Having a hard time to choose between Feral and Balance.

[Orpheus66]

Really wish both Balance and Feral shared the same stats so it would be easier to switch between the 2. Anyways I have ditched my Affliction Warlock and going to be focusing on my Druid. I don't want to go through the same experience of having no one want to group with me so is the defacto choice Balance? Why are people so afraid of bringing Ferals? I thought they had the highest damage of most/all the melee.

[Deleted]

even if ferals would boast the highest st dps, for many players they are not easy to play obviously as they do not come close to sim dps.
ballance compared to affliction just feels like a weaker version of it.

[Orpheus66]

I don't know what you are talking about but Affliction is in the bottom 3 of DPS. My Druid has 30% Haste and 30% Mastery (836IL, basically if the gear had Haste I took it and now I am looking for specific Haste>Crit gear) and I can usually get 150-160kDPS on a target dummy. I am not saying it is great but a shit ton better then what Affliction can do.

[Ilnezhara]

If I had the choice to go back and pick my main, I wouldn't pick Balance even given a free 110. Along with arcane mages we are the class that is most punished for moving... and that's all that this tier is. We need very specific trinkets to do any damage at all and our stat priorities fuck up which gear you want a lot. A piece 10 items levels lower sims lower but, in practice, does more damage because of how much haste is better than every other stat, especially with shooting stars and AoE.

The biggest thing is the class is overly simplistic and just not very fun at all. It's more about being able to play 30-40 seconds ahead than it is about knowing your class well, like at all.

Feral on the other hand is one of the highest skill cap classes in the world. The difference between a good feral and a bad feral is enormous, much more so than balance.

Also Spirit of Gol'drinn can suck a dick. Seeing the other moonkin with 1 less starsurge than you and 8 more procs for a total of 1.2m more damage is horse shit.

[teddabear]

Really wish both Balance and Feral shared the same stats so it would be easier to switch between the 2. Anyways I have ditched my Affliction Warlock and going to be focusing on my Druid. I don't want to go through the same experience of having no one want to group with me so is the defacto choice Balance? Why are people so afraid of bringing Ferals? I thought they had the highest damage of most/all the melee.

No AoE means you suck in Mythic +


The higher the Mythic level the more you suck.

[Hanede]

Really wish both Balance and Feral shared the same stats so it would be easier to switch between the 2. Anyways I have ditched my Affliction Warlock and going to be focusing on my Druid. I don't want to go through the same experience of having no one want to group with me so is the defacto choice Balance? Why are people so afraid of bringing Ferals? I thought they had the highest damage of most/all the melee.

Then I'm sorry but perhaps playing druid isn't the best choice here. If you like the gameplay, visuals etc. then I'd say go for it, but if you want a class that won't be rejected ever, you should perhaps make a fire mage or something. Those are great at both dungeons and raids.

Feral being good at ST is nice for raids, but falls behind a lot in dungeons due to trash being the majority of the run. Balance on the other hand is decent at both dungeons and raids, but you won't be the #1 choice. Can't speak much about playstyle since I don't main either of those.

On the other hand both Guardian and Resto are doing great in the tank and healer tiers respectively, if you just want to play a druid you might pick one of those.

[darklogrus]

Feral's single target is very good. The problem is when 3+ mobs are showing up or boss encounters need you to constantly swap to adds that die long before our DoTs ramp up the damage. Feral up til Mytic 2/3 are fine, anything after and you better be way ahead of the curve on youe gear because you will fall quickly behind.

[AngryLakitu]

Really wish both Balance and Feral shared the same stats so it would be easier to switch between the 2

Commented on this in another thread, but unless you are looking for Mythic+10-15 Dungeons or Mythic Progression Raiding, sub-optimal stat selection is not going to prevent you from succeeding as both. You can even succeed -- perhaps just not excel -- in high Mythic with sub-optimal stat selection. Progression, by it's very nature, is working through with what you have.

Play both, use the same base gear and swap out trinkets/jewelry as necessary.

If "easier to switch" is really your reason you don't just play both, I think you have a flaw in your reasoning.

[Fenrila]

Hello

In my whole wow career and Druid life (which started early wotlk maining Druid) I have NEVER gone boomkin. Feral and Guardian was where I thought it was all at. I did resto a bit but after failing 10+ times in the ToC 5m dungeon, I put my tree form in a nursery and never went back. I'm now trying boomkin (From an RP sense, I can't be arch druid if I don't even try master all 4 specs available) and I find it is A LOT easier to do AoE damage than Feral.

With Feral, you thrash for 40 energy, swipe for 45 energy, use TF to get more energy and do 2 more swipes and you're out of energy and waiting. Yes, its mobile, but its its very frustrating waiting for that yellow mana bar to fill itself up to just to be depleted in 2 moves a second later. ST however, the rotation hasn't really changed since I learned it in Wotlk. Its MUCH easier now that SR lasts longer than 15secs at 5CP so you dont have to hope you crit enough to get both Rip AND Ferocious bite off before having to re-buff Savage Roar and Berserk and Tigers Fury can be cast at the same time (I remember a time where if you cast berserk first, TF became greyed out. They changed that). Ferals have always been really high on the single target damage charts.

My experience with Balance (which is completely new to me) however is MUCH different from a warlock/mage/spriest/ele sham. Maintaining 3 dots (moonfire, sunfire and stellarflare), keeping new moon on CD but making sure you dont waste Astral Power, maintaining 3 stacks of Starsurge and then alternating the use of lunarstrike and solar wrath all the whilst dodging fight mechanics makes it VERY hard to stay on top. The AoE is much better than feral imo because you can just drop treants, use starfall, dot them up and then ST them down.

Those are my findings on them, im still learning boomkin so I may be doing something wrong but use that in your decision. My go to is feral because for me its like riding a bike.

[Liandryl]

I played feral during WoD and I chose to go boomkin this time around and other than for ST in raid where I have a hard time competing for the number 1 dps, I prefer boomkin.

It can be quite versatile with your talent options and is good for ST and cleave even tho it is not the best at anything. If the trash lasts long enough, I can get close to melee dps even tho I can't beat them. Boomkin is like the best at being 2nd in a way. Good at many things, but cannot be the best like feral can in raid for ST fights.

That is my only issue with boomkin, but I do great in mythic+ and when I see a melee beat me in trash, I don't really mind because I know I will win on the next boss. I don't think boomkin is a bad pick for raiding or mythic+, but after mythic 10, it becomes way harder for a boomkin to shine than it can be for a dh, ww, rogue etc...