Druid Dps in CM's

[Lantupointo]

I have 9/9 exp in cms as both melee and as ranged.

My question is: which performs better....feral or balance?

I have gear for both and I really dont want to tank or heal on my druid unless its a last resort.

[Fountaiin]

probably moonkin

[Glurp]

Both are very average in cmodes, you'll likely do better on whatever spec you're better at. What spec you play really won't impact your ability to get gold though, 95% of getting gold times is down to your tactic.

[Deleted]

I bought a CM boost on my Balance Druid (only way to get gold on my realm, pugging is a disaster :/) and ended up with some realm best times. Trash DPS isn't as great as say an Elemental Shaman, but using cooldowns at the right time is the key.

[Batix]

All druid DPS is relatively crap in CMs. Luckily it's what we bring to the table that makes us useful in CMs. Golds are still very doable, but don't expect to be putting out any great numbers.

[Deleted]

Resto is pretty strong, consider that, even Guardian isn't too bad. I'd say Kitty is better from my PoV, but both DPS-specs are pretty close.

[Fountaiin]

Moonkin isn't even THAT bad if played really well and you understand all of the timings to every pull. You have to be able to use DoC and you have to accept that sometimes you won't be able to get to the right eclipse in time. You also have to admit defeat on the 4-5 target pulls like the candlestick mages in scholo.

It's definitely better than feral, though. A lot of the popular strategies force melee to sit out for large periods of time. Roar and beam are also nice.

Your damage for the most part will be pretty terrible if you don't have any experience with the spec though, so make sure to bring an ele/mage with you to carry :-)

[Deleted]

Probably not moonkin, although I don't expect the difference to be huge.
Solar beam is indeed very nice for some tactics, but not needed. I would imagine that playing feral (and doing decent numbers) is a lot easier than playing boomkin (and doing decent numbers) in challenge modes.

I swear we've had like 5 threads on this matter though.

[Zstr]

feral is lowest dps in CM, AoE also not high, coz of bad CP gain and bad energy regen on lowest ilvl due to low crit and haste
dunno about moonking but it's burst much better then feral one

[RuneeBH]

I bought a CM boost on my Balance Druid (only way to get gold on my realm, pugging is a disaster :/) and ended up with some realm best times. Trash DPS isn't as great as say an Elemental Shaman, but using cooldowns at the right time is the key.

Well, getting realm best times on a realm with trash pugs (and I guess that means the general population is trash too? or maybe its just a dead server) isn't surprising

Anywayyyy - they are both pretty lackluster specs in 463 gear / high-movement / low-stat environments. Nothing against the specs, they both perform fantastically in SoO (and most raids this xpax to be fair), and I'm sure good players can crush CMs on them, but you'll see very few people putting up competitive times with a feral/boomkin in the group..doesn't mean they can't blow through 9/9 with ease, though.

[Thereaperszone]

Feral does ok I have been doing them over the last month and do ok numbers. As for aoe you can burt high if using cds right and hotw is really nice if you use it right. Any fight were you need to run out as melee you can hotw wrath spam to keep dpsing.

[Raugnaut]

Boomkin without a doubt. Not only does boomkin have Solar Beam in addition to all of the tools feral has, Boomkin can also have much stronger AoE if you time it right.

[theostrichsays]

I have done 2 gold modes as feral, I have had a boomkin in group with me healing before. I would personally give the edge to boomkins, don't expect to compete with Frost Mages/Ele Shamans on trash pulls, but Solar Beam is nice, not required but LoS pulls with Vortex/Mass and Solar Beams on top of casters followed by Shadowfury or some other AoE stun like that, were nice for a sustained CC.
Also your innervate maybe a bit better then useless, not game changing in there but in pugs every little bit matters.

[Varna]

I've done cm gold as feral, I didnt find no issues at all - I certainly didnt feel like my dps was bad or ever feel like I was being carried. You toggle between hotw/hurricane & offhealing (equipping sp weps), and then tf/bs. Feral aoe is decent enough, if done right. You spread rake, keep sr up and get 5cp rip on stuff thats gonna last long enough, never use mangle or shred, always fb to renew your rip when in execute range. You have a short cd on interupts and good utility you can bring such as aoe roots and a stun. Symbiosis on a priest isnt bad either for cheesing stuff. Obviously the mage/monk/shaman/disc groups are going to do very well for realm firsts but for actually completing cm's as feral.. just have a decent group of players.

[Viradiance]

If you're doing CMs as a druid, you have a much better bet doing Guardian or Resto.

But if you have to DPS, Moonkin has the ranged advantage.

[Zareth]

What I dislike the most about balance in CMs is the fact that you have to try and plan a lot with it -- know when you'll enter what eclipse, how long the CM is gonna take, how long between bosses etc (for cooldowns mostly). It's really hard to min-max the eclipse thingy without losing DPS on the pull before, you'll have much fewer SS procs and there's almost never enough time to use Astral Communion. If you plan on sitting in solar eclipse for very long (with DoC), keep in mind that even if you aim to get the 5273 haste cap, your DoTs won't get the extra tick because your Nature's Grace won't be up for most of it.

I personally feel like playing moonkin in CMs is very try-hard, because even if you do everything in your power to min-max your DPS you'll only ever be average.

[Quenden]

I recently did these on my druid as Balance in full Haste/Mastery gear (I went for the 5273 breakpoint, but was in Resto gear) and did okay and it was the first time I've touched Balance since Firelands progression. If you know the spec, you'll do fine. There were a few times my burst was untouchable (CDs on a big pack), but the damage is low across the board. It was almost as bad as doing them as Shadow.

So...very doable, but the damage is low. The utility is still great and if you're lacking a hunter or another druid, Stampeding Roar can be invaluable for shaving off several seconds and clearing stretches for Invis.