Omen of Clarity will be one of the new “must-have” talents for all Druids, proccing off not only melee abilities but spells of all types. Learn about the expected proc rate and estimated MP5 value of this 11-point Restoration talent.
Currant: Not One of the Cool Kids
Published on November 10, 2008 by Currant 
Spells and Talents 
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We all like to think we don’t care what other people think of us, but this is patently untrue. As small children, we seek largely for the approval of the adults in our lives, and as teenagers – the point in our lives where we push hard for our independence from those same adults – even the fringe activities we engage in are given their veracity primarily through the fact that they continue to express themselves through grouping. From goths and cheerleaders to geeks and soccer-queens, human beings not only group, but seek acceptance through conformity, even if that conformity takes the shape of rebellion or rejection. As a 30-something I see grouping in people my age and older. Even the marginalized and socially rebellious group for approval and acceptance.
So it was that Phae showed me Talent Chic and I noticed that my spec is nowhere on the list. My initial reaction was that I must have missed the boat. Somewhere, somehow, people were seeing things I wasn’t and suddenly, I had to rethink my spec.
But as I started looking it over, I realized that were I to respec, I’d likely pick the same points all over again. Why? I’ve read the arguments for and against certain talents and I’ve looked at the math involved and I know that not all my choices are optimal, so why did I pick what I did?
Well, let’s look it over and find out.
First, I think it’s important to understand the realities of the way you play. What content do you find yourself in frequently and what content do you need to be able to perform well in? What sort of role do you play in said content and what are the classes and capabilities of the people you’ll be grouping with? How much do you solo, how much do you tank, group, quest for dailies or PvP?
For a long time, I’ve been the big bad Druid tank of my guild. My playtime is limited, thus my raid time is also limited and based in part on my performance (I’m really not trying to be arrogant, I’ve just done it for a long time and several cited me as an inspiration), several others have also taken up the mantle of the Dire Bear. As such, my capabilities have been eclipsed in no small measure. Most of them are my statistical equal or superior at this point and are accomplished tanks in their own right, independent of any guidance or inspiration I may have been.
Many of the others have followed Phae Phae into Resto while a few more than that have gone the route of the Laser Chicken, confidently calling death and destruction from the heavens. To whit: DPS and Healing, when not covered by “pure” classes, are as well and truly covered as Bear tanking.
As has been discussed many times over, there is a fundamental lack of tanking Mains in the world, something our guild never really felt until daily Heroics were implemented. In and of themselves, they didn’t – of course – cause a tank shortage. What they did, with their lockouts and badge bonuses, was make it so that only about half the guild had ready access to daily Heroic runs.
So the net result of all this is that I am still needed to tank frequently, but just as frequently, I find myself soloing dailies, filling in for a DPSer that drops from a run in progress, or some other task that requires a generalized Feral Druid. My role, as I approached my build, was one of MT/DPS/OT, about in that order. I must be able to drop into an MT role in a raid (I can and have, even for one boss fight I made it to in MH) just as easily as I must be able to become a purple kitty (please, FSM, please let me be a Snow Leopard soon!).
So first things first.
Furor, while nice, is really just a speed bump to Naturalist and Omen of Clarity. I happen to be one of those who shifts a lot even in PvE content, moving between encounters in Elf form and shifting to Dire Bear during a pull. My typical pull involves Moonfire on a secondary un-CC’d target, then shifting and going to my tanking rotation. I hate looking at my big fuzzy ass all the time so I shift. It’s likely not the most efficient method. Sue me. I still like Furor for its mechanics, though.
Naturalist provides me with both threat and damage and as such, is a nice payoff, even if you consider it’s essentially 1% per point if Furor is useless to you. 2% per point if you make active use of it.
Omen of Clarity. Oddly, this talent has seen a lot of discussion as to its relative worth on the boards. I still see it proc a lot and free rage and energy is hybrid utility in a talent at its best. I also get endless amusement at having it go off when I’m crafting.
Now here’s where, in the Resto tree, it gets a little dicey. I shift enough and occasionally PvP such that Natural Shapeshifter is immensely appealing, and the crit from Master Shapeshifter is also tempting to the point of salivation. However – and you knew that was coming because you are far more astute than any Druid Pundit credits you with – we are now looking at slightly less than 1% damage increase per point for MSS if we factor in the cost of NSS. This discounts the bonuses Cat gets talented from critical hits, but you get the point. It’s a pair of skills that would increase my combo point usage and increase my quality of life (not to mention my PvP viability for those rare times I PvP), but that come at a cost of 5 points quite possibly better spent elsewhere.
It’s important to note that I am not a believer that any and all talents should be valued on their ROI (Return On Investment) but on a broader spectrum of form, function, and perk. So take it with a grain of salt when I say something isn’t worth it. Even though I’m probably right. =P
That said, anyone who tells you Feral Aggression should be taken over Ferocity needs to go play Hello Kitty Island Adventure and never look back. ‘Nuff said.
Now is when we really get to the meat of my odd little spec and I attempt futilely to defend and explain my choices.
Feral Instinct gives us tanking utility and a measure of padding for both soloing and PvP while Savage Fury gives us a damage boost to the most commonly used abilities we have, increasing our DPS and threat. That’s got to be a no-brainer. Zombie players of Druids probably have the sense to spec that.
Thick Hide is purely for tanking. With our armor lost from items, it’s even more critical for players that want to tank to snatch up this talent in its entirety. For an end-game Druid it’s worth more than 2000 armor.
Feral Swiftness is as much for moving faster unmounted as it is for the dodge bonus, though the dodge bonus is how we justify this talent because even I wouldn’t touch it if all it did was let me run faster. I don’t PvP enough for me to get a skill that’d only do that.
Survival Instincts I almost skipped. Before you groan at my stupidity, let me explain myself. I’m a Druid tank. To date, my only emergency tools in tanking form have been, in order of access: Frenzied Regeneration, a potting macro, and a couple trinkets. I am flat-out not used to tanking with any way to stave off the inevitable and I’ve been remarkably successful for it. My first reaction to it, thus, was to wonder if I’d even remember to use it, let alone use it effectively. But when I realized that it’d bestow an emergency 6k (or close to it) health for 20 seconds, it was really hard to keep telling myself the point would be wasted.
Here’s hoping I remember to use it.
Sharpened Claws is our crit boost and good for both bear and cat, but for obviously different reasons. Slaved to Primal Fury the efficacy of this talent is enough to kick me in the face. More please. The other talent opened up with Sharpened Claws is Primal Precision. Now, there appears to be a significant amount of Expertise gear in the game later on, so this could be something I spec out of later, but for now, the boost to Expertise is outstanding, not to mention the energy return portion of this talent making it really nice for cats, too. I wonder how much of the benefit of the refund is negated by the other portion of the talent, though (that’s idle curiosity, nothing more really).
Feral Charge should be obvious, and Survival of the Fittest has significant value even if you don’t need or want the crit immunity (though why you wouldn’t, even if you aren’t a tank, is beyond me) just for the stat boost. Predatory Strikes and Heart of the Wild boost threat and damage. Good deal.
Nurturing Instinct was skipped because… well because it’s garbage. I wouldn’t even put that in a PvP build. Brutal Impact looks tasty for both forms, but I’ll be honest and admit I don’t use my stuns much. 2 points saved. Shredding Attacks is nice, but I need to be group DPSing to really get the mileage out of it I’d want, so I skipped that, too. I do DPS in groups, but not enough to warrant the talent.
Ah, Leader of the Pack. Gateway talent to awesome. The crit bonus, Mangle, and Improved Mangle are all reason enough to get this talent, but there are the other ornaments I’m also interested in.
I have serious issues with Protector of the Pack, but it’s the best thing we’ve got of its kind, and I can’t really pimp Thick Hide if I’m willing to skip this one. Improved Leader of the Pack isn’t really a necessity, but I like it and the soloing longevity I get from it, as well as the rather miniscule cushion it provides my healers. The mana regen mechanic is interesting, but I’d still like to see something more fundamental to the form to handle that, since it seems we’re not getting mana on our gear anymore.
Finally, I put 2/3 into Infected Wounds. Widely regarded as primarily a PvP talent, the tanking applications and even soloing application should be obvious. It’s more damage reduction.
King of the Jungle, Rend and Tear, and Berserk are juiciness I skipped. Why?
The easy cop-out answer is that I don’t have enough points. So juggle some around, you might say! After all, many of those I picked (after all Infected Wounds, Improved Leader of the Pack, Feral Charge and Survival Instincts are more luxury than necessity) can be dumped to make room, and some would make the case that all the points I put into Resto are wasted.
Perhaps.
King of the Jungle is a damage boost in bear and an energy burst in cat. God that’s tempting. I really do want it. Tiger’s Fury finally useful? Wow. I’m in shock.
Rend and Tear speaks directly to how we do our damage, through bleeds and abilities that augment or are augmented by them. It also makes Ferocious Bite… bite less. Overall, a very tasty talent.
I fully intend to grab both of those when I level.
So… Berserk. 51 points. I’m not sure what to think of the talent, to be honest. I have a tendency to forget cooldown abilities and I’m unnaturally tied to Omen of Clarity, too much for my own good, I think.
A few things that stand out to me is that Barkskin is okay for tanking, but the damage reduction is fairly underwhelming in the few situations I’ve used it while Frenzied Regeneration is my new best friend (especially glyphed). Survival Instincts is interesting and something I’m trying to learn to use effectively.
Overall, I’ve been pretty underwhelmed by the patch in general, though I am starting to suspect that my spec is part of the issue. I think I’ll be trying out a full Cat and full Bear spec in the near future to see what happens.
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Once you’ve tried using Survival Instincts with Frenzied Regeneration, you won’t forget. Since it’s off the GCD, you could even have a macro to use both at once.
Notes in no particular order:
1. Berserk is sooooo much fun. Use it for the joy it brings. =)
2. At 70 we have to make a lot of touch choices – I chose to prune away all of my resto talents except Furor.
3. If you use the Glyph of Rip, then you’ll find yourself using Ferocious Bite fairly often (and even more so when you get some T7 gear….). It can actually put out a great deal of damage now.
4. Omen of Clarity is worse than King of the Jungle, for what it’s worth. That 60 free energy is amazing.
5. I think that once all of us bears are sitting at level 80 our specs will be much more similar.
Karthiss last blog post..Where is the bear? (ep12)
It really comes down to whether you want to be a good cat and okay bear at 70 or a good bear and okay cat. And that basically comes down to Omen of Clarity. If you do take Omen of Clarity though, you really should take King of the Jungle. 60 energy every 30 seconds is a huge boost and greatly improves cycles – it makes those ugly times when you don’t get a crit a lot better.
Right now Omen of Clarity is better than King of the Jungle; you will usually get 2 procs in 30 seconds, and often more (as a cat; as a bear it’s basically useless). King of the Jungle can’t beat OoC’s potential energy, but it’s a lot more reliable. Really, you should take both if you can.
I chose to go 0/61/0. I only vaguely miss furor and don’t miss intensity at all, and faerie fire’s threat boost makes up for almost all of that. I’ll be changing things around come wrath so that it’s a bit easier to level, but for the most part the talents stay the same.
I also really like infected wounds now that I’ve played with it some. There are just too many times that you’re tanking something and tclap isn’t up. I also really like Rend and Tear for tanking; the threat boost from maul is incredible, and being able to do nearly 1700 DPS while tanking is kind of awesome.
Kals last blog post..[Druid] Cat item list and rep list for Pre-naxx
@Kal:
“Right now Omen of Clarity is better than King of the Jungle…”
Did they boost OoC’s proc rate in 3.0, or am I just on crack here?
Karthiss last blog post..Where is the bear? (ep12)
I’ve had that moment of “oh no, nobody’s speccing like me!” panic too after looking over that site. I have a hunter who’s the generic beastmaster build because I care less about straight dps and more about the pets, but for my rogue I appear to have gone for a build nobody else cares for. I can see why now that I’ve been grinding battlegrounds to get some better daggers – it’s really not a good PvP build, and I doubt it’s a good raid build either. The thing is I don’t raid (even hate instances unless I can romp through them on my own) and PvP is ok, but still not my cup of tea. I really just like getting lost in quests and beating up mobs, and my spec is designed around a lot of cheapshot & pickpocket, quick backstab, rupture the thing or sometimes another kidney shot & backstab for fun. It doesn’t work so well in PvP and who plays like that in raids? Mostly I’m aiming for always having lots of energy, and nobody could make me give up the fun stuff like faster speed while stealthing. I also *gasp* use daggers, which until very recently was considered one of the worst things you can do with a rogue.
So I’m not one of the cool kids
That’s okay, I’ll fumble my way along in the battlegrounds, watching my death rate soar (mine, not theirs) and soon I’ll get the shiny new daggers I’ve been eyeing and get back to relieving unsuspecting mobs of their loose change and steamy romance novels. Apologies for the rogue babble by the way – my baby druid is still too young to really care all that much about talent builds 
“Did they boost OoC’s proc rate in 3.0, or am I just on crack here?”
They boosted OoC’s proc rate in 3.02. It’s quite nice now. Like I said, it should proc in cat form about twice every 30 second period.
Kals last blog post..[Druid] Cat item list and rep list for Pre-naxx
couldn’t find my feral spec either :~~~~
I was suspicious of King of the Jungle, but after playing with it I love it and definitely recommend picking it up later.
Also, I found barkskin to be useful while tanking bosses that have damage spikes, but I realize that mileage may vary
Wait wait. I thought I was always loved. Just because I belong in the nerd group that played D&D doesn’t mean I am not loved. Right? Right? Please say right!
faradhims last blog post..All good things come to an end – Lich King invasion is here!
Really, you have to fight against min-maxers tooth and nail if you have an odd spec. I noticed that my Resto spec wasn’t even listed on that site you linked. I glyphed for HT and took a few of the talents, and until Nourish comes into play at Level 80, the spec I have will serve me just fine. It’s OK to not do what everyone else does. Nobody will notice but other Druids anyway.
I am currently specced into Imp Tranquility (no rotten tomatoes, please!) because I am going to level to 80 primarily in instances, and lately I have been finding a 4 minute, zero threat Tranquility to be REALLY handy in instances. I never really used it much with a 10 minute cooldown because I was worried I would “waste” it, and would be unable to use it in an emergency. On a 4 minute timer I am using it a lot more, and it’s really quite good to have for heroics.
I’m sure people inspect me or look at my armory and wonder why on earth I have 2 points in that talent; a talent that the majority of druids will tell you is plain bad, bad, bad. It’s almost useless for raiding – I maybe use it occasionally on trash, and I used to use it on particular fights like ROS, but it’s very situational. Now that the tree aura is raid-wide, I’m not usually in the tank group anymore either, so that cuts its usefulness down even further.
BUT – it’s a half decent 5 man talent, and that’s what I’m doing most right now – finishing off heroics, and in a few days, I’m going to be doing instances solidly until 80. So it makes sense to take a talent that is tailored to 5mans. I’m also not specced into Living Seed, as many people are, because I’m just not using Regrowth very much yet, nor do I have the glyph. So it’s pointless (to me) to put 3 points into a talent that I’m probably not going to use much until I start raiding again at 80. If I’m not going to use those 3 points, why not put them into something that will help me along the way – if only temporarily.
Things will change at 80, but for now my few odd choices will serve me well and I don’t mind people /boggling at me. Even so, at 80, I won’t be afraid to stray a little from cookie-cutter builds if that’s what suits my play style and content level – I was always the token Insect Swarm resto druid..
Dare to be different!
Keevas last blog post..Hoarded quests WILL give XP after WotLK release
I didn’t click your spec link until after I’d read through your whole post, because I honestly didn’t expect with that introduction that you’d have the exact same spec as me O.o
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Terenas&n=Kaelya
When playing my feral since 3.0, I have raided in the roles of MT, OT, and dps. In the raids where they told me to just go cat, I was DEFINITELY missing shredding attacks, but I didn’t want to go re-spec into it with the expansion looming and its many 5-mans, much time solo, and new talent points that I can spend on it later if I decide I really need it.
I’m not sold on Rend and Tear. I’m honestly considering skipping Rend and Tear entirely as I level in favor of other talents, because I feel it is far too expensive for its bear-form utility: 5 pts for a 20% boost to Maul damage only on bleeding targets, compared to Savage Fury which gives the same boost in only 2 pts and also buffs mangle, and the targets don’t have to be bleeding? It doesn’t seem balanced, and the FB + shred side of RaT don’t offset it enough for me, when I intend to be tanking. I’d rather not have to be tabbing between my closest targets lacerating them just to make sure my mauls are making use of the heavy 5-pt investment, because I’m pretty sure the Infected Wounds debuff is a disease, and Mangle is not a bleed effect.
I agree that RaT is very nice for kitty druids, but the same 5 points can instead go into Naturalist and buff ALL of my damage by 10%… swipe, maul, mangle, lacerate, and white attacks, on all targets, not just those that happen to be bleeding… and open up OoC, which I still hold up on a high old-fashioned pedestal since its days in the balance tree (and I giggle too when it procs while I’m cooking and, apparently, when speccing!).
Berserk, meanwhile, is a buff to aoe tanking, when I’ve had little issue holding aoe threat with swipe and the glyphed maul in spite of t6 set bonus increasing Mangle threat. Certainly useful, but not something I’ve ever sat back this past month and said “damn, I wish I had that talent over OoC.” I’ll certainly pick it up next level, but I’m really feeling the pain of “Berserk used to be a better talent”… a downside to watching the Beta notes like a proverbial hawk.
Just my 2cents
I also have nearly the same spec, It looks great to me!
The main difference is I didn’t go for the expertise bonus of Primal Precision (as I felt I could make it up in gear later), and instead went for Berserk which is just crazy fun and helps solidly keep multi target aggro.
Thanks for all the comments, everyone. I’ve been out of town on business and well, then I had to go check out Northrend, but now I’m here and the insight is very much appreciated.
Now that I’ve played significantly more with my spec, tanked a new instance or two, and generally had more time to digest what’s been done, I’m much more pleased with my spec than my post indicates. Additionally, I’ve found that OOC really does help a lot, even with tanking.
Last night in Utgarde I found several instances where I was generating very little rage while tanking trash. OOC procs made the difference more than once between a dead Titan’s Grip Warrior and, well, the alternative.
The additional tools are fun, and I’m still trying to remember to use them effectively, but they have actually saved me more than once. Whether I’d have found myself needing those tools prior to the changes are anyone’s guess, but I don’t feel notably weaker for all my lost attributes. Then again, I’m tanking in places that weren’t really designed for people in the gear my guild is sporting on its first foray into Northrend.
Still, I did okay in MH the other day, too (I just dragged the big guy a little too far and onto one of my healers and sealed all our fates – oops).
Until the dual-spec mechanic rolls, I’ll be continuing to mix my talents, but I think I’ll be using my next 9 points on KotJ, RaT, and Berserk. There are enough positive comments and insights that I think I’d be remiss to avoid them.
@Kelwind: I’ve glyphed my FR and about fell out of my chair the first time I used it. I hadn’t thought of macroing that with SI…hmmm…
@Karthiss: Yeah, I’m looking forward to KotJ a little later in my leveling curve. When I saw that change first appear in the beta notes I about wet myself with excitement. I think I’d forgotten Tiger’s Fury even existed.
@Kal: I agree, speccing is now a real question of where you want to shine.
@Hel: That’s okay, I have a baby Rogue myself so Rogue babble is just fine. L61 and slowly moving!
@Lee: I’m finding that Barkskin is at its most valuable at the beginning of a pull when tons of people are beating on me. Very good for that.
@Faradhim: We love you, don’t worry.
@Kevin: True, but you know…MUST..HAVE…APPROVAL!!
@Keeva: I keep looking at Imp Tranq for if and when I spec into healing.
@Kae: Haha, that’s funny. You have a good eye for talent specs if I do say so myself! =P RaT is something I want to try mostly because of my soloing time and that non-elites die fast enough that FB really is a good finisher then. As for Shredding Attacks, yeah, I definitely feel the extra Energy to use…
@Ranak: I expect most of us will eventually spec out of PP.
Again, thanks for the comments and I’ll see you in Northrend!
I have just been leveling my resto druid over the weekend, so I haven’t experienced the new talent points/leveling grind as feral yet for myself, but I’ve been questing with a kitty-spec feral as I’ve gone. He has admitted to a lot of rage-gen problems when tanking our instances, but then he doesn’t have natural reaction (something I pick on him about) in favor of more kitty-friendly leveling talents.
I asked him yesterday about RaT, and he did confirm that the FB portion of the talent was proving useful, but he doesn’t shred much when questing and is usually in bear for our instances. As for the maul side, he’s only received benefit when we bring along the other feral druid to 5-mans (rake/rip… I love the buff to rake’s damage!), or else when he has lacerate up on bosses… and the likelihood of having bleeds on the second maul target is slim to none, thus far. So, it seems to still be shaping up as a kitty-spec talent that happens to have some bear-form utility for when the cat is asked to tank some 5-man, or a raid with specific group makeup to provide the bear with a lot of bleed-causing melee slav– err helpers.
RE: Imp Tranquility,
I have put two points into it on my resto druid (I have two druids in T6, I am teh crazies), but I have cast tranquility itself ONCE in the past 6 levels of questing and instancing. Wild Growth has been the answer to any aoe-healing situation I’ve come up against, thus far, in the 5 mans. I am withholding judgement until I get into the 10-mans, though. A lot of the resto talents are hard to judge without knowing what you’ll be casting come raid time.
Keep us up to date with your feral speccage experiences!