Balance & Feral

[Yhcti]

How are both performing in 7.3 in both Raids & M+? Ive seen a fair few people start dusting off their ferals... i can only assume theyre going to be decent in the new raid? I see Balance parsing higher than feral on everything except arenas and both seem to lack in the single target area. Fair assumption?

Is there anything glaringly obvious thats wrong with either spec which leads to the struggle? Or does everyone feel comfortable at current state?

[Useful]

I play bear and occasinal cat. Everything depends on legendaries these days. Being completely non-interested in balance and casters in general I find feral more understandable spec.

[Deleted]

Balance is in a all-round amazing state. Decent St, insane spread aoe. I'd say top 3 spec atm. Con is it requires 4 leggo to perform optimally, which can take a while to aquire.

Feral is decent, much less leggo dependent. It's a middle of the pack spec, and a melee. That being said, the 7.3 feral rework is brilliant, and it's fun to play. Mobile, decent cds and great St and aoe burst.

Imo in both cases its great - druid atm is in an amazing state! Both specs are also versatile, and has depth!

[MaddyLif3]

As Faylo said, Boomkin is one of the best states it's been in. It performs all niches well (ST, AoE, Cleave) without missing a beat. However, also is leggo dependent, but a good boomkin can top 3 most fights in ToS. Remain to be seen obviously for Antorus. For feral, middle of pack, good spec. Being melee help as melee have been favored well this xpac. The rework makes the spec insanely fun now and far less punishing. There are multiple viable builds now and all do well. Don't really need legos to be very efficient but they help obviously. I have played feral since wrath and this is one of the funnest and closest to wrath I think we've been. I'd say feral. But either way, you can't go wrong. Druids are amazing this xpac.

[Polarthief]

Balance's ST is meh (middle of the pack, but atm that means it's like 15-20% below top ST specs), though not too horrible; AoE/cleave is so stupidly broken that I'll bet they'll nerf us in some way (like our shitty 4P bonus in the next raid). If you enjoy AoEing and being #1 for it, Balance is an amazing spec to play right now (both in M+ and raiding).

TBH, the worst thing about Balance is your appearance. You get fat chicken that really needs new forms, glowy blue version of yourself, or transformation toy.

Feral I won't comment on since it's my 4th spec and I rarely ever play it.

[huth]

AoE/cleave is so stupidly broken that I'll bet they'll nerf us in some way (like our shitty 4P bonus in the next raid).

The 4p is better for AoE than single target on account of DoTs being a larger part of AoE DPS. It's crap in general, sure, but it would be completely counterproductive as a targeted AoE nerf.

[ButterBeast]

TBH, the worst thing about Balance is your appearance.

Get out.


10char

[Onikaroshi]

Balance's ST is meh (middle of the pack, but atm that means it's like 15-20% below top ST specs), though not too horrible; AoE/cleave is so stupidly broken that I'll bet they'll nerf us in some way (like our shitty 4P bonus in the next raid). If you enjoy AoEing and being #1 for it, Balance is an amazing spec to play right now (both in M+ and raiding).

TBH, the worst thing about Balance is your appearance. You get fat chicken that really needs new forms, glowy blue version of yourself, or transformation toy.

Feral I won't comment on since it's my 4th spec and I rarely ever play it.

Balance isn't even the top on aoe/cleave though, so i doubt there's much reason to nerf it. Straight clumped aoe Ele comes out on top, Council type cleave shadow wins.

OT: If you have the legendaries, balance, if you don't feral will mostly outperform, both are fun though.

[Yhcti]

Ive also seen guardian and resto are pretty great all around too which means druid seems to be winning at the moment!

[Deleted]

Druids are, overall, in the best place they have ever been. All 4 specs are not only viable, but quite simply strong.

[Whitepaw]

Druids are, overall, in the best place they have ever been. All 4 specs are not only viable, but quite simply strong.

This - right here - is the truth.

Guardian is probably the leading tank spec right now.

Balance is doing incredible. Seems like the spec has been fitted to the meta in raiding and M+ like a tailored suit. Balance is also doing really well in PvP.

Resto is doing really well, also decent in PvP.

Feral is really strong right now. Even if specced as AoE, you still do amazing deeps ST. Also strong in PvP, although not as strong as Balance in RBG. Only fly in the soup is that there are a few melee specs who are even better at dps and have more utility.

Druid is, in my humble opinion, the best class right now, when you look at how viable each spec is.

[silkworm]

I blew my ass to play balance, farmed all the legendaries, blew all my artifact power into 66 AP now and can only get decent single target dps.

Feral after the buff 7.3, I can get better Single Target numbers with only soul of the archdruid legendary and KJ. If I can get a feral legendary it will be better. Its now relatively simple to play, great ST dps and good aoe lacks utility.

I played resto all the way until legion. Even with only the shoulder legendary I can do up to 15 m+ and get good healz on KJ heroic which is the content I'm doing at most.

I can tank easily with shared gear from balance spec and KJ trinket mythics up to 10. Can probably tank couple of bosses in HC ToS if I know the bosses better. Thrash relics do help a great deal on our damage output. 3 survival insticts help a ton.

All in all, having played resto druid for a very long time (since 2007 I think) first time I played and enjoyed all the specs.

[Yhcti]

Good to know! I've gone down the hybrid route of classes - Paladin, Druid, Death knight. The combination actually works out rather well :P Ditching the pures was the best decision I've made yet. Balance is alright but it's not really my cup of tea any more (just can't get into it) Feral is great, Guardian and Resto are great too. Feral rivals my Unholy DK in fun at the moment, both are ridiculous to play and that's without any legendaries... roll on the RNG! LOL

[teddabear]

This - right here - is the truth.

Guardian is probably the leading tank spec right now.

Balance is doing incredible. Seems like the spec has been fitted to the meta in raiding and M+ like a tailored suit. Balance is also doing really well in PvP.

Resto is doing really well, also decent in PvP.

Feral is really strong right now. Even if specced as AoE, you still do amazing deeps ST. Also strong in PvP, although not as strong as Balance in RBG. Only fly in the soup is that there are a few melee specs who are even better at dps and have more utility.

Druid is, in my humble opinion, the best class right now, when you look at how viable each spec is.

A lot of people including myself predicted exactly this. Suck in the first 3 tiers and then overbuffed for the last tier so they come back for more.

[Indil]

Nice necro

[Polarthief]

A lot of people including myself predicted exactly this. Suck in the first 3 tiers and then overbuffed for the last tier so they come back for more.

I know this is necro but regarding Balance, this is no longer the case. With the nerf to Wax & Wane, its mobile DPS (no Starfall) is very poor. ST has fallen well below terrible (3rd worst to worst on every fight you can't Starfall 2+ targets); can't say its state in PvP, but losing Wax & Wane was very bad for it.

Outside of that, it still has great sustained AoE, great for M+, but if you have to pick a class and you're even considering Balance, Affliction is Balance but way better. Only thing it can't do is a different role.