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Moonfire Spamming Your Way to 80 in Wrath
Published on October 17, 2008 by Phaelia 
Lunar Guidance, Patches, Spells and Talents 
41 Comments
I’ve received several e-mails asking me about the best way to level in Wrath of the Lich King. Some Trees despair at the idea of abandoning their Healing roots for the kind that entangle while others seem to want to roll up their bark and don the feathered suit of a DOOMkin to pew pew all the way to Arthas! With as much variation as there is among readers and their playstyles, it’s safe to say that there is no clear ONE AND ONLY spec that you should use for leveling. So instead of linking you a talent build, I’m going to help you make the decisions that will determine which talents you should choose then show a couple of different specs that include them to – what I feel – is best effect! Let’s begin:
Question #1: How much do you want to heal?
This is a simple question that’s related to how much healing ability you are willing to sacrifice for the sake of improving your damage output. This assumes that the dual spec system won’t be immediately available after the release of Wrath and that you’re a cheapskate like me who is unwilling to respec to run instances. I’ve created a sliding scale of possible choices:
Question #2: How do you like to kill things?
Are you an “in your face” type of player that doesn’t mind getting her foliage mussed or are you more of a delicate flower who prefers the safety of killing things that can’t fight back?
Since the “lolwut” response to Question 2 isn’t actually a valid one (I love symmetry), there are six possible combinations that we can create. Here are six builds I would recommend to you, based on those preferences:
Build #1: The Pokey Peep, a.k.a. the Panzerkin
This type of build is heavy (HAHA) on the damage because it’s based on Moonkin, initially eschewing many of the trappings of Restoration in favor of many fun and powerful abilities at the bottom of the Balance tree. You’ll start at level 70 with a 55/0/6 build
. This build focuses on many of the abilities that allow you to take a beating while you machine gun Wrath the mobs to death. Key abilities include:
- Brambles: Let the mobs munch on your thorny exterior while you gleefully blast them with Wrath, Moonfire, and Insect Swarm. You’ll pick this up instead of Nature’s Reach since root-and-nuke isn’t your goal.
- Insect Swarm: Insect Swarm is a cheap DoT that essentially costs the Global Cooldown to cast. It’s also uninterruptible. I opted to skip over Improved Insect Swarm because there are better options further down the tree.
- Moonglow, Lunar Guidance, and Dreamstate: These are pretty much staples for any caster dipping into the Balance tree, and you’d have feathers for brains if you skipped them.
- Moonkin Form / Improved Moonkin Form: Pretty obvious benefits. This gives you a lot of armor to stand in the face of your enemies. Not to mention an awesome dance.
- Owlkin Frenzy: What could be better than actually deriving a benefit from things hitting you in Moonkin Form? You’d opt to skip this 3-point talent if you were using root-and-nuke techniques.
- Typhoon and Force of Nature: It’s hard to pass up two 1-point talents as fun as these.
- Earth and Moon: Sounds like the name of a ballad-writing 80s band, doesn’t it? Well, it’s not. This ability provides a big boost to your damage output.
- Wrath of Cenarius: Another expensive talent at 5 points. Provides a bonus to spell damage for Starfire and Wrath.
- Starfall: This spell is pretty mana efficient, even for single-target DPS.
As you continue to level up to 79 (because you ARE going to switch back to deep Restoration the moment you hit 80, RIGHT?), you’ll continue investing points in the Restoration tree, picking up such abilities as Omen of Clarity, Intensity, Natural Shapeshifter, Master Shapeshifter, and Furor. A level 79 version of this build ends up being 55/0/15 .
Build #2: The Marshmallow Peep
Unlike her Pokey brethren, the Marshmallow Peep cringes at the idea of having her feathers ruffled and prefers to keep her opponents at a distance. As a result, she will skip over talents like Brambles and Owlkin Frenzy, picking up Nature’s Reach instead. This build starts out at 70 as 52/0/9 ; as you may notice, our lower investment in tanking frees up more points for us in Restoration. We’ll start with three points in Furor, three in Nature’s Focus, Natural Shapeshifter and continue investing until we have all the Balance-oriented Restoration goodies, including Intensity, Omen of Clarity, and Master Shapeshifter. We end up with a free point at 79 to place in a Balance talent of choice. I’d probably opt for a point of Improved Insect Swarm. This build ends up being 53/0/17 .
Build #3: Hybrid Close-Combat
If you’re planning to level up with a mixture of solo-questing and instancing with guildmates (but are too cheap to pay for respec costs), a hybrid build might be just what you’re looking for. I’ve started this build with Moonkin Form, one point away from nabbing Swiftmend, but there’s nothing to say you couldn’t do it the other way around if you want. This build begins at level 70 as 31/0/30 . Because we don’t have the points needed to bolster Regrowth, we’ll instead focus on Healing Touch, picking up Naturalist and Empowered Touch. Key abilities from the Balance tree include:
- Brambles: This is a staple in any “tanking” build.
- Insect Swarm: Once again, Insect Swarm is a really cheap form of damage that only costs 1 point to acquire.
- Moonglow and Lunar Guidance, and Dreamstate: We won’t initially have the points we need to pick up Dreamstate, but it’s a priority for talent point expenditures between 70 and 80.
- Moonkin Form: This is the reason we start with 31 points. We’ll pick up 3/3 Improved Moonkin Form as we level, though the points aren’t available at the start.
As you level up to 79, you’ll want to pick up Dreamstate, Owlkin Frenzy, and 2 points in Improved Moonkin Form (though you could opt to substitute points in Wrath of Cenarius for IMF). This build ends up being 39/0/31 at level 79.
Build #4: The Confused Cannon
This is the root-and-nuke variation Build 3, Hybrid Close-Combat. It also begins as 31/0/30, though again you can choose to start with Swiftmend and pick up Moonkin Form at 71 if you prefer. We’ll drop Brambles in favor of Nature’s Reach + Nature’s Splendor. As you level up with this build, you’ll similarly pick up Dreamstate and Improved Moonkin Form, though with no need for Owlkin Frenzy, you’ll make the choice to pick up Wrath of Cenarius. This build ends up being 39/0/31 at level 79.
Build #5: The Thorn Bush
This build is perhaps the least efficient in terms of suitability to tank since it doesn’t pick up Moonkin Form at any point and even the armored Tree of Life can’t cast Balance spells. Nonetheless, its strong HoTs may make this a feasible option for the player who wants to stay as true as possible to her Restoration “roots” but still pack a bit of firepower. In terms of Balance abilities, I’ve selected Starlight Wrath, Moonglow, Nature’s Majesty, Nature’s Grace, Nature’s Splendor, and Brambles. The 17/0/44 build at 70 is comprised of most of the “core” Restoration abilities up to and including Tree of Life but eschews Naturalist, Tranquil Spirit, and Empowered Touch, instead emphasizing Regrowth. Improved Tranquility is also omitted, though you may wish to consider it if you plan to do a lot of instancing.
Leveling up with this build, you have three options:
- Spend your points in Balance to boost your firepower with 5/5 Vengeance and Insect Swarm. Spend the remaining three points on additional spell power from Lunar Guidance. An example of this build is 26/0/47 .
- Spend your points in Balance to boost your healing with 5/5 Genesis and Insect Swarm. Spend the remaining three points on additional spell power from Lunar Guidance. An example of this build is 26/0/47 .
- Spend your points in Restoration to acquire Wild Growth. Definitely pick up Improved Tree of Life for its aura improvement and Spirit –> healing power conversion. Other talents that I recommend you consider include: Improved Tranquility and Empowered Touch. Spend any remaining points in Genesis once you have Wild Growth. An example of this build is 19/0/51 .
Build #6: The Conscientious Objector
You are a delicate flower. You cringe at the idea that something should actually hit you. It might be carrying a Tree-eating parasite, after all. In any case, this build is quite similar to the Thorn Bush. You might even opt to include a point or three in Brambles as a damage shield for your adoring tanks. Should you not, your starting build would look something like 16/0/45 . You can choose to follow any one of the three approaches outlined under Build #5: The Thorn Bush above to help you decide where to spend your remaining points as you level to 79.
Final Notes
Keep in mind that these are suggested builds that you should feel free to adapt to your own preferences and playstyle. These are also recommendations from a Restoration Druid. Should you choose to pursue one of the more deeply Balance-specced builds, I can’t recommend Graylo’s articles over at Gray Matter highly enough. Read up over there, too, so you don’t look like a n00bkin. 
So which (potentially modified) playstyle will you be trying out? (And don’t say “Feral” or I shall beat you about the shoulders with my branches.)
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Very nice guide, though despite all your advice I think I’m gonna go full feral for leveling. No boomkin can ever hope stand up to a kitty’s epic dps! Haha
Hep
So a couple of comments to your Moonkin build. I had a chance to play arround with the moonkin talents on the ptr, and there are some things I would do differently.
First of all, I think the effect of brambles is bordering on useless. The mobs you meet in WotLK are seldom alive long enough for brambles to warrant 3 points. I would go with natures reach, which makes it possible to out distance mobs, and has the added bonus of providing threat reduction for the odd instance/group quest.
Secondly, Typhoon is not worth the talent point. From my ptr experience I know that the spell hardly does any damage and its knockback is a joke.
Thirdly, Owlkin frenzy is a pvp talent no mob should be alive long enough and have been in range long enough for this talent to shine.
Fourthly, Dreamstate is ok to begin to begin with but as soon as you get the chance you should spec into intensity instead. Intensity is simply a better talent.
With all these freed up talents I would pick up celestial focus for the haste increase: Faster nooking, yes please. The rest I would put in resto.
The is no reason to put talents in eclipse, since for leveling mobs are not alive long enough for you to benefit from the proc.
Sorry I hope you don’t fing this comment too anoying. Like the idea of the article and I agree with much of what you’ve written. I just wanted to share my experience with playing arround with these talents.
This comment basicly boils down to: If you play hardcore moonkin, mobs should not get to hit you more than 1-2 times, and if they do: proc natures grasp, or what it is called (previously tier 1 talent).
/Balderun
Lol @ the titles and “tree-eating parasite”.
I’ll probably just assign points at random.
Although…
…
…
Protector of the Pack? Maybe? Please?
…
…
Sorry… Pokey Peep it is.
To be honest I probably will go for a dps-orientated spec. I leveled to 70 as mostly Feral, and never had any problems with healing (the first time I went into Kara I was aware of Swiftmend only at a theoretical level) since I made sure I always had a reasonable healing set on me. I even healed my first instance run at 70 (SLabs) as full feral, and it went fine (I think people thought I was a shaman or something, since noone asked me why I wasn’t in tree form). Given the new gear changes (spell power) I’m confident I can heal through anything Northrend throws at me on my way to 80. Although of course if you’re a conscientious objector then this is beside the point
. Leveling as dps is just my personal choice and the reason behind it.
And yes, I will try Feral at one point. I like diversity, s’why I rolled a druid.
I hope that all made sense, I’m _really_ tired.
Beathoovens last blog post..[Guide] Getting Your White Core Hound
I’m gonna level on a hybrid talent very close to the ones you built. However I would have two changes on them:
- Since the heal is focusing on HT, I’d rather have Tranquil Spirit instead of Master Shapeshifter. That 4% damage increase really can’t match with 10% healing cost decrease, especially if you don’t have dreamstate (I have, but I’ll mainly heal, since I will level together with my prot/arms GF)
- Since these builds don’t have the high crit for regrowth you can’t spam RG, and you don’t have Swiftmend either. In nasty instance situations all you have is 1 NS-HT to save the day. So instead of Imp. Rejuv, I’d have Imp Tranquility, so unless the nasty situations come more often than 4 mins, we are practically fail-safe.
While I am not a druid, this guide was fun to read. I like the method you took to approaching it. I wonder what a similar article would be like for priests.
Karines last blog post..New UI? Not yet.
Great (and funny!) article
I specced ToL at 50 (imagine that ^^), and kept going full since then (with occasional PvP-owl specs, but just that). I think that will be my way to 80 too
I’m a respec addict. That’s my trademark. My guildmates are never sure what I’ll shopw up as next time I’m logging on. I’ll eventually respec if they ask, beg, or otherwise bribe me.
Mostly, I play restoration and balance. Feral and tanking in general aren’t my call. I did, I can, I will if needed, but that’s not my thing.
I disagree on some of the talents choosen for the deep moonkin builds. That’s due to how you’d glyph for PVE, which you need to take into account.
A moonkin is likely to use the Starfire and Moonfire glyphs for PVE. This makes Nature’s Splendor useless.
With the way mana regenerates now, you’re almost completely safe to ignore Dreamstate and any other mana regeneration talent. The Moonkin form and mana back crit on their own should be good enough mana regen. If you take one mob at a time, you should have enough time between to mobs to get going for a very long time. If you AOE your way with Hurricane and Starfall, you’re going to gain mana from critting in most cases (need over 3 mobs for mana to fill up while casting).
I don’t know about Northrend mobs yet, unfortunately, but if things go on as they are, they’re going to be dead long before they are anywhere close. This makes Owlkin Frenzy, which is more of a PVP talent, less attractive.
I have to say reading the talent guide, and the posts above mine, I’m a little worried about my talent selection.
I tried to make it as close to my build before the patch, the major change being insect swarm is now further down the balance tree, and needing my dots to solo I’ve skipped the deeper resto talents I once had. Is improved insect swarm good for a root and nuke/ dots and hots to keep me alive build? I will try and cast starfall where possible but a lot of the time when there are more than one mob its not really feasible so I fall back on the hots to keep me alive (again touch has a far too long cast time for my liking) and dots to kill them.
So I have taken some basic balance talents until insect swarm and improved insect swarm (though I skipped genesis, was that a mistake? It’s mentioned a fair bit above) and the rest are resto talents based around mana regen or free spells since omen of clarity now works for healing spells, and improving hots, not bothered with touch improvements. if neither option was available I’ve grabbed filler talents to take me further down the tree, such as some points in subtlety and natural shapeshifter. Not sure if its horrible or not but it served me well prepatch more or less in this form.
I’m only 68 and will be speccing hot/mana based talents down the resto tree, and once I get there tree of life again. Though I am soloing mostly, I was told by friends best way to lv is to grind quests where as before I was instance hopping, tof my not be the best abilities for me but I may try healing some instances for the guild if they let me/I can commit to the time, and it is nice to have for group quests…
basically my thought on the patch/my playstyle, though I don’t think it really fits a category above, close to thorn bush maybe, though I haven’t taken brambles.
Wise Foxs last blog post..The Mall on Friday Night
Hybrid Close-Combat or the Confused Cannon. I’m not sure which. I would probably go for the Confused Cannon since Nature’s Splendor is good for healing.
The important this is that at level 71 I can have Swiftmend AND Moonkin form. Wish I could have had that leveling to 70.
Hee, great post. I’m sure I will be referring to it in the future. I am not level 70 yet and probably won’t be by the time Wrath hits, but you would be quite proud of me because I got my Tree Form in Maraudon today and merilly went around healing the rest of the instance… I don’t want to respec to keep leveling so I think I will go for some sort of hybrid spec, Tree Form is too fun =P
Actually since the patch, theres been a large uprise of druids that suddenly went boomkin, which has made a lot of the pre-patch boomkins quite angry. There has even been a new term made up for them (Patchkins). Why the hate? Everyone suddenly buys all the +spellpower leather greens off the AH and specs Boomkin and thinks they can just take the easy street, so we start seeing a very low quality player base. I was in an instance a bit ago with a Patchkin, who was standing there yelling at the tank to hurry up and pull (the tank was marking!) and was generally being a very rude cow.
Me personally I’m resto and always have been. I’ve respecced a couple times to quest my way through some bad spots (like from lvl 50 to 60 where theres pretty much only 1 instance you can constantly run, and good luck finding a group for it!) but I just dont have the money to constantly respec and I love being a tree.
Like your site name says… RESTO4LIFE!
@Willowthorn,
I’m not so sure about your patchkin assumption. Of the best players in WoW, the top 12 druid specs are still Resto. In fact, the first boomkin spec is all the way down at 19th most popular (according to http://www.talentchic.com/Druid ).
While I anticipate a lot of druids will respec for leveling once WotLK comes out (Probably The Pokey Peep as explained above), that hasn’t happened yet.
HI PHAE.
Anyway. I actually liked this entire post since I don’t know what I’m going to do with my druid at 70/80, seeing as I recently had the account he was on restored and miss being Resto.
:I It actually makes me want to be a moonkin.
Not sure if Omen of Clarity is bugged, but at the moment, I’m find it procs a LOT off hurricane. These days when I’m doing my dailies I just round up 4-5 mobs, and hurricane. Clearcast procs 90% of the time during those ticks, which means I am chain casting with no mana loss. Most of the time I end 4 mobs with 30% hp (no moonkin, opted for swiftmend), and 90% mana
I felt more OP than my pre-patch destro lock casting seed of corruption
My two main goals for this build are
- Have fun with new AoE toys
- Improve my “tough-solo-fight” potential
Dreamstate isn’t too important for short fights, so I skipped it. I still get 3/3 Moonglow (Improved Moonfire and Genesis are weak).
I get all the tier-3 talents. Nature’s Splendor means that I can start a really tough fight with
Regrowth Rejuv Lifebloom Starfire Moonkin
and effectively add several thousand health. It also means my Moonfire and Insect Swarm do more on a tough fight.
Nature’s Reach means less running to get out of range of a rooted caster, while fighting his friends.
Gale Winds for more AoE damage. GW plus NR also mean my Cyclone has decent range (another CC for casters).
To sum up, I skipped your Furor, Shapeshifter, Dreamstate, and Improved Moonfire (11 points) and put them into Splendor, Reach, WoC (big DPS boost), and Gale Winds (10 points). The last point I put into Celestial Focus.
Definitely leveling feral…you have to have someone to heal right???
I’m going full-resto, and doing the back-to-back instance thing. Really looking forward to it. Then later I’ll go back and enjoy all the quest lines and scenery.
I just wish we could have the dual-spec system for WotLK release – I much prefer feral for levelling because I like being up in mobs’ faces to kill them. I don’t enjoy being a caster at all. Unfortunately, with the changes to spellpower (and eventually the introduction of dual-specs), my main (resto) gear will work better with a secondary balance spec, meaning it would make more sense for me to dual spec resto/balance….. but I just miss kitty soloing so much. I would also love to do some OTing again sometime, and I love the idea of helping my guild out by being able to tank for them at short notice if that’s what they need, or going as dps.
That is, after all, the beauty of being a hybrid – finally we’ll be able to be more versatile without having to port, train, travel back again, and cough up hundreds of gold per week just to enjoy our class. Anytime someone says LF1M, I’ll be able to go, regardless of what they’re looking for
Still always a tree at heart though
Keevas last blog post..How to get 50 mounts before WotLK
I have been a caster spec of one kind or another over the past 2 years. I love healing, but if you have a bit of variety available, why not change it up for awhile? I plan to feral it up to 80. I plan to level as feral and transition back to healing at 80.
I can pick up heal gears along the way to 80 of course, but with HOTW’s int bonus and my 1000 spell power healing set, even with a feral spec I can still heal my way through an instance if need be. But I can tank, too. I don’t think you can spec resto and tank, even with some nice tank gear. Then again, with the threat changes, maybe maul and swipe are all you need to hold aggro these days
Alt Fanatics last blog post..Lazy WoW Sunday
If you’re going balance to level, you want gale winds. Period.
You can kill five enemies with hurricane and thorns in the time that it would take you to kill two by using single target attacks.
I can’t recommend this strongly enough. Get owlkin frenzy + gale winds + brambles and go to town.
Um….. mew?
In other news, I ran the Headless Horseman with a hunter, a warrior, two mages, and myself. The hunter goes “Hey Tiger, you’re healing right?”
to which I first burst out laughing, and then remembered I had an ill-assorted conglomeration of balance/resto gear hanging out in my bank for no good reason.
I remembered with the changes spell power now affects damage and healing, and that my feral mentor frequently healed as feral while wearing his resto suit.
The result? *ahem*
/sing
I healed a group, and I liked iiiiiiiiiit!
The taste of my lifebloom rocked their socks….
But, I wanted to thank you, browsing your articles gave me a general inkling to what I was doing, there were lots of hots and I tried to stay out of casting as much as possible. Only had to self-innervate twice for all of the 7 times we killed that boss.
Tigerfeets last blog post..I Wiped The Raid!
My initial plan is to do some sort of hybrid balance-resto spec for leveling, although my tank is talking me into going heavily balance for leveling – the plan being to heavily nuke with a tossed rejuv. It’s a weird change for me, because I even did 60-70 fully resto, although spending a lot of time in cat form.
There is a wee bit of me that wants to do some feral leveling. I have a few purples offspec pieces that I picked up when nobody else wanted anything, so I might give that a shot, or pick up some feral quest gear while leveling and switch if it starts to upgrade my pieces. Although I wouldn’t be surprised if I don’t replace any spell power gear until 80.
After leveling moonkin from 40-60 and from 60-70 I think I will try feral this time. Simply put, no other class in the game can match the “0 downtime” that a feral druid has while leveling alone.
You’re like a rogue with your own personal healer, plus if you over pull, you can go bear, frenzied Regen, and pretty much destroy 4-5 mobs if needed.
@Geleande: Tsk, tsk! It sounds like a lot of people really enjoy the chance to switch back to kitten during these all-too-brief 10-level periods after a new expansion!
@Balderun: Thank you very much for your informed feedback. I definitely appreciate it!! Maybe I was doing something wrong, but I found myself being hit quite a lot during my jaunts through Northrend, so I found value in Brambles. Your mileage appears to have varied, but it definitely seems like a set of talents that would be synergistic with remaining in close proximity to one or more mobs. If this is the case, I can’t see why Owlkin Frenzy wouldn’t be helpful. After all, you could always pull a couple more mobs and soften them up with IS/MF.
As for Typhoon, well … I’ve always been a sucker for a 1-point utility talent. I clung to the pre-WotLK version of Omen of Clarity longer than most, I have to admit. (Though I’d long since broken my addiction before starting Resto4Life.) I’m definitely willing to concede that Typhoon is a talent you could safely skip over if you don’t want to try it out and see if it’s any fun.
Thanks very much for the perspective on Intensity vs. Dreamstate, too. I can definitely see why Intensity would outshine DS, if mana regeneration operates in remotely the same way as it did pre-WotLK! I don’t think I recommended talents in Elipse as everything I have read has indicated that that talent is terribad. (Thanks, Graylo
)
The comment wasn’t annoying at all. Very helpful and constructive. Thank you!
@Beathooven: From what I experienced, the spell power change made a HUGE different for me, even when I was specced deep Restoration. I don’t think any healing-hybrid will have too much difficulty.
@Ghostboci: I think trading Master Shapeshifter for Tranquil Spirit is an understandable choice. I may edit my build to reflect that instead.
Thank you!
@Karine: I also wonder. Maybe we’ll see someone else tackle the subject!
@Ermengol: Good to hear! I’m glad you enjoyed the article, as this was about my third draft!
@Zamir: You may be a respec addict, but have you ever tried the dreaded Dire Aquatic Form spec???!?! *freaked out hamster look*
Question though: why would the Moonfire Glyph/Stafire Glyph make Nature’s Splendor useless? NS would actually increase the value of both Glyphs since it would give you the sustained damage increase for longer. Maybe I don’t understand how they would work, but it seems like Moonfire’s base time is 12 with a base damage of 384 (96 per tick). Nature’s Splendor would give you an additional tick for another 96 damage, for a total of 480 damage. The Glyph of Moonfire would increase that damage to 840 or 168 per tick (for five ticks) which seems like a really nice improvement over the base amount. Each cast of Starfire would similarly add an additional tick for another 168 damage, but doesn’t seem to really interact with Nature’s Splendor (unless you’re using a Starfire rotation?). I’d love to hear your thoughts, though. I might just be looking at it from the wrong angle!
@Wise Fox: I’m also a little disappointed that Insect Swarm has been moved so far down the tree. That was an amazing soloing tool for a Restoration Druid trying to do daily quests. I can say, however, that the spell power changes definitely more than make up for the loss, but it’s not nearly as fun only having the one DoT. Could this possibly be a PvP-inspired nerf? It’s not like Rogues were having a tremendously difficult time whomping on Druids. Harumph.
@Hobert: Seriously. I’ll be curious to see the new Restokin builds that include Moonkin AND Swiftmend!
@Pike: Congratulations on your recent leafy acquisition!!
@Willowhorn: It’s funny you should mention the “Patchkins.” There was a time when Druids were the least played class. Some people theorized it was because we were a weak class, that only Restoration was viable, or that the limited racial options turned many people off. Since TBC, the advent of the truly effective Feral tank, and the Resto Druid Arena dominance, you can’t sneeze without hitting another Druid. I say “HOORAY!!!” though as it’s more potential readers for meeeeeee (well, and Graylo)!!!
Maybe I should add a blog byline: “WELCOME, PATCHKINS!!”
@David: That is an awesome site. Thank you for sharing. /bookmark
@Th: There’s nothing wrong with taking a (brief) walk on the Feathered side. Just remember your roots! *shakes branch at you*
@Crimsona: That’s interesting. I wonder if it doesn’t presently have a chance to proc off each pulse of Hurricane damage. Definitely something to keep in mind. ^_^
@Erdluf: Thanks for the feedback and for sharing how you’re specced. If I can ask, are you using Hurricane alone? Do you not have trouble with interrupts?
@Abagoo: I’m sure Mr. Phae and his many army of alts-he-can’t-pick-between will give me PLENTY of things to heal, LOL.
@Keeva: I’m really hoping to be able to level my way up through instances, too. I have a few friends that I’m planning to play with. Then we can go back and make all DA MONIES and reputation from doing quests!!
Who knows – we might see that dual spec patched in just a week or so after release, in which case your kitty dreams could come true. 
@Alt Fanatic: That sounds like a pretty solid plan. My only concern would be picking up healing gear along the way. Groupmates aren’t likely to be too keen on the melee nabbing spell power items, especially now that the dps casters AND the group healer are going to need them. As long as you’re willing to settle for cast offs or are running with good friends who understand you are only playing Feral to level, you should be fine, though.
@Werebeef: @#$%%! I didn’t even think of the synergy between Owlkin Frenzy and Hurricane! A.M.G. I will totally have to make some revisions to the builds this week. Thank you, sir!
@Tigerfeet: I’m very glad some of the stuff here helped you in your … experimental game. It’s just Elven nature. (Tauren?)
@Heike: It depends on how well equipped you are. In the two starting areas, I found probably ONE item that was an upgrade over my gear, all the way up through level 73. Of course, I’m wearing a mixture of T5/badge gear, and you might be even better off. Definitely going to have to get someone’s help in picking out good Feral items to take instead or I’m going to end up with the most ridiculous glut of “but it looks so cool!” gear sitting in my bank.
@Ricky: That’s definitely something tht I’ve noticed with my Feral Druid. =)
The images were a great laugh, I loved ‘em!
There are a few druids in my guild that have been hedging on how they want to set themselves up for the patch, so I’m definitely directing them this way.
*wanders off giggling about the images again*
Pixelated Executioners last blog post..A Brief Update
I am going to be nuts, and level as resto (starting at 0/0/61 this has served me well said far, and I am happy with it). Wwell until dual specs come about, also I leveled as resto to 70. But I got lucky and meet a prot pally and 2 dps and we pretty much leveled together to 70.
I do, do good damage with my cat set even as resto. And as resto, I know many warriors in my guild that want to level as prot, so building a group for dungeons for us will be very easy. Think about it, Tank and healer looking for 3 DPS for instance X. How fast will we have a group as very few will level Tank and/or Healer.
But as stated before that is until dual specs come along, and as I commented before my off spec will be “kitty mew mew spec” This also assumes that you get this before level 80. But when this happens (assuming if you get it before level 80) all that plan on being healers at 80 will have a Healing spec and their solo/leveling/grinding/dailies build, some might not do this as they plan a PvE/PvP sec so they will have a spec till they hit 80 and then get their 2 specs then, they might start to build their PvE healing spec to do instances on the way up. But only time will tell.
About the glyphs: The way it currently works, starfire will always refresh the duration of moonfire. As in indefinitely. Since talent points are rare, a deep moonkin build will not invest in Nature’s Splendor because his normal Starfire rotation already does a much better job at maintaining Moonfire on his target.
It’s not that Nature’s Splendor is bad, it’s just redundant to what Starfire already is better at for a deep moonkin build.
Nota Bene: PTR has the glyph changed to refresh Moonfire to a maximum of 9 seconds. If the change goes through to live still doesn’t make Nature’s splendor the better choice for a deep Moonking build though.
It’s definitely of more interest to have it either as a hybrid or as a deep resto investor because then chances are your glyph selection will be different.
Starfire is a big nono in PVP (or you have to time it right), so chances are a PVP hybrid will glyph Wrath instead AND take NS to maximize the duration of the dot without being forced into casting SF to refresh it.
The advantage of a longer Lifebloom as a deep resto build is obvious, but I’m not so sure we have the points for that at 70.
I have been healing (0/0/61) over the weekend and tree still definitely rocks. My tank was a retri. I did struggle to keep him live through heroic Ramparts on my moonkin build, but it was a breeze after respec. I’d have to give it another go, but I’m under the impression that restokin has become very, very difficult to do now.
I picked a druid to play a healer (after failing to keybind shadowbolt to all my keys as a warlock but loving the life tap button whenever the green blob behind my gave me her attention). I went feral til scarlet monastery and healed from their to the top (NB i got to 50 preBC so instance crawling was still fairly standard) but found that with a few judicious choices at the bottom of the rest tree and giving some love to the feral tree I could do pretty much anything. Stealth past groups too large, HoT shift pewpew anything elite or high level and heal through instances. So I’m gonna give the resto/feral another go
Been respeccing quite a bit lately – from a Dreamstate/Swiftmend build to tree to Restokin to deep Boom to Berserk Feral…
I’ve decided I’m going to level as 51/10 feral, with a Healing Touch glyph and probably the rejuv glyph. I’ve had few problems healing heroics with 1k spellpower and a 51/10 spec – the 1 sec HT provides decent emergency burst and coupled with the 1.8 sec 4-piece glad regrowth is adequate to top someone off. Mana efficiency isn’t a big issue in 5-mans anyway, I can afford to go OOM earlier.
Going 70-80, I have little doubt I can heal OR tank dungeons in this spec.
I have heard nothing about insect swarm being moved in anyone elses comments? should I take this as a sign and save that semi deep balance tech and get the higher end resto talents, dropping my dot for heals trusting the extra damage my spells output to compensate? I solo by myself (no personal dps slave) but I have spent my time as balance pre patch and am really not interested in returning to it full force and feral has never entertained me. All the characters I enjoy playing are casters I can’t play a melee character to save me (I lack the CS jumping skillz required
)
@Willowhorn: where they actually bovine or just being asinine?
Wise Foxs last blog post..The Path Of Glory
Crimsona, I noticed Omen of Clarity procing wayyyy to much on Hurricane the other night while running MC for the achievement. I think it is pretty cool though I can’t imagine Blizzard letting it stay that way.
On a related note Omen of Clarity will no longer (in 3.0.3) proc off the Honorless Target buff. /cry
this blog is so adorable and informative! You have done a great job!
@Pixelated Executioner: Thank you kindly for directing your Druidic guildmates this way. I hope it’s helpful.
@Drun: I also really enjoy leveling up with my personal retinue of DPS sla– I mean…. friends.
@Zamir: Oh okay. That makes sense. I realize you explained this long, long ago, but if you happen to notice this response, I’m interested to know if your opinion of Nature’s Splendor remains the same since the MF refresh is now limited to a maximum of nine seconds.
@Camel: Sounds interesting and fun.
Come back and share your impressions once you’ve been able to try this out in Wrath!
@Crimsona: I think the healer/tank dual-specs are going to be really interesting. It’s not something that I’m going to try because I would hate having to develop two so distinctly different gear sets, but there’s no question you’ll have a group any time you want one.
@Wise Fox: The change to spell power more than makes up for the loss of Insect Swarm, even with as much as I loved that spell. I’m pretty sad it was placed so far out of reach, and I honestly don’t understand the rationale. Were Restos using it in Arenas to debuff to hit? Was that really so much of a problem? *sadface*
@Hobert: I wonder if OOC will continue to proc off making bandages!
@Jezi: Aww well thank you!
Phaelia, I am excited to try out the marshmallow peep talent build but when I click the link to the talent calculator thingy, it shows 44/0/9. Is this just me? Great post and site BTW.
@Bulbous: Doh! Thanks for bringing that to my attention. I think it should be fixed now.
The Balance tree has way less bloat now, so moonkins have an option to invest points in talents they wouldn’t have been interested in.
I still don’t think that despite the patch Nature’s Splendor ranks as a priority for moonkins. I’d rather grab Omen of Clarity.
However, Nature’s Splendor certainly became an option now. It’s not always easy to cast a Starfire for various reasons. Let’s say: don’t stand in the fire. Having Nature’s Splendor would buy a moonkin some time to make sure his Moonfire doesn’t fall, or, in the normal rotation, allow for one, maybe two more Starfire casts before needing to refresh Moonfire.
It still remains low priority though, for the very same reasons: the glyph dynamics and other talents that must take precedence: per se, Nature’s Grace doesn’t improve a moonkin’s damage like Earth and Moon or Imp. Moonkin Form do.
I can very much see it being part of a level 80 Balance druid tree. At 70, the benefits for the points are more questionnable.
I’ve picked a 37/0/34 build, customized for what I like to do while leveling. I’m more comfortable having Swiftmend while healing so picking that up was a priority, and I’ll start off 30/0/31. Then I’ll pick up moonkin form, along with Imp Moonkin, and pair it up with Living Spirit to take advantage of the nice amount of spirit I have.
Skipping Typhoon is an easy choice as well, since my husband is a ret/prot pally and he absolutely has fits when Typhoon knocks targets away from him! Hopefully this will give me a nice improvement over my typical 6/0/55 DPS while keeping my resto roots. At 80 it’s right back to a 51+ resto build. 
@Zamir: Nature’s Splendor is only 1 point, though. It used to be 3 for the same benefit before they swapped the calculation for Nature’s Grace and Nature’s Splendor. I could easily justify a single point for its benefits.
@Pirate: Sounds like a plan! I actually leveled with Mr. Phae’s Retribution Paladin in vanilla WoW. Consecrating packs of Murlocs to death … ah … good times!
I did a 31/0/31 build at 71, hitting boomkin and swiftmend. I did a instance and it was great, i think i was more mana efficient somehow.
Robs last blog post..Done Raiding TBC (really)
@Rob: Great! I’m glad that you found a good balance (har har) that works for you!
I would like to point out that with the changes to +healing being merged to +spell power; I am totally capable of doing damage with my full resto spec. Mind you not what a lazor chicken can output, but still respectable. Keep your targets at range with roots and you will find it very easy to kill them with your new found spell damage. HoTs are also great. if I have only two mobs of equal level to me meleeing the crap out of me my hots easily out heal the damage. Some times to make other classes jealous I put on thorns and let mobs kill themselves on me. All this to make the point that full resto is a very viable method for soloing. Try it, don’t shed your leaves so easily.
Seamus
Seamuss last blog post..A new Take on the Shockadin