Give me some hints for switching from Resto to DD please

[Weissrolf]

Hello everyone!

Looks like I will have to switch from Restoration druid to some form of DD in our raid. That's not because I am bad at healing, but because the other druid healer cannot play anything else and we just got a Paladin healer added to our already present 2x Resto druids + 1x Disc priest.

We only got a single melee (plus tanks) right now, and if anything tells you something about our raid composition then it is the fact that we've got three (3!) Beastmaster hunters running along. Both my Balance and Feral weapons are at 20 artifact levels, so I can choose quite freely. I main Resto for dungeons (and raids), use Guardian for everything else (including the occasional mythic dungeon) and pretty much left the damage dealer on the wayside (except for leveling Balance to 110).

I tried Balance for one evening and generally was at the tail of the pack, mostly even behind people who get consistently lowish DPS. One reason likely is that I didn't play Balance at all after hitting 110 and only was told to switch like 15 minutes before the raid started (third raid night). But it's undeniable that I am not the best button-smashing machine when it comes to doing damage. I know how both specs (Feral/Balance) work, but I don't know the intricacies of getting the most out of it. Especially stuff like what to time when for movement phases and what procs to stack for other which spells (does Full Moon needs anything lined up for snap shooting?).

So input from experienced players is appreciated, especially those who know where I come from as a healer.

[Deleted]

I find the feral very complex. The balance spec I find that depends a lot of the gear. Balance haste>everything.

You should try feral if the raid do not have meles. The new feral forms are sick!

Do not spect to be on the top of the damage meter. In reality is very complex to do so much damage.

[Deleted]

Hello everyone!

Looks like I will have to switch from Restoration druid to some form of DD in our raid. That's not because I am bad at healing, but because the other druid healer cannot play anything else and we just got a Paladin healer added to our already present 2x Resto druids + 1x Disc priest.

We only got a single melee (plus tanks) right now, and if anything tells you something about our raid composition then it is the fact that we've got three (3!) Beastmaster hunters running along. Both my Balance and Feral weapons are at 20 artifact levels, so I can choose quite freely. I main Resto for dungeons (and raids), use Guardian for everything else (including the occasional mythic dungeon) and pretty much left the damage dealer on the wayside (except for leveling Balance to 110).

I tried Balance for one evening and generally was at the tail of the pack, mostly even behind people who get consistently lowish DPS. One reason likely is that I didn't play Balance at all after hitting 110 and only was told to switch like 15 minutes before the raid started (third raid night). But it's undeniable that I am not the best button-smashing machine when it comes to doing damage. I know how both specs (Feral/Balance) work, but I don't know the intricacies of getting the most out of it. Especially stuff like what to time when for movement phases and what procs to stack for other which spells (does Full Moon needs anything lined up for snap shooting?).

So input from experienced players is appreciated, especially those who know where I come from as a healer.

If you are looking for the most smooth transition, go for balance. Your stat priority from Resto will be close to the one you will get in Balance, meaning haste is super important, with crit just coming in as a second. Going feral would mean you would have to switch your whole set, because haste is the worst stat for ferals afaik.

[MaddyLif3]

Well your easiest transition is to go to Balance, you have played it to 110 and are somewhat familiar with it. However, Feral is far superior overall right now. While feral is very complex (it is my main), once you get the hang of it, your dps will be on top usually. I recommend reading Xanzar's guide on feral and getting a snapshotting addon (DotFocus) or WeakAuras (I use Tal's, but Pawkets is good too) to help learn as well. And if you really need some help early on, use the Ovale addon and use the string for the rotation from FluidDruid. You can also join the Discord for druids and enter the Feral channel. Lots of good players in there willing to help.

[Weissrolf]

Thanks for the suggestions so far. I originally leveled as Feral, so it's not entirely new to me. I'll start with the Ovale and have a look at the guide. Addon/WA will surely help to get the most out of it once I decide to go Feral (it's tempting to get rid of range mechanics for a while). Stats shouldn't matter so much, because I kept everything 830+ anyway.

[Ilnezhara]

Balance is mind numbingly boring and simplistic once you know the fights and is only the slightest bit engaging with snapshotting (which is being removed) and Emerald Dreamcatcher.

Feral is complex and interesting and not completely unfun.

I'm forced to play Balance to have a guild spot and it's shit. If you have the choice go feral, it's way way way better.

[Cheze]

feral is strong at ST but barfo at everything else, so be aware of that (balance affinity does solve some of the usual irritation associated with melee though.) Balance isn't anything remarkable but it's a decent enough ranged. I would tend to give the edge to balance just because the harder EN fights are more ranged/cleave oriented, but if you have few melee you might be better of as feral.

[Weissrolf]

So, I mostly ran as Feral in ED, switching back to Resto when needed. As a consequence my two legendary items both are Feral items. Now in NH I am delegated to more healing during progression, also because our Paladin DD/Healer wants to do less healing and more DPS.

There are still some encounters where I switch to DD, even more so the more we go towards farming. There are two problems I am facing:

1. I feel quite comfortable with single-target damage as Feral, sometimes doing 90%+ iLevel without using War portions and Vantus runes. AoE is problematic, unless I switch T15 to Predator at the cost of single-target DPS. Our raid-leader allowing me to stay mostly at the boss in nearly every fight surely helps with that.

What I s*ck at is making good use of the Hero phase. Frankly it doesn't seem to matter much for my DPS whether Hero is running or not. One reason for my problems is that often we don't use hero at the beginning of a fight, but at some point dictated by fight mechanics/percentage. Very often this point is short before my next Beserk comes off CD, so I cannot make full use of it. Nevertheless I feel like I need to change my "Rotation" during Hero, so any hints as to what buttons to hit are appreciated.

2. In NH there are several bosses where using the Balance spec seems to be a better choice. Missing legendary items notwithstanding I only seem to have a grip on the (memekin) AoE part using Starfall, but completely fail at doing single-target damage. I had this problem from the very beginning, even against puppets, which is one reason why i went with Feral for DPS.

What I observed about my Balance single-target DPS is that I fail to make Starsurge my main damage contributor, while all simulations and forum posts suggest that it should be number one. So maybe someone could give me some practical hints on how to do proper single-target damage as Balance even without having access to the legendaries?!

Thanks in advance!

[morchel]

Without Dreamcatcher try to keep your energy swinging around 50%. That way you don't overcap with full moon and you always have a burst Surge or Starfall for new priority adds. When you have a timed add spawn, pool to 100 and save moon spells to destroy them with 3 Starfalls.

If you use all your empowerment's and moon spells your Surge should be ~25% plus 5% artifact talent dmg single target.

[Dilemma90]

I would go balance.

Feral seems too complicated and if you get stressed in raid environment, having to track of ferals abilities is really hard and will leave you far behind in damage.

But in all honestly, i would just keep healing. If that's what you rolled, and it's what you are good for, then keep doing it.

You 3.5 healers right now, 4.5 isn't bad.

[kooz]

I mained feral in ulduar and firelands and had a lot of fun. Right now honestly both balance and feral are mediocre in raid, I'd play another melee/range at the moment if I were to play dps, occasionally I switch to balance now.

[Weissrolf]

I cannot keep healing, because the other druid and the priest are incapable of switching specs. Within out raid comp when I switch specs I switch from a good enough healer to a good to very good DD (using Feral), the same is true for our Paladin healer/DD. When one of the other healers would switch then we would trade a good enough healer with a bad DD, so the switching is up to me and the Paladin. I am fine with that, because I like the diversion (tanking dungeons is another nice alternative).

But I still fail badly at playing Balance. I think some of this is because I am not good at playing with cast time spells that force me to stand still. I am also confused about how to build and spend empowerments. Do I use my empowered SW at once then go for the next SS and then use it on SW right away? Or do I first pool for two SS in a row first? Do I use all three empowered LS, or just one, or none unless there are multiple targets?

And how do I make more use of the Hero phase as Feral?

[kooz]

You cannot really compete with other dps that have 2 good dedicated legendaries and if you have none for balance. If you are geared haste (as many resto druids) then it helps playing balance, not feral. Also trinkets of course are important.

[Weissrolf]

I am one of our top DPS as Feral (at least until 7.1.5 hit hard, we'll see what today's hotfixes bring). I will play all three specs in raids, depending on wether I am needed as a third healer or not and then on what spec (Balance vs. Feral) makes more sense for a boss encounter.

So the question is not wether I should do DPS or not, the question is how to deliver proper single-target DPS as Balance (push SS in total damage, make proper use of SW/LS) and how to best make use of the Haste phase as Feral (other than what we do the rest of the time)?!