per point. 5 point limit.

2 nice effects for Starfire, a primary casting spell for a balance specced druid, and, again, too high in the tree for a non balanced specced druid to get. If you’re speccing up balance, get it.

Moonglow – Requires 20 points in Balance tree.
Reduces the mana cost of your moonfire, starfire, wrath, healing touch, regrowth, and rejuvenation spells by 3% per talent point. 3 point limit.

Balance druids don’t have innervate, so they tend to have mana issues. This talent helps alleviate them, although it is a trade off between getting it and some other nice abilities. Not a necessity for a balance druid, but nice to have if you have the room for it.

Nature’s Grace – Requires 20 points in Balance Tree.
All spell criticals grant you a blessing of nature, reducing the casting time of your next spell by .5 seconds. Prerequisite for Moonfury.

If you have specced this high into balance, get this. With this many points in balance you will crit relatively often, and the reduced casting time for the next spell just increases your dps even more. Combined with improved wrath, a couple lucky wrath crits can allow you to machine gun out wrath spells at a rate of 1/second, causing a surprising amount of damage.

Moonfury – Requires 25 points in Balance Tree, 1 point in Nature’s Grace.
Increases the damage of your wrath, moonfire, and starfire spells by 2% per point. 5 point limit.

If you have specced this high into the balance tree, you are focusing primarily on magic damage, so this is a good place to drop any points necessary to get to 30 and get moonkin form. The damage bonus isn’t spectacular, but since you are primarily focusing on damage by this point you may as well augment your strength.

Moonkin Form – Requires 30 points in Balance Tree.
Transforms the Druid into Moonkin form. While in this form all party members have their spell critical chance increased by 3%, and the druid’s armor is increased by 360%. Cannot cast balance spells in this form.

This talent gives you a new form to transform into along with all the other forms available to druids. The moonkin can soak up physical damage as well as a bear, and can cast ranged damage spells that crit often, as well as provide a very nice buff to party members. Moonkin are susceptible to running out of mana, but they can soak up a lot of punishment and do a respectable amount of damage while they do have mana available. While you’ll hear many mages and warlocks argue that moonkin are a waste because they can’t deal ranged damage as well as those classes, Moonkin druids still have all the versatility of a standard druid as long as you realize you don’t have to play the entire game in moonkin form. Currently, moonkin is probably the least popular way to spec a druid, so be prepared for people who don’t understand your class to question your decision to spec moonkin and get angry with you if you choose to go moonkin over heal in a group situation.

FERAL TALENTS

Ferocity
Reduces the cost of your maul, swipe, claw and rake abilities by 1 rage or energy per point. 5 Point Limit.

A decent opening level talent, using less points for your abilities is never a bad thing. More useful for bear form than cat form, as 5 points off of Maul or Swipe is worth significantly more than 5 points off of claw or rake.

Feral Aggression
Increases the attack power reduction of your demoralizing roar by 8% per point, and the damage of your ferocious bite by 3% per point. 5 point limit.

Arguably a superior ability for cat form druids, who are interested in increasing the damage of their ferocious bite by as much as possible. Demoralizing roar can be useful, but in general if you are tanking its better to be able to use your aggro building abilities (maul and swipe) more often through a decreased rage cost than take slightly less damage. Feral druids will have to take one of these abilities to progress up the tree, and both offer good benefits, so its largely a personal choice.

Feral Instinct – Requires 5 points in feral tree.
Increases threat caused by attacks in bear and dire bear form by 3% and reduces chances for enemies to detect you while prowling in cat form. 5 point limit.

A useful ability for any feral druid, this talent lets you hold aggro better in bear form and stealth more effectively in cat form. With this talent maxed out you will be as difficult to see in stealth as most rogues. This can be a good place to put points to move up in the tree, but is not vital for any druids unless they plan to tank extensively in bear form.

Brutal Impact – Requires 5 points in feral tree.
Increases the stun duration of bash and pounce by .5 seconds per point. 2 point limit.

This is a very useful ability for any druid. Increasing bash’s duration by an extra second allows for plenty of time for a druid in bear form to bash, shift to caster for a 2 second regrowth, and shift back to bear before the enemy can react. A vital ability for fighting any melee classes. The increased duration to pounce’s stun is a nice bonus as well.

Thick Hide – Requires 5 points in feral tree.
Increases your armor contribution from items by 2% per point. 5 point limit.

If you plan to tank extensively in bear form, this is a great ability to have. If you, like most druids, do not intend to main tank any dungeons except in an emergency, there are better places to spend your points.

Feline Swiftness – Requires 10 points in feral tree.
Increases movement speed by 15% in cat form while outdoors per point, and dodge by 2% per point.

A great ability for feral druids, feline swiftness is useful for fighting in cat form and escaping from enemies. Cat form druids often seek to get behind their targets in order to use shred, and this ability makes that significantly easier. This ability also provides some protection from other players who may try to get you to chase them as they periodically do damage to you or “kite” you in PvP- since feral druids have low mana pools, and cat form has no ranged attack or slowing ability, classes like hunters, priests and warlocks may attempt to just stay out of range of a druid in cat form, forcing them to waste mana shifting to caster to try to damage or slow them down. With this ability, the druid can easily catch up to anyone trying this strategy. Feline swiftness is recommended for any druid speccing this far into the feral tree.

Feral Charge – Requires 10 points in feral tree. Causes you to charge the enemy, immobilizing and interrupting any spell being cast for 4 seconds. 1 talent point.

Another incredibly useful ability, recommended for any druid speccing this high into the feral tree. This ability really shines in PvP…it lets you close with your enemy quickly and, if timed right, interrupt spellcasting, something druids normally have a difficult time doing. This is best used if combined w/ the Furor talent in the restoration tree, which provides instant rage upon shifting. With full furor and feral charge, its possible to see an enemy begin casting, shift to bear and use the instant rage furor generates to charge him immediately, interrupting the spell and locking his casting for a few seconds. While not particularly useful in PvE, once you are used to having it in PvP you will find it difficult to live without.

Sharpened Claws – Requires 10 points in feral tree.
Increases your critical strike chance by 2% per point in bear and cat form. 3 point limit.

If you are speccing mostly feral, to the point that you plan to do the majority of your fighting in forms, this is a great talent, and is highly recommended. Druids speccing high into balance or restoration will probably not use it enough to make it worthwhile. Because it is a prerequisite for blood frenzy and primal fury, its almost a requirement for a feral druid.

Blood Frenzy- Requires 15 points in feral tree and 3 points in Sharpened claws.
Your critical strikes on combo point adding abilities in cat form have a 50% chance per point to add an extra combo point. 2 point limit.

An incredibly useful talent for a cat focused druid, especially combined with sharpened claws and crit increasing gear. Extra combo points mean a good deal of extra damage in a quicker amount of time. Every feral druid should have this.

Primal Fury – Requires 15 points in feral tree and 3 points in Sharpened claws.
Gives a 50% chance per point to gain an additional 5 rage anytime you critical strike while in bear or dire bear form.

The bear equivalent of blood frenzy, this ability is very useful for druids specced for tanking. Generic feral druids will probably find more use out of blood frenzy, as in many cases you will build rage quickly enough anyway that you will not be able to use it fast enough anyway. Unless your druid is going to be tanking a lot, this ability is probably less advantageous than blood frenzy.

Predatory Strikes – Requires 15 points in feral tree.
Increases your attack power by 50% of your level per point. 3 point limit.

Essentially, at level 60 this talent, when maxed, will give you 90 additional attack power. (Level 60 x 150% = 90). This is not a great ability in and of itself, but it is a prerequisite for the incredible Heart of the Wild ability, so any feral druid fully speccing into the feral tree will have to get this.

Improved Shred – Requires 15 points in feral tree.
Decreases the energy cost of your shred ability by 6 points per point. 2 point limit.

This is a good ability, although it is in many cases overshadowed by some other abilities in the tree. Maxing it drops shred’s energy cost from 60 to 48, meaning w/ a full energy bar you can use it twice in a row. If you plan to do damage in cat a lot and have a way to get behind an enemy (not possible when soloing normally, but doable w/ a group or in pvp), this can be a good ability to have. Not a necessity.

Faerie Fire (Feral) – Requires 20 points in the feral tree.
Decreases the targets armor by 575 for 40 seconds. While affected the target cannot stealth or turn invisible. Castable in cat form or bear form. 1 point.

This lets you cast the normal druid faerie fire spell from bear or cat form, decreasing the targets armor and keeping them visible. It is much more useful than that spell, however, for two reasons.

First, when fighting rogues, it is incredibly useful to keep faerie fire on them so they can’t stealth or vanish. W/out this ability, a rogue can easily use vanish to escape if you are beating him, or get back into stealth to gain access to his powerful abilities which can only be used from stealth. Few PvP experiences for a druid are more satisfying than watching a rogue afflicted by faerie fire try to vanish and see his confusion as he realizes he is still there for all the world to see.

Secondly, the armor reduction of this ability increases physical damage to your target. The armor reduction isn’t enormous, but it can be significant, especially against targets w/ relatively low armor to begin with. Unlike the caster version, where you most likely aren’t going to be doing physical damage after you cast it, using the feral version means you are probably in a form and doing physical damage anyway, so it’s a direct boost to your damage per second (dps). Finally, this ability is 100% free to use…it requires no energy in cat form and no rage in bear form, so it is a sustained, limitless increase to your damage as long as you remember to cast it. There is no reason every enemy you fight shouldn’t have this on them at all times. All in all, a great ability for any feral druid to have.

Savage Fury – Requires 20 points in the feral tree.
Increases the damage caused by your claw, rake, maul and swipe abilities by 10% per point. 2 point limit.

If you are speccing purely feral, this is a good ability to have, as its increase to maul and claw are significant (rake and swipe are used to build combo points and hold multiple target aggro respectively, they aren’t really designed for damage). If you are going for a flexible build with a focus beyond simply maxing out the numbers of those two abilities, however, there are better places to spend your points.

Heart of the Wild – Requires 25 points in the feral tree, and 3 points in predatory strikes.
Increases your intellect by 4% per point in caster form, strength by 4% per point in cat form, and stamina by 4% per point in bear form.

This is the jewel of the feral tree, and the reason many players spec feral in the first place. At 5 points, this provides a 20% increase to whichever stat is most useful to your current form. Because it is percentage based, this ability scales in power with your gear, which is another bonus…the better gear you get, the better an ability this becomes. There’s not too much else to say about it, this is one of the primary reasons to spec feral, it is a necessity for a feral druid.

Leader of the Pack – Requires 30 points in the feral tree.
While in cat or bear form, the leader of the pack increases the ranged and melee critical strike chance of all party members (including yourself) within 45 yards by 3%. 1 point.

For one talent point, a 3% increase in crit chance is a great bargain, and hunters and rogues who are grouped with you will love you for it. Keep in mind, however, that by getting it you are by necessity putting 31 points into the feral tree, preventing you from getting the incredibly useful Nature’s Swiftness ability which is located at 21 points in the balance tree. For druids interested purely in fighting in forms, Leader of the Pack is a great ability, but keep in mind the trade off you make by getting it, as you will forfeit the incredible versatility of Nature’s swiftness.

RESTORATION TALENTS

Improved Mark of the Wild
Increases the effect of your Mark of the Wild and Gift of the Wild by 7% per talent point. 5 point limit.

5 points in this talent makes the druid’s class buff, Mark of the Wild, even better. Its not an absolute necessity, but for any druid focused on healing it’s the no-brainer first choice in the restoration tree, and its useful for all druids. Most talent builds will pick this up.

Furor
Gives you a 20% chance per talent point to gain 10 rage when you shift into bear form and 40 energy when you shift into cat form. 5 point limit.

This is obviously a feral druid talent despite its place in the restoration tree. If you are solely focusing on healing its not particularly valuable. A feral druid or a hybrid that intends to use forms a good deal will find it very useful. Your dps in cat form will increase because you can use abilities faster, and in bear form the instant range opens up some possibilities when combined with other bear talents, the most common being the instant shift/feral charge to disrupt a spell being cast. Without this talent, even if you have feral charge you won’t have the rage to use it immediately after shapeshifting. This is a very versatile talent and is highly recommended if you have any intention of using bear and cat form with some frequency.

Improved Healing Touch – Requires 5 points in Restoration tree.
Reduces the casting time of healing touch by .1 seconds per talent point. 5 point limit.

Making healing touch cast slightly faster is useful, but the primary reason for any druid to get this is that it’s a prerequisite to Nature’s Swiftness. Therefore, any druid speccing moderately into the tree will have to get this ability.

Improved Enrage – Requires 5 points in Restoration tree.
Your enrage ability now generates 5 rage points instantly per talent point. 2 point limit.

Another feral ability hidden in the restoration tree. This ability is useful if you plan to spend a lot of time in bear form. Most druids won’t find it worthwhile however, its too situational to get a great deal of effective use. Consider it for a heavily specced bear-form feral druid, but otherwise there are better places to spend your points.

Nature’s Focus – Requires 5 points in the Restoration tree.
Gives you a 14% chance per talent point to ignore interruption to your healing touch, regrowth, and tranquility spells from damage. 5 point limit.

This sounds like a nice talent, and in some situations it can be useful, but in general it is not that worthwhile. In PvE, in general unless you are soloing you should not have anything hitting you while you are trying to cast a heal, and if you are soloing its unlikely the mob is hitting you enough that you need to get a heal off incredibly quickly, if you’ve picked a target of your level. In very high end PvE, if a monster goes off the tank and gets on you you’re going to die almost regardless of what you do, so this becomes pointless.

In PvP, it has some larger benefits, but keep in mind it only helps w/ damage interruption, not special abilites. So you will still find your spell’s cancelled by a rogue’s kick, warrior’s shield bash, mage’s counterspell, etc. When something is doing damage to you you are almost always better off trying to root him and get away rather than just taking it while trying to get a heal off.

This isn’t a terrible talent, but there are better places to put your points in the restoration tree.

Subtlety – Requires 10 points in Restoration tree.
Reduces the threat generated by your healing spells by 4% per talent point.

This ability is only focused on PvE, so if you are mostly interested in PvP its pointless. It can be very helpful in PvE in extremely high level raiding dungeons, as management of threat becomes a very big part of winning some encounters. Many druids’ claim it is not necessary, but it can certainly smooth over any small issues you might have controlling your threat while healing. Definitely don’t get it when leveling up, but consider it once you begin to get into the top end raiding dungeons. Don’t be surprised if some guilds require all their druids have this ability.

Reflection – Requires 10 points in Restoration tree.
Allows 5% of mana regeneration per point to continue while casting. 3 point limit.

Normally, whenever you cast a spell your natural mana regeneration (based on spirit), stops for 5 seconds after the spell is cast. Reflection means that you will still regenerate a small amount during this time. This isn’t a particularly useful ability pre-level 60, as the majority of fights won’t require you to be regening mana over a long period of time. In raids, however, especially once your gear begins to improve, it can be very useful. In some of the top level fights in the game, which can take from 10 to 20 minutes, every little bit of mana regen is helpful. Definitely skip this while leveling up, but if you are interested in end-game raids strongly consider it once you hit 60.

Insect Swarm – Requires 10 points in Restoration tree.
The enemy target is swarmed by insects, decreasing chance to hit by 2% and causing 324 nature damage over 12 seconds. Instant cast, 160 mana.

For one talent point, this is a very nice ability to pick up. While the DoT that it applies is relatively small, it is almost the equivalent of having a second moonfire DoT on the target, and most non-elite mobs will die surprisingly quickly w/ those two DoT’s on them. While the chance to hit decrease isn’t large, it doesn’t hurt to keep it on any melee mob at all times. It’s very useful during raids, as it does affect raid bosses, making the tanks slightly more capable of mitigating damage.

In PvP a restoration specced druid will almost certainly be trying to outlast his opponent….insect swarm is a cheap, mana efficient way to keep the damage coming on the enemy player.

Tranquil Spirit – Requires 15 points in Restoration tree.
Reduces the mana cost of you healing touch and tranquility spells by 2% per point. 5 point limit.

On its own this is a pretty worthless place to put 5 talent points. However, if you are speccing full restoration in order to get innervate, you have to put 5 points here. If you are only going far enough into Restoration for Nature’s Switfness put your points elsewhere. If you are getting innervate, you don’t have a choice.

Improved Rejuvenation – Requires 15 points in Restoration tree.
Increases the effect of your rejuvenation spell by 5% per point. 3 point limit.

As a restoration specced druid you’ll be using rejuve a lot, and this just makes it better for a small talent point investment. This is a good place to put some points if you’re speccing up far into restoration.

Improved Tranquility – Requires 20 points in Restoration tree.
Reduces the threat caused by tranquility by 40% per talent point. 2 point limit.

Tranquility is such a situational spell that this is almost useless. Probably one of the least useful talents a druid has access to, not worth bothering with at all.

Nature’s Swiftness – Requires 20 points in Restoration tree and 5 points in Improved Healing Touch.
When activated, your next nature spell becomes an instant cast. 3 minute cooldown.

Nature’s Swiftness (NS) is one of the highlights of the druid restoration tree. Many druid builds revolve solely around whether they get NS or not. The uses for this spell are almost endless. A NS Healing Touch can save a druid in almost any situation, giving them in effect almost a 2nd life bar worth of health. The same ability can save a party member who takes some sort of spike damage, or is beset by damage dealers in PvP. NS can be combined w/ entangling roots to stop someone trying to flee, or hibernate to immediately take a beast mob or hunter’s pet out of action. Once you learn to use NS effectively, it’ll be tough to imagine playing without it. If you are speccing far enough into restoration to get here, always get this ability.

Gift of Nature – Requires 20 points in Restoration tree and 1 point in insect swarm.
Increases the effect of healing spells by 2% per point. 5 point limit.

This is a good talent to fill in the gaps if you are going for a full restoration build, but it is not essential for a druid to be a good healer. Every little bit helps, and a druid solely interested in healing should definitely pick this up. Otherwise, there are other places to spend points that give a great deal more versatility.

Improved Regrowth – Requires 25 points in Restoration tree.
Increases the critical effect chance of regrowth by 10% per point. 5 point limit.

With this talent, at level 60 with decent gear, a druid’s regrowth spell will crit somewhere in the 60-70% range, meaning the initial heal will be about as big as a healing touch, w/ the HoT thrown in for good measure. Since regrowth is significantly faster to cast than healing touch, this is of great benefit. Regrowth becomes much more useful with this talent, and it is a requirement for any druid seriously interested in speccing as a primary healer.

Innervate – Requires 30 points in Restoration tree, 5 points in Tranquil Spirit.
Increases the target’s mana regeneration rate by 400% and allows 100% of regeneration to continue while casting. Lasts 20 seconds, 6 minute cooldown. 1 point.

Like Nature’s Swiftness, Innervate is the jewel of the druid’s restoration tree. In general, in dungeon and raid situations, you will want to use this primarily on yourself or another druid or priest. Since the mana it regens is based off of the targets spirit, high spirit players like druids and priests gain the most benefit. Use innervate early and often…many big boss fights take longer than 6 minutes, and if you see a priest down around half mana, give it to them early so you have a chance to use it again later in the fight. Also be sure to educate people about how innervate works….you do not need to stop all casting to get its full effect, it will regen just as much mana if you cast the whole 20 seconds than if you stand and do nothing.

Don’t let people bully you into saying innervate should only be used on priests, but also don’t be dogmatic and say you’ll only use it on yourself. The person who needs it most is the one who is out of mana and therefore ineffective. If that’s you, use it on yourself instead of the priest who’s half full…if a priest needs it and you are getting by, give it to them. A druid’s role is to make the whole raid work better, and being flexible w/ targets for innervate goes a long way toward accomplishing that.

Innervate is also very useful in PvP, especially in one on one fights where a restoration druid is seeking to outlast his opponent and gradually wear him down. Innervate essentially gives you a new mana bar every 6 minutes…don’t forget about it, and use it when you need the mana.

There is a tendency with innervate (and other long cooldown abilities), to hoard them for when you really need them. Try to avoid this, and if you think an ability is useful, use it. 6 minutes passes surprisingly quickly in WoW, and you’ll often find the cooldown is done well before you need the ability again.

What follows are a couple popular talent builds for druids. Druid talent builds are relatively straightforward in that if you want to be a ranged damage dealer you go up balance, if you want to do a lot in forms you go up feral, and if all you want to do is heal you go up restoration. These are just suggestions on what is popular out there, and by no means the final word on what talents you must have. If you want to get the most out of WoW and your druid, it’s encouraged that you try out all the aspects available to the class and play it the way you find most enjoyable.

(Note: Talent build’s are generally described in shorthand by referencing the points in each tree, going in order of Balance/Feral/Restoration. So a build with 20 points in feral and 31 points in restoration would be described as 0/20/31)

Pure Healer Build – 12/0/39

This build lets you be all the healer you can be. All the healing talents that provide any appreciable benefit have been chosen, as well as a few balance talents that provide for some survival in PvP (Nature’s Grasp) and some mana conservation in PvE (Omen of Clarity). A druid with this build will be a very effective and powerful healer, but will have little utility outside of caster form.

Balance
5/5 Nature’s Grasp/Improved Nature’s Grasp
5/5 Natural Weapons
1/1 Omen of Clarity
1/2 Nature’s Reach

Restoration
5/5 Improved Mark of the Wild
5/5 Improved Healing Touch
3/3 Reflection
1/1 Insect Swarm
5/5 Subtlety
5/5 Tranquil Spirit
3/3 Improved Rejuvenation
1/1 Nature’s Swiftness
5/5 Gift of Nature
5/5 Improved Regrowth
1/1 Innervate

PvP Healer Build – 2/18/31

This build keeps the main focus of the character on healing, but sacrifices a slight bit of healing efficiency and effectiveness for much greater versatility in PvP and some PvE. The build retains some points in Nature’s Grasp to provide for extra survivability, while the addition of the Furor/Feral Charge combination gives the druid an extra spell interrupt and a way to close w/ enemies like hunters and mages that prefer to stay at range. Feline Swiftness is generally useful, and Ferocity, Blood Frenzy, and Sharpened Claws let the druid, with the right gear, do a significant amount of DPS in Cat form. This is a great template build for a druid who wants to heal primarily, but also wants to experience some of the versatility the druid class can offer. For a druid purely interested in doing end game raids, however, it is inferior in pure healing to the preceding build, as it gives up subtlety and gift of nature.

Balance
2/5 Nature’s Grasp/Improved Nature’s Grasp

Feral
5/5 Ferocity
2/2 Brutal Impact
3/5 Feral Instinct
1/1 Feral Charge
2/2 Feline Swiftness
3/3 Sharpened Claws
2/2 Blood Frenzy

Restoration
5/5 Improved Mark of the Wild
5/5 Furor
5/5 Improved Healing Touch
1/1 Insect Swarm
5/5 Tranquil Spirit
3/3 Improved Rejuvenation
1/1 Nature’s Swiftness
5/5 Improved Regrowth
1/1 Innervate

Pure DPS Feral Build – 14/32/5

This build is focused purely on feral combat, especially cat form. It picks up every talent in feral and balance that boosts cat form dps. A druid with this build will spend the majority of their time in cat form, only popping out to heal himself occasionally. Not having Nature’s Swiftness gives this build less survivability, although it will kill its enemies much quicker than a pure restoration build.

Balance
5/5 Nature’s Grasp/Improved Nature’s Grasp
5/5 Natural Weapons
3/3 Natural Shapeshifter
1/1 Omen of Clarity

Feral
5/5 Feral Aggression
3/5 Feral Instinct
2/2 Brutal Impact
2/2 Feline Swiftness
1/1 Feral Charge
3/3 Sharpened Claws
2/2 Improved Shred
2/2 Blood Frenzy
3/3 Predatory Strikes
2/2 Savage Fury
1/1 Faerie Fire (Feral)
5/5 Heart of the Wild
1/1 Leader of the Pack

Restoration
5/5 Furor

Feral/Healer Combined Build – 0/30/21

This build focuses on feral combat and cat form damage, but retains a good deal of survivability and healing power, as it allows for Nature’s Swiftness. You will do slightly less damage and crit a little less than a pure feral build, but with NS you can stay alive a lot longer in most situations. A popular build for druid’s who want to give feral a try but are addicted to NS. With a good set of intellect gear, and the bonus from Heart of the Wild, this type of druid can be a very effective healer, although its lack of innervate and improved regrowth makes it a noticeably less powerful healer than one fully specced up the restoration tree.

Feral
5/5 Feral Aggression
3/5 Feral Instinct
2/2 Brutal Impact
2/2 Feline Swiftness
1/1 Feral Charge
3/3 Sharpened Claws
2/2 Improved Shred
2/2 Blood Frenzy
3/3 Predatory Strikes
1/2 Savage Fury
1/1 Faerie Fire (Feral)
5/5 Heart of the Wild

Restoration
5/5 Furor
5/5 Improved Mark of the Wild
5/5 Improved Healing Touch
3/3 Improved Rejuvenation
1/1 Insect Swarm
1/5 Subtlety
1/1 Nature’s Swiftness

Moonkin Build – 40/0/11

If you’re primarily interested in doing range damage and being able to go Moonkin, this is the way to go. While you won’t have much utility in your animal forms, or a great deal of healing power, you’ll do far more spell damage than most people expect from a druid. Like any build that takes a 31 non resto point talent, however, you’re survivability is hurt significantly by not having Nature’s Swiftness. This is the one build that Nature’s Focus can be very useful…since in Moonkin you’ll often find yourself up close with enemies, when you need to shift out to heal it helps to not have it be interrupted and get it off as fast as possible so you can get back into moonkin form.

Balance
5/5 Improved Wrath
2/5 Nature’s Grasp/Improved Nature’s Grasp
5/5 Improved Moonfire
5/5 Natural Weapons
2/2 Nature’s Reach
1/1 Omen of Clarity
5/5 Improved Starfire
5/5 Vengeance
3/3 Moonglow
1/1 Nature’s Grace
5/5 Moonfury
1/1 Moonkin

Restoration
5/5 Improved Mark of the Wild
5/5 Nature’s Focus
1/1 Insect Swarm

Balance/Resto Combined Build – 30/0/21

This build reduces your damage with balance spells slightly, but greatly increases survivability by giving access to Nature’s swiftness. You will be a more effective healer than a pure balance specced druid, although again, without innervate, improved regrowth, or heart of the wild for extra mana, you won’t approach the healing power of a restoration specced druid.

Balance
5/5 Improved Wrath
3/5 Nature’s Grasp
5/5 Improved Moonfire
2/2 Nature’s Reach
5/5 Vengeance
5/5 Improved Starfire
1/1 Nature’s Grace
4/5 Moonfury

Restoration
5/5 Improved Mark of the Wild
5/5 Improved Healing Touch
3/5 Nature’s Focuse
3/3 Reflection
1/1 Insect Swarm
3/3 Improved Rejuvanation
1/1 Nature’s Swiftness