Scryer or Aldor...

[Tacks]

You will not be able to heal high end instances in feral, period.

And of course you're not going to get much agro, you're not doing jack for damage.

I still don't understand if you're primarily a healer why would you not spec towards that way.

Let me know when you solo heal Labs or any tempest zone in feral spec. It may be doable if every other class you take has a CC ability but would end up a 3-4 hour run.

[Alphonso]

Is feral the only viable leveling spec for druids? I wanted to play one, but I dont want to melee much.

[Lyion]

You will not be able to heal high end instances in feral, period.

And of course you're not going to get much agro, you're not doing jack for damage.

I still don't understand if you're primarily a healer why would you not spec towards that way.

Let me know when you solo heal Labs or any tempest zone in feral spec. It may be doable if every other class you take has a CC ability but would end up a 3-4 hour run.

I bet I will. I bet it's being done right now, fast without any casualties.

The reason I don't spec restoration is because resto is complete ass for soloing, and I'm doing just as much soloing as I am grouping.

You seem to miss Feral healing is decent with good gear. Portions of the Feral tree help with healing, and I have 12 points in Resto, as well, as do most Feral Druids. At 70 I'll have 20 in Resto before I respec.

Sure, if I'm wearing Feral gear I'll splat my party, but with healing gear there isn't really that much difference in the healing between specs.

Have you ever actually played a Druid at any level Taxx? Do you even know our healing abilities. You're usually spot on with WOW analysis, but you seem to have an issue here and are posting silliness.

Is feral the only viable leveling spec for druids? I wanted to play one, but I dont want to melee much.

The early levels it really is. The mid levels you can go Oomkin and do fine.
60 to 70 its dependent on what you want. Oomkin is good then, as is Feral, but if you have a steady group, it's almost better to split your talents so you can fill different roles.

Endgame Druids are more based on gear than anything.

[Tacks]

I've played every class (including paladin) to high levels.

I think your idea of high-end is different from mine. UBRS in old school is not high-end. Non-heroic PUG groups are not high-end (and I doubt you could even do them right now).

Make sure you Fraps your first PUG Warp Splinter fight for me with you solo healing. Hell even inciter would be interesting. And those are just the nub non-heroic ones. It's possible, it's ugly and you will need massive DPS to make up for your suck healing. Even ramparts heroic will own your face in. I'll say it again. You won't heal a high end instance solo as feral in the near future.

Prove me wrong.

[Arlos]

You don't need a perfect group for Warp Splinter. I've been MT for him, and had no problems whatsoever. I've also MTed Kargath, Murmur, all of Darrowshire COT, all of Black Morass COT, etc. Hell, I MTed all of Steamvaults at 67, including all 3 bossses, the elemental packs, the Bog Overlords, etc. Now, I know I'm not a druid, and we're not discussing healing, but I AM a hybrid class, and I'm excelling at what was formerly a warrior-only role. I'm even doing 2/3 or more of the DPS of real DPS classes too, and that's without using any sort of thorns/retribution aura to generate on-hit DPS. One run we had a Rogue do cumulative 360k, mage at like 350k, hunter at 300k, and me at 260k. (Priest was at like 30k, heh).

They really have significantly changed the abilities of some of the classes in the expansion, Taxx. I know that few people expected me to be able to handle tanking in all the circumstances in which I've done so, but at this point at least my guildmates (a not-inexperienced bunch) that have grouped with me, all tell me they feel more confident with me MTing than they do with most of the Warriors. So, given that, you might need to be willing to re-look at some of the Druid capabilities, and how they've changed compared to pre-expansion. They really did get a boost (indeed, some have been arguing too MUCH of a boost).

-Arlos

[Lyion]

Not even sure what Warp Splinter is, so can't really discuss it with ya.

I've done ramparts heroic as the lone healer twice.

You are not looking at simple facts here, just making proclamations. What level is your Druid? What spec? Have you played him past 60?

Anyways, you aren't actually using any facts. I have great mana regen/healing gear and can primary heal fine with Feral spec in 5 man instances I've been in.

[Arlos]

Warp Splinter is the end boss of Botanica, one of the Tempest Keep dungeons. Not that bad, really. The group I was in had more problems with the earlier boss that liked to go invuln and tranquility.

-Arlos

[Tacks]

So Lyion, you've done a level 70 instance on heroic but haven't been to Botanica? ok... Did you take 4 mages, sheep 4 mobs and kite everything else? Yeah it CAN be done that way I guess.

Arlos, you're also in a top-end frontrunner guild, you can't really speak for the average Joe. I know my guild and I have done some pretty sick shit you wouldn't believe as well, but it doesn't apply for 99% of the population.

[Zanchief]

What's Freons spirit at now?

[Tacks]

Warp Splinter is the end boss of Botanica, one of the Tempest Keep dungeons. Not that bad, really. The group I was in had more problems with the earlier boss that liked to go invuln and tranquility.

-Arlos

My point being is that it can be mana intensive with one healer unless you have massive dps and burn through adds or not even kill them at all...once again, not your average group.

[Arlos]

I'm really curious as to how Lyion would've done ANY heroic runs at what, L66? A) To get to Revered with Honor Hold (or whatever the horde town equivalent is), you need to do a bunch of Shattered Halls runs, and I can't imagine a L66 being terribly effective in SH. I know a L66 holy-spec Priest wasn't able to successfully solo heal the group in Steamvaults on the Hurricane-ing boss, and Steamvaults is definitely at least a order of difficulty easier than Shattered Halls. B) I've never seen a non-70 EVER in any heroic instance, and would be staggered at a group giving a L66 the chance to even enter the zone (assuming they somehow have the faction and the key), much less a feral druid as primary healer.

As for why he hasn't done Botanica, that's easy. He's L66. He can't fly. How's he gonna get there?

Now, don't get me wrong, I think that in most cases a Feral druid is an asset to a group, but I simply don't buy even ENTERING a heroic instance at L66 for ANY class, and I definitely don't buy a feral spec druid main healing a heroic instance at that level.

-Arlos

[Tacks]

That's what I'm saying. I like Lyion and all but he really doesn't know wtf he's talking about is all.

I didn't see him post what level he was so I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt to being 70.

[Arlos]

From page 2:

I'm only level 66 and not doing much rep farming for now, mainly doing Cenarion and Mara faction.

So yeah, I would be flat-out shocked if he'd done Heroic anything. That's nothing against Lyion, but *NO* L66 is going to be main healing, or even ENTERING a heroic instance, period, no matter WHO they are.

-Arlos

[Lyion]

Ah, my bad. I've not done anything heroic. My last post should just read Ramparts. Nothing heroic.

Sorry, n00b mistake there.

I'm 66, I'm almost level 67. Not 70 yet. I've done quite a few instances, but nothing 70ish.

[Griever]

There is a level 70 balance druid in my guild that out DPSes most mages.

[Tuggan]

are the mages still 60?

[Tacks]

There is a level 70 balance druid in my guild that out DPSes most mages.

your guild blows then

[Burgy99]

Hmmm....

Once the expansion first came out, I really had my doubts what they could do other than healing. After seeing what a properly geared feral druid can do, I've changed my mind. Those things run around with close to 15k HPs and 20k Armor. True they don't have the straight up 10% mitigation of Defensive stance, but holy shit can they tank. In places like Steamvaults, if our healer was AFK the druid would pull anyways and be able to keep himself up just from frenzied Rejouv. That's pretty damn impressive.

You might want to take a second look at druids Taxx, or maybe play with different ones. As resto, they can EASILY solo heal any instance, ( lifebloom any one ?) and as feral bearform, they are doing more damage than the warrior would have done in the group.

[Tacks]

I've played with every druid in my guild along with 2 ixtlan druids, they were lucky to do half my damage, if that.

Again I'll say, in a feral spec:

They're ok for maintanking but not as good as a warrior or even paladin. (if they wouldn't have gotten the beta nerf, this might be a different case)
They're useful for an offtank but warriors can do it better.
They're ok for dps but 6 classes can do it better.
They're ok for healing but 2/3 classes can do it better.

So yes, they can do anything of them moderately but still do none of them GREAT. The one GREAT thing Druids can do is heal if they're resto spec. I never once said resto Druids weren't good Burgy, re-read.

And seriously...you're talking about Steamvault...I could tank the place at this point.

[Ginzburgh]

Well...you DID say jack of all trades but good at none...

...so one can only assume...

nevermind.

[Tacks]

Well...you DID say jack of all trades but good at none...

...so one can only assume...

nevermind.

in feral form, yes

[Ginzburgh]

Ah, I guess I misinterpreted the meaning of "all trades"

[Tacks]

I could have been clearer but I think you understand what I meant now.

[Ginzburgh]

No, I do. I had to reread the context.

[Griever]

There is a level 70 balance druid in my guild that out DPSes most mages.

your guild blows then

If you take a moment to read my post again I said "that out DPSes most mages." I wasn't specifying the mages in my guild.