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Leveling a Druid - Feral vs Balance?
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Post by
730642
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Post by
Shadax
If you enjoy casters, it will likely be faster/more fun for you to level boomkin/resto, and there is no argument that not maintaining two gearsets is much nicer and gives you plenty more room in your bags. Heck, if you're not planning on doing extensive raiding, you really won't even need to have two gearsets at 85, maybe just different trinkets.
Post by
MegaVolt
The difference between feral and balance really isn't that huge. It's only really relevant in the lower levels when you occasionally have to drink as balance. If you are absolutely sure that you want to go balance at 85 there really is no reason to level as feral.
My Druid is a healer with feral (dps) off spec. Managing two sets of gear isn't so bad and I just like cats a lot more than fat chickens. At some point you should at least try feral to get a feel for it. You might even like it ;)
Post by
501997
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Post by
616871
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Post by
MrSCH
Balance until 8.
Post by
Tauge
If you plan on playing as Balance in the end game, then I'd think you should just pick it up now and level with it. I'm at 83 with my Resto/Balance druid and leveled him as such (well actually I started with Feral back in early Wrath, didn't like the mechanics of Kitty forms so I stopped leveling him at 30, until I picked him up a few weeks ago and leveled him as balance/resto). It's a blast playing balance.
Really it's a matter of personal preference. If you like melee DPS and Rogue fight mechanics(I don't), then play Feral. If you like casting, then Balance is for you.
Post by
curlymon
What you play from level 1-~70 does not matter. The way your class is played end game and the way it's played while leveling have very little correlation. Play what YOU find the funnest, that will always be the fastest way to level or at the very least the least boring.
Also play around with things, bounce between specs. You are a druid. You can be any role you want. No sense in not trying them all out :P
I started Kitty, went Bear for Burning Crusade, went Boomkin for Wrath, and Now off-specing Resto for the guild. And after all those changes the one thing I CAN tell you is I love every spec the druid has.
Post by
533581
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Post by
616871
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Post by
Shadax
Honestly, Kyonu, if you were killing two mobs then having to wait for something, you were doing something wrong. I've leveled a druid from 1 to 60, then to 70, then to 80, then to 84 as feral, and there was never ANY downtime, except after massive AoE pulls where it was Bear, Swipe-fest (before the cooldown existed), and then it was only long enough to cast a regrowth. I have ALSO leveled a druid from 1 to 85 as boomkin, and honestly, feral did kill things faster, and moved from one mob to the next quicker. The biggest difference between the two is in the lower levels, at least pre-Cata. I'm not sure how Blizz has altered the gear for levels 1-58 with Cata's release, but before that, the caster itemization was crap. As a boomkin, I HAD to root mobs if I wanted them to die before they ever got to me (which is my firm philosophy as a ranged caster ever since I leveled my mage as frost), since I'm very squishy, generally because I had to take cloth gear since it was so incredibly better. Granted, once you started getting into Outlands and Northrend content, where the gear was more caster appropriate, the difference in ease of killing things was smaller, but it really was still in feral's favor.
Ultimately, the spec that levels faster will be the one the player enjoys playing. If they like playing both, I firmly believe that feral levels faster.
Post by
MegaVolt
I just can't get passed Kitty form being completely monotonous in the levelling... Kill two mobs, wait. Kill two mobs, wait. Ugh.
This sounds like you actually waited for energy or Tiger's Fury to regenerate between pulls. That's completely unnecessary.
As people pointed out above: You can just run to a mob (open up with Faerie Fire, it has the same range as spells and makes the mob run to you, solving the melee issue), Mangle, Rake, Rip and then pull the next one right away. You don't have to actually wait for the first one to die. They will walk along behind you and die a few seconds later on their own.
If Tiger's Fury happens to come off cooldown - great, you can DoT them up a bit faster. But you certainly don't need it every pull and you don't need to start every pull at 100 energy either.
If you had any downtime (other than the occasional healing spell when running to the next mob) leveling as feral then you didn't do it right.
Additionally you can use Berserk and Bear Form quite often: Go in Travel Form, round up like 10 mobs or so, use Berserk in Bear Form and just spam Mangle. Without cooldown and hitting 3 enemies at once it's insane dps and you survive a huge pull as bear without any problems. Being able to AoE down huge masses of enemies every 3 minutes is extremely useful.
Post by
Azrile
What you play from level 1-~70 does not matter. The way your class is played end game and the way it's played while leveling have very little correlation. Play what YOU find the funnest, that will always be the fastest way to level or at the very least the least boring.
Also play around with things, bounce between specs. You are a druid. You can be any role you want. No sense in not trying them all out :P
I started Kitty, went Bear for Burning Crusade, went Boomkin for Wrath, and Now off-specing Resto for the guild. And after all those changes the one thing I CAN tell you is I love every spec the druid has.
This.
Leveling cat is very fast and very simple. Mangle spam will kill mobs in 8 seconds. At endgame, cat dps is one of the most difficult ones to master. You will learn nothing from leveling that can help you with endgame.
Leveling to 80 is extremely easy and fast. I would suggest going with your prefered gameplay.. do you like ranged or melee
as far as healing dungeons to level. The most boring thing you will ever do. I would just queue as dps... There are so many people healing and tanking that queueus are not bad at all.
Post by
521380
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Post by
lankybrit
I leveling as Balance and having very little downtime and rushing through quests and doing dungeons fine. I'm level 39 already.
Cheers.
Post by
291365
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Post by
Nipah
I've done them both, and they're both fast... it boils down to this question:
Do you want to shoot magic at the mobs (with the ability in the future to turn into a floppy-butted moonkin) or do you want to claw/bite at the mobs as a cat/bear?
Honestly, try one then the other... and if you can't decide by level 30 (I think its level 30), dual spec them both and hoard any gear you find useful for the specs.
Post by
677712
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Post by
Shadax
Early on, not really. When I leveled my Balance druid, it was during wrath, and I was using the cloth heirlooms, two SP trinkets, and the PvP staff. By comparison, I leveled my feral druid during vanilla, and she was my first toon to 70 and second to 80, so she's never seen the 'nerfed' leveling process, and STILL leveled faster that my boomkin. Especially now with Cata, I'd be more leaning towards a feral druid for leveling. In my experience, my boomkin did not put out enough damage fast enough to avoid getting his face pounded on by cata mobs, whereas my feral killed things fast enough that even the difference in time being hit (since I started in melee range) didn't lead to more damage taken. Additionally, vs casters, feral has more interrupt options available to them.
Post by
lankybrit
I don't know what frostwolf is talking about wrt having to drink when leveling as Balance. I'm now level 42 and haven't had a single drink yet. It just wasn't needed.
Maybe it was before they increased the mana regen at lower levels recently.
Cheers.
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